The brothers

There were no words exchanged between the two parties of the fight, only a moment’s tense silence before one of the bandits rushed forwards and tried to stab the younger of the two men, only to have his attack miss and be followed by a riposte from his intended target.

Crying out as the long sword cut into his arm, the bandit dropped his knife in favour of clutching the gaping wound in his arm as he stumbled backwards.

Again a brief moment of silence followed, broken only by the bartender’s ignored pleas to stop it, then the three bandits attacked, one of them going at the younger man while the two others focused on the older.

Seleste didn’t like the odds, and was about to get up on her feet, but Joa pushed her back down into her chair as she tried to rise up.
She couldn’t explain it, but the instant Seleste had laid eyes on the young man with the long sword she’d hoped that he and his brother, if that was what he was, would win the fight, which was a particularly silly thing to hope for when the two of them might even have started the fight for all she knew about it.

Seleste was kept from thinking too much about that however as she was captivated by the fight, watching how the three “bandits” did their best to get in close where they could use their knives best while on their part the two “brothers” did their utmost to keep them from getting that chance, even if the older brother was having a hard time keeping his two adversaries while at the same time having to avoid the mace which one of them was trying to smash into his head. Seleste knew a little about fighting, and her guess was that neither side was particularly bad at fighting, it was just that the advantage that the two brothers’ had in their superior weapons was undone by the narrow quarters in which the fight was taking place, while the small area hemmed in by two tables also offered them some protection as it made it impossible for the bandits to try and swamp them with their numbers, particularly so since one of them was now crawling around on the floor with a panicky look on his face as he stared at the deep cut in his arm.

And all the while that this was going on the patrons, who had moved themselves to a safe distance away from it, were watching the fight while the bartender repeated his pleas for the fight to stop again and again, only to have them ignored. The patrons’ reactions were varied, ranging from rather nonchalant and almost bored from those who looked as if they knew how to fight, to downright petrified from those who looked soft and enervate enough to be merchants and suchlike.

Seleste took her eyes away from the fight for just one second to look at Joa, and noticed that the slightly older woman had her hand on the hilt of her sword while her face was displaying a pretty grim expression.

“The watchmen will be here soon,” Joa informed Seleste and Gwendolyn, “get ready to leave.”

“What are you going to…” Seleste began to ask, but Joa paid her no heed as she moved up towards the fighters while slowly unsheathing her sword.
One of the bandits suddenly cried out as Joa’s sword caught him in the small of his back, the former captain resting one of her hands on his shoulder as she skewered him on the blade of her weapon.

This caused the other bandit who had been fighting the older brother to stop and look at Joa and her victim, only to find himself having a hatchet driven into his skull a fraction of a second later, causing him to gargle out a diluted scream as his mace fell to the floor.

Likewise, the last bandit hesitated for a moment, perhaps he was getting ready to flee, but then he had a long sword rammed into his right leg, forcing him to fall onto his back.

“Let’s move!” Joa screamed out before moving towards the door leading out into the street, with Seleste, Gwendolyn and the two brothers close behind her.
No one did any effort to stop them from leaving the inn.