CHAPTER FOURTEEN: RECOVERY

  “Lucilia Durum is dead,” Pius said as he sank to the ground next to Cassius. Dawn had hardly broken the horizon and the field on the edge of the Agricola Custos estate. The old man was sleeping, chest rising slowly as he snored among the wounded he’d tended to throughout the night. Those who had been healed had been pulled away, but the old man had taken one look at Cassius' twisted ankle and shoved a wineskin in his hand before running to a thrashing woman whose stomach had been split open.

  “How?” Cassius asked, thoughts slow as he looked up toward the legionnaire as the man rested his head against the wall of a shed.

  “Never seen it before, but I overheard the strata talking about it. She used her life force to empower her skills. It’s what let her pierce that creature’s head,” Pius said.

  Cassius lifted the nearly empty wine skin and took a draught before passing it to Pius who drained it in one long swig. The older man wiped at his lips with the back of his wrist, ignoring the dirt and blood that covered it.

  “To the centurion. May she find her peace,” Pius said. Cassius bowed his head in acknowledgment as they slowly lapsed into silence together. Cassius was slightly drunk, the pain from his myriad of small wounds completely obscured by the haze of alcohol, while his snapped ankle only throbbed slightly.

  Pius was a thin, severe man. Harsh cheekbones that protruded from his face, an angry scowl that had been permanently fixed upon his face since Cassius had met him. Hours after the battle he looked relaxed finally, as if the weight of the fight had broken through the walls he had raised around the world.

  “You’ve been to a [Medicus] more in a week than I have in a year,” Vira said, breaking Cassius away from looking at Pius. The noblewoman had stripped her helm free but otherwise wore the rest of her kit. A new sword hung on her hip, bags were under her eyes, but there was the slightest tilt to her lips as she looked down at Cassius.

  “Haven’t quite seen him yet. Did get a bag of wine, though,” Cassius said, pointing toward where Pius had dropped the wineskin. The man rumbled a snore a moment later.

  “The best medicine I have found,” Vira said. She paused for a moment as she looked over the triage center and the dozens of still groaning or crying men and women and her face scowled further.

  “There are other non-classed medical people, but they are trapped inside of the city and are helping the injured there.”

  “What happened? I was occupied with everything else,” Cassius said, noticing the slur to his words as he pointed toward the back of the manor. His eyes drooped a bit as he stifled a yawn.

  “Those who had been taken, they never left. Don’t know where they were kept, but they came out in a hurry at night. All of them were weak, but there were plenty of them, they attacked and fought without regard to friend or foe.” Vira stopped as she yawned, rubbed at her eyes carefully with her armored gauntlet.

  “We killed them easily enough, but they started to spew those bug creatures. Horrid monsters. Once we cleared them away we pulled back to reinforce you,” Vira finished with a wave of her hand.

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  Cassius remembered what those bugs were called and couldn’t. His foggy brain refused to function, but he turned inward to look at the notifications he’d earned. The devil had been the only one he’d cared about, but he had killed or helped kill enough of the bugs for the notification to appear.

  Flesh Glutton

  Level Four

  Information: A creature from the Hell Plane of Gluttony

  “Huh, I can finally see the information,” Cassius said.

  “It’s rude to look at notifications when speaking to someone,” Vira chided him, but there was a lightheartedness to it.

  “Apologies, my lady. I have never seen anything like this. Did you notice that the bug and devil were both called gluttons?”

  “None of that now. But yes, I did notice. The creature we fought was some type of summoner, it could be that they could only summon a specific type of monster.”

  Cassius thought over that for a moment, but couldn’t think of anything. His brain was too slow and muddled at the moment, clouded by wine, exhaustion, and pain.

  “Did anyone manage to kill the summoner?” Cassius finally asked after a long moment.

  “No. We’ll send trackers down to the beach and caves tomorrow like we planned. Based on the numbers of dead though, we think this is a large portion of the stolen people, but there could be more.”

  “We’ll need the century back on its feet then,” Cassius said.

  “That we do. But the [Medicus] is exhausted right now and won’t be ready for hours still. We might be stuck here till either the rest of your cohort arrives or my uncle does,” Vira said. She shook her head in annoyance at the thought of Hadranius being the one to ride to the rescue.

  Cassius leaned back against the grass, staring into the sky as he sighed in a mix of pain and exhaustion. His eyelids drooped lower as he took slow shuddering breaths, trying to remain conscious as the world spun slowly.

  “Your century took heavy losses. Lucilia Durum is not the only one who will greet the funeral pyres today. Your attendant, Hostus, is severely injured as well. You will have to rebuild from the ground up,” Vira said some distance away. Cassius groaned in agreement as sleep tried to claim him.

  “I can see you’re too tired to continue this. Blessing in disguise I suppose. It is always poor fortune when the strata meddle with legion affairs.” Cassius grunted again, not really understanding what she was saying. He felt her presence leave as he lay there, the quiet clank of armor departing.

  “Sleeping already?” Marcus rasped and Cassius bit back a groan of annoyance as his partner stood above him.

  “Was trying to,” Cassius said.

  “Century is beat to hell. Will burn half of our number in the morning,” Marcus started as he sat down on the ground next to Cassius. The jingle of legion armor moving was louder than what the strata wore somehow. Cassius cracked an eye open to see his mentor with deep bags beneath his eyes as he yawned widely and wiped at his face.

  “Valeria?”

  “She found a tent and passed out. I came to see if you two were still alive and the state of healing,” Marcus replied.

  “Healer is as tired as we are,” Cassius said.

  “I can see that. Hard work for an old bastard. Durum is dead, Hostus is laid up with more broken bones than healed. Majority of the file leaders are dead or here with you. I expect they’ll name me acting centurion,” Marcus said.

  “Your orders?” Cassius asked, knowing better than offering any form of congratulations for the promotion.

  “Get everyone on their feet and ready to go to war. The summoner escaped. I’ll be organizing a few patrols as soon as I can, bringing those who still live to camp here and establish a perimeter. Until the Tribune arrives though, we are too battered to do anything else,” Marcus said.

  “That’s what Vira was saying,” Cassius muttered, closing his eyes again as he let himself slowly start to drift away.

  “The nobles were here? They already start to meddle and the bodies are still warm,” Marcus snarled, but there was little energy in the man’s voice. He sounded exhausted, broken down by the trials of the day.

  “Marcus, I’m going to fall asleep now. We can deal with this after we all get a bit of sleep and food,” Cassius mumbled, his words tumbled clumsily over his lips as he slowly drifted off to sleep.