Black Knight 02 - Back in Black (22 page)

"Crap. Hold these guys." I yelled to Greg. He nodded in response, and I took off across the cage. The troll didn't even look at me, just flicked out a huge fist and smashed me to the floor. I blacked out for a second or two, then came to just as the troll was swinging a sword at my head. I rolled to one side and leaped to my feet. Bad idea. I was dizzy from the punch in the head, and the troll saw it. He reared back and kicked me in the chest with one green-tinged foot. I felt a couple of ribs break, and flew about six feet before I landed flat on my back in the center of the cage.
 

The troll turned his attention back to the humans, and I staggered to my feet. He had just grabbed Mike around the throat and was rearing back to cave in his face with the other hand when I hurled my sword like a spear, right through the monster's back. His hand tightened for a second around Mike's neck, and I saw his face go purple. I limped over and pried the troll's dead fingers off of him, and Mike drew a deep, raspy breath.
 

"Thank you, James." He said hoarsely.
 

"Pray for me, buddy." I said, and then turned to get back in the fight. Stephen and Greg had taken out another couple of trolls, so the numbers were slowly evening up. The problem was, the remaining four trolls were in pretty good shape, and we were starting to look the worse for wear. I had a few broken ribs and probably a concussion, Greg had one arm that he couldn't move, and Stephen had a serious limp and blood pouring from a scalp wound.
 

I stepped up beside my two friends and we squared off with the remaining four trolls. They had an array of weapons to make the biggest
Dungeons & Dragons
geek envious, and we had two swords, one axe, and a spectacular array of bruises. "Ready boys?" I asked.
 

"Nope." Greg said.
 

"Not even a little bit." Stephen added.
 

"Good. So since none of us are stupid, what's the plan?" I asked.
 

"How about we kill the green guys, then we take turns cutting on the greasy fairy, and collect my winnings." Greg replied.
 

"Winnings?" I looked over at him with one eyebrow raised. Apparently I can do it, but only if I’m so beaten up that half my face doesn't move.
 

"Yeah, I bet all my cash on you to win your match. He owes me fifty grand."
 

"Fifty grand? How much did you bet?" I yelped.
 

"Two thousand. You were a pretty heavy underdog."
 

"No wonder he wants us dead. He doesn't want to pay you off!" I said.
 

"Probably." Greg agreed. "Should we start the killing now?"
 

"Yeah, may as well. The trolls are starting to look restless." I turned and ran straight at the nearest troll, who had been watching us curiously as we talked. Instead of taking another shot to the ribs, I jumped as high as I could and came down behind the trolls. I cut backwards through his left leg, and he fell backwards onto the canvas. I sliced off his head and turned to see how the others were doing.
 

Greg had tangled with the biggest troll of them all, and wasn't doing so good. The troll held a huge sword in one hand, and a shield in the other, and was blocking all of Greg's axe blows with his shield, and then lazily feinting at him with his sword. I didn't want to know what was going to happen when he got serious. Stephen wasn't faring any better; having two trolls all of his own. One held a standard short sword, and the other a nine-foot metal-tipped quarterstaff. Stephen was fast enough to keep from getting his head crushed, but not trained enough to make any headway against two opponents.
 

I slid in on Stephen's left and engaged the troll with the staff. He immediately caught me on the chin with his stick, and my eyes crossed again. I kept my feet, and kept moving enough not to get my head bashed in, but all I really accomplished was getting him off of Stephen's back so he could fight the other monster. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the big troll smash Greg square in the face with his shield, and my portly partner's eyes rolled back in his head as he slumped to the canvas. The troll lifted his huge sword over his head, and brought it down to chop Greg's head off in the middle of the ring.
 

Chapter 33

The sword met steel with an enormous bell tone, and I turned my head to see Gorton standing over Greg's unconscious body, holding an axe in his good hand. The other troll looked up at him in astonishment, and said something in a guttural language that I didn’t understand. Gorton shook his head and barked something nasty at the larger troll, who stepped back from Greg into the center of the cage.
 

There was something oddly formal in the way the two trolls circled each other, then they stopped, saluted with their weapons, and rushed together with a clash of steel and a sweaty thump of green-hued flesh. The trolls traded massive blows in the middle of the ring for several minutes, neither able to gain an advantage. Gorton was obviously the better fighter, but his wounded arm evened the scale for the bigger troll, who had strength and health on his side. After three or four long minutes, it became obvious that Gorton couldn't win, that he was just buying us time. I looked over at Stephen, who had stopped fighting his troll to watch the duel just like I had. I nodded at him, and in unison we turned to the trolls next to us and lopped off their heads while they concentrated on the two combatants in the center of the ring.
 

The big troll saw what we did and flew into a rage, redoubling his attacks on Gorton. The smaller troll went down on one knee, and I rushed in to try and help him, only to run smack into an invisible wall. Lenny floated down out of the air and said "No interference, vampire. This is an honor match, you may not interfere."
 

"I'm not really that honorable, Lenny, so get out of my way." I said. Did I mention I hate magic? Well I do.
 

"I don't think so. Be still." He waved his arms at me and I was suddenly trapped, unable to move or lift my hands. Well, at least now I knew who was throwing around heavy-duty magic on this end of town. For all the good that would do me while I hung there in midair. I turned my attention back to the fight just in time to see the bigger troll batter down Gorton's defenses. Gorton's axe head dropped to the floor, and the other troll reached out with one huge foot and stomped through the handle. Gorton looked up at him with a bloody smile, and the larger troll swept his head from his shoulders with one stroke. The body fell in the opposite direction from the head, blood pouring from the neck stump.
 

The big troll turned to me and grinned, starting to stomp my way waving his sword from side to side in a low arc. I couldn't move because of Lenny's spell, Greg was still out cold, and Stephen could barely move himself, he was so beat up. I looked into the green-skinned face of my doom, and thought this is not how I wanted to go out. Salma Hayek is not anywhere in the building. I closed my eyes as the troll got closer, and just as I thought I could feel its nasty breath on my face, I realized I could move.
 

I opened my eyes to see the troll standing stock still in front of me with a foot of steel sticking out of its chest. It started to fall forward, and I got out of the way the best I could. I heard a very startled Lenny mutter something very unpleasant under his breath, and looked up to see a golden-tinged dragon-man in full battle armor standing in front of me.
 

"Tivernius?" I said, not quite able to believe what I was seeing.
 

"Hello, James. Leothandron, fancy meeting you here. I thought you were banished to this realm under strict orders to never touch magic or return to the lands of House Armelion again." The dragon turned warrior smiled broadly, as if he was seeing an old friend again after a long time. "Now what is the penalty for disobeying Her Majesty? Oh yes, I recall. Death." With the last word, the dragon's face went cold and he closed on Lenny, sword flashing.

Lenny wasn't exactly defenseless, conjuring a pair of slim short swords out of thin air and easily parrying the dragon's stroke. "That little changeling witch you call a queen has no authority over me here, and she knows it. If she could do anything to me she'd be here in person instead of sending her pet lizard." Lenny slashed furiously at Tivernius' face, but the dragon saw the obvious attempt at misdirection and easily batted away the thrust that came at his midsection. He had a tougher time beating aside the next attack, which came straight at his head from both swords.
 

I stood there, paralyzed by pain and not wanting to distract Tivernius. I mean, the guy was thousands of years old; he had to have learned a thing or two about sword fights, right? That thought went out of my head when I saw Lenny open up a broad slash across the dragon's mailed stomach. Lenny's black blades glowed red with blood, and the fairy smiled coldly.
 

"You were never much of a challenge in human shape, lizard. You are only a threat in your true form, and you cannot transform in such a small building. Too bad, really. I'd love for all these people to see me beat a real dragon, instead of just another wizard." Lenny kept fighting while he talked, a feat I had the utmost admiration for. I can usually manage a one-liner or two, but this guy was positively Shakespearean.
 

Tivernius was fast, almost faster than me, but he wasn't quite as ruthless as Lenny. The dark-haired fairy took every cheap shot he could, kicking, gouging, throwing dust and dirt into the dragon's eyes, whatever he could think of to gain any advantage. It became clear after a few minutes that the combatants were pretty evenly matched, and it was all going to come down to who made the first mistake. I couldn't get involved, because I was afraid of distracting Tivernius and getting him killed. Greg couldn't do anything, because he was off on one side of the cage getting his head tended to by Sabrina and Stephen.
 

The mistake was small, just a tiny slip of a foot in a pool of blood, but it was Tivernius who made it. He lunged at Lenny after a blinding parry, and his front foot slid just a little. But that overbalanced him, and he couldn't get back in time to get his guard set. The fairy saw it, and he launched a whirling counterattack that kept Tivernius off balance and backpedaling. I saw what was happening too late to do anything, as Lenny steered the dragon into the center of the cage, right where Gorton and I had finished our first scuffle. Tivernius stepped back to avoid a slash at his throat, and put his foot right in the hole that I had made in the ring's floor. He went down clutching his knee, and his sword went flying across the cage. Lenny smiled a wicked smile and leapt up into the air, both swords flashing as he came down in a deadly strike at Tivernius' sprawled form.
 

He never got there. As soon as I saw the opening, I ran as fast as I could and launched myself at the flying fairy. Like I said, I'm fast. I was never going to make the varsity football team when I was alive, but add my vamp-strength to my ridiculous speed, and I hit Lenny in the midsection like an NFL linebacker with a bad attitude. We flew across the cage to crash into the wall, and I heard Lenny's swords clatter to the floor well behind us.
 

I hopped up to see the fairy already on his feet, and quickly got my head out of the way of his oncoming fist. I grabbed that wrist with one hand and threw a series of fast punches into his ribs with the other. He took my best punches without flinching, and I knew I was in trouble. Okay, I knew I was in trouble when he took out the thousand-year-old dragon and conjured swords out of thin air, but I knew I was in real trouble when I didn't even phase him with my body shots.
 

Lenny backed away from me and squared himself up. I could almost see the wheels turning in his devious little head, and the second his hands started to wave I lashed out with a spinning kick at his head. He ducked easily, but I had disrupted his spell, so all I had to worry about was the counterattack. That was a punch to the groin that I blocked, because knowing what a dirty fighter he was, I expected the low blow. I didn't expect the other hand to stab at my eyes, but I managed to dodge back quickly enough to save my sight and my jewels.
 

"Nice shot, you learn to fight like that in the fairy prison?" I snarled. He just smirked at me and flung himself at my knees. I jumped over his dive easily, and then cursed my stupidity as I saw him come out of a forward roll with a sword in his hand.
 

"I am the greatest swordsman the House Armelion has ever produced, vampire. You cannot best me in single combat." He advanced; sword moving so fast the blade became just a black blur whirling at my face.
 

"Good thing I brought backup, then." I said, and held one empty hand high in the air. The sword Stephen had thrown in my direction hit my palm with a thwack, and I brought it down to block an overhead slash from Lenny's black sword. The fight turned into a ridiculously fast exchange of thrusts, parries, slashes, dodges and curses and we both tried to grab any advantage we could. Sweat started to pour off my forehead after just a couple of minutes, and then I had the added irritation of blood in my eyes on top of fighting a more skilled opponent.