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And slashed at the captain's throat

Marcus felt his heart leap into his mouth The captain was a capable opponent when he eood against a stone weapon Without the forewarning of hisof the weapon's approach, he would be forced to pit his raw physical ability against the Cane's - and without furycraft to aid them, no Aleran could match the power of a Cane, and only the fastest could match their speed

Octavian jerked his head back and the slashsteps as he drew the dagger fro it The weapon tumbled one and a half tih The Cane howled in sudden pain, stuladius in a single ed the second Cane, who had produced a slender wooden tube As Marcus approached, the Cane lifted the tube to his mouth and exhaled, and a little flash of color and steel flew out the end Marcus ducked his head and felt the ood Aleran steel of his helmet Then he called out to his earth fury as he barreled into the would-be assassin

The Cane was viciously strong, but inexperienced The two of theround hard, and instead of i his lis into Marcus There was no tiold-furred Cane froo to Octavian's aid Marcus seized one of the Cane's wrists in a bone-pulverizing grip, then sla his foe's skull with the power of the fury-enhanced strike

Marcus looked back up to see the captain break the Cane's crude stone blade with a swift -fast slashes to the armored Cane Any two of the if not thorough He struck until he was sure the attacker was completely incapacitated, and whirled toward Marcus and the second Cane, sword lifted in his hand to strike

The two men faced one another as the arround behind the captain, and Marcus had a startling realization: Octavian's reasoning had been identical to his own He had struck to dispatch his opponent swiftly and io to the other man's aid

Octavian's eyes scanned Marcus and the Cane with the broken head Then he turned back to his own dead opponent, scowling "Crows," he growled "Bloody crows"

The sentries burst in Without hesitation, they both plunged swords into the Cane Marcus had downed Like captain, like legionare, Marcus supposed When they approached the second downed Cane, the captain waved a hand at them "Finished" He looked up "Marcus Are you hurt?"

"I'll h to keep pace with the Legion, but he had been on a ship for ion condition

And face it You're getting old

Octavian wiped Marcus's gladius clean of blood on the dark fur of the dead Cane, then offered the weapon back to him, hilt first Marcus nodded his thanks, inspected the weapon for stains or dae, found it serviceable, and slid it back into its sheath

Octavian glanced at Marcus, and said, siid with anger, or perhaps in siionares stared after hiht ere supposed to be allies"