The Gladiators

[Stalzyn]

"Get them to the caravan and have Doctore look at them." Mathias instructed Argrier before disappearing into the crowd.
*****
"You're a bigger fool than i thought." Leonadus said his first words since on roman soil. "You could've been killed back there because of your loud mouth." the spartian prince detested people who spoke without prior calculations. This man in front of him was clearly all brawls but no brains. Leonadus admired something about him though. "You're fucking hard, courageous i must say. Even still bounded you are still terrifying" he laughed smoothly then turned his gaze to the female slave at the far extreme. He couldn't help but have a quaking heart on sighting her. "You think she'll survive here?" Leonadus asked his new friend unfriend.

 

[LucasC00]

"I'm Surprised they didn't kill me." He said with a sly grin, "no matter, now I know that the gods have willed me to continge living, my fate is to die in glorious combat. If only I had the materials to make more woad paint, I could stave off my death even longer, I would become as a god on the field of battle with it."

 

[Stalzyn]

Ainmire words were lost on him. His gazed never fluttered from the girl. "Think she'll make it as a gladiator? He asked Ainmire again.

 

[LucasC00]

"Hm?" and he seemed to notice Phoenix for the first time. He looked her over from a distance at length before replying, "time will tell, in Èire some of our most fierce warriors were women, where a man would charge a Roman shield wall and kill maybe 3 men before being impaled on spears, a woman would leap over the wall and kill 6 and keep going before being brought down. Only time and the gods will tell if she has it in her to fight though, we'll see."

 

[Stalzyn]

Grenj snorted. "She won't even make it past the test." the German as always never saw anything good in any body but himself. "You yourself gaul has been fortunate enough to be graced with a foolish master like batiatus. Rumor has it that his gladiators had never won the primus. If you don't die in the sand of the Lanista, the arena's will welcome you."

 

[LucasC00]

"Why do people keep calling me that? Do I look like a fucking gaul? I am gaelic, there are no gauls on Èire, only my people and weak Romans who keep trying to conquer us but can't. If she is taught how to properly use a spear and blade and how to move, how to use her small size against others, she will kill many and when she dies the gods will welcome her for it."

 

[SlySparrow0003]

Phoenix felt eyes on her. She sharply looked over, as she was led to the caravan. One seemed in a daze, and she fixed her fierce eyes on all. She hauled herself unto the caravans and went into the back.

 

[Stalzyn]

The Gates of the Lanista opened and the caravan bearing the new recruits drove into the sandy training ground.
A man dark in complexion, bald and filled with numerous scars, some so deep that only the gods would've likely pardoned his life for him to survive. The man stood at 6'6, a giant among the gladiators of Batiatus. He stood whip in hand, in a leather breastplate, sleeveless shirt, red and brown leather pants stopping at his knee.
The caravan was flunged open and the six slaves inside trooped out. They lined horizontally before the man and the gladiators behind him.
The man snorted, then moved towards them. He stood some distance behind them and spoke. "I am Doctore, the one in charge of you cunts. I care shit about how you feel, only your performance on the sand." he paced before them, his hands behind him like a general. "You have been privilaged to be brought by the great Mathias Claudus Batiatus, Master of the best gladiators in Capua."
The gladiators behind hailed.

 

[Stalzyn]

"You're nothing, nothing but common slaves, here your lives will be forged by my whip. Here your unworthy being will be turned into something of worth." he ended now standing in front of Ainmire.
"You, what's your name?"

 

[SlySparrow0003]

His down talk did not surprise Phoenix. Emotion, doubt. Was weakness. She remembered trying to protect her family. How she killed five and injured one Roman. Her family was unharmed due to her. Phoenix resisted the urge to lash out at the man. Phoenix fixated her fiery eyes on the scared man.

 

[LucasC00]

"Ainmire, of the Picts. Slayer of Roman dogs." The Celt spit to the side as he spoke and looked up to the sun, muttering a silent prayer to Lugh, god of the sun, that it wasn't so damnably hot in this gods forsaken country. "How do you plan to forge me into a better warrior? How many of your gladiators here were every truly forged in the heat of a real battle? How many of them have faced down and charged a Roman shield wall and lived to tell the tale?"

 

[Stalzyn]

Doctore laughed. He wasn't surprised the celte was thinking that way.
"Xestrix," he called out still facing Ainmere. "Wooden swords, this man thinks he's ready to battle the brotherhood."
Doctore stepped aside and nodded to a guard to unshackle Ainmire. He was given a wooden sword and was paired against the champion of Capua. Xestrix.
"I won't strike too hard like your ignorant mouth." Xestrix told him taking up stance.

 

[LucasC00]

Ainmire stepped out with the sword and gave a few practice swings with it before taking up a well-balanced stance. "It's not an axe but it will do." He dropped into a slight crouch, the wooden Gladius held in a high guard. "At your leave, Roman."

 

[SlySparrow0003]

Phoenix laughed. His mouth would drop him to hell in a place like this. She remembered when they hit her for protecting her brother and mother. She remembered punching back. She admired his fire. Fire fueled your battle. "Ignorant Romans" she muttered. Watching the Ainmire get into a stance.

 

[Stalzyn]

"I am no Roman, i'm a gladiator." Xestrix snapped back charging expertly forward. Xestrix had been in the Ludus for five years and had held the champion of Capua for two. Longer than any gladiator in Capua.
He was skilled, trained, fast, he was a gladiator. Xestrix came at Ainmire with speed and precision, he swung his wooden sword and smiled slyly as Ainmire ducked, with his other hand he struck his solar plexus making Ainmire stumble back.
"While defending you leave your left flank unguarded." he tutored.

 

[LucasC00]

Ainmire grunted and smiled like a vicious savage as he rose back up, "Gladiator, roman, I don't really care, they all fall the same." With another animalistic roar he gave over to the bloodless he was always taught to embrace and came in with great speed and preciaion. Even in his battle rage he was able to block and counter expertly, this was no untrained man, but a warrior who had been born and bred in battle all his life.

 

[Stalzyn]

Xestrix smiled again, he stood his ground as the man roared and charged towards him. Ainmire was blocking all his attack, dodging expertedly and attacking at the exact moments. But all this was child's play to Xestrix.
He slashed at Ainmire and as he blocked took his leg from off the ground with his own. Ainmire slumped to the ground, and Xestrix placed a foot on him. His wooden sword barely inches from Ainmire's neck.
"While aiming to defend your left flank, you make do on light footing." he tutored again.
"Two fingers raised high to Jupiter, signaling defeat in the arena." Doctore said.

 

[LucasC00]

Ainmire grunted as he went down then punched the wooden sword to the side and gripped the foot on his chest and twisted and lifted it off of him as he ponderous rose to his feet. "My people fight until either they are dead or all on the field with them are dead. Even if we did not I would not beg a foreign god that I do not know for mercy. I am of the people of Èire!"

 

[Stalzyn]

Doctore tightened his grip on his whip, he was a master in its use. He could pick off a fly from a horse's ear without making contact or breaking its momentum.
He unleashed it, the whip landed on Ainmire's cheek and as it departed carried flesh with it. The force from the whip flunged him to the ground, Doctore stood his ground, hoping that the celt was foolish enough to charge at him.

 

[SlySparrow0003]

Phoenix took a step forward. A Roman guard quickly tired to grab her wrist but she was fast and she pulled back her arm and grabbed his instead. She twisted his wrist. He clutched his wrist in pain. "Ignorant. Do not give him a fight if you will not let him finish." She hissed.

 

[Stalzyn]

"The fight was already finished." Leonadus who was beside her spoke up, his voice low and calm. He had watched the scene the whole time and had picked lessons from the fight. "If this was the arena, even his blinding rage wouldn't have been enough to prevent the cold hand of death from grabbing him."

 

[LucasC00]

The Celt simply gave the doctore a cold and vicious grin as he stared at him with bloodshot eyes. "I know not to underestimate you people now. I took you for nothing better than slaves, not as well trained as the legions. I make you this promise though, by all the gods of Èire. One day I will take that whip from you and I will choke the life from you and all who stand in my way with it."

 

[Stalzyn]

Doctore smiled, "i'll look forward to the day you'll try, but for now you'll obey like everyone else. Eat shit like they all did and grow like you're supposed to. If you try to be stubborn i shall have the dominus send you to the mines. Do mind fucking grasp words?" he asked his grip tightening around the whip again.

 

[LucasC00]

Ainmire simply said a few words in gaelic before rejoining the new recruits in line. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were still bloodshot. He began to slow his breathing as he tried to force the battlerage from his body. If he had had his protective woad paint he never would have been defeated, or so he thought.

 

[SlySparrow0003]

"If it was finished he would have called defeat. His rage his is strength but it can also be a weakness" She nodded her head sadly. "Sometimes defeat is a sacrifice that needs to be made." She looked at her amulet. Her sad expression replaced with a hardened one.