The flat of Ryzar's blade hits it's target; Jal falls back, stunned.
Meanwhile, Reylorna makes one last desperate effort to overcome the
creature's mental defenses.  But she fails, and collapses with
exhaustion with the effort.  The mental concert collapses with her.

Jorg's senses pick up something immediately behind him; he whirls
round to see Kylar, sword raised above his head, preparing to slice
him in two.  He barely manages to duck out of the way of the
descending blade, but loses his footing and goes sprawling on the
ground.

After knocking Jal out of the fight, Ryzar trips over something else,
but this time it's not dead.  A ugly mouth opens in the middle of a
mass of grey-brown hair, filled with far too many sharp needle-like
teeth.

Ryzar's mind feels like it's being crushed in a vice.

--
Tim Hall, http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/timjh

"The Very Big Stupid is a thing which breeds by eating The Future.  Have 
 you seen it?  It sometimes disguises itself as a good-looking quarterly 
 bottom line, derived by closing the R&D department"