Zhang Heng walked out of the crowd and took the wooden weapon handed to him by the trainer.
Immediately, everyone focused their sights on him.
Although they had gone through forty-nine days of hellish, high-intensity training, everyone had improved a lot compared to when they first came to the gladiator school. However, judging from the results of the first two rounds of battle, the newcomers were still not as promising as the official gladiators.
If Griff suffered from a terrible defeat, then Galata’s defeat could only be categorized as purely miserable. At present, the rookie’s score was zero to two, with the official gladiator on the winning side. After witnessing Galata’s fight, the atmosphere on the rookie side had become a whole lot more tense.
As for the upcoming battle, Zhang Heng was still on the unpopular end. Apart from the fight with Bach, he had left hardly any special impression on the others; his performance during the training merely satisfactory. Among the newcomers, he was considered average and not very eye-catching. On the other hand, his opponent Garba was a veteran gladiator.
With his age came heaps of combat experience.
He became a gladiator when he was twenty-eight years old. After that, he worked as a gladiator for nine years. Considering that a gladiator’s average age was only twenty-five years old, Garba’s career could be regarded as a miracle. His situation was similar to Varo’s, where he became a gladiator to pay off his debts.
In his third year of being a gladiator, he managed to pay off his debts. After that, he went on retirement for half a year. Due to personal reasons, he returned to the arena half a year after his retirement, and he had been a gladiator since then.
In the past nine years, he had witnessed the rise and fall of countless heroes, even getting to witness the legend of Sethnets. He did not have too many glorious battle records, but with his conscientious working attitude and the time he spent working as a gladiator, he managed to attract a group of regulars that would come and watch him fight no matter what.
And he was also known as the evergreen tree of the Victor Arena. There was also speculation among the audience if Garba would die fighting or rretire. Always one of the hot topics in the Victor Arena, some people had even started to bet on it.
Garba and Zhang Heng then came to the stage together, where Garba gave Zhang Heng a smile. In turn, Zhang Heng smiled back politely.
Garba was a little surprised by how Zhang Heng reacted. He was there to watch the performance of the two newcomers earlier. Once a rookie himself, he knew the importance of the final assessment to them, and it was inevitable that they would feel nervous. However, when he looked into Zhang Heng’s eyes, he saw no nervousness in them. In fact, he could not see through him at all.
The latter’s eyes are were as calm as the starry sky at night.
Garba did not have time to overthink it because the trainer had signaled them to start the battle. Zhang Heng did not make the same mistake that Galata made. He did not take the initiative to retreat before the battle began, and he did not put on a defensive position like Griff did either. Instead, he took the initiative to approach Garba at the beginning of the fight. He did not attack him immediately, though, changing into a defensive posture right when he was about to enter Garba’s attack range.
Gaby nodded unconsciously when he saw this.
This was the best move a clear-headed gladiator candidate would make during a battle. Although the gladiatorial performance required both gladiators to fight against each other, it was still a form of entertainment. A good gladiator would not merely focus on pursuing victory, but he also needed to consider the spectators’ preference. Sometimes, they could even use this to open a way to their victory.
On the surface, Zhang Heng and Griff had the same combat strategy. They both defended first and fought steadily after that. However, the two steps that he took earlier were enough to build the audience’s excitement.
The former looked like he was going to drag the fight, but the latter passed on this trouble to his opponent. As the oldest gladiator in the Victor Arena, Garba certainly realized that he had to attack now no matter what. So, he decided not to wait any longer. Initially, he had planned to stay and figure out Zhang Heng’s strength before attacking.
Compared with the newcomers, this group of official gladiators who were tasked to evaluate their opponents had a downside as well. They knew almost nothing about their opponents. There was nothing strange about this. After all, they were newcomers with no combat record, save for Bach, regarded as the school’s future trump card. Since none of them were famous, the official gladiators had no way to check out their backgrounds.
Zhang Heng’s fighting style, his strengths, his weaknesses… these were all unknowns to Garba until the moment he attacked Zhang Heng. Hence, he became very cautious when two of them were asked to fight. Most of his attacks were mainly aimed at probing Zhang Heng.
As the opponent, Zhang Heng also responded with the standard moves taught by his trainer. Although there was nothing too impressive about them, at least he did not make any mistakes. After that, Garba began to increase his aggressiveness as his plan gradually failed, attempting to pressure Zhang Heng into revealing his weaknesses.
This was also the method used by veteran gladiators to deal with the newcomers. Many newcomers could deal with their opponent better if their opponent took their time to attack them. However, if their opponents started to attack them aggressively, they would have a shorter time to think, and it would cause them to panic. At such a time, the veteran gladiator could rely on his survival instinct to take over the body. This was something the newcomers could not do.
Besides, Zhang Heng was a gladiator that used two swords, and he was not good at defense. As for Garba, he was a Murmilo, and the only weapon that he had was a short sword. Other than that, he was given a shield the height of half a man to defend himself.
And with Garba’s rich combat experience, a short sword was enough for him to defeat the young man before him. Sure enough, when he started to put pressure on him, Zhang Heng also gave up on his defensive position and started to attack him.
Their battle was not that exciting so far. Mark Reuss was so bored that he did not even bother to eat the figs on the second floor. Gabi, on the other hand, was paying full attention to the battle. An amateur would see this as an ordinary fight, but only an expert would know this battle’s quintessence.
Gaby saw that Zhang Heng had not made any mistakes so far. In fact, he seemed to have managed a calm and clear mind when faced with different scenarios. This was an extremely rare advantage. Such an ability was not something newcomers usually achieved.
Griff and Galata were the best examples. Compared with the two, Zhang Heng’s opponent was Garba, the arena’s living fossil with ages worth of combat experience. However, Zhang Heng did not allow himself to be affected by Garba’s fighting rhythm.
Suddenly, Gaby started to have a slight interest in this eastern man that he had not paid much attention to. And he also remembered the scene when the two met for the first time. He wanted to scare Zhang Heng with a whip, but Zhang Heng seemed to know that the whip wasn’t long enough to reach him. So, he did not even blink.
A gladiator with outstanding psychological quality?
Gaby felt it was expected that he did not pay too much attention to him earlier.
Maybe Gaby finally had something to look forward to?
