The card gauntlet of light spun in the air like a glowing icon over Ricky Armada’s withered corpse. Walt approached it in shock, his gambit paid off. He had just defeated a Psycho Slinger. His Slaynami interface flooded him with dings of notifications. The majority were various achievements.

[Congratulations!]

[First Slaystone Duel Victory Achievement Unlocked!]

[Defeated First Slaynami Streamer Achievement Unlocked!]

[Survive Enemy Minions Achievement Unlocked!]

[Survive Flesh Golem Achievement Unlocked!]

[Survive Necromancer Skeleton Minion Unlocked!]

[Bone Spirit to the Face Achievement Unlocked!]

[Bone Scythe to the Flesh Achievement Unlocked!]

But the following seemed to be important milestones concerning his survival and progression as a Slaystone Duelist. He was still considered a Trial participant.

[You have been rewarded Psycho Points!]

[You have won opponent’s Card Deck!]

Trial: Walter Frank Harmon

Wins to Duelist: 1/3

Psycho Points: 2

Psycho Points to Qualify for Next Phase: 2/12

Record: 1-0-0

As Walt came within arrange of his slain opponent’s gauntlet, a panel opened on the disembodied gauntlet and a glowing rectangle floated out of it.

Slaynami Gauntlet link established to fallen opponent’s gauntlet…

Accept connection Y/N?

Walt mentally accepted the connection. The necromancer’s gauntlet began to glow green and black. Walt discovered his gauntlet pulsed with the same colors. That must mean they had linked.

The glowing rectangle spun in the air and then arced towards Walt’s gauntlet. It floated in the air before him. It was Ricky’s deck.

Claim Ricky Armada’s deck of cards Y/N?

“Fuck yeah I’m claiming his deck,” Walt said. “I’d say I earned that!”

A panel opened on his gauntlet and his new deck flew into the device. The panel closed and his gauntlet returned to its normal purple Voidlock glow. Words lit up on one of the other gauntlet displays.

Examine new cards?

“Not yet,” Walt said. “I’ll look at them when I know I’m in a safe place. I want to get off this building first.”

Battleboard Barrier Closing…

The Blue Barrier Matrix dissipated, setting the building and all the survivors left inside free.

No longer a Battleboard Zone….

Walt looked out across the city. Although, Terminus Place was no longer the sight of a Slaystone duel, there were several zones in Atlanta that were. He could see the blue grids shooting up into the sky all across the city. There were easily maybe half a dozen of them. Black smoke billowed into the sky. There were flames. And sirens going off and intermittent screams of people witnessing horrific things.

It looked like the apocalypse. Or at the very least, a war zone.

Then his thoughts went to his sister, Janice, and his mother in Nashville. Shit. He dug out his phone and tried to call his sister. But the phone informed him he had no service. He looked closer. Sure enough, there was no cell signal. A cell tower nearby must have been destroyed.

He held his phone up, hoping to catch a signal. Nada. He typed up a short text to his sister.

Are you and mom okay? I’m alive, but Atlanta is under attack. Heading to Nashville. Pls respond when you get this.

He hit send and hoped that the text would send when he found a cell signal again.

Joy gasped next to him and he turned around to discover she was wearing Ricky’s gauntlet. She stumbled over to a discarded chair and plopped down in it as the gauntlet and Slaynami system made changes to her body to accommodate for her chosen class.

She clenched her teeth and groaned. The gauntlet glowed green and black and the skin on her face rippled as it partially transformed into a beautiful and intricate visage, reminiscent of a Mexican sugar skull with Day of the Dead makeup. She opened her eyes. They glowed green and were rimmed with gold.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Her hair grew darker and streaks of eldritch green appeared along the sides of her cut. A breastplate of bone appeared over her chest, with the skull of gargoyles forming on her shoulders as pauldrons.

A green and black robe formed underneath her breastplate but over her Rob Zombie t-shirt and the top half of her torn jeans.

She had chosen Necromancer as her class.

Walt was surprised that she was able to pick-up the discarded gauntlet and make it hers. “Does it have any cards?”

“It came with a Starter Deck,” Joy said. He could tell she wasn’t looking at him, but at whatever she was reading on her interface.

Interesting. Yet another nuance to not only the game of Slaystone, but this apocalypse they found themselves in. If one couldn’t find a Starter Deck, just claim the gauntlet of a fallen Psycho Slinger. Which required an ally who already had a gauntlet who could defeat others in duels.

Then Walt frowned as he realized something.

“Don’t worry,” Joy said. “I’m not going to challenge you to a duel. I’m not stupid.”

“Are you just saying that because you’re not confident with card games and I am?” Walt said.

“I wouldn’t do that to you,” Joy said. “I might not be alive if it wasn’t for you. Way I see it, we’re going to need allies to survive.”

“Yeah, until we’re all forced to duel each other,” Walt said. It was a grim thought. What was the point of making friends and forming allies when the people in power were gonna force the survivors to duel to the death anyways?

“I figure that’s something to worry about if we survive that long,” Joy said.

“Maybe so.”

“What are your plans now?”

“I need to get out of this city. Find out if my family is okay. What about you?”

“Same. I’ve got a father out there somewhere. He’s a piece of shit but it’s the end of the world, right?”

Walt expressed grim amusement with a slight chuckle. The sound one makes to acknowledge a dark situation. He also could have cried. Things were so dismal it was hard not to feel crushed by the weight of it. All they had to hold onto were their connections to others. Friends, family, lovers. That’s what mattered in this time of crisis. Ensuring the survival of everyone who made one’s life significant.

That’s when Walt noticed the strange streaming device. It was lying on the ground next to Ricky’s withered skull. He picked it up. It seemed like a measuring device for geometry. It was curved like a speculum, made out of a smooth material he didn’t recognize. Was it plastic? There was text imprinted on the inner band.

Slaynami Chronico.

His thumb must have triggered some pressure sensor, because the device lit up, glowing. Then it floated out of his hand and hovered in the air in front of one of his eyes, wrapping around one side of his head.

A digital holoscreen came to life. Blinking text flashed in the upper right corner.

Slaynami Stream started

You are Live

On the screen, he could see the stream chat start scrolling.

regisfive: how is he live?

artentreri: Didn’t we just see him die?

snackums: He was defeated!

icecoldrust: it’s the NPC Voidlock! Walt the Delivery Driver Voidlock!

pinktacolover: It’s Walt, the trial who beat him!

So, the Chronico was a mobile streaming device from the Psycho Slinger world, and it was somehow able to broadcast to the audience there. He didn’t see a mic or anything.

“Hello?” Walt said. “Can anyone hear me? Testing…testing…one, two, three.”

wherewulf: This guy really is a noob.

pinacoladaenjoyer: yes, we can hear you, dumbass.

tallyh03: that was a great duel!

rationalhotdog: people, this isn’t why you should get cocky when you duel, even if it’s with an NPC.

numberonepsychofan: That combo you pulled off on the Z Fucker was sick!

“Okay, good,” Walt said. “Then I’ve got a message for all you dumb fucks who subbed to this piece of shit. He just lost to a guy who just played this game for the first time ever. That was my first match. But it sounds like I did both of our worlds a favor.”

Walt looked for a way to reverse the cam so it would broadcast his point-of-view instead of his face. He did see an icon with two arrows that curved to form a circle. It seemed like the device was linked to his personal Slaynami system because he was able to click on it.

Now he was sure it was broadcasting his point-of-view. So he kneeled and looked at Ricky’s remains so his audience could see it. “He thought he could come to my world and terrorize the people here without consequences. Now look at what’s left of your guy.”

Then he clicked the cam icon again so it would broadcast his face. “So, fuck him, fuck you, fuck that Announcer and fuck whoever the fuck organized this apocalypse!”

As he clicked the icon to end the broadcast and the stream, he saw the Chat going crazy. It seemed to be scrolling faster and faster before the broadcast cut off.

Walt was about to toss the Chronico device off the building but then he thought better of it. He decided to hold onto it in case he should stream any more messages. He couldn’t see a situation in why he would stream himself again, but he would keep the device just in case. He let it remain in front of his face, hovering.

“You sure you want to antagonize that user base?” Joy said. “Might lead to trouble down the line.”

“What does it matter?” Walt said. “We all already have targets on our heads.”

As he glanced back down at the Psycho Slinger’s corpse, he suddenly felt sick to his stomach. He had killed this person. Sure, he was an asshole, and he was from another reality, but he was still a person. Maybe a piece of shit person. But he had been someone’s son. Maybe he was even someone’s brother, someone’s friend. If not friends, he at least had fans.

Maybe it was the adrenaline running thin in his system now that the duel was over, or maybe it was because he could smell Ricky’s body, but nausea overrode Walt’s body. He stumbled into a roofless bathroom and vomited into a toilet.

“Are you okay?” Joy said. She stood outside of the bathroom, watching him.

He came up for air. “I’ve never killed before.” Then he retched again. When he was done he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Or see others die up close like I have today.”

Maybe it was just a moment of guilt and clarity in a tragic situation, but the toll of everything that had just happened inside Terminus Place was hitting him. Sure, he had done things he wasn’t proud of before. Back when he needed the Librium and alcohol. Hell, a lot of things he had no recollection of because he was so blitzed out of his mind at the time. But he had never killed people before or had left others to their deaths.

The face of the teen being devoured by zombies flashed in his mind. “Fuck.”

“He didn’t leave you much choice,” Joy said. “It was either you or him.”

“Doesn’t make it feel any better,” Walt said. “But there was also the kid. With the zombies.” He heaved and threw up some more. Part of him yearned for the little green pills. They’d at least numb him to what he was feeling now.

“That was a mercy killing,” Joy said.

“Goddamnit,” Walt said. “Damn these people. Motherfuckers.”

“What people?”

“The Psycho Slingers. And for whoever organized this…this invasion.”

“Look at me.”

Walt looked up at Joy. She seemed confident, rational. But her eyes also exuded compassion.

“I know we don’t really know each other,” Joy said. “But I do know this. You did what you had to do to survive.”

“You’re right,” Walt said. “It just scares me.”

“What scares you?”

“Part of me enjoyed killing that asshole.”