Wheel Of Life

Dian Wei paced in to the square arena, the crowd excitedly watching him as he walked forwards towards Rojo. He stretched his arms out to his sides, loosening his shoulders. He let out a loud grunt, before turning his head side to side, causing his neck to make some loud clicks.

Rojo stared back at him, a grin appearing on his face. He walked away from Morgan and turned to the centre of the arena, awaiting his new competitor. Morgan got to his knees and crawled towards the arena edge, blood dripping from his mouth. He wasn't sure if he had escaped death or not. Vlad looked down at him, grasping him by the collar.

"We aren't done with you yet." He whispered, smiling at him, before lifting him up and placing his arm around his shoulder. "Let's watch this and you can fight the winner?"

Morgan's face dropped, death was inevitable he realised.

Rojo picked up a short sword and pointed it in Dian Wei's direction. "You want revenge? You're not worthy."

A Red Ribbon threw a short sword towards Dian Wei who caught it, spinning it in a circular motion as he caught it. Belle stopped following him closed the gap in the crowd that circled the arena. He span his wrist in a gentle motion, limbering himself up after being tied up for a period of time.

"Sc.u.m like you, does not deserve to breathe." Dian Wei commented.

"It's a real shame I hadn't killed you earlier." Rojo lamented, "But better now than never!"

Rojo charged at Dian Wei, launching his sword arm forwards aiming it at Dian Wei's c.h.e.s.t. Dian Wei side stepped and clashed his blade against Rojo's, causing Rojo's arm to drop. Rojo quickly recovered and threw an elbow towards Dian's Wei's face, Dian Wei reacted quickly and pulled his head back, dodging the blow. Dian Wei quickly countered and stabbed towards Rojo's stomach, causing Rojo to jump backwards.

"Pathetic." Rojo sneered.

Dian Wei stared into Rojo's eyes, a smile on his face as he slashed meekly towards him, causing Rojo to go to block. Dian Wei pulled his blade back and laughed.

"Pathetic?" Dian Wei challenged. "You use torture as an escape, and are shit at that."

Rojo glared angrily, before charging at him once more, sword slashing down towards Dian Wei's right arm. Dian Wei quickly twisted, letting the powerful Rojo's weight pull him past. Dian Wei span and slashed his sword down Rojo's left arm, a splash of blood escaping, covering both of their bodies.

Rojo gritted his teeth in pain, refusing to let out a noise. He would not be defeated by this weakling he thought to himself. He charged once more at Dian Wei, driving the sword towards his stomach. Dian Wei pushed his blade up, deflecting the blow easily, before punching Rojo's stomach heavily. Rojo crouched and coughed as he was hit, before a sword came at him once more from above. Rojo rose his blade to block, but it Dian Wei reacted quickly to the block and changed the direction of his blade, slicing in to the wrist of Rojo, separating his hand from the rest of his body. A fountain of blood spraying across the square arena.

"Kill him!" voices from the crowd shouted, mostly the earlier captives that had been released. Some of them had known Dian Wei from their time in the cages, or were remnants from his merchant group.

Rojo looked at the stump on his arm, his mouth agape in shock. He refused to die like this. The pain was agonising and he fell to his knees, attempting to get himself back up.

"This is for all of my brothers that you killed meaninglessly." Dian Wei exclaimed, before stabbing his blade between Rojo's shoulder blades.

"This is for all of the innocent people that you have r.a.p.ed or sodomised." He exclaimed, pulling his blade out and stabbing him again in the side, cutting in to his stomach and organs.

"And this, is for me." He roared. He pulled out the blade, stomach contents flowing on to the square beneath. Rojo was gasping on to his last breaths as the blood left him and his system's shut down. The last thing he saw was the oncoming blade that separated his head from his body.

"Dian Wei, Dian Wei, Dian Wei!" The crowd chanted excitedly at his impressive performance.

"How did you know?" Boudica whispered in to his ear, having just silently approached him from behind.

"I drink and know things." Mark replied, a smile on his face at his witty reference.

"You can't handle your drink, so I doubt it." She replied seriously.

"I just had a feeling!" Mark replied honestly. "Good addition yeah?"

"I would say so, I just don't think anyone will want to get on the bad side of him!" She replied.

Belle ran in to the arena to Dian Wei's side, who was happily spinning, arms raising his blade in to the air. The crowd continuing to chant his name. He was lapping up all of the excitement from his display.

"Sit down, I still haven't finished sorting your wounds!" Belle chastised him.

"Nor mine!" someone shouted from the audience, causing a laugh.

Belle shook her head in disappointment at the crowd, causing an even louder laugh. Mark realised he really needed a medical team as she was a warrior not a healer. He mentally added it to his list.

"The winner is Dian Wei!" Eduardo announced loudly, "Welcome to the Red Ribbons!"

Dian Wei enjoyed the moment for a while longer, before stepping back in to the crowd. Red Ribbons greeted him enthusiastically, patting him on the back as Belle checked over his sealing wounds.

Vlad smiled at Morgan, who was still recovering from his near death with Rojo. He grabbed him by his collar and pushed him back in to the arena, where he stood alone. There was only the corpse of Rojo left, blood still escaping from his body and dyeing the floor red. Morgan looked around at the faces of all of the Red Ribbons and ex-prisoners, he had never wanted to be a bandit, but his life had just ended up this way.

"And the Winner is! Morgan!" Eduardo announced, causing a huge amount of laughter from the Red Ribbons in the crowd. Morgan was confused, how had he won. Then he looked down at the loose head of Rojo, whose eyes were staring back at him and gasped. Morgan felt faint and didn't understand the situation. Vlad headed to him and grabbed him again.

"Go have a seat over there, you won by default!" Vlad ordered, pushing him towards the other prisoners that were tied up. Hassan was still passed out on the floor from his earlier fight, a bandage tightly tied around his wounds. Two Red Ribbons ran in to the arena and dragged the headless corpse away, leaving it beside the still shocked Morgan.

"Next round!" Eduardo shouted, as 4 more bandits were dragged to the arena. Cheers loudly erupting from the crowd. "A slight change this time, to keep it fun and interesting. Last man standing wins!"

A shield, an axe, a sword and a spear were all thrown in to the arena floor. The 4 Bandits quickly untied and sent running to grab them.

The first bandit grabbed the spear, his name was Logan and was very tall and slim, he had long hair that reached his shoulder. The second bandit grabbed the axe, his name was Abdul and he was of an average height but was well built, muscles protruding from beneath his clothes. The third grabbed the sword and the shield, her name was Hatsu, she was short and slim and would be deemed pretty, if not for the long gruesome scar that lined down her face. The final bandit was called Demetrius, he was left with no weapons, but he had a heavy build and looked confident in himself.

"Begin!" Eduardo shouted, with the red ribbons banging their weapons to create a rhythmic beat.

The first to move was Abdul, who charged wildly towards Demetrius. Hatsu and Logan on the other hand spent their time watching each other, allowing the first two to fight and reduce the numbers.

Abdul raised his axe and swung it down towards Demetrius, who dodged the incoming blow and threw a punch at Abdul's side.

"We are supposed to he friends!" Demetrius yelled angrily.

"Then die for me so that I can live!" Abdul replied seriously.

"You die for me!" Demetrius replied.

Mark shook his head at that, feeling it a shame that friendship could be thrown away so easily. He looked at Carol for some input, but she was staring intently at the battle infront. He then looked to Boudica on his other side, she had a glint in her eye as she watched some of the bandits infront of her fight.

Abdul swung his axe widly at Demetrius again, causing Demetrius to constantly have to dodge and step back away from him. Slowly Demetrius neared the square edge.

Logan watched on, his spear constantly poised to strike, Hatsu was on her guard against him, slowly pacing around the arena to keep her distance from his long range weapon. She held her shield infront of her, her sword peeking over the top of it.

Demetrius realised he couldn't back up anymore, as Abdul's wild strikes continued to hit towards him.

"Don't make me do this!" He shouted angrily, as Abdul swung the axe once more.

Demetrius suddenly gained a bolt of energy as he charged forwards under the oncoming axe, he tackled Abdul to the floor and punched him heavily in the face. Abdul dropped the axe and tried to defend himself with his arms. Demetrius punched Abdul again and again.

Abdul went unconscious from the blow, another punch hitting him in the face. Demetrius did not stop, and continued to punch. Abdul's face poured blood as his bones broke under the pressure. All of Demetrius's pent up anger was unleashed as he continued to throw punches.

He suddenly screamed in pain, a slender spear shaft protruding from his back. Logan had made his move, stabbing perfectly at Demetrius when his mind was unawares.

Demetrius slumped, his dead body on top of his best friend Abdul's. Both friends dead together. Logan pulled out his spear and stabbed one more time, making sure Demetrius was dead. He heard the sound of crunching and quickly retracted the weapon and span, the spear making a whoosh at is moved quickly through the air.

The shaft of the spear clashed heavily against the rim of Hatsu's shield, the head wobbling loosely to the side. Hatsu moved forwards in to the range of Logan's strikes. Logan attempted to step back, giving him his range and advantage back. Hatsu instead had charged in, taking away Logan's one strength in this battle, she had her move perfectly. She bashed him hard with the shield, causing him to stumble backwards and trip over the corpses of Abdul and Demetrius.

His body hit the floor, but his legs were in the air, stuck to the back of the dead Demetrius. Hastu hastily crashed her shield down on to the now fallen spear shaft, snapping it in two.

"Damn! I wanted that spear!" Someone from the crowd shouted, his nearby colleagues laughing at his discomfort.

Logan rolled and grabbed at the axe Abdul had dropped earlier. He looked at the oncoming Hatsu and quickly tried to think of a counter attack. She quickly went in to defence mode again, her shield held forwards with her sword point peaking over the top.

Mark liked the character of these, and wondered who would win of the two. Logan was intelligent enough to see a good opportunity and strike, where as Hatsu was patient and collected, strategically she had good basics.

"What are your thoughts in these?" Mark asked, not directed at anyone in particular.

"Gan Ning could definitely do with someone like Hatsu or Logan on his team, both ample infintry soldiers and what we are looking for." Boudica commented.

"I don't want to overstep my place." Carol said gently. "Hatsu is terrifying and launched the attack against our merchant caravan, but she was what you would expect, a warrior and did not cause any additional damage than what is to be expected from a clash of groups. Logan isn't memorable to me."

Mark nodded his thanks to both of them, contemplating the situation, he didn't want them both dead and could hire either of them.

Logan stood up and paced backwards, refusing to be the first to move in the clash. Hastu moved closer slowly, as she circled the arena, she however stayed in the defensive position, ready to strike if needs be.

This continued for several heartbeats until she moved herself closer. Logan saw the opportunity and quickly rushed her, aiming for the axe head to grasp the top of the shield. He wanted to pull the shield loose and cause her to loose the advantage. Hastu was thinking similar and allowed him to close in so she could change her sword angle and stab him from below.

As they were about to clash, there was a shout.

"Stop!" Mark shouted, causing both competitors to pause mid movement. Eduardo and the other Red Ribbons looked on confused.

"Logan, you set a trap, but have actually fallen for her's." He commented. "Hatsu, your trap was good, but you didn't plan for a back up option if it failed."

Both competitors looked at him glaringly, their weaknesses both shown to everyone.

"I feel it is a shame for you both to die." Mark continued. "Go sit down with the others, when we have finished, we can discuss your potential recruitment on a trial basis."

There were a few gasps from people who were surprised at Mark's choice, but others understood that they were warriors with tactical ability and that was helpful in the long run.

The arena was quickly cleaned and the next people were dragged in.

"Continue!" Mark shouted.