Preparations and Speech

It was now 11:34 and I was starting to get worried that Mike and Olivia wouldn't show up, but my doubts were unfounded since both of them logged on at the same time with about half an hour left. They both appeared in the guild lobby looking a bit upset at one another. In the time it took them to log on, a few more people had joined, and we had around 50-60 players. I know more people said they would go, but having a bunch of no-shows is to be expected, so I wasn't really worried or anything. Mike seemed a bit surprised; after all, I didn't quite tell him that we would have this many people from a bunch of different guilds.

Everyone started trying to chat up Mike and ask him what was going on, how he was doing, and other such things. While everyone else was doing that, Olivia approached me and asked to talk. I checked the time, and agreed as long as we made it back with at least five minutes to spare. We walked to a quiet isolated spot, and she started questioning me.

"So what's going on with brother?"

"Is there something wrong with him? He seems fine."

"Come on, stop that. I mean, he seems distant. Something's wrong, I can tell, but he doesn't want to tell me. Like why is he going to stop playing Arcadia? This is probably his favorite thing to do in his spare time."

"I don't know. Sometimes people just change."

"STOP IT!"

Some people had heard us and turned towards the noise. I waved at them and they got the hint and turned back around.

"You were the one sending invites to everyone saying this will be his final event. Stop acting and just tell me; he's my brother. If something is wrong, I should know."

*sigh* "Olivia… listen, I-"

"JOSH!"

Mike approached me from behind and grabbed my shoulders before turning me around and leading me to the group of people in the lobby.

"Come on Josh, we… *cough cough* excuse me; we need you over here with us. The event's going to start soon."

I checked the time, and it was 11:52. Mike was right, the event will open soon and we need to be ready.

"Yeah, hey Mike, you should let everyone grab some stuff out of the guild storage. I filled it with potions, revive tokens, and decent weapons for low leveled players."

"Hmm… why don't you tell everyone?"

"You are the guild leader."

"Well, I won't be for much longer."

"Mike, don't talk like that. You're still the guild leader now, so you do it… Plus, I don't really like the spotlight."

"So that's what it was… Alright, I'll let them know."

Mike looked around and quickly found something to step up on. He walked forward, stepped up on a chair, and started giving an encouraging speech.

*CLAP CLAP* "HEY! EVERYONE!"

The people in the lobby quickly quieted down and all looked toward him.

"First of all, I- *cough* I want to say thank you to everyone who stepped forward to help us with this event today. Now, yes, as I'm sure you've heard, this will most likely be my last event on Arcadia; I have some personal reasons, and I ask that you please don't try and pry into what it is. *clears throat* Anyway, let's make this a really memorable event and leave our place in the Hall of Triumphs! We have about… five minutes until the event starts, so everyone get ready and prepared to fight! If anyone needs some potions or quick revive tokens, I'm going to open up the guild storage, so feel free to take what you need; also, there are some decent weapons for the low to medium leveled players to help you guys last longer. Also, once again, thank you… thank you all."

Mike opened his menu and made the guild storage accessible to everyone. The supply of over two hundred potions and nearly one hundred quick revive items quickly shrank. Luckily it didn't seem like anyone was going to be a "jokester" and take everything for themselves. Mike stepped down from the chair and walked over to me.

"So, was that good?"

"Eh… could have been better."

"Shut up"

We only had a few minutes now, and everyone was fully equipped in their armor and prepared to fight. Some of us were nervous, we've never really tried to get into the Hall of Triumphs before or try to be the best, especially since we'd be competing with the entire nation, and surely there is a group of people out there better than us. It didn't matter now since we were going to try, no, we were going to do it, we will be the best and show everyone. For Mike.

The time continued to tick down, and once it reached 12:00, Mike opened his menu, went to the event tab, and selected the brand-new event that wasn't there before. It was an image of the Demon Lord from the previous battle, and it had text saying, "Storm the Castle and Defeat the Demon Lord." Mike clicked it, and a message appeared on everyone's HUD.

[Will You Participate In - Storm the Castle and Defeat the Demon Lord?]

Everyone started clicking yes, and with every click a white light appeared and the person who clicked it vanished. Soon enough there was no one left in the guild lobby. The massive group of people all just vanished.