one more DRAGONSKULL: SWORD OF THE SQUIRE excerpt

It’s Friday! Let’s close out the week with one more excerpt from DRAGONSKULL: SWORD OF THE SQUIRE:

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A militiaman fell next to Gareth, screaming in agony, a medvarth axe buried in his chest. The medvarth loomed over him and roared, and before the creature could wrench his axe free, Gareth moved. All the teaching his father had given him, all the time spent training with the sword masters of the royal court and under Sir Tragen’s harsh tutelage, informed his movement. Gareth chopped his sword down and took off the medvarth’s right hand, the one that had been holding the axe. The medvarth roared in fury and rage, blood spurting from the stump, thicker and darker than that of a human. Before Gareth could get his sword back for another blow, the medvarth swung its remaining hand in a fist for Gareth’s face.

He snapped his shield up, and the medvarth’s blow landed against the wood. The creature hit hard, at least as hard as Crake, and the impact rocked him back. But Gareth had spent a lot of time training to take blows like that on his shield, and he slashed upward with his blade. This time his sword ripped open the medvarth’s throat. Just as well he had put so much force into the blow – the medvarth’s hide was thick, and its throat was covered in thick brown fur anyway. But Gareth felt the blade rip through the hide and the veins beneath it. Between the blood spraying from its throat and the missing hand, the medvarth staggered back and collapsed onto the rocky ground.

That was a lot harder than killing a scrawny kobold.

-JM