Combat Trial

Two days later,

During the two days, Layla stayed within the inn and took the time to catch up on what she had missed over the past year, as well as to look at a few other things.

At 4:20 am on Monday morning, Layla left her room, paid for the two nights she stayed, and headed towards the Slayer Association.

Upon arriving at the Slayer Association, 20 minutes later, Layla entered it and found roughly a thousand other recruits, standing there like zombies, as if they had gotten no sleep.

If Layla was still a human, she would no doubt be tired, but as a trained former slayer, she would be able to function as if she was fully rested, compared to these lifeless zombies.

Layla found a spot where fewer people were and leaned against the wall, waiting for it to begin.

More people arrived as the ten minutes passed, soon hitting 5 A.M. as the Slayer Association doors locked, preventing the ones who were seconds late from entering.

A white-haired man, along with two women all wearing black army vests, entered the lobby and stood in front of them as Silas, the white-haired man, said. "Alright, now that the ones who followed orders and arrived on time are all here, follow me."

Silas walked quickly into a hallway with the recruits following behind him, making sure not to be dragged too far behind since they had a feeling they would be kicked out just like the ones who were a second late had been.

After walking through the corridor for about 5 minutes, they entered a white room, where Silas stopped 100 feet away from the entrance and turned around, seeing the recruits gathered in front of him.

Silas waited patiently for a minute with his hands behind his back, watching as the rest of the recruits entered the room.

Once all of the recruits were gathered, Silas said. "I'm glad you chose to not waste time and kept up with my speed. Now let's begin."

"Since we don't want any weaklings joining the Slayer Association, you'll be participating in a 3-day combat trial against each other. You will be teleported to a random location with a random environment. Your objective is simple; there will be a mountain. You must reach the peak of it before the three days are up."

Pacing back and forth, Silas continued to speak, ignoring the expressions he got from the recruits.

"I know you are scared of death, so don't worry. You'll be wearing combat suits that form a barrier that'll envelope your body when the damage inflicted is fatal, but if that happens anytime before the three-day period is up, you'll be disqualified for failing the trial. The ones who disqualify another recruit will gain a single kill point, so I would try to disqualify as many as you can if I were you."

The expressions of most of the recruits were either relieved that they wouldn't die or nervous, since they could easily be disqualified. Once again, Silas ignored their expressions and continued.

"The weaponry for this combat trial will be provided by us, and you can pick any type of etheric weapon as well as any amount. The rules, well, there aren't any. Now follow these two women besides me to the weaponry room, where you can pick your weapons and vests."

The two women walked in the direction of a door at the side of the white room, followed by the recruits, while Silas stayed behind, watching the recruits leave.

When the two women reached the doors, they opened them with one of them saying, "Only 5 can enter at a time. Once you're done picking your weapons, exit the room and stand to the right of the door."

With the mechanical voice of the woman, Layla could tell that she was an etheric automaton, created to be used as either servants or slayers, built to utilize Aether.

Layla was near the back, but it didn't bother her that she would be one of the last ones to pick up her weapons since they would have enough for all of them.

A girl with long pretty emerald hair with pretty golden eyes, walked up to Layla with a friendly smile. "You seem confident in this trial."

Layla turned her head to look at her. "So do you."

Layla frowned slightly as this girl in front of her looked familiar with the eyes being the same color, but the hair was different, making Layla assume she was just imagining it.

"I'm Mia. What's your name?"

"I'm Layla." With a small smile, Layla replied.

Neither of them talked more than that as they kept their focus on the recruits who exited the weaponry room, gathering information on their foes' fighting styles by looking at the weapons they preferred.

Glancing at Mia, Layla could see that she was as good as her, bringing her to one question. Why is she here when she should be a slayer? Unless she is in a similar situation to Layla, but that isn't the case for her. Without any answer to her question, Layla forgot about it since it didn't matter to her that much.