Chapter 644: Resisting The Tide
That didn’t mean that the trash legion didn’t see any conflict, it just meant that the only beasts that charged after them were the ones who were too dumb to have understood what happened earlier. And while several of them charged at Laz, more of them were somewhat sensitive to his strength and charged at the legion themselves, something Laz was glad to see happen. They needed this experience to ever have any faith in themselves. With Number Two calling out commands from the rear and the other numbers spread out in their numbers, the former prisoners felt calmed and didn’t lose their cool.
When the first beast hit the shield line, the warriors at front took the attack and with the hands supporting them from the back, didn’t move from their spots. As they regained their barring, swords and spears were lunged forward, stabbing the beast and killing it, allowing the front line to push it away before the next came.
While they had to deal with the first attacks raising their anxiety, they soon found their rhythm and with that, things settled down. The numbers rotated the lines, giving everyone a chance to fight in both the front and back line. While in the line formation, the covered the most ground, but left their backs open which was acceptable as their was only open ground and the wall behind them. But as the battle wore on, the other legions, despite being larger, began to collapse for what ever reason meaning more and more beasts suddenly found themselves without a target. Even with Laz standing at the head of the group, the beasts desire for blood caused them to start charging the sides of the formation in an attempt to take a few of the wretched humans down.
Number Two noticed this quickly and with a quick check with the numbers on the end, he knew that there wasn’t much time left.
" CLOSE THE SHELL!" Number Two yelled, causing a momentary panic among the line before the numbers spoke up, getting the men and women around them to follow the plan. The line suddenly bent at both sides as Laz started to back up, making his way into the front of the line and grabbing a spare shield that was handed to him from behind. Like a hand closing into a fist, the sides swung in on each other and the box was closed. While there was still some hesitation since now several dozens of people were facing the wall, seeing the still steely faces of the Numbers let people know that they couldn’t drop their guard. Soon enough, with the demise of the other legions, the trash legion, positioned right in front of the door was attracting everyone’s attention.
"Look at these fools? What good is it for so many of them to be facing the wall? Are they hoping we open the gate and let them back in?" Chadson asked while everyone else looked on in surprise at the formation they had taken. While this place had many similarities to ancient Greece and Rome... it still wasn’t, so the idea of such a formation never occurred to anyone which is why it took Laz so long to explain it to them. While the line formation they used before seemed simple, it wasn’t unheard of for dealing with beasts that liked to recklessly charge. But forming a square? That was purely from Laz’s imagination combined with some history lessons and something the numbers quickly understood the use of after he explained it.
The Commander was quiet as he looked on so his advisors were quiet. Chadson, the aide, was appointed that position due to his family while several friends of his were also granted similar positions to gain some military merits. As they laughed and joked around, they didn’t noticed just how effective this formation was, but the wise eyes of the leadership didn’t miss it.
"Are you noting this down?" The commander asked the two men next to him who had received brushes and paper and were furiously recording with both words and pictures what they were witnessing.
"As best we can sir," they said quickly while watching, refusing to even look away for a moment.
"Chadson?" The commander said, not looking away from the square in front of him.
"Yes sir?" Chadson responded, turning away from his group.
"You were tasked with communicating with the heads of all the legions heading out of the gate to record all of their info including the members and leaders ranks and names, just so that we would have a clear record of the heroes who gave their lives first so that we could understand our enemy better, yes?"
"Yes... sir!"
"And yet you did not speak with this legion to find out either who was in charge, who was taking charge or any of the ones involved in it, other than the fact that the Emperor’s gladiators were in charge and the entire unit was made up of prisoners, correct?"
"Uhh... yes. Sir... As I mentioned earlier..."
"You are dismissed from your position. You may either walk out of here right now or I will throw you off this wall in ten seconds... 10. 9. 8." The commander started counting.
"Sir... wait. Please... If you’ll just let me explain...."
"6. 5. 4."
"RUN DAMMIT. HE’S SERIOUS...." Luckily for Chadson, some of his friends weren’t nearly as dense and knew that if the commander said he would do it, he would. So they grabbed on to him and ran for their lives, knowing that they would be next considering the officers they were aides of had given them similar missions and they hadn’t bothering visiting the trash legion either.
"Send them back to their families and let them know they threatened the personal possessions of the Emperor," the commander said.
"You don’t think there will be any fall out?" One of his closer advisors asked.
"If you word it that way, no. Which family would want to go argue with the Emperor about their sons abuse of his property? As for these men.... give it an hour then send out legions to rescue them. If any of them still live, I want as much information as possible about this formation and any others they had practiced. This... square.... is war changing. Be it beasts or men... the possibilities of having dozens of legions working together like an armored beast? The possibilities are endless..."
"Shouldn’t we save them now then sir?"
"I want to see more of what it is capable of. If it only looks good on paper... then what would be the point?" The commander responded.
As for Laz, he held his shield and braced, feeling the weight of the massive creature bash into them and begin to fall. The spears and stabbed it deep and killed it, but it was falling forward on to the formation. If it wasn’t for so many men holding up the beast, several of them would have been crushed underneath. It took a while, but they were soon able to move the body over, given them a wall of cover from the side that would be hard for another creature to get past. The sides and even the back of the square were being assaulted and threatened by the massive amounts of beasts looking to get an easy meal, but not all of the beasts were focused on them. Several of the better climbers and those that could fly were scaling the walls and flying to them, only to be knocked back by well placed arrows and bolts from massive ballista’s. Despite that, the walls provided no help for the embattled legion meaning that they were stuck on their own. Even with Number Two calling orders from the center of the square, it was hard for people to hear and make adjustments leading to injuries and deaths, even when they were avoidable.
"DAMMIT. CYCLE IN. DON’T LEAVE THE TIRED IN THE FRONT! DO YOU WANT THE BEASTS TO BREAK THE LINE? I DON’T CARE WHAT’S BETWEEN HER LEGS. GIVE HER A SHIELD AND LET HER LEND A HAND, SHE’S BIGGER THAN YOU’LL EVER BE ANYWAY. AND YES SHE SCARES ME TOO SO SHUT UP AND MOVE IT!!!!"
The constant shift and flow of the lines moved thanks to Number Two. He wasn’t a smart man, nor was a very talented one. But he had spent years in the army before being betrayed on the day before his promotion by his best friend of many years, all because he had been over looked for the same promotion. And the cost of his betrayal was a dead officers wife and a trail leading right to his door. After being beaten and tortured to within an inch of his life, he was then sold to the games where he had been ever since. Many times he had wanted to die, but he lived on for reasons he didn’t understand. And yet now he knew he was destined to lead, it just wasn’t in the way he had originally thought.
"FIRST!! TO THE EAST!" Number Two yelled and Laz cycled out from the line, handing his shield to another. Looking east, he noticed a wave of horned goat like men running forward. The beasts they had been fighting were all mutated with the strange black fog drifting out of their bodies. but the real dangerous ones were the ones who weren’t leaking any of the fog whatsoever, such as this group coming in. Had Laz’s body not been nourished by so many goddesses since his time fighting the shadow beast in the arena, he wouldn’t even be a match for one of these things.
But right now his power had filled to the brim and the chance to ascend to godhood seemed to be in reach for the first time. His body was many times stronger now as the fighting allowed him to digest the energy he had taken from the goddesses in record time but even more than that, the very blood of the beasts he was slaying was being absorbed by him as well, fueling his ascent, strengthening everything within him.
Seeing these beasts charge towards him, Laz leapt up and ran across the backs and shoulders of the men and women of the legion, all for the chance to bathe in their blood.
