Chapter 104: No Way Out
Simon waited for his moment; he parried and feinted, and each time, he pulled back as he looked for an opening. It wasn’t long before one of the men he faced off against was foolish enough to charge him.
Simon was still a little too round to cleanly dodge such an attack, but he guided the tip of his opponent’s blade away with his dagger before he moved forward, inside the other man’s guard, and shoved his dagger into the gap between the man’s gorget and his helmet. Then, while his opponent was choking on his own blood, Simon stole his sword.
The weapon was a little heavier than the long sword he was used to, but it was a thousand times better than the dagger he’d had moments ago. Until now, he’d been forced to give ground constantly, but now he lashed out, taking his opponents by complete surprise.
He cursed himself for growing too reliant on his magic. Even as he moved, he imagined the openings he’d make if he could use even a minor word of force to parry a blow or knock the man across from him off balance even a little.
Despite that, the two nearest him were on their back foot. Their armor saved them from any real damage, as Simon ended each parry with a hard slash that contained enough force to stagger them. Despite that, the best he was able to do was knock a few of the men over as he tripped and pushed them while he kept the rest back off with wild swings of his sword.
Those combinations were effective, but they were exhausting. As much as he would have liked to, there was no way he could keep that tempo up forever.
Steel rang out against steel for almost a minute before he managed to take another one of them down, bringing the odds down to the still impossible eight on one. That was worlds better than ten on one, of course, but he’d been fresh then, and he was exhausted now.
Still, he did his best, at least until he was surrounded. That was when he made a desperate push toward the person in gray robes. If he could take them down, then he could burn everyone else alive and escape.
Sadly, the warriors in white anticipated that and never let him close to their whisperer, whatever the hell that was. On his third attempt, the closest he got was when he knocked down the warrior who had looked familiar earlier.