The Barbarian assault to the 17th came from both sides and was swift. Worse than that, it was almost simultaneous to the attack to the other legions. The legionnaires fought bravely but there was no way out - the way the columns were marching made it impossible to organize defenses properly. Moreover, communications were swiftly cut off by the attackers, making coordination even more difficult. Every small group, vastly outnumbered from every sides, was fighting its own private battle.<br/><br/>This was exactly what happened to the 17th. Broken into 10 or 15 smaller groups, all of them outnumbered by Barbarian forces, each group was fighting not for victory, but for their own survival. Desperately, to say the least.<br/><br/>Lucius was in the smallest of these groups. They tried to organize a testudo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testudo_formation), but their efforts were in vain - the enemies were using horses and they broke twice the formation. It did not take more than a couple of hours for the panick to take place among the legionnaires.<br/><br/>Lucius regretted deeply having joined the army. He would be much better in Egypt or Greece, not in that bloddy forest. He had to find his way out of that confusion and to survive. After these thoughts, he stabbed a large, bearded Barbarian carrying a hammer in front of him. He was running short of time to find his way out as more and more Barbarians were arriving. All he wanted was to go back to the peaceful village he had visited some time ago.