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were, and showing their knighthood by the arms upon their shield, they
represented opponents too threatening for anyone but perhaps the pirate
captain to willingly take on in combat.
Jim had had enough experience with melees like this, few as they had been, to
spin around every third step, each time turning in an opposite direction; and
so he was able twice to catch individuals who were trying to slip up beside
him with a long dagger and find a joint in his armor into which they could
plunge its point. But largely, he was occupied by pushing his way through the
crowd of their opponents, and striking down or aside only those who had the
hardiness enough to stand before him.
At this moment, a new factor entered the situation. A bull-like voice could
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be heard roaring, even over all the tumult.
"Out of my way, damn you all!" the voice roared. "Out of my way and let me to
him!"
It was the voice of Bloody Boots. For the first time, Jim caught sight of
him. He was not a giant in the same terms as the Ogre had been at
theLoathlyTower  Jim had estimated the Ogre to be at least a dozen feet tall.
Still less was he a giant in the sense that the Sea Devil Rrrnlf was. But he
was well over six feet and powerfully built. As he and Brian came together, it
looked like a man face-to-face with a half-grown boy; for Brian, stretch as he
might, could barely lay claim to five feet seven inches of height.
So as those around them were swept away, not merely by Brian's blade but that
of Bloody Boots, who evidently did not scruple to use his weapon even on his
own crew, to clear himself fighting space; the general combat slackened, so
that everyone, from both ships could watch the encounter.
Bloody Boots swung his great sword over his head and brought it whistling
downward. Surely, it seemed, nothing could stop that sharpened iron from
literally cutting Brian in two. But when it struck Brian's shield, instead of
carving it apart, it glanced off; still with almost the same force behind it,
so that it struck its point deeply into the wood of the deck and stuck there.
Brian had just demonstrated one of the tricks at which he was such an expert,
and which he had striven so hard to teach Jim the art of slanting his shield
to make a blow against it glance off as Bloody Boots' had just done. The giant
swore and tore with all his strength at his sword handle, to get his blade
loose.
He succeeded, but there was a moment in which Brian could strike at him. And
if it had not been for the fact that the pirate captain was armored from the
knees upward as well as Brian was in steel mail a woven shirt of metal links,
reinforced with plates and with pieces of armor on his legs and arms Brian
might even have ended the fight there.
Certainly he tried, for his own broadsword swung not at the armored part but
at the giant's legs, where they were unprotected above his wet and sloshing
calf-high leather boots and below the metal protection just above it.
But Bloody Boots, apparently, was as skilled in the matter of protecting his
unarmored area as Brian was in angling his shield to deflect blows. His shield
had already gone down to intercept Brian's blow, even as he cursed and tugged
at his sword. The result was that Brian's blade dented and drove the shield
cruelly back against the big man's knee, but did no large damage. Meanwhile,
Bloody Boots had gotten his own blade free. He swung it up and returned to the
attack.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Little by little, the other battling members from the two ships had become a
ring of spectators that followed Brian and the pirate leader as they moved
backward and forward across the upper deck of the larger ship, striving to
both get at each other and at the same time protect themselves.
Brian's advantages lay not only in his ability to angle his shield but in his
ability to start to seem to swing his sword at the other's upper body, only to
have that swing change into another blow at the unprotected legs. Also, he was
much more agile than the big man, and could literally leap out from under a
blow of Bloody Boots' sword; and be attacking almost from the side of the
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larger man before the other could get his shield and himself around to face
Brian.
On the other hand, Bloody Boots' advantage was still that tremendously heavy
and long weapon he swung. He had swung it first as lightly as a slim stick of
wood. But, the grunts that followed his misplaced blows, that ended against
the deck, the mast, or some other place than Brian's armored body, bore
witness to the effort he was putting into his swings. Now Jim saw the
perspiration starting to stand out on that part of his face that was
visible for he wore his visor up, even in the heat of battle. Jim found Giles
standing beside him, and murmured to the other knight out of the comer of his
mouth.
"If Brian can just keep him working like that for a while longer," Jim said,
"he may outlast the man. Big as he is, he can't swing that large a sword
forever."
"I am of the same mind," murmured Giles.
They watched.
It became clear to Jim and he was sure it must have become clear to Giles
also, if not to the others around them that Brian in his leaping around was
essentially forcing the big man to follow, which meant also forcing him to
carry the weight of his armor and his sword more than perhaps he might have
liked in such a one-on-one battle. From what Jim could best judge of Bloody
Boots, he seemed to be the sort who liked to plant himself with a wide-legged
stance and simply clear the space around him with unstoppable swings of his
sword.
In fact the same idea seemed to have occurred to Bloody Boots too, because
now he roared out at Brian.
"Stand still, sir flea!" he thundered. "Are you a knight, or a mountebank
dancer? Stand to it and fight, if you have a heart within you!"
Brian made no answer. Nor did he change his tactics. By this time they had
covered most of the upper deck, that was the roof of the forecastle on this
larger vessel. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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