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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: I could see messengers running swiftly through the audience,
and as they passed the nobles there unsheathed their swords
and sprang into the arena. They were going to annihilate
us by force of numbers--that was quite evidently their plan.
I caught a glimpse of Issus leaning far forward upon her
throne, her hideous countenance distorted in a horrid
grimace of hate and rage, in which I thought I could
distinguish an expression of fear. It was that face
that inspired me to the thing that followed.
Quickly I ordered fifty of the prisoners to drop back
behind us and form a new circle about the maidens.
The Gods of Mars | 
