Jeanne found the words hard to process as the others were getting ready to engage the guards. She felt a growing fire within her as she began shaking with rage. She grabbed her hammer and after covering her whole body in stone scales, rushed towards the enemy.

She hardly noticed the bolt from one of the crossbowmen ricocheting off her skull as she landed the head of her hammer into the skull of the officer and kicked his corpse into another guardsmen. Kveldulf, shortly behind her, impaled another one with his blade as Maeryn and Silvius began release their arrows and bolts.

More guards emerged from onto the scene, weapons bared and ready to engage The Wolves immediately.

As The Wolves engage the guards two guttural roars broke the sounds of battle as a large wolven creature leap from the rooftops of the surrounding buildings into the middle of the group of guards. Slashing the members without mercy. From underneath the guardsmen’s feet, protrusions jutted out and impaled several of them at once before an orb-shaped creature emerge from the ground and attack the guardsmen.

“It’s about time!” Leonidas called out, looking at the purple orb before putting it back into his satchel.

“I keep forgetting the company you keep, Doc,” Benkin said.

“Comes in handy in these situations,” Leonidas said.

“Jeanne,” said Cid, “Finish with the door and let’s get out of here.”

“On it,” Jeanne said, moving back to the door, working on the lock.

Leonidas went over to look at Stefan’s wound. Lifting an eyebrow up letting out a concerned groan. “That’s not great,” he said.

“Can you treat him?” Kveldulf asked.

“Not here,” Leonidas said, “We need to get him somewhere where I can work properly.”

“We may have to wait until we’re back to Teeg-Upon-Avon,” said Cid.

“That’s a four-day march,” Silvius said. “Do you think he’ll make it that long?”

“I don’t think it hit anything vital,” said Leonidas, “but we can’t treat him here. Maybe somewhere in the woods. But it’s got to be where no one can see us.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“All right,” said Cid. “How are we looking Jeanne?”

“Almost there,” Jeanne said, “just give me one more second …,” trying to unlock the last tumbler within the mechanism.

Another group of guards, reinforced by some of the city’s residents came out and began moving towards The Wolves. Hypatia, swinging her swords uttered a shrinking sound from her blades. Gabriel unleashed a terrifying cry from her mouth, now opened to an inhuman size, her teeth protruding out and her head shaking violently. Leonidas, training his staff towards the crowd, unleashed a terrifying array of arcane energies towards the oncoming enemy.

Being arrested by the sonic barrages, the crowd was unable to move as Leonidas’s attack disintegrated many within the front. Jeanne, feeling the last tumbler give way, through the door open and shouted, “We’re clear, let’s go!”

“You heard the woman,” Cid said to the rest, “Move!”

The Wolves rushed through the door, Jeanne grabbing Stefan and moving him through the threshold. Once the last of the group was on the other side, Benkin slammed the door shut. He took a long piece of wood and wedged it against the metal slab. “That should buy us a few minutes,” he said as he reached the others.

Moving down the darkened corridor as quickly as they could, the arrived to the outer door and with a quick pull of the handle had the door opened. Running out into the field, Kveldulf and Benkin pushed a hedgerow open to all the other entrance into an area of tall wheat reaching the top of Benkin’s head.

Using the tall crops to hide themselves, Jeanne placed Stefan on the ground carefully before Leonidas looked at his wound. He wiped the sweat from his brow before he looked into his satchel and removed a saw and a piece of wood. Leonidas held the piece of wood to Stefan. “You’ll want to bite down on this,” he said to the man.

“Don’t you want to use something for the pain?” Hypatia asked.

“We need him as aware as we can,” Leonidas said, “this stuff can have him wandering or acting like a loon, drawing more unwanted attention to us.”

“I can attest to that,” said Kveldulf.

“If I can remove the shaft, I can take care of the arrowhead later,” Leonidas said, “Since I don’t know what the arrowhead is and breaking out bright glowing stones is not a prudent idea.”

“Maeryn, Gabriel, you two keep an eye out until the doctor is finished with his work,” said Cid, “then we’ll move out.”

Leonidas took a deep breath before looking at Stefan. “For the record, I apologize for what’s about to happen.”

Leonidas grabbed the crossbolt with one hand and with the other began sawing much of protruding shaft. Stefan tensed his jaw as Leonidas went to work, muffling his screams as tears ran down his eyes. Jeanne could see his fists clench and shake and placed her hand over one of his.

With the final cut of the saw, Leonidas shoved the saw and removed shaft into the satchel. “Really, Doc?” Kveldulf asked.

“We can ditch when we’ve got some distance between us and this damned city,” Leonidas replied, “No need to give anyone following us easy clues.”

“I’d say ditch it once we’re in the woods,” said Maeryn, still keeping one of her ears up to the sky while listening intensely.

“Is he ready to move, doctor?” Cid asked.

“Give him a couple of minutes to recover and we should be good to move out.”

Cid nodded and pointed “Good, Maeryn, take point and be ready to move out soon. I want as much space between us and this forsaken place by the time we’ve made camp for the night.”