Before either could answer Cid and Kveldulf raced out of the door. The officers and Laurent watched the two running at full speed through to the stairs. Kveldulf almost knocked someone over as he leapt from the third final step to the ground and rounded the corner. The guards at the gate instinctively began lowering their weapons as Kveldulf and Cid rushed to their horses.

The captain poked his head out of a window shouting, “Let them pass!”

Getting into their saddles, both men spurred their horses into a full gallop. Cid turned to Kvledulf, “Go get the others from the inn, I’ll get the doctor!”

“How are you gonna find them?” Kveldulf asked.

Cid looked at Kveldulf, not saying a word.

“Sorry, took me a second,” Kveldulf replied before splitting off to grab the others.

Reaching Leonidas’s home, Cid leapt off the horse and slammed his fist against the front door. “Doctor! Open the door!” Cid yelled.

Cid heard footsteps quickly come down the stairs as the doctor opened the door. “Cid?” Leonidas asked. “What the hell is going –”

“Jeanne has bounty hunters after her, where is she?” Cid told him.

Leonidas, his sword already tied to his belt grabbed his staff from behind the doorway rushed out the door, slamming it behind him. “She and Hypatia were going to the city archives at the Councilor’s Keep.”

Both men mounted their horses and galloped to the Councilor’s Keep. Leonidas looked around. “I don’t see them.”

Cid perked an ear up. For a moment there was nothing but ambient noise. Then a faint whisp of a roar he had heard on many battlefields. “This way!” he said to Leonidas as his horse returned to a full gallop. “Can you do a signal flare?” Cid asked the doctor.

Leonidas readied his staff. “Just say when.”

Riding hard into a side street, Cid shouted. “Get ready to turn hard right, then let a signal out.”

Leonidas nodded moments before both had their horses skid to a stop and turn right. They saw Jeanne and Hypatia, their backs against each other, their weapons at the ready. Bloodied cuts staining their clothes, several dead men around them as they tried to catch their breaths. Blood splattered on stone walls and shattered boxes.

Cid began calling out to Leonidas who already sent a flare signal into the city skyline. A cross bolt barely missed striking the doctor from one of the rooftops.

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“Take cover!” Cid ordered, the four getting behind some of the unbroken crates.

“How hurt are you two?” Leonidas asked.

“Nothing to keep us from the fight,” said Hypatia, looking at a cut on the back of her shoulder. “But it hurts like hell.”

A man’s voice called out from the shadows. “We don’t want trouble. Just give us the bitch and –” Before the man could finish, he began gagging and convulsing, emerging from the shadows as his body twisted and limbs snaped and flesh and blood poured from the fresh wounds.

“Call my Jeanne a bitch, will you?” Leonidas said.

Hypatia looked at Leonidas. “Your eyes,” she said to him, pointing.

“I’ll worry about that,” he said, sending another flare into the sky. “But where the hell is our reinforcements?”

“Lemme go check,” said Cid. “Jeanne, Doctor, keep me covered.”

“With what?” Jeanne blurted.

“Just keep me covered,” Cid followed, sheathing his sword and ducking in between two buildings and extending claws he sunk them into the plastered walls and negotiated his way up the wall. Pulling himself over the ledge he found six crossbowmen along both sides of the alleyway.

He unsheathed his sword, plunging it deep into one of the crossbowmen before he noticed the danger. As the other spotted him, the blade from his shield embedded itself deep in the man’s skull. One crossbowman on the other side loosed a projectile towards Cid. He grabbed a crossbow, firing it towards the two attackers on the next rooftop. As the they dodged the bolt, Cid jumped over the gap and grabbed one of the men as several bolts landed into the man’s torso.

Cid spotted a small elven woman and a man wielding a rapier engaging the men on the other side. Thank the gods, he thought to himself before turning his attention back to the next enemy. He struck the man with the hilt of his blade and threw to the ground, screaming before landing hard with silence following. The last two dropped their weapons and fled from Cid. Looking down into the alley, he saw Kveldulf and Benkin hacking and slashing the enemy mob, Jeanne, Hypatia and Leonidas now pressing from the other side. All now standing on the pile of their fallen foe.

“Is that all of them?” Cid called out.

“I think so,” Kveldulf replied. “There weren’t anymore when Ben and I started pressing the attack.”

“All right, Maer, Sil, let’s rejoin the others and see if any of these bastards are still alive.”

Climbing back down and returning to the thoroughly bloodied alleyway, Cid looked around at the carnage and shook his head. The captain is not going to happy, he thought to himself.

“In the name of … Lady Allianna …” said a city guard, finding The Wolves standing amongst the dozens of bodies on the ground. “Oh my,” the poor guard said, now looking at The Wolves with dread.

“Would you mind informing your captain there’s been an incident here, please?” Cid asked the man cordially.

The nodded and ran from the scene.

“You’re too nice, you know that?” Jeanne said to him.

“We’re going to be chewed out enough just for this soiree,” Cid replied, “I’d rather not have attacking a poor city-guard on our list.”

“I think this was a rather clean situation,” said Kveldulf.

“And for the record, I did not start this,” said Jeanne.

“Jeanne, I’ve known you long enough to recognize a fight you started over one you somehow get into.”

“Cid, I think we should get Jeanne and Hypatia back at the clinic to be looked over,” said Leonidas.

“Agree,” Cid replied, “but I think we’ve over stayed out welcome. Jeanne, Hy, you two use the horses and the rest of us will move out before anyone else decides they want to investigate the place further.”

“Should we check to see if anyone’s alive for questioning?” Maeryn asked.

Cid shook his head. “There isn’t anything they know of interest to us. Come, we should be gone before anymore decide to test their skills.”