The ogre did not stop.
Korr's axe still jutted from its shoulder. Venn's arrows stood in a tight cluster across its chest. Neither slowed it enough. The club rose again. Aiden turned at last, ordered power flooding his limbs, and met the downward swing with both hands on the hilt of his blade.
The impact drove him back three steps and cracked the packed earth under his boots. He stepped inside the next swing, drove the point up under the ogre's ribs, and twisted.
Blackish blood poured over his arms. The creature staggered. Aiden ripped the blade free and cut the tendon behind one knee. The ogre dropped to a half-kneel. He took its head on the third stroke.
It hit the ground like a felled tree.
Bandits were already closing from both sides of the track. Aiden killed the first two in the same breath—throat, heart—then the third as the man tried to spear Sera from behind. Korr recovered another axe from a fallen raider and split a skull.
