The last gunshot echoed across the wilderness.
Jack looked over the plain. No Ratfolk remained standing, and corpses lay scattered as far as he could see. He hoped Severed Ears hadn't charged in with the Rat Swarm. In the dark, he could have been shot without anyone knowing.
The exhausted Cavalry sat on the ground in twos and threes, too tired to care how they looked. The Centurions took those who still had strength forward to finish off the wounded, collect Rat Ears, count their men, and tally the results and casualties.
At least a hundred thousand Ratfolk had attacked last night, outnumbering the Legion fifty to one. Yet the Cavalry had worn them down across more than ten li of wilderness, firing as they ran.
Looking at their excited faces, Jack understood more deeply what Instructor Fendora Silverdew had meant by "respect."
They had never seen the cruelty of war. To them, it was simply a way to earn Merit.
There was nothing wrong with that in itself. Every member of the Hellfire Legion believed the same. The problem was that his Soldiers had never been tempered by a brutal battle.
Lives lost, hopes crushed, comrades killed—they had endured none of it.
But he couldn't bear to put them through it... And he knew Lord Annan couldn't either.
The Hellfire Legion had had no choice. If they hadn't stepped up, no one else could have.
A scout came to report. Though the attack had been sudden and the trial rather obvious, everyone had shown something worth praising. There had been plenty of fools, too.
Some had fired wildly until they ran out of ammunition. Some had tried to imitate the Hellfire Legion and rush the Ratfolk for hand-to-hand combat. Others had gotten greedy for Merit and run off to