I marched into the saloon and asked for Azure as they pointed me upstairs. I walked over to each of the private rooms trying to hear the right voices until I heard the faintness of Azure's voice. I slammed the door opened and saw Azure look at me along with his friend as they stared at me with a lost expression.

Azure: Hm? Did you need something?

LLENN:Of course I'm here!Why did kill us?!

Azure: Because we were in the field?

LLENN: What?! That's the stupidest excuse I've ever heard!

Azure: It's not an excuse though. Anyways, yeah I killed you. Anything else?

LLENN: Well no...

Azure: Okay then. See you around then.

LLENN: Y-Yeah...

.....

LLENN slowly left the room as I turned back towards Kise.

Azure:*sigh*Anyways, what did you want to talk about?

Kise:...Oh yeah. I wanted to talk to you about the upcoming Squad Jam.

Azure:What about it?

Kise:I think we should compete.Think about how cool it'd be!

Azure:Don't we need a full team?

Kise:Nah.Funny enough,the JP Squad Jam allows unbalanced teams and no closing circle.

Azure: Really? Well, I'm down. We got our guerrilla tactics on lock.

Kise: Right?

Kise and both broke out into laughter before clanking their drinks together and taking big swigs.

Kise:Say, got some time to help me on some quests? I need to level up my sniper stats.

Azure: Sounds good to me. As long as it ain't no goddamn Abyss Guide or Corpse Sniffer then by all means.

Kise and I walked out the saloon and traveled to the specified dungeon where we began to grind some levels. The Squad Jam was going to take place in a custom field that incorporated all the fields into one but on a smaller scale. We decided to touch up on our combat tactics and skills. Over time, LLENN and I stopped playing and talking to each other entirely. We would see each other on the SBC Glocken but would act like we don't know each other. It kinda sucked. I missed being her friend but I guess some online friendships don't last. But now that I found out she's gonna be participating in the Squad Jam, perhaps this can be my chance to see where we went wrong.

......

It was now a week before the Squad Jam as Kise was showing off his sniping positions that he'll take for the competition. I spent most of time listening to him on the radio and setting up targets for him to hit.

Kise:So you see.....

*BANG*BANG*

I stared at two medium-sized holes in the targets now smoking from Kise's sniper rounds.

Kise:From here,I have practically maximum visibility for almost all of the Old South.

Azure: I see. So if I were come around from the north they'd be pinned.

Kise:Exactly. I think if we keep our distance and play with pincer attacks, we'll have a good shot at winning.

Kise left his sniper post and rejoined me.

Kise:Anyways, I think we got all the spots covered now for the Squad Jam.

Azure: Say, wanna head to the highest building?

Kise:Take in that gorgeous view? I'm down.

Kise and I headed to the rooftop of the highest building in the Old South and sat down looking out into the distance. I passed Kise some food and a can of soda as we looked out over the town

Kise:This view,no matter how many times I see it,it's still breathtaking.

Azure: I know. I feel the same. But I think that ALO game has better ones.

Kise: It's hard to have a good view in a apocalyptic dystopian future.

Kise and I both sat there in silence. Hearing the ambient noises of the game and very distant gunshots. We're gonna win this Squad Jam. We were confident in our abilities as we prepared for the big day.

.......

TWO was making their way to the large lake on the map after the satellite scan showed a three teams near that area.TWO ran across the map at a brisk pace until they came across the lake where it showed a team split up on hover boats.Kise and Azure got into the prone position as Kise began watching the action unfold.

Azure:What're we looking at?

Kise:Currently...ouch.One hover boat team was just wiped out with a well-thrown grenade and finished off by the opposition.The rest are.......dead.Taken out by a DMR from the single shot pacing.

Azure:Who took them out?

Kise:Let's see here.....

Kise got up followed by Azure as they hid inside a ruined house as Kise peeked out the window.

Kise:Hm.....Well would ya look at that?

Kise handed Azure binoculars as his old friend.

Kise:Looks like LLENN is holding her own out there.

Azure:Yep.That guy she's with is a big target.

Kise:Huh? Azure, satellite scan inbound.

Azure:Copy.

Azure ran away from Kise to put some distance between them and LLENN to not make them on guard. When the scan initiated it showed three teams left. LM, TWO, and SHINC. Azure made his way back to Kise who was still looking through his scope.

Azure:It's only us, LLENN's team, and one called SHINC.

Kise:Huh, I think I already got an introduction to SHINC.

Azure:Why's that?

Kise:They shot LLENN and her partner.

Azure:She dead?

Kise:Nah, if it was from mine then, yes but,it sounded like a semi-auto sniper so she survived it and took off on a hover boat.

Kise backed out of his scope and turned towards Azure.

Kise:Any ideas?

Azure:Only one.

Kise:And what's that?

Azure performed a neck slice gesture.

Azure:We go in and kill them all!

Kise:Sounds good to me. SHINC is probably changing positions so we should move now.

Azurr:Sounds good to me.I'll take point.

Kise:I got your six.

Azure:Move out!

TWO moved tactically out of the ruined house and towards one of the hover boats that was a little out in the lake so they had to swim a little as Azure climbed into the driver's seat followed by Kise who knelt down,sniper at the ready.This was it for the two boys.They had a similar mindset and one goal on their minds. Victory.