When the first ray of sunlight in the morning fell on the creeper on the balcony of the apartment, the city of Rome opened its eyes.
More and more people came out of their residences, especially the slaves and civilians with relatively low social status. They were the first to wake up, and they began a day of hard work to make a living.
Clanging sounds came from the workshop. It was the coppersmith hammering the bottom of the pan. The noisy noise also woke up his neighbors next door, but everyone had long been accustomed to this kind of thing. They got out of bed while cursing.
The slave girl walked down from the apartment building with a clay jar in her hand. She came to the huge jar by the wall and poured the owner's urine into the bigger jar. After a while, someone sent the collected urine to the laundry and poured it into the large jar containing dirty clothes.
There, the slaves of the laundry, who had been waiting for a long time, would jump into the vat and use their feet to step on the dirty clothes that were soaked in urine. Because the business of the laundry was so good, there were even emperors who began to levy taxes on urine.
After the slave girl finished pouring the urine, she rubbed her eyes, turned around, and was about to go upstairs. However, the next moment, she bumped into a teenager. The latter had been squatting by the wall, so the slave girl did not notice him. So the slave girl quickly apologized.
However, the teenager did not answer her. At this moment, he was concentrating on drawing something on the wall. It was two little people. Judging from their weapons and armor, one should be a fish-helmet fighter, and the other was a protector. Their names were also marked below, Bach and Rufus.
With just a few strokes, the image of the little man named Bach and the little man named Rufus appeared on the wall.
Next to this graffiti, there was another line of big words.
[The Victor Arena will present you with wonderful duel performances for three consecutive days from June 17 to 19. In addition to the dancers you are familiar with, Habitus and Nasika the Bone Crusher, there will also be a wonderful duel between Rufus the Black Sickle and the newcomer Bach. There will also be exciting beast fighting performances. The arena is equipped with a canopy, and the lower stands are sprayed with perfume. Everyone who attends will be given a small gift. It is your first choice for summer leisure.]
The youth finished the last stroke and took two steps back to admire his masterpiece. A satisfied smile appeared on his face. After that, he finally noticed the slave girl who was standing on the side and looking at him. The sunlight fell on the latter's eyebrows, giving her a golden edge.
So the young man also stretched out his hand and wiped the slave girl's face. Seeing the latter show a hint of shyness, he whistled, laughed, and ran to the next apartment wall with the dye and paintbrush.
…
He was not the only painter who promoted the new performance in the Victor Arena. In fact, there were many similar advertising painters in Rome. At that time, such small wall advertisements could be seen everywhere. Other than gladiator performances, there were also advertising slogans written by young girls to help lonely men solve their problems. There were bold words of love between young couples, harsh words from creditors, and accusations of unfaithful men …
The walls of these residential and public buildings, and even the tombstones in the cemeteries, were basically equivalent to billboards of that era. The messages on them were complicated. Other than that, there were also some people who walked the streets to distribute programs. Together, they completed the publicity work before the start of the gladiatorial show.
The audience who was interested in watching the show could get all the information about the gladiatorial show in advance. After that, they would have to worry about their wallets. For the Roman people who lacked entertainment, the gladiatorial show was no less attractive than S9.
On the other hand, the gladiators who were selected to participate in the battle were also making their final preparations.
Varo and Zhang Heng went through some cooperative training. The previous fifty days of special training were basically focused on their individual combat skills. The two-on-one combat should be slowly trained later.
This was also why all the newcomers felt that they were unlucky. Except for Nasika's group, even the weaker groups had basically gone through cooperative combat training. Zhang Heng and Varo had to start from scratch.
Varo also saw Nasika on the training ground. The latter looked even stronger than Bach. His arms were almost as long as Varo's thighs, and his entire body was covered in muscles. He was a hunter, a profession similar to the fish-helmet gladiators. They were both heavy-armored gladiators. He was equipped with a sword and a huge rectangular shield. Other than that, he also wore a half-body armor.
Varo saw with his own eyes that Nasika used his rectangular shield to knock an unlucky gladiator away during training. The latter broke two of his ribs.
"I finally know what broken bones mean … I don't want to face that guy in the arena," Varo said to Zhang Heng, who was next to him.
However, Nasika did not seem to think so. When they were training on the same training ground, he would make one or two provocative moves at Varo and Zhang Heng from time to time. Varo's mood finally improved a little when he saw someone on Bach's team provoking him.
This was actually a kind of tradition in the gladiator school. The seniors would often teach the newcomers a lesson in the first battle.
The night before the performance began, the gladiators prayed as usual. The gladiator school did not force the gladiators to believe in a certain god. However, most gladiators would choose to believe in the goddess of revenge, Nemesis. Of course, a small number of gladiators would believe in the goddess of victory, Viktoria, or the god of war, Mars. As for the Germanic like Bach, they also had their own gods that their tribes believed in.
However, Varo noticed that Zhang Heng did not pray, so he asked curiously, "In the East … are there no gods that you worship?"
"There are, but I don't really need them," Zhang Heng told the truth. In fact, he did not mind worshiping the goddess of revenge, Nemesis. However, he was now a candidate core member of the Balance Blade. Even if he was not very interested in the philosophy of the Balance Blade, he still had to respect Kreis, the god of murder and assassins. It would not be good for him to openly join his competitor's camp.
"…"
"I like your sense of humor. I feel less nervous when I'm with you," Varo said, putting the amulet engraved with Nemesis in his pocket respectfully. Varo respectfully put the amulet engraved with Nimesis into his pocket. "I will protect your back in tomorrow's battle."
"You just need to protect your front," Zhang Heng said.
"We will survive," Varo said in a firm voice as if he was cheering himself up.
"Don't worry, we will win."
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