Gear first

You'd be foolish to try and take on fully-armored and -equipped heroes with your meager kit. A sword and a pair of potions hardly constituted a good fighting get-up. You head towards the center of the town, keeping to the shadows and alleyways where you can. You're more than willing to defend yourself against monsters or heroes, but that doesn't mean you want to just blunder into them.

You continue on, the continuous din of combat around you your only companion, as you slink towards the mercantile quarter. Hopefully, everyone will be too distracted to notice you skulking about. Ducking into another alleyway, you slink down it, the dry, gritty dirt beneath your bare feet puffing slightly with each step. As you walk, the sounds of fighting grow nearer, a thunderous explosion drowning out the clash of steel-on-steel for a brief moment.

At the mouth of the alley, you pause, cautiously peeking out from the shadows at the scene before you. A rather large mob of monsters and heroes are clashing violently, just up the street from you. Behind them, you can see a small phalanx of elven warriors guarding what seems to be a sorceress or wizard. The giant explosion you had just heard had apparently been her casting a fireball on the smithery, which is now a blazing pile of rubble strewn about the street.

You groan inwardly. The smithery had been your best shot at acquiring some better weaponry, and possibly some armor, depending on it's weight. With that option removed, you're left with scant few options.

Furthest from the ongoing brawl is the general trader. You've been there on the multiple occasions there had been heroes in town for days on end, and you the shop's wares. It had a solid selection of your basic travel gear, such as food, water, rope, packs, and other things. On the other hand, armor and weaponry would be very hit-or-miss, as the only items of those kinds the trader stocked were the ones that had been traded for other things.

Roughly midway to the brawl, you find the local leatherworker's shop is still intact, and appears undefended for the moment. You'd have a much, much better chance to scrounge up some respectable armor and a good set of boots there than anywhere else.

Closest to the fight, side-by-side, are the clothier's and jewelry shops. They'd not offer weaponry or supplies for the trail, but you could find some nice clothes and underwear at the clothier. The jewelry shop is tempting, for a different reason. There's a reasonable chance you could find an enchanted stone of some kind there, and, even if you didn't, jewelry is extremely valuable and lighter than coin. A few things from there could easily finance you getting some better gear down the road.

You look back at the fight. Both sides seem pretty battered, but are still going at it. With no idea who will win, nor any real desire to meet with any of them until you're ready, you want to be gone before someone wins. You'll have time to hit one shop before then, for sure, but after that, all bets are off as to how safe it will be.