AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh? And who is going to stop us? You? Your chieftain? We’re going to get exactly what we want!”
“Yes,” another orc agrees, and they all roar and laugh in agreement. “We will conquer your clan, and your people, and especially your women! We will rip the Risen Ash clan to shreds, and in its place, we will establish the new Ravenhawk clan!”
“Your women will forget all about Kian the Undefeated Gladiator once they’ve had us!”
“And if they don’t give us what we want, we’ll take it from them! The women will have no choice but to have Ravenhawk orclings!”
My blood boils at the thought of the Ravenhawk orcs raping our women.
How are you possibly going to protect them? Look at where you are! This is the end of you!
I am a stubborn bastard, I realize, as I lurch forward and throw several weak punches.
Not going down without a fight.
Not going down without a fight.
Not going down without a fight.
They avoid my weak blows easily enough, and I trip and fall.
They pile onto me then and do their best to finish me off.
One of the orcs even replaces his fists with a knife and stabs me all over, as if just for good measure. I groan when the blade of the knife is thrust deep into my chest. I know it missed my heart by an inch.
The last blow, the one that will be the death of me, comes from the largest of the orcs of the Ravenhawk clan.
He does not send me to the dark quiet of death with his fists. Instead, he pulls out a mighty hammer and swings it at me.
When I fall into the water, the waves swallow me like a shroud, wrapping around me, pulling me into the immense nothingness of the ocean.
You need to give up. Let the water take you. This is the end for you.Uli’s voice resounds in my head again.
I know that, if he were actually here, my brother wouldn’t tell me to give up. Even if that is what he thought was the right thing to do.
He knows me too well.
He would help me fight. He’d pull me out of the ocean and save me.
But Uli isn’t here now. There is no one to save you. Are you finally going to give up now?
I am quite sure that I am going to die, but I struggle against the giant strength of the waves and hold my breath. I fight against the ocean, which is larger and stronger than any orc can be.
I need to survive,I tell myself.
I need to survive.
My will to survive doesn’t die. But eventually, I start dying anyway. Because I cannot get to the surface, and my chest burns from holding my breath.
Don’t give up. Die knowing that you didn’t give up.
So I fight, even as the water swallows me into its dark maw. This is what I’ll die doing.
I’ll die fighting.
I am Kian, the Undefeated Gladiator.
3
