I was ripped from the inside of my head by the scream of a woman. I looked across the clearing and saw the woman from before, as she took a flaming arrow to the shoulder. Her body spun from the force of the blow as she went down to the ground. “Ina!” I shouted as loud as my new lungs would allow as I charged across the open space. I needed a plan, I would get killed with this much HP if I ran into this fight unprepared. As I crossed the space, I noticed a bucket knocked towards me. I picked it up and hooked it around my arm, like a makeshift shield. It wouldn’t do much, but it would be enough for the short dash. I made it to the woman in seconds, grabbed her, and, against her protest, dragged her out of the way of the encroaching people. They were dressed in leathers and hides, ragged and worn. A tag popped up above one of their heads: [Bandit]. Of course, it’s always bandits.

“You idiot, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” The woman struggled against my arms, but her one arm was limp from the shoulder down. “They’re going to kill everyone if we don’t do something.” Her argument was laden with anger, her words laced with the venom of a person trying to protect everything they’ve ever known, I could feel it in my soul.

“We will fight, but we need tactical advantage. Out in open is good way to get killed.” I sounded like an idiot in my broken English. My thick Russian accent didn’t help either. I managed to get her behind one of the stilted houses that comprised the village. She sat up, and pulled a vial of red fluid from her belt. She chugged it, grimacing as she did so. I watched in amazement as her arm healed of its own accord, the wound sealing, the ligaments resetting. She flexed her hand a few times and gave a grim smile.

“Oh, I’m sorry, here.” She handed me one as well. I regarded it with some caution before taking it from her hand.

“It’s a healing potion, you dolt. Drink it, or you won’t take a single blow without dying.” She stood and pulled a short blade from her outer thigh. It was longer than a dagger, but shorter than a sword. It was somewhere in between, but my limited knowledge of swords and their kind was not helping me here. I drank the health potion with a bit of hesitancy. To my great surprise, it was overtly flavorful. The sweet cherry-berry flavor filled my throat. I wasn’t in love with the taste, but it was palatable. I could feel my muscles strengthening, I watched as the bruises and injuries under my now-tattered tunic healed themselves in seconds. I felt popping and pain as my ribs and arm reset themselves as the potion went to work.

“This stuff is incredible, thank you.” I offered her the glass vial back, but she just shrugged.

“That’s great, now let’s do something about these bandits, aye?” She looked me up and down quickly, appraisingly. “You’re not much, but you’ll do. Any experience in combat? We haven’t much time.” It was almost as though she was prophesying as the building we were hiding behind was peppered with arrows. “Okay, strike that, we have no time.” She took off without me, shouting loudly about me doing something, but what I didn’t catch.

“Oh hell.” I was without options, until I spied a woodsman’s axe sitting unattended on a log nearby. “Or maybe not.” It was about 20 feet out, in completely unprotected space, but a plan was forming in my mind. I rushed out and grabbed it, yelling at the bandits for their attention. I shouted a great stream of Russian obscenities, severely insulted one of their mothers, and then rushed back behind the building. Hopefully this axe would be enough. I could hear the warrior woman fighting, metal clashed against metal, the screams of men under a blade. She was doing a fine job, I just needed to draw the enemy closer.

“What are you doing!?” The woman yelled at me as she ran past. I had hacked away two of the supports from under a hut, and was about to remove a third as I narrowly avoided an arrow by ducking as the axe went into the ground. Gods but it was heavy.

“I have plan, draw asshole bandits to this side in 1 minute. Have you anything to light fire?” I hefted the axe again, and ripped the stilt apart, after another couple of blows. The woman tossed me a flint and steel, tied together with a crude rope. “This will do,” I sighed as I went to work setting the hut ablaze. It caught without much effort, and the flames launched up the side of the building. I heard shouting as some bandits came around the side of the structure. “Too fast!” I left the axe and took off around the building, opposite of the way they were coming. I had hoped to remove another support, but the three would have to do.

“Okay,” the woman ran up to me, panting. “What do we do?”

“Push!” I placed my shoulder solidly against the hut and started forcing it over. The woman added her strength, and the building shifted. “Harder!” The strain was starting to run down into my spine, I knew this would hurt in the morning. We pushed for what felt like a week, but then it finally gave. The building came crashing down on top of the small contingency of bandits with an ear-shattering kr-crash. Some of the rubble blew away as the hut collapsed in on itself, striking a few of the bandits that had survived the building itself. A few of them went down, but there was one big bruiser of a Bandit that survived. He was clearly leading this force, a tag sprung up above his head that read [Bandit Lieutenant].

“Okay, that went well,” the warrior shouted as she pulled her blade free from the ground a couple feet away. “Now to deal with this ass-hat.” I stood there, breathing heavily. This woman, she was a fighter through and through. Wait a moment, I thought to myself, what is an ass-hat?

“You fight just as fiercely as Conrad had said you would, but you’re all alone now.” The bandit lifted his sword and pointed at me, as I leaned heavily against my knees and heaved in deep breaths. “He’s not in fighting shape, nor is he capable.”

“Conrad won’t be getting a report from you this time.” She lunged with her sword, striking the bandit’s blade. A shower of sparks flew in every direction as they danced a very deadly dance. They exchanged blows for only a short while, before the woman had the upper hand. She used a sudden shift in stance to her advantage, and drove her blade deep into the bandit’s neck. “Give my regards to your brother.” Her last words as she put her boot into the bandit’s chest, pushing him off of her blade, hung in the air. She stood there for a long moment, breathing heavily, then she turned to me. “Don’t just stand there, fetch some water for these fires!” I realized I had just been wasting time and hurried to do just that.

It had only taken a few minutes for the entire village, with its thatch roof huts, and largely woven grass buildings, to burn to the ground. There was not a lot left to account for. The villagers who had previously run off at Ina’s direction were milling about not far off in the distance. Their faces were gaunt, hollow; I had seen that before in the faces of trauma survivors. Ina was poking around at the remains of a large building that was nothing more than a pile of ashes. I dropped onto the ground with a huff, just wanting to rest.