A Time of blood

David raised his right hand in what he hoped they would take as a friendly greeting, whilst his left slipped down to touch the black hilt on his hip. The touch alone and the feeling of power were enough to give him the confidence that he would survive this encounter.  As the three riders pulled up, the leader appeared to raise his hand in a similar greeting, hower the second rider was already drawing a sword and swinging towards his shoulder. He ducked and rolled out of the line of the attack and when he came to his feet he already had his sword drawn.  He wondered if the three attackers knew the danger they were in, understood what sword they faced and how little chance they stood to come away from this encounter un-harmed. The third rider had unslung his bow and was already drawing a bead, but David paid him little attention he knew that any kind of bow offered him no danger, in fact any of the weapons before him were of little concern.  The sword lept to his left, dragging his hand across and swatted away the arrow harmlessy and slid to his right to intersect the attack the second rider was making, David managed to control the sword and the rider was turning his horse away, clutching at his leg which had been nearly severed. The remaing two riders had both dismounted and seperated, attempting to attack from both sides at once, David let the point of the sword dip almost lazily, giving the two men a sense of confidence.  Both now held swords in their hands and they began to stalk towards him.  He kept his eye on the man on his right, obviously the leader whom he had to place as the more dangerous opponent, the man who had fired the bow did not appear to have the same confidence even with the two to one odds. As David quickly glanced to the man on the left the other attacker made his move and lept foward sweeping his sword down towards Davids shoulder, however once again the sword swept up and deflecting the downward swing found the chest of the attacker delivering a fatal blow.  Even as David was registering the blow the sword came up again and down over his left shoulder again preventing a strike to his neck from the final swordsman.  He turned and saw the man stepping back, recognising what David knew, that any attack against him would be fatal.  The man began to turn but the sword swept out cutting across his neck releasing a torrent of blood.  As the man fell to his knees his eyes met Davids and as the light faded from his eye, David  could see the questions being asked. “Why?”.