Guard of the Evergreen Princess

CHAPTER TWENTYTHREE

I stumbled back from the bashing blow of the crude club which had caught me off guard. Despite my tunic absorbing most of the force of the impact, it sent a wave of blunted pain through my torso.

In a split second, as the scene around me devolved into chaos, shirtless Evergreen soldiers and leather-clad bandits engaging in the melee with complete abandon, I sized my opponent.

His face was smeared with mud and soot, bits of grime and gravel knotted in his matted black hair. His face distorted into a vicious snarl as he gripped his club firmly in his right hand, a dirty cord knotted around his wrist. I thanked myself in that moment that I had not removed my upper garments as so many of my comrades had, as I knew my gambeson to be superior to this bandit's crude vest made of sewed chunks of leather animal hides. I shoved the Princess behind me.

With a shout, I gripped my sword by the hilt with both hands, executing a flourished thrust toward my foe. Perhaps he would be intimidated by flair and prowess.

I was wrong.

The muscular left fist of the bandit slammed into my unprotected cheekbone, and I felt the crackling of his knuckles as my head reeled to the left from his blow. The bandit followed his punch with a swift thrust of his own club, aimed at my left knee, throwing me off balance. As I staggered back, he swung again, but I was ready. My sword met his club with the chopping sound of metal against wood, and I swirled the club free from his hand and onto the ground. My sword-point was facing his exposed gut after that maneuver, and I threw my body's weight behind my sword and I plowed into him. I felt his warm blood and flesh against my hands and the hilt of my sword as the bandit gasped against my ear. Lurching back, I pulled my reddened blade from his abdomen, allowing him to slump to his knees before slamming my knee into his jaw, sending him backwards into the gravel riverside with a sickening thud. He didn't move.

Looking around at the chaos, my eyes caught the Princess cowering by the river, trembling in fear as a bandit rushed past her to slam his weight into an injured Evergreen soldier, sending him sprawling into the shallow riverbank. Her eyes were wide in fear and her hands grasped a rock to use in self defense.

Every nerve tingled. I must guard the Princess.

I rushed to her side, pushing her behind me once again. She clung to my arm and I forced myself to ignore her nails digging into my arm.

This second bandit stomped on the neck of the soldier, snapping it in a swift movement. He whipped his head around, his long blond hair soaked with river water, and roared in fury at the sight of me. I held my sword at the ready, and the brute swung his own sword wildly in my direction. I parried swiftly, hearing the clang of iron and seeing the small splash of rust that arose from his own crude blade as it made contact with mine.

The warmth of the Princess' hand had disappeared.

The weight of his swing caught me off balance, and the bandit lunged forward, knocking me off my feet and onto my back in the water of the riverbank. My sword tumbled from my grasp.

As I swung my hand wildly, searching for the blade, the boot of the bandit slammed into my chest, pushing me into the mud of the riverbank, the cold water wrapping itself about my arms and legs. He lunged forward with his sword, but I rolled aside, grabbing his foot with both hands as I did so, twisting his leg so that he fell into the rocks beside me.

Making it an even playing field, I grabbed a hand-sized rock and bashed it into his face, seeing his cheekbone deform and crack after the second bash. His thick hands grabbed my arm before the third swing, twisting it outwards and away from my body, in an effort to get me to release the rock. My left hand swung deftly to my boot, unsheathing the small dagger I had therein, and plunging it without hesitation into the bandit's thigh. With a roar, he let go of my hand, which was his undoing.