“Face it Knight! You cannot defeat me!” The mage roared with a cruel laughter.
The knight in question stood before them, sword tight in hand as they stared up at the mage through the visor of their helmet. They were also starting to realise that fighting a fire mage while wearing heavy steel armour wasn't the best idea.
“I will emerge victorious and make ashes of the valley! All shall tremble in fear as they see me! Then at last my master plan will begin, as I, The greatest mage of all time will-” The mage continued on, beginning his monologue of destruction and chaos as the knight surveyed the situation.
This was a bounty that held a high reward, and as with all things, a high risk. The mage stood atop a conjured stone pillar, looking down at the abandoned cathedral that was their battleground. Why someone had built a once grand church atop a mountain cliff was beyond the knights imagination, but for whatever reason, the mage had taken it as his base of operations.
The knight themselves was looking more than a little beaten, the dents and scorch marks decorating their heavy plate like feathers on a chicken. The knight knew it was only a matter of time before the mages spells got past the defensive shell that they wore. They needed to end the battle as quickly as possible.
“-And then at last, Father will have no choice but to notice and praise my achievements!” The mage’s speech came to a halt, as he looked down towards the knight below with a furrowed grey brow. “Were you even listening?” He asked.
The knight went still for a moment, before they gave a light shrug of dismissal. The absolute fury in the eyes of the mage reflected the sudden bursts of fire that appeared in his hands. The knight realised they probably should have just lied.
They rolled forward, blade in hand as the fireballs came swooping towards them. The Knight could feel the heat of the detonations on their back as they came to a stop, only a few feet away from the single large pillar that held the mages platform up. Glancing down at their blade, The knight had an idea.
Another explosion just to the left of the knight caught their attention, and glancing up, they could see the mage peeking over the edge of the platform he stood on, an angry scowl lighting up his face.
The knight looked back towards the pillar, taking less than a moment to gauge the strength of the pillar before taking up their sword in both hands. With a heavy swing, the knight felt the metal blade bury itself less than an inch into the pillar before it rebounded with a loud clatter.
“Ha! Did you think a simple sword would be enough to bring down such a feat of magic!” The mage cackled, before shooting a blast of lightning down towards the knight. The moment the knight saw the crackling energy they realised that they wouldn't be able to dodge, the electricity would automatically reach for their metal armour.
In the brief moments before the lightning hit them, the knight hoped that their modifications to the armour worked, as they let the sword drop from their grip, and instead crossed their arms to protect their chest, their core.
The power from the blast was nearly deafening, with enough energy that the knight was thrown backwards, right into the pillar they had been aiming to destroy. The knight, with their eyes squeezed closed, wished for a moment that they could have seen the mage's face as the knight left a dent in the pillar large enough that the entire room shook from the impact. Or, from the slow fall of the platform above.
The crash and scream as the mage went through the stained glass window was something that the knight caught. As the ruined cathedral settled back into silence, the knight lay unmoving for a long moment.
Until their thick metal helmet popped off with a slight sizzle, still hot from the strike. Inside, there was no sign of human life, but no crisped corpse either. Instead, the true masters of the armour emerged.
“Uhh. We did it!” A rat, shouted in joy as it emerged, hopping out onto the stone ground and being careful not to touch any of the metal, instead sticking to the leather padding all along the inside of the modified suit.
“Sweet rat Jesus, we’re alive.” Another rat huffed as it clambered out of the suit.
“Otis won't be for long…” A third rat growled as it dragged itself out of the armour, falling onto the stone with a thump.
The first rat, Otis looked towards the third, scoffing ever so slightly as he stretched his limbs.
“Come on, we’re fine! And we got a good chunk of reward money!” He exclaimed as he looked over the damage, still being careful not to touch the hot metal.
“Well maybe warn us next time we’re about to be blasted by LIGHTNING!!” The third rat, Orion shrieked, before joining the second rat, Olive, in simply sprawling onto the ground to catch their breath.
“Speaking of, how bad is the damage?” A fourth rat emerged from the suit of armour, quickly followed by a fifth. Octavian and Onan respectively.
“Not great. Looks like the left arm took most of the damage.” Otis chimed back, before casting a glance towards the rat who controlled the arm in question “Good job Olive.”
Olive simply gave a huff in response, before she went back to being a simple puddle on the floor. Octavian approached slowly, looking over the damage for a long moment without touching.
“It's beaten up, but mostly it just looks like it's disconnected. We’re good to go when it cools down.” Octavian said simply, before he turned and once more disappeared into the suit of armour to begin the repairs.
“Alright then team! Let's go collect our food money!” Otis announced, standing on his hind legs for a moment. The remaining three rats groaned in protest, before once again shuffling into the suit of armour that made up the knight. Otis followed quickly after them, reaching for the helmet for a moment before thinking better of it.
“Don't forget the helmet.” he chimed happily, only to be once again met with an unimpressed groan from the group.
As the knight slowly rose, picking up its helmet and setting it back in place atop its shoulders, five rats in a suit of armour began their march to collect their hard earned rewards as an adventurer.
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