The bow wasn't my weapon of choice, but I was proficient enough with it to make most of my arrows count. They reached the deeper trench and broke formation as they began to climb down and then up the other side, which was higher and studded with sharpened stakes and the littered bodies of those slain throughout the night. I laid the bow down and reached over my shoulders and pulled my twin sabers free of their sword harnesses.
I would have preferred to have had Tadias's war sword in my hands, but I had left it on Flin fearing that its constant glowing and sprays of light would have made me too big of a target to enemy archers during the night. I hated the thought of it falling into the enemy's hands, but I couldn't do any more than I already was in trying to stop that from becoming a reality. There was no more time to think about fabled swords or even winning and losing any more.
The enemy was upon us and I swept my swords down smashing their blocks away as I slashed at any soft target that came available to me. Wounded and dead enemy soldiers fell backward to drag even more of their fellow warriors down with them, but the press of the enemy was relentless and they just kept coming. I lost awareness of the greater battle taking place around me and knew only the perimeter of ground that I had carved out for myself that lay directly around me.
The fighting grew savage as they began to make it up and over the top of our dirt work defense line. I jumped up onto the mound top itself, unmindful of enemy archers, as I was lost in the need to hold the enemy back at all costs. My twin blades moved independently of each other, sometimes combining to take out a single opponent or at other times I engaged two or more of the enemy at a time.
Always I kept moving never staying in one place to long to become a target of the heavy press of enemy soldiers that seemed to be all around me. This was different then the arena. I had never faced so many at once before, but the key to survival was the same. Take the fight to them. Don't let them dictate my movements. Always keep moving. First pressing then retreating and repeated back again.
Fellow warriors were becoming harder and harder to find in the press of bodies and I helped those I could, but they all seemed to disappear in time and I was left alone. I was used to being alone in my fights. Dealing with multiple opponents wasn't new to me either, but this was pushing it. Still there was a similarity to the arena about the fight scene. It was almost predictable the movement of their slashing thrusts and rushes to grapple with me. One only had to keep up with the dance to deal the fatal blow before they had the chance to start their move or had just missed on their move.