48 Hours a Day

Chapter 757: Battle Arrangement

They were supposed to fight with their peers. Many of them were left in fear when Gaby told them that they had to fight with the school’s official gladiators. Undeniably, it was terrible news. Some, however, were not bothered by this change of rule. Among these was Bach.

He walked towards the spot where they were supposed to draw the lots, grabbed a wooden sign casually, and handed it to the trainer on the side. The latter looked at the name on the wooden sign. “Bach, play against Posthumus,” he said.

After that, he wrote Bach’s name on the other side of the wooden sign to mark the game arrangement for this round of the fight.

Bach grinned, “Tell that guy, wash up and wait for me!”

After speaking, he walked away from the lot-drawing table. When he stepped down from the stage, he did not forget to glance at Zhang Heng again. Gaby noticed that Bach kept on looking at Zhang Heng the whole time. He knew that Bach had fought Zhang Heng earlier and won the battle. What he did not know, however, were the specific details of the battle. He could not figure out why Zhang Heng irked Bach so much. For a while, Gaby was even a little suspicious of Bach’s sexual orientation.

Bach then drew the lot, marking the beginning of the assessment for everyone.

The hellish training had allowed Gaby the pleasure of everyone’s respect. Since he set the assessment, everyone could only bite the bullet and abide by the new rules. Not all were as talented as Bach. It seemed like he was not worried about the fight with the official gladiators. Without a doubt, the winner would pass the assessment. On the other hand, the losers might pass in the evaluation if they performed well during the battle. As long as they tried their best to fight their opponents, there was still hope for them.

Of course, this had a lot to do with their opponents as well. The best scenario would be fighting with someone who had just become an official gladiator. That would mean the gap of skill between both sides would not be that wide. Their win-rate would also increase if they fought with the gladiators that always lost.

Of course, the worst scenario was to run into venerable veteran gladiators who had rich combat experience. Usually, those battles would be over in a short time. The moment they found their opponent’s flaws, there was no chance for the opponent to fight back. In other words, the gladiator candidate would be unable to showcase the result of their intensive training, and the probability of them passing the assessment would be very low.

Zhang Heng waited until half of the gladiator candidates drew their lots before going up the stage.

To the others, Zhang Heng was simply unlucky that he had to go against a veteran gladiator named Garba. Thirty-seven years old this year, he was considered to be the oldest among the other gladiators. If he was still allowed to fight in the arena, that meant he had to be very good at what he did. At his age, his physical fitness had drastically decreased. Basically, he was relying on his combat experience to fight his opponents.

Looking at Garba’s record, he was a consistent fighter. Even though he could not defeat those grandmasters, he could rely on his combat experience to drag the battle and make it more exciting for the spectators. This kind of gladiator was usually known as the legendary newcomer-killer.

The biggest shortcoming of the newcomers was experience, or rather, the lack of. Whether it was control of the battle rhythm or the ability to react to critical moments, their trainers taught none of these. These were things they had to accumulate through battles.

Garba happened to be a gladiator with a lot of experience.

Unfortunately, he was about to meet a monster newcomer that would cause him to lose a battle. Let alone other aspects, even Garba with a lot of combat experience would be unable to defeat Zhang Heng.

...

Zhang Heng did not care much about the result of his draw. It made no difference to him who his opponent was. After looking at the name on it, he handed the wooden sign to the trainer and stepped down from the stage.

Varo was more nervous than Zhang Heng. His combat level was considered below average, meaning his chances of defeating his peers were extremely low. He was now asked to fight a real gladiator from the arena, causing him to be extremely anxious. After all, he had worked so hard and survived the hellish training. All his effort would be wasted if he failed in his assessment.

Varo took a deep breath and waited until most of the people knew who their opponents would be. He then walked to the lot-drawing table and drew a wooden card with his trembling right hand.

When he saw the name on the wooden card, and his face started to turn pale, and he was in complete shock. His right hand trembled even more severely now. And that was not it. What he did next was throw away the wooden card, ran to the side, and vomited his undigested breakfast from his stomach.

The trainer picked up the wooden card on the ground and looked at Varo with a hint of sympathy. According to the rules, he had to announce his draw’s result, “Varo’s opponent is Habitus.”

Everyone was left bewildered when they heard the name, and their eyes involuntarily landed on Gaby.

This had gone overboard. Let alone arranging for them to fight formal gladiators, making the gladiator school’s trump card fight with a candidate was an act of a bully. It was no wonder Varo started vomiting.

Earlier, Habitus managed to defeat Bach and humiliated him by making him fall to the ground. If he had fought with other gladiator candidates, they would have ended up a lot worse.

“Don’t look at me,” Gaby said causally, “Habitus volunteered to join the battle.”

That was only the half-truth. Habitus did mention to Gaby that he wanted to join the assessment and became the judge. And he pointed out that he only wanted to fight with Bach.

Habitus realized that the school had placed too much emphasis on Bach as their current trump card. Hence, Habitus felt that his status was challenged. So, he wanted to teach Bach a lesson, showing Gaby who was more worthy of the school’s investment.

Gaby, however, told Habitus that the final assessment would be based on a lot-drawing system. It had been done to ensure fairness and that there would be no predetermined opponents for the candidates. Gaby did not believe that Bach was ready to rechallenge Habitus after completing forty-nine days of training.

Habitus thought this matter was over. He did not expect that Gaby would mess with him by including his name in the lot-drawing box. Just when he was about to find a place to have a good drink, Gaby had sent someone to break the news to him about him having to fight someone during the assessment tomorrow. Also, his opponent was a rookie named Varo.

Habitus was furious when he heard the news.

...

Meanwhile, the last gladiator candidate had drawn the final lot, marking the end of the lot-drawing session.

Everyone’s mood was different when they saw the opponents they had to face during their assessment.

Gaby then clapped his hands again to attract everyone’s attention. “The assessment will begin tomorrow morning, and the master will come over to witness your training result. I hope you can perform well. And you can ask your trainers about your opponent’s information. Everyone needs to be ready to face the battle tomorrow. Do not let the master down.”