The Duke Chapter 4

The Kathreoul towered over Dallen and swung his oblique cudgel clumsily in a downward arc that splinter a fruit stand to dust and fragments of wood. Pulp shrapnel showered Dallen as he scrambled to the side of the road, but the Kathreoul was relentless. With one step of his giant gait it was upon Dallen again swinging his bludgeon into the upper portion of the building Dallen was seeking refuge under.  Beating aside fallen timbers Dallen rushed around the corner the crumbling house and down the tiny alleyway between the tightly packed buildings. Enraged by his escaping quarry, the Kathreoul swatted aside one of the smaller creatures that now surrounded his legs, but that did not slow their charge.

Dallen hadn’t noticed them at first, so focused was his gaze upon the giant Kathreoul, but as he glanced back while running down the alley he saw them for what they were, Bracchan. Bestial humanoids with protruding snouts garbed in tattered letters and portions of plate mail, carrying all manner of devilish weaponry sprinted after Dallen, though forced to turn sideways in the narrow passage due to their broad shoulders. Still, they were gaining on Dallen even as he quickened his pace. Finally, he broke free of the narrow alley and bolt down the next street, but to his overwhelming dismay another line of Bracchan stood snarling and barking in their hoarse strained voices at him. Behind him the Bracchan chasing him poured out of the alleyway, hemming him in on both sides now another Kathreoul lumbered just a bit further down the road. There was no hope of escape.