Rise of the Spears by J. Glenn Bauer

Author:J. Glenn Bauer [Bauer, J. Glenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bauer Photo Media
Published: 2018-08-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Dubgetious sprang. A splintered tree trunk lay before him, wedged between tumbled rocks and bloodied by the carcass of a mount crushed beneath it. He landed and immediately braced as a large Turdetani, wild with battle fever, leaped at him.

Dubgetious twisted and slipped to one knee, slashing his spear across the warrior’s forward leg. The blade opened the leather and wool of the man’s sandal, not reaching flesh, but tripping him off balance. The warrior carried a round shield and he battered Dubgetious in the face with this as he fell across the tree trunk.

Ears ringing, the Bastetani youth struck out with his spear, again slashing at the warrior with the edge of the spear’s long blade. This time, he opened the man’s exposed thigh, cutting to the bone. The warrior screamed and rolled awkwardly, blood painting the tree. Amma silenced him with a vicious stab to the throat, spraying more blood into the air.

The rest of the Turdetani were on them and Dubgetious dodged behind the tree trunk to avoid a massive blow from a falcata, a dreaded weapon able to cleave helmets and spill brains. The falcata bit deep into the tree, sending splinters of wood spinning. Dubgetious rose and stabbed with his spear, aiming at the man’s groin, hoping the falcata had stuck fast in the wood. It had not and the warrior snapped his wrist back, deflecting the spear thrust with ease. Dubgetious lurched aside to avoid the return swipe which swept past his face with the scent of grease and wood sap.

Amma cursed as he slipped on the blood slick tree which had become the barrier between the combatants. A spear thumped into the wood beside his cheek and a moment later lifted as the Turdetani wielder readied to plunge it into the Libyan’s ear. Dubgetious, too far to lunge, hurled his own spear, sending it cracking through the warrior’s ribs and exploding blood in a fountain from the warrior’s gaping mouth.

Amma rolled to his feet and ducked another swipe from the warrior with the falcata. The unmounted riders that had joined them to slow the Turdetani and allow Eshmun to escape, were hacking and slashing, surrounded by the Turdetani who had erupted from the mines. They screamed in panic and frustration as blade after blade flicked at them, cutting through their minimal armour, opening limbs and then torsos. Sobbing, a rider fell against the tree trunk, a spear buried in his gut, and was immediately seized by howling Turdetani. Screaming in terror, the man was hauled bodily over the tree and set upon. Dubgetious with little battle experience felt his legs weaken at the brutal sounds they made as they killed him, horrified by the man’s terrified pleas and screams. Sickened when the screams became grunts and gurgles, knowing that even then, the rider still lived.

The warrior wielding the falcata, grinned at Dubgetious and Amma. His face a storm of pox scars and broken veins. Eyes glowing with cunning blood thirst, the Turdetani feinted to the left and then the right.

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