Lancelot and his unit were already holding the eastern cliff face when Vane's squad finally crested the northern rock spur.
Lancelot had been standing his ground in the suffocating valley for forty minutes. When Vane's unit appeared on the high ridge, Lancelot casually looked up. He registered Vane's arrival, held eye contact for a single heartbeat of mutual acknowledgment, and immediately went back to slaughtering the eastern approach. They were two apex predators who had read the same invisible currents, arriving at the exact same violent conclusion independent of the Academy's sluggish warnings.
The third unit arrived from the south exactly three minutes later. Sera Voss, a third-year from Sael's advanced class, skidded to a halt on the gravel. She stared down at the writhing sea of red markers flooding her wristband overlay.
"That is a lot of bodies," Voss breathed into the cold air.
