Chapter 1
The alarm bells started ringing when the first fireball hit the gates. People were screaming and looking for hiding spots while the soldiers – wounded and healthy alike– were strapping on their armor.
"Get to your stations, men!" Captain Greywind commanded his troops. He was yelling this while putting on his own armor. He grabbed his sword and shield from off the ground and started towards an Ascalon ranger.
"What's happening? Where are they and how many?" Captain Greywind asked swiftly.
"Fire imps are attacking the gate, sir. They are attacking from south hill, and there are two small groups of three," the Ascalon ranger replied without hesitation.
Just then, a fireball came from over the gate and headed towards an Ascalon settler. The settler put his arms over his head in fear. The ball of fire struck him and exploded, but instead of a red, fiery explosion it exploded with a blue light. The settler slowly moved his arms down from his head, wondering why he wasn't dead; then started running again towards shelter.
"Looks like you need some help, Captain," said a woman wielding a sword as she walked towards Greywind.
"Devona! Thank Dwayna you're here. Yes, we do need some help: we are low on soldiers from the last attack. Do you think you could help us get rid of our Imp problem?" Captain asked excitedly.
"That should be no problem. Aidan is already out in those woods scouting, and we're heading that way anyway to get him," said a man behind Devona. By his looks, Greywind could automatically tell he was a monk and he was the one who had saved the Ascalon settler.
"Thank you, and may Dwayna bless you" Captain Greywind said.
"Hey! Do we finally get some action? The walk here was really boring," a young woman said, running up to them.
"Cynn, must you be so rude?" Devona said as they walked towards the gate.
"Hey, I'm not rude… Just bored," replied Cynn.
The three looked around alertly, watching out for any stray fireballs. An Ascalon guard came running through the gates screaming in pain, his armor in flames. A nearby guard grabbed a pail of water and threw it on him, and the flames dissipated. The guard was severely burned, and would probably not live through the night.
"Here, let this ease the pain a little," Mhenlo the monk said as he crouched down, speaking an incantation that made a blue aura pass over the guard. Other guards came and helped the injured guard to shelter.
The three went through the gate and saw the imps hurling fireballs, setting guards on fire. There were no more guards left to fight, at least not without using the ones protecting the settlement.
"This is going to be fun," said Cynn as they ran towards the first group of imps.
Devona lashed out with her sword on the first imp, cutting it in half from the shoulder, the discolored blood spraying out. Going towards the second one, Devona felt her adrenaline pumping; a familiar blue aura swept over her, giving her even more power. She was hit with a fireball, but it just exploded around her, again with a blue aura. "Gotta love the monk," she grunted while she cut through the second imp. She was about to spin and cut the third one down, but right before she swung, another fireball, bigger than the imps, exploded the imp into a bubbling piece of flesh.
"Leave some fun for me," Cynn yelled with a grin, after hitting the imp with the fireball. She looked toward the second group of imps, and started whispering an incantation. When she finished she looked up and saw the meteor she summoned falling from the sky. The meteor fell onto one of the imps, crushing it and knocking the adjacent imps down. While they were down, Devona took the few precious seconds to bring her sword down, cutting the imp in half through the waist. The last imp lashed out with a claw and cut through Devona's skin, but as fast as it got cut Mhenlo was there to patch it back up. The ground suddenly lit up with flames around Devona, burning the last imp to a crisp.
"That's the last of them," said Mhenlo, while looking around to see if any imps were remaining.
"Good. Let's go tell Captain Greywind the job's done and then we can go get Aidan," said Devona while turning back to the gate.
"Hopefully he's doing ok by himself," said Cynn.
"Hey, you're actually caring about someone else!" commented Mhenlo with a grin.
"Oh, shut up Mhenlo," said Cynn, grinning herself.
The three started heading back towards the gate, where they met Captain Greywind.
"The imps are take care of, sir," said Devona.
"Thank you. When you get to Aidan, say hi to him for me please," replied Greywind. "Also, here's some gold for doing the job."
"We will, and thank you for the gold," said Devona as she took the bag of gold.
While walking through the gate, Mhenlo heard Captain Greywind shouting at them to come back. They turned back and saw Greywind running at them.
"One other thing: I heard from one of my scouts that the undead general 'Gronan The Vile' was roaming around near Lions Arch," Captain Greywind said. "Be careful. You three are some of Ascalon's best!"
"Thank you for the information, Captain," said Devona.
While walking away, Cynn said, "We should hurry. Aidan is supposed to be scouting around Lions Arch."
The three walked into the forest and disappeared among the leaves.