The carriage's rattling came to a stop as the men in the carriage stood and left, Reynold following behind. He had arrived at the front. The smell of death, smoke and the bright light powder that had been burned during the night caught him off guard and his expression showed it. A dirty veteran chuckled and shook his head, "You best get used to it, son," Reynold nodded as the man walked away with his shield and spear. His armor made Reynold think that he was a defense legionnaire.
"All new legionnaires, this way!" A man called as he stood on a podium, "Come on, there is work to be done," The group of new soldiers made ranks in front of the podium as the man looked at them all, "I am field commander Ilbert of the First Shock, my subordinates are Kovik Leader of Defense and Siles Detachment commander of the King's Men, you will obey their orders and follow their rules about how we do things here," The group looked at him unmoving, "Defense, head to east camp to get to work and shock head to west camp, those who are not in either of them, with east camp."
Reynold formed ranks with the older, war hardened veterans as the 1st shock was only a small unit in comparison to the larger defense units. He was the new one and the veterans didn't give him the time of day, he was dead to them, Ilbert walked forwards and his eye found the fresh faced recruit, "We have a new legionnaire in our ranks," None turned to him, not caring about his presence at all, "He will fight with our 50 reserves for this night, and until I change my mind," The commander barked, "Tonight, we are the central push of the formations," The others reacted to his announcement in a very negative way with confusion and grimaces, "Our observers have noticed the weakness of the beasts to a forceful frontal push," The wind whistled by as the sun reached its peak, night would be on its way now and the creatures would too, "You are dismissed, regroup at dusk," The 1st shock dispersed and the field commander approached the young, new legionnaire, "Reynold, was it?"
"Y-Yes, sir."
"Ilbert, we are the elite, as good as one another, no ranks matter aside from what orders we follow."
"Yes, Ilbert, understood," The pillars of smoke rose from one side of the camp and men worked on burning piles of corpses and burying others. It was a rather unsettling sight for the young man as he looked back at his field commander, awaiting his response.
"Whatever the Dawn Lady saw in you, I don't know," He sighed, "My legionnaires will not accept you so simply, just because you have a fancy title and uniform," As harsh as he might have sounded, Reynold had already had those conversations with himself in his mind. He was a random recruit for those legionnaires who were still alive to fight after the night's slaughter. The young man hoped to be joining them, "Tonight, you will hold with our reserve, have you witnessed the shock method of combat in practice before?"
"The advancing volley?"
"Yes."
"I have only heard of it in theory, Ilbert, not seen it in practice," The legionnaire replied, "I have practiced it myself."
"What are your thoughts on it?"
"It is a violent and grinding way to fight, humans that is," The response made the older man raise an eyebrow, "The creatures have no sense of fear or retreat, do they?"
"No, but that is why we approach them in a restricted combat area," Ilbert turned and pointed at the two hills that ran along the edge of a quite wide area, "Where we are standing was not owned by the light days ago."
"Is this why defense and shock are working together?" A nod gave him an answer, "What happens if they break through?"
"Only the gods above know."
"Oh."
"We are the point of the spear, we need to be flawless tonight," The older man's use of flawless was not an exaggeration, the Advancing Volley, as much as it was a very effective formation with the spear, shield and crossbows that the shock units carried, was not the same if a side caved or if the beasts were to break into the flanks of it. Three ranks of men would advance, 1 leading with their spears before guarding with spears on the ground then the previously guarding would move back and reload their crossbows and the ones that had reloaded would fire once they had clear sights. Firing a concentrated volley of bolts would allow the first creatures who hadn't impaled themselves to be culled and hopefully provide the separation needed for the charge forwards to dig out more space. With regular men, they would be forced away again and again, but with unrelenting beasts, there was little to expect from retreat.
The ranks formed as the clerics of the king's men lit the violently bright lights that would help repel the creatures, "The gods look upon you, young sons of these lands," The High Priest of the order of the clerics of the king spoke, "Tonight, another step towards the glory of the holy, towards the safety of our sons and daughters, towards the prosperity of our kingdom!" The legionnaires either tapped their spears on the ground once or hit their shields, "To battle, to glory, to victory!" The defense moved forwards in their tight formations as the shock units made their way forwards, in the central position and the 200 men formed into the reserves, and the 3 ranks and then the flank protection. It was only a matter of time until the beasts would come charging.
Reynold took hold of his spear once more and checked that his crossbow was drawn back. He had 30 bolts with the possibility of asking for more from the supply runners. Combat against foes that broke down and ran was hard enough from the books he had read but he could barely imagine what strain this fighting would cause him. The lights were carried by the clerics and we held behind the main points of the 3 formation army that were to fight together. A shriek made a shiver run down his back as the grunting and groaning of the beasts his memory dredged up approached. The horde was coming, led by some sort of larger beast or louder beast.
The light soon found the gross figures as they ran towards the large wall of shields that was formed by the tightly packed defense units. The central section of the attack was met by the first charge of the Advancing Volley. The twags of crossbows followed as soon as the spears were rested as a wall of spikes and then the lines moved forwards along with the horns of war bellowing to move the entire front forwards. This was the war against evil, the war against darkness, this was the well oiled machine of the 1st shock front.
Spears broke, men tired and crossbows gave in from the relentless abuse and men grew tired. Reserves moved forwards and took their spots to stave off any form of breakthrough but it was clear that such pressure being put on by the now charging beasts would make it hard to advance much further in the grinding, grueling battlefield. Reynold moved forwards as the cleansers dragged the dead beasts back and into pits that were burning brightly, everything needed to happen perfectly or there would be no way of going forwards. The lines moved forwards a few more paces as the spears dug into rotting and decayed flesh and crossbow bolts dug in or flew through the foul beasts' heads, "Push!" Ilbert shouted as the men continued to grind forwards but soon a few men were injured, caught by a wild swipe or a bite. The reserves were rolled in to replace them but the advance was slowing. The 1st Shock the spearhead but the brutal, unrelenting dead were blunting their point, "Hold!" There was a sudden shriek from the darkness, from beyond the light that was provided by the intense lights and the flood began.
As if they had been waiting in the darkness, the horde's true size was revealed to the men as the defense units stopped advancing and the shield wall braced for the attack. The Advancing Volley that had been grinding away at the horde stopped and the spears became spikes for which the undead could impale themselves on. It was a spectacle, coordination that Reynold could witness as reserve defense units, with their heavy wall shields moved in to add protection to the spearhead. The grunting and goans ran from the darkness and slammed into the points of the spears poking through the defensive shields or the now withdrawing spears of 1st Shock. The heart trapped in Reynold's chest pounded as if it wanted out as the 1st Shock were allowed to have a break as the defense units took point and held the line, "Hold!" Ilbert shouted and the horns bellowed again but with a different tone, signaling the order to hold the line.
Moments after the order to hold, the line bent and broke as a wall shield was pushed over by the charge of 3 beasts together, "Damn!" The man shouted as he lost his footing and his second looked on in terror as he tried to raise his spear to defend himself. Without waiting for an order, the young legionnaire broke from his line and charged forwards. His spear was hurled at the beasts before a swing of his blade held off the life threatening beast, however, the break in the line soon became a point of focus for the beasts and Reynold began hacking at everything that wasn't in uniform while the two men of the defense units got back from their terror induced petrified states. Each attack with his sword met the decaying, soft body of another beast or hit the hard exposed bones of the larger, more powerful beasts but still cut them down. A small group of the reserves rushed in to help Reynold as the defense reserves moved forwards, a spear wall began to create a wall of bodies before the wall shield of a fresh legionnaire filled the gap. Reynold moved back to the rest of the reserves with his heart slowly calming as all the anticipation of what it was to kill a beast as a legionnaire was gone, he had done it.
"Good job, rookie," A man said, slightly turning his head to the younger man as the horns bellowed again, "Dawn approaches!" The men shouted in unison as the rays of sunlight began to color the sky with a warm morning orange, the most amazing sunrise Reynold had seen.