### 300

A scream of pain and terror fills the air. The sniper crashes to the ground as the jaws of a Warhound clamp tightly around his neck. Other hounds are drawn by his ghastly screams, and he is soon ripped to pieces. You look up to see a man running towards you from the barricade. He has a shield in one hand and a longbow in the other; it is Captain D’Val.

He reaches you, breathless from his run, and draws an arrow from his quiver. The Warhounds, tired of their victim, are in search of fresh sport and are turning their attentions on you. D’Val aims and fires, drawing another arrow as soon as his bow is empty. Warhounds tumble and crash to the ground around you, felled by D’Val’s deadly shafts. The captain grabs you by the arm and swings you over his shoulder in one swift movement, before carrying you back to the barricade. Others run forward to help him, but the bandit archers are now in range and the men are forced back by a hail of arrows. The red shafts whistle past on all sides. Finally you reach the barricade; a wagon is pulled aside and you are carried through the open gap. Captain D’Val is close to exhaustion; he staggers and his men rush to catch him before he drops you to the ground.

Turn to 341.