Chapter 20

—Axel's heart pounded in anticipation. He was waiting in a room by himself, with no one entering or checking on him. He followed the instructions from the organizer as he walked into the Decimation, and it had already been ten minutes since then. Axel fiddled with the straps on his gauntlets to get his nerves to cool down.

'I can't be pathetic!!' Axel thinks to himself, 'I have to be strong!!'

In these past ten minutes, Axel had heard SSS explain how these tryouts would operate over an intercom, with ten people being released into an enclosed playing area to fight it out until two people remained standing.

Axel believes the two-winners rule was set in place because of friends taking each other's lives at the same time to either protest or have both of them move on. For the players to start instigating more fights, the Slayers—as an organization—came up with the new rules.

The room Axel was waiting in had many weapons inside of it. Axel could spot a longsword, shortsword, war club, shield, a giant axe, and hammer, along with other sorts of weapons mounted onto one of the room's walls. The only thing he couldn't spot were some serious firearms and...

'Where are the gauntlets? And why are there so many weapons here?' Axel thinks.

As Axel contemplates the strange assortment of weaponry in his waiting area, a notification pops up in his vision. It was from the Decimation's AI. (Artificial Intelligence)

>Please select a weapon from the provided rack! No personal items are allowed in the arena!<

'No personal items?!' Axel thinks, looking down at his gauntlets.

There were no other alternatives for him to choose. He wore these gauntlets because hand-to-hand combat was his style. Anything else fell too flimsy or too separated from his body to work for him. If there wasn't another pair of gauntlets for Axel to use, then...

Axel pulls up his game menu and calls Stan in a flash. He would be at a significant disadvantage without a pair of gauntlets or another melee alternative anywhere since they help control his Aspect usage.

"Hello?" Stan picks up, "You must be one of the prospects, yes?

"Why can't I bring in my gauntlets?! There aren't any other pairs here!!" Axel yells.

"Oh! Well, my apologies..." Stan explains, "We've had another complaint like this already from another player. You use a... well, how do I put it... an uncommon weapon? On such short notice, the Decimation organizers only provided what's on the rack in front of you."

"That's a bunch of crap!! I can't fight without my gauntlets!!"

"Well, aren't they just like your fists? In the group you're in, I think you shouldn't find any trouble!" Stan says, "Oop! Another call..."

Stan hangs up.

"Hey!! you stupid magician!!" Axel yells in frustration.

He had to choose a weapon from the wall? Weren't gauntlets popular enough to place on the weapon rack? Axel notices a bow and arrows, as well as an assortment of swords. His friends won't have a problem with this rule for sure.

'Screw this. I'd rather do as the man said and go without anything.' Axel thinks, standing up and pacing around the room.

It sure was weird that he was by himself in a room with a plethora of in-game weapons. It almost seemed like this is where a player would go before entering battle. Axel never got a notice or a tip that he would be fighting anytime soon, and just to go to the door with his name written on a sign above it.

As he paces back and forth, a small chime plays near the door opposite the one he entered through. Looking closer, Axel gasps.

>30<

>29<

>28<

A countdown had started floating in front of the door. Axel realized what was going on almost immediately. The weapon rack, the countdown, and even the game telling him personal items can't be brought into the arena...

"I'm fighting *NOW*?!!" Axel screams in the room.

Axel breathes heavily for a second and starts to overthink things a little bit. After a second of doing this, his mind instantly calms down. Axel grins to himself.

"Well, if Jay got here without Aspect, I can go into this without my gauntlets." Axel whispers to himself, "And Dilllan's gonna be surprised when I drop him first!!"

'Fire fist is the move that flares up my entire body without my gauntlets on, so I'll have to use Ash-burn exclusively.' Axel thinks.

Axel bends his knees and starts to do some stretches, feeling more confident than ever. This felt like the warm-up before one of his basketball practices. Getting nervous was just a part of the treatment. Of course, this stage would have a lot more of an audience, and he would be at a major disadvantage than usual. Axel continued to keep it cool as he watched the countdown closely.

>3<

>2<

>1<

'Showtime!!' Axel thinks, focusing every muscle of his body.

After the countdown reached one, it faded away, and the door resting in front of Axel made a loud hissing sound. Axel heard some clicks and other sounds emit from the walls around it. They sounded like some sort of locking mechanism being messed around with. The door then starts to slide upwards, revealing a bright light behind it.

After being in that closed room for a little while, Axel covers his eyes at the blinding light from behind the door. He squinted through his hands until his eyes started to adjust, walking forward ever so slightly.

After a couple more seconds of covering his face, Axel lowers his hand and overlooks the surrounding area. The sky was a bright blue, and the sun was shining at its peak interval. The door he had just exited from started to rapidly close, making all sorts of sounds as it slid back down to lock back in place. Axel was now trapped in this arena, with only his competition getting in his way back out.

He runs across the grassy area he was in, seeing trees and other shrubberies in small amounts litter his vision. After only running a small distance, Axel starts to see sand. Looking up from the ground as he ran, he saw the entire battlefield's size in an open area.

Water was everywhere, and small islands like Axel was on seemed to litter the landscape, all being surrounded by one giant island in the middle.

'So we must all have spawned on one of these islands...' Axel theorizes, 'That's probably why there are so many islets and only one true hub centering them all together...'

As his theory went, Axel would find his first opponent on one of the islets closest to him. He was pretty fast in exiting his waiting room and making his way into the playing field. Looking up at the sky once more, Axel sees the packed stadium rows for the first time. There were loads of people watching this event, which Axel expected, but experiencing it was something else.

"The student section sure is packed today!!" Axel jokes to himself, nervously smiling.

Looking at an islet close by to him, Axel bends both of his legs and lowers his body close to the floor. He concentrates as he prepares his next move.

"Aspect on!!" He announces, releasing his fire Aspect.

Keeping up his concentration, just like Crash had taught him during his week of training, Axel trains the fire around him to build up around his feet. Once he gets his power concentrated, he leaps into the air from his previous position, extending both legs in quick unison.

'Ash-burn!!' Axel thinks.

Axel had jumped high into the air and was now gliding at a steady rate of fall to the islet next to his. This is where he would have his first fight. The feeling of cinder and the smell of an open fire flew into axel's sensations.

Before Axel had left his waiting room, doing his warm-up stretches as the countdown got closer and closer to zero, he thought of strategy. He wouldn't execute it himself, but it was apparent that it would work on a map like this. His plan wasn't to run in guns-blazing, but quite the opposite.

Contenders could wait on their spawn areas until the number of players dwindled, getting closer and closer to the top two. as Axel got ready to land on the island nearby, he wondered if the person on it was thinking of doing this.

'I'm not gonna give them a chance to be cowards!!' He thinks to himself.

Once over a good drop zone, Axel shuts off the flow of Aspect around him, which causes the smoke from his feet to stop being emitted. He bends his knees as he lands onto the ground of the new islet, rolling as he makes contact to break his fall.

'Perfect!! Now to find...' Axel thinks, looking up after landing.

Axel's jaw dropped to the floor at the sight of his first opponent. Then he smiled as he stood up straight. His opponent just looked at him in disbelief.

"Really? You want me that bad, huh?" Dillan says to Axel, "And hey, you don't have a weapon either!"

"Huh?! Where's your bat?!" Axel says.

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

"...so you're the one Stan mentioned, complaining about not having a weapon..." Axel says to Dillan, scratching his face as he thinks out loud.

When Axel called Stan earlier, Stan mentioned that he had received a complaint from another prospect about not having their weapon of choice on the rack. Since Dillan didn't seem to have his signature baseball bat on him, Axel knew he was the player Stan referred to.

"Just our luck, huh?" Dillan says, "So are you gonna follow through and fight me as you promised?"

Axel looks at Dillan surprisingly. Seeing him give himself up so quickly was amusing. However, Axel shakes his head.

"Nah, it wouldn't be the same if we both didn't have our full kit. Also, killing you when you've surrendered so easily isn't a fight at all." Axel responds.

"So, what's the plan now?" Dillan asks, "I know you have that move so you can cross over large distances like that, but I can't do anything like that with my poison!"

"Right, your Aspect is poison..." Axel thinks out loud.

'What did you forget already?!' Dillan thinks.

Axel and Dillan had walked over to this islet's beachside and were looking off in the direction of the large island in the arena. Axel had already explained his theories and why he didn't have his gauntlets, so now it was time to progress this battle between players. Technically, both Axel and Dillan could stay hidden here until the last moment, but they both were heavily against it.

'I'm not a loser!!' Axel thinks.

'I'm not scared!' Dillan thinks.

"Well, how about you stay here for now while I check how things are over on the main island?! I'll be gone for only a couple of minutes, so don't get too bored!!" Axel says, preparing to take off with Ash-burn once again.

"Hey! You can't just ditch me like that!" Dillan says in an annoyed tone.

"What?!" Axel responds, "It's not like I *promised* to team with you!!"

Axel's feet flare up with smoke once more, and in a moment, he was already back up in the sky, leaving Dillan on his islet to find his own way to the mainland. Axel's dreads whipped back and forth as he increased the amount of firepower in his legs to cross the more significant gap of the lake in front of him.

'Thank goodness this doesn't hurt too bad!!' Axel thinks to himself, 'And hopefully, that idiot makes his way across the water on his own somehow!!'

Looking down, Axel sees his reflection hovering across the watery landscape below. His proportions were out of place due to his high velocity, but the water was more transparent than any he's ever seen. He was getting closer and closer to this spectacle before it vanished as he hovered above the mainland. Shifting his attention away from below him, Axel scouts ahead.

There wasn't a player insight, and more and more trees were around this island in particular. It was the biggest one in the playing area, but the scenery was very different from the islets. Axel continued to venture deeper into this island's overgrowth.

Eventually, the sand turned into dirt. The dirt was eventually covered with grass, and pinecones suddenly were thrown into the mix. Axel knew he was getting closer to the middle of the island ever so slightly.

As he ran, branches and ferns in his way, we slapped from his vision as he charged on. A bright light covers his vision as he exits the dense forest and into a clearing.

After stopping in the middle of it, Axel realizes just how small this clearing was. A small stone statue was in the middle of it, which Axel patiently paced over to. There wasn't any sound nearby, and the area fell silent. Axel could only hear his breath as he tried not to over-exhaust himself.

Inspecting the strange stone statue, Axel read the side of it. The figure resembled that of a dragon or something like one, maybe even a serpent. The words 'This wasn't here originally' were scratched into the sides of it.

It was quiet. Too quiet.

"How do you like your bait?" A player yells behind Axel.

Axel turns around to meet his opposition, but he doesn't see anyone in the general area they called out from. They either repositioned, or he heard things.

"What? Scared already?" Another player yells to Axel's left.

Once again, Axel sees no one near him, although he hears players.

"I think he's confused! haha!" Another player yells.

Axel continues to turn around to see anyone or any clue that could tell him where these players were hiding.

'There's three of them unless there are more that haven't blown their cover!!' Axel thinks.

Suddenly, a branch falls from a tree nearby. Axel hears it crash onto the floor, and his eyes widen. He looks above him and instantly sees his enemies. Three players were all dressed in dark green with long hoods tucked away in the tree's leaves.

"You guys are hiding in trees?!" Axel yells back.

"It's not like you can do anything about it!" One of the players yells, "We're gonna win this entire thing!"

Axel is taken aback by what this player was insinuating. He had three players that were together in some sort of scheme.

"Is that so?! What are you planning then?!" Axel yells up to the three players hiding away in the tree.

"Why would we tell you? You're our competition!" One of the three players yells back.

"Fair enough, but even if I don't know your plan, I'm gonna kill you guys!!" Axel yells.

"Hey, should we tell him if he leaves us alone to fight another player?" One of the players said amongst themselves.

"No! He's not going to listen to that! We should just execute the plan!" one of them responds.

"But what if it backfires!" The other chips in.

"It won't!"

How do you guys know that? I'm the one who came up with the idea!"

"No, I did!"

"No, I was the one!

"It was me, you idiots!"

'What a special group of campers...' Axel thinks, tensing his eyebrows in disgust.

"Ok! Prepare our first move!" One of the tree-campers yells.

Axel sees one of the players pull on one of the tree branches closest to them and hears a device trigger. He had no idea where it came from, but as soon as he saw this happen, he ducked down as fast as possible. A large log tied up with a rope came swinging down towards him, and Axel reacted swiftly.

Once crossing over him, the log collides with a tree nearby and entraps the log from moving anywhere else.

'That was close, But also a stupid plan!!' Axel thinks, still confused about these players' motives.

"It didn't work, as I said! We should've made a deal with him!" One of the campers argued.

"You think talking your way out of a fight is what a Slayer would do?" Another player debates.

"Yeah! We've gotten this far from doing all sorts of trails! This is the last hurdle!" The other player responds.

Axel could hear everything that the tree-campers were saying, but he didn't think they knew that. The players in the tree continued rambling on about what to do when Axel realized why this whole interaction felt off to him. There were three players all conspiring to win, but that mission wasn't possible.

"Hey!!" Axel yells, "I have a question!!"

The tree campers turn to Axel as he gets their attention.

"What?" One of them says,

"Yeah, what do you want?" Another says.

"We're busy over here!" The other adds.

Axel points fingers in their general area and says something that immediately causes chaos.

"If you guys are trying to win, who's gonna be left out?! Only two players move on from here!!" Axel says.

"What?" One of the players yells back, "Oh! We've already agreed who we're kicking out in the end!"

"And who do you mean?" Another camper asks nervously.

"You, of course!" The tree camper responds, pointing at the other player not present in the conversation, "Me and Steve went over this!"

"You never told me! What If I don't want to go? What then?" The nervous player asks.

"Shut up! You're the one not advancing!" The tree camper responds.

"If that's the case, then I'm making sure you don't win either!" The player responds, grabbing onto the player he's been arguing with and yanking him off the tree.

"You idiot!" Steve yells as he tackles the nervous camper, sending them both off of the tree.

The three campers went from having an excellent setup to furiously plummetting to their death. Axel watches in awe as all three players free-fell from their tree to his position.

Axel didn't move as he saw every camper hit the ground in unison, which ended up killing them all instantly.

The particles that flew upwards in the breeze from each player—glowing red—were indeed their 'blood' in this game, but it dignified life more than anything. These three players Axel had somehow bested never even used Aspect, which isn't the right way to approach a fight.

'What just happened?' Axel thinks to himself.

Soon after the entire event, Axel notices sounds coming from all around him. It sounded like footsteps or something similar to it. He shifts his attention to his sides. Sure enough, Axel spots some more players starting to encircle the clearing from every angle. Axel spots four other players in total as they get closer, each one arm their weapons at Axel.

"We've got you surrounded!"

"You really took out those three newbies so fast! Heartless!"

"Let's kill him first before we fight each other!"

"Right!

The players around Axel seemed to already band up against him. Axel has no time to think since one of these players sends an Aspect-based attack his way. The player in question had some sort of lightning Aspect, which they used to send a static ball his way.

'Shoot! I don't have any way to block it!' Axel thinks.

As the energy shot closer and closer to him, Axel realized he had no window of opportunity to dodge. This was going to hurt a lot.

"Hah!" A player yells at Axel's side.

The same log that the tree-campers had tried to kill Axel with was in the hands of another player, who was swinging it around like a weapon on its own. This player who came to Axel's aid blocks the electric attack, dispersing the energy outwards. Axel is in shock as he realizes who this player is.

"How'd you get here so fast, you meathead!! This is my fight!!"

"Shut up and accept some help once in a while!" Dillan—who was drenched in water—responds harshly.

"So you have some backup?" A player calls out to Axel and Dillan.

"He has company!" Another player adds on.

Axel and Dillan start to get closer and closer together, seeing how these four enemies are starting to surround their escape options. They had their backs against each other as they had two players in their respective visions.

"So, how'd you manage to get here at all?!"

"What does it look like? I swam over here, of course!"

Axel knew that the swim Dillan had to commit to was a long one, seeing as Ash-Burn took around two minutes to glide over to the main island fully. He's impressed with Dillan's determination but keeps his stern attitude.

"So I guess we can't run now, huh?" Dillan says, smiling.

"Sure doesn't look like it!!" Axel grins, smashing his bare knuckles together, "When this is all over, don't expect me to thank you or anything!!"

"I figured..." Dillan says.

Enough of this! Everyone! *Get them*!" A player calls out.

Axel and Dillan tense up as their enemies charged them. It was two against four, but the odds were in Axel and Dillan's favor. They would have to hold their feud for now to win this battle. Axel couldn't use his Aspect in his hands, and Dillan didn't have his bat, but both were poised for combat.

"I'll get the ones on the left!"

"I'll get the ones on the right!!"