Livia Caesarius promptly dismounted her horse to prepare for battle. The centurion Reginarus, however, was still slightly disabled from the near-fatal injuries he had endured for many weeks, and the therapeutic recovery he had prematurely put aside for this mission, despite the Legata's advice to take some time off. Reginarus could not run yet, much less barely walk without limping, but that didn't seem to matter much on horseback as he grasped his spatha firmly by the 8-inch hilt, allowing the 40-inch nanosteel blade to hang down low by his side as he held his position behind the front line, peering out over the heads of the legionnaires as they locked their rectangular scutum shields together to form a phalanx.
As the Legata drew her pistol and shot a red flare into the sky, the deafening un-rhythmic howls of the distant ulfhednar suddenly stopped and everything became eerily silent. For a moment, the sky and everything beneath had a red glow to it as the flare slowly drifted downwards before dissipating into nothingness. All that the legionnaires could see was the foggy blanket of tear gas which had settled in the mountains and crags around them. There was dead silence. Not a man, bird, cricket or animal could be heard. Atticus the decanus glanced over to Longinus, who in turn glanced up at Reginarus as if looking for him to give commands. But Reginarus just glanced back and nodded slightly without saying anything, as if motioning for Longinus to hold his position and wait patiently.
Just then, a shrieking squeel of agony could be heard coming from somewhere within the fog in front of them. It was the sound of the little piglet that the legionnaires had released earlier, as someone, or something, had either snared it or killed it, yet apart from the painful squeel, there was no one and nothing to be seen. As the Argosian soldiers peered into the direction of the distressing sound in front of them, gripping their spears tightly with their shields locked together, they suddenly heard someone coughing a bit before returning to silence. Only this noise came from above the ravine and off to their right, causing some of Reginarus' legionnaires to turn their heads suddenly in that direction whilst still holding their phalanx positions. Auletes and his legionnaires stood silently posed, more spooked than shaken, but nevertheless undaunted and ready to engage their enemies.
Then, like a terrible landslide, some of the legionnaires in the front line would quickly begin to feel the ground move beneath their feet. Just then, a rope cable suddenly appeared before them, which had been laying loosely buried and hidden across the dusty pathway where they had been standing, only to spring up and become visible for a second as the cable became tensed. But this was no trip wire. It was the cable to the large 15x10 rectangular wooden platform beneath their feet. The platform had also been buried beneath the dust, undetected by the highly trained Argosian soldiers who were now standing directly on top of it.
Before anyone could even react, the rope cable was suddenly pulled into the left side of the path where it seemed to disappear inside some intentionally placed rocks, and the large wooden platform was jolted quickly out from under them, revealing its simple but sinister purpose. It had been a trap door, beneath which was a huge hole or ditch about 10 feet deep, bearing a number of spears which had been stuck vertically into the ground with their points facing upward. Some of the legionnaires in the phalanx had been unknowingly standing on a spike pit, and as the board was instantly removed out from under them, 35 legionnaires suddenly fell into the shallow pit, only to be impaled through their genitals and disabled by the metal spear tips, or at the very least by their unexpected fall which caused some of them to faceplant their own shields, or land on their own weapons and each other in an attempt to break their fall. Reginarus watched as a good portion of Argosian infantry were forced to break from their positions, stepping forward or backwards away from the gaping ditch to avoid a similar fate. The ulfhednar were slick, but in pulling the rope, some of them had also just revealed their own location behind the nearby rocks, and Reginarus, being still mounted above the others on his horse, had a pretty clear visual of everything.
"Lacunam claude! Tenere lineam!
He shouted, pointing his sword out over the heads of his own soldiers to the pile of rocks as if directing the legionnaires to the location where the rope had been pulled from, since the fine dust that had been kicked up from the rocky terrain had made everything all the more difficult to see from the ground. "Ibi ibi!!" he exclaimed, pointing his sword at the rocks to the left of the pathway just as a small group of 10 ulfhednar in wolf-skins suddenly jumped down from the top of the canyon above them to the right, covered in dust, which not only had masked their appearance but also their scent as well. These ones had been very close to the Argosian troops, unaffected by the tear gas arrows which had struck farther away. So close in fact that, mistaking him for the senior-most Argosian leader, one of the ulfhednar actually lunged on top of Reginarus' from behind, knocking him off of his horse as he tackled the centurion to the ground, attempting to stab him in the back of the neck with a crude small-bladed seax. Reginarus dropped his spatha and fell to the ground, caught by surprise, but the makeshift dagger did little to puncture his superior metal neck protector.
As the other 9 ulfhednar slid down the right side of the rock face with their spears and axes poised and ready to flank the numerous unsuspecting legionnaires whose attention had been drawn to the left by the sudden spear trap manuever, Reginarus quickly rolled over on to his back away from his horse and drew forth his shorter bladed gladius, thrusting it into his attacker's sharp-toothed gaping mouth so that the bloody tapered point protruded from the backside of the ulfhedinn's dusty wolf-headed hairy hood before pushing the more primitive Iskjerne Viking warrior off of him. As he did this, Reginarus noticed that the ulfhedinn had filed his teeth to a sharp point like the jaws of a shark. These weren't just any wolf-coated warriors. They were cannibals, and would be just as likely to bite the Argosians as they would be to hack and slash at them. Reginarus' horse had also been startled, and without his rider to steer his gait, began to melt back towards the other unmounted Argosian horses away from the attacking ulfhednar.
As the Legata drew her pistol and shot a red flare into the sky, the deafening un-rhythmic howls of the distant ulfhednar suddenly stopped and everything became eerily silent. For a moment, the sky and everything beneath had a red glow to it as the flare slowly drifted downwards before dissipating into nothingness. All that the legionnaires could see was the foggy blanket of tear gas which had settled in the mountains and crags around them. There was dead silence. Not a man, bird, cricket or animal could be heard. Atticus the decanus glanced over to Longinus, who in turn glanced up at Reginarus as if looking for him to give commands. But Reginarus just glanced back and nodded slightly without saying anything, as if motioning for Longinus to hold his position and wait patiently.
Just then, a shrieking squeel of agony could be heard coming from somewhere within the fog in front of them. It was the sound of the little piglet that the legionnaires had released earlier, as someone, or something, had either snared it or killed it, yet apart from the painful squeel, there was no one and nothing to be seen. As the Argosian soldiers peered into the direction of the distressing sound in front of them, gripping their spears tightly with their shields locked together, they suddenly heard someone coughing a bit before returning to silence. Only this noise came from above the ravine and off to their right, causing some of Reginarus' legionnaires to turn their heads suddenly in that direction whilst still holding their phalanx positions. Auletes and his legionnaires stood silently posed, more spooked than shaken, but nevertheless undaunted and ready to engage their enemies.
Then, like a terrible landslide, some of the legionnaires in the front line would quickly begin to feel the ground move beneath their feet. Just then, a rope cable suddenly appeared before them, which had been laying loosely buried and hidden across the dusty pathway where they had been standing, only to spring up and become visible for a second as the cable became tensed. But this was no trip wire. It was the cable to the large 15x10 rectangular wooden platform beneath their feet. The platform had also been buried beneath the dust, undetected by the highly trained Argosian soldiers who were now standing directly on top of it.
Before anyone could even react, the rope cable was suddenly pulled into the left side of the path where it seemed to disappear inside some intentionally placed rocks, and the large wooden platform was jolted quickly out from under them, revealing its simple but sinister purpose. It had been a trap door, beneath which was a huge hole or ditch about 10 feet deep, bearing a number of spears which had been stuck vertically into the ground with their points facing upward. Some of the legionnaires in the phalanx had been unknowingly standing on a spike pit, and as the board was instantly removed out from under them, 35 legionnaires suddenly fell into the shallow pit, only to be impaled through their genitals and disabled by the metal spear tips, or at the very least by their unexpected fall which caused some of them to faceplant their own shields, or land on their own weapons and each other in an attempt to break their fall. Reginarus watched as a good portion of Argosian infantry were forced to break from their positions, stepping forward or backwards away from the gaping ditch to avoid a similar fate. The ulfhednar were slick, but in pulling the rope, some of them had also just revealed their own location behind the nearby rocks, and Reginarus, being still mounted above the others on his horse, had a pretty clear visual of everything.
"Lacunam claude! Tenere lineam!
He shouted, pointing his sword out over the heads of his own soldiers to the pile of rocks as if directing the legionnaires to the location where the rope had been pulled from, since the fine dust that had been kicked up from the rocky terrain had made everything all the more difficult to see from the ground. "Ibi ibi!!" he exclaimed, pointing his sword at the rocks to the left of the pathway just as a small group of 10 ulfhednar in wolf-skins suddenly jumped down from the top of the canyon above them to the right, covered in dust, which not only had masked their appearance but also their scent as well. These ones had been very close to the Argosian troops, unaffected by the tear gas arrows which had struck farther away. So close in fact that, mistaking him for the senior-most Argosian leader, one of the ulfhednar actually lunged on top of Reginarus' from behind, knocking him off of his horse as he tackled the centurion to the ground, attempting to stab him in the back of the neck with a crude small-bladed seax. Reginarus dropped his spatha and fell to the ground, caught by surprise, but the makeshift dagger did little to puncture his superior metal neck protector.
As the other 9 ulfhednar slid down the right side of the rock face with their spears and axes poised and ready to flank the numerous unsuspecting legionnaires whose attention had been drawn to the left by the sudden spear trap manuever, Reginarus quickly rolled over on to his back away from his horse and drew forth his shorter bladed gladius, thrusting it into his attacker's sharp-toothed gaping mouth so that the bloody tapered point protruded from the backside of the ulfhedinn's dusty wolf-headed hairy hood before pushing the more primitive Iskjerne Viking warrior off of him. As he did this, Reginarus noticed that the ulfhedinn had filed his teeth to a sharp point like the jaws of a shark. These weren't just any wolf-coated warriors. They were cannibals, and would be just as likely to bite the Argosians as they would be to hack and slash at them. Reginarus' horse had also been startled, and without his rider to steer his gait, began to melt back towards the other unmounted Argosian horses away from the attacking ulfhednar.