beast stumbled to its knee and Fil finished it off with a powerful slash across its neck.
As the goblin fell to its death, Fil noticed the sunlight had momentarily disappeared. He glanced up and saw, to his dismay, thousands of arrows on their downward decent.
He had just enough time to get his shield up before the arrows turned him into a pin cushion. Many men near and behind him weren’t so lucky and their screams of pain and death sounded all around. He even heard the grunts and howls of goblins as they, too, fell victim to their own arrows. Three arrows pounded into his shield just as he saw a surviving goblin in front of him jab a spear at his unprotected belly.
Fil could do nothing but turn his body at the last minute, but it was enough. The tip of the goblin spear struck his leather armor a glancing blow and the deadly point slid by harmlessly, cutting a nasty gash across the hardened leather.
The goblin stopped its forward momentum but it could not pull its spear back for a second strike as Fil had slammed the hard edge of his shield down on top of the shaft, breaking it cleanly in two. Then he swung his heavy sword down on the goblin’s arm, cutting it in half just as easily as the spear shaft.
There was a brief reprieve as the barrage of arrows killed many men and goblins alike, creating gaps between the two forces.
Fil looked to his right to see Calden battling two goblins. They had both survived the enemy arrows, but now, they and their nearby comrades, faced the enemy in disarray, their formation momentarily crumbling around them.
Fil could not believe that Moredin’s forces launched their arrows into the fighting ranks while they fought so closely. Obviously they would kill some of their own troops in the process, which of course they had. But Fil did not have time to think any further on it as his friend battled for his life. He frantically looked for a way to help Calden, when his eyes glimpsed a discarded spear at his feet. Sheathing his sword, he picked up the spear.
He was getting ready to throw it when another goblin attacked him from the left. He used the spear like a staff, hitting the goblin’s sword away and then reversing the swing, taking the goblin in the side of the head. The goblin grunted, stumbling as Fil spun the spear around quickly, lancing the off-balance beast in the side with the razor sharp point. The goblin fell away into the battling mass of men and beasts around him.
Fil turned in one smooth motion and hefted the spear back for a throw. He spotted Calden fifteen paces away struggling to keep the goblins at bay. He used his powerful arms and legs, throwing the spear as hard as he could. Fil’s weapon of choice was the spear and not many could use it as proficiently as he. He had practiced with it every day and he could throw a spear farther and more accurately than any of the knight apprentices.
His practice had paid off, for the spear took one of the goblins in the side and the powerful throw launched the beast into the other goblin. Both creatures landed heavily on the ground and Calden cleaved the uninjured one with his short sword before the beast could untangle himself from his dead comrade. Calden glanced toward Fil and smiled before he was forced to engage another goblin.
Fil forced a frantic smile back as he glanced around at the chaos around him. He looked up and saw Tanus on his warhorse twenty paces away swinging his longer cavalry sword left and right, cutting into the enemy ranks, leaving a swath of death in his wake as he expertly led his horse through the mass of goblins.
Fil glimpsed a goblin sneaking toward Tanus from behind with a long spear in its hand. Fil looked around frantically for another spear but there were none to be found.
“Tanus, behind you!” Fil yelled.
Tanus glanced toward Fil, pivoting his horse around simultaneously. The warhorse shouldered several goblins out of the way but he wasn’t quite fast enough as the goblin jabbed up with the long shaft. The spear point took Tanus in the shoulder, penetrating a gap between his protective plates and knocking him off balance.
Fil unsheathed his blade and charged toward his commander, screaming in rage as he went. At the last minute