Chapter 3
3330 Words
With the appearance of the female gladiators, a slight wave of sound resurfaced in the otherwise silent stands. Especially at the end, when Ajani appeared, there was a commotion among the spectators in the circular bleachers.
Standing in a group of women as strong as men, the blonde hair, white skin, petite figure of Ajani appeared even more eye-catching.
The men rose from their seats and leaned forward to get a better look at her. Some even left their seats and ran to the front of the stands, shouting at the center of the field. The female spectators, on the other hand, cast jealous and contemptuous glances at the beautiful alien woman who had sparked the men's commotion.
"Go to hell! Blonde witch from the Black Forest!"
The Roman women spat at Ajani, various curses escaping their lips.
The inspector of the arena came over and began to check the weapons of the female gladiators one by one, in order to prevent them from cheating in the match, the Romans, though cruel by nature, revered fairness. The Romans, though cruel by nature, prized fairness, and were not shy about sending their cheers and applause to the victors in the gladiatorial arena. In the last hundred years, there was only one gladiator who won a hundred matches in a row, and that person not only gained the precious Roman citizenship, but also got the appreciation of the head of state at that time to enter the army, and was promoted to the rank of officer, and finally retired from the army, but also became a slave owner.
After the inspector had finished his inspection, he ordered the female gladiators to turn to the VIP stand and salute those seated there - a sign before the fight began.
On the VIP table sat a row of about a dozen men.
The blazing sun shone directly overhead, and Ajani's blonde hair was like a golden flame, lighting up the gazes of all the men in the room, including the row of Roman men on the high bleachers across from her. They were dressed in purple-bordered togas, ornate gowns, and civilian uniforms.
This row of differently dressed men is the highest ruling class of the Roman Empire, which dominates nearly one-third of the world's population today.
The armor and spears on the soldiers guarding the sides of the VIP platform were bright and blinding in the sunlight, so Ajani didn't raise her eyes. Nor did she recognize any of these men, including the two men who had directly led her to the situation she found herself in today: Tumishen and Hannibal.
"Hail to the great Roman Emperor!"
According to the custom, led by the inspector's slogan, the female gladiators around Ajani saluted towards the VIP stage, and after finishing, the inspector was about to announce the start of the gladiatorial fight, when on the VIP stage, a man dressed in aristocratic finery and wearing a sword at his waist suddenly stood up from his position, pushed open the isolation door, and descended down the stone masonry steps, and walked to Ajani under the gaze of the entire tens of thousands of spectators.
He was about thirty years old, with decent features, but the puffy bags under his eyes made the whole face just a little bit more decadent and ferocious.
He stopped across from Ajani and watched her for a moment before a cruel smile grew on his lips.
"Listen, little b***h, I know how scared you must be right now, and that all your composure is nothing more than an act. I'm willing to give you one last chance. As long as you kneel to me now in front of the Romans, kiss my feet, and recognize me as your master, I will spare you the rest of your gladiatorial fight."
He moved to Ajani's ear and whispered.
This man, was Tumisen, the brother of Titus, the new emperor of Rome.
His voice was little more than a whisper, and the slave girl on the side wouldn't even be able to hear what he was saying.
But trying to guess what he was saying, it wasn't a difficult task.
The female slaves waiting to go down to kill each other looked at Ajani and showed envy.
Ajani's gaze, however, was leveled in front of her, not answering anything, not even batting her eyelashes.
She didn't know why she was denying herself another chance at life.
Perhaps out of the military nature in her blood, she would never accept such an absolutely unacceptable public humiliation in order to live.
Or perhaps, she was insisting on the original princess of the Kadi tribe's insistence - her soul had already passed away, and if she herself, who had possessed her body, were to dishonor her insistence because of her fear of death, even if she survived, she would still look down on herself.
Waiting for no response from her, the muscles of Tumishen's face twisted slightly.
"Then wait to die! Die to the cheers of twenty thousand Romans! Little b***h!"
He turned and strutted back into the stands.
Ajani subconsciously craned her head to look at the black woman in the group.
She was looking at Ajani with a mixture of surprise and something else that seemed to be carried in her eyes.
"Start-"
The inspector quickly ran off the field after waving down the small flag in his hand. The horns and leather drums dedicated to cheering from the stands began to beat closely together.
Without having to consider whether or not they were afraid or not, and with no time to allow for consideration, almost at the same instant the group of slave girls, who had slept in the same cell last night, raised their arms and began to swing their swords in their hands toward any of their companions around them whom they were sure they could cut.
Ajani's original fear vanished in an instant.
Now her whole body was tensed and her intention was focused like never before. She could not yet manage to actively raise the sword in her hand to someone else, and her only thought was to keep herself from getting hurt in the clutches of the swords that could come at any time from any direction.
Live as long as you can, for as long as you can!
The ferocity of the fight between women is definitely no less than that of men, especially in such an extreme situation, it's either you die or I die!
Soon, there was a woman was cut off an arm, screamed miserably when fell to the ground, by the side of another woman rushed up to make up the knife cut to death. Before this woman could pull out the knife that was deeply embedded in her shoulder bone, a third woman had already swung her arm and chopped off half of her head, red and white brains spilling out all over the place, and she collapsed with half of her shaking head on top of the corpse of the woman that she had just chopped to death.
Ajani's situation was even worse.
Apparently, everyone had decided that she was the easiest one to kill. Right off the bat, there were three women ganging up on her.
The only thing that was fortunate was that these women weren't specifically trained in fighting like the male gladiators.
They kill in a brutal and primitive way.
And Ajani had rigorous orthodox fighting training, which was why she wasn't hacked to death in the first place.
One woman raised her knife and slashed down at her head, she dodged to the side, the woman couldn't retract her knife and slashed into the back of the other woman's knife, and the two of them immediately became entangled. Before Ajani could catch her breath, a third person lunged at her.
The woman's strength is very large, Ajani was pounced on the ground, the woman while she did not get up when she sat on her chest, raised the knife towards her downward cut, Ajani violently raised her legs, clamped the woman's head and neck, force to the side twisted to the side of the fragile neck bone can not withstand the convergence of the whole body force of the lower limb force, click in the slightest sound, the neck bone was fractured, the woman's head tilted to the side, and then the body soft, the hands of the knife also fell to the ground. The knife in her hand also fell to the ground.
Ajani forcefully pushed away the woman who was still deadlocked on her, and when she wanted to get up from the ground, there was a sudden gust of wind from the back of her head.
She immediately realized that someone was sneaking up behind her, and when she tried to dodge, it was too late.
Her neck had even felt the coldness of the blade, but the expected damage did not come, instead it was hot, as if there was a spray of blood on her body.
It was this momentary delay that she had gotten out of her predicament and rolled over and leapt from the ground.
The woman who had just tried to sneak up on her fell to the ground writhing in agony, one side of her arm, along with her armor, cut off at the shoulder, blood gushing out wildly from the wound.
The one who cut off this arm was that black woman.
She too had been wounded, a stab in the back, and the blood kept flowing.
Ajani didn't know why she saved herself, but she did, indeed, save her life.
"I hate people like this who sneak up behind me! The one who slashed me in the back just now has already had his head cut off by me!" The black woman stepped forward and added a s***h to the neck of the woman with the broken arm, killing her, and then bared her teeth at Ajani, her face covered in blood, like a stern ghost-like appearance.
"Thank you!" Ajani shouted, "If you believe me, let's join forces against them! That way maybe we can hold out until the end!"
"That's right!" The black woman laughed, "I'll kill you at the end, and I'll get out of here!"
Without another word, Ajani gripped the sword in her hand and quickly stood back to back with the black woman.
This two-person hugging tactic immediately exerted great efficacy. Both she and the black woman no longer had to worry about the deadly sneak attack that could come from behind at any time, and only needed to deal with the enemy in the front.
The black woman was very powerful, Ajani was good at close combat, the two of them worked together to kill more and more ruthlessly, the enemies fell into a pool of blood one by one, and in the end, Ajani also threw away all the rules of behavior taught to her by the previous world.
She completely threw herself into this inhumane game, transforming into a killing machine - according to the rules of this game, if she didn't kill others, they would stab her body with their swords in the next second.
Her hand even shook a little when she killed the first woman who attacked her and drew her sword, hot blood splashing onto her face with it. But having killed so far, she had lost track of how many people had fallen under her sword. The only action was to mechanically stab the sword into the opponent's body with all her might and then pull it out without blinking an eye.
There was blood everywhere, broken limbs and arms, shattered armor, corpses everywhere, as well as the pained groans of the fallen wounded, the situation was so tragic that it was comparable to hell on earth.
Ajani's leg was injured and she couldn't support herself and fell to the ground. Her whole body was stained with blood. Couldn't tell if it was her own or someone else's.
The brutal melee finally came to an end, and at last, when Executioner Hubie pulled his sword from his opponent, all that stood on the field of yellow sand was the black woman and Executioner Hubie.
The original shouting and clamoring stands were quiet at the moment, tens of thousands of eyes staring intently at the last two female gladiators still standing in the arena.
The black woman and the executioner should also be physically exhausted, the two confront each other, who did not take the initiative to launch an attack, taking advantage of this opening, breathing heavily, hoping to recover some physical strength as soon as possible.
The audience waited for a few moments, lost patience, once again began to drum and shout, a wave of sound higher than a wave.
The executioner glanced at Ajani, who had fallen to the ground gasping for breath, and, with his knife in hand, suddenly walked towards her.
"Die!"
The black woman suddenly roared and lunged at her.
The executioner fought the black woman instead.
She had significantly better stamina. After a few exchanges, a knife slashed at the black woman's left shoulder, and there was a clear sound of bones breaking as the black woman screamed and tumbled to the ground on her back.
A cruel smug smile appeared on the executioner's face as he raised his knife and lunged towards the black woman on the ground, about to give her one last fatal cut when Ajani, with strength she didn't know where she got, stood up amidst the audience's cries of surprise, leapt over and kicked the executioner from behind in the back of her knee socket.
Caught off guard, the executioner flopped to the ground as if he were a sack, and the knife in his hand flew out.
Upon realizing that she had actually been attacked by Ajani, she let out a howl of rage and slammed her fist towards Ajani.
This was just what Ajani wanted.
She couldn't compete with the executioner's machete, and had no chance of winning, both in terms of height and physical strength.
The only thing that had any hope of subduing her was close combat techniques.
The Executioner slammed her fist into the ground, Ajani rolled to the side to deftly dodge it, her fist slamming into the yellow sandy ground and sinking deep inside. Pulling out, she snarled and continued to lunge at Ajani, who once again dodged.
After a few times, the executioner's strength finally ran out, gasping for breath and growling in anger as he lunged towards Ajani once more.
The injured leg limited Ajani's flexibility in moving her body, and she was heaved to the ground, followed by a heavy weight on her body, as her massive torso had pinned her to the ground in a death grip.
"Stinking b***h!"
The executioner slapped Ajani hard across the face, picking up a broken sword stuck in the ground on his side and stabbing her in the chest.
A hush fell over the audience.
In the nick of time, Ajani suddenly grabbed two handfuls of yellow sand on the ground and smashed them towards the executioner's eyes. The executioner's eyes were mesmerized, screamed, raised her hand to subconsciously protect her eyes, when Ajani launched her force to overturn her, while she fell to the ground before she could turn over and get up, she did not hesitate to pounce on the other side of the body with her knees, her elbows were supported, and her neck was clamped on both left and right and twisted to one side with force, with a click, the puppeteer's neck was broken, and she lay spasmodic for a few moments on the ground and finally didn't move at all.
Ajani was exhausted, unable to support herself she fell to the ground again, panting heavily.
The whole room was silent.
Ajani looked over at the black woman who had fallen to the ground. She was still struggling and squirming.
With the last ounce of strength in her body, she got up and hobbled towards her, finally kneeling beside her and helping her to sit up.
"Stand up," Ajani said, "kill me and you'll get out of here."
The black woman had a deep wound on her shoulder and neck, and the blood kept pouring out.
She struggled to open her eyes and laughed strenuously, "Little b***h ...... really didn't expect that in the end, you actually won ......"
Ajani laughed along with her, but her eyes were so sore that tears slowly came out of her eyes.
She didn't know why she was suddenly crying.
For having finally survived?
For the end of this black woman who seemed like an enemy and friend that I met only yesterday?
Or, the rabbit's death, for the end of all these female gladiators who died here.
"I beg you something ......"
"Go ahead." Ajani said, "I'll do it for you as long as I live."
"My name is Maka," the black woman gasped, breaking off, "from a tribe called Berber in Africa (present-day Africa). I was not originally a slave. Three years ago, my husband was conscripted into the Minervia regiment to fight in the war, and never heard from him again, so I took my daughter with me last year in order to look for him, and after a great deal of trouble, I finally came here. I have heard nothing from him, and the money is spent.
One day, in order to fill my daughter's stomach, I stole two loaves of bread from the marketplace, and when I was caught, I was condemned to slavery and became what I am now. I dream of going out to find my daughter ......"
"What is her name? Where is she?" Ajani asked.
"Her name is Mania and she is eight years old. When we parted, I asked an acquaintance of a family in a village outside the city called Ashina to look after her for me ...... I beg you, you must help me find her and send her to her father, who I believe is still alive ......"
She suddenly gasped for air, a pained expression on her face, and her whole body gradually went limp.
The black woman died. Before she died, her hand still had a death grip on Ajani's hand and wouldn't let go.
Ajani bowed her head, tears dripping one by one onto the blood-stained yellow sandy ground.
Many slaves ran over, expressionless as they cleaned up the wretched battlefield.
Bodies were carried off, including the recently dead Maka.
With the entire audience watching, Ajani was brought to the VIP table by the Ombudsman.
This time, she finally got a good look at the row of Roman men sitting high above her head.
The middle-aged man in the center, wearing a purple robe, should be the new Emperor Titus.
To the left of Titus, was Tumi Shan, who had gotten off the stage at the beginning.
To Titus' right, sat a man in a civilian-style uniform. Around thirty years of age, with typical Roman-style short black hair. Stout body, broad shoulders, exposed arm muscles solid into a block, wrist tied black military-style wrist guards, as if hidden hidden at any time to burst the power of a thousand pounds.
His face, using words like handsome to describe it, was obviously not appropriate. There was no doubt that this man's features were as perfect as a statue of a god carved out of a Greek temple. But those who saw him would definitely not overlook the faint bloody aura emanating from his lanky body because of his face, an aura that only a professional military man possessed, indicating the disturbing and terrifying strength of this famous Roman general.
Ajani guessed that this Roman man should be the "General Hannibal" in the mouth of the scar-faced jailer in yesterday's cell.
- Writer
