He paused to regard her steadily.
“The truth is that there are certain individuals more suited to combat than others. Poor fighters die early, whether they’re gladiators or soldiers. The survivors, particularly those who survive numerous battles, are the best by virtue of the process of elimination, but it’s more a tribute to the individual than to the training.”
“But my agents have been specifically instructed to recruit experienced gladiators,” Chenaya interrupted. “Professionals who have survived numerous bouts. Doesn’t that insure that I’ll be getting the best fighters?”
Jubal fixed her with an icy stare.
“If you’ll allow me to finish, perhaps you will hear the answer to that question. I thought you wanted to hear my opinions, not your own.”
Chenaya wilted under his gaze, and nodded mutely for him to continue.
The crimelord waited a few more moments, then resumed his pacing. “As I was saying, it is the individual’s abilities that dictate how good a fighter he can eventually become. Training prepares him for a specific type of combat.
Gladiator training is fine for arena-style individual combat, but it doesn’t teach a fighter to watch the rooftops for archers the way he’d need to in street fighting, or to deal with maneuvering groups of fighters the way the military does. Then again, even military maneuvers are useless in some situations, like when the mobs were forming during the plague riots. Any training will be of limited value when taken out of its element.
“As for your so-called professional gladiators, I don’t like them, and would never endanger my name and reputation by hiring them to represent me. Regardless of what you might think, being a gladiator is not a desirable profession. A soldier or a thief can have a long and successful career and see little, if any, actual combat. By the nature of his livelihood, a gladiator must risk his life in open combat on a regular basis. If you are a slave, as I was, it’s a dubious way to earn your keep, but to choose it freely as your ‘professional gladiators’ do is unthinkable. They are either fools or sadists, and neither are known to be particularly controllable.”