While the scribes were busy writing down every scene they saw during the gladiator fight, Seneca was sitting behind them, observing the crowds’ reaction. Every gladiator show was an opportunity for them to see the crowds at once, and he noticed that with Spiculus’s popularity and an unknown noxii woman as his opponent, the crowd surely wanted to see Spiculus win the battle.

A young scribe was giggling and their behavior does not seem proper in Seneca’s eyes. He walked towards those young men, and stared at what they had written on the parchment.

“One the day an eunuch lost his honour on the bed of a man, a woman gladiator named Mevia killed the Erymanthian boar with a single blow of her spear…”

“What profanity is this!” Seneca shouted and he pulled the parchment away from the young scribe who wrote the sentence.

“Are you trying to get yourself into trouble? You are insulting our majesty and the empress with an indication of a noxii’s name on the parchment!” he nagged angrily at them. As the sentence was clearly a satire, an insult to Nero and Sporus for not mentioning their names, and it was not a proper manner to even wrote the name of a slave on parchment.

The young scribes bowed anxiously avoiding their eye contact with Seneca.

“No, my lord, we… we are just expressing…” the young scribe chuckled, and his other colleague yanked the side of his shoulder with his arm, trying to shut him up.

“Expressing what?” Seneca asked, but they did not reply.

But he already had the answer in his mind, he knew the majority did not approve of Sporus, a former eunuch, to be the empress. And he knew the whole gladiator show was not just a scene for entertainment. It was also a form of public expression, the only time the crowd would let the emperor know about their thoughts. Every cheer, applaud, howl and silence sends a message. And their message is pretty clear with this battle, they do not approve of a man being an empress! As much as they did not cheer for the woman noxii in the arena of men.

Mevia grabbed a handful of sand, while Spiculus reacted by shutting his eyes and with his head facing away. Thinking that she was about to use the same trick to harm his eyes. But she threw the sand to his shoulder instead. Confused by her move, Spiculus planned his next attack, but when he moved his right arm and was about to blow a fist on her, something trapped inside his arm shield had scratched his arm.

“What pesky thing…” Mevia continued to throw sand towards him, and he noticed that the pieces of broken metal net were mixed in it, and getting into both of his arm shields.

“Arrgh!” Annoyed by the uncomfortable situation, Spiculus tore both of his arm shields away. Revealing both large, furry, strong arms which did not seem like human arms. The crowd were shocked, the scene suddenly set in silence.

He patted away the annoying pieces of broken metal nets, while Mevia pulled out the spear from the dead boar, continued to attack the distracted Spiculus. But he effortlessly swung his arms and lay the punch on her face. Sending her to a free fall to the ground and losing a tooth.

Whipping the blood away from her mouth, she immediately pulled herself up to dodge as Spiculus continued to attack her. And the crowd continued to cheer, but there was a shift in the atmosphere.

Rushing to the royal podium, Seneca arrived and saw the scene. He was about to report the incident to Nero, but he sensed the shift of that crowd reaction. Who were they cheering for now? A human or a beast? The dynamic is no longer a battle between a man and a woman, but a woman with a beast. No doubt in every gladiator battle, the crowd wanted to see man win against a beast. If Spiculus revealed his pair of beast arms, that caused the shift in support, that means…

The Three Elders also arrived at the royal podium as Nero was confused. He kept staring at Spiculus with disbelief. What monstrosity was that? The Three sense the danger of this dynamic shift, the public might not approve of monstrosity.

Original on RoyalRoad

to be continued...