“Ready yourselves!” Samuel shouted.
The gate, now open, released its payload. Six men filed out, each wearing a headdress of jaguar fur. They were the jaguar warriors, the Empire’s most elite fighting force — the ones Julian had told me I would never want to face off against. Each of them wore leather armor and was armed with two axes.
Upon seeing the jaguar warriors, the crowd cheered, as if at an unexpected surprise. The jaguar warriors began to fan out. They were six against our five. Following Samuel’s lead, we backed away, so as not to get cornered. The crowd booed at our maneuver. But we weren’t trying to win the crowd. We were trying to win our lives.
After that, things got going immediately. Anna stepped forward, hoping to incite one of the warriors to attack. Taking the bait, one of them fell on her from the side with a dual flash of axes. But she had expected that. She sidestepped him, cutting him in the back, with great economy of motion. With wide eyes, the warrior fell. Nimbly, Anna stepped away, rejoining our ranks.
The crowd roared in fury at the first blood being drawn by us. Only five of the warriors were left, and they leapt into action upon seeing their comrade fall. They completely encircled us, causing Makara and me to go back to back, Makara pointing her spear outward. Anna’s training came back to me — even if she had taught me with her katana, her lessons of keeping calm amidst danger steadied my resolve.
Three of the jaguar warriors surrounded Makara and me, each wielding their dual axes that shimmered in the sun. The other two faced down Samuel, Anna, and Julian. Since we were outnumbered, Makara and I had to do our best to hold our own until the others could take care of their own adversaries.
Samuel wielded his maces as his group’s two jaguar warriors sprung forward in tandem. Samuel sidestepped and spun, clobbering one of them with his mace in the back. The crowd hissed again as the warrior fell to the dirt. Samuel, with a baleful roar, bashed the warrior’s skull in with a squishy crunch. Anna, meanwhile, had no trouble dispatching the other before he could reach Samuel. The warrior sprang forward, and Anna did the same to him, taking him off guard. As the jaguar warrior’s axe fell toward Anna’s midriff, Anna did a barrel roll, the axe blade missing her body by inches. At the same time her sword, held outward, cut the man deep into the gut as she landed acrobatically on her feet. The blade remained embedded. With the full strength of her torso and legs, Anna ripped straight through the man’s abdomen, severing his spine. The top half of the jaguar warrior’s body toppled and crashed into the dirt while the legs buckled from underneath. The crowd screamed in both horror and revelry as blood splattered the ground in a torrent.
The three remaining jaguar warriors retreated as the five of us lined up and advanced slowly. Judging by the rising drone of the crowd, this was not the way it was supposed to go.
Finally, the men turned tail and fled from the gate from which they had come. Makara launched her spear. It sailed through the air, arcing downward to the last warrior. It nailed him in the back, sinking below his right shoulder blade. Soundlessly, he fell to the dirt, quivered, and grew still.
The last two warriors were now completely routed. They banged on the gate, desperate to escape the arena. We stood in front of them in a semi-circle. Makara, next to the body of the man she had speared, pulled out her weapon, pointing it at the two remaining warriors.
At last, the gate was raised, and the men fled inside the staging area. It was shut again.
The echo of the closing gate reverberated throughout the
The silence lasted a few seconds before the arena was filled the jeers, boos, hisses, and the maddened faces of the crowd. Several men tried to jump from the stands onto the dirt ground, restrained only by loved ones and friends who understood the foolishness of such an action.
We had won the fight. That’s what mattered. But something was wrong. We were still alive, and they weren’t letting us out. Were they going to send more warriors after us this time?
“We stay here, until we die,” Julian said. “It is that simple.”
My hopes sank. “They’re just going to send more in until we are all dead?”
Eventually, they would overwhelm us. We could fight all we wanted, but it was not going to do any good. My only hope now was that Ashton would drop out of the sky and save us all. Of course, he had no way of knowing that we were here, so that would never happen. We couldn’t get lucky every time.
Finally, every head in the
At long last, the fat man returned to the dais. The entire
“The governor commands,” the fat man’s voice boomed, “for your entertainment, Wastelander blood, this very day!”
A roar of approval met this pronouncement. The sound buried us, dimmed us to nothing.
But we were not done, yet.
I nearly jolted out of my skin when I heard the rattle of chains come from all around us. Four square-shaped holes had appeared on the arena floor, descending into darkness. I wondered if we were meant to go down them. The clinking of the chains ceased.
“Trap doors,” Julian said.
“For what?” I asked.
Samuel knelt down, ready to fight. “Whatever they plan on using to kill us.”
Then, the chains clinked again. The trap doors rose back up, and as they did so, the crowd waited with anticipation.
Finally, the doors’ payloads were revealed. There were four of them, yellow with black spots, thin, as if starved, but all the more deadly for it. They were jaguars — real ones this time.
The crowd cheered as the four beasts prowled toward us at a low crouch. I gripped my gladius, ready to jab the first one that got too close. Makara stood next to me, doing the same with her spear, while Samuel and Anna stood nearby.
“Bring it on,” she said.
The first jaguar sailed through the air right for Anna. But that was a mistake. She held her sword aloft, and with a cracked yowl, the jaguar impaled itself through the gut. The crowd oohed, unable to help being impressed by Anna’s skill.
However, holding her sword that way left Anna’s side exposed. A jaguar dashed from the side, going for her exposed abdomen. I rushed forward, scaring it off with a swing of my blade. The other two jaguars, with lightning speed, circled around me, going for my back. Samuel and Makara stepped in from behind, keeping my back protected. The three jaguars that were left encircled us.
The five of us formed a circle as the three deadly cats stalked around us.
“Stay in formation,” Samuel said. “Don’t break for anything.”
It continued this way for five minutes. The heat of the sun baked my skin, turning it red. My throat was parched, and every part of me ached. But I did not lower my shield. Not for anything. This was a waiting game, and we would not be the first to break ranks.
The patience of the cats was unsettling. I tried hard not to stare into their black, hypnotic eyes and become transfixed. I could see their mouths salivating in anticipation of their meal, sticky saliva dripping from their jaws and onto the dirt. The crowd had deadened, now talking amongst themselves. I told myself to be ready for anything.
Still, they circled, and none of us spoke. We had been standing here at least fifteen minutes, maybe longer.
The crowd started to get bored and restless. I glanced up at the Emperor’s box, noticing that the rich men were talking to each other. I saw one man nod, and disappear into the arena. What was going on?
One of the cats yawned, settling itself into the dirt.
Five minutes later, the crowd started booing. But I couldn’t let that break my concentration.
Then, something happened that we could
