The Southern Gate was crowded. On the way to the gate, the mutants found that they were just four individuals among hundreds. Arnel wasn’t surprised by this. In times of trouble, there are always people who wanted to run and with a monster flying over their heads, all the humans were rushing towards the gate hoping to escape the city. At least that was their plan.

The fact that the citizens were being held back by a dozen Guardsmen was slightly more surprising but well within the regulations of Yachium. The instinct most rulers have when faced with an external threat was to hunker down. To man the walls, lock the gates, and make their enemies come at them. Citizens were kept inside the city to prevent them from giving potential secrets to the enemies and the simple fact that the threat was a flying monster that could go over the walls with ease was not something the Guardsmen care about. Till new regulations were put in place, the Guardsmen on duty could follow their standing orders and that meant the gates were staying shut. As a former Guardsman, Arnel knew all this and told his follow mutants his plan before they arrived at the gates.

Once they arrived, the four mutants slowly worked their way to the front of the crowd. Arnel’s plan was simple. He knew that the Guardsmen were heavily outnumbered and with some provocation, the mutants should be able to incite the crowd to rush the Guardsmen. Once the crowd got to the gates, they would open the gates and rushed out to safety…and their doom. All they needed to do was to give the crowd some false courage. However just as Arnel got near to the front of the crowd, disaster struck.

A cheer erupted from the crowd and even some of the Guardsmen raised their arms in delight. Arnel heard the murmurs of the crowd and swirled. Looking up he realized to his horror that what the cheering crowd were saying was correct; the dragon was no longer in the air!

With the dragon flying overhead, most of the crowd and Guardsmen had been keeping an eye in the air. They noticed it the moment it fell. Arnel wasn’t sure what had happened, no one in the crowd did, but the dragon had fell and hope erupted. Change of plans.

Arnel immediately began working through the crowd again, this time with no time for subtlety. He pushed through the crowd and anyone who didn’t get out of his way get an elbow for emphasis. Meadow and Jeffery were on either side of him. They also had the same thoughts and Arnel signaled them to let him take the lead.

Getting to the front, Arnel walked past the line of celebrating Guardsmen. By the time one of the Guardsmen realized this, he was already well past him.

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“Hey! Where are you going? Get back here!”

Arnel ignored him and continued walking. Time seem to slow. Two of the Guardsman approached him from the front while he could sense one of the Guardsmen approaching him from behind. Arnel didn’t stop walking. He had already taken six steps past the line when a hand from behind finally touched his shoulder.

“Argh”

Someone screamed and Arnel turned around. The Guardsman who had stopped him turned with him and both of them saw Meadow with her two burning hands on the face of a Guardsman. His face was on fire. All eyes were now on the sweet looking former village girl, Arnel was now forgotten. A mistake he took full advantage of by slipping his knife into the ribs of the Guardsman who stopped him. Not waiting for the Guardsman to fall, Arnel immediately drew his sword and charged at the two Guardsmen in front. They were still unsheathing their swords when Arnel’s blade ran through one of them. He quickly pulled his sword out and attacked the second Guardsman. His sword sliced open the head of the Guardsman.

At the corner of his eye, Arnel noticed that Ransford and Jeffery had downed three Guardsmen between them as well. In moments, the four mutants had taken down more than half of the Guardsmen. In other circumstances, this would be a cause of celebration. Right now this was just a footnote in a larger battle.

“Jeffery, the gate!”

At Arnel’s bellow, the big mutant ran towards the gate. Arnel ran in front of him. The remaining Guardsmen had recovered and weapons were now out. Arnel dodged the swing of a sword and gave a wide swing in return to the Guardsman. He did not hit anything but that didn’t matter. He forced the Guardsman back. He didn’t even bother looking at his enemy and ran on. Killing and fighting didn’t matter; only the gate.

A Guardsman took up position in front of the gate but just before they engaged, a gust of wind blew past Arnel and knocked the Guardsman off balanced. Arnel engaged the Guardsman as Jeffery ran on.

To his credit, the Guardsman recovered well. He blocked Arnel’s initial strike and immediately went into a defensive stance. Both combatants knew that it was only a matter of time before reinforcements arrived and Arnel increased his rate of attacks. The Guardsman was well-trained and blocked all of them. Then a stream of fire appeared and before he knew it, the Guardsman found himself on fire. The Guardsman panicked and tried to put out the fire. A mistake he paid for as Arnel took his chance to gut him.

Jeffery reached the gate and put his two hands on the timber log that barred the gate. Arnel watched with some amazement as Jeffery’s hands got bigger and the muscles in his whole body tightened. The log made a sound and then began to move. The log which usually requires three strong men to lift was then lifted up by the big mutant and thrown to the ground. Jeffery then began to push the gates open. An arrow struck his back.

Arnel turned back to the fight and saw that it was not going well. Meadow was on the ground, either dead or dying, while an injured Ransford was surrounded by three Guardsmen. Arnel had to ignore the plight of his comrades. He stayed in position to protect the open gate. As the Guardsmen converged on him, the mutant heard a most beautiful sound.

A howl!