"Here we go! Can fear and pain make an idiot smart? Let us find out!" the voice of the sack head reverberated across the whole room as four cards were launched out from the ceiling, two for each of them.
Ilias taped on the table uncomfortably, visibly shaking as he looked at his cards, whether it was because they were terrible or if he felt bad because they were good, Iustus couldn't tell, he looked down at his own and then at the one visible card of the other captive.
He had the card with eleven as well as the five, putting him at sixteen total points.
'Not too shabby...' he thought, Ilias's visible card was four, meaning that even if he had the ten, he had less points than him.
It was Ilias's turn however, indicated by the fact that the lantern had shifted toward him, illuminating him as if he was a messiah.
Ilias hesitated for around thirty seconds before making his decision.
"I... I'll stay" he said unsure.
Iustus was already certain that he didn't have a higher number than him, so he passed as well, putting a quick end to this round.
"Already done? Then... The winner is-" the bag head put a deliberate and long pause before slamming his hands down onto something and announcing the result.
"Iustus! You're an idiot and no one loves you Ilias!" he laughed as the poor man tried desperatly breaking free as the blades started moving, but it was no use, the five blades pushed into the cavity underneath his fingernails, stopping before they could fully move the nails off his fingers.
"AAAH! Fuck! Dammit! Ah... Ahh... You fucking psycho..." cried out Ilias as he slammed his free hand into the table repeatedly.
"Don't be a sore loser and look forward to the next round! It was just a warm up, now we introduce the special cards!" excitedly said the game master as the room went dark for a second, removing the cards on the table in an instant.
Four cards were distributed equally amongst the two players once more and two other appeared for the two of them to see as hidden drawers underneath the table opened in front of them.
Iustus inspected his but was interrupted as Ilias spoke to him.
"Iustus right? I have children, so please... Let me win!" he pleaded but Iustus didn't respond and simply went to evaluate his set.
The special card was fairly simple but quite potent.
'Allows you to remove one of your opponent's cards' It could be useful for sure be Iustus would prefer to keep special cards until it was absolutely necessary, he just had a hunch that it would be beneficial, the sack head had said that one could use as many special cards as they wanted during their turn, implying that they could be kept and stockpiled.
As for his two main cards, the hidden was one and the visible was eleven, he had gotten eleven again but his situation wasn't nearly as good, Ilias probably had the impression that his total would be fairly high though.
As for the latter, his visible card was nine, putting at a possible maximum of nineteen and even other cards would put him above Iustus's total.
With a total of twelve, ten would put him above the limit, all in all, it seemed less risky to pick a card and since it was his turn this time, Iustus raised his free hand.
"Give me a card" he said and his wish was granted, giving him seven.
'Nineteen...' he thought as Ilias was starting to panick again, he really wasn't handling the pressure well at all, Iustus was a bit worried, he felt like the bag head was the sort to consider a draw as a defeat for both parties.
"C-Card" said Ilias as he put his hand on his head, as if trying to sort his mind physically.
One fell from above, it was ten.
As the light shined back on Iustus, he was focused, Ilias did not have ten as a hidden card for certain.
He can't have one since Iustus had it, so the best thing was for him to have two, putting him at twenty one exactly but what were the odds of that?
"I stay" he said firmly, convinced that Ilias did not have two under any circumstances.
Though, now he understood the point of the rope around his head, it was to keep him from trying to read his expression and since Ilias was a nervous wreck at all times, Iustus couldn't judge his actions at all.
"I..." he marked a pause.
"I stay" he said in a low tone before the game master once again slammed onto something, although it sounded as though he had straight up headbutted the table, he must have been getting riled up for some reason.
"No, no, no, no!" Ilias didn't even wait for the verdict to try and once more attempt escaping his fate.
"The winner is Iustus!" he announced loudly, as it turns out, he had had three, putting him just above the limit.
Iustus felt sorry for this guy's poor luck, especially when the blades started moving again.
Perfectly lodged beneath his nails, thay started rising up, making his nails stand up with all of the pain that it meant that wasn't all that they did however, after rising up, they advanced again, forcing the outside of his nails to lay on his fingers.
Ilias struggled and screamed in pain throughout the whole process, just as it seemed over, the blades, which had been incredibly slow, suddenly moved with incredible swiftness, moving to the base of the fingernails and pushing against it, ripping them off for good.
"Aaah..." Ilias let out a pitiful, small sound as he was seemingly on the verge of collapsing.
"Hey! The game is not over yet!" protested the game master right before the spike above the back of Ilias's hand stabbed him.
"Here's a little dose of homebrewed adrenaline for you" spoke the sack head as Ilias was suddenly jolted awake.
"I don't feel anything anymore..." he said out loud, still shaking.
"We good? Good, third round!"