While not destroyed, the mighty fortress was in disarray. Monsters roamed the base of the ramparts while dead bodies lined the walls. As for the fires, they were burning in places were monsters were slain, the flames the only tool that could clean the rot of the poison from the ground where they bled. Bodies of troops were thrown in for kindling as they needed the purifying nature of the flames to dispel the poison that had killed them. While everyone was hard at work there was a sluggishness to the solders still fighting at the gate as they showed the signs of fatigue from the long battle.

Watching on from the outside, many of these sights were not visable to the men by Laz’s side, but what they did see was enough for their bodies to turn cold and their blood to freeze.

The guard captain was no better off, despite his lifetime of military service. Halting the legion of gladiators he was in charge of, the man waited for the signal of the general leading the entire procession. It only took around twenty minutes for the order to be passed down via messenger;

"Keep moving forward!"

The guard captain signaled his men, all one hundred of them, to keep leading the gladiators forward. For their own strength, the gladiators numbered almost one thousand men and each of them were heavily armed. The combined strength of both were what made up their ’legion,’ even though it was several times smaller than any other legion. As for why the gladiators marched along despite being armed and unrestrained, it was simply a situation where any of them who ran would be shot down by the guards or any of the other legions marching along with them. Since they didn’t have horses, there was no way they could outrun their captors.

With the guards acting as centurions, they ordered the men ahead and so they marched. As they did so, they ended up passing many of the legions ahead of them which seemed as though they were falling back for some reason, straying to the side of the path so that the gladiator legion could pass by.

Seeing this, Laz had a rather bad feeling form in the pit of his stomach.

As they finally came to the front of the column, they saw the path spread out before them leading through the monsters and to the fortress. Luckily there was still thousands of men ahead of them which alleviated Laz’s fears somewhat, until he saw them shaking and barely maintaining formation.

"They are the fresh Auxilia, recruits thrown into the armies just to make up numbers. They are there for nothing more than meat shields and to tire out the strength of the enemy.... as if demons like these could be tired," Jacob said from beside him, the older and greying man spitting on the ground. Ever since they had left the confines of the cells, his demeanor had changed from a slightly grandfatherly type to a more hardened warrior.

"Are we meant as a sacrifice as well?" Laz asked without looking over. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"No. We are the spear to break through the line, allowing the others to walk in without issue. Feed them with meat and slaughter them once they are fat and slow. A barbaric but affective tactic to deal with beasts," Jacob responded before going silent.

Laz looked into the sky, seeing the moon brighten up the world even though it was the dark of night. Had they not rushed, they would have camped a while ago and have arrived in the morning. Many of the more experienced Centurions had wanted to do this, but the general had his orders.

’Someone knew the truth, but there was no way they would speak of it,’ Laz thought, looking at the road ahead.

*Those beasts are ferocious, but not very strong. You biggest problem will be getting surrounded. Other than that, nothing here seems to cause me alarm...* Kat said in his head, trying to reassure the boy.

’Yeah... and how much don’t you see?’ Laz asked, but didn’t receive a response back which was all the answer he needed.

"MARCH AHEAD. DO NOT STOP UNTIL YOU’VE ENTERED THE FORTRESS!" Came the command from somewhere behind them and they began marching.

As they did so, Laz tightened his grip on his spear and pulled his shield close, testing the straps keeping it in place. All around him, he heard various swears of both his fellow gladiators and the guards who were leading them as they now understood that their position was no better than those they were leading. Die if you are going to die, but break the line of beasts doing so.

"Sir...?"

"Just be thankful we rushed here. These beasts in front of us are just the advanced groups from the beasts line. The real wave will come the day after tomorrow. If we were contending with that, we’d be better off slitting our own throats if what I’m hearing is true. For now, keep yourselves in check," the guard captain said to one of his more nervous looking subordinates. He then turned to the rest of the gladiators.

"This may not be the stage you’d been performing on, but it is a stage none the less, one that we are about to enter together. For once I am marching with you so I shall leave my back to you. DEATH AND GLORY!"

"DEATH AND GLORY!" The men yelled back, knowing that this old man had never been their enemy, nor was he one here. Right now they were going to rely on each other to survive. While they roared out and began the quick march forward, the trembling troops ahead of them hesitated, despite the whips of the captains at their backs.

When the gladiator legion reached the back of their line, they just spilt the lanes and continued to move forward.

"What the hell are you doing?" One of the captains with a whip yelled at the guard captain.

"Going for a walk. Seems like a nice day for it," he said with a laugh while all the men of the legion, including Laz, laughed with him.

They quickly moved ahead of the halted Auxilia and continued forward, the beasts prowling the base of the ramparts noticing them for the first time as they turned to measure this new prey. The guards quickly got off their horses as men ran over to retrieve them. Being on a horse would be useless for a charge since their were so few of them and would instead just make them a bigger target. Once all the horses were taken away, the guards moved to the front of the line and continued the walk forward. While some of them were fresh, most of them had retired to guard the cells as a cushy job to waste their time until retirement. Even if they had a few extra pounds around their waists, they were still veterans of the battlefield and weren’t about to miss a step now.

"Shields up. Hold the line, press forward with spears. Trust your backs to those behind you and keep marching forward. Our backs will be watched by those behind us. Now brace," he yelled as everyone in the front brought their shields up. Laz was on the left side of the legion and they had to shield the sides while stabbing forward. If the beasts were smarter, they might had circled their prey first, but these things possessed by the shadow poison had lost all reason. Spike felines, massive bears, deer with armored plates and huge racks, smaller animals like rabbits with spiked tails and foxes with jaws half the size of their bodies all came forward and began charging the line. The front held as the ones behind pushed against the ones in front, keeping them on their feet while stabbing out with spears. When the smaller ones came close, they would stab down with swords or even just kick at them, trusting the armor on their shins to protect them.

Despite the massive beasts, the legion of guards and gladiators didn’t let up and kept moving forward. When a body went down, another one filled the gap, stepping over their former brothers and opponents with equally lacking emotion. Behind them, they heard the yells and screams of men, knowing that the fodder was being attack by the ones who ran by. As for if they were getting supported by the trained legions behind them, no one had time to look back and check.

Laz’s turn came before Jacob as he stepped forward, walking over a man he had once shared a meal with after his impressive win against the infected bear back in the arena.

Laz didn’t even know his name.

Laz was now pushing the front while Jacob has his back and his side.

"NARROW!" Came the command as men no longer stepped forward, but stepped sideways when a gap opened. It meant there were no more replacements behind them. They were were they would be until they got inside the gate or until they died.

Laz lost his spear to a bear with guts hanging from it’s mouth, burying it deep into it’s eye before letting go and pulling his sword.

HIs sword disappeared into the flank of an elephant like creature the broke into the line. He had no idea if his blow had killed it, but he grabbed a blood covered one from the ground while still holding his shield and reformed the line on the other side of the huge beast.

When his shield was split from another armored bear, he called back for one and was quickly handed one from somewhere behind him. Weapons could be lost, but you could not drop your guard even if it meant sacrificing an arm.

This one was already bent, but the straps were good.

He could see the arch way ahead of the wave of beasts and he knew they had almost cut through.

The gates opened as men rushed out to support their entrance and clear the area as many of the beasts who did remain had started to flee. There were no orders though, just the glint off the blood covered armor of the man next to Laz that let Laz know he wasn’t the only one still fighting.

A lightning cat knocked his bent shield away as the straps broke while Laz was dealing with two crazed foxes at his feet and a deer creature missing half it’s rack was stalling him.

"SHIELD!" Laz called out, but there was no shield shoved his way this time, forcing Laz to grab the head of the dear with his now free left hand, hack it off and hold it in front of him by it’s razor like antler the way a like a lion tamer would a chair.

As the guards of the fortress rushed passed them, they finally felt the pressure wan as the last of the beasts fell. Laz finally took a moment to look around, only to see the man next to him fall, the life leaving his eyes.

It was the last guard as he didn’t see any other guards besides the one who had just fell.

Laz took another moment to look around and realized he didn’t recognize any of the other men still standing. In a daze he stood there and couldn’t help but sigh, knowing that this part of his life was over.

*Your shoulder,* said Kat, as Laz looked over and noticed something was hanging from the right side of his armor.

It was a hand that had been snagged in the breast plate attached to an arm and nothing else. The darker than average skin tone told Laz that this was probably all that remained of Jacob.