Carnifex
The Legion forces waited atop the line for several more hours with nothing happening in the village below beside the wailing shrinking below the winds. No counterattack, no action from the Hidebarks. The line sat silently waiting for dawn to come and reveal what happened below.
Caesar himself heard word of the mysterious incident as the line was filled, the Elite came to report the alert but was sent away by being told this was expected. Every legionary watched the darkness for a long time, waiting to act or waiting for some last-ditch effort from the besieged. Again, nothing happened, and the dictator requested to be left alone until morning. Still, the line waited, hours passed and the whole force sat at the ready until just before the first glimmer of dawn over the east. Right before the glow began to claim the night, the fire in the middle of the village was started again, but it was no longer the giant standing there with his axe and bow. Instead, it was a lone male, waving a blank flag back and forth. With the fire showing the white flag, dawn had broken over the east, the dictator was informed, and all veterans of the cohort were ordered forth.
As the sun rose more and more, the veteran legionaries marched down the steep and winding paths into the cliff lined little valley unopposed, and into the village proper. There, Montano stepped up to the site of the lone fire that was quickly extinguished as the force of nearly 80 veterans fanned out across the village to begin rooting out the shattered Hidebark people, most of whom were too hungry to put up any kind of resistance.
Montano turned back to the cliffs he came from and saw the great sign completely legible, even from such a distance, and studied the broken fragments of the giant's bow that'd been snapped after the 30th arrow. Upon glancing back at the cliffs, he saw the outline of a sizable formation, marking the guards and staff of both Caesar and the Elite. People were hauled out of their battered homes and rounded up by the veterans as last night's uproar of wails became the signature sound of the morning as well. As more were hauled into the open by the cohort's veterans, Montano himself was approached by a Hidebark male who held the rolled up white flag. The man's face was bloody and beaten, staring at the masked decanus with a face that said he was more than willing to fight if he wasn't holding that flag, but the strange part was how the tribal's face said something else; that something else was the telepathic order for Montano to follow him. Montano gave a nod to the savage but temporarily tamed man, and signalled for his group of veterans to follow.
Montano followed the flag-carrying man on a short walk from the central fire to the largest tent structure made of animal hides and desert debris. Montano did not expect a trap as he followed the man inside the tent, due to the force continuing their work outside and state of the broken Hidebark people. Upon ducking under the structure's opening to accommodate the large flag mounted to his back, Montano studied the scene as his contingent of soldiers filed in behind him.
Laying before Montano was a terrible display. On the far end of the enclosure sat a large chair or makeshift throne with a decapitated man still sitting in it, and two other smaller seats beside it, both also occupied by deceased men who were impaled to their chairs by long wooden rods, and with heads hanging low, barely holding up the elaborate tribal head dresses atop their bleeding heads. The far end of the enclosure didn't capture his attention for long because seated in the middle of the large tent was an even worse scene. The lone giant laid there sprawled out in the center in a pool of blood, and surrounding the giant's body were over a dozen men laying mutilated and lifeless. Weapons were scattered about, and limbs were laying wherever there wasn't blood, and 6 other Hidebark warriors were seated off to one side treating wounds and groaning in agony. Montano removed his goggles and looked to the Hidebark flag bearer. After taking in the mess and locking eyes with the only Hidebark standing, the tribal said in accent;
"No one's left to say it, we surrender."
Montano exited the tent with the official word and after finally witnessing the scene of the incident that apparently caused their surrender. The survivors of the massacre as well as their flag bearer were escorted out of the chieftain's tent in custody of the veterans to the growing congregation of captures. More and more captives were escorted to their assigned sections for the start of assessment, and the process continued until Montano sent a runner up the cliffs to inform the Elite and Caesar about what happened.
Upon hearing the message, the Interfector and his staff came down the cliffs to join the assimilation work and the Elite personally entered the site of the massacre, marveling at what happened. It is unknown whether this was out of curiosity or respect of some sort, but the Interfector personally saw that the massacre was cleaned up, and the body of the giant was brought out into the open to be burned with the other corpses as the Hidebark weeping continued.
Before a team of five legionaries threw the giant's body onto the corpse piles, the Interfector took a moment to study the beast laying there, surrounded by the dozen men he apparently killed, and looking at the damage. The only way he could describe the face of the monster was; "Gone." A bloody and mangled object sat on the shoulders of the giant, and many who saw the face wondered if it was always caked in blood or if this was just something that happened the previous night since not many actually got to see the lone occasion he came close enough to clearly observe. As the five legionaries began to pick up the body, the Elite was still studying it, and just before the soldiers lifted him up, he saw a puff of hot breath come from what he assumed was the monster's mouth and visibly enter the morning cold.
Immediately, the Interfector sent a runner up the cliff to inform Caesar about the state of the monster. The messenger reached the top as more Hidebarks succumbed to the veterans' abuse after days of starvation and dehydration, but the formation of Praetorians atop the ridge never moved. Still, the runner returned to the Elite, and the only response from the dictator himself were the words, "Bring him to me."
Two Days Later
The camp below was destroyed and leveled. Of the 3-400 Hidebarks who occupied the village, only around half of them survived the siege and initial assessment by the Legion victors. The only thing that didn't account for were the mass of surrendered warriors who'd lost before the siege even began. After those 60+ warriors were sacrificed as incentive to surrender, there were still over 60 left, but where they ended up was a mystery to all when they found themselves kneeling in a formation before the tent of Caesar himself.
Each former Hidebark warrior including almost all males from the village were bound and gagged with a single veteran legionary or officer of the Cohort standing behind them. Both Aleron and Montano were in the formation, looking down at the captives before them, standing before Caesar's tent, and waiting for the next directive. The wind had slowed to a halt when the Elite exited the dictator's domicile first, quickly followed by the entire praetorian staff who formed a crescent before the entrance. Then, the doctor emerged, apparently suffering from several more bruises on his face and taking his place next to the Elite who subtly handed him a sack of some sort the doctor hesitantly accepted. Caesar himself finally emerged from the tent, and immediately behind the Lord exited a giant human with a face completely wrapped by bandages still seeping blood into the white cloth.
Caesar stood before the formation and said something to the giant with a gesture towards the silent mass of legionaries and restrained Hidebark males. Nobody could hear what Caesar said, especially Aleron and Montano who stood in the back with other staff officers, but the gesture was apparently displaying the formation as an offer to the beast. Without any word, the bandage-masked beast walked over to the first restrained man in the formation. Aleron could see this first man because of the spacing in the line, and watched the decanus put the blade to his captive's neck, only for the beast to crank the machete from the man's grip and remove the captive's head in one swing. The headless man collapsed to the dirt, the decanus now captiveless stood back to attention, other captures began to struggle, and the monster moved to the next man in the line.
One by one, the Hidebark monster destroyed the men and warriors he fought so viciously to protect, and more captures struggled in their restraints while the beast mechanically moved further down the line and into the next ranks, taking lives with him after each stop. Some captive warriors struggled the best they could, but their effort was futile with their arms chained to their legs and with a legionary officer standing behind them fully intent and ready to kill if needed. As each man fell, and more were killed by the beast in their helpless states, many of the captives began sobbing or praying for a salvation that wouldn't come in this life.
When the beast stood before Montano, Montano studied his completely wrapped face, and marveled at the fact there weren't even any eye holes in the mask. The blood still poured even more into the bandages as hot air escaped the mask into the cold, breathing heavily, wheezing, and looking over each and every Hidebark capture with that faceless face before indulging in the messy task. Montano's captive was resigned to his fate, even going so far as looking right back at the bleeding mask the monster wore. When the monster glanced upward at Montano, he saw that the Legion soldier was offering his blade for the deed. The monster only responded by letting loose another terrible wheezing sound and proceeded to twist the neck of the captive until it was looking back at Montano's groin, eyes bulging, and lifeless. Montano sheathed his blade, and the monster gave a few heavy breaths as the faceless wrapping seemed to look him over for a couple of seconds. The giant then moved down the line.
Aleron was one of the last ones in the formation, and his captive had been sobbing at the start, but by the time the monster was in front of him, the captive was barely conscious, being held up only by Aleron's grip on the man's hair. The beast stopped in front of Aleron, only briefly looking at the state of the captive before seeming to intently study Aleron himself. Aleron reached to offer his blade to the monster as well with his free hand before being stopped by a nightmare-inducing grunt from the beast and several breaths that sounded unbearably painful. Despite whatever terrible pain the monster was in, he was still the embodiment of pain's infliction, not its victim. In a single motion, the Hidebark giant swatted Aleron's hand from the captive's head. Aleron released his grip, and the man collapsed unconscious to the dirt. The beast then stared at Aleron again as even more blood began to seep through the bandage mask until he looked down. Perhaps Aleron's captive thought playing dead, or being legitimately scared into unconsciousness would save him. We will never know that man's mindset, since the Hidebark Beast then began to stomp on the captive's skull with his large boot until there was nothing left, and moved wordlessly on to the last doomed men.
Neither Aleron, Montano, or any Legionary were alone in what they saw after the Monster moved down the line. After each legionary watched their captives fall to the giant, they came to the attention and looked straight ahead. Being in the center back of the formation, Aleron and Montano saw what many others saw; they saw the look on the dictator's face grow subtly more proud as each man fell to the monster's violence.
When the last man was slaughtered, the beast stormed through the ranks, shoving past the legionaries at attention, and even past Caesar, back into the Lord's tent. Caesar ordered the Elite to approach, the doctor was ordered into the dictator's tent, and Caesar spoke with the Elite for a few moments. When they were done, Caesar re-entered his domicile, and the Elite dismissed the formation with orders for Centurions and their immediate staff to stay behind. When dismissed, many of the lower legionaries went about cleaning up the nearly 100 corpse mess, or went to swap shifts over the packed prisoner pens, now free of all men.
As the minutes went on, no word or change came from Caesar's tent as six praetorian sentries outside stood watch. When the centurions and staff of the 4th Cohort stepped up to the Interfector, he requested his standard unit readiness reports from the centurions, and took input from the staff when necessary. The meeting went on like any other, without even mentioning the mass execution or the Hidebark giant's involvement, even as the scene was cleaned up around them. It was like nothing happened. One more tally on Caesar's list of the conquered, and nothing more. When Centurion Lucania finally inquired about the event every officer under the 4th Cohort participated in, and the involvement of the giant, the Elite did not answer. Instead, the Murderer of Phoenix gave a simple order;
"Let's pack this place up. Devil Dogs are up next."