"That was never his problem, Ingolsol," Claudia said. "Such a thing is not a weakness. Oliver simply is not willing to engage in purposeful sacrifice."
"Let him through!" Oliver called. "Don't waste your lives stopping a Third Boundary man!"
It wasn't the right thing to say. His own chances of victory were calculated based on the fact that Amion would have to fight through three ranks of men, and that he'd end up surrounded when he arrived in front of Oliver.
Of course, the men obeyed. Even those slaves and peasants that did not know the military ways had always understood the simplicity of strength. They believed Oliver to be stronger than anything conceivable on the battlefield. If he bid that they part, so that he could take a life himself, then they would do it, without question, not knowing that he had lost the use of the very hand that had taken all those lives.
