I am so, so very dead right now. One cut from that magic sword will instantly kill me. That magic armour not only makes him stronger and faster than me, it is also nearly impossible to for my regular sword to cut through. I am so very dead right now, and the bodies of every member of my squad piled around me prove it. But I haven't tried to run away. Not because I think I can't run away, but because if I do, a woman that I don't even know will die. In other words, I am a suicidal idiot. I am an unbelievably stupid idiot, trying to play hero for someone who is going to die about six seconds after I do. I am so very dead, and yet somehow I haven't actually died yet.

I deftly stepped around the corpse of one of my fallen squad mates, I didn't look to see who. I kept my eyes on the magic sword. If I didn't, if I was caught unaware for even a second, that sword would cut through my chainmail as if it were not even there, lay a single, tiny, imperceptible scratch on me, and I would just instantly die. If I had the time or the headspace, I would complain about how wildly unfair this fight is.

The magic knight stands before me, imperious and unafraid. I can't see his face through the helmet, but I imagine from his posture that he has a contemptuous sneer on. He begins to stride towards the princess as if he had forgotten that I had even existed. The princess is frozen in complete, utter, and understandable terror. She knows that she has no chance of running away. He will chase her, and that armour will make him much faster than her. Once again, the thought of running away enters my head. He won't care about me, I am just some random soldier who happened to be assigned near the princess. I could just run away, and he would have no reason to chase me. I could just run away.

Instead, I ran towards the magic knight, and drove my sword to the back of his knee. I suppose that I was vaguely hoping that the joint would be less armoured in order to give the knight more freedom of movement. That's how it would work against a regular armoured enemy. But this enemy was wearing magic armour. That sort of logic didn't apply. My sword clanged against the armour. The only thing that I achieved was blunting the tip of my sword. That, and attracting the attention of the enemy who was essentially a Son of Karikhan for all the chance that I had at beating him.

I know that fighting this knight is practically an act of suicide, but I cannot run away. My honour as a follower of Kholikhar forbids me from abandoning someone in need, and there is no one more in need than the princess. My faith also forbids suicide, so my objective in this fight is clear. Defend the princess, and somehow survive. The objective is clear, but seemingly unobtainable.

He turned towards me, and swung his sword in a way that seemed lazy, despite how accursedly fast it was. I ducked away from the sword, not even trying to parry. I had seen how that accursed blade had sliced through the swords of my squad mates, parrying would have done nothing. What really burned me, is the fact that if the sword weren't magic, I could have easily parried it. This entire fight, he had fought like some sort of amateur. I was better than him, much better than him, but he was still winning. That is the part of this that I hated the second most. The part that I hated the most, is the fact that this is even happening.

I dodged another lazy, fast strike, and wondered how I could even dream of fighting back. Even the weak points of his armour were too strong for me to cut through. I would need a magic sword to beat some magic armour. The only magic sword here though, was the magic sword that my opponent is carrying. Then I just got the dumbest idea that I had ever had, second only to all of the decisions that had lead me to this point. I flashed a rude hand gesture at the knight. I had hoped that the knight would return the gesture. That wasn't quite what happened. Instead, the knight lowered his sword, and stared at me, in obvious confusion. I made another rude hand gesture, more vehemently this time. The knight, even more confused now, completely let down his guard. Perfect. I dashed forward, and swung my sword at the flat of his blade, swinging so that all of the force of my strike was felt by the fingers holding the magic sword. I put all of my strength into the strike, hoping against all possible reason that my strength was greater than that of five measly, magically enhanced fingers. I successfully knocked the sword from the knight's loose grip, sending it flying good ten paces away from the knight. I raced toward the sword, knowing that it was my only chance of victory. The armour should have made the knight faster than me, but I had two advantages. First, I was already moving. I had been running towards the knight, and through sheer luck, I had knocked the sword in the same direction that I had been running. The knight, by contrast, was standing still. It would take him time to reach top speed. My second advantage, I was expecting this. The knight was petrified by shock, that I would attempt something so stupid, and that I would succeed.

I ran as fast as I could, faster than I ever had before. It almost wasn't fast enough. The knight had gotten over his surprise and was also racing towards the sword. I had hoped that it would have taken him longer, but I was already blessed enough to have all of this have gone my way thus far. I snatched the sword, right before the knight's armoured fingers closed around the empty space were the sword has been. The knight charged at me, and I swung the sword to keep him back. He dodged back, obviously wary of the sword. I stepped forward, and thrust at the knight's chest with all my strength. The sword bounced off of the breastplate, leaving a sizable mark on it, but having no noticeable effect on the knight. Apparently, hitting right for the armour won't kill him right away. I brought my sword down towards where his shoulder meets his neck, only to have the sword knocked away. I saw that the knight's right gauntlet is damaged, and I pieced together what happened. He had, at the exact right moment, punched the flat of blade, knocking my swing off course.

I had misjudged my enemy. I though he was some idiot, who was relying solely on the power of his equipment to get him through battle. The actual truth was that he was a skilled warrior, who wasn't treating the battle seriously until now. He never had to. I took a deep breath, calming myself. This is the first chance that I have had to breathe since this fight started. I have no idea how long that has been since the beginning of the fight. Could be anywhere between two seconds and two hours.

He rushed at me, speed enhanced by his armour. He raised his fist, ready to kill me with his bare hands, or maybe just getting ready to rip the sword out of my hand. I swung the sword at his exposed armpit, forcing him to lower his arm to protect the vulnerable joint. At the last second, I changed the direction of the strike, swinging low to hit the side of his knee. This knocked him off balance, turning the weight of his armour against him. He fell, and hit the ground hard.

I drove the point of the sword down to his throat, only to have the blade bounce off of the gorget[1]. The blade didn't pierce the knight's skin, but it did utterly destroy the gorget. The knight reached up, trying to grab the sword by the blade. I pulled it away as fast as I could, and danced away from the knight. If he grabbed the sword, it would damage his armour, sure, but he would be able to take the sword out of my hand. That would take away the advantage that I had worked so hard to try and get. I stepped forward and thrust at the neck again, only to have the blade knocked away again by the knight. I couldn't see his face through his helmet, but I could tell that he was enraged that I was pushing him this far. Even if I run away now, he is going to chase me. I had humiliated him by almost winning, and he wants to kill me for it.

I really should have run away earlier.

The knight ran forward, hand outstretched to grab the blade. I pulled away again, and then I saw his other fist rushing towards my face. I pulled the sword down, and blocked the punch with the flat of the blade. The force of the punch knocked me off of my feet, and would have knocked the sword out of my hands if I hadn't been holding on like a mother in a tornado holds on to her newborn son.

I staggered to my feet, just in time to see the knight rushing towards me, ready to send me directly to Hellas. Instead of trying to block the next punch, I just let myself fall out of the way. Much easier than standing up.

I caught myself as I landed in the mud, barely stopping myself from smashing my head into the ground. I aimed the sword at the knight's groin and thrusted. Since I didn't have a good position to work from, the thrust was actually rather weak. That didn't matter though, as the knight reacted properly, by not even risking his future children. Logically, both of us knew that the strike would have been pointless if it had connected. However, there is no man that wouldn't instinctively try to protect their groin, even if said groin was encased in impenetrable magic steel.

The dodge interrupts the knight's strike, giving me another opening. I stood up, and firmly planted my feet in a proper stance. I thrust the point of the blade, aiming for the broken gorget. Even if the blade weren't magic, this strike would be lethal. The knight backed away, covering the gorget with one hand. My sword clanged off of the knight's gauntlet, doing no noticeable damage to the armour.

I viciously attacked the knight's damaged breastplate hoping to damage it even more, to the point where I could penetrate it. I managed to damage it very severely, but none of my strikes reached the knight beneath the armour. My barrage of attacks may not have done much damage to the knight, but it had clearly spooked him. He was hesitating now, unsure of whether I would be able to unleash another flurry of strikes like that again, and also unsure of how effective they would be if I did. In that respect, we were the same. I was also unsure.

I jumped forward, slashing at the knight's neck, trying to get him to guard the broken gorget. My feint worked, as he raised his arms to defend, I diverted my strike so that it hit him in the side, hoping to take advantage of the broken breastplate. I was able to further damage the breastplate, causing the bottom half of it to fall off completely. I took advantage of the knight's shock to ram my sword through his chest, killing him.

I…I did it.

I stumbled backwards, and had just enough time to howl with victory before collapsing from the exhaustion that had suddenly overwhelmed me.

[1] gorget: a steel collar that is worn to guard the throat in a suit of armour.