their weapons were arms burgeoning with talon-like hairs , clacking horns and pincers that severed waists with one snap , or tongues that erupted from mouths like spears and hungrily sucked life from a man , what use was a well-practised , impregnable phalanx if you have no time to form it , no shields to build its armoured wall , no spears to create its many barbs ?