Group of soldiers, say, devoured by fierce beast (6)
I believe the answer is:
legion
'group of soldiers' is the definition.
'legion' can be an answer for 'soldiers' (I've seen this before). I'm unsure of the 'group of' bit.
'say devoured by fierce beast' is the wordplay.
'say' becomes 'eg' (both can mean 'for example').
'devoured by' indicates putting letters inside.
'fierce beast' becomes 'lion' (type of animal. I am not sure about the 'fierce' bit.).
'eg' inserted into 'lion' is 'LEGION'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for legion that I've seen before include "Part of an army; many" , "Roman battalion" , "Body of Roman or French soldiers" , "The French have a Foreign one" , "Large unit of the old Roman army" .)