Champion in Love (bxb)

CHAPTER 13. The Beauty of the Beast

Victor was a liability, yes. However, the thought of writing him off the books... Gladiators mostly don't retire to villas in the countryside. They die or they get crippled. So a sucking void formed below my ribcage. But his arrogant claims! This man!

I yanked him to his feet by the breast of his vest, getting right into his face. "You won't screw up?!" We stood nose to nose, so my eyes stared straight into his startling blue ones. They widened for a moment so brief, I might have imagined his reaction.

"I won't screw up." He smiled.

No, let me clarify something. He didn't just smile. I sensed a pat on the shoulder hidden in the bend of his lips. Victor was trying to reassure me. Me!

This man and his insufferable hubris! His dumb smiling lips were so close to mine too, that his breath fanned my mouth. Heat pumped through me, from my groin and all the way up into my cheeks. I burned with anger, Senators, and beyond. I was on the verge of releasing steam out of my ears Vesuvius-style. I didn't remember being scorched red-hot like that on anyone's account in my entire career.

"Have you ever fought a behemoth before?" My fingers clenched into fists so hard, they snapped. "Have you even seen one up-close?"

He shrugged. "Yes, and yes. The behemoths have been the mortal enemy of my people before Fidelis took their place."

Yes, yes, the evil Fidelis. Everything was our fault. His conversations reminded me of a wad that a cow chews from sunrise to sundown. Same pox-ridden hay, over and over. Over and over. Then one more time.

But... And that was a crucial but. A trained beast-fighter who survived the Night of the Behemoths would be a prize for our school and a new milestone for me as a lanista. The bastard was worth my efforts, so long as he wasn't lying.

I stared into his eyes again and was met with unperturbed blue. A moment passed. Then another. I looked away, taking deep breaths. I read all the graffiti on the wall, including a half-erased couplet about Junius' virility and lasting power. On the money, actually, and the poetry flowed well. Rufius Fulgentius should hire some hack to paint it in public places next to Junius' likeness for promo... he had a strong jawline and a hooked nose that made him easily recognizable.

I exhaled slowly, welcoming simple business considerations. Cold reason was so much more valuable than the passions... My first lover taught me that and was disappointed when I didn't absorb the lesson. Eleven years should have been enough to learn it by heart, unless I was so weak, I was incapable of it.

"Let me explain it better, before you promise what you can't deliver." I let go of Victor's clothes. "They'll fill the arena with water two human heights deep. That's just enough for a behemoth to move with ease. And when I say 'move with ease'..." I made quotes in the air with my fingers, "I mean 'charge in murderous frenzy'."

He didn't flinch from my ominous tone. "I understand."

"The gladiators will sail across in a boat, armed with short spears."

A vein twitched in Victor's temple. The reaction was tiny, but I was glad it was there. He was clueing in.

"Short spears—and nothing else."

He kissed his teeth.

"Are you afraid yet?" I lowered my voice. "I pray you are. The beasts will have every advantage over you."

When our ancestors fled to Nanciscor, they mostly found animals similar to those on Earth. So, they used familiar names for them, but the word 'hippopotamus' had died out. The shorter 'hippo' held on for longer, but that was to scare babies. Nothing in our forefathers' experience on Earth prepared them for these horrid beasts. Behemoth it was from then on...