Chapter 957 - Domestic Rats and Wild Rats
Chapter 957: Domestic Rats and Wild Rats
The gladiator himself was not the biggest problem.
In terms of one-on-one combat, Ice Storm was not afraid of any opponent.
The problem was the servant soldiers.
Ice Storm’s servant soldiers had only taken five days to assemble temporarily.
The challenger from a noble family had been raised by his family for many years. His servant soldiers were well-trained and had good combat skills.
In the Turan language, the rat people were also divided into “wild rats” and “domestic rats.”
People like Leaf lived in a small mountain village far away from Black-corner City. Although it was a remote village, the mountains were high and the emperor was far away. They were not under the direct management of the elders of the clan. As long as they paid enough mandrake fruits as a “blood tax,” They could live a free life. Black-corner City would not care about their lives.
However, Black-corner City was, after all, a glorious city with millions of people.
To maintain such a city’s daily operation, it would require countless workers, laborers, and slaves.
Many dirty and tiring jobs that were not helpful in improving their combat strength were impossible for the lords with glorious bloodlines to do personally.
As a result, there were many times more rat people living in Black-corner City than the clan warriors.
Living under the eyes of the lords, they naturally had their own masters.
This was considered a “domestic rat.”
Many military nobles raised domestic rats that were ten times more numerous than their masters.
Apart from serving as servants, they would also be trained as servant soldiers and serve as their masters’ pawns.
Many domestic rats were passed down from generation to generation. They had been serving a certain master since hundreds of years ago.
They were loyal to their master and were deeply trusted by their master.
Although it was impossible for the warriors of the clan to be as dedicated as Meng Chao to teach the “domestic rat servant soldiers” the ways to exert their strength and combat techniques.
However, these domestic rats had been following their master around all year round. Under their influence, they would definitely learn more than a young man like Leaf who grew up in the depths of the wilderness.
Besides, domestic rats always ate better than wild rats.
Just the leftovers that leaked out from their master’s fingers, such as the bones of totem beasts, contained more spirit energy than hundreds of mandrake fruits.
The most important thing was cooperation.
Many of the domestic rat servants who followed the same master were companions who grew up playing together.
Their cooperation was naturally much better than Meng Chao, Leaf, and Spider, who had only known each other ten days to half a month ago, and the wild rats who had formed a team five days ago.
“It must be Casanova’s doing. He just doesn’t want to see me win even one match!”
Ice Storm was furious.
However, there was nothing she could do about it. In the Turan civilization, the so-called gladiator was originally a national entertainment.
The audience was not just the audience.
As long as one’s blood was boiling, anyone could step off the stage and challenge the Gladiator.
The other audience members would only cheer for the courage of the challenger and participate in the new round of gambling happily.
They would never care about any conspiracies or tricks.
And for the young and aggressive challenger of the Ironhide Clan, Ice Storm was also the best opponent.
Because the five clans’competition was about to begin.
At this juncture, all the noblemen who were not well-known had to think of ways to make a name for themselves.
Only when they were well-known could the clan naturally hand over more servants to him.
Only warriors from other clans would be convinced by him and willingly listen to his orders.
Naturally, defeating the strong in the arena was the best way to make a name for themselves.
As the trump card of the Blood Skull Arena, Ice Storm was well-known.
As for her, who was not good at commanding, she seemed to be a “soft persimmon” who could easily be defeated in a group battle.
Even if the young noble from the Ironhide Clan was not as strong as Ice Storm.
However, as long as he could withstand Ice Storm’s attack, the well-trained and well-coordinated domestic rat soldiers under his command would be able to beat the wild rat soldiers on Ice Storm’s side, who looked like a motley crew, into pieces. They might even slaughter them all.
Most likely, the adjudicators would declare the victory of the noble children and the failure of Ice Storm.
In that case, he would have achieved his goal of “becoming famous in one battle.”
He would even be qualified to change his name according to the Turan custom and call himself “the person who defeated Ice Storm” or something like that.
After thinking for a moment, she realized that not only had she been tricked by Casanova, but she had also been used as a stepping stone by the noble children. How could she not be furious and tremble in anger when she called herself Ice Storm.
Meng Chao, on the other hand, remained calm.
He even yawned lazily.
No one knew better than him, who had personally told Leaf, Spider, and the other rat servants, how terrifying these seemingly ordinary fellows were.
He relayed the news to Leaf and the others.
To his surprise, Leaf and the others, including the mature Spider, became excited.
“It’s those domestic rats!” Leaf and the others gnashed their teeth, their eyes bloodshot.
“Huh?”
This time, it was Meng Chao’s turn to be stunned. “What deep hatred do you have with these domestic rats? Why is the hair on the back of your head standing up when you hear their names?”
“Of course. These domestic rats are the most detestable!”
Leaf clenched his fists and said, “All of us who live in the villages far away from Black-corner City hate them!”
After Leaf’s explanation, Meng Chao realized that the conflict between the domestic rats and the wild rats had been going on for a long time, and there was a deep grudge between the two parties.
During the prosperous era, although the “blood tax” was very heavy, the warriors of the clan would not directly target the rat people and torture them for fun.
They ordered the rat people to pay a large amount of blood tax, so that many of the rat people fell to their deaths and died of exhaustion while picking the mandrake fruit.
Or they forced the rat people to go deep into the mountains and forests to attract totem beasts so that it would be convenient for the clan elders to hunt.
These were all very normal things.
However, directly torturing the rat people and bullying the weak did not make the clan warriors feel joy.
On the contrary, it was a kind of shame and might attract the displeasure of the ancestral spirits.
In the eyes of the Clan Warriors, the rat people were little insects.
In the eyes of the strong, there should not be little insects.
However, the domestic rats were different.
The rat people who lived in Black-corner City and the rat people who lived in the remote villages should have been the same kind.
However, the rat people in Black-corner City always felt that they had the scars left by the old men’s whips, and that they could eat the leftovers left by the old men every now and then. Therefore, they were superior.
They had been taught a lesson by their masters in Black-corner City and had to serve them day and night with fear and trepidation. Once they had the opportunity to leave Black-corner City and carry out missions in the village of wild rats under the orders of their masters… they would never let go of any opportunity to indulge their nature and vent to their heart’s content.
If their masters wanted to collect 1,000 mandrake fruits, they would dare to ask for 3,000 or even 5,000 mandrake fruits. Even if half of them could not be eaten after they were transported back to Black-corner City and were fed to pigs and dogs, it would not concern them at all.
If the masters wanted to recruit 10 coolies to work in the foundry workshop in Black-corner City, they would dare to ask for 30 mandrake fruits from the village. They would insist that all the villagers kneel down and beg bitterly to satisfy all their excessive or even perverted requests, only then would they be willing to “show mercy” and reduce the number of people from 30 to 20.
When the masters went into the mountains to hunt, they would need the rat people to lure out the totem beasts. There were no special requirements originally, so it did not matter if a few old men who had lost all their teeth came. In any case, they were just sending themselves to their deaths.
These domestic rats with twisted minds insisted that the village hand over the children under the age of ten. They said that the children had tender skin and tender flesh, so they could lure out the totem beasts faster.
The so-called “King Yama is better than the little ghosts are hard to deal with” was exactly this logic.
When these domestic rats who used the power of the fox to intimidate the tiger were mentioned, there wasn’t a wild rat who didn’t gnash his teeth in hatred.
What made the wild rats the most furious was that their village was massacred, and it was also related to these domestic rats.
The warriors of the clan lived in Black-corner City and other big cities of other clans all year round. They were not familiar with the remote environment, and they did not know how many soldiers and coolies could be found in a small village located in a col.
However, the domestic rats who often came to the village to collect taxes and catch food were very clear about it.
Therefore, when the mandrake flower bloomed and Black-corner City issued the “great conscription order”, these domestic rats took the lead and entered the village to announce the orders of the Lords to the wild rats.
These fellows were usually arrogant and domineering to the extreme.
They carried the great conscription order behind their backs and were even more arrogant. The moment they entered the village, they caused a commotion and wished that they could squeeze the last drop of grease out of the bones of the wild rats.
The wild rats who could not stand it anymore unwittingly had conflicts with the domestic rats.
The domestic rats who fled in panic returned to the Warriors of the clan. In order to hide their incompetence, they added fuel to the fire and complained that these wild rats were cowardly and weak things that could not bring any glory to the clan. On the contrary… they would only waste less and less food, which would become more and more precious.
“My village was destroyed by the domestic rats of the Ironhide Clan who lured the wild boar warriors here,” Spider said expressionlessly.
His pupils, which had shrunk to the size of a needle, were slightly red.
“Me too!”
“Me too!”
A few more rat civilian soldiers stood up. Their throats were as hoarse as if they had swallowed a red-hot coal ball.
The wild boar people and Ironhide Clan’s fierce reputation was obviously illustrious.
There was a deep-seated hatred of the domestic rats and the notorious wild boar warriors.
But the opponent’s strong and fierce, or make this temporary patchwork of the rat people battle team, feel great pressure.
No matter the reborn Leaf, or the senior hunter, Spider, they felt their fingertips tingle and tremble faintly out of their control.
Meng Chao, on the other hand, laughed.
“Isn’t that great?”
He glanced at the twenty-nine wild rats, including Leaf, and calmly said, “Those who bully you, those who despise you, those who enslave you, those who exploit you, those who kill your loved ones, those who destroy your homes, and those who will forever ride on the heads of you and your descendants to take revenge. Isn’t fighting for such a reason much more enjoyable and exciting than a simple circus?”