Path of the Tiger, стр. 412
‘I’m sorry, noble beast,’ Viridovix whispered as he gazed with pity upon the lamentable spectacle. ‘I only understand now what I have done, and what I have become over all these years … and I will have no more part in it.’
Viridovix listened with horror to the frightful bellowing of the brazen bull, Lucius’s distorted death-screams soaring above the sonic chaos of the raging battle like a flock of invisible ravens taking flight, rising inexorably towards the great chimney into which the smoke was flowing. At that moment, at the height of the chaos, Viridovix heard a clear, powerful voice call out his name from the rear of the hall.
‘Viridovix! Are you with us or against us?!’
Viridovix spun around and saw him at the rear entrance, with two dying guards bleeding out at his feet: Spartacus. He was standing tall and proud, with Crixus, Oenomaus and a band of gladiators behind him.
‘I am with you, my brothers!’ Viridovix cried out in response.
There was no doubting the conviction in his throaty roar.
‘Then come fight with us! Win this battle for us! Brothers, charge!’
Spartacus raised his sword above his head and led the band of gladiators in a charge from the rear. They swarmed around the fighting cage, and Oenomaus, with his massive steel hammer, stepped up to the cage, and with one hefty swing of his weapon destroyed the lock. Inside the structure, Viridovix snatched up his helm and longsword from the ground. With a new boost of vigour and energy, he bolted out to join Spartacus and his band.
‘Spartacus!’ he shouted, his voice hoarse with urgency, ‘we must take the rear of that tortoise before they clash with the General and his force! They have crossbowmen on the flanks, and heavily armed shock troops who will tear into the General’s wedge and wreak havoc on our brothers!’
Spartacus nodded, his eyes stark white and his teeth showing in a grimace of determination.
‘They are about to clash now!’ he cried. ‘Gods, it’s almost too late! Men, split into bull’s horns formation! Oenomaus, you lead the left horn, I’ll take the right. Crixus, you lead your detachment to smash into their centre! Viridovix, if we can get you into the inner core of that square, can you destroy them from the inside? You’re our mightiest warrior, the one amongst us who will be most able to succeed … but I must warn you, it may well be suicide.’
‘Spartacus,’ Viridovix replied, smiling joyously, ‘before you and the General entered this hall I had resigned myself to death upon a Roman cross. Now, for the cause of freedom, I will gladly die pierced by a hundred Roman blades. Send me in there!’
Spartacus gave his compatriot a brief but tight hug.
‘I pray to all the gods that you make it out alive, but know that whatever happens, you are a true hero.’
‘I do it not for myself,’ Viridovix said quietly, ‘but for you. For all of you.’
‘Strength to you, Viridovix. Strength and courage.’
With that, Spartacus turned and clapped his hand onto Oenomaus’s shoulder.
‘Get him into the belly of the tortoise, Oenomaus!’
The giant rumbled a roar of approval and grinned savagely.
‘The end o’ that long dining table!’ he shouted, pointing to the end of a table near the defensive square of Octavian’s troops. ‘That’s where I’ll launch you from, my friend! Take as fast as a run up as you can, leap into the air an’ I’ll catapult you right into the middle o’ those bastards!’
Viridovix nodded, gripping his longsword tightly in his right hand.
‘Get me in there! I will destroy them!’
Oenomaus charged to the front of the long table and dropped his hammer next to it, while two of the gladiators sprinted along with him and protected the giant from each side as he waited for Viridovix to jump. Viridovix sprang up onto the table and swung his sword loosely in his hand as he prepared for the charge.
‘Those badgers have openings in their armour between the gorget and where the helm connects, and to the inside of their groins,’ he whispered to himself in the tongue of his forefathers, which he had not uttered for years. From the table he snapped up and tucked four sharp carving knives into his belt. ‘I must prevent those badgers from being unleashed. May the gods of rock, stream, tree, earth and sky give me the strength to slay these fiends! Ancient gods of my people, bestow upon me your powers!’
With that he took a deep breath and began sprinting at full tilt along the length of the table, his thundering footsteps prompting gasps of panic and terror from the frightened guests who were hiding underneath it. The moment he reached the end of the table, he launched himself into a flying leap, aiming right for Oenomaus’s huge, outstretched hands. At the exact moment that Viridovix’s feet hit the open palms of the giant’s hands, Oenomaus grunted, and with all of his gargantuan strength he boosted the gladiator high into the air. The momentum of Viridovix’s charge, combined with Oenomaus’s springy boost, sent him sailing like a catapult-launched rock.
The General and all of his gladiators saw Viridovix’s majestic arc of flight, and as the gladiatorial champion hurtled through the air and then crashed like a meteor into the very centre of the tortoise, a vociferous cheer cascaded through the ranks of the gladiators.
‘Viridovix! Viridovix!’ they shouted.
‘Break formation!’ the General roared as he saw Viridovix disappear into the centre of the massed enemy troops.
At the same time Oenomaus and Spartacus launched pronged attacks from the rear flanks in a wide-arching bull’s horn formation, and Crixus smashed into the back of the enemy with his men.
‘Break ranks and split into bull’s horns!’ the General bellowed.
At the head of the defensive tortoise, Maharbaal and Batiatus saw what the gladiators were