Kathren planted her hip into the backside of a goblin, knocking him forward and into the range of the legionary he was facing off against. Anticipating her action, the human cut the goblin down and then turned and swung the front of his shield at a goblin to his right, knocking the creature to the side and into another goblin.
Not that Kathren saw the legionary's actions, as she had already lurched past him. The only reason she even knew of what he did was the constant stream of information flowing into her mind from the union. And during the same moments the legionary acted, she slid the top of her gladius into the calf of a second goblin and tripped a third.
Each of her actions, small as they were, allowed the legionaries fighting the opportunity to finish off a foe. Occasionally, Kathren might land a mortal blow, but generally, she was trying to go unnoticed, as that was the whole purpose of a rover.
In the history of the Republic, fighting outside of a solid shield wall was a relatively new occurrence. Well, fighting outside a shield wall and having the legion live to tell the tale was new, as there were countless incidents in the past where beastkins had caught a legion unprepared or simply broke their lines and poured into the gap, fragmenting the fighting into a collection of individuals.
Against even an average-sized horde of beastkin, the event of a broken line would always lead to eradication. It was only when fighting against the Imperium, and now the goblins, that a melee was a viable option. A good— no, a great commander was essential to ensure a melee was decided by factors other than the overall numbers, gear, morale, psy, and exhaustion levels of the fighters.
It took a special mind years of training until they could place legionaries in real-time in a pattern that allowed the union to have a view of every enemy in the area while they fought. Not that their burden ended there, as even when legionaries were initially positioned correctly, the leader still had to shift individuals constantly to avoid momentary gaps. Even a gap in the vision for a single second could result in legionaries being cut down, which would cause a cascading effect as more enemies slip through new blind spots to land lethal blows.
As much as a shield wall is an example of a perfectly coordinated machine that can be seen as a single object, a melee is a chaotic dance of individuals working together. Taken alone, no one event mattered, but as a whole, it became a meat grinder to the opponents.
Once everyone was accounted for, the point wasn't to clash against each other head-on but to create openings. To divert the opponents' attention with a frontal assault, allowing someone to slip through the battle, step around a blocking body, and execute what should only be a minor attack. The one delivering the blow hardly ever fully committed to it, but it was always enough to tilt the fight in favor of the legionary.
Given Kathren's depletion of psy, her left arm sending a bolt of pain through her chest when she tried lifting it, her lack of a shield, and her knee, Redgenald ordered her to be one of the rovers… Which was probably the right call. At least it was easier than standing still against a goblin's frontal attack, but running around was becoming more challenging by the second as the bodies mounted, and it wasn't just because they were obstacles.
The blood seeping between the bodies made every step precarious. You could never know if you were stepping into a hole or onto level ground, like walking around a street and seeing a murky puddle you couldn't see the bottom of. It also made everything slippery, which was quite a problem when Kathren was supposed to be moving around silently and quickly.
Another problem — and a far more serious one in Kathren's unasked opinion — was the total collapse of Redgenald's plan to bring down the pillar, but who was Kathren to make that judgment? You know, besides being one of the people who will have to pay with her life as it all slowly went to shit… Yeah, other than that, her opinion was worthless.
An eternity ago, which could also be viewed as a few minutes when you were outside of combat, the goblins popped up from the ground around the pillar and reshaped the stone. If they could get to the pillar, there was at least a chance that the collective legionaries could gather and shape enough psy to break the stone, but that was made all but impossible by the wall of spears bristling around the base.
After a moment of hesitation, where Redgenald processed the information, he quickly changed his plan. Not even attempting to assault the armored bigger goblins while being harassed by what amounted to light skirmishers — which would have gone horribly wrong — he decided to pull back toward the switchbacks in a weird way.
Redgeanld threw out a tendril to the reinforcements and split them into three groups that moved to each side of the trench and one down the center. The legionaries slammed into the goblins, pushing them back and taking some pressure off Kathren and the others. It was enough for them to pull back and reform into the strongest shield wall of their fight so far.
The opposing forces watched each other for a moment, coming to a silent agreement not to fight as nobody moved. Then Redgenald ordered them to charge the goblins, a command the legionaries happily accepted as they shouted their challenge, swords raised, and an instant later, the goblin rushed forward to meet them.
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Almost before the two lines had impacted, Redgenald was having them retreat. He even had the legion battle line break into smaller groups, letting the goblins through. From there, the legionaries steadily fell back, the groups continuously breaking apart until they arrived at the wild melee Kathren found herself in.
Though it was slow, the legionaries constantly took steps backward, making it appear like they were being pushed back. Or at least the goblins seemed to think so, as they kept pressing forward despite their losses.
A goblin charged at Kathren, but she just gave it a mocking smile as she turned and stepped to the side. From the corner of her eye, she saw a sword stab out in front of him and the goblin clothesline itself on the blade, resulting in an all but severed neck.
Head jerking to the right, Kathren pushed her body into a lunge, but it was already too late. A Goblin had leaped onto a legionary's shield and clawed out the side of the man's neck. A moment later, Kathren's blade pierced the goblin's chest as it rode the human to the ground, but it was a hollow victory.
Before the man could bleed out, dozens of legionaries slightly shifted, compensating the lines of sight to cover the missing set of eyes. At the same time, a few legionaries gained minor wounds, but they were able to stabilize without further losses, which was a blessing. From the start of the melee, it marked the first time they hadn't suffered a second death after the initial loss, the four other times it had occurred.
Leaving the man where he lay, Kathren stepped over the bodies, not looking down. However, it didn't make leaving the dying man any easier, as she could not stop the stream of images playing through the back of her mind. Even if it was from the perspective of the ground, Kathren instantly recognized her grimy, blood-stained figure striding away as the world slowly fell into utter darkness.
"Keep fighting!" Redgenald called, pulling Kathren's thoughts away from the last moments of the dead man, "Do not relent! Do not falter! We just have to last a few—
"There is enough," Drogaith's mental voice said, cutting into Redgenald's motivational words.
"Understood. All troops, fall back to the switchbacks! Drogaith, link up with Borment and give him some support before you act!" Ordered Redgenald.
Kathren felt a twinge of irritation that Redgenald wasn't explaining the plan, and then the emotion was forgotten as she backstabbed a goblin in the kidney before stepping forward and drawing out her gladius. As she pulled her sword out of the flesh, Kathren swung out her arm to slam her hilt into the temple of another goblin before rushing to stall a third before he could attack a legionary's back. Maybe he has some small reason not to explain the full extent of his plan… Kathren reluctantly thought. At least he is exuding confidence.
One hack, one step, one body at a time, the legionaries' scattered formation came together. They stomped bodies into mush and waited through ankle-deep pooled blood in places while the screeches and howls of their enemies echoed off the walls of the chamber.
Hundreds lay dead through the trench, and it had gotten to the point that every person in the chamber could taste blood in the air and smell the feces of severed intestines and emptied bowels. And it only drove them to fight harder to avoid the same fate.
No one stopped. No one even slowed as they trampled the bodies of their friends and enemies alike. All that the corpses were to those in the struggle were obstacles to maneuver around and over or traps to hinder an enemy… Or to fall into yourself.
Letting out a scream more from rage than anything else, Kathren fell backward, her leg finally giving out as she put her whole weight on it after she tripped attempting to dodge to the side. The half-dead goblin attacking her shrieked as it skittered forward in triumph, swiping at her feet. Not content with that, the creature climbed up her legs until it was able to jab the long claws on its right hand into her gut, just below the bottom edge of her boiled leather chest piece.
Its fingers squirmed into her lower abdomen like worms wiggling through the dirt, causing her scream of rage to turn into one of pain. Lifting her blade, Kathren smashed her pommel into the face of the creature several times in quick succession until it was nothing but mush while screaming, "Arrgh! You horse fucking inbred cunt! Get the fuck off me!"
When the body stopped twitching, Kathren heaved it to the side and grunted her way to her feet, giving a few swipes of her hand to brush off the blood on her leather chest piece but only succeeding in smearing it around. Heaving in the foul air, she took a moment to wipe her face and look around.
Even as she stood in place, the back of her good hand staunching the wound in her stomach, the legionaries filed into place around her as they formed a hollow square with her and Redgenald, along with a few of the more severely wounded legionaries, in its center. It was the ones who were having trouble walking due to blood loss or couldn't lift their blade or shield due to whatever wound inflicted on them.
Which Kathren was not one of yet. Stepping forward, Kathren almost fell down along with her footfall as Redgenald's voice thundered in her head, "Stand down, scout! Putting aside your injuries — which should disqualify you — you lack the psy reserves to stand next to men. Unless the line is breached, you are in reserve."
Kathren wanted to argue with him and almost did, as her mind was clouded from exhaustion, but she stopped herself before voicing the words. There was a general consensus in the mental network that she would be more of a hindrance than a benefit in the battle line at the moment, and as bitter of a pill as it was to swallow, she would not let her pride hurt others.
Reeling in her battle lust, Kathren moved to support one of the wounded men and watched the legionaries hack their way forward. It wasn't long before the goblins standing between them and the switchbacks vanished, and the humans could easily walk up to the blood waterfall.
Standing at the base of the switchbacks, Kathren looked up as she felt their union connect with Borment and his men. Seconds crawled by as she processed the flood of information, though it could have been longer as her mind wasn't exactly operating at its best.
Regardless, before she could get a grasp on the new situation, everything changed. A collective screech of horror filled the air, and a flair of vindictive zeal filled the mental network as every legionary in Borment's contingent charged upward.
Above the flurry of impressions and emotions, Redgeanld's mental voice rang out, "Drogaith!"
“…It's done, Reaper." Replied the knight's malicious voice after a beat. Kathren looked around in confusion as nothing happened, and then she noticed the ground rippling.