Franklin gave them all one final piece of advice before they close enough to fight.

“Don’t let the mage touch you. Not even your armour. The spell will rip through it and into you unless whatever he touches is enchanted. You might survive if it is, at the cost of the enchantment, but I still wouldn’t risk it.”

Ratface shrugged, she didn’t have anything enchanted so the point was moot. Guess dodging was the aim of the game.

They were close enough to the rats now and the six of them squared off with each other. There was a pause as they each assessed but none of them bothered with introductions. They weren’t knights down here, just rat men and wannabe adventurers.

They all moved, each person arriving at their own conclusions. Franklin went for the robe but was cut off by the one in armour who caught his strike on his arm. His arm shuddered but didn’t move and Franklin’s eyes widened as he was pushed back. The tail knife one tried to finish Franklin while he was held but Albert swung his spear towards the rat which had it dodging back. Albert followed it up with a series of stabs to keep the rat away.

All that was left was Ratface, Robes, and Halmir waiting nestled in her hair. Robes opened his mouth to talk but Ratface literally cut him off. She slashed towards him so he was forced to back away. Talking only benefitted a mage. She’d watched Tiffany enough today to know that you didn’t give them a chance to cast.

One of his hands reached for her and she darted away. Franklin’s warning about the monster’s touch still running strong in her mind. The rat stepped forward and she stepped back but slashed at the hand that got close to her. She kept an eye on the vegetation. It hadn’t decayed when he got closer so her had to concentrate on that. She had to keep him on the backfoot without getting caught. At least he didn’t have a weapon. You know, apart from the instant death touch.

She took a deep breath then took the plunge. Abigail had spent the last week drilling into her the ideas of a fight.

“There’s only two parts that really matter to a fight,” she’s said, “action and reaction. You might lose if you act too hastily but you will never win with just reactions.”

Ratface charged at Robes. She kept her sword out and her knife close. She thrust at his head, and he ducked and she brought the sword down towards his body. He dived out of the way and took advantage of her miss as he reached towards her. Her knife flashed across his hand. He hissed and scampered back in pain. She kept pushing forward. It was dangerous, she was pushing far enough that the other rats were behind her now and could strike at will. They’d have to turn their backs on the boys though and she was betting they weren’t that confident. She just had to hope the boys held out.

She sliced at Robes again and took his retreat as an opportunity to check on the rest of their group.

The kid adventurers were doing well but they weren’t getting through the alligators fast enough. The distraction of the rat men had meant that the gators and left over rats were being taken out, but the kids still couldn’t push too far or they’d risk being overwhelmed. Ratface hissed as she realised, they didn’t just have to keep the rat men busy, they had to beat them.

That glance nearly cost her. Robes rushed her and she scampered back in a flurry of wild slices to keep him away. He kept away from the attacks and Ratface kept up the pressure as she moved forward on him again. Each time he ducked and weaved just out of the way. At first, she took satisfaction that all he could do was dodge but it didn’t take long for her to realise what was wrong.

He dodged yes, but only ever enough to just miss her blade. He could tell she was an amateur and he was toying with her. Waiting for her to slip up or for his own backup to finish their fights. She sped up her attacks and made a risky play. When he next reached for her, she stepped into the touch and brought her knife down on his forearm. Attempting to sever it.

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There was a clang as her knife struck into something metal. She hissed in frustration. The sneak was wearing armour under that robe. It had to be light to be hidden but it was enough to stop her attack. She danced back as his other arm reached for her. So, targeting the hands wouldn’t work. She’d need another plan.

Robes suddenly screeched in pain, and she looked at him in confusion. Had the armour not held in the end? Except no, he wasn’t looking at his arm but past her. She kept the sword between them as she glanced back just in time to see Albert pull his spear out of tail knife. Albert was panting and all the knives on his belt were gone. She could see a few sticking out of the now dead rat as it slumped into the water.

Franklin was not doing so well. The armoured rat was beating him around the floor, and it was all her could do to keep his guard up. His arms shook with every blow and his head was bleeding from where he’d somehow got hit. Albert looked t her and she nodded. He rushed off to join his friend. The two of them only managing to hold the rat at bay.

Ratface returned to her own battle and now Robes was angry. He clawed at her. His hands getting cut up as he fought more recklessly to touch her. Ratface desperately kept her blade between the two of them as he kept pushing her back. His robes looked different from before as well. What had changed.

The tail, it was gone.

She realised it just in time to dive back from the rat. He’d snuck his tail to her blind spot and had been trying to catch her with it.

She barely had time to scramble up as he came for her and suddenly, she was fighting a creature with three limbs instead of two. It was all she could do to defend as she caught the tail on the flat of her sword. Each tail hit left a circle of rust, and she knew she was on a countdown to her sword breaking and her losing the fight. Somewhere in the fight, they’d circled around each other, and she watched as the two boys fought desperately against the armoured one. He didn’t have any real flesh showing apart from where his face guard opened and they were struggling to do any damage. The rat backhanded away Albert and caught Franklin’s sword hand. Franklin slammed his shield into the rat’s helmet and managed to dislodge it but the rat grabbed his other hand.

Ratface saw all this out of the corner of her eye, and she knew she had to do something or Franklin was about to die. She had to risk something.

She caught one of Robe’s wrists on her knife, letting her knife slide until it caught on the armour. She pushed his limb down to hold it in place. He reached with his other hand, and she did the same thing with her sword but pushed it up. He gave her a nasty grin as his tail darted between them to strike her heart.

His unarmoured tail.

Rat face jumped back and brought her two blades slicing towards each other with the tail in-between them. They sliced into it the tail like a pair of scissors. Even the faint snip was the same.

Robes screeched and clutched at his dismembered tail. Ratface didn’t waste the moment. She aimed her knife and threw it at the armoured ones now unarmoured head.

She’d been aiming for dead centre. She missed, but still managed enough to leave a nasty gash on his cheek. He flinched and clutched at his cheek, freeing Franklin’s shield arm. The boy didn’t waste the opportunity. He shoved his hand into the face wound and shoved, bringing his leg behind the rat as it tried to step back. It fell into the water with Franklin on top of it. Franklin held the rat down as it scrambled desperately. Albert recovered and brought his spear down on the rat’s head and its movements stopped.

Robes screamed again. Hate deep in his eyes as he grabbed onto her blade, not caring that it cut deeply into his hand as the thing rusted away.

His other hand reached for her face as he dived at her and Ratface knew she couldn’t get away. She still tried. She let go of her sword and pulled away, but it wouldn’t be enough.

Halmir dived out of her hair and onto Robes’ neck. He bit deep and Ratface knew that Robes would die shortly after her. It wouldn’t be quick enough to save her.

His hand touched her face.

There was the faintest clink as his hand touched the mask covering her face before there was an explosion of light as his hand was pushed back. Ratface felt the mask crumble off her face. The last rat man stared at her in confusion.

“Why’d you help them? You should have been helping me,” he asked. She looked at him.

“Maybe,” she admitted. She looked at the kids fighting desperately to survive. After this they’d move on to become hardened adventurers.

“But they’re just kids,” she said eventually, “Mum wouldn’t want me killing kids.”

“That sentiment didn’t stop them from killing mine,” choked out the robed rat man. A mournful father. She didn’t know what to say to that. There’d be no one to hear anyway.

She turned away from the corpse and looked at the kids fighting. Without the rat men’s leadership, the remaining creatures were unorganised and the kids were making short work of them. They’d managed to survive.

“You’re a goblin?” Franklin asked, his eyes wide as he stared at her.

She sighed. She’d survived her enemies anyway. Now to see if she survived her allies.