“Soldiers of Mongaul!”
Urgent commands were streaming from the throats of the Mongauli orderlies; the situation had changed completely from the careless slaughter of a few moments before.
“Stand firm! These are dangerous enemies. Trust in your training! Use your skill, and fight with caution!”
“Don’t be afraid! The enemy is greatly outnumbered.”
“Reorganize the ranks! All troops, form battle lines immediately! We must not face the enemy in disorder. When they draw near, let three of our soldiers attack each one of them.”
Only a few twists remained before the sun would rise completely. Amnelis was nearly in a frenzy, sending out messenger after messenger with orders intended to renew the fighting spirit of Mongaul. Vlon and Lindrot were dashing around in desperation, trying to reorganize the troops for battle. Once an army lost order, it became fragile; the more overwhelming the army’s might and advantage and the greater its confidence, the more severe its fall when that confidence was sapped. The courage that the Mongauli forcibly mustered by telling themselves that these were merely large barbarians crumbled the moment the roaring giants came loping down to the boulders.
The Lagon were magnificent warriors, a tribe born for battle and trained to a life of war. Each was an expert in the use of the swords and the heavy cudgels they favored, and even unarmed they were extremely formidable; their massively built bodies were not only large but agile and supple as well.
The Mongauli fought hard, but just as the Sem were no match for them, so were the humans easily overwhelmed by the Lagon. The rocky slopes of the mountains were the Lagon’s home. Their hard feet stepped lightly over the stones like the hooves of antelope. When their enormously strong arms lifted high and swung their weapons, Mongauli heads flew right and left, and decapitated bodies fell and vomited forth blood until the ground was dyed crimson.
“This is more like it!”
Istavan had hurriedly removed his stolen armor and helmet and resumed his light attire to avoid being confused with the Mongauli, and he had rejoined the fray, fighting adroitly. His voice had taken on a jovial tone as he bantered between swordthrusts, admiring the imposing Lagon and talking more to himself than to anyone else.
“What a great fighting style they have! They certainly know how to use a sword. Especially the biggest one—he is fighting like Ruah! I’d give a lot to see a match between him and Guin! These are the allies we needed all along. I wonder where—and how—Guin found ’em? Good old Guin… Oh, I swear on the nymph who mothered Cirenos, this is the greatest display of fighting skill I have ever seen! I’m sure glad these giants are on our side. I doubt I’d survive for very long against them!”
While Istavan rambled on, he was demonstrating his own fighting prowess, airily sidestepping enemy attacks and jumping high as he slashed and parried. Feldrik, meanwhile, was rushing to escape from this sudden reversal of fortunes.
“Wait, you coward!” Istavan shouted merrily, darting after the white knight and extending his blade in a wicked thrust. Feldrik screamed and toppled forward as he ran. A band of Mongauli rushed to protect their captain, some closing ranks to block Istavan’s attack, others pulling Feldrik to his feet and helping him away.
“Oh! I almost forgot…” Istavan abruptly stopped short, his joviality gone. I shouldn’t show my face. Warily he watched as Feldrik was taken away. His first impulse was to try to catch up and finish him, but the Valachian soon talked himself out of it. “Ah, why risk it? He’s old—with that wound he won’t last long.”
Making this assumption he began to work his way toward Guin and his force of Lagon, all the while taking care not to reveal his distinctive face.
The Sem, too, wasted no time now that they had such powerful allies.
“Riyaad’s reinforcements are here! Rise up and fight, Sem!”
“Riyaad, Riyaad!”
“Don’t get separated! Gather together, and fight against the oh-mu as one troop!”
Although they had suffered terrible losses in the merciless night battle with the Mongauli, the diminutive desert warriors didn’t retreat to nurse their injuries while their powerful new allies took the lead. Instead, all the Sem who had survived now gathered around their chiefs, encouraging one another with fierce, piercing screams. As soon as the battle was joined again, they rushed forward, brave and heedless as ever, treading over their fallen fellows’ carcasses as they charged. With the tables turned, the Sem’s naturally brutal character was now given full scope to be displayed; gone were the helpless victims who had been chased, tortured to death, and subjected to countless atrocities just moments before.
“Let us take revenge for our comrades!”
“Don’t stay back behind the Lagon!”
“Aiieee, yeeee!”
The Sem flung themselves against the Mongauli lines and attacked like ants savaging a butterfly while the Lagon swung their massive cudgels with terrifying strength. Where the Sem’s poison-tipped darts flew between the longswords, Mongauli warriors clutched at their eyes and fell to the ground, screaming in blind agony. Where the Lagon’s heavy weapons struck home, metal helmets and armor crushed as though made of flimsy paper, and Mongauli soldiers were literally knocked into pieces, reduced in one blow to ragged masses of muddy blood, shattered organs, and fragments of red bone.
Even in the headlong confusion of the melee, the superb fighting prowess of Dodok the Brave and the leopard-headed Guin stood out and drew attention. Wherever these two headed the Mongauli quickly cleared away. Dodok’s rock hard arms could snatch up running soldiers as though they were ambling puppies, and in his grasp their bodies broke like straw in the grip of a storm. With his heavy cudgel he brushed aside the longswords of the brave knights who summoned the courage to stand and fight him, and in the next moment, he smashed their heads as they stood frozen in fear with eyes white and staring. It was not for nothing that Dodok the Brave was called the strongest among all the mighty warriors of the Lagon.
And Guin…
“You! You, Guin!” Astrias snarled through clenched teeth. “Fight with me! Stand and face me! I have been looking for you!”