Joshua Valiant (Chronicles of the Nephilim) Read Free Page A

dead.”
    He cut the rope and the dead mercenary dropped to the ground.
    “ You have let them hang too long.”
    He reached over and cut down Caleb’s rope as well. Caleb twisted and landed on his back on the ground with a grunt.
    Talmai said, “Hurry up, Sheshai. I want to get back.”
    Sheshai said, “Do not eat them. Bring them to King Hoham. I have a feeling these two Habiru may be what we have been looking for.”
    Joshua gulped. He knew that these Sons of Anak were looking for the Sons of Abraham because he had heard their captors tell their story about Abraham and their primogeniture, King Arba, the father of Anak. It was not a positive tale. He knew that if they were taken to King Hoham in Kiriath-arba, they would experience a fate worse than being eaten. Then these brutish monsters would attack the entire nation of Israel hiding out in the Negeb desert, just south of their city.
    They could not let that happen.
    But it was about to.
    Sheshai walked back to his brother and they prepared to leave. He barked to the captain, “Get your lazy asses up and back to the city. And keep the captives alive!”
    “Yes , sir!” saluted the captain.
    All the soldiers watched Sheshai and Talmai disappear into the darkness and gave one another looks of a close call with trouble.
    “You heard the Commander! Get moving!”
    But when the captain looked back at where the prisoners were, he noticed that the dead one was no longer on the ground. And the other two Habiru were now standing, no longer tied up, but holding shield and sickle sword in hand.
    Someone had cut them loose when everyone’s attention had been turned.
    That someone was the mercenary who had only been feigning death, looking for the right moment to pull his hidden knife and cut himself and the others free. He was not a chance encounter at Mamre. The only reason he “was not a very skilled fighter” when they captured him, as the soldier had said, was because he was planning subterfuge in order to rescue the two Habiru.
    But the mercenary was nowhere to be seen. He had disappeared.
    And that was only the beginning of the surprises about to overwhelm this unit of Anakim.
    The second surprise was two successive arrows piercing the skulls of the captain and his closest commander.
    Joshua dropped his composite bow and drew his sword.
    But before the dead bodies hit the ground, the mercenary came out of the side bushes, outside the visual focus of the giants, and cut a swath through the middle of the soldiers before they knew what was happening.
    He slashed long throats, opened abdomens and cut off sword hands. He had dropped four of them before the others had their weapons up and started to fight.
    Joshua and Caleb gave each other a surprised glance. This fellow was impressive.
    Six giants down, four to go, against the three humans. But with their skills, it was not good odds for the giants.
    The mercenary picked up a fallen shield just in time to protect himself for the downswing of an Anakite’s battle axe. The hit sent a jarring shudder through his entire body and pushed him to his knees. This monster was big, maybe ten feet tall.
    Still, the Anakite was no match for the mercenary with preternatural skills.
    The mercenary dropped the shield and dove through the giant’s long legs. The soldier’s long neck strained to see where he landed. But it was too late, as his entire groin had been eviscerated and his femur artery gushed the last of his life out onto the ground.
    Joshua and Caleb engaged the enemy. Joshua’s bronze sickle sword was no match for the heavy giant swords made of a much stronger metal than he had ever seen before. He would have to get himself one of them.
    Caleb’s sword however, was entirely adequate to the task. It was in fact a special heavenly weapon passed down through his tribe from ancient descendants. It was a whip-like sword, ten feet long. Its blade was made of an unknown heavenly metal that was both flexible like a whip, and