Today's OneWord: Gladiator

The gladiator bore blood on his chest as his only armor, standing amidst the sluggish sea of decaying corpses stinking from their own plasma and fecal matter. In the audience above, the emperor of Rome was laughing, clapping his fat hands together over and over, like a toddler just given a shiny bauble. The warrior, sweat mixing with the gashes in his forehead and causing them to sting, could not make himself look at the ruler of the empire. Not even when the audience jeered him to raise his sword in triumph.