trades blows with The Thing

The Ka-bar came in low and fast. I had one foot in the air, mid-pivot, all my weight on my left leg. The Thing closed the distance between frames. Impossible to track in the dim light. I stuck out my left shield to deflect the flashing blade. The Thing watched me commit, then the Ka-bar changed direction, darting around the edge of the plank like a scorpion’s sting. A four inch gash appeared on my forearm. I was still waiting for the pain to hit when the tomahawk swooped down. I took it on the right shield. A savage blow. And there was the knife again, darting in from an impossible angle. A second slash materialized across my side.

Fuck me. I’d never seen someone so skilled with a blade.

The tomahawk had lodged itself in my right shield, the apex of its blade penetrating my forearm to the bone. I pivoted, wrenched down, hoping to twist the axe from The Thing’s grip. He yanked back savagely. The tomahawk dislodged from wood and bone. The sudden shift in momentum made him stagger. I lunged, slapping at his throat with the crooked nail protruding from my right hand. He dodged, looking bored, and the tomahawk came up in a vertical arc into my exposed groin. I chopped down with my left shield. The axe cleaved three inches into the edge of the maple plank, biting into my forearm.
-Sledge vs. The Labyrinth, pg. 264