Pirates Of Gohar

Then Blade had no more time to think, only to react like the superb fighting machine he was. The leading pirate ship seemed to rush toward him at the speed of an express train. No arrows came from her decks, and Blade realized now that the pirates had no archers. Suddenly the platform along the near side of the ship was filled with pirates. Some carried long spears with barbed crosspieces. Others swung grappling hooks around their heads on lengths of rope, then let fly.

Blade ducked as one hook flew straight toward him, then heard a cry from behind. The hook was caught in a sailor's shoulder. As the man was dragged forward, Blade slashed down with his sword, cutting the rope. Then he picked out the pirate hauling in on the rope, snatched one of his spears from the deck, and threw. The pirate stiffened, looked down at the spear jutting from his thigh, then gripped it with both hands and pulled it out. Blade saw tears ru

It wasn't the gesture that made Blade stare. It was the hand making it. It was broad and thick, with the usual four stubby fingers and a thumb. It also had webbing between the fingers and thumb, and instead of five nails it had five hooked, needle-pointed claws. Fingers, thumb, and hand were all covered with fine rust-red scales, and Blade saw that those scales stretched all the way up the arm and on to cover the whole body. Pirates were sometimes a «people apart,» but not often this much! The pirates of Gohar weren't even completely human.

Still, anyone who could pull that spear out of his thigh and stay on his feet afterward was a formidable opponent. Blade picked up his second spear and raised it for a throw. Then everything seemed to happen at once. The pirate ship swept alongside, with a terrible grinding and cracking of timbers. Part of the platform buckled and disintegrated, with a sound like a wooden box being smashed with an ax. Several pirates fell between the two ships as the platform gave way under them. Blade heard their screams even over the explosion of war cries and curses as the pirates swarmed over the railing onto the merchant ship's deck.

Blade saw a pirate coming at him with an ax, and threw his second spear almost by reflex. At close range it went completely through the pirate's torso and pi

One pirate thrust a spear at him and he smashed the club down on the pirate's hand. The pirate hardly blinked, but his thrust went wide and Blade managed to turn and meet another attacker with an ax. Blade slashed sideways with his sword, chopping halfway through the ax handle and completely through one hand holding it. The pirate screamed hoarsely, held onto the ax with his remaining hand, and swung at Blade again. It was a wild swing and the pirate lost his balance without touching Blade. He went down and Blade's sword slashed across the back of his neck. Even one of the indestructible pirates of Gohar couldn't keep fighting with his head nearly hacked free of his shoulders.

By now the deck around Blade was as slippery as ice with the blood of both sailors and pirates. He shifted position in search of better footing, beating off several half-hearted attacks as he did. Apparently enough pirates had seen him fighting to look for easier prey elsewhere. Blade found himself falling back into a ragged line with his surviving shipmates. Now he had friends on either side, and time to look around. He put a spear through a pirate trying to get around the end of the line, then looked to the right and left.

The pirates outnumbered the crew of the merchant ship better than two to one, and they were brave, determined, and tough fighters. On the other hand, the sailors were just as determined, and they had their body armor and their archers.

Blade saw that one archer was sprawled on the aftercastle, his face a bloody mask, but the other was still shooting as fast as he could find targets. A good many of the pirates were now attacking with bleeding wounds or even arrows sticking out of their arms and legs.

The second pirate ship had grappled one of the smaller merchantmen. From what little Blade could make out, the pirates were wi

Then the black galley ran alongside the merchantman, and a gangplank was dropping across the merchantman's railing. Swordsmen poured across from the galley, while her archers held their fire as friend and foe got thoroughly mixed up on the merchantman's crowded deck.

A moment later, the brief lull in Blade's battle came to a noisy end. Drums pounded aboard the last pirate ship, and grappling hooks flew across to her comrade. Sweating pirates pulled the two ships together, and then the last ship's crew swarmed across to reinforce the first one's. Among them was a pirate even larger than Blade, wearing only a heavy leather loinguard and leather braces on both wrists, wielding an ax nearly as tall as he was. On his chest an immense claw was painted in white. He was shouting orders, and the others jumped to obey him.

The pirate chief charged straight at Blade. Blade stepped forward, knowing that he'd be in trouble if he let a man with that ax choose the distance. As he closed, Blade slashed twice, but the pirate chief was so fast that neither slash struck with its full force or where Blade intended. One left a flesh wound just above the pirate's left elbow, the other took a chip out of the ax handle. Then the pirate shifted his grip on the ax and thrust with the spiked head at Blade's stomach. Blade had to dance aside to avoid being impaled on the spike, but as he did he swung at the pirate's head with his club. The club caught the pirate just above one ear, not really hurting him but provoking him into a serious mistake.

Instead of leaving both hands on the ax, the chief reached up and gripped Blade's wrist. Blade gritted his teeth as the huge red hand tightened on his wrist and expected it to snap at any moment, but with his free hand he swung the sword twice. The pirate's right arm gaped open and bloody, then his right shoulder, then the ax clattered to the deck. Blade hurled himself backward, jerking his wrist free and feeling as if he'd left a few fingers behind in doing so. Then he raised his sword high overhead with both hands and brought it down. The pirate chief was bending to recover his ax, but this second mistake saved him. Blade's sword came down on his head with the flat rather than the edge, and instead of splitting his skull it merely knocked him senseless.

The pirate chief collapsed at Blade's feet, and a collective shudder seemed to run through all his followers. Blade dropped his sword and picked up the ax. Against opponents as tough as the pirates, its smashing power would be more useful. Then he whirled the ax completely around his head with one hand, making the air hum, brought it down into striking position, and charged forward.

The pirates' line parted as Blade hit it. The pirate to Blade's right died with the ax crushing his skull. The pirate to Blade's left sprang clear, but died a moment later with an arrow in his chest. Then Blade was in the open, with the merchant sailors swarming through the gap in the pirates' line to join him.

The merchant ship's railing appeared ahead. Blade took it at a leap, soaring clear over the narrow gap of water between the two ships. He landed on the pirate ship's platform, and heard planks crack under his impact. He leaped again, and managed to get onto the pirates' deck before the rest of the platform dropped into the sea.