I'm starting to heavily doubt my decision to enter into this roundhouse. On one hand, I was right to think creating a choke point would be beneficial. On the other hand, I'm inside of a building filled with hay. If they lit this place on fire, we would die. I needed to get out of here, and they were right to wait outside both for reinforcements and for someone to bring a torch.

 "Damhnait," I kept my attention on the men but began to speak to my sister. I was unwrapping the blanket off of me, keeping one hand on my spear while twirling the other around until the fabric unwrapped itself.

 "Yes?"

 "Give me the shield." My hand was unwrapped now and I was ready to grab something with it. This was a gamble, if it were any other situation but now I would say I was dead, and my sister along with me. Let's hope this sudden blessing wasn't a cosmic fluke, I needed every ounce of my strength and agility to get out of this situation, and to do that I needed a shield. If I could get some spears jammed inside, that would reduce the amount of men poking at me. Preventing attacks from landing on me was its main purpose, that goes without saying.

 Wordlessly Damhnait gave the shield, by the edge rather than the handle. Whatever works, I brought it up and grabbed the handle by throwing it lightly in the air, and within the gap of it being airborne switched my grip. I really was faster, the shield didn't look to even move after I let it go.

 Now armed and ready for a suicidal charged, I immediately began to move towards the entrance. I wouldn't waste a second, and I hoped the intimidation factor of simply walking into a wall of spears would aid me in some way. The feeling of fear when it comes to fights isn't something I've felt in a long while, I'm not a child anymore and I've had plenty enough time to understand what it means to kill a man, and what it means to lose.

 Fear wasn't acceptable.

 I held the shield close to my body, this time in the correct position for a duel rather than for a shield wall. I'm willing to accept a couple of spear thrusts, I just needed to not have them be directed in my gut. My legs or arms would be a better alternative for where they should strike. With my resolve hardened, and my shield ready, I was prepared.

 The moment I stepped within their range was slow, for them. I mean, they were slow. Was the entirety of my resolve necessary for this? I re-positioned my grip on the shield, changing it from holding it from the handle to the edge, and waited for the spears to be thrust far enough where bringing it back would be too difficult. I took a step back, away from the thrusts, and then threw the shield at the person directly in front of me.

 The shield broke through the man's face and, I swear, was embedded into it. He's down. With an empty hand I grabbed a spear and pulled, surprised by how easily I could rip the person from out of his position, and the spear out of his hand. I dropped the spear once it had been removed his hands, and re-positioned my own spear to stab him. Within less than a moment the man had been pierced thoroughly with a spear, from the top of his chest down into his viscera. He won't be alive for long, and isn't in a condition to fight.

 That's two men down, and four more to go. They had retracted their spears a this point, fear must've been taking hold of them and driving them away from me. I've realized something incredibly important. These men were much slower than me, much weaker than me, and afraid of me. I didn't have to kill them if I only knew how to say the right words. What would the right words be?

 "Drop your spears, drop your shields, and yield. I'll spare your life, no questions asked." A fair offer, but whether I could be trusted was the problem. I had no qualms with killing them if they refused the offer, it's entirely their choice whether they want to live or die.

 The men didn't do either of those. I waited a couple of seconds, within all of their striking distance. The dark night is starting to become a serious hindrance, I couldn't read any of their expressions, and from their body movements I could tell they were beginning to wait for an opening to attack. An odd choice, considering I was leaving my entire body open for attack. Perhaps that intimidated them?

  "Kill them!" Damhnait's voice boomed into my ears, her scream exasperated and annoyed rather than fearful. I didn't look to her, but instead waited for the men's response. Of course, I was outnumbered. And perhaps they thought my movements were a fluke rather than a real show of my skill and strength. So one man stabbed, and when one man did so the rest followed. I grabbed the first man's spear and pulled, taking a step back as I did so. Rather than the spear being pulled out of his hands, he came falling with it, still holding on to the spear.

 The position was to vulnerable, and it took a quick stab, quick even for me, to finish him off. I aimed for his neck, and the spear was thick enough to pierce through most of the vital organs. For the rest of the men, their spears hadn't reached. Seeing the obvious conclusion of not having enough reach, two of the men took a step forward in preparation for another stab, one that was in unison. Do these men not know that this only makes them easier to parry?

 Instead of pulling each of their spears one by own I decided to take a side step, putting some muscle into my step in order to reach one of them faster. I went to the right, and stabbed my spear into a shield in tandem with my step. That pushed the man backwards with a grunt, and I let go of the spear in favor of the sword that was strapped to my hip. Unsheathing it with my left hand, and taking another step in order to get in range of both of the spearmen, I stabbed one in the throat and grabbed the shield of the other and pulled that away.

 This was pathetically easy. A child could win against these people if he had my strength. But there was one thing I wanted to test, are weapons truly needed to dispense of these men? It'd be faster and easier for me if I could punch them to death. So I tried, with my right hand and against the man disarmed of his shield, I punched as hard as I could and met against his chin.

 I could feel his jaw break against impact, and saw his neck twist itself into an uncomfortable, and especially deadly, position. While not as obviously deadly as my blade, this would work fine. I removed the sword from the man's neck and looked at the only one that was remaining. He hadn't moved, and he had already dropped his shield. A coward, but he'll be useful.

 "This Finbar's plan?" I asked, swinging the sword clean of blood once again. The man, a shadowy figure thanks to what little light was offered, moved his head. Was he nodding or shaking?

 "Speak, dumbass."

 "Yes! It was, I had nothing to do with it. I was offered a good price, and-"

 "Don't care. Damhnait, what can we do with him?"

 I looked over at Damhnait, she was standing within the entrance looking over at the rest of the villagers rather than me. I looked to where she might've been looking and saw a small group of men, roughly fifteen people in size, walking over. Most of them had spears, the one in front had shields. Were they sending all their able bodied men over to fight me? Or was it meant to be an intimidation force? Or just back up for the rest of the men that I had won against?"

 "Mind asking him if he could convince the villagers to stop their attack?" Damhnait spoke aloud her thoughts. I nodded.

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  "You heard the girl. Go try." The man made another movement with his head and sprinted towards the villagers. We both watched as he ran, but instead of being greeted and welcomed into the group, he had only a minute to speak before he was stabbed in the gut by one of the men. Perhaps they didn't appreciate cowards. Makes sense. I started to walk towards Damhnait, something she picked up on as she began to speak.

 "Think you can take all of them on?"

 "If I jumped into the middle of them I probably could." Damhnait laughed, a laugh that reminded me of the laughter she used to make when wrestling with me and the boys. Does she think this is a game, like back then?

 "You've gotten used to that awesome blessing already! I envy you, Elgin. No, but seriously, you think you can survive that? I need you to live, you know."

 "I'm being serious. But what about you? What if one of them catch you?" This brought Damhnait back to me, the smile that I could vaguely see on her face disappearing. It's good that she realizes how weak she is in actuality, I wouldn't want her to try to join me in a fight. It'd be a hindrance. But an idea struck me. Did she get the same blessing as I?

  "Try swinging that club for me, Damhneit."

 She looked at me, then took a step back. She lifted the club up, and swung it down, a painfully and stupidly slow movement throughout. No, she didn't get the blessing. What even is this blessing? How long will it last for? Why did I get it? All these questions I would have to worry about later. I shook my head, and she looked at her hand, probably in disappointment. What a bloodthirsty girl. And this darkness is starting to become annoying.

 As the men slowly walked over to where I was, I grabbed a spear and planted it on the ground. Then I inhaled breath, and began to shout.

 "I am Elgin of Grian Village, son of Athair and sister of Damhnait, we the only heirs to the land we had called home. Yield, I have already won against fourteen of your men. You are but a force of fifteen, ye think ye can stand against me!?"

 I waited for their response, but none came. So I put the spear into a overhand position and threw it into the bulk of the mass, hearing the screams of the men as my aim hit true against my target. I had aimed directly at the center with the expectation of it going off center, had my aim gotten better somehow? But even after having one of their men impaled, they continued, albeit a bit faster.

 So I picked up another spear, and threw that. This time I aimed for a man who held a shield, and I watched as the spear sank through the shield and into the man behind it, and then some. That gave the rest of the men pause, at least the shield bearers. I nodded.

 "Yield!"

 "Charge!" A voice that sounded like Finbar's yelled, and I grabbed my sword and unsheathed it in response. Before the men could build up momentum I began to sprint towards them in retaliation, amazed by how much distance I could cover through each step. I was running as fast as I could, I felt, and it didn't take more than a second to close the distance between me and them. So I jumped, as hard as I could, to see how far I could long jump for.

 As it turns out, as my I was air borne and my feet forward, I could jump much harder than I thought. I had jumped over the spears and directly into the men behind the shieldmen, something I hadn't planned on doing. From there, my plan was short and simple. Slaughter them until they gave up. And slaughter I did.

 The first man I had jumped into was on the ground, and it took a punch to his face to render him either dead or with a terrible headache. A glimmer of my sword removed the arm, from the shoulder down, from another man. One tried to swing a club at me, but I responded by jamming my open left palm into his elbow, breaking it and leaving the man screaming. Even now I knew that if I killed too many of them the village would no longer function, so I had to leave some of them with broken joints rather than made permanently incapable.

 Maybe using my fists and feet would be better for that, rather than my sword? I knew how to kick and punch well enough, it will be fine. I dropped the sword and began to strike against the men with the tools nature had given me.

 Three men were down and unable to fight. I was surrounded and facing against a small militia of men, some of them already swinging. But it was too slow, it wasn't like they weren't moving. But it was as if they were comedically telegraphing their movements, pretending to fight rather than truly. I kicked one of the swinging men in the stomach, then another with the same foot, looked behind me to see if there was anyone else and saw that an impact was about to land on my head. Well, now it was my face.

 And I wasn't fast enough to dodge it, either.

 So I did my best to mitigate the damage, moving backwards and turning my head towards the opposite direction. Against a club that was a pitiful attempt at lessening the impact, a trick that barely worked against punches. But now, that either that trick worked better than I thought it did, or the man had only wanted to give me a love tap. Not a single one of my teeth were broken, and although I could feel some amount of pain on my cheek, it wasn't anything noticeable. More like if a kid had tried to punch me.

 If it were a blade it might've been a different story, and it's becoming clear that I need to make space. So I grabbed the man's arm threw him against the crowd, I could feel his arm both twist, something pop, and then another thing pop. Looks like I broke both his elbow and dislocated his shoulder in the process. But he served his purpose, his body impacting the men behind me and forcing them to move back.

 But there was still some men nearby. A weapon with a spike end was aimed at my head, something I could only see through the corner of my eye. This time, I was fast enough to avoid it, barely having it miss by dropping on to the ground. And from there, I used my hands as impromptu legs and kicked the man carrying the weapon in the chest, almost like a dance I brought myself back into my feet and got myself back into a traditional guard.

 For the first time I felt the rush of battle take me. These men were painfully slow, but the movement I had just done was both effective and something I had never done before, but it was only something that could be done because of my newfound strength.

 At this point, after the display of athleticism, and after too many of the men were screaming, moaning, or motionless on the ground, the attacks stopped coming. A loose circle was made around me, and everywhere I looked the men no longer looked to have wanted to fight.

 "Yield." My request was the same.

 The men looked at each other. One man I could tell was shaking even in the night. A voice, the one I heard calling for the charge, came from behind me, and I immediately turned around to face the voice.

 "Elgin of Grian, your foolishness has reached its peak. You expect my men to yield after a petty display of athleticism? You are surrounded, and you've literally jumped into your death trap. Spears!"

 Spears? Oh, it's a command. From behind what was probably Finbar the group of spearmen, now without their shields, came and attempted to surround me. But they were too slow. Pathetically slow, what were these men even planning on doing? Before I could be surrounded I picked up a weapon, a club in this case, and threw it at one of them. It landed against his head and I could hear his head crack open, him almost instantly falling on the ground.

 And with that I jumped into the next man, his spear not yet pointed at me. I hit his head with the back of my fist, feeling the skull behind it shatter. With another I gave a simple punch to his head. I needed to figure out how hard I can hit these men without killing them.

 Within moments four more men were on the ground. I'm pretty sure I killed each of them. I turned to Finbar and the rest of the spearmen that I had not yet killed. Most of the group was dead or dying how much longer does Finbar think to continue this farce? You know what, it's probably better to do what I should've done the moment I saw him.

 I walked over to Finbar, his spear descending on me the moment I took a step forward. I grabbed it and tugged it forward, forcing Finbar to trip both from the bodies of his own men and from the force of my pull. I couldn't kill him, not yet, but I need information first. So I'll ask now.

  "Why did you attempt to kill me?"

 "Spears! Spears!" I poked him with the butt of the spear on the stomach. He grunted, and began to clutch the area I had hit him on. I didn't hit him with too much force, I didn't want to kill him and I'm relatively sure I could pierce a man with a thick stick if I wanted to.

 None of the spearmen responded to the commands, instead watching us. The entire crowd, however few of them there were, had begun to take steps back away from me, leaving me with Finbar and Finbar alone. I asked the question again, and this time he answered.

  "There's a ransom on your head! It doesn't matter who it is, but anyone with red hair and grey eyes like yours are to be killed, and their heads sent to Féinmharú village!"

 Ah? Féinmharú? That one was a village nearby. Ah.

 I turned the spear towards the sharp end and poked Finbar through his eye and into and through his skull, killing him instantly. Dropping it and moving on to more important matters.