Ola grinned, baring a mouthful of white teeth, like a bear finally freed from its chains.
His heavy breaths came out in clouds of white mist. His eyes, so often shadowed by shame over his mixed blood, now burned with pure warrior fervor.
"For Rockbreaker!"
His roar echoed through the valley.
The enchanted warhammer in Ola's hands seemed as light as a stalk of straw.
The knights behind him tried to form up, but they simply could not keep pace with his crazed charge.
A Gray Swamp Crocodile had barely raised its head from the mud when Ola's warhammer struck.
With a thunderous thud, the hammer drove down like a pile driver, smashing its entire head and half its neck into the ground. Red and white splattered all over a nearby knight.
Another giant crocodile froze, startled by Ola's ferocity. The knights seized the opening, hurling several hand axes into the soft flesh of its flank.
But the crocodile lashed out in its death throes. Its enormous tail swept sideways, catching a knight in the thigh before he could dodge. He flew away like a torn sack, the snap of his leg bone clearly audible even amid the chaos.
"Fuck!" Ola's eyes went red. The blow only drove him further into a frenzy.
Sarah and Leo arrived just in time to witness the bloody chaos.
Leo's face paled. This was nothing like the scene of "masterful strategic command" he had imagined.
Veylin glanced at the wounded knight without so much as furrowing his brow. He simply told Sarah, who had hurried over, to carry him somewhere safe.
Then he took a pinch of faintly glowing silver powder and a few dried leaves from a pouch at his waist.
He crushed them in his palm, murmuring a few short syllables.
A