Then we were free and running again. The cliff face was only a few more meters ahead, but we could see a group of two Leapers waiting there for us. The pack was almost upon us now.
“Kor! Clear the cliff, Zur, with me…turn!”
My second-in-command and I whirled and faced the charging pack as Kor continued on. We backed slowly toward the cliff as we fought, confident that Kor would have disposed of the last two by the time we got there.
“Clear, Commander!”
We dashed the last two meters and turned. With Zur on my left, Kor on my right, and a cliff at my back, I lowered my head and hissed in the face of the Enemy.
For a moment they hesitated, then surged forward in a wave. We weren’t running now, and the bodies began to stack around us.
I draped the Bug-killer over my shoulder as I burned a Leaper, opened a spring-javelin and pinned a second, then caught a third as I snatched the Bug-killer from my shoulder again. I saw one go down to one of Zur’s acid darts and another to one of Kor’s thrown steel balls as I took two more with the Bug-killer.
“Caught!” came Zur’s calm voice from my left.
I turned and saw him struggling. in a tug of war with a Leaper for his alter-mace as he tried to keep two others at bay with his dart-thrower.
“Covered!” I called as I burned the Leaper that was clinging to his mace.
Suddenly I felt jaws clamp on my calf. A Leaper I thought dead had inched forward and attached itself to my leg. I started to burn it, but had to avert my shot to pick another target out of mid-air. Before I could recover, the Leaper that had my leg rolled, causing me to fall and lose my balance.