Rebuilding Rome
an excerpt

The blood was pouring from Tomas Govanezzi's head region like a faucet, but he could not tell exactly where by this point—there was too much of it all over, dripping down his forehead and into his eyes, down his cheeks and into his mouth, and down his arms and wrists. His face was treated like a canvas, where knives, whips, and other assorted arms were the pallet of certain doom. His arms and chest had tears in them. One might think he would not survive such treatment, but this was no ordinary soldier—and they certainly knew it well enough.