Chapter 35: The Gambling Game (Middle)

The betting table was piled high with dinars, silver coins, and even a few gold coins, and the stakes for this match were higher than any of the previous ones. The arena administrator, who was used to seeing big scenes, was also unusually excited at this moment, he had never seen so many bets before. There were even some merchant squires who came from far away and bet on exotic gold jewelry. Little Fatty rubbed his palms vigorously, his pupils abnormally large.

 Inside the arena participating in the fight, there were Wakhan and Ramtuo who won in a row, the daughter of Valandia's exiled nobles, the little girl selling medicine on the street, the leader of the backstreet gangs, the slave warriors from distant tribes, the silverware store owner who fought bravely on the battlefield and killed the Imperial Commander, the mercenary family Jawole's Saeed, slaves dressed in rags, physically strong hans, and the Bedouin farmers who fled from the disaster, and so on, eighteen people in total.

 The eighteen people fought back and forth in the field, you attacked and I defended, he slashed and she shielded, attacking each other. Soon there were slaves, strong men, farmers, and a few others who were seriously injured and fell to the ground, crawling towards the fence and quietly watching the movements in the field. Every time Saeed of Jawohl's tried to slash someone with his sword, he was blocked by the others, either intentionally or unintentionally.

 In the end only five people remained in the field, Ramtor, Marena, the little girl selling medicine on the street, Sayid of Jawole, the mercenary family, Zayin, the leader of the gang in the backstreet, and Bog, the owner of the silverware store. Vahan leaned against the fence like the other slaves and peasants, his arms drooping feebly, a wail coming out every now and then as he stared silently at the battle between the few people in the field.

 The five people in the arena fought more and more fiercely, every time the longsword slashed at the leather armor, the screams of misery spread straight over the arena. Straight to the audience on the stands heart trembling, they have never seen such a gruesome killing, the hands of the weapon big swing big Yang, gladiator or chop or stand, or run or cut, sword touch sparks splash, wooden shield blocking wood shavings tearing. Let a person screamed again and again.

 Sayid stood in the field and kept retreating backwards, scanning the other several people with the rest of his eyes. Even on the battlefield, Sayid had never seen people as brave as these four, so reckless of life and death, so brave to kill the enemy. Sayid also often stood in the arenas of various towns, participating in gladiatorial combat, but in today's arena, looking at the four people who defied death, Sayid slowly leaned back to avoid their sharp edges.

 Bleachers, fat Rada let the guards moved another table, set up only bet on the field of five people bet. Continuing to yell loudly and vigorously, the figures in the stands scurried and shouted. The dinars on the new betting table were increasing.

 "Dang, dang," came the sound of two bells from the stand. Fatty Lada rang the bell twice in succession by the new betting table, shouting out of his mouth that it was overdue, as if urging the spectators to seize the bet through the sound of the bells, and as if urging the arena to seize the fight.

 The four men in the arena gradually drew closer to Sayed as they fought, and slowly, the four men surrounded Sayed by a wall. The four men sparred with each other from time to time. Ram Tuo whispered to Sayed as he approached him, "No matter who you are, after being hit, grab a hold of yourself and lie down and play dead. Otherwise you'll die for real!"

 Sayid looked like he understood something after seeing the several people dying by the far wall. Yet, he was still upset and angry.

 Being the leader of Javole, who had staked most of the mercenary clan Javole's dinars on himself, Sayed had traveled over to numerous towns in Asale, and every time he appeared in the arena, he was able to stand until the end and walk out of the arena with a smile on his face, walking out with a large amount of dinars in his pockets. Those arena administrators can only recognize their own bad luck for this stranger who suddenly appeared. How could Sayed not expect that this group of people was a deliberate setup by the arena?

 Sayed, after being smashed on the back by a lance, the whole body fell down diagonally, the whole lying on the ground no longer move. Sayed pounded the ground with both hands, his eyes widening in anger, but he didn't dare to let the other four people in the arena see it. Even so, Borg was still uneasy about this person, and used his shield to slap Sayid's legs. Sayed screamed repeatedly, dragging his legs to crawl in the distance, hatefully looking at the four people who feigned fighting, how he did not expect that he would one day become a companion within the arena, that is, injured and posted dinar.

 "Dang, dang, dang" the sound of bells on the platform once again came sharply. The battle between the four men in the arena became more and more intense, and suddenly one of them fell to the ground with a serious injury after being slashed.

 The remaining three people, between prancing and moving in the field, sword light and shadow, shocked the audience on the stands shouted repeatedly.

 "Dang, dang, dang." Another person fell to the ground after being hit hard by the wooden shield. The spectators who knew in their hearts that they had lost their bets sighed.

 "Dang, dang, dang." The longsword in Borg was knocked away, and Borg jumped up after two assisted steps and struck the remaining one with a painful blow from the wooden shield until the man was no longer moving.

 With that, the battle in the arena was over. The silverware store owner became the ultimate victor of the rodeo.

 After the battle, Lada paid out to those spectators who had bet correctly, but only a pitifully small number of spectators had bet on the well-mannered silverware shopkeeper. The streaking champions, Va and Ram Top, who had been heavily bet on by most of the spectators, lost early. In the stands, the squires of various merchant caravans, who were familiar with Saeed, bet their dinars on this Saeed, who had won in various towns and cities, not realizing that the leader of Jawohl was being beaten by a few young men who were crawling around.

 After the payout was completed, Rada used three bags to separate the dinars, silver coins, gold coins, and gold jewelry from the two tables, and the largest bag was handed to the soldiers in armor and weapons, and a few of the heavily armed soldiers walked quickly toward the main building after taking the bags. The arena manager consciously picked up one of the two remaining small and large bags. However, this small cloth bag was heavier than the thirty percent in any previous match. The arena manager was overjoyed, but it was not good to show it in front of the audience, carried the bag and hurriedly left the platform.

 Lada carried his sack and Edm and the two teams of ten mercenaries that followed him got up and left, quietly traveling to the waterfront area, only to sneak off to the Velvet Textile Factory again after darkness fell.

 Velvet Textile Factory has a large internal area, most of the members of the mercenary group and the teenage girls are staying here, Wakhan did not expand the production of the Velvet Textile Factory, the profit of velvet is really pitifully small. Only left a production line, so that the teenage girls have some work to do, barely able to live. Vahan simply part of its internal space transformed into a sleeping attic, below the attic became a warehouse for stacking goods. The area of the silverware store was too small, and most of the goods inside the silverware store were transferred to the velvet textile factory.