Gideon had joined the army to
further improve himself as a fighter. He had also joined the army to get rid of
a Teacher who had been abusive to recruits who had joined the army. His father
had a long career in the military and still kept in touch with those who were
in the army and he had told Gideon about a man who had dragged recruits into
the warrior’s circle and beat them without mercy. Broken arms, bad concussions,
just about any level of brutality you could imagine the man would inflict upon
a hapless recruit in an effort to instill fear into the rest of the class.
The army had turned a blind eye to
the man’s abuses, they would claim to object to such violence and look into the
claims about what happened but no investigations ever went anywhere. The army
was happy with the number of men the Teacher had graduated each class and in
the end that was all they ever cared about. Gideon had to stop the man from
hurting another innocent recruit. His father had pulled strings and got Gideon
into the Teacher’s class. The Teacher was a powerfully built man, standing a
little over six foot with thick arms and a broad chest. Gideon knew he’d be
well outweighed in the fight and that
the Teacher would have a solid reach advantage, but Gideon didn’t fear, his
whole life was built upon fighting.
As long as he could remember he’d
been training in unarmed combat. Martial arts, boxing, grappling. At age six he’d
beaten nine and ten year olds to win a regional tournament. He hadn’t lost a
since he was twelve and that fight was lost because he had badly turned an
ankle while throwing his opponent and couldn’t stand on the leg. Not a day went
by when he didn’t curse himself for quitting due to that injury instead of
fighting on with one leg.
Gideon found himself admiring the
Teacher’s methods. The warrior’s circle wasn’t brought up in the first month of
the six weeks of training, recruits who had heard of the legends of being
forced to fight in it had started to reassure themselves that it was merely a
story told to scare them, but Gideon knew the truth, he’d seen the way the
Teacher had watched the students during training. He was making a list of the
men who were faltering so that he could personally cripple one of them rather
than have to report a wash out. Gideon also knew that once he’d maimed one man
the fear would motivate others to work harder to avoid the same fate. The
Teacher was a monster but he had an intelligence about him that Gideon found
dangerous.
That combined with the endless
physical conditioning the recruits were being put through, Gideon knew he
wouldn’t be at his best when he fought the Teacher but he just had to push
through it. He’d seen a few recruits faltering under the relentless orders of
the Teacher. This was how the army worked and how things should be, but Gideon
also knew that one of those men would be in for a beating if he didn’t
intervene when the time came.
Finally in the fifth week the men
went on a run and around the fourth mile
they were ordered to turn off the road. Gideon saw the circle that had been dug
into the dirt in front of them and knew the time had come. Now he’d be in a
fight with nobody there to protect him, no ref to call it off or training
partners to break it up, just a full out battle between him and a man out to
injure somebody just because he could.
The Teacher walked in front of the
men, a confident strut to his gait. “Before you is a warrior’s circle. It is a
sacred place when men test themselves to hone their fighting skills, to prove themselves
as warriors ready to fight and to die for our nation, and for our God. Today
you unworthy vermin will be allowed inside this circle and will have to prove
yourselves. Today we will begin the process of weeding out the weak and
incapable to remove them from our army. For the time of war is nigh upon us.
The Kingdom creeps ever closer to our boarders, their people seek only to tear
down our churches, to make the teaching of the word of God a crime that will be
punished by death. They seek to end our very way of life and to put us under
their thumb as the Empire did before them.”
“You pathetic men. God help us. You
pathetic men are all that stands against them. After over a month of training I
have seen nothing to give me hope for Utopia and our civilization. God has
given me a great test, to mold you into warriors worthy of fighting in His
name. I do not shy away from God’s task and neither will any of you. I shall be
the first to enter the warrior’s circle. I shall choose one of you to fight me
to begin today’s combat.”
“Teacher, I shall fight you.”
Gideon shouted. The Teacher’s head snapped around on his shoulders and he
glared at Gideon.
“What
did you say you little worm?” The Teacher hissed at him.
“Teacher,
I said I shall fight you. I wish to be the one to enter the circle with you.”
Gideon said.
The
Teacher walked over to him and put his nose mere inches from Gideon’s face. “Wait
a moment. I know who you are.” The Teacher said in a low tone, his voice like
gravel. “You’re the son of that weepy old man. He’s put you up to this didn’t
he? He’s heard about me removing the failures from the ranks of my recruits and
he doesn’t care for it and he’s sent his little golden boy to teach me a
lesson.” The Teacher smiled wickedly at Gideon.
“You
think my methods harsh? I do what is needed. We’re going to war, maybe not
tomorrow, maybe not in a month, but soon we’ll be fighting and killing and we
must have everyone giving it their all or we will lose. Those men couldn’t cut
it. They couldn’t handle it. I had to remove them. I did it for the good of
this nation. I did it in the name of God almighty. You have the nerve to try to
stand up to me, to try to prevent me from doing my job? Do you really want to
do this? You do know that a challenge such as yours can be seen as such
disrespect as to require our fight end only when one of dies, you do understand
that right?” The Teacher told him with a gleam in his eye.
Gideon
had never heard of such rules before, he figured the Teacher was bluffing and
trying to scare him, and it didn’t matter if he was telling the truth. Gideon
had no fear of death and no guilt in killing such a depraved man. “Teacher, I
have challenged you, do you accept?” Gideon answered. He felt the silence in
the group turn to tension. He could feel the nervous energy of the recruits
around him as the Teacher continued to stare at him. The Teacher stared him
down for seconds that felt like eternity before turning his back on Gideon and
walking into the circle.
“Men, I
have been challenged and I am honor bound to accept. The recruit who had made this
challenge understands that whatever violence befalls him is because of his
challenge. There shall be no mercy in this contest, it shall end only when one
man has proven his domination over the other, if that requires death then so be
it.”
Gideon walked
into the warrior’s circle with the Teacher and the two men removed their
uniform tops and boots, once they were shirtless and barefoot the two men put
up their arms and began to circle. Gideon noticed that the Teacher put a lot of
weight on his lead leg, and that made it a very inviting target to strike. One
kick to the leg followed by another staggered the Teacher who responded by
flailing with a series of punches Gideon was able to avoid with little trouble,
landing a quick jab and a right hook to the body as he backed away to a safe
distance.
“Sissy,
not willing to give me a real fight.” The Teacher sneered at him, trying to
provoke Gideon into engaged. Gideon ignored the Teacher’s insult and went right
back to driving his foot and shin into the thigh of the Teacher’s lead leg.
Again and again the blow hit home without the Teacher finding any
countermeasure to the attack.
Gideon’s
respect for the Teacher lessened as each strike hit. This was a man who had
prayed upon the weak, but now with a real worthy opponent before him he had no
answers, no skills with which to compete, Gideon knew it was only a matter of
time before the Teacher’s leg buckled and the fight would end.
The
Teacher was game and kept advancing towards Gideon and Gideon kept striking his
leg. A blow finally staggered the Teacher and he pitched forward. Gideon turned
his hips and put all his power into a vicious right hook that caught the
Teacher flush on the jaw. Gideon felt a sharp pain rip through his hand as he
landed the punch and knew instantly he’d broken his hand. The Teacher staggered
away from Gideon with his eyes glassy but his legs were still beneath him,
Gideon couldn’t believe the punch hadn’t ended the fight. He sent another kick
at the Teacher’s leg but it was wide and arcing, not the tight compact motion
of his other strikes. The pain in his hand and his shock at having not knocked
out the Teacher had put him off his game and when his leg landed the Teacher
was able to catch it and press forward.
Gideon
tried to balance on one leg but the Teacher’s size and strength was too much
for him and he was toppled onto his back with the Teacher on top of him. Gideon
desperately threw his legs around the Teacher’s hips and struggled to hold the
Teacher tight to his body. The Teacher powered up and started digging punches
into Gideon’s ribs and side, Gideon blocked the punches that rained down on his
head but he felt the strength of the Teacher as each blow struck him.
“Why
have you wrapped your legs around me? Are you a woman seeking my seed?!” The
Teacher shouted at him as he kept swinging. Gideon could feel the blows losing
their steam as the Teacher kept attacking and he knew he had his chance to counter
attack. He grabbed the Teacher’s right arm and held it to his side and threw
his legs up over the Teacher’s head and worked to secure a triangle around the
Teacher’s neck. He sunk the hold in and he could see the face of the Teacher
turning red as the flow of blood to his brain was being compromised.
Gideon
could feel the Teacher trying to power out of the hold. The Teacher was getting
his legs underneath him and was seeking to lift Gideon off the ground and slam
him into the dirt. Gideon reached out with his broken hand and grabbed the
ankle of the Teacher. Pain shot through Gideon’s arm as he pulled hard on the
Teacher’s ankle and managed to pull him off his feet. A few more moments passed
and the Teacher went limp from the triangle. Gideon held it on for a few more
seconds and then released the Teacher and let his body fall on the dirt. He
pulled himself to his feet and looked at the recruits.
“Let us
go back to camp men.” Gideon told them.
“Teacher,
as you command!” the men shouted at him. Gideon’s defeat of the Teacher had
made him the Teacher in the eyes of the recruits, a legend of the warrior’s
circle that nobody had ever heard of really happening but now it had. Gideon
himself didn’t know if it was true, but he did know he didn’t want to be the
Teacher he knew he wanted to get back to camp and allow others to figure such
things out. All he cared about was that he’d defeated a cruel and evil man and
removed him from the army. He hoped his father and his God would be proud.
