Blood and glory

The reward

Knowing that the crowd was not pleased with the death of Pelagius, I was afraid that my slaver wouldn't be either. I spotted him out in the pit, with disappointment painted all over his face. I felt angry at that moment and roared as I raised Pelagius' upper torso and with a clean swing, decapitated him.
The crowd roared.

I returned to the pit, filled with rage with the crowd screaming behind me, and my fellow slaves cheering at me. Marius stood there toying with his beard and a smirk on his face.

"Well done, son. Well done indeed." he said.
"Clean yourself up, and then you shall claim your reward."

I went into the bathing quarters and cleaned all the blood and dirt off of me. As I was drying myself off, I heard voices coming from the other room.

"I am sick of that slave of Marius' winning every single battle he gets into! He needs more of a challenge." said the one voice.

"But what could be a such a challenge for him? He has defeated the best of the best, and even three gladiators in one battle, alone." said the other.

It sounded like a door was slammed open, and heavy footsteps were carried behind it. A deeper and more aggravated voice spoke up:

"You want a challenge for Romulus? He is in the the the third highest ranked set of championships, if you want a challenge, we should send him to the great colosseum of Rome."

That sounded like Marius! The reward... he was planning to put me up against the mightiest of gladiators! I quickly got my robes on and hustled to my quarters, where there was a set of champion grade armour, sitting on my bed with a note beside it.

---------------------------------------------- Romulus,
Your reputation has been rewarded. You deserve this armour and weapon, for you have rightfully earned it.

Good luck with your future battles, maybe you'll become a legionnaire some day.

~A friend
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A friend? Who could that be? My parents were killed by the slavers, I had no friends outside of that, and my fellow slaves are just fans. Marius however gives me mixed messages.

Some days he hates me, others he doesn't. He usually hates me, but slavers will be slavers.