The sounds of drums beating a slow steady rhythm as thousands of men marched in perfect order filled Centurion Avery Mannon's ears as the legion advanced across the field. As the drums slowed to a stop so did the legion. Avery turned his head to his left and to his right making sure the hundred men in his century were line up in fiver tight ranks of 20 men each. His men stood silently as the howls of barbarians resonated from the forest across the way from them. The howls did not stir the legionaries, for these men were seasoned veterans of the 16th Legion of Verina. They had drilled and campaigned together for years, Avery had been among them for a decade. Around Avery's century 39 other centuries, each consisting of a hundred men, formed three battle lines across the field. A decade later and Avery was still awestruck by the precision of the legion's deployment. The first two battle lines of the legion had two rows of hundred man centuries back to back, the third battle consisted of only one row of centuries, for the were the strongest and most skilled veterans held in reserve to be deployed as the battle saw fit. On either side of the centuries was a gap of space about the same size of single century; as the second battle line was off set from the first allowing it to advance as reinforcement to the first line, or an orderly retreat of the first battle line without the two colliding.

The howls of the barbarians grew louder drawing Avery's attention back to the battle to come. From the edge of the forest thousands of barbarians spewed forth in a great horde. The barbarians were not professional soldiers as the legion were; they gathered in giant groups without the organized rank and file of the legion. The barbarians would fight with courage and bravery, but they lacked the discipline and training of the legion. As the mob continued to grow silence filled the air. When the mass of bodies was beyond count the barbarians started to beat their their weapons to their shields and started to let out dozens of different war crys. Silently the legion awaited their assault.

When the barbarians were satisfied with their cries of wars the horde started running towards the legion. A horn blasted in the air signifying the the legion would hold their ground and brace themselves for an assault. The century behind Avery's marched to their left filling in the gap to form a solid line of soldiers. "Ready spears," Avery called as he had countless times before. The men of his century all raised their axum, throwing spears with a long spear head that was pliable so that if the spear caught an enemies shield it would bend locking itself in the shield rendering it useless, into throwing position as they awaited Avery's command to release. The years of campaigning had left Avery with a keen eye for when to release their axum. The barbarians neared the line and took off into a sprint towards them Avery bellowed the command to release spears. Immediately upon his command a hundred axum flew into the air and rained down on the charging barbarians. All along the battle line hundreds of axum flew into the air as the other centuries released their spears as well. As the axum fell into the oncoming horde men died by the dozen, the war cries were quickly replaced the shrieks and howls of the dying.

Quickly Avery drew his glieus, a straight short sword with a double edge that was tapered at the end. Unlike the crude long swords used favored by the barbarian to slash and hack at their foe, the glieus was designed for stabbing the legion's enemie from behind the legionnaire's large wooden shields. "Brace yourself lads," Avery called out as brought his shield up to bear the charge of the barbarian horde. The legionnaire behind Avery put a hand on the flat of Avery's back, to help hold him against the charge of the barbarian horde and to pull him back should he tire or be wounded. The hundreds of axum that rained down upon the charging barbarians had thinned their numbers, but it did not slow the oncoming assault. With thunderous yells the barbarians crashed into the the legion's line. One threw himself onto Avery's shield as he tried to slash at Avery with his long sword. With deft quickness Avery shot his glieus out from behind his shield and impaled the barbarian's stomach. Pulling the sword to his right Avery tore his stomach open and the barbarian fell to the ground.

Another barbarian took his place and swung his axe from up high down at Avery. With a quick lift of his shield Avery brushed the axe off and swiped his sword across the barbarians calfs causing the barbarian to fall to his knees. With a feral growl Avery stabbed the barbarian through his collarbone finishing him off. All around Avery the men of his century held their lines stabbing and slashing from behind their shields at the barbarians pressed against them. The horde piled onto the line trying to break the line, but the men behind them pushed back holding them in place. While the legion maintained formation the barbarians found very little room to slash at legionnaires sheltered behind their massive shields. Avery and his fellow legionnaires had no problem finding openings from which to puncture and tear at their foe who maintained no semblance of order in the way they fought. The barbarians relied on reckless abandon to tear their enemies apart one on one, but the legion fought as one an unstoppable machine of war. Years of drilling and training had taught the legionnaires how to fight as a unit.

A slash from a long sword founds its way into the chest of the legionnaire to Avery's left and as the legionnaire fell the one behind him stepped forward drawing his glieus to avenge his fallen comrade. Using his shield Avery bashed the back of the knee of the barbarian who had dared strike down one of his comrades dropping the barbarians stance giving the legionnaire who had taken the fallen one's place to cut open the barbarian's throat. Seamlessly the legionnaire took up his comrades place once to complete the line of shields that made up the front of Avery's century. Whilst Avery was distracted avenging his comrade another barbarian had snuck a slash of his sword behind Avery's displaced shield and its edge ran across the the iron mail Avery wore. The sword's edge tore through Avery's mail shirt and cut open his flesh. With a yell of pain Avery spun back to face this new foe swing his glieus into the barbarian's arm. Grunting in pain the barbarian backed off as he dropped his shield to grasp at the cut in his arm. Taking advantage of the the barbarians retreat Avery ducked down low covering his whole body with his shield as he called for the legionnaire behind him to pull him from the fray. The legionnaire behind him grasped the back of his mail shirt and pulled Avery back and threw himself forward to take Avery's place. The men behind him Avery's replacement all shuffled him to the back of the century to give Avery time to asses his wound.

The mail had broken upon the sword's edge, but it had done its duty as the cut on Avery's chest was shallow, hardly a concern. Had Avery been wearing the leathers that their enemy wore the sword would probably had torn deep into him, probably leaving him with a mortal wound. With a sigh of relief Avery turned his attention back to his century. The battle had just started, but the horde pressing against his brothers in arms was still massive. As this was still the start of the battle Avery saw no reason for his men to tire yet. "Switch," Avery bellowed as loudly as he could and as soon as they could safely the men in the first rank of the century were pulled back by the men behind them to the back rank allowing the second rank to take their place at the front of the century. The legion's system of maintaining order at the start of combat allowed for the legionnaires to cycle through their ranks to prevent the front most soldiers from tiring early on while offering the enemy no respite of their own. Placing his hand on the back of the legionnaire in front of him Avery helped hold the century's formation as the men behind him had.

The battle raged on as the mass of barbarians piled onto the legion's formation, trying to break through it to turn the fight into a frantic melee to deny the legion the advantage of fighting as one unit. The formation would break eventually, it always did; Avery had seen few fights where they could route their enemy before the formation broke, but the longer they longer they held onto their advantage. Looking down the rest of the battle line Avery saw the barbarians beginning to push through the centuries to his left. The hordes was throwing themselves at the legionnaires, piling against their shields to use their sheer weight to push into the line. Soon they would and once among their ranks it would be only a matter of time before they were at Avery's own flank and they would have to break formation for a raw melee. Within ten minutes he heard the barbarians bellow renewed war cries at the legion's left flank broke formation and barbarians swarmed into the ranks. With the formation broken the legionnaires of the left flank all drew their glieuses and charged forwarded into the swarming horde. Creating a domino effect battle line fell apart as the breach in the formation continued to grow as the barbarians and legionnaires spewed into the melee.

"This is where the fight begins fella's, but remember Minnar smiles upon the valor of the 16th Legion. For Verina!" Avery called out to his men his century could no longer hold formation. As the men scattered and began to dance with the barbarians Avery pushed forward into the thick of the fighting. Brushing a sword swipe with his shield his glieus founds its way through the ribcage of one barbarians. As he tore his sword free another barbarians felt the metal band that cross the center of his wooden shield break his arm as Avery slammed into a barbarians about to strike down a comrade. The blood of the dead and dying covered Avery as parried blow after blow from an axe wielding barbarian. Sweat beaded down his face as the fighting continued. Without their formation and organization the legionnaires were feeling the reckless and wild strength of the barbarians. As an army the barbarians stood no chance against the legion, but one on one in a dance of death the wild nature of the barbarian berzerkers shined. A dozen barbarians had fallen for every legionnaire that was struck down before the melee ensured, but now even Avery's experienced eye couldn't tell who was had the upper hand. Whilst the barbarians had their courage and wild recklessness even without their organization the legionnaires where trained killers, skilled in the all arts of combat.

Two short blast of the legion's horn called out over the screams of the dying calling for the second battle line to advance. Turning his head Avery let out a war cry as another 1500 legionnaires marched towards the melee to offer reinforcement. The barbarians where unsure what to do in light of the next battleline's advancement, some let out war cries of their own as they thirsted for more legionnaire blood to spill, while a small portion started to turn and run from the fight. Seeing the first of the barbarians turning tail and running gave Avery a second wind. "Sixteen," he called out as others around him called out the number that sacred to them all, the number of their legion. Serving 20 year terms in the legion all legionnaires grew to view their legion, their standards, their commanders as being almost divine, for only the gods where above them to the legionnaires. They took pride in being apart of the 16th, it was not just their unit, not just their job, but their home. The men who were fighting and dying around Avery were his brothers, they all would die for him and he would for them. With renewed vigor Avery and his comrades clashed with the barbarians with renewed courage as the second battle line charged into the frey doubling the legion's strength in the combat. The added strength of the second battle line was quickly turning the combat in favor of the legion as more and more barbarian feel to their swords or else turned and ran from the fight.

The fight raged on for another hour as the barbarian horde slowly melted away. Covered in blood and sweat Avery pulled his sword from the stomach of his most recent kill. Panting he scanned the field for his next foe as he spotted an barbarian of massive size, a head taller then Avery the barbarian wield a iron great sword the was covered in rust and its edge notched. Covered in as much blood and sweat as himself the two's eyes met and the barbarian charged. The first swing of his great sword met Avery's shield tearing it down to the metal bar that cross the middle of it. Releasing it Avery smiled as he spun around the barbarian as he tried to shake the shield from his great sword. A quick jab from Avery's glieus tore into the barbarians side and caused his foe let out a howl of pain. Though the pain only seemed to anger the barbarian as the barbarian tossed his great sword aside and drew a long sword that clung to his side. The two exchanged a series of parries as the world blackened around them, both their attentions where focused only on the movement of the other. The barbarian had better reach then Avery, but Avery was quicker and always managed to dodge his thrusts and swings, but could not get close enough to deliver a mortal wound. Growing frustrated as Avery's nimble footwork the barbarian threw his entire body at Avery tackling him to the ground. The two wrestled as their swords were lost. The meaty fists of the barbarian slammed repeatedly into Avery's face drawing blood from his lips, noses, and forehead, but a knee to the groin from Avery gave him opening to pull his dagger from his waist and slam into the barbarians stomach. The barbarian once more howled as he rolled off Avery. Though wounded the barbarian managed to pull himself to his knees as Avery climbed to his feet in front of his defeated foe, all that was left was to finish him off. The barbarian stood with his eyes locked into Avery's, "what do you fight for?" The barbarian asked in the Verinian tongue.

The knowledge of his own language startled Avery as he pulled the dagger back from the barbarian's throat, "I fight for the glory of the Verinan Republic and the valor of the 16th curr," he replied with a smile.

The barbarian eyes widened with rage as he coughed up blood, "No you fight to steal our lands, loot and pillage our villages and steal our people as your slaves. We have lost today, our freedom will be stolen from us as you have stolen from many others. Your commanders care not for the glory of your republic or your ******** legion. All they care for is the gold and goods they can steal and the favor they can win upon this victory. Your republic has damned my people as you have damned me legionnaire. Keep your glory and your valor legionnaire, kill me now," the man paused as he coughed up more blood and fell forward onto his hands and knees, "but know that I fought and died for my freedom, why you have fought and killed to take it. A curse upon you, your republic, and the damned 16th". Rage filled Avery as the man cursed all that he fought for and Avery plunged his dagger deep into the man's throat. As the man fell to the ground Avery looked around once again noticing the world around him. The barbarian horde was all but vanquished, running back to the forest seeking cover or else dead upon the field. Legionnaires all around him beat their swords upon their shields and cried out chants of victory praising their legion, the republic and their commanders; however for once Avery did not join,for he was not filled with the same satisfaction victory usually brought.