Chapter 17

"You all will be moving on to the third section of the tryouts. Good job!" Helmet finishes, giving Jay and his friends a thumbs-up

—Jay's jaw dropped. Axel and Ivy were also shocked.

"*What*!?"

"*WHAT*!!?"

"*What*??"

Helmet notices that a couple of players around them are giving him looks. Jay didn't know why he wasn't wearing a disguise of some kind, but Helmet had to have had a reason to. Helmet looks past Jay and his friends at the Decimation, almost being drawn to it.

"Why didn't you just text us this?!" Axel shouts.

"Yea, why are you in complete uniform?" Ivy adds to Axel's question.

"Are we actually gonna have a shot at joining the Slayer's Pack?" Jay asks.

More and more players started to crowd around Jay, Ivy, Axel, and Helmet. Knowing he couldn't be there long, Helmet decided to get right to the point.

"To answer your questions, there's a reason I had you come here, which is also the reason I'm not trying to hide from my... lovely fans." Helmet says, "And yes, Jay, you all will have a shot at climbing the ranks."

Jay is excited beyond belief. He had thought he would fail the second part of the test for sure, so hearing that he'll advance to the final step in the tryout process was music to his ears.

"So why are you here then?!" Axel insists.

"Well, there was a slight change of plans—" Helmet starts,

"—For starters, we'll be conducting the final tryout session in the Decimation."

Jay gasps, and so do Ivy and Axel. Will they be doing their final tryouts in the Decimation? Jay had no idea what that entailed, but anxiety and happiness rushed throughout his body. However, this only opened the door to more questions.

"Well then—" Jay starts to ask but is cut off by Helmet.

"Why aren't we doing it in the arena we built in the Wilds?" Helmet predicts his question, "I'm on schedule, so I can't answer any more questions, but SSS will open the floor for more questions."

"Wait! Stan is here as well?" Ivy proclaims.

Helmet nods his head.

"Why?!" Axel demands.

Helmet turns from them and starts to head to the Decimation's front entrance, garnering a trail of bloodthirsty fans in the process. Before he gets too far, he says one last thing.

"Because the tryouts will be taking place in about two hours from now. Stay in the area for the time being." Helmet announces before leaving for the Decimation.

Again, Jay and his friends experienced surprise after surprise. Not only was the original tryout area abandoned, and the tryouts will be taking place in the Decimation, but they'll be taking place today? Jay didn't know how much more his heart could take.

"Is that why Helmet's here?" Ivy theorizes.

Jay and Ivy look at Axel, who was awfully silent at this point. He seemed to be so shocked that he was finally at a loss for words.

"*WHAT*?!!" Axel starts to shout.

Or so it seemed.

"Shh! Don't make a scene!" Jay says to Axel, covering his mouth, "We may not have any time now to train, but we have to attack this in the best way possible!"

Letting go of Axel's mouth, Jay takes a step back from his friend. Expecting another outburst, Jay was surprised to see Axel calm himself down.

"Yeah, you're right." Axel says, "Jeez Maguire, why do you gotta be such a smart aleck?"

"Why do you gotta be so aggressive?" Jay responds, "And don't call me that in-game!"

Ivy walks up to her friends as they debate. Jay looks to her, as does Axel.

"So what now?"

Jay and Axel both fall silent. They had no idea what was in their control at this point. Helmet had already entered the Decimation and was probably doing something more important than talking to them now. As Jay tries to wrap his head around everything, he looks at the sky to clear his head. Ivy and Axel both talk with each other about how Helmet acted to them, doing so in a gossip tone. Jay continued to look around subconsciously as he tried to clear his mind.

As Jay does this, he notices a pair of familiar faces walking towards him and his friends.

"Did you guys get the news?" Jay calls out.

"What news?" Dillan responds loudly.

"Is this important? I'm starving..." Kira mumbles.

Ivy and Axel turn to where Jay is waving, and they spot Dillan and Kira walking to them. Ivy smiles and gives Kira a short wave. Kira responds with a wave of her own same, and Axel and Dillan just stare each other down.

"Ok, guys, you won't believe this, but we're having the tryouts here! In the Decimation!" Dillan explodes.

"We still don't know when, but we ran into Stan earlier, and he told us," Kira adds on.

"Is he nearby?" Jay asks.

Dillan and Kira nod their heads. Jay looks at his friends, and they look just as confused as he did. Jay looks back at Dillan and Kira, scratching the back of his head and giving an awkward smile.

"Well, he gave you *half* of the story, I guess, hehe..." Jay mumbles.

"What does that mean?" Kira asks.

"The thing is, a Guildmaster just told us that we're going to be having the tryouts in the Decimation and that it would be today in a couple of hours," Jay says without confidence.

"What?!" Kira loses her cool, "Who told you that?"

"The Captain of the Wolves. His name is Helmet." Axel says.

Dillan was shocked but didn't show it in his body language. He trusted Jay's call and kept listening in to the conversation.

"So we're really participating in the tryouts today, huh?" Dillan says.

"Yeah," Ivy responds.

"We were hoping to train more for it as well, but then..." Jay says back.

"Yeah. This was so sudden. Did anything else change?" Dillan asks Jay.

"Not that I know. We've told you everything as far as it goes." Jay states.

The reunited party all think to themselves, trying to get an idea of what happened that set the tryouts to be conducted in the Decimation, but nothing was clicking. One thing was for sure, though, which was this tryout session would pit player vs. player. That's probably why it was being done in an arena.

"So, what do you guys wanna do while we wait?" Kira asks, "Because I'm hungry."

"We could hit up a bakery nearby or something?" Ivy suggests.

"That sounds awesome!! Maybe they'll have some soft bread!!" Axel yells.

'It's always the soft bread...' Jay thinks.

"Let's go get something to snack on. I guess," Jay exclaims.

"Right!"

"Right!!"

"I was hoping for some real food, but sure."

" Right!"

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

"So why were you guys walking together?" Ivy asks Kira and Dillan with her mouth full.

The party decided to stop by a more luxurious baked goods shop, called «The Corner». They had all kinds of exotic foods, some of which weren't even conceivable in the real world, like deep-fried-dragon scales and other refreshments in a similar category. The shop was situated at—you guessed it—the corner of Mainstreet, harboring nine grand floors for guests to dine in. It had a perfect view of the Decimation as well.

Axel purchased a loaf of soft bread, which he happily chowed down in a fast manner. His gauntlets were off for this, so it wasn't as big of a struggle. Ivy got herself some sort of chocolate dessert, which Kira had purchased before her. They talked about how gross it was together. Dillan bought some berried tarts, which contained rare berries found across the entire game cooked into it. His order was more than everyone's combined because of this fact.

Jay bought some water and a slice of cake to keep things simple and cheap. He had to save as much money as possible right now.

"No reason!" Kira snaps, "We just saw each other grouped up."

"Yeah! Nothing else!" Dillan blushes in embarrassment

'Yea, sure.' Axel thinks silently to himself.

"We won't judge you guys if you're a thing, you know?" Jay explains.

"Oh god no! Trust me, we met up after Stan finished his rant!" Kira says back.

"His rant?" Jay asks further.

Kira puts down her fork, which she was using to prod at her chocolate treat, which she wasn't a fan of.

"Stan appeared in front of the Decimation and was speaking to a crowd of people. He talked about funding or something and explained that the tryouts would take place in the Decimation." Kira explains, "After he stopped, I saw Dillan and decided it would be best to explain everything to him."

"Yeah." Dillan agrees, "I didn't know anything until Kira approached me."

"Yea, but are you sure she didn't just approach because she has it in for—" Axel starts but is quickly slapped across the face.

"Shut up. Last warning." Kira groans.

"Ok!!" Axel says, swallowing the last piece of soft bread he had left.

Finishing up their respective dishes, the party pays for their bill together and leaves the restaurant. Axel makes sure to put his gauntlets back on before he forgets them. The party had around ten minutes before Stan would show up, according to Helmet.

As they walk out of the store's front door, Jay gets a new message. It was from Stan. Looking at the rest of the party, they all seemed to receive a message as well.

>Hello contenders! It is I! Stan Stanley… well, you get the point...

>Things have changed, and my schedule is as messed up as ever! I wish I had a magic trick for these kinds of things, haha!

>Please make your way to the Decimation at Spahn immediately. I will be there when everyone has turned up. If someone is late, that's their daily dose of karma!

>SSS <3

ˆˆsent just now.

'Was the heart really that essential?' Jay thinks.

Jay glances away from his game menu to see everyone else reading a message, so he figures Stan had sent that message to every prospect.

"Well, at least he gave everyone a heads up!" Jay says to the rest of the party.

"...yeah, but what if people can't show up because of their schedules?" Ivy asks.

"Beats me. I guess they're too busy to be a Slayer." Kira says, "I mean the Slayers are an organization in and of itself, and being a top dog in their ranks is like having a full-time job."

"So you're saying if they can't make the time right now, then those players aren't suitable to be Slayers?!" Axel asks.

"Precisely." Kira states.

It was devious, but it made sense. Whether things actually changed, and new plans had come up like Helmet and Stan have both said, or if this was a coordinated move, it was all just a big guessing game. Jay glances back at the Decimation and starts to see a crowd of vaguely familiar players begin to sit down and converse near the entrance. Ivy and Axel notice this as well.

"Are those some of the other prospects?" Dillan asks, becoming aware of the group of people showing up.

"Looks like it..." Jay utters under his breath, "I spot around twenty-ish players over there."

"And they're all our competition..." Ivy whispers.

For a moment, the party makes eye contact with each other, realizing once again that they may have to fight each other or be pitted up against each other in some abstract challenge again. Jay tenses up and starts to calm himself down, remembering what the party said last time this happened.

"...But we'll get each other's backs till the end, right?" Jay says.

"Yeah!" Dillan says, glancing over at Axel, "Unless fire-boy here is in my way."

"Shut up!! Don't forget that you got one shot in a 'professional' fight!!" Axel yells at Dillan.

"You wanna go there!?"

"What are you gonna do about it?!!"

Jay, Ivy, and Kira silently watch as Axel and Dillan escalate their feud with each other. Nothing seemed to change their minds about each other.

"Ok, well, at least some of us are using our brains," Kira says.

Jay and Ivy start to laugh, getting the attention of Axel.

"What are you guys laughing about?!" Axel bites

"At how big your gauntlets are," Jay says off the cuff.

"Oh!! So we have a funny guy, huh?!!" Axel grins.

As soon as Axel started to walk to Jay in a fit, a loud noise sounded across the way, stopping everyone in their tracks. Players around the party even stopped and stared at where the sound came from. It almost sounded like a horn or a loud bell.

Then it sounded again, right at the entrance of Decimation. The party all give short glances at each other, nodding in agreement, and they all start to run towards the Decimation. Something was going down, and it might be Stan's arrival.

The groups of players standing outside of the Decimation were all facing the entrance of it with open mouths, and a couple of players were even taking pictures. The crowd of people was chanting several different things.

"Is that them?"

"What are Guildmasters doing here?"

"*Where's that annoying Stanley guy*!?"

"Friend me!!"

As the party gets closer and closer, Jay spots who everyone is looking at and slows his pace a little bit. It wasn't Stan or someone he had met before, but he knew them immediately. Axel notices who was there as well and almost completely stops. His eyes shined brighter than ever, and his gauntlets started to flare up. Ivy, Dillan, and Kira all slowed down at Jay and Axel's response.

"Is that—" Jay starts to say, but Axel's sudden cheer cuts it off.

"*CRASH*!!" Axel shouts.

Next Crash were two other players. Jay and Ivy immediately recognize Helmet, who was standing silently through the cheers and claps emitting all down the street. The other figure was a girl, but she wore a long hoodie, covering her face and most of her silver hair.

Helmet steps forward, summoning a microphone from his inventory. He taps it a couple of times to make sure it works, which emits some feedback in the process. This must've been the loud noise Jay and the rest of the party heard earlier. After making sure it was working as intended, Helmet started welcoming everyone present.

"Ok. Let's begin..." Helmet says, speaking into a mic.