Now, Ato and Val and another hundred men came charging forward.
Leaving three men to set up the strange machine, Grim Hagen’s trained Aldebaranians met them. They clashed head-on—blade against blade, fist against bone. They held there, like two wrestlers evenly matched. For a moment Grim Hagen’s men were forced back. Then some new defenders swarmed out of the side-alleys and joined them. A head was poked up from the stairway below, Gunnar split the man’s skull and sent him tumbling down upon some new replacements.
Now Grim Hagen spied Odin and Gunnar as they advanced to help Ato.
Standing upon the dais, his face livid with rage, Hagen pointed to them and screamed—as mad as any of the last Caesars who had gone insane from too much power.
“Look, men of the Lorens,” Hagen cried, still pointing. “I will give immortality to the men who bring me those two alive.”
The first two to reach Gunnar and Odin died at the end of Gunnar’s and Odin’s swords.
“Your immortality does not last very long, Grim Hagen,” Gunnar shouted as he wiped his blade.
Then another man came up the stairway. Odin killed him and flung him back upon the men who followed.
But reinforcements were pouring in from other lanes. Grim Hagen and his men now numbered over a thousand.
Seeing Odin and Gunnar, Ato swung his men over against the subway entrance. They rallied there. Grim Hagen’s soldiers came at them. Ato, Gunnar, and Odin stood side by side and led the counter-attack that forced them back upon Grim Hagen’s strange machine.