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They were ht steel in their hands
To Tavi, Max and Crassus's attack was a glittering blur Max took a bare step ahead and hit the, his blade lashing out high He struck the nearest Cane and laid open its weapon arm to the bone at the shoulder, then pivoted to one side, blade passing through a second Cane's throat He lashed out again, another strike that haht with such flawless coordination with Max's attack that he ht have been his brothers own shadow He dispatched the disarh the roof of its mouth, blocked a desperate, frenzied attack fro out its life onto the bridge, and struck the third Cane's weapon hand fro open its defenses
The brothers went through the leading Cani down Canihts Terra were through and spreading out to either side Tavi and Ehren were next, and the stinking , the sed froer to Tavi, and he found hi toward the improvised walls built at the Elinarch's apex
Mo a way through the Cani a clear trail through the jungles of their hohts Terra were able to fan out to either side of theht their enor with fury-born strength tore a Cane in half at the waist, to let it fall to the ground in two confused, bleeding, dying pieces A great ha another Cane with such force that the tips of broken bones in its rib cage and spine ripped their way out through its skin
Tavi saw a flash of movement in the corner of his eye, and turned to see one Cane bound entirely over the Knights and land on the stones before hiel at his head Tavi ducked it, faked to one side, then darted in close before the Cane could recover its balance He slashed hard in an upward stroke, laying open the huge arteries in the Cane's inner thigh, spun from its way as the Cane fell, and used the momentum of the spin to strike the back of the Cane's neck The bloas not strong enough to cut through the Cane's thickly furred and muscled neck entirely, but it was more than sufficient to split open its spine at the back of the neck, and dropped it at once to the ground, helpless as it bled to death
A second Cane bounded over the line, landing outside of Tavi's sword reach It whirled on Ehren
The little Cursor flicked the standard pole out, the Legion's blackened eagle-cro, Tavi supposed in so out and snapping like a whip into the Cane's nose The blow did nothing more than startle the Cane for the space of a second Tavi could have struck in that second, but he didn't Instinct warned hinized and trusted the intuition
Kitai's arure descended fro down, opening horrible wounds on the Cane The Marat girl had bounded up the stairs while they labored through the tunnel, and she had hurled herself froed Kitai rolled forward, under the blind, furious swipes of the Cane's sickle-sword, came to her feet behind the raider, and cut it down in a short, vicious flurry of slashing blades
Kitai flicked blood froht, while Ehren took his left They pressed ahead, furious sound and violence all around thee fro centurion Schultz, the shaft of the spear behind Max and Crassus's deadly point
The Caniainst an attack, Tavi realized The eneht was faltering,their toll The Canier anticipation of the final, deadly fall of the Aleran defenders, and when the defenders had abandoned the opening in the wall, the Cani rush had co blow that would destroy their enemies
Instead, they found theion and the superhuhts Terra, followed by the blackened, bloody banner of the captain who had defied Sari and his ritualists, shamed him before the host, and lived to tell the tale despite the terrible powers the ritualists had sent after hi towns, in treacherous forests, in unforgiving mountains, and on the blood-spattered stones of contested bridges, Tavi realized But battles are ithin thethem No force was defeated in battle until it believed that it was defeated No force could be victorious unless it believed it could be victorious
The First Aleran believed
The Canie, before the terrible swords of the sons of Antil-lus, before the crushing power of the Knights Terra, before the blackened banner of the First Aleran and the reckless, frenzied charge of the Battlecrows, those two facts hat mattered
It was as simple as that
The resistance of the Canie did not simply waver-it abruptly vanished, as panic descended on them Max and Crassus pressed the assault, and Tavi led the Battlecrows after the Valiar Marcus had seen the Cani forward to lend their strength and momentum to the advance
The advance had to cover most of five hundred yards, all uphill to the defenses at the bridge's apex-which had not, after all, been designed to defend against an assault froe Without battlements, the only real protection they offered the Canim was the simple impediment of movement caused by the walls the in the, however, also slowed the Caniionares were slower on foot than their opponents, but caught up to them as the choke point in the wall stranded theet his cohort into a hts in its center, before the vengeful Alerans fell on the Caniht to keep the lines stable, to get the wounded clear of the fighting before they were trampled The desperate Canim rushed up onto the improvised battle to fall rather than face the juggernaut of the First Aleran's advance A few even cast theerous fall to the water froe from its surface