his trainingthe daen-cer-tainhad made him lightning-swift , a fearsome black blur hefting hissing blades of death that dropped the first wave of attackers in less than a second , moving so quickly that they became aware that their arms had been cut off , their legs chopped , their heads sliced from their shoulders only in that last terminal millisecond after it had happened , when they went to move and before the pain had time to register , when the daylight sped away from them finally and permanently , when they glanced down and saw that they were falling to bloody stumps , that their sword arm was missing , that they were blind , realizing only then that a gray-yellow blade had just stuck them in their brains , and that they were dying now , falling like all the rest of the onrushers , the warrior before them indeed unreachable and untouchable , inexhaustible , unyielding , unstoppable .