I turn my back on the kobold leader half expecting to see the point of his sword poke through the front of my gambeson, and Wendy screams when I do it, but maybe I’ve shocked or surprised him because he doesn't kill me. Instead I’m able to get in front of the charging whoevers.

“Stop!” I holler.

Arrows flash by me in response.

I dig something out of my vast repertoire of cop shows. “You’re interfering in an investigation!”

The man in the lead sports a round wooden shield with a heavy steel boss and an axe. Instead of slowing down when I get in his way, he slashes down at me. I’m so short that the blow is awkward, easy to side step. I slip under his guard, put my shoulder into his knee, and he goes flying over me with a yelp and then a crash. It me makes me wince in sympathy, but I’m putting my hands out, trying to halt the rush of the next man.

This guy's got a greatsword up in a two-handed grip by his ear, ready to hit a home run through as many monks or kobolds as it takes.

“Stop, dammit!” I yell.

He doesn’t. Instead, he tries to run past me.

I pretend to let it happen, body-checking him at the last moment, my upper arm colliding with his rising right thigh. That leg gets tangled with the other and down he goes with a howled curse.

“I’m a deputy of Fort Reach!” I scream. “Stop your attack!”

A thin black blur streaks at my face and I snatch it out of the air. The friction burns my hand. It’s a fucking arrow. I caught an arrow.

There’s a line of two men and a dwarven woman racing past me on my right. They’re going to get past me and then it’ll be too late. There’ll be a battle.

I summon my chi and push it down, channeling Erota. Wendy and Caedi are back there with Yenna and I have to protect them.

The greatsword guy is getting up.

I run up his back and kick him in the side of the head just hard enough to get his attention. He responds as I figured his training and experience would dictate. He spins and rises to meet the attack.

I gather myself and add his strength and momentum to my own and launch myself at the dwarf, charging the maneuver with energy. I’m flying through the air like a superhero. I tuck my legs under me, then kick them out past the dwarf’s face. My hands clutch at her right pauldron to haul her shoulder around.

She’s falling but I’ve let go. She digs a furrow into the forest floor with the back of her helmet, her yowl cuts off as her ass goes over her head, cutting off her airway, two-handed mace tumbling from her grip.

I land on my feet, but lost most of my speed. I’m still quick enough to hit the next guy in the back of his knees as I run under him and then past, hearing him collide with the ground behind me.

I’m not going to make it.

The last man’s axe is coming down at Wendy’s face.

She’s looking up at him with a stern and disappointed look on her face, hands on hips, like she called him in for dinner twenty minutes ago and he’s just now showing up.

Her hands clap the blade to a stop an inch from her face. She pulls the weapon free from the man, then rams its butt into his midriff.

The kobolds, from what I can see, have not taken any major casualties. They’re all in two lines, the shield wall is up and catching the sporadic fire from the slope, archers and pikemen behind. I’m impressed and gratified to see that they’re providing cover for Caedi and Yenna.

“Now, will you listen?” I roar at our attackers. 

I'm surprised when the arrows stop. The warriors I knocked over pick themselves up from the ground. More step out from the trees. There are at least thirty and many more still in cover. I look at Wendy.

“Might be twenty more still back there,” she says. "Archers. Under cover."

Yenna nods. “Concur.”

“They’re here to wipe these people out,” says Caedi. Her eyes are blazing and her fists are clenching. “Murder them all. Women and children and—.”

“What are sheriff’s deputies from Fort Reach doing with a bunch of thieving, murdering kobolds?” calls a voice from up the slope.

“I’m conducting an investigation,” I say. “Under the authority of Sheriff Cronk of Fort Reach. You will kindly disperse.”

The man laughs. “I’ll do no such thing. We’re here to burn them out and that’s precisely what we’re going to do.”

“I can’t allow that,” I say. “I must be allowed to ask my questions and gather evidence. I—.”

“Evidence of what?” says the man. “I'll save you some time. They're guilty of whatever it is.”

“Who did this?” says Wendy.

“What?”

“Who hired you?” says Wendy.

The man laughs again. He’s having a good old time and it’s pissing me off. “Mercenaries don’t last long when they’re too free with their employers’ names.”

The attackers are standing now, joining the others who are forming a line.

I say, “We have evidence that whoever has hired you is doing so in order to cover up a crime.”

“That's none of my business,” says the man. “We’ve been paid good money to be here and promised twice that when the job’s done.”

“You’d murder women and children?” says Caedi.

“They’re kobolds!”

I say, “Are you suggesting that kobolds don’t have women and children?”

“I’m suggesting they’re murderers and that this is justice!”

“Justice happens in a courtroom,” I say. “Not a battlefield. I—.”

“We were made to do it,” shouts the kobold leader.

“What’s that?” says Wendy.

“Years ago a man discovered us,” says the kobold. “We raided a caravan. He was a guard and he turned on the others when we stopped them, forcing a slaughter. We took what we could but he followed us and told us that he would train us, equip us, and direct us to other caravans we could raid. If we refused, he’d tell Fort Reach and Bull’s Tavern and we’d be wiped out. Please. Yes, we’re raiders. Bandits. But we had no choice.”

“What’s he saying?” says the man from the slope. “Is he surrendering?”

“What was that man’s name?” I ask.

“Manver Teeg,” says the kobold.

I take a step out and point at the kobold leader. “This man has now become a witness,” I shout. “His testimony is vital. We’ll take him to Fort Reach where the authorities will hear what he has to say and justice will be done.”

“I’m sorry,” says the man. “But our instructions were quite specific. You need to stand aside now, little deputy. You and your women.”

I shake my head. I’m pretty sure this is a lost cause. “There are too many of you,” I say. “It’ll be impossible to subdue you all. Impossible to arrest you. Once again, if you insist on interfering with an official sheriff’s investigation, we’ll have no choice but to respond with deadly force. Please, stand down.”

“You would do that?” says the kobold.

“What?” I say.

“You would kill and die to defend us?” The kobold’s golden, reptilian eyes are wide with disbelief.

“It’s the right thing to do,” I say. “What’s your name?”

“Remmer,” he says.

“Remmer,” I say. “I think my people will need their weapons in a moment.”

The kobold nods.

I can hear some discussion going on there on the slope. Raised voices.

I’m about to shout at them again when Wendy puts a hand on my arm and shakes her head. Her wisdom score is sky high so I shut up.

“Okay,” says the mercenary spokesman. “You tell us what’s going on so we can decide for ourselves.”

I blink. Surprised. I shrug. “These kobolds have been outfitted and trained to hit caravans for a third party back in Fort Reach. They say they were threatened with destruction if they refused to cooperate. We have evidence that corroborates this.”

“Who in Fort Reach would do such a thing?” says the man.

I sigh. “That has yet to be proven.”

“Not good enough,” says the man. “You must have some idea. I’m afraid I must insist.”

Goddammit. I tell him. “Heckwin Gorminiel and Manver Teeg.”

“Teeg? The hero of Fort Reach? And Gorminiel is hitting his own—. Never mind. I’ve heard enough,” says the mercenary. “Forward!”

The haft of my spear comes to rest on my shoulder as a volley of arrows slam into shields all around us. Caedi is offering my weapon to me, her own in her other hand. Her eyes are flashing and her teeth are set.

“I want to be a knight,” she says. “Make me a knight.”

“Really?” I say. “Now?”

“Yes, now,” she says. “Is there a ceremony or something?”

I grin. “Yep,” I say. “Do you want to be a Knight of Hyparien?”

“Yes, I do,” she says.
“Great,” I say. “You're in. Welcome to the club.”

The would-be genocidal fucks are advancing their line towards the kobolds, marching in order. One of them staggers and falls, an arrow in her neck.

A kobold cries out and goes down on a knee. He’s got a bolt in his chest.

Caedi nods once, her face sad, and hurries over.

Yenna picks up her blades, slides them into her belt, slings on her quivers, and then takes up her bow. I haven’t realized before how massive it is. I’m not a bow guy. I mean, that’s clearly a longbow, yep, but the bow stave is as thick as my arm. It must have a helluva draw.

Wendy steps up to me. “Let’s take the flank,” she says.

I look over at the kobold’s shield wall. There’s an incline up to the cave, and a stony lip in front of it, almost like a porch. Remmer and his people have pulled away from us and have braced themselves up there in front of their home.

“Not our flank,” says Wendy. She swats an arrow away from her face with the back of her hand like an annoying fly. “Theirs. Up in the trees.”

“Oh.”

The kobolds haven't done much over the years with fortifications. Keeping hidden has been their main defense so building a wall or anything might've given them away long ago. They have cleared away some trees and brush around their cave entrance enough for a small killing ground, but Wendy and I are still able to dash away into the surrounding forest in a matter of seconds. Monks are fast and Erota makes us faster. We angle around the tiny clearing and charge up the slope.

The mercenaries aren’t asleep up there. They see us coming and begin firing. One lady’s hands begin to glow and I think I’m about to experience this world’s magic system.

I’m disappointed.

There’s the great thrum of a huge bow from behind and an arrow thuds into the mage’s eye. She topples over and lightning shoots up into the sky.

“Good shot!” says Wendy. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” comes Yenna's sullen voice.

The mercenaries drop their bows and crossbows, draw swords, axes, and maces, then brace themselves behind their shields to meet our charge.

The man in front of me slumps down, gurgling with an arrow in his throat. A tall elf behind him struggles to get his pike in position but he’s too late. My spear takes him below his sternum, straight through his boiled leather breastplate.

Wendy grabs it out of my hands. She grunts and levers the elf to the left, tossing the dying man into his compatriots and their whole back line staggers.

I take the falling pike, spin it. I get the haft between the legs of the next shield man on my left, dodge his mace, and push.

The end of the pike is braced by one of the man’s knees and placed behind his other. He's already off balance from missing his swing, so when I push, he topples.

As his head comes in range, Wendy punches him so hard on the point of his chin I hear his neck snap even as I shove the blade of the elf’s pike into the throat of the very last mercenary on our right, and, just like that, we’ve collapsed their right flank.