Bone Lord 4, стр. 18
“Rollar, your dagger,” I said. I needed to use an unenchanted blade for this.
Rollar handed me one of his long knives, and I held up my palm for Captain Argryl to see. Then I drew the sharp edge of Rollar’s dagger across it, opening up a long cut from which my blood oozed and dripped onto the ground.
“On my blood, I swear that I’ll fight you without using any magic or enchanted weapons, Argryl,” I said. “I swear this, if you accept my Captain’s Challenge.”
“I’m going to enjoy killing you almost as much as I’ll enjoy fucking your women,” Argryl said as he drew his cutlass. “You’re about to be killed by the most skilled swordsman on the High Seas. Come, let’s dance, God of Death!”
Chapter Seven
“Rollar,” I said, “another dagger.”
Rollar drew another of his long daggers and tossed it to me. I caught it and flipped it in my left hand so that I was gripping the one he’d given me earlier in my right hand in an overhand grip, while I held the other in my left in an underhand grip.
“Just two daggers of plain steel, Argryl,” I said to the pirate. “No magic, no enchantments.”
“For a god, you’re a bit of a fucking idiot,” Argryl sneered as he and I started to circle each other, with my party and his crew standing around us in a wide ring. “Knives against my cutlass? I’ll pick you apart nice an’ slow like—take your arms and legs off one by one until there’s nothing but a limp limbless torso left.”
Argryl darted in with a swift lunge, but I turned his attack with the dagger in my right hand and twisted sharply, whipping my other dagger in a horizontal slash that came within a hair’s breadth of opening Argryl’s throat up from ear to ear. Most men would have had a torrent of blood gushing out of their throats before they’d even realized what I’d done, but, true to his boast, Argryl was a superb swordsman and almost superhumanly fast. Arching his back, he leaned away from the arc of my dagger, but it nonetheless nicked his chin and opened up a cut.
“And the God of Death draws first blood.” I twirled the daggers mockingly in my hands as Argryl jumped back to create some space between us. “Will his challenger draw any blood at all?”
“You got lucky, landlubber.” Argryl wiped the oozing blood off his chin with the back of his hand. “But now that I know the measure of ye, I won’t be makin’ a mistake like that again.”
I turned to face him straight on and spread my arms out wide like those of a crucified man, presenting Argryl with the entirety of my body as a target.
“You might be the best swordsman on the High Seas,” I said, “but this is dry land beneath our feet.”
Argryl snarled and darted forward, but there was more caution in his attack this time. He feinted a lunge, then pivoted acrobatically on his leading leg and turned it into a diagonal upward slash. I whipped my right arm across and parried it. He rotated the cutlass in his hand and turned my parry, hacking at my throat, but I batted his cut away with my other dagger.
Argryl pressed his attacks home with speed and fury, but for every cut, thrust, or slash he attempted I was able to move faster and turn his blade away.
He didn’t exaggerate in saying that he was a brilliant swordsman, but the harder he tried to force his way through my defenses, the faster my parries, blocks, and dodges became. I didn’t attempt any counterattacks; I was enjoying toying with him and stoking his anger and frustration, both growing in leaps and bounds with every passing second.
We traded flurry after flurry of rapid-fire blows, Argryl attacking with relentless speed and increasing desperation, while I calmly parried and turned away his every offensive maneuver. I kept on opening up small cuts on him, making him bleed slowly. One cut for each of my women he’d insulted. I made sure none were lethal, but I did ensure that every cut I made hurt like hell.
His increasing carelessness provided me with plenty of opportunities to kill him and end the duel, but I didn’t take them. I wanted his crew to see just how skilled a fighter I was so they would know making a Captain’s Challenge with me would surely end in their deaths. They watched with widening eyes as I turned away attack after attack in blurs of speed, sparks flying from the steel clanging against steel.
Finally, when I’d made him pay for every one of my girls he’d insulted, I performed a double backflip. Argryl stood in front of me with a couple yards between us, panting like a rabid street dog and smelling just as bad as one. His eyes were wild, and blood streamed from the cuts on his face, arms, and torso. He knew he was beaten. He also knew that there was no way out of this duel but death; nobody asked for mercy in a Captain’s Challenge.
“You’ve had your chance to try out a range of attacks, Argryl,” I said. “And they all failed, miserably.”
I darted in low and whipped my arms in a blazing attack. Argryl was able to parry my left thrust, but my right-hand dagger impaled his left thigh. The long blade entered his flesh in the region of his hamstring, and the tip burst through the front of his inner thigh. He gasped and tried to aim a slash at my neck, but, quick as a flash, I released my dagger and caught his wrist with my hand, stopping the cutlass blade inches from my throat. With a swift jerk, I broke his wrist, and he screamed as he dropped his weapon. I plunged my left dagger into his gut, and he staggered back,