A Gladiator's Dilemma
you”.
Eric guarded the door once again. He was hungry. He bit his
own teeth to ignore it, but was still hungry. He told his stomach to
hold on a little longer, but was replied by a quick growl. The boy
looked at him and his sword curiously, but the girl seemed deep in
thought and then disappeared. Eric felt embarrassed as his stomach
growled louder.
After a while, the girl came back again. She was so beautiful
that Eric dared not look at her eyes. What if he said something
wrong, or acted somewhat wrong. He was blushing, and
he knew it.
The girl approached him and handed him something warm
wrapped in a napkin. A smell of richly seasoned bread and deeply
roasted pork drifted around him. Eric opened the package and devoured
the pork pie in three fast gulps. He felt this was the most
delicious food in the world.
Eric, Lunan, Claude and Zing were chatting about the battle
ahead. Roman camps were not far away, and they could hear the
shouting of Roman men to each other. This battle was bound to be
much harder. The enemy army was full of elites and legions. Winning
this battle would defeat the Romans for sure.
Soldiers cleaned their swords on both side, and commanders
worked on tactics with the generals. General Hannibal made plans
for the battle. The elephants would fight at the beginning with the
green hands. When they fled, and the Romans gave chase, the
elites would end the fight fromtheir hiding places.
Horns and trumpets whistled on both sides. Then the battle
started.
The green hands weren’t cowed like Hannibal thought they
would be. Instead, they seemed to be winning. The four friends
fought side by side in perfect unison. Eric or Zing flanked each
other, while Lunan and Claude went to the front or back them up.
The Trap
Suddenly, the Roman lines broke and fell back.
Just as they were giving chase, a large red army appeared out
of nowhere.The Roman elites had done the same thing as the
Carthaginian elites troop should have done！The Carthaginian
green hands won only because they had elephants. A slaughter
began.
Eric and Zing turned and fled, followed closely by Lunan, but
not before he was struck on the leg. Behind Lunan, they heard a
ghastly crunching sound and a mutter for help.
The green Carthaginian elites came to their aid. The Roman
lines soon buckled. The elites knew what was up the instant the
Roman green hands broke rank. But they were too late. If it hadn’t
been the elephants, the Carthaginian green hands might have been
wiped out.However, if it hadn’t been the elephants, the
Carthaginian green hands wouldn’t have fallen into the trap.
Eric, Zing, and Lunan had been spared.As they cleaned the
battle field with the limping Lunan, they saw a small figure with a
pool of blood around it.Claude had met his fate.He had been cut in
half so neatly that it looked like he was sleeping.
There was no feasting for the trio that night.
Eric had visited Siri, the pretty girl from Loas, several times
after the battle.
Siri had curly black hair, light blue eyes and smooth creamy
skin. Eric had fallen in love with her, but she didn’t seem to like
anyone. The girl’s brother, Ariri told himshe had once slapped the
son of the village ruler. Eric seemed to be the only suitor whom
she had been friendly with.
This time, when he rounded up to Siri’s house, he found the
family moving. He was aghast. He loved her and couldn’t bear to
be without her.
Two other Carthaginian soldiers were robbing their furniture.
The two 16-year-old boys were teasing them and stealing while the
family begged.
Eric called for them to stop. He was 18 and strong. The boys,
instead of stopping, jeered at him.
Eric’s anger rose. Who did they think they were？He was one
Love Is in the Air
of the best in his regiment. The boys didn’t know it. In one flash,
he drew his new saber. It was Hannibal’s birthday present to all
eighteen years old troop of his army. The youngsters drew their
rookie swords too.
Afierce battle started.
Eric fought with courage. The cold steel of his saber fell on
his enemies’swords. Though he was not loosing yet, his strength
was failing. When he injured one boy, the other would defend his
friend.
Suddenly, Eric felt the sword of his enemy biting into his
shoulder. Blood sprouted onto the white snow. Siri gasped and
backed away. The two boys cheered. Eric had managed to injure
both of them but only slightly. The injury on himwas a major one.
It had narrowly missed his neck. He tried to wield his sword, but
the boys pushed it out of his hand and onto the snow.
The boys brought their swords crashing down at his neck.
They had hit him again on the back even when he rolled out of the
way of one. Blood sprouted out. The boys were too excited to care
about their own wounds.
Siri came out with an arrow. She charged at the two boys
yelling, “No, stop, you’ll kill him”. She liked Eric and didn’t
want the young man to die.
Then, in a split second of time, a shadow loomed over the
boys. Another birthday saber parried the boys’swords. When it
came up again, it was the two boys’turn to back away.
In front of them, was Zing. His black hair almost blocked his
eyes. Zing was absolutely the best swordsman in his regiment and
was a junior elite, like Eric. His saber was much better than the
boys’short swords. The boys’injuries started to hurt.
A second battle began, and the youngsters were losing. One
of the boys fell with another saber deep in his back. It had the
word “Lunan”on it. Eric was safe now. With two other junior
elites protecting him and one of the boys died, victory was insured.
Eric was on the brink of death when the fight was over. One
of the boys was dead, and the other ran away. Siri helped Eric to
his feet. Then, Eric collapsed. When he finally woke up, Zing and
Lunan were hovering over him and Siri bandaging his wounds. He
had almost died.
“You little, challenging two of them, did you really think
you’d win？”
“Well, I can’t help it, they were robbing her stuff. ”
“I can take care of myself. You better watch your own life, ”
said Siri.
“Yea, hear that, you should really listen to your girlfriend
sometimes,”teased Zing.
Seeing Eric was alright, Zing and Lunan left for camp. The
week was off, so Eric would have a lot of time to heal.
Siri refused to leave his side. As she tended Eric’s wound every
day, Siri realized that she was charmed by the young man.
When it was time for Eric to leave, Siri couldn’t help to kiss him,
“ I love you, even though you are a Carthaginian. ”Eric was delighted
and felt he was the happiest man in the world.
After 6 battles, the Carthaginian army had lost a lot of soldier
s.
The Roman Republic went bankrupt because of the endless
war and continuous defeat. The Carthaginian army was winning.
At Canne, 60, 000 of Rome’s best soldiers were annihilated by
Hannibal’s 40, 000 soldiers, while Carthaginian only suffered
slight casualty. Carthage was now at its peak of power, and Hannibal
at his peak of fame, until the Battle of Zama, when for the first
time, Hannibal encountered a general as smart as or even smarter
than him. The Battle of Zama caused Carthaginian to lose the second
Punic War.
It was two months after the death of Claude.
Eric, Zing, and Lunan were grieving over Beren, who had just
died after a storm. It was not just any storm. It was a storm on the
sea. Roman General Scipio had landed an army on the coast of
Africa, and was attacking Carthage. General Hannibal was rushing
his army back to Africa to destroy Scipio’s army. Beren died on
The Army of the Romans
his trip back to Carthage when a lightning struck his ship. The ship
caught fire and sank, dragging himwith it.
Eric and Zing drew their swords. Lunan followed. They had
just landed Carthage, and were having some time off. They
planned to pledge blood brothers. A small bottle of ale sat in
front of them. Eric cut a big gash in his arm. Zing said,“Are you
OK？”Eric just ignored it. Ten drops of blood fell into the bottle.
20 other drops came from the other two brothers. Then, they
drank the liquid.
The showdown was about to begin.
The junior elites met the Romans in a forest. Eric, Zing, and
Lunan teamed up together into the enemy forces. They had
promised that they wouldn’t abandon each other. As arrows flew
around them, they killed enemy after enemy. But the glory was
short lived. A stray sword caught Lunan in the stomach and he fell
to the ground with a thud.
The Carthaginians pushed forward, but Eric and Zing lost all
heart in the battle. They knelt by the dying Lunan, ignoring the
moans of the died and wounded around them. Lunan’s life started
draining away.
To their surprise, masses of Carthaginian troops ran back.
Zing muttered“, Cowards”. But when they saw the elephant and its
28-year-old driver pierced with many spears, they realized the
Carthaginians were losing the battle.
Too late, too late, was all Eric could think of. He was striped
off his armor and clothes. He wore