As the crowd cheered for what they thought was a dramatic finishing move, the two "pirates" turned toward the arena's heavy bronze floodgates. With a coordinated heave, they shattered the locking pin.

The giant went down with a massive splash. Before the Shark could recover, Cassian was on him, the point of his falx at the seam of Barca’s bronze collar.

Cassian, once a prince of a fallen Aegean isle, tightened the leather straps of his manica . He wasn't holding a traditional gladius. Instead, he gripped a curved Thracian falx—a blade that looked suspiciously like a boarding pike.