Run!

“How fast are you?” The sound of your voice causes Calyce to look at you.

“Fast enough,” she promises.

“Good,” releasing Calyce from your grip, you draw your sword and quicken the pace of your strides, and soon you and your fellow Galatians are covering the last few paces up to the barrier in a fast charge, your shields and speed insuring that the incoming arrows remain ineffective.

Joining the crowd which has already begun to traverse the improvised wall, you charge over it and leap down onto the other side, where you find that a small group of mercenaries trying to hold back the incoming tide of **** poor people, assisted in their efforts by a small crowd of armed civilians, who look rather comical as they’ve neither the proper clothes or the proper build for what they’re attempting to do, their silk-clad, flabby bodies reeking of perfume as they try clumsily to use their weapons in an attempt to defend themselves.

With Calyce landing behind you, and the barricade of the wall ensuring that you won’t have to worry about the archers for now at least, you take a few determined steps towards an unusually fit member of the toffs who’s standing over a one of the slum-dwellers whom he has just struck with his heavy, richly ornamented axe.

Seeing you come at him, the man tries to defend himself by striking you first, succeeding only in exposing his stomach for you to run your sword through, the sharp tip of your long weapon piercing all the way through until its poking out of his back.

Dropping his axe so that it falls onto the cobbled surface of the bridge, the man begins to slump towards you as blood trickles out of his mouth, but you give him a good push with your shield-arm which sends him onto his back and off your sword.

Glancing around, you see the frightened look on Calyce’s face as she finds herself in the middle of a small, pitched battle, and she remains right next to you as your small party fight their way across the rest of the bridge, cutting a swathe through the doomed mercenaries and rich men which serves to leave the unruly crowd of armed poor people far behind you.

Not wishing to have them catch up with you, you urge the others on until you’re safely on the other side of the bridge, where you all wait as Calyce takes a moment to catch her breath and calm her nerves before you tell her to lead you the rest of the way to where her sister is kept.

You then watch as she begin to lead you deeper into the alley in which you’ve taken cover from the archers and hid yourself from the crowd after crossing the bridge.

Thankfully, none of your fellow Galatians have sustained even the merest scratch during the brief fight on the East Canal Bridge.