Item from Red Rising by Pierce Brown
The iconic Gold weapon — a ring of metal that unfurls into a meter-long whip-blade at the flick of a wrist. The weapon that defines Gold martial culture and the duels that settle their disputes.
The razor is the Gold made weapon. It is beautiful, lethal, and requires a lifetime of training to master — which is exactly the point. Any Color can fire a gun. Only a Gold, with decades of martial education and genetically enhanced reflexes, can wield a razor at its full potential. The weapon can shift between rigid blade and flexible whip mid-combat, allowing a skilled user to fight at multiple ranges simultaneously. The best razorwork looks like dance — elegant, flowing, and utterly devastating. Darrow learned the razor at the Institute and became one of the deadliest practitioners in the system, though he fights with a Red's savagery that purist Gold duelists find distasteful. Cassius au Bellona was considered the finest blade of his generation. Aja au Grimmus could kill Peerless Scarred before they finished drawing. Lorn au Arcos invented the Willow Way style that an entire generation of warriors adopted. The razor is the symbol of Gold supremacy — the physical proof that the ruling Color is willing to kill with their own hands rather than delegating violence to others.
In its dormant state, an elegant metal ring worn on the finger or wrist — deceptively delicate. When activated, it extends and rigidifies into a curved blade, or can be held loose as a monofilament whip capable of slicing through armor and bone alike. The metal shifts and flows like liquid mercury before locking into whatever form the wielder commands.
Also known as: razor, the razor, whip-blade, Gold blade