Blood Slakes The Sand At Circus Maximus
They unleashed the lions first. hunger maddened beasts, goaded into a frenzy
by the cruel point of many a and yet my own hunger, the hunger for
revenge, was greater, and my honed steel was sharper than bestial fang and
claw. and so they ranged their finest warriors against me. three more iron
gates around the arena yawned open, and they strode from the colosseum tunnels
amidst a cacophony of cheering from the assembled roman spectators, urged on
and showered with martial adulation from the massed arena crowd, who howled
their bloodlust without cessation.
i studied my there were two trained gladiators, champions i was
told, who had never met defeat in the and then there was another like
me, a captured warrior forced to fight for his life. this one was a towering
reaver from the northlands with a bright yellow beard, hefting a crude axe
with a single iron head. i lifted my iron bladed celtic shortsword with its
bronze hilt (the same sword which, mere days before, had been slaked with
roman and its blade would soon be red once more with the blood of my
captors, by all the gods) and nodded to the reaver. an understanding passed
between we knew we were here simply as sword-fodder, and we knew we
would both fight these roman dogs to the death
the first gladiator moved towards me; he was a giant of a man, standing nearly
seven feet tall and clad in dark leather and bronze armour from head to toe.
his full-face visored helmet was set with ornate metal fittings and encrusted
with jewels of various hues, and a vast black horse hair plume rose from the
metal crown. strapped on to his forearms were two black vambraces, to each of
which had been secured twelwe inch serrated blades, and they gleamed brightly
in the hot afternoon sunlight. he began to circle me slowly, his eyes hidden
beneath his great helmet. to his left, i saw the second gladiator begin to
close on the northman. the yellow-bearded axeman's opponent was a huge
steel-helmeted nubian, wielding a wickedly pointed trident and carrying an
embossed iron buckler with a great spike jutting from its polished centre.
far above, upon his great dias, the emperor gave the signal for the combat to
begin, and with the battle-lust engulfing me, with the red mist swirling
before my eyes, i vowed to my northern gods that i would show these leering
romans the fighting spirit and battle prowess ofmy i would leave
the arena littered with the bloody corpses of my
i would cast off the imperial fetters and return to the fens aye, i would
escape, and make all romans fear my name, and compel nero to rue the day
julius caesar had first ordered his legions across the grim grey sea to my
ancient blood for carnage for cernunnos
To be
