Chapter 33

—Jay floats back to the earth below him, after planting his feet onto Tide while driving his sword into the enemy. Now that he was actually dead, Jay wasn't standing on Tide anymore. The realization of what had happened only hits Jay after the fact.

"W-we..." Jay whispers.

"—d-did it," Blaze says with Jay, flinching as he tried to hold his shield.

"We actually did it..." Sandra says, weak from Tide's blow on her earlier.

All three players were extremely weak, but they managed to kill the strongest player around. They all stare at each other, and smile in unison. They jump in celebration.

"WE DID IT!!!"

"WE DID IT!!!"

"W-WE DID ITT!!!"

After celebrating, all three players flinch in pain as they still feel the wounds from their fight. Blaze looks at Jay with a massive grin.

"You totally merked him!" Blaze says, winking at Jay, "Nice job sidekick!"

"S-shut up you highlighter." Jay fires back.

'Not you too!?' Blaze complains in his head.

Sandra shifts her hair while fidgeting with her chain blades, looking at where Tide's body was last seen. He had a small amount of HP, but his armour protects him from getting damaged at all.

"I still don't know how that guy's armor is legal. We would've beaten him ages ago if it wasn't there!" Sandra explains.

Jay and Blaze nod their heads in agreement, and Sandra looks over at Jay. In an almost light-hearted fashion, Sandra looks to the floor in a petty nature.

"Also, good job delivering the final blow," Sandra says to Jay.

"Woah! You're giving out compliments now?" Blaze teases Sandra.

"Shut up! That's the last time you'll hear one from me!" Sandra responds nervously.

Jay weakly smiles and holds up a thumbs-up to Sandra. Seeing this quelled any sense of tension between them, and Sandra gave a thumbs-up as well. With Tide out of the way, the three weak players could take a break.

"Ok, let's rest here for a little—" Jay starts to say but immediately holds his words.

A sharp pain immediately enters the left side of his chest. He gasps as the pain moves up to his neck and into his shoulders. Jay frighteningly looks over to Blaze or Sandra, in case his worst fears are confirmed.

Thinking they double-crossed him, Jay was once again surprised. Blaze and Sandra had the same expression he had, with a painful demeanor in complete shock and awe.

"Ack!" Blaze spits, feeling his body start to fade away just like Tide's moments before.

"Hmph!" Sandra groans as she feels her threshold kick in.

"N-no... way—" Jay says, but with the pain getting so bad, he stops talking.

He slumps over almost immediately, seeing Blaze and Sandra do the same. His health bar slowly depleted its last twelve HP. His vision was almost entirely gone, and light started growing from his feet that stretched to Jay's face. This was him despawning, which meant he was dead.

All three players die in the same way, collapsing after taking a small amount of damage.

"Oh! That's a bummer!" Stan announces, "The dream team has fallen, which means..."

"*WE HAVE OUR WINNER*!"

A single player stood in the midst of where Jay had tangled with Tide, with the street surrounding the area being completely decimated. Several holes were made into the warehouse nearby, and the light enough debris started to float into the wind. The player looked around, almost cautious that another player was still alive. They had their HP max and a sword at their side that was in perfect condition.

This player's only interaction in this entire match was killing Jay, Blaze, and Sandra when they were weak. They had practically finished off the most significant threat for him.

"*YES*!!!" The player yells, "I *WON*!!!"

The feeling of satisfaction they felt was immaculate, figuring that becoming a rat to win was the only means of winning.

"I did it! I can become a Slayer!" The player yells.

While the victor of this matchup was happy, most people in the arena were not. They had just witnessed a fight with branching events and turns in who had the advantage. It all accumulated to three players teaming up for a single opponent. For this player to swoop in and take their victory was a low blow.

"You *suck*!"

"*BOO*!"

"You *didn't* deserve that!"

More and more players in the bleachers were raging as the player who had just won continued to showboat his win.

Helmet spectated the player in the middle of the Decimation's play area, pumping their hands into the air frantically as they had just won a big competition. Helmet felt a pain that wasn't physical, but nonetheless there, slowly enter his heart. He grips his leather jacket furiously while trying to contain his emotions.

"They really did that, huh?" Corvus says in the V.I.P room.

"That wasn't cool." Crash agrees.

"What a loser," Rayna says.

Helmet continues to watch the victorious player celebrate, looking down to where Jay and his new friends had just fallen.

"Yea, what a low blow..." Helmet says in a monotone voice.

Stan himself—across the arena from the V.I.P section—felt betrayal was in the air. This nameless player wasn't strong at all, not even comparable to Jay, but they still won fair and square. He kept announcing, but there was an apparent dent that formed in his heart.

"...A-and now! That concludes today's tryouts session! I hoped everyone enjoyed the fun!" Stan announces, rambling afterward in a fast pace, "Doconsiderbuyingsomeoftheslayerofficialmerchandiseatthevendorsjustoutsideof—"

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

Jay, Blaze, and Sandra all walk through the halls of the Decimation with their heads lowered. They had thought they gained the victory, but it ended up being for nothing.

Jay, in particular, was ultimately out of it. He thought he could become a slayer to help his mother out without having to get a grueling job that pays little, but it looks like he might have to apply for some positions after all.

Walking through the halls, no one said a word. They knew what everyone was thinking about already, so they kept their mouths shut. The feeling of loss and tension because of it was so thick in the air, you could cut it with a knife.

Looking up for a moment to make sure he was going the right way, Jay is greeted with four familiar faces. All of them shared a similar expression as his, being sad or depressed.

"Well, you can't... you can't win 'em all!!" Axel says, trying to cheer Jay up.

"Hey! Rude!" Ivy says, covering Axel's mouth immediately, "He meant to say something else!"

"You're good, I understand," Jay responds, looking down at the floor.

His eyes were sunken in, which his friends noticed almost as soon as he got up closer to them. Blaze and Sandra stood a ways away while Jay reunited with his friends and split off from each other as well. It was a bittersweet disconnect, but it was understandable.

"Those players that helped you in the fight," Dillan says to Jay, "they weren't super friendly to you until..."

"Until you cut through Aspect!" Kira says with a booming voice.

Jay looks up at the change in Kira's usual tone, along with the other party members. His eyes widen as he's genuinely stunned by her new charisma.

"You cut through Aspect, and you did it all because of your training!" Kira explains in a soft voice, "So don't beat yourself up too hard about your misfortune."

"T-thanks, Kira..." Jay says, shifting his attention away from her after he thanks her, "But I still lost..."

The party grows silent for a moment, almost mourning Jay's loss as the rest of them had guaranteed spots to become Slayers.

"Hey, Jay," Dillan starts to say, "You yourself told me that losing isn't always a loss. It can be a win! I lost to Helmet easily, but I still managed to achieve my goal, which was to make a name for myself."

Jay harkens back to when he had a full-blown discussion with Dillan about his issues. It was weird to switch spots in their conversation like this.

"Yea, but..." Jay mumbles.

"He's right, you know." A voice suddenly says behind Jay.

The other party members gasp as they recognize a player who had suddenly appeared next to the party. Jay turned around to see who was addressing him, then felt immense guilt. His face lowers down in the player's direction.

"Hey, Helmet," Jay says.

"Yo." Helmet says, holding up a hand in greeting.

'Did he just say yo?!' Axel thinks.

Helmet shifts his hands back into his jacket's pockets in an open kind of way. He stared Jay down, but not like a hawk with bad intentions. He truly empathized with Jay.

"About the fight..." Helmet starts to say, "I'm sorry for your loss."

Jay continues to stare at the ground, almost in self-defeat. He thought of the fun he could have with his friends while they all fought and trained as Slayers. He thought he would be able to join one of the most well-known Guilds in the game in the entire country, but it was all just a dream.

"Yeah, I guess I aimed too high knowing I don't have Aspect," Jay says softly.

"Not at all what I was about to segway into, but sure thing!!" Axel blurts out behind Jay, "If anything, be proud you made it this far!!"

"Yeah!" Ivy agrees.

Jay looks up and in his friends' general direction. They both received referrals from Helmet, but he was the only one who failed to become a Slayer for real.

"I liked what I saw, and you took my advice. You visualized and you executed, although another player was waiting in the shadows to kill you and your team." Helmet says.

"Exactly. Ending Tide never mattered in the first place, but we all stopped fighting and went after him." Jay says, "It made sense at the moment, but now..."

There was silence between the party and Helmet. Everyone kept their thoughts to themselves as they pondered how to make Jay more motivated or happier in general.

"Hey, why are you here anyway?" Jay asks Helmet, "Are you here just to make me feel better?"

"Not at all. I'm on schedule." Helmet responds.

'What do you mean then?! You don't care about me that much?!' Jay thinks in a disappointed manner.

"I was actually here to gather all of the prospects before the halls get crowded. You saw what happened last time I tried walking out of here during rush hour!" Helmet responds, with his digital eyebrows on his helmet bobbing up and down in a funny way.

"Oh, but gather us for what?" Ivy asks.

"Why, for the Slayer initiation, of course!" Helmet says, holding up an item from his inventory.

As soon as Helmet shows the item off, everyone is invested in it. The object, in particular, had notoriety in the game as one of the most exclusive items on the market. It's only given to players in the Slayer's Pack, with it being part of their uniforms.

This item was the «Slayer Crest Decal», the symbol which represented the clan.

"Wait, we're doing that now? Why are you gathering up all the Prospects and not just us then?" Kira asks, pointing to the group of winning players in her party.

"My mission was to gather everyone who had made it this far in the tryouts, whether you made it or didn't make it." Helmet explains, "Which means I have to gather up everyone who participated in today's matchups.—"

"—As I said to Jay before, I'm on schedule."

'You don't say...' Axel thinks.

"Ok, so I can come too?" Jay asks.

"Of course, that's why I spoke to you in the first place. I mean, part of it is to congratulate your performance. However, you had me and some of the other Guildmasters speechless when you used Preloading." Helmet says.

"Excuse me, 'preloading?' What's that?" Ivy asks as she listens to Jay and Helmet's conversation.

"I wasn't speaking to you," Helmet says to Ivy, "Wait your turn."

"Ha, yeah, well, I only understood your advice then and there, so..." Jay says, "Thanks for that."

"No problem at all. You did well."

Helmet looks away from Jay and waves his hands towards some of the other Prospects waiting around. Among the crowd were Larx, Blaze, Sandra, and those tree-campers Axel dealt with earlier. Stan was also waving his hands and making small talk with the prospects, seemingly for the same reason as Helmet. Dillan notices Stan immediately while looking around to who Helmet was waving at.

"Is Stan helping you? Isn't he just a freelancer for this event?" Dillan asks Helmet.

"Not at all," Helmet says, "He's not a freelancer."

Stan makes his way over to Jay's party after talking to a player who had an attitude against him. He takes off his comedically large hat and puts his hand inside.

"I wonder what's in here? Maybe a... uh... a rabbit! yes, yes, or... some cash!" Stan says.

"Ok, we get it!!" Axel yells.

"Jeez, you're no fun," Stan says, pulling his hand out of his hat. He had his signature playing cards in his hands, and he shuffled them instinctively.

"Ok, your cards, so what?" Kira says, "I sure do remember them, you know?"

Kira reflects back to when Stan gave her a Slayer Pass in the first portion of the tryouts, harkening back to when he used his Aspect moves and showed off his Sleight of Hand move.

"Take a closer look!" Stan says, motioning one of the cards to the gathering of players, back first.

As the players look at Stan's cards closer, they're all surprised.

"Hey, why's the Slayer's Crest on them?" Ivy asks Stan.

Stan simply smiles back at them. This causes everyone to freak out.

"WAIT, YOU'RE A SLAYER?!!" Axel yells.

"Since when?!" Kira shouts.

"What?!" Jay exclaims, "Have you always been a Slayer, or did they pick you up?"

"Always have been. I just don't show people my cards that often! Only when I use them as projectiles, I suppose..."

"...Or when you fly above them on a giant variant of them!" Dillan says, "And that one didn't have the Slayer's crest on it on the back of the card!"

Back during the "race for a place" at the beginning of the tryouts, Stan himself gave Ivy, Dillan, and Kira Slayer Passes and flew on a giant version of one of his playing cards. The back face of it—Including the one he used later as a teleportation door—didn't have the sleek decal on them.

"Oh! Well, the crest used to be on my undershirt!" Stan says, shifting his bow-tie as he lowered his vest to show the players his button-up shirt, "Sadly, the 'org said I had to 'represent the Slayers more,' so my babies have been branded with the crest ever since!"

'His babies? Doesn't he mean his cards?' Jay thinks.

"Interesting... So you've been a Slayer this whole time and not some freelance announcer?" Jay asks after his thought

"I've always wanted to pursue show-biz!" Stan says, "I guess the spotlight has always chased *me* is all..."

Stan puts his cards into his pockets and crosses his arms. He was a slayer, but no one knew it. It still baffled everyone's minds. Helmet puts his left hand up to his helmet and coughs loudly to gather everyone's attention.

"We should really be going. The initiation starts in roughly ten minutes. The location is private, so everyone get close for a teleport." Helmet says, motioning everyone to put their hands on his.

"You never told me we were doing initiations! I thought it was an after-party!" Stan laughs.

"Just go gather other players and meet the rest of the Guildmasters at the spot I texted you," Helmet responds.

Jay and the others put their hands on Helmet's left hand in a huddle-style type of way. Helmet opens his game menu and uses the voice command to initiate a teleport. He mumbles something into his menu, and the players—except Stan— start to fade away as they get launched to a new location.

<Teleport Activated!>

They were off to the Slayer initiations.