20'000! That's way too high. How did they even get so many people killed without noticing?
Sounds unfortunate. Still, for them not to have any countermeasures in place, does seem a bit strange.
So Vespasian likes to trick people?
That's what tricking is.
Indeed, the soldiers have arrived only steps away from the undead legionaries making up the front line. The legionaries have already closed their rows that had previously been opened up to throw the javelins.
Their signature bend square shields are flawlessly interlocking with one another and the back rows press their shields into the legionaries before them to brace for maximum impact.
Now that I am observing more closely I notice a blue sheen covering their shields. Are those energy shields?
The massive number of soldiers crashes into the legionaries' shields. Shards of blue energy erupt like confetti and quickly fade away as the layered energy shields take a serious beating. However, unlike the soldiers who had been forced to block with their physical shields after the energy ones were broken, the legionaries managed to endure the first contact without having all their energy shields shattered.
What happens next, scares the living crap out of me.
The moment the soldiers' momentum from their charge ebbs and they take a second before fully entering the melee, the undead legionaries all move the right side of their shields to the front by just a bit. This creates a tiny gap for each legionary to stab forward with their short swords.
Like a well-oiled machine, the shields move to create the openings, the swords rush out to stab the enemy, and before I can even blink everything returns to normal. The shield wall is restored without any gaps and from the increased blue sheen around it, the energy shields have been reapplied and layered to maximum capacity.
Then, as if time had been stopped and was just beginning to run again, the entire front line of soldiers collapses. Each of them has been stabbed in one of their vitals and most of them are dead or in the process of dying.
The soldiers behind the fallen front line immediately spring forward and throw themselves at the legionaries' shields. They appear to be throwing everything they have at these shields. Shouldn't they try to be more strategic?
Desperately throwing away lives is a strategy?
Unfairly, in what way?
So to summarize, can't change the terrain because they want to occupy this floor, don't have longer reach because they weren't prepared, can't circle around them to attack from the sides or back because the floor has borders that constrain their movements, and can't exhaust them because they have infinite stamina.
This leaves only the disruption of their formation which I assume this crazed attack is supposed to be. What even motivates them to do this? Will they be killed if they retreat?
And we are really not the bad guys here?
Looks like we are the good guys then. Because those soldiers are not doing well. Every time one of them stops attacking the shields in front of him for even a second, a gap appears and a quick stab of the short sword later, the soldier drops dead.
The legionaries don't look as coordinated as before but they have yet to let a breach of their shield wall happen. However, the pressure those soldiers are putting on them is there. As the soldiers collapse only to be immediately replaced by new ones, the blue sheen on the legionaries' shields grows faint or disappears altogether in certain places.