“We’d better head out, Gourry!”
“Out where?! Where are we going?!”
“North, of course!” I said as we sprinted forward. It was probably safe to assume there were guards posted at our inn already. We’d have to skedaddle without stopping by. I’d left some stuff there, but under the assumption that this would happen, I’d kept my traveling money and most of my important items on my person.
Fweeeeet! Fweeeeet! I could hear whistles all around us. I thought about chucking a few blasty-type spells behind me to slow our pursuers and block the road, but that ran the risk of harming innocent bystanders too.
In that case... I chanted a spell as I ran. “Sight Frang!”
Kwshhh! With audible intensity, a thick mist blossomed around me.
“What?”
“What’s going on?!”
“Wah!”
I could hear cries of surprise from passersby, but the spell I’d cast was purely a smokescreen. I hoped they’d forgive me that much. It would still stymie the soldiers, however, who’d be forced to slow their pace, wary of traps. And while they were doing that, we’d make ourselves scarce!
“Lina!”
“What?!”
“You know the way out?!”
“I figure we’d just run and sort that out later!”
That actually turned out to be a bad move. After running down random winding streets, we soon found ourselves at a dead end.
Of course. The capital was a castle town, after all. The streets were intentionally sinuous to thwart enemy invasions.
“Lina!”
“Shut up!”
“I wasn’t going to complain. I was just wondering why we can’t use your flight spell.”
“Mmgh,” I grumbled. I’d considered it, but if we flew over the roofs in broad daylight, we’d just draw attention to ourselves, which was kinda the opposite of what we needed right now. “Let’s just run for now!”
“I don’t get it, but okay!”
We turned around and doubled back down the road until we hit a fork, where we took the path we hadn’t chosen before. The city was designed to repel enemy invasion, but they couldn’t make it too inconvenient for the people who lived there. Following my instincts, I ran whichever way seemed most promising.
As we darted from one alley onto a wide street, we ran into a group of seven or eight soldiers! Darn it! They’re here too?!
“Found them!” they shouted as they drew their blades. I had no obligation to show any mercy to anyone trying to kill me, but these guys were just doing their jobs. They didn’t really have a choice about following orders. I was hoping to spare them, although it was gonna be tough to hold back against so many of them...
One soldier near the back of the group pulled a whistle from his pocket, put it to his mouth, and—before he could blow, a figure descended! Whomp! The head of the soldier with the whistle in his mouth rattled unnaturally and he collapsed on the spot. As for his attacker, who’d just jumped down from a rooftop like a cat...
“Ran?!”
“Hey there, Nissy Lina!”
The unexpected ambush sent a new shot of uncertainty through the soldiers. They instinctively looked in Ran’s direction and... that’s when Gourry made his charge! Some of the men kept their eyes on Ran, and the others turned their attention to Gourry.
“Blast Ash!” I shouted, seizing everyone’s fearful focus at once.
I hadn’t actually chanted a spell, though. I’d just yelled the words. But if the soldiers knew I was a sorcerer who could use offensive magic—especially if any of them had actually been there while I was mowing down lesser and brass demons with Blast Ashes during the whole Dark Lord of the North quest—it was only natural that threat would scare them something awful.
And that moment of distraction was all Gourry and Ran needed!
Knocking out the remaining soldiers didn’t take long at all. Gourry was using body blows and hilt strikes, while Ran was using her hands and her roughly hewn staff. She hadn’t mentioned anything about being the fighting type, but she seemed more than capable.
Still, this was no time to just sit back and admire her in action. We’d dealt with the soldiers in front of us, but it was broad daylight out with tons of witnesses. And for the law-abiding people of the town, we undoubtedly looked like the villains right now. It was only a matter of time before they reported us. We couldn’t stick around for long!
As I took off, Gourry—and Ran, for some reason—followed suit. I said in a rather chastising tone as she ran beside me, “What are you doing?”
“That’s my line!”
“Fair enough! The military types here wanted to exploit my spellcasting ability, so I had to run away, and here we are! So why’d you join in?!”
We’d been doing our own things during the day but staying at the same inn to have breakfast and dinner together. I was under the impression she was mostly sightseeing, but...
“I happened to be passing by when I saw you and Rostir Gourry attacked by bad guys! So I got mad and attacked them, and they turned out to be soldiers!”
“That’s crazy!”
“That’s how I roll!”
“Then stop rolling that way!”
“Eh heh heh! I hear that a lot.”
“Then listen for once!”
I hadn’t wanted to get her involved, but now that she was, I couldn’t just tell her to back off. She’d been staying at the inn with us, sharing meals with us, and now she’d been seen beating up soldiers with us. There was no getting out of that one. If we left her in town, she’d end up in a bad way for sure.
“Guess we’re going on the run together!”
“Yeppo!”
“Why do you look so happy?! Anyway, you’ve been walking around the city every day, right? Can you navigate us to the outer wall? There doesn’t have to be a gate!”
“You wanna go to a wall without a gate?”
“We’re gonna break through it!”
“Righty-o!”
I know I’m not one to talk, but there’s something wrong with someone who hears “we’re gonna bust through a wall” and responds with “righty-o!”
Anyway... that’s how me, Gourry, and Ran ended up as fugitives.