GENESIS - THE BEGINNING. Book 1

CHAPTER 19 ... Beware The Pommel

The clash of bodies on the two front shields was atrocious.

The four women were pressed backwards as their centre of gravity broke. Swords flashed and clanged against the shields narrowly missing the women's heads.

The shields, interlocked, stopped or hampered the tide of human bodies but the crush from behind the forward attackers forced the shields against the women's bodies. Adelia shoved her sword through a screaming throat. The attackers, in their frenzy, made mistakes no professional soldier would have.

"Brace your back foot." shouted Tobor as she attempted to seek purchase with her own. "Brace. Brace!" She made short, economical stabs at the faces in front of her. Some crazy bastard on her left screamed in passionate frenzy as he attempted to stab her. He howled in frustration as Katya blocked his sword with her shield. The howl turned to a scream of pain as his thrusting sword hand fell to the ground.

Stabbing him in the chest, Katya sidled closer to Tobor to cover her back and sides more efficiently.

The attackers were in each other's way, making it difficult to use their swords. "Brace. Brace!" Tobor shouted as Adelia used her long sword to good advantage. Too long for close quarter work, its reach and sharpness would hardly have compensated were it not for her zeal. She was swiftly clearing the area in front of her when, through the grey mist of eye searing sweat and blood droplets, she saw a man standing well behind the others with a head cocked to one side as he watched her closely. Her racing heart skipped a beat .

She knew. She knew.

Behind her, Megan's shield was being forced back against her body. The rounded edge pressed painfully against the bridge of her nose. Applying almost depleted force, Megan was able to give herself a few millimeters breathing space and moved her head aside in time to allow an enemies chipped blade point pass without any damage.

Leering faces and foam speckled lips screamed incoherent words. She stabbed into those faces. Spearing eyes, slitting throats and cheeks when she intended to stab them and missed her real targets. Her sword hand was sweaty, her shoulders painful. Her shield moving continuesly to protect her partner in front or to protect herself from flank or back

Kill. Kill. Kill. Mindless and monotonous.

Her shield vibrated continuously as swords and shoulders slammed against it to be withdrawn and replaced by others. She continuously ducked or moved out of the way of a thrusting sword. An idea flashed through her mind and was gone. It was enough though, and through the turmoil of heaving and shoving and clashing blades, she forced her shield upwards, all the while trying to keep the enemy at bay by stabbing blindly at them.

Ducking her head again and bracing her back against Adelia's own vigorously thrashing posterior, she stabbing her foe from underneath her shield. Changing position, she stabbed to the right of the shield then changed again.

Legs, arms and shoulders, fingers. She stabbed and stabbed.

Her sword had long since lost its silvery sheen. It dripped blood and gore. It was as she tried to change once again while trying to maintain her footing as her shield rang with the continuous pummeling her foe rained down on it. The milling legs and booted feet she glimpsed from the bottom edge of her shield sped her reactions and it was then that she caught a glimmer of a twisted, glowering face.

In a split second, her sword descended into the gaping mouth to smash teeth backwards and slice through tongue and throat. The agonized scream was lost in the general clamor. She was more tired than she had ever been but there was no respite. With mouth agape, her breathing was harsh and raw as her lungs inflated like a bellows.

Beside her, Katya screamed in fury as her sword blade was grabbed by a pair of bare hands close to the hilt. She bore forward with all her strength, the sharp blade slicing through the clenched fingers. As they slid away, she jerked her sword back across the top of her shield and stabbed a cursing, screaming fanatic in the throat. Her blade passed through skin, flesh and bone to flay another's cheek that stood directly behind her target.

The surrounded women became more hard-pressed with every passing second. There were enemies on all sides of the four women who had sustained cuts and gashes as their failing strength gave way.

A crazed looking foe, eyes blazing with fire and foaming at the mouth, stood before Tobor and slashed at her head, but missed as she drew back, allowing the blade to travel in a short, uncontrolled arc to smash through another frenzied attacker's upper lip and teeth.

She ducked behind her shield. Shifted it a fraction. Stabbed the man in the groin. The man fell and another took his place and promptly shattered his sword on the edge of her shield.

Laughter erupted from her throat as her blade passed through his left eye socket .Were it not for the press of the bodies and their eagerness to overpower the women, she may have had a serious problem dislodging her blade.

It was then that a thrusting blade sliced cleanly through her sword arm above the elbow.

The shock inadvertently opened her hand and she released her sword but because of the press of the foe it stayed before her bouncing up and down while still embedded in the man's eye socket. The hilt bumped against her shield as she gritted her teeth and made a daring grab between thrusting, descending blades. She grasped the sweaty, bloody hilt and the blade slid out smoothly from the gory wound to rebound from a slashing cut.

The axe descended with a crashing blow against the curve of Adelia's shield and was deflected off to the right, plunging deeply into the thigh of another. Were it not for her enormous strength of will and self-purpose, the shock that spread along her shield arm would have caused her to drop the shield. As it was, she felt one of the straps tear but ignored it. With teeth bared in a grimace of hatred, she stabbed the axe-wielder below the right ear. Blood gushed and the screaming foe dropped like a stone to be dragged down and away as others took his place. A sword passed a hairs breadth from her brow as a taller than usual opponent with a longer reach edged closer.

Megan's shield resounded with a sudden painful bang, forcing her back. Her knees trembling with the effort to keep her upright. The shockwave travelled up her arm and shoulder. Desperate and weakened by the continuous fighting, she screamed. Adelia, who heard the scream above the clamor of battle, took a lightning strike at the attacker's eyes, missed and caved in the head of another to his side.

The attacker warily eyed Adelia's long sword. His hesitation allowed an exhausted Megan to regain composure and right her shield. Her eyes were wide with despair as she saw the war hammer raised once more. The hammer came down, gathering speed and force. She knew she was dead but lifted her shield. She was unprepared for the force of the descending hammer against her shield and her knees buckled.

Dropping her sword, she hid behind her shield and waited for the end.

***

He watched Adelia.

Large boned and not much to look at, she fought like a woman possessed. The sword in his right hand was crusted with dried blood.

He watched as she swung that long sword of hers to cut off both hands of a man wielding a war hammer. Instinct must have made her duck a blade descending upon her head. The blade shattered against her shield as she decapitated the sword-less man. Timing. It was only a matter of timing. Her shield dropped about four inches every time she swung that large sword of hers.

He watched her for a few seconds more and made up his mind.

It was time.

He waited for two men to attack her simultaneously then rushed forward between the two men. Her attention not on him but rather on the two men that first attacked her.

Drawing a short sword with his left, he rushed between them, ducked her swinging blade that sliced cleanly through both necks and hooked the pommel of the short sword over the rounded edge of her shield and pulled sharply backwards. Caught by surprise, her shield tilted away and she felt an excruciating pain in her breast. Stunned by the pain and sudden weakness, she glanced down to see a bloody sword thrust deep inside her chest.

Her eyes travelled up to the triumphant face before her.

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