Swamped

"Well, I'm armored, so I guess it makes sense if I take the most risk," you shrug. "You can talk to Ms. Patterson and ask her to help with flanking him while I draw his attention."

"Oh, that's real armor? I was thinking it was a costume, but then, I was also thinking you were Ollie at first." She stares at you a bit. "Looks, well, not that tough. Too flexible to be very protective."

"It gets the job done." As long as you don't take a slicer to the head again, at least.

You walk up to Patterson, and Minnie talks to her a bit.

"Armored fella, huh? You new in the town guard or something?" she asks. "Pretty odd armor for it if you are."

"It's a long story that I'd rather not get into right now." Or at all, since you don't know how much it might mess with the future if people know that's where you come from.

"Well, this might help you keep your distance," she says, handing you the stool. "We'll see what we can do."

They back away, and you're left fending off a bedpost with a stool. It's not exactly a weapon you're familiar with, but you're mainly using it defensively anyhow.

But after you block a swing, and he takes a few steps closer, you start feeling really weird. Everything around you seems to get slower, and even the air feels more like water. Maybe this is that stray ether Captain Long was warning you about?

Good thing you're used to swimming through way thicker stuff. Not so much fighting in it, though. But right now it feels like it's going to take a very long time for your backup to get here.

Maybe you need to go a little more on the offensive, or at least to put some distance between you and him. You don't have a lot of options to work with, though.