The figure of Mark Cruz reappeared on the balcony on the second floor after forty-nine days. This time, two female slaves, a Persian and a Parthian, waited for him to sit in the chair. .
But Marcruz didn't seem to be happy, because the attendance rate of the arena dropped again in the past two months, he had to increase the number of appearances of Habitus, which saved a little audience, but the greedy Ha Bitus also took the opportunity to ask him for more share and a promise to be cultivated as the school's ace.
On the other hand, Marcruz also heard the news from the front. It is said that the new emperor of the empire, Commodus, seemed unwilling to take over the stand left by his father Aurelius, and was preparing to negotiate peace with those Germans. It is not good news, because prisoners of war are also a very important part of his gladiator sources, especially high-level gladiators are often selected from prisoners of war, and he is now busy looking for Cisnatus As the successor, Marcruz can only pin his hopes on Bach now.
In addition, according to the usual practice, a grand gladiator performance will be held when the new emperor ascends the throne. In order to win the favor of the people, this performance is free. The performance location is the Flavian Amphitheater, the largest in the entire Roman Empire. The arena, funded by the royal family, used 80,000 slaves and took eight years to build. It can accommodate up to 90,000 spectators. Considering its age, it has to be said that this arena is a masterpiece in the history of architecture. Miracle.
But the arena alone is obviously not enough without gladiators, the latter being the highlight of the show.
Although the royal family also has a gladiator school, the scale is not large enough to support a grand performance. This requires several gladiator schools in the private sector. Of course, it is not free. After all, gladiators are notoriously expensive. However, because this performance is used to win the hearts of the people and does not have any income in itself, the cost will be borne by the organizer.
Of course, asking for money from nobles and His Majesty the Emperor is not as easy as asking for money from ordinary people.
If you want less, Marcruz will suffer a lot. If you want more, if you offend some big person, or His Majesty himself, he will never want to hang around in Rome anymore, so in general, Marcruz will choose small losses. Not only sold favors but also won't shed too much blood.
Regardless, it's a nuisance after all.
Marcruz came to inspect the goods with these messy troubles and dissatisfaction with the new emperor. He spent a lot of money on these slaves, and he had to know whether the money he spent was worth it.
The order of the battle was also drawn by lottery. After Gabi saluted Marcrus respectfully, he began to organize this assessment.
The fighting rules are similar to the usual gladiator performances, except that all wooden weapons are used. In one-on-one confrontation, each gladiator can only use one weapon. Sneak attack from behind is a behavior that will be despised by the audience. The other party can no longer attack after admitting defeat. In addition, there will be a trainer as a referee.
After confirming that everyone understood the rules, Gabi began to roll the roll.
The first pair to take the stage was a free gladiator named Griff. His luck was good. His opponent was a young man who had just become a gladiator for half a year. He was a little younger than him and had little combat experience. , but in the end the young gladiator won. However, the two fought for a long time, and it was considered back and forth. In the end, Griff was caught by the opponent and ended the battle.
Gabi commented, "Lack of concentration, it was okay for a while, but the more distracting thoughts become, and the attack is not decisive enough, it is a good thing to be cautious, but sometimes the situation on the field requires you to make quick decisions. , even a wrong decision is probably better than indecision."
Griff looked a little depressed when he heard this. He knew that what Gabi said was the truth, because he was a newcomer, and this was the final test that determined his fate. Will it be a trap, thus missing many opportunities.
But Gabi may have paused for so long because he was able to fight back and forth with his opponent, and finally spit out those two words, "Qualified."
Griff's expression suddenly turned from worry to joy, and Gabi didn't say anything, and let him stay in the room on the west side.
Following Griff is a slave named Gelata, and his opponent is a well-known gladiator with three years of combat experience. If Griff is cautious, then Gelata's The performance is simply like facing the enemy.
As soon as the opponent started to move, he couldn't help taking a few steps back. His fear of battle made Gabi frowned. Fortunately, Gelata soon realized that his actions just now were very detrimental, but after that he He made another big mistake. In order to make up for his previous poor performance, he actually changed his defense and started to attack with careless hands.
But his opponent was keenly aware of the flaws in his attacking moves, neatly dodged Galata's attack, and then put the training sword on the latter's neck. The whole process did not take much effort , and easily won the battle, Galata couldn't help but turn pale.
He looked at Gabi with almost pleading eyes, but the latter was unmoved, and said in an emotionless voice, "Bad choice of battle, rash and aggressive, on-the-spot adaptability is not as good as a pig, unqualified, the house in the east .”
"Please give me another chance for the sake of my hard training before. I am not ready this time. Next time, next time I will definitely not make this mistake again," Gelata begged after hearing the words He said, of course he knew what the house in the east meant, especially since he was not a free man like Griff, he could only go mining if he failed the examination.
"But death will never give you a second chance, kid." Gabi said coldly, and then he winked, and two trainers pulled Getara, who was almost collapsed on the ground, away .
And Marcruz on the second floor didn't say a word from the beginning to the end, and was eating a fig peeled by the slave girl beside him.
He didn't have much interest in the previous battles, and the only one he really cared about among the people below was Bach, because now it was the deadline he had agreed with Gabi, and he wanted to see the successor of Cisnatus How is it being trained by Gabi, but Bach's battle is arranged very late, and Marcruz can only wait patiently.
After Gelata was dragged down, Gabi spoke again.
"Zhang Heng, Galba, it's your group's turn."