[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
wound in the warrior's
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...per%20of%20the%20Sun%20(v1.0)%20
[html].html (73 of 260) [12/28/2004 1:01:18 AM]
James Axler - Death Lands - Keeper of the Sun thigh, though he just missed the
big femoral artery, which would have made it into a killing blow.
The man cried out, choking off the yell, trying to back away from Ryan,
stumbling clumsily, blood pouring down his leg onto the wooden floor.
He still held the sword at shoulder height, but it was suddenly a defensive
weapon, as he tried to protect himself from the swift, remorseless advance of
the one-eyed man.
Now the advantage lay with Ryan, up against a frightened cripple.
He moved from side to side, changing the panga from hand to hand, feinting
with an empty fist, making the warrior try to parry the specious lunge.
Ryan taunted him in his distress and obvious stammering fear. "Not like
chilling helpless women and children, is it, you murderin' bastard?"
The man was sweating, the perspiration soaking through the dark scarf around
his nose and mouth, trying to make his way down the empty corridor, anywhere
to try to get away from Ryan. Blood puddled the floor at his feet, and the
one-eyed man was careful not to step into it and slip.
"Goin' to bleed to death, like a stuck pig, aren't you?"
"This is not with honor!" his enemy panted. "This is not to be done."
"Wrong, friend. It's going to be done, right to the bitter end."
Ryan saw his chance and feinted again, aiming toward the man's knees. As the
samurai dropped the sword edge to counter the attack, Ryan switched the panga
to his left hand and cut high instead.
The blow aimed at the angle between the neck and the left shoulder, where he
could see an exposed strip of flesh below the helmet and above the armored
breastplate.
He turned his wrist to use the last few inches of the blade rather than the
needled point, feeling it bite home. The keen steel sliced through skin, flesh
and muscle, opening a deep gash that spouted more blood.
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...per%20of%20the%20Sun%20(v1.0)%20
[html].html (74 of 260) [12/28/2004 1:01:18 AM]
James Axler - Death Lands - Keeper of the Sun
This time he didn't step back from the attack. Now that he was in close, it
was the moment to finish the job. He brought his knee up into the helpless
man's groin, moving to one side as the long sword clattered to the floor, the
warrior doubling over like a loving courtier. The round helmet fell off and
spun to join the sword, exposing the back of the head, with a ribboned topknot
of black hair.
The final blow from the panga drove downward, the hilt clutched in both hands,
the point hitting the doomed man at the top of the spine, where neck became
skull.
Page 43
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Ryan winced at the crunching sound of splintered bone. The samurai jerked
backward, eyes turned up to the ceiling, the neural reaction pinching the
blade between the crushed vertebrae, so that Ryan lost his grip on it.
Without missing a beat, he dodged the staggering, flailing figure, darting in
and picking up the SIG-Sauer, steadying it on the dying warrior.
The panga was jerked from side to side, as though it were some sort of bizarre
addition to the armor. The man was moaning, a long, single keening note, held
far beyond what seemed humanly possible. But it was amazingly quiet.
Considering he had two devastating wounds in thigh and neck, as well as having
been kicked in the balls and the coup de grace to the cervical vertebrae, it
was astounding that he wasn't screaming loud enough to bring down the
paper-thin internal walls of the fortress.
Ryan watched him with an incurious gaze, knowing that death was only a matter
of time.
The spinal cord was severed and crushed, and the messages from brain to limbs
couldn't go on much longer.
There was a long sigh of breath, then the samurai was down on the blood-slick
floor, his arms and legs kicking out like a brain-shot horse.
Ryan holstered the blaster and waited his moment to retrieve the eighteen-inch
panga.
He glanced behind him, wondering whether J.B., Jak or any of the others might
have followed him. He was pleased to see that their good combat sense had
prevailed, and they were all staying together where they were, in the slightly
more secure defensive position of their rooms.
The body was still, lying finally on its back, head jammed at an awkward angle
by the
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...per%20of%20the%20Sun%20(v1.0)%20
[html].html (75 of 260) [12/28/2004 1:01:18 AM]
James Axler - Death Lands - Keeper of the Sun protruding panga, the eyes
staring blankly up at nothing.
Ryan stooped and rolled the corpse, pulling a face as he got gouts of thick
blood on his hands. He tried to tug the panga free, but found it still gripped
tight between the shards of bone, in the last mortal spasm. He set his foot
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]