Slaughter Games - R.T. Adams (distant reading .txt) 📗

“A scythe,” I said.

“You know, I think a scythe is the best weapon here. You can use both the pole and a long blade to take down your opponents,” he said.

“What about a spear?” I asked.

“Sure, they have a pole, but the tip is short and it doesn’t curve out like a scythe,” he said, “Sadly, I got daggers, but I can deal with it.” In my eyes, he looked fit for daggers, considering his small size and how speedily he got over to me.

“Contestants, the games are about to start, please make your way to the next room,” a voice came on and then a door opened. We all walked in, finding twenty discolored ground parts, Likely trap floors.

“The hell are we supposed to do here?” the muscular delinquent said.

“Please, stand on the trap doors,” the voice came on again. Everyone walked over and stood on a trap door. I was on the last one while Quinto stood on the next one over. Next to him, one of the younger noble females. Soon, we all fell through a tunnel which completely caught me off-guard, startling me. Once I noticed it was nothing particular, I calmed down. Soon, and slowly, I came to a stop. I stood up, finding myself in a small room with multiple monitors and a lift in the center of the room. I walked over and sat down at a chair in front of the monitors. Each one was a different angle of the area we’d be fighting in. Even when we weren’t fighting, we’d have to see people be slaughtered.

I sat there, waiting for the man to come on again and tell us what to do. I watched as the sand stood still on the arena floor. The crowds just sat in their seats, waiting for something to happen. It had been as if time were still, as if this were just some nightmare. However, it was all real. There was no doubt about it. The ones slaughtered here today will be dead, never to come back. While looking at the arena, I noticed multiple doors, all probably where we’d come out from. I stood up, clapping and holding my hands out, letting the scythe materialize in my hands. It was much lighter than I expected even though it looked heavily decorated. It had been as if it were made of styrofoam. I clapped again and the scythe dematerialized.

“Welcome to the annual Slaughter Games, here for your entertainment. Today, we have gathered twenty people, all who were fairly young, surprisingly. One of those few people is Scion Broads, son of Ethan Broads, one of the few former Guardsmen who had came sixth in last year’s Slaughter Games. He was quite the talented individual, must I say. However, this year is much different. Let us see how these members play,” he said, “To begin, Yuogi Kagataki and Nathan Young will be our first to fight. A bow verses a blade, let us see who comes out on top.” I could hear the sound of machinery as I watched the monitors. I noticed two of the twenty doors open and out came the two who were mentioned. Yuogi was a small person, a bow in his hands. Nathan was the muscular delinquent, a large blade in his hands.

“Now this is more like it,” I could hear Nathan talking, without delay. It sounded almost as if he were in the room with me.

“You may begin,” the voice came on and said. I watched as the two stood across from each other. Yuogi held his bow, an arrow already prepared. He lifted his bow and fired the arrow, but it fell short, and plunged into the sand. Nathan took heavy, slow steps towards Yuogi, laughing at Yuogi’s attempt to hit Nathan. Yuogi only slowly backed away, firing arrows which continued to fall short. Nathan came closer to Yuogi, his blade ready to drink his blood. Soon, Yuogi’s back hit the wall behind him. At that point, the large man went barrelling towards him. He rose his blade and down it came, cutting halfway through Yuogi’s left arm. Yuogi shrieked out in pain, falling to his knees and his other arm on his shoulder. His bow fell in front of him. His left arm was completely limp, which looked disgusting to me. Nathan pulled his blade out of the wall and looked down at Yuogi, saying words that were unable to be caught by the microphone on the camera. Then, Nathan plunged the probably two-foot wide blade into Yuogi’s chest, soon tearing it out of him, watching him fall soundlessly. He clapped and his blade disappeared. He walked back to the now-opened door and entered, vanishing from view.

I was disgusted by the battle, all the blood. They cleaned the arena for the next battle. It seemed two people came out and hauled his body away, along with the bloodied sand. They then refilled the location with more sand. I felt as if I were about to vomit, but knew I’d have to kill someone soon, as well. Considering I had no fighting ability whatsoever, I’d have to watch them and learn from their actions. Soon, two more were called. Again, two people I didn’t know. One of them, however, was a noble, while the other was one of the scrawny delinquents. The noble had a thin blade, a rapier. Then delinquent had a spear. Soon, they were given the go and walked forward, towards each other. The noble held the rapier with one hand, the other hand behind them. The delinquent held the spear with both hands, pointed directly at the noble. Once they got close enough, the delinquent jabbed the spear at the noble, but the noble dodged it easily. The noble then jabbed the rapier at the delinquent’s shoulder, which penetrated it and then pulled out quickly. The delinquent was visibly hurting, but didn’t make a sound. He only continued to jab his spear at the noble to no avail. The noble continued to stab the delinquent, slowly making him bleed. Soon, the delinquent couldn’t take another stab and dropped to the ground, his spear on the ground, as well. Though he was on the ground, he was still alive. The noble walked over and plunged their blade into the delinquents throat, ending his life. The noble clapped and the rapier dematerialized. They then walked back to the doors and, like the large delinquent, disappeared from view. Again, the body was cleaned as well as the sand.

As the intervals between each battle were somewhat lengthy, I practiced in using my scythe. There wasn’t much to do, but I continued to practice, over and over until another name was called. And soon, two more names were called, one of them being Quinto. Again, two doors opened and the two people came out. Quinto held two daggers in his hands, each which had chains attached to them. The other person, a person I’ve not seen once, held a sawblade in his hands. Soon, they were also given the go. The person with the sawblade ran forward, but Quinto tossed the dagger directly at the person, which stabbed into their leg. Quinto then used the person’s back to jump onto and jump off of, behind him. He pulled the chain, which caused the person to flip onto the ground, his head landing directly onto the sawblade, which had very quickly torn his head to bits. Possibly the quickest battle yet. Quinto returned to the doors and, like the others, vanished from view. The cleanup this time took a bit more time, considering there were quite a few bits of his head. Soon, they finished and the arena looked like it had before.

“Next, we have Emile De’Monia and Scion Broads,” my name had finally been called to fight against, presumably, one of the nobles. I’m sure there are people who are placing bets on who’ll win, and I’m sure most of them are voting for Emile. I walked over, standing in the center of the lift. I clapped and held my hands out, waiting for my scythe to appear. Soon, I was in a dark room, a large door in front of me. Soon, I heard it opening, creaking heavily. I stepped out into the sand, Emile standing across from me.

“You may begin,” the voice spoke out loud. The person was definitely a noble, holding two daggers in hand, both with chains hanging from them. It wasn’t just a noble, but a female noble, which discomforted me even more. They tossed one of the daggers at me. I lifted the scythe and, luckily enough it hit the scythe. However, it wrapped around the scythe. She pulled the chain and began dragging me towards her. She also took steps to get closer to me. Once she was close enough to stab me, she tried to do so. However, I rotated the scythe, since it was still free to move, and slammed the pole into her wrist, causing her to drop the dagger.

“Please, stop this, we don’t have to fight,” I said.

“But it is what we must do,” she said, kicking the dagger up back into her hand. I clapped and my scythe dematerialized. I clapped again and it reappeared in my hands. I swung the scythe horizontally, but she jumped back before it hit her. I lifted the scythe like a spear and tossed it at her, something she hadn’t expected. The blunt end of the blade hit her and caused her to fall back. I ran over and picked up my scythe, holding the tip to her neck.

“If it is what we must, then I suppose it cannot be stopped,” I said, lifting the scythe and slicing across her neck, watching has only a thin bit of skin remained on her neck. The blood poured from her neck, creating a huge mess of blood. I turned and clapped, watching my scythe slowly dematerialize.

I was soon back in the monitoring room, watching yet another fight. Two fights have passed since I killed the noble. This time, it was a male noble and another person. The noble had a scythe and the other had a bow. Both of them looked very talented, as this battle was lasting longer than anticipated. The one with the bow seemed to be strong, perhaps even a hunter. The noble was almost perfectly fit for the scythe, as if he’d been training with a scythe for years now. However, it ended with the noble’s scythe piercing the other man’s chest. The blood simply left his body, leaving him pale and empty. Soon, I heard two more names. I didn’t know either one, but when they came out, I noticed the one who had been in the dark corner now standing there. His clothes were torn and his hair was a mess. His skin had also been very pale. The other person was the last of the two scrawny delinquents. The delinquent held a blade while the crazy man held nothing. Soon, it stated that they both may begin. The delinquent ran forward, but the crazy man had rushed forward, slamming his head right into the delinquent’s gut, possibly bursting it at such speed. He then sat on top of the delinquent and started to tear apart the man’s face with his bare hands. Flesh was being flung everywhere, along with bits and pieces of bones and brains. Hair and and eyeball lay on the floor, the hair stuck to the eyeball. There were two of the men in suits carrying the crazy man away. Once he’d been carried out, there had been nothing left of the delinquent’s head that was attached to his body anymore. All of his head lay strewn across the arena.

There should only be twelve of us left, four total of who have not yet fought. However, after a few minutes of cleanup from the previous fight, two people had been called