Chapter 23 - Challenger

Chapter 23 Challenger

Gladiator School was surrounded by tall red brick walls. There were some training stakes set up in the school, as well as practice targets for archery. There were some other weapons scattered in every corner of the training ground.

As soon as Lin Lei arrived, he discovered that there were some invisible gazes that were constantly following him.

He lowered his eyes and walked to one of the wooden stakes to start training.

Not long after, a dwarf wielding a giant hammer walked up to the wooden stake next to Lin Lei.

The dwarf was only 1.2 meters tall, but his horizontal width was close to one meter, making him look more like a square.

His messy red beard was tied up with copper rings and hung down to his chest. His exposed left arm was tattooed with a large ship anchor, looking very wild.

Although on the surface, Lin Lei did not seem to be paying any attention to the red-bearded dwarf, his mind was currently spinning at high speed.

Yesterday, Tullius had suddenly told him that some of his classmates would be training with Daisy. From the basic information of his classmates that Tullius had given him, the person next to him should be Redbeard, a dwarf from Scand.

Dwarves were basically master blacksmiths, so they would not be reduced to gladiators in the

arena.

However, Scand dwarves were different kinds of dwarves. They were mostly engaged in sea plundering, and their martial courage and fierceness had spread throughout the

continent.

Even the mothers from Lin Lei’s tribe would coax their children to sleep by saying, “If you don’t sleep now, I’ll have the pirate dwarves take you away!”

Just as Lin Lei was reminiscing about the stories of his tribe, a disdainful, cold snort

came from his side.

“Hmph, that’s all you’ve got?”

“Same to you.”

Lin Lei lazily glanced at Redbeard, then

continued with his training.

“You’re just a lucky pretty boy who won two matches. What right do you have to talk to me like that?”

Redbeard picked up the hammer from the ground, his thick, carrot-like fingers pointing at Lin Lei. “Little rascal, today, Grandpa will teach you some manners.

“You don’t have to call me Grandpa if you want me to teach you manners. Look at your face. It makes my heart ache.”

Lin Lei clicked his tongue twice, then turned to look at Redbeard.

“Don’t talk back to me. If you want to fight, then fight. Otherwise, you’ll kneel down and call me Grandpa!”

Redbeard picked up his hammer and began to walk toward the training platform. Seeing this, Lin Lei raised his eyebrows and followed.

As Lin Lei and Redbeard stepped onto the training platform, more and more people began to gather below.

“Pretty boy, don’t worry. I’ll spare your life. No matter what, I have to give Tullius some face,

right?”

Just as Lin Lei was standing on the other side of the training platform, he heard Redbeard’s loud laughter.

“Then let’s see if you’ll give Tullius face or if you’ll ask me to go easy on you for Tullius’

sake!”

Lin Lei’s face still did not change.

“Hyah!”

With a thunderous roar, Redbeard charged toward Lin Lei with his giant hammer in hand.

“What a fast speed!”

Lin Lei was startled, and he quickly dodged to the side, avoiding the attack of the hammer.

Boom!

However, the training platform was not so lucky. The iron hammer landed heavily on the training platform, making a deafening roar. From the center of where the training platform

was hit, cracks spread out in a radial pattern. A large amount of debris flew into the air, making a bullet-like whooshing sound. The gladiators around the training platform saw that the situation was not good and

retreated to avoid the flying debris. Some unlucky ones did not manage to avoid it in time and had huge bloody wounds on their heads.

“I’ve heard that Redbeard’s iron hammer is

very powerful, but I didn’t expect it to be so much more powerful than the rumors made it out to be.”

“Of course, he’s won 25 matches before. I heard that some people have compared him to The Butcher and debated who would win if

they were to fight.”

“What did they say?”

“The guess is 50-50. Some people think that The Butcher can crush Redbeard with one palm, while others think that Redbeard can use

his big iron hammer to cripple The Butcher’s legs and then kill The Butcher.

“This has become an unsolved mystery. After all, The Butcher was already defeated by Bull Butcher, right?”

“That’s not necessarily true. If Redbeard defeats Bull Butcher this time, doesn’t that

mean that The Butcher was no match for him?”

On the broken training platform, Lin Lei and Redbeard’s battle continued.

Seeing that his hammer strike had failed, Redbeard wanted to continue.

Facing Redbeard, who was charging at him like

a small tank, Lin Lei bent his waist and landed on all four limbs. Then, with a sudden burst of

power, he leaped high into the air. The surrounding people only saw Lin Lei’s afterimage. It was like a long spear that tore through the air as he shot toward Redbeard. “Oh, oh, oh, this is the legendary form that Bull

Butcher used to defeat the minotaur! This speed is too fast!”

The crowd burst into exclamations.

“This speed is too ridiculous. I can’t see him clearly at all!”

“Hmph, you call this speed?”

A discordant cold snort came from the crowd,

and everyone looked at the source of the sound

with slight anger.

“Who’s that?”

When he saw who the speaker was, the anger

on the face of the person who had just

questioned the comer was replaced by embarrassment.

“Please forgive my rudeness, Cheetah.”

“It’s fine. But you have to know that there’s always someone better.” Cheetah smiled nonchalantly.

“Yes.” That person did not dare to refute. After

all, in terms of speed, Cheetah indeed had the right to be arrogant. Everyone’s gazes returned to Lin Lei. Before Redbeard’s hammer could even reach

Lin Lei, Lin Lei nimbly dodged it. Immediately afterward, he stretched out his sharp claws, clawing at the wrist of Redbeard who was wielding a hammer. Immediately, a wound so deep that the bone could be seen appeared on Redbeard’s wrist.

“Ah!” Redbeard could not help but let go of the

hammer. The hammer hit the ground, and the people around him were all knocked to the ground.

Lin Lei took advantage of this opportunity to

pounce forward, knocking Redbeard to the ground.

Redbeard struggled to get up, but to his horror,

he discovered that one of Lin Lei’s claws was pressed against his neck.

“I’ve lost,” Redbeard said dejectedly. “I’ll spare your life on account of Tullius.”

Lin Lei nimbly rose to his feet. “Bull Butcher, although your speed is average,

I find it interesting. Do you want to see who is

faster?”

Just as Lin Lei was cooling down, a voice rang out from behind him.

He turned around and saw a creature that had

the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse.

Lin Lei quickly recognized this figure to be a centaur known for his speed, Cheetah. Cheetah was a centaur from Gaul. His weapon was a spear, and he had good tactics. Just as Lin Lei was about to engage in battle, a

voice suddenly rang out from far away. “Very good, you guys are very energetic.”