Franxx shouted, "Form tight groups and protect yourselves with whiip!"

Each group did so, so when the monster goo lunged at us in an attempt to absorb us, they failed miserably.

They kept this up for a minute before giving up and returning back to their bubbling mass, reforming themselves, growing much larger, and generating endless tendrils.

"WRAGHHHHHH!" With vigorous screams filled with saliva, it launched an all-out attack using the tendrils.

The tendrils moved so fast and forcefully that our whiip-shields struggled against the intense pounding.

Blood flowed through my mouth. However, the tendrils split into many more parts and lifted themselves up to the sky, expanding in size.

"Run!" Franxx shouted.

We retracted our whiip as we dashed out of the way.

THUD!

As soon as I blinked, a massive hole was formed in the ground, with a tendril inserted in it. All those that didn't have time to escape were slaughtered.

Then a wild tendril swiped at Tokusuna, moving at her blind spot so fast that she didn't even notice it.

I shouted at her, "Behind you, Tokushuna!"

She moved quickly, but her movement was too slow. But then, someone effortlessly grabbed the tendril.

It was the same man in a cloak from earlier. He swung it back and walked away, not bothering to join in the fight.

Just... who was he?

I didn't have time to wonder about his identity. The monster began spiraling its tendrils, aiming to bisect us! Many fell victim to the whirl-willing tendrils.

"ARGHHHHHHHH!" They screamed in agony.

Many purple flames, or rather, evil flames, blasted the tendrils back, angering it.

It locked its eyes on Urani, who was struggling to maintain her firepower.

Foxiri noticed this and raised her hand. "Everyone, please back up."

Thousands of tendrils shot at Urani, but then Foxiri generated a massive whiip and made a cutting motion, slicing a quarter of them and affecting the momentum of the rest.

The Romain guy also joined in, rushing toward it. He jumped onto darkness that manifested itself as shields?

He moved fast, but not very fast. The monster noticed him and swiped its hand at him, transforming it into a blade.

In turn, he raised his arm, blocking the attack. The force pushed him to the side, and his arm was cut, but it wasn't a deep cut. That was confusing, there should have been no way in hell he could have easily tanked it even if he used platting!

His level was 26, high, but nothing in comparison to this shit!

He had a pained smile but then generated a darkness shield to block another attack.

"Now is the perfect time!" he shouted.

Foxiri ran at it. She touched her hand. I didn't see exactly what she did, but she leaped at it.

Sharp tendrils that shot at her were blocked with a sudden manifestation of darkness shields.

She used one of the shields to adjust her position before grabbing the monster's head. In the next moment, its movement seized, and it dropped down dead.

She... killed it by touching it?

She is incredibly powerful! Unless there are massive consequences to using her abilities. Maybe that's why she has bandages all over her body. Maybe it slowly kills her?

What if she ends up looking like a zombie? Yikes.

But we did it. We stopped it.

Tokushuna sighed as she fell on her butt. "Wow, that was much more difficult than I imagined."

Seeing her reminded me of how she nearly died, but some random suspicious guy saved her...

I looked around for him, but he was nowhere to be seen again.

I immediately asked her, "Was that guy your friend? The one who saved you."

She shook her head. "No idea who he is..."

She looked around. "Or where he is right now."

Wait, that guy was fully cloaked. Of course, she wouldn't know who he is! One thing is for certain, they have some type of connection, and he is keeping his identity hidden for some reason. Seeing how easily he stopped that tentacle, he is definitely at a slayer level.

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I don't want to get involved with him. Hm... Maybe he is Tokushuna's secret guard? I did find her name suspicious, and she is extremely skilled with whiip and can sense concealed people, so she is definitely some big shot.

Maybe the festiva that is investing in her views her as such a high priority that they aren't taking any risks with her dying, so they sent him?

But how was he even able to get into the test? If this is a test, then the instructors would have known everyone who would be taking part in it.

While deep in thought, many people around me began to break down in tears.

"My... brother..."

"Fals..."

Some eyes shook, while others had hard gazes. Even Jasper himself had a complex expression.

Tokushuna and I, on the other hand, were barely affected by what had happened. She was sitting and humming a song, while I was here, thinking about that suspicious guy.

The fact that this didn't trigger my PTSD surprised me. Maybe I am getting better at not being triggered by it because of the blood and gore I saw since the beginning of this test?

I don't know. Either way, becoming a slayer means dealing with this all the time. I'm not sure if I want that life, but there are a lot of things I don't want but still have to do.

Tokushuna's humming came to a pause as she watched the corpses around and muttered something with a disgusted expression. It was as if she was looking down on them.

I couldn't hear everything she said, but I heard, "To think he was one of those..."

A corpse? And who was the 'he'? Since she wasn't referring to a dead person, her eyes were on a mass of them.

Jasper walked towards us and crossed his arms, trying to act unbothered.

The fire timer in the sky then changed shape and spelled out, "CONGRATS!"

The wall of flames surrounding us dwindled down and ceased completely.

That didn't bring joy to a single person. Even the noble and ruling clan members dismissed it.

"Let's go back to the white hole," Jasper said as he moved forward, pissed.

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After a couple of hours of walking, we reached the destination of the white hole.

There, a woman and a man awaited us.

The man was the first to talk after clearing his throat. "We understand if many of you were upset. The monster wasn't supposed to be so difficult. It ate more monsters than we expected and thus leveled up because of that."

No way...

A man shouted, "Then how dare you have that thing spell out congrats when you know how hard it was for us?"

He had a younger person in his arm, but half of their body was bleeding and had many holes in it.

The man replied, "We apologize for that. But congratulations on surviving. That will be all. All 105 slayer trainees, from this moment on, you all will be slayer candidates. All the best in the mock games."

That's less than half of the number that was allowed to pass. Holy shit...

How can such tests even be allowed in a 'civilized' nation? That's a stupid question. This is the country where the legal system protects slayers more than the civilians.

We walked out of the white rift. Outside of it was the slayer president, who clasped his hands. "Hello, all! I see many of you survived. It must have been a difficult battle! I admire all your hard work and hope you all develop into fine slayers!"

Despite a lot of people looking grim, upon seeing him, they went into awe.

I was surprised. Was this guy regarded that highly?

They saluted him and bowed.

"Thank you for coming here to meet us, sir!"

"Yes, sir! We will try our best to develop into fine slayers!"

They declared. Tokushuna was the only one who wasn't impressed and instead looked away from him.

It was weird how much they admired him. Like as if a minute ago they didn't see their comrades get killed.

Then he looked at me and my hand, and with an expression of surprise, he said, "That branding—your sponsor and soon-to-be master is Zaphael, huh."

'Master' left a nasty sound in my head, regardless of whether that was the case, for now.

I nodded.

"Oh. That's rare. Well, it's nice to meet you." He smiled.

Why did he say that? This wasn't the first time we met.

"We met before, you know," I said.

He tilted his head and then apologized, "Oh? I must have forgotten you."

"Oh."

That's embarrassing, but... my common sense is telling me he is bullshitting. Is this guy a double stunt? I can't remember what they call them, but someone acting like him. I heard kings did it a lot so they could avoid getting their heads pierced through with arrows.

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There were doctors stationed here who checked our wounds and offered us healing balsias.

When I saw it, it made a knot in my stomach, and I wanted it desperately.

I had to walk away to stop myself from relapsing.

Some doctors tried to check on Tokushuna, but she denied them. They even insisted.

"If she says she is okay, then she is okay," the slayer president said before he departed.

Tokushuna stared at him as he left.

Is he her damn father? Half-daughter or something? Probably is.

After that, we were handed certificates stating that we were slayer candidates and thus permitted to participate in the mock games.

I was one step closer to my goals, but if Jasper failed those mock games more than once, I have to get as strong as possible for it!

Then the ones giving out the certificates told us, "Go to the Temple of Karma so that your ability or divine talent shall be unlocked."

Huh?

I asked, "I thought we get abilities after we become slayers?"

"No. You can use your abilities in a non-training setting when you become a slayer. So, you wouldn't be able to throw those things around. Besides, that's if you don't get a divine talent."

He said that again. So I asked, "What is this divine talent?"

"Huh...? Fine..." He took a deep breath. "Some people are not gifted with main abilities, so instead, they are 'blessed' with a natural aptitude for techniques, fighting styles, weapons, animas, or anything, but on an unnatural level."

I see. Why didn't Zaphael tell me about this?

I departed and regrouped with Jasper, who didn't go through the certification process. He failed the mock games, which meant he was already a slayer candidate... so that prompts a question.

I asked him, "Why did you do the test if you did it in the past?"

With his arms crossed, he answered, "I felt like it."

Hmm... that's clearly bullshit. I wonder what the true reason is.

As I thought this, the Hashiru sisters and the others in their group walked past him.

He and Foxiri made eye contact, but that was all. I wonder...

I sneaked up to him and whispered, "Was it because of her?"

Irritation flashed across his face. "You are starting to become annoying."

"Hahahah!" I laughed. He didn't find it funny at all.

Tokushuna walked past us, not bothering to say goodbye or anything.

I called out to her, "Hey."

She turned towards me, patiently waiting for me to finish whatever I was about to say.

I continued, "Thanks for saving me and whatnot."

"Same to you," she replied.

She kept walking but suddenly stopped, grunting as she turned back to ask me and Jasper, "Do you guys want to walk out together or something?"

I rested my arm on Jasper's shoulder, and we both tilted our heads at her, smiling. "Wow, is that your way of asking to be friends?" I chuckled a bit.

"From wanting to kill us to wanting to hang out with us, huh?" Jasper added in.