That did the trick.
Did 'it' too well, actually.
The wrong words said, spoken in an even wronger tone, struck a nerve in him in the wrongest way possible. A single piercing glare, that was the last I saw of him before it happened.
Before he happened.
"Bob's charging!" came the warning, and remark from Tyler too late. "And he looks seriously pissed too."
His enraged yell echoing back conveyed that this next barrage would be the paramount of his efforts… so I readied myself for the impending, planted my feet firmly into the dirt, and took my stand, shield up and ready.
The thing was, I expected him to strike the very moment he closed our distances to each other - it never crossed my mind that he'd begin from afar. Not until it was already far too late.
A tumultuous clang rang, overpowering in that split-instant, every sound and every voice, except one, except Tyler - who I heard barely through the ringing in my ears.