After being dismissed by the boss, Rome begins heading in the direction of the stairs to the lower floor, unlike everyone else.
That cunning rat. I can't believe she lied to me.
Then again, the position she was in with that other girl was strange.
I didn't question it too much because she said the girl was brought in by the boss personally.
But looking at it again, she was definitely being held hostage.
As for the boss's things,
A smile breaks out across his face.
If it was really her that did it, that runaway runt must be really smart.
'I'd run away with her too if she put me in that situation.'
He finally reaches Anna's group on the lowest level and sees them just as they are about to escape through the stairs he is blocking.
'No more running around, Neighbour. The game is up,' he states as he meets eyes with Sid.
'I know what you did. Just go face the boss's wrath. Seeing as you're his little rat girl, I'm sure he will kill you quickly,' he states, mocking Sid.
Sid gets furious at the taunt.
'Shut up! Don't get in the way, Rome! We don't have time to deal with you.'
'Are you still sore about that? It was your choice to rat on the former boss during the sacred rite, and by the looks of it, you're not remorseful at all,' he points out, reminding her that she has just betrayed them again.
Sid hates being reminded of the past.
'I said get out, or I'll put you out!'
'Really?' Rome mocks as he looks at the people behind Sid, Anna and Zane, who is being supported by her. 'I could kill them with one touch.'
Zane looks at the way Rome is moving and his mannerisms and states confidently,
'That's a lie. He doesn't have any weapon. We can take him on. He is not strong at all.'
Rome gets furious with Zane after what he just said, taking it as an insult. Knowing it came from the same guy who beat him up before only makes him even more furious.
Anna, also analysing the situation, is sceptical about their odds.
It is true that he is unarmed, but Sid is the only one in our group that can put up a fight.
Zane is malnourished and hurt, and I...
Although I didn't want to admit it to anyone, the ringing has been becoming increasingly more unbearable the lower on the ship we went. It's at the point where I can't even think straight right now.
I wouldn't be any help in a fight.
Anna grips the knife in her hands.
This knife is the deciding factor in this battle. I have to get it to Sid as soon as possible.
Anna hesitates for a moment.
Can I really trust her with it?
Rome, still furious from Zane's assessment, charges at the group.
'Just who are you calling weak?'
He rushes towards Sid and grabs one of her hands, pulling her towards him before landing a nasty knee strike to her ribs.
Sid drops to the floor from the blow, and Rome starts heading for those behind her.
Anna, seeing his approach, lets go of Zane and tries to charge at him with the knife. He easily avoids it and gives Anna a backhanded punch, sending her to the ground.
Then Rome finally reaches the main target of his charge: Zane at the back of the group.
In his injured and tired state, Zane still manages to put up a fight, landing a few punches on Rome. Nevertheless, they have little effect because of how weak they are.
Rome easily overpowers Zane and sends him tumbling to the floor. Fuelled by his anger, he stands over Zane and begins pummelling him with punches, striking him multiple times.
'Know your place, worm! How many times do I have to tell you this?! This! This!'
He yells as he lays punch after punch on Zane.
Using his blind frenzy as cover, Sid runs behind him and wraps one of her braids around his neck, starting to strangle him.
He tries to push her away, but she simply wraps her legs around his waist and anchors herself to him.
Struggling to breathe, Rome stops landing a barrage of punches on Zane and starts throwing punches at Sid on his back to get her off, but she takes them all without budging.
Realising that isn't going to work, he grabs her by the face and begins backing her up towards a wall, intending to ram her head into it.
Before he can do that, Anna gets up and lunges at him once more with the knife.
Now or never.
She plunges the knife deep into Rome's abdomen.
Stunned by the sight of the blood, the adrenaline rushing through her system comes to a halt, and she is unable to notice the punch coming for her, which flings her away from him and dislodges the knife.
These damn wretches, Rome thinks to himself, having had enough.
He grabs Sid by the head and falls backwards. The impact is so strong that it scrambles Sid's head for a moment, and she lets go of the stranglehold.
Rome gets on top of her and begins strangling her.
'How do you like that, bitch? I wanted your death to be decent for old times' sake, but no more. Die like the whore you are.'
Amidst Sid's desperate struggle to catch her breath and get Rome off her, she sees a knife sliding in her direction from Anna, who can't get up at the moment.
Sid reaches over, her fingers barely slipping around the knife.
Finally, she is able to grab it.
She plunges it into Rome's neck.
From the blood spilling from his neck onto Sid's face and the throbbing pain coming from the wound, Rome can tell that he has been stabbed.
He gets up from Sid in a panic and tries holding onto his bleeding neck, but before he can, Sid pulls the knife out of his throat, making the bleeding even worse.
He begins screaming incoherently, then tries running up the stairs.
But he collapses halfway up and dies from blood loss.