Cara’s arrow was knocked off course and spun ineffectually away into the darkness. The ratman commander lay stunned, twitching on the ground. Cara was nocking a fresh arrow to her bow as she turned her head to look at me in amazement. There was no time to explain, and not a moment to lose.
I reached into the coffin and grabbed the Helm. As my fingers closed around the cold metal, there was a sighing noise, and the bones, the axes, and the rest of the armor in the sarcophagus all crumbled into dust. I heard the voice of Ironside echoing in my mind as I lifted the shining Helm. “Go well, warrior, and cleanse the land of the Festering wherever you find it.”
“You can count on me,” I promised that voice.
I placed the Helm of Ironside upon my head. Immediately, I felt the power of the great warrior’s ancient relic wash through me. There was a noise like the snapping around of a key in a well-oiled lock, and as I looked down at myself, I saw my own armor transformed, as if a cloak of liquid metal were flowing down over it, solidifying into a new suit of armor. As the thick plates clicked into place, I felt new strength run into my limbs.
The darkness cleared, and I could see every detail of the scene around me. I felt taller, my arms and legs felt longer, my chest seemed broader, and energy quivered through every sinew of my body.
The axe in my hand shimmered and changed. It was no longer my familiar double-headed battle-axe; now it had a huge curved blade on one side, and a hammerhead on the other, carved in the likeness of a snarling wolf’s head. From the top of the axe a footlong spike protruded.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that my twinned one handed axes were still crossed on my back, but they, and the belt of nine throwing axes which hung at my hip, also had undergone a transformation. They were cleaner and brighter as if they were all freshly polished, they were all bigger, and each one had the motif of a snarling wolf on the blade.
Through his ancient magical Helm, I had claimed the Persona of Theodoric Ironside.
Cara was staring at me in frank amazement, but she did not stop to ask questions. The ratmen around us were getting to their feet again. The big Commander had retreated a little way, and now he pushed back his hood to reveal that his head was mutated into a mass of writhing tentacles. They whipped around angrily behind him as he pointed to us.
“Destroy them!” he screeched in his high rat’s voice.
In a wave, the rats came rushing forward. Cara pulled a black bottle from her potion belt and tugged the stopper free with her teeth. She had her bow, and a nocked arrow, held in her right hand. Holding the potion bottle in her left, she poured a little onto the head of the arrow then she lobbed the rest of the bottle into their midst. A blinding flash of liquid flame exploded outward as the bottle shattered on the ground. Fire engulfed the tightly packed ratmen, and they screamed and flailed as their filthy garments and dry fur crackled and flared like dry grass in the consuming flame. They charged about in panic, setting fire to their companions and breaking the momentum of the wave.
“On, on!” screamed the Commander, and they charged again. As Cara leaped backward, up onto the tomb of Ironside, I swung my newly-upgraded axe around and waded into the ratman horde. Time to see what the Persona of Ironside could do.
The axe carved through the ratmen like a scythe through corn. With one great sweep, I took out ten of them. Blood squirted and guts flew through the air. On the backswing, the great wolf’s head hammer pulverized five more. From the top of the tomb, Cara let loose the arrow she had treated with her exploding potion. She fired it high into the air, and it ignited as it flew, sailing in a great arc up and over, and lighting up the terrified faces of the thronging ratmen. As it ignited, Cara slung her bow onto her back and drew her two long knives.
Two more swings of my axe carved a path through the ratmen back to the sarcophagus. As Cara leaped from the platform to land at my side, her arrow landed in the center of the crowd of foes with a great explosion of flame. Ratmen were hurled back in every direction. I moved to put my axe on my back, and found that it lifted and snapped into place of its own accord! I only had to think of drawing my twin one-handed axes, and they flew into my grasp.
Cara smiled at me and met my eyes, and together we charged the ratmen.
Chaos reigned in the camp. Everywhere, fires were burning. Some of the burning rats had evidently fled back to the shacks that lined the edges of the camp. These were now on fire, and the bright flames lit up the night sky and blazed with heat.
The ratmen barely resisted us, and when we charged together straight into their midst, they turned and fled. I took the heads off four with my axes, and Cara ran another one through with her two knives. That was enough. They ran from us, screeching and howling and dropping their weapons. Some clambered over the wooden wall of the camp, while others packed into the gateway. Many ran to the shadowed space below the walls and disappeared into holes in the ground, vanishing from sight in their underground burrows.
Cara and I looked at each other, and then I caught sight of the Commander. He was loping toward his burrow, shoving his minions out
