The next two attackers charged across the bridge, and he decided it was necessary. Instead of rising to his feet, Blade waited for the enemy in a crouch. Then his sword slashed, ripping one man in the thigh and leaping up to take the other in the groin. The man with the wounded thigh staggered. His leg would no longer support his full weight, but he kept on coming. The man struck in the groin reeled backward from the sheer force of the blow, but did not fall. Neither man cried out.

Blade found the silence in which his opponents took their punishment thoroughly unnatural and slightly unnverving. The man he'd struck in the groin must be in ghastly agony, his genitals mangled beyond healing. Yet he was not even moaning faintly. In fact, he was coming at Blade again, swinging his sword wildly but energetically.

Blade took a two-handed grip on his sword and without rising from his crouch swung at the man's leg. He sheared completely through it about six inches below the knee. The man toppled forward, sword lashing out at Blade and nearly laying open his cheek. Incredibly, the man balanced himself for a moment on his good leg and the blood-gushing stump of the other. Then his efforts to swing his sword again overbalanced him. He went off the bridge and splashed into the stream below.

Now Blade had to leap back to avoid a wild slash from the man he'd wounded in the thigh. The man took two lurching steps forward and swung again. His sword met Blade's with a clang and a shower of sparks. Blade's strength broke the man's grip on his sword and it flew clear across the stream to land among the men waiting on the other side.

Instead of retreating, the man drew his knife and came at Blade. His only chance now was great speed, and his wounded leg ruled that out. Blade had plenty of time to aim and deliver a swift, powerful slash that took the man's head clear off its shoulders. The head dropped into the stream while the body sprawled almost at Blade's feet.