Chapter 26

"DODGE IT!" Jay thinks out loud.

—Blaze rolls away from Sandra's surprise entrance while Jay looks on in great concentration, waiting for an opening. Sandra was flying down to the warehouse they were in through the open skylight above. Jay had his sword at the ready as Sandra dive bombs directly for him. However, without a window of opportunity, he takes his own advice and gets out of her way immediately with a quick side-step.

With the wind around him growing ever stronger, Jay quickly realizes its true nature. This was Sandra's Aspect, which she used in the waiting room frequently to float around. It was air-based, which wasn't a good sign for him.

Sandra lands spectacularly with her fist burying itself into the ground, creating a mini shockwave on impact. Her hair flapped as the wind around the warehouse started to focus itself back on the creator.

"Finally, some AP is back!" Blaze thinks out loud, "*Aspect on*!"

Jay watches as Blaze gets up, snapping his fingers to ignite his pink defensive flames.

"What is this, some kind of reunion?" Sandra cackles.

"Not at all!" Blaze says, glancing over at Jay, "We were fighting actually before you interrupted us!"

"Oh, from the looks of it, you guys were just chatting and getting to know each other better!" Sandra says, "Correct me if I'm wrong!"

Jay glances over at Blaze and then back at Sandra. This situation is getting worse and worse since now there were two people here not willing to talk things out. However, Jay had to take his chances.

"You're half right," Jay explains, "I wanted to know how his Aspect works."

"What? And he actually told you?" Sandra asks.

"Yeah," Jay replies, "But it's for a good reason,"

'What's he mean by that?' Blaze thinks.

The three players were of equal distance from each other, and each had malice between each other. Although getting to know Blaze's Aspect was decent, Jay knows they weren't on a good page yet. Blaze still wants to kill him, and with Sandra here, Jay was surrounded by the same players who shunned him during the waiting phase of this tryout session. He needs to figure out as much as possible about them for his backup plan.

Jay didn't stand much of a chance against either of them, but he stood his ground like he was an equal. Blaze's flames flowed in the wind like they weren't affected by it, and Sandra puts a hand behind herself.

She draws her weapons, which are a set of chain blades. They were like mini sickles with a long metal chain connected at the bottom of their handles. Due to the Decimation providing them, they were bland-looking, but they were still very offensive weapons in the hands of her wind Aspect.

"I don't have my chakrams, so these will have to do..." Sandra whispers to herself.

"No one asked!" Blaze comments angrily.

"Shut up, you hero-wannabe," Sandra replies coldly, giving Blaze a death stare.

Jay stayed silent as it looked like the other players were about to duke it out. Sandra grips her chain blades with overconfidence, and Blaze holds up his shield with defense in mind. Not either player was paying attention to Jay.

'*Now*!' Jay thinks to himself.

As Blaze is about to step forward to challenge Sandra, Jay runs straight for him. This was the window of opportunity Jay needed in his previous altercation. While fighting in the street, Jay never saw a chance for a clean blow on Blaze, but one presented itself right in front of him. Blaze sees Jay start to charge him, which catches him off guard since he wasn't expecting Jay to fight him at all.

"Hah!" Jay grunts as he swings his sword to his right as he passes Blaze from behind.

A clean-cut right between his middle back, which gushed glowing-red HP out from the wound. Blaze flinches as the pain starts to spread quickly. Jay follows up his attacks with an overhead strike, but Blaze counters it with his shield. The collision with blade and shield causes a loud sound to emit, and sparks fly out.

Jay jumps back his attack in anticipation of a third party, which in this case would be Sandra. As he thought, She started to head in his direction. Sandra flies straight for him with the same gaze he had seconds ago while fighting Blaze. She undoubtedly saw this as an opportunity to score damage on him without him having a chance to react.

Jay holds up his sword in front of him defensively as Sandra flies to him. What he wasn't expecting was Sandra's change in positioning, flying right over his blade and floating right behind him, chain blades at the ready. Jay doesn't have time to dodge as Sandra sends both weapons at him.

"Let's see why Tide marked you as his target!" She says, swinging her blades in Jay's direction.

Jay fully anticipated the blades to enter into each of his shoulders since he had no time to but what ended up happening was rather strange. Pink flames shroud him from behind in the shape of a giant hand. Blaze had another usage of Burning Palm left, which he uses onto Jay forcefully.

'What the hell?' Jay thinks, 'The fire doesn't hurt like before, but I can't move!'

Jay is lifted off of the ground and thrown to the side like a ragdoll. He braces himself as he awkwardly slams into a wall back first. Falling back down to ground level, Jay could feel his back bruise as he lost a small amount of HP. He looks up to see Blaze running towards Sandra, looking over at Jay for a split second.

"Out of my way, Jay!" Blaze calls out in Jay's direction, "This girl just talked crap about my outfit, which is grounds for a hero's arrest!"

"What?!" Jay calls out, "You can't be serious! You could've just let me die!"

"That's what I was saying earlier, so think of this as payback!" Blaze yells.

After throwing him to the side, Sandra's chain blades scrape across Blaze's shield as he rushes to Jay's position. Jay watches as Sandra's expression turns sour from Blaze's move. It wasn't like he saved him or anything, but Jay took this moment to charge Sandra as a tag team with Blaze.

Jay lunges at Sandra with his sword extended forwards, propelling it straight for her chest. She has enough time to reel back her chain blades, though, and swings them over to Jay. Seeing this in his peripherals, Jay swings his sword close to his body to block the blades as a counterattack.

Not as smooth as blocking a shield bash, Jay collides his weapon with Sandras, making both users flinch as the force cramps their forearms. Jay speedily backs up from Blaze and Sandra alike, which they copy as well. Blaze slugs his shield up as he dashes backward, and Sandra touches the ground from floating for once.

The three players breathed heavily as they were all pretty exhausted at this point. Sandra looks up disappointingly at Jay.

"So... you *are* working together?" Sandra groans, having been completely drained of her strength and Aspect.

"No, but I'll do whatever it takes to win." Jay sighs, "We all see opportunities here to jump in once two of us squabble, so I took mine once it revealed itself."

"Fair... enough..." Blaze mutters, entirely out of AP as well.

"Sure, but... Aren't you the one who wanted to team up with us earlier?" Sandra asks Jay, mentioning how he tried befriending her and Blaze.

"I tried, but it wasn't working, so I resorted to plan b," Jay explains,

"Don't let up on someone, and only let up to get info."

Blaze and Sandra look over at Jay with strange expressions. Jay looked back at them both with a severe face. He almost looked like he knew he was going to lose, which made Blaze shocked. Sandra realizes what Jay means and is stunned. She looks over at him with wide eyes.

"You... you took pity on me earlier to get information about my Aspect? Why?" Blaze inquires.

"Yeah, just in case I lose this tryout session, I want to know how to beat the people who end up getting the best of me," Jay explains, "Honestly, I'm not sure if I have a chance at this thing, but if it's you guys that'll finish me off, then I need to know your weaknesses for next time..."

Sandra was right in her theory. Jay doesn't think he's going to win, so he's just trying to get as much out of his most challenging enemies so he can eventually beat them later on in the line.

"Next time, huh?" Blaze mutters at Jay's comment, "Yeah, right... after ms. Breeze over there said something so rude about my uniform. I'm making sure she dies next..."

"Watch it! I was just starting to take it easy on you guys!" Sandra complains.

The three players don't even have their weapons drawn. Jay had his arm as limb as possible since carrying his sword was a hassle in and of itself. When he countered Sandra's chain blades, his arm almost cracked under pressure. His sword almost broke earlier from blocking Blaze's shield bashes, so having his arm going out of commission wasn't going to happen.

"So, a fire that doesn't hurt but is solid, and strong wind manipulation..." Jay comments, smiling through the pain, "You guys sure are gonna be hard to beat..."

"You say that like we'll give in..." Blaze grins, closing his eyes as he tries to focus energy to lift his shield.

"Yeah..." Sandra also smiles.

Jay looks over at Blaze, still slumped over from AP exhaustion and the wound that was still freshly open from Jay's sword.

"So, I have a question," Jay asks Blaze, "Is the whole hero thing because of your flame's properties?"

Blaze looks over at Jay and nods his head.

"Yeah, I guess you could say the flames are like a blessing and a curse for me—" Blaze starts, looking down at the palms of his hands.

"—In most games, I'd be the one locking things down at the front line, being part of an assault squad. I would have insane damage on any weapon I had, and my magic in those other games would be explosively powerful!—"

Jay and Sandra look over to Blaze as he explains some of his conditions and his past. It was so sudden for him to bring this stuff up, but Jay and Sandra listened patiently, as they were still tired.

"In the Nexus, having these bright and beautiful flames that don't hurt at all... That was a different change of pace. The game's supposed to give you a power you'll love, so I was confused. Over time, I adapted it as a defensive strategy, so I laid down my blades and projectiles and took up a shield. Like I told you earlier, I'm not too fond of combat necessarily, but I'll participate in it if I absolutely have to. This tryout session is one of those times. I said I only like playing defense, but it wasn't always like that—"

"Once I mastered my pink fire, I was then on known as '*Blaze, the shield hero*!'" Blaze finishes, striking that exaggerated pose he made earlier when Jay first spoke with him.

Jay felt the passion behind Blaze's words and was impressed that he got all of that off his chest. This was the first time he was sincere to Jay or Sandra. Apart from when Jay asked him about being a shopkeeper hero after Axel's match.

"We get it. You're a dork." Sandra teases him.

"Shut up! I was opening up!" Blaze says with tears falling from his face.

Jay laughs in his head as the two players in front of him eerily remind him of Axel and Ivy. He stands up straighter and loosely holds his sword at his side.

"That was a lot to take in, so thanks for saying that," Jay says.

"D-don't mention it..." Blaze says nervously.

Sandra keeps her ground but leans in as she looks at Jay.

"So you really just wanted info, huh?" Sandra says.

"Yeah," Jay responds.

"Then I have something you need to tell me." Sandra says, "Think of it as a trade or a deal. If you tell me about your Aspect, I'll let you know about mine and my different moves."

"Hey yeah, you haven't actually used your Aspect yet! Spill the beans!" Blaze comments.

"M-my Aspect?" Jay says.

If he told Sandra about his Aspect—or in this case lack thereof—she would tell him about her moves and stuff? It seemed like a good deal, but once he told them he didn't have an Aspect, they would for sure lay into him immediately. After all, he was a pretty easy kill.

"My Aspect is..." Jay starts to say.

"Not important." A voice says from across the warehouse.

Jay, Blaze, and Sandra all look away from each other to where the voice came from. To their shock and fear, an oversized silhouette covered up the hole Blaze had created from earlier. Jay's heartbeat skyrocketed as he recognized who the player was just by their voice alone. Jay draws his sword, Blaze raises his shield, and Sandra readies her chain blades.

The large armor set. The deeper tone of voice. The large war axe. The worst part about this encounter is that everyone was drained of AP and generally tired, and now the strongest player in their tryout group had shown up.

"Looks like I finally found my target," Tide says, crumbling half of the already destroyed wall as he makes his way into the warehouse.