Titans of Chaos

Despite all this, I did not see the moral energy snarls one would expect to see from committingmurder. The Atlanteans were staying well away from the areas of water frothing with poison, andit looked as if the Laestrygonians aboard the burning ships were immune to fire. All this visiblehorror and destruction Victor was shedding was distraction. His real attack were groups of smallmolecular packages distributed widely over the area, which, if inhaled, influenced the centralnervous system to send panic and fear signals to the brain, release adrenaline, cause selectiveshutdowns in the cortex and higher-reasoning centers. Apparently, there was a mechanical causefor determining which way a flight/fight reaction would go, and he was setting it to "flight."

Quentin was invisible-in all this confusion, he still was carrying the ring of Gyges, which Colinhad handed him to perform his astronomy experiments. I never saw what he did, and he did nottalk about it later, but I do not think he was simply hiding and letting Victor do all the work. Onceor twice I saw a shadow moving on the black ships, silhouetted by the flames Victor wasspreading, and it bent over any Laestrygonian whose helmet contained more plumes than theothers. Those to whom the shadow spoke did not look at it, but cast their weapons away andjumped into the sea. Every time I tried to look at the shadow, my higher sense bent away, and Ilost sight of it.

And Colin-it really was a good day for Colin. He picked up the first Atlantean he came across bythe legs and used him like a baseball bat to knock the others reeling. They shot arrows into hisarms and legs and he just laughed and ignored them, plucking them out and wiping away the redink from his untouched limbs. They threw nets on him and he threw them back; they belaboredhim with truncheons and he plucked the staves from their hands and broke them over his knee. Hewas like one of those absurd characters from Irish folklore who doesn't need armor, cannot behurt, and can toss around trained soldiers like dolls. He threw them off the ship one after another,shouting out my name each time he made a throw. I had become his battle cry.

They were not trying to kill him, and he returned the favor. Tossing Atlanteans into the waterwould not drown them; they were amphibious. I do not think he ever broke any limbs, except onpeople whom he recognized as having climbed back up the gunwales more than once.