SWORD ART ONLINE: THE LOST SOUL

CHAPTER 2: THE RED HOODED FENCER

NOVEMBER 6TH, 2022

ONLINE; FLOOR 1: OUTSIDE THE TOWN OF BEGINNINGS

I awoke suddenly to a loud scream of what sounded like an animal in danger. I looked up to see the starry night sky in full.

"Fuckin' christ, how long was I out?!"

The vast plains were barren to my question. Not a single player in sight, not even that beta tester. That means I lost him. Now im stuck in the middle of floor 1 with no direction on where to go. What's even more important is why I suddenly collapsed like that.

Wait a minute…. That error code. 3412. The 3200's are all connection error codes. Could that mean….

"Dammit."

Dammit, dammit, dammit. The parental 'figures' most likely did what I figured: moved my body and unplugged my helmet. Which most likely means they were aware of this 'death game' and decided to take me to a hospital for care. Of ALL the times to do that. I should be fortunate, it wasn't during a boss fight.

I was quite surprised that I was left alone here and nobody looted my sleeping avatar or anything. I checked my HP to see it was still at full health, which was a good sign. I opened my menu and looked through my items, not a single one missing. Very interesting. When you think about it, everybody is probably still stuck at the town of beginnings at this point crying their eyes out so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Then, I noticed an odd menu option in my settings at the very bottom:

'AUX CORD'

Could this be what I think it is? I clicked on it to find… my entire Ipod playlist library, all in one place. All 3,400+ songs, intact. Do I dare click on a song? I think it would be appropriate, and what better appropriate traveling song than 'Wild and wasted waters' by Kill It Kid? In a matter of seconds, the music filled my ears. It was loud, but soft enough that I could still hear my surroundings. It was like perfect background music.

"Well at least somethin' coming up millhouse today!" I felt as if I just won a million dollars. Now that I have my music on my side, nothing will stop me. I marched onward through the grassy plains, playin' my song and hoping for a way to the next town.

[Cue 1:30 of crossing field while me and the rest of the cast of SAO do kickass shit]

2 hours later, Myriad Forest, Floor 1

"I cant believe its already midnight and im probably not even clo.."

A growl emerged behind me as I turned around. Oh boy, another wolf. Another fucking wolf. This one leapt to try and bite my neck for an instant kill, but one easy sidestep from me sent him hitting the ground. I held back the shitty starting sword as it lit bright red.

"Hey! I was in the middle of a sentence!"

My sword swung forward, stabbing the lone wolf straight through the ribs and out the other end. It let out a huge whine as it exploded into many digital pieces and then finally fading.

"asshole." I said as I sheathed my shit sword unto my back.

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, how the fuck can it be midnight and I am still stuck in this godda.."

Aughhhh!

I stopped mid-sentence once again to hear the cries of what seemed to be a young girl's voice screaming for help a few meters away. I took no hesitation to run towards where the screaming came from. Within a few seconds, I could see the girl in plain sight. She was on the ground surrounded by three hungry wolves. Wonderful. More. Fucking. Wolves. I swear that's all that's in this forest.

"this calls for some badass music."

I wasted no time in opening my music menu. I knew what song would be perfect here: Ebony Wings from the Castlevania soundtrack! The smooth guitar hummed as I dashed into the fray.

I leaped between the triangle formation of the wolves. They all took a step back from my sudden arrival. I used the horizontal sword skill to swing my sword in a huge arc, hitting all three wolves in a single strike and reducing their HP to about half. I then leapt forward towards the middle wolf doing a vertical strike, killing the wolf in an instant. In my delay, the remaining two ganged up on me on each side preparing for an attack. Realizing this, I turned my attention to the wolf on my right as I executed another Horizontal that killed the wolf. I had just enough time to duck from the third wolf's bite, leaving him wide open. I pulled back shit sword and thrust forward in a stab similar to the wolf I encountered just before these three. The final wolf took the hit clean and died the same as his friends.

"Hmf. Waste of my time."

The music ceased as my epic moment was over. I looked over to the girl that was lying half dead behind me. Her HP had hit the yellow and I saw that it was fading ever so slowly. She must have taken a status effect from one of the wolves.

I thought about it. I could kill her and loot her shit. Survival of the fittest. You know what though? She is half dead. Its no competition. Like taking candy from a baby. It would be dishonorable. I would hate for her to have some kind of mystical sword and I obtained it without any real difficulty. I walked over to her slowly.

"Hey, are you alright?

I don't know why I said that. Obviously she is not alright, she's fucking half dead you blind dumbass. She tried to crawl away from me but whatever status effect she had prevented her from moving any further. That small move put her HP into the red.

"Hold on!" I reached for a health crystal in my inventory. "Here, take this."

I held the crystal over her as it disintegrated into little tiny digital shards. In a flash, her HP skyrocketed back to full, and her status effect had left. I then helped her up off the ground and back on her feet.

"Thanks. I would've died if you didn't show up." She said as she pulled back up her red hood. "One of those wolves hit me with paralysis and bleeding at the same time."

"You're just lucky I had a healing crystal handy."

"Listen, we have to leave, now!" she said with haste.

Just then five wolves spawned all around us in a pentagon formation, their teeth glimmering in the moonlight. Me and the girl quickly went back to back as we drew our weapons. Surprisingly, she pulled out a long, silver rapier that looked of higher quality than the ones I saw in the town of beginnings.

"Care to explain how you wound up in a spawn point by yourself?"

"You're not going to level up unless you get to the source." The fencer said in a monotone voice. She then burst towards the wolves on her side. I myself decided to take action.

[plays 'Sinister Sundown' from the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack off of the AUX CORD option.]

I dashed towards the three wolves on my side using the same tactic I used before with my horizontal sword skill, striking all three once again in a single arc. This time, the wolves reacted faster this time around and pounced forward in my sword skill delay, taking a 20% damage to my HP gauge.

These wolves are obviously higher leveled than the ones ive fought before. I have to be more careful.

With all three wolves close to me after that triple attack, I swung an uppercut at the one on the left which knocked it back a few feet but did not kill it. Then I leapt, switching my sword to a backhand and thrusting it into the middle wolf's head, destroying the beast. With the wolf on the left still in a daze, the right one jumped and managed to bite at my right arm, depleting my HP to about 55% and inflicting bleeding on me. I flung my wrist, sending the wolf flying back. I turned my attention to the wolf on the left. I ran at it with horizontal again( which just cooled down) and simultaneously did a corkscrew swing, killing the wolf. All of a sudden, I heard the remaining wolf behind me ready to pounce. As it leapt, I couldn't turn around fast enough.

In a flash, the wolf was destroyed as I saw the red hooded fencer a few feet away in the middle of ending a sword skill.

"I guess you could say we're even." She said once again in a monotone voice as she put away her rapier. It would seem she's better than I gave her credit for.

After using my last health crystal, me and the mysterious girl traveled onwards through the myriad forest. I decided to play some tunes off of my AUX CORD option and put on some oldies from the 60's (Rolling Stones, Mamas and the Papas, the who, etc.). I noticed that the girl did not say anything about my music, which led me to believe that maybe I was the only one who could hear what I was playing. I even experimented this by putting Elvis Presley's 'Don't Be Cruel' on repeat for literally 20 minutes without a single comment, which led me more to believe my theory. Either that or she's just not a social person to begin with.

Soon, we encountered another band of wolves crossing our path. God I am starting to get really sick of seeing the same monster over and over. You would think Kayaba would add more variety to his game.

"I got this." I said as I pulled my sword off my back running towards the enemy. Both me and the fencer initiated a sword skill in a thrusting motion side by side. We screamed as we stabbed both of our targets dead on, destroying both enemies in one blow. It was almost like a rehearsed duet that we had practiced, a mirror image. Just then, an image popped up before me:

LEVEL UP! 1-2

HP:500-672

NEXT LVL:78

"Well, it's about time." I said with a smirk on my face.

"Congratulations." Ms. Monotone said with literally no expression whatsoever hidden behind that red hood of hers.

"You know, I must say we make a great team."

I cannot believe I just said that. Still, I can't deny it. I literally just met her and we fight like we've known each other for forever. Also I believe she's gotta be at a higher level than me.

"I guess we do." This time it sounded like she said that with a hidden smile.

I took my chance. I decided to open my menu and send her a friend request. I saw her puzzled, hidden face as the message popped up before her.

"Wha. What for?"

"Well, just in case you ever need any help. You know?"

I am really baffled at the sentences I am saying here as they literally go against my beliefs and morals of survival, but there's something different about this girl. She seems like she can handle herself in a battle. She can prove to be a useful ally.

"hm. Okay." She pressed the blue button without hesitation. I saw her show up emmediatley on my friends list: Asuna. A very interesting name to say the least. I can say she's of Japanese descent.

"Sorry, but I got to get going." She said quickly after.

"What for? Don't you want to get to the next town?"

" I have more leveling to do. I have to get stronger so I can clear the game."

"Slow down, Jeff Gordon. It's not like we're racing the clock here.."

"You don't understand!" she interrupted. "Every minute we waste here is time wasted in the real world."

I can tell there's no reasoning with her at this point. She's a woman on a mission, and once a woman's on a mission I learned not to get in the way. "Hmf, suit yourself. Good luck."

"You too." She actually showed a visible smile in her voice as she turned and walked back into the depths of the forest. I kind of feel guilty leaving her here in the forest by herself, but she has me as a friend. She can always message me if anything goes awry. For now I can only hope to see Asuna the red hooded fencer another time.

As for me though…. I'm still stuck in this forest!

After about another hour (and five million wolves later.) I reached the next town, already filled with about half the starting players. I literally don't know how in shit nuggets they made it here before me but fuck it. I am way too tired to worry about this right now. Then, I looked at my menu to see that all those wolves I killed gave me about 114 col, which pays for half a night's day at the inn. Splendid. Fucking wolves got the last laugh after all.

I was in luck. I found a quest NPC right outside the entrance that I know gives a col reward upon completion.

"Good day sir, may I interest you in quest for some col..'

"Goodness fucking gracious!" I grabbed unto him like I was whacked. I had a long night so its understandable. "name your quest. What do I gotta do? Collect items? Deliver mail? What?"

"actually I need you to kill 10 wolves and bring me back their pe.."

FUCK.

NO.

I dropped the NPC and made my way back inside the town.

"where are you going sir?"

I guess i'm sleeping on a bench tonight.

[CUE END CREDITS.]