Xander picked up the long sword, painted with splashes of fake blood. The weight of it indicated that it was made of steel, and not plastic. The fake blade was simple in design, indicating function over appearance. "Cool!"
The shopkeeper approached him, smiling. "If you're after a matching suit of armour, we have a special on them today. Three dollars for a complete suit with fake chainmail, dependant on an unblemished return."
"Really?," Xander asked. "Utter shades of neat... which order of Knights is it from?"
"Not the Knights Templar, or the Round Table," the thin shopkeeper said. He guided Xander to a suit of armour on a stand. It was designed for a tall, thin person, unadorned with spikes or any decorations, and the shoulder guards were painted red with fake blood. "The Hellknights."
Okay, this officially got his stamp of approval for the night. The whole Highlander sword thing, combined with The Shadow's using the darkness to fight it thing.
"So that was five bucks for the lot?," Xander asked, wanting to be sure.
The Knight looked around. Weird... the castle was not anywhere near him. One moment he had been patrolling, the next he was in some strange land. Perhaps one of the Dimensional Shamblers had reassigned him to another area. Clearly, more observation was needed. The Knight decided to watch for awhile, not blindly charging in. He sheathed his sword in it's scabbard on his back, the point of it around his knees and it's hilt around his neck.
"Sir! Sir Knight!," a female voice called out, almost like one of the maidens he had protected before his Lord had given his Order to a Hell Lord for power. The Knight missed those days.
"Milady?," he asked. "What dost thou require, madam?"
"Sir Knight, protect me from these low peasants and creatures!," the lady ordered. While she was slightly overbearing, she was not snotty in the least to a knight, who was clearly of noble blood.
The Knight bowed in accordance. "Might I suggest we find a safer haven, milady?"
The Lady nodded firmly. "Yes, so I might send a missage to my father. He will be most vexed with my abduction."
The Knight glared at the vampire. Stupid shambling undead thing, barely a step above the rotting zombies!
"Degenerate fool! Scaring our Lady like that! Ignorant peasant! Come, we must find her anew!"
Angel blushed. The Knight had a point, he shouldn't have scared Buffy like that. It wasn't her fault that she had the mentality of an easily frightened noble lady.
They caught up with her in a dark, dirty alley. A pirate was about to attempt to rape her, so the Knight hit the cur in the head with his steel covered fist.
"Sir Knight," the Lady gushed, "thank you for saving myself and my virtue! You shall not find my father to be a stingy man when he rewards you!"
The Knight smiled, slightly, under his tall helm. He let the blood dry on his gauntlet to clean later. "May I suggest we retreat to a more defensible location?"
The Lady nodded firmly. "Yes, Sir Knight. Lead on."
Now that the Knight had returned, she had no fear of the vampire. The Knight would defend her.
The Knight was getting confused.
It had been two hours, at least, and no Shamblers, no Ogres, no Death Knights had come to relieve him or give him his orders.
Perhaps...
Perhaps he had been discharged from his grisly duty? In the absence of any proof otherwards, he would act as his code of honour dictated. Before, he had been forced to soil his honour due to his orders from his sworn liege.
"You can't kill the little monsters!," a lowborn prostitute in clinging clothes gasped, catching up with them. "They're little kids, changed into their costumes!"
The Knight groaned. Sometimes, honour could be a pain. So he settled for kicking the little fiends in the head as a horde rushed them, scaring them back with his longsword, and whipping them across the head with the pommel of the blade.
"Look at you, Slayer," an unfamiliar voice called out, in an accent that he couldn't place. "Terrified. Shaking. Lost little lamb."
The Knight's head whipped up from the melee, seeing the black clad vampire menacing the Lady. He commanded the lady's vampire servant to hold off the smaller demons, while he engaged the blonde vampire.
Ripping the thin corpse from the Lady with a chainmaille'd fist, he threw the dog to the ground as he grasped his longsword in both hands.
"You will suffer for menacing my Lady, and daring to lay hands upon her person," the Knight said.
"Ooo, I'm scared," Spike taunted.
The Knight decided to let his actions speak for him, and attacked the vampire with a powerful slash. The vampire didn't manage to duck in time, and a thick gash was scored along his left arm and upper torso.
Unfortunately, the wretched coward decided to run in dishonour, rather than face the Knight.
"Milady?"
A ripple ran over them, and the longsword lost it's edge, and most of the patina of blood lost it's shimmer.
"Xander?," Buffy asked weakly.
I had to invent backstory for the Knights in Quake. In effect, the Knight was caught between his sworn duty to his liege (who gave him and his order to a Hell Lord, so he *had* to obey the demons) and his honour.
If enough people nag me, this might go past a drabble. It's not very likely, though. I've got enough on the go. I had fun googling about armour, though, and going through www.swordsonline.com.