Icarus continued to stand still for several minutes just trying to get his head back in the game.
'Come on man!' He berated himself. 'This is not the time to fall apart!' Shaking himself vigorously to reassert control he started once again walking in the direction of the wall. 'I'll deal with all that nonsense later, for now I have work to do.'
He decided to confide in his master and deal with things together. He had seen his master do impossible things, so he would trust that he could do it again.
Luckily he didn't have to be stuck in his head for to long as he noticed a small group of people heading his way.
There were 4 men all about 40 years old sauntering through the forest as if they hadn't a care in the world.
It was pretty clear for Icarus to see that these men knew each other well, most likely they came from the same ludas. How they were able to wind up in the same arena block was beyond him, but that wasn't important right now.
They had seen him and were making a b line in his direction, their pace didn't quicken however most likely due to some sense of confidence being in a group gave them.
"Hey boy!" cried the man on the left, he was about 6 feet tall and weighed about 200 lbs. He was fit and his eyes shone with the signature glint of a man who knew how to handle himself. "Come over here, we have a proposal for ya."
The group chuckled at the man's wording. The only proposal they had for the people of this arena was to stand still and die quickly, or try to resist so they could have some extra fun.
This particular group of men only ever participated in group or team death matches, they loved finding one another and then ganging up on younger and weaker gladiators. They came from a small-time ludas that made its profits off of quantity not quality, and there were enough members of that ludas participating to practically guarantee a few of their members would be in each arena block.
They had long accepted the fact that their talents would never let them progress beyond the peak of rank 1, but they were determined to keep as many people as they could from stepping over their heads.
Icarus didn't have the system's ability to gauge the potential of others, but after his training, he had developed a keen sense of the strength of his opponents. He could feel if he stood a chance of winning or not, and these men...gave him no pressure at all.
"Alright." Icarus said politely, "What can I do for you gentlemen?" He had stopped in front of the group about 5 meters away. Far enough to react if they tried anything funny, but close enough to strike should the opportunity present itself.
The man smirked thinking he had landed a gullible newbie but proceeded to introduce himself and his gang.
"My name is Darl, this here on my left is Prusinis, next to him is Astisius, and finally on the end is Ruphus." The three men nodded as each of their names were called. The three looked similar to Darl, fit and experienced, but they all had that stupid grin on their face typical of sycophants following their 'Boss'.
Icarus knew beyond a doubt that he could finish each of these men individually in half a breath. But combined their strength wasn't added it was multiplied. And while they still gave him no pressure that he might lose, there was a small tickling in the back of his neck that they might just be able to wound him.
He wasn't about to let himself be injured by some B-grade villain and his stooges, so he stood quietly and allowed them to approach while letting their guards down.
Darl continued to talk as the group of men closed the distance, Icarus wasn't listening though as he was calculating in his head.
'My spear is 7 feet long from tip to tip, I have an effective reach of 6 feet 6 inches and a first strike speed of less than a second. If they just move...' His thoughts trailed away as his focus narrowed in on the man called Prusinus who had taken an extra step forward.
Instantly and almost as if it were a preprogrammed reflex Icarus' spear struck forth instantly piercing the neck of the man before him. The tip of the spear exited the back of Prusinus' neck allowing a great shower of blood to spray onto his companions rendering the group speechless.
Taking advantage of the moment of shock Icarus kicked the man off the end of his spear, sending the body crashing into the one called Astisius effectively taking him out of the fight for the next few seconds.
At this point, the other two men had regained their faculties and launched themselves at Icarus in a rage. But swiftly shifting his body to the right he was able to dodge Rufus' attack and force Darl to either injure his own man to continue the strike or retreat.
Seeing Darl hesitate gave Icarus the moment he needed to land a vicious knee strike straight into Rufus' midsection. The cracking of ribs could be heard as a rush of air and blood was forced out of his mouth before he collapsed on the ground unmoving.
Seeing red Darl lunged at Icarus attempting to run him through, Icarus only smirked as he used the end of his spear to knock the blade away before quickly pulling the back end of the spear towards him with all his strength, causing the spear head to whip the other direction and slap Darl in the face so hard he did a full somersault in the air before landing on the ground with a sickening crunch.
Icarus followed that up with a savage kick causing Darls already broken body to tumble backwards for several feet where it came to rest at the foot of a tree after his head slammed into its trunk.
All of this had happened in just the few seconds it took for Astisius to extricate himself from the corpse of his one-time friend. Upon regaining his footing and looking to rejoin the fight he was shocked to see the state his three companions were in.
'How is this possible?' His thoughts trembled with fear as his bowels threatened to give out. 'To overpower us like this he'd have to be a...' Astisius was never able to finish his thoughts as before he could a 7-foot-long spear was launched in his direction like a ballista bolt. The spear even went so far as to pierce halfway through his body before an angular shift drove the point of the spear into the ground effectively pinning Astisius in place.
Blood continued to bubble up and out of Astisius' open mouth while Icarus casually strolled up next to him to look him in the eye.
Staring at the mud-brown eyes of the shish kebab before him Icarus felt only mildly amused. "One thing to note in your next life," Icarus said sarcastically while gripping the back end of his spear. "Don't follow idiots too far, you'll most likely wind up dead."
Using his right hand Icarus forced the now dead body to slide the rest of the way down the spear to make retrieval easier. After withdrawing the spear he used some of their clothes to clean his weapon before once more continuing on his way.
The AI would mark the locations of those who died and someone would be sent to collect them and return them to their respective Ludas. Once more finding himself alone Icarus had time to think.
'My confidence is restored after that last fight. Getting beat down by Achilles really did a number on me. But now I can see that I am not weak...he's just stupidly strong!'
Icarus could feel his competitive spirit boiling, he might not be a match for Achilles now but given enough time he knew that his master could forge him into a weapon beyond the reach of any other, even one so great as a royal.
On the other side of the arena block a massacre was commencing, perpetrated by the very object of Icarus' thoughts.
'I have to get out of here!' Achilles was feverishly slaughtering every single man he could find while slowly losing more and more of his sanity. 'They don't know I heard that name do they? No I erased every mention and evidence of it. But why?! Why after all this time did that cursed name have to surface again!?'
Achilles didn't have any good answers, or really any answers at all. The only things he knew about the Lupus family came from what he was taught back on Earth-Prime. He had always considered them nothing more than propaganda to instill fear in the ruling class, a lesson on the dangers of tyranny if you will.
The Lupus family was supposedly descended from the brother of Romulus, the founder of Rome. Remus was killed by his brother when the two fought over what their new city's name would be. Romulus of course killed his brother and named the city Rome after himself, but what he didn't know was that his brother, Remus, had a son whom he called Terribilis Lupus, which loosely translates to 'Fearful wolf' or 'Terrible wolf'.
While Remus lay dying he warned his brother 'One day my Terrible wolf will come for you, make not an enemy of the wolves for as ye have judged them, so will the terrible wolf judge you.'
Romulus took that warning seriously and was always on the lookout for any sign of the 'Terrible wolf' and when a family called the lupus family propped up in Rome some centuries later claiming kinship with Remus, the current ruling class allowed them great power and freedom out of deference to Romulus' demands which had been handed down to his descendants the Maximus clan.
But over time the Maximus clan grew ever more paranoid of the dire warning and sought to subvert it by pressuring the Lupus family out of politics, then out of Rome, then eventually out of Prime Earth altogether. It was their belief that if they could wipe out that bloodline then the warning could never come true. But the family was spared as there were some who took the warning seriously and helped the family disappear and relocate to a far-flung corner of the empire.
The Aurelius family was one such, which was the biggest reason Achilles decided to lend his aid. But now that he knew there was a Ludas out there claiming the Lupus name, he could only wonder if the warnings were true...or not.
As he finished slaughtering the 50th man he'd come across his mind landed on the only true conclusion he could make at that moment.
'Only time will tell.'