Chapter 3: The First Battle Begins

A/N: I am very excited to see that people are actually reading this story. I am sorry for the long absence of story. More about that later. Enjoy. Any and all reviews are beneficial.

Kirito, Asuna, and I were walking behind the rest of the raid group. Kirito had taken the point position while Asuna flanked him to his left and me to his right. Asuna was still wearing her red cloak and I was wearing my green one while Kirito was once again without a cloak. Kirito was giving us the rundown on how we were going to be involved in the fight. This was already discussed back in Tolbana before we left; he just wanted to be sure that everyone was on the same page.

"Let's go over it again. We're the back up, so our focus is going to be the boss's minions, the Ruin Kobold Sentinels," He told us as we walked through the forest to the Labyrinth.

"We know," Asuna and I said together, if a slight hint of annoyance was present in my voice neither of them said anything about it.

"I'll use a sword skill to knock their weapons up and out of the way. When I do, switch and jump in," He was confident with his strategy. That is, until Asuna asked innocently,

"What's a switch?"

Kirito balked at the statement and looked at her first with surprise then grew serious. I raised my eyebrows because I was just as surprised as he was. He asked in a blunt manner,

"O.K. level with us. Is this the first time you have ever been in a party?"

A quiet but not shy, "Mmhmm" was her response.

Kirito slowed to a stop as Asuna kept walking. He let out a sigh and let his entire body droop. I came up alongside Kirito and put my hand on his shoulder. I was trying to tell him non-verbally that, 'It was going to be O.K.'

As the raid group approached the entrance to the Labyrinth, I remembered that it was not going to be as easy as just walking in and facing the boss. We would have to go up twenty levels of monster infested corridors before having to face the boss, who will no doubt be well rested and ready to fight us. This was cause for some concern. I didn't think that everyone was at a high enough level to get through this.

I knew that if the levels of everyone present for this fight were averaged, they would be around ten. I have a policy of being at least ten levels above the recommended level to accomplish something. There were some people here who were only level six, there might even be a level five hidden in the mix.

The first test of whether these under leveled players would survive will be in making it to the boss room on the twentieth floor.

On level eighteen…

The monsters were getting harder, but that was to be expected. What was not expected was the near loss of life of one of the under leveled players. The party he was in had taken point for the floor as part of a rotation. As we climbed the Labyrinth the parties rotated in an effort to keep people rested and ready to fight. Kirito, Asuna, and I were not part of the rotation because of our small party size. Instead we jumped in whenever we were ready. A small group of four Ruin Kobold Troopers was the only thing blocking our advance to the next level. They were humanoid in nature, but very bulky. They have large rabbit-like ears and long thick tails. Each Trooper carried a single barbaric hand axe.

When the Troopers saw the party approaching they took offensive stances and prepared to attack. The Troopers charged the party, whose three shield equip members hurried to the front to block the advance. The last Trooper broke through the defense line and attacked a young looking spearman. The Trooper raised his axe and activated a sword skill. His axe shown with a bright red light before being brought down on the spearman who attempted to block the attack with the shaft of his spear. The shaft broke and the axe cut deeply into his right shoulder.

The spearman flew backwards and collapsed on the ground, his health in the red. Kirito and I moved in to stand in front of the downed player, our swords drawn.

Kirito's sword was large, almost a long sword, but he only wielded it with one hand even though there was more than enough room on the handle for his other hand. The blade itself was broad before tapering to a point. The cross guard stretched wide and had two grooves on either side. The handle was wrapped in black leather and looked as if it was hastily added as a last minute idea. The pommel looked like a stone that had been roughly cut to come to a point. He held it behind him as if he was preparing for an uppercut attack. I believe it is called "Anneal Blade."

My sword was smaller by comparison and was much thinner. It was a simple sword, but it was also very strong. The blade was thin and straight, with short 'wings' angled toward the blade acting as a cross guard. The handle was covered in ray skin and it offered a great deal of grip. The pommel of my blade was a simple piece of metal in the shape of a fleur de lis. I held it at my side in my right hand with the point near the ground. I received after completing a quest earlier but was too low a level to equip it at the time. It is called, "Akutō."

Before the Trooper could attack the other two party members rushed to form a wall in front of spearman to keep him alive. I started to circle the Trooper in a wide arc to get behind him while Kirito readied himself for the attack.

Kirito darted forward and slashed the Trooper across its chest. The red mark left by his sword was clearly visible and made me think that he had landed a critical hit.

The Trooper roared and tried to attack Kirito but the two party members moved in front of him and blocked the attacks with their respective weapons. Kirito jumped in and dealt another heavy attack on the monster almost defeating it. I saw that it only had a small sliver of health left.

The shield users had defeated their opponents one by one with little difficulty. They had moved in to surround the remaining Trooper. I was directly behind it about two meters away. The Trooper attempted to get at the weakened spearman but faltered. Looking down it saw the tip of my sword piercing it through its chest before turning into a shower of colorful polygons. I had leaped forward and stabbed it through its virtual heart, finally defeating it.

Everyone now turned to the spearman who was just lucky to be alive. Kirito spun his sword and sheathed it behind his back. I returned mine to its scabbard with much less flair. He, the spearman, was still sitting on the ground looking at his feet in shame. Most of the raid group and even some members of his own party were looking at him in disgust. No one made a move to help him, everyone stood very still and just looked at him. Feeling the weight of everyone's glare he put his head to his knees and curled up into a fetal position. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"Let's get moving," Diabel said over the silence.

The group proceeded to the door to the next level leaving the spearman where he lies. With his primary weapon destroyed, he was going to be literally useless in the boss battle. He couldn't go back down the Labyrinth to Tolbana, the monsters will have respawned. His only hope to stay alive would be to follow the group and do his best to stay out of the way. I realized that this could be a great opportunity to gain a follower. This would be my first step to accomplishing my goal. If I became his hero, he will follow me to the ends of the earth; well not really… you get the idea. I took a step towards him and held out my hand. He slowly uncurled from his fetal position to see me standing over him with my hand outstretched.

He looked at my hand as if he had never had someone offer to help him when he was down. He raised his gaze to mine, though he couldn't see my eyes due to the shadow cast by my hood. I tried to give him a reassuring smile, but I could still see the hesitation in his brown eyes. He started to reach out but couldn't bring himself to do it. He brought his hand into his chest and curled his head down so he couldn't see me. He was being difficult and I needed to get him out of here, otherwise he will just sit and die. I let my hand fall to my side and turned my back on him. Before I walked away I gave him some advice over my shoulder hoping to get him back on his feet and moving in the right direction,

"Hey, kid, I'm not going to give you some pep talk on how you need to get better. What I am going to do is tell you that you need to get better, because if you don't, you will die. There is only one thing worse than having the chance to prevent your own death and not taking it, and that is having the chance to prevent someone else's death and not taking it. If someone dies because of you, and you know you could have done something to prevent it, the guilt will eat you alive. So take this advice: don't get stronger to ensure your own survival, get stronger to ensure the survival of those around you."

I had taken only a few steps toward the door when I heard him get to his feet. I stopped walking and turned around to see him facing me. A look of fiery determination on his face. My words had struck a cord and motivated him to get back on his feet, to survive.

He looked ready to fight the boss as he was, even with the fact that he did not have a weapon. He tried to walk past me onto the next level but I stopped him by placing my hand on his shoulder. He wasn't that prepared to try and fight without a weapon.

"You can't go any higher without some decent armor; at the very least you need a weapon. I can give you one of my spare weapons, but I can't help you with your lack of armor," I said in a serious tone.

He put his hand behind his head with a sheepish grin on his face. He hadn't spoken yet, he hadn't even introduced himself. I opened my menu with my right hand and moved over to the items tab then to the subcategory 'Weapons.' Taking a good look at him for the first time I tried to find a weapon that would suit what I thought to be his style. He was small, only about five foot six inches or one point six meters tall give or take. The shirt he wore under a small breast plate was short sleeved and yellow. As I scrolled through the small list of available weapons I asked him,

"So you are a spearman, correct?" I had to at least get some kind of idea of what he has used up to this point. I didn't want to give him something that he wasn't prepared to use.

His response was high and nasally, "Y-Yes. Sir. Yes, sir. B-But I can use any-anything you give me… I-I m-mean, anything you want to give me."

As I went through the my available weapons I noticed the dagger 'Sword Breaker' which prompted my next question,

"What level are you? I need to know so I don't give you anything that is too strong." He looked to be around level five or six, not really prepared to be here.

"Oh. My level? It's kind of embarrassing," as he shuffled from foot to foot.

"Well I need to know, otherwise I won't be able to give you anything," I said just as I narrowed down the list to two weapons that I thought would fit him well. A level four one handed curved sword and a level five spear.

The sword was a simple scimitar with a blood red tassel on the pommel. While the spear had a shaft of dark colored wood with a roughly cut stone tip. I hoped he didn't mind the uncool look of the spear because that is what he is probably going to get.

"My level is... (Incoherent mumbling)," he mumbled under his breath with his expression downcast. "You're going to have to speak up kid. I didn't hear you," I told him before I opened up the trade window. He took a deep breath and looked up at me and said, "I am level four." My finger was hovering over the spear I had selected, I looked back at him. I did my best to keep my expression neutral. He looked like he expected me to challenge him on his low level.

There was a moment of silence as I contemplated what to do. I could give him the sword and be done with it... Or I could give him the spear and hope that he was close enough to leveling up to be able to use it in the upcoming boss battle. Boss battle. Suddenly a third idea came to me, I could give him both. He sure as hell wasn't making this easy for me, and it was pissing me the off.

I said in a thick Irish accent, "For fuck's sake!" end accent, "You're only level four!? How in the name of hell did you get to Tolbana in the first place?" I ran my hand through my hair thus removing my hood and revealing an opened mouth, wide eyed look of pure shock, "I don't know if should be impressed with the fact that you made it to this point or shocked that you were stupid enough to try." He tried to give me an answer but it was mumbled, "Well… I just thought… if I made it…" I held my hand up to stop him. I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. I couldn't believe this, level four and he made it to Tolbanna. Who would have let this kid party with them? He is so under leveled… I can't even.

I told him, "You know what? Forget it. All that matters is that you are here now, even if you shouldn't be. This is what I am going to do to help you. I'm going to give you this sword and this spear now. The sword you can use for now, and when you level up to level five, you can use this spear." I finalized the trade and sent the proposal to him. He looked at it in amazement. My patience was fleeting, but I tried to keep my face a blank slate.

He nervously raised his hand and pressed the accept option. As I turned around and started to walk to the next level, I could hear him open his menu and equip the sword. I heard the sound of him drawing it just as I reached the door. I opened the door and teleported to the next level, hoping that he would get the message and hurry up. Not three seconds had passed before he materialized beside me. He turned to me and bowed in thanks before running ahead to find his party. Before he got too far I called out,

"Hey, kid. Catch."

I quickly opened another trade window and put my cloak in the item slot. I sent it to him and he quickly accepted the trade. He equipped the cloak, which was now considerably shorter than it was on me, but he left the cowl down. He bowed in thanks and I returned the thanks by bowing myself before he turned and ran after his party.

When I caught up to my own party, Kirito looked at me with a suspicious expression on his face. I looked right back at him before it me. I realized he hadn't seen me without the cloak so right now I looked like a complete stranger to him. To put his suspicions to rest I said to him,

"It's O.K. It's just me, Helgrind. I uhh… helped out that player back there by giving him a few items, nothing major, just enough to keep him alive… Hopefully."

He didn't seem to believe me and looked me up and down. His eyes came to rest on my sword. Recognizing it from earlier, his expression relaxed and he turned his focus to Asuna. They were having a quiet discussion about something that happened the night before. I didn't want to know what happened, so I didn't ask.

On the Twentieth level…

We have finally arrived at the boss room. The raid group huddled around the two massive stone doors. No one dared to speak, not even Diabel the knight. He only raised his silver long sword over his head and gave everyone an exaggerated nod. Most of the group responded with raised weapons and various nods. He turned and placed his left hand in the middle of the two doors and shoved them open while shouting,

"Let's go!"

My first impression of the boss room in all honesty was that it was huge. Easily twenty meters from the wall on our left to the one on our right. I couldn't see the far wall, but I could estimate that it was easily over ninety meters away. Every ten meters or so on each side of the room were columns that held the roof above us. Some of the other general information I know about boss's room is that the doors will not close on us, so we can always leave if we feel overwhelmed. We can also use Teleport Crystals in boss rooms, but those things are expensive as hell and were mostly only attainable on higher floors.

Suddenly, torches attached to the columns started to ignite. The final pair of torches burst to life on opposite sides of a massive throne. The figure in the throne was silhouetted and did not move. Diabel raised his sword and when he brought it down, all hell broke loose. Forty two people charged with weapons in their hands and battle cries on their lips. Kirito, Asuna, and I remained quiet at the back of the group. We drew our weapons: an Anneal Blade, a Wind Fleuret, and an Akutō.

The first group, Group A, was led by Thor. He charged the enemy head on with his hammer raised high above his head. I noticed a shield on his left arm, which was unusual for him but it did give him a higher defensive stat, so good for him. Thor and his party were flanked on the left by Group B, led by the massive axe man Agil. They in turn were flanked on the right by Group C, Diabel's party, the original party that found the boss room. Diabel stood at the back of his party while shouting orders to everyone. He had taken the leadership role seriously and was not disappointing. Flanking far to the right was Mattias and his party. He looked taller than the rest of his party as he led them in an attempt to go around Illfang and attack him from behind. Group E, led by Kibaou, was a support group that was supposed to attack the boss's minions. Groups F and G were also support groups and focused mainly on attacking the minions.

Our party was supposed to "go where we are needed, but do not engage the boss" which I thought was strange, what if we were needed to fight the boss? Do we just not move in? What happens when the minions are all defeated? Do we just sit back and watch? I wasn't going to let that happen no matter what, I was here to defeat the boss, I'll be damned if I don't get at least one combo on the boss. Something told me that Kirito was having similar thoughts.

When Thor and his party were about twenty meters away from the throne, the shadow moved. Not so much that it moved, but that it disappeared. The throne was suddenly empty and the attack came to a screeching halt. Group A looked around in confusion when suddenly the massive form of Illfang dropped from the sky and landed in front of the group.

Illfang the Kobold Lord, in a word? Massive. He stood over two meters tall and probably weighed over two hundred and fifty kilos. In his left hand was a large circular buckler made of leather. While in his right hand, he brandished a large axe that appeared to be made of bone. He had a very wolfish face. I don't mean that it was angular; I mean it was as if someone had taken a giant wolf head and used that to model Illfang's head.

Three of his minions, the Ruin Kobold Sentinels, materialized around him. They were similar to the Kobold Troopers in physical appearance. Short and stocky with large rabbit like ears and a long thick tail. The three Sentinels wore full body armor and each carried a large halberd. These were our targets.

Illfang let out a deafening roar that shook the entire room, dust fell from the ceiling, and his sentinels charged.

Thor let out his own roar and maneuvered between the sentinels to get to Illfang. He was met halfway as Illfang brought his axe down on his head. He only barely had time to raise his shield to block the attack. The impact sent sparks flying in all directions, while the sound of metal on metal reverberated throughout the room. The battle had begun.

Group A, led by Thor, were the first ones to engage the boss directly. They were quickly followed by Group B, led by Agil, flanking on their left. Diabel's group, Group C, flanked on the right. Mattias led Group E behind the boss to fully surround it. While this maneuver was performed, groups E-F moved in on the sentinels.

Kirito, Asuna, and I began to use a "switch and pot" attack strategy. Kirito or I would parry the sentinel's weapon up and out of the way so that Asuna could come in and deal massive damage without getting hurt.

Asuna demonstrated great skill with her rapier despite being a new player. I even caught Kirito admiring her ability before jumping back into the battle. Asuna was the first player to defeat a Ruin Kobold Sentinel. After landing a strong Linear on the sentinel's throat, she quickly followed it up with a quick thrust to the throat. I noticed a moment's hesitation before her thrust, as if she was planning on using another overly powerful attack but thought better of it.

The battle progressed quicker than I had originally anticipated. By the time all three sentinels were defeated, the main attacking groups had depleted Illfang's first HP bar. I thought it was a good thing until another three sentinels spawned and started attacking us again.

I was the nearest to one of the spawned sentinels. I called over my shoulder,

"I got this one! You guys focus on the others!"

In hindsight, it may have not been my smartest move, but it was the one I made so I had to stick to it.

I used the skill Rage Spike to close the distance between myself and the sentinel with a leap. Once I landed, I let the system take over and guide my uppercut strike from my low right to my high left. Flowing with the momentum of the previous strike, I brought my sword over my head and with both hands brought it down hard in the sentinel's armored helmet. In the real world that attack would have left my opponent with a severe concussion, but in this virtual one, the sentinel quickly recovered and began attacking.

I was able to parry its first overhead strike fairly easily. As it swung it's halberd around to strike horizontally I was forced to duck and roll away. I jumped to feet in time to avoid the final overhead attack of its three strike combo. It was immobile from the amount of energy spent on the combo. I held my sword at my left hip and let the system take over.

My sword glowed with a purple light and swung from left to right and back again so quickly it looked like I was using two swords. I aimed my strikes at the shaft of my enemy's halberd attempting to break it. No such luck. I quickly reset my sword and let another skill activate. This time my sword glowed with a red light before slashing diagonally from bottom left to top right, slashing horizontally from left to right, and ending with another diagonal from top right to bottom left. My five hit combo first broke his defense then turned him into a shower of polygons.

The other groups had defeated their opponents much faster than I had and had begun to attack the boss. I did notice however, that Kirito and Asuna refrained from attacking the boss. They stood off to the side and were watching and waiting for another group of sentinels to spawn. I moved to join them

… Later in the battle…

We had finally reduced the boss's health to one third of his last of four health bars. There was still one sentinel to deal with, but Kirito, Asuna and I were handling it. The rest of the raid group had moved in on the boss. Led by Diabel, leader of Group C.

Group C had completely surrounded Illfang. Things were looking pretty good. The tank groups had their health in the yellow, but were in no danger of getting into the red. Thor and Mattias stood on Illfang's left and right respectfully with their respective groups. Illfang roared loudly and threw his bone axe and buckler down. He moved his right hand behind his back to grab the handle of his talwar. When he drew his weapon, I knew something was very wrong.

The weapon in his right hand was long and straight. Now I may not be a weapons expert, but I knew that the weapon in his hand was not a talwar. The description that the guide book gave us was, "... a curved sword-type weapon called a talwar…" and the weapon in his hand was not curved at all. Kirito also noticed that something was up. He called out,

"NO! Fall back!"

But it was too late. The demon human spun 360 degrees and hit every member of Group C. They hit the ground hard and didn't get up. They had little yellow things swirling around their heads, stars maybe? They weren't dead, but they weren't in a much better situation.

They were stunned. Being stunned is one of the, if not the, worst things that could happen to a player in SAO. You were immobile and faced certain death if someone didn't step in to help you.

Everyone else was too stunned to move, and it allowed Illfang the time necessary to recover from the skill. Agil was the first to recover and moved in with Thor and company to try to intercept Illfang's next attack. They were too late.

Illfang used a skill that grabbed Diabel and threw him up into the air. Using a different skill that covered his sword in a red light began attacking. A quick succession of hits and suddenly Diabel's body was flying over the heads of the raid group. It landed near Kirito who was fighting the remaining sentinel.

"Get him, I got this," I called to him as I jumped in front of the sentinel. I held my sword at my left hip and activated the same purple skill I had used before. This time I was able to destroy the weapon and while the sentinel stood there Asuna jumped in and used a skill with such speed that I couldn't follow to kill it.

I turned around in time to see the body of the Diabel, the Shining Knight, cascaded into shards of blue glass. I was shocked. He was our leader, our rock, our inspiration. He shouldn't have been the first to die. Everyone was devastated, none more that Kibaou, he had fallen to his knees and sat there with a look of pure horror on his face.

We had reached an important crossroad. If we fled now, we may never return and be stranded forever on the first floor. We had to fight, more importantly, we had to win. Kirito stood; Asuna and I moved to stand beside him. He looked at her and she said simply,

"We'll go too. We are partners after all."

Most of the raid group was beginning to fall back, some were turning to run. Agil, Thor, and Mattias were doing their best to hold the front together and prevent Illfang from attacking more people.

As one, Kirito and Asuna started to sprint at the boss leaving me in the dust. I moved to catch up to them but there was no way I could pull even. As I ran after them I pulled a throwing pick from my belt with my left hand and sent it flying at the boss's head. The added momentum of me running was enough to knock his head to the side and distract him as Kirito ran in and knocked his sword up and out of the way. Asuna then jumped in stuck the boss in the stomach and sent him hurtling away.

He recovered quickly and was on his feet by the time I finally caught up with my other party members.

"You guys think you could've given me a little heads up? A head nod? Anything, really. Instead of just running into the jaws of death."

They didn't answer and instead pushed the attack on Illfang. They worked great as a team, Kirito deflecting the attacks and Asuna dealing damage.

Suddenly, something went wrong. Kirito was unable to intercept Illfang's sword and took a slash to his chest. It sent him flying into Asuna and the both of them slid to a halt some twenty meters or so away from the boss. Their bodies were tangled together on the floor as they tried to get to their feet. As I moved in to cover them, I saw Illfang closing the distance much faster than me. I knew I couldn't get there in time, but maybe I could buy them a little time.

I selected another throwing pick from my belt and tried to calculate where I would have to throw it so that it would hit Illfang, or at least change his focus to me. As I let the throwing pick go I knew I had been too slow, Illfang was standing over them by the time by projectile flew past, missing him entirely. He grinned wolfishly at my downed companions who raised their weapons to try to block his attack. I thought they were goners.

Suddenly a bright green light flashed and there was a gust of wind blowing through the hall. Almost as if he materialized in front of them, stood Agil and Thor. Their weapons looked as if they had just taken a massive uppercut swing on the boss. The boss flew back ten meters but landed on his feet and roared loudly. Agil said something to Kirito that I couldn't hear but probably went something like this,

"We got this. You two recover your stamina and HP for a bit."

Thor raised his hammer and howled at the boss as the rest of the raid group finally got moving and started attacking the boss again. Led by Thor, Mattias, and Agil the raid group was able to get the boss's HP down to about thirteen percent.

I moved over to Kirito who had just finished drinking a healing potion. I walked up to him and said,

"How about this time, we do it together?"

He nodded curtly and got to his feet with Asuna. This time when they took off sprinting I was right with them. As we approached the front line I shout at Mattias,

"Mattias! Give me a lift!"

He knew what I meant thanks to our long friendship and vast gaming experience. He crouched down as I approached him. I jumped and planted my right foot on his back. I raised my sword over my right shoulder and let the skill Sonic Leap charge. At the same moment that I jumped from his back he stood up quickly to give me an extra boost. I raised my sword above my head and let the skill take over as I brought it down on Illfang's left shoulder.

This gave Kirito the opening to further knock his blade out of the way so that Asuna can deal damage. With two quick thrusts the health bar on the boss continued to diminish. Kirito took the opening to deal a heavy downward strike which he quickly followed up with a massive uppercut swing that sent the Kobold king flying backwards.

He never hit the ground.

As Illfang the Kobold Lord was falling he turned into a shower of colorful shards of blue-green glass.

There was a pause as everyone tried to comprehend what had just happened. We had just defeated the first floor boss!

"We've done it!"

With that shout the entire hall erupted in cheers and merriment. I looked down to see my reward for taking part in defeating the boss. I received 1100 Cor, 2500 Exp. and a firm handshake from Mattias. We both knew that Kirito would be getting the Last Attack Bonus, whatever it was. I was perfectly happy with that, he got the last attack; he deserves whatever comes with it. As congratulations were being passed around one voice rose above the rest,

"Stop cheering!"

Everyone turned to see Kibaou on his knees visibly distraught. His head was down but he spoke loudly and directly at Kirito,

"Why'd you do it huh? Why did you let Diabel die?"

Kirito was still kneeling after delivering the final attack on the boss but had enough strength to respond, if a bit quietly,

"Let him die?"

Kibaou's head snapped up and his tone grew agitated,

"That's what I said. Admit it. You knew the technique the boss was going to use! You could have told us!"

I knew what Kibaou was talking about. Soon after Illfang pulled out a sword that was not a talwar, Kirito tried to tell everyone to get back. He knew the difference between the two swords and what the attack patterns of the unidentified sword were. Even in the Beta I had never seen anything like what I had just faced. Was it possible that Kirito was a Beta tester who got to a higher floor than I did?

Kibaou kept digging into Kirito,

"Then Diabel would've stood a chance. He wouldn't have had to die!"

The other people present began to murmur amongst themselves. It wasn't a pleasant murmuring. From the back of the room came a voice, it was the same spearman whom I had helped from before,

"I know why he knew! He used to be a Beta tester! Think about it, he knew the boss's attack patterns. He knew, but he kept it from us!"

I cringed inwardly trying to maintain a neutral expression. If I hadn't saved his ass he wouldn't be here being an ass to the guy who just killed the boss. As a fellow tester, I also have knowledge that I haven't shared with the general populace. Mostly where the best hunting grounds are for the first six or seven floors, but if Kirito has knowledge on weapons from floors even higher than that… he would be the only one to know the dangers we are going to face. He could become a very useful ally to me, or he could become my worst enemy. I silently hoped it was the former.

The asshole spearman continued ranting,

"And I bet he's not the only Beta tester here. Come on! Show yourselves!"

Everyone began to look around to see if anyone would step forward and admit to being a Beta tester. I caught the eye of Mattias and Thor, and shook my head in silence. We agreed in silence to keep our status unknown.

Things were getting bad, if someone didn't say something to refute his accusations, Beta testers were going to have to worry about more than just random monster encounters while exploring.

I spared Kirito a glance. He was still on the ground and was looking right at the spearman. He turned away, his expression grim. I hoped he was coming up with a plan to save himself from all this hate. I saw him swallow before slowly rising to his feet.

Meanwhile, Agil and Asuna were trying to get everyone to calm down while Thor and Mattias talked to the spearman directly. Suddenly, a very creepy laugh began to echo through the hall. I scanned the room for the source and was surprised to find that Kirito was the source.

Those closest to him took a few steps backwards. With his back still to us, he spoke,

"So you guys think I used to be a Beta tester? It's not cool to put me in the same class as those noobs."

He sounded like he just heard a terrible joke that everyone else thought was funny, but he didn't. As for what he said, ouch man. I was part of those noobs. I hoped I had gotten past the title of "noob" back when I used to play CoD.

"What'd you say?" asked Kibaou in a very angry way. The rest of the room had fallen deathly silent.

"You heard me," Kirito continued, "Most of the 1000 people who scored a slot in SAO's Beta were rookies. They were so green they didn't even know how to level up. Hell, even you guys were better than they were."

He began to advance on Kibaou, the raid group dividing in front of him like the Reed Sea to Moses. Once again his statements hurt, but were in fact kind of true. Many people in the Beta were more focused on the scenery than the actual game itself.

"But me? I'm nothing like those guys man." He stopped about a meter away from Kibaou and continued with an evil looking sneer on his face, "During the Beta, I made it to floors that were higher than any of the other testers. That's a fact. I knew about the boss because I fought tons of monsters with way more sword skills on higher floors. I know a bunch of other things too, more than you can imagine, more than any info broker."

Now Kirito was beginning to freak me out a bit. If what he said was true, then as of now he is the strongest player in the game.

I wasn't the only one who was unsettled, Kibaou got to his feet and moved another meter away from Kirito before speaking again,

"Wh-What the hell? If that's true then you're worse than a Beta tester. You're a God damn cheater! That's what you are!"

The raid group suddenly burst out agreeing with Kibaou. Shouting random things about cheaters and Beta testers. Some wise ass decided to combine the two words into one, "Beater."

The sneer never left Kirito's face as he said quietly at first but with growing volume,

"A Beater, yeah, that's good. I like it. O.K. You can call me a Beater; just don't confuse me with those Beta testers anymore."

He turned and opened up his menu with his right hand. After scrolling for a bit he selected an item an equipped it. There was a brief flash of blue light and then suddenly Kirito was wearing a knee length black coat. He flapped the coat as he turned and walked away. As he reached the stairs leading to the next level Asuna ran after him.

I turned to my friends and gave them a subtle head nod to meet me away from the group. As I walked over to a nearby pillar a small notification appeared in my field of view. It read, "Kirito has disbanded the party." I was perfectly fine with that being as that was my next move as well. Before completely closing my menu I added Kirito to my friends list.

Mattias and Thor walked over and stood with their arms crossed. They seemed to be waiting for me to start this little meeting. So I asked simply,

"So what do you guys think?"

"About what?" was Mattias' quick response.

I let out a quick breath before elaborating, "About this whole Beta tester business? About Kirito just taking all the pressure and painting a target on himself? About, oh I don't know…" I ran a hand through my virtual hair and gave one final question, "Do you think we should reveal ourselves as Beta testers?"

My last question seemed to catch them a little bit off guard. Mattias crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the ceiling twenty meters above us. Thor stroked his beard and looked at the ground. Mattias gave his answer first,

"There is nothing we can do about being Beta testers, we were in the Beta, and therefore we are Beta testers. Nothing can change that. As for that guy, you said his name was Kirito right?" I nodded. "Well there isn't really anything that we can do about that either. That leads into your final question, what should we do? I say we do nothing. Right now people are going to see Beta testers as the bad guys, they may even attack us. If they don't know, they can't hurt us."

I took a moment to think over what he said. He was right that there wasn't anything we could do about being Beta testers. I thought there might be something that we can do for Kirito, but… if we do something, people might find out that we are Beta testers… that wouldn't be good. I did agree that we shouldn't reveal our status as Beta testers. There was something nagging me in the back of my mind. Like there was some way to help Kirito without revealing us. I turned to Thor to get his answer.

He kept his focus on the floor. Small talk wasn't his strong suit. He looked up at me and then at Mattias, and nodded his head. I guess he was on the same page as Mattias.

I turned towards the stairs leading up to floor two. I noticed Asuna walking back down the stairs and upon reaching the bottom, stopped and looked back up at the large door that led to the second floor. I turned back to my friends,

"The news about the floor being cleared will spread quickly; people will swarm to get the best items. I am going to follow Kirito, see if I can't talk to him. I would like to see the two of you and everyone else up there in the next week."

I received a pair of nods from them, and turning again towards the stairs, began the walk towards the second floor.

As I walked, no one followed; no one moved towards the stairs, everyone went back the way they came. It wouldn't matter, in less than a few hours a couple thousand players would swarm the second floor starting city, Urbus.

For now, it seems that Kirito and I will be the only players on the second floor…

A/N: I am sorry about the long delay in updating, as many of you may know, life can be a real bitch. I just got back from spring break in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and it was… interesting and tiring to say the least. I look forward to your reviews and starting the next chapter.