The result was unexpected. A hundred or more Roies charged yelling down the ravine through the Vairking rear guard, and straight at Cabot’s men, who at once ran to cover again and took deadly toll of the oncoming enemy.
But the Roies so greatly outnumbered the Vairkings that the tide could not be stemmed, and soon the two groups were mingled together in a seething mass. The first rush was met, spear on spear. Then the sharp wooden swords were drawn, and Cabot found himself lunging and parrying against three naked furry warriors.
The neck was the vulnerable spot of the Vairkings, and it was this point which the Roies strove to reach, as Cabot soon noted. That simplified matters, for guarding one’s neck against such crude swordsmen as these furry aborigines was easy for a skilled fencer such as he. Accordingly, one by one, he ran three antagonists through the body.
Just as he was withdrawing his blade from his last victim, he noted that Crota was being hard pressed by a burly Roy swordsman; so he hastened to his friend’s assistance. And he was just in time, for even as Cabot approached, the naked Roy knocked the leather-clad Vairking’s weapon from his hand with a particularly dexterous sideswipe, and thus had Crota at his mercy.
But before the naked one could follow up his advantage, the earth-man hurled his own sword like a spear, and down went the Roy, impaled through the back, carrying Crota with him as he fell.
Cabot paused to draw breath, and was just viewing with satisfaction the lucky results of his chance throw, when a peremptory command of “Yield!” behind him caused him to wheel about and confront a new enemy. The author of the shout was a massive furry warrior with a placid, almost bovine, face, which nevertheless betokened considerable intellect.
“And to whom would I yield, if I did yield?” Myles asked, facing unarmed the poised sword of his new enemy.
“Grod the Silent, King of the Roies,” was the dignified reply.
“I thought that Att the Terrible was king of your people,” the earth-man returned, sparring for time.
“That is what Att thinks too,” the other answered with a slight smile.