Hey guys, I am back with chapter 2 of Complete Immersion. Hope you guys enjoyed the prologue of the story. So anyway I hope you guys enjoy this one. Nothing much to say really, so I'm just going to the respond to the reviews that came in for the first chapter.
Kinunatzs: Thanks for the feedback, even I struggled with the idea of the Sugu/Lulu emotional scene. Though I forgot to say that the question Lelouch asked was of simple curiosity, while Sugu saw it as something else. So still thanks for the support.
NUPhoenix: Thanks, I try my best.
darkkrt: Don't worry, I will be updating Where Real Monsters Go soon enough, it was that this idea hit me so quickly that I needed to do it. The same way Where Real Monsters Go ended up coming into fruition.
Hayden-Strife: Making Lelouch's screen name a knightmare wouldn't work because the Lelouch he had replaced had already set the name during the beta, which he wasn't present for.
-Mandatory Disclaimer-
I don't own either Code Geass or Sword Art Online.
-Chapter 1: Outside Looking In-
'I can't believe it's been a month since being trapped inside of this death game,' Lelouch thought off-handily. His thought going back to the events of the past month. The only notable thing that happened was that he and Kazuto had reunited at the town next to Starter City. Which wasn't really noteworthy either, they had simply found each other on the path to the next village.
The month after that was spent grinding separately and then regrouping at a designated meeting point. Since they knew where the easiest and the most experience points lay in Floor One, they easily achieved level nine respectively.
Though the frustrating part was that no one was able to find the first boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord, a gigantic crimson dog. Which was extremely hard to find, even for the beta testers, so a month passed without any progress. When Lelouch and Kazuto had heard about a meeting discussing the elusive boss, they immediately made their ways back to Starter City.
They were now sitting in a small marble auditorium where the meeting was taking place, waiting for the leader of the meeting to appear.
"You think they actually found the boss?" Kazuto whispered to him, snapping him out of his thoughts. The young raven-haired teen looked over to his adoptive brother, replying simply, "We can only hope."
"I can feel the optimism," Kazuto stated sarcastically, looking over the other players who had came to the meeting. They were conversing to each other normally, almost if this meeting didn't bring them one more step to being free from this death game.
Kazuto then looked over to his raven-haired brother, who had bore a look that was completely unreadable, something that he hadn't seen in his brother in the fourteen years he knew him. Strangely the last month had been filled with those moments, but Kazuto attributed the change in attitude to be trapped in Aincard. He knew that every player had their own way of dealing with it, nevertheless it made him uneasy.
Lelouch watched over the stage that was surrounded by seats carved out of marble, greatly resembling the an amphitheater of ancient Rome. This was where the meeting concerning Illfang, would commence.
The raven-haired teen wasn't impressed by the number of players who had came to the meeting and hoped, in the likelihood that they will have to fight the first boss, was capable of organizing and directing squads of people.
Eventually the pair of brothers spotted a blue-haired player walk onto the stage, adorning what resembled a medieval knight's armor, that shared the same color scheme of his hair. A blue shield on the man's back with a sword sitting right behind the shield. Both brothers felt the confidence that man had and instantly knew that he was going to be the leader of the meeting. Positioning himself on the stage as expected, he called out to every player in the amphitheater, "Okay, people. Now that everyone's here, lets get this meeting started."
Every player began to cease their conversations and turned to the blue-haired man dressed in a knight's armor.
"So anyway, I want to first thank all of you for coming. Nice to see all of you," the leader of the meeting began cheerily, "My name is Diabel and I like to think of this meeting as my duty as a knight!"
Everyone was equally amused by the statement, all knowing that there was no job system in the game, something in which someone had called out during the laughter.
"You guys want to hear this or not?" Diabel asked the laughing players, who soon quieted down after he spoke as his tone had gotten deadly serious, "Right here's the deal. Our party has found the boss room at the top of the tower today."
Every player in the amphitheater eyes had widen at the announcement, many not expecting that they had found it since it had took more than a month for the combined efforts of every clearer, the name for a player focused on clearing the game, and they still found nothing. So when the clearers present heard of the discovery of Illfang's chamber, they were all ecstatic inside.
"First we need to defeat the boss to advance to Floor Two," Diabel began, stating the obvious, "The next step is to tell everyone in Starter City that it is possible to beat the game!"
The players directly in front of Diabel cheered in unison, all already subscribing the idea. Though many of the other players had already given up hope and were now completely contempt with being stuck in this game for the rest of their lives.
Lelouch wasn't that optimistic, he knew that eventually the Japanese government won't be able to pay for the medical expenses needed to keep every player in the game alive while they were inside, eventually they will have to pull the plug on each and everyone of them.
Analyzing the way Diabel had spoken to the crowd, Lelouch knew that the blue-haired knight was a born leader. He would of made a fine military commander in the real world, but for now he would have to settle with leading a raiding party on Illfang's chamber.
"Fact is, it is our duty as the most capable players in the game! Don't you all agree?" Diabel called out, every player in the lower decks cheered at the statement, clearly affected by the knight's words, "Okay glad to hear that you're all with me on this, now lets figure out how we're going to beat the boss.
First off, we'll team up into parties of six. A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss, so we need a raid party made up of multiple parties."
The idea made perfect sense. As Diabel said, a normal party wouldn't stand a chance against any boss, even with the amount of players the raid party had at the moment, they wouldn't come close to beating the boss.
The reasoning behind was that having multiple parties was the same reason for having multiple squads on a battlefield. When a squad's numbers would deplete, send another squad to reenforce them so the other squad could have some time to regroup, vice versa.
So Lelouch contributed this to Diabel's strategic knowledge, Lelouch having seen decent commanders fall due to thinking that they'll conquer with numbers alone. Unfortunately the raiding party didn't have numbers on the kobold lord, who could spawn sentinels during the fight. They weren't very high level, but they would prove to be more of a nuisance if they weren't accounted for.
The former emperor was impressed by the blue-haired knight, clearly having a better understanding of strategy than most and had the charisma to inspire people to follow him. He clearly would of made a good military commander in the real world, but this clearly wasn't the real world.
Though as he sat there, one detail about the whole raid picked at him. It was the fact that they really didn't know what they were facing in Illfang. The beta testers had gathered data a substantial amount of data on the kobold lord during the beta, but it wasn't completely certain.
Lelouch doubted that someone as smart as Kayaba wouldn't make things that easy for them, his goal was to entrap him in Aincard. The mad genius even said that he had complete control of this world, so it would make sense to change some aspects of the first ten bosses to catch them by surprise. It was what he would do in Kayaba's place.
The raven-haired teen glanced over at his adoptive brother, wondering what he thought about the situation. Though something else had caught his attention, it was a cloaked figure, sitting on the same row as they were. The figure's gender was indistinguishable due to the fact that that he or she had hid their face from sight with a crimson cloak. The figure was completely alone, no one else even acknowledging that they was even there at all. So he came to the conclusion that he or she had been left out.
Kazuto and himself made up their entire party and he didn't have any qualms with it, as they were the two of the highest leveled players in the game at this point. Lelouch knew that having a party of a single player wouldn't bode well, especially for the player.
The young raven-haired teen stood from his marble seat and walked over to the cloaked figure and sat down next to the figure. This caught the attention of the figure immediately, though to someone less attentive, it would of looked like the person ignored him completely.
"You got left out?" Lelouch asked the cloaked stranger indifferently, his amethyst eyes glancing over towards the hooded figure. For a second, he could of swore he saw a strand of orange hair past the hood, which brought up a few memories of Shirley. "Not even close," the figure replied defensively, the voice clearly being one of a female's, "Everyone else already seems to know one another."
"So you're a solo player too?" Kazuto asked from besides him, surprising Lelouch slightly as he did not notice his 'brother' following him over to the girl. Looking back over to the her, Lelouch was just able to catch a glimpse of a nod from underneath the crimson hood.
"Would you like to join our party then, you heard what he said, we've all got a better chance if we stick together," Kazuto offered casually, assuring her that she did not have to accept the invitation. "Sure," the cloaked girl answered in a completely deadpan tone.
Kazuto had clearly expected a bit more of a reaction from the girl, making Lelouch snicker softly, which earned him a painless elbow in the ribs from his adoptive brother, causing an even more amused smirk creep onto Lelouch's features.
Kazuto then sent the crimson-cloaked girl a party request, which she accepted as soon as it popped up. Lelouch had heard his 'brother' grumble something under his breath, probably directed towards him.
The young raven-haired teen glanced at the left-hand corner of his HUD, to see a new party member graphic underneath his own status bar. The name simply read: Asuna, one of the more unique names he had found in the game so far.
"It looks like everyone has partied up. Now then..." Diabel began before he was suddenly cut-off by a yell from the top of the amphitheater.
"Hold up a second!" came the voice, drawing everyone's attention towards him. There at the top of the amphitheater was a male player, the front of his figure completely covered by the shadows that came in through the spaces at the marble columns at the top of the theater.
Though Lelouch was able to see that he had haired that spiked up in several tufts. Then the figure bounded down the seats of the theater gracefully, now able to see that his spiked hair was the color orange. When he finally reached the ground floor of the theater, he yelled out loud enough for everyone to hear him, "My name's Kibaou, got that!
Before we take on the boss, I want to get something off my chest! We all know that two thousand players have died so far, yeah? Some of you need to apologize right now!"
Everyone in the theater froze, wanting to know who the mysterious spiky-haired was blaming right now. Everyone except Lelouch of course, who already knew he was talking about. He was talking about the beta testers.
Lelouch had heard some players talking about the beta testers, blaming them for taking all the easy experience quests and knowing where the good experience giving mobs spawned. Which wasn't right at all, since much of the information the beta testers had collected had went into the starter's handbook. Which was given to all the players who survived the initial SAO incident.
"Kibaou, I think I know who you're talking about," Diabel began, "Are you referring to the ex-beta testers?"
"Of course I mean them!" Kibaou retorted, "The day this stupid game started, the beta testers got up and vanished right?"
The players around them began nodding, many of them recalling that the beta-testers had vanished, making it hard for everyone who wasn't a beta-tester as many didn't know how to play. Looking over to Kazuto, he saw his 'brother' gulp anxiously, not wanting to stick out from the crowd.
"They all ditched the beginners! They snagged all the good hunting spots and grabbed all the easy quests too!" Kibaou continued, completely infuriated, "They were the only ones getting stronger here, they've ignored us like we're nothing. Hell, I bet there are beta-testers here now!"
With that, every player began looking at the players around them, wondering if the person next to them was a beta-tester. This infuriated Lelouch, the fact that people would start questioning the friendships they've built so easily made him do so. His former best friend, betrayed him time and time again, but he still refused to stop calling him friend.
"Come on out beta-testers! We should make them apologize to us, then we should make them give up all our money and items they got!" Kibaou yelled, gaining cheers from many of the players in the front rows, "They can't expect the party to trust them when they can't trust us! Why should we?"
This all sounded so familiar to Lelouch, the unfairness that the spiky-haired bastard was displaying was just so nostalgic it amused him. The memories of being beaten up by Japanese children just because he was Britannian and the actions his countrymen had made that were completely out of his action. Many times they had taken the money he had won during chess matches that would go into feeding Nunally and himself. A low chuckle grew in his throat, which then turned into full-blown laughter. In such a dark tone, that it made everyone around him shiver in fear.
This served to draw everyone's attention towards the former emperor. Simply not caring, Lelouch stood from his marble seat, ceasing his laughter completely, and began making his way down towards the spiky-haired player.
Lelouch watched as the players around him tremble in fear, all startled by the thick atmosphere he had created around himself, coupled with the twisted smile he had dawned made it impossible to not do so. When he stood face to face with Kibaou, he frowned and narrowed his eyes in disgust at the spiky-haired man as he trembled.
"Who do you think you are?" Lelouch asked venomously, gaining a whimper from the orange-haired man, "You claim that the beta-testers abandoned the beginners, am I correct?"
Kibaou nodded at the question tentatively, still not believing the aura the relatively young looking teen had been giving off. With that, Lelouch pulled out a small leather handbook, on the cover saying, 'Starter's Handbook.'
"The item store gave this out for free. This is a guidebook, is it not? Did you not receive one?" Lelouch asked. Kibaou for the first time since his appearance from the crowd spoke, "Y-yeah I did, so what?"
"And who handed them out?" Lelouch continued, "The beta-testers! Everyone had equal access to the information. Even then two-thousand people have died and you're going to allow their memories go to vain because of some silly squabbling?"
Lelouch turned on a heel and faced the crowd of astonished on-lookers.
"None of you came here to argue and point fingers," he called to the other players, using the same town when he gave speeches as Zero, bringing his right arm near his chest and clenched it, "No we came here because we all want to fight the first boss and then come one step closer to ending this death game! We can not do it if we begin to turn on each other, no we shall do it together!"
When he spoke his last word, he unclenched his gloved fist and raised it high in the air, and at first there was complete silence. Then a player clapped, looking over to it, it turned out to be Kazuto. Then more joined in applause and then eventually everyone in the amphitheater began clapping at his impromptu speech, including Kibaou himself, who seemed to learn to keep his mouth shut. Turning to Diabel, who was also clapping, seeming genuinely impressed by the speech.
"Sir Diabel, if you would be so kind, please continue," Lelouch requested, bowing as a show of respect. The blue-haired knight nodded as the other players ceased their applause also.
"Okay, now lets get back to the meeting then," Diabel began, sounding slightly relieved that the conflict had ended, "For info on the boss, it's all in here, the latest issue of the guidebook you just heard about..."
The blue-haired knight continued to brief the others of Illfang as Kibaou and Lelouch returned to their respective seats quietly. Many players having looks of respect for the young raven-haired teen as he walked back up to his seat, knowing that not many people would have the balls to speak.
Lelouch took his seat between Kazuto and Asuna once again, catching a pair of small smiles on his two companions. Though he knew that Kazuto would start asking questions soon enough, probably when they were alone, but for now he kept silent.
"According to the book, the boss's name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. Also, he'll be surrounded by his minions, the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. Illfang carries an ax and a buckler. He has four health bars, and when the last one turns red, he switches to a curved sword type weapon called a Talwar. He can change his patterns of attack, too. That's it for the briefing.
As for the distribution of loot, money will be divided equally among everyone. The party that defeats the boss gets the EXP; and whoever gets an item, gets to keep it. Any objections?" Diabel began and after gaining no objections from the crowd of players, he continued, "Good! We leave tomorrow at ten in the morning! Meeting adjourned, people."
With that everyone began stood and began filing out of the amphitheater, all of them stealing glances over in Lelouch's direction, all probably silently wondering, 'Just who is that guy?'
A few hours had passed since the meeting and Lelouch was faced with the largest problem he had faced in awhile, trying to find something to do in the meantime. So he was forced to wander the streets of Starter City, looking for something to occupy his time until he felt tired enough to go to bed.
The sleeping in SAO was very much like normal sleep; you would only sleep when you're mentally tired and then you'd wake up completely refreshed. They even put in a way for the players to yawn realistically, a player would yawn when they would boot up from the several hours of being completely inactive.
Unlike normal sleep, once a player fell asleep, they couldn't be woken up by any outside force. A sleeping player could only wake up when their minds decided to awaken once again. Fortunately if the player was in a safe zone, no damage could be taken from any outside force and PK'ers were extremely rare, though Lelouch was sure that they would begin popping up sooner or later.
The raven-haired teen continued to wander the streets of Starter City before a sign caught his eye. It was a smithy. He stood in the middle of the street looking over to the store, a random curiosity beginning to pull him towards the store.
Lelouch wondered what about the non-descript shop was so interesting, taking another double take on the relatively bland-looking building. His curiosity and boredom began to mix together making it almost impossible for him to stand their any longer. So he walked over to the main entrance of the stone-brick building and went inside.
-Asuna POV-
Asuna slipped her hood off of her head, allowing her long orange hair to cascade down her back.
"It's good to see you again Lisbeth," She told the brunette standing in front of her, cracking a small smile at her only friend in this death game. She and Lisbeth had met a week after being trapped in this accursed game.
Asuna had came to her to upgrade her weapon at the time, but she soon found herself coming back to the same shop over and over again. So it wasn't hard to see how she ended up befriending the brown-haired blacksmith. It only helped that Lisbeth had always carried a friendly demeanor that made Asuna trust her the moment they met, even when she really didn't want to make any friends here in SAO.
"You too Asuna," Lisbeth replied, "So what brings you to Starter City, I thought you were going out to the outer villages to grind some more."
"I was attending a meeting about the first floor boss, it seems that they found him," Asuna answered in a rather indifferent tone. "You don't sound too happy, I thought you wanted to get out of this game ASAP?" Lisbeth asked, tilting her head to the side questioningly.
"Yeah I do," Asuna answered, her gaze looking down at the floor boards of the shop. "So why so glum chum?" the brown-haired blacksmith asked curiously, which gained a loud sigh from Asuna.
There was one reason that Asuna felt this way, it was the two guys she had agreed to party with. It wasn't that she didn't like them, she actually found them to be decent people on first impression. Rather it was the fact that they seemed to know each other quite well and she was the stranger in the party so she didn't know if she could really trust them, especially the one who had spoken up against Kibaou and defended the beta-testers.
The raven-haired teen easily made everyone in the stadium tremble in fear with that almost sadistic laugh of his, but to top it all off, he some how ended up rallying the same people he had stabbed fear into. He was going to be someone to watch closely in the future, because it was now clear that he was going to have a part to play in at the end of this death game.
"Asuna..." Lisbeth called to her, waving her gloved hand a few inches in front of her face. Asuna blinked at her best friend, not realizing that she had spaced out for a few seconds.
"So are you going to tell me what's bothering you or not?" Lisbeth asked, noticing that she had escaped her trance-like state. Asuna opened her mouth to answer the question, but it was soon cut off by the entrance of the shop creaking open slowly.
Lisbeth immediately turned towards the door and told the player in a friendly manner, "Sorry but we're closed!"
Asuna peeked over the shoulder of the brown-haired blacksmith and towards the player who had interrupted their conversation. Once she caught sight of the person standing in the doorway, she retracted her head back behind Lisbeth.
'You've got to be kidding me!' Asuna exclaimed inwardly, the person in the doorway being the same person she had just been thinking about. There was no way that it couldn't be him, there was no way a person could mistake him for someone else. The player in the doorway had the same raven-black hair and dark amethyst eyes, it just had to be him.
"Asuna?" he had called out to her, the voice verifying his identity, but it also made her wonder how he had learned her name. "Um, yeah it's me," Asuna replied tentatively, stepping out from behind Lisbeth which probably resembled a child who had been caught by their parents doing something naughty.
"Do you know him Asuna?" Lisbeth asked curiously, as she didn't know her to socialize with the anyone, much less the opposite sex. "We met during at the raiding party meeting for the first boss, we're partying together for the raid," her raven-haired party member answered for her.
Asuna nodded at the explanation in affirmation, now asking the question that had been bugging her since he had called her name out, "How is it that you know my name?"
The raven-haired teen blinked his amethyst eyes and then slammed his palm into his face before answering exasperatedly, "When you join a party their names and statuses appear underneath your own."
It was now Asuna's turn to blink as she glanced up to the right-hand corner of her HUD, seeing two smaller status bars underneath her own. The orange-haired clearer let out an embarrassed chuckle as she hadn't noticed the two new bars before. The two names in the bars read: Kirito and Lerouge.
"So I'm guessing you're Lerouge?" Asuna asked, now guessing her party member's name based upon his appearance. He didn't answer, letting an awkward silence fall onto them until a small smile cracked his pale features as he replied, "Good guess."
Asuna let an awkward smile reach her face, inwardly relieved that she hadn't guessed wrong, Lerouge not looking like someone you wanted to offend in any way, shape, or form.
"So what brings you here Mr. Lerouge? Were you looking for Asuna?" Lisbeth cut in curiously, before adding on excitedly, "Is it possible that you're here to arrange a date."
The statement had snapped the tension that had filled the room in half and then into quarters. A blush threatened to appear on Asuna, but the orange-haired cleared fought it down with every ounce she had.
Fortunately Lerouge shook his head and answered, "No, I was just wandering around outside and came in here to see if I could upgrade my weapon before tomorrow's boss fight."
'That's a coincidence, I run into one of my party members, and then run into the other one not an hour later,' Asuna suddenly realized, wondering what forsaken entity was in control here.
"Well I can upgrade your weapon for you if you like," Lisbeth offered almost immediately after Lerouge answered her question, "I don't want you going in there under prepared."
With that Lisbeth walked behind the counter of the smithy and next to the station where all transactions made by the blacksmith were made, an iron next to a fire pit. Lerouge followed close behind, everything of his walk exhibiting complete confidence.
Lisbeth opened the player-trade screen in which Lerouge placed the weapon he was upgrading into. When it closed, Lisbeth began the upgrading process which took less than a second. A screen popped up, simply saying congratulations, which meant that the upgrade was successful.
The trade screen opened once again between Lisbeth and Lerouge. This time Lerouge placed two-hundred Col into his side of the screen, Lisbeth putting his weapon into her slot, and the two pressed accept. With the press of their buttons, the transaction was finished.
"I didn't expect you to have something like this," Lisbeth told the raven-haired teen, Asuna's ears perking up at the statement. "Something like what?" Asuna asked curiously.
"Yes and no. Unlike most of the other male players in this game, I have no qualms with having the rapier class as my main job, though I do occasionally switch from rapiers to one-handed straight swords whenever the situation calls for it," Lerouge explained as he opened his inventory, probably to see the new stats of his weapon.
Since the inventory screens in SAO were transparent, Asuna was able to catch the name of the blade, Slash Point. The pink-haired teen's eyes widen at the name of the sword.
Slash Point was the strongest rapier class weapon on the floor. This was a piece of information that she had gotten from the death game's most reliable information broker, Argo the Rat, for two-hundred fifty col.
The broker also told her how to acquire the blade since it was her first time there, you would have to complete a gathering quest for a NPC blacksmith, but unfortunately the quest had a level requirement of eight. Unfortunately she was only level six at the time and a long ways from her current level of seven.
'So what level is he then?' Asuna asked herself, finding extremely the fact to be extremely odd. Not only did Lerouge use the same exact weapon class as herself and seemingly excelled at it, but it was a class labeled by most of the male players as 'girly'. As a result, male rapier uses were uncommon in SAO, even players that would switch from one weapon class to the other. Which also was another very rare thing to see.
Though the more she thought of it, Lerouge did have many very little in the ways of masculine features and was on the scrawny side, so it did make sense on a physical level for him to be drawn towards the rapier class.
"Though I don't know why you're all so surprised, it's just a sword," Lerouge added, closing his inventory screen, "Well thank you Ms..."
"Lisbeth," the brown-haired blacksmith finished for him. "Thank you again Ms. Lisbeth," Lerouge added, bowing slightly and began making his way towards the door. Though right before reaching the door, Lerouge looked over his right shoulder at Asuna, simply told her, "You should probably get whatever upgrades you can get, shouldn't take any chances out there, because a life is an awful thing to waste."
With that the raven-haired teen pushed the wooden door open and walked out into the candlelit streets of Starter City, the door slowly coming to a close behind him with a soft thud.
-The Next Day-
(Lelouch POV)
"Let's go over it again. Since we're the smallest party in the raiding party, we're going to keep the kobold sentinels off the rest of the party so that they can focus completely on Illfang," Kazuto explained their party's role in the raid to he and Asuna, who were lagging a few feet behind the messy-haired teen. Lelouch glanced over towards the crimson-cloaked girl, who seemed to keep in their own bubble.
This action was completely understandable. As unlikely as it sounded, some people just weren't as open as others, something that some players didn't seem to get. That's why some players chose to go about their business as solo players. It wasn't hard for either Lelouch to tell that she was a solo player and she didn't make it hard for him either.
"I know," Asuna replied simply, popping Lelouch out of his thoughts as he found himself once again losing himself in his own thoughts.
"I'll use a sword skill to knock the sentinels' weapons out of their hands and get out of the way. When I do, either one of you two switch and jump in," Kazuto explained. The plan, though simple, would be effective for the task at hand.
"What's the switch?" Asuna asked, this being a question frequently asked by solo players, as they rarely fought in parties. Though that was a fact that Kazuto hadn't seemed to realize yet, something that surprised Lelouch, as he found that the teen was an extremely intelligent individual and fully expected him to see that.
Kazuto turned around and faced the cloaked girl, asking curiously, "Okay level with me. Is this your first time you've being in a party?"
"Uh-huh," Asuna confirmed in a deadpan tone, making Kazuto sigh in exasperation. Lelouch let a small, amused smile creep onto his face, finding Asuna's constant deadpan tones to very important questions amusing. They even made him nostalgic, as he himself got the same treatment once, from his favorite little witch.
Lelouch let out a relieved sigh when he saw the door to the first floor boss's room, his patience running thinner by the second as the whole damn party had to climb to the top of the damn tower to reach it.
Diabel, who had taken point for the duration of the trek to the door, approached the door confidently. A few feet away from the door, he turned on a heel and addressed the raiding party, "Listen up everyone! I got one thing to say, lets win!"
Every party, except his own, cheered at Diabel's comment in unison. The blue-haired turned back to the door and pushed it open, revealing the location where the first floor boss would take place.
There, sitting on a giant throne, sat a gigantic crimson canine-humanoid, or kobold for short. The beast glanced at the raiding party, its eyes flashing red, signaling to the party that it had turned hostile. The once dark room suddenly illuminated as the giant canine stood from its throne and leaped towards the raiding party, letting out a ferocious howl and brandishing its gigantic ax as it landed.
Directly above the giant beast appeared the red marker that signified an enemy mob, directly under it was the name Illfang the Kobold Lord. In front of it, three kobold sentinels spawned, and together the glorified hounds charged at the party.
Lelouch gripped the rapier that hung from his side and unsheathed it, seeing as many others in the party had already drew their weapons.
"Commence attack!" Diabel ordered, pointing his sword at the beast. At the words Lelouch charged forwards with the rest of the party, the rest of squad F close behind him, every player uttering their own battle cries in determination.
Leading the charge was the spiky-haired bastard himself, using a sword skill on the sentinel that was leading the kobold charge. Even though he loathed the man, Lelouch did give Kibaou credit for his determination to be free of this game.
A few moments later in the fight, the party had reorganized to what they had initially planned on doing, squads A, B, and C were tasked with fighting Illfang. Squads D, E, and F were in charge of keeping the sentinels off the main group.
"Squads A and C, switch in!" Diabel continued to bark orders from the center of the party, "Here it comes Squad B block!"
Doing as told the squad had blocked the incoming slash from the lord of the kobolds with their own combined attack.
"Squad C, keep guarding a prepare to switch," Diabel instructed, once again doing once as told, "Everyone else, when you fall back, regroup and flank them!"
Diabel turned to the squads fighting off the sentinels, simply yelling out, "Squads D, E, and F keep those sentinels off us!"
"Roger," Lelouch heard Kazuto reply before rushing off towards the nearest sentinel. The sentinel immediately jumped into the air with the intention of bringing its hammer down in a vertical swing.
The attack was easily parried by Kazuto, giving Lelouch an opening to attack, something that he was about to do before being cut off by Asuna. The cloaked girl looked like nothing more than a crimson blur as she rushed forward, calling out the number of sentinels they had slain together, "Number three!"
Lelouch caught the blade of her rapier glow a faint blue, thrusting forward with such speed that he was barely able to track it. The former emperor was impressed by the shear speed the girl had, one that almost rivaled his own.
Glancing over towards Kazuto, he could tell that his brother felt the same way about her, but they shook themselves of their astonishment and targeted the next sentinel. Knocking the hammer out of another sentinel's hands with slant, it created the perfect opportunity for Lelouch to captialize.
Dashing forwards, he closed in on the beast before its feet could touch the ground, but that could also be attributed to the fact that he was pretty close to the beast. Though he quickly cast off those thoughts as he sent his rapier straight through one of the openings in the sentinel's helmet, gaining a massive crit on the beast.
As it exploded into blue pixels, both Lelouch and Kazuto's attention were grabbed by the first floor boss, its roar ripping through the boss room. Both brothers watched as the giant canine's last health bar went into the red, which meant that he was going to switch to his talwar. That he did as Illfang threw his ax and shield up into the air carelessly.
"I'll go!" Lelouch heard Diabel yell from the crowd of players standing in front of the almost defeated boss. Rushing through the crowd of onlookers, Diabel stood directly in front of Illfang and activated a sword skill. His sword beginning to glow a bright yellow as he waited for Illfang to draw his next weapon.
'What the hell is he doing?' Lelouch thought, ducking under the swing of a kobold sentinel as he did so, 'We were supposed to attack it together.'
Almost as he were accepting Diabel's challenge, Illfang drew his gigantic weapon from its sheathe. Though the sword that was produced made Lelouch's eyes widen in shock, noticing that the blade that Illfang carried wasn't a talwar, it was a no-dachi.
'Dammit I need to do something,' Lelouch thought desperately, knocking away the sentinel that was attacking him and lunged towards Diabel. Kazuto seemed to have the same idea as they both began running towards the endangered Diabel.
"No, jump away as fast as you can!" the two of them yelled, a warning that came too late as Diabel already began charging at Illfang.
The kobold lord showed a previously unseen nimbleness and jumped to the ceiling, jumping from stone pillar to stone pillar before plunging directly onto Diabel. The attack had caused a large gash down the blue-haired knights chest area, but the kobold lord was far from done.
Illfang lunged forwards landing another direct slash on Diabel, sending him flying over the parties behind him.
"Diabel!" Kibaou yelled worriedly before Illfang jumped into a few feet from the spiky-haired man, roaring loudly. While this happened, Lelouch and Kazuto ran over to the injured Diabel.
Kazuto got to the downed knight's side first, kneeling down and held a full-heal elixir up to his mouth as his health declined rapidly, Kazuto asking in frustration, "Why did you try to do it alone?"
By this time Lelouch had reached Diabel, watching him reject the potion that was offered him, much to Kazuto's shock. Diabel looked over at Lelouch than Kazuto, weakly saying, "You two were beta-testers weren't you? You know what I was doing."
'No, he couldn't have...' Lelouch thought, eyes widening at the shock of the statement, 'He was after the last attack bonus, he died over a stupid rare item?'
"You were after the last attack bonus rare item, so you were a beta-tester to?" Kazuto asked in a tone completely void of worry, probably to calm the knight in what were to be his last moments. As he said this, a weak smile was forced onto Diabel's face as he slowly began to glow a faint blue, replying weakly, "Please... defeat... the boss... for everyone."
With those words Diabel's body disappeared in an explosion of blue pixels in Kazuto's hands, a look of pure sadness on Kazuto's face. Seeing the look on Kazuto's face, Lelouch silently pitied him as seeing someone die for the first time is always a traumatizing experience, even if it was in a game. The person was still died, Diabel still died.
Lelouch hung his head in respect of his fallen comrade for a moment, an action that he had only done a few times during his time as either Zero or the Demon Emperor. In the short time he had known Diabel, he had to say that he was impressed by the blue-haired knight. Diabel was ready to lead a group of people into a place where they all could have been killed wasn't exactly a common trait among men, and now that man was dead.
'I told myself at the start of this game that I would get everyone out alive, that I would make sure no one else would die if he had anything to do with it,' Lelouch thought, hands clenching in disgust of himself, ''God dammit, get a hold of yourself, there's a fight still being waged. Now focus!'
Lelouch was then shook from his thoughts by Kazuto, who had now stood from his crouching position. His adoptive brother looked over towards Illfang and then towards Lelouch, a determined look on his face, telling Lelouch his plan silently.
'Diabel, you're sacrifice today will not be in vain, I'll make sure of that,' Lelouch thought, raising his head to reveal an equally determined expression gracing his own face. Tightening the grip he had on his sword, he answered Kazuto's silent question, "I'm with you."
"I'll go too," Asuna added taking position to Kazuto's right. His messy-haired brother glanced over to Asuna, replying, "Thanks."
With that the trio shot towards Illfang, gaining the attention of the rest of the raiding party, all probably wondering if they were crazy.
"We'll handle him like we did the sentinels," Kazuto explained simply. "Got it," Asuna replied while Lelouch gave a nod of acceptance.
As they grew near, Illfang seemed to notice that they were charging him and placed his clawed hand on the blade of his no-dachi, making streams of white light erupt from his blade. In response, Kazuto placed his own hand onto his blade, activating his own sword skill.
Their blades hit smashed together with equal force, sending both flying backwards, Kazuto yelling out, "Switch!"
Prompting Asuna to charge in. As the cloaked girl activated a sword skill, Lelouch noticed that Illfang had recovered faster than anticipated and yelled out, "Asuna watch out!"
Asuna simply leaned out of the way of swing, the sword flying past her head and catching on her cloak, instantly vaporizing it to pixels. She didn't even falter as she simply activated the sword skill linear and shot forward, knocking Illfang backwards with ease, yelling out, "Switch!"
Lelouch wasted no time in shooting forwards with all the speed he could muster soon finding himself to be a few feet away from the still staggered Illfang. Lelouch pulled slash point back and placed his hand over the blade, activating the sword skill dual-shot.
Lelouch shot forwards as he released the sword skill, thrusting the tip of the sword into the belly of Illfang twice, the strikes so fast that it looked like it was only immense strike. The strikes were more than enough to knock the first floor boss of its feet and onto his back.
"Switch!" Lelouch called out as he jumped backwards taking his place next to Asuna, noticing the figure of Kazuto rushing by him. His adoptive brother placed his blade behind his back, meaning that he was activating the sword skill sonic leap.
Lelouch watched Kazuto leap a great distance into the air and then swung down towards Illfang. It seemed that he would hit his mark at first, but in another show of agility, Illfang sprang to his feet in less than an instant. Though it gave Kazuto enough time to attempt to block the incoming slash, which proved to be in vain.
Lelouch watched as his adoptive brother flew right at him and Asuna, neither having enough time to dodge the flying body of their party member as they were both in post move cool down phase. The impact of the hit was enough to send all of them sliding several feet away.
Lelouch forced himself back to his feet as Illfang began closing in on he and his party, preparing the take the full blunt of the attack, but thankfully the rest of the raiding party stepped in between him and the boss. A gigantic man with dark skin glanced over to him before engaging the boss and said, "We'll hold him off while you guys regroup!"
Lelouch nodded and watched the rest of the raiding parties attempt to hold off Illfang, an act that didn't last very long as the kobold lord spun his gigantic tail around, effectively sending the raiding part onto their backsides. Immediately after, Illfang jumped into the air and swung downwards, seeming to be aiming at man who had saved their skins earlier.
In the corner of his eye, Lelouch saw his adoptive brother clamber onto his feet and reactivate sonic leap. With a massive leap, Kazuto flew towards Illfang screaming, "I'll hit you first!"
Kazuto intercepted the attack of Illfang completely, landing a clean downward cut in the boss's shoulder, sending the kobold lord off course and into the ground behind the raiding party. Kazuto combat rolled and continued charging at Illfang, calling out to his two party members, "Come on guys, one last hit, all together."
"On it/Roger!" the two rapier users confirmed and began running with Kazuto towards Illfang, Asuna was on his right, Lelouch had taken his left.
Illfang immediately tried to swing at one of the three charging him, but it was completely nullified by a well executed parry by Kazuto. Clearing just enough room for Lelouch and Asuna to lunge forwards and hit with a pair of linears, the combined force of both the blows hitting made the boss stagger backwards a few feet. Finally Kazuto jumped into the air and landed a clean diagonal cut from Illfang's right shoulder to his left hip, effectively scoring a debilitating hit on the first floor boss.
Sensing an opening, Lelouch's predatory instincts suddenly kicked in, making him lunge forwards towards the kobold lord. Knowing that Illfang should be extremely close to being defeated, Lelouch activated the strongest sword skill he had in his possession, Quadruple Pain.
His rapier glowing once again, Lelouch jumped into the air and sent four lightning fast strikes into Illfang's chest, the last stab had actually managed to pierce through the thick skin of the kobold lord.
Lelouch's eyes widened in shock, hearing a loud, angry scream come from his left. His snapping over to that direction, he saw Kazuto rushing towards him. His sword trailing behind him, leaving a trail of blue light from where his sword met with Illfang's skin.
'SHIT!' Lelouch cursed, pulling his rapier from Illfang's chest and leaned back, causing him to fall backwards, landing on his back with a loud thud. Thankfully everyone seemed to busy watching Kazuto finishing off what was left of Illfang's health to notice his blunder.
Though Lelouch did have to admit that it was quite the spectacle, Kazuto ripping through the boss was quite the thing to see. When his adoptive brother's blade the kobold lord, Illfang was sent flying, streams of blue light coming from the open wounds left by their attacks.
Lelouch's eyes, for the first time in their entire battle against the battle, fell on Illfang's health bars. A small smile of satisfaction came to his lips as he watched the colored bar reduce to nothing. Then the boss exploded into a flurry of blue pixels, Lelouch's smile turning into a frown as the other raiding parties began cheering.
The memory of Diabel reaching the same fate invaded his mind, turning any happiness he felt about beating the boss into the emptiness. There was no real cause for celebration today. They beat their enemy today, but what's beating an enemy when a good man dies in the process?
"Hey Lerouge, are you alright?" Asuna asked from out of nowhere, pulling him away from his thoughts. "No, I'm not," Lelouch muttered soft enough that no one would be able to hear it, stabbing his rapier into the ground and pushed himself off the ground, glancing at the orange-haired girl standing next to him saying, "Come on, we have a hero to congratulate."
Lelouch walked over to his kneeling brother, finding that he bore a troubled look on his face, probably feeling the same way he felt about today's victory. Asuna was the first one to speak, "Nice job."
Lelouch wanted to say something to reassure Kazuto, but even with being in close proximity with him for the past month, he still didn't feel comfortable enough to attempt such a thing. So he decided to allow Kazuto to sift through his own emotions, knowing from experience that it was the best way to overcome things like this.
"That was fine swordsmanship out there," the voice of the dark-skinned man from earlier said, Lelouch hadn't noticed him being too preoccupied with his own thoughts to notice, "Today's victory belongs to you."
"No," Kazuto muttered in response, shaking his head in anger. Clearly he felt guilty about receiving the praise that was given him, who would when it came with the fact that their leader had died in the process. Yet more cheers rose from the other clearers, all to caught up with the rush of victory to realize that what they had lost.
"All of you stop cheering!" Lelouch heard Kibaou's voice arise from the crowd, gaining everyone's attention, "Why'd you do it huh? Why'd you let Diabel die?"
"Let him die?" Kazuto replied completely dumbfounded by the statement. Lelouch narrowed his eyes at the spiky-haired man accusing his adoptive brother, thinking angrily, 'What the hell is he doing, everyone believed that Illfang was going to pull out a talwar, so why is he pointing fingers?'
"That's what I said. Admit it, you knew about the technique the boss was going to use," Kibaou continued, hell bent on pointing the blame on him, "You could've told us, then Diabel would've stood a chance. He wouldn't of died!"
"I know why he knew, he used to be a beta-tester!" added another player from the growing crowd, "Think about it! He knew about the boss's attack patterns! He knew but it kept it from us! And I bet that the other guy in his party is one too, the one with those purple eyes, why else would he have so readily defended them yesterday!"
'Dammit, if things keep going on like this...' Lelouch thought, formulating a way to get their attention away from beta-testers before they became the bane of SAO and focus all of their focus onto to something else, something in which all of their hate could be focused on. Then it dawned on him, he knew what needed to be done.
Lelouch glanced down at Kazuto and by the look on his face, he seemed to be thinking the same thing he was. Walking over to his adoptive brother, Lelouch knelt down next to Kazuto and placed a hand on his shoulder, whispering into his ear, "If you're serious about doing this, we do this together."
"Everyone suspects me right now, if I do this I can get all of their suspicion off of you and onto-" Kazuto began arguing before Lelouch cut him off in mid-sentence. "No one should shoulder all the hate alone," Lelouch countered, obviously referring to himself and the zero requiem. Still the sentence proved effective in its purpose, shutting his adoptive brother up so he could feign kindness by adding, "Plus, what kind of brother would I be if let my brother throw himself to the wolves?"
Kazuto blinked at his argument and seemed to realize that he wasn't going to take no for an answer, so he nodded, smiled, and replied, "On three do that laugh you did yesterday at the amphitheater. One... two... three."
While they counted Lelouch could hear someone trying to defuse the situation, which was a lost cause before it even started. When someone is completely set on something, not many things can steer them off that same course, they needed to be shoved off completely.
Lelouch let a dark chuckle rise in his throat and hearing this, Kazuto began following his lead and began chuckling. After that, their two minds seemed to connect at this moment as their laughter began rising in intensity as the seconds passed in complete unison. The two stood up from the ground they were kneeling on and once they saw everyone's attention focused directly on them, they ceased all of their laughing.
Everyone around them seemed to be completely petrified and even Kibaou, who had begun all of this, seemed to regret doing so. A malice filled smirk crept onto his face as he saw Kibaou's shaking, happy that he was able to get the opportunity to push his buttons once again.
"So you guys think that I used to be a beta-tester, eh?" Kazuto asked indignantly, "It's not cool to compare someone like us to those noobs."
"What'd you say?" Kibaou stuttered, shaking from either anger or fear, but Lelouch greatly suspected the latter.
"You heard him. Most of the thousand people in SAO's beta were complete rookies. They were so green that most didn't even know how to level up properly," Lelouch chimed in, voice still laced with amusement, "Hell, even you fools are thousands of times better than those guys."
"But we are nothing like those noobs," Kazuto followed, mimicking his own tone perfectly, "During the beta, we made it to the floors that no other beta-tester could even imagine."
"So what if we knew about Illfang's attack pattern," the raven-haired teen scoffed, "It's only because we've faced monsters that makes Illfang look like a frenzy boar."
"And we know much more than that, much more than any information broker," his adoptive brother finished confidently, every player around them looking as if they were going to faint.
"If that's true, then you guys are worse then beta-testers," Kibaou exclaimed in his bewilderment, looking as if his head was going to explode from all the anger that was coursing through his veins, "You're goddamn cheaters, that what you two are!"
"You're beta-testers and cheaters, you're beaters!" a random player yelled from the crowd, soon enough every player began chanting that same phrase at them venomously, trying to get under their skins. Lelouch noticed that two players in particular had refrained from doing the same as the others. Asuna and the giant man from earlier, looks of understanding on their faces, probably able to see what they had meant to do. Still even with all of those players sending their hate towards them, they stood strong, not even flinching at their curses.
"Beater, eh?" Lelouch repeated indifferently before smirking darkly and adding, "I like it."
"Yeah, it has a nice ring to it doesn't it?" Kazuto asked him casually, making it sound like they had been talking about the weather this whole time, "You can call us that. Just make sure you don't confuse us with those beta-testers again."
With that, they began walking towards the entrance at the other end of the boss room, the one that would lead to the newly unlocked second floor. Not sparing a second glance at the mass of petrified players they had left behind.
Lelouch climbed up the four concrete steps leading to the gigantic door leading to the next floor, reaching out to open it when he heard Asuna yell from behind him, "Wait!"
The former emperor turned to the orange-haired girl, Kazuto doing the same thing next to him, both waiting for the girl to say something.
"You're name is Kirito right?" Asuna asked, gaining an affirmative nod from Kazuto as she continued, "Well goodbye, Kirito, Lerouge."
"Bye," Lelouch stated simply before opening up his menu and pressed the disband party option, pressing accept when the option came up. "Word of advice, you can become really powerful on your own, but when the time comes when a guild asks you to join, accept," Kazuto explained rather indifferently, "Because you can only do so much on your own."
Lelouch took this as a cue to push open the giant concrete doors in front of him and walked through them, Kazuto following close behind. Just before entering the second floor, Lelouch heard Asuna say to them, "I'll keep that in mind."
-End-
Well that's a wrap folks. Do you like how I did this chapter or did you think I should burn in hell for all the changes I made. Either way, thanks for reading and I hoped you enjoyed.
Thank and PEACE OUT!