Duncan grasped his sword in two hands, stepped forward, and with a great battle cry raised his sword and met the shark head-on. As the shark descended he squatted low and raised his sword straight up, aiming beneath the shark’s lower jaw. He stood as he did so, plunging his sword up through the shark’s lower jaw and through the roof of his mouth, clamping its jaw shut with his long sword. He was surprised at how tough its skin was, how enormous its weight, as it took all of his might to drive the sword upward.

Blood gushed down all over Duncan as the shark, flailing, began to fall on him. Duncan, still holding the sword, could not get out of the way in time, and he saw its tremendous weight coming down and he knew he would be crushed.

Duncan’s shout was muffled as the shark landed on top of him. It must have weighed a thousand pounds, and as it landed on him, Duncan felt himself being pounded into the raft. It felt as if his ribs were being crushed as his world was engulfed in black.

There came a great splintering of wood as the raft beneath him shattered to pieces, and Duncan suddenly felt himself, mercifully, plunging through the water, free of the weight of the beast. If he were on land, he realized, he would have been crushed to death, but because water was beneath him, and because the raft shattered, he was still alive.

Submerged, getting his bearings, still sinking beneath the shark, Duncan tried to swim away as the shark continued to come at him. Luckily, with its jaws clamped tight, it was unable to bite him.

Duncan kicked and swam out from under it, releasing his sword and taking several strong strokes away. He turned and expected it to follow, but blood gushed everywhere, and he watched as the shark finally sank to the river bed.

Duncan swam through the frigid waters, every part of his body aching, the current taking him downriver as he looked up for sunlight and headed for the surface. As he looked up through the clear water he could see the school of sharks leaping through the air high above, could hear the muffled sounds of their crashing all around him—and of his men shrieking. He flinched inside, seeing the waters turn red with blood, watching the bodies begin to sink, knowing that good men up there were dying.