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Larra whirled to meet her
attackers. She was a little surprised
at how ineptly they had sprung their
trap. She had the bridge at her
back and they could only approach her one on
one.
The first warrior moved toward her
cautiously. It was obvious that
he intended to take no chances. He
had adopted the classic warrior stance, with his spear held high, ready for
a quick thrust and his shield held before him to block any attack from his
opponent. Larra knew that a standard
attack in this form of combat was for the spearman to step forward quickly,
block or knock aside his adversary’s spear with his shield and then
step inside the spear-point to deliver a lethal blow to his opponent’s
exposed body.
Larra tried to delay the
attack. “Have you so little
courage that it takes five of you to defeat just one weak
woman? Surely you will gain no
fame or honour from your pursuit of a harmless visitor to your
lands.”
The tallest warrior replied: “It is you
who have no honour, White Witch.
You come uninvited to our lands and you use your magic to defeat our
bravest warriors. You must be
punished for your evil.”
As he spoke the first warrior closed with
Larra. The attack came as she
expected, and she was ready for it.
As the warrior lunged toward her, she shifted her spear to her left
hand and then struck like a cobra with her
nunchuka. The Japanese weapon
wrapped itself around the shaft of the black warrior’s spear deflecting
its point away from Larra and exposing the right side of the warrior’s
torso. Larra’s own spear
struck just under the black man’s exposed ribs, penetrating to the
shaft. With a shriek of agony
the impaled warrior jerked back with such force that he yanked the spear
from Larra’s grasp. He staggered
backwards, attempted to turn around and then collapsed in a lifeless
heap.
Now Larra was armed only with her rustic nunchuka,
but she had one less opponent. She
backed a little more onto the bridge, to give herself a better defensive
position. “Four to go,”
she thought confidently.
First, however, Larra tried again to end the
incident without further violence.
“You are forcing me to kill.
It is not my wish that so many brave warriors go to their
deaths. If you insist on fighting
me then you will all die.”
Larra hoped that her blend of diplomacy and
threats might dissuade further attacks, but her opponents seemed
undeterred.
The next warrior approached
cautiously. Before him he saw
a seemingly defenseless woman armed only with a pair of sticks connected
by a shrot length of chain, but he had just seen
that same woman kill a skilled warrior.
This woman appeared to have much magic, and so it was with some
trepidation that he closed with her.
Feinting with his spear, he made as if to impale Larra on its sharp
point, hoping to draw her into a vulnerable
position. Larra stepped away
from the spear thrust and the warrior struck hard with his shield, hoping
to knock her off her feet, but Larra neatly sidestepped and swinging her
nunchukas in a vicious arc, struck the warrior a devastating blow on the
side of his head. Staggering
from the unexpected riposte the black man fell to his knees, his shield and
spear dropping. Quick to take
advantage of the collapse of the man’s defenses, Larra charged forward
and delivered a series of crushing blows to the head of her defenseless
opponent. Blood pouring from
his eyes, nose, and ears the black warrior sprawled lifelessly onto the bridge
deck. Now there were
three!
Larra surveyed her remaining
opponents. Each was a formidable
opponent in his own right. Also,
each was also much fresher than she was.
Her exertions during the day and the concentration of her energy during
the first two engagements had left her somewhat
drained. In addition, she now
felt a burning thirst, and she had no
water. If the combat lasted too
much longer she would be severely
dehydrated. This time she did
not waste her time or breath in an attempt to
parlay. She doubted that she
could persuade these men to give up their attempts to kill
her. They seemed completely bent
on her destruction.
Two of the men were advancing on
her. The third, a veritable giant
of a man was hanging back, as if observing the
combat. Larra readied herself
for the attack. It appeared that
the two warriors intended to attack her
simultaneously. Larra stepped
back farther onto the bridge. She
doubted that both men would be able to come at her without interfering with
one another. She swung her nunchuka
menacingly as the first warrior stepped closer to her, with the second man
only a step behind. Two spear-points
were thrust toward her. Grasping
the nunchuka with both hands, she caught the first spear-point with the
connecting chain, and pulled hard, yanking the warrior off
balance. The slight shift in
his position exposed the warrior to Larra’s next move and her right
leg kicked out, catching him on the inside of his
thigh. With a cry of anguish
the warrior stumbled forward, exposing his head to Larra’s full
attack. The nunchuka whistled
through the air in a deadly strike and then Larra felt an excruciating pain
shoot through her left thigh. The
intense pain threw her attack off so completely that the nunchuka struck
the man’s shoulder with only half the intended
force.
“Uuunnnhh!” Larra cried
out. It was all she could do
to keep from collapsing into a defenseless heap on the
ground. She reeled back, grasping
at her leg. It had been impaled
by a seven-foot spear. Through
the haze of intense pain she saw the tall warrior leering brutally in the
background. He had waited until
she was occupied with the first two opponents and had hurled his spear at
her with devastating effect. The
spear-point had pierced the fleshy part of her inner left thigh and had emerged
from the other side of her leg.
Blood streamed from the deep wound as she seized the shaft of the
spear, attempting to relieve some of the fierce pain that was shooting through
her injured leg. Only her martial
training enabled her to keep on fighting under such brutal
conditions. But now her two opponents
were upon her thrusting at her with the shafts of their
spears. It was obvious that they
intended to take her alive.
Gritting her teeth, Larra attempted a retreat,
but the situation was hopeless. At
her first step her injured leg collapsed under
her. A blow from a spear shaft
numbed her right arm and she dropped her
nunchukas. Then she was rudely
grabbed by the two blacks and dragged from the bridge, still skewered by
the spear. Larra saw black spots
before her eyes. She was fast
passing out. She made one last
futile attempt to escape from her captors before pain and shock overwhelmed
her senses.
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