MIND GAMES: Guild Tryouts

Chapter 8

—The trees surrounding the giant makeshift structure swayed calmly in the wind. The sound of the leaves rustling between the branches was muted by the flood of chatter from players below their limbs. Thousands of people lined up to enter the freshly-built mini-arena for a shot at joining the Slayer's Pack.

It was Monday, at around 1:38 PM. The tryouts had yet to start, having been scheduled for around 2:00 PM, but players flooded the site to be among the first few players to try out. Among the crowd were players from across the entirety of the game, spanning all the way from South Port to Oasis City.

Jay's jacket rippled in the wind as he stared up at the giant testing site. Along with everyone else present, he still had no idea what the test had in store for them. He waited patiently for the massive front doors at the front of the arena to open and for someone to explain the tryouts more.

As he waited in one of many lines/crowds of players to get in, he tried to look around for Ivy and Axel but opted to save himself a spot in line before they showed up.

Suddenly, a familiar voice sounded a couple of meters behind Jay. He turns around to see one of his friends, also in line.

"Hey!...do you...how it's...work?" Ivy shouts to Jay, but her sentence is drowned out by the several other conversations from the large player base.

Jay pulls up his game menu and texts Ivy, but he receives a message of his own from another player before sending one to Ivy.

>Look in front of you, Maguire!!<

ˆˆSent just now

Jay looks ahead of himself to spot a smiling Axel at the front of the line. Jay starts to feel a bit of betrayal along with jealousy but then remembers he decided to get in line early as well. He finishes his text with Ivy.

>What did you say? I can't hear you with all these people!< Jay types.

>I asked: Do you know how it's gonna work? (I was referring to the tryouts)< Ivy replies.

>No.<

> :( <

ˆˆSent 1 min ago

Jay assumes it will be some sort of power scaling test, maybe even a practice professional Skirmish match.

As Jay wonders what to do, a figure approaches Axel and grabs his arm, walking him towards Jay. Axel was rabid at the strange figure, who was wearing a long leather cloak, hiding his face inside its hood.

When the figure gets close enough to Jay, he grabs him as well. Now Jay and Axel were both cursing this guy out, and Jay almost pulled out his sword while Axel clanks his gauntlets together aggressively, sending sparks onto the floor as he does so.

The figure walks them to Ivy, who has her hand already in her Quiver, ready to fight.

"Who do you think you are?" Ivy asks.

"Yeah!!" Axel adds on.

"Let us go!" Jay pleads.

The figure promptly lets go of Axel and Jay next to Ivy, only once they were all the way at the very back of the player gathering. The figure then uncovers himself with the hood. Jay and his friends are shocked at who is standing in front of them.

"*HELM-*" Axel starts to yell as he sees Helmet's signature headpiece but is quickly silenced when Helmet covers his mouth.

"Don't make a scene, you imbecile. I'm on schedule." Helmet whispers aggressively.

Jay Stands close by as Axel backs off of Helmet, who stands idly by.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Jay asks Helmet.