The most common causes of this issue are: Kratas wheeled away on our left with twenty-five chariots following him in line astern, while we ran on straight at the huge grey beast that confronted us with the yellow shafts of ivory, thick as the columns of the temple of Horus, standing out from his vast grey head.Your IP address has been temporarily blocked due to a large number of HTTP requests. So I raised my fist and gave the hand-command that split the column into two files. He kicked up bursts of dust with each long flying stride, and was on us before I could get the horses under control again. He was swifter than any horse, and nimble as an angry leopard set upon by the hounds. "By Horus, look at him come" Tanus roared with astonishment, for the beast was not running from us, but directly at us, in a furious charge. Our plan was to come in and split on each side of the bull, firing our arrows into him as we passed, then wheeling around and coming back in classic chariot tactics. There were broken chariots scattered across the field, for Kratas out on the left had fared no better than we had.īehind us the rest of our column was strung out in single file. I pulled up my horses at the edge of the grove, and we stared back aghast at the carnage of our shattered squadron. The bull lifted his trunk high and then swung it down like an executioner's axe. The driver lacked Hui's skill, and his turn away was inept. The next chariot in line was not so fortunate. The elephant wheeled to chase after Hui, but he was at full gallop and raced clean away. Run in close under that long, ridiculous nose of his." "I will kill him with a single shaft, before he can escape. "His head is so big, it will make a fine target," Tanus exulted, as he nocked an arrow. They rampaged through the grove, smashing up the capsized chariots, stamping the carcasses of the horses under those massive padded feet, throwing the bodies of screaming men high in the air and trampling them as they fell back to earth. However, the wounds had not weakened them, but seemed only to have aggravated their fury. The two great bull elephants bristled with arrow-shafts, and the blood streamed down their bodies, leaving wet streaks on their dusty grey hide. Then the bull squealed again, and he ran. Then the next chariot in line tore in, distracting the bull from his victim. His archer from the footplate behind him fired an arrow into the bull's cheek a hand's-span below the eye, and that pulled his attention from us. Hui came in from the side, lashing his horses and yelling like a demon. Hui in the second chariot of our line saved us, for we were defenceless against the old bull's fury. He pulled the shaft from his own flesh and threw it aside and came on after us, reaching out towards us with the blood-smeared trunk. He merely reached up with his trunk and - gripped the shaft of the arrow with the tip, as a man might do with his hand. We did not know then that the brain of the elephant is not situated where you would expect it to be, but is far back in the mountainous skull and protected by a mass of spongy bone that no arrow can penetrate. It struck the bull in the centre of his forehead, and I expected to see him collapse as the bronze point pierced the brain. When they spread their ears they seemed to block out the sky, like a dark grey thundercloud. It was only then that I realized the true size of them. The two old bulls we had selected had sensed our approach and turned to face us. "That one on the right is the biggest," squeaked Memnon. For a moment I lost control of the team, and we swerved away. The horses shied wildly, so that I was thrown against the dashboard with a force that bruised my ribs. He threw up his trunk and loosed a blast of sound that stunned and deafened us. It was as though the bull heard and understood the challenge.
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