A Routine Cleanup

"I can hear you just fine, you know."  The voice of the armored general spoke from  behind Kiril. Gallus's seems rather calm but loudly audible though the shouts and clamor of the battle. His mind was complete sangfroid, taking in various form of information as he kept the entombed at bay from his side.

One note of information was mixture of herbal and chemical from the elixir that was used on the other man's wounds. The general quickly matched the composition with many that the old Lord Cato had hammered into his mind for many years and noted that the elixir uncommon to find on just any person, who would have been just fine having a trusty vulnerary.  That fact, along with the observation on how he got inside the shield wall, gave Gallus a reason to note that this man, despite the modest regalia,  was no run-of-the-mill hired guard.  Fortunate for Kiril, the general was not in a position to investigate on that further.

An arrow hit Gallus's armor with a kink.  The general was fortunate that the archers were no dead Yanni among them. Those horselords were infamous fetchers and their armor piecing arrows were a bane for Thanin forces.  A legionaire Scutum would be paper to those arrows, but luckily the arrows used here were no such thing and were easily blocked away. "Tibbs, your aspis can only take so much punishment. Switch out with Novus and take on the offensive."

"I'm still listening. Gallus reminded Kiril, despite never turning to look at the other man.

Kiril turned to face the man.

"General Gallus Cato...well...curious coincidence. He didn't ask me who I am, that is fortunate as this one is cunning. I should use the opportunity to come up with a better cover story."

The Wolf has seen the General once before, stood at attention in the line of the legion, disguised as a legionnaire even. However almost all the knowledge Kiril had on the man was theoretical, based on the reputation he had among his peers, and those serving under him. This irritated Kiril somewhat as he much preferred knowing everything about the people around him, while assuring that what they know about him is a narrative he carefully forged to his benefit. This was even more important if his survival depended on those people. Regaining full control of the situation would be difficult, but at the same time a goal worthy of effort.

"Haven't used my Krevian accent in quite some time..."

Kiril's tone of voice presented a mixture of alarm and determination, as it seemed the proper form of expression under the circumstances, his mind of course remained as cold as ever.

"Good, lets skip the introductions. I'll make this short since time is of the essence. If any of you want to survive this, we must move now. Just down the road to the south of us there are hundreds more undead, perhaps thousands. These are the borderlands, armies marched and battled through here dozens of times in ages past. The ground is thick with bones, and whatever magic is raising the dead doesn't seem to discriminate. We must go north! If we wait, they'll swarm us,the only chance we have is to attempt to break through the few that are directly in front of us, and get as far away from the crack in the sky as we possibly can."

He looked Gallus directly in the eyes and continued quieter so no one else could hear.

"I know that you think you have a good defensible position, I am not trying to undermine your command, I am simply telling you what I know will happen based on what I saw. If you value your men's lives, we must move."

"Why so damn formal in a battleground?" Gallus cut in abruptly with a nonchalant voice. The general seems to rather unmoved and untouched by Kiril's speech entirely.  He didn't take pleasure in someone making assumption  on his thoughts about anything. In fact, it was quite his pet peeve.


"I was well aware of our position and I have three things to tell you. First, I had no intention of staying here. The only reason we're here now is because of you. Well,  I had hoped for more of you, but unfortunately you did confirmed my theory. Sorry for your charge and comrades." Gallus said painfully.  He took note a few days ago of a caravan that was just behind them. When the chaos was happening, Gallus fought with every urge in his being not to go back for them.  His mind calculated every idea and possible plan to attempt a rescue, but he knew the numbers were poorly in the favor of huge losses and little gain. There was something larger behind them. Something terrible and it was lady's damn luck that the other man didn't run into it.

"Second," Gallus continued while bashing down another undead warrior casually with his axe,  " We have been moving this whole time. Of course, no one noticed because they were involuntarily covering gaps that I created." As Gallius pointed out, their position had moved a few meters since he made the order to bastion. The general had intentionally lunched forward aggressively against the undead masses but did not return into position. The guard that were trained to keep formation would notice and moved to fix the discrepancy. After the man had leap over the shield wall, the wagon was a distance away after it was stripped and broken in haste and barrels of a black substance were cracked open and laid out as a wall.

"Third, we're near Kolasi, and I took the north position of this formation for a reason. " Gallus turned his head towards one of the other soldiers,

"Were the barrels are ready?"

"Yes, sir."

"The horses?"

"Loaded as far as they can carry....and Blindfold as requested, sir." Another solider answered.

"Good, now let's get into position. Move with me, everyone!" Gallus lead the violent march, with a massive swing of his throwing axe though the army of undead. He punched one undead to the ground, and stepped on its head with a sickening crunch. It gave an extra noticed for Tiberius that Gallus had change physically since they last met. He broke into the thorn bramble that walled the old road and directed everyone inside, "Do not stop until we're between the road's wall and gods, don't let a twig of that bush hang on to you."

In the year of reformation, this unique path was infamous carrier of the Kolasi bush. A strange plant, which fibers were a flame accelerant, and the seeds are persistent enough that even if the bush was burn down, they spout new bush just as easily. As history dated, horse-mounted bandits used to raid this road during the years of reformation. Thanin did not have a well established military back then and were mostly unorganized militia. They planted these nefarious bushes on both sides of the route between two major towns and during the raid, they would light the bushes, walling the road in fire that would endured for hours before dying out.  The towns that the road connected were destroyed a long time ago, apparent by the half sunken slabs of hydraulic lime mortar scattered about along destroyed remains of once great buildings.   The road...as its namesake, the Road of Hell, still remained and right now...it's their pathway north.

"Irina, darling...I don't suppose you can light what's left of that wagon once everyone on the road?" Gallus spoke in a relaxed voice, despite tense situation around him.

Kiril moved his head with a precise motion two inches to the right, dodging an arrow heading for his face. He remained silent and moved with the rest of the group.

"Competent, confident, not as arrogant as many of his peers...if you add curiosity to that mixture this man could prove to be dangerous. Best course of action is to keep my mouth shut, not draw anymore attention and leave as soon as I can."

The Wolf effortlessly deflected an incoming blow with his saber, and split the attacker's skull in two in one rapid, fluid motion.

"Still this is good information, once I get to a safe house I should open a file on the good General....never know then the day may come that I see a contract with his name on it laying on my desk."

Kiril continued walking along.

This wasn't the first time that the sage used her powers in a offensive way and likely it wouldn't be the last but the brunette had never been in a situation as dire as this one. Luckily she managed to keep her mind clear, to not let fear take over her mind; as long as Gallus told her to not worry about the soldiers she started to cast, her hands moving in intrincate patterns as her lips spoke the needed words. During other circumstances she would have chosen to cast barrier but consiering that the group was quite large and that the enemies were only increasing she decided to save her strenght for offensive spells; there was a limited amount of danger that a barrier could take after all.

Suddenly another person appeared in the middle of the chaos, someone unfamiliar and while under other circumstances she would have been curious about the stranger's identity now she decided to not focus on the conversation; after all he was speaking with the general. The numbers increased, soon they would be too outnumbered to fight back but luckily Gallus decided to move the group to a safer place.

"Of course" she only said, agreeing to the last command. She waited until they had more distance with the group so that no one would get harmed.

And then she set the wagon on fire.

Tiberius was gritting his teeth as he stabbed outward with Hannibal. He was solid with his aspis' defense and spear, and the formation with his fellows made sure to follow instructions. He swapped out with legionnaire Novus and took a moment to catch his breath. He made sure to help deflect arrows away from the injured stranger and Irina who were in the center of the slowly moving circle of soldiers. His eyes blazed in anger as he saw more and more undead rising from the ground.

"By the blood of my ancestors, NO ONE WILL JOIN THE DEAD HERE TODAY!" he shouted with all his might as the wagon lit ablaze from Irina's spell casting and Tiberius took up position as vanguard while the others marched onward. He held his aspis up and deflected many arrows, though one had caught his shoulder, but bounced off his segmented armor. There would definitely be a bruise there later, however.

------(The following in this post occurs after the subsequent battle)-----

Several hours passed, and they had finally gotten away from the Crack's minions of the dead and the battered group were finally on the well-paved roads of Thanin, a national speciality. Tiberius sagged and leaned on his aspis to keep himself up. He was exhausted and bloody, with a couple flaps of skin hanging off his spear arm where the creatures' weapons had struck him. He blinked the blood from his eyes that had come from a cut on his forehead. "Welcome home." he chuckled darkly as their group was picked up by a patrol of the Golden Army. The wounded were brought in for medical help, though it was noted that Tiberius was the last one they went to tend to and by the time they did he had passed out from blood loss.

His world went dark, and he dreamed. Occasionally he would wake up delirious with fever from poorly treated wounds. After all, he was a freak to Thaninite standards, and thus was not worthy of proper medical care. He didn't care at this point, he knew he'd come back stronger.

The wagon was remained inert at the initial spark, then a large blaze emerged like a sleeping giant pulling out of its cave. It grew as the oil had seep into the ditches that the old road had ended, which surrounded the party in circle. The burning trap did not completely encircled the party. It grew outward creating a wide road, as Gallus expected, leading in one direction. North.

One of the horses jumped in a mid buck, shaken by the sudden heat it was feeling. Someone rushed up to grab the reins and managed to calm it down.

"No choice but to go north." And back home... Gallus muttered under his breath, aiming at no one with his comments. He had enjoyed his bit of freedom and minor work. If you take out the religion horseradish that the clergy flung about daily, Seraphane was a paradise compared to Thanin. None of the military politics that he deal with everyday from commanders and generals that couldn't tell a defensive position from their own bunghole. If there was any consolation, there was Aelia...

The armored man resisted the urge to voice out that name. His motions were almost automated as he led his companions though the flaming road, cutting down a dead rising from the ground before it completely emerged. He passed a rag casually to one of the soldiers complaining about the heat. He took brief moment to observe the other man who was only an ally by circumstance. Gallus didn't look at the man directly, but took notice of the gait, fighting movement, and various information one could pick up by sounds and brief glance. Gallus had always made up for his lack with his deadly sharp perception and inhuman ability to process such information. This process did not betray on his movements and having a helmet halved the effort needed to hide any hints. If he had a good idea on what the stranger is, he kept it to himself quite well.

The general would lead everyone north on the long miles trek north. They should find a official Thanin road eventually. There was still a few of the dead along the blazing road and the mad howling something bigger and nastier somewhere. Gallus turned his head slightly as one of the solider made a mild curse as a arrow struck him.

"I didn't say you can lower shield, solider." He retorted, before directing someone to see to him.  The yelp broke his internal reverie he had on the side of his combat mode.

Kiril felt a tremor go through his left arm, the expiration time on the potion he drank earlier made itself known, soon his exhausted body would collapse. He made no sign of being troubled and continued walking along.

"We're not moving fast enough...I can't allow myself rest surrounded by these people."

He reached into the pack and pulled out another potion.

"Fine then."

Kiril uncorked the bottle and drunk it in one gulp.

"I'll be catatonic for a week, but at least now I have forty eight hours. I just need to ensure that I make it to a safe house before falling over."

Irina hadn't received serious wounds during the fight since she had casted while keeping a reasonable security distance with the undead, but the amount of casting was starting to take a toll on the brunette; even sages had a physical limit, Irina couldn't use magic forever. She could feel the typical physical exhaustion that was associated to overdoing her skills, tiredness, her spells were a little bit less strong than before. She didn't stop as they moved but she couldn't wait until they found allies, a safe place to rest briefly.

A few hours as passed. The company covered many miles. Marching was pretty routine...dodge or deflected arrows, cut down the raising dead of the caravan road, seeing to the wounded it. Gallus felt his boredom like a weariness in his eyes, knowing his body tends to slow down without simulation. He would have admit he was analyzing his allies to keep him from being sleepy but now he would long for finding one of the main roads as the exhaustion was starting to take its toll.

After another hour, the undead became more sparse as they saw the exit of the fire road in view.

"End of the line. This used to be Tanais, but there should be a main road after we across th-"

...Must have more...

A wheeze, a whisper...It was quiet as latter but as haggard as the former.  The voice stopped Gallus in middle speech while the guards muttered in bewilderment.  Some claimed to not hear anything.

To take what is mine...

The general reared back as their exit  of the fire road was blocked by a drawing of amber lights. It formed patterns  along the ground until it was obvious to magical user that it was a casting circle. What appeared in the circle was humanoid. It was a giant that seems stitched together by flesh.  Its face was covered by a metal mask scrapped together into a rather monstrous visage but obvious had something resembling eyes, but no mouth, nose. It was almost as twice as tall as Gallus, staring him down with a red glow in one of its eye slits.

The eye, along with the tiredness, took his attention from one of the creature's hand or lack thereof. It was a spear tool that immediately shot out towards the soldiers. It caught a solider though its Segmentata armor, and he was dragged towards behemoth.  Gallus rushed forward with his axe to break the chain but was soon met with blow as the creature charged at him. A heavy metal object was being aimed at Gallus's head.  He brought the axe to block the blow of the hammer, but he felt a very horrible pain in his right arm all the way to the right side of his body. He was pushed back into the group and took a backstep to stabilize his stance while clutching on his right arm.  The dog head mounted on the right shoulder of general's armor was bent.  

The creature seems rather busy as the legionnaire he captured, which it hoisted up to its masked face.  The legionnaire struggled, and fought the creature in vain.  A horrible scream came out of the man as a pale light was being drawn out of the legionnaire's body and into the creature's mask.  The screaming stop and the creature flung the corpse to the dirt. Grievously, Gallus was forced to watch the display, yelling at everyone to stay back. During that time, he opened his helmet, taking grabbing hard hide part that was part of his axe between his teeth before using a quick but strong motion to put his arm into place.  

"What a pain.." Gallus said between pained breaths. "I can only take so many blows from that..." He instinctive cut someone off,  "It's only a dislocation, I'll be fine. I glanced away the blow before it struck me."

With that, Gallus grabbed a vial from the compartment inside the dog head inside his armor and drank it down. It was not meant to be taken orally, but he had no choice. He'll take being sick for a few hours later over dying to that thing.

"Look over there. Around its belly." Gallus spoke again, more clearly as the elixir took effect.  The location in question a scrap of leather patch that melded into the creature's belly. There was a distinctive symbol of a shrike bird with a bloody gold coin in its beak colored into the leather. "I think that explained what happened to the bandits."

Kiril calmly observed the creature's emergence.

"Why...the fuck...is all this....happening to me....on the same day?!"

He gritted his teeth to hide his annoyance. Casting a gaze at the battlefield he noted the actions of Gallus and his legionnaires.

"Should I...assist? If I am going to fight this thing, I'll have to do it at the full extent of my skill, something I would prefer not to reveal to others, government officials especially. What would Euryens do?"

Kiril scratched his head for a second.

"Something stupid, loud, and over the top probably....no, I'll take a less direct approach first. I know absolutely nothing about this thing's physiology and I doubt it would stay put and let me perform a field dissection on it. Time to go talk to the Sage woman."

Kiril walked over to Irina and spoke calmly and reassuringly.

"Pardon me, madam, I understand that throwing around as much magic as you have just now must be exhausting...however I find myself in need of your skills. This creature right there..."

He pointed at the colossus.

"...Has obviously been created by magic, could you perhaps examine it from a scientific perspective using your abilities, and find some form of a weak spot? Surely there must be something that is binding this unnatural phenomenon to this place, something we can destroy in order to dispel it. Do you have thoughts on the matter?"

When Irina tought that the worst was over, a new creature appeared; the kind of monstrosity that the sage had only seen in books, a walking nightmare. Thankfully the man's voice brought her back to reality, breaking the shock. The brunette shook her head, remembering the words that her teacher always said "Panic is always an equivalent to failure". Violet eyes worked quickly, examining the creature briefly "It reminds me to a faceless because of the body built and facial structure, but I have to admit that I am not extremely familiar with these creatures" yes, faceless. She had read descriptions, even saw a couple of times a drawing.

"In general the most ideal tactic would be to avoid direct attacks, they are strong but not specially brilliant. Ifg you all give me a little bit of more time I can try to find a weakness"

While Tiberius and two others of the guards covered the group's flanks. Eventually he swapped out with another guard to help the others against- what in the hells was that thing? A walking monstrosity of some sort, quite unlike the undead they'd been encountering. Tiberius was wounded, and tired but he grit his teeth and used an old mental trick to block the pain and keep fighting. He set himself up between the Faceless and the others, aspis held high to block the raining blows of the thing while he stabbed forward with Hannibal. He had been getting cut up from the onslaught, with deep gashes in his arms and legs where blows got around his shield, there was a flap of skin hanging here and there too. Today is not the day I die. He thought defiantly, grit his teeth and pushed forward with a yell of determination, as strength surged through his worn out muscles.

"Last time, I checked. Faceless didn't use a hammer and a spear on its hand and have a logic on capturing people." Gallus commented, who recalled a book on it. This thing might have been based on a faceless but it was a bit more purposed than that. And what was the blue light the thing sucked out of his man? His life-force? A soul? There was unnerving question than he was willing to figure out.

Gallus hooked his axe at his back, then took a hold of a three bladed partisan spear of his own personal touch. "Looks like I have to be a little more serious."  He turned to Irina, "Time, is something I can create."  and then to Kiril, not saying a word.

The creature was annoyed with Tiberius's attack. The hammer smashing against the aspis shield, causing it to break apart by the sheer brute force. There was another sound as something else might have broke. As the monster used lifted up its spear to impale its new target, a massive force rammed against the faceless with such force that trench formed between where it was pushed.  

Gallus stood in front of Tiberius instead, with the spear Bellona, "You have hit me with a cheap shot then ignored me? What a rude visitor..." With a mocking notion in his words, Gallus engaged the creature, taking its attention away from the others. One would notice a complete change in Gallus as he glanced away blows with maneuvers and throwing off  the creature's aim, and was able to take a lot more punishment.  His muscles ached from the abuse. His shoulder, that was injured recently, was the worst offender and he knew he would have it in a sling later. The moment he found an openings, he took them...aiming for the creature's hammer arm or its legs to limit its combat ability.

Something kept bothering him during the fight. That red glowing eye that seem to appear though the grating of its mask. It made him think that just maybe...

"I don't like that red eye, staring at me..." He casually commented.

Kiril was patiently observing Gallus's attack, gauging the General's ability as much as his opponents.

"Well...field dissection it is then, still too much remains unknown, more than I can learn from passive observation. Lets see if this thing bleeds."

Kiril tensed up his muscles, his body didn't feel right in quiet a lot of places. The potions he took to allow him to remain conscious have dulled both his speed and senses.

"Damn this all to hell...I'll have to launch an attack without knowing the outcome, I am going to have to take the risk of getting injured, and on top of that show my craft to government officials. You're slipping Kiril, you're slipping, should have had a contingency for this before setting out on this journey..."

He reached for the roll of cloth strapped to his back by rope.

"The dagger won't do, stabbing is unlikely to yield desired results against this opponent as I have no knowledge of the lay out of its vital organs and arteries. Will need something with more cutting power."

He unrolled the cloth and revealed a rather common looking saber, with a tarnished gold hilt. Kiril unsheathed it with his left hand, tossing the scabbard to the side. He brought up the blade to his face and cast a gaze across its edge.

"Senzo is it? You sung quite a beautiful tune in the hands of Master Euryens, and you've tasted my flesh more than once....lets see if I can make you sing as well."

Grabbing his own saber with his right hand, he took a few steps towards the monster a blade in each hand. The perfect moment has arrived as the creature recoiled back from Gallus' attack.

The muscles tensed again, released....and screamed in agony, but still did their job, time has slowed somewhat. The Wolf moved in towards his prey with speed, narrowly dodging the blade of the spear by sliding under it, he poped up off the ground just in time to miss the hammer descending on his head. Not wasting motions, he caught the hammer wielding arm of the monster at the wrist in between the blades of his sabers. The monster's flesh did not give easily, but it did part, and the appendage split off from its body, followed by a stream of blood.

Kiril heard the creature roar and then his sight went black....he was too close, he was too slow, the monster's stump smashed into the Wolf's chest, sending him flying back ten feet sliding across the ground. The chain mail and the padded coat under it lessened the impact somewhat, in a way saving its wearer from instant death, but Kiril could feel that multiple ribs were broken. Yet the remedies he took earlier would not allow him to loose consciousness completely, though their pain dulling effects could not reconcile the wretched state of the assassin's body. He felt the hilts of his sabers still in his hands and quickly got up...immediately regretting that decision as the pain sharpened tenfold.

Propping himself up by sticking the blade of his right hand saber into the ground, the Wolf gritted his teeth, spit out the blood and looked towards the monster.

"All that, and all I've accomplished was to provide a distraction....you're slipping Kiril....if by some miracle you make it out of this, perhaps its time to think of retirement....lets hope my companions can capitalize on the situation and my efforts aren't completely in vain...there are still a few moments left."

Gallus took a tanking form against the creature, but defense was all he could muster.  As long as that creature wield that hammer, any aggressive action he could take would be met with a painful and probably deadly consequence. The general's mind was seething frustration. This thing could keep pressing the attack for days, months even...but his body did not have the same endurance. If only there was a break in this thing's defense, if only...

His thoughts were cut away suddenly back to reality and splashing of blood over his eyes. The hammer that caused the general so much grief dropped against the harden soil. His eyes caught agony and retribution,  the figure of the guard that he was working so hard to protect scrawled on the ground. With a rash curse, the general moved and not think, quickly attacked more aggressively to reel the creature backward.  The sudden aggression caused spear gun misfired into ground and Gallus had punched it further in to lock the creature down before taking a shot at the red eye that glowered at him the whole time.  Bellona stuck though the grate  of the creature's mask but barely missed it mark.   The Faceless used the one weapon it had, the bloody stump that struck Gallus on the side where his injuries were worsen. He was forced to withdraw, with blood was coming out out of the knuckles of his good arm.

He yelled at all mages in his group to finish this thing off.  The spear Bellona was sticking out of the creature into the air like a propped lightning rod.

Tiberius, bloody, broken, battered and bruised, still remained conscious during the battle despite his body rapidly failing him. He knew that it was do or die time with how Kiril and Gallus were assaulting the creature, and Tiberius' broken arm hung limp at his side, his aspis shield sporting several nasty dents from the club's imprint. Hannibal was limp at his side from his bloody, injured spear arm. He grit his teeth in anger, fury burning in his mismatched eyes. Gallus had set up a good attack opening for someone to take, Tiberius was furious with himself that his arms were not working well enough to be the one to finish the beast, so he slumped onto the ground, leaning against his bent shield as he waited for the final blow to come.

Irina was giving into the fight everything that she had left and more; she hoped that this creature was the only surprise left or otherwise she would pass out. She had used most of her energy back then, with the other treath, but still this was a matter of life or death thus she had to endure until the end.

She was paying attention when Gallus gave his last command, magic preparing for the final blow, electricity appearing in her fingertips. Sparks flew across the air, her attack syncronized with the other mages' ones taking the creature definitively down. While Irina managed to sort of mantain the composture she felt incredibly weak. She looked at the reast of her companions "You all need a healer, as soon as possible; I don't like the way that some of your wounds look like" said the sage, a touch of concern in her voice.

The combined effort of magic coursed into a massive bolt of lightning that arched towards the hilt of Bellona. The spear wasted no time in channeling the combined electricity into the monster's head . Something shattered inside the mask in a array of red fragments that disintegrated soon after. Gallus watched this with relief as the massive body with its core gone slowly crumbled away from lack of holding magic and heat from the magic that slowly vaporized the flesh apart.

The general body quickly collapse from mixture of exhaustion and wounds. Instinctively using his hand to brace himself, he winced, feeling the hand he used in a punch earlier and the broken bones making themselves apparent as they attempt to brace his weight. His vision darken more around the slits in his helmet. No, not yet. He mentally cursed.

He might have heard Irina's comment about needing a healer, but he feared she was the only one capable of performing such services and she was at her limit. He could move after a while but Tiberius and the stranger would need to be carried. Gallus was not fooled on the extent of injuries from the two and his own men.  He lost..two? Maybe three. Most were wounded and exhausted...

When did his eyes closed up? Did he take a head wound earlier? He could hear rumbling along the ground. Fighting all the pain in his head, he looked up as familiar forms of Segmenta armor rode towards them from the distance. He could barely make out the flags but it was a century riding towards them.

"A little late, aren't we?" Gallus sighed, but he was relieved. Healers was one thing that a century would always carry. He closed his eyes, allowing himself to rest.