Ola signaled for a knight to check the spot where a Garrison member had just disappeared.
The knight raised his shield in his left hand and gripped his sword in his right, edging cautiously toward a dense clump of waist-high reeds.
Ola kept his eyes fixed on him, gripping his axe handle tightly, ready to strike at any moment.
Just then, the knight caught a flicker of shadow out of the corner of his left eye!
"A trap!" the knight shouted, instinctively swinging his tower shield to the left.
Clang!
A crossbow bolt struck his shield and was successfully blocked.
A flicker of relief had barely crossed his mind when a dull thud came from his right ankle!
A blunt-tipped crossbow bolt struck his ankle. The tremendous impact twisted his right foot, which was supporting his weight, and sent his body tilting uncontrollably to the right.
Damn!
The instant he lost his balance, Barrett sprang from the reeds behind him to his right. Without a single wasted movement, he slashed downward with his shortsword.
Clang!
A tremendous force struck through a gap in his armor. His vision abruptly went black, his head rang, and he crashed into the muddy water.
"Toby!" Ola roared, his eyes blazing with fury.
It had all happened too fast!
The arrow from the left drew his attention, the crossbow bolt from the right struck his weak point, and Barrett delivered the Deadly Strike. There had been virtually no interval between the three attacks!
Ola was stunned.
He could not fathom how Barrett and the others had coordinated.
There had been no shouts or hand signals, yet those three attacks had meshed seamlessly, leaving no time to react.
"Change formation! Back to back!"
Ola suppressed his alarm and shouted the order.
The four immediately closed ranks,