Book 1: Ùghdarras

Chapter 1: Sunrise

My breath formed in the cold air. The rock around me covered in a coat of snow as it fell around us. "Drake," The violet colored samurai behind me took a defensive stance. His name was Hayashi Toride, we've known one another since we were kids. "This may not have been a good idea."

"Dion," Kita Okami, or Dion in this game. While Hayashi was a samurai, I preferred the Vikings. The Nordic plate armor and war axe emphasized that. "A handful of draugrs shouldn't be an issue for us." He cut one down as it got too close. "But the Draugr priest may present a problem."

I smirked behind my helmets face guard. "Doubting our skill?"

"You said it, not me." His odachi lent him a decent reach, and his skill with it made his strikes as fast as lightning.

I swept a wide horizontal arc in front of me, cutting down two. "I say many things. Let's hurry this up, I got the quest item, the faster we leave, the faster I get a new war-axe."

"Your obsession with Nordic mythos and Vikings is going to get us killed one day, you know that?" I couldn't see past his daemon mask, but he had that joking smirk.

"Maybe, at least we get to fight some decent mobs." Being level seventy-five makes things a tad difficult to finding a good mob to fight at the current floors we're on. "Maybe once we clear the next floor, we can actually get somewhere."

"Or maybe relax for once." Another cut down, only fifteen left and the priest. "I would like that."

"Getting tired of our adventures?" I could do with a warmer climate. "Maybe that girl we met at the bar caught you?" His slight falter due to embarrassment gave me a chuckle.

"N-No! Just going on one quest after another gets repetitive. If we still had the Aingil fala- "I cut him off by crushing a flanking Draugr next to him.

"Don't bring that up. We kill that priest, we get to leave."

"What's that plan?"

"Sweep plan bravo?"

"We have the weapons needed, why not? We need a cliff edge though."

I looked around and spotted it. About a hundred feet away. "Over there, behind a few of them. Just what we need." I used my weapon to knock the few blocking the path of the edge and that allowed us to back into the so-called corner. "Alright, on you. I take the ugly ones."

"They're all ugly. Left and right."

I rolled my shoulders. "Fine, let's do it." We both activated our best suited weapon skill and charged forward, swinging our weapons horizontally. The numbers fell as we swung and charged till only the Priest was left. "Pincer!"

"On it!" We dashed left and right and back in on the flanks, bringing my weapon to the front and his sword to the rear. "In half!" The weapons went through the priest, cutting it down. The lack of defense made things easy.

"We got it, now let's head back." I closed my reward window and equipped the thick winter cloak I got. "Now this is nice, torn at the bottom for character. I like it. Fits well with my style."

Drake shook his head. "Right. We should get going. I'd rather not fight another large mob. As easy as it may be, like I've said, repetitive."

"I mean, more XP. Not a bad thing." We made our way down the mountains on the fifty-fifth floor and back towards the Icey paths back towards the town of Granzam.

Drake removed his helmet, letting his slicked back black hair and 'warrior's tail' free from the helmet. His auburn eyes looking towards me. "You know, how long has it been since we've been to Lindarth? I'm sure the local blacksmith would be more then happy to see us or even more so you."

I removed my own helmet. Short brown hair with a medium fade and shamrock eyes facing the cold. "We have more important things to handle. A day of rest and then we'll find Argo, the more info we can get about dangerous areas, the better chance lower skilled players will survive. We may not have a guild, but we can still follow our way of doing things."

"Having the guild made things easy. The players we let go formed their own groups to help people, we can take our own time to relax. Maybe even take more than a single day off?" We stopped as he faced me.

"Not something we can do sadly. We can stop for maintenance if we must, but after that, we get back to work. If we keep the more dangerous side areas clear for now, the lower level players won't get caught by their own idea of being able to handle what 'looks' easy." I walked past him and put my helmet back on. "The more the major guilds can focus on clearing major areas and floor bosses. It works Drake. The faster we get through this came, the faster we go home."

"Kita. You know damn well this isn't the healthiest life style. If Liz knew- "I stopped and grabbed his shoulder.

"She doesn't. None of them do. That's what makes it so simple."

He pushed my arm off. "You think just because they don't know that we're still alive. We removed them from our friends lists. Yes, they could either check the wall or -hell- even pay Argo for information. They're probably scared of the possible truths!"

I scoffed. "That we might be dead? Such a thing is to be expected in this world. There have been countless names on the wall. Plus, we're not frontline players anymore. Just side support." I turned away and kept walking. "Now come on, let's get going before the DDA decides to annoy us about this item."

He let out a sigh. "Too late."

I stopped and looked over to were he looked. I really didn't want to see it. "Alright!" I just want it to be clear, I despise the DDA. On a snow-covered hill near the path stood a decent sized group of DDA members. Led by Yamata himself. "You know how this goes. That quest reward will be ours, so just hand over the actual quest item so we can claim the item."

"Don't you have better things to do? Like clearing the game? Or do you want to waste valuable time annoying people for items that may be better or be a complete waste of time." I drew my axe. "This is a PvP able area. I assume you remember me Yamata, what I did to you last time? Want that again?"

He marched down the hill towards me, his overconfident smirk no even faltering. "Not happening this time! Men, surround them. They'll surrender shortly." The group of soldiers went around us and kept their shields up.

I took my stance. "You know how this goes. I've killed DDA members before and I will do it again."

Drake stepped in front of me. "No, this is not how we do things! Not anymore, maybe when we were 'Aingil Fala,' but you told me- "

"I know what I said!" I pushed him out of my way. "Maybe a fight is what we need. What about what DDA did to you?"

"I let that go. You always held these ridiculous grudges!" His voice was raised, and his face contorted in annoyance.

"You let her go that easily! She was our friend! They are the reason she's dead!"

He pushed me back and tightly grabbed my shoulders. "She knew the risk of that. That's why I forgave so quickly. Yes, I am still haunted by that, but I'm mature enough not to kill the people who piss me off just because they're nearby!"

"To hell with you then!" I shoved past him and marched towards the DDA wall of shields. "I'll tear them down without you!" He jumped back in front of me with his helmet on and his weapon drawn. Against me. "What are you doing?"

"I'm not letting you kill them. Just give them the item. We have no reason to hurt anyone."

I shook my head. "I'm the only one who remembers why we did what we did! KoB, DDA, Laughing Coffin, even the Army! If they got in our way, we cleared them out and made our way to the floor boss. Not even hesitating."

"That's why I forced you to close the guild and end it. You were becoming like Titans Hand or even Laughing coffin!"

I tensed. "Don't you ever. Ever. Compare me to them. We hunted players like them down, we brought just- "

"Public executions! That's not justice. That's bloodlust."

I brought my axe up and pointed it towards him. "Meisa wouldn't want us fighting, would she?"

"Don't bring her into this Kita!"

Yamata awkwardly lowered his shield. "Are you going to give us the item or not!?"

I snapped my head towards him. "Shut it."

"Or what? You'll do it for me? How cute, a little squabble between friends. Really, adorable. But can we hurry this up, we're trying to clear a dungeon soon."

I dashed away from Drake and towards Yamata. "I'll show you an angel's wrath!" I brought my weapon up in a wide arc and swung downward on him, smacking into his shield, making him stumble back.

"There we go! Finally! We can- Oh hell! "He used his shield to block another downward swing, his men backing away from us both.

"You'll die here!" I brought a powerful kick to his side, knocking him to the ground.

"Damn you!" He parried my next swing with his sword and slashed at me, managing to hit me. I smirked as my HP bar lost a single point and regenerated it a half second later. "What the hell!?"

"Not as good as you think, maybe I should give you the item. Give you a chance at life!" I used 'Sundering strike' to break his guard and topple him to the ground. Putting him on his back. "Should I kill you?"

"N-No! Please!" A coward no matter what. "Don't kill me! We'll leave you alone, I'll even tell Schmitt what we did."

"He doesn't know you're doing this? That's gutsy. Maybe I'll go see him."

Drake grabbed my shoulder. "Its time to go Dion. We've wasted enough time."

I looked at Yamata one last time. "You better hope I'm in a better mood next time Yamata and in company." I brushed Drake's hand away. "Let's go." As we left, the DDA members spilt apart, making way for us. "Would have been a waste of a spot on the wall anyway." Waste of memory.

"We go turn this in, then go back to Argo. After that, we need our gear maintained. We're going to Liz, not some A.I."

I could see the metal plate paths of Granzam ahead. "Why?"

"Only she has the skill to fix our gear, hell, she helped us find the gear." I let Drake take the lead as we headed back towards the quest hall in Granzam.

"Fine. Let's get this handled and get back to work."

"What about that day of rest we discussed. If we don't, we won't have a well-rested benefit. Also, good for the mind and body."

"You remember the phrase we used? For the guild that is."

"Yes. 'Sabaid gus an uaigh' and for some, they did."

"Fight till the grave. Kind of stupid really. I planned to change it." We entered the hall, walking past small guilds or members of larger ones.

"To what?"

"Seas airson solas. Stand for light, or something less grim." I approached the quest counter where the old man waited. "We finished the quest." I pulled out an old pendent and handed it over.

"Thank you, adventurer. As promised, you're reward." A new War-axe laid on the table. Two-handed. A metal shaft, with engravings along it, the duel bladed end was a pure silver material with the engraving of two wolf heads on either side. Jaws open as if reaching for the intended victim. On the bottom, the pommel was a metal orb to act as a counter weight. "The Wolfs Wrath, I hope it find good use in your travels." The old man walked away, NPCs, no life there.

I picked it up and looked at the stats. Far superior to any war-axe I've seen so far, and that's the only weapon I use. "Magnificent. The speed, the weight, the power, and the style to it. Worth every Draugr horde."

Drake stood next to me and studied it. "Look at the durability. Nigh unbreakable, what a remarkable weapon. Now, as we discussed. The blacksmith."

I shouldered the large axe. "Fine. The faster we get this done, the more quests we can do. Maybe we can get you some new items."

"Samurai items only please if able. You know me." We made our way towards the teleportation gate. "About earlier…. "

"Forget it. It was my fault. We'll drop it there."

"Are you sure?"

I hesitated at the gate. "I am, come, Lindarth awaits." We selected the town and went through. As soon as we stepped a single foot in town, I heard it.

"Dion!" The familiar voice a small and angry blacksmith. I would have Drake's head for this yet.