Dog Town Part I

6 Weeks Later - Early 2275

The Interfector looked up and adjusted the slim leather strap across his chest supposed to be his armor. Between winded breaths, some of the blood dripped down into the corner of his eye and he immediately attempted to clean it with his ash and blood-covered hand. The pain was a bit more than he was used to but he knew his audience so he quickly stopped to endure the pain instead. In one last glance through his stinging eye, he saw the five lifeless bodies around him and finally looked up at the near 100 masked faces above him in the pit arena. He searched around that crowd to re-orient himself and found the helm of his colleague, Elite Centurion Carnifex. There he was, the only golden face in that sea of black, and above the rubble pile behind him was that blood-red sky over Denver. He was about to ask Carnifex the question when he heard one of the bodies on the arena floor begin coughing. Beneath the silence and another series of thumps from the rooftop onagers, the voice of Lanius came softly but loudly through the winds;

"One remains."

Without any word, the Interfector stepped over a small pile of bricks towards the coughing man who'd unfortunately regained consciousness too soon. The Hangdog warrior pathetically tried crawling towards the locked gate into the pit upon hearing his slayer's footsteps, abandoning his reach for one of the five other weapons around the arena and towards the impossible escape. The Interfector reached down, the man stopped in resignation to his end, and the Interfector pulled the tribal's long hair up to expose the neck. In one fluid motion the Interfector slid his blade across the Hangdog's neck and looked back up to Lanius, with a grin of satisfaction from proving his own bloodlust, he finally asked the beast his question;

"Who's up next?"

The Next Day

Another day on the siege line, and not much changed, the wait was getting tiresome for many on the Legion's rooftop fortresses surrounding the Hangdog skyscrapers. The dogs below continued to howl and whine in the streets trying desperately to get at the legionaries in their fortified outposts above the ground, and the Legion's catapults continued to thump throughout the day as they launched flaming boulders and chunks of ruins at the downtown highrises. Beneath another scream of distant victims, Montano stepped up to Elite Centurion Lanius. With a salute, Montano dropped to one knee and asked the golden mask;

"My Lord Carnifex, I request permission to receive the honor of the prime below on your behalf."

The golden bearded mask of the giant turned slowly to Montano who looked into the mask's black eyes and was given the permission telepathically. Montano arose and the mask slowly turned back to the prime legionary in the arena below. Montano briefly looked at all the other soldiers sitting along the edges of the ruin around the pit. Many sat with their feet hung over the edge and held their weapons by their side, looking down at their courageous comrades bringing glory to Caesar in the monotony of the siege. Montano approached the edge of Lanius' platform and said to the prime below over another crack of thunder; "Speak your intention, legionary!"

The prime below raised his blade to his forehead in salute and lowered it before replying, "My Primus, Centurion Montano, I request your permission to slaughter or be slaughtered to bring you honor and raise the glory of Elite Centurion Lord Carnifex under the name of Caesar and the eastern front!"

"Permission granted!..." shouted Montano to the soldier below before saying, "Befitting your desire, I have summoned three of the best Hangdog warriors we've captured to act as your adversary! Bring Caesar the honor you intend or die!"

The soldier below gave another salute to Montano atop the platform, Montano returned one to the aspiring duelist, and motioned for the gate operators. Two veterans pulled on the levers and the small metal gate below the platform creaked open to reveal three tribal warriors in light leather and patchwork metal armor, each one carrying a different weapon. One of the sneering Hangdogs held a sledgehammer, another held a legionary's machete, and another carried two hatchets. The two stepped forward in the arena and did an about-face to look up at Montano as instructed by the slave masters. The two did not salute, but lowered their weapons like they were told and Montano spoke to the three;

"Your courage has been noted in battle by myself and Elite Centurion Lord Carnifex! With this fight, you enemies of Caesar will be pardoned for your actions against him if victorious and earn a place in his favor..." The three enemy warriors nodded ever so slightly and Montano concluded, "Let's hope you three are better in combat than you are with dogs!"

The three turned around to face the lone prime, and as soon as they did, a bell chimed beneath another thump from a nearby catapult. Blow after blow was taken between all parties in the fight below and each masked soldier in the audience looked into the pit taking mental notes on the strategies and tactics of all. The three Hangdogs were clearly very skilled, and the prime had been known to fight at the level of a veteran's savagery. Each injury inflicted or sustained at the start was minimal as the three fenced, and the prime differed in his adversaries by one single fact: Pain, no matter how small, only made the prime more vicious in his offense. It was very hard for a single man to keep three opponents constantly on the defensive, but that was something the Legion excelled at. By the time all four were bloodied and bruised, no mortal injuries were sustained by any, and it was clear only a minute in that the three Hangdogs were becoming winded.

In what appeared to be a burst of energy, the Hangdog with the hammer went for a killing blow on the prime while the young legionary was busy slashing away at the machete-wielding tribal. At the last millisecond, the prime threw himself completely on the machete wielder and narrowly avoided having his skull crushed as the hammer grazed his back. The machete wielder taken by surprise in the action found himself even more surprised when the prime drove his blade into his abdomen. The hammer warrior recovered from the death swing, saw his opponent on the ground, and attempted to smash his back only to find that he was smashing the back of his killed ally being used as a shield from his place on the floor. The warrior with the dual hatchets attempted to get at the head of the prime but was instantly tripped by the prime's stray foot and in the moment between blows from the hammer, the young prime thrust the body shield off himself and instead of getting his footing, drove his blade once more into another adversary. The man with the hammer fell to the ground as the prime yanked his blade out of the warrior's abdomen, but the second he turned to the hatchetman, he felt a blow. The hatchetman had recovered from the trip and lodged one of his axes into the calf of the prime, not enough to kill him, but certainly, enough to make the leg temporarily useless.

The prime's leg buckled under him and he fell to the floor of the arena, dragging the hatchet man with him. Swing after swing was given to the last Hangdog and the tribal man parried each one as he kicked and shuffled away from the crawling but frenzied prime. Just before being backed into the wall, the the Hangdog got his footing and sprung away from the prime who again tripped the man with his hacked leg. An audible crunching sound was made as the prime floored the Hangdog and the two fought viciously on the ground, neither one able to land their weapons on the other. As the brawl continued, the arena floor was spattered even more with blood and almost all eyes were locked on the thick stream of blood from the killed warrior with the hammer to the site of the brawl. Just as the prime finally found himself in the position of victory atop the man, he raised the blade above his head, ready to open the throat of the final Hangdog. The Hangdog, though more than exhausted, still spat flame and was ready to meet his end as he looked into the eyes of the prime when Montano's voice echoed throughout the arena;

"Halt!"

The prime kept his weapon raised and the cut and bruised Hangdog beneath him breathed heavily, unable to move from the pinned state. Montano examined the arena and that trail of blood with a wary eye for several long seconds. Something was amiss. Montano finally ordered again over the silence, "Hangdog! Drop your weapons!"

The Hangdog set his weapons down on the arena floor beside himself and looked past his executioner on top of him to see a pair of rifles aimed at his head from the arena masters above. Montano ordered once more, "Prime! Stand yourself up!"

The prime lowered his weapon slightly and stood from the man beneath him with a triumphant grin on his face before immediately feeling his injured leg give out from under him. Though the prime never screamed, the pain was horrendous and his leg's traverse fracture nearly became a complete compound fracture as he tumbled to the ground. Without word, Montano signaled for two slave healers under escort to carry the young prime out of the arena who protested bitterly while internally thanking Mars for not letting the wound become compound. A minute later, the prime was getting booked for a new place in the Recuperatio Unitatis, having narrowly avoided a demise for uselessness despite the victory. But what was to come of the warrior who landed the terrible blow but still found himself in the position of defeat? Before the prime had left the gate, Montano had turned back to Carnifex who did nothing but raise his hand in gesture to the man across the arena pit on the opposite platform. Montano looked across the pit to see the Interfector and his subordinate sitting side by side. The Interfector seeing the whole show and watching the gesture from his colleague, stood and approached the edge of the arena as Montano gave an order to the Hangdog;

"Hangdog! Rise and face Elite Centurion Lord Interfector of Phoenix!"

The default "Victor" stood himself up and faced the new Legion official he didn't know or care to know, still clearly out of the element from so narrowly avoiding death. He looked up at the tall plume of horizontal red above him and the voice of Montano sounded again, "Lord Interfector of Phoenix! I have made the call to spare the Profligate below for admirable actions against a man who was in a position to kill at the expense of his station! Blood has been paid and honor has been achieved, and My Primus, Elite Centurion Carnifex has handed the judgment of fate to your authority!"

Lord Interfector raised his hand in a sign of acknowledgement to Montano and leaned on the edge of the platform to look at the Hangdog who was busy looking at the ground still trying to collect his breath. The Interfector stayed silent, waiting patiently for the Hangdog to get the cue to meet his eyes. Not more than a few silent seconds passed before the head arena master barked, "You will meet the eyes of an Elite for address, SLAVE!" as a series of rifles were racked. The Hangdog was surprised by the order more out of ignorance than defiance and the winded man immediately looked up to the "Elite" of Phoenix. Upon meeting the eyes beneath that black and red helmet, the Elite leaned on the railing in a casual manner as he said;

"You knocked a good man out of the fight. It would appear there's a vacancy in the ranks of Centurion Montano's century..."

Montano kept his composure, but gulped. Though he would have done as the Interfector required, Montano was more inclined to finish what the young prime started since he'd only really stopped the fight out of an emergency effort to assess the health of his glory-seeking prime. The complete collapse of the prime's leg was rather unexpected, but resuming the fight after that would've sucked all the honor out of the battle: if the prime was alright, it would've been totally unfair for Montano to order the prime to take his place back on top of the Hangdog for the killing blow. Still, the injury of the prime was enough to have him reassigned, and delivering a wound like that demanded some kind of reward, even if the inflictor found himself in the position of defeat. Montano assured himself that whatever the Interfector deemed fit would be fine, especially since the judgment was handed to him by Lanius.

The Interfector continued, "... I do not deem your life worthy of being spared since you delivered such a crippling injury to the prime, yet still found yourself in the position of defeat..."

The Hangdog briefly saw all the rifles being aimed at him out of the corner of his eye and awaited the volley to pierce his person before the Elite went on, "... But I'll tell you what: You will be spared by the authority of Caesar on one condition..."

All in the crowd were silent in their usual way and the Hangdog mentally asked what that condition was, not knowing the Legion in general was very big on offering conditions to those they captured. The Elite answered the question with another question, "... How good are you really with dogs?"

Less than a minute later, the Hangdog was dragged out of the arena in chains under the Interfector's order to his private staff, "Keep him at the rear of the line on standby for shipment to one of the local camps. Don't fuck up his head too badly, we'll need those crazies' expertise for these Denver monsters.. Fucking things use our dogs as chew toys.. Oh and give that man a new name, something Roman, something like Maximus, or Mark, or Antony or some shit. I'd say he earned it, wouldn't you?"

The Next Day

"It is at the request of Centurion Aleron, direct subordinate of Lord Interfector of Phoenix that this recent capture from the streets below is tested for worthiness as a fitting trophy for Lord Caesar in his imminent conquest of Denver!..."

The mask and helmetless veteran paused and turned towards the platform where Lanius, Montano, and five of the ten other centurions of the siege line were standing or sitting;

"... Centurion Montano! I understand you have supplied the adversary in this trial of valor and worthiness, is this correct!?"

Montano stood from his spot near Lanius and shouted to the man in the pit, "Correct! Any gift to Lord Caesar must demonstrate its worth. My century has supplied four untamable monsters for the trial. Does Centurion Aleron deem this adversary sufficient!? Any less would certainly be an insult to Lord Caesar!"

Aleron stood from his place beside the Interfector across the arena, took a step forward, and honestly did wonder whether or not his prize would be able to handle the fight. Finding the hound in a locked police compound as part of a chariot patrol, he honestly had no idea if the strange dog would be able to fight against its rabid brothers and sisters from the Denver streets. How a dog like this one was even born or survived in the compound was a mystery to all, but capturing a dog like that was so rare, even in the dog-flooded streets of the ruined metropolis. Still, Aleron agreed that the dog should be given a trial of worthiness, but he didn't expect four to be the number of adversaries, let alone have Montano supply them. There was still zero amount of intent to back down from a challenge proposed by Montano, so upon locking eyes with his adversary across the pit, Aleron said;

"Agreed! The hound will prove its value to Caesar or die!"

The Legionary exited the arena as the trophy dog was brought into the center by four men who kept the thing at bay on long rods. The dog certainly was a unique one even by Denver standards and all eyes on the pit were partially wondering if this was an actual dog or some kind of joke. It certainly snarled and moved like a dog, and made the four legionaries have a rough time keeping it in place. As the legionaries maneuvered towards the gate and rapidly departed past the small fence, all the eyes looking into the arena pit were still mentally asking themselves, "If this is a dog, why is it half metal?"

Some of the chariot crews had encountered similar dogs in the streets of Denver, but never managed to capture them. The mechanical dogs were difficult to study by these crews due to the other hounds of Denver rapidly swarming over to devour anything recently killed, and the half robotic dogs were no exception. In the end, none of the Legion eyes looking at Aleron's recently detained robotic dog knew what to make of it, and neither did Aleron. His trophy was a mystery and despite the hound behaving like a frenzied mongrel, Aleron and the Interfector wondered if there was something more to the robotic dog as they looked into the brain hovering above its head in a glass dome. When everyone had a good look at the strange dog, the handlers had departed, and it was seeming to calm down as it was apparently ignoring the hundred masked faces above it. That all ended when Montano arose to look over the hound and both duelists met eyes once more, agreeing mentally to "See how this plays out" as both were curious about the mechanical dog.

When Montano arose, the gate beneath him creaked open to reveal the four Denver hounds summoned for the trial. Without handlers, the mongrels emerged from the blackness and threw themselves at the chain gate blocking them from the mechanical dog who surprisingly stayed in place rather than join in the barking match. Denver hounds had been nearly impossible for legionary handlers to tame, but their capture was still ordered by the Interfector who'd seen the Hangdogs' immunity to their viciousness early on arrival in the city. The ferocity of the Denver mongrels was seen by all and so the stockpile of dogs was to be used in the siege line for entertainment while the Legion awaited the proper moment to assimilate the current human occupiers of Denver. When the dogs had enough barking, the four hounds began biting at each other, clearly growing tired of waiting for their robotic meal due to their present hunger. As soon as this was noticed, the arena master gave the signal, the chain gates opened, and the mongrels immediately turned their attention to the robodog.

Many accounts say that what happened in that arena pit wasn't a beast fight, but a symbol of man's progress versus merciless nature. No mercy was shown on either side as the beast mankind altered battled the terrors of nature and radiation. The robotic dog instantly crushed the entire neck of the biggest mongrel, but that wasn't enough. The three other mongrels leapt upon the cyber dog and ripped and tore at the flesh parts before it freed itself using its hydraulic powered legs to send one of the mongrels on its rear across the arena floor. The other two mongrels lost their grip on the trophy hound and couldn't regain that grip as their teeth were made dull in effort to bite the metal upper neck. One of the mongrels must've suffered a terrible injury in attempt to get one of the robotic legs because it wandered away with a mouth pouring blood whining all the while. The dog that was kicked had recovered from the blow but limped towards the robot hound having suffered a broken leg or two, but the one-on-one action was more than fine for Aleron's trophy. Amidst a flurry of dust, ash, fur, and blood, the robot dog leaped from the cloud and mangled the dog with the broken limbs. The debris settled to reveal a second killed mongrel lying where the cyber dog leaped from, and before anyone knew it, the robotic dog had ripped one of the crippled hounds' legs off. Despite this horror, the three-legged monster fought viciously on the ground and got a good bite on the trophy hound's exposed lower neck. The yelp from that robotic hound echoed throughout all of Denver and below another clap of thunder, the trophy dog had sunk its teeth into the mangled dog's neck again and released its grip taking an enormous chunk of neck with.

When the robot dog lifted its head from the third dead mongrel, dirt and ash covered the beast and blood coated the braincase. The mongrel with the shattered jaw was all that remained and it was still walking around the arena trying to get away from the mechanical monster. The final mongrel whined and yelped in pain as it stood on its hind legs and clawed at the stakes and barbed wire around the arena walls asking for help from the legionaries staring down at it. The last mongrel was a pitiable site, and the Interfector being the only one capable of feeling this way, felt bad for the monster that would have gladly devoured him if it weren't for its crippled maw. As almost all eyes were looking at the whining mongrel, everyone's attention was suddenly diverted to the robodog. Aleron's trophy hound had killed the third dog and was currently sitting on its hind legs as it panted and looked around at all the masked faces above it. One would have expected the dog to eliminate the last mongrel in the arena, but that wasn't the intention of that modified hound. What many couldn't understand was that the threat alone had been eliminated, so that was it for the machine. The robotic dog sat there in the arena with the corpses of the other mongrels around him in something of an idle state. That last mongrel continued to whine and attempt to free itself from the arena and nobody knew what to do. The Interfector stood from the platform and attempted to order the robodog to kill the last one in a way you would order a Protectron or Sentrybot, but the robotic hound looked at the order giver and tilted its head in confusion as if simply unable to understand the directive.

Aleron was the first to realize what was happening as he looked at the mangled dog corpses around it and realized the dog had proven its worth. The dog was a defender of the people of Denver, a neutralizer of hostility, and a perfect new member of Caesar's Praetorian guard.

The final mongrel was shot by the arena masters, and Aleron had the robotic hound brought to him without chains. With a little kindness, the dog came peacefully, and Aleron painted a little red bull on the pup's chassis while glancing across the way at Montano who remained somewhat intrigued despite the loss of his captive hounds. A dog worthy of service to Caesar indeed; the Interfector had the trophy sent to Caesar in the southeast with a note saying this trophy of Denver was the king of hounds.

The Next Day

Another day of waiting on the siege line and yet another day of "Bread and Circuses" for the soldiers waiting in the rooftop outposts. The Hangdog skyscrapers continued to be wrapped in flame as more and more flaming boulders and rubble were hurled at them by the rooftop catapults. The chariots continued their patrols through the streets below and more siege engines were constructed for whenever the final assault would happen. Still with no sign of surrender, the Hangdogs sent small raids at the line backed by their four legged allies that did more damage to the Legion forces than their warriors ever did. Many of the Legion's routes into the city were continuing to be fortified as the besieging forces were themselves still besieged by the creatures of Denver. Despite the situation, the Legion was in a waiting game. Logistics and supplies were hindered all along the line, but much of this was due to the terrible situation in Denver itself rather than the inefficiency of this encirclement.

Though the forces encircling Denver were under dual leadership, the Interfector and Carnifex or "Lanius" worked relatively well together despite one being more patient than the other. Lanius agreed with the Interfector's assessment in that a legitimate siege was needed to help break such a fortified enemy, but by this time, the siege was on the verge of becoming too costly to handle, even for Lanius. Though losses were relatively few in the grand scheme of this front, the patience of Lanius was running thin. With both commanders in charge of the forces under their own specialty, the Monster of the East was at the point that he could no longer see any need to continue the siege, especially with supplies still entering the city only ever so slowly. The Interfector still had his reasons for waiting before an assault, but even those reasons were becoming harder to understand in the eyes of Lanius. At the same time, neither commander had heard from Caesar in the past week and the only news they heard was that Caesar had taken direct control of some forces in the far east after more talks with the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel went south. Tensions were rising with that alternate faction and though no hostility had broken out yet, the siege of Denver was still going strong with little progress.

The two commanders understood that a siege could not break the spirits of a tribe like the Hangdogs especially since their allies were able to do most of the fighting, but the Interfector felt that every day in siege was one more saved Legionary for when the final assault actually commenced. It was the day after the trophy dog fight that Elite Centurion Carnifex decided to show his colleague that there was no point waiting anymore through the only way he knew how.

The Interfector of Phoenix leaned on the platform looking down at his co-commander in the pit below. He'd told Carnifex that he would allow his armor to be worn given the challenge he requested, but Lanius declined without word. The recently characterized "Monster of the East" stood looking up at the Interfector with only his helmet and grieves on. The thick golden chest plate and long red cape were removed exposing a torso clearly made of stone despite all the dark red scars across it. With one last look at the now 200 faces around the pit arena, the Interfector met the black eyes of the golden mask below and asked;

"Elite Centurion Lord Carnifex! State your desired challenge and honor intent before the banner!"

The monster below raised his hand to the Interfector and held out five fingers in a sideways gesture to indicate a challenge of ten. As for the honor intent, the beast only replied with a breath of hot air out the mouth slit on his golden mask that merged with the cold air as he raised his hands to the sky. The helmet slowly turned up to face the blood-red sky of another morning in the fire engulfed city as the word "Mars" echoed terrifyingly through the ears of everyone there.

After that bone chilling word from that giant monster of a person, the Elite of Phoenix gestured to the arena masters and spoke over the creak of the opposition gate;

"Elite Centurion Lord Carnifex has requested the opportunity to slay ten men in honorable arena combat in the name of Caesar under the authority of Mars..."

As he spoke, the chain gate opened as well and one by one, ten men emerged from the blackness and into the pit arena. Seeming to already understand that the ten of them were against one man, the gaggle of lightly armed slaves and captures entered the arena and took places all around it to encircle him. Despite this confidence in the challengers, several of their faces twisted to unease or even fright as they looked at their sole opposition. When all were in place, the head arena master gave the signal for all the challengers to face the Interfector's direction and all of them looked up at the Elite of Phoenix standing above the Bull banner draping down the platform. When all were facing him, the monster remained silent and like a statue, facing the gate they all emerged from. The Interfector addressed the doomed men as required;

"By the order of Caesar, the ten of you shall fight Elite Centurion Lord Carnifex for the chance at freedom and pardon in the eyes of Caesar if victorious!..." Another series of catapults gave their signature sound as they hurled their payloads at the distant highrises. "... Many of you come from from the slave pens, some of you come from the soon to be destroyed Hangdogs, but all of you come to this pit to kill or die under the banner of the Bull..." Some of the slaves glanced at the statue in the center of the arena, and some of the more confident ones became a little more fearful when they noticed the monster had not moved one centimeter. The Elite of Phoenix concluded plainly, "... May this fight free you one way or another."

At that, the monster had picked up a fire ax from the ground beside him, holding it in one hand. At the same time, the arena master gave a signal, the horn blew, and all ten men charged screaming at the ax-wielding statue.

There are no "accurate" accounts of what happened when the Monster of the East took on ten men in the arena. Stories vary from person to person, but all we do know is that whatever happened in the arena was enough to astound and wow the entire audience. Many in that audience were recruits from across the line, recently assimilated from fallen Colorado tribes, and plenty were "Legion babies" that had heard of the Monster's ruthlessness across Colorado before arriving at Denver. Either way, the description of what happened was pieced together from a number of sources and no matter the hyperbolic details, the conclusion was the same: It was a complete and total slaughter. However, this shouldn't be too big a surprise since, if the Monster of the East was indeed the Hidebark Giant who turned on his own tribe for Lord Caesar, we know that it takes at least 15 to render him immobile... But those 15 wouldn't be walking away either.

When the first slave warrior was close enough, the Monster of the East had already buried his ax into his skull and smashed one man into another. With two out of the fight before a blink, a third was recovering, some of the slower ones had backed off, and the monster found himself surrounded by four. As the beast decapitated one of the warriors, he was blind to the one behind him until he felt an ax land in his back shoulder. More angry at the injury than anything, Lanius turned around to the warrior who landed the blow and thus disarmed him. As the warrior felt his ax leave his grip by the turning of Lanius, he couldn't believe that the blow he landed only managed to disarm himself. The poor soul couldn't be wowed for long because he too found himself without a head in an instant. Six remained, still semi distant, mentally daring the other to take the initiative as they looked at the ax blade sticking out of their enemy's back. They waited too long, but it wasn't their fault because they were paralyzed in fear as they watched yet another one of their comrades lose his head. The beast then turned around to face the other six holding the head of the most recent victim and when he was completely turned, the six gathered another burst of confidence. The six ran at Lanius but the closest man was immediately knocked unconscious when Lanius chucked the decapitated head at him and three others backed off too focused on how it was possible for someone to knock a man out of a fight with a severed head while the other two continued their charge. That would by no means be the most terrifying thing to happen because Lanius then slammed his ax into the shoulder of the nearest warrior. A scream of agony was carried in the wind and before the other charger could see what was happening, he found himself floored. The dust settled and Lanius was holding the legs of the screaming man as he beat the other one with the body.

The remaining three had recovered from the head incident only to focus in and find the monster beating a man to death with the body of a screaming man. Blow after blow was given and the screaming stopped when the skull of the giant's new weapon was shattered, and he continued to beat the man on the ground with the corpse until all was silent. After that, the remaining three were well aware of their coming end. So, like the mongrel seen the day before, the three slave warriors ran around the arena trying desperately to find some way out, trying to climb the sharpened stakes only to be tangled in the barbed wire above. Slowly, the Monster of the East had set down his body weapon and gripped his ax again to finish the job on the man rendered unconscious by a head. After that, he approached one of the fleeing men, the footsteps echoing throughout the ruin. Just as the monster was within reach, the next victim turned around and attempted the most pathetic stab in the monster's gut only to find his knife bent upon meeting the abdomen. Lanius casually lifted up the assailant by his arms and impaled him on one of the sharpened stakes he was trying to climb a second ago. The last two saw this and looked at each other, coming to some mutual agreement to quit their futile attempt at escape and to go down fighting. In this last hopeless attempt at victory, the two charged Lanius and one was again instantly decapitated in one swing. This time, instead of waiting for the blow, Lanius marched slowly towards the last man who immediately began a retreat upon seeing what happened to the other. His retreat found him swinging his blade chaotically, only missing because of his steps backward as the monster got closer and closer. Finally, the man found the stakes of the arena edge at his back and when the monster was within six feet, the man instantly dropped to his knees weeping and begging for mercy. All across the arena, the bodies of men and their heads were laying in enormous pools of blood and the beast stopped just before his last victim as the piercing wails echoed throughout the city. The sound was so penetrating and so desperate that the Interfector found himself trying to order a halt to the fight, but he was still wondering how it was possible to beat a man to death with the body of another man.

The Interfector managed to sputter the command to halt, but his mouth was too dry from being hung open for so long that it came out as a soft unintelligible noise. As he swallowed to dampen his throat, the second the word "Halt!" left his lips, Lanius had already silenced the remaining man by kicking him into the sharpened stake behind him. The last plead for mercy entered the Interfector's ears the second the halt order entered Carnifex's ears and the golden mask slowly raised to the platform above. Lord Interfector looked into the black eyes of the mask surrounded by bodies across the arena floor and thought about the age old question "How many 8 year olds can you beat up at any given time?" That appeared to be the most adequate summary of what happened. Ten highly skilled warriors and slaves fighting for their freedom stood absolutely no chance against the monster below, and it wasn't even fair, it was just a slaughter for the sake of it.

As the Interfector looked into the black eyes, the Monster approached the center of the arena and did an about face to look at the platform again and yanked the ax blade out of his shoulder as he said to Lord Interfector;

"Gather your centurions across the line. You will meet in my quarter tomorrow to discuss the Hangdogs' end."

The gate creaked open, and the beast walked through it as a cleanup crew began their work on the ten fallen men below.

A/N: Just so my readers know: I may be a little inconsistent with my uploads in the near future largely because of school, my personal life, work, and this new mod I'm dabbling in. If any of you are on Steam and play the game "Call to Arms", I downloaded this mod for it called "Colts Fallout Mod" and I'm helping the guy make Fallout inspired maps! Add me on Steam if you want as well, my Steam name is "Conrad A. Sunshine" (Don't ask Lol), and give that mod a try! The game is fantastic and I've literally been waiting years for someone to make a mod like that one for the game :) Also, some of my maps may be "Inspired" by certain places in my fics in the near future ;) Thanks for reading and take care!