Only those who have actually been to Stonehenge can feel the shock it brings. This shock cannot be compared to seeing it from a distance, although seeing it from a distance can also make people feel it is breathtaking.

The moment he stepped into the Stonehenge Square, one word popped into Woolley's mind - spectacular.

Yes, it was spectacular. Even if we didn't consider the huge statue in the middle of the square that was nearly 260 cubits high, the circle formed by the statue radiating 1,500 cubits in each of the eight directions was the main area of ​​the square. According to the area unit that Wu Lai was used to, the area of ​​this area was about 450,000 square meters. This number sounded like it was only twice the area of ​​the White Stone Building, but it was not the case in reality. Nearly 70% of the area of ​​the White Stone Building was grass slopes and woodlands, and the shape was very uneven, not like here.

Surrounding this circle is a circle of stands built with huge stones. There are seven levels in total. The lowest inner circle, the first level, is thirty meters away from the venue, and the highest outer circle, the seventh level, reaches seventy cubits. These huge stones are obviously the product of local materials. At the junction of the stones, you can clearly see the mortar mixed with chalk and lime powder - this is the building adhesive material commonly used by the Assyrians. Of course, after hundreds of years of wind and rain, the mortar has become hard and mixed with the stones.

The square has four entrances in the east, south, west and north. Each entrance is wide enough to accommodate five soldiers walking side by side. However, the south entrance is reserved for nobles. If civilians want to enter the square, they can only go through the east and west entrances. As for the north entrance, it is used for gladiators to enter.

When Wu Lai entered the stadium, the number of spectators in the stands had exceeded 20,000. From this point of view, Menia City's expectations for the farewell match were not very high. After all, the murderous atmosphere of the farewell match was not as strong as that of a formal gladiatorial contest.

As Wu Lai entered the venue behind Yi Jiang, escorted by twenty guards in neatly armored uniforms, he clearly felt the status of the military personnel - although he was only a deputy general, Yi Jiang was the last one to enter. Before him, all the officials of Menia city from the archon on down had arrived and taken their seats.

Yi Jiang was wearing a set of polished light armor today. Under the sunlight, the copper plates engraved with decorative patterns on the armor sparkled brightly, making the arrogance on Yi Jiang's face particularly vivid.

The so-called VIP seats are set up on the second floor of the south stand. Small areas that can accommodate more than a dozen people watching the game at the same time are divided by thick wooden boards. On the top of the thick wooden boards, which are more than one person high, there are many round wooden poles fixed at both ends. These round wooden poles, which are as thick as a child's arm, are covered with linen cloth that has a yellow hue due to oil immersion. The function of these linen cloths is nothing more than to block the sun or rain.

The distance between the VIP seats and the field was enough for the people in the seats to clearly see the flying broken arms and blood, while at the same time ensuring that the people inside were safe enough - on the entire south stand, except for the nobles and officials sitting in the VIP seats, there were only soldiers and slave guards serving as guards around the VIP seats. Of course, they each had their own affiliations, so they seldom talked to each other.

Wu Lai was invited to sit on the left side of Yi Jiang. In addition to Yi Jiang's two deputies and an assistant officer, there were also four Armenian nobles who were obviously close friends with Yi Jiang. At first, they were very curious about Wu Lai's appearance, but when Yi Jiang carefully introduced the relationship between "God-given Horse Harness" and Wu Lai, their expressions suddenly became interesting, and then they enthusiastically chatted with Wu Lai.

Wu Lai smiled politely, answered questions politely, and nodded politely, but in his heart he hoped that the gladiatorial contest would begin immediately, because perhaps only in this way could he make these chattering nobles shut up and make the women they brought with them, who he didn't know whether they were wives, concubines or lovers, stop observing him.

A short while later, Woolley got what he wanted - the gladiatorial contest began with a loud horn sound.

Amid the cheers of the spectators in the stands, two carriages drove into the venue from the north entrance one after another. After circling the venue once each, the two carriages stopped side by side in front of the stands of the Archon of Menia. Immediately, four gladiators jumped off the carriages and knelt on one knee in the direction of the Archon.

The consul smiled, raised his right hand and waved it, and the stands burst into thunderous cheers again.

The four gladiators immediately turned around and ran to the center of the venue - a pile of weapons and shields had already been placed next to the foundation of the statue.

"Why don't they wear armor?" Wu Lai couldn't help but ask an assistant officer sitting on his left.

"Oh, they don't need it." The assistant officer stared at the four gladiators who were rushing. "It will affect their speed. Whoever grabs the weapon first will have a little advantage."

So that's how it is. Wu Lai nodded slightly. In his sight, the gladiator running in the front was very close to the statue...

The match ended very quickly, so quickly that Wu Lai felt a little regretful, or perhaps, a little unsatisfied. However, this was easy to understand. Firstly, this was not a life-and-death match, and secondly, in this match, two gladiators chose to join forces. After they defeated the other two gladiators together, one of them "won" the defeat with a beautiful fake move, and handed the final victory to his ally. Judging from their hug after the fight, Wu Lai believed that they were very good friends, and had already planned for this ending.

Woolley expressed his respect and appreciation for the couple with his applause.

The second gladiator match began immediately. This time, it was another melee between four gladiators. The fight lasted nearly twice as long as the first one, and a little accident happened - a bronze axe that one gladiator knocked away flew a short distance and hit another gladiator on the back of the neck. When the gladiator fell down, his blood splattered into a large ball of blood mist, and his head was broken at a terrifying angle.

Such a scene instantly excited the people in the stands. As people rushed to cheer, Wu Lai frowned and pursed his lips.

The third match was a doubles match between two female gladiators. This match received more exaggerated cheers than the previous two matches, because the two female gladiators knew how to whet the audience's appetite. Their fighting moves were fancy and enchanting, and it seemed that they were fighting mercilessly and dangerously. But in fact, it was not the case, especially when the fight was about to end, the two female gladiators tacitly knocked away their weapons and finished the match with a dazzling scuffle. In the end, the few clothes on their bodies became strips of cloth that could not cover their bodies, and they unscrupulously displayed their seductive bodies that were no longer young but still tight.

"Draw! Draw! Draw!" Thunderous shouts rang out from the stands.

Wu Lai clapped his hands lightly with a smile on his face. He knew that this was exactly the result the two female gladiators had been expecting.

When the shouts of "draw" resounded through the sky, the chief referee walked to the middle of the two female gladiators with a smile and put olive rings representing the winners on their heads.

Cheers and applause roared again. The two female gladiators jumped up happily, hugged each other, and kissed each other unscrupulously in front of everyone.

When seeing this scene, Wu Lai was suddenly a little dazed.

Brokeback?! A word suddenly popped up in his mind.

"Wuliglindo, do you like these two? If you do, I can buy them for you." Yi Jiang said with a smile.

Wu Lai quickly shook his head. He couldn't accept the existence of such a person around him.

"The fourth match will be the most exciting one." Yi Jiang introduced enthusiastically, "A ten-man melee. Among these ten people, there is the heavy sword fighter 'Vulture' who ranked fourth in Assyria five years ago. He is the biggest attraction today, but he may not win, because according to convention, other gladiators usually join forces to defeat him first. However, defeating 'Vulture' will never be an easy task, even though he is already forty years old."

"Ranked fourth five years ago? Has his ranking dropped in these five years?" Wu Lai asked curiously.

"Vulture's last fight was five years ago. Since then, he has worked as a teacher in a gladiator school and has never participated in any competition. Today is his last fight in five years." Yi Jiang handed a glass of wine to Wu Lai.

"Thank you." Wu Lai took the wine glass. "As you said, this battle is definitely worth looking forward to."

In just a moment, three carriages carrying ten gladiators for the fourth battle drove into the arena.

"That's the 'Vulture'." Yi Jiang smiled and pointed to the last carriage, which only carried one gladiator.

When the carriage drove in, Wu Lai saw the appearance of this "vulture" clearly: a bald head, a thin face, a short beard on his chin, and a handsome appearance, which was far from what Wu Lai had imagined beforehand. He was tall, with well-proportioned but not exaggerated muscles in his arms, a hideous scar on each of his left shoulder and left waist, and looked like a gladiator known for his skills and speed.

"He has a lot of personality." Wu Lai smiled and put down his glass.

Ten gladiators jumped off the chariot and saluted. As usual, the consul stood up and waved his hand, signaling the start of the competition.

There was thunderous cheers in the stands.

The ten gladiators turned around at the same time and ran towards the statue. Wu Lai noticed that the vulture did not run as fast as the other gladiators, but jogged with his head down.

Is he still not used to the rhythm of the game? Or has he already secured victory? Wu Lai frowned and thought, judging from the previous games, the first to get the weapon naturally has the upper hand, but there are also examples of latecomers who directly seized the weapon and successfully counterattacked.

The melee had already begun when the vulture was still some distance away from the statue.

The shouts, the clash of weapons, the screams, shouts, and cheers of the audience turned the Stone Square into a noisy world...

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Wu Lai stood up involuntarily because the vulture began to run faster and faster.

The vulture quickly approached the two fighting gladiators, jumped up, and landed heavily on the head of the gladiator who had his back to him with his left elbow. As soon as he landed, he slid forward again, splashing dust all over the ground and raised his right arm to deflect a hammer that took advantage of the opportunity to hit him. He turned around, swung his arm back fiercely, and the second gladiator fell to the ground in pain.

The vulture sprinted two steps, jumped up again, and kicked a gladiator in the back of the head with his right foot. A moment before landing, he just pulled back his right knee and rammed forward, knocking the gladiator flying. At this time, a heavy sword slashed at him diagonally, and the vulture suddenly bent back, avoiding the sword and kicking out with his left leg. When he turned over and jumped up, there was already a heavy sword in his right hand...

The vulture turned quickly and threw out the heavy sword in his hand. The hilt of the sword hit the big man who was fighting with a female gladiator...

The vulture ducked and twisted its body, brushing past the cross-attack of the two weapons. It hooked its toes, and a copper hammer that had fallen to the ground at some point bounced up...

In just a few moments, Vulture knocked down seven gladiators. At the same time, another female gladiator ended the fight with her opponent with a beautiful turning kick.

The vulture picked up a bronze sword and pounced on the female gladiator.

The female gladiator took a quick step back, tilted the bronze sword in her right hand backwards, and was ready to strike.

The vulture leaped to the front of the female gladiator, and the female gladiator swung her sword and chopped it, but the vulture dodged it and sank the bronze sword, stabbing at the female gladiator's waist...

Almost all the audience held their breath and waited for the next cheer, because everyone could see that Vulture was sure to win.

In a hurry, the female gladiator twisted her waist to dodge, but the vulture's bronze sword immediately drew a small arc and chased.

The female gladiator swung her sword helplessly, but she knew very well that her sword would never reach its destination before the vulture's sword tip.

Blood splattered...

The whole audience was in an uproar because the one who was injured was not the female gladiator, but the vulture.

The female gladiator had a look of surprise on her face. The audience in the stands could not see the final action clearly, but as the person involved, she knew very well what had just happened - the tip of the vulture's sword only lightly touched her lower abdomen, and then the vulture withdrew the sword, threw it away, and used his right shoulder to meet her helpless blow.

Vulture slowly sat down, covering his right shoulder with his left hand, but blood still continued to flow out from between his fingers. Despite this, he looked at the female gladiator with a comfortable smile on his face.

"Puya." The vulture called out the name of the female gladiator, "If you can meet your sister Naya in the future, please tell her that the vulture owes her a favor, and this gift today will repay her."

The female gladiator Puya stared at Vulture in a daze, and waited until the main referee's carriage drove to her side, then she nodded vigorously: "I will, and you should take care of yourself, Vulture."

"We must fight for freedom." A trace of sadness flashed across the vulture's eyes.

Puya bit her lip and her gaze stayed on the vulture's face for a long time, until her right arm was raised by the chief referee to indicate victory, and then she came to her senses.

As Puya accepted the audience's cheers, Vulture stood up, covering his wound, and silently walked to the ranks of losers.

"I like this guy. Can I buy him?" Wu Lai pointed at the vulture and asked Yi Jiang.

Yi Jiang was stunned for a moment, and replied: "Of course, but it's not easy. He is the loser, so we need to find his current owner first. In short, it's very troublesome."

"If you can buy him, I will not only pay for his purchase," Wu Lai said with a smile, "but I will also owe you a favor. How about that?"

Yi Jiang laughed and nodded.