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with fresh cemetery mud. Up to this point the thing's movements had been so clumsy that Cyrus figured it was safe to take a closer look. He did. And the thing's arm shot out and knocked him flat on his back. |
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"Okay, fine," Cyrus said as he scrambled away and bounced to his feet. "If you're dead, I don't have to worry about hurting you, now do I?" |
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Taking two quick steps, Cyrus spun on his left heel and kicked the thing square in the faceit was like kicking a brick wall. He danced back out of reach, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet. |
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The blow had flattened what was left of the creature's very prominent nose, but otherwise it was standing as before and evidently no worse off. Undaunted, Cyrus decided if he couldn't knock the thing down, he'd go for its wheels and try to cripple it. He faked a punch at the head then dropped down on his heel and tried to sweep the thing's ankles with his right leg. That worked as well as trying to cut down a full-grown tree with a rubber axe. And this time, before he could spin away, the thing grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground. |
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Still unruffled, Cyrus tried to kick his way free, and when that didn't work he tried slamming his cupped palms into the thing's ears. |
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The right ear came off in his hand. |
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Disgusted, he dropped the leathery piece of flesh like it was a dead slug and tried shoving his thumbs into the creature's dry eye sockets. It countered by clamping down on Cyrus's throat and squeezing until his windpipe felt like a drinking straw. With his wind cut off, Cyrus pulled out all the stops. He tried every trick his sensei had ever taught him: flailing away at the thing's neck with the hard edge of his hands and finally jamming his thumbs into the arteries on the side of the thing's neck. |
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It didn't take him long to realize that a dead man wasn't likely to pass out from lack of blood to the brain. |
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