chapter 3

{Location: Bloodied plains- Outskirts of Pict Territory}

On the outskirts of Pict territory, the Bloodied plains. Got its title due to the constant battles that it saw, and blood that it drank. Which in turn permanently stained its soil crimson red. On it a fairly large group of horseback warriors could be seen traveling through it, with a prisoner in tow, forced to follow on foot while bonded and tethered to a giant man, on a horse as well, who viciously tugged at the tether in order to trip the prisoner.

Every so often the group would stop, to allow the goliath of a man to humiliate, beat, and torture the prisoner, who would always put up a fight. From full blown fist fights to biting chunks of flesh off the giant's body, and even trying to flee a few times, the prisoner would not allow himself to be disgraced so easily. But to no avail. What could one exhausted, and weak man do? it's been a week since the prisoner known as Dias was captured. One week without food, water, rest, or proper shelter from the elements. He was forced to trek through the wilderness, and now the plains without shoes or a shirt on, his pants, which was in a bad condition to begin with, was pretty much a loincloth now.

The only reason Dias had not already perished, was due to his tenacity, resilience and the few unique traits that his body happened to possess. whenever the savages would stop to rest and eat, Dias would eat any insect that dared showed itself to him, from centipedes, millipedes, spiders, to ants, roaches and ticks, no bug was spared. With this determination to survive, Dias managed to survive another four days until he was finally dragged into the Pict camp on a cold and dark day.

" The fun is over. Now you meet Gorlacon, filth"

Albus the giant stated with a snarl, his sadistic smile clear as day. Without a doubt Albus was pleased with the cruelty he was able to dish out upon Dias, regardless of the latter's resistance. He then dragged Dias deeper into the camp. where Gorlacon and the rest of his rebels was waiting for Albus to present them with this prisoner they've just now heard about, Albus then threw the prisoner to the group of people who wasted no time, pushing the prisoner closer to their king, Gorlacon, while simultaneously beating the piss out of the roman trash that was now in their hands, all while shouting profanities.

" PIG, ROMAN SWINE, TRASH, MURDERER! YOUR KIND KILLED MY BOY, YOU PIECE OF WORM SHIT, PIG SHIT, DOG SHIT, YOU SHIT HEAD, POOP FACE."

Insults rained down on Dias. Hurled by young and old alike.

" BASTARDS!!!"

Angered, Dias shouted back at the top of his lungs, but he was shortly after kneed in the face with great force, by the blonde Pict ranger, almost knocking him out.

" Time to die roman"

The women spoke in Pict before spitting in Dias's eye, pulling out a dagger, and placing it just a centimeter from the same eye she spit in.

" Aeron! enough"

But the women known as Aeron was soon called off by Gorlacon himself. she then clicked her tongue and backed away. While Albus grabbed Dias by the back of his head and pointed his face towards the stone-faced, Gorlacon who then pulled out his cock and began pissing on the face of Dias, after he was done Albus then slammed Dias's face into a puddle of mud, to further humiliate him, after a minute he pulled Dias back up.

' Gorlacon. He was a farmer until his wife was killed. then he put down the plough and took up the sword. He changed the way the Picts fought. it worked. He turned the tide of the war, so they made him king. AND NOW HE IS PISSING ON ME!'

An Enraged Dias thought to himself, before screaming.

"DAMN YOU PICT! I will not yield"

*Bam*

With a glance from Gorlacon, Albus punched the man. The Pict king then spoke in a cold manner.

" What does Agricola intend for my people? When will he send his armies north?"

fed up with the gall of this Pict bastard Dias spat blood on the man before yelling.

" I AM A SOLDIER OF ROME! I WILL NOT YEILD! NOR WILL I BETRAY THE MOTHER LAND!"

*BAM BAM*

"AHH"

Which earned him heavy blows from both Aeron and Albus, causing him to scream out in pain. Gorlacon scoffed at Dias's disrespect before calling a young boy over to him and speaking in Pict.

" Boorstin, my son, in order to survive in this cruel world, you must know your enemy, Romans, not only cruel, they are most loyal to their mother land. They are tenacious, and resilient. They will never give up any form of information without days of torture first. This one in particular is even more so than the average Roman, Albus has been working on him for a week and four days and he still has enough energy to spit on and curse at your father."

"Albus throw him in the storeroom, you and Aeron can work on him together until he breaks, starting tomorrow. But first give him his prize for upsetting me."

" yes sir!"

Both Albus and Aeron spoke before taking their daggers and slicing deep in Dias's chest and left cheek. While Dias screamed. The crowd cheered at his suffering.

"ROME WILL MAKE YOU BLEED!! FOR THIS YOU BITCH."

He shouted.

"But you will bleed first centurion"

Albus stated while twisting his knife in Dias's chest a bit, pulling it out and licking it. He then punched Dias again and dragged him to the storeroom before shortly throwing him in and locking the door to it.

*Thump*

Dias landed in with a thud. Every single and solitary part of his body hurt, especially his lungs. They went through a lot this past week, at one-point Albus forced Dias to snort this purple dust like stuff that made Dias's lungs feel like it was melting, frozen, and filled with water all at once. They probably would have exploded if his lungs weren't weird to begin with. Between the effects of the dust, torture and constant strain on his body, Dias felt like he was going to die, but his rage, and roman blood would never allow for that to happen without retaliation first.

*Bam*

Dias kicked a wall of the storeroom out of anger.

' I WILL KILL THAT BASTARD GIANT IF ITS THE LAST THING I DO. THIS IS A PROMISE! And his death will be painful, but I have to escape and recover my energy or else I won't even be able to scratch him, from the fights I've had with him, he is extremely strong and durable but that is about it. but in a state like this that is enough to get me killed, plus I obviously won't be able to kill him here.... who am Kidding? I will most likely die here.'

'NO!'

*BAM*

After some painful contemplation. Dias kicked the wall again in rejection of the thought of giving up and letting himself be tortured any further and then killed.

*CRACK*

The shoddy wall of the storeroom couldn't take any more abuse from Dias, and a hole was put through it. which was immediately brought to Dias's attention. He quickly looked back at the locked door, before knowing exactly what he had to do now. His hands were cuffed but that didn't stop him he took a cursory look around the room before getting to work. He lunged at a burlap sack of grain that was nearby before ripping into and eating the raw grain.

After two minutes of partially filling himself with raw barley he took the bag and emptied it, ripped a hole at the bottom of it, ripped the sides of it a bit and shoved his head through it to act a makeshift shirt. He then ripped another bag apart and wrapped his feet with the cloth. After his quick preparations, he punched the hole a few times to widen it then crawled through it. without any hesitation Dias fled for his life.

'HAVE TO SURVIVE, NEED TO SURVIVE, HAVE TO SURVIVE'

Dias repeated to himself as he ran into a nearby forest.