The Demons of Rome

XV - Challenger

Iatus was woken early by Ava, "Tribune Claudius is here to see you."

"What?" Iatus asked sleepily.

"The Tribune. He's here now," Ava said forcefully.

Iatus groaned and rolled out of bed and began throwing on clothes.

Ava left to tend to Claudius and Iatus stumbled out a moment later. The tribune was in full ceremonial gear and had a frown fixed in his face.

"Ah, Iatus, good. We need to talk strategy. As you know, Capitus is an Ahenobarbus and as such will have received the very best preparation from his father and the Legate. The Ahenobarbus are one of, if not the, most powerful families in Rome, there has not been an Ahenobarbus without mana since Julius Ahenobarbus and he still had one term as a consul. Capitus will want to make a spectacle out of you, especially in front of the whole school."

"The whole school?" Iatus spluttered.

"Have you never seen a gladiator match?" Claudius said, surprised.

Iatus gulped and nodded. He had snuck into the coliseum once to see a match, it had been horrible but for some reason Iatus had enjoyed every minute.

"Well, today that's you. You will be given a choice of armour, choose the one you recognise from your combat classes, not that it would do you much good going on your previous record with hand to hand combat."

Iatus looked at his shoes.

"Anyway, Capitus will try and draw out the fight, he will most likely try to defeat all your demons with his then move in and engage you in single combat, you have to somehow defeat his minotaur. Nerres is good but her stealthy attacks won't do much damage against something that powerful, they are incredibly stupid but are among the strongest of the jinni. Strategy will be everything here. I would take this time to devise one."

The Tribune put a hand on Iatus' shoulder and tried to smile reassuringly. It didn't exactly have the intended affect so he simply wished him luck and left.

Iatus smiled despite himself. He still had Aelith, and he was sure that if it came down to single combat he could use his spells to fry the brat. He placed the bird on his shoulder and went to the baths.

When he returned Ava had some breakfast ready for him and Max was sitting on one of the sofas.

"Hello Max, what are you doing here so early in the morning?" Iatus asked.

"I came to check on you. Are you okay? How are you feeling? Is there anything I can do to help?"

Iatus smiled at his friend's evident panic, "I'm fine Max."

"How are you fine? Have you seen the thing Capitus summoned, he has been parading it around all day like it's a God or something. Have you got a plan? What are you doing to prepare? Can we cheat somehow?" Max almost screamed, hyperventilating.

Iatus laughed, "Well, I thought that I would just go into my room and summon a mara or something, maybe try and find a forgotten one."

"Seriously Iatus, this is no joke. Capitus is going to kill you, publically, and... you're my only friend," he whimpered.

"Don't worry so much Max, I have a jinni too," he sat down and began eating his breakfast.

Max frowned, "So what is your plan then?"

"Well, I thought that Capitus will just send his minotaur to crush me, so I will get Nerres to distract it while I blast it."

Max's eyebrows rose, "You can use spells?"

"Yeah, Claudius showed me last night. I can't quite control it that well, but I guess that's okay if I just want to blast everything I can to splinters."

Max smiled for the first time. "Wow, that would be some spectacle."

Iatus looked out of his window and saw that the sun was about halfway up into the sky.

"I guess it's about time for me to get ready."

Max looked out of the window and nodded.

Iatus pushed his plate away and left for the changing areas.

A magical duel was, apparently, a rare event. Magi generally avoided them as they were a self-preserving lot to the core and duels mostly ended with someone dying. However they were usually spectacular events and the Legate had cancelled all classes that day so the whole academy could attend. Capitus was already changed when Iatus got there.

"Ready to get crushed to dirt, street-boy?" Capitus cackled.

"No," responded Iatus flatly, and walked off, leaving a somewhat confused Capitus.

When he was changed he stood by the door leading into the arena, he could hear the sound of the students echoing around the arena and he started to feel nervous. Max had come in to wish him a final good luck and he had given him Aelith to look after and, to his surprise, Amber had come to wish him good luck as well. She didn't seem overly concerned and kept a cold, detached demeanour but Iatus thought she was somewhat softer than he had seen her before. Capitus made kissing noises once she had left but Iatus ignored him. Suddenly the noise outside was silenced and he heard the Legate's magically enhanced voice boom out.

"There has been some dispute for weeks now, about who is the top ranked first year. To settle the dispute, we have ourselves a duel!"

Iatus looked across at Capitus, confused, there had been no disputes or anything of the kind. Capitus looked back and smiled at him. He must have got the Legate to say that just for the hype.

"Now, our challenger, Caius Capitus Ahenobarbus, the top ranked first year in single combat!"

Capitus smiled and stepped out to a thundering round of applause.

"And, the challenged, the top ranked first year summoner, Iatus."

There was another round of excited applause and Iatus stepped out into the light.