We rushed out of the guild and made our way south west, towards Madame Laurent’s. We passed a few stray adventurers as we went. We sent them back to the guild and we pressed on.

  We were a few streets away from Madame Laurent’s when something fell from the sky… it landed on the fabric roof of a market stall to our left. The roof collapsed inward, wrapping whatever it was in the fabric.

  Wu: “What the hell was that?”

  We looked up to see a group of imps in the sky. They were descending towards us, fast. Chenowith raised his shield in defence and I drew my bow. I was able to take out two of them before they got close enough to us for my bow to no longer be feasible.

  Imps are an annoyance to fight at close range. They just dart about in the air around you; they are highly unpredictable. They won’t get close enough for me to use my daggers effectively, but they are too close for me to aim my bow at them. That being said… that hammer guy has smacked a couple of them down, which has made them a bit more cautious of him.

  Those stupid fucking tridents that they wield have an irritating range on them. They don’t seem particularly sharp. Certainly not sharp enough to pierce my armour. But they have managed to jab me in the back a couple of times and whilst I’m not bleeding it really fucking hurts… it is definitely going to bruise.

  Whilst we were distracted with the stupid bloody imps, a goblin burst out of the bundled fabric to the side of us and jumped on Darlington’s back, stabbing him multiple times.

  Wu: “Shit!”

  Wu dived towards them, tackling the goblin, and removing its head with her billhook. Darlington collapsed to the floor and she went to aid him. The remaining imps retreated and started to laugh. There was a loud squawk in the distance and the imps flew off over the building.

  Knight 3: “They are airdropping goblins into the city!”

  Chenowith: “I noticed. Is he going to be okay?”

  Wu: “Does he look like he’s going to be okay!?”

  Chenowith: “Calm down Kimmy. This is an emergency, we need to be rational here.”

  Wu: “Don’t fucking ‘Kimmy’ me… he’s been stabbed five times.”

  Darlington: “It looks worse than it is… just leave me here… do what needs to be done.”

  Wu: “No chance, you stupid git. We aren’t leaving you in the middle of the street with all this going on. We are only three streets away from the safe zone. We can leave you there.”

  Chenowith: “She is correct, there is no need for pointless self-sacrifice.”

  Another loud squawk occurred. This time closer. Still not particularly close… but closer than it was before.

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  Darlington: “You sure about that?”

  Wu: “Oh, shut up!”

  Wu went to pick him up. The knight, whose name I still don’t know, helped her to stand him. She then flung him over her shoulder and turned to head off down the street when we heard a scream from behind us… it was the scream of a child… a small girl to be precise.

  We turned to see Little Johnny emerge from a side street up the road, his skirt billowing from his momentum. He was shooting a blue beam out in front of himself which was coating the ground in ice. His shoes had blue blades coming out of the bottom of them. That looked to be made of ice and he was using these blades to glide across the ground.

  He was closely followed by two sets of children using bin lids as sledges on the ice. Johnny glanced over and saw us.

  Johnny: “Thank the gods…”

  Johnny guided himself in our direction and the others followed. As they got closer, it became apparent that on one of the bin lids was Olmo and Oscar and on the other was Grant and a small girl that I have never seen before. She looked to be about three.

  Dwynfel: “Who’s that?”

  Johnny: “No idea. Take cover!”

  We looked up at the street that they had emerged from. The imps from before burst out of it… followed by… oh fuck… that’s a cockatrice. Not good… not good.

  Chenowith: “Watch out for its feathers!”

  A cockatrice is a horrid creature. It is weird cross between a wyvern and a cockerel. Which I grant you, doesn’t exactly sound scary… but its feathers have magical properties that can turn any living creature to stone… except weasels for some reason… which is weird… but you know… whatever. They can’t fly for long periods… but clearly, they can fly for long enough to get over the village defences… bollocks.

  It raised its wing in our direction. Bent it inwards before forcefully extending it, causing feathers to burst forth in our direction.

  Johnny spun round and raised a wall of ice behind him and the other kids, blocking the feathers. This stopped his ice beam. The kids on the bin lids clattered down the street and into a market stall. Johnny jumped, the blades flew off his shoes and hovered by his hands. He then shot them up into the air at two of the imps that were hovering above him. I have to give the kid credit… his ice magic has really come on recently.

  Wu rushed over to the market stall that the kids had crashed into and flung Darlington down next to the kids. Olmo instantly started wrapping fabric from the stall around his wounds like a bandage. The small girl was crying her eyes out. Oscar looked terrified and Grant grabbed a plank of wood and rushed out to join the fight. Wu grabbed him and flung him back into the stall.

  Wu: “Don’t be an idiot. You need to guard the little ones.”

  Grant: “But…”

  Wu: “Make sure they don’t move!”

  Grant nodded in compliance and Wu turned back to join us. We could hear the cockatrice approaching the wall of ice. Its footsteps were deafening. Then we heard it spread its wings and in a second it was perched on top of the wall, looking down on us. The five of us looked back. We need to kill this thing and we need to kill it now. It could turn everyone in this town to stone if left unchecked… the question is… how the fuck do we do this?