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With no time to rest, another knight used a bench to jump high into the air and landed right behind Mancuso.  He did not land right, and in the moment it took him to catch his balance, Mancuso, still low to the ground, kicked up.  The blow landed squarely in the knight’s gullet.  The man’s hands went to his chest gasping for air.  He stumbled back and fell over the bench he had just jumped.  The dull thud of his head hitting the stone pavement told Mancuso he would not have to worry about this one ... two down.

Mancuso had to remind himself that his goal was to repel, disarm, and question these men, not kill them.

He jumped up seeing two more coming at him swords ready.  Apparently they had not heard about LaSor.  Mancuso took full advantage of this ignorance as the two knights took up a dual ambush position, a standard tactic of the Shadow Knights.  They depended upon out-numbering and out-maneuvering their prey taking every dirty opportunity they could to claim a victory.  “Not very honorable,” Mancuso mumbled.  “I have no qualms teaching you a lesson in manners.”

As LaSor came down across the first man’s blade they locked for a split second.  LaSor instantly glowed white hot as if in anger.  Then, to the astonishment of the Shadow Knight, his blade split asunder into a shower of a thousand sparks.  The shock of the blast blinded the unprepared knight who dropped the blackened hilt and stepped back holding his eyes in pain.

Not wasting the momentum, Mancuso continued to swing around and catch the other knight unprepared.  Instead of bringing the full force of the still white hot edge against his opponent’s blade, he used the flat side of LaSor to deliver a shocking blow.  This with a twisting flick of his wrist ripped the knight’s sword from his numbed hand and sent it flying into the air.  The knight watched it as it flipped end over end and started its way back down again.  He did not remember seeing it hit the ground but saw only darkness and would wake hours later with a welt the size of LaSor’s ruby on his left temple ... three and four down.

Scroll 1: History's Mirror                                                                                    Chapter 1: Treasures from the Past