by Dina Stefan Alexandru
A nameless slave grows up fighting for his life in the brutal arenas of the Vermillion Empire, where bloodshed is entertainment and human lives mean nothing. To the nobles he is only another body in the sand, another spectacle for the crowd, another slave expected to die sooner or later. But he does not want to die in the arena, and he does not want to remain a gladiator forever. As he struggles to survive in a world built to crush people like him, all he wants is a way out, a chance to escape, and the strength to protect the few people who have become precious to him before the empire takes them away too.
