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Chapter Thirty-seven

I let instinct take over Whether or not that was a good thing, I didn&039;t know But I was about to find out

As the two caht to my back and watched as the very knife that had been intended for h of Red Hair He screa fro his wounded friend, the short guy with the knife, which now gleamed crimson, threw himself at me recklessly I rolled to my left and his blade slammed into the stone next to me It snapped in half and, in a bizarre stroke of luck, the broken blade ricocheted back and lodged deep into his neck The short guy screaular

I aluy onat er than uy lowered the sword point and aiht for my heart Okay, I really hate when that happens In the world of sword fighting, they would call what I did next a "parry" Trust " about it It was just duood fortune that when I raised my sword to block his attack that his own blade slid offup behind ed itself into his side and he screamed like it hurt I had no reason to doubt hied into his friend&039;s side, Long Sword found hile in front of le and punched him as hard as I could in the face I think I broke a knuckle in the process Still, the punch did the trick: he went tu off the platforone, another replaced him Another sword, another bad attitude Another lucky punch, followed by another lucky last-second repartee The bastards continued co lucky Too lucky I should have been dead a hundred ti number of my attackers had fallen away, I saw that only two reer and badder than all the others combined The trouble with this scenario was that I was neither big nor bad I was ood-natured

I was out of breath My ars felt leaden, too Heck, even the sword felt leaden

They circledof them, if you askyou&039;d find on Brad Pitt in Troy - if Brad Pitt had been a hulking freak covered with curly body hair The other wore only a filthy loin-cloth, Conan-style Both were roped with muscle, covered in scars and stood a head taller than hting two h above, Merlin safely watched everything down below

Troy Boy attacked first, using a ball and chain, snapping it out like a whip How the thing missed my head, I don&039;t know We circled; he snapped I raised my sword and this time the spiked iron ball slammed hard into the flat of ainst the flat of my forehead I saw stars instantly

I also saw the second reat choppingthat surprised even me: I smashed his face with the pommel of my sword And I mean smashed it His nose shattered, blood spurted, and down he went like a rag doll in loin-cloth

Jesus, what a lucky hit

Ball and Chain wasn&039;t done withon a steady diet of near ed to stave off the brunt of his fury

I also soed to end up behind him

Not exactly sure how that happened, but I tossed aside ot him in the th as he stuainst a stone wall He s the life out of him

He dropped his ball and chain and reached back for th was giving way, fast He dropped to a knee, wavered, and just as I was sure he was about to topple over, two things happened siht exploded in rabbed hold of my shoulders, lifted ht air

Chapter Thirty-eight