Chapter 808: The Final Battle
Being one of the gladiators from outside of Rome city, Terufelos had naturally been discriminated against by the gladiators native to the city. Sartonilos, however, valued his strength a lot, and he even sent someone to convince him to join his plan. After a while, Sartonilos had to give up on him because he received no response. Hence, Terufelos did not participate in the assassination last night.
When Terufelos walked into the lounge in the early hours of the morning, he was shocked by the weird atmosphere. The atmosphere in the lounge had always been hostile. Ultimately, he knew that Sartonilos had been recruiting other gladiators to work on eliminating Zhang Heng. As usual, Zhang Heng calmly entered the lounge. If it were a day before, they would not have hesitated to draw their swords and fight each other. Terufelos could feel the tension in the atmosphere.
But today, the tense atmosphere was gone.
Terufelos was a little baffled. When he looked at Sartonilos, he saw that the latter was disappointed and nervous about something. He looked like a rookie that was about to enter the arena for the first time. From time to time, he would move around and touch the things around him.
‘What the hell is going on?’ Terufelos frowned. After the previous rounds of elimination, the only players left were the masterful elite gladiators. The climax of this gladiatorial show was about to happen soon. Trump cards of the respective arenas would fight against each other. Despite all that, it seemed Sartonilos was unprepared to fight his final battle. One could see that he was distracted.
And he was not the only one who behaved like that. A few more gladiators acted as such, too, including champions like Danaos and Aixoys. They looked weak and appeared to have not slept well the night before.
Zhang Heng, on the other hand, sat there all too calmly. Nothing appeared to have happened to him last night. To Terufelos, this nothing less but a herculean man. He had heard of Zhang Heng’s glorious battle records, and other than fighting the bison empty-handed, he had managed to end his battle almost instantly. So far, no one had been able to make more than ten moves against him. Being a renowned veteran gladiator, it made no sense to Terufelos that Sartonilos could’ve lost the courage to fight with Zhang Heng.
Yesterday, Sartonilos and others began distancing themselves from Zhang Heng because they were plotting against him. Now, Terufelos could feel that they must be avoiding him because they were afraid of him.
It was like the instinctive fear of a mouse meeting a cat.
Among them, Bach looked the worst. He and Zhang Heng had come from the same arena, but he too sat far away from him. And his face looked so pale as if no blood flowed within his veins. At the same time, he kept placing his right hand in front of his chest.
Terufelos could not figure out what had happened between them. In just one night, almost every gladiator in the lounge had changed for the worse. Suddenly, someone ran into his back. Before Terfufelos could say anything about it, the person seemed frightened, and he kept on apologizing.
When Terufelos turned around, he saw the swollen nose on Murkazan. He then asked in surprise, “What’s wrong with your face?”
“I, I… I fell.” Murkazan insisted that what happened to him was an accident. Not only because he was afraid of Zhang Heng, but he also knew that if what they did yesterday was exposed, they would be severely punished by the authorities. Upon realizing that they were not strong enough to defeat their opponent, they decided to eliminate their opponents outside the arena. By doing that, it meant they were challenging the iron rule set by the show’s organizer. And the organizer of this gladiatorial show was the emperor of Rome.
This problem would not be their concern if Zhang Heng were dead. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng was not dead. Whenever Murkazan thought of what happened last night, he wanted to cry. Initially, he wanted to work with other gladiators to eliminate their biggest threat in this show. However, not only did they fail to deal with the threat, they now thought that they had messed with a god.
The incarnation of the gods in this world was an ancient legend. Other than the demigods, no human beings could apparently defeat such an entity.
“You fell down?” Terufelos’s gaze was filled with suspicion. “How many times did you have to fall before you knocked out half of your teeth?”
Murkazan was speechless and could only put on an embarrassing smile. Fortunately, this embarrassment did not last long. Soon, the crippled Slav, in charge of welcoming gladiators from various schools, walked in again. “Get ready. After the beastmaster’s performance is over, all of you will fight your final battle.”
Terufelos nodded. He then raised the trident in his hand. “I’m ready to show you my strength,” he proclaimed.
Now that Zhang Heng was here, the other gladiators did not dare talk about claiming the championship. He was surprised that no one seemed affected by his positive spirit even after having said something encouraging and inspiring. Sartonilos and others were still half-dead. Terufelos started to wonder if they were weeping because their wives had died yesterday.
…
However, no matter how unwilling Sartonilos and other gladiators were, they had no way of avoiding the final battle. Zhang Heng stood up from where he was sitting, and the time in the lounge paused for a second. After that, Zhang Heng picked up his two Persian swords.
“Everyone, see you in the arena.”
Bach, on the other side, grinned and put on his helmet.
On the lift, the gladiators consciously left the middle position to Zhang Heng because they knew who the audience’s focus would be on today. Zhang Heng was probably the first gladiator who conquered the Amphitheatrum Flavium before the gladiatorial show was over.
The position next to Zhang Heng should have been reserved for Sartonilos, a promising candidate to win the championship himself. Other than Terufelos and Bach, who stood next to Zhang Heng, Sartonilos, Danaos, and others insisted on standing at the outermost area. And at the same time, they kept their eyes trained on Zhang Heng’s movements. They were so skittish to the point they seemed they would jump off an elevator to flee if Zhang Heng made a mode on them.
Although there were several lines of people between them and Zhang Heng, they still looked anxious.
Terufelos wanted to ask them if Zhang Heng could suddenly fly to them after standing so far away from him. And the next moment, the elevator began to rise. The slaves pulled the winches, sending the day’s protagonists from the gloomy underground to the arena.
The 90,000 seats in the Amphitheatrum Flavium were fully occupied, and the colorful satin on the poles fluttered in the wind, producing a pleasant sound. Throngs of people without tickets had also gathered outside the arena since early that morning, all there to witness the legend’s birth for the first time.
The entire city of Rome was empty on this day.
Not even when Sethnets was at his peak could bring out such a scene. And when the seventy-two gladiators finally appeared in the arena, the entire Amphitheatrum Flavium was flooded by the audience’s cheers.