Final Battle

"Giant" Theophilous was an out-of-town gladiator and was naturally excluded by the gladiators within the city. Still, Saturnilos valued his strength and had sent someone to sound him out, only to give up on recruiting him after receiving no response. Thus, Theophilous had not taken part in last night's assassination attempt.

That was why he froze for a moment when he entered the lounge early that morning. The atmosphere here was somewhat strange.

Of course, it was not as if the atmosphere had not been strange before. After all, Saturnilos's little maneuvers to form cliques had not escaped his notice, while Zhang Heng had the air of someone who wanted no one near him. The two sides had been at daggers drawn, and the entire lounge had been filled with the smell of gunpowder.

But today, that smell of gunpowder had vanished.

Theophilous was rather baffled and even glanced specifically toward Saturnilos. The latter sat there with an ashen face and seemed uneasy, like a greenhorn about to enter the arena for the first time, constantly touching this and fidgeting with that.

What the hell are they up to now? Theophilous frowned. After the previous rounds of eliminations, those who remained were all formidable experts. Next came the main event, where needle would meet awl and trump card would face trump card. Yet rather than conserving his strength and preparing properly for the coming battle, Saturnilos looked completely distracted.

And he was not the only one. There were more than a dozen others like him, including favorites to win such as Danaos and Alexois. All of them looked as though they had not slept well, listless and drained of energy.

Only the Easterner sitting in the corner seemed no different from before.

What exactly is going on?!

In Theophilous's view,