‘Charge!’ Rufus screamed, for legionaries were taught to be aggressive. The yelling men surged out of the gateway, reaching down with their right hands to draw swords as they ran. Ferox, Annius and the others followed them. Clear of the gateway, he saw that the enemy leader was down, a pilum having punched through his shield and pinned it to his body. Another man was wailing in high-pitched agony with the long javelin driven into his groin. He sat on the grass, blood bubbling from his mouth. Beside him a warrior was dead, the pilum still stuck in his head, and a fourth man had the slim shank sticking out for a good six inches from the back of his impaled thigh.

The rest had halted, confused and shocked, as the legionaries ran forward ten paces into them. The Romans punched with their heavy shields – Ferox saw one of the Selgovae lifted off his feet by the blow – and followed up with jabs of their swords. It was over almost as soon as it began. Three more warriors were down, the wounded finished off with economical thrusts, and the rest fleeing back.

Neither Ferox nor Annius had got close enough to cross blades with the enemy. Rufus had blood on his sword and a spatter of enemy’s blood across his face. The legionaries were chattering excitedly, some of them trying to recover their pila and having little luck. One of the ones to hit the ground had broken when it had hit a stone. Two more were intact and usable, but the ones that had found victims were stuck fast, designed to penetrate rather than to slide out with ease.

‘Given us some time anyway,’ Titus Annius said.

A legionary grunted as a javelin came at him from his unshielded right side. It hit one of the plates of his segmented cuirass, the force knocking him over even though it did not pierce the soft iron.

‘Get back!’ Titus Annius called. ‘Re-form in the gate.’

Warriors were beginning to close on them. Another javelin arced down, not sticking when it hit the ground, but sliding forward through the grass to stop just in front of Ferox. One of his comrades helped the man knocked down as the legionaries walked backwards, using their shields to stop the missiles. Stones from slings smacked against them, and one went low, cracking on a man’s shin, breaking bone. The legionary dropped, and as the man beside him leaned down to help a javelin hit him in the right arm. He hissed, dropping his sword.