Chapter 9: Return to the Arena

“The khopesh is a great sword to have,” Spiculus told Renenutet in her human form as they stood in the practice room. “However, it has its weaknesses like everything else.”

The practice room, much like the rest of the underground caverns of the arena, was dark and cold, with the stone walls being the only obstruction. They stood with mock-up wooden and dulled out weapons perfect for training use. They stood in basic light gear, all used for training purposes. The room itself was not very big, with enough room to train at least four sets of gladiators. In the far corner of the room were two gladiators sparring with a spear and a sword. It looked like an instructor making sure that the future contestant was ready for a fight that was soon to come.

It had been a day since Spiculus took Renias under his wing and learned the truth about her. He was in the process of training her for the future battle in the coming hour.

“I like this sword, though,” Renias told Spiculus as she looked at the curved wooden sword. “It is beautiful in design and forged the empire of Egypt.”

“I understand, however, even you need to acknowledge that the Egyptian empire is no more for good reasons. That sword is obsolete against the Roman Empire. Even the Greeks, beat them to it when it came to taking over Egypt. There are many reasons as to why. One is failure to adapt. These swords are useless against the swords and shields of today.”

“It didn’t stop me from almost getting you yesterday in battle,” she remarked as she stood in a battle stance. He assumed a battle stance as well.

“The khopesh is designed as a slashing sword. The curved sickle-blade makes it perfect for it. You also had other reasons for your near victory against me as well,” he lowered his voice to her so only she could hear it. “For one, being immune to our weapons help some. It allows you to be light with your armor when using it.” He resumed his normal volume to her. “You wear very light armor to give you agility and maneuverability. The fact is that it will not always work. Eventually, an enemy will eventually still hit you, and having better armor will make the difference.”

“Ugh ... I hate adding more to me,” she commented to him. “Makes me feel that I am wearing extra shit on me when I don’t need it.”

“Take a look at this sword and yours,” Spicilus explained more to her. “You see, what makes my sword so well?”

“Oh, I know how good your sword is. I already know,” she played with him. It was so distracting that the gladiator in training in the corner overheard it and stopped as his instructor smacked him on the side with a blunt spear.

“Hey! Wake up!” the instructor told the other gladiator in training. “You are going to hear the audience say all kinds of shit. Keep your head in the game, or you will die!”

The two resumed their training as Spiculus coughed and continued his explanation to Renias. “My point is to look at the two swords, and what do you see?”

“One is curved, and the other is not,” she got serious once again.

He appreciated that she went back to her serious talk once again. There was that devious side to her that always wanted to come out as he observed her more and more. Now that he knew the truth about what she was, he enjoyed her even more. However, it was his goal to pass everything he knew to her regardless if she was some goddess or his wife or whoever she was supposed to be.

“The gladius is a weapon forged to stab. It can parry attacks that come to it, but the Roman soldier leans on the shield. The truth be told is that even though you fight well... , “ he lowered his voice again. “No man or woman could be as graceful in the way you fought and still win a battle. You might be nigh and invulnerable, but you need to accept that you need to expand your combat abilities.”

There was a slight sigh in her face. “Fine...”

“Good,” he resumed his normal volume. “A weapon that might also suit you is the spear. It is very effective against animals compared to the sword. The animals used in the arena like to charge, and a spear keeps them at bay. Even if they leap at you, the spear goes straight into them every time.”

“Shame that they use animals in the arena. Such beautiful animals lost for the sake of entertainment.”

He shook his head. “Such as life is, I didn’t choose to be a slave, but they made me. They starve those animals and send them to go kill us. I only kill them because I don’t have a choice. You need to look at it the same way.”

She nodded. “Of course...”

“Now, why did you lose the battle yesterday against me?”

“My sword got caught up by yours, and you yanked it away from me.”

“Now, what can be learned about this?”

“That I ... need to hold on to it tighter.”

He rolled his eyes. “That and?”

She sighed again. “I need to look at using other weapons.”

“Good,” he was happy he got through to her. “Try using this gladius. It is a good weapon once you get used to it. Trust me. I fell in love with it compared to the khopesh.”

He tossed the wooden blade to her as she caught the handle and tossed the khopesh to the side. Spiculus went and grabbed a dulled out Gladius from the nearby weapons rack. He walked up to her as they assumed a battle stance against one another.

“This, combined with the Roman shield, is very powerful,” he told her. “You don’t need to obviously use a shield, but you need to get used to fighting against other swords.”

“My previous instructor taught me the other swords.”

“He is a horrible instructor. He can barely even use a spear. He won his last battle because his opponent tripped and landed on his own sword. The guy was a lucky son of a bitch, but he can barely fight well as it is.”

She looked to the side. “I ... did not know that,” she focused his attention back to him. “I suppose you are right. It is good that I have you to pass along the information to me.”

They could hear more from their side as the instructor was training his future combatant. There would be occasional swords smacking wood or other armor along with corrections made by the instructor.

“Show me how you would fight with that sword,” he demanded from her.”

He held his stance as she threw her looks at him. Her fierce gaze showed her determination to hit him. She came forward as she stabbed forward with the sword at him. He quickly parried the blow with his sword. She backed up and then came forward, trying to hit him with the wooden blade again. He swung again and deflected her stab.

“Not bad, but you need to get used to stabbing,” he commented to her. “Try to avoid lunging at me so hard. It is pointing to everyone where that blade is going at. You had the advantage against me yesterday with the khopesh, but you still telegraphed it too easily to me when you tried to stab at me. We want to avoid doing that.”

She nodded her head. There was little frustration in her reactions, but each time she stabbed forward, she refined her movements. None of her hits were even close to hitting Spiculus as he swatted the blade.

“There you go,” he continued to comment her. “Getting better. Don’t slam your foot so hard when you go forward. That is also telegraphing to me that you are going to stab. Watch me and how I do it.”

She stopped as he held his stance. He began to stab forward repeatedly in the air in her direction. His feet did not move, nor did his body except his arm.

“Let the sword be a part of your arm,” he said. “It isn’t a spear. It is you. From here, the stab can be turned quickly to deflect blows. Remember that the shield is not our only asset.”

Renias was acknowledging everything he was saying as the instructor and future combatant patted each other in the arm. They grabbed their gear and weapons and stowed them on the racks as they opened up the door and walked out.

Spiculus paused the training as he came up and closed the door leaving the two of them alone to train together. He resumed his stance.

“Good...” she remarked. “Now, we have the room to ourselves, and we can talk alone.”

“Yeah, I was tired of whispering all the time. Now, where were we?”

“You keep using that short sword to try to poke me.”

There was that deviant smile again from her face as he looked at her.

“You know... , “ she smiled. “I would like to fight again like we did yesterday. It is the best way for me to learn.”

He had a faint smile come from his face as he looked away. “You want to?”

“Yeah.”

“One condition, you fight with a gladius. We both fight with a gladius. We can’t obviously hurt each other with them, but we can keep tabs every time we score a hit on one another.”

“What happens to the winner and the loser?” she asked.

“Nobody is the winner or the loser. We both survive. That is all that matters.”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t like that. If I win best 3 out of 5, I get to do the same thing as I did the night before. I get three loads from you.”

“Oh...” he smiled back at her. “How about if I win, you stay in that human form and strip naked tonight. I want to see both forms of you in action. I bet you would make a good belly dancer.”

She smirked but nodded. “You are on. Ugh ... even these legs are annoying at times.”

“You didn’t do badly in the fight against me. I saw no determent from your legs.”

“That is easy for you to say, my mate. Imagine slithering to going to two legs. I can’t move as fluidly and smoothly.”

“I bet you couldn’t jump very well though as a snake,” he countered. “I saw some well-accomplished jumps from you as you smacked my shield.”

“Hmmm, true of that. However, it is easier to jump onto a shield than a person or with precise landings. I feel like I stagger all the time as I move. You humans and your legs, plus you keep all your equipment in the front anyway, why need it?”

“Hey, I like my legs, thank you, as for our ... equipment yeah, I guess we are lucky it’s all there at the same spot as yours.”

“You know one of the things I always did was take my khopesh and wipe it on my fangs. The toxic venom I make would drip on the blade, adding more lethality to it.”

“Wait, you didn’t try to do that during the fight with me yesterday, did you?”

“No, plus you would be dead by now if I did that. Got to give you at least a sporting chance now, do I?”

There was a little bit of relief in his eyes. “I got to admit. I didn’t think about that yesterday during all the times we were close. Are you telling me all you had to do was bite me and kill me that easily?”

She nodded, “Of course. You human mortals are so easy to kill and take out. Of course, I had you in my coils, or I could have simply made one bite on you anywhere and well ... you would be dead. I could have crushed the life from you too. That being said, though, it does add to your innocence. In a way, I like you, humans, even more because of how vulnerable you are. That is why I am happy to help the crops grow when I don’t fight with the sword.”

He looked away from her as he dropped his stance. “You know I always thought that was an interesting ability now that I think about it. You have magical powers, yet I haven’t really seen it yet.”

“I can teleport to anywhere around the world that I have seen or been to. I am a plant mage being able to manipulate plants or crops at will. I can make vines that grasp your legs and feet with ease while I deliver the killing blow, or I can make food grow with ease. I also have the ability to affect the waters a little bit to provide better nourishment, although the water element is not my strong point. There are plenty of other Egyptian deities that can do a better job of affecting the water than I can. One day I might take you to my favorite place of solitude and show you where I plan on making a nest again one day. It would be a place no human could ever live or find us.”

He nodded to her, “I don’t know if I am ready to be plucked and dropped.”

She shook her head “This will be a while anyway. For now, I want to go into the arena and fight.”

“Of course.”

He beckoned her to walk to the center of the room. The rushlight candles could provide better illumination to their area instead of the corner wall they were at. They both assumed a stance as they carried out with their small duel.

“Come at me,” he told her.

Without much hesitation, she ran to him, gaining ground quickly on him before she stabbed forward with her wooden training sword. Spiculus was fully ready as he quickly deflected her blade and thrust forward, hitting her on the chest.

“What did I just tell you?” he remarked as they reset back into place. “You keep lunging at me. You don’t need to do that. For one, you leave yourself wide open to a counterattack.”

“Like I said, it’s these damn legs. I have seen Ayida-Weddo get the hang of it earlier than I can, why can’t I?”

“Who?” he asked.

She shook her head, “Somebody I met, don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t attack yourself too much. Remember, we can try several exercises that work with your legs to get yourself used to it more and more. Like I said, you were pretty close to getting me yesterday.”

“Yeah ... close but failure in the end.”

Spiculus shook his head and motioned her to come at her. She complied as she took a calmer stance and made smaller steps to get close to him. Once she reached within range, she stabbed forward, and he deflected it. She then pulled back and stabbed forward again as he parried the blow and stabbed, hitting her in the hip. She showed some annoyance as she backed away to reset again.

“Again, that is better. Learn to use your sword to parry my shots, though.”

“It’s harder with this sword, though. I am used to the curved blade,” she protested.

“Hey, you are forgetting who wanted to use the khopesh in his first battle,” as he pointed to himself. “I understand, but getting you used to this will help save your life ... wait.” He shook his head as he tried to explain it to her. “I guess you don’t have to worry about getting killed in the arena since our blades can’t hurt you...”

She stopped and looked away. “It’s true. I don’t have to worry about losing my life. Makes the thrill of the fight less enjoyable.”

“I guess that changes perspectives a little bit, now that I think about it.”

“Yeah, it is a gift and a curse us gods have to live. You humans live such short lives, it’s like a crime compared to our infinite years. I just don’t age, or at least if I do, it is so slow even I don’t notice it. Sometimes ... I wish we live as long as you humans. We find someone we love, and we outlive them in the end.”

“I haven’t really thought of that to be honest,” he lowered his sword as they spoke to each other. “I guess in the end, you just enjoy the time you have together before time and death separates us all.”

“Taweret always told me that too. She is one fat happy hippo, that is for sure. Always looking at the bright side of things.”

“Haha,” he laughed.

“What?”

“Just hearing you refer to another goddess like that. It’s funny to worship you and meet the real you and your comments to the others.”

She shrugged as she lowered her sword. “I guess one day you will have to meet the other Egyptian deities then. They will probably look at you as some insect or fly on a wall, but us gods like our mortal mates.”

“Anubis ... Sobek, Horus, Taweret, Tefnut, Sekhmet ... to think they all exist,” he remarked with satisfaction.

She nodded as she saw him smile. “They exist more or less. Be aware, though, that not everything you write in your books about us is completely accurate. You, humans, have a way of either getting it wrong, overstretching stories about us, or making us super powerful beings that dominate everything. We have magical powers, but even I can’t grow an entire forest out of the Sahara Desert. Sometimes a drought will still kill the crops even if I make them grow. It is up to you humans to support yourselves and help one another out instead of just leaning on us to fix your problems.”

Her words carried weight on Spiculus. At a time with so many religions coming and going, to have an old god that he worshiped to admit to such a thing surprisingly made sense. He still worshiped them but also understood her words and beliefs as well. The more and more he was with her, the more and more she seemed just like all the lowly humans around him.

“I suppose you are right. I must have made a fool of myself bowing down to you yesterday.”

She looked down and smiled. She almost blushed. “To be honest, it felt nice seeing you do that actually. Brings back good memories of the times when people worshiped me more regularly. I also look at it as a man who would worship a woman instead of it being a god. I think you handled it very well with me yesterday. I could picture a man running out of that room in terror the moment they saw what I really looked like. How I wish the world to accept us nonhumans.”

She closed her eyes after she finished her last sentence like she was ashamed. Her head looked down and away from him as he kept his gaze on her.

“I don’t have a problem the way you are. I might be betting to see you in your human form, but I can tell you that was the greatest sex I had yesterday. You are very compassionate in how you made love, and well ... you surprised me with the abilities you had. I didn’t know that a snake could do the things that you were capable of doing.”

She opened her eyes and focused on him again. It seemed to make her happy. “Thank you, my mate. I know it’s been a day since we met and did all those things, but so much has happened in one day than I will remember in an entire year. It’s funny how life turns out to be that way, you know. I am happy that I did not kill you yesterday.”

“You and me both,” he constrained himself to say to her.

“I love you, my beloved mate,” she said compassionately.

He had not really told her, but he wanted her to know as well. “As do I, Renias. It is our carefully guarded secret together.”

“You know, in the end, word will begin to spread around about us together.”

“Let them hear it,” he told her. “No one gives a shit anyway. For all they cared, I could have taken you to my room and raped you, and no one would have cared anyway. I am still surprised they let a woman in the arena. They outlawed it over a hundred years ago.”

“Yeah ... I volunteered to fight, and they had no issue with it. I even heard one of the men said that it would boost their audience attendance by having a woman get in the fight. They truly did not care.”

He shook his head. “Ugh ... no matter, we are together now. We fight together. We stay together. If anyone gets in our way, then fuck them.”

She gave a good nod to him. She appreciated his words.

“There will be one thing that you need to keep in mind though love. You might be invulnerable to our weapons, but you still need to avoid getting hit. If the audience sees you get stabbed and the blade does no harm to you, then the audience will start to think something is up. You will still need to treat the battle seriously.”

“I always do love. No one will hit me.”

“If they do, at least let it be your shield or armor. That is why you need to make sure you wear more to prevent the audience from thinking the wrong thing if somebody hits you. Only I noticed my blade not pierce you when I stabbed you, and that was through the armor by your hip.”

She sighed. “I agree with you. You are right. I just ... wish I didn’t have to. Would you believe it causes chaffing for me?”

“Really? That is what you are complaining about?”

“Well, yeah. Blades might not hurt me, but armor can continuously still rub and cause loose skin to fall even in this form. Trust me if you think this is bad, then wait till I molt in my true form. I tried to go to my human form when that happened, and I look like my skin was peeling. I hate it. Sometimes I wish I was human at times.”

“You can go human.”

“You know what I mean,” she stammered, almost stomping her foot down. “This form is not my true form.”

“Well, it looks quite real to me.”

“Hmmm, well, when I start peeling, I think I will have you help get it off me. Even I can’t reach everywhere.”

Spiculus shrugged. “Fine ... Now, where were we?”

Renias shook off her thoughts as she refocused on her duel. “Yes ... um.”

“I think I was winning two hits compared to your none. One more and I win.”

She gave an angered look at him as she lifted her sword at him. He readied his sword to meet his. She charged forward and leaped at him. Despite the leap, he carefully watched what she was doing as he had seen it before. He held his stance as her sandals made the quiet landing on the stone floor. She closed the distance as she stabbed at her blade at him towards his chest. He backed up just enough to parry the sword with his, but she pulled her blade away before making the stab at him again, this time towards his stomach.

He parried the blow, but he realized how aggressive her attack as it was taking him by surprise. He was barely keeping up with her attacks as he blocked over and over again. It was preventing him from getting a clear swing at her.

His foot slipped on the stone floor as the flat sandals had a weak grip. Her next stab went to his hip as the dull wooden blade tapped him before he could get a block off.

This did not phase him as he replied to her. “There you go, you finally got me. Now ask yourself, how did you hit me?”

“Overwhelming attack.”

“True, going full bore on your attack might work but, what else happened?”

“You slipped.”

He nodded, “Correct, use your terrain to win. The arena is surprisingly slippery with the loose dirt in some places. Heavyweight usually counters it, but it still leaves the gladiators vulnerable to slipping. I have seen some fall over to have the gladiator finish him off. However, some decided not to do the simplest thing as they fall to the floor.”

“And what was that?”

“Use the dirt. Use your hand, grab some dirt, and throw it at your opponent’s face. Helmets are good at taking some of the dirt, but the small cloud it generates can still temporarily blind them, making escape easy. It might be a dirty trick, and sometimes the audience hates it, but survival is key to winning.”

“I see.”

She reset herself as she pointed her sword at him. He readied himself at her again as she did the same exact maneuver again, leaping herself into the air and trying to stab at his neck and shoulders. His response was quick as he parried the stab and managed to get a thrust of his own straight to her gut. She felt the dull blade as she almost stomped her foot to the ground in defeat.

“That’s game there,” he said. “3 hits out of your 1. You owe me a strip dance.”

“Humph,” she replied.

“How did I hit you so easily this time?” he asked her.

“Because of my legs?”

“Nope, but that is part of the reason. You made the same move as before. You need to switch up your tactics at times to keep the opponent from adapting. Overwhelming assault can make things work very well, but you always leave yourself vulnerable to a good counterattack.”

She sighed.

“Don’t feel bad. You have great legs, regardless of who you are.”

If she could blush, she would be displaying it. She turned her head low, and she smiled, thinking about his words.

“Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate that you care about me, regardless of what I am.”

“It’s funny that even though I only met you so soon, I feel like I knew you for years.”

Renias nodded as she knew it was getting close to the fight planned for the day. She had to change the subject.

“So the fight that is going to happen today,” she said. “What are we facing?”

“From what I was told, we are facing either animals or two versus two.”

“You will be out there with me?”

“Of course,” he replied. “Perhaps, in the end, we are supposed to be out there fighting together, like it was destiny or something.”

She smiled. It was such a deep smile from her that it caused him even to perk up a little bit.

“Then it will be a wonderful fight then,” she commented to him. “To fight alongside, you bring great joy to my heart.”

An hour passed as Spiculus the Gladiator and Renenutet hiding under her human form, stood behind the closed doors that led to the arena. It was mid-morning as usual as a big fight was planned. They could hear the cheering audience from outside.

“Be ready for whatever they throw at us, Renias,” Spiculus told her. “They will likely increase the difficulty on me that will affect you because of my good record.”

“You have seen this happen before?” she asked.

Both Spiculus and Renias wore their respected armor. Renias was wearing gladiator armor fitted for smaller men. The armor pressed against her breasts, causing her some mild discomfort. They both wore traditional fishnet helmets. Renias choose to have a small buckler that she had along with a spear. Spiculus, on the other hand, decided to utilize a large shield as before or his scotum, along with a short curved sword called a sica.

He nodded even in the darkness that she could see. “Yes, they normally do this for fights. If you continue to survive the fights well into the fourth year, then the difficulty begins to be vamped up. This can include animal fights and gladiatorial fights in one. With us together and the fact that I am now going into my fourth year, they will increase that difficulty regardless if you are going to be a part of that or not.”

“You have been fighting for that long?” she remarked.

“Don’t worry about me. It’s not always gladiatorial fights all the time. We do relax and enjoy life at times. Even slaves like me actually get treated better and better as time progresses, and we win more fights. Eventually, we are treated almost as if we are actors in a theater rather than anything else. It is why some of us will stay and train future gladiators rather than leave after surviving for that long assuming we ever do.”

“You mentioned once that they are thinking of building a large arena for fights...”

“Yeah, some of it is because of the chariot fights they want to have. Our arena is barely big enough to have them. There have been talks and wishes to have arenas that are fully capable of having it flooded with water to have battles on boats.”

She took her weapon and almost clapped it to her small buckler. “Oh, how I would love to fight in one of those!” Her tone was happy to hear his words.

“Yeah, I imagine you would say that. Unfortunately, you might have come into this too early ever to see them. They still have small chariot battles despite the limits of the arena size, though. I know our leader Nero is eager to get something developed in his thirst for better entertainment.”

“Have you fought in one?”

“Once or twice. In the end, the chariot races had to be stalled down. Again the small space made it difficult. I do remember it being fun though despite dodging the opponent’s spear and arrows. The audience really loved it too.”

Renias noticed that there was an inflection in Spiculus’s voice when he said it. She noted that he felt a wave of nostalgia like he was happy with it.

“A part of you does enjoy being here, don’t you?” she asked him.

He was quiet with the answer for a little bit. Before she could ask again, her voice was cut off by the announcer from outside the doors.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” the announcer could be heard from the closed doors. “We have a wonderful fight planned for today! We have animals! ... we have champions! ... we have it all today!”

Spiculus knew where this was going. They could hear the audience cheer as they always do. “Looks like it’s both,” he sighed. We are going to have a big one today.”

“Animals and gladiators?” Renias replied. Her voice was picking up in excitement.

“Yeah ... I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s lions.”

“Do we really have to kill them?” she asked.

“Yeah ... I would look at it differently, though. Look at it as a release for them. They starve and torment those lions to make them savage creatures. Killing them might be an act of mercy.”

She nodded. She had to accept the truth that this was life. She changed the subject.

“Today, our great Ceasar Nero has joined us to witness this event!” the announcer yelled as they heard the audience cheer again.

“I noticed that you are using a different sword this time,” she remarked.

“The sica, yeah, what about it?”

“I thought you preferred the gladius?”

He shook his head. “I figure I try something different. I get so good at winning that using the same thing over and over again just gets boring. Plus, seeing how you fought made me want to try a different sword. Prevents my opponents from adjusting to my tactics.”

“So now yours is all curved and juts upward, right?” she asked with a small laugh.

“Yeah...” he replied when he realized that she was making a joke. He shook his head for her to see it.