"Let me tell you somethi-"
The raider charged.
His axe came up and Nathaniel's brain just stopped working completely, all that training with Torvald, all the formation drills, everything vanished in pure animal panic
He bolted.
"Eee-eee-eeeeee!"
Just turned and ran for the door screaming like his life depended on it, which it did, his sword swinging wildly in his hand
The second raider stepped into the doorway, blocking his escape, grinning
Nathaniel skiddadled to a halt and spun around, the first raider was right behind him, axe raised
Pure instinct took over, he started flailing his sword in wild arcs with just desperate swings to keep them away
He grabbed a clay pot from a shelf and hurled it at the nearest raider, it shattered against the man's shoulder making him flinch
Another pot, a wooden bowl, anything he could reach while backing around the room
The raiders laughed, they weren't even trying to close in, just watching him with cruel amusement
Like cats playing with a mouse.
One of them said something in their language and the others laughed harder, pointing at Nathaniel covered head to toe in sewage
The Level 6 raider started tiptoeing forward in an exaggerated stalking motion, dodging Nathaniel's wild swings with theatrical movements, making a big show of it
His companions howled with laughter.
The raider feinted left and Nathaniel fell for it, swinging wild, the man darted in from the right and deflected Nathaniel's blade with his axe, the sword flew from Nathaniel's grip and clattered across the floor
Before Nathaniel could react the raider grabbed his head with both hands and slammed it into the stone wall
-10
The impact was like an explosion, Nathaniel's nose shattered with a wet crack, blood spraying across the stones, pain white-hot and blinding
He squealed, the sound high-pitched and animal, not even like human anymore
The second raider stepped forward and drove his fist into Nathaniel's gut
-9
All the air left his lungs in a rush and he doubled over, vomiting what little was left in his stomach, mostly bile and sewage water
The two women pressed against the wall watched in horror, too terrified to even scream
The raiders laughed, one of them kicked Nathaniel's legs out from under him and he hit the floor hard
-7
They started kicking him, boots slamming into his ribs, his back, his legs, anywhere they could reach
-4
-5
-3
-8
Nathaniel curled up trying to protect his head, still making those awful squealing sounds
Blood poured from his broken nose mixing with the filth covering him
Another kick to the ribs, he felt something crack
-20
Another to his shoulder, his arm went numb
-12
They were laughing the whole time, enjoying it
After what felt like hours but was probably less than a minute they stopped, breathing hard from the exertion
[Remaining Health: 22]
The Level 6 raider said something and pulled out a dagger
The other two nodded, stepping back to give him room
Time to end the game.
The raider knelt beside Nathaniel, grabbing a handful of his hair to expose his throat
Nathaniel was barely conscious, blood and sewage covering his face, one eye swollen shut
The dagger came up
One of the women saw a fallen dagger near her feet, dropped by her grandfa earlier
Her eyes went from the blade to Nathaniel to the raider kneeling over him
Then she moved.
She grabbed the dagger and charged with a scream
The kneeling raider turned but too late, she drove the blade into the unarmored slit at the back of his neck where the chainmail didn't cover
He groaned, a wet gurgling sound, dropping Nathaniel's hair and reaching back to grab at the blade
The other raider roared in fury
His axe came around in a brutal arc and caught the woman in the back
The sound was terrible, metal crunching through bone and flesh
She went down without another sound, the axe embedded deep between her shoulder blades
The raider tried to pull it free but it was stuck, he planted his boot on her back and yanked but it still wont let loose.
The second woman screamed, pressed against the wall, watching her companion die
The wounded raider with the dagger in his neck stumbled backward, blood pouring from the wound, he collapsed against the wall and slid down, still gurgling
The third raider, the one at the door, stepped forward with murder in his eyes
He grabbed Nathaniel by the throat and hauled him up, slamming him against the wall
The raider pulled out a knife, ready to gut him like a fish
Then Torvald was there.
The old trainer moved like lightning despite his age, his sword taking the raider in the side of the neck, the blade punching through and severing the artery
Blood sprayed across the room in a pulsing arc
The raider dropped Nathaniel and clutched at his throat, trying to stem the flow, it was useless
He fell to his knees and then face-first onto the stone floor
The raider who'd been trying to pull his axe free from the dead woman finally got it loose
He spun around to face Torvald but the old man was already moving, sword driving up under the ribs and into the heart
The raider gasped once and went still.
Two raiders down in less than 5 seconds.
Torvald stood there breathing hard, blood dripping from his blade, he looked at the carnage around him
The dead woman with an axe wound in her back, the wounded raider still gurgling against the wall with the dagger in his neck, and blood everywhere
"How many times do I have to save your life, kid?" he said, not looking at Nathaniel
Before Nathaniel could answer, before he could even process what had happened, Torvald's head snapped toward the door
Heavy boots on stone, getting closer
Multiple raiders, drawn by the noise and screaming
Torvald grabbed the old man's body from beside the door and dragged it aside, then started shoving furniture against the entrance, a heavy wooden cabinet, the straw bed, anything to create a barricade
"We need a way out," he muttered, scanning the room
The windows were too small and barred, the door was the only exit and raiders were already pounding on it from the other side
The cabinet shuddered with each impact
Nathaniel tried to speak but it came out as a wet gurgle through the blood in his throat
He raised one shaking hand and pointed at the privy in the corner
Torvald looked, his face went through several expressions in rapid succession before settling on grim acceptance
"Tsk"
The door splintered, the barricade wouldn't hold much longer
"Move!" Torvald barked at the remaining woman
She scrambled away from the wall where she'd been frozen in terror, stepping around her dead companion's body with a choked sob
Torvald guided her to the privy and looked down the hole, his nose wrinkling at the smell
"Down, there's a pit at the bottom, stay quiet and don't move"
The woman hesitated, looking at the filth-covered hole with horror
Another crash from the door sent her scrambling onto the seat and dropping through with a splash and a muffled cry of disgust
Torvald turned to Nathaniel, "you next"
Nathaniel was too battered to argue or even think about how can Torvald fit here, he tried to stand but his legs gave out
Torvald grabbed him and half-carried, half-dragged him to the privy, lifting him onto the seat
Nathaniel dropped through the hole without even trying to brace himself
The fall seemed longer this time, he hit the sewage hard and went under for a second before surfacing, choking and sputtering
The pain in his ribs made him scream into the filth
-2
The woman was pressed against the wall nearby, trying to stay quiet despite her terror and disgust
Above them Torvald was looking down the hole
The door exploded inward, wood splintering as the barricade finally gave way
Raiders poured through, six, eight, maybe nine of them, filling the small room
Torvald took one look at them, then at the window, then back at the privy hole
He turned and jumped through the window.
Glass shattered, his body disappearing into the courtyard below
The raiders rushed forward, some checking the bodies on the floor, others looking around for where their prey had gone
One of them approached the privy, peering down suspiciously
In the pit below, Nathaniel held his breath despite the pain screaming through his broken ribs, the woman pressed against the wall doing the same, both of them covered in sewage and blood
The raider stared down into the darkness for what felt like an eternity
Then someone called from the window and he turned away, shouting something about the old man escaping outside
The raiders left the room in a rush, their boots fading down the corridor and stairs
Nathaniel let out a shaky breath and immediately regretted it as his ribs sent fresh waves of agony through his chest
He was alive.
Somehow he was still alive.
But Torvald was gone, jumped out a window with raiders chasing him, and his friends? He don't even know if they are still alive.
And Nathaniel was stuck in a pit of sewage with one terrified woman and a body that felt like it had been run over by a truck
His nose throbbed with every heartbeat, sending spikes of pain through his skull, blood still dripping from it into the filth below
One of his eyes was swollen completely shut, the other barely functional through the blood and sewage
His ribs screamed with every breath, at least two broken completely, maybe more
And he was covered, absolutely covered, in human waste
The woman beside him was crying silently, mourning.
This was officially the worst day of his life.