PANDORA. Hope Dies Last: ToG

Rusted Blade

Yet from the corner of her eyes she saw the different meals others were having. To her side where the current rank 2nd was also eating lavishly...but noticeably less than herself. The trend continued as the quality and often times quantity of the meal and service decreased down the long table. Meals became meal, watery soup replaced sauce on the highest of meats as at the very end...

I knew her. The same girl who had carried me from death's door to my room to receive the proper treatment. Where she sat, she had only a wooden plate and cup in front of her. On her stool, she sat hunched away from the table holding a rather familiar black bread. Nearly rotten, hard, inedible piece of carbs.

She met my eye and looked back down at her plate. Her now empty plate and she knew she wouldn't be getting any more. As our eyes met a second time, she eyes were filled with...a different sense of determination. Not of winning or enduring but rather survival. And ironically her chance of surviving laid best at 'giving up'.

A clatter of the stool. A shout. The shine of a blade being drawn. Blood, shock, and screaming.

It was over in a moment as the girl was happily lead away by the workers leaving behind yet another dead member of the family. Perhaps used to the blood, the killing, the lack of emotion and sympathy, I gave back my new plate of carbonara where a single red drop landed.

"Another one my lady?"

I nodded. One could never have enough of Crystal Eel Carbonara. My compliments to the chef.

... ...

1st person pov

The meal ended as the servants announced the time and began to clear away the plates. Having ate my fill, I put down my fork and took one last drink of the beautiful secco as I put down the crystal glass.

Standing up, pushing back the chair, I looked up at all those who were around the table. Tension filling the room as for the first time, chaos was about to ensue. Everyone knew it. They had to have expected it.

"Last chance. Attack the workers" My soft voice carries weight across the long table as at the other end of the furniture, two lash out at the attendant before they turn themselves in and taken away. Taken away to safety, safety the others aren't guaranteed.

We stand in silence as the last of the workers leave the room before I make the first slash. It finds its prey as it cuts clean through the shoulder and out the side of the girl who was eating next to me before changing targets.

My blade is blocked and I see the chaos running free in the dining room. Already, half the competitors had made a run for it through the various hallways, hoping to stay away from the madness and wait it out. Others were locked in combat while the group in front of me...

5, only 5 of them. 6 including this one

A form of temporary alliance had them swinging their blades at me while completely ignoring the girl who had locked mine. Using a burst of strength, I break it out of the lock before grabbing her with my free hand and throwing her (with shinsu body reinforcement) at the others.

Directly following the throw, I stab through the body instantly killing two of them.

4 left.

3 blades come simultaneously from around me as I dodge under the first two and parry the third.

"Now! Lock her!"

The blade is twisted as the other two come in place forming a triangle lock around mine. I analyze their blades as I see that...it wasn't masterclass craftsmanship.