Last time on Raiders of the Middle Seas Part 18
Kayden looked up ahead again at the building that was beginning to dominate his viewpoint of the whole city.
“Little man.” Rulaf said to Kayden. “This here is the biggest and best show in the world. If anything can happen, it can kill you or it can make you the Master over others. Everything possible friend.” The big man laughed uncontrollably, bent over and slapping his knee.
Raiders of the Middle Sea 19
They were within the belly of the marble and granite giant an hour later.
The building hummed and vibrated with the energy of thousands of voices in the oval coliseum outside. The surrounding interior of the ‘holding cell’ that Kayden and the others were in was as opulent as the noble’s seats in the Sand Pits.
Out of all the bands of slave gladiators, their band had the least security. The least guards. Just like on the estate, Rulaf was not watched and caged like an animal. The big man’s focus was on the upcoming fight and what they would do to celebrate afterwards. The others of their band were bound by shackles connected to chains on the floor.
Kayden tested these and found that he still had plenty room to move around. It could still be seen as lax security.
Shi’Capperrnel arrived, escorted as usual by two of his personal guards. “It has been decided by popular vote that the band be called: The Drunken Warriors.” The little man smiled. “It had not yet been decided what you would be called, but what HAD been decided on was the iconography.”
The Shi held up a material cloth with a picture of a beer mug that had a pair of wings on it. Rulaf cried out in delight and grabbed the material out of the Shi’s hands. “Thank you Cappa! This is the bestest!”
The slave master smiled, unperturbed at his slave’s behaviour. “The best is yet to come.”
Servant girls entered the chamber in pairs, bringing a breastplate to Kayden, Shadi and Torassh. Rulaf’s breastplate was carried in by two men. The big man was happy about the breastplate with the winged beer mugs on them but sad that he was not helped by the ladies to dress. When he had begun to pout too much the Shi reprimanded the big man about the matter. It was obvious, Rulaf’s breastplate was too heavy for these women to carry.
The time had come.
The cheers of the crowd outside crashed into the structure like waves of the sea. Shi’Capperrnel was highly pleased. “There are thousands of people in the stands! Thousands of them proclaiming to be your fans! It’s all to do with the drunken fight against the bear you see? It’s been the talk around the city for the last week and the tale has brought people who had not even been to the fight. “
“Sounds to Rulaf that you are making good money!” The giant grinned and looked at his companions. “You boys ready? Rulaf has had enough of all this talk! Time to go play! Are the… drinks there?”
“Yes my boy. Go out there and make me proud.” The slave master commanded.
Rulaf flashed his lopsided grin to his Shi and strode for the slightly open iron banded door that lead to the Coliseum arena. Kayden took a deep breath and followed. Sure enough the other two were close behind Kayden.
They were unarmed, for now. This round was going to be a classic gladiatorial battle of two forces. They enter, armoured but without weapons. The weapons would be scattered around the arena. On the signal, the gladiators would go into action.
When Kayden entered the arena the sound nearly drove him off his feet.
His head felt so sore, he was sure that it should be bleeding and splitting open. He staggered forward quickly after Rulaf. There was some strong drink here someplace.
He took a moment to look around him while shuffling after the giant. He hadn’t seen Rulaf so well armoured in a fight. The effect was actually quite dashing. Any more armour and Rulaf would look like a king out of a legend.
The bottom three levels of the Marble Coliseum was sparsely populated, nearly empty. This must be some kind of high-class seats, only available for a heavy price. It was also likely where all the big betting went on. The next three levels of the Coliseum was almost full.
So… this was the noise and energy of a third of the amount of people that fitted into this structure. He better get here completely besotted next time… or wear ear muffs. But none of that mattered right now. It didn’t matter how many people could get into the place or how much money was being made.
Kayden’s foremost concern was getting to that drink that was spoken about. A distant secondary detail and priority was looking around at the arena and figuring out how not to die in this place, find out who they were fighting and how to live through it.
Rulaf had stopped at a stone plinth. Arranged on top of it were four great big mugs of ale. Kayden had not seen anything as beautiful as those mugs in… it didn’t matter. They were beautiful NOW. He stood across from the giant. Shadi and Torassh took up positions either side by their own mugs.
“Ladies and Gentlemen!” A brassy voice hollered over all the noise. The sound was painful but somehow it was didn’t seem as if was going to break his skull. The sound seemed to come from nearby but he could not place the origin. Shadi and Torassh were also looking but Rulaf was daydreaming. “Presenting the Drunken Warriors!”
The crowd cheered.
“One!” Shadi shouted.
“Twooo!” Torassh howled.
Kayden quickly remembered that it was his turn. “Three!”
“Drink up Warriors!” Rulaf roared.
Four mugs were raised to the sun, like free men. Slaves without chains.
The ale was cool, it was fire and it chased away all sorts of worry, all sorts of little pains in Kayden’s body. He set the empty cup down a fraction of a second before Rulaf and a few more seconds before the other two. It earned him a toothy, mad eyed grin from Rulaf.
“By the Lord of Light.” Kayden breathed. “That was heavenly.”
The crowd roared its approval. There was a second round of mugs on the plinth and Kayden grabbed it. He hoisted it above his head and whooped at the crowd. The crowd responded in kind. Kayden turned and clinked his mug against his comrade’s and then threw it down the hatch.
The commentator spoke again. “The Drunken Warriors seem to be having a fine time at it folks, let’s just hope they know why they came here today. It’s not a tea-party!”
Kayden snorted. He had a worse hangover when they had fought that bear. Only now there was more noise and he was more… happy about how he felt and where they were. Kayden swung his bleary vision from side to side, searching.
“On the other side of the arena…” The commentator went on.
Kayden found what he had been looking for: there was a barrel of ale, open on the top between Shadi and Rulaf. Kayden stepped up to it and dipped his mug into the dark liquid.
“… from the savage south. Qubartu’s Skulltakers!”
Kayden took another long pull on his ale. Again there were encouraging sounds from the crowd with this action. He had planned to nurse this mug, but the pull that he had sucked out came up with a bit of a problem. It was empty.
“This is to be a battle to the death. Let’s see which of these two bands has what it takes to compete in the prime-time of the Marble Coliseum! Gladiators! Put yourselves on the start line and no further! Ladies and Gents! Place your final bets!”
Rulaf moved over towards the other side of the arena and Shadi and Torassh followed them. Kayden was past the point of caring. Who cared? Win? Lose? Live? Die? He smiled to himself and his own stupidity. Or drink! He filled his mug again and shuffled after Rulaf and the others.
Finally, he began taking note of what the arena looked like. The arena was swept clean, mostly. None of the loose sand and detritus of the Sand Pit. Rulaf and the others had stopped at a painted black line on the floor. Kayden nearly tripped over it but Torassh managed to stop him from doing so.
On the other side of the arena stood five figures in animal hide and decorated with feathers. Their skin was deeply tanned and Kayden was mostly sure that they were human. On their stature and body language Kayden could see that they were fighters and aggressive at that.
Kayden sipped at his fourth mug. Rulaf eyed him and he caught the big man’s gaze. They looked at each other for a long moment and then the big man winked.
There were wooden staging and blocks of chiselled rock packed about the space between the two bands. On top of and amongst these obstacles were weapons, scattered about at random. Kayden thought he saw a spear, Shadi was already eyeing it. There were hammers and axes. Between Rulaf and Torassh, the two of them had several good options nearby.
Kayden couldn’t see a decent sword anywhere and then he snorted to himself. Why worry so much? He took a long pull on his ale.
“Gladiators! Get ready! And! Fight!” The commentator shouted again, his voice seemed to come from everywhere.
Next time on Raiders of the Middle Sea
In the centre of the arena, the leader – Qubartu and one of his other men had engaged Rulaf. The giant wielded an axe in one hand, a mace in the other and was trading attacks and parries with the two men.
Shadi was dancing around another Skulltaker. Spear in hand, he was keeping the other man on the defensive, armed with a shield and a short sword.
Torassh and one other Skulltaker were rolling on the ground end over end. There was no telling what was happening there.
The crowd’s shouting intensified.
Of course, that meant there was one more Skulltaker.
Kayden turned...
New to Raiders of the Middle Sea? Begin Reading previous Episodes!
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 1 / Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 2
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 3 / Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 4
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 5 / Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 6
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 7 / Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 8
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 9 / Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 10
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 11 / Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 12
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 13 / Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 14
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 15 / Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 16
Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 17 / Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 18
World of Kedra