Chapter 79: the gladiator tournament

After waiting for some hours, Clark and the Camelotian soldiers were finally taken to another place in the ship. It looked like a hospital, as the background was colored in white and the people, they saw there were also on white uniforms. They did not know what happened next, as they were forcibly knocked unconscious after they received some weird injections.

…

Blink, Clark finally blinked open his eyes as he was greeted with the familiar white room and the people who were probably doctors on their white clothes.

“The warrior is already awake…,” they said some things to themselves that Clark didn’t understand before 2 soldiers came to carry him away. His head was feeling kind of heavy, as he was brought out of the room by the 2 soldiers.

He was brought into another room where a soldier sat facing him, he wanted to observe his surroundings but his eyes was immediately drawn to the soldier facing him. He recognized the man, as he was one of the 3rd rank high-grade soldiers who fought in the battle. All the Camelotian soldiers were brought one by one sequentially, as they all also faced the soldier.

“My name is Captain John,” he slowly said with a grin. “I know you are all curious about this fleets identity, don’t worry I won’t hide it. We are one of the subordinate fleets belonging to the Roman Empire organization”.

Clark’s brain almost short circuited on hearing this, “what the…, the Roman Empire organization?” He yelled questioningly in his mind.

“Oh man, I’m finished, it seems that all the bad luck of my lifetime are being stacked for me to face them consecutively all at once”. If there was a bar to display his chances of escape and survival, Clark could already see his scale go down below sea level.

Behind the big 5 organizations, organizations like the Roman Empire are the cream of the top powers above countries with high-grade military strength like Camelot. They are the only hegemons of this age, that are directly below the big 5. After the big 5, it’s them.

Only one country had the might to be called in the ranks of these organizations, U.S.A[The United States of America]. U.S.A was the only country that retained its identity and name after the great battle of supremacy. U.S.A and these few organizations, terrorized other countries during the great battle, but they were not able to enter the ranks of the big 5 at the end.

The Roman Empire organization, now focuses on organizing fighting competitions, by capturing soldiers as their gladiators. They are one of the only organizations, that mainly deals in entertainment in the international stage.

They groom gladiators, to fight with gladiators from other places in tournaments organized by any of the big 5. This time, Clark didn’t know if he should cry or laugh, “so I’m now a gladiator. What a chaotic life we live in”.

The Captain continued as he could not here Clark’s thoughts. “Normally, we don’t proactively capture 3rd rank high-grade soldiers, but the Sea Farers alliance is organizing a gladiator tournament in 2 years’ time. The scale of this tournament is going to be very big, and so is the reward. We naturally want to participate, so that’s why we are attacking fleets and capturing their soldiers”.

“Do not even think of escaping, as our doctors have planted explosive devices in your brains. Any stupid attempt at escape; Boom…, you’re dead,” he said with a grin on his face.

“Behave yourselves, we’ll train you further for a period of 1 year, after that you’ll undergo elimination battles before the survivors will be brought to the tournament. Try your best to survive, we would not restrain ourselves in terms of rewards if you win the tournament for your rank, dismissed”.

As they went back, Clark was completely lost in his thoughts, thinking about his situation, it was not looking good at all. No matter how strong and genius he was currently, there was always someone that was stronger, the one thing the world was not lacking right now was genius soldiers. Even the Lion king in the forest, strategizes before hunting an animal, as it knows that any tiny mistake could lead to its death.

No matter how strong you are, a moment of carelessness is all it takes for you to die. As during gladiator battles, the gladiators are not expected to wear armor or wield any exceptional weapons and gadgets.

It was not an advanced tech competition, it was a gladiator tournament, making it as primitive as possible will make it more captivating. Clark didn’t know what to feel, he didn’t even have to feel anything as it would result in nothing. He just had to try his best to improve as much as possible, during this short time frame.

When they returned to the hall, the other captured high-grade soldiers now looked at them with hostility, as they’ll likely become opponents in the future. Clark didn’t feel much discomfort despite their stares, he left the Camelotians, to sit at a corner on his own. He didn’t want to mingle with them, as they once treated him like a slave, a dispensable good.

He was kind of nervous and helpless, as since he came to the sea, his life was always being in the hands of others. He was a soldier, but don’t forget that he was also an 18-year-old. When they were captured, they were naturally striped of all their weapons and other gadgets.

“I guess the last dream I had was just an imagination Afterall,” he thought as the day quickly went by.

The next day, they didn’t waste time as training finally started training. Every soldier became obedient, as this was the Roman Empire organization, not Sparta, or any other small country.

They first went to write down their names, their rank as a soldier and the ring name they’ll like to be called. This time, Clark refused to change his name, he wrote Clark as he could not even hide it, if they wanted to really know his identity. He wrote his rank as a second rank high-grade soldier, he paused, when it came to where he’ll write his ring name.

He felt quite conflicted on what name to write, but he quickly decided as he just formed a name from his surname. He finally wrote, “The Stranded Dragon”. Dragon was from his surname Pendragon, he wrote stranded because, he was indeed stranded with unfamiliar fleets in the sea.

The Roman Empire organization really prepared massively for this training; a ship was left for them to monopolize as their training ground. Clark later heard some news that gave him discomfort a bit, he heard that there was actually some lunatics among them, who were not captured.

They either trusted their strength, or were too greedy for the reward, as they proactively came to offer themselves to the organization, to enable them participate in the tournament. The fleet actually held a total of 204, 2nd rank high-grade soldiers at the moment.

The number of challengers that he had to face intimidated him a little, but he quickly suppressed the feeling. “I already grew past that stage,” he thought.

From that day, he started his new daily routine of fighting and sparing with the gladiator robots stored in the ship for their training. They didn’t have to do any other thing, but to just train only.

…

It was just yesterday that the organization captured him, but now, Clark was already training in the ship for over 8 months. He already made a name for himself as one of the best soldiers in his rank, as he was holding the record for some of their training drills.

After some time, he already started appreciating the circumstances, that he found himself in. The phrase that, in every situation be grateful to God was the truth, he later confirmed.

His current situation was not to his will, but he already undoubtedly benefited from it. As the training resources provided by this organization was completely top notch, he could never access such resources in the Spartan republic. And most especially, he could never find such a good training environment, if he was still serving in the Spartan military.

So, to sum it up. This was simply a blessing in disguise, as the improvement he’d experienced over the last 8 months was mind blowing.

[Thanks for reading this chapter, I really appreciate. Happy Valentine to you all. If you love this book, please leave your power stones behind to support it.]