The soldier was eager to talk, and he painted Lafor a vivid picture of what had happened on the battlefield.
The center of the battlefield had become a tangled mess, with the two sides' formations locked together. The Barbarians' formations had all but fallen apart, while the better-trained, more capable soldiers of the Two Rivers Legion still held their lines firm.
No matter how hard the Barbarians fought, they could not break those formations.
Marvin's troops had joined the battle by then, but days of hard fighting had drained their strength. They were far from their best and could not put much pressure on the enemy.
The two Barbarian armies had sent only small detachments to keep Marvin's troops occupied. Their main focus remained the mobile force under Victor's command.
By concentrating their strength there, the Barbarians had barely managed to hold Victor's troops at bay. They hoped to wear them down and use their superior numbers to win.
But Victor's mobile force had more in store. Just when both sides thought the battle would drag on, his troops revealed the secret weapon they had prepared.
At the center of Victor's formation stood an unusual unit. Its men were hulking figures, nearly as big as the Heavy Infantry.
Oddly, none of them wore iron armor. They had only leather armor reinforced with iron, without so much as arm guards. It looked cruder even than the Light Cavalry's armor, a rare sight in the Two Rivers Legion these days.
The unit had stayed inside the formation, though, without engaging the Barbarians on the perimeter. The Barbarians had no idea what those men were there to do.
Their equipment was unusual, too. Besides the long blades in their hands, each man carried a huge cowhide pack on his back.
As the battle