Chapter 26

Taachachi had left me talking to our new family members and gone to take over the loading of our things. We'd acquired quite a bit of stuff with the demise of selected assholes.

Ceelily and Duweena made their exit shortly. They had things to pack themselves. It was a mistake for me to let them go alone but I didn't realize it until ten minutes later. I heard a commotion from the direction they'd gone and I saw Taachachi running that way. I headed there myself.

My first reaction was to mentally curse Denwan but it was actually my fault. I'd let Ceelily and Duweena go off by themselves without thinking a thing about it. Of course they'd come across Ceelily's sister Ceecaysha somewhere and then, as they began arranging their things Denwan had come over to start trouble.

When I arrived Ceecaysha and Ceelily were lying on the ground. Ceecaysha had a large new bruise forming on the left side of her face, a bloody nose, and appeared unconscious. Ceelily had a new bruise of her own and a little blood trickling from her nose but she seemed aware of her surroundings. Denwan had a strong grip on Duweena's upper arm and was raising his right hand intending to slap her. He got the job done before I could reach him.

Duweena crumpled to the ground from the blow and I could see that Denwan was about to give her a stout kick in the ribs for good measure I guess. I'd made it close enough now that he wouldn't be able to. I grabbed a handful of his hair from behind and administered a horse collar tackle like those Roy Williams of the Dallas Cowboys made famous. Of course I had to pull him down backwards by his hair since he didn't have much of a collar. What the heck, you have to be able to adapt.

Denwan roared as he got back to his feet. He must have been in a fighting rage already and he turned to face me with murder on his mind. My Glock was in my right hand, but instead of killing him I fired a shot into the ground between his feet. It stopped him on the spot and for a few seconds I could see stark fear replace the anger.

"Are you so stupid you don't even know which women are yours? Two of the ones you beat were mine. When I am through with you all three will be mine, but you will wish you'd never seen any woman before I'm done with you," I said, tossing the Glock to Taachachi.

"We will see how you can fight without your magic weapon," Denwan said.

"We will see more than that. The fight won't last long, but after you are beaten I will not stop. I am not going to fight you; I am going to beat you to death. The whole camp will hear you whine, cry, and beg for mercy as I keep beating you after you can't even move," I said.

Denwan had every reason to think he had the upper hand. He still had hold of his spear and there was a wicked looking knife in a sheath at his waist. After all the hours I'd spent training with my coach in the spaceship I knew he had a hell of a job in front of him even with the spear and knife.

He didn't even get to keep the spear for long. He rushed me and thrust it toward my middle, but I side stepped at the last and grabbed the spear, yanking him forward even faster. He lost his grip on the spear as he went by and I tripped him for good measure.

As he rolled over to get up I met him on his knees with his own spear in position to skewer him. He wasn't so anxious to finish getting up. I yelled to Taachachi and tossed her my new spear, then I backed off to let Denwan get up.

He was more wary this time but he'd pulled his knife and was gathering the courage to try his luck with it. I had another problem now since the flint blade was over a foot long and to me it looked beautiful. I had to have it - intact.

I needn't have worried. Denwan didn't know the first damned thing about a knife fight. When he attacked the knife was held high in his right hand and he intended to bring it down in a killing blow. This move is never any blow at all for anyone who knew anything about fighting. I grabbed his descending forearm, twisted his arm around behind his back, and then took hold of the wonderful knife so when he released it in a few seconds it wouldn't be damaged by a fall.

Denwan was fairly large for men of this time. He was probably five-ten, and weighed maybe two hundred pounds, and he was very muscular. Still, I had four inches in height and fifty pounds on him, and thanks to the little green men I knew all about hand to hand combat. I kept pushing his hand up toward the back of his neck until he screamed and turned the knife loose.

Throwing the knife to Taachachi would have been dangerous, so I kept my hold on Denwan and frog marched him over to her by kneeing him in the ass to prompt him. I handed Taachachi the knife while Denwan whimpered. I asked her to make sure it wasn't damaged.

After using my knee again to encourage Denwan back to the clear spot that had been vacated for our fight I let him go. He showed me then that he was smarter than I'd thought, since he tried to run. I gave him another modified horse collar tackle then but pulled him down with my hands on top of his shoulders this time. His ass took another jolt as it hit the ground and I stepped around to face him.

When he didn't stand up I had to share a little news with him.

"If you don't get up and fight I will just kick you to death."

It prompted him to action and he tried to lunge at me from his squatting position. His nose found my right hand and now he was bleeding from it like Ceelily and her sister had been. I didn't really give him a telling blow though. If you're boxing without gloves you can easily break your fingers by hitting someone's head too hard. Their skull is much tougher than your fingers. Besides, I wanted him alert so he could enjoy his pain.

A few combinations to the abdomen and ribs were next, and I'll admit I might have over done it, especially on his soft stomach. I switched to slapping his jaws when he was so out of breath he had to lean over to try getting any. His ears also got some nice firm slaps so they could enjoy the ringing.

I was tired of the whole thing by now but that didn't mean I was going to quit. I backed up and gave him a very nice kick in the balls. Backing up even farther I let him puke his guts up then I kicked him over onto his back and kneeled on his chest and took his neck in both hand, putting my thumbs on his Adam's apple and squeezing for all I was worth. He turned a lovely shade of purple before I heard some cracking and popping as his windpipe collapsed from the pressure.

Watching the last few minute or two of Denwan's life wasn't pleasant, but I made myself do it. This caused everyone else here to watch too. I had lied to them though. He couldn't do any begging and pleading with the shape I'd left his voice box in. He could only try to gasp in a little air and he didn't get nearly enough.