They ran into a crowded city street, choked with revelers that were already screaming. Each scream bounced off the shop-lined walls, echoing inside the enclosed avenue. Marlowe, Jacob, and Blue found themselves fighting to stay stationary against a crowd doing it's best to retreat from the scene as quickly as possible.
It wasn't hard to see why.
Three large wooden wagons had been overturned or broken open, and dozens of goblins and hobgoblins wearing the garb of Medani prisoners were overpowering surprised and outnumber guards. Most of the goblins had already armed themselves; a few were beginning to chase after terrified citizens.
In the middle of the street, a massive two-headed giant, carrying the axel of one of the wagons in one hand, and holding a light post in the other. It wore the prisoner's uniform, stained with sweat and other bodily fluids. The creature raised it's arms into the air, and let loose a deafening howl that drowned out all other noise.
"This isn't good..." Marlowe mumbled. "Is this our fight?"
"We have to help them!" Jacob shouted out.
A single Medani guard, holding a longsword and a shield, was doing his best to evade the clubs wielded by the two-headed giant.
"Hey!" Jacob cried out. "Do you need a hand?"
"Yes, yes, please-!" he cried out, before the giant's club crashed into his chest. The guard flew twenty feet, before crashing through the windows of a nearby shop.
"Great." Marlowe muttered. He quickly ducked into a nearby alcove, and then, with a whispered word from the arcane language, winked out of sight.
Jacob and Blue rushed past the crowd, and stood at a crossroads.
Seeing a group of goblins terrorizing citizens, Jacob pointed his hand and called forth forked lightning. The blue energy arcked towards the goblins, and one of the little beasts yelped in pain and dropped the dagger it was holding. The group faced Jacob, anger in their eyes, and charged.
Blue found himself with a red-skinned hobgoblin blocking his path. They began maneuvering, Blue easily parrying the hobgoblin's attacks. "Where's Marlowe?" he asked through grit teeth.
"I'm around!" he heard, from somewhere behind him. A moment later, Blue heard Marlowe's voice casting another spell, and felt the elementalist's hand on his shoulder. Blue's muscles bulged and tightened on his blade.
The already strong goliath became even stronger, and was able to push back the surprised hobgoblin in front of him. With a few skillfull blows, he knocked the hobgoblin's sword aside, and drove his own blade into flesh. His opponent down, Blue spun around to face a second hobgoblin, and drove his blade in deep.
Jacob found himself surrounded by goblins and hobgoblins, and it was all he could do to dodge their blows with the darkwood shield that he carried. Slowly, he was able to drive them back, and more than once his morningstar bit into goblin flesh. But more often, the goblins' would strike his armour - each time rewarded with a zap of electrical energy that surrounded Jacob and his allies.
"This hurt! What magic is this?" one of the goblins shrieked after being struck by a bolt of electricity.
"One of my many talents." Jacob grinned as he brought his mace down upon the goblin's skull.
The giant, busy knocking the fallen wagons out of the way, approached Blue, who had finished the hobgoblins and goblins around him. He then brought down his clubs in a flurry of activity.
Blue was able to dodge most of the swings, barely diving out of the way or deflecting each swing with his blade. However, one club caught him in the side, and knocked the wind out of the goliath. He was barely able to catch his breath before he had to jump out of the way of another club attack that came down from directly overhead; when the club hit the cobblstones, it cracked loudly and broke many stones free from the mortar.
A wolf made of stone appeared behind the giant, and started harrassing it with a few awkward bites. The giant turned one of it's heads, watched the stone wolf, and then looked upon the Goliath once more.
"Is that the best you can do, Marlowe?" Blue asked nervously, busily dodging club attacks while being pushed backwards.
"I'm doing the best I can, alright?"
Jacob pulled back, fighting his way to Blue's side. With all the goblins that now choked the streets, Marlowe's single summoned wolf did not seem like much help. "Maybe you could, I don't know, try harder?" Jacob asked.
"Consider it done, fearless leader." Even over the shouts and screaming, nothing could mistake the sarcasm in Marlowe's voice.
The two-headed monster seemed divided over which target to face, with each head focusing on a different opponent. Jacob was barely able to raise his shield in time, and when it was struck by the lamp post, he felt as if his arm was going to break.
When he turned to look at Blue, he saw that the Goliath had not been quick enough, and had been knocked unconscious by the a club that connected.
"Healing Aura!" Jacob announced, and removed the nimbus of electricity that had surrounded he and his friends. Already, many of Blue's bruises and wounds began to heal.
A bolt of brilliant purple energy shot out from behind Jacob, and impacted the giant in the chest. At the same time, Marlowe blinked back into sight, his jacket flowing in an invisible wind. He held in his hands a slender black wand, still pulsating with purple energy.
"So glad you could come." Jacob growled as the hobgoblins and goblins began to surround him.
Jacob was able to bash at the Giant's arm with his club several times, as the creature tried to fight past Jacob. Marlowe, meanwhile, kept firing off bolts of energy, before he began chanting in a basslike tone.
Time for the heavy stuff, Jacob thought to himself, and, timing himself with Marlowe's chants, threw himself to the side while shooting off another bolt of energy that arched between the bodies of several goblins and hobgoblins.
Those that weren't killed instantly in Jacob's blast turned and ran. The giant took a step forward, seeing that Marlowe was now an open target.
It stopped a moment later when a stone materialized in thin air directly above it, and struck it in the face. Several stones began raining down on the giant, which dropped both clubs and covered it's heads with it's hands.
"Now!" Marlowe shrieked.
Jacob ran forward and leaped, bringing his morning star down upon the chest of the giant. The attack pierced the creature's thick skin, and a geyser of blood sprayed Jacob in the face. Still surrounded by a hail of stone, the giant lowered it's hand for a moment to push Jacob off, and in that moment, the skull of the right head was crushed by summoned rock.
The two-headed monstrosity groaned, and fell to the ground with an immense thud that shook the foundations of the bazaar.
The few remaining goblins fled in terror.
Holding his wand in one hand, Marlowe walked up towards Jacob and Blue - now beginning to wake up.
"You both look pretty hurt. And yet, I'm fine." Marlowe said, a smug smile on his face. "Who taught you how to fight, anyway?"
Both Jacob and Blue fixed Marlowe with iron glares.
