Senator Viridius led his daughter to their chairs which were located right next to Caius. In the power hierarchy of senators, Caius stood at the top with his head of senate position while Viridius stood only next to him with his position of senator of defense. They both held two of the most important ministries of a kingdom, Finance, and Military. The voting for electing senators was one of the important events in any senate ruled kingdom. Only noblemen had the right to vote. The number of senators in a kingdom varied from kingdom to kingdom. In Gisal, there were six senators. Hence, in Gisel, the first six candidates with the most votes would become senators. Among them who got the most votes would become the head. The Head of the senate had the power to choose a ministry for himself and assign ministries for the other senators.
Caius chose the Finance ministry because compared to the rest of the ministries, he could swindle more money in the Finance ministry. Defense ministry was the most stressful and problematic one, therefore, he assigned it to his potential head of senate candidate, Viridius. Over the years, Caius saw how Viridius is becoming older and older. He rejoiced inside because if Viridius were to die, there wouldn't be any competition for the head position in the future.
"Pity," Caius said to himself looking at Fabia in her wedding dress. He felt bad for the girl to die on the most important day of her life, her wedding.
"First of all, let's congratulate Miss Fabia who is about to become Lady Fabia Herius" The girl on the ground had a metal cube on her palm that amplified her voice loud enough to reach everyone in the arena.
The nobles whistled and clapped as Fabia kept waving her hand at them.
"Fabia" Viridius gestured at Fabia to seat herself before sitting beside Caius. While everyone's focus was on the bride and Viridius, Marcus took his seat without causing a ruckus. He sat on the last chair from the right beside Senator Quintis.
"I don't see the groom, Senator Viridius" Caius leaned towards Viridius,
"He's taking care of something for me, he'll be here soon" Viridius whispered. Viridius placed a trio of elite killers among Herius's security detail to kill him and the other spartans. Since Herius didn't make it to the wedding or his spies didn't see Herius coming out of the barracks, he thought the trio managed to do their job. WHat both Viridius and Caius didn't know was Michael and Gaya killed all of the security detail including the three killers placed by Viridius and kidnapped Herius. The trio might be the best killers gold coins could buy yet in front of Michael and Gaya, they were as weak as babies. At that time, Gaya didn't even notice there were three elite killers among them.
"He better be, it's his wedding after all" Caius was concerned about Herius. He didn't want Herius to escape and use what's about to happen as a trump card in his campaign if Herius chose to run for senate.
"Settle down my lords, my ladies. It's time to kickstart the celebration"
"Whoooooo!"
"Yeah!"
"Release the beasts!"
"Fight"
"Fight"
"Fight"
The nobles began to scream in excitement. Even the noble ladies stood up from their seats, the thrill of seeing gladiators fighting to death made their blood boil. The nobles became addicted to gladiator fights, it was their only entertainment. The nobles' lust for blood made them invest a large sum of their wealth in luduses. Even the small Ludus had twenty highly trained gladiators. This was one of the reasons why slavery flourished in the Southern Continent. The nobles encouraged the senate to go to war with nearby kingdoms so the loser's citizens would become slaves. From these slaves, strong males could be purchased to become gladiators by various luduses. Almost all the nobles and the rich would attend the yearly gala where they would bid for slaves who had the qualities to become a gladiator.
The girl on the ground grinned happily hearing their chant. She then stared at her left and right side. Both sides had eight feet iron gates. There were totally six-iron gates around the fighting ground. During big tournaments where six gladiators fight to the death, each Ludus would send one gladiator through one gate. They wanted the gladiators to meet each other only on the fighting ground.
As seconds passed by, the wind became hotter and hotter above the sand. The wind also revealed the skeletons of various animals such as bison, giant lizards, and lions buried halfway in the sand. One could even see human remains in the sand. The remains served as ornaments for the fighting ground. Some nobles even paid a hefty sum for the dead bodies of gladiators. They preserved various parts of the body, keeping them on a display.
"We have two proud luduses today with us to light up the ceremony. Give your warm welcome for Ludus Tulles Bantius Fuscus Of Yetopia and Ludus Drusus Vesuvius Arbutus of Lidora"
The moment the girl announced the names, the whole crowd went wild. They were two of the most prominent Luduses in the entire continent.
"Whoa, did I hear her right? Ludus Tulles and Ludus Drusus"
"Oh my god oh my god oh my god"
"Please let me see Lion Head!"
"Now I see why the ticket was priced this much"
"This is gonna be awesome!"
"Are they taking bets?"
"Do you think Ludus Tulles will let out the Lion Head to fight today?"
"Let's hope they will"
The onlookers began to chit-chat amongst themselves. The girl uttered no words, letting the hype build-up before revealing the fighters. Even from where she was standing, she could hear the nobles dying to see Lion Head, one of the most decorated gladiators on the Continent.
"Senator Viridius, you really went all-in with the ceremony huh?" Senator Arruns looked very surprised. Without his control, he had a large grin plastered across his face. To say the least, Senator Arruns was excited to see the gladiators who belonged to the most prominent luduses fight to the death for their entertainment.
Fabia, the bride, could barely hold her excitement. To her, the gladiators were an excellent specimen for experiments. After her failures with Titus and Optimus, she was looking for new specimens. If her father's plan went without a hitch, she would have some of the best gladiators to play within her lab.
"Don't get too excited Senator, this is just a glimpse of what I've in store for you today" Viridius smirked.
"We cannot wait to see" Senator Quintis laughed without having a clue about Viridius's real intention. While the Senators were staring at the women on the ground to announce the fighters' names, Viridius retrieved the pocket watch from his toga pocket to check the time.
Maxine noticed Viridius's checking the time. She knew he was checking the time to leave the stage when it's time for the explosion. As he was looking forward to the explosion, there would be one, just not at the time he was expecting.
"I won't take any more of your time, my lords, my ladies. Let's open the gates for Sextus, the eye gouger from Ludus Tulles" the east side iron gate slowly opened as all the eyes fell on the gateway to see the gladiator striding through the gateway.
The gladiator wore nothing but leather boxers with metal bracers and leather boots. He stood 6feet 4 inches tall. Except for the abs, he had clear muscle definition everywhere else. The half skull he wore as a hat on his head freaked out some of the people. As he was striding towards the center, he kept licking his bronze mace.
"The sweet scent of woman's flesh" Taking his tongue off of his mace, Sextus licked his own lips staring at the announcer girl. She tried her hardest not to show the discomfort on her face.
"And from Ludus Drusus, I welcome Lars, the lightning Whip" the west side gate slowly creaked open, getting all the attention.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
Gradually, they all saw a tall figure walking through the gateway, making cracking sounds along the way. Lars was not as muscular as Sextus, he had a lean body. Instead of a sword or any typical weapon made of metal, he had a long barbed whip in his hand. Hence the nickname lightning whip.
As he was walking towards the center, he kept attacking the ground with his whip. Each time he swung his whip, it produced a high pitch cracking noise.
"Hmm, I thought there'll be more audience," Lars said disappointedly looking around the nobles.
"It's good for you. Because less crowd means less embarrassment for you when I gouge out those pretty eyes of yours" Sextus taunted Lars. He raised his voice loud enough for the metal box on the girl's palm to amplify his voice. The nobles became excited hearing Sextus. The more blood and gore, the better for the nobles.
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
"Fight!"
The nobles began to chant again as the announcer girl took a step back before the two gladiators started to fight.
"I won't take any more of your time, gentleman. The battle will begin after the bell sound" palm
It took the girl a couple of minutes to reach the end of the fighting ground. Reaching the end, she opened up the wooden door that revealed stairs to the upper levels where she could see the fight from an elevated position.
The two gladiators didn't dare to start fighting before the bell sound. It was prohibited. In the best-case scenario, they would be starved for a week, and in the worst case, they would receive a minimum of two hundred whip attacks, starvation for at least two weeks, and battle beasts. For gladiators like them, fighting the beasts with starving stomachs was equal to a death sentence. Therefore, they patiently waited for the bell to ring.
"Human, are you ready to blow this thing up?" At that moment, Gaya was watching the two gladiators from the sky. She wore a white dress to blend in with the clouds in case someone looked at the sky.
"When you're ready" an evil grin emerged on her face after hearing Michael.