Free This Immortal by Roger Zelazny Page B

and earth, t "My friend says he will break you, Greek!" v-called out the tall one, as he did something to the other's back.
    I moved toward them and the man of putty and H
    mud sprang at me. j|
    He tripped me, but I came up again fast and H: caught him beneath the armpits and threw him off ^
    to the side. But he recovered his footing as rapidly A as I had, and he came back again and caught me behind the neck with one hand. I did the same to him, also seizing his elbow-and we locked together THIS IMMORTAL 75
    there, and he was strong.
    Because he was strong, I kept changing holds, testing his strength. He was also fast, accommodat-ing every move I made almost as soon as I thought of it.
    I threw my arms up between his, hard, and stepped back on my reinforced leg. Freed for a moment, we orbited each other, seeking another open-ing.
    I kept my arms low and I was bent well forward because of his shortness, For a moment my arms were too near my sides, and he moved in faster than I had seen anyone move before, ever, and he caught me in a body lock that squeezed the big flat flowers of moisture out of my pores and caused a great pain in my sides.
    Still his arms tightened, and I knew that it would not be long before he broke me unless I could break his hold.
    I doubled my hands into fists and got them against his belly and pushed. His grip tightened. I stepped backward and heaved forward with both arms. My hands went up higher between us and I got my right fist against the palm of my left hand and began to push them together and lift with my arms. My head swam as my arms came up higher, and my kidneys were on fire. Then I tightened all the muscles in my back and my shoulders and felt the strength flow down through my arms and come together in my hands, and I smashed them up toward the sky and his chin happened to be in the way, but it didn't stop them.
    My arms shot up over my head and he fell backward.
    It should have broken a man's neck, the force of 76 ROGER ZELAZNY
    that big snap that came when my hands struck his chin and he got a look at his heels from the back-side.
    But he sprang up immediately, and I knew then that he was no mortal wrestler, but one of those creatures born not of woman; rather, I knew, he had been torn Antaeus-like from the womb of the Earth herself.
    I brought my hands down hard on his shoulders and he dropped to his knees. I caught him across the throat then and stepped to his right side and got my left knee under the lower part of his back. I leaned forward, bearing down on his thighs and shoulders, trying to break him.
    But I couldn't. He just kept bending until his head touched the ground and I couldn't push him any further.
    No one's back bends like that and doesn't snap, but his did.
    Then I heaved up with my knee and let go, and he was on me again-that fast.
    So I tried to strangle him. My arms were much longer than his. I caught him by the throat with both hands, my thumbs pressing hard against what should have been his windpipe. He got his arms across mine though, at the elbows and inside, and began to pull downward and out. I kept squeezing, waiting for his face to darken, his eyes to bug out.
    My elbows began to bend under his downward pressure.
    Then his arms came across and caught me by the throat.
    And we stood there and choked one another.
    Only he wouldn't be strangled.
    His thumbs were like two spikes pressing into the THIS IMMORTAL
    77
    muscles in my neck. I felt my face flush. My temples began to throb.
    Off in the distance, I heard a scream:
    "Stop it, Hasan! It's not supposed to do that!"
    It sounded like Red Wig*s voice. Anyhow, that's the name that came into my head: Red Wig. Which meant that Donald DOS Santos was somewhere nearby. And she had said "Hasan," a name written on another picture that came suddenly clear.
    Which meant that I was Conrad and that I was in Egypt, and that the expressionless face swimming before me was therefore that of the golem-wrestler, Rolem, a creature