Speaking of meetings, after getting breakfast with the girls, Ryouta has a meeting in-game to attend to. Jax told him to meet him at his ship, The Weeping Tit.

It took a bit of convincing to get Cassandra to head home so that she could immerse herself in virtual reality once more, but Ryouta was able to convince her to do so with the promise of more sweets. He is worried that bribing her with sweets may turn into a usual thing, though.

There are only a couple of hours in-game before the second round of the tournament begins. Fenrir doesn’t know what happened to that half of a tree that they had hooked, but it’s no longer in the water when he looks off the side of The Shoebill. Tabitha just smiles and gives him a thumbs-up whenever he asks about it.

“Can I come with?” Oleander asks Fenrir.

“To the meeting?” Fenrir asks.

“Yeah. I think Bone should come with us, too. It’ll be just like the old days – plotting behind the enemy’s back.”

“Sure. You want to go grab him?”

“Alright, hang on!” Oleander says before his body falls limp. Fortunately, Fenrir is there to catch his semi-lifeless body.

A couple of minutes later and Oleander comes back to life and gets off of the deck that Fenrir has laid him down on. “Messaged him! He said he’ll be on in a bit,” Oleander explains.

“Good enough. I think we’ve got a bit of time. You have any idea what Tabs did with that tree?” Fenrir asks.

“She made a deal with the scholars! She gave them most of the tree in exchange for them helping her find a way to mix some of its powers into our ship. Only the actual hull is affected, though.”

“Oi! I wanted them to see for themselves durin’ the next round! Ya took the surprise out of it, ya damn deer boy!” Tabitha shouts from below deck.

Oleander holds his hands together behind his back while leaning over to offer his head to Fenrir.

As a reward, Fenrir pets Oleander’s head.

“I know how much you hate surprises and how impatient you are,” Oleander says with a grin.

“Olly,” Corwin says.

Fenrir hastily brings his hand away from Oleander’s head as if caught in the act doing something inappropriate. “Is having your head patted so gently truly such a pleasurable act?” Corwin asks.

“It is! Fenny is the best at petting heads. Try it yourself!” Oleander says.

Corwin walks up to Fenrir, blushes a bit, and bows his head. “Please allow me to experience what Olly always gets to feel,” Corwin requests.

This is not what Fenrir was expecting, and when he looks to see how Serra and Cassiel are reacting to this, they both seem too interested. Regardless, Fenrir tentatively raises a hand to Corwin’s head and gently pets the top of it.

“I see, I see,” Corwin says. “This is rather pleasant. I can see why you enjoy it so much, Olly. Captain, please teach me your technique so that I can satisfy Olly’s need for petting when you are not present.”

“S-sure, Corwin. Maybe another time, though,” Fenrir says.

“Very well.”

Normally, Fenrir would expect somebody to leave and pull their head away once the conversation is over, but Corwin is remaining in place and following Fenrir’s hand with his head. Meanwhile, Oleander stands to the side of them and watches with a smug smile and nodding head as his boyfriend awakens to a new fetish.

The awkward situation only ends when Bonekraka comes above deck and judges Fenrir for the sight that he is seeing.

With Fenrir’s hand freed and Bonekraka in-game, the three head over for Jax’s ship which is only docked a few spots down the pier. Jin hurries them below deck once they arrive.

There are about a dozen men squeezing together around a table that Jax has prepared for them, and Fenrir can recognize some of them as being from the other ships that have won the first round. “Hey. What’re we meeting for?” Fenrir asks.

“Still waitin’ on one more, just wait,” Jax answers.

A few minutes later and Fenrir discovers who they were waiting for.

“Apologies for keeping you all waiting. I assure you that I wasn’t trying to have a late entry for dramatic effect. Rather, my cat was having a seizure and I needed to watch her until my sister was out of the shower,” Alexander says.

Fenrir may dislike Alexander, but what he dislikes more is the fact that he gains a ton of respect for people simply for helping out animals. First Ull with donating to charities, now Alexander with taking care of a cat – Fenrir hates how much more likable and relatable that makes them.

“I swear, the biggest douchebag in this game is probably going to personally take care of hundreds of sick pets that nobody else wants,” Fenrir thinks to himself. “I wonder if having pets myself would have stopped people from trying to dox me…”

“Now that we’re all here, let’s get down to business,” Jax says, slamming a fist down onto the table. “Let’s introduce ourselves since not everybody here knows each other. I’m Jax, and this is The Weeping Tit.”

“Alexander. I am the captain of The Steel Tiger,” Alexander says.

“I am Captain Squiggles of Tentacle Grape!” one of the men who Fenrir hasn’t met before announces. He is a large man with what looks to be the head of an octopus with tentacles for a beard, and going by the name of his ship, Fenrir already likes him. Though, while Fenrir is smiling from the awesome names of the captain and his ship, he hears Alexander scoff and sees him rolling his eyes.

Alright, Alexander is back to being disliked.

“I’m Fenrir. This is my helmsman, Oleander, and my combat specialist, Bonekraka. Our ship is The Shoebill,” Fenrir announces. Oleander does a feminine curtsy and Bonekraka grunts.

“We all know who ya are, mutt,” another unknown man says. As much as Fenrir may like the tentacle captain, he really likes this new guy. His skin is grey and white, and his head is similar to a great white shark’s. He has gills on the sides of his neck, fins sticking out from his back and the backs of his arms, and a tail sticking out from above his rear like Nell does. Only, his tail looks far more powerful than hers. “I’m White Tooth of Barracuda’s Nightmare,” White Tooth introduces himself.

Unfortunately, aside from Squiggles, White Tooth, and Fenrir’s trio, everybody else is a plain human as far as Fenrir can see. He wishes more players would be unique rather than just playing humans all the time.

When the final captain introduces himself, White Tooth speaks up and asks Jax, “We’re here to deal with those foreign bastards, right?”

“Aye. Not one of us can take them down on our own, but together, we’ll be able to sink those bastards and get revenge for Morven’s lot and the others,” Jax explains.

Fenrir glances at Alexander, and Alexander notices it.

“Relax, Mr. Wolf. I don’t like them stealing the spotlight,” Alexander whispers to Fenrir.

Being so easily read just makes Fenrir even more annoyed with Alexander.

“Everybody here watched the wolf’s fight again him, right?” Jax asks. All the men nod. “We know that fire seems to be the most effective against their ship, and it looked like half their crew was taken out, and they won’t be respawnin’ until the round is already underway. This round is goin’ to be our best chance at takin’ them out. I sure as hell ain’t going to let some foreign bastards killing our NPCs win our tournament.”

Fenrir looks around. Everybody seems to be in agreement with Jax, even Alexander.

“Now,” Jax pauses to look at Fenrir, “what’s the plan?”

“Eh?” Fenrir asks.

“You’re the one who almost sunk ‘em yesterday. Give us a plan and we’ll follow it. Ain’t never seen anybody pull off anythin’ close to what you did.”

“Are you sure? I mean, most of you haven’t met me before today, and I don’t know how everybody here fights and what they’re good at. I’m going to need to know all of our strengths and weaknesses if I’m going to try and come up with a plan, and Oleander is actually better at coming up with battle plans than me,” Fenrir explains.

“Then we’ll take turns goin’ around and tellin’ the deer about ourselves. You two come up with a plan, and we’ll follow it. We trust ya. You put yourselves at risk to save Morven and his crew, so ya gained the trust of everybody who matters in the city with that,” Jax says.

Fenrir takes a deep breath. “Alright. Then we’ll go around the table, and I want each of you to tell us about your style both when it comes to sailing and fighting, your ship’s and crew’s capabilities, and about any ideas you might have yourselves,” he explains.

…

“Your little wolf has made it into the second round,” Ull says, walking back and forth in front of Nell.

She doesn’t say anything, but when Ull glances at her face, he sees a slight smile.

“What makes him different from the others who have tried saving you?”

No answer.

“You hardly spent any time with him, yet he has already changed you so much. I remember when you used to behave like a good girl and answered my questions when I would ask them. No matter, I know that you will tire of this game just as you have the other times you have played at it. You always have been the delusional drama addict. I take it that you get enjoyment out of this?”

“No winning streak lasts forever,” Nell says.

Ull stops his pacing and glares at her. Before giving in to his temptations, he leaves the room and locks her in once more.