In a large luxurious compound on the opposite side of town from the Lupas Ludas, lay the headquarters of the Claudius family.
They had been a more recent entry into the realm of lanista families, but with their enormous assets, and general business acumen, they had been extraordinarily successful in the gladiator business.
Currently the heads of the family were holding a meeting in a large conference room. Financial charts, data sheets, and other such information were projected on a large screen in the front of the room.
A secretary was flipping through the slides as one of the family's accountants gave the quarterly report.
Lucius Claudius, the true head of the family, was only mildly paying attention when he received a notification through his system.
*Sir, the contract for Kaius from the Lupas family has been successfully purchased. Total cost of the contract was 220,000 denarii. Kaius is on his way via car, and is expected to arrive within the hour.*
A slow devilish smile spread across his face when he read this. He had long desired to put that fool Gaius out of business.
Several years ago after Gaius' wife left, Lucius had approached him with an offer to unify into one joint Ludas.
Lucius would have of course been the head lanista, but he had offered Gaius generous compensation as well as a position among the board members.
But Gaius wouldn't sell, citing some nonsense about family legacy and his faith in his son's talent.
'Idiot!' Lucius sneered inwardly, 'Now without your most experienced gladiator what can you do about the upcoming games? In fact, I am going to make it so that your man and Kaius meet in the battle royale. It would only be ever so poetic for your former gladiator to put the final nail in your coffin.'
With that thought he immediately wrote a simple email with his instructions to the local proctor of the games. For a man such as Lucius getting a last-minute entry spot was no problem at all.
'And with that Gaius,' Lucius thought viciously. 'Your time is at an end.'
While Lucius continued laughing to himself and enjoying the future visions he concocted. Kaius was having an altogether terrible day.
After slamming the compound doors, Kaius took his car and sped away, furious about his plan to negotiate a better contract being foiled in the way it was.
'Fracking brat!' he fumed, 'Who does he think he is dismissing me like that, doesn't he understand that to compete in the games he needs veteran gladiators?
What, does he think that snot-nosed idiot Icarus can win it for him? HA! he's only been training for 2 months, not a chance in hades that brat makes it even 10 minutes in the death battle royale.'
Kaius was just turning onto the freeway when a soul-wrenching pain brought all of his vengeful thoughts to a sudden halt.
He screamed in agony as it felt like some kind of demon stuck its fangs into his soul and began to drain him of his life essence.
His face went pale as sweat began to pour down his entire body, he blacked out and swerved into oncoming traffic causing a 7-car pileup during lunch time rush hour.
Kaius didn't know this of course as he had almost immediately lost consciousness, but his body began to thin as he was rapidly losing muscle mass.
By the time 15 minutes had passed, he looked like a desiccated skeleton, just moments away from death's door.
Ambulances had already arrived at this point, but with so much destruction it would take at least 30 minutes before they had everything cleared away, and all the injured taken to the nearest hospital.
The morning meeting was just ending when once again Lucius received a notification. This time his mood was not improved by what he learned.
*Sir, Kaius has been delayed in arriving at the compound due to a severe car accident. He has been taken to the Scipio Memorial Trauma Center and is in critical condition.*
"........FRAAAACK!!!!!"
The obscenely loud shout from nowhere scared the crap out of the members of the board, a couple of them literally.
And while they quickly excused themselves, the remainder of the board started intently towards Lucius in hopes of some kind of explanation.
Lucius sat there heaving great gasps of air as he struggled to calm himself down.
'WHY!' He fumed internally, raging at the coincidence of just having paid the contract fee, for Kaius to potentially die.
He didn't actually care about Kaius as an individual, gladiators were entirely expendable as far as he was concerned.
But what wasn't expendable were his plans for the annihilation of the Lupas family and the 220,000 denarii he had spent to ensure it happened.
(For those who are unsure of the denarii's value, think of it like a suped-up dollar. Worth several times more than the American currency. And is also the only legal currency in the Roman Imperium. A monthly income of 1000 denarii could feed and house a family of 4 quite comfortably)
"This meeting is adjourned," Lucius said suddenly. "I am going to the hospital to check up on a new asset we acquired. Albus, contact the police I want this investigated immediately."
"Sir, want what investigated?"
Albus, a middle-aged secretary was truly confused. All he knew was that he was one-minute taking minutes preparing for the end of the meeting, and then BAM! His boss is shouting obscenities and demanding an investigation.
"Just call the Police Ablus!" Lucius thundered back, clearly not in the headspace to even realize how irrational he was being. "And tell them to contact me immediately if they find anything with regards to that stupid wreck!"
After saying this Lucius stormed out of the office and disappeared down the hallway, presumably heading towards the hospital.
Albus sat silently for several moments, not quite sure what had gotten his boss so rattled that he had to take it out on him.
But deciding that it was better to just do as he was told he contacted the police and instructed them to call Lucius with any information regarding a wreck that happened that morning.
It took Lucius all of 15 minutes to arrive at the hospital from his office. Upon doing so he immediately demanded to know where Kaius was and how he was doing.
The Nurse calmly informed him that Kaius was still in intensive care and could not be seen.
Struggling to calm himself down Lucius again asked.
"Please understand," He said through gritted teeth. "Kaius is a new gladiator which my company has just contracted. I need to know his condition so that I can provide the appropriate support."
Lanistas were responsible for the health and welfare of their gladiators while they were outside of the arena.
It was mandated by imperial law that should any gladiator perish outside of the arena due to the neglect of their patron, that patron and their entire family would be stripped of all assets, and never again be able to contract gladiators of any sort.
It could be imagined how with a law like this, gladiator health care was among the foremost concerns of lanistas as a whole.
Lucius of course didn't care about the welfare of his gladiators, but he certainly cared about himself. And with the sword of the imperium hanging over his head he was desperate to ensure that Kaius was okay, or that at the very least his illness and death could not be blamed upon him.
Lucius waited for several hours before a doctor finally came to see him. The sun had long gone down and the city's lights had come to life.
On any other night, Lucius would be spending time at one of his mansions with his wives or a few consorts, but no he was here at the hospital hanging on the edge of a knife named Kaius.
For this reason, as well as his general lack of give a crap about other people, he was furious for having been kept waiting so long.
'If that waste is dead or dying just fracking tell me so I can leave! I've been asking about him nonstop for hours! Who are you to make me wait!'
None of this escaped his mouth of course, he had an image and reputation to uphold. He was a narcissistic piece of crap, but he knew how to control himself when the situation called for it.
He would never have made it this far in life if he didn't understand who to bully and who not to. Getting into it with hospital staff would do nothing but tarnish his name and ruin his family's reputation. So in spite of his internal rage, he kept himself in check.
"Mr. Lucius, I am Doctor Ovicula. I do apologize for the wait but your gladiator Kaius was in extremely critical condition and required my utmost care to stabilize and reverse his condition."
Internally rolling his eyes Lucius responded gracefully.
"Not a problem at all Dr. I am simply worried about my man. Please can you tell me what happened to him?"
A large sigh escaped from Dr. Ovicula before he somewhat hesitatingly began to explain.
"The problem with that sir is that we don't rightly know what happened to him. His injuries are nothing like we would expect from a car accident, and while he does show some injuries consistent with vehicular accidents, the most troubling condition is something we have never seen before."
Lucius was dying inside for the Dr. to get to the fracking point but still he held himself back, it truly sounded like something strange was happening and he needed to know what.
"His body has atrophied to a degree unheard of in the entirety of the Roman imperiam. It's like he aged hundreds of years in only a few minutes. It was only through extremely powerful gene supplements that we were able to get his vitality moving in the right direction, and honestly sir it looks like he may never recover his former strength again.
Normally gladiator bodies exude an excess of vitality after they have been training for a while. And his body shows obvious signs of training. But his vitality is so weak it's hardly able to keep him breathing, let alone perform any kind of vigorous activity.
My recommendation sir, is that he be retired immediately. Further participation in the games is impossible."
Once he was done speaking the Dr. quietly left. Lucius was so stunned he didn't even know how to begin to process the information he had just received.
The only thing he could seem to piece together at the moment was the price he paid for this apparent waste.
'Wasn't worth it.'