CH1.
The dusty path was empty as far as the eye could see. The mirage formed giant castles on the far away horizon. Only one man was walking slowly but surely, his sabre hanging on his side. The blade occasionally let out a clapping sound as it hit its owners left thigh. The boy suddenly changed directions, leaving the track and heading into the never ending plains. As he walked, a thick fog formed around him. He stopped and unsheathed his weapon. From the corner of his eye, he could almost see figures in the fog, some smaller, some bigger. All of them were circling him like sharks. His gaze moved from side to side, waiting for the first attack. It soon came, in a form of a tall armoured skeleton, jumping out of the fog. The creature raised his hand, a swords blade shining in it, but it never struck down on him, as its opponent prevented it with a swift cut through its femur and turning around the curved blade, bringing it back to the monsters collar bone from above.
The skeleton collapsed to its knees before shattering to a cloud of polygons. The boy instinctively returned to his fighting stance, only to be lunged at by a skeletal dog. But once again, the player was faster, and stepped to the side, cutting the dog's spine in half before it landed from its jump. Only green and blue polygons reached the grass.
The fight went on like this, with the white haired boy always being a step ahead of the MOB-s. Eventually they got more aggressive and smart, multiple beasts attacking him at the end. But just like the last round, he blocked, parried and countered with a series of lightning fast cuts. Half an hour has passed, but he was still at max HP. Not one of them was able to even scratch him, as he was far too fast, not only to them, but even to any other players at his level.
Only one girl could match his speed in battle, and that was Asuna. The vice-commander of the Knights of Blood was able to see and process the movements of his hand. Ironically, the two of them hated each other. Or rather, Asuna hated his guts, while he found great fun in pissing her off every time he had the chance.
After an hour-long fight, the mist started to fade away, leaving the boy alone on the fields once again. He looked around to see where the dance of battle swept him away, his gaze falling upon an old and crumbly inn. He sheathed his sword and started walking towards the building. As he reached the entrance, he examined the walls and tried to look inside through the window, the cloudy glass only letting him see so much of the interior. At last, he decided to enter.
As he stepped in, the smell of alcohol and some sort of homemade stew filled his nostrils, and the darkness of the room blinded him for a second. After his eyes got used to the dimness of the room, a low, but friendly voice called out to him:
"Good day to you sir, welcome to the Tired Ploughman inn!" – The barkeep greeted him with a wide, toothless smile.
He walked closer to the bar, scanning his surroundings. The inn was dirty and almost empty, with only one robed customer sitting in one of the corners, slowly sipping from his mug. His robes covered his face, giving him a mysterious feeling. If the boy knew anything about MMORPG-s, it's that the strange, hooded figure in a dark corner is most likely the one NPC that is important.
He leaned against the counter and ordered himself a glass of wine. The barman proved to be rather talkative, giving his monologue about the past wars, life in the old times and such. Some sort of lore for the game. Not like it mattered, since nobody cared about the story of Sword Art Online, since everyone was fighting for their survival. Why would Kayaba even make these dialogues in the first place? That would be anyone's guess.
Suddenly, the old man's voice changed and he asked:
"What's your name adventurer?"
The boy was surprised by the sudden change of tone, but after a slight pause he answered:
"Naevius." – He said.
"Well Naevius, I'd like to ask you something. A favour if you will."
The boy raised his head at the man's words. A quest? It wouldn't surprise him, but the tone of the barkeep raised his suspicion. There was something wrong and unsettling about all of this.
"Sure thing, what is it? Could you be at a shortage of meet for the stew or something?"
"No, no, no. its way more complicated than that."
The man leaned closer to him, and whispered:
"Please, just run away. This place is far more dangerous than you think. That man over there. – He pointed at the stranger in the corner. – He's a demon. He locked me inside this inn a hundred years ago. The only way to escape is to kill him in a fair duel. I'm too old for this, so I never tried, and trust me, those who came before you had suffered a terrible fat. But maybe you can still escape before he challenges you."
He finally understood. This was a trap for the curious players who visited this strange inn in the middle of nowhere. Looking back at it, he should've suspected it. It should've been easily avoidable. But this was not the time to think. He nodded to the old man, paid and turned around to head towards the exit. As he stepped towards the door, the hooded figure rose from his seat, and started walking towards him. Naevius quickened his pace and so did the stranger. Finally, just when he could grab the doorknob, the stranger's arm shot out, and grabbed him by the wrist, revealing white bones instead of fingers.
"You've made the wrong choice wanderer. Nobody leaves without my permission. If you want to be free, you'll have to win in a duel against me. Will you accept my challenge?"
Its voice was cold and growly, barely understandable. Naevius looked towards the old prisoner behind the counter, who slowly shook his head, signalling him to decline the duel.
"I'll accept your challenge, but first, tell me your name skeleton."
The skeleton growled and paused for a second before answering:
"Fine. I am Naudilus, the Swift. Now ready your weapon!"
He released the boy's wrist and stepped back. With a shake of his shoulders, the dark robe fell on the floor, revealing a skeleton in the clothes of a hussar, similar to what Naevius was wearing. A silvery sabre on his foe's side caught the player's attention immediately. The weapon was soon unsheathed, so he did the same, taking up the so called 'fool's guard'. He looked up to see the name and the HP of the monster in front of him. To his surprise, it had two health bars, which worried him a little.
'A field boss, huh? I guess this will be much more of a challenge than I anticipated' – He thought.
Their fight started with Naudilus striking from the top. He was true to his name; his speed was a rare talent amongst even the bosses, let alone amongst normal MOB-s. He was almost able to hit the boy. Almost.
Naevius could barely parry the attack and jump to the side. He twisted his elbow and struck down from the top, but from a slight angle. The skeleton jumped back, but still, the end of the blade scarred his skull deeply. The player looked up again, to see that the monster's health bar only decreased slightly.
He couldn't wander about that, as a cut from the side came at him with incredible speed. He ducked under it and shot up immediately, trying to stab his opponent. The skeleton quickly diverted his blade, and released a new cut as he brought his own sword around his head, attacking the boy from the other side.
He brought back his weapon to block the attack. The blades collided with a loud metallic clap, and the boy was pushed back a few inches by the sheer force behind it. He backed up a step, before lunging forwards and cutting from the bottom. This time he hit the skeleton, who was knocked back to the wooden door.
This was his chance to turn things around. He dashed to the monster and released a series of super fast cuts. His hand moved at an incredible speed, with each slash digging into bone, chipping away at the field boss' HP.
Naudilus tried to block the attacks, but with little success. As his HP slowly, but surely crawled towards the end of the first bar, his moves visibly became desperate. Finally, he blocked one slash from the side, but as the two weapons clashed together, his silver blade let out a horrible screech, and shattered, leaving only the hilt and a small length of blade in the boss' hand.
That was when all hell broke loose. The skeleton lunged forward, punching Naevius square in the jaw, knocking him back to the bar. Before the boy could react the MOB was right in front of him again, thrusting and slashing with the dagger sized blade that once was his sabre. It was his chance now to assault the player, who just likes him a moment ago, tried to block his attack, with no space for footwork.
Attacks came from left and right, and he was forced to be on the defence, but soon he found an opening and kicked the skeleton off of himself. He raised his sabre and faked a slash from the top, suddenly changing the direction of it to a horizontal strike. The monster had no time to react as the blade hit its neck, a red mark appearing on its cervical spine.
Naudilus roared in anger, and mindlessly rushed its opponent again, but this time, he was prepared. The boy jumped out of its way, and released swift cuts across its back, dropping the field boss' HP to a minimum. The monster turned around, using the momentum for the cut, but once again, the player outsmarted him and released a counter-attack.
He quickly glanced up to his HP bar, and was surprised by what he saw. His health was at fifty percent, glowing with a yellow light above his head. Fighting a field boss alone and only losing half of his HP was quite the achievement. Normally on the front lines, at least five or six clearers were needed to deal with such a strong MOB. Of course, this wasn't the front, but even on the lower levels, a whole party was needed to fight them. And here he was, locked in an inn in the middle of nowhere, not only fighting a field boss alone, but winning against it. There were only a couple individuals who could do the same thing as him. It worried the boy, that three of those were the three leaders of the infamous Laughing Coffin.
The skeleton backed away, glaring at him with small red lights burning in his eye sockets. They slowly started to circle each other, everyone waiting for the other to attack first. The wooden floor creaked under their weights as they stepped cautiously. Moments passed like this, and nobody made a move. The tension rose, when finally they both rushed at each other and swung their blade, cutting into flesh and bone as they didn't bother to parry. As they passed one another, they froze in place, exhausted.
Finally Naudilus fell to its knees with a red hit marker across its chest. A second later, he exploded into hundreds of blue and green polygons, and thus, the battle was over.
Naevius dragged himself towards the bar, not caring about the small icon below his glowing red HP bar. The barkeepers head popped up from behind the bar, with a surprised look on his face. His expression turned to a big, toothless smile once again. As the boy reached him, he poured a glass of wine on the table and showed it next to him.
"Here boy, it's on the house."
Naevius looked at the red liquid in front of him, and without hesitation, drank it in one go. His health regenerated slowly, and he could finally speak:
"Thanks old man, you're a bloody life saver" – He said.
"It's the least I could do. I can't repay you for what you have done for me, but at least I could do this much. I'm sorry for not being able to pay you though." – He apologized – "But maybe, you can get something useful from him"
"Oh yeah, I didn't even check the loot." – With that, he clicked on the small icon.
A white and grey window appeared in front of him, showcasing the new item he got from the boss. The picture linked to it showed the same sabre the skeleton had, with the name of it written across the top and a short description beside it:
The resolute revolutionary
This sword was formerly wielded by Naudilus the Swift, a lost captain of a long forgotten war, who after the capitulation of his army, continued to fight for the freedom if his men alone. Legends say that his soul is still fighting to this day.
This sabre has the special effect 'desperate', which causes it to turn into a dagger after the durability reaches zero. Then it can be fixed back to its original form.
A wide grin appeared on the face of the boy as he read. A sword with this ability can cause quite a surprise, changing the tide of battle greatly. With his smile reaching from ear to ear, he equipped his new acquisition.
"Neat." – he chuckled.