A hero in the making?

Staring at the dying soldier at your feet almost makes you forget about his friend. A distant warning yell snaps you back to the present and you whirl around in time to see the man preparing a thrust that would have brought your dream of rescuing Eudora to a bloody end just as you were close enough to make it happen. Your bloody blade makes the man reconsider his attack and he starts to circle you looking for any weakness. His gladius weaves menacingly but he doesn't strike. Not much of a swordsman you decide if he can't find any weaknesses in the defenses of a half starved youth with absolutely no training.

Something about his posture makes you think that he may be nearly as inexperienced as you are. You take a half step forward and raise your blade as if to strike at his head, your opponent leaps back a full pace. Taking advantage of the extra room you reach down and pick up the heavy blade lying at your feet. Swinging both blades loosely you advance on the defending man. This is like back in your youth when you used cut branches in mock battles with your friends. Yelling a battle cry and whirling your blades like a madman, you leap at the cowering man. To your relief, the man drops his sword and flees across the open square.

Several people are approaching from the far side of the square, but your attention is drawn to the man at your feet who is still gasping in pain. Each shallow breath causes him to wince in pain and you can see blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. The man might take many minutes or even hours to die, but with a stab wound in the intestines there is no way short of magic that he can live. Even though he had intended to kill you without mercy, you can at least offer him a quick end to his suffering. Kneeling by his side you use your gladius to slice cleanly across his throat, you feel bile rise from your stomach as you finish the stroke, but you **** it back down.

"Well done!" Calls a grey haired man still twenty paces away. "Tis good to see some men of Athenapolis still know ta use a blade." The old man's voice was accented but strong and his eyes were alert as he continues towards you. He uses a staff to ease a limp in his right leg, but other than that he looks like he is in remarkable shape for his age. As he approaches you he waves for more men to join him. Turning back to you he explains:

"We cannae leave that body here, or the people of this neighborhood will pay with their lives." He leans over the man swiftly removing the armor and stripping his clothing from him. The slain soldier's heavily muscled body was covered with old battle scars and he looked almost as scary dead as he had been when he was alive. As he worked, the man continued to speak to you, his accent becoming more noticable the more he spoke.

"T'was a well struck blow lad. Ye must have more iron in those muscles than it looks; ye drove your blade through his armor and up under his rib cage into his lung." Before you can explain that most of the **** of the blow had come from the man falling onto your blade the old man started giving orders to the four men that came with him.

"Take him as far as ye can from this square without being caught. Put him in a merchant's tunic and drop him from the top of a building. Try to make sure he lands on his pretty face, and then meet us back at the storage room." He turns to look at you gesturing to the pile of armor "Take this and follow me." He bends to pick up the gladius dropped by the second soldier and limps back in the direction he came from.

"Well Lad, are ye comen?"