BARTOLO fought two avengers at once, while at the corner of his eye he could see Shani battling a third from atop her horse. He vaguely remembered leaping from his horse when he'd seen blood gushing from its neck after a legionnaire's sword blow.
He ducked under the whistling blur of a flail and then thrust at the red slit in the foremost avenger's face, his bladesinger's chant coming full and strong, the sizzling zenblade penetrating the defences of the avenger's mask. As the avenger fell Bartolo was barely fast enough to catch the sword blow of yet another. As Bartolo's song faltered for an instant a legionnaire's sword bit through the armoursilk in his side. Bartolo gasped at the pain of it, turning on his heel and taking the warrior's throat. Two spiked balls of metal smashed into Bartolo's legs, knocking him from his feet.
He rolled and leapt back to his feet, his sword arcing through the air to take an avenger's head clean off at the shoulders. Bartolo could see Shani, still astride her horse, throwing ball after ball of flame at avengers and legionnaires alike. The smell of burning hair and cooking flesh came rancid and strong. The cries of men, clashes of weapons, and whinnies of horses formed a cacophony. Bartolo could taste blood on his tongue; whether his own or someone else's, he wasn't sure.
Bartolo scanned the battle after beheading a revenant and a roar came to his lips as his gaze once again found Shani. She screamed as two pikemen came forward and thrust forward with their weapons, withdrawing the dripping points of their pikes and plunging them a second time into her horse's chest. Shani screamed and fell, tangled in her stirrups.
"Shani!" Bartolo screamed.
Avengers and snarling legionnaires were everywhere. There were too many of them between Bartolo and Shani, but he had to try. He ran forward and with two successive blows took down a yellow-eyed templar in white and a round-faced Tingaran legionnaire. He leaped up, springing from the legionnaire's back and sailing over a group of the enemy. Where were the rest of the Hazarans? Was it just him and Shani against this horde?
A legionnaire butted his forehead against Bartolo's unprotected face, breaking the bladesinger's nose and sending waves of pain through his head. Stars sparkled at the edge of his vision but he ignored them, crashing his shoulder into the Tingaran and eviscerating him with the zenblade.
Bartolo finally reached where Shani had been half-buried beneath her horse. "My legs," Shani gasped. "I don't think I can get up."
"Nonsense," Bartolo said, gasping the word between his bladesinger's chant as he cut down two more of the enemy.
He crouched down again and with a mighty heave lifted the dead horse so that Shani could roll away. One of her feet was twisted at a terrible angle, the ankle swollen as Shani gasped with pain.
"Rest as long as you need to," Bartolo said. "I'm not leaving this spot."
"Look out!" Shani cried, as she launched a fireball past Bartolo's shoulder. It scattered harmlessly on the rune-covered chest of an imperial avenger, but gave Bartolo time to face off against his enemy.
He blanched when he realised he was facing three avengers. No, there were four. Two moved to his right while the others moved to his left. He would never be able to take them all.
Then Jehral came out of nowhere, his horse charging into the avengers on Bartolo's left side, knocking them back. One of them stumbled, and Jehral's scimitar rang as it struck the avenger's neck, but the avenger's magic-enhanced body was too strong, and the rider wheeled his horse to strike again.
A second fireball flew past, striking one of the avengers directly in the creature's face. Shani launched them in a volley, a rapid succession of discharges that leapt from her fingers one after the other, and the metal on the avenger's face began to melt. It screamed then, a terrible, nightmare sound.
Bartolo ducked under the flail of the last avenger, and then blocked the black sword with his zenblade, shattering it into two pieces.
Jehral was soon fighting from his horse by Bartolo's side as Shani hovered on one leg, an expression of intense pain on her face as she attempted to hold the enemy back with ball after ball of flame.
Then Jehral's horse was cut down from under him by a revenant. The desert warrior fell heavily to the ground, then leapt back up, just in time to block an axe blow from the tall warrior in grey with half his face rotted away.
Jehral, Shani, and Bartolo fought side by side. The warrior from the desert saved the Petryan's life, and the bladesinger then saved the desert warrior. Clustered around the bodies of the horses, the corpses of their enemy piled up around them.
But it was three against a horde, and they all knew it was hopeless.