In the Romanesque themed story I'm brewing around in my head, I've mentioned that Three's love interest is a wolf that is a retired general who has gone into politics.

Since Three (called Silver in this world) had no status or proof of citizenship she could either work as a low wage laborer or try her hand in the arena. The arena paid better and she had enough fighting skills that she decided to try there. In this particular world a female gladiator is unusual but not unheard of, so she's a novelty of sorts. Usually women fighters are used for introductory fights and intermissions while the men battle the really impressive duels, but she literally beat her way into the main events and started getting attention.

One of the people who noticed her was Barius. He tended to flirt with the opening act fighter women and tried it on Three as well. She was the first woman to rebuff his numerous advances and that made him want her even more. For a woman with no social standing to turn down the chance to be a mistress of a well to do senator was intriguing to him, and he began to court her with enthusiasm for quite awhile until she finally relented somewhat. The two slowly became feuding friends and eventually lovers.

In this scene Barius is making a pass at Three and she's ignoring him while she waits for her chance in the ring. No doubt Barius bribed one of the folks in charge to make sure she was placed in waiting near his seat.

At this point in her career as a fighter Three has gotten attention but isn't a major attraction or all that known yet, so she's dressed fairly plainly. As she grew in notoriety her armor and uniforms grew more bright and lavish, to the point that the arena master would stick her in clothing to try and enhance her shape, although she drew the line at fighting in a corset. There were rumors for a time that she was really a man and it was all a gimmick, but (much to Three's chagrin) that never stopped Barius' advances and flirting.

The gladiator combat itself is actually not as lethal as it sounds. The weapons are blunted and combat between two consenting fighters ends when the other is disabled as opposed to killed. Lethal combat and weapons are reserved for wild beasts that are set loose for gladiators to fight and convicted criminals sentenced to death who want a chance to fight for their freedom and their lives. Gladiators are not forced to fight in the lethal combat battles, although the ones that do are paid well and have a much better chance at making a name for themselves.

This was inked linework cleaned up in inkscape and colored in paint tool sai.