48 Hours a Day

The helmet of the murmillo was designed to protect the head of the gladiator. Weighing about four kilograms, it was air-tight, just like an iron can. There was a hole in front of the helmet that allowed the gladiator to look at his surroundings.

Usually, it was hard for the opponent to stick his sword into the observation hole because it was tiny, not to mention that the gladiator would be moving around too.

This required keen observation and precise power control to carry out such a feat. Looking at Zhang Heng’s previous fight with Garba, Zhang Heng had not possessed abilities like that just yet. In other words, it was simply a coincidence that Zhang Heng managed to strike his sword into the observation hole.

The referee checked again and confirmed that Zhang Heng’s training sword did pierce at Garba’s eye first, so he announced that the final winner of the battle was Zhang Heng.

After a moment of silence, the rookies started to cheer for him. Although Griff, first to step onto the stage, had passed the assessment, he still lost to his opponent. Until Zhang Heng defeated his opponent, the rookies had their first official victory.

And Garba was not just a random gladiator. He was a well-known gladiator in the Victor Arena. Zhang Heng’s victory had given a huge morale boost to all gladiator candidates.

At the same time, Garba took his helmet off. Although he shook his head regretfully, he was not very angry. At his age, he had seen all kinds of weird things in the arena. It was not a good feeling for a veteran gladiator to lose to a gladiator candidate, but fortunately, this was not a formal gladiatorial performance.

And until now, he did not think that there was any problem with the strategy he adopted earlier. In the end, he was unlucky that he lost the battle. He did not think his defeat was unacceptable because the probability of him encountering such a defeat was one in hundreds of battles. After the battle ended, he congratulated Zhang Heng.

“Congratulations, the next time we fight again, we will fight in an arena.”

“I am looking forward to that day.” Zhang Heng replied and then looked at Gaby, who nodded at him, “You pass the assessment. You can now go to the room at the west and wait.”

Although Zhang Heng’s luck played a big part in his victory, Gaby was quite satisfied with Zhang Heng’s performance. He then added, “Well fought. Keep up the good work.”

Zhang Heng returned the two training swords to the trainer on the side, stepped off the stage, and saw Bach and his Germanic brothers starting at him with their eyes wide open, and their breathing intensified.

They were the rare ones who had the privilege of witnessing two coincidences happening in front of them. No matter how ignorant they were, they now knew what happened in Zhang Heng and Bach’s previous match. One might call it a coincidence if it happened for the first time. However, if it happened again and again after that, it could no longer be considered a coincidence. There was a high chance Zhang Heng was withholding his strength and skills during the battle.

Although the process and outcome of the two battles were different, the way Zhang Heng turned the tide around was similar. If this was not intentional, then what was?

Seeing Zhang Heng walking into the hut on the west side, Bach secretly clenched his fists. He knew that there was still a big gap between him and Zhang Heng. Although he was confident that he could defeat Garba, he could never manipulate the battle in such a dramatic way.

Bach had lost in the battles before. For example, he lost to Habitus when he first entered the gladiator school, but he later realized that Gaby deliberately asked Habitus to beat him up when he was weak. The reason was that he wanted to put some fear in him.

And Bach had to admit that Habitus was very strong, but he did not think Bach was much stronger than him. If it was a life-and-death fight without being restricted by the arena’s problematic rules and referees, Bach did not think that Habitus would live.

As for Zhang Heng, he was the first person to make Bach aware of how large the gap between him and Zhang Heng was. No matter the rules and location, Bach did not think he could defeat Zhang Heng with what he had now. With the way Zhang Heng moved in the battle, Bach smelled something familiar from it.

It was like a beast meeting another beast in the jungle.

Although Bach knew nothing about Zhang Heng’s background, he could sense that Zhang Heng was just like him—a warrior that fought hard to survive on the battlefield. And the war that Zhang Heng had experienced was more cruel and intense. Bach, who experienced a cruel childhood, believed that only blood and fire could make a real man.

According to his standards, Zhang Heng was undoubtedly a real man.

Of course, Bach was not discouraged. The Germanic now felt that they were full of energy. Before that, he had no rivals among the newcomers in the gladiator school. He was the focus of the school. The moment he was demoted from a warrior to a prisoner and later forced to become a gladiator, he had lost all of his goals in his life. And now Zhang Heng’s appearance had just filled the gap for him.

So Bach felt that his blood was boiling.

…

After Zhang Heng won the battle “accidentally,” he did not stay at the assessment venue for too long. He followed the order and walked into the hut on the west side. This was originally a place to store weapons. Griff, who had just passed the assessment, was the only one in the hut. He was still drowning in the excitement. He was walking up and down in the house, and when he saw Zhang Heng came in, he greeted him enthusiastically.

“Did you also pass the assessment?”

Zhang Heng nodded, and he looked for a place to sit down. He and Griff were not that close with each other, so the two did not talk much. After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, a third person finally walked into the hut. He, too, had an ear-to-ear smile on his face. After that, the fourth and fifth gladiator candidates entered the room… As more and more people completed the assessment, fewer and fewer people were left on the training ground.

Those who were asked to enter the west room were extremely lucky. On the contrary, the fate of the people in the east room was not that great.

After a while, Bach also entered the hut.

No one was surprised that he passed the assessment. However, when his tall and burly figure appeared outside the hut, everyone could not help but be impressed him.

The main reason was that he passed the assessment too fast. The person before him had just entered the hit not too long ago. And now Bach was standing outside the hit. In other words, he did not take too long to defeat his opponent. And the most impressive part was that his opponent was an official gladiator.

And Gaby was very pleased with Bach’s outstanding performance. Judging from Mark Reuss’s smile on the second floor, it could be seen that he was very satisfied with the training that Gaby tailored for him. When Bach defeated his opponent, he was the first to stand up and applaud him. However, Bach did not look at him and walked to the west room before the referee announced the result.

This move was undoubtedly very rude. Surprisingly, Mark Reuss was no bothered by it. He even stopped Gaby from scolding Bach. He squinted his eyes and smiled, “It’s okay. It doesn’t matter. After all, he is our trump card, and it is only right that his attitude is different from others. Who do you think is more appropriate to fight with him in the opening match?”

Gaby then reminded him, “Master, the assessment is not over yet.”

Mark Reuss knew that he was a little too anxious. So he nodded and sat down again, “Then we will talk about it when the assessment is over.”