Ghostwalker - Erik Scott De Bie [86]
"Come play like a man, rat-boy," Tough-Face growled to Derst.
"What sense does that make?" Derst wondered aloud. "The very point of your threat is that men don't play, and yet you want me to 'play' like a man?"
Tough-Face snarled in frustration as Derst dodged and his axe took off a huge chunk of duskwood bark. "Well, fight like a man, then!"
"I'd rather not," Derst said as he hopped over a low slash and slapped Tough-Face's cheek with the chain of his dagger to little visible effect. "People get killed that way." Another slash claimed a sizeable portion of Derst's forest cloak. He gulped.
Then Derst feigned a stumble. Tough-Face roared in pain and rage, bringing the axe from on high to split the quick knight in half, but Derst slid between his legs and slashed the back of Tough-Face's leg with the chain-dagger. Hamstrung, Tough-Face screamed and plunged to the ground.
"How does that-" Derst began, but stopped as he sensed a blade flashing toward his head. With a tiny gasp, he threw himself away from it and felt fiery pain rip through his shoulder. He rolled to feet and touched his wounded shoulder.
His attacker, holding Walker's gleaming shatterspike and a wicked hand axe, grinned at him.
"Come, goblin," said Meris. "Let us see how you fight your betters."
In the middle of the clearing, they circled one another, Derst with a chain-dagger whirling around his wrist and a worried look on his face. Meris's smile was a cruel one.
The scout launched an attack so fast that Derst barely registered it in time to block. The hand axe slashed open the leather covering his hip and the shatterspike tore his cloak in two. Derst tried to parry, but ended up having to dodge instead. Meris was by far the superior duelist, with strength and magic-in the form of Walker's sword-on his side. This would be quick.
Bars saw Derst's dilemma and howled in fury. "Meris!" he shouted. Pumping his arms as fast as he could, he swatted blades aside on both of his flanks and ran toward Meris's back.
Though his posture said he was oblivious to the paladin's rush, Meris winked at Derst.
"Bars, no!" Derst yelled, but it was too late.
Meris spun and the shatterspike flashed. It intercepted both of Bars's maces and cleaved both stout pieces of steel as though they were warm cheese. The paladin stumbled to a halt, looking at his destroyed maces, and Meris seized the opportunity to step inside his reach and slam a knee between his legs. The bearlike man dropped to the ground, curling up and moaning.
"Pathetic, for a 'Knight in Silver,'" Meris spat. He raised the hand axe in his left hand to deal a killing blow to Bars's unprotected neck.
Then the axe would not obey Meris's commands. It even pulled him back a step.
He looked and found Derst at the other end of the chain-dagger, straining to hold back Meris's axe-trying anything to keep the man from killing his friend.
"How noble," Meris sneered. He brought the shatterspike around in a dazzling arc and cut the chain holding his axe.
It snapped like thin twine and, because the opposite force had disappeared, Derst fell back a step. Meris took advantage of the misstep, continued his whirl, and hooked the axe around Derst's leg. He swept the man off his feet and dropped the axe. He raised the sword in both hands.
"No!" Bars managed to shout.
Weak, Bars kicked Meris in the shin, hardly enough to injure him, but enough to ensure that the killing blow was not true. The blade drove into Derst's shoulder. The wiry knight's scream was lost in pain. After an agonizingly silent moment, his body fell back and he lay still.
Still, Derst's chest rose and fell.
With a little smile, Bars did not even resist as Meris's men hauled him to his feet. They made to slit his throat, but Meris waved them off.
"No," he said. "He's earned life for him and his friend, for now." He flicked blood off the