There were a number of fight sequences in this novel. The following was one of the earliest:
Chapter Forty-seven
The look on William's face the moment the spear tears through his vulnerable body is one of sudden incredulity. He knows in that shocking instant he will not survive. His last thoughts seek to reach out to his beloved one last time, but he fails.
"William!" Joseph screams in anguish as his lover staggers toward him but a half step, the spear sticking clear through his thick torso.
His life gone, however, William's mortal form falls to the ground, the corpse thudding onto the gray dust with a sickening sound, bright blood surging out of the two gaping wounds, from his chest and his back simultaneously.
Everyone else except Joseph dives to the ground as the sky turns almost dark with the formations of arrows and spears that now fly up from far below, as a continuous fleet of death seeks us out.
With the terrified kitten still in my arms, I leap into the spiritual sanctuary excavations nearby, seeking protection by ducking behind the high marble altar while cringing in fear and abject terror. For, unlike the others, I am entirely powerless and unarmed.
Ignoring the peril, Joseph falls to his knees and scoops up William's lifeless body in his arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
"No, no, no...," he futilely wails to the heavens above; but they only mock his cries with the whoosh of deadly projectiles that continue to fly overhead and sting the ground all around the rest of us, greedily searching for more victims.
Marina angrily crawls to the edge of the parapet and peers over the side. What she sees amazes her: a vast, ancient army of tunic-clad warriors surges toward these high walls, screaming for victory as their shields and remaining javelins glisten in the sparkling sunlight. Even now, many of them attempt to struggle up the crumbling walls all around our vulnerable position, having tossed rope or wooden ladders against the fortress inclines, to easily scale the broken battlements unopposed.
Marina shouts a warning to the rest of us, "Close your eyes!" A moment later, a searing white light flashes from her extended right hand. The army below immediately staggers about in physical pain, their eyes temporarily rendered useless by the intensity of the bright beams, as if the sun above had suddenly dropped out of the sky to punish them. They were fortunate, however, that she hadn't summoned a brighter light upon their vulnerable numbers and blinded them all permanently.
The falling missiles having slowed and then stopped, Joan stands up and angrily gestures toward the multitude of soldiers stumbling around below. Ladders quickly topple over, spilling and dropping those few warriors who had not let go when their eyesight initially failed them. Using her telekinesis, she rolls the entire army backward as if kicking several soccer balls across a grassy field.
Paul joins her, raising a stinging dust storm out over the flat landscape and chasing the befuddled army well back from the ruined walls of Troy, now believing that all of the gods have turned against them at once.
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