him on his knees. The Emperor asked them something. It was mainly Yu Lai, who answered.
Lacius saw him remove his medallion from his neck and hand it to one of the servants. After some time, it was returned, and Yu Lai put it around his neck again. Then they both crawled back and stood up. Warriors in black robes stood with their backs to them. The Empress’s brother ordered something to Yu Lai, making a decisive gesture with his hand. Servants with short sticks at the ready appeared again in the distance.
– Take the swords! – a loud command sounded. Silence hung in the air. The Romans realised that they would now be killed.
– We didn’t agree like that, – Lucro said with fear for the first time in a long time. – He glanced at Lacius, but he himself saw that the situation was becoming hopeless.
– Wang Mang! – Lacius shouted loudly, addressing the thin official standing behind the servants. – The Emperor promised us life. Everyone. You are breaking the Emperor’s order.
There was an awkward silence, and the warriors began to turn to their master in confusion. He slowly approached Lacius and, stopping two steps away, calmly answered:
– The Emperor believes that your strength was in the medallion. Now the Wise Ruler wants to see how you can fight without it, – his words were accompanied by an even, calm look, without anger or irritation, as if they were talking about the colour of the clay under his feet.
– This medallion cannot be worn. He brings death. Your warrior will die, – Lacius tried to tell the truth, but not a single muscle moved on Wang Mang’s face. He just shook his head, as if agreeing with some of his thoughts, and stepped back.
– Kill them! – the order sounded, and a long black line moved forward.
– Give us the swords! – Lacius shouted in despair, but in response there was a satisfied laugh from Yu Lai. His warriors easily beat off the Romans’ sticks with their swords and knocked them down. But they didn’t kill them. And they didn’t even try to hurt. It was like a mockery to show the weakness and infirmity of the unarmed prisoners.
Lacius has also been on earth three times already. Getting up with difficulty once again, he saw that the enemy was ready to hit him again with the flat of his sword on the head and push him with his hands in the chest so that he would fall. Yu Lai was too close, and smiled joyfully, anticipating a quick end. Lacius pulled forward a stick, which he had already split with several previous blows, and swayed on bent knees, feigning fatigue and helplessness. Believing in his impunity, Yu Lai lost his vigilance and casually struck the stick with his sword, trying to knock it out of Lacius’s hands. But the sword met no resistance and fell into the void. The warrior momentarily lost his balance and fell to one knee, still holding the sword in front of him. Lacius hit it from above with all his might and knocked him out of his hands. The second blow of the split stick landed right on the knot of hair on Yu Lai’s head, and although he did not lose consciousness, he unexpectedly fell on all fours and froze. When he raised his head, a sword blade touched his neck.
– Don’t move! – he heard Lacius’s voice, who pulled off his medallion from him and quickly returned it to his neck. All the warriors stopped and stepped back hesitantly. They looked at the tall slave, who held the sword at their comrade’s throat. – Hey, Wang Mang! The medallion didn’t help him. But he is not my enemy. I don’t want to kill him.
There was some excitement near the Emperor’s stretcher. Several servants ran up and fell on their faces, then crawled back and ran up to Wang Mang.
– The son of heaven saw everything, – he said gloomily, turning to Lacius. Let him go! – he waited until Yu Lai angrily pushed Lacius away from him and returned to him. Then he continued: – Our warrior did not kill you. Our warrior could have killed you. You didn’t kill him. But you could have killed him. The Emperor says you will fight again. Hey! – he clapped his hands, calling the servants, – remove the chain from him and give him a stick.
– This is unfair! Give me the sword! – Lacius shouted, feeling that he had been deceived again.
– Let your medallion help you, – the Empress’s brother answered mockingly.
– I can’t fight with a medallion! Give me the sword!
– You know how to build bridges from stones. Make yourself a sword! Ask your gods to help you, – Wang Mang advised just as calmly and gave the command to the warriors to disperse in different directions. Two servants were already removing the iron ball from his feet, placing stones under the chain and hitting it with hammers, but Lacius still felt the tension. The black knife was securely attached under the leather breastplate, which had already become wet and was beginning to rub the skin under his hands.
When the chains were removed, he lowered himself down to rub his legs and to transfer it unnoticed to his belt. Then everything ceased to exist. He remembered only the feeling of extreme tension, when the body relaxes and the eyes follow only the movements of the enemy standing in front. Yu Lai was younger than him and stronger. And although Lacius was a head taller in stature, the warrior was broad – shouldered, fast, agile and, perhaps, in no way inferior to him, except experience. In addition, he was very angry and burned with the desire to humiliate and trample the rebellious slave.
When the command was given, Yu Lai immediately rushed forward, furiously swinging his sword from side to side, struck from above several times, then began to wave it in front of him, as if he was trying to cut a silk ribbon, but his blows did not reach the target. With pleasure and surprise, Lacius felt light in his legs and very skillfully moved to the right and left, avoiding the furious attacks of his angry enemy. From time to time, he had to deflect the dangerous sword with a stick, but he tried not to expose the bamboo to a direct blow, because the blade would immediately cut it in half.
For the spectators, this running in a circle looked boring and monotonous, and only the Romans, who understood what he was doing, stood motionless, leaning their backs against the wall and without taking their eyes off, watched his deft movements. Yu Lai began to get tired and stopped a few times to catch his breath.
– Help him! – ordered the dissatisfied brother of the Empress, noticing the sign of one of the servants near the Emperor’s stretcher – the Emperor yawned. The Wise Ruler loved joyful holidays, but not long and tedious journeys. Now he was starting to get bored. A hundred warriors sat down on the ground and began to knock their swords, lingering on the last movement: one, two, three! One, two, three! The pace of the blows increased, the Han warriors themselves began to experience nervous excitement, and Lacius noticed that this support gave his enemy strength. It was necessary to withstand this final onslaught at all costs. He did not intend to kill Yu Lai. He lost a lot of strength and soon had to fall to the ground from fatigue. It was necessary to play along with him, and Lacius again used the technique that he had caught Yu Lai before: he began to move a little slower, stopped in place more often, breathed heavily and with his whole appearance showed the enemy that he was tired.
At this moment, the drums began to sound. It seems that the Han people also believed that the end was near and decided to support their warrior with all their might. Seeing that Yu Lai’s blows had become very slow and long, Lacius began to let him closer and at some point, paid for it – the man chopped off most of the stick with one blow, leaving only a short stump in his hands.
– Glory… to the Ruler… of Heaven… – he tried to shout out, barely catching his breath. But it would be better if Yu Lai did not do this, because his breathing became unsteady from those shouts and, when he lunged forward, Lacius easily pulled his sword aside. However, the blow was so strong that the piece of bamboo stick flew out of his hands and fell to the ground. Yu Lai, unable to resist, jumped forward, their bodies collided and both, taken aback by such an unexpected movement, jumped back a step. Lacius dropped to one knee to raise his stick, continuing to watch his opponent out of the corner of his eye. He was breathing heavily, but his eyes burned with such fire that if he could,