“Look,” he said to the others, obviously concealed nearby. “Look at his sword. He has slain Pedaloth.” There was no response from the others.
“If you’re speaking of the dragon-creature I killed, then I did so in self-defense,” I said.
As a Federal Marine Officer, I’d also had training in negotiation. I didn’t want to kill such fine warriors. It wasn’t because I was afraid of them. I hoped that by sparing their lives, they might join me if I needed help freeing my crew later. Plus, they carried no tech, and from what I’d seen, only the bad guys had tech.
I quickly learned that the males of the species also had the neck-things. Their leader hissed, displayed his sparkly pink neck-flaps for me, and charged.
His first mistake was allowing himself to get angry. Anger alone never made a fighter a winner. As soon as a warrior allowed it to become personal, he got sloppy. I decided to teach him a lesson. I’d teach them all a lesson.
He lunged with his blade. He was fast, but his dagger was no match for Ebon. I countered, cutting his blade off at the hilt. He stumbled forward in an attempt to stop himself. I helped by striking his amulet hard, trusting it wouldn’t break, trusting it was made of the same stuff as Ebon. It was, but the impact knocked him to his back.
“Three!” one of the other warriors ordered.
I caught sight of a warrior jumping through the air toward me, waited until he was closer, and mule-kicked him just hard enough to knock the wind out of him in one big huff. He went down in a heap a few yards from his leader.
I turned to face the last three, 10 yards away, who’d apparently learned from the mistakes of the others. Each carried a dagger, and each focused on the black blade in my hand.
“Don’t be stupid,” I warned. They ignored it, but their attack was more sophisticated.
The alien in the middle began to jog toward me while the other two sprinted at an angle to flank me. Skrew chose the same moment to grab onto my leg and squeal in fear.
“Get off me!” I bellowed as I shook my guide free.
I barely dodged a thrown dagger aimed at my head. I wasn’t sure if it would actually cut me, but I wasn’t willing to stand still to find out. I’d punched things, ripped things, but hadn’t received any injury more serious than a bruise yet. I wasn’t sure if I could be cut, but I wasn’t willing to find out if a knife thrown at my head would skewer my brains or not.
Skrew grunted when he hit the ground at my side and finally let go. I’d either knocked him out, or I’d killed him, but at that moment, I didn’t care which one it was. Soft padding in the dirt told me the ones who were flanking me were close. I didn’t have room to maneuver. I couldn’t run. I had to rely on my training and whatever the Lakunae had done to me. I knew it wouldn’t be easy; I’d seen the aliens take down a giant monster.
I could leap backward to gain some distance and foil their plan. But I was certain they’d kill Skrew if I did that—if nothing else than for spite. Instead, I rotated Ebon’s blade in my hand and charged the one in front.
He tried to dive to one side, but a quick smack to his collarbone sent him sliding into the dirt. I rolled, narrowly escaping a wild slash from the one to my left, and temporarily lost sight of the one on the right. When I found him again, he had jumped onto my back and was driving his dagger toward my throat.
My right hand held Ebon while my left hand snatched the alien’s ankle. With both hands busy, I did the only thing I could think of. I caught the blade with my teeth. A quick twist of my head wrenched it from the alien’s grasp, and a yank of my left hand turned the warrior into a flailing club.
I took one swing with my new club and missed the last warrior as he ducked and rolled to the side. I didn’t miss the tree behind him, though. My flesh-flail hit it with a sickening thud. When I let go, he seemed to be stuck to the tree for a moment before painfully falling to the ground.
The last warrior stood, pulled a second knife from behind his back, and performed a fancy little dance with them, trying to intimidate me.
In response, I flicked my head and spat the dagger I’d caught at his forehead. The blade flew through the air like a dart before slamming into his skull with a thunk that echoed through the trees. His head exploded like a watermelon and painted the forest in a splatter of bone and brain matter.
Screw cackled. “Thunk!” he said before miming the warrior’s head explosion.
My alien companion noticed movement behind me, retrieved the dagger from the last warrior, and marched toward the alien leader, murder in his narrow eyes.
“Don’t,” I ordered. “I’ve got this.”
Skrew frowned so deeply, I thought his face might split in half.
I stood above the leader and held Ebon’s sharp tip in front of his face, making it very clear that with little more than a flick of my wrist, I could show him exactly what his brains looked like.
I glanced at the amulet the alien wore. It was definitely made of the same material as Ebon and the two marble-sized power devices I carried in my pocket. The item demanded my attention, drew me to it like a moth to a flame. I tried to resist, reminding myself that sometimes the moth got too close and burst into flame, but I could hardly take my eyes from it.
From somewhere in the back
