was a step too slow, unfortunately knockinghim sprawling, where in turn he fell into the man who was trying torelieve him. I could not spare another look because I had to hopacross a number of bodies without slipping in what was now thechurned and bloody mud of the fortress floor now that we wereseveral paces within the confines of the walls. I managed tomaintain my footing despite the slippery conditions and put myshoulder into my shield, aiming for a Serdi who was still regaininghis own footing after being pushed backward by the relief. I sawhis eyes widen over the rim of my shield, slamming into him withfull force, knocking him backward yet again. This time, he couldnot recover before I was on top of him, not even bothering to lookdown when I stabbed downward into his body, eliciting a shriek fromhim, clawing wildly at my leg. As quickly as I hit the first man, Isensed another Roman doing the same, first to my left, then to myright. Feeling a hand grab the back of my harness to shove meforward, I aimed for the next Thracian, a young warrior who hadsuddenly found himself at the center of our thrust into theirlines. Armed with a Thracian sword and oval shield, he presented nochallenge, swinging wildly more out of desperation than any plan ofattack, dying quickly as a result. I risked a glance to see that,like I suspected, it was Gaius to my right, protecting my weakside, except that also meant that he was more deeply into themiddle of the Thracian formation. He did not seem to be worried atall, and I watched out of the corner of my eye as he made quick,economical thrusts, forcing the Serdi in front of him and to hisright side to give him a respectful amount of space. I was about toshout a warning for someone to come up to put his shield on hisflank to protect him, something I would have done if it had beenany other man as well, but there was no need. A Centurion from ourgroup saw the danger, and moved into that spot, turning slightly toput his back at an angle to Gaius, his shield still offering mynephew protection while watching our right flank. Turning myattention back to the fight, I shuffled another few paces forward,followed by the others, now formed into a compact wedge drivendeeper into the midst of the enemy, leaving Thracians bleeding inthe dirt around us. We had made enough of an impact to the pointthat now all of the enemy realized that their right flank was beingthreatened. My goal was to drive diagonally as deeply into thefortress as I could get, counting on Macrinus to understand what Iwas doing and feed men in behind my small fighting force. Now thatthe Thracians also understood what was happening, they fought backwith a fervor that comes from knowing that the next few momentswill determine the outcome. It is not often that everyone involvedin a fight knows when that moment arrives, yet such was the case inthis battle, and they began pressing back against our incursion. Asquickly as we had managed to make headway, the resistancestiffened, the enemy beginning to organize themselves. I foundmyself defending from a two-man attack, with Gaius on my right, andthe man on my left too busy themselves to offer any assistance. OneThracian was armed with a spear, the other with a sword, and it didnot take long to understand their plan. The man with the spearhandled it deftly, and from a safe distance, jabbing at merepeatedly, moving his point of aim with each thrust, forcing me tokeep my shield angled in his direction, while the man with thesword moved a pace to his left before stepping in to start his ownattack. Forced to defend against two completely different attacks,blocking the spear with my shield, and parrying the other man’ssword with my own, it was a desperate moment. I honestly do notknow how I managed, but none of their thrusts landed a damagingblow and, after what felt like a full day, but was only the span ofa handful of regular heartbeats, both Thracians had to pause tocatch their respective wind. I did not; keeping my gaze squarely onthe man with the spear, I made a move like I was going to closewith him, instead suddenly moving my sword from the first positionup and out, locking my arm straight out from my shoulder. At thesame time, I pushed off with my left foot, moving violentlysideways instead of straight ahead while my head never moved, myeyes locked with the Serdi spearman, knowing that by the timeeither man realized what was happening, it would be too late forone of them. Lulled into the belief that I was focusing on thespearman, the swordsman had relaxed just enough that his reactionwas delayed, because I actually lunged toward him instead, thepoint of my Gallic blade aimed slightly downward to compensate forour height difference, and I felt the shiver up my arm when Istruck my target. Only then did I risk a quick glance, satisfied tosee that my sword had struck just under the Thracian’s chin. When Iwithdrew the blade, I twisted it exceptionally hard, since I hadnot penetrated his spinal column and had to kill him by severingthe vessel that carries blood from the heart to his head. Before hehit the ground, I had my eyes back on the spearman, who hadrealized he had been duped and managed to recover quickly. He wasalready in motion himself, barely giving me time to shift my shieldto meet his attack, his spear striking me a solid blow that shovedthe shield back into my body. I felt the point punch through myshield, slicing into my arm, but it was not a serious cut. For justan instant, the spear remained lodged in the wood of the shield,the Thracian tugging at it frantically. Shoving down on the shield,I kept the spear embedded in it, next giving a hard tug backwardand taking a step to the rear. This had worked for
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