32 Backstreet battle

The market street was busy as usual, Finn pointed out The Portly Peddler, and mentioned it had good food.

Walking down the street they stopped at stalls and went into a few shops. Jess bought some supplies, mostly materials she could use for spells and a couple healing potions.

As they walked past the alley Finn had first come out from, he couldn't help but look down it. Jess noticed and asked what was down there.

'There's a door there that leads to a room connected to the sewers. Nasty place really, full of giant rats, crabs and even giant fish.'

'Sounds like a good place for an adventure.' Jess said.

'Well, I guess it could be. If you can ignore the horrible smells, and don't mind getting dirty.' Finn agreed.

His escape definitely counted as an adventure. Not that he enjoyed his time down there, even thinking about it made him feel nauseous. That smell was foul.

As they continued on down the street, they noticed it getting progressively more crowded. People up ahead seemed to standing and watching something. Wondering what was going on, the two made their way forward to see.

It was the city guard. There were ten fully armed guards, their platemail, swords, and shields gleaming in the last rays of the sun. They had cordoned off an area of the street, more guards were inside a nearby shop.

Finn was surprised when he recognized the place. It was Magic Meats, Mortimer's ship that sold specialty salamis and jerky.

'What's going on?' Finn asked a nearby peddler who had been watching for longer.

'Old Mortimer's getting arrested. The city guard are shutting the shop down too. Don't ask me why, it takes an order from above for them to get involved.'

Finn and Jess watched as two more guards came out. They each held one of Mortimer's arms and escorted him into the waiting prison carriage. For a brief moment Finn and Mortimer's eyes met, and Finn saw the fear and confusion in his expression.

'I'm innocent!' Mortimer yelled out in protest. It was directed both at the city guards and the surrounding witnesses. 'I've been framed! Please believe me.' Mortimer begged.

No one came forward to intervene. It's not that nobody trusted him, the city guard was just too intimidating. Anyone who tried to help would likely be arrested and accused of being an accomplice.

Finn was a little disturbed by the whole affair. He wanted to help, Mortimer had paid well and given him the booklet he used to learn his first spell. However, Finn knew the consequences of stepping out would be more than he could deal with, and eventually decided to visit Mortimer in jail.

Jess was observant, she had picked up on the brief connection between Finn and the person being arrested. She wasn't going to pry into it, but was still curious. She had held back Finn's first impulse to move forward, before he too realized what that would mean.

Not in the mood for further sightseeing, the two started walking back to the guild in silence. Finn was trying to figure out what Mortimer had done or who would have framed him. Jess left him to his thoughts and walked behind him quietly.

Unknowingly Finn had lead them through some of the alleyways he had occasionally used as shortcuts during the day. He was too distracted to notice there was company until Jess tapped on his shoulder and indicated to stay quiet.

Finn stopped and held his breath as he listened for sounds.

'There!' Finn thought and turned to look where he had heard the footsteps coming from.

In the shadows of a nearby building Finn could make out a silhouette crouching down and drawing a dagger. Finn's eyesight was a lot better in the dark than the average human and could tell this wasn't just another robbery. He stood still and watched the shadow attentively while signalling to Jess with his fingers.

When the shadow saw Finn turn around and face him, it froze. Most victims wouldn't even know what hit them, how did this person hear him move? The shadow had confidence in being stealthy, even if this target had heard something he definitely wouldn't see anything in this darkness. The shadow decided to wait until Finn had lowered his guard and turned away before striking.

A few seconds passed and the shadow realized his mistake, this man was maintaining eye contact for too long!

Jess was facing away from the shadow. When Finn had paused, listened and then spun around, she knew that's where the danger was. Finn hadn't said anything yet, so she stayed calm and slowly reached for her wand with her left hand, and rested her right hand near her sword.

When Finn saw the shadow move again, he immediately shouted. 'NOW!'

As Jess started to act, he pulled out both daggers and prepared to charge.

Jess had been waiting for that signal. When it came, she spun around, her left hand darting forward as she yelled an incantation.

'Caeca fulgos!'

A blinding flash of light shot out from her extended wand. The shadow was illuminated and a man in a dark cloak was revealed. The man screamed in pain, his eyes temporarily blinded by the sudden light.

Before the assassin could react, he had received a devastating slash from Jess's short sword. The battle however, wasn't over, three more goons showed up and charged. One had a saber of his head as he ran, his muscles visible through his tight shirt. The other two kept low while clutching their knives.

Jess wasn't ready to cast another spell yet so she got in a defensive stance to receive the thugs that were coming her way.

While all this was happening Finn wasn't slacking. He ran over to the dead assassin and grabbed the fallen dagger. Turning to face the incoming charge, he threw the dagger at the saber wielding man in the middle.

It hit him in the leg and he went tumbling down. The wound wasn't fatal, but would delay him from joining the fight for a few minutes.

'You have any other spells?' Finn asked as he got into a defensive stance.

'I can cast shield or a few more of those flares, but I'll need to focus. It's hard to do that when locked in combat.'

'I'll take the front then, you support me!' Finn made a tactical decision. 'I heal abnormally fast, since we aren't wearing armor you should be careful.'

Jess was a bit surprised by the decision. Used to being the strongest in the group and fully armored, she would usually take that role. She didn't mind though, as this way she might have be able to make better use of her wand.

Finn charged at the incoming thugs, and decided to recklessly trade blows. As Finn and the first thugs crashed into each other, both daggers reached their targets at the same time. Finn took a knife to the shoulder, but managed to stab his opponent in the chest.

The thug was surprised by Finn's determination and had lost focus for a second. This was a fatal mistake, and Finn had successfully reduced the fight to a two vs one.

The collision had left Finn wounded though, and he wouldn't be able to lift his arm fast enough to block the second thug's attack.

Thankfully, Jess had been right behind him. She parried the incoming dagger with her sword, before retaliating and using her weapon's superior reach to pressure her opponent.

At this point, the saber wielding thug had picked himself up. Seeing the situation, he started charging towards Jess. Although his wound made him less nimble, he could make up for it with brute strength.

Before the last thug could arrive, Finn had flanked the dagger welder and injured him. This gave Jess time to gather her mana and cast another spell.

'Clipeum!' She shouted, putting her wand between her and the incoming saber strike.

The thug had put his full strength into this blow, using both hands and an overhead chopping motion. He knew that if it failed all would be lost. When the girl turned to face him and yelled in his direction, he expected he to meet his saber with her sword.

The wand pointing at him made him nervous, but he had already committed so he just yelled out a war cry in hopes of distracting the swordswoman.

'Yeeeaaarghhh!!'

'DONG!!!'

Suddenly a semi transparent circular shield appeared in midair, perfectly intercepting the saber. The collision made the sound of a bell and almost knocked the weapon out of the thug's hands with the rebound.

Not missing a beat, Jess took a step forward and finished it with an upwards slash. The thug wouldn't be causing anyone else trouble.

When she turned around to see how Finn was doing, she saw him squatting down by the bodies and frowning. The last knife wielder was laying there, wounded but still alive. Finn was trying to get some information, but it didn't look like he was happy about what he was hearing.