It was times like this that Wright could fully grasp the sheer effort that went into this game. From the way Alfheim's setting sun made the trees cast long shadows over them. The cool breeze that almost tickled your face as it blew past you. And the subtle details that existed; making you forget it was all simply binary code in a man's elaborate version of the Hunger Games. From the scuttling of ants, to the gentle drops of rain that ever-so carefully perched on the tips of leaves. Or the way the willow trees seemed to obscure your vision. Or the sting of mosquitos. Or the stickiness, poo-like qualities of mud. Or the terrifying details of the creatures that can rise out of said mud.

All those theories on Kayaba being a sadist, to Wright, were undoubtedly true. Because no sane man would spend even a fraction of their time making sure someone can feel mud in all the places they should and shouldn't be in.

Wright and Klein were wandering through 'Mudraker's Swamp.' It was a several-damn-kilometers wide, and almost entirely filled with brown quicksand. The thick forest tree's provided a canopy that let little to no light in, creating a place where only darkness existed, besides the occasional cries of some bog monster.

It had been an hour since they had left the small coal town behind, and they were still some ways away from their destination. Sad to say, a red fairy incapable of flight is arguably more open to attack than a person campaigning to become the president of the United States. So several monsters and potions later, Wright thought that the swamp would be the quickest and safest route to the mountains. In reality, it was far from being the highway Wright had imagined. And he might have to make a brain check on the swamp being safe.

"ewewewew" Wright muttered, holding out Kaleidoscope, as a massive coach roach scurried along the end of it. The little bastard seemed to buzz with delight at Wright's torment. Unable to take it anymore, Wright used Kaleidoscope to fling the little rascal so far that you could've seen its remains on the sky block.

"Don't you think that was unnecessary?" Klein asked

"Well, I'd like to ask you the same question." Wright stared at him. "You nearly wasted all your mana on burning a leech."

"C'mon, that was a completely different situation! Besides, the thing SUCKED so much that…"

"Not the time," Wright groaned. Tired of walking, he checked Klein's health bar for any status affects. Sadly, the clipped wing icon still remained. "Is that curse off of you yet?" Wright asked.

"Uh, no" He replied "It still has another good hour to go. You sure we shouldn't just, you know, try to get rid of it?"

"Nope. That requires either some expert mage magic, or a healer, and I'm not either of those."

"Oh, too bad." Klein looked down into the mud. Suddenly, his head shot up. "Wait! I have this friend called Asuna! She's a healer, maybe she can fix this?" The name triggered a memory in Wright's head. Oh yeah, Asuna, he thought, the leader of the Blood Oath Guild.

"Asuna? As in the berserker-healer?"

"Yes."

"She used to be in SAO too, right?"

"Yeah. Those skills sure come in handy. Like now! She could cure me of this curse! Just have to check her loca.." Klein had opened his menu to his FRIENDS list, only to discover that Asuna was inside the mountain they were heading to. "Oh crap, crap, crap."

"What?" Wright asked, his voice full of concern.

"I forgot the check the time! If Asuna is already there," Wright looked at the clock on Klein's menu. 12:00 PM. To any non-player, playing at a time like this seemed absurd. Yet, since SAO proved that full-dive technology can replace sleep (explaining why any SAO survivors didn't suffer insomnia), your dreams could be replaced with that of SAO, figuratively. For anyone concerned with the idea that the brain 'needed to shut down' clearly didn't know the brain was more active during the sleeping hours, rather than when you were awake. Granted, you couldn't completely negate sleep, but you could take a reasonable chunk out of it (score one for sleepless game nerds). That's why it's great that ALO's time wasn't the same as the real world, yet probably bad for anyone who wants to wake up fully refreshed in the morning.
"So what?"

"That means the raid is about to start! Asuna is always early by, like, 30 minutes."

"Yeash, talk about being the early bird."

"She was a general for 2 years, okay?" Klein looked nervous. Like, fidgeting with his fingers nervously. "Still. If Asuna has already logged in, we only have say, half an hour before everyone else comes and…"

"Really? They won't wait for you?" Wright snorted. "Are you sure those guys are your friends?"

"It's not them waiting for me that's so terrifying," Klein took a deep breathe, "It's the embarrassment that once again, I need Kirito's help in something." Suddenly, the questionable look on Wright's face was now full of curiosity.

"Wait. Kirito? The Black Swordsman? That ALO player with insane stats?" Klein let out a sly grin.

"Yup, that guy! The one that ended SAO, and saved ALO from a power-hungry GM." Suddenly, Wright had his arms around Klein and was shaking him like a ragdoll.

"You're kidding me, right. If you're friends with legends like Kirito, Asuna, and who the heck else, then why HAVEN'T YOU CALLED THEM FOR HELP!" Wright's voice echoed throughout the swamp.

"Yeah, Um…Would you believe me if I said I didn't have a good signal!"

"Ugh! You know what? Fine!" Wright found a dry spot of land and plopped himself on it. "I'm not moving until you tell me everything!"

Klein stared at Wright, thinking this was a joke. He shook his head and began to walk away from him. He got several feet away, before he suddenly stopped, and began to walk back to Wright.

"Fine then. I won't move either," he said in a quiet voice before he sat back-to-back next to Wright-his determination just as strong.

"Uh, yeah. That's what I wanted," Wright glanced at Klein. "What did I want again?"

"You wanted me to tell you why I didn't call my friends for help?" Klein began, "I thought you would've figured it out, what with all your talking."

"You mean all those comments about how useless…Oh shoot," Wright rested his head into his hands. "Dude that was a joke."

"Really? Was it? I mean, you're right. I'm pretty much dead weight for guys like Kirito. I keep swooning over girls, becoming a liability to my team. Heck, I can't even keep a decent track record in my job." That made Wright do a double take-this guy was a grown man.

"But for Kirito? It's like he always knows what to do. He knew Kayaba's identity. He fought monsters without a thought of his own safety. Even when he was out of SAO, the dude was still a saint. Don't get me wrong-I don't hate the guy. But it's just, people like that make you feel like dirt. And when you're surrounded by even MORE people like that, people like Asuna, you only feel…worse." At this, Wright took a good hard look at the ground.

"I can relate," He said. Klein nodded solemnly.

"It sucks, right? When everybody seems better than you." Klein opened the menu in front of him. "Just once, I thought I could prove that I didn't need help-that I could be the independent adult I'm supposed to be." Klein was about to continue, until he suddenly felt Wright's forged-worked hands on his face. There was a resounding CRACK as Wright slapped him. "HEY!"

Suddenly, Klein was looking at Wright face-to-face. "Shut the heck up, Klein. I went down that path, and it is filled with spikes. Nobody's perfect, and I'm sure as heck that Kirito isn't a nobody! Sure, he fought The Gleam Eyes, ended SAO, saved some random girl…"

"Wait, are you a stalker, or?" Klein began.

"But there's a lot of things the guy doesn't have. He isn't a master samurai, he's never had a 5 million-coin bounty on him, nor is he a…working man? Like, considering the guy's magnificence, I'm thinking he's 75."

"You idiot. He's 16" Klein argued, but he could already see a sly grin come to his face.

"And, most importantly, he's never had a 5 million-coin bounty on him while doing a raid." Wright began to take Kaleidoscope off his back. "Only you will."

The smile from Klein suddenly faded. "But we only have 25 minutes left before the raid starts."

"Plenty of time if you're flying," Wright began to activate his wings-a colorful blend of translucent orange and red on dragonfly wings. In retrospect, the whole wings resembled that of fire. After numerous hours of using them, he knew the design by heart.

"C'mon," Wright nudged his head towards his back. Klein laughed at him before his expression turned sober.

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yeah. Quickest way through this forsaken swamp."

"Yeah, I'll think I'll pass." Wright gave the guy a good hard look.

"Look here, mister 'oh, I'm so imperfect,' you want to be independent? Start now." With reluctant steps, Klein began to gracefully wrap his arms around Wright.

"Klein, you're squeezing the breakfast out of my stomach."

"Sorry. For a guy your size, you have a big chest," Klein took a second to adjust his sweaty hands around Wright in the non-gay way possible. "Okay, just go SLOW!" Wright had already taken off. Like a mortar shot, Wright blasted out of the swamp's thick canopy and began to breathe in the fresh air of freedom. Oh, and Klein's screaming.
"YOUBETTERNOTDROPMEDUDE!" he screamed, his voice barely audible over the wind and the laugh that hollered out of Wright's throat. Because this was the best part of ALO-the flying. The feeling of rising above everything like a cloud. The way the wind whipped through your face like it naturally would. The fact that the whole world around them was completely fake, yet so real and alive, pulled at Wright's visceral feelings of freedom. Of flying (related to his namesake), of soaring high above the clouds with no limits. The whole experience was just, blissful.

They flew for a solid 5 minutes before Klein's numb hands began shaking Wright's, snapping him out of a 'flight daze'

"Hey, buddy, I hope you haven't fallen asleep yet,"

"Wha-no, I'm awake."

"Good, because I don't really want to alarm you, but some Salamanders just showed up."

"Salamanders?" Wright looked behind him, only to see a small unit of what looked like red knights flying in a V formation. At the head of the formation was…

General Eugene.

"Aw Schist," Wright fidgeted with his massive sword-akin to the way a distressed politician treats their stress ball. "We've gotta pick up the pace."

"Calm down," Klein chided, "They just showed up. If we don't do anything that'll alert them, everything will be PERFECTLY fine."

"Why are you talking like that?"

"Oh, I don't know," Klein said in a low voice, "Maybe it's because of all the F*** PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN F*** TRYING TO F*** S*** MY F**** PANTS FOR THE PAST 2 HOURS!"

"Wow." Now, more than ever was Wright grateful for parental controls. Wright took another look at the pack behind them "Well, from the looks of it, I don't think they're getting any closer."

"Really? I thought they had scouts and everything."

"Yeah. Weird." soon, blissful silence ensued. "Yeah, maybe they really are just peaceful. Just out for a daily flight or something." As if on cue, a deep growling sound rumbled throughout the sky. Klein was the first to see it.

"Or maybe they're taking the time to summon a Hydra," he said, his voice making it seem very possible that he had pissed himself. To which, fortunately, Wright could say was false.

Large and lumbering, a red-headed (ha) dragon was fast approaching. As it got closer, Wright saw that the beast actually had 3 heads; each with eyes as gold as the sun. It had two massive translucent wings- 4 if you count the smaller ones, mimicking that of a natural player's wings. To add on, the dragon was covered in red-scales that covered its belly, yet it also had a unique armor-plating for its back. In addition to heavy armor, the creature had a spiked club at the end of its tail.

Overall, it looked like a cross between an armadillo, an actual Hydra, and an Ankylosaur. Wright didn't know if he should be terrified that the beast was a fusion of some of the most heavily armored creatures that have ever lived, or that it resembled an armadillo.

Yeash he needed to get his priorities straight.

"Hang on!" he yelled, as he began a steep nose-dive towards the ground. Which, conveniently enough, was still Mudraker's Swamp. (Good thing they hadn't tried to walk through it). His plan was to lose the beast in it, and if that didn't work, there was plan B.

At the last second, Wright pulled out of his dive, and into a horde of trees. Frick me, He thought, as he swung himself to the side-gentle enough so that Klein would not lose his grip on Wright. Too gentle though. Wright felt Kaleidoscope briefly dig into the tree. And so this pattern continued, as Wright left tree after tree with scars, followed by the shadow of what Wright hoped were trees or players, and NOT a blood-thirsty Hydra. Soon though, this shadow disappeared. At first, Wright breathed a sigh of relief-the Hydra had lost them before he remembered three things he had learned from his experience on wild monsters.

They tended to be stupid.

They tended to be determined, and often good, at hunting their prey.

They were really, REALLY stupid.

With a resounding CRASH behind them, the hideous beast tore down the row of trees behind them that continued to, unfortunately, follow them. As the carnage continued, Wright couldn't tell which was louder: the sound of the Hydra tearing through the thick swamp trees with its own claws and strength, or the screaming of two very terrified faeries.

It was really up to debate.

Soon, the Hydra was within range. Eager to strike, one of the creature's head lunged at Wright's feet. He kicked it away, but not before the force launched him out of the swamp…

And into a wide-open clearing. Along with it, the sweet reality of gravity, as the Hydra's 'push' caused the duo to crash-land onto the ground. In a rumble of dust and grass, the two fell apart on the ground-both heaving.

"OHMYGODTHAT'STERRIFYING!" Wright panted.

"Save your breath," Klein stood up-brushing the dust off his body. "The Hydra's not dead yet."

"Yeah," Wright began to pick up his sword. Fortunately, it had landed next to him. "Where is it, anyway? And, where are we?"

Honestly, the location made no sense; just a wide-open space with nothing but grass dotting the land. No visible landmarks. Really, the only two things within sight were the forest, and the,

Entrance

To

The mountains. They had made it! In the distance, on the opposite side of the swamp, there lay a tiny cave in what was otherwise a gob-smackingly large mountain. If given time, they could really accomplish their once far-fetched goal.

Though time wasn't really on their side today.

With a shriek of anger, death, and everything awful, the Hydra finally burst out of the thick swamps, and into the clearing. Standing on all fours, it gave a yell of victory at the sight of its prey.

"Here we go!" Wright yelled, as the creature bounded towards them; like an overexcited bulldog. That changed quickly, however, as the center head was suddenly yanked back by some invisible force, flipping the creature onto its back. Now it resembled an overexcited bulldog on a leash, with a faint reddish smoke aura around its neck. The sight of the beast began to turn gears in his head.

When you were a blacksmith, and your deal was in magic items, you studied mage magic. Out of the very-few requests Wright ever got for his store, most of them consisted of items that could prevent against a lightning-attack, or make you invulnerable to fire, or, oddly enough, protect you from a swarm of killer bees with Rick Astley faces.

In short, they were items specifically meant to counter-act mage spells. Right now, the Hydra was reminding him of one specific order he had received. What was the order? A bug spray for the killer Rick Bees that, as Wright later learned, were being controlled by the buyer's friend. The spell he had used was exactly the same as the one he was now witnessing.

"Klein! I recognize this spell!" Wright's voice became delirious with excitement.

"Then tell already!"

"It's a Bloodhound spell!" he explained, "It's when a powerful mage summons a wild beast of their choosing to hunt down someone. Problem is, the beast can't go far from the spell-caster."

"Mana can be used to increase the radius of the 'leash,' but mana is already used to summon and control the beast. Eventually, the mana-output becomes too great, and the beast usually is set free to kill its spell-caster." Wright examined the Hydra squirming on the ground-thrashing against its ethereal chains. "I think the Salamanders are combining their mage's mana to greatly increase the bloodhound spell. And with the distance, size, and wildness of their beast, they're pretty much guzzling through mana."

Wright smiled at Klein. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" for the first time since meeting him, Wright could agree with the naughty look. Wright fished through his inventory until he found the item he was looking for. Equipping it, he tossed it at Klein. "If the bond doesn't break by the time we reach the Salamanders, spray this on the Hydra." Klein raised an eyebrow.

"I get what you're doing, but, bug spray?" Klein held the bronze canister curiously.

"Oh just do as I say" Wright muttered. With a low GIDDYUP! Klein leapt onto Wright's back, and they darted right toward the squirming Hydra. "Come get us you glorified winged turtle!" Wright yelled at it. Before you know it, they had an angry Hydra chasing them into the sky.


General Eugene was excited, no, ecstatic. After 10 minutes of flying, the Hydra had finally stopped moving. Granted, if the mages could control it enough to kill just the Falsaris and not the bounty. Speaking about mages…

"How's the spell going?" Eugene asked the mage next to him, his face beaded in sweat. Not that you could under all the armor he was wearing, which was exactly the whole point of it- to hide their mages.

"100% control over the beast, sir!" he replied proudly. "The beast still has their scent, and is using maximum mana output in order to chase them! Hail to the Salamander mages!"

"Heck to that, brother!" One of the other mages-female, yelled this time. "And they're really on the run! I can almost feel the wildness inside it!"

"Yeah! It's moving at top speed, towards us?" the whole group stayed silent.

"Why would it be doing that?" asked one of them.

"Is tired?"

"Finished?"

"Maybe our targets are flying in our direction?" One of the mages suggested, before falling into a fit of laughter.

"Yeah right!"

"As if they'd be stupid enough to do that!"

"Idiots!"

"Just shut up and stay focused!" yelled Eugene, ticked off at his unit's childish behavior, though he should've seen it coming. Mages could be pure pains in the butt; bragging about their DPS when their health was lower than that of any other class. So sometimes, they just needed to be taught their place.

"Sir?" Like right now.
"Soldier. If you do not shut your mouth, I will gladly replace it with your ass!"
"But, the enemy is RIGHT THERE!" Eugene turned in the soldier's direction, only to see two figures darting towards them. One was significantly larger than the other. And louder. As they came closer, it appeared one of the figures was actually two- a Salamander piggy-back riding on that Falsaris they had spotted. The other figure, was their Hydra.

"SPRAY IT KLEIN!" the orange fairy yelled, "LEROOYYYYYYYYYY!" The duo cut through the unit like a bullet, spraying a mysterious mist into the air. It brought the squad into a coughing fit. In contrast, the Hydra just drove right through them like a bowling ball. Eugene was barely able to avoid its spikes.

"Waris! Layle! Get a grip!" He yelled

"Yes sir!" Waris replied, before his face changed from tight concentration, to plain horror. "The sp-pell's broken!"

Suddenly, a humongous figure floated behind Waris, it's 3 heads in a thin smile; as if it were happy to confirm this fact. Then, with one snap of it's mighty jaws, the creature ate Waris.

Whole. Well F*ck, Eugene thought.


"Suck on that Salamnders!" Klein yelled, as their way into the mountain came ever closer into view.

"You, do know you're a salamander too, right?" Wright joked, he too happy at their feat. As they landed near the tunnel entrance, the duo felt giddy.

"Yeah. Hey! I just remembered, we have some empty spots for the raid, so you can join us!"

Suddenly, all the excitement rushed out of him. Wright turned looked at Klein, shocked. "I mean, if you want to. You kind of saved my ass and everything, so it's the least I can do." Wright was silent. "You, okay?"

Yeah, better than okay Wright thought, but he couldn't make the words come to reality. He was just, shocked. It had been so long since he had hung out with someone. His charisma at school hadn't exactly earned him any friends, and he didn't live with any family. He had gotten so used to the isolation, he had thought that such a thing was only for kids; better known as a 'play over.'

So, the feeling he felt now was, overjoyed? Relieved? Stressed?

"Let me think about it," he finally said. Just as he was about to enter the cave though, a familiar voice called out to him.

"FALSARIS! KLEIN!" Eugene yelled, his voice full of anger. And, curiously, eagerness. "You better get out here, or I'll make sure she regrets it!" wait, she?

Surprised, they both tentatively crept out of the cave. In front of them was Eugene, looking no-worse for wear, and unless you could earn scars from looking like a Jack Black, neither was his face. He appeared alone, except for one figure. Held up by the collar, a pink-haired girl was struggling in Eugene's grasp. Wright could tell she was a blacksmith, with the way her gloves were covered in soot, and the hammer at her belt. Other than that, he had no idea who this person was.

Klein, on the other hand, must have. "Elisabeth!" he yelled.

Eugene let loose a hearty laugh. "Ah good, you guys have deep bonds. It'll make this whole ordeal so much easier." In his other hand, Eugene revealed a long blood-red sword. "Now, let's talk business."