War-Dancer (Tales of the Commonwealth Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

berserk rage. He rushed recklessly toward the war-dancer, clobbering at her with whip, blade and fists, trying to get at her in any way that he could before he succumbed to the lack of oxygen. Fu’Ryah continued to evade the aggressive foreman’s attacks, voiding his blows and somersaulting out of his reach, until the hulking fiend growled in frustration and committed to one final all out strike.
     
    He delivered a new blow, at an ascending angle, that could have yanked her head off her shoulders, but she cross-parried it with the weapon on her right hand, so to strike back at the foreman with its twin. Fu’Ryah used her parry to spin her body over the balls of her feet, channelling the strapping bioroid’s own extraordinary strength against him. She added a whipping of her arm to the rotation, and the impact of her attack was such, that the rib-cage of the Black Rose foreman cracked inside his suit, and he collapsed at once, exhaling what little air he still had in his lungs.
     
    Fu’Ryah was stunned but she could tell that the foreman was already half dead with internal bleeding and more. She had seen it happen before a hundred times. He was no-longer a threat. Fu’Ryah’s audience, on the other hand, was exhilarated at the sight of her victory. The bioroid pirates in her crew wanted her to keep him alive and make him a slave, for the fierce foreman had slain several of their numbers during the raid and they wanted revenge. The transhuman portion of the throng witnessing the deadly duel started to shout and cheer Fu’Ryah, enticing her to take the foreman’s head as a trophy.
     
    She steadied herself and looked about and into the faces of her shipmates. Already she noticed that some were missing. Rejoicing in their thunderous display of admiration for her, she considered whether to spare the fierce foreman from a lifetime of torture or spare his life. She waited out of respect until he rose to his knees, and then – as blindingly fast as a bolt of lightning – she struck a downward mercy blow with the spike of a boarding-talon. As she retrieved her weapon from the base of his neck, her foe’s blood spurted out of the deep wound inflicted straight into his prodigious heart. The warm petrol-blue fluid embalmed the foreman’s dark-green suit and began to freeze almost instantly.
     
    Fu’Ryah then approached one of the war-dancers, took a breach-satchel from his harness, and ignited the body of the fallen foreman. The frozen corpse was instantaneously vaporized by the potent device, and all the spectators were silenced by the sight of it.
     
    “The show is over,” declared the ferocious Fu’Ryah. “We have work to do. Round up the slaves and load them into the barge.” As she barked-out her orders, she pointed at the damaged gateway to the mines with her bloodied weapon, and the crew witnessed the landed barge-module beyond. Ma’Gwa, Thorn and Zanzibar were already standing next to the lowered loading ramp, leading the first of the slaves inside.
     
    As the Scimitar’s crew disbanded and began to go about the business of freeing the slaves from their cells, Razor stood next to the foreman’s body, upset that Fu’Ryah’s duel had overshadowed his own cunning deeds during the raid. At this point, he hadn’t even stopped to consider his error of judgement that had almost cost them the enterprise. He chose instead to inopportunely mock Fu’Ryah’s gesture of clemency toward the Black Rose foreman for all to hear. “Shall we now build a pyre for all our fallen Black Rose foes and sing them hymns, captain?”
     
    An offence of this importance could not go unanswered, but the impressive Fu’Ryah had had enough bloodshed for one day. She withdrew the wild beast in her, lifted her facemask to reveal an even visage, and spoke to the perplexed Razor. “That there was a brave warrior,” she declared emphatically. “Any who dispute my decision may challenge me now, of forever hold his tongue.” She