?After Nova’s mother’s “debut battle,” the storyline of “Dragoness’s Dream” shifts to the gladiator’s day-to-day work, performing mutual combat for the entertainment of the audience in the arena.
Renji, still playing the role of a gladiator, goes along with the progression of the story.
“Don’t kill me, I surrender! I surrender!”
Renji’s first fight arrives quickly, and unsurprisingly, his opponent, another gladiator, is on his knees begging for mercy, continuously kowtowing with tears and snot mixed on his face, looking as wretched as one can be.
The audience, seeing this, shows disdain and disgust, cursing the bettors who wagered on this gladiator, while those who bet on Renji shout excitedly, urging Renji to quickly execute his opponent with a final, fatal blow.
But looking at the gladiator kneeling before him, showing such a pitiful face, although knowing these are just NPCs in a dream, Renji still cannot bring himself to kill him and prepares to turn away.
However, at the moment Renji turns around, the gladiator who had just been crying and begging suddenly changes expression to one of ferocity. With eyes reddened, revealing a crazed intent to kill, he pulls out a dagger he had prepared in advance, aiming for the heart of Renji’s back.
“Die!”
The gladiator, charging with the dagger, shows a fierce determination mixed with excitement. He thinks Renji foolish for letting him go and leaving his back unguarded, almost visualizing his own victory.
Turnarounds in desperate situations often result in greater rewards, with greed and bloodlust filling the gladiator’s mind. The audience, too, gets excited by such a twist, where a strong contender is taken down by a weaker one due to carelessness, a scenario the audience never tires of.
Unfortunately for the attacker, Renji doesn’t even need to look back. His companions, 86 and Control Number One, immediately cover the sneaky gladiator with firepower. The gladiator doesn’t even touch the hem of Renji’s garment before being turned into a sieve, dying miserably on the spot.
To the audience, this scene appears as if Renji elegantly countered and then mercilessly executed the gladiator.
The stands erupt with cheers. The audience isn’t scared by the gladiator’s gruesome death; instead, they find it thrilling. This is what they came for. What’s an arena without killing and bloodshed?
After winning the match, the dream scene shifts quickly, and soon Renji is standing in the arena again, ready for a new competition.
This time, the audience coming to watch his match is significantly larger than before, indicating that in this story, the character he plays has already become a promising newcomer.
So, the gladiator opposite this time seemed to know he was no match for Renji, showing no intention to fight Renji at all, approaching the entire fight with a demeanor of seeking guidance, continuously calling Renji a senior, and after being easily defeated by Renji, he was full of praise for Renji’s martial skills, completely willing to admit inferiority.
This gladiator clearly had studied Renji, knowing that as long as he did not provoke Renji, he could lose and still save his life, which is extremely rare in the kill-or-be-killed arena.
Indeed, Renji had no intention of killing his opponent. As he turned to leave the arena, the gladiator did not attempt any sneak attack but instead respectfully watched Renji leave without moving an inch, afraid of any misunderstandings from Renji. 𝑖𝘦.𝒸𝘰𝘮
Naturally, this “boring” fight led to great dissatisfaction among the audience. They did not come to see a harmonious and injury-free arena.
After this match ended, when Renji thought he was about to go into the next one, the dream scene around him changed, and he found himself in the position of the audience.
Looking down, Renji saw two gladiators fighting in the arena, one of whom Renji recognized as the opponent he had spared before.
Now, this gladiator no longer displayed the humility he had in his fight with Renji because his opponent was clearly less skilled than him. After a fight, his opponent was impaled through the abdomen, clearly losing the ability to fight. 𝘪𝘳.𝒸𝑜𝑚
“Please, spare me, I surrender. I have a family waiting for me to support them, including a five-year-old daughter. She can’t be without a father, I, I can’t die, please.”
“Didn’t Lord Renji spare you before? You, you must too.”
Before the defeated gladiator’s pleas finished, he was ruthlessly decapitated, his blood gushing out, staining the arena’s sand red.
The gladiator Renji had once spared had no intention of emulating Renji’s mercy. The polite demeanor he showed against Renji was now nowhere to be seen.
He became bloodthirsty and ferocious, choosing the most brutal method of beheading, simply to evoke strong applause from the audience, receiving rewards from the pleased wealthy spectators.
Renji felt uncomfortable watching this scene.
If he had not spared this gladiator before, maybe this father would not have had to die?
‘No’
Renji quickly understood that it had nothing to do with his decision to kill or not kill. This is the cruelty of the arena, where survival of the fittest is the only rule, and any moral constraints are a joke to the arena.
The destiny of all gladiators is to entertain the audience through killing. It’s an artificially created breeding ground, where the “insects” inside have no right to resist or choose, only to kill each other endlessly.
Quickly, Renji’s dream scene changed again. This time, the arena appeared especially grand, absolutely packed, with countless spectators even willing to stand in the gaps between seats to watch.
Each tournament held in the arena is an elimination contest, with the final battle between the two strongest gladiators of the tournament to determine the true champion of the arena.
Such a final is almost the annual highlight of the arena and a major event for the Gulase base, not only attracting regulars but also many civilians eager to witness the combat between the strong.
This year’s final was touted by the officials as the most significant match in decades. In addition to the usual privilege of the winner making a request within the officials’ capacity, the prize money was significantly increased to motivate the competitors.
As one of the two strongest competitors to emerge from numerous gladiators, Renji was naturally one of them.
And the other…
Renji looked across the arena at a middle-aged Dragonkin woman who was also looking back at him.
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