Chapter 23 Armour

It was risky to move form one place to another, when there are people with weapons looking for you. Still it was necessary, I was spotted a few times and had to dodge my fare share of arrows. The wizard was screaming and arguing with the others, the language they were speaking sounds gibberish to my rat ears. Can't really take a good look of exactly what they were arguing about but I'm inclined to believe that it was about the guy I just killed.

I was lucky with that kill, I have to constantly remind myself that I could be killed just as easily. They wouldn't need any skills either a swing of the sword, a hit form the arrows, those weren't the kind of damage I could take and survive. My leather bone armour wouldn't do anything against them, my HP was just too low. Which was by design, even if I had spent a lot of points to toughen up and even if I could survive a hit form them the damage would be too much for me to continue the fight or run away. So I make the conscious decision to not increase my health. Being captured by them would be a fate worst than death.

They were too busy with the dead, actually he's still dying. You don't start arguing in the middle of a battlefield, I climbed up a wooden column and ran across the beam. I wanted to jump on the wizard and gave him the death form above, but the crossbow-man was on me this time. A bolt form a crossbow was far faster then the arrows shot by the bows, once it was flying your way there was nothing you could do about it. So I had to be constantly on the move, no matter which corner I came out form it never took them more than a few seconds to spot me. I cannot run in a straight line either, they're too good of a marksman for that.

The only edge I have over them was that I could see exactly what they were doing, when the crossbow way pointing my way I knew I had to jump. The one beneath me was an armored knight, the least desirable target. But there was no time for thinking, no luxury of choosing which one I jumped, this was a time of action. The bolt flew but I was already out of its way, as good as they were they couldn't shoot down a rat mid jump and my actions were so different from other animals they have hunted it threw them off their game.

When the bolt flew past me it was loud, the thing was almost longer than me and it was flying at speed so fast I only saw a blur of colours. I landed on the knight's helmet, during this whole time the archers were screaming, most likely about what I was doing, where I was or something like that but the knights and the wizard were too preoccupied with the dying dog whisperer. When I made my landing the knight felt that for sure, I went down towards the neck looking for gaps in his armour, he reacted immediately putting his sword down and tried to reach for me with his hand. I did see gaps but there was one thing I didn't account for, he was wearing chainmail underneath his plate armour.

There was nothing I could do here, so scrambled my way away from him. Dodging his hand along the way, I leaped towards another hay roll. During mid flight I felt something was wrong, I turned my head towards the knight and saw a shield comming my way fast. He had anticipated what I would do and tried to shield bash me. [Double jump] I activated my skill for the first time in this fight, even though the skill was used mid-air it was more powerful than the one I use when I fought the lizard. It was a desperate use of the skill and I did not have the time to aim it, I jumped right back towards the knight. The shield bash barely missed me but the force of it was enough to made me spin in the air. It didn't change the trajectory of my jump too much but it was impossible to land perfectly like this.

This time I landed on the knight's chestplate. I quickly leaped towards his face, there were holes for the eye, so small a human's finger wouldn't fit in them but mine does. His face was just out of paws reach before a slap came from the right, it knocked me out of the air to the ground hard. It was a reflexive slap and it didn't have the knight's full strength behind it, I'm just glad he did grab me. I scurried away before there could be any follow up from them.

The hay rolls were loose enough for me to dive in so I did. I know I couldn't hide long but I need a breather right now, the slap and the subsequent fall took the breath out of me. I hammered my chest with the back of my paws as hard as I can, it felt like my lungs stopped working and I was doing the equivalent of lungs CPR. Several precious seconds went before I could finally breathe again.

[Health: 6/10]

[Mana: 9/12]

I need to be more careful with my approach, I know how to defeat the knights now, problem was they also known it as well. They would definitely be on guard for it and I have no other way but to go for the eye hole of their helmet. Fight was getting more harder than I would have liked and I'm being pushed to my limits, both mind and body.

The only thing I have going for me in this fight was that there teamwork was shit. The wizard hasn't done anything in this fight but started an argument, the knights are not used to fighting something this small and the marksmans did really have a chance to do anything once the melee started. They constantly got me on the run but that was all they could do, they need to avoid hitting everyone but me and I'm the smallest here. The others don't really give them space to do their thing either. The dogs and the remaining dog whisperer didn't do anything but grief.

I can use three or four more of my skill or ability, I need to play my hands well and it won't be impossible at all. My inner monologue was stopped by a warm sensation, the smell of ash and the crackling sound of fire. They're burning the hay roll.