No hope

All the prisoners had now been set out in a line, walking through never-ending hallways. The two Lizor had been placed in front of him and Talia behind him. A brick wall would've been preferable to converse with Talia so Niko set his sights out on the brown-haired Lizor in front of him. He had shown himself to be more trustworthy than the rest.

"So, why are you here?"

Talia butted in.

"My parents sold me off for a new house."

"I'm not talking to you."

Brown-haired began to heartily laugh.

"Ha! I'm here to protect someone."

"From all the way out here?"

"I came here because I had to protect someone."

"My... Daughter got on the bad side of some rich pricks. You know the type. She stole something of theirs and they responded in kind. IGF law enforcement as usual took their side and threatened to sell my daughter off. I took the fall in order to protect her. Simple as."

As tragic as brown-haired's tale was stories like these were a dime a dozen in every fold of the galaxy. The harsh truth was that good people rarely receive good things. That's how Niko could tell that brown-haired most likely would not make it and the Talia girl behind him wasn't long for the world herself.

"Well I'm sorry to hear that, here's hoping things get better from now on."

"There's no need to console me, I know they won't."

He was right. Things weren't going to get better from now on.

As the prisoners walked they came across a large door at the end of the hallway. Niko had thought that the bars would have lasted forever so this came as a relief.

Niko debated trying to make a run for it but he didn't know the way to go or whether there even was an exit. The metal wrapped around his hands also meant that he had no opportunity to fight back even given the chance.

As the door opened, the prisoner's set their sights on what could possibly be the most beautiful stage they would see for the rest of their lives.

The hallway lead out to a wonderous theatre lined up with thousands of people in fluffy velvet seats tipped with golden rims. A terrifyingly expansive chandelier lay at the ceiling sparkling as it emanated Every single audience member gave off pompous rich vibes with their silky wooly coats and well-trimmed leather jackets they didn't even need to say 'we are above you' just their presence emanated that fact.

But even among the audience members were those who had ascended above the above. Niko's eyes gleamed out five people at the very back of the theatre with appearances that seemed futuristic even for the new era. Their clothes ordained in sparkles likely from blood gems. The unknown materials twisted in ridiculous directions in a way it was humorous.

But you must not dare laugh at an aristorcrat.

They can have your head in seconds.

As Niko walked up onto the stage and began to line up with the other prisoners in front of him lay certain oddities like an obstacle course or hula hoops, perhaps this was what the officer meant by putting on a show?

A masked man with a suit and top hat slowly walked to the front of the stage.

"Hello everybody, wonderful to have you here really. For today's auction we'll be having our guests at the back."

By guests he meant prisoners.

"Go ahead and perform some tricks to show you their capabilities, and then we have a special as the main treat so stay tuned for that. So to start off with we'll have Yowal Riso come to front."

A young man small in stature and capability trudged his way on up to the front of the stage. Tophat produced a wand from his breast pocket and then tapped his metal bindings twice.

The metal fell to the floor with a clank it seemed that wand could free people. The man named Yowal was shaking he appeared very nervous but in this situation, who wouldn't be?

Tophat prompted Yowal to speak.

"So what are your talents."

Yowal, now shaking, mustered out words.

"I-I'm good at... I'm good at carrying things. I have high stamina and endurance."

This seemed to amuse Tophat.

"Hoho! So he has good stamina, let's test that then."

Yowal clearly was not somebody with high stamina he had thin stick-figure like legs and bones that were more visible than his skin. Perhaps he had just said whatever would make him look best.

As tophat gestured his hands seemingly prompting two bulky men to come forward carrrying a gargantuan boulder.

"If you can walk three laps with this boulder I can guarantee your survival."

Unless the subject was worth 'feeding and housing' (they rarely did these to appropriate standards) slavers would usually kill anybody who was not sold. Liabilities as they were called.

For somebody like Yowal failiure almost certainly meant death.

Yowal held out his hands as the two men placed it within his reach.

"Ughh. It's too..."

Yowal began his mighty trench his miniscule frame overshadowed by his oversized rock. He seemed almost destined to be crushed to pieces. Barely hanging on even before a single footprint had been made.

And then... 

He took his first step. His bare feet pressing down onto before pathetically trembling down onto the floor. As he did the boulder slammed into his arms crushing his bones down to brittle.

"Ahh! Ah shit!"

Yowal began to (very reasonably) scream out in pain. The completely unfazed Tophat turned to the audience.

"So I guess we'll start the bidding now, raise you hands if you want to buy him!"

As expected not a single soul in the audience moved. Their deafening silence making it all the more clear. He was dead.

"Alright then would anybody like to do the honors?"

Tophat reached into his back pocket to reveal a knife.

Suddenly a flurry of audience arms became perfectly vertical their excitement radiating as dozens of murmurs littered the room.

"You boy! Come on down."

Tophat pointed out one of the higher up aristocrats, a boy no older than 14 excitedly hurried down his chair to the prisoner named yowal with the elation in his eyes you would think he had been offered 5 tons of candy.

"Don't drop it."

Tophat warned the boy as he took the knife from his hands.

"Of course not sir, I'll do this as efficiently as possible!"

"It doesn't have to be fast. Just... Not messy."

It seemed all of Yowal's instincts had realized that he was finished. He began to make a run for it.

Unluckily he failed to make it more than 2 metres as a guard grabbed his crushed arms and flailed him back. Yowal hit the ground crying in pain.

"N-No please! Not like this, I need... I need to see my mom just one last time!"

The guards grabbed Yowal and lay him chest down on the ground, another guard brought a towel and lay it underneath his head. The boy slowly raised his hand, gripping the knife as if it were a toy. No amount of struggling could save Yowal.

The boy brought the knife down and plunged it Yowal's temple with a nice squelch.

He was dead.