None fight so well as those who can do nothing else. The Apes, having got into battle by chance, had to fight to get out; while the Ammi, drawn in reluctantly, had to eagerly fight back. Both parties, therefore, fought fiercely, who would gladly have quit altogether had they only known how. But, having entered a battle which neither could abandon, both felt that their only escape was through victory. Both therefore fought each other fiercely as the only way to a mutual peace.
Dreadful, therefore, was the clash of fists and nails and teeth. The air was filled with cries and the ground with blood. Countless bodies lay in the snow, and many who escaped freezing, now met slaughter. Death seemed about to settle like a cloud on both forces, and to cover them all with one common shroud.
The Lali were both more numerous and more desperate. Having gained an impetus communicated by their chase, they had every advantage. The Ammi, though more skilled and better armed, were so taken by surprise that they could use neither skill nor arms; so that, like the Apes, they fought chiefly with their fists and jaws.
“Let us retreat to the Swamp,” said Koree, who saw his forces yielding at all points.
“They won’t let us,” said Abroo, who knew that the Apes, being close, would follow them, and prevent a second escape.
The only problem thus was how to retreat. There seemed no way of giving up the fight any more than of continuing it. Any sign of weakening would encourage the enemy to rally and destroy them all.
They continued, therefore, to fight against hope, but saw that even battle would soon end them, since only a few now remained to either escape or be killed.
Oko proposed that they all run, and take each his chance of escape. “By regaining the Swamp,” he said, “we may be saved by hiding in the bushes.”
Abroo remarked that if they did so the women would be captured, and that men without women were not worth saving.