The use of the epic simile in the excerpt helps the reader understand how hot the spear actually is, as stated in the last option and explained below.
First, we need to understand that a simile is a figure of speech that consists of comparing different things. Similes rely on the use of words such as "like" or "as." An epic simile is merely a long simile, that is, a simile that extends over many lines.
In the excerpt we are analyzing here, the epic simile helps the reader understand how hot the spear actually is. The lines contain the description of the making of the spear and how it made the eyeball hiss as it touched it.
With the information above in mind, we can choose the last option as the correct answer.
The missing excerpt is the following:
In a smithy one sees a white-hot axehead or an adze plunged and wrung in a cold tub, screeching steam– the way they make soft iron hale and hard—: just so that eyeball hissed around the spike.
Learn more about simile here:
https://brainly.com/question/14234454
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