MIND GAMES: Guild Tryouts

Chapter 27

"I thought you said I wasn't worthy of that title!" Jay shouts to Tide.

—The behemoth-sized player had just interrupted the group's joint conversation, cutting off Jay from explaining to Blaze and Sandra that he has no Aspect. It was good that Jay didn't have to explain himself, but bad because all of them were at risk of dying now.

Tide reaches for his weapon, the giant war axe that Jay has never seen him use in person. Sandra flinches at its sight, almost like she's seen it before, and so does Blaze. Jay still doesn't know how they know Tide, but he figures they must've crossed paths at some point during the tryouts.

"Oh, and you have company? They sure do look different than the last time you hung out with 'em." Tide ridicules.

"Shut up!" Blaze says, "You're thinking of his friends!"

"Yeah, we're just talking, is all!" Sandra follows up.

Jay still stares Tide down with fear. Blaze and Sandra will know that not one of them can win this fight, right? Hopefully, they don't try something rash. Sandra glances over at JAy, then back to Tide.

"Hey, if he's really your target, then will you just overlook the fact that me and the pink onesie are here?" Sandra asks.

"Hey!" Blaze complains, "It's a hero uniform!"

Tide turns to her, and even though his armored helmet covers his face, his bodily expression gives off confusion.

"I don't know what you mean, but I intend to slaughter all of you. If you want first dibs, that's alright." Tide says, leaning his axe onto his right shoulder.

"Aspect on." He mumbles.

After Tide says this, Jay and the others can feel a flurry of energy around the area. Jay looks over to see Sandra and Blaze in complete disbelief. Jay had never seen Tide's Aspect, so whatever can scare Sandra and Blaze like that must be robust. The moisture in the air around Jay started to become drier and drier, which wasn't a good sign. The warehouse starts to feel hotter than ever as Tide gathers every drop of moisture in the area and forms it into a single point above his head. It then rapidly expands as Tide uses his Aspect fully, and before they knew it, Jay and the others were looking at a large wave of water.

Before Tide says anything, Sandra lifts off the ground with whatever Aspect she has left, heading straight for Tide's face. Seeing this, Tide cancels his move and moves his axe off his shoulder. Sandra sent a chain blade for his leg.

'Please catch his knee!' She thinks.

In a quick turn of events, a bolt of water starts to emerge from the soaked ground where the wave of water Tide made previously was formed. This mass of water starts to shrink down in volume until it forms a makeshift wall, which catches Sandra's weapon, stopping it completely.

"Water Aspect, «Pressurization»!" Tide announces.

The water hand then pulls on Sandra's weapon, pulling her close to Tide's next attack. In the process, Sandra losses grip of her chain blades, letting them fall onto the floor as they keep her tethered to Tide. He arms his axe high into the sky as Sandra gets close to him, then he starts to let gravity take the wheel. He starts pile driving the massive edge of the axe straight for Sandra.

Right before the axe makes contact with her, bright light emerges in front of her, blinding her vision and separating Tide from Sandra.

"Burning Palm!" Blaze calls out, running to Sandra's side.

Jay watched in complete shock—not moving a single muscle— as Blaze did the same maneuver he laid onto him earlier. Blaze's Burning Palm blocks Tide's attack, but it wasn't going to hold on for much longer. Blaze himself had his shield at the ready to combat this, standing in the axe's way.