Forged Destiny [Book 2: Ch. 3]

Pain lanced through my body and I cried out in agony as I fell to the deck. Through eyes hazy with tears, I looked down to see a shaft protrude from my right side. It had cut through my armour and dug into flesh. It didn't feel deep, but the sensation was a new – and very unwelcome one and I struggled to move my arm.

[...]

Something struck my stomach with the force of a hammer and I was thrown back to slam into the wooden railing.

[...]

Something struck me from behind, a great ring of metal on metal as the force alone sent me hurtling forward into the man I'd just staggered.

[...]

The Berserker saw me and charged in immediately. She swung her axe high and brought it crashing down onto my shield.

My arms buckled under the force and the back of the shield slammed into my face as I was driven away. My back bumped into wood.

[...]

Almost too fast to see, she spun about and slammed the haft of her axe into my chest. The steel haft dented and drove the air from me, even before she ducked low, hooked the head behind my ankle and pulled.

Weightlessness took me and I cried out as I fell, only to be silence as my back smacked against the hard deck. My hands came up in time to block a vicious kick that would have knocked me out, but it did nothing to stop her settling down atop me.

She punched my guard open and raised the above her head. "Die!"

[...]

The axe blade nicked my cheek as she fell.

—Forged Destiny [Book 2: Ch. 3]