Chapter 50 Where is the Emperor?
The fight soon began.
The sledgehammer and the ant bull gradually approached each other until they stopped ten meters apart.
"start!"
The two gladiators immediately began fighting after the order was given over the radio.
The battle was not gradual, but fierce from the start.
Although the ant bull's body was huge, it was extremely agile and nimble. He slid in front of the sledgehammer and cut off his left hand with one blow.
But this was a flaw that Heavy Hammer deliberately exposed. He took advantage of the moment when the Ant Bull had just finished its attack and was unable to evade quickly to grab his right leg, and the pincers on his arm quickly turned to twist off the Ant Bull's right leg.
The two men quickly distanced themselves amid the cheers of the audience.
The ant bull bounced to keep its balance, while the hammer picked up the broken arm from the ground and placed it in the storage box sewn to its back.
As the audience's cheers gradually died down, the two began the next round of confrontation.
"Go to hell!" The ant bull roared and charged, jumping hard and rushing towards the sledgehammer, with the two knives on its arms ready to pierce flesh and metal.
The heavy hammer was also charging, but his speed was even slower than the ant bull jumping on one leg. However, he was more powerful, roaring as he ran: "Bless me, the champion of bravery!"
With a roar, the speed of the sledgehammer became faster and faster. He knocked the ant bull down before it could even react, and smashed the ant bull's head with the pincers on his arms.
The ant bull's head was deformed after the first blow.
After the second blow, the ant bull's face was deeply sunken.
After the third blow, the ant bull's head exploded.
The hammer stood up from the pool of blood, held up the body of the ant bull and shouted to the audience: "For the brave champion!"
The audience cheered and applauded even louder, cheering for the winner of the fight.
Hammer did not leave the ring. He dragged the ant bull's body off the ring, and then walked in front of a circle of iron railings outside the audience seats, showing off his achievements and the miserable body of his enemy.
"This guy is really brave. He is willing to sacrifice his arm to save the enemy's life." Klein stood up and applauded.
Gray looked at Groot on the side. He thought Groot would like this fierce fight very much, but he found that he was trembling with astonishment.
"Antara!" Gray shouted to the hammer, "It's me!"
Hearing the name Antara, Chongchui immediately turned his head and looked in the direction of the voice. He saw an officer and two men wearing power armor.
Then Grote took off his helmet, rushed to the edge of the stands and waved at the hammer.
Hammer threw away the ant bull's body, jumped up and waved hard at Groot. The two shouted to communicate, but their voices were soon drowned out by even louder cheers and applause.
Groot pointed in the direction where the heavy hammer came out when the fight started, and used gestures that only the two of them could understand to indicate that he would go over there.
But Chongchui just shook his head solemnly and turned away.
...
Backstage at the arena.
In order to reward the winning Hammer, the arena implanted a new prosthesis in the Hammer's broken arm. This prosthesis does not have the functions of a normal arm, it is just a knife that can release electric current.
When implanting the prosthesis, Chongchui saw Groot coming with a female guide.
Groot came here on his own. He had asked Gray and Klein to return first to prevent them from getting involved in any trouble.
After seeing Groot, Heavy Hammer immediately stood up, dragged the half-implanted prosthesis over, and knelt in front of the female guide: "Teacher."
The female guide nodded with satisfaction and introduced Grote: "This is the guard of the commander of the First Army. He said he wanted to meet you, the brave gladiator."
"Yes." Hammer bowed his head and knelt down to Grote. "My lord, I salute you."
"Antara...you...I..." Grote trembled and stammered, and after a long time he couldn't squeeze out a complete sentence. Finally, he turned his head and looked at the female guide: "I need to be alone with him."
"Of course." The female guide nodded and left with the others backstage.
After everyone else had left, Chongchui dared to stand up and hug Groot: "Brother... my brother..."
"You...what have you been through?" Groot felt his brother's half-cold metal body and didn't even dare to guess what he had been through.
The hammer did not answer immediately.
The two muscular men hugged each other and cried bitterly, their tears and snot flowing onto each other's power armor or metal shoulders.
After Chongchui had cried enough, he pulled Groot to sit down and told him about his experiences during this period.
The day after Grote entered the bottom nest, an officer suddenly came to his house and said that he had become a traitor on the front line and had defected to the rebel side.
As the family members of a traitor, Chongchui and her sister had to pay a redemption of five hundred throne coins. However, a soldier's monthly salary was less than twenty throne coins. It was obvious that they could not afford it.
Then the five hundred throne coins became the debt of Heavy Hammer and his sister. Both of them were sold to the guild. His sister disappeared, and Heavy Hammer was transformed into a slave of the Deep Pit.
"A week ago, I killed the overseer and escaped. Then I was forced to join the arena. After two days of training, I started fighting." Heavy Hammer lowered his head and looked at the ground, with uncontrollable anger in his tone. "I named myself Heavy Hammer. A good middle-aged gladiator led me to believe in the Brave Champion."
After saying that, Chongchui took out a statue from his arms.
The statue depicts a gladiator holding a prisoner in his right hand and a string of skulls in his left hand.
"No... You cannot betray the Emperor... I fought alongside the Emperor's emissaries in the Underhive, and you believed..."
"Where is the Emperor?"
Groot's words were interrupted by the hammer. The serious brother stared at his brother, paused for a few seconds and asked again: "Where was the Emperor when they said you were a traitor? Where was the Emperor when they sold our sister? Where was the Emperor when I was transformed into a slave in the pit?"
Grote was speechless when asked.
"The Brave Champion has given me power. I can't leave. I can only stay in the arena and sacrifice my blood to this great god." Heavy Hammer said as he put the statue of the Brave Champion in his arms.
"But...but the Emperor's messenger saved me...If it weren't for him I would never have been able to leave the Underhive..." Grot suddenly came up with a reason to defend the Emperor.
After hearing this reason, Chongchui glanced at his brother and said calmly: "Perhaps the person who saved you is also a god, or a messenger of another god who is willing to bestow grace on the world. No matter who he is, he is much better than the slave owner on Terra who doesn't even want to fart."
Groot thought silently, and he remembered that there were indeed people who worshipped Qin Mo as a god.
"I'm going to participate in the next fight." Chongchui stood up and walked towards the arena.
"You have to come with me." Groot held his brother's shoulder. "The commander will replace your body with a better one, so that you can be like a normal person. We will go together to find Maya, and then our family will live in the bottom nest."
"Will they let you take me away?" Hammer looked towards the door.
"Of course they won't." Grot took the gravity hammer from his back and put it in the claws of the weight. "But I have to take you."
Looking at his brother's power armor and the hammer he put in his hand, Heavy Hammer thought for a moment and nodded: "We are going to find Maya, and then we will be together as a family like before, but before that I have to take revenge on those bastards."