Heart of Gladiator

The Fight For Freedom

PLEASE, WHILE READING THIS CHAPTER, I ASK OF YOU TO LISTEN TO A VIDEO ON YOUTUBE WHOSE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC WILL GIVE YOU THE RIGHT EFFECT THIS STORY IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE. JUST TYPE IN: 4 HOURS OF EMOTIONAL MUSIC BY ADRIAN VON ZIEGLER. BUT THIS IS OPTIONAL TOO. IF YOU FIND IT DIFFICULT TO CONCENTRATE WHILE LISTENNING TO MUSIC THEN DON'T STRESS YOURSELF. BUT NOTE THAT THIS MUSIC IS JUST INSTRUMENTAL AND WON'T BE OF A DISTURBANCE. I HIGHLY RECOMMENT IT. THANK YOU. ENJOY!

  After twenty one years of fighting for survival, here he stood behind the iron gates of his cell, standing gravely in the dark shadows, waiting for his turn when they would call upon him. He didn’t bother watching the spectacle they put up outside on the arena; he always knew what went on out there and by merely being attentive to the responsive sounds of the crowd he could decipher the outcome of the battles. However, he used to be part of the spectators before like the rest of the eager gladiators who stood behind their gates gripping onto the poles like wild animals that they all were including him. But over the years after losing some of his friends, he eventually stopped. He no longer wanted to see those murderous scenes.

  He just wanted to go out there and kill whomever he had to and return back alive. Let the fanatics and the royal magistrates have their pleasant entertainment and adrenaline rush of a gruesome nature, meanwhile he’ll just do what he had to and leave. He had one goal: to achieve the Rudis, a wooden sword that symbolizes a gladiator’s liberatio (1), something he’d been aiming for ever since he found out that his younger brother, Addison, was still alive and fighting out there as a gladiator too, trapped in this bloody hell like him. Aurelius wanted to fight his way to freedom and try to earn enough money to buy Addison out of slavery.

(1): the freeing of a gladiator who had served his time.  

  “Come here, Aurelius,” Claudio, his lanista (2), called out to him from the front of the cell where he stood watching the show. “Come see the audience that has gathered today to watch your victory.”

(2): an owner, recruiter, trainer, and speculator in gladiators who sold or rented men to muneraii.

  “My victory is nothing but a devil who sacrifices the lives of other men like me for a temporary appraisal,” Aurelius answered him.

  Claudio let himself smile. “You are not happy with the fame and reputation the Devil has given you?”

  Aurelius then watched him closely for a moment. “Keep the fame and reputation if you wish,” he said, “but I take the freedom to do something in my life I haven’t done yet.”

  “To save your brother, Addison, isn’t it?” he asked Aurelius with a slightly mocking voice, and could see the resentment his warrior held towards him for that.

  “At least I’ll save one soul that means something to me,” Aurelius admitted, staring fixedly and hardly out the gates but watching no part of the entertainment.

  “Don’t you think that the weight of all the souls you have taken over the years you have fought will still drag you down to Hell even if you save your brother’s?” Claudio further questioned him.

  Suddenly Aurelius’s lips curved upwards forming an impassionate smile when he looked across at Claudio’s ugly countenance. “Do you think that matters to me?”