The guard to my left flew at me, slashing downwards with his sword. I shifted delicately to the side, letting him pass by me like so much wind. My knee cracked out as his sword bounced off the cobblestones and his balance faltered, knocking him onto the ground with barely any effort.
His compatriot behind me snarled and swung viciously. I quickly assessed the movement, ducking under the steel and pushing it away from me with the palm of my hand. The man looked shocked at my superhuman speed, his eyes widening as I dropped to the ground, sweeping his legs out from underneath him and sending his helmet cracking against the stone.
He groaned and stayed down.
The other two guards eyed me warily, tightening their grips on their sword hilts.
‘You can just go,’ I said, calmly. ‘Nobody needs to know about me.’
‘We can’t let you!’ one of them said, pretending he wasn’t terrified. ‘We don’t allow air conditioning! Options around Canberra are simple – the sword or the rope!’
I rolled my eyes at them. ‘Your fear is based on nothing! Propaganda! My people are peaceful nomads, we don’t want to hurt anybody.’
The guard on the ground next to me groaned slightly, and I quickly shot my foot into his helmet, making sure he was unconscious. I shrugged at the two men in front of me.
‘I mean, I didn’t want to do that.’
‘Why are you here?!’ the second man yelled, clearly trying to delay the inevitable.
‘I told you,’ I said slowly. ‘I was helping a friend with his gas heating, near Canberra Lane.’
‘You’re some sort of gas heating repairman?’ the guard frowned.
‘Not exactly,’ I smirked.
At that exact moment, a huge explosion ripped through the town from a block over, a pillar of fire shooting into the night sky and lighting the streets around us in a horrifying yellow glow.
‘Dammit,’ I swore. ‘I was really hoping to be out of here before that happened. Oh well…’
I charged the two guards in front of me.