"Shield wall front, stagger wedges! Spears behind, archers to outer ring! Scurabons, Twins, Hypnoveils—flank in push-disrupt cycles!"
Orders slid through the force like oil on gears. Shield skeletons locked, edges kissing until lines looked like the wall of a city. Spears slotted between shoulders. Archers fanned to the edge, already testing angles. Silk Guards unspooled low nets, not to catch yet, to trip later. Slimeweave rolled forward and painted thin gel arcs—barely visible—where he guessed blood and spit would try to live.
Thalatha walked two steps along the front and pressed a shield rim up a hair. "Keep wrists quiet," she said. "Let the blow travel the wood, not the bones."
The Juggernaut moved first. Fast. Faster than its weight allowed. Two blades came in from left and right, low to high, a scissoring meant to cut shields open like fruit. At the same time the chain-arms snapped, hooks lancing out to find and yank an ankle, a wrist, then punish the gap.
