Warning: There are small mechanical changes compared to the cannon. I do not own Sword Art Online or its characters.
«Labyrinth» 27th floor
"Do we save the players?!" Hermes yelled before he plunged his dagger into the neck of a goblin that rushed at him. Moments later the Goblin screaming in pain dissolved into polygons and evaporated.
Ares, on the other hand chose to scream with joy as he thrust his sword into a monster's head, "No! We kill!"
Yuri, annoyed by what she heard, confirmed their objective, "Save the players!" Rushing to the aid of a spear user, she kicked a monster, attacking the civilian player, and threw it off balance, sending the creature to the ground. Without waiting to see the monster behind her to be dispatched by the platoon of army players following her, she gestured to the rest of the platoon to jump into action.
With their superiority in number, that dwarfed even the monsters attacking the small player group, the fight was over relatively quickly with minimal causalities for the Army.
After the brief battle was concluded a player who appeared to be the leader of the small group, offered his thanks to the army players before quickly distancing themselves from the army.
"Ungrateful bastards... I would have at least said 'my hero!' A few times." Hermes muttered quietly. His eyes trailing after the small group that soon disappeared around the corner.
Dusting his hands, Aresa putting his humongous shield behind his back, tilted his head slightly towards her, "You sure it was wise to let them go by themselves?"
Yuri, twirling her long hair, stared at the orange sky and wondered if letting them go was the right decision, "They said they don't need our help."
"Better them than me… Could have served the army as quality meatshields…." Hermes commented and sheathed his daggers.
Ares sighed heavily as he crossed his arms glared disapprovingly at Hermes, his battle frenzy now completely replaced by his normal state of mind. "If we brought them with us, they will be killed as soon as one of those criminal scum poked their head out and threw a butter knife at them."
Nodding in agreement Yuri voiced her agreement, "We don't use people as 'meatshields' Hermes. How would you feel if Ares strapped you onto his shield and charged."
Without waiting for a clever answer from the short player she waved to the rest of the platoon, "let's go, we're wasting precious daylight," and with that the large group began slowly marching forward, heading deeper into the maze of trees.
Kirito, finished with collecting the necessary material for his sword headed in the direction of the exit. The Labyrinth was a difficult place to navigate. It was full of dead ends and roundabouts and To make his trip even longer, Kirito had to take care in choosing his paths to avoid low level players, who would have frowned upon seeing such a high level player intruding their hunting ground.
Of course, he could have just used a crystal, but that seemed like a waste, especially in an area he knew so well. Instead he navigated through the maze on foot, admiring the sights like a tourist.
Unfortunately, just as he made it half way to the exit of the dungeon a loud whistle echoed from the tree tops. Instinctively, Kirito looked towards the source of the whistle and to his surprise saw an orange player sitting on a nearby tree branch, facing away from him.
Next to the orange player on the tree tops, Kirito saw about two dozen more orange players squatting on the nearby branches. All of them aiming their throwing knives at an unknown target, located somewhere beneath them.
Kirito, curious at why group of orange players would be hiding on top of treetops, watched with interest at how this would turn out, until a panicked cry that came in front of him answered his question.
"Ambush!"
Responding to the scream the orange players threw their knives in the direction of the voice. Without waiting to see what would happen next, Kirito immediately began climbing the nearest tree to help the player who had screamed out by dashing towards the group of orange players attacking the unknown party.
Fortunately for Kirito the nearest orange player, much like his colleagues, was focused solely on whatever was going on below the trees to notice, Kirito creep behind the him.
Seeing as how the orange player was squatting on the tree branch, and leaning his body forward with a throwing knife in his hand. An idea formed in his mind and Kirito simply kicked the orange player off from the tree, who after a moment screaming landed on top of the bushes with a loud thud, dazed and moaning softly in pain.
Satisfied with his work, Kirito jumped to the next tree branch and repeated his act. For several minutes the orange players were oblivious to the disappearance of their comrades until the number of orange players had decreased to such a level that the remaining orange players stopped throwing their knives and began looking around. Kirito happy that he had done his job hid behind nearby tree, hoping that his distraction of the orange players would allow the group beneath him would take this chance and escape.
Peaking across the corner of the tree, Kirito saw one of the orange players shout to an orange player who appeared to be the leader of this small outfit. "What the hell is going on boss?!"
The orange leader, appearing confused about the situation he found himself in, took a moment to gather his thoughts before screaming. "It's a trap!" The army must have been waiting for us. The mole lied to us! Get out of here! Back to the hideout!"
Hearing the sensible advice of their boss, some of the orange players climbed down from the trees and ran to safety, while others clutched their teleportation crystal and vanished into thin air.
Smiling at his handiwork, Kirito glanced down to the ground and much to his surprise found a group of army players staring at the treetops.
As the «Army» platoon moved through the «Labyrinth», Yuri saw one of the players in front of her, looking towards the treetops after hearing a loud didn't pay much attention to it until he screamed screamed.
"Ambush!"
Only an instant later, the private who had yelled out the warning was struck by dozens of throwing knives and collapsed to the ground, paralyzed.
While the rest of the players took out their shields in anticipation of more projectiles headed their way, Yuri took the time and calmly scanned the treetops. Much to her surprise she saw dozens of orange players, squatting on the branches and readying their knives once more.
Without waiting to see what their next move would be, Yuri shouted to the confused «Army» players. "Second volley is coming! Shields up and close rank!"
Following her orders some of the confused platoon soldiers managed to raise their shields and cluster together, forming a shield wall that effectively blocked the volley of knives that fell upon them. However, those who hesitated for a split second, found themselves outside its protective walls and were struck down by the deadly rain.
Hermes, taking advantage of his small size hid behind two «Army» privates while he screamed at his communication crystal, "We are on Labyrinth 27th floor! Oranges attacking us from treetops. Numbers unknown. Coordinates are 20-"
"Don't bother." Ares interrupted his friend dryly and dragged in one of the paralyzed players to safety. Though the giant's voice remained calm, Yuri could see the giant's eyes tingling with excitement. "By the time they arrive, this will be over. One way or another."
"Then, let's teleport out of here, we can't stay here and get picked off one by one, "Hermes said. To prove the short player's point one of the private protecting Hermes fell to the ground with a throwing knife embedded squarely on the private's forehead.
Fortuntely for the fallen private, the blow was not lethal and Yuri pulled out the throwing knife and tossed it away before returning to their conversation.
"And leave them here?" Giving Hermes a disapproving look, she pointed to the paralyzed players, lying outside of their temporary shelter. "Even if we wanted to we don't have enough crystals," she said, mentally running the numbers of crystals they had carried with them.
"We have enough for the three of us, as for the rest of these guys- maybe they won't be killed."
"Would you kindly shut the fuck up?! I'd like to die with some dignity. If you want to run that badly just go by yourself." Ares angrily growled, deflecting another throwing knife with his shield.
"Dying here is not an option! The logical choice is to escape!"
Yuri gave a reassuring glance to her two companions, and raised her hand to stop their conversation, "First we need to get our paralyzed players into the shielded area. Then we can decide whose right."
Increasing her volume, she addressed the rest of the surviving players hiding behind their shields. "On my mark, we break formation and drag the wounded back here!" Though appearing reluctant to leave their shelter, the players nodded in acknowledgement and braced themselves.
Yuri gave her giant friend a knowing look and whispered quietly, "Ares, try to distract them while we try to get the wounded to safety."
Ares answered with a simple nod his face now glowing with excitement. Then without waiting for anything else, ran out of the safety of the shield wall, screaming a battle cry. "Come on you shit-eaters! Come out, come out, wherever you are!"
However, to everyone's surprise, no throwing knives struck the giant, nor did any orange player appear from the trees thin air to attack him.
"What the hell?" Hermes stated.
Confused by the situation, Ares lowered his shield slightly to check the tree tops that were moments ago full of orange players raining them down with death.
Yuri while worried on why the attack had stopped, decided to exploit this opportunity and hollered, "Grab the wounded!" Hearing her command, several privates sprung into action, dragging their paralyzed comrades behind the safety of the shield wall.
"We got everyone!" One of the privates shouted.
Giving a small nod to the private, Yuri scanned the tree tops, "Good! Now find out where those orange players are before th-"
"That won't be necessary," The voice said from the tree tops,.
Expecting the voice to belong to an orange player some of soldiers raised their shields, while other administered antidotes to the wounded.
Instead of an attack, the unknown voice became amused, "Don't worry. I took care of your attackers."
Yuri trying to locate the source of the voice squinted and caught a glimpse of a player cloaked in black. Gesturing to the rest of the platoon to stand down, the rest of the platoon with the exception of Hermes and Ares sheathed their swords but clung to their shields tightly.
"Would you, kindly, jump down from the tree?" Ares said, his sword and shield still drawn.
"Sure," the voice replied and with that, the unknown player jumped from the tree and landed right in front of the platoon, smiling.
Ares, seeing the green cursor above the strangers head, sheathed his sword and relaxed.
Hermes, on the other hand, eyed the stranger suspiciously, "Is this some sort of trick? Are you one of those green-orange hybrids? To lower our guard-"
"Shut up, Hermes, be polite. He just might have saved your sorry ass," Ares cuffed the smaller player in the head, effectively disarming the smaller player by making him lose his balance. "If he was going to kill us, why the hell would be jump down from a tree?"
Ignoring the two players, Yuri approached the solo player and tried to convey her gratitude, "We owe you our lives."
"I wouldn't go that far," The black-cloaked swordsman replied, with the smile still on his face.
"You are right. We had it under control." Ares smiled back and extended his hand and a smile to the unknown player, "Lieutenant Ares, «Army»."
Shaking the hand, the swordsman replied. "Kirito, solo."
Town of «Ronbaru», 27th floor
Without further incident, the platoon managed to reach the floor's town safely. Kirito, glad to see that the group had made it to safety, attempted quietly slip away unnoticed. Sadly, the gigantic player who had introduced himself as Lieutenant Ares, caught Kirito and dragged him to the nearest inn, where the army player bought him a meal.
Feeling uncomfortable to be surrounded by so many people, Kirito tried to focus on finishing his meal so that he could get out of this the situation as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Hermes the short player sitting next to him, who at first had treated Kirito with suspicion until his innocence was proven, kept him from finishing his meal with exaggerated tales of valor that the army player supposedly experienced. Unwilling to contradict and point out the plot holes of the stories he heard, Kirito settled on smiling politely, wondering just how much of the story was true and if he would be allowed to escape.
Perhaps happy to see that someone listened to his stories attentively, Hermes playfully punched Kirito in the shoulder, "Hahaha! I told you he was a good guy."
"What happened to the 'Oh, I am sure he's an orange beneath that cursor talk?" The giant asked, giving his friend a skeptical look.
"First impressions hardly matter. Hell, when I first saw you I thought you were a friendly giant. Boy was I wrong-" the short player seeing the dead eye given by the giant, cleared his throat before continuing, "Anyway enough about us. Tell us, Kirito, how did you take care of all those orange players?"
Kirito, unwilling to tell them the whole truth, chose to omit some key points of his story by summarizing it greatly."I just knocked a few of them off the trees. Then the rest of them must have thought they were being attacked by some other group and teleported away."
To his surprise, the golden haired girl shot him a doubtful look from across the table. Fearing that, he would be forced to tell the truth on just how exactly he had performed his supposed feat, Kirito looked away and tried to concentrate his attention back to two male army players.
Fortunately for him, Ares slammed the table gently in excitement. Thereby saving Kirito from the suspicious glare from the female «Army» player, "I don't suppose you would want to join the «Army»? Eh?" Ares said half-jokingly, gently nudging Kirito.
Kirito, unable to reject Ares outright, tried to let the man down gently.
"I-I don't know-"
Hermes, mistaking his polite attempt to decline as hesitation, smirked.
"Ahh, come on!… We aren't so bad. We rescue cats from trees, patrol some dark corners, and of course we get ambushed by orange players in the middle of the forest."
"Why not just tell him that we have dental plans?" Ares added and with that whole platoon who had been listening to the conversation, laughed loudly. Kirito praying that the conversation about the recruitment would now be forgotten with the joke, tried to keep a low profile.
After several minutes passed and the subject of recruitment disappeared completely, Kirito relaxed and stole a glance at the female player sitting across from him. The female player too appeared to have forgotten about the recruitment, evidenced by the frown on her face and twirling of her hair. Glad that the female player was no longer paying any attention to him, Kirito relaxed and listened to the idle conversation of his dinner companions.
However, just as he began to began to enjoy himself, the blonde girl started to stare at him again, this time studying him with interest. Feeling a bit nervous from the attention, Kirito cracked a smile, "So... so... you are part of the «Army» huh?" Immediately after finishing that sentence, Kirito mentally kicked himself for asking such a stupid question.
Predictably, the girl shook her head sadly and Kirito feeling slightly depressed turned his attention back to his meal.
But just as he was about to brutally mutilate the mashed potato with his fork, a voice across the table caught his attention, "Yuri. My name is Yuri."
"Pleasure to meet you... Yuri." Kirito answered, glad that he had not made a complete fool of himself.
Yuri on the other hand, appeared none to concerned on how he felt. Staring him in the eyes, the female player spoke with confidence, "Ares may have been joking, but I do hope that you join us. I am sure you want to be a clearer like everyone else, but we need good people in the «Army». It might not seem like much, but someone needs to do our job."
Before Kirito could answer the chatter around them stopped as everyone stared at Kirito, who fidgeted under the uncomfortable attention he received.
Hermes, seeing the pressure, slapped him cheerfully on the back, "In other words, without us, there wouldn't be anyone to save! And don't worry, Kirito, you will be with us until we can get you trained up and became a member of our elite organization."
Feeling a little bit more comfortable, Kirito smiled, "You guys are elite?"
"Haha very funny..." Scratching his head, Hermes replied.
"Well, the three of us," Hermes pointed to himself, Yuri and Ares, "We are actually not part of this lousy lot. No offence fellas!" Waving an apologetic hand, Hermes ducked just under a mug as it flew over his head and smashed into the wall.
Pretending as if nothing had happened, the short «Army» player, recovering from the light-hearted attack, added, "We are part of a very loose division. Unlike the boring regulars here, we get to go where we please and commandeer whatever squad, platoon, or company we fancy to," without pausing Hermes ducked once more, letting more dishware, a jug this time, fly over his head.
Ares, catching the airborne jug, placed it down on the table, and glared at the unruly platoon disapprovingly, "Also if your skill levels are low, we would be more than happy to level them with you. Not that yours are low of course."
The two «Army» officers continued to explain the benefits of joining the «Army», and all the fun times he would have. Kirito felt like he was being pressed into buying something from by two persuasive salesmen.
"Stop. Let him decide for himself." Yuri said, interrupting the two «Army» players much to Kirito's relief. However, before Kirito could speak his mind and reject their offer politely. Yuri opened her menu and pressed several buttons. Moments later a guild invitation appeared in front of him.
Kirito seeing the guild invitation, stared at it for a long time, as various thoughts crossed his mind that screamed at him to run and stay away from the «Army». Unfortunately the atmosphere of the inn and the peer pressure of the players around him clouded his judgement. Tearing his eyes away from the window, Kirito glanced towards Yuri who kept herself composed, showing little emotion. He then glanced at Ares and Hermes, both of them smiling at him. Unable to think of anything better to say, Kirito simply smiled back and accepted the invitation.
Major grammar edit: 12/22/2012 .
Major fixes: 1/6/2013.
New Content: 1/8/2013
Small Edits: 1/9/2013
Major Plot/Character/Grammer restructuring: 1/14/2013