Sweep of the Blade (Innkeeper Chronicles #4) - Ilona Andrews Page 0,72
turned the buckler, Maud saw its red tinted edge. It was razor sharp.
Aww. He’d built a vampire version of it.
Tellis, carrying twin blades, laughed. “My Lord, are you so poor that you couldn’t afford a proper shield, or so stupid that you think that little toy will protect you?”
“All in good time,” Arland said. “Wait, and I’ll show you.”
Ilemina leaned forward, focused on Arland. “A shield. Interesting. But why so small?”
Otubar grimaced. “Because it’s lively.”
The nine vampires spread out, encircling Arland. Suddenly she understood. Because there were nine of them, arranged around him in a rough circle, each knight only had a forty-degree angle to work with. The ideal distance for combat was about the length of your weapon plus a step. If they had stayed at the ideal distance, they would be nearly touching. They needed room to work, so instinctively they backed up, giving themselves space, but now they were so far away from Arland, they might as well announce their attacks before launching them. He had more than enough time to react, and they could only come at him two or three at a time, or they would get in each other’s way.
The knights realized it too, but there was no time to plan any kind of strategy. The longer they just stood there, the more it looked like they were afraid, and their plan to humiliate Arland was going belly up.
“Today!” Arland bellowed.
An older knight on his left charged, the huge two-handed sword slicing through the air in a vicious arc. Arland dodged. The vampire’s momentum carried him past Arland, who smashed his mace into the back of the other man’s helmet. The force of the blow knocked the knight to the ground. He rolled and lay still.
Onda and a blond knight to her right charged at the same time and collided. A leaner red-headed knight dashed in at Arland, thrusting his sword. Funny thing about bucklers: held close to the body, they offered very little protection, but when held out at arm’s length, not only did they protect most of you, they also cut your opponent’s view down to nothing. Arland let the blow glance off the buckler, directing it to his right, and brought his mace down like a hammer on the knight’s exposed right shoulder. Bone crunched as the armor failed to fully absorb the force of the hit. The red-headed vampire dropped his sword, but Arland was already turning to meet Tellis, who was attacking him from behind.
Tellis’ left sword met Arland’s mace, his right glanced off the buckler, leaving Tellis wide open for a fraction of a second, and Arland sank a vicious front kick into his stomach. Tellis stumbled back.
A broad-shouldered female knight leaped at Arland from the left, while a tall male knight charged from the right. Arland stepped back, and the female knight plowed into the male, both collapsing in a heap. Arland smashed the woman’s back with his mace. She screamed and rolled off the knight, who was flailing under her. The knight tried to rise and got a face full of buckler.
Onda smashed her hammer into Arland’s back. He must’ve sensed the blow but with no way to avoid it, he simply hunched his shoulders and took the hit. Onda must have expected him to go down, because she stared at him for half a second. Maud knew from experience that giving Arland half a second was a lethal mistake. He spun around, putting all of his weight behind a horizontal strike. His mace connected with Onda’s ribs. The hit swept her off her feet. It was almost comical—one moment she was there, brandishing her hammer, and the next she was gone, lying somewhere on the grass.
The six knights still standing attacked. Arland worked through them with methodical precision, crushing limbs, smashing bone, ramming his buckler into their joints. They swarmed him, and he broke them one by one, until they could no longer move. It was a cold, controlled rage, harnessed and channeled into carnage.
Finally, only Tellis and Arland remained standing. Arland bled from a cut on his left temple. Gouges and dents marked his armor. The right side of his jaw swelled. Maud feverishly tried to remember all the hits he had taken. There was no way to tell if he was okay or bleeding inside that damn armor.
Tellis was breathing like he had run a marathon. A bruise darkened his left cheek. The armor over his left forearm had lost integrity, turning dull.