short and brought the man too far out to the left. Catti-brie stepped in behind it, braced her foot on the brute's right shoulder, and pushed him back down in the muck.
He got up to his knees again, blinded by mud and swinging wildly.
She was behind him.
She kicked him to the muck again.
"Stay down," the woman warned.
Sputtering curses, mud, and brown water, the stubborn, stunned ruffian rose again.
"Stay down," Catti-brie said, knowing he would focus in on her voice.
He threw one leg out to the side for balance and shifted around, launching a desperate swing.
Catti-brie hopped over both the club and the leg, landing before the man and shifting her momentum into one more great kick to the crotch.
This time, as the man curled in the fetal position in the muck, making little mewling sounds and clutching at his groin, the woman knew he wouldn't be getting back up.
With a look over at Regis and a wide grin, Catti-brie started back for her bow.
* * * * * * * * * *
Desperation drove Bruenor's arm and leg forward, hand pushing and knee coming up to support it. A plank cracked apart, coming up as a shield against the charging dagger, and Bruenor somehow managed to free his hand enough to angle the plank to knock the dagger free of the red-haired man's hand.
Or, the dwarf realized, maybe the thug had just decided to let it go.
The man's fist came around the board and slugged him good in the face. There came a following left, and another right, and Bruenor had no way to defend, so he didn't. He just let the man pound on him while he wriggled and forced both of his hands free, and finally he managed to come forward while offering some defense. He caught the man's slugging left by the wrist with his right and launched his own left that seemed as if it would tear the thug's head right off.
But the ruffian managed to catch that arm, as Bruenor had caught his, and so the two found a stand-off, struggling in the back of the rolling and bouncing wagon.
"C'mere, Kenda!" the red-headed man cried. "Oh, we got him!" He looked back to Bruenor, his ugly face barely an inch from the dwarfs. "What're ye gonna do now, dwarfie?"
"Anyone ever tell ye that ye spit when ye talk?" the disgusted Bruenor asked.
In response, the man grinned stupidly and snorted and hocked, filling his mouth with a great wad to launch at the dwarf.
Bruenor's entire body tightened, and like a singular giant muscle, like the body of a great serpent, perhaps, the dwarf struck. He smashed his forehead into the ugly rogue's face, snapping the man's head back so that he was staring up at the sky, so that, when he spit - and somehow, he still managed to do that - the wad went straight up and fell back upon him.
Bruenor tugged his hand free, let go of the man's arm, and clamped one hand on the rogue's throat, the other grabbing him by the belt. Up he went, over the dwarf's head, and flying off the side of the speeding wagon.
Bruenor saw the composure on the face of the remaining ruffian as the man set down the reins and calmly turned and drew out his fine rapier. Calmly, too, went Bruenor, pulling himself fully from the compartment and reaching back in to pick up his many-notched axe.
The dwarf slapped the axe over his right shoulder, assuming a casual stance, feet wide apart to brace him against the bouncing.
"Ye'd be smart to just put it down and stop the stupid wagon," he said to his opponent, the man waving his rapier out before him.
"It is you who should surrender," the highwayman remarked, "foolish dwarf!" As he finished, he lunged forward, and Bruenor, with enough experience to understand the full measure of his reach and balance, didn't blink.
The dwarf had underestimated just a bit, though, and the rapier tip did jab in against his mithral chest-piece, finding enough of a seam to poke the dwarf hard.
"Ouch," Bruenor said, seeming less than impressed.
The highwayman retracted, ready to spring again. "Your clumsy weapon is no match for my speed and agility!" he proclaimed, and he started forward. "Hah!"
A flick of Bruenor's strong wrist sent his axe flying forward, a single spin before embedding in the thrusting highwayman's chest, blasting him backward to fall against the back of the driver's seat.
"That so?" the dwarf asked. He stomped one foot