Free the Darkness (King's Dark Tidings Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

him.
    Rezkin drew a dagger to catch the blade of the striker on
the right and threw his weight into the man. As the striker fell, Rezkin
grabbed the man’s face and smashed the back of his head into the cobblestones.
He did not wait to see if the man was dead. Rezkin knew he would not be getting
up again.
    Spinning around, he kicked out at the striker who had been
on the left and swiped his legs out from under him. When the man fell, he
quickly stabbed the striker in the throat. Jerking the blade out just as
quickly, he leapt over the dying man and ran toward the next foe. A loud snap
made him veer to the side as a crossbow bolt whipped by his ear. In a movement
faster than thought, he launched a throwing knife at the source of the bolt and
heard a strained yelp as reward.
    Rezkin feigned a slashing attack with the dagger, and the
man he was closing in on raised his blade to deflect the attack.  This
left him open for what Rezkin truly intended. He dropped to the ground and
skidded across the stone under the man’s guard to crash into him. As Rezkin
tumbled forward, the striker flew over Rezkin’s back. It was unfortunate for
the striker that the crossbowman had recovered and chose to launch his attack
at that instant. The striker took a crossbow bolt to the face, but the bowman must
have gotten closer because the bolt continued though the man’s head to burst
free from his skull, casting blood and grey matter across the cobblestones.
    Three strikers were now converging on him, but one backed
off when he saw what happened to the last striker who got between Rezkin and
the crossbowman. With a shnick , Rezkin knew the crossbowman had
reloaded. He counted to three and then dove to the side just as the bolt was
released. The two strikers who had been closing in on him were forced to dive out
of the way as well.
    Rezkin reached forward and grabbed one man’s ankle, dragging
him closer as Rezkin climbed over him. Just as he reached the man’s torso,
Rezkin gripped his shoulders and rolled over so that the man was on top of him.
The striker’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull as a long silvery blade
impaled him through the chest. Blood poured from the wound followed by more
blood sputtering up through the man’s lips on his dying breath.
    Tossing the man aside, Rezkin kicked up into the groin of
the striker who was now standing over him. The striker cringed but used the
pain to power a downward strike of his sword. Rezkin kicked out with his other
foot bashing the man’s hands free from the hilt. He must have lost some of his
grip on the sword with the groin impact. Rezkin clenched his abdominals and
lurched up, ripping through the man’s intestines and stomach with his favorite
curved dagger. At that moment a throwing dagger sliced through Rezkin’s right
bicep and imbedded itself in the suffering striker’s shoulder. The young man
jerked the striker around and threw him toward his rear attacker as best he
could.
    Rezkin ran toward the nearest striker, who happened to be
the crossbowman. The bowman realized too late that he would not be able to
reload in time. Before he was able to draw his sword, Rezkin grabbed him, spun
the man around, and impaled him through the kidney with a stiletto. The
excruciating, searing pain from such an injury was so intense that all of the
striker’s muscles locked up and the man could move no more than a statue
– at least, that is what Rezkin had been taught would happen. Luckily for
him it worked, and Rezkin was able to hold the man in front of him while he
assessed his surroundings.
    All of his opponents were now to his front and sides so he
did not have to worry about his back for the moment. He was actually surprised
and dumfounded when his eyes landed on the masters. The two masters, the men
who had worked together diligently his entire life to instruct and guide him so
that he could grow to be a big-man, were engaged in a bitter duel, and it
appeared to be to the death.
    Nine