“What the fuck,” Garris forced out between harsh gasps for air, “Did you get us into, Fel?”

“Can’t talk. Ribs broken,” I replied, tears and sweat mixing with all the blood on my face.

“Well if your ribs are broke then why’d you go and get yourself into a fight, Sorrel?” pitched in Charlie without effort thanks to practically having the lungs of a stallion.

“Shaddup, Charlie!” replied Garris on my behalf.

The three of us had nearly run the whole length of the slum’s main strip. We were lucky that the exploding blue bolts of mana had stopped being fired toward us.

  I took another glance back over my shoulder and saw that most of the guards had stopped chasing us. Three foot soldier looking grunt types were a little ways off but still hot on our heels. I could only assume that the rest had stopped to try and save an adventurer that surely hated me to death and beyond at this point.

  I turned my head forward again and could see little white sparks popping back up across my vision. If I hadn’t drank that blue cider I’d probably have collapsed by the end of the fight. That final taste of the master’s last brew was a slow yet constant stimulant meant to keep a body moving well passed its limits, no matter the repercussions. An effect that would strangely only last until the twin moons next cycled between day and night.

  Without another mug of the master’s red these new injuries were going to take a very long time to heal. My adrenaline had begun to wear off and I could feel a sharp pain in my left forearm and right hand that ran down into my wrist. It hadn’t occurred to me until then that when the adventurer was accelerating his motions with his mana there was more to it than fortifying your muscles alone. The ligaments and bones, blood vessels and nerves. All of it needed to be taken into consideration. I could feel a deep ache beginning to groan in my elbows too.

  I was trying to piece together how the mop handle had held up well enough for me to stab him a second time when we reached the Commons. My knees were growing weak and there were more spots cropping up in my vision. The blue cider splashed around in my core and willed my body to just keep going further no matter how many steps it would take.

  Charlie had broken ahead of me and for some reason turned to the left. I noticed Garris pass me by on my right. My breath was almost entirely gone. I kept pushing. Even if my lungs gave out and I stopped breathing all together my legs wouldn’t stop moving until I made them.

  At first the few scattered adventurers we crossed mostly just looked at us confused during our mad flight. Then they saw a trio of guards steadily gaining on us. I could practically here the sudden clinking of coins inside their heads as they wondered whether we were worth a reward.

  Charlie banked right, down a narrow gap between buildings. Garris quickly following behind as I trailed in a few spits to his rear. The alley was so narrow you could barely call it a slit in between buildings. Charlie was already through and out the other end. Garris was having a hard time with his broad shoulders and was wedged in tight just passed the middle. I rammed into him, full forced, and started to shove him forward with my shoulder.

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  The unofficial leader of the troupe’s brute squad was cursing at me as the sleeves of his shirt ripped and his feet kicked forward. Together we moved barely faster than a light trot.

“They’re in here!” came a cry from the mouth of the alley at our backs.

“Come on now, Garris!” I pushed through gritted teeth, “Is this really how you want things to end?!”

“Dammit, boy, you’re going to owe me a lot more than a fresh shirt!” grumbled Garris.

For a moment we stopped moving. Three men in armour were squeezing into the tight space behind us. Their weapons drawn. The ones in the front and middle brandished shortswords and the man in the rear held an iron tipped spear.

  From under the cobblestones and dirt the ground around us began to groan. Garris planted both hands against the sides of the alley and began to push. The stones of the alley floor began to ripple violently as one little slice of the planet quaked. Behind us the guards had stopped to steady themselves against this sudden violation to their stability. Garris pushed with all of his might and then the force of his demand made the walls shudder and start to give.

  With a mighty heave to his right and to his left, Garris literally shoved the walls of two buildings and the dirt under them out of his way. He then grabbed me by the bib of my overalls and hauled ass out of there before the walls came crashing back in, collapsing into the alley. Rubble preventing the guards from reaching us.

  I felt the toes of my boots scrapping against cobblestones as my troupe mate heaved us both along. While I was wondering what had happened to Charlie I felt Garris suddenly hoist me up and over his head. Without grace, mercy or ceremony he flung me into the back of a mostly empty wagon. Then he rolled himself up over the back rail and tumbled in on top of me. My ribs crunched and I saw black and then red. I was too weak to push him off of me.

  I heard the crack of a whip and the whine of a horse and then the tangled heap of both Garris and myself jolted forward into a small pile of grain sacks. My companion climbed off of me and helped me up to sitting. He leaned me against the grain and winced as he looked at me. I tilted my head to the side and saw that a red haired bean pole of a man was in control of the reigns.

  Despite the blue cider my body told me that this was it. It was through with me and with moving. My eyelids slid shut and my limbs and neck all went limp. All the while my mind staying lit. Each bump in the road sent me on a fresh new voyage of pain across each and every part of my broken body. I heard myself moan.

“Poor kid looks like he’s passed out,” Garris said to Charlie, “Think you can get us through Millgate before we hit another spot of trouble, pal?”

“Oh you got it, buddy,” replied Charlie to Garris, “Don’t you worry, the sweet horsey pulling us really seems to like my mana. We’ve got us a real genuine connection! I think once we get back to camp I might ask Mr. Strise if I can keep her.”

“Oh hey, well good for you, Charlie! It’s been a while since you tamed yourself a new critter. But, uh, do you think I oughta do something about the kid while we’re on the way? It kinda looks like he might not make it...”

“Oh gee, Garry, maybe you should. Only I don’t know much about medicine and you know neither of us can handle doin’ no healing.”

“Mm, that’s a good point. Well it doesn’t look like he was stabbed or cut open so I guess it’s fine to just let him sleep. Anyway, Charlie, you’ve gotta hear what me and my girl got up to. It damn near blew my mind! And let me tell ya, pal, it was worth every last one of my coins!”

“Oh! Was it the thing where she puts her finger in your bum and does that other thing with her tongue?”

“What? No, it was-”

The pair of them carried on like that as our stolen cart made an all out dash down the central strip of northern Fellorne. Sad as it was, I felt sure that those two bantering about bedding brothel workers was the only thing keeping me sane while my body swam in agony.

  Taking the time to think on it I wasn’t even sure if I’d needed to put myself in the slums to get those bedrolls and bags in the first place. I mean, for all I knew they both already had a pair. Boss had only really said that it seemed like they had next to nothing. Even if they were living rough in the slums until now surely they at least had something to sleep on. I was a fucking idiot.

  The cart hit a large bump in the road and I breathed in another fresh new world of pain.