We had seconds, maybe as much as a minute until the bird beastkins arrived. My eyes scanned the cleared ground and grassland farther out around us, and besides my trainees, no one else was nearby. It only made sense. I pushed them to the edge of the night, and there was no way my helpers would stick around longer than necessary when a hot meal could be smelled in the breeze.

We were all alone. Thirty-something exhausted legionaries and one scout standing next to a series of pits dug into a grass plain half a mile from a camp of thousands of fish while thousands more beastkins approach… It wasn't looking good.

"Move it, people!" I shouted again, causing everyone to jump and look at me and away from their growing fears, "If you want to live, dig a damn hole!" Finally, at my prompting, ten people stepped forward and gathered together next to me.

"Grab the nets!" I shouted at everyone else, raising my arm and net as an example, "Double up as a team if we run out! Anything that gets close, bring it down with the nets, and then stab!"

Looking to the side, I checked on those that were supposed to be digging, and they were, in fact, digging. They had gathered five feet to my left and were starting to rip chunks of dirt from the ground before compressing it.

"Hey!" I shouted at the diggers. I stomped my foot down on the pit's edge, causing a chunk of dirt to fall off. "Start down there!" I said while pointing at the hole. Realization and chagrin appeared on their faces as they began shuffling forward and dropping into the pit. I couldn't blame them too much. They were so tired I was surprised they weren't falling asleep on their feet.

As they climbed into the hole, I shouted one more command at them before turning away, "Stack the compressed earth for use later!" I didn't know if their clouded minds understood, but I had other things to focus on… Fuck! I've been a scout too long… I mentally cursed myself for being an idiot.

Closing my eyes and concentrating for a moment to gather my mental energy, I extended telepathic tendrils to reach out and start creating mental links with everyone around me. When I began probing their minds, they immediately latched onto it with the same desperation that a drowning man would to a lifeline.

I was far from powerful enough to create and extend mental links to all my trainees simultaneously, but I could make six tendrils and extend them to those within a body length or two. Once I was linked with them, they would feed what small amount of mental power and will they could into the casting to reinforce the links. While it wasn't much of a boost, I could use those connected as relays and extend the telepathic tendrils a little further away to the next person. In such a way, I spent the next handful of seconds connecting everyone gathered around and in the pit.

"Circle up!" I shouted as I opened my eyes. At my words, the twenty-five trainees outside the pit took up positions around it, standing with a foot and a half between each person.

With every second the mental network was in place, I could feel the reason why the legion relied so heavily on unions. The trainees were partially recovering from their mental and physical exhaustion with every passing second. Maybe recovery wasn't the best way to describe what was happening.

All the inconvenient sensations like fatigue and fear were simply easier to shove to the back of their minds. While everyone was in the union, their thoughts and actions had a pressure pushing them forward, like a wind blowing against your back as you ran. The main flaw in this was obvious. If the mental links were somehow broken, their exhaustion would instantly crash down on them again, causing them to stagger and become easy targets to any foe for long seconds, but nothing was perfect.

From where I stood, I could see the fast-approaching flock of beastkins and the desperate faces of Prick and his lackeys as they desperately sprinted for us. It was clear from my first look at the scene that they would not make it, and from their bloodless, dread-filled faces, so did they. The legionaries weren't halfway to us, but the beastkin would be over us in seconds.

"One minute," I mentally sent through the network, "We last for one minute, then go into the hole." I felt the wave of acknowledgment from my scouts and the feeling of determination radiating from the diggers as they increased their pace, supported by those above with what mental energy and willpower they could spare.

I didn't know if anyone else had realized the actual reason behind my order, but if they had, they remained silent. It came down to simple math. After holding the perimeter around the hole for a minute, whatever the diggers achieve should be enough to hold whoever had survived up top.

I blinked, and the last rays of the setting sun burned high across the sky and over the ground. Then, the monstrous beasts above released a collective screech of glee as they surged higher into the sky, casting the land in shadows as they obscured the visibly dimming light. "Scattered small pulses!" I cried out as I watched shadows fall from the sky to land on and around Prick and the other trainees.

At the sight of the coming conflict and deaths, I couldn't muster up a dollop of satisfaction, as in the end, all of those being attacked were legionaries fighting for the Republic. With that in mind, I watched the snobby noble and his hangers-on to bear witness.

Some might say I should be searching the sky for attackers, but thanks to our union's weak pulses, I had a decent enough mental picture of the immediate surroundings. It wasn't perfect, more like limited flashes of lightning burning through the night and revealing everything within fifty feet, but it was more than enough when combined with the other's perception within the union.

The beastkins first came swooping in from the west, thrusting their spears at the three men running on that flank of the group. Focusing the entire force of their dive into their outstretched arms, the beasts slammed their weapons halfway through the legionaries before their bodies pivoted to allow their feet to strike the humans, driving them to the ground in a crouch.

Before the others in the group could process the fighting had started, the beastkins jerked their arms to the sides, ripping their spears free in a spray of blood. A moment later, they flapped their wings and let out a scream of pleasure and challenge, lifting themselves back into the air and battering the other legionaries at the same time, throwing the running humans off their stride.

A pair of the trainees reacted fast enough to rush at the beastkins, who were still within arms reach, but more birds dropped down from the growing darkness, landing between the two groups. This time, they didn't drive the legionaries into the ground, but the result was the same as they thrust forward. One buried his spear tips into the throats of the charging legionaries, and the other put two holes into the chest of a woman just to the side.

With the sudden deaths of half their number, hot panic must have mixed with impotent rage, forcing them to strike back in any way, not that it mattered. All of the legionaries turned to face their attackers head-on at the cries of pain, swords drawn.

Even Prick was turning to fight, an action I had to respect. The decision came just in time for them to stand still, acting as perfect targets as half a dozen more beastkin dropped from the night sky, landing behind them. As one, the beastkins drove their weapons through the armor and into the flesh of the men and women. Not that the birds stopped there as they pulled their weapons back and thrust forward again for good measure.

With the fight over, I turned my eyes to watch the darker shadows containing pricks of yellow and green eyes glistening in the night. Higher and higher, I followed the spots of light as they rose until I lost the individual shadowy outlines of beastkins and only saw the lights. When I was finally to the point I was craning my neck back to take in the entire sky, I could not stop myself from sucking in a breath of shock. It was like I was looking at a river of tens of thousands of fireflies migrating through the darkness.

I knew they weren't insects. And any beauty I might have felt from the sight was overshadowed by the cold claws of fear squeezing my heart. A fear fed by the nearly deafening sound of a rushing wind stirred up by five thousand flapping wings passing overhead.

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The trainees could feel my spike of emotions, and I could feel the same within them. The helpless despair trying to lodge itself inside of me was bubbling up within their minds, urging them to give up and accept death. But I would not let myself and them be overwhelmed by fear.

"Increase the pulse rate." I calmly sent out within the mental network, "All we have to do is last until the bunker is built. They won't waste their time on us when they have far easier and more numerous targets at the camp and fort." I was confident of the logic in my statement, which the trainees could feel, though I felt mild shame in saying the words. There wasn't enough shame, however, that I would throw away my life in a useless gesture of fighting against impossible odds until death claimed me.

After the scout trainees spent a moment thinking about what I said, I felt the other's hopes blossom as they came to similar conclusions. "Instructor Green is right." Traig said into the union, shocking everyone as he spoke up, "There is something to be said about being a grunt in a hole. They have to see we're somewhat prepared and avoid us, right? No way tha—

I stepped to my right and slightly turned my body to the left while forming a shield over my chest with mental energy. A moment later, I grunted in effort as a spear deflected off my shield, and I struggled to maintain the casting as a large portion of the energy I used to form it was consumed. More than I thought it should, but that was a thought for another time when I could think in peace.

Hopping backward, I dodged the downward thrust of a beastkin trying to spear me through the back with a dive. Lunging to the left and back to my original position as my feet hit the ground, I made an upward diagonal slash from right to left, reinforcing my blade's momentum with a mental strand. My gladius gutted the crouched beastwoman, still recovering from her missed blow. As I was still mid-swing, I flung my left arm up and over my head while using a tendril to guide my net at the first beastman, who was preparing for another attack against my left shield mate, snaring him mid-motion.

Even as the rough cordage of the net was leaving my hand, I was pulling myself back and to the right along the ring with a third tendril and was turning to face outward again. The shield-mate to my right was moving to slam his sword through the back of the snared beastkin, then ripped his gladius out, slicing through the beastman's spine, causing him to crumple. In the span of a few heartbeats, we had fluidly traded spots and killed our first two attackers.

All around the pit, others were taking equivalent actions against the sudden assault. Unfortunately, despite how similar the scenes were, they all didn't end with a beastkin bleeding out on the dusty ground. In the back of my mind, I noted every death. But there was no time to acknowledge the casualties other than to take note of what areas now needed to be covered, let alone mourn what could have been.

While we bounced on the balls of our feet, every legionary sent out tiny pulses of mental energy that was no more than a drop as fast as they could gather and focus it. Flashes of my surroundings appeared in my mind so often that it was nearly like having a sphere of perception.

Crouching down, I sent a mental strand over and behind my head. I held the strand extended and hovered in place for a beat, waiting. As I felt the mental strand connect and wrap around the center of a net flying toward me, I guided it slightly higher so its edge wouldn't catch on my head and began to spin it.

Feeling the wind of the net's passage and knowing I was clear as Kathren had eyes on my back, I started to stand up straight. When it was three feet in front of me, I spun the net so the edges flared out and started to blur.

The net caught and wrapped around the spear shafts of the diving beastkin, throwing the trajectory of the spears and the one holding them off course. Within a moment of the net connecting with the spears, it spiraled forward, wrapping around the arms and then the torso of the birdman. With his wings no longer able to extend, the beastkin crashed into the ground and started tumbling forward with a little assistance from my tendril.

As the latest mental pulse and collective impressions caught my attention, I stopped my step to drive my sword through the tumbling beastkin. Instead, I turned to my right, fainting an attack at the beastwoman rushing forward, making her momentarily pull back. The pause allowed my trainee to recover from covering her right side shield mate from another attack and prepare herself to face the new threat.

A new threat that was no longer interested in the human, as the beastkin became solely focused on me after denying her the easy kill. Stepping back into place after the tumbling beastman, who was no longer my problem, passed, I parried the beastwoman's first spear thrust. Without a shield or another sword, I could not block the second spear driving for my gut. Not without stepping out of line and leaving a gap, which any proper legionary would rather die than do, but there was no need for that.

Smiling at the beastkin, I twisted my blade to slide along the spear shaft as I slightly rotated my body, allowing me to make a thrust forward, though it left me open to a spear in the side by her other hand. A blow that would never land because as I shifted, a round fist-sized rock brushed past my cloak and under my arm from below, smashing into the beastkin's shoulder, halting her second thrust cold.

The look of pained surprise only lasted a moment, then my short sword was sheathed into the beastkin's neck, sending blood fountaining into my eyes and obscuring my vision. As I frantically rubbed at my face, I stepped back, taking a defensive crouch with my sword still up and ready.

Even as I cleared one eye, I tried to keep the other open, looking out at the blotchy darkness. Not that I needed vision, but being unable to see for any reason was a handicap I didn't want. Call me unsportsmanlike if you wish; I currently don't give a shit.

Letting out a pulse, I turned and jumped to my left side, extending my arm that was rubbing my face straight out. Stiff arming my shield-mate, I made him stumble forward as I thrust upward and outward, reinforcing the blow with a tendril. I felt my blade meet a slight resistance before it vanished in a pop, and my blade easily slid upward as I finished my thrust, bottoming out the hilt against flesh.

"Aurgh!" I screamed in concert with the wounded beastkin from the exertion of holding up his body as more unnaturally hot blood rained down on my head. Stepping back, my arm and mental tendril pushed my sword to the side, tossing the body off my blade and into the path of its comrades.

Taking a fraction of a second to look around and understand the flow of the battle, I came to a decision an instant later. "Fallback!" I sent and shouted at the same time. "To the bunker!" Taking two quick steps back, I fell into the pit, absorbing the fall with a slight bend of my knees.

As I hit the ground, I used all of my mental energy but what I needed to maintain the union as I sent out my reinforced tendrils, snatching up the round fist-size rocks lining the pit's walls. While two of the diggers were trying their best in the center of the hole, they were too tired to propel more than one of the rocks with enough force to be effective as weapons.

Snatching up the orbs that were so heavy that I would have trouble lifting them if I only used my physical body, I propelled them out of the pit one after another at the three beastkins diving down at me. The rocks whistled into the air, deforming the chest of one, breaking the wing of the second, and forcing the last to swerve to the side.

"Go!" I commanded and motioned to the passage behind me, signaling the legionaries dropping into the pit to rush forward and enter it, "Get inside now!"

Flexing my willpower, I went entirely on the offensive, splitting my tendrils and using all six of them to grab stones. Stepping to the center of the pit, I raised them over my head and began to spin them in a spiral. Picking up the rotational speed, I circled the stones faster and faster, stopping their upward movement three feet above the lip of the hole.

Holding them at the same height, seconds passed, and the whistling noise marking the rocks' passage built, becoming a deadly howl. Sweat began beading over my body from the mental strain of rotating the orbs, and I knew they would soon leave my grasp one way or another.

A woman I forgot the name of released a larger-than-normal pulse of mental energy, revealing the surrounding area, and I had my targets. Nearly instantly after I began releasing the orbs, I heard a series of meaty, wet thwacks followed by gurgling screams of agony.

As the mental weight lifted from my mind, I stumbled backward, trying to walk to the cave mouth as my mind swirled. It was just that my legs didn't want to work, and I found myself looking up at the night sky. I saw the first signs of dim silver moonlike lighting the clouds. It wouldn't get that much brighter as it was little more than a crescent moon, but at least it was something.

After I pulled my thoughts away from the sky, I realized I was already falling, only to be caught in someone's arms. Within a second, I was pulling myself free of them and trying to stand on my own unsteady feet, but for some reason, I couldn't quite get away.

I looked at the blood-smeared face of Kathren, the woman I kicked to wake up in camp, giving her a tired nod of thanks as I said, "You got a little something on your face. Might want to clean it up a bit before you try to sweep men off their feet again."

She gave a snort of a laugh before snapping back, "Ha! Like you're one to talk Instructor. At least now you finally have some color on your cheeks."

A thin smile twitched on my lips as I shuffled forward through the three duos of legionaries guarding the tunnel to a small cave.

Well, it wasn't that small. It was ten feet in diameter, but that was still cramped for twelve people. I moved to the center of the stone room before I sat down with a grunt of relief before crossing my legs.

As counterintuitive as it might seem, it was harder to hold a union together without the heat of battle. There were too many stray thoughts. And as the core of the network, it was my job to keep it together until we no longer needed it. As such, I mentally readied myself for a long night of meditation and focus.

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