The Gladiator Read online

iator

  Nicholas Ton

  Copyright 2012 by Nicholas Ton

  I woke up in the middle of an arena, bleeding, hurting, and with no memory of what was happening. The arena was all sand, it was hot and dry.

  The arena was giant, there were cheering fans everywhere booming the arena with cheers. I was lying on the floor, I looked up to see a giant un-wounded man with a giant flail just slowly walking towards me.

  I looked around and saw a short sword right next to me. I assumed it was my and picked it up, I started running towards the giant man. As soon as I was right in front of the man, he swung his flair at my stomach and I fell down on the floor. A walked towards me, stood above me and spit on me. He stomped on my neck with his foot and boldly laughed at me.

  The man stared up at someone who looked like the king of the arena. The king held his hand out, looked towards the crowd, and put his thumb upside down.

  The crowd started booing the king and then the king said in a smooth voice “I will keep this man alive for your amusement.”

  Then he put his thumb right side up. Then the big man groaned with disappointment and got off of me.

  The crowd cheered and yelled out “Decapitator, Decapitator, Decapitator!”

  The big man groaned again with disgust so I guess that was my arena name, Decapitator. The king whistled, the big gate opened up and four medics came out with a stretcher. They ran over to me, put me on the stretcher and started running back towards the gate. When we made it past the gate, the gate closed and more gladiators cheered for me yelling my name.

  The other gladiators kept asking me questions like “How was it fighting the giant?” and “Are you ok Decapitator?” and the most asked one “How did you live in that fight?”

  The medics took me past that room and took me to an infirmary and set me down on a table. They got alcohol and poured it all over my wounds, they also threw salt all over my body. I screamed out in agony, it felt like hell, the burning lava of hell.

  They saw me squirming around in the table so they ran over and strapped me down and one of them said “Let us take care of you, we need to fix you up.”

  I squirmed still, but squirmed less than before, but I was still yelling out.

  After a few minutes, they got out needles and threads, they started sewing up all my cuts and bandaging all my scrapes.

  I moaned out “My ribs, they feel broken, please fix them.”

  One of the medics left and brought back a medical robot, he brought it over and it put its robotic hands over my ribs and the pain started going away. I stopped squirming all the way and relaxed there while the robot was fixing my ribs. I could feel my ribs mending itself back together, I fell asleep from the pleasure of the healing.

  I woke up later in the dark room with all the gladiators just standing above me. I mentally counted them and there were only ten of them.

  A girl walked up to me and said “I’m sorry, you were so close to victory, all you had to do was defeat the giant and you were out of here.”

  “What are you talking about, who are you, what am I doing here?” I asked

  “Stop messing around.”The girl laughed and said.

  She stared at my face and saw that it was all serious and asked “You’re not kidding, do you remember anything?”

  “No I don’t all I remember was waking up in the middle of the fight with that, thing.” I said.

  “You must have amnesia, from that hit he sent to your head. Let me explain everything. We are all either convicts, or slaves sent to the arena to fight for other people’s entertainments against our wills. You were fighting that man, the giant which is the champion. If you defeat him, you’ll become the champion and you’ll be able to leave freely. You were fighting the champion but you loss and lived, so you have to start back at the very bottom again. There are only ten rounds though, not counting the champion round though. There’s one round every day, if the crowd loves you then you’ll have an extra day to rest. Do you have everything down now?” She said.

  A man came through the crowd and said “You’ve been knocked out for a whole week, so the crowd will want you to fight as soon as you wake up.”

  Four guards pushed the crowd out the way and said “And you’re going to fight right now, I sent word to the king and he wants you to fight.”

  I said “But I just woke up.”

  The guard grabbed my shirt and pulled me to my feet and said “Follow me.”

  I followed the guard, and the girl called my name and threw me my sword. The girl tossed me the short sword from earlier and I caught it in midair.

  The guard yelled to the gate openers “Open the gate!”

  Then the guard yelled at me “Hurry up, the crowd wants you!”

  The gate opened up and I walked out to the arena greeted by cheers for blood and me. There was one man in chains that looked like a convict.

  The man picked up the two chains, ran towards me, and swung the chains at me. I held my sword up and the chains caught it, he pulled the chains back and the sword was yanked out of my hands. He then grabbed the sword from the chains and ran at me yelling nonsense. He easily ran up to me and slashed at me, I dodged the slash but was quickly confronted with another slash. The more I dodged, the slower I got, eventually the man cut me on my hand. When I got cut on my hand, the crowd started cheering even louder, not knowing what they were cheering about I ignored it. The man started getting tired and started panting, I took the opening and kicked the man on the chest, he easily lost balanced and fell down.

  I looked at my hand and saw my blood, rage rushed through me, adrenaline filled me, and the blood ran all around. The cut from my hand was now dripping blood and I screamed out in rage, they all cheered loudly, so loudly that my ears started to bleed a little. The convict stared up at me and begged for mercy, but the rage took over my body like a possession and I jumped on top of him. The rage took full control over my body and started wailing at the man. The man screamed and screeched loudly, I tried to stop but I couldn’t, I finally stopped once the screaming stopped. I stood back up and could taste blood on my tongue. The rage stopped, the adrenaline, slowed, and I was back in control of my body.

  I stared at the king and he said “There will be no deciding what to do about that man’s life. It looks like he’s already dead, good job, Decapitator.”

  The crowd cheered and cheered for me, they started chanting “Decapitator, Decapitator, Decapitator!”

  The gate opened up and I walked back into the resting area. As soon as I walked in, the girl and the man from before greeted me.

  The girl asked me “How was the fight, did you easily win?”

  I asked the girl and the guy “Wait, who are you guys, I forgot who you are?

  The girl and the guy gasped, the girl said “We’re your best friends, we’ve been your best friend since childhood, I can’t believe you forgot about us.”

  The man said “I’m Billy, I was your best friend, and I always had your back. We always got into bar fights together, and I would always back you up with my two swords.”

  The girl said “And I’m Angel, your ex-girlfriend, I always had to keep you in check but you still got in fights a lot. If you ever got in a fight, I would support you with my bow. We all made a pact when we were captured to always stay together in the arena, we would leave together.”

  A guard came up from behind Angel and said “There’s a fight waiting for you.”

  Angel followed the guard outside and then she waved bye to me.

  Billy patted me on the back and said “She’ll be alright, she can handle herself, she’s more durable and dangerous than you would think.”

  Billy turned and left, so I didn’t know what to do except get some rest for the next fight. I found a
free bed and laid down, I never noticed how tired I was until I got comfortable.

  I fell asleep almost instantly, I didn’t even feel like I fell asleep but I was woken up by a guard saying, “You have a fight to fight.”

  I got up off my bed, picked up my sword, and followed the guard outside to the arena. Once I got outside, I was greeted by one big convict who had one big two handed axe.

  I started walking towards the man but he started running towards me. I threw my sword at the man, the man blocked the sword with the axe and it gave me the opening I needed. The man put the axe in front of himself to block me but I used it to my advantage by jumping off of it and somersaulted behind the big man. The man turned around, I grabbed him by the neck and swung it to one side.

  There was a loud pop but the man just twisted it back and said “That’s not enough to take me out.”

  I spotted my sword and sprinted towards it, I then grabbed it off the floor and turned towards the convict. The man twirled the giant axe all around turning into a human tornado. I ran towards him , then I slid on the floor dodging the axe’s blade and cut the man on the ankle. The man let go of the axe and if flew all the way outside the arena. The man fell down and tried to get up, but was too weak to stand. I stood next to the man’s neck and then I jumped up and slashed at his neck. The man’s head rolled away when I made that strike.

  The crowd cheered and yelled “Decapitator, Decapitator, Decapitator!”

  I was taken back to