"John Ringo - Council War 4 - East of the Sun, West of the Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ringo John)

"Get up," the lesser master said. "Your life is Marshall Chansa's to take and his decisions I don't
question. I'll assign you a sub-group. Don't fisk up or Iwill have your head."

"Yes, Master," Sub-leader Tur-uck replied, rising to his feet and admitting that maybe he wasn't having
such a bad day after all.



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Framed

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Chapter One

As the axe clanged off his shield, Herzer knew he was having a bad day.

His opponent was as fast as he was and darned near as tall and strong. Furthermore, Herzer had never
in his life fought someone who used an axe with such effectiveness. The weapon had a meter and a half
metal covered shaft and his opponent used it as a combination of quarterstaff and axe to great effect.

Herzer Herrick was a young man just nearing his twenty-fifth birthday, a shade over two meters tall and
broad in proportion with black hair and dark green eyes that, as now, slitted into fiery intensity when he
was in combat. His face had a long scar on the cheek and more crisscrossed his unguarded forearms,
visible proof of his many battles.

Herzer flickered the tip of his longsword forward and was rewarded with another one of those nasty
spin and catches, the haft of the axe clanging into his blade then the head sliding down to trap it. Before
he knew it, the butt of the axe was hammering into his shield and he leapt back, disengaging his blade
with difficulty.

"Think you're tricky?" Herzer panted.

"Very," the man said. He began spinning the axe overhead, clockwise, moving back and forth lightly on
his feet. "Trickier than you, Major. As you'll learn when I kill you."

Herzer knew there was a reason to the motion but he couldn't divine it. The axe could slam down but
with all that momentum there was no way that his opponent could use it for an effective block. Especially
if he came in low. He circled to the left then lunged forward in a shield bash, his sword held low at his
side, point angling upward to slip through chinks in his opponent's armor.

It took him a moment to realize what was happening as the axeman brought the spinning circle of steel
downwards and neatly kicked the sword out of midline. The axeman rode the shield bash backwards,
actually loosing contact with his axe as it spun around the fulcrum of Herzer's useless sword. Then his
shield was wrenched outwards as a tremendous blow struck him on his chest armor.
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