Here is an excerpt from the climax of the book. Steven and Caspian have arrived in the city where Roxanne is, only to get into the middle of a battle.
Caspian, as a Mage, is good at all kinds of magic, but found that his skills for a battlefield were more on the order of large scale destruction, or close in brawling; they are in an urban setting, and he does not want to start smashing buildings, and is not close enough to brawl.
Abey, as a highland raised farmer/rancher, is in her first battle. She already has established close-in-fighting competence, but is not where she can do much good, yet. She makes a good spotter for Steven.
Steven is a discharged Marine Sniper (there are no 'former' marines.) but he is using a crossbow that is between the size of an Uzi or MP-5 and a home-defense shotgun. He has familiarized himself with the weapon, but it is not his preferred one.
We join our hero's in a lull of the battle.Steven was clear of the smoke here. Staying crouched, he pulled out his binoculars and looked down the block. The dark uniformed bowmen on the road level were leapfrogging their positions under the balconies and advancing, while those staying put looked for targets. Steven counted ten teams on each side still advancing; meaning about a third of the force was not advancing where he could easily see them. He looked up where the militia men had been, and saw that those were occupied by dark uniforms. Two groups were smashing windows of a structure there.
“Looks like they have split up. Maybe a third of the force on this level, the rest still below. They have cleared the militia off.”
Movement caught Steven’s attention as he put the glasses down. He looked through them again. The men that had been smashing the windows, that group was all on the ground with arrows in them.
Abey pulled on his arm. “Look there, on the lower level. Looks like some militia attacked from that alley.”
Steven put the glasses down and then looked back thorough where Abey pointed. In front of the mouth of the alley, four men lay with arrows or bolts sticking out of them. Bowmen from across the street fired into the alley, and then moved on.
Caspian spoke the conclusion before Steven quite got to it. “Looks like the locals have this whole area set up for ambush. It makes sense to shoot with bow and crossbow, as hand fighting these regulars would most likely get them killed.”
Abey saw the pattern first. Her experience with herds helping her to pick it out quickest. “It looks like the longbow men are the leaders of the groups. And that they are working with four groups to a team.”
Steven handed Abey the binoculars. “Try this. See if you can pick out and tell me who the leaders are. Turn the dial under you finger to focus the image.”
Steven recharged and reloaded his cross bow, and got it shouldered as Abey got the binoculars figured out. She started speaking, and Steven tried to follow her directions.
“On the left, the closest group. The longbow man is the second man, crouching behind the bench. I think he is a leader of four.” Abey called this out.
Steven had to concentrate to see that far, and picture his aim point. He adjusted and fired. He had the bow down and pulling on the charging handle, when Abey spoke.
“A hit. But not a kill.”
Steven made a decision. “We move. Not more than two shots from a place.”
Steven got up and sprinted to his right, and leapt up onto the roof top and carefully moved into the background. Shortly Abey and Caspian joined him.
Steven looked at Caspian for a moment. “Where’s Cyrril?”
Caspian paused and looked distant, than came back. “He is somewhere above in one of the arches. Does not want to come down.”
Steven nodded. “So long as he stays out of the way and does not get hurt.”
Steven considered the situation for a moment. It looked that Caspian had for now ceded the lead to Steven. Abey was also following; she still had the binoculars, holding them carefully. The locals had their own plan, which looked to be summed up as harassment by the militia. Whether this was until regulars could show up or some other next step, Steven did not have any clue. So what were his objectives? Get the Leader as a prisoner, seamed to be the thought that kept pushing itself into his mind. Next was to work with the locals, and help their plan.
Steven looked at his little fire team.
“Abey, you are going to be my spotter. You tell me where the leaders are, so I can shoot at them. I am down by four, so I have twenty shots left. Caspian, can you move things around, like grab the cart and drag it across the street, or some like?”
Caspian nodded, that was easily within his capacity, but he had not considered it as applicable here. “Yeah, I can do that.”
Steven nodded. “Good. Wait for me to tell you what, and then do it immediately. This has become a war; there are no rules, only objectives. Our objectives are to capture the leader, while assisting the locals. If you are concerned about fair, as far as I am concerned, it means ‘we survive.’ If you have anything to add, feel free to, but don’t be dangerous in doing so. Now, we go around here, and see what we can see. Abey keep an arms length between you and what ever cover is in front of you, and don’t get out of the shadows if you can. I will try to shoot from standing over top of you. Ready?”
They nodded and Steven led out.