Kael got up from his position. He then slowly turned towards the grunt, who had made him fall.
He gripped the fork he picked up; he slowly walked toward the grunt.
"Do you have any problem?" And he slammed the fork right beside the senior grunt's plate.
The senior grunt was shocked, and then the situation dawned on him. Then he started getting angry, as how can a newbie, a lowlife, act that way in front of him?
So, what if he was the one who started this? He was a senior; he had the right to treat the junior as he wished. He got up from his table; he was just a few centimetres taller than Kael.
But Kael didn't back down from a staring competition with this senior grunt, which further affected the fragile ego of the senior grunt. As now everyone in the mess was looking at them.
Some were laughing; this mockery increased the anger of the senior grunt.
In his anger he directly grabbed the collar of Kael.
"I am your senior, you bastard. Treat me with respect you got that?" He spewed those words as his spit hit Kael, and his face, which Kael didn't mind at that moment, just stared directly into the senior grunt's eyes.
What the senior didn't notice was that one of Kael's hands reached over to the fork he had planted in the table.
He pulled that fork out and stabbed the obliques of the senior grunt.
"Ahhh!"
"Nist! Are you okay?" One of the colleagues of the senior grunt exclaimed as he saw Kael, stabbing the senior grunt, who they called Nist.
"You bastard." Seeing their friend injured, the other members around the table who were enjoying the situation acted, ready to bite Kael up.
Nist, who had the fork stabbed inside him, looked at the fork. He slowly reached out to the fork and removed it in one swift motion.
"Ahh-"
Though it hurt, the anger he was feeling was larger than the pain.
Then he slowly looked over to Kael, who was surrounded by his friends, closing off any path for Kael to run.
"Now, what? You got quite the nerve?! ain't you? Well, let this senior of yours teach you a lesson." Nist said, as he slowly walked towards Kael.
Kael, who was surrounded on all sides, knew he had no way to run; he knew he was in a very bad situation, but something inside him was not letting him back down. As he just stared at Nist, who was slowly coming towards him with the very work Kael stabbed him with,.
Seeing that even in this situation, Kael was not backing down and was directly looking at him, rather than begging him for forgiveness.
"You little... Quite the prideful guy, are you? Hmm! Yeah, let's do this then." Nist muttered as he continued his way towards Kael.
"Guys! This cute junior of ours has very beautiful eyes, right?! Why don't we remove them and store them somewhere safe?" Nist said to his friends who were surrounding him. As soon as he reached Kael.
He grabbed Kael by his neck. Kael tried to use force to break free, but to no avail.
"Hey, hold his hands." Nist said, and two of the members moved and each held Kael's hand.
Nist was thoroughly enjoying the moment as he moved the fork on Kael's face and asked.
"Wanna say something?"
*twack*
Kael spat on Nist's face.
There was silence, as all noise stopped inside the mess, as everyone was shocked.
"You!!!"
"Hahhhh"
Nist shouted in anger as he brought his fork to plunge it inside Kael's eyes.
As if time slowed down, Kael saw the fork reached his eyes.
"Hahahahaha! You guys are really funny."
He heard someone's laughter, and the fork stopped midway.
Everyone was shocked: Kael, Nist, his friends, and everyone else present in the mess.
"Who dares!" Nist shouted in anger. Only to notice a young man, standing some distance away.
Only when he saw who the young man was, all strength left his body, the fork dropped from his hand, and not just he, the rest of friends were also scared shitless, and they all fall on there knees.
Everyone else who was enjoying the situation till now started acting as if they never noticed what was happening.
Kael and the rest of the New Grunts were confused, but understanding the situation, they decided to stay quiet.
The young man just nodded to himself as if approving the reaction.
Slowly the young man started walking towards where Kael and others were; the people with Kael moved to give the young man a path to walk.
When he was just a few steps away from Kael had a proper look at him.
The guy was a lean guy, not too tall, around the same height as Kael; his skin was ashen-grey, as if he had never had any sun exposure in his life, with long dark hair tied up in a man bun.
He was wearing the custom uniform of the organisation, the black combat suit, but above it he was wearing a long trench coat.
"You are interesting; I like you. Come with me!" The young man said to Kael and started walking towards the path leading towards the Pit, or what people called it; it was the same place where Kael and the other grunts were shown their status window.
Kael first thought and decided to follow the young man.
Kael soon reached near the young man, who, after noticing Kael's presence, started talking.
"What is your name?"
"Kael." Kael introduced himself.
"Kael... Nice name. Well, Kael, I am Serak, or people also call me the 1st Sphere."
As soon as Kael heard those words, the gear in his mind shifted, and he understood why Nist and people from before acted that way and how the fork was stopped.
As when the new grunts were being shown around the furnace, they were briefed that there are many ranks in the organisation and the lowest were the grunts, and the 10 strongest are promoted to the ranks of spheres.
So, one thing was clear to Kael: this young man in front of him was one of the strongest members in the lower realm of the organisation.