Her sister-in-arms’ violent death shook Johanna to the core. Now she needs to regain her strength while old and new enemies get in position around her. She ventures on a trip for leisure and self-discovery and quickly finds herself at war with organized crime. How can she protect those innocents between the lines from paying dearly?
More From Zoe Lionheart
The most dangerous opponents were, due to their weapons’ range, the spear wielders, and due to his obvious professional fighting stance, probably the nunchaku man.
I could reach him and one spear wielder together, so the other would have to wait. Only one thorny mace was in my way.
I blocked his first blow with my left arm, pressed him, and tried a strike at his throat—which he parried with his left. That guy was good!
Nevertheless, he writhed and wheezed when my kick hit his balls. The following blow that drove his nasal bone into the brain was just a formality, but cost me valuable time.
Only at the last moment could I dodge the incoming spear—and had to watch out, as its bearer tried to get me with the barbs when he pulled back, attempting to tear my supporting leg’s skin apart.
I already jumped up though, and still leaning on the dying mace wielder, took the opportunity to kick the spear shaft out of its trajectory and thus attack the spear wielder directly.
He wouldn’t make it that easy for me. He parried well, retreated, and tried to get the spear blade between us again. That alone wouldn’t have been a problem for me, but from the side, a skillfully operated nunchaku swung against me.
Katsumi had already thrown one blackjack down and was attacking the other spear wielder, pressed by two maces. That wasn’t good, either.
I had to dodge the nunchaku and closely approach the spear wielder so that he couldn’t use the tip, and at the same time prevent him from pulling the spear back. There was only one practical way—I grabbed his arm and pulled it forward, turned my back on him, made a hump—and threw him into the nunchaku man.
My Analogy warned me—I ducked downward-sideward and kicked behind, battered my foot into the remaining blackjack-wielder’s solar plexus and thus pushed him backward into a group of tables.
For a short moment, I was free, but my three opponents were far from done.
Katsumi fared alike. One of his opponents—a mace wielder—writhed on the floor, but the other three had surrounded him in a semicircle, and his left arm was lightly bleeding from a thorny mace’s hit.
We met back to back in the free area in the room center.
“You’re not finished yet?” I teased him.
“Nor are you.”
“I’m still playing with mine.”
“So am I.”
“Well then.”
With the left, I had to parry a spear stab and beat it away—I couldn’t dodge, as then the tip would have pierced Katsumi’s back—and then defend a nunchaku blow. That had to look believable, as normally you could break your arm that way.
I let the nunchaku hit at a very flat angle, so that it could slide off, quickly grabbed after it and tore the nasty weapon away. Surprise!
The loose end swung around and hit the spear shaft exactly where the wielder held it. This time, the weapon caused the desired effect and smashed some finger bones.
Sadly, now I had to allow the blackjack from the other side to land a grazing hit at my left shoulder that normally would have sufficed to numb it for a while.
I writhed—and kicked his leg so forcefully that I could sense his knee joint give in. He went down crying, too.
This left me with the former nunchaku man—if I could count on Katsumi getting along with his opponents.
My last enemy stormed against me and began a quick sequence of strikes which took me an effort to block. Damn, I couldn’t be driven back! I had to risk taking the occasional painful hit to regain the offensive. But as soon as I began to serve my opponent a few blows, he retreated a few steps, and I couldn’t just follow him if I didn’t want to expose my partner’s back.
That play was repeated three times—meanwhile, I heard Katsumi suppress a moan several times—and then my opponent moved backward with a grin and looked around. His gaze fell on two young girls who clung to each other and squeezed to the rear wall in fear. Oh no!
He seemed to have guessed my thoughts. His evil grin said Oh yes, when he made a few steps toward the girls.
My toes closed around the spear shaft at my feet.
He made the last three steps toward the wall and reached the right arm toward one of the girls. In one floating motion, I tore the spear up, directed it into a wide arc with my arm, and tossed it forward with force.
It always looked so elegant in kung fu movies, when the top villain effortlessly parried spears and arrows away. Perhaps my enemy could have done that, too, if his attention had been focused on the fight and not on his chosen hostage—so the spear entered his skull through one ear and left through the other and nailed his head to the wall.
The two girls cried out in terror.
