"Well, in the past it was untrained children thrown into the arena. Now it looks like the competition is getting more...fierce." He let a smile linger on his face.

Let this kid ponder on that. Elias knew this round had some trained killers, people who put Careers to shame. It was unfair in an entirely different direction, but having seen enough kids go in who only had hope that luck would go their way...the comment got under Elias's skin.