*Taldarian Juggernaut POV*

“Shields up!!!”

Obeying, I soon feel a reverberating *clank* as another spear hits my shield.

The gnoll in front of me thrusts again, constantly probing for an opening.

It shifts to the side, thrusts again and bypasses my tower shield, only to bounce of my steel plate armour. It would be easy to move forwards and take advantage of this opening, but I stay in formation. Never breaking, never faltering, the unyielding juggernauts. Our motto, forever branded onto my mind.

I hear another shout from our commanding officer four men to my right, on the front line.

“Brothers, PUSH!!!”

In well-rehearsed unison, I brace my shield with my sword arm and charge forwards with my left shoulder and hitting the mass of wolf-men.

With all of us still in our shield formation, we successfully pushed them back an additional four metres, almost separating them from the rest of their ranks.

Just a little more.

I lash out at an incoming spear with my shield, hearing a satisfying crack as the wood begins to splinter. As the gnoll looks at his now near useless spear with bitter hatred, I thrust out with my sword and take him just under the ribs. Making sure to not expose too much of my body during the attack.

A few seconds later, a 3ft tall wolf jumps over the gnolls and at my throat.

I raise my shield and am push back by the weight of the huge wolf.

“Dire wolf!”

As I begin to stumble back, the brother behind me keeps me steady and the one behind him does the same. Allowing me to shove the wolf off with my shield.

My brothers besides me lock our shield together, steadying ourselves against the next lunge, for which we hold true. Unyielding!

With a nod to those besides me, we step forwards, out of formation momentarily and pummel the wolf with our shield, stunning it but not doing serious damage.

With this opportunity, we all simultaneously thrust unto it, all of us hitting the immobile hound. One stabbing through it shoulder, another in its chest and mine in its neck, just to the right of its jaw. Unfortunately missing the throat and any important arteries.

The three of us take two steps back, putting us back in formation. I’m pretty sure some gnolls was hitting us with spears through that, though I didn’t feel any slip though the gaps in my armour. I’ll check for wounds in a minute.

The dire wolf, though alive, stalks away giving me a cold, venomous glare as it looks for easier foes.

The officer calls out.

“Switch!”

With this signal, everyone on the first line opens their shield, turns to our right and allows the man behind us to step forwards, making them the front line. All of this occurs and finishes within two seconds, whilst most military formations only cycle out their front line fighter once they fall over dead and the next man has to step over their corpse before joining him ten minutes later.

I filter down the rows until I arrive at the bottom of the formation, allowing me to rest momentarily.

I check one of my brother for wounds, finding a light cut on his lower leg. He does the same for me but finds no wounds.

Now I notice a group of 13 close to me, from the Black Hounds. Though after the first glance, I move back into formation along with the rest of my brothers.

“Make space!!!”

This is essentially a push, followed by quickly moving back four metres in preparation for a final push. Since the back rows don’t and can’t push forwards, I move back a metre with the rest of the back rows.

The front five rows slam into the enemy, knocking them backwards before quickly moving back to the rear lines, leaving a momentary 5 metre gap between us and them.

“Wedge formation!!”

Using this gap to pick up momentum, the middle column begins to charge forwards, followed by their flanks, this continuing to create a triangle shape.

This charge near separated their ranks into two, and further pushed them back.

Five minutes later, they were dead, dying or fleeing to join another formation. A problem with fighting these controlled beasts is that they don’t give in to despair and fear, meaning that they don’t rout.

Crap! Now that we’ve finally broke through their ranks, we have a formation of dire wolves coming at us that were held in reserve.

“Box formation!!!”

I turn around and ready my shield.

I guess I’m no longer at the back anymore.

These guys must have been held back because they can’t fight well in close quarters.

But now that we’re separated from the rest of our army, we just have to hold out until they don’t have anything else to throw at us.

Now that we’re encircled, all we can do is stay strong.

Never breaking!

Never faltering!

The unyielding juggernauts!