Gladiators vs Zombies Read Online Free Page B

spoken to the crowd of a grand new beasts being offered to the arena by Ludus Laeca, and everyone was eager to see what new horror emerged from the darkness. At first there was only a low moan, and then a golem shuffled out onto the arena floor. He was dressed in tattered clothing, and on his shoulder was the ragged bite would that was reflected in the cloth banner that Lanista Laeca had hung over the gate. The crowd remained silent, confused that a man walked into the arena and not a beast. Gedra knew better, for he had heard the moaning, and knew that the man he now faced had once been a slave in the household.
    The golem moaned as its yellowed eyes scanned the crowd, staggering to the side for a moment as if overwhelmed by the presence of so many onlookers. The crowd’s demeanor changed, and someone shouted “This is no beast!” while the crowd began to grow unhappy. Then, as if spurned on by the detractors, the golem’s gaze fell upon Gedra, and it let out a bestial scream as it began moving towards him.
    At first the gait of the creature was more of a shuffle, and then within moments it became something between a run and a walk. Gedra stepped forward, hoping to make quick work of this sad creature. He knew not what strange blight the wound on the creature’s shoulder signified, though he felt sorry for the man. Clearly he was suffering from some disease or drug that the lanista had forced upon him to make him more like a beast. Gedra was sickened by the whole affair, the honor of his position as bestiarius being slighted by calling this poor man a beast.
    Without breaking stride Gedra deflected the man’s outstretched arms and drove his spear into the man’s mid-section, then, as he had been trained to do, twisting the point of the spear and stepping to the side. As he did so the spear rent apart the man’s belly, and the stinking guts spilled out into the arena. Gedra recovered and stepped back, his shield sinking back into position before him and his gory spear resting against it. Typically when he performed this maneuver the beast would bellow and collapse, ending the fight as it bled out upon the sand.
    The golem staggered several steps away from the pile of guts on the arena floor, though did not fall. The crowd had grown deathly silent, and Gedra began to realize that he was in more peril than he’d realized. The man was not a man at all, but some manner of creature, indeed deserving of the lanista’s name golem, though the bestiarius had no idea as to the word’s meaning. The golem screamed once more and careened towards Gedra, heedless of its tremendous wound. The bestiarius backed away several steps, and then lunged again, sinking his spear into the golem’s chest.
    The creature only halted briefly, then pushed forward against the point of the spear as it continued to attempt to grasp the bestiarius. Gedra’s grip on the spear loosened, and it was torn away as the golem twisted its torso in an attempt to get past the gladiator’s shield. The crowd erupted in a combination of cheers and booing as the bestiarius took several hasty steps backwards from the creature. The golem kept coming, heedless of the spear jutting from its chest, its arms outstretched once more.
    Gedra knew that he could not keep retreating, for in doing so he would lose the favor of the crowd, and shame his ludus. He had been trained to control the fight, and never to let the beast gain the upper hand in determining where the battle moved. Without any additional weapons the gladiator waited until the beast was a few steps closer then moved to the side and as he went delivered a crushing blow with his shield. The shaft of the spear snapped, and the creature’s bottom jaw exploded in a spray of blood and bone. The crowd howled its delight, and the creature fell to the ground.
    Gedra let himself relax for a brief moment, the fight seemingly done, and then suddenly the creature was again on the attack. From the ground the creature