We were getting dangerously close to Zarsha and I feared what might happen if he was to get too close to her. I asked my heart for more and I increased my effort to hold him back and I managed to stop his approach. Never had I fought against such strength. There seemed to be no dimming in the unbridled capacity of strength he possessed. My breathing sounded like the bellows of a blacksmiths and I could feel the rapid beat of my heart pounding in my chest even as it echoed loudly in my ears.
Sweat streamed off of me and burned as it got into my eyes. I half lost my footing for a moment and seizing the advantage the wild man grabbed me at the shoulder and heaved me away to the side. I fell head over heels and continued on over to land back onto my feet. I quickly turned to face him, but He wasn't there! Where was he?
Horror stricken, my searching eyes found him standing beside Zarsha. A smirk of pure evil creased his wild face as he casually drew his blade tip down the length of one of Zarsha' arms. A thin red line of blood appeared in the wake of the blade's passage. Zarsha made not a sound, but continued to stare at me steadfastly, looking to me for protection, as big tears rolled down her face.
Suddenly I saw my father's death again in my mind's eye. I had been helpless to do anything as he had been killed by lesser men under the cover of ambush. I wasn't that same helpless boy any longer. I had seen the impossible done before and Eliak's words from the cliff became mine, "God give me strength!"
The wild man heard my plea to the Creator and laughed out loud at it. "God? Who's He? Does it look like He's helping you? If this is helping you I'd hate to think about what Him not helping you looks like. Maybe it looks something like this!"
He turned and stabbed Zarsha in the shoulder with his sword. She screamed and I came unhinged. He wheeled to face my charge, but I batted his sword away and with a roar of pure fury, I grabbed a hold of him and threw him bodily away from Zarsha.
He landed some fifteen feet away and got to his feet quickly. In my right hand I held my sword and in my left hand I clutched the pointed end of the broken javelin that I had picked up off the sand. I had never felt so much unreasoning anger before in my life, and I couldn't have cared less as to whatever creature of wrath that it was making me into in this moment of anguish.