Kill Baxter Read Online Free PDF Page B

yourself into the middle of a goblin stronghold.’
    ‘I invoke Mazrech Sutial,’ Ronin shouts.
    The crowd goes deathly silent, as if a mute button has been hit.
    ‘Tsk, tsk, tsk,’ Norrd says, coming to stand in front of us. His kimono starts to slip open and I jerk my head away. Just decapitate me now. The very last thing I need in this situation is full-frontal goblin. ‘Humans cannot invoke trial by combat.’
    ‘I believe you’ll find we can if we are on goblin land,’ Ronin says. ‘I’m certain the Kebra Bik,
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four, is pretty clear about this.’
    Norrd frowns, and thankfully wraps his kimono tighter around his waist.
    ‘Consult the Kebra Bik,’ Ronin says like a schoolteacher talking to a particularly slow student. ‘Bit embarrassing really, a human knowing the goblin gospel better than you do.’
    ‘Shut your fucking mouth.’
    ‘Take their teeth!’ shouts a goblin in the crowd.
    Norrd grimaces but shakes his head. ‘The bounty hunter is correct. They are entitled to trial by combat.’
    ‘What’s going on?’ I whisper to Ronin.
    ‘They have to let me fight. The Kebra Bik is their highest law.’
    ‘So we’re gonna be OK?’ I ask.
    ‘Well …’ Ronin says.
    ‘Well then, it’s a chain battle!’ Norrd shouts, and the crowd explodes into a frenzy of shouting, stamping and cackling. Norrd doesn’t look particularly pissed off and I’m getting a really, really bad feeling about this. ‘Far be it from me to stand in the way of a little friendly competition,’ he adds, clapping his hands together.
    ‘What’s chain battling?’ I whisper to Ronin. ‘Ronin! What the hell is chain battling?’
    As it turns out, chain battling is the worst fucking idea anybody has ever had. The rules are as simple as they are insane. Two fighters are chained to the pole in the centre of the amphitheatre by one arm and proceed to beat the shit out of one another while trying to impale each other on the spikes and razor wire. Just a little family fun if you’re a goblin.
    One of the tracksuited goblin bruisers offers Norrd a piece of sushi and he holds it delicately between his knuckly, hairy fingers. ‘Ready to meet your opponent?’ he asks.
    ‘One of them?’ Ronin nods smugly to the goblins flanking Norrd. ‘Or perhaps both of them? I don’t want it to be unfair. I’ll do it blindfolded.’
    Norrd drops the sushi into his mouth and chews. ‘I’m afraid not, bounty hunter,’ he says through a mouthful of salmon.
    There’s a low moan as a monstrosity is dragged by a chain into the amphitheatre. It’s a massive goblin, bluish in colour, with a bear-like snout and a coarse beard caked with ice. Its muscles are twisted and corded like ancient tree roots, arms hanging down with knuckles literally dragging on the floor. A runic sigil surrounded by flames is tattooed on the huge muscular slab of its deformed chest. It looks around, blinking against the light, its eyes rolling wildly in its head and its snout sniffing the air.
    ‘Oh,’ Ronin says, the self-confidence sliding off his face.
    ‘A Halzig,’ Norrd says. ‘I take it that wasn’t what you were expecting?’
    Ronin attempts a nonchalant shrug and fails dismally.
    ‘Ice goblin,’ Norrd says to me. ‘Not indigenous to South Africa. I imported him from Greenland to fight and I’ve never had one second of buyer’s remorse.’
    ‘I take it this isn’t a good thing?’ I whisper to Ronin.
    ‘Let’s just say the Halzig are particularly adept at chain battle,’ he replies.
    ‘Looks like you haven’t been cured of making stupid decisions.’
    ‘You can’t be cured of that,’ Ronin says. ‘You can only go into remission.’
    ‘Don’t do this …’ I say.
    ‘Listen, there’s no getting out of it now.’ He puts a hand on my shoulder. ‘Watching humans die is a favourite goblin pastime.’
    ‘Why’s it always like this with you?’ I ask.
    ‘Like I’ve said before, I’m just a fun, dance-like-nobody-is-watching kinda