I leapt to the side just in time as my opponent's blade rang across a tail of my mailshirt, where my leg had been a mere moment previously. The mail lagged behind my movement only slightly, but enough to tell it had been a close call for sure.

My opponent took a step back and rebraced his shield again, clearly rethinking his approach. I leveled my spear and held my shield with a loose arm, speed would serve me best versus the superior warrior who sought my death now.

The soldier's urge to have me dead fast led him to charge again, his sword was more measured and aimed this time however. I leapt back again and shot out towards his face with my spear, his shield blocked it with ease, but it got his attention, and his flurry of attacks slowed for an instant. I used the momentary break to jump forward, as I raised my spear with my forearm and armpit's leverage. With the spear shaft held up by virtue of being trapped under my armpit, my now free hand grasped the short swift knife that I had been hiding in my shield hand. The spear impacted his shield weakly, diverting his attention as I whipped my arm under and out from the spear, meanwhile sidestepping left and swinging my shield to my right, into his sword. The shield held his weapon away from me, and forced his arm forward. He could have twisted it round my shield again and gutted me, but speed was MY ally. The knife buried itself in his back, below his neck. He fell to the floor immediately, struggled momentarily, then the last of his life finally left him and his body slumped fully to the ground.

I stood over the corpse for a moment, unsure of what to do. It was a minor blessing that the man had come after me alone. It was almost a day's walk from the town of Heormir, so trekking through the night, could get me well ahead of his companions by the time they found him. Right now reaching my home and shed was the priority, or to be more precise, the ships and river beside them.

I knelt down beside the man's corpse, and searched for items of use. His own mailshirt would've been valuable and useful for repairs to my own, however it would wear me down and exhaust me on my trudge through the night. I thought of ditching my own mail too, but when they inevitably caught up to me, I was sure I would need it.

The man's money pouch wisely had only enough to travel on; only foolish men carry all their money with them for thieves to take. But what little he had would help.

A few other bits and pieces deemed useful I tied about my person or added to pouches, then rolled the body behind a tree. There wasn't time to be thorough about hiding the body, since they would inevitably find it anyway. At least hidden in the forest flanking the road, he might not be discovered by random travelers passing this way, only by my dedicated pursuers.

Scraping the blood on the ground out with my boot, I set off Northwards on the path once more.