Soon as the white light faded, Jack, Toki, and Hana were teleported back into their room. Toki was still holding Dustin's body in his arms. Hana looked at him and walked up to him. Jack took the body of Dustin, laying it down and closing his eyes, while Hana consoled a toki whose tears had even dried up. Hana was trying her best not to cry either while consoling Toki.
Jack just stood there watching this happen as he sighed while relaxing, almost relieved about his decisions. It was good that he never got attached to anyone on this team. Shutting himself off from everyone was a great way of avoiding pain, or so he thought.
He looked at Dustin's body as a sharp pain hit him in the chest. He thought he was fine, but placing his hand on his own chest did kind of hurt. Everyone was silent, and the room's atmosphere was not good at all. A burden rested on everyone's shoulders as the death of their teammate Toki and Hana chose to blame themselves, but Jack knew better than to do that. As they were all mourning, suddenly Dustin's body turned into white light as he vanished. Toki and Hana panicked, but a screen with the letter Z appeared.
"Contestant Dustin's honor has been eliminated, and his body has been removed like the others. You have my condolences."
Jack almost chuckled at the last line. Sure, a god-like being was sympathizing with mortals and talking about death. That seemed funny to him, at least while Toki was losing his sh*t. Hana kept him from doing anything stupid.
"However, the competition is not over, and the final game in groups is supposed to be a 1v1 for all four players. And then a fifth match between the captains. Since your team has lost a player, you'd be down one, and since he was your captain, you'd be down another. So the only way to win is to win all three matches. You have 10 minutes, so prepare yourself," and with that, the screen vanishes, leaving behind a frustrated Toki, a sad Hana, and a tired Jack.
"These guys are monsters." Toki said, gritting his teeth, to which Jack could only sigh.
"I thought the looks gave that away." Both Hana and Toki looked at Jack as he said that, directing their anger toward him instead.
"How can you still joke around? Dustin just died." Hana said as Jack only rubbed his eyes and spoke. "How many people have we killed so far? If he could see you guys right now, he would be more than just mad. He did not die, so you guys could sulk and waste the chance he gave us. He was neither the first nor the last. Wake up; that's our life now. If he died, that just means he wasn't strong enough."
Jack was hit with a slap in the face as Hana stood in front of him, holding her tears. "Shut the fuck up, you monster," Jack said, but he did not hit her back. He knew better than to.
"It's fine, you're grieving and all, but don't try that again. I will hit back." He was confident he could burn her to crisps whenever he wanted, as she was about to do it again, but he looked at the mask hiding Jack's face and just stopped. She turned around, leaving him behind as she sat down next to Toki.
The next 10 minutes were the most awkward and longest 10 minutes of Jack's entire life. He avoided talking to his teammates at all. After exactly 10 minutes, all of them were teleported into a square arena, and in front of them stood their opponent team. They had four members, much like every other team, and most of them were ready to fight except one girl who sat in the back. She would be the leader he assumed.
[TEAM DUELS WILL NOW BEGIN]
[DUELS WILL BE RANDOMISED]
And random they were. Jack was put up against some guy with an eye patch. Hana was against a guy wearing some kind of school uniform. And Toki was against a big, muscular guy. The three matches would take place simultaneously, and if they lost even one, it was over for them.
And so the team finals began.