The first hour of the pitched battle was the hour that the Rakshas had been built for.
The spear wall received the combined force's front line the way a seawall received a wave, the contact's energy absorbed and dissipated across the formation's width, each warrior's contribution to the wall's integrity ensuring that no single point bore the force alone. The long spears struck the advancing soldiers at the range where the soldiers' weapons could not reach the warriors behind the shields, and the killing at that range was mechanical, systematic, the product of training and physical advantage applied at the distance that the weapons' geometry dictated.
