Gladiator III

I slammed my blade against the shaft of the retiarius woman's trident. She tried to twist away, but I forced my weight into my blade, making it a battle of strength.

Against the Saur-Lords, I was less-confident in that kind of fight. But most of the humans I'd met in the Savage Land were not as well-fed as I was. It's something people don't tend to think about. modern humans have a massive amount of access to protein, fat,and calories, so that when we worked out we could get to truly immense sizes. Despite what people think, most primitive people didn't look like Hercules (Actually, where the hell was that guy? Did he exist in this version of Marvel? Thoughts for later assuming I survived).

Even this woman, despite her physical health, wasn't Captain America. I actually trained with that guy.

She was finally forced back, dodging the slice I followed up with. She was pretty skilled. Must have been fighting a lot longer than I was. I tried to bring my sword up, but with one arm down, I wasn't able to maneuver my sword as easily as I was used to, getting nothing but empty air with my slice.

"Damnit," I mumbled to myself. Never had to adjust to using one arm for so long.

She twirled her trident around and stabbed it out. I side-stepped it and tried to get in her range to cut of a hand, only for her to kick out at me, keeping me back. We both lashed out with our weapons. The 'clack-clack-clack' sound of longsword and trident hitting each other filled the air between us. My heart beating in my chest like a drum. I wanted to kill this woman. Not because I hated her. But because she wanted to kill me. Most pure and horrifying reason in the world.

We stepped back and forth, growling and hissing, our weapons clattering against each other, sweat dripping along with blood, stinging my wounds. It was in the middle of that chaotic exchange that Gresh sliced his way out of the net. He was on his feet and rushing forward in an instant, a sound coming from his lips like a revving engine. The woman stepped back in a panic. I let Gresh get to her, the lizard man bringing his daggers forward to try and stab her as she blocked with her trident.

In that moment, when she was distracted by hundreds of pounds of scales and rage, I sliced her stomach open. The disgusting smell of blood exploded into the air as her intestines spilled out. She stared at me blankly. I looked away, running to the next fight.

That look on her face. Her, the Pterosaur. Seeing their faces. One human, the other a Saur-Lord. They'd been horrified. Hateful. Shocked and desperate. And then just… gone.

Then I pushed that down. We were all fighting. All killing. Later, I'd think about that. But right then, I was onto the next fight.

"Gresh, back up the others!" I shouted.

"Stop stealing Gresh's kills!" he shouted back.

"Then go get some more!" I ran past him to head to Demi and Winggirl, who were still battling the Triceratops. One group of our people, four of them, had been killed off to the side. I couldn't see around the big rock in the center of the arena, but I imagined those weren't the only deaths.

The four I could see lying dead had been murdered by a Anklo-Lord with a greatsword and a Raptor-Lord with a spear, both rushing towards Demi and Winggirl from behind. On top of the rock platform, one of the Aerians tossed a spear at the Anklo-Lord, only to have it bounce off his armored hide.

With Gresh rushing around the boulder to find his own prey, Demi, Winggirl, and I were on our own. Two people, both down a limb, and stone person against three powerful and healthy Saur-Lords. We'd have to make our stand.

Demi was trying her (I still wasn't sure if Demi had gender, but Demi's voice was very feminine so my brain defaulted to female pronouns. Something to ask about when we werenotfighting to death) best to take down the triceratops she was fighting, swinging her mace at the Saur-Lord with crushing blows. Still, strong as she was, she had none of Thor's speed, who was the only person I knew was a true master of maces and hammers.

The Triceratops slipped around a swing that smashed the ground he'd been standing on, then swung his own axe at her. The metal scraped against stone, sending up a shower of sparks. A small line was carved into her face, adding to the dozens more she had. Demi released a sound like concrete being poured, and raised a fist to try and punch him, only for the Triceratops to side-step it. Damn it. He was fast as hell for such a big guy.

Winggirl, meanwhile, had turned her back to Demi to face the Anklyo and Raptor running for her. She raised her spear in her hand and stared in fear as the pair came towards her. I headed for her, trying to get myself there in time. As I came up, an idea came to me.

"Jump!" I shouted desperately. She spun to look at me with that pale blue face, not understanding. "Up, get behind them!"

Still uncomprehending. It was only when she was moment from getting hit by the Anklyo that her single wing spread out. The single wing beat the air as she jumped upwards.

For just a moment, it was beautiful. Anklyo and Raptor stared up at her, coming to a brief stop in their shock. Her face, when she took off like that. She must have been stronger and lighter than she looked, because she really lifted off. Then reality hit. She spun ungainly through the air as she reached the apex of her jump. I could see the horror, sadness, and panic in her expression.

"LAND!" I shouted as loud as I could, coming in on the Raptor with a swing. He stopped gaping at the sight of Winggirl to raise his spear to block me. I smashed my longsword against the shaft of his spear, metal on metal sparking for just an instant. "Land and fight!"

I don't know if she heard me. All I know is that, in the middle of her fall, she stopped trying to fly and pulled her wing in. With the luck that only comes in the best of moments, she managed to land behind our opponents, spinning to face them frantically.

Then the Raptor and I started trying to kill each other while the Anklyo spun to face Winggirl.

I swung, parried, blocked, kicked, dodged a claw headed for my stomach before taking a slice to chest from the spear. I stabbed the Raptor in the shoulder for a shallow wound, twisted to parry his spear thrust aside, then stepped into his guard to shoulder rush him, throwing him back.

Far behind my opponent, behind where Winggirl was trying to stave off the Anklyosaur, I could see some of my people fighting off some Saur-Lords. The Allosaur was on her own, battling a two saur-lords.

I kicked out at the Raptor, my foot sinking into his stomach, then shouted up to the Aerians still on the rock. "Help her!" I pointed at the Allosaur.

The Aerians were in bad shape. The elderly couple were dead, spears thrown into them, and the kid was crying as he huddled in a ball. But the two left over leaped off the rock to fly over the Allosaur, supporting her with thrown spears before flying down to pick them up and throw them again.

Behind me, Demi caught the triceratops' axe by the blade. With a sound like brick shattering, she roared, squeezing hard. The blade crunched and bent until it was crumpled steel in her hands.

The Raptor I was fighting rolled to his feet. Winggirl was retreating, and the sounds of the dying and wounded melded with the sound of a cheering crowd.

I grit my teeth, clenched the blood-soaked grip of my sword, and rushed forward.

Stend/Slaving Asshole

Stend watched calmly from the stands, eyes panning across the battlefield. All around him, Saur-Lords, humans, lizardmen and people of other species cheered and shouted at the bloodshed below. This little fight was supposed to be nothing but an exhibition. A brief battle to exercise the warriors.

Instead, one of the strongest warriors of the arena had died in the opening moments.

Since then, the crowd started cheering louder and louder, losing themselves to the excitement of the arena.

As the Outsider dueled with Erend, a Raptor Saur-Lord, Stend felt two people walk up to join him, walking up along to his right. He looked over at them.

"I see you've once again decided against wearing your traditional robes, Lord Stend," the smaller of the men said with a slow smile. He was an orange-scaled Pterosaur-Lord, built larger than the others in the crowd. He wore a white toga across his body and a single sword on his left hip.

Stend ignored the comment on clothing. Ever since reading about the fashions of the ancient Greco-Romans, he'd decided against wearing the 'traditional robes'. More proof of his theories that the Saur-Lord society was nothing but a copy of already outdated ones. Instead, he turned and bowed.

"My lords. I had not expected you until the main event."

The larger man didn't respond. He simply stared down at the arena with his arms crossed. He was a full head taller than almost every other being in the coliseum, even the Brontosaurus-Lords. His scales were a muted yellow that bunched and twisted atop layers of muscles like steel. His frill was high and spiked, his paired horns stacked one atop the other and his eyes were sunken into his skull. His eyes were the color of fire.

"Well, we weren't planning on it," the Pterosaur said, looking up at the larger man. "Lord Styro and myself were attracted by the calls of the stadium. Rather interesting to hear that for a simple exhibition."

"To say the least, Lord Pter," Stend told the orange Saur-Lord. "It was supposed to be a simple exercise. But the slaves I have recently captured had more fight in them than I expected."

Lord Styro turned to look at Stend. For a moment, Stend stared back. Those eyes, like a blazing flame, seemed to burn with more ferocity than normal. Then Styro looked up. Stend did so as well.

High above, he circled. The Lord of all Saur-Lords. Their king, floating on the winds, watching them.

"End the fight," Lord Styro said. "The useless ones are already dead. Your slaves are strong. They will fight another day," Styro looked down at the arena. "Who led them?"

"The Outsider," Stend said without hesitation. His guards had told him of the Outsider's attempts to rally the slaves. Stend approved. Seeing them fight together, prove they could defeat a stronger foe, only made the Outsider and the slaves more valuable. He'd still need to be punished. But that was fine.

Styro waved to a man standing near a bell. The man nodded, raising a hammer before slamming it into the bell.

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

The Raptor took a slash to the face, blood spray hitting my face. Demi finally got a hold of the Triceratops, raising him into the air. Winggirl screamed when the Anklyo swung his tail, the mace-like end of it almost taking her head off.

Raptor reached out to attack me. Winggirl screamed again. I felt something in me snap.

Nat had taught me more than once that holding back in the wrong moment could lead someone to get hurt. That lesson never screamed louder than right then.

A loud ringing sound came from somewhere. I ignored it. Instead, I watched the Raptor's spear come once more for my heart. Then I twisted down. The blade of the spear sliced open my face, a white-hot line of pain screaming at me as metal opened skin like a zipper. I ignored it, stepped forward and stabbing. My sword entered the Raptors shoulder, exiting out the other side, before I tackled him. Using my sword like a handle, I lifted him up and ran, muscles screaming, legs burning, until we hit the Anklyosaur from behind, bringing him down.

Then, the sound of footsteps filled the arena. I ignored them, rising up to-

Something hit me from the side. A person. I was tackled to the ground and held there by someone, while a blade was held to my throat. I stilled at the feel of the cold steel, looking around frantically........