A Gladiator's Dilemma

afternoon.

  Eric said,“If I die, I hope you can remember me...”

  “No, you are not going to die.”Siri stopped himwith a hug.

  Now, listen.“Eric said seriously”, My friend Jan was severely

  injured in his last fight. He probably couldn’t last though the next

  battle. If he, or any one of us dies, please do me a favor to send our

  bodies to Carthage. Would you？”

  “I promise.”

  The group fight began the next morning.

  Eric, Zing Jan, and Hector rushed in. The four and other

  Battle Rage.

  members in the red team brought down enemy after enemy in the

  blue team. The blue team seemed to buckle under their assault until

  an blue cavalry rushed into the midst of battle.

  Hector and Zing were cowed and rushed back to the last

  line of defense. Eric had to protect Jan and was surrounded with

  20 of enemy forces. Arrows took their tow on the red team and

  even though their commander tried to mount an attack back at

  the enemy.

  Hector, seeing that they were losing, launched at an axmen.

  To his horror, Eric sawthe flash of an axe and Hector falling to the

  ground, an enormous cut on his shoulder. Blood gushed out. Eric

  ran to Hector’s aid but was too late. The axmen used one sinewy

  arm to take off Hector’s helmet, lifted him up, and hacked. Hector

  fell to the dust, dead.

  Eric was enraged. He felt an indescribable power rising up

  and wielding his sword like the God Mars. Driven by grieve and

  hate, he charged into the enemy fields. In a brilliant effort, he

  pushed the whole 30 enemy force back.

  Spectators watched in fascination and focused their attention

  on him. Siri yelled“No, you’ll get killed, Eric. ”

  It was too late. He came into the blue team ranks like a raging

  lion. The enemy all cowered before him, or was killed. Eric

  could feel that his wrath had doubled his power, and he felt like

  nothing could stand in his way. Eric killed 12 men before he

  started to feel tired.

  A marksman, way behind the line of battle, was fitting an arrow

  onto his bow. The man aimed it at Eric’s stomach and re-

  leased the arrow. Eric fell with the arrow on him, vomiting blood.

  Zing and Jan rushed to his aid. Siri fainted.

  The general of the red team finally was able to organize a

  troop to mount an attack. The attack smashed into the first line of

  the enemy defense, bent it back, and crushed. Line after line of

  blue teamdefends was broken.

  Finally, the red team broke through the men surrounding the

  small troop of three, Eric, Zing and Jan. The blue team grabbed

  Eric and fled to a corner, where they prepared for a final defense.

  Eric suddenly rose up and hacked the man holding him. While the

  spectators looked at him with wonder, he joined the assault. The

  blue team’s last line of defense was broken through.

  “After I felt my strength failing me, I figured I had to back

  away. The enemy arrow man was my excuse. He shot me and the

  shot got tangled in my armor. It didn’t even draw blood. I bit my

  tongue and spit out the blood. The enemy probably thought I was

  dying. ”Eric told his story to his friends.

  “Everyone thought you were dying. you sure got us worried.

  ”Siri was flooded with relief.

  The trio had survived the group fight.

  On the fourth day, gladiators were to fight beasts. Eric was

  pitted against a tiger；Jan, a gorilla；Zing against a rhino.

  The first battle was when a certain boy named Sirius, battled

  a bio condor and a king cobra. The fight curved an image that

  deeply scared Eric. The boy, armed with a small dagger, tried to

  kill the bio condor. The big snake’s scale was too hard to penetrate.

  After a while, the condor grabbed Sirius and started to

  squeeze him in its deadly coils. When the condor almost crushed

  Sirius, the king cobra ended the boy’s misery with a bite.

  The first victory for ’man’was when Krupuk, a 17 years old

  fisherman, battled a shark with a harpoon. The shark had knocked

  the harpoon out of the boy’s hands. With one vicious bite, it had

  the boy’s leg. Krupuk grabbed his harpoon while the shark severed

  his leg. He then killed the shark by driving it through the

  shark’s head.

  Krupuk died too before he was taken out of the tank.

  Beast vs. Man

  When Eric battled the tiger, the beast sprang in him. But before

  the beast could deliver a bite, Eric had his shield on the tiger’

  s nose. It remained like this until the dazed Eric realized that he

  had his sword in his hand. With a delighted cry, he planted the

  sword onto the tiger’s neck. The tiger died on the spot, and Eric

  tried hard to get out of the tiger’s crushing 584 pound weight.

  When Zing battled the rhino at noon, it was very hot. Zing

  danced around as the rhino charged at him repeatedly. Finally, for

  one fatal second, Zing got hit. The blow caught him hard on the

  stomach. Zing’s feet left the ground, but he managed to plant his

  sword into one of the rhino’s eyes. The rhino was mad with rage

  and pain. Zing flung his sword then at the rhino’s other eye. It

  blinded the rhino completely. The cumbersome rhino ran in circles

  until at last, it fell, dead.

  When Jan battled the gorilla, it was disastrous. Jan seemed to

  be winning after he hacked the gorilla several times. When the gorilla

  fell, Jan rushed to it and the gorilla had Jan. With one roar, it

  started tearing and hacking Jan. Jan couldn’t get away. The gorilla

  rained himall over with fierce blows and soon, Jan became unconscious.

  With a satisfied grunt, the gorilla threw Jan like a puppet.

  The doctors recovered Jan.

  When Eric and Zing found Jan in one of the chambers, Jan

  was alive but just barely. They arrived just in time to see the doctor

  telling Jan that he wouldn’t be able to live long.

  Jan died in Eric’s arms without a word.

  Before Eric fell asleep, he heard a slight squeaking noise from

  the door. Siri was standing there, her face ghastly white. Eric held

  her in his arms.

  “What’s wrong with you？”asked Eric with concern.

  “Brutus was expelled from his job this morning. ”Siri’s

  voice trembled,“I read from ”Bloody Heracles“s documents that

  your next battle is with ...Zing. ”

  Eric was shocked by the news.

  Siri hold him tight. She knew this was the most important

  moment in Eric’s life.

  Siri also told him that Brutus had been sentenced to a normal

  citizen for his murder of the mid-aged man, a distant relative of

  Scipio.

  Eric remembered Brutus’s story. History had repeated. Perhaps,

  that was gladiator’s destiny.

  When Eric told Zing the bad news, Zing cried out with anger,

  Found the Lover!

  “No, Eric, that’s not true. We will never fight each other. You

  have a plan to stop it don’t you” Eric replied with a chuckle.

  But Eric had no plan. He would rather die than kill Zing, his

  best friend and blood brother. His dile
mma continued and pained

  him even more when Siri made him promise neither of them would get hurt.

  “I can’t stand without you，”Siri cried.

  On the daqy of their fight, Eric and Zing picked slips.

  Their fate would be decided by what was written on the slip.

  Siri had made the slips and told Eric that both had “Eric shall

  live”on them.

  Eric picked one of the slip and swallowed it without looking.

  Zing cried surprisingly, “Why didn’t you read what was

  on it？”

  Eric said calmly,“Let’s check the other one. ”

  Zing opened the remaining slip. It said,“Eric shall live. ”

  Eric said,“The one I swallowed must have”Eric shall die“on

  it. It’s god’s decision.”

  Zing didn’t argue.

  Eric pulled on his heavy helmets, his thick leather sandals,

  and took his sword. He knew this was the last time he would see

  these again. He walked onto the hot sand, and was given courage

  by its warmth. Zing also trooped on the center of the arena.

  Battle with Zing

  They faced each other, Zing with his head down and Eric

  smiling. Then they slowly edged forward and started to fight.

  Eric aimed slow blows at Zing, who easily parried them. Zing

  was purposely aiming for Eric’s shield. The fight continued like

  this, neither aiming blows that would kill each other. Gradually,

  Zing became less careful and started to move a little bit off his

  usual target.

  The crowd started to boo because no blood was drawn.

  Zing had no choice but to aim more powerful blows, making

  sparks fly. Eric tried to parry them while bonking Zing’s helmet.

  Eric saw Zing would never kill him at this pace, and he could see

  the crowd getting more and more impatient. Seeing one in the

  crowd giving “Bloody Heracles”a javelin, Eric knew he had no

  choice but to act soon.

  Taking a last farewell look at Siri and at Zing, he pointed his

  chest out into the way of Zing’s piercing blade. Before Zing could

  stop his blade, it sank deep into Eric’s stomach. As Zing gasped in

  horror and shocked, Eric rolled in the sand.

  “Bloody Heracles”declared Zing the winner.

  Eric tasted blood and sand in his mouth. He was a nothing

  now. 2 minutes from now no one was going to remember him. He

  was just like every other gladiator that ever died. He could hear

  Zing whimpering and Siri screaming.

  “Bloody