For a moment, the cheering overwhelmed all other sound. Jason made his usual circuit of the arena, waving and playing to the crowd, before he circled back to his opponents. He reached out to shake hands with each, leaning in to say something to Rissa. Whatever it was, she was clearly on guard, but not angry. She clasped his hand for a moment, though she pulled away more quickly than was polite.

     Then Daniel called, “Fight!”

     Omar charged in, while Barnaby and Rayce circled to Jason’s other side. Barnaby went to shove Rissa out of his way, and the girl stepped back, her arms crossed. Even without seeing her face, Dahl could picture her look of insulted disdain. She watched while Jason shattered his opponents’ plan immediately. He slammed his shield out, driving it straight into Omar’s face. At the same time, he turned, slamming his sword out towards Barnaby. In Dahl’s opinion, Barnaby didn’t have the skills to make it as a gladiator long term. He might last a season or two, but he would be driven out by his first real injury.

     And this was almost it. He barely got his blade up in time for Jason’s sword to skitter across the hand guard, cutting into his arm, but not deeply. He fell back, and Jason kicked him in the knee, popping the joint badly enough that Barnaby went down, hands up, signaling his surrender. Rayce had clearly been planning on using that as his opening, but when he jabbed at Jason, the other man caught the spear, spinning so that his momentum pulled it from Rayce’s hand, slamming the shaft straight into Omar, who had been trying to sneak up behind him.

     Rayce had not fought for the spear, immediately taking a step back to pull a longsword. He worked better at a distance. Jason, having noticed the same thing, turned towards Omar, but surprised both his opponents by throwing himself backwards, putting himself well-within Rayce’s guard. He elbowed Rayce in the face, slamming Omar with his shield again.

     Rayce stumbled backwards, but Omar wasn’t thrown, pressing an attack. He used a club, and Jason had to throw his shield up to ward off a series of heavy blows. Meanwhile, Rayce had recovered and swung his longsword at Jason’s side. Dahl heard the crowd take a sharp breath, but Jason ducked, moving with one of Omar’s blows, so that Omar stumbled forward, into Rayce’s cut. Luckily, Omar wore heavy enough armor that the sword glanced off his shoulder plate, but it slammed into his helmet, ringing his bell hard enough that he dropped immediately.

     Dahl groaned, though the stands erupted into cheers.

     Omar had fallen on top of Jason’s shield, and Jason shoved the man’s unmoving form back out of the way, spinning to face Rayce, whose sword was already coming at him again. Jason batted it out of the way and sliced out, but Rayce blocked, standing his ground. They exchanged a good number of blows, Rayce actually holding his own, and to the inexperienced eye, it almost looked like they were evenly matched. But Jason was steering his opponent.

     Rayce swung a sharp uppercut, and at the full stretch of the slice, tripped on his dropped spear. He landed hard, and Jason slammed his sword out, stopping right before he cut into the other man’s neck.

     It was a clear, simple statement. “Give up or you might not survive.” Plenty of fighters, in moments of pride, rage, or just ignorance, chose to ignore the warning and keep fighting. More than a few of them became casualties of the Coliseum. Rayce dropped his sword, raising his hands in submission.

     Jason stepped back, waiting for Daniel to call the end to the match.

     He had forgotten Rissa.

     Dahl would guess everyone had forgotten Rissa.

     Jason started to turn, sensing something, but she hit him before he could face her. She slammed her heel into the back of his knee. He dropped, but Jason spun from kneeling, slamming his shield out at the girl. Rissa caught the edge, lifting her feet and letting Jason take her weight. While he paused, confused, she pushed herself up, flinging herself over the shield and the man, using her momentum to drag the shield with her. It was strapped to his arm, so he didn’t lose it, but it pulled him off balance, his back in an uncomfortable backwards arch. Not giving him a chance to recover, she locked her arms together and drove her elbow into his back, just below his neck.

     Jason was resilient. He let himself go down, but rolled immediately, staying on the ground to cut out at her legs. She jumped right over the blade, landing on his chest with her heel driving sharp into his solar-plexus.

     The audience let out a gasp of air with the downed gladiator.

     Jason tried to rise, but she had already braced herself. She slid her foot up to press on his neck, applying enough pressure that Jason got the message as clearly as Rayce had. He dropped his sword and raised his hand in surrender.

     For a good moment the Coliseum was about as quiet as Dahl had ever heard it during a bout. Then a few people started cheering. A few more joined in, but it was still quiet enough that Daniel was easily heard. “Rissa, our brand-new gladiator, wins her first bout!”