ARISTOS ACHAION // Awesamdude X Reader

10

The sand was soft under your sandaled feet as you stepped into the ring, blinking at the adjustment in the light. The vestibule had kept you out of the sun, but the arena itself opened up to the sky. For a moment, your vision was obscured by the gaze of the sun.

As your eyes adjusted to the light, you took in the colosseum around you. Tiers of audience seating stretched up into the heavens, the people of the city gathered to watch their friends and neighbors be slaughtered by the caesar's best. Your eyes found the caesar's box easily, even though it was empty.

He didn't really deign himself to come to the slaughter of prisoners anymore. Not when the fights never lasted more than a few minutes.

What hit you the most though was not the cheer of the crowd as you entered the arena, but the stench of blood - that coppery smell that made your stomach swirl - that overwhelmed the place. Bodies lay slumped over the sand, dead eyes looking to the sky, mutilated to pieces from Diana's blades. There was something nice about that, you supposed, having the last thing you see be the sky.

Diana stood in the center of the destruction, bronze armor stained with rusty red. In her hands, two knives gleamed, the edges sharp enough to catch the light and reflect it. A long brown plait stuck out from underneath her helmet, swinging like a rope against her back. What struck you most though were metallic eyes that shone out from under her helmet - a tell tale sign that she had been blessed by the gods.

You cast a glance back at Sam, only to find bright green eyes already locked on you.

A rasp of metal from the center of the ring, drew your attention back to Diana, watching as she dragged the edges of her knives against each other. She looked like a lioness preparing for a hunt, metallic gaze locked onto you like you were her prey.

You readjusted your grip on your sword into the correct way you had learned from your lessons with Sam. Blood thrummed in your ears, partially muffling the sound of the crowd cheering and spitting. You could feel the adrenaline begin to surge in you - the same as when the guard had caught your wrist at the agora and all of this had started.

Only now, it would end everything.

Diana surged forward, a manic grin on her face, and you stepped back, bending your knees slightly. For how resigned you had been to entering the arena, there was still that irrational part of your flesh that demanded survival. That part of you that had still trekked the streets looking for food even though it would have been easier to just lay down and starve.

Diana's knives met the edge of your sword, and the momentum pushed you backwards, digging your feet into the sand.

The crowd always loved it when the prisoners put up a fight anyway.

Diana laughed, pivoting and shooting her arm out, trying to stick you in the side with a blade. You leaned the other way, pushing back with your sword to allow yourself an opening to get out of the press. Diana slipped forward and you spun, swinging your sword at her back.

The edge of the blade grazed over the skin not covered by her armor, leaving a scratch behind.

Diana whirled around, the manic grin set into something stony now as she rushed you again, knives in hand. Careful to stay on your feet, you blocked as many of the jabs as you could. Still, Diana was faster and stronger than you, and her blades moved in an out of your vision. It wasn't long until you felt something bite into the muscle of your arm, and you cried out as Diana cut deep, that manic smile returning to her face.

Blood began to drip down your arm, and Diana tracked the streams as they rolled down your skin, a hunger coming over her. "Delicious." She purred, going for another attack.

Pain surged through your arm as you raised your sword to block the hit, the metal of Diana's knife leaving an indent in the useless sword in your hand. You weren't going to be able to do anything with this - not when it was basically falling apart.

Switching the sword to one hand, you blocked another hit. As Diana's knife dug into the blade of your sword, you reached out to grab her wrist, wrenching her hand away from the hilt of the knife.

Not expecting it, Diana's hand fell away, and the blade fell into the sand.

You both dropped to the ground at the same time, following it.

Your hands scrabbled through the grains of sand, wrapping around the hilt of the knife in the same moment that Diana did. She snarled, flipping her other blade around and using her weight to push your face into the ground. You closed your eyes as your face met the sand, still focused on the knife in your hand. If you could just get Diana to let go-

A blade bit into the back of your neck, and you screamed. This was it. She was going to cut your head off, piece by piece like she had with everyone else, until your body was a bloody mutilated mess-

You bucked under her hold, putting all your force into wrenching the knife you still had a grip on from Diana's hand.

The blade in the back of your neck dug a little deeper, and her grip on the other knife faltered, letting you pry it from her fingers. In the same moment, you twisted the blade in your hand, and jerked your arm upward.

Diana's own knife sunk into the flesh of her back, and you felt her heart begin to cut itself to pieces as it fluttered around the sharpened metal.

The grip on your head and the knife in your neck fell away, and something warm dripped onto your back.