Ackerman's desire to change his gladiator ultimately failed to materialize.

Since the arena manager had just been executed by the king, no manager was willing to take any risks that might result from acting on their own initiative at this critical juncture.

This means that Ackerman and Kasper's battle against the two barbarian sisters will proceed as scheduled.

That same evening, upon hearing the news, seeing Ackerman pacing anxiously with blisters on his lips, Todd advised him, "If you're worried about the awkwardness of meeting them, you'd better explain it to them before the match."

"The awkwardness of meeting?" Ackerman shook his head as if it were springy: "I don't care about such trivial things as my identity being exposed. What I'm worried about is the gladiatorial combat!"

Kasper wiped the tower shield and muttered, "Let me make this clear beforehand: I won't show any mercy to women."

Ackerman picked up a pebble and threw it at his shield, grumbling, "If you don't speak, nobody will think you're mute!"

Todd touched the bridge of his nose and said, "I don't quite understand. When you were fighting those sisters, if you had just gone easy on them, like in our fight, wouldn't it have been fine?"

Ackerman and Kasper looked at Todd in surprise, seemingly not understanding why he would make such a suggestion.

Kasper closed his eyes, pursed his lips, and hummed in a nasal tone, "It won't work, it won't work."

Ackerman patiently explained to Todd: "A gladiator's fate is not in his own hands; the real decision-maker is the audience. If you perform poorly or even fight passively, even if you survive to the end, the audience has the right to demand that your life be taken away."

"In the last gladiatorial match, because you, Lord Boyle, had many opponents, the two of us had the opportunity to secretly help you. But this time, there are only two opponents, making it extremely difficult to hold back." Ackerman sat on the ground, holding his head, and said, "If you asked me to fight with all my might to hurt the woman I love, I definitely couldn't do it; but if the performance in the gladiatorial match doesn't satisfy the audience, all four of us who participated will die!"

Todd sighed and said to Ackerman, "Do you misunderstand what I meant by 'letting the water flow'?"

"You can think of the gladiatorial combat as a performance, a grand and magnificent performance..."

Todd's words made Ackerman's mouth drop open: "A performance? You mean a show? Like a theatrical performance? Two guys in fancy costumes, fighting like kids with wooden swords?"

Kasper frowned and said, "Gladiator combat is a duel between warriors, not a game between clowns!"

Not understanding why these two people suddenly reacted so strongly, Todd said while thinking, "The gladiator performance I'm referring to is more realistic than the fighting in the play. It looks like a real battle, but it requires a lot of design and rehearsal beforehand."

Seeing that the two still looked confused, Todd realized that it would be difficult to explain the kind of fight scenes in movies with words, so he simply used the back of his foot to pick up a long sword from the ground, held it in his hand, and began to enter 'fight mode'.

Sword swings, dodges, parries, wounds—Todd faces no enemy, yet every movement suggests a desperate struggle; pain, anger, panic, fervor—he faces thin air, yet every expression transports the viewer to a non-existent, yet intensely brutal, battle.

Watching Todd end the "battle" with a single slash, Ackerman and Casper stared wide-eyed, frozen in disbelief.

Ackerman stammered, "This is a performance? Don't you have an invisible enemy in front of you? This looks exactly like a real battle!"

Todd laid the longsword back on the ground and said, "This is a combat performance. It's much more realistic than a play. Every movement, expression, and even a glance is meticulously planned and requires extensive rehearsals."

Kasper remained somewhat paranoid: "But this is not a battle after all; what the audience wants to see is blood and death."

Todd shook his head, dismissing the idea: "Blood and death aren't the only things that can stir up the audience's emotions. Think about it, the audience paid a lot of money to come into the arena, and if they only had five minutes left, barely settled in, and then saw the loser's head roll and the fight end, how would they react?"

Kasper asked, somewhat puzzled, "So what do these viewers want?"

"Spectacular fight scenes, a thrilling plot, and unwavering love..." Todd tilted his head and said, "If it all comes down to one word, it's—awesome!"

Since there is no suitable word in the Northern Territory to express the meaning of "爽" (shuang, meaning refreshing/cool), Todd specifically used a word from the Common Territory here.

The quick-witted Ackerman suddenly realized the deeper meaning behind Todd's words; but Casper, a former soldier of the Holy Guard, still found it hard to accept this idea: "Battle is sacred! Isn't it a desecration of the battle itself to deceive the eyes of the spectators with false appearances?"

Todd scratched his head. Having dealt with these medieval war enthusiasts so much, he had gradually figured out their thought process. He said, "I don't believe all battles are sacred or sublime. To give you the simplest example, let's compare war and gladiatorial combat. Sacrifices in war are for achieving a worthwhile purpose and aspiration; but what is death in gladiatorial combat for? Is it to please the spectators who paid to attend and the masters who deprived them of their freedom?"

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