I would be shit out of luck if I had to melee against these odds, but then I saw Selene deliver a well-placed and timely arrow to the last warrior at the back of the line.
The surprise of the arrow hitting him in the collarbone while in full sprint caused him to trip over an upright root and sent him tumbling head-first into a tree with a loud thud.
I quickly let off another arrow into the lead warrior that was simply deflected by his shield; I had now run out of time to shoot.
Tossing my bow to the ground I drew the woodcutter's axe from my sling and met the warrior's charge head-on, as axe clashed with shield the force of my blow staggered the warrior and I pressed on with my onslaught.
From above my head I swung down with a fierce blow, hard enough to shatter a portion of the shield in front of me as splinters of wood exploded in all directions.
I quickly kicked out against the man to free my axe as a spear was simultaneously thrust at me from a second warrior.
It was a shallow glancing wound and I paid it no heed.
I pressed on with my attacks as an axe belongs to an offensive style; defense was created through offense here.
I went with a horizontal swing towards the man's midsection, a blow he could only hope to deflect with his broken shield. As anticipated, the man in front of me raised his shield while bracing for the impact to come.
The axe-head landed with a solid ker-chunk as it shattered the shield entirely and continued on with a soft thud into the arm of the warrior, stopping only at the contact of bone.
A loud scream pierced through the snow covered trees of the forest as birds flew from their nests and cubby holes in a state of sudden confusion.
The man himself fell to his side as he grasped his arm writhing in pain.
Without a moment of hesitation I transitioned from the pull of the axe out of the man's arm into an upright downward swinging motion.
I used [Execute].
The first man to be properly [Executed] died with an arm dangling by his waist and a forearm shielding his face. Unfortunately for him, I had aimed for the chest and split it open like a budding flower.
Staring at the imagery in front of me I was soon brought back to reality as the pointy end of a spear found its way into my side. My body instinctively twitching from the sudden burst of pain, all I could muster was a glance in the spear's direction as I attempted to create separation.
It was a deep wound. I could feel that much… yeah, I could really feel it.
The wound burned as pain radiated throughout my stomach, causing me to place my hand over the hole in a vain attempt to stop the pain.
Gaining the necessary distance between us, I turned my focus onto the second warrior before he could freely attack a third time.
But, I was disappointed in what was standing before me. In the few seconds that we had been fighting the other warriors had appeared as well.
I was surrounded by four warriors now, all bearing shields and an even distribution of spear and axe.
Things weren't looking up for me as the two spearmen violently thrust their weapons towards me.
I could only parry and deflect the spears with my axe and soon was hit from behind by an axe to the shoulder.
The blow was strong enough to knock me forward and onto a knee as I rushed to get back on my feet.
It was too late.
I was hit with a shield from behind that knocked me flat on my stomach.
I could only turn my head as the men prepared their final assault.
Four men raised their weapons but only three attacks came down as I frantically tried to block the two axes. I had no time to look for the two spears but by the registered pain in my side I figured one spear was accounted for somewhere in my liver.
The other spear couldn't be felt and as I rolled around on the ground I saw a man with an arrow sticking out of the side of his temple.
I wanted to yell, "Boom! Headshot!" but I didn't have the time to goof around as an axe dug deep into my thigh.
That got me to yell for a brief moment, more in anger than in pain though.
As another arrow found its mark, I found myself getting hacked to death by the two axe-men. My health had depleted considerably and I was losing anywhere from ten to twenty percent of my health with each swing.
I wouldn't last long at this rate.
No, I wouldn't last more than a few more seconds.
As their blows continued to land I was simply left to covering my head, as I pathetically lay there waiting to die.
All I could do was try to buy some time for Selene before I met my fate.
Selene had landed a few more arrows as I was being butchered and soon the attacks had ceased. I was already below critical levels and would bleed out within a few moments but it wasn't that big of a deal.
The fight was over, that was all that mattered.
We won, my sister in arms survived.
A necessary sacrifice I was willing to make.
Selene rushed over to me and soon stopped in her tracks, I simply wasn't in the kind of condition that gave people hope that they could bring you back.
A tourniquet and some wound pressure wouldn't really work here.
She seemed worried.
I decided to cheer her up, "Ah, don't worry about this. You know we adventurers are chosen by the Gods right? Cough I'll be brought back to life in short order. Just make sure they're all, cough cough, dead."
It was the truth after all, as players didn't have permanent deaths like the NPCs; we simply lost experience and time.
By the look of Selene's face you could tell it was a hard concept to understand but in a moment it was as if she had completely accepted it. She simply turned around and began to check all of the warriors that were strewn about.
Not even a nod of acknowledgment for the parting.
I muttered my last breath before dying, "Damn that's cold… just walking away…."
My ghost spawned at the town square but the world was only shades of gray and I couldn't see or interact with the living; the death state was pretty cool yet trippy and scary too. I had the option to revive in the town or to find my body, with a stiffer penalty if I chose immediate resurrection.
Well, even if I revived in the center of town I would probably just get cut down in my weakened state by the guards.
Forced situations made decisions easy, really.
After ten minutes of hopping and skipping I arrived near my body and was prompted with a system message:
[Would you like to Resurrect?]
[Yes / No]
Selecting [Yes] was an obvious result.
Not long after, I could feel my spirit body being sucked into my physical body as if I was traveling at warp speed. The gray surrounding stretched into lines and then in a moment of darkness I found myself staring up at the foliage above me.
As I enjoyed the serenity of the beams of light streaking through the breaks in the trees I couldn't help but wonder how long the developers had worked on the death state.
It was certainly well done after all.
It was… quite the experience, really.
After I finished contemplating the death state I rolled to my side and sat on my knees.
Selene was relaxing against a tree while nonchalantly munching on some of the bear jerky we had made the day before; she certainly took things in stride.
Standing up and brushing my knees off, I looked around to find all the bodies were still with weapon and armor… I kind of expected Selene to gather them, oh well.
I walked through the group of bodies to gather everything I could, they didn't have much money on them but I at least had a few hand axes and spears I could sell. I stripped all of their bodies of the fur clothing they were wearing; though some of it was blood stained I could still boil the fur off and re-use the leather hide underneath.