MIND GAMES: Guild Tryouts

Chapter 34

—Teleportation was starting to get familiar to Jay as Helmet used it naturally and effectively all the time. It was a paid feature, which usually only benefits a single member while in use. Teleports cost Gold Coins the longer the distance, and it multiplies with each person taking part in the teleport. The price can skyrocket quickly, which is why players tend to use the metro's in the cities or just get everywhere on foot.

Jay feels the sensation of being hurled across the game's world at incredible speeds and feels his feet start to emerge themselves into something solid. It seemed he was reaching his destination soon.

Helmet spawns from the teleport first, landing softly onto the ground and casually walking forward. Everyone else is merged close together, and they all awkwardly fall on top of each other in a jumbled mess.

"Get your crossbow off of my face!!" Axel shouts.

"Get your face off my crossy!" Kira responds.

Jay escapes the pile of players from the party and quickly shuffles his clothing to be straight. Axel, Ivy, Kira, and Dillan quickly stand up with him and ensure they have everything on them as usual.

"Jeez, where are we now?" Dillan asks Helmet, who was pacing ahead of the pack.

Helmet turns to Dillan the rest of the party in a confused expression, with his digital eyebrows raising and lowering at the same time.

"Did you forget this place already?" Helmet asks, pointing behind him.

Helmet was pointing at the arena that the Slayer's Pack arena explicitly made for the tryouts, and everyone was standing in the same clearing that the finish line for the race for a place was. Jay looks around to see the screens and speakers gone entirely, which confused him.

"What's going on? Why is everything gone?"

"Well, it's part of the reason we held the final section of the tryouts in the Decimation. Part of it was money and publicity, of course, but this arena caused more issues.—" Helmet says.

"—For starters, a group of moderators stated that this arena's right of construction was never passed through legitimate reasons, so we couldn't hold any public events here. The organization simply rented out the Decimation to avoid any controversy."

The Slayer's Tryouts this year were pretty offputting, which started when Stan gave Ivy, and her team in Oasis, passes for free. Part of it felt botched or last-minute, but it was probably because the Slayers never got permission to follow through with part of their tryouts for a little while.

"On another note," Axel says, "How much do you spend on teleports!? That was *easily* a grand you spent just now to put all of us here!!"

"Not my money," Helmet says, "There's a Slayer allowance for teleports, and since I'm on schedule, I can reap the benefits."

"Slayer allowance?" Kira asks.

"What, you think we're notorious because of our skill alone?" Helmet says, "A code you'll learn today, for all those joining the Slayer's ranks today..."

"Is the Slayer's Pack. Not the Guild itself, but the actual code we live by."

"And what's that?" Ivy asks Helmet.

"Ha, that'd be spoiling the surprise!" Helmet says, shrugging and then motioning everyone to follow him, "Ok, the initiation is taking place soon. We better hurry."

As Helmet finishes saying this, other players start to teleport in masses around the clearing. Stan is seen among the groups, walking calmly from many players sprawled on the ground in a pile. Stan wasn't the only one teleporting Prospects here. It seemed like the thirty Prospects that took place in the final section of the tryouts were here.