for something diverting Almo slaughtered his man
with a terrible wound between his corselet and kilt.

The twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth antagonists
Almo plainly despised. He stood almost still, hardly
altering the position of his feet except to turn as the
huge barbarians circled ponderously about him. Each
he brought down with his first lunge.

As the fifteenth bout began the audience was manifestly
impatient and restive. But they were not bored. That one
Thracian, almost without rest, should successively dispose
of fourteen antagonists, in the fullest armor, was a notable
feat. The perfect form of Almo's fighting was even more
notable. At each victory the audience cheered him till
they were hoarse. They seemed to cheer quite spontaneously
and to need the relief for their feelings. But also they
seemed to mean to give him as long a rest as was in
their power. They were all for him.

But no man could go on fighting continually without fatigue.
In his fifteenth bout Almo moved heavily.

The other man was unusually quick for a big man. He handled
his big sword deftly. After much sparring he was too quick
for Almo, and the point of his slender blade scratched Almo's
splay vizor, nicked his chin, and tore a long shallow slash in the
skin of his right breast.

Blood welling through it stained the green of Almo's tunic;