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Chapter 760: 760

Chapter 760: Victor Arena’s Evergreen

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?

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