The group of more than fifty mounted guards rode through the city towards the southern gate killing any criminals they crossed with their issued halberds. Any of the criminals who were too far to be struck down were quick to retreat back to their hideouts leaving the path mostly clear of any hostiles.

As they got close to the southern gate they began to slow their pace as many more criminals were there waiting for someone to cross their path. A couple were hiding within one of the few buildings untouched by the flames wielding short bows, the rest were loitering outside in the streets.

On the outer walls were several guards carrying crossbows, but they did not open fire upon the criminals to keep themselves hidden for the time being and because they were not confident that with their numbers they could kill them all without being overrun.

They only had one person keeping watch at the roads to alert them of any changes, and when he heard and then saw the captain leading the mounted guards he was quick to tell his leading corporal. “You heard him fellas! Get ready to help the Captain with his problem!”

The corporal ordered his men to line up along the wall and take aim upon the unsuspecting criminals.

The captain dismounted from his horse and was followed by his elite units following him. With the terrain, riding a horse will only be a hindrance, the best way to face the enemy is to get into a proper formation on foot and beat them with strength and skill.

At the captain's command they got into a simple formation with two lines of infantry, one in the front and one behind in a staggered position. The criminals now aware of the incoming guards grouped up on the opposite side of the largest opening by the southern gate.

The man leading the criminals was an elven man carrying a spear and a bow slug over his shoulder that both looked to be grown into their shapes as opposed to being cut and shaped by hand. The armor he wore was also made from wood and appeared to be grown into its shape as well. He did not hesitate to shout out orders to his subordinates and have them form a more cohesive formation.

All the criminals with spears would stay in the front with their weapons pointed ahead, the few with bows stayed in the back with him. The rest with swords, clubs, or other weapons were assigned to the two side flanks to attack from the sides.

When the elite guards were fully set up they began to quickly march towards the criminals who were still setting up their formation. With how close the formation was to finishing the elven leader simply shouted for his subordinates to march towards the enemy in their current positions.

‘Even with their superior equipment we have more than double their numbers, so what if I lose a good portion of my men. I can just find more stupid humans and dwarves that are just as willing to follow me after I get rid of the captain.’ A large smile spread across his face as he imagined the deaths of so many humans and dwarves.

But suddenly many of the guards in the back row started making movements that didn’t make all that much sense. They were all reaching down towards their legs, at first nothing happened but suddenly they all threw little orange balls that were about the size of marbles.

‘Are these to try and trip us? It might work since we are currently on a stone road, but it won’t be that effect-’

His line of thought was cut off as the small orange balls exploded just as the first line of criminals got close, the fire and heat injuring several and the sound scaring the rest. ‘What in the name of all that is sacred was that? I really hope they don’t have any more of those orange exploding orbs. I can only hope I live to see humans die along with their evil magic.’

“Remain calm and keep marching!” The elf shouted as he stabbed his spear into the ground and nocked an arrow with his bow, the other archers with him followed his lead.

“Ready, aim, fire!” The elf shouted and a small volley of arrows from him and his archers flew towards the elite unit of guards. The majority of the arrows simply clattered against the armor leaving no sign that they did any damage, aside from the arrow from the elf. That arrow managed to get right into the small eye slit of the helmet and injure a guard.

Although that guard in question was in the back row so he simply fell back to deal with the arrow poking into his or her face.

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“Ready, aim, fire!”

The elf had his archers again release a volley of arrows that did little damage to their opponents. By the time the second volley of arrows was fired the guards and the criminals were already close enough to engage in melee combat.

The guards used the range that their halberds offered to stab at their opponents who for the most part had inferior range to them. The few bandits with spears found that they did not do any significant damage to their heavily armored opponents.

But the criminals that stood on the flanks were not just there for no reason, since they were little to no armor they moved quite quick and were able to partly flank the elite guards swinging their weapons with all their might.

The guards were not stupid, in fact they had some of the best training the kingdom had to offer and they had lots of experience in the field. In response to the amateurish manoeuvre several of the guards in the second line that were located off to the sides broke off from the main line and engaged.

Of the many criminals that attempted to strike the guards down only those with blunt weapons such as clubs or maces were able to deal any damage due to the thick armor plating adored by each member of the elite guard. That resulted in the criminals wielding clubs and maces to be targeted first and many criminals attempting to run away.

But they had to contend with the range that halberds provided, and since many only gave up after getting within range, most died while trying to escape.

Things on the main line were not any better for the criminals, with several of the spear wielders killed and few willing to pick up the weapons of their fallen allies they were quickly cut down with the superior range provided by the halberds.

With many of his subordinates falling and very few of his opponents falling, the elf leading the criminals decided to abandon his task of killing the captain and run. “Retreat!” He shouted out to his men not because he cared, but because his archers who he had started training personally did and he did not want to lose them just yet. ‘I’ve invested far too much in them to just give them up because I look selfish in their eyes. Now if someone dies it’s because they were too slow to escape from the guards.’

All the criminals that were outside of the reach of the halberds were able to get a good running start away, but those who did not were quick to fall to the unrelenting elite guards. Once they were done with the few that stood in their way they took more fire seeds from their pouches and began to throw them onto the path the escaping criminals were taking.

The ensuing explosion killed more than half of the remaining criminals and scattered the rest into several directions. Most attempted to run deeper into the city while a small few tried to take refuge in some of the nearby buildings that they didn’t burn beforehand.

“Follow as many as you can, and we need them alive to interrogate!” Captain Tasius shouted to his men as he led them behind several of the criminals who attempted to flee into a house as a group of ten.

In their pursuit they passed by the wall where many of the guards stationed with ranged weapons were hiding to avoid being seen. But when they saw the captain leading his men against the criminals they knew it was time to strike.

But Arthur and the last elite guard were racing towards them on horseback, when they were within distance they started shouting to get his attention and alert him of the danger. “Captain! It's a trap!”

For a brief moment Captain Tasius stopped to look at who was shouting at him. The corporal on the top of the wall did not miss the opportunity and took aim and fired at the captain. The corporal was the very same one that was contacted by Borsan of the captain leading his men towards the southern gate.

In fact it was not only the corporal that was involved in the attack, it was the entire group. For some time they had dealings with the criminals underworld and would accept money or other valuables in exchange for looking the other way when something was being smuggled through the southern gate. So when they got an offer to take part in an assassination of their current Captain who was putting a damper on their business.

The crossbow bolt struck Captain Tasius in the left shoulder causing him to fall to the ground. As the rest of the elite guard saw their captain take a crossbow bolt and fall they too were fired upon by the rest of the group. While most of the shots fired did not hit those that did pack a serious punch due to the power that a crossbow has, they were even able to punch right through their metal armor and land serious hits that could kill them.

Thankfully not all the traitorous guards were armed with crossbows, only about half were while the rest were armed with standard issued longbows. This resulted in only about half the projectiles being very dangerous but also limited the fire rate of half their opponents.

Although the elite guards were taken off guard they were not stupid, two were quick to help the captain up and behind cover while the rest distracted the traitorous guards by throwing some fire seeds at them atop their wall.

Once the captain was up and being taken to cover the rest of the elite guards quickly followed and took any cover they could find while they attempted to think up a solution to their current dilemma.

Since they were expecting not to encounter any particularly dangerous enemies they did not bring any shields or ranged weapons aside from their fire seeds, but even those would run out soon as they were each only issued five for their mission.