Olimpia

"Form a union and shift toward the walls!" Redgenald thundered, his head tilting up as he scanned one side of the trench and then the other. "Cut them down before they can gather and cut us off from the pillar!" As he was shouting, Kathren felt a tendril probing her mind, pushing her to join a mental network.

Mentally reaching out for the telepathic link, Kathren felt a wave of preemptive weariness wash through her as she prepared herself to endure the strain of the environment for as long as possible. Only to be pleasantly surprised that the suppression was all but gone. She could sense her bewilderment mirrored in Redgenald and the others joining the network, but no one was wasting time questioning the boon.

With the mental network quickly expanding to envelop all the conscious legionaries composing their rear guard, the stubborn resignation to go down fighting turned into hope. They may be bloody and half beaten to death, and their psy was nearly exhausted, and they were outnumbered, and any number of other things, but they had the union. And that glimmer of hope was all they needed.

At the speed of thought, Redgenald processed everyone's view of the situation and then gave orders to the men. The outer edges of the human shield wall turned and directly engaged the goblins that were all but falling on them from the top of the trench walls.

The legionaries swung their short swords and shields before the goblins could properly reach their feet and brace themselves for an attack. Some of the goblins were able to dodge or block the blows, and a couple even managed to survive the follow-up strikes made by legionaries moving to support their brothers, but it didn't matter. Because as suddenly as the legionaries were attacking the first goblins who fell into the trench, they were stepping back and repositioning.

At the same time that the formation edges were engaging the goblins, the center of the legionaries' line across the trench broke in half and rolled toward the trench walls. Like a piece of parchment falling to the ground, those toward the outer edges moved down the trench toward the pillar, extending the shield wall one person at a time as those behind followed in a line.

Goblins continuously fell from the trench walls like drops of rain, and as they began to pile up in one spot, they started shifting further up the trench. Disorganized and scattered as the goblins were as they clambered over the terraced levels above, their attempt to outflank the humans was disorganized and half-hearted at best. Because of the quick action of the legionaries, more often than not, the goblins were no more than a quick lunge away from the humans when they landed in front of the extended shield wall. An opportunity the legionaries never failed to take.

By the time half of the now two lines of legionnaires could position themselves opposing the threat flooding down the walls, the first to engage the goblins were pulling back and moving to link up with what was the center portion of their line a few seconds ago. The result was that the two groups on the left and right walls, each comprised of seventeen legionaries, formed into oblong circles revolving up the trench. And then there was the one man hobbling down the center of the trench, desperately trying to distance himself from the fight as he propelled himself forward with his makeshift crutch and good leg.

Yet, despite the sudden surge of morale and coordination, there was a price for the legionaries' actions. As the telepathic network expanded to form a web of minds, even those legionaries who were unconscious were probed.

As anyone who has been asleep and had a tendril reach out for them could tell you, it was a far from pleasant experience. Depending on how insistent you were — and Redgenald was skating on the border of unleashing a mental attack on the men — it was somewhere between pounding and shouting at your front door in the middle of the night to bringing your house down around you in the middle of the night… except the medium was your skull, not wood and stone. If there was anyone who could sleep through it while being outside of a coma, Kathren had yet to meet or hear about them, and she still hadn't.

When the tendril probed the minds of the "sleeping" legionnaires, there was nothing. Usually, when you touch another's mind with a tendril, most people would describe it as encountering it as a flame. A tight ball of emotions, thoughts, and images packed together in such a way as to make everyone wholly unique. Even animals, while closer to a candle than torches or campfires, had minds that shone.

The four legionaries were empty. There was nothing in them. Where a mind should have been, there was just a blank slate, even as the bodies continued to breathe.

It didn't take Redgenald's shock at encountering a seared mind for everyone to understand what had happened. In that instant, they all knew their friends and comrades had left this world behind.

Painful as it might have been, those lugging the living corpses along dropped them as they moved into the rotating formation. Whether or not the goblins killed them didn't matter at this point; there was nothing to save. But everyone — even Redgenald — felt a slight twinge of disdain at themselves for leaving the six bodies behind, rational as the action was.

Not that the feelings could linger in their minds for long, as battle claimed their focus. The goblins would not lessen their assault for the legionaries to rationalize an act that might be morally questionable. At the end of the day, action was needed to save each other, and it left no room for second-guessing themselves.

Through either a lack of discipline or a misplaced sense of confidence, the goblins' leadership didn't wait to launch their attack before the creatures had been gathered, organized, or positioned to cut off all hope of retreat. This led to a scramble as the goblins rushed to cut them off, and the legionaries desperately struggled to advance their shifting battle line down the trench ten or so feet from the wall's base.

Kathren was no exception to taking a position in the formation, and even the still somewhat disoriented legionaries stumbling along regained most of their coordination when connected to the union and moved into the stream to fight. One after another, Kathren watched those in front of her in line hook to the side and engage in combat.

The anticipation of the coming fight caused her heart to flutter as the tension filled her. The closer she got, the wider her lips stretched, and her hands even began to shake. The symptoms got worse all the way up until she was next in line, where her heart and body stilled, ready for action.

Jumping to the side and lunging forward, Kathren intercepted a goblin in mid-flight as it attempted to knock down the latest legionary to join the battle. Her sword was nearly wrenched from her hand as the body twisted, and she felt a spike of pain down her leg, but thanks to the creature's small size, she was able to keep hold of her blade and avoid falling. If it had been a man — or Cursed Ancestors forbid a beastkin — she would have been left weaponless as she cradled her leg in agonizing pain.

"Argh!" Kathren screamed, letting out all of her frustration into the torrent of sound around her. She wrenched her sword free of the skewered goblin, only to thrust her steel at the new creature that just plopped into the trench before her as she screamed, "Die, you little shit!"

By the time she had pulled back her sword from the chest of the new goblin — time that was provided by the legionary to her left as he had blocked an attack from a third goblin aimed at her — and she fainted a couple attacks at a fourth, it was time for her to move again. Kathren's arm swung up and to her right, slashing through the spot where a legionary was standing a moment before. Instead of hitting air, the tip of her blade cut a goblin across the nose and right eye as it was charging up the trench after the retreating humans.

With a screech, the goblin reared back, its hands darting up to its eyes as if it was trying to catch the clear liquid mixed with dark blood now dripping down its face. Wholly consumed with its own suffering — something Kathren understood though did make her look down upon the creature — the goblin stopped in place, causing a pile-up as those behind plowed into him.

Twisting her body and skipping backward, Kathren ensured she kept track of everything she could see up the trench. Between what was now the mound of the second pillar and the still-standing third, tens of goblins were dropping to the ground every second before regaining their balance and darting after the humans.

Feet and hands slapped against the ground as they charged forward, letting out screeches filled with bloodlust. On the bright side, the goblins couldn't break into a sprint at first, as they were hampered by their own corpses. The obstacles bought precious seconds, not that it was preventing them from quickly gaining ground on the legionaries, who had to split their focus between moving and fighting.

It was only the staggered way the creatures approached and how they, more often than not, hindered each other rather than work together that allowed the legionaries to maintain their formation and keep moving. Add in a carefully placed slash or lunge at a goblin from the legionaries, and an entire wave of the goblins would fall over each other as one jumped into the path of the others as it dodged.

The thing was, everything they were doing was only buying them time. While they inflicted many wounds, there were few outright kills, and the numbers of the goblins kept growing, building up the pressure. It was like they were fighting against a river. It didn't matter how many times you pushed it back. There would always be more, and it would only grow in strength.

As the wheels of legionaries rolled down the corridor, the mass of goblins pressing from behind only grew, and the legionaries fighting at the back had to deal with more foes. Around and around they went, and with every rotation, Kathren found herself having to fight more on the inside section of the wheel as the goblins churred around the formation.

Regardless of how they were pressed, the legionaries never broke. A few of their number were cut down, but the relentless march continued. Even when their progress slowed to a crawl, they had to fight up over half of their inside line before being able to disengage and turn to claim the next three feet of the passage along the trench wall.

Unfortunately for the goblins, by that point, any more forward progress didn't matter, as they had already arrived. Not only had they reached the pillar, but they had also moved all but the last quarter of their formation on both sides past it.

His mental voice filled with determination, Redgenald said, "Hook around the inner goblins and move toward the pillar. We're going to bring it down. For the Republic!"

"For the 15th!" The legionaries responded with a battle cry of their own, none of them so much as hesitating as Redgenald declared how they would die.

At the command, instead of continuing to flow up the trench, the small section of the wheel not engaged in combat broke in half, where the top section moved to act as a screening force against the goblins arcing around them from the trench wall, and the others placed themselves against the goblins pressing from the rear. Slow but steady, the squished oval of legionaries steadily stepped back until the line forced out a man, allowing him to move and extend their line toward the pillar.

Or at least, that was the intention. Kathren was one of the first to step into the hollow within their formation, so as she sprinted down the two lines of shifting and bucking men, she was one of the first to see the shift in the battle.

The first event and a pleasant surprise was that a square of legionaries composing at least an equal number to the rear guard was moving from the switchbacks at a quick march, and they would be here in a matter of seconds. It would make their precarious position far more stable, and they might even be able to regain their equilibrium instead of scrambling to collapse the column.

Then, that hope was dashed as she turned to face the pillar. She saw the tens of unstable posts holding up the pillar ripple, and the stone bled together into a single mass. What made it even worse was that the ground around the pillar split open, and ranks of goblins in chainmail and steel helms marched out, the tips of their spears leading the way.