My past reared its head again this evening, this time in the guise of a Sarafam Knight. As we traveled along the road, we saw a man wearing armor on horseback. Before he was close enough for us to recognize anything about him, however, he drew his sword, screamed a battle cry, and spurred his mount to top speed, charging us.
Katherine, as our "alpha," was nearest the charging knight, and as such was also his first target. She attempted to jump out of the way, but her tattered clothing proved her undoing, getting caught on her kine's cart of belongings and leaving her easy prey to the knight's now-glowing sword. His downward thrust pierced her body and pinned her to the ground. Even though the wound closed itself fairly quickly, something about the sword caused a surprising amount of her vitae to spill onto the ground.
The cart blocked Abarath's and my route to the knight, but Abarath had little problem with that. He leaped over the cart and tackled the knight from his horse. I followed behind him, not so much leaping as scrambling over the cart, and was ready when the knight stood back up.
Launching myself at him, and burning some of my own blood to increase my chances, I grabbed hold of his helmet and threw my weight into twisting it off, hoping to create a weak point we might aim for. I hear a clasp or two break, and while I couldn't remove it completely, the knight's helmet now hung by a single strap, leaving his head exposed. Abarath took the opening and ended the man's life. Humiliated, Katherine drank the corpse's blood to replenish what she had lost.
Even now, I can't help but smile as I write this. It is not often that I can perform better than Katherine in battle, and I'm certain I will enjoy reminding her of this occasion for years to come.
Udo der Tote