Two weeks after entering the Colosso as Had of Teukros, Hadrian trains at night with the fodder myrmidons assigned to his team. He tries to correct Switch, a young and inexperienced offworlder, after Switch repeatedly overextends in practice and is easily tripped by Kiri. The group argues about rumors that they will receive shield-belts, but Hadrian insists shields will not protect them in close combat and that Switch must learn proper footwork.

The team’s tensions expose how desperate and mismatched the recruits are. Siran warns that Switch is a liability, Kiri comforts him, and Ghen mocks him cruelly. Hadrian reflects that he expected hardened criminals but instead finds himself among vagrants, criminals, a mother trying to pay for her son’s exams, a former pleasure servant, and others seeking survival or dignity.

Ghen’s frustration boils over as Ghen declares that the promoters expect the weak team to be slaughtered for public entertainment. When Ghen seizes Switch by the throat, Hadrian deliberately provokes Ghen with ridicule, drawing the violence away from Switch. Ghen attacks, but Hadrian’s aristocratic combat training and hard-won street experience let Hadrian dodge, disarm, and throw Ghen down with ease.

Rather than simply humiliate Ghen, Hadrian uses the moment to address the frightened recruits. Drawing on Gibson’s lessons in rhetoric and uncomfortably echoing his father’s commanding manner, Hadrian argues that the myrmidons must not divide themselves when the audience and promoters expect them to die. Banks and Pallino challenge Hadrian’s authority, but neither successfully breaks the effect of his speech.

Hadrian then offers Ghen a hand up, turning the defeat into reconciliation instead of an open feud. Ghen accepts, laughs, and redirects the trainees back to work, declaring that their real enemies are the armored fighters they will face. With the team briefly steadied, Hadrian returns to Switch and resumes teaching him, outwardly assuring him that a week is enough time though Switch doubts it deeply.