Puller blocked the blade by gripping his attacker’s forearm, then sliding his

hand down to the elbow and cranking the limb inward, against the body and not in

the direction an elbow was designed to go.

 

The man screamed and his knife clattered to the pavement.

 

The guy was Puller’s size. He kicked out at Puller and caught him in the

oblique. It hurt like hell, and he staggered back, but the blow didn’t stop

Puller from executing his plan.

 

Puller lunged forward and drove his elbow straight into the guy’s face. The man

screamed again and grabbed his face with his one good arm, an arm that was about

to be rendered not so good.

 

Puller ripped the arm up, bent it against the joint’s natural range of motion

and jerked it behind the man’s back, torquing the limb past its breaking point.

 

He hooked an ankle around the man’s right foot at the same time as he slammed

his knee into the guy’s spine. The man tripped over the foot, and with his left

arm bound behind him and his right arm useless from Puller’s elbow twist, he hit

face first with Puller’s weight full on top of him, his knee still at the base

of his spine.

 

He was down for the count. Still breathing but bloodied and unconscious and