A blunted oak practice stave cracked sharply against a bronze-trimmed shield boss, sending a shower of dry wood shavings spinning across the gravel.
Cassie held her ground at the center of the defensive wedge, her teeth gritted as three veteran militia recruits leaned their full body weight into her barrier.
"Do not let the line bow inward!" Jonas bellowed from the perimeter, pacing behind the formation with his arms folded across his chest.
"If the center buckles by three inches, hostile shock cavalry will fold your flanks into a bloody meat grinder!"
Cassie exhaled a sharp breath through her nostrils, channeling an azure defensive pulse from her warding focus into the bronze rims of the adjacent shields.
The three recruits stumbled backward under the sudden elastic rebound, their iron-shod soles skidding three feet across the raked training circle.
