Raven had returned in the early hours of the morning, I had still been up with Geovana, cleaning the tavern. I had noticed her hands were splattered with red paint as well as her clothes, she had given me a simple thumbs up when I had asked her if she had managed to mark all of the shops.
We had decided to call it a night not long after that, Galahad had taken a lot of rousing to wake up, he wasn’t particularly impressed or polite about the fact that he didn’t appreciate being woken up before he stumbled up the stairs and to his temporary room.
Raven had spent a short time with us, even helping move the tables back into place once I had finished cleaning up all of the blood as best as I could. After that I had led in bed for a couple of hours trying my hardest to get to sleep but my mind just wouldn’t settle, my legs were restless and I just could not get comfy.
Eventually I did, but not long after it felt like I could finally shut my eyes, I opened them and was greeted with the light of day.
Now Galahad and myself were stood by the fountain, it was early morning, too early for Morgrim and Helga to rear their ugly heads but early enough for some of their grunts to be around.
“Are you sure this will work?” Galahad said, he was still bleary eyed from the night before. "And you say they chopped a merchants arm off and I slept through it?”
“Yes and yes,” I said, my eyes fixed on two grunts that were loitering around outside Luca’s bakery. He had already been out scrubbing away the paint that Raven had put on his door in the middle of the night. Other merchants were out too doing the same.
It was clear that the merchants were less than impressed at needing to be out so early to clean up the mess left behind by Raven, with only those that we didn’t think were paying for protection from the Gods father left alone. Accusatory glares were shared between them and the few grunts that were doing their rounds around the town square.
My cloak was pulled up on the eye icon was showing as completely closed in the top right of my vision. Raven was hidden in my shadow, I had only told her to get involved if absolutely necessary.
When one of the grunts made their way down the alley behind Luca’s bakery I knew that this was our opportunity.
“There is no backing down once we start this?” I said.
“You can count on me,” Galahad said.
I shook my head, if there was anything that he had proven to me it was that I could not rely on him. Still I couldn’t do this on my own. We walked across the square as incognito as we could, which was odd as it felt like everyone would notice us, but they didn’t. We snook behind one grunt that was outside Luca’s and followed the other one into the alley.
When we saw him, he was relieving himself against the wall, letting out a groan of satisfaction as he emptied his bladder, before starting to whistle a tune to himself.
He didn’t see us sneak up on him, but when we were too close, he turned when Galahad’s armour gave away our position.
“What the-” before he had any chance to say anything else, I slammed his head against the wall, knocking him unconscious. He slumped back and I caught him before Galahad helped me move him to the side so he was a little less obvious.
“Ready?” I said.
Galahad nodded and whistled, before standing behind a section of the wall that allowed him to hide.
“Where the blazes?” A voice cursed as the other grunt entered the alley way. “Hurry up? We have our rounds to -” He stopped himself when he couldn’t see anyone. Moving towards us, he had his guard up.
When he reached level with Galahad, he stepped out from the shadows and placed the grunt in a sleeper hold. He struggled against Galahad’s arm but he was too strong for him, when his arms went limp Galahad lowered him to the ground before the two of us regrouped.
This was it, the plan was in motion we just needed to stick to it as best as we can. First we were going to take down as many low level grunts as possible, just to minimise their overall numbers. Then when the time was right we were then going to focus on the guards.
Through our scouting we had figured out that the grunts didn’t tend to move around in groups, they tended to split up to cover sections of the town, there were two more groups in this section and all we needed to do now was wait for them to come into the alley so we could deal with them.
That didn’t take too long when after around ten minutes the another two grunts passed by. This time Galahad had used his hand to make what sounded like unnecessary duck noises to get their attention, I had been surprised when this had worked.
As soon as the two grunts were far enough into the alley we both ambushed them, rendering them both unconscious with relative ease and adding them to the fast growing pile of bodies.
By the time the third group were lured in my confidence was growing and we moved quickly to take out the last two grunts.
Now we needed to move faster before the rest of the grunts started to notice that some of them were missing, if we could at least take out another two or three groups that would put us in good stead.
“Down here,” Galahad said, leading me down a connecting alleyway. The floor was filled with cobbled stone, my ankle rolled once or twice as we ran, towards the next checkpoint.
Galahad’s armour, ground against itself, like metal grate, and it sent a shiver down my spine, it had the same effect on me as chalk on a board, when it makes that irritating squeaking noise. Frustrating as we needed to keep a low profile and remain hidden.
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“When we are done today, I am going to get some oil for that suit of armour.” I said, peering behind Galahad.
He had poked his head out from behind the wall of the building at the end of this alley. In front of us was a cross section which led to the next row of building and adjoining alley. To the left, took us into the square and it was here where e saw the next group of grunts. This time there was three of them, they were laughing and joking to themselves, pushing and shoving each other.
Galahad made the strange duck noise again, it was like it was being strangled, but for some reason it worked.
“What was that?” One of the grunts said.
“Hearing things again,” another said.
“I definitely heard something?”
“Probably a cat,”
“Sounded more like a duck, like its in pain or something. I’ll be back in a second.”
I shook my head in disbelief, one that Galahad’s injured duck impression was working and two that these grunts, were happy to extort and hurt those who didn’t pay in Willowshire, but were seemingly quick to want to help a injured animal.
“Be quick,”
One of the grunts headed towards us and we quickly moved backwards into the shadows.
I could hear the footsteps moving closer on the cobbled stone and held my breath, Galahad made the noise one last time. No sooner did the grunt step out of sight of the others, Galahad shot out again, his squeaking armour drawing the attention of the grunt. It was too late, Galahad, quickly had him in a chokehold and despite his struggles he was unconscious within thirty seconds.
I was kind of impressed with how efficient Galahad was and wondered how much of a badass knight he would have been when he didn’t drink so heavily.
The edge of my vision flashed red for the briefest of seconds, when the grunts wide eyes looked straight at me.
Like the last group, once the two remaining grunts figured their friend had missing for longer than they liked they both moved towards the alley, it was just a case of waiting for them to move out of sight and then we could strike again.
We continued this process, moving around town via the network of alleys, drawing in the grunts and dispatching them, getting into a good routine. We kept going until we were on the far side of town and had taken down another five sets of grunts.
We were waiting in position, on the opposite side of the bakery, where we had started, when I looked out at the town square there were only a few grunts left. I looked down at my watch.
“What is it old boy?”
“I think that is about as much time as we are going to get.” I said.
notoriety rating increased
Level 2 notoriety
Right on que.
“They are starting to wake up and spread the word, my notoriety has just gone up to level two. How about you?” I asked.
Galahad nodded.
“It hasn’t been that high for sometime,” he said with a grin, now the grunts are going to be actively looking for us, but now we need to garner the attention of the guards. Time to kill two birds with one stone.” He said with a cheeky smile.
He stepped out from the alley and moved toward the fountain with a certain swagger about him.
When he reached the fountain, he fumbled around for a moment before giving a quick look around him. Those in the town square’s eyes were on him including the grunts that remained, the incoming situation more manageable with their numbers depleted.
I watched as Galahad took a deep breath, clicked his neck and relieved himself into the fountain with an over exaggerated sigh.
“Not again!” I heard one guard say to another that were passing by the fountain, Galahad had managed to time his anti social behaviour perfectly.
“Oi!” The other called as the two of them marched on Galahad who was still pissing in the fountain when they reached him.
“I’ll be done in a second,” he said, waving his free hand dismissively.
“You can’t do that!” One of the nights said, he cut a frustrated figure, like this wasn’t the first time that they had found Galahad doing this.
Galahad ignored him and continued, even starting to whistle a tune to himself.
“Is there something wrong with your ears?” The other guard said, his face turning a beet root colour. He grabbed hold of Galahad’s arm and spun him around, which was an unwise decision at best.
“Woah,” Galahad shouted as he spun around, staggering as he continued to empty his bladder, all over the guards feet who were now stood in front of him.
I thought there faces were red before but both of their expressions instantly changed from frustration to anger as they looked down at their now soggy feet and then back at Galahad who gave one or two extra squeezes for good measure until he was completely empty.
He put his junk away before wiping his hands on the guard on the rights sleeve.
“Ah,” he said, “What were you saying.
Unable to contain his anger any longer the guard struck Galahad across the face, which as he was wearing his helmet I imagined it hurt the guard more than him.
Then the other guard drew his sword.
This was it, go time.
“That’s it, you are coming with us. A week in the stocks should teach you a lesson.” the guard on the left said.
The one on the right reached for his sword and retorted, “After we are done with you.” he spat on the ground on front of Galahad’s feet.
“Now now, gentlemen, is that anyway to behave in public.” he said with an infuriating grin, and despite us being on the same side I felt frustrated for the guards. He really was a master of being a huge inconvenience.
The guard to Galahad’s right pushed him back before swinging his sword straight at him. Galahad staggered back, dodging the strike but making it look like an accident.
“Whoah, is that anyway to treat a knight of the realm,” his words were slightly slurred as he pulled up a flask and took a drink from it.
The two guards were furious and each of them lunged at Galahad but he stumbled forwards, awkwardly, ducking their strikes, grabbing hold of one guards arm to push his sword away before stepping through the opening that it created.
The two guards looked at each other dumbfounded as Galahad had moved to face them both again, their backs now facing the fountain.
“Bringing weapons to a fist fight,” he said, “Where is the honour in that.” He stumbled forwards again, this time pressing a hand on each of the guards chests and pushing them back with force.
The two guards stumbled backwards, until their legs hit the stone edge of the fountain and despite their best efforts the two of them fell backwards with a huge splash as they landed in the piss filled fountain.
Their were laughs and gasps from the small crowd of people that were forming as both guards stood up. Repulsed as they sniffed the air around them.
“Seize him!” The guards said, grabbing the attention of more guards who started descending on the square.
“He’s over there,” another voice bellowed, it was the first few grunts that we had taken out in the alleyway, they were emerging from the alley, bleary eyed.
The grunts that were already on the square poked their heads up like a herd of meercats as they saw the grunts in the alleyway pointing at Galahad, their expressions turning from laughing at what they were seeing unfold to serious.
This was my cue, and I rushed out into the square, taking up position next to Galahad.
Notoriety level increased.
Level 3 notoriety.