Chapter 10

"There aren't any passes left!"

"How? I was so fast!"

"What do you mean there isn't any left?"

"The train was slower than running?"

"*DAMN IT*!"

—Jay heard other race-contenders complain at the sore sight laid in front of them. His heart was still racing from running through the train station as fast as he could, and he could hear Dillan struggle to keep a steady breath as well behind him.

"We're too late!?" Dillan says, slamming the floor with his fist, which causes his bat to jiggle in place on his back

"How?" Jay yells out as he thinks it.

There wasn't any way that one-hundred different players got here and got a pass already, right? It seemed impossible to Jay and Dillan, especially since many players took the metro with them because it seemed like the most optimal strategy. It also seemed that Axel and Ivy—along with their new buddy—either have already been here or haven't shown up yet. They were nowhere in sight.

Jay checks his text messages, hoping to see any new info from Axel.

<No New Messages in Inbox!>

Jay frustratingly closes his menu and glances back to Dillan, who was still sulking on the floor on one knee. It almost looked like he had given up and was getting more and more stares from the mass of players around them, which caused him to feel worse. Jay walks closer to Dillan and drops down on a knee as well to meet his height.

"What's the plan?" Jay asks.

Without letting a second go by, Dillan immediately responds.

"This was supposed to happen," Dillan says in a muffled voice,

"They want us to hunt, just like a Slayer would."

"What?" Jay says, "What do you mean?"

"It's too much of a coincidence that everyone here thought they made it first, but no one has a pass, right?" Dillan smirks, "This was always the outcome—"

"—There weren't any passes here at all?!" Jay finishes Dillan's sentence.

Jay looks towards the stand once more, seeing more and more players show up at it, just as confused as the next. Dillan made a solid point, which caused Jay to fall into a spiral of overthinking. If the players were made to believe they were in a race, making the objective a surprise in and of itself, doubling on the wonders would surely make a majority...

"This is so dumb! Screw this stupid race!" A player says.

"Yeah! What a waste of time!" Another contender agrees.

Jay and Dillan hear some of the players in the group start to curse the Slayer's Pack's methods, and some even ~quit the challenge~ right on the spot.

'So they want to thin the horde? It worked, but others are going to pick up on this.' Jay thinks.

As he suspected, a couple of players stuck around, scanning their surroundings, almost like they were looking for the passes around the vicinity.

Jay and Dillan both walk over to the cart, but before they could inspect any further, a voice amongst the gathering players called out in Jay's direction.

"Hey, Jay!! You beat us to it!!" The voice says.

Jay whips his head around to spot Axel running up to him, waving his hand in the air. Jay waves back with a smile.

"Too slow, I guess!" Jay jokes.

Behind Axel, Jay spots Ivy and another player running next to her. She must be that friend Axel mentioned in their texts.

As Axel got closer, something changed in his expression. He was looking past Jay, dead straight at Dillan. His happy smile turned into a sadistic grin. As Jay sees Axel rapidly approach, Dillan turns around at Jay's friends. Axel's gauntlets start to flare up as he gets closer to Dillan.

Jay remembers Axel's attitude after Dillan's match against Helmet, and he panics.

"*Hey, Dillan!*" Axel yells, "I promised myself to teach you a lesson whenever I met you in person, so get ready!—"

"—Let's see if you can survive a single hit from me!" Axel yells as he prepares his right fist for a melee attack.

Unprepared, Dillan's eyes widen, and he reactively reaches for his bat. Before anything else ensues, Jay steps in the way of Axel, which makes Axel flinch under pressure. He stops dead in his tracks.

"Hey man!! You know I said I would teach him a lesson after his performance last week!!" Axel says to Jay.

"I know!" Jay says, "But trust me when I say Dillan's had enough of this treatment!—"

"—Just drop the deranged lunatic act for now and let Dillan off with some space!"

Axel's gauntlets go from glowing red to a normal state in a matter of seconds. He turns his head away from Dillan, almost to say 'whatever' in body language. Ivy peaks from Axel's shoulders and spots Dillan.

"So he's the player you befriended?" Ivy asks Jay.

"Well, when you put it like that," Dillan says in place of Jay, "I guess he was forced to!"

"Huh?" Ivy mutters.

"I kinda vented to him about my match with that Helmet guy. It seems like you guys were there as well," Dillan adds.

Jay nods his head and walks over in between Dillan and his friends. He looks over Ivy's shoulder to see the female player accompanying Axel and Ivy.

"And what's *your* name?" Jay asks the player.

"Kira." Kira mumbles, pointing at Dillan, "And what's his? It seems like you guys have a history already."

"It's not like that!!" Axel snaps, "He's just an idiot who picks losing fights!!"

"...So there were never any passes here?" Ivy asks, looking at Jay and Dillan as they explain their theory to the rest of the group.

The players that were once in abundance around the surrounding area slowly but surely diminished into a decently sized group, but not as significant as before. Many players gave up or quit, except those who really wanted to pass this first section of the tryouts.

"Yep, seems like we have to earn them," Dillan says.

"What, like running this far for them isn't 'earning them'?!" Axel says to Dillan.

"You know you could've taken the train instead of working yourself to death!!" Dillan yells back to Axel.

Axel and Dillan bicker back and forth as Jay tries to keep his patience, explaining the rest of his and Dillan's findings to Ivy and Kira.

"Some players quit, which I think is the purpose of this test." Jay continues.

"You think so?" Kira says, "That would be smart for even the Slayers to pull off, in my opinion."

"Maybe, but we can't know for sure! What if other players got the rest of the passes and are heading for the finish line right now?" Ivy says.

After finishing her thought, Axel and Dillan stop arguing for a moment and look in Ivy's direction. Her words froze them both in place. She might be onto something, but it wasn't as feasible once the group started to ponder the possibility.

"Yeah, but that still doesn't explain why almost everyone from the starting line is here without a single pass in sight!!" Axel says.

"Maybe this is still a race, with a finishing line," Dillan says, "But the passes are somewhere else entirely."

The entire group turns to Dillan. Some shocked at his guess. Axel and Ivy start talking with each other, while Jay and Kira seemingly think to themselves.

'Well, then why are we here?' Jay thinks.

'Could they even be in Oasis city?' Kira thinks.

Dillan and Ivy made several key points, but it still doesn't explain why the map said to come here at the start of the event. After all, most—if not all—of the contenders that were still willing to participate in the tryouts were here.

Unless this is where they were supposed to be, they needed to find the location of the passes here!

"Hey!" Jay says, gaining the attention of the group, "I think we're here for a reason."

"I agree," Kira adds, "I was thinking the same thing."

"There must be a clue here that points us in the right direction. Otherwise, it wouldn't make much sense to send a bunch of players to a red herring." Jay continues after Kira,

"We should split up into groups of two and three and search the area for any signs of the passes, whether they were here or never here at all."

After finishing his thought, the rest of the group nod their heads in agreement. Dillan stands straighter than he was before and scopes the surrounding area. Other players were also huddled in groups like they were.

"Seems like everyone else might have the same idea." He says.

"Then we should decide who goes with who right now," Kira says, pointing at Ivy, "She's with me, though."

"Then should we just do boys and girls?" Ivy says.

"As much as that could work, I'm not sticking around with this guy until I smack some sense into him!!" Axel bites, facing Dillan.

"Ok, ok! So me and Axel will be the two-person team. Dillan can go with you guys." Jay says to Kira and Ivy.

"Fine, I guess," Kira says, looking at Dillan after Jay finishes his sentence."Just don't drop dead if the wind blows too hard."

'Why does everyone hate me?!' Dillan thinks.

"Before we head out, should we form a party?" Ivy suggests.

Parties are like small teams players can band together into. Once in a party, each player's health bar and general stats will appear in everyone's vision. It creates a small band of trust between each other, showing each other their locations on the map if needed.

"Sure thing!" Dillan agrees.

"Alright." Kira mumbles.

After a moment of situating party invites and requests, the group officially starts their own party.

"Ok, it's decided! Jay and Axel will be together, and me, Kira, and Dillan will be together!" Ivy states.

"Right!"

"Right!!"

"Right."

"Right!"

After breaking the huddle, agreeing with Ivy's statement, and separating into their respective teams, the party starts searching for anything relating to the Slayer's Passes. Other players in the competition were also looking for clues, making the search even more urgent.

This race just turned into an investigation quest!