The force of the hit drove me down to my knees and Marfoul drew his sword high over top his head with a triumphant scream of fiendish joy. I watched helpless to do any more as the sword began to come downward, only to be suddenly arrested in movement as two massive arms appeared from behind and encircled Marfoul's chest clamping tight across it halting the downward progress of the blade as they did so. I recognized the figure behind the struggling Marfoul as that belonging to Olaf.
He was covered in blood much of it his own, but he held onto Marfoul somehow as the dark enforcer twisted and howled to be set free.
"Get him off of me!" Marfoul cried out hysterically the sword still locked in position above his head.
The surrounding soldiers rushed in and began to repeatedly stab Olaf, but even then he held onto Marfoul. His great strength refusing to give in past any normal limit of human endurance, but as he bled dry his arms fell free and he slumped forward into a heap already having been dead several moments past his remembered muscular impulses to protect his friend and master.
Marfoul turned and mercilessly hacked away at the fallen man before turning back to me with a vengeance. He came towards me then with baleful death in his eyes. I watched as soldiers behind him shot into the air to either side and dimly I wondered what could possibly be coming next.
Sensing the disturbance behind him Marfoul turned slightly, but he was too late to dive out of the way as Flin caught him with a big shoulder that sent Marfoul flying past me.
Flin in full protective warhorse temperament swung around me in a circle and sent enemy soldiers flying or crushed to the ground beneath his hooves. He then wheeled straight at me and catapulted forward onto his knees skidding in his fall to present me with his left side.
His wild flared eyes connected with mine and I knew in that moment that the Creator had given this horse more intelligence than even I had given Flin credit for or at least some special awareness in this moment.
I knew in that moment that God had not forsaken me. Even as Flin's crashing weight shook the ground I leaned forward and with both hands regardless of the pain it caused me I pulled my sword free of its saddle sheath. I twisted at the waist falling back against Flin's belly as I swung the sword upward.
The sword came alive in my hands like never before and connected with the downward swing of Marfoul's sword as he had come rushing up behind me with his blade already descending down toward me. I did not even feel the impact of his sword as it contacted with mine. His blade shattered like glass and he went flying backwards from me through the crowd of men. Gaining my feet I staggered toward him. I stopped at his feet as he lay stunned.