Best follow orders

Best follow orders you decide. The Riders have a bird's eye view of the city and it is in their best interest for you to succeed. Once the drake-wires are cut they can attack the juiciest targets in the center of the city, so it stands to reason that the High Rider would recommend the best path.

"This way" you point and the squad starts off at a combat trot. The first several hundred yards were easy. There were small bands of armed citizens that were attempting to protect their property, but one look at the eleven men trotting in formation, shields up, and spears at the ready made these bands retreat behind the doors of their houses.

After several hundred yards of easy moving you get to the first baricade. There looks like about 20 men, boys and even some women standing on or behind the baricade with an assortment of weapons in their hands. You could burn the whole baricade down with one flask of The Fire of Hephaestus, but then you would be delayed even more.

"We are going to have to go through them. One round of javelins and then at them with spears" you tell your men "they don't look like much, but be alert, they may be unpredictable. Kill as many as you have to until we are clear, and then on my comand form up and move on down the boulevard. Marcus and Tycho you two are going to cover the rear as we move on."

"Let’s get them!" The fight is over quickly. As you move forward several arrows bounce off the squad's shields, At about twenty-five paces your men throw their javelins; out of the ten javelins about six hit their marks. Three men near the middle of the barricade drop along with two of the archers. The apparent leader of this group who was yelling orders from the top of the barricade does not. Even though the javelin hits the man squarely in his chest, all it did was knock him off his feet. The javelin itself bounced off the leader’s breastplate as if it had been a toy. If they all had armor like that this will never work. As your men get to the barricade you are slowed more than you had hoped as you climb over the haphazard obstacles. An arrow from the side catches one of your men in the flank as he tried to untangle his foot from a broken railing. He won’t die, but it will slow him down. You yourself are surprised by a spear thrust through a gap below where you are standing. The thrust hits you on the grieve and glances just past your groin. That would have hurt. Not waiting to engage the man you vault over a bundle of branches that have been tied together and start down the far side of the barricade. You see another of your men fall as an axe blow hits him in the back of his head.

“Get clear” you order and your men back away from the barricade knocking away a few more stray arrows as you move away. “Damn them! One man down, one wounded any other casualties?” you ask.

“My ankle is a little sprained, Captain, but I’ll be all right” reported Marcus.

The boulevard is clear for the next several hundred paces, but you can see another baricade ahead.