After fighting so long, the former new recruits didn't need to be told anything.
There was no need for shouted commands, no need for officers barking orders down the line. A month of daily slaughter had drilled the choreography of survival into their bones far more effectively than any training ground ever could.
Those who bore shields steadily advanced and held the line. Those with spears and swords fell in behind them, weapons braced over shoulders and through the gaps between shields, ready to stab out the moment the enemy came close enough to bleed. It was a formation built from necessity, refined through a hundred failed attempts and the corpses those failures had left behind.
