Excerpt:

The shield he held was identical to the ones on either side. It was crafted by the blacksmiths back home in Eaglen, one of thousands. It was tall enough to cover him from knee to shoulder, and wide enough to hide his entire body, with a sharpened bottom edge to make it an offensive threat as well. In his right hand he held a short sword, also identical to those held by the men on either side. It wasn’t even his sword; he had lost his several days before and had gone through several others found on the ground since. Even though they were all made the same, the one he currently held didn’t feel quite like the one he had carried all the way from Eaglen. His armor and helm were also made by the same smiths, and had started off as common as any other in the army, but had acquired their own nicks, dings, and gouges, especially over the last couple days.

All the soldiers of Eaglen were trained to fight the same, to march the same, and to be the same. Their strength was in their numbers and in their formations, not in their individual prowess. He could hear his first sergeant yelling at the recruits, “One man standing alone can be cut down by a peasant archer, but take a thousand men with shields together and not one arrow will get through!” That was Sergeant Wood, likely dead by now. “One person cannot win a fight by himself, but if one person breaks the line, they may lose the battle by himself!”

The recruits trained to fight as a unit, to become familiar with those that stood on either side so as to best fight in unison. That is why all their equipment was the same and their training was designed to remove their individuality. Who they were, where they had come from, what they had been before joining the Army of Eaglen, all of that no longer mattered.

So he stood there, shield in left hand and sword in right, and formed a wall with the men next to him. He hefted his new sword to get the feel, and felt the men on either side looking at him. He looked up and met their eyes, and saw that they were frightened. He had thought he was past being frightened by this point, but suddenly he felt a new kind of dread.

Up until now, he had always managed to link back up with his unit. He had fought with those men from when they were in training together. He knew them and had learned how they fought.

But now, he didn’t know any of the men around him. And the enemy wasn’t one that they had been trained to face.

Nothing had prepared him for this.