The next morning we started before dawn, as a precaution I had sent out the two archers, and slinger as scouts. I looked at the group, there was more cohesion, the volunteers, and legionnaires had started talking with one another. Yonas had taken something of a leadership role for the volunteers and walked at their head, Decimus took the same role for the legionnaires, both followed the lead of Leif, and myself.

They told jokes, exchanged stories, best of all was when the legionnaires began giving the volunteers tips and advice. The volunteers, were a hardy sort, the years of toil had made their hands tough, and their backs strong, it would take minimal training to turn them into disciplined soldiers. This long march toward the Empire’s border had began to untie the two groups into one.

It was about mid-morning when the scouts returned, their faces red with heat, and their bodies coated in sweat. “We’ve been discovered!” the lead scout exclaimed on his approach. He gasped for air as I calmed him down, and asked “what do you mean we’ve been discovered?”

The scout took a deep breath and elaborated “About two miles from here, we found a small watering hole, we started drinking from it, when scouts from a P’Tah patrol stumbled on us. We got one of them but the other two got away.” The scout went on to explain where they had encountered the scouts, and the probability that the entire patrol would find us.

I asked one of the P’Tah volunteers “How many men to a patrol?”

The former P’Tah soldier plucked at his beard, and answered “I would say around forty, thirty nine Aegean mercenaries lead by a P’Tah captain.”

I furrowed my brow a moment “Aegean mercenaries?”

The P’Tah volunteer nodded “P’Tah has never had it’s own standing army, originally the natural barriers ensured that no one would invade us. Then when we were first invaded we had to conscript from the various cities, and higher mercenaries, over time we incorporated more, and more mercenaries into our army to the point where they have became the backbone of our military. P’Tah natives formed the officers, and the Khart are P’Tah’s line breakers, and shock troopers.”

I nodded at the information, it was more than what the Empire had, and it gave me a good idea of how P’Tah’s military worked, in fact it was a very detailed description on how P’Tah worked. I also had one immediately useful piece of information, our odds were near even. Even so, there were other factors, we were armed mostly with mining equipment, and few of us were armored. The odds were against us, but if we were able to strike on our terms, and with surprise we had a chance at winning. It was a better idea than trying to run to the point of exhaustion, and then get slaughtered by the patrol, or the entire garrison.

I looked around the area that the group had rested in, we were in the bottom of a small valley as we were trying to stay out of sight, on one side was a cliff face, no sheer but close enough to make getting to the top difficult especially when being chased by soldiers, but if we pressed our flank to it, they couldn’t overrun it. The other side of the valley was more of a gentle slope into the valley, if the patrol could be lead into the valley from the direction we want we catch them between two fires. “Start a fire” I said, “make it smoke, and let it billow. Let the patrol know where we’re at.”

I scratched my chin, and thought a moment “We’ll split up into two groups. One third will stay here I will lead them. The other two thirds will leave and find an out of sight place nearby. Yonas will take my horse, once you hear the fight start, attack the patrols rear. Hurry go now, whoever is staying eat, and rest I figure we have a short time before the patrol shows up.” There was a pit in my gut, if things went absolutely wrong we’d all be killed, if it went right, odds were the group would be smaller. With us resting, and the patrol having to trudge toward us, that would give us an advantage in stamina, and the two thirds portion flanking the patrol will give us the advantage of surprise. The sound of the patrol’s armor, shields and weapons rattling before we heard them.

“Start forming up, put our flank against the wall.” I ordered as I rubbed my hands with sand. The eleven of us put our flank against the wall in an angle, each member of the group being one step behind the last, forcing the patrol to face us with their backs against the direction the two thirds group would be coming. They topped the crest of the slope and I got a good look at soldiers that made up the patrol. The aegeans carried a spatha, a hoplon round shield, and were armored in scale circus. The captain, had an ornate helmet, but wore the same armor as the Aegeans, his shield was of a figure eight pattern, and he carried an axe.

We stood defiant as we waited for the patrol to form up, “ready weapons!” I ordered loud enough for the entire valley to hear. The patrol began to laugh at us this made me smile, there was some hubris to the patrol, and who could blame them we were outnumbered nearly three to one, we looked like a band of escaped slaves because a portion of us were, and we were poorly armed. I shouted “Charge!” and we charged, the patrol drew their swords as we started to cross the expanse between our two groups. When we were halfway across the gulf they rested their blades on the top of their shields. Then there was this heavy clanking, thumping cacophony as our mining equipment hammered their shield wall. There was the anguished cry of someone getting ran through. My gut got tight again.

There was no time to dwell on who had died, in that indeterminant pause the sound of galloping hooves broke the momentary silence, followed by the patrols own anguished screams, as Leif, Decimus, and Yonas road through the rear lines of the patrol followed by the rest of the group. Leif was the man to draw first blood skewering an Aegean with his hasta. When the larger portion of the two groups crashed into the patrol, and their lines broke I yelled “Push!”

There were sounds of violence in every direction, screams of pain, shouts of victory, the crash of blade on shield. I focused on the captain, a P’Tah, he had dark streaks under his almond eyes, and wore a blue pendant. I closed the gap between us, and in spite all of his accoutrements accepted my nonverbal challenge. He hefted his axe, a solid metal head on a shaft made of oak, and swung it over his head in an attempt to end the fight quickly.

I stepped to one side and parried the blow with my khopesh, and reposted. My strike crashed on the captain’s shield, the crook of the khopesh caught on its lip and I pulled the captain off balance.

I turned and rolled my wrist to make a downward slash at his back, but the captain pivoted on the ball of his foot, and thrusted his axe. The axe collided on my lorica, causing me to stumble back, he followed up by back handing me with his shield. The collision crashed on the shoulder pauldron of my lorica forcing my sword arm, and khopesh down. I slashed at his open leg, and he raised his foot, and his grieve took the damage.

The captain stepped back with his damaged grieve, and threw an uppercut with his axe, while at the same time he brought his shield up to defend against my next potential attack. The axe wooshed passed my head as leaned back dodging the attack. I pressed my attack by kicking up a cloud of sand, and rocks portions of the cloud sprayed his face.

When the captain raised his arm to shield his eyes I, hooked the crook of my khopesh on the lower part of his shield, and pulled, and thrust. My khopesh found purchase in the captain’s knee, and he shouted in pain bringing his axe down in a wild swing. I step around his attack, and swung at his sword arm cutting his bicep through to the bone. The captain’s axe fell to the ground, and his arm dangled dead at his side. I raised my khopesh to thrust it into his throat when he shouted “WAIT!”