'THE WAY OF THE CRESCENT MOON", ALEX SINCLAIR'S LATEST RELEASE

Today we welcome talented author, Alex Sinclair, and an excerpt of his latest release, "The Way of the Crescent Moon."
    

THE WAY OF THE CRESCENT MOON

 About the book

Marcus has to juggle the declining health of his mother on one hand and a tedious dead end job on the other. Life has not been kind to Marcus. His father has spent the better part of the last two years in Iraq, which plants seeds of fear within his mind every time the news mentions the death of another soldier. Losing another loved one is his biggest fear. Unknown to his family Marcus still struggles to come to terms with the death of his older brother that he idolized.
        What he does not know is that the person in most danger is Marcus himself. A serial killer is hunting down and brutally murdering Olympic champions, martial art masters and street fighters. Marcus is introduced into a secret underground world of martial arts when the serial killer turns his blood sport fixation on mixed martial artist Marcus

Title: The Way of the Crescent Moon

Author: Alex Sinclair

Publisher: Melange Books

Genre: Action & Adventure, Suspense, Slice of Life

Price: $5.59

Melange Books 

Let his evocative prose take you to another time and place.

EXCERPT

Brian swayed unsteadily, as he raised his fists into the guard position.

     Was there someone else out there?

     My heart instantly stopped as a second figure came into view.

     A menacing black cloud of death surrounding its body was shocking - like a void of pure negative energy. It was as if someone had cut a hole in the fabric of space and the contents of hell were spilling out all around this evil presence.

     In an oddly casual manner, the towering figure approached Brian. The muscular stockroom manager uncharacteristically backed away, as the man continued to approach. They were but three feet away from one another and the difference in size was phenomenal. By no means was Brian a small man. Standing six foot one, he was the city martial arts champion, which meant he trained hard day in and day out. He took care of his body and looked more like a professional weight lifter than a martial artist due to his large muscular frame, but this figure of darkness made him look small. The man’s bicep alone had to be as big as Brian’s waist and he stood a good two heads taller than the stockroom manager; black combat jeans, black boots and a black short sleeved t-shirt hugged the attacker’s  muscular mass tightly, displaying the man’s intimidating powerfully built body. Even his muscles had muscles. He looked strong enough to lift a car.

     “Stay back!” screamed Brian.

     The man smiled demonically, his face scarred beyond belief and looked as if a tiger had scrapped its claws across his face in a diagonal motion over and over again. The scars continued across the top of his head and down the back of his neck, making hair growth impossible. His nose was crushed beyond recognition and squashed against his face.

     A bone crunching snap echoed throughout the stockroom.

     Brian gasped violently for air, as he doubled over in pain. The man’s long muscular tree trunk sized leg was indented against the stockroom manager’s chest. The extended leg remained locked in the front straight kick position for several seconds before the man of darkness effortlessly lifted his leg up into the air, which lifted Brian’s motionless body with it.

     I watched in awe as the man lifted his leg up until the sole of his left foot was pointing vertically up towards the sky. It was like he was doing the standing splits against an imaginary wall. One foot was firmly rooted to the floor, whilst the other pointed straight up to the heavens above, but more impressive was Brian’s entire bulky body was being held up by this man’s extended leg.

     A heavy thud echoed through the stockroom, as the man brought his foot down and slammed Brian’s limp body against the hard stone floor knocking Brian completely unconscious. The man stepped over him and regarded the knocked out martial artists for a moment. Silently he raised his foot above Brian’s head, as he prepared to deliver the final blow.

     Instinct took over.

     My legs carried me down the hallway at a full sprint before I even realised what I was doing. I leapt into the air like some sort of Olympic long jumper and propelled myself towards the towering giant. My right first curled tightly into a ball and I primed the perfect haymaker.

     The man in black was so busy torturing Brian he hadn’t even noticed me. His entire left hand side was completely exposed and all I had to do was strike his temple, a known weak point in the human body, no matter how big you were if you got struck hard enough in a weak point you were going down.

     I launched my fist forward.

     I winched, as a vice like grip tightened around my right wrist. My world spun violently like I was sitting on some sort of amusement ride and I crashed back into one of the metal shelves of the stockroom spilling items all across the stone floor.

     Pain splintered along my back, as I landed heavily on all fours.

     What had just happened?

     I looked up just as the man attempted to punt my head like a football.

     My left palm came down to parry the rising kick, as I used my powerful leg muscles to leap like a frog off to one side. The powerful head crushing kick snapped one of the metal shelves completely in half.

     Just how powerful is this man?

     My body collided with the shelf on the other side of the aisle, as I attempted to avoid the kick. I didn’t have time to respond to the pain in my shoulder. Instead, I forced myself to step forward and threw a powerful right punch at the man’s solar plexus, a weak point located in the centre of the chest. The man slapped my fist away with the ease you would swat away a fly. My momentum carried me forward taking me off balance. I was met by a rising uppercut that exploded my nose into a fountain of red. I stumbled backwards down the aisle and tried to regain my balance, but my legs refused to respond and the tears in my eyes blurred my vision.

     The man followed up instantly and caught me across the side of the face with a powerful strike I didn’t see coming, but surely felt. I stumbled back further into the aisle and somehow managed to keep my legs moving, by now they felt like lead weights. Blood gathered within my mouth.

     I reached out to try and steady myself. The tips of my fingers touched something wooden and heavy. I turned my blurry gaze towards the shelf and caught sight of the old-fashioned top-heavy broom.

     I glanced at the man.

     He was walking slowly towards me with a twisted smile across his scarred face.

     “He underestimates you,” whispered the voice of my unconscious self. “Don’t let your mind become stuck in one place,” it instructed. “Hit first and hit hard, but hit so hard that it shocks your opponent and he is unable to recover. Don’t disrupt the flow…”

     I let out a howling war cry, as I threw myself towards the tower of evil.

     The broom was pulled from the shelf and in one quick movement I brought it up and down in long powerful one-handed arc. The man blocked the downward head strike with his log-sized forearm. The broom snapped into two pieces leaving me with only the handle within the palm of my hand.

     “Keep moving forward,” commanded my unconscious self.

     Without thinking I lunged forward with the tip of the broken broom. The broken point of the damaged broom stabbed straight into the man’s exposed throat.

Thank you for sharing this, Alex. I wish you much success.