LXVII

In the cavern melee, disorganized Roman ghosts flail while monsters press hard with stones, fire, and charges. Frank is hit by an arrow, fails to shapeshift, and fights on with a borrowed sword toward Nico, Jason, and Piper, who are barely holding the line amid a storm of missiles and Greek fire.

Frank realizes the ghosts won’t heed Jason because Jason no longer reads fully Roman. When Frank orders the legion to lock shields, a few respond, but his centurion rank limits control. At Nico’s urging, Jason formally resigns and promotes Frank to praetor. The promotion clears Frank’s focus; Mars and Ares’s unified will urges him to break the enemy.

Frank commands precise Roman formations: a solid defensive square, then archers whose arrows ignite, scything through Cyclopes, centaurs, and telkhines. With momentum building, he orders a wedge advance with pila that grinds the horde into dust. Piper counters empousai commands with disruptive charmspeak, sowing infighting among the enemy leaders.

Frank coordinates the team: Jason airlifts squads of dead Romans to smash the enemy’s weak flank across the chasm, while Nico uses Diocletian’s scepter to summon more legionnaires. As the legion gains ground, Frank leads a charge to capture the bridge before Jason’s forward force can be overwhelmed.