Circle of Woe

Shoulder to shoulder in a circle of woe they stood, and woe was all their assailants found to greet them. Like a band of cornered wolves they ravaged and butchered all that stirred in reach, hostile blows ringing from their harness as they gave up the ground they’d won and shuffled back through the flames toward the line, their footing unsteady on the smoldering mattress of the mutilated and slain.
-TR, pg. 350