The Holy Corsairs were a ragtag team—a family forged in the heat of battle, despite their humble beginnings. None of the players knew each other in real life, as was typical for SAO. They first met in battle against the floor 11 boss. A large gathering of over fifty low-level players formed massive raid group to try and clear the dungeon, but the boss was so strong that most of them left after the first wave of attacks. Only about a dozen remained, and together they defeated the Mythic Minotaur at the center of the maze.
After the battle, Susuke went up to each of the others and thanked them for staying rather than fleeing. He was always charming that way, which was good because he was so tall and big he had an imposing figure. They decided to form a guild together even though they did not know each other, and soon they were thick as thieves.
This is their story.
December 30, 2022
Floor 14
"Susuke! I'm hungry, when can we stop levelling and get some food!" Takashi slashed at the ghostly pixie in front of him, the axe cleaving it in half and finishing his foe. He sighed, and—making sure the others had already beaten their enemies—fell back on the grass and spread his arms and legs.
"Get up, Takashi. We have to gain at least four more levels before we can eat." Susuke walked over to him, his blue armor clinking as the plates shifted with each step. His short hair bounced on his head as he walked, and he reached out an arm to lift the tired knight.
Takashi grabbed his outstretched arm and pulled himself up. "I know, but we've been levelling so hard this week. I don't think we'll ever get strong enough to clear a boss on our own."
"We will if we keep this up. So far, I don't see any other guild out here farming, so we better not waste time."
"Relax, Susuke." Gigi leaned over on her shield, smiling wickedly. "We could always duel another guild to gain experience if they try to take our spawns."
Susuke groaned. "For the last time, Gigi, it's pronounced soos-kay, not soo-zoo-kee. What region are you from?"
She pursed her lips and wagged a finger at him. "Uh-uh, remember the deal. No asking about the real world until after we beat floor 50."
Toro appeared behind Susuke. "So, I finished my levelling. Can I go eat?"
"Gahhh!" Susuke jumped. "Geez, Toro, stop sneaking up on me like that!"
The other Corsairs started laughing. "Seeing a big guy like you jump and scream, we'll never clear this game!"
Susuke blushed, frowning. "Yeah, well if I wasn't so worried he'd backstab me I wouldn't jump."
Toro winked. "Only if the money were good enough," he said slyly.
"Get out of here. Go get us some food."
"I don't have any Cor," Toro said.
"You're lying," Susuke said. "You got just as many drops as us. Sell something off."
"I already did! That's how I got this—" he slashed his dagger around, the blade a glowing red blur. "The Assassin's Blade," he said with another wink.
"Here—this is guild money, so don't go blowing it on anything." Susuke initiated a trade with Toro, giving him enough Cor for all twelve of them.
"Yeah, yeah," Toro said. He saluted, then sped off back toward the nearest town.
"The rest of you, keep levelling! I see some pixies over there, let's get a move on!"
It was several hours later when Toro returned, and Susuke saw them starting to slow.
"Susuke!"
He looked up and saw Toro waving frantically as he charged back to the group.
"Took you long enough!" Susuke shouted.
"You guys gotta move! They're coming!"
"Huh? Who's coming? And did you get all our food?"
"No, that's what I'm trying to tell you! These guys cornered me in the down and took all our money. They threatened to kill me if I didn't show them where you guys were—"
"You sold us out?" Susuke's eyes narrowed.
"No, I promise! I led them the wrong way, and I thought I lost them, but then I just saw one of them. I'm sure the rest aren't far behind."
Toro dropped his head to stare at his feet, and Susuke tapped him on the head. "Don't worry, we'll back you up. Tell the others."
Susuke saw a tree nearby and decided to climb it to get a better view. Toro trudged over to the others and warned them, but Susuke couldn't hear what he said.
He heard a few gasps, and somebody shout "What?", but mostly he heard the clanking of metal armor and weapons being drawn.
"Well if it's a fight they want," Gigi said, "We'll give them one."
Susuke turned around and saw the Corsairs, grim-faced but determined. They had taken up stances, and Susuke stifled a smile of pride.
"Wait until they get here. You might change your mind if there's a lot of them." He turned back to his vantage point over the open grassy field, and he saw dust being kicked up.
From the looks of it, there were at least two dozen of people charging this way, all heavily-armed looking, and he cursed.
"We got company!" He dropped from the tree with a back-flip, landing with one knee on the ground before standing.
"Okay, so what's the plan?" Gigi shifted her weight to one side, shoving her already curvy hip out dramatically.
Susuke looked around at the others. They were tired, he could see that, but they weren't about to back down.
"Cameron, I want you up front with me. When I say, you and Toro flank opposite sides of the group. Abel, Gigi, Tsutsuma, come up right behind us and set up in a defensive half-moon. I want shields on either side, but the rest of you should support the flanks so Toro and Cam don't get overwhelmed."
Abel nodded, but gestured at Susuke. "Shouldn't we find a better place? I mean, the open field here we might get surrounded, but if we head over there—" he pointed to a cropping of trees on top of steep hillsides, "we might be able to force them to narrow their numbers."
Susuke grunted. "Good strategy. Okay, new plan. I want my longswords on either hill with the shields in the valley between. Toro, stay in the middle of the pack so they can't get to you and use your throwing stars. I'll take up the front with Takashi and Cam. Move!"
They sprinted off to the hill area to set up positions, and Susuke watched them move as one. In just the first few months since they were trapped in this death game, his team had become a solid unit of soldiers.
He drew his halberd as he neared the valley and turned around. "They're coming, hurry up!"
He spotted the warriors approaching, all clad in silver armor from head to toe. The standard above a couple of them made him freeze.
"The Divine Dragon Alliance."
"What? What are they doing down here, they should be on the higher floors!"
"Beats me, but we'll take them down either way." Susuke looked back at the left hill where his guild had set up.
"Everybody ready?"
"Ready!" they shouted.
"Let's do this!"
The Divine Dragon Alliance team slowed to a jog, a few of the members' faces contorting as they witnessed the Holy Corsairs ready and weapons drawn.
"Halt!"
The DDA players stopped, forming a solid line about fifty feet in front of Susuke comprised of swords and shields.
"I am an under-captain of the Divine Dragon Alliance! My name is Yamata. Where is the scrawny trash-talking kid?"
Susuke glanced back to Toro, who flinched bit. "What business do you have with my guild member?"
"So you're the guild leader? Well, then we should settle this ourselves, like two leaders." Yamata stepped toward him.
"If you come any closer we will attack!"
Yamata didn't stop.
"Toro!"
Instinctively two stars flew past him and landed at Yamata's feet, causing him to leap back.
"Do that again and I'll cut you down myself!" Yamata's face flushed as he pointed at Susuke.
"Come any closer and I'll dare you to try." Susuke deepened his stance slightly to ensure he had more range if he had to lunge.
Yamata grimaced, staring at Susuke. "Fine. Have it your way. So, how do we proceed?"
"First, tell me what right you had to steal from my guild and harass my friend?"
"Harrass? I think you've got it all wrong, that little twerp wouldn't shut his mouth and so we demanded he pay a public decency tax to compensate us for listening to his idiocy."
"Come on, you expect me to believe a kid like Toro could set you off? You must have a short temper."
Yamata's face twitched. His hand flexed, and Susuke realized he was debating whether o not to draw his weapon and attack. Instead, he smoothed his black hair, which was standing straight up held in place by a dark grey ribbon.
"That money wasn't yours to demand. It was our guild's money, which means you owe us for stealing." Susuke turned his sword, and Yamata took another step back.
The DDA players tensed, and for a second Susuke thought he had gone too far. There weren't merely a couple dozen, there had to be at least forty of them. No way could his small guild hold them off forever.
"Hey, what the hell is going on over there?"
A group of red-and-black armored samurai with a diamond-shaped emblem strode up from the side.
"And who the hell are you?" Yamata turned to them, his army redirecting their forces into an L-shape to meet this new guild.
"I'm Klein, guild-leader of the Fuurinkazan."
The crowd of soldiers on both sides gasped. "The-the Fuurinkazan! You guys helped clear the boss on floor fifteen!"
Klein smiled. "That's old information, we're starting on floor 22 tomorrow!"
Yamata turned back to his group. Several of the soldiers had stepped back, while others had ran away as soon as they heard Klein's name.
Susuke looked in wonder and awe at the samurai standing off to his left. He seemed untouchable.
"If you want to mess with the Divine Dragon Alliance, you might need some help." Klein winked at Susuke before drawing his katana.
Yamata started laughing. "What, you think the few of you can stand up to the Diving Dragon Alliance? Are you crazy?"
Klein dashed forward, samurai sword in hand and forcing Yamata to draw his sword reflexively—too slow, for Klein and his group began slashing and parrying at the few DDA members who ran forward to support their leader.
"Corsairs, attack!"
His group leapt into action, and Susuke sped forward to lead the charge.
It was chaos for the first few minutes as nobody really wanted to kill anybody, but as no duels had been officially set they were all cautious and keeping their defenses up.
The mess of the DDA players tried to encircle Klein's Fuurinkazan and Susuke's Corsairs, but they formed a steady flank and kept beating the DDA players back.
After a while, Yamata leapt back away from the main onslaught and blew a kind of horn. "Retreat! Back away!"
The DDA players disengaged and backed off, their HP gauges all mostly in the yellow as they fled. Yamata sneered at Susuke. "You may have won, but that's because we were holding back. All we wanted was a fair rematch against your punk kid and you've gone and made yourself an enemy of the Divine Dragon Alliance!"
He turned and fled, following after his guild.
Susuke inhaled heavy breaths, staring at Klein and his group as they cheered and laughed. They appeared unfazed, and none of them were even out of the green.
He turned back to his guild and saw several were in the red zone of the HP bar, sweating profusely and sunk low to the ground to rest.
"Toro!"
The kid jumped to his feet.
"Next time you pick a fight, try to do so with a smaller guild!"
Toro's face turned red, and he bowed slightly. "I'm sorry, Susuke!"
He stared at the young man's face for a moment before laughing. "That was close! I'm sure we were gonna lose until you guys showed up."
Klein flashed him a thumbs up. "No biggie, just passing on a favor from somebody I know. He took care of me when I was lower level and I promised I would repay him by helping others."
Susuke frowned. "We're not some charity case, you know. Anyway, I appreciate the help, but why are you down here instead of at the front line?"
Klein looked over his group. "Well, to be honest, we were just goofing off until tomorrow's raid, but since you guys were getting surrounded we decided to see what the fuss was about."
"I assure you, we don't make a habit of attacking other guilds. They threatened one of my members and I had to let them know I wasn't going to stand for it."
"I hear you. Listen, you guys are pretty good. Have you ever considered joining the front line? We could use people like you on the Assault Team."
"The Assault Team?"
"Yeah, it's a raid group some of us guild leaders are forming up to start handling the boss fights. We already have the numbers, but since we're pretty disorganized we needed a way to get everybody together."
"And 'Assault Team' is the best name you could think of?"
Klein shrugged. "It works, right? Besides, we all have our own guild names anyway, and the solo players really don't care what it's called as long as they can get the loot drops."
"Who started the Assault Team?"
"We're not really sure. Several guild leaders just got together one day to organize one of the boss fights, I think it was floor fifteen or something. When it went really well, we just decided to go to the next one and do it together too."
Susuke looked back at his team. "And you honestly think we could help?"
"I don't know, what are your levels?"
Susuke thought for a moment. "The lowest level is Abel at 22, but I'm the highest at 25."
Klein pointed his thumb at himself and grinned. "Our lowest is level 30, but there's no real minimum requirement for the assault team. The other guild leaders were thinking of making it level 30, but we haven't made it a rule yet. You should join before that changes!"
Susuke nodded. "After this fight, I'm not sure we could handle a higher-level boss fight."
Klein shook his head, "There's always at least three guilds on every boss fight, but these days the raid group has around forty regular players."
Susuke sighed. "That's a lot of players. Is the Divine Dragon Alliance part of it?"
Klein smiled, "Nah, those idiots like to clear the boss themselves—but some of their nicer players will join us every so often.
Susuke reached out his hand. "By the way, I'm Susuke. Nice to meet you."
"Yeah, you too!" Klein grabbed his hand and shook it hard. "Talk to your guild about it, you can always message me and let me know. I'd vouch for you guys any day."
Susuke waved as the Fuurinkazan waved goodbyes and headed back toward town. He looked at his team and couldn't help but smile. They might get into trouble, but these people had become his family. Most of them had drank health potions to restore their HP, but they still looked like they were going to pass out at any minute. Genji and Abel were leaning back to back so they wouldn't fall, and Gigi had taken off her breastplate to repair it.
"Guys, I want to talk to you about something."
They all perked up and looked at him.
"Klein just made me an offer, but I told him I'd ask you guys first. They want us to join the Assault Team."
"The what?" Cameron looked at him curiously.
"The Assault Team. It's a raid group that goes floor by floor to clear the boss dungeon. They need people, and Klein said that he'd vouch for us."
Gigi cocked her head back. "I say let's do it."
Takashi slumped his shoulders. "But that means we have to raid every day, doesn't it?"
Tomi yawned. "I say we talk about it over dinner. Toro lost our lunch, and we haven't eaten all day!' He gasped when Toro jabbed him in the side with an elbow.
"Fine, but after dinner we need to get those levels. Who still needs their five for the week?"
Half of the twelve raised their hands. "Oh, come on you guys! What have you been doing while we've been grinding away out here?"
Hayato smiled. "We thought you'd never ask! Here, I've figured out a way we can be more efficient with our experience on this level…"
"Tell us about it over dinner!" Tomi insisted.
"You guys are a bunch of amateurs," Susuke muttered under his breath. But, at least they were his amateurs, he thought. He'd whip them into the best soldiers the front lines had ever seen, he vowed.