Disclaimer: I appreciate and honor the fact that you are taking the time to read my story. I thank you for any reviews, follows, and favorites. Please enjoy this story after the following disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online, nor do I own any of its characters. Sword Art Online belongs to Reki Kawahara, ASCII Media Works, and the SAO Project. Please support the official release.
Character Ages
Kirito- 16
Asuna- 17
Sinon- 16
Jace- 17
Chapter 4
Monday, December 10th, 2022. Continent: Ianides. Outside of Asfos.
The morning was fresh and dewy. The scent of post-dawn grass rose to Sinon's nose and made her slightly drowsy, but the girl quickly shrugged it off. She was working on distance shooting that day. As she hefted up her new sniper, the «Pyrolith Giat», she heard Jace whistling over the system link–their signal for saying that Jace had formed a train of mobs behind him.
Sinon slowed her breath and adjusted her heart-rate. In a whisper she began to recite her mantra: "Ice. I am ice incarnate. Slow breaths, no emotions, and no fear. Just raising, aiming, and maiming. One shot, one kill." She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, seeing her breath fog up in the air in front of her. Then she looked down the scope and focused on her target: the horde of «Feral Felines» behind her companion. She was training for a mission in the next major city, called «The Ghillie of Babel».
"Target is 1500 meters out, headed closer," Sinon told herself, waiting for the critical moment when the beasts would arrive at only one click–1000 meters–from her current position, on the top of a small cliff to the north of the city that was «Asfos». She would only have to wait a few more seconds, but it was agonizing to just sit here–especially while Jace was out there risking his life to help her train for the mission.
She noticed the Aiming Circle expanding and quickly forced herself to focus on shrinking the circle. The target was only 1400 meters away from Sinon now, and they were picking up speed slowly as Jace was slowing down. She felt her heart starting to pick up again. Something was horribly wrong. What was he doing?
"Jace, come in. What's your trouble?" Sinon asked curtly through the system link.
Jace didn't respond, but kept running and began to fire his «Plasmid Specter» at the feline beasts behind him. He ended up taking down two and injuring three more, but that left many more right behind him. It looked like he had bitten off more than he could chew–especially with a new Energy Shield that didn't exude a «Paralysis» effect when it depleted; he had gotten a newer shield with a higher amount Shield Points.
As it was, Jace was struggling hard just to keep his head above water. Bullet after bullet found its target, but monster after monster kept coming. It was getting to the point that the more Jace ran, the more it looked like all was hopeless, and it was starting to get to Sinon.
Her Aiming Circle was large, taking up almost ten percent of her vision. It seemed small, but with her targets this far away, it engulfed the entirety of the mob–including Jace–and she couldn't make a shot with the risks so high. She could hit Jace, and though they had formed a Squadron which would protect them from accidental friendly fire, it would still drive the blonde boy unconscious. Jace couldn't do much running or fighting if he was passed out on the ground.
Jace used his «Sprint» skill to rocket forward before turning around for a brief moment. Then he opened his menu and clicked something. His SMG disappeared and then a moment later, a small object fell into his hand. He fiddled with it for a moment and tossed it forward, letting it bounce off of the rocky terrain between him and the monsters.
As soon as the monsters reached the object, there was a bright flash that caused the «Feral Felines» to slow to a painfully slow speed as they moved in a manner that made them appear to be highly disoriented. Sinon then heard Jace's voice come over the system. "This is about a click, give or take?"
Sinon glanced at the scope and judged the distance. It was around a hundred or so meters too far away, but she could make it. "You're getting sloppy," she grunted. "It's closer to twelve-fifty meters than ten hundred."
As soon as she got her heart rate under control, Sinon shot a bullet as a test, aiming a good fifty meters above her target. She noted the amount that the bullet fell and adjusted until she was just at the right height to take out the individual felines. She hit each of the Xylotian monsters in their weak spots–right where the ear met the head on the feline creatures. After about ten seconds, the flash wore off and Sinon began to snipe them as they ran at Jace again. This time, the blonde was far enough away that she could shoot without worrying about him getting killed or in the way of a bullet. And as the last of the «Feral Felines» was eliminated, Sinon breathed easier and acquired several new items–along with a few hundred Col.
"I'm coming back up," Jace told his companion. "Wait there and guard me."
"Roger," Sinon muttered, picking her rifle back up and watching Jace through it. How could the boy be so stupid as to risk his life like that and not even consider how uncomfortable it made her? If he died, she would lose her mentor–and a close friend too.
Sinon waited for him to get to the cliff's face and then decided that he could climb up without being watched. She would just scan the ground for signs of movement from any threat. If there was another mob, she'd kill it. Her only worry was that there would be a player.
As soon as Kayaba had announced that people could die in this game, the death system was reset. People that died before just respawned, but now their avatars were deleted after ten minutes. After those ten minutes, the players had their brains fried by the Nervegears. And as time passed, more and more of those players died. In a month, Jace and Argo had come to the conclusion that two thousand were dead. Of the 23,000 people remaining, it was a logical assumption that about three thousand had stayed in Base Camp, knowing that they would not survive if they ventured out into the world of the aliens. That left twenty thousand other players that went out and had combat experience. And according to surveillance by a large Army (called the «Aincrad Liberation Force», or «The Army» for short) that had developed since the first floor was cleared, one out of every twenty players had committed a crime that turned their player cursor orange at least once. With the stats the way they were, the «Army» had released the information that there were about 800 fully criminal players on Ianides. And with 800 still alive, that meant a lot of bad people hiding amongst the good.
So far, Sinon had managed to quell her fear of guns by telling herself that she wasn't truly killing anything, but keeping herself alive by gaining the resources from the Xylotes and Monsters that lived here. But with more and more criminal players on the loose, Sinon could find herself in the position where she might need to kill another player someday. And that, the fear of killing another real, living being, was the thing that truly scared her.
But in her brain, just as Shino opened the door to try and regain her consciousness, Sinon stepped in front of the door and slammed it shut, placing a large horizontal beam through the handles of the double doors. Shino Asada was still locked deep within Sinon's mind to protect her from this cold world of death and agony.
Just as Sinon finished the thought, Jace's hand clasped the edge of the cliff's top. "Well, not just death and agony," Sinon said under her breath with a smile. Then she watched as the tall boy collapsed on the ground in front of her and began panting like a thirsty dog in the desert.
"Sorry about not answering your question, Sinon," Jace breathed, wiping the sweat off of his forehead and reminding Sinon that she was angry at him. "I would have answered, but I needed to concentrate on getting away from those things. They aren't too strong, but they could wear down my brand new shield's durability… it can only hit 0 SP a hundred times after all, and–"
"Whatever," Sinon said, cutting the boy off. "The most important thing is to stay alive, Jace. Above all, stay alive. And when you go and bite off more than you can chew with a rape train of twenty mobs, you're abandoning that rule."
Jace frowned, apparently trying to read her. Sinon had made sure that her voice showed no sign of anger, but she hadn't mastered keeping the anger off of her face yet. It ended up making her look slightly constipated, which the girl thought was close enough to angry. But her façade had not paid off; the look that he gave her told her that he knew that she was not calm and collected, but didn't say anything else. He simply nodded and turned away before she got angrier. "Alright," he said quietly, putting his gun back on his back strap.
Sinon sighed. She knew she had come across coldly. He was just trying to help her, and he was her only friend in all of Aincrad. But neither of those two things would do her any good if he was dead. "Wait," she said, grabbing his hand.
Jace jerked to a halt, freezing rigidly as soon as the girl grabbed his hand. He slowly looked down at their hands for a moment and then eased his hand out from Sinon's. "What's up?" He asked, turning back to the girl.
"I'm sorry," she sighed. "I was harsh with you."
"That's not new," Jace said with a soft smirk. "In fact, it happens a lot."
Sinon couldn't help but smile as the boy joked with her. "My hand is gonna be harsh with your face in a minute," she teased. Her remark made Jace laugh, and she smiled at the sound. "Come on, let's get back to town. We need to stock up."
)-0-(
There were many things that Sinon liked about «Asfos».
The first was that «Asfos» was a small town. The buildings didn't look neofuturistic, which Sinon thought was nice. «Nefaria», though quite a sight to behold, was terribly overwhelming and came across as more of a New York City type place, with no room to live. With houses and buildings made of stone instead of the black metal the city of «Nefaria» was built from, «Asfos» was much more quaint and homey.
Secondly, the atmosphere of the whole place. The town was built on a grassy plateau with yellow and orange wildflowers spread all over like a beautiful pathogen. The edges of the plateau were made of brown rock and formed cliffs except for a few passes that were covered with those same wildflowers. It reminded her of the Japanese countryside, comfortable and inviting.
Another reason that she liked here was the fact that she could see for what felt like miles from the top of the plateau. From anywhere on the plateau one could see the serene «Oaken Glade», the roaring «Sea of Ambrose», the mysterious «Ethereal Highlands». All of the landmarks just made her feel at ease, comforting her in a way that nothing else ever could while she was still in this game.
All in all, Sinon thought it was a wonderful place that she hoped to one day call her home–since she couldn't exactly call Earth home for a while.
Jace snapped his fingers twice in front of the girl's eyes. "You're staring into space again, Sinon," he said quietly. "We're only going to be here for a few hours, so we should get busy with supplies. I'm going to buy ammo at the store over there; do you need anything?"
"Asking me if I need ammo is pointless," she responded. "I always need ammo."
"Well do you want to come with me or just tell me what to get?"
Sinon didn't even bother to think about going with Jace to the ammo store. She was getting sick of the clothes that she had worn since the first day she had logged on. It was time for her to change her style to something more fitting to who she wanted to be: a strong warrior who could kill in a heartbeat if she needed to. She looked at the blonde boy and shook her head. "Get me some «Photon Packs». I'm going to get rid of these stupid clothes."
Jace smiled maliciously. "Eager to strip are we?"
Sinon's cheeks grew a bright shade of red as the blonde boy winked devilishly at her. She couldn't believe he said something like that in public. "You wish!" she shouted, slapping him hard across his face before storming off to the sound of his chuckles.
As she walked toward the store, she found that her cheeks would not cool down. She didn't feel like she was still angry at the boy; she had heard many dirty remarks before, even from Jace. But for some reason, she felt… embarrassed by the way he had winked at her. He certainly hadn't done that before, and that had flustered her a deep bit. She ignored the boy's remark, flushing it from her head, and then focused on the subject at hand: the clothing store that stood right in front of her.
The store that was labeled «Ashley's» wasn't a big store, but it certainly wasn't a shack. It had a nicely lit sign that wasn't too obnoxious, but had enough of a "wow-factor" to pull in customers. She could see a multitude of mannequins on display through the store's clean windows wearing clothes that ranged from booty shorts and t-shirts to wedding dresses to various sets of combat gear.
Sinon walked inside and was instantly greeted by a girl named (surprise, surprise) Ashley–who, to Sinon's great surprise, was not an NPC. Oddly enough, she had bought her own store building near the front lines of the Xylotian War, which most people didn't do unless they found the perfect place. She was tall and slim with heavy eye shadow that brought out her deep green eyes as well as her short blonde pixie cut accented by red highlights.
Even more shocking than her physical appearance were the clothes she wore. She was dressed in clothes that made her seem like she was not a soldier at all. In fact, Sinon thought that Ashley looked more like a high end fashion model than anything else. She had a red jacket with a leathery neck–a gorget, Sinon would learn it was later called–and a feather boa. As for her pants, she was wearing what appeared to be a tight pair of leggings that were styled to look like they were made of denim.
"Can I help you find anything today?" The girl asked in a French-sounding voice that was much higher pitched than Sinon had expected. Her eyes shimmered with what appeared to be the desire to help and she had a big smile plastered on her face. "We have a small sale today on jeggings!"
Sinon briefly wondered what the hell jeggings were before nodding. "I'm looking for something less… standard," she answered, pulling at her shirt between her fingers. Tan was okay, but she got tired of it after a while. "I want to stand out."
"Well," Ashley mumbled thoughtfully. "Do you want to stand out by looking like a warrior or like a stripper?"
Sinon almost choked as the player asked the question. "Excuse me?"
"Well if you want something to make you look like a warrior, I have something in mind," she explained with bright eyes. "If you want to look like a sexy lady, I also have something. But if you want both, I know exactly what would be perfect for you. The perfect mix of scary and sexy, intimidating and intriguing. It is the suit of a warrior, but the weapon of a lover."
Whatever this thing looked like, Sinon's curiosity had been piqued. She cocked her head to the side. "Could I see it?" she asked the girl, receiving a nod from Ashley and waiting for her to get the outfits. It didn't take long though; Sinon was just about to sit down when Ashley came back with a small bag and told the girl to take the bag into a dressing room and try on the clothes.
Sinon pulled out the clothes one by one. There was an Olive Drab jacket with white accents, black short shorts, a white scarf, and a set of leggings to match the jacket. When she put them on and looked in the mirror, she couldn't help but be taken aback by how she looked. All over her body were patches of skin that showed through the various cuts of the uniform. She could feel the air kissing her thighs, her hips, the tops of her chest. Her first thought was that she looked like a warrior, but then she looked at the suggestive design. It wasn't what she had come in looking for, but it was everything that she needed for Sinon to become the warrior that she had envisioned.
Sinon stepped out and looked at Ashley with her jaw hanging in awe. "You made this?"
"Yep!" she giggled, holding up two fingers in a V shape. "Is it everything you wanted?"
"Kind of, yeah," Sinon breathed, looking at herself again. "How much does it cost?"
"Well, I'd give it to you if you'd advertise for me, but I'm guessing that you'd prefer to pay for it," Ashley said, chewing on her thumbnail thoughtfully. "So that particular outfit is one of my better ones, but it didn't take too much to make. It's got a lot of durability and has a pretty good amount of protection, despite all the skin spots. So if you tell anyone that asks that I sold it to you, then it should come to around… ten thousand Col, give or take."
Sinon felt her eyes bug on impulse. She liked the gear, but she didn't know if she still liked it at 10,000 Col. "Ten thousand Col is a bit steep for me… what about five?"
Instantly a strange smile flashed across her face and a fire lit in Ashley's eyes that burned brighter than the muzzle of Sinon's sniper rifle. "A haggler, are you?" Ashley asked in a voice that seemed several octaves lower than her usual voice. "The materials alone for this outfit cost me five thousand Col. Since it looks so good on you, I'll go eight and a half, but keep in mind that I'd be breaking bank for you."
Sinon felt a shiver down her back. "I don't want to go much higher than seven on anything that is completely vital to my survival," she said reluctantly. "I'll go ten for two outfits: this one and something in sleepwear."
"I have to make money somehow, miss!" Ashley groaned. "I'll tell you what: I'll give you the outfit and some saucy undergarments for a grand total of eighty-two fifty. This is my final offer."
Sinon blushed. What the hell could she use "saucy undergarments" for? It's not like there was anyone in her life who would even be in proximity of her to see them except maybe–no. Sinon blushed even darker at the thought of Jace seeing her in underwear of any kind until she came across a thought: Ashley's highlights. "What about nine for the outfit and some icy blue hair dye?" She asked.
Ashley's eyes lit up. "Ah, you wish to dye your hair?" she squealed, back in her regular voice. "Very well. I will sell you them both and change your hair color for only nine thousand Col. And as a gift, I will throw in the spicy underwear! Aren't you happy?"
Sinon blushed and nodded. She thought it was better not to argue with Ashley. After all, even if she would be getting… that as a gift, she could still throw it away. "Very happy," Sinon said with a very bad smile as the other girl turned away to retrieve a canister of hair dye. The girl came back with six though, cradling them like a small kitten that was in six pieces.
"I have a wide selection of icy blue colors here; which do you want?" Ashley asked before raising the cans individually. "I have Turquoise, Celeste, Electric Blue, Cyan, Sky Blue, and Baby Blue."
Sinon looked at them all individually before deciding on Celeste. Then Ashley took her to a dressing room where the girl applied the dye to Sinon's hair as she purchased her outfit. It disappeared into her inventory before the girl pulled up the newest item: «Sexy Commando Outfit». She groaned, but put it on anyway. Maybe she could pay someone to rename the item in the system as something less provocative, like «Sinon's Suit» perhaps.
"Can you make my eyes Turquoise?" Sinon asked on a whim. "It would be beneficial to me if you could, but if you couldn't that would be alright too."
Ashley sighed heavily and began chewing on her lip. "I could, but there's a tiny–insignificant, really–detail when it comes to changing eye color in Galactic Warfare Online. I mean, it's possible but you can only use hair dye. And the only thing about that–which, like I said, isn't really a problem at all–is that it hurts your eyes… like, a lot."
"How much does it hurt?" Sinon asked. "On a scale of one to ten."
Ashley pursed her lips for a moment, thinking about it. "Well, one of my customers said it was about a six, but I tried and I thought it was a solid seven and a half."
"Hit me up," Sinon said without surprise. Ashley hesitated, but pulled out the canister and sprayed some of it in the girl's eye. She felt a white hot sting in her eye, but she just shut it and waited. It went away after about ten seconds, and then Ashley did the other eye. The same feeling occurred before Sinon opened both of her eyes, and then stared at herself.
Sinon could barely recognize herself anymore. Where only ten minutes ago her eyes were charcoal grey, they were now a shocking icy blue to match her hair, which had been the same color. Her clothes made her look like a woman–and one to be feared, instead of just a noob in the game of GWO. She had completely changed herself into the woman she had wanted to be when she first logged in, minus a few inches.
"Miss, what is your name?" Ashley asked. Sinon as she checked herself out. After she told the woman her name, the tall seamstress nodded. "Would you mind coming back here every now and then? I'll pay you a nice price to model for us…"
Sinon blushed. "Oh Ashley, I couldn't–"
"Nonsense!" Ashley said, waving a hand as if to bat away her refusal. "Just use your MT and come over on Saturdays. We go on the runway at three o'clock, so be there at 2:30 for hair and make-up. Okay? Wonderful. No shoo, get out of the door, I have other customers to attend to!" And with that, Ashley pushed her out the door and directly into someone outside of the door.
Sinon crashed into the boy with an "oomph" and fell on top of him. She felt her head hit a strong chest and the boy gasped. She recognized the boy's jacket though… It was white with blue words written in Xylose. She looked up into the boy's bright green eyes and stared for a moment.
"Looks like I'm falling for you, miss," Jace said with a cheesy grin. "My name is Jace, and I'd help you up, but you're kind of on top of me."
"I know, Jace," she said, suddenly taking notice of how close their faces were and pushing herself up against his chest. "Did you get the ammo?"
Jace's eyes widened. "How did you know that I just got back from the ammo store?" He asked, jumping up and reaching for his pistol. "And why do you look like a hot version of my partner, but with blue hair and eyes?"
"Because I am Sinon," the girl huffed, trying to mask her pleased embarrassment with a punch to his gut. "And I've always been hot! Just because I didn't dress like a slut doesn't mean I wasn't hot! And I still don't! Don't be such a pervert!"
Jace fell backwards to the ground with a "humph" as he felt his butt connecting with the dirt road. "Ouch," he mumbled as his hand found its way to his right cheek where there was the red mark of a small hand. "And you didn't have to hit me, you know!"
"Where are we headed now?" Sinon asked, taking his hand and pulling him up to her level. "I want to get to «Babel» sometime soon."
"Someone's mighty impatient. Maybe I just won't tell you." Jace grumbled. But as Sinon shot him an angry glare, he relented and opened his map. He then pointed to a spot directly across the mountains from their position. "This spot right here is the final mission we need to unlock «Ghillie of Babel»… aside from clearing the city of «Babel» and killing the Sergeant, that is. The easiest way there would be to teleport to «Violetville» and backtrack, but I don't know if we could make it in time for the Second Clearing.
"Then again, we could take «Thief's Pass» in the mountains, but there are a lot of really high leveled monsters there and it could take us a day or two. If we rush, we can get to «Violetville» quickly, find and complete the mission and head back here, but we're called to the frontlines on Wednesday. So if we can't complete the mission by 9:00 PM on Tuesday, we'll have to do it another time."
Sinon thought for a moment. If they teleported to «Violetville» now, they would have a longer way to travel, one that could take up until about noon tomorrow. Then they would have about four or five hours to finish the mission. They could probably do it, but they would have to teleport back to «Asfos» right after. Then it could take the rest of daylight and into the night to reach the city of «Babel» before the Clearing.
The route that took «Thief's Pass» was much quicker. They could likely arrive at the mission's target by that night. They would have from morning to evening to complete the mission, but the path would be dangerous. When Jace mentioned "higher leveled Xylotes," he usually meant monsters in the Level 15-20 range–which meant that Sinon might have to shoot some targets twice, even with her new «Pyrolith Giat».
Sinon knew that taking the pass would be much more dangerous, especially for a mere level twenty like her, but she felt pulled to the «Ethereal Highlands» like it was a magnet. Very few people had adventured up to its peaks, and there was very little information about it. Even Argo knew very little about the place,
"Let's take «Thief's Pass»," Sinon said with determination. She clenched her fist at her side as she thought about what she might encounter. Even though her journey through GWO with Jace had started more than a month ago, she felt the visceral lurching that she only got when she went on a new adventure, one that Jace didn't know everything about. And now, it was her adventure.
)-0-(
Sinon huffed as they stepped onto the road from «Thief's Pass». The whole thing had been a disappointment. They hadn't come across a single Xylote the whole way up, and they were already halfway down the mountain. Granted, that meant that they would have plenty of time to complete the mission, but Sinon had been so excited about this mountain pass and nothing had happened. Even the conversation with Jace had been relatively boring; he had been so focused on watching the path ahead that he hadn't even noticed when she'd thrown random phrases into the conversation (such as banana, quokka, African salt miner).
At around 8:00 PM, the duo arrived at a small forest with a winding dirt path. It flowed like a tiny stream through the forest, snaking its way around the brush and trees much like an old country road back in Japan. Sinon had to admit, it was a frightening looking area with the dead black trees that scratched against each other in the shallow breeze. She unconsciously inched closer to Jace, feeling comfort as soon as she had come close the boy.
"Well, we're here," Jace sighed. "The «Black Forest»."
The «Black Forest» was by far the scariest area that Sinon had been in. Even the «Lunar Mines» didn't scare her as much as the glade she currently stood before. Perhaps it was because she could see the enemy, perhaps it was because Jace thought he knew what he was up against in the mine, perhaps it was because even the sun hid behind the clouds when they arrived at the edge of the grove. But now, as Sinon and Jace entered the forest, she wished that she could see through the thick, murky branches, or at least that Jace had told her what could come from the shadows of the foliage.
"I wonder what's in here," Jace wondered aloud, taking a courageous step inside the forest.
Sinon whimpered and grabbed Jace's hand. "Wait!" she screamed, looking just as surprised as Jace when he turned around. Quickly she blurted out the first thing on her mind. "It's spooky in there."
Immediately Sinon looked down at the dirt path in front of her and felt her cheeks growing warm. Of all the adjectives to describe the forest–eerie, creepy, sketchy, terrifying, horrific, grotesque, even scary–she had chosen the most childish word in the entire dictionary: spooky.
Thankfully, it didn't look like Jace had picked up on–or at least chosen to criticize– her choice of words. He merely glanced back at the tree-line, scanning it for god-knows-what. "It's not too bad, really," he said looking back at Sinon's astonished expression. "I mean, I'm not saying I'd like to build a summer home here, but the trees are actually quite lovely."
Sinon shook her head in disbelief, shocked that the boy was so calm while staring this monstrous fortress of pitch-dark wood down. The girl hadn't even thought about entering, and Jace was already waist deep in black brush and brambles. How was she supposed to just shut off her fears like Jace did when she was somewhere this damn creepy?
She tried to call for him, but for some reason, her throat wouldn't let her. Inside her head, she could feel Shino tearing from her shackles, breaking from the prison she had been trapped in, pushing Sinon out of the way and locking the warrior inside of the cage. Her voice came out in a near whisper, shaky and breathy. "Jace," she called quietly to the boy, desperation apparent in her quivering breaths.
She knew Jace had turned around and was looking at her, but she refused to look up from the ground. The boy walked over to her and put two fingers under her chin, causing her to fidget, but not quite recoil. The boy angled her chin up so that he could look into her eyes. She tried to ignore it, but she just couldn't help but look at him. His deep green eyes were piercing soulfully into hers, and she couldn't keep the heat in her cheeks from rising further. She could feel her heartbeat in her ears, and she was sure that she was sweating everywhere. The only sounds were the cricketing chirps of a few «Martial Mantises».
"I'll be right here," Jace said. "Nothing will hurt you while I'm around. I promise, Sinon."
Shino felt an electrical shiver race down her spine as the boy's deep voice reached her ears. It was an experience she'd never felt before, except for once when a boy she had liked said that she looked nice that day. But this was different. She didn't like Jace, she was just horribly scared of the forest and Jace's voice was comforting to her. That was normal with any friend; Kyouji had comforted her with his presence plenty of times before, and she thought of him more as an acquaintance. Jace was a true friend of hers. And it was perfectly normal to grab a friend's hand when one was afraid, Shino decided, grabbing Jace's hand.
Jace walked forward with Shino slowly, hand in hand as the girl peeked around his shoulder. The girl snuck quietly behind him, taking care to only step in his footsteps like it would make Monsters go away. They continued walking through the forest for what felt to Sinon like twenty minutes, although she knew it could have only been around five.
Shino glanced up at Jace fearfully. The way he just stared ahead was so… strong. There was nothing that he seemed to be afraid of. During his battle with «Jeer-Lan», she had watched him stare at the Sergeant while he prepared to fight to the death. That was the kind of strength that she logged in to find, that was the strength that she needed to become Sinon in her everyday life. That was what she wanted to become.
When she looked down, she found that they were arriving at a clearing. In the clearing was a small trailer with a page attached to the door: the object that set the mission in motion. The mission started as soon as a Squadron member picked up the page. There were many scattered in the «Black Forest», and each one seemed to get more and more frightening. Only when all of them were collected would one be able to gather the hints as to where the item that ended the mission was. As Jace stepped forward to the page, she looked at his face, seeing that it was one of discomfort.
"Sinon," Jace said quietly. "Out of all the missions in the Beta Test, this mission was the hardest one. The Boss is almost impossible to defeat, and you literally have to ignore him to survive long enough to complete the mission. I'm giving this option to back out, not out of fear, but because you are smart. There is a difference in running and retreating, and this would be the latter."
Shino felt a chill run through her back for the second time in the past ten minutes, but this time the feeling was completely different. She felt like something was watching her from the trees, sizing her up and evaluating if she would be a good meal or not. It was a terrifying feeling. But Sinon had already decided the answer. This was necessary. Inside of her head, Shino retreated back into the prison, allowing Sinon to step forward and speak out loud. "Let's roll," she said, putting on her icy mask once more.
Jace picked up the page and turned it to show Sinon. In large, scratchy letters was the phrase "HELP ME" underlined three times. Sinon then noticed a timer appear on the screen. The numbers began to decrease and Sinon realized it was counting down from 15 minutes. Beside the timer, there was a small note that said "1/4" with a sheet of paper to its left.
Jace looked troubled. "Sinon," he said quietly, beginning to walk forward to a crossroad in the middle of the clearing, looking betwixt the three routes in what appeared to be the subtlest hint of fear. "This was never a timed mission. They changed it, just like in «Lunar Cave» and I'm not sure that we'll be able to do this."
The look in Jace's eyes horrified Sinon, but she tried her best to ignore the quaking in her stomach. "We pick the path to the left," she said, walking past him. "The «Black Forest» is ovular, so if we head clockwise, we should be able to work the mission in a logical way. The main landmarks will most likely be on the paths, meaning the pages will probably be there as opposed to random trees in the forest."
As soon as she finished her sentence, she heard something akin to static. Jace must have heard it to because he turned to Sinon quickly. "Whatever you do, don't look at anything that you see. Look for the pages, but don't search for anything in the distance. If you do, it'll attack."
"What will?" Sinon asked, her heart pounding in her chest. "What will attack me?"
Just then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a freakishly tall figure through the trees, edging closer. It made no effort to hide, just seemingly gliding forward. The only reason she could see it was because its skin was so pale. It contrasted infinitely to its black suit, but the white shirt was the thing that stood out the most–or second most rather. The thing that stood out the most was that it had no face. It didn't show you faintest trace of a pair of eyes, there was no crack in its jaw to form a mouth, no pink to color its lips. It didn't even have a nose; the Monster's head was literally just a white ellipsoid–shadowed, pale, and horribly featureless.
Sinon's eyes snapped shut and she turned away. "It's over there," she whispered in terror.
"Don't look at it," he said, hurrying forward along the path to another small clearing with a smallish blue truck. "Just focus on grabbing the pages and running from the «Slenderman». If you don't look at it, it doesn't attack. If you do, it's all over."
Sinon nodded and opened her eyes, looking down at the path. "Jace, the forest is an oval right? So if we go clockwise, there's less of a chance of us getting lost," she suggested.
"Right," Jace agreed, turning to dash down the path farthest to the left. "There should be a broken down semi in the next area, hopefully there will be a page there!"
The two dashed, heads to the ground down the path to the next clearing. The tanker was there alright, along with a single page stuck to its side. Along the top was the phrase "Always Watches", scrawled in dark letters followed by a circle with two X's at the sides. Underneath, the words "no eyes" were scratched under the drawing. She had only seen the Field Boss once, and it had already become her worst nightmare. And she still had two pages to go according to the quest marker in the upper right-hand corner of her vision. So Sinon made an executive decision to ignore reason and instead sprinted away down the first path she saw.
"Wait, Sinon!" Jace called, but Sinon had already scurried about 50 meters from his position. She could hear her breath coming in shallow gasps that only made her heart-rate rise faster. And the sight of a creepy building in front of her only made it that much worse.
The structure in front of her was a simple one, square and made of rust colored bricks. There was an open doorway–the door had long since been ripped off its hinges evidently, as there was a single hinge still connected to the doorframe at the top–that showed a dirty floor with many dirty-colored spots. Red was prominent, and Sinon sincerely hoped that she was not seeing blood spatters all over the floor. Of course, the way it seemed to gleam in the moonlight made it almost certainly evident that the red on the floor was a liquid, but a girl could hope, couldn't she?
Sinon had bolted inside of the open hall and pressed her body against a wall, waiting for Jace to come into the room when she realized why the atmosphere was so frightening. Other than her footsteps, breaths, and pounding heartbeat, the «Black Forest» was silent as the grave. The animals had stopped calling out, proclaiming their life. The only noises in the world came from Jace and Sinon, and every noise they made was fear embodied by sound.
Jace ran through the door, interrupting the girl of her thoughts. "Sinon, you can't just run off like that!" he hissed. "I barely knew where you went!"
"Sorry," Sinon muttered, trying to clear her head. "I just saw this path and figured it would be a good place to go. At least now we have a shelter."
But it was more than that, Sinon realized, running a hand through her icy hair. This wasn't just a building. There was a large likelihood that there was a page in the corridors of the small building. All she had to do was walk around the corners. And maybe, if she got the third page, it would lure the boss in closer.
"Well now we're sitting ducks," Jace muttered. "He's invincible until we get the fourth page. The only chance that we have is to get the page and run out."
Sinon felt her stomach lurch. If they were to find a page in here, they would be trapped. The Field Boss would find them in here and they would just be crystal shards in the air. "Well, there are only four pages," she said. "What are the odds that it'll be in here?"
"It's right behind your head Sinon," Jace answered, snatching a page from behind her head. Sinon would have been embarrassed, or maybe even laughed, but the situation was a traumatic one and the boy gave her no time to worry about it. "Listen, the «Slenderman» will only go after one of us. If we find it and then split up, one of us will probably survive. I'll distract it while you look for the last page. All you have to do is get the page, Sinon. Can you do that?"
The girl nodded and took a deep breath. "Yeah, I can do this."
Jace peeked outside the doorframe, scanning the surrounding area for life. It appeared that he found none, because he turned back to Sinon. As soon as he turned, however the boy's face turned white as if he had seen a ghost. The girl turned to find the «Slenderman» right behind her.
Sinon froze, staring at the massive figure in front of her. She now had a good look at the figure that was her worst nightmare. It was dressed in a white shirt covered by a black suit and tie. It easily stood at eight feet tall and had to crouch just to fit in the room. It had long arms that were thin as rails and had to be as tall as Sinon was herself and legs to match. It had defined cheekbones, but those were the only features present on his ghostly white face–no eyes, nose, mouth, ears, or hair of any kind. And what scared her even more was that he had tentacles that were growing from his back, extra arms that just slithered through the air like serpents.
One of the hands reached towards her slowly. Everything inside of Sinon screamed at her, yelled at her, told her to run, but there was nothing that she could do. Her legs seemed to be frozen in place, locked and rigid where she stood. As the serpentine arm snaked toward her, Sinon saw static beginning to pass in front of her eyes. She knew that this was the end, she could see her SP falling steadily, but for some reason it didn't register with her.
A bullet flying past Sinon's ear snapped her out of her trance. Instantly, the bullet found its mark in the tentacle of an arm that was reaching for Sinon, causing the Field Boss to recoil. The static stopped and Sinon found the ability to run. She fled out the door, not turning back. But as she reached the tree-line, a thought struck her like lightning.
Jace was still inside.
She was about to run inside when Jace emerged from the door, facing backwards and shooting a barrage of bullets into the chest of the «Slenderman» with a pistol. The monster continued to slowly creep forward anyway, despite the invisible hammer that crashed against its body with every shot Jace made. As he reloaded, the boy turned to Sinon and shouted "Run!"
Sinon stood there for a moment. She couldn't just leave Jace. He might have been good, but he wouldn't survive. On the other hand, she had no chance of fighting the Field Boss, and just as Jace had said, his bullets did nothing to the monster's HP. Their only chance was for Sinon to find the last page.
So Sinon turned and darted away from the boy, toward another path that winded around the building toward an array of large tanks of gasoline, gray and plain. If she could find a page here, she would be able to run back and help Jace. If not, she would have to pick another path before the time ran out–oh shit.
Sinon glanced up at the clock and found that they only had five minutes until the timer reached zero. Did they have to find the page in five minutes, Sinon wondered, or kill the Boss? If it was the last one, Sinon was sure that they would fail the mission–and maybe die. Even if it was the first, the girl still only had but five minutes to find the page.
Sinon hurried to the tanks and ran through the rows, desperately searching for a page. Every second that she spent drove an iron nail of fear through the girl's heart, but she couldn't just dash away until she was sure the page wasn't there.
At four minutes, Sinon began crawling, checking the bottoms of the tanks. All she could find was a wrapper that burst into shards as soon as she reached for it. It definitely wasn't in the array of tanks. But there was no path leading from the tanks anywhere else! Where was she supposed to go? There was nowhere else to look!
At two minutes, Sinon began desperately searching the edge of the forest for some sign of a path. Surely there would be a break in the trees like there was where she and Jace emerged in front of the building? But as she scoured the edge of the forest, she found nothing. But there was a hill with something gray just beyond it; maybe some kind of concrete structure?
At one minute, Sinon realized that the structure was a tunnel. If the page wasn't there, all was lost. She sprinted at the tunnel and dove inside. She hit the inside in a roll and stood, looking down the tunnel. Her eyes had not adjusted to the darkness of the tunnel. But she saw the page at ten seconds and began sprinting.
Five… four… three… two… one…
As soon as the timer reached zero, Sinon tore the page off of the wall. The page counter reached four and the timer faded away. Now she had to go back and help Jace defeat the Boss. A beep from her earpiece signaled that the boy was sending her a message over the Squadron Assist. She eagerly accepted and awaited for the voice. A loading screen came up in front of her and after a few seconds of silence, she heard the boy's voice: "I lost him, Sinon."
The menu disappeared and Sinon saw the shape of a tall figure dressed in black. She started and stumbled backwards, falling into the cold puddles on the tunnel with a splashing sound. But the water wasn't nearly as cold as the feeling she got from the monster as she felt her legs locking again. She could hear distant static and knew that this could be the end. But she got one last message over the Squadron Assist. She absentmindedly opened it, watching the «Slenderman» glide closer every second.
"I believe in you, Sinon," came the voice of Jace from the small menu.
A fire ignited in the girl's heart and she stood, pulling out her «New Tech Sturmgewehr» and raising it to the Field Boss's head. She watched the «Aiming Circle» shrink steadily until it was the size of a needle, just over the center of the monster's head. Her finger brushed the trigger and she saw the muzzle flash white hot as she launched the first bullet at the monster's ugly white head. It connected and the monster's head whipped back from the force of the small resulting explosion. The «Slenderman's» first HP bar dipped by about 5%.
She kept shooting, stepping backwards with every bullet to keep the distance between the two at a maximum. Every one of the incendiary bullets chipped away at the monster's health until Sinon fired the last bullet in her gun at the Field Boss, At that point, the first HP bar vanished and the «Slenderman» grew a multitude of tentacles that swarmed around him wildly, almost like a shield, blocking her from scoring critical hits.
A tentacle darted at Sinon and smashed against her chest sending her sprawling backwards, her shield depleted completely. She gritted her teeth anyway and got up, arms quivering under stress. Another tentacle flew at her but the girl swatted it away with the barrel of her Light Rifle. She didn't have long before the Boss would strike again; what she needed to do was get away until Jace could find her. Sinon blocked one more tentacle and then bounded away.
"Jace!" She yelled as she emerged from the tunnel. "It's over here!"
But there was no answer to her cry as the «Slenderman» emerged once more from the tunnel, arms slithering through the winter air. The Field Boss slung one of them at Sinon, cracking it against her stomach like a whip. The girl skidded backwards, anchoring herself by the toes so as not to fall. She wished that she could do the same with her HP, but she couldn't stop it until it fell just above the halfway point.
Sinon cartwheeled to the right to avoid another tentacle, shooting one of the monster's arms clean off of his back. Sinon estimated the drop in HP at roughly ten percent, which gave her an idea. She began to shoot at the «Slenderman's» arms, cutting them off from the sheer force of the impact, and eventually got the boss down by another HP bar.
Sinon went to reload and found that she was out of ammo for the Light Rifle. Fortunately, she had cut off most of the Field Boss's tentacle arms, so there was much less of a threat of being killed. The Boss pulled out two pistols from his suit jacket as the second HP bar disappeared, wielding them in its shorter, more normally-placed arms. He shot a bullet that grazed Sinon's left cheek as she rolled away, dipping her HP bar to the yellow–right at half of her HP.
Sinon pulled out her sniper, the «Pyrolith Giat», as she got up, throwing herself to the side. Using a sniper at close range like this was terribly risky, but she had no other option. She pulled up the gun to her eyes and aimed as she flew through the air, watching as her «Aiming Circle» shrank to the size of a dinner plate. She knew she would hit the ground before she could shoot if she waited any longer, so she fired two bursts. As she hit the ground, she heard the sound of sizzling flesh, the scream of a Photon bullet proclaiming that it had hit its mark. It still had half of its third HP bar, but Sinon could tell that the battle was not as one-sided as she had originally thought it would be.
The Field Boss raised its arms, aiming the guns at Sinon and fired them, one after the other. Sinon felt the bullets whizzing past her face; one even caught one of her hairs and cut it in two. But as she focused harder and harder on dodging the bullets, she lost track of a tentacle in the corner of her vision. By the time that she noticed it, it was already in her gut, sending her rolling end over end until smacking against a tree. Her HP bar dwindled slowly until it stopped with a tiny red triangle in the upper left-hand corner.
Sinon tried to push herself and managed to prop herself against the back of the tree trunk, but her gun was about fifteen feet away under one of the many dead bushes in the «Black Forest». The girl felt her heart start to race and realized she was about to hyperventilate. This was the end. After fighting and surviving for a month, she was going to die at the numerous disfigured hands of the «Slenderman». Static filled her vision as a tentacle reached forward to the girl's face, and she felt the same icy coldness from before.
"Oi, Slendy!" came a voice from above.
The Field Boss looked up, returning Sinon's sight. The girl also looked up to find Jace standing in the branches. Instantly a barrage of bullets came down from above, riddling the Field Boss's body, who fell backwards and continued traveling backward for a moment until he used his hands to drag himself to a stop before leaping to the side and dodging the boy's bullets.
Sinon was drinking a health potion when a realization suddenly struck her like lightning. The Boss hadn't dodged any of the bullets she shot, but it was maneuvering around almost every bullet Jace was shooting. Could it have been that the Boss was only programmed to dodge bullets from automatic fire? It would raise the difficulty of the mission and make it so that only skilled players could play the mission in a simple and effective way. Maybe, as a sniper, Sinon was the only chance that the duo had at surviving. She dashed forward to her «Photon Giat» and picked it up, quickly aiming it at one of the «Slenderman's» arms. She then took a deep breath and pulled back her arm, activating a sniper skill, «Spearhead Shot».
Instantly, Sinon's vision gained a green tint, as if she was looking through night vision goggles. The Field Boss was a different hue, as if a yellow gel had been put in front of the girls eyes in the ever-changing shape of the «Slenderman». Three targets in a shade of luminescent red came into existence after the colors locked into place. Each of them swiveled into place to rest at one of the monster's tentacles, before becoming white. Sinon saw–no, it was more of a soulful feeling–the muzzle of her gun light up three times and then her vision returned to normal, just in time to see the blue streaks that marked where her bullets were carving through the air and the «Slenderman's» arms.
The suited monster froze, standing silently for a brief moment in time as its HP fell slowly. The final bar dropped slowly, shrinking smaller and smaller until there was nothing left. Then, in a flurry of blue shimmering prisms, it burst apart and died.
All was silent as the "Congratulations" message popped up in front of Sinon. She looked through the items that she was rewarded and found nothing of any value except for one strange item that she had never heard about before: a «Slentacle». She also found a note on the inside of the monster's jacket. She silently read it to herself.
"O slayer of Slenderman, beware.
Your time is coming, so do prepare,
For the very next mission, you now have achieved.
There is only one way to keep loved ones from grief,
For now you must acquire these items three:
The Slentacle, dropped from a Boss like a tree,
An Urn from the beast in Stromcall's sewer
And three small silver coins in the «Heifer's» manure.
In the heart of Babel, deliver these things
To the man in «The Armory» who wears seven rings.
If you give him these items and listen to all of his rabble,
You'll go down in history as the Ghillie of Babel."
"That wasn't too tough," Jace said after a moment. The look he acquired from Sinon, however, was more than enough to shut him up for the rest of the night, even as they teleported back to «Asfos» to spend the night in a well-deserved inn room. The two said not so much as a word as they went to bed, and Sinon found that she had fallen asleep before her head hit the pillow.
Author's Notes
Sorry guys! I was out of state yesterday and couldn't post the chapter, but hopefully it won't be too late. From here on in, however, I have decided to just post the chapter when they're finished, not wait for a certain schedule.
I'm going to do the Author's Notes backwards this time because I feel like it'll be easier. We'll start with the fact that I used Slenderman, then get to the coding, the changes from the original game, the Thief's Pass, Ashley, and the dirty joke.
Yes, I used Slender as the inspiration for the Boss. I thought it would be cool, and I like how it turned out (even though Slendy wouldn't fit in very well on a planet run by homoreptilliae). For those of you who do not know what Slender is about, it is about a monster called the Slenderman. The player starts in a forest and walks around trying to find all eight pages. It's really hard and REALLY spooky if you play it in the dark. I recommend it highly.
The whole thing about the coding of the mission? Basically, the Slenderman is programmed to attempt to dodge any and every bullet fired from a gun set on automatic. Many of the noobs use LMGs and just spray, hoping to hit the target. By dodging the bullets, it makes the mission more difficult for the player, raising the difficulty without actually changing the entire mission.
Originally, there are twice as many pages in the game, but that would have made it very difficult to write (including the boss fight) while still getting close to the targeted story length and not screwing up the plan for the next chapter (guys the next chapter is planned!). It is also not timed in the game, but–again–it helped with the plan.
The Thief's Pass will come back at some point and it's going to be awesome ahhhh.
Ashley is a real character, not an OC. I have not read the Light Novels or watch the Manga, so I have no clue whether or not I'm getting her character right or if I'm just being completely OOC. As a side-note, I don't plan to make this a lemon (unless it's maybe a KiritoxAsuna Chapter 16.5 deal); the comment about the saucy (or spicy or whatever) underwear is used sheerly to emphasize how innocent Sinon is and to (possibly) generate some gentle laughs.
As for Jace's dirty joke and the way Sinon reacted, it's not amoment for a ship to be born. Jace as we read more with Jace you'll find that he has a very complex personality and a skewed sense of humor. His and Sinon's innocence levels will clash a fair amount. And again, Sinon's reaction is a wee bit comical. *devilish smile*
That's all for this chapter other than the Game Data. So thank you for reading! I have enough OC's to last for a while, so the contest is over. I appreciate all of the applicants. I will pull the chosen ones into the Second Crusade and they will get minor character spotlights. And last but not least, please don't forget to review! I love getting reviews, even ones that are negative. Thank you for your time again.
Aiming Circle- The circle where a bullet may land in that appears if the player aims down the sights.
SMG- Sub Machine Gun.
Xylotes- The most common mob in Aincrad.
SP- Shield Points.
Aincrad- The planet in which GWO is set.
Col- The currency of the IGAF.
MT- Mobile Teleporter.
Xylose- The written language of the Xylotes.
Sergeant- The equivalent to a boss in a regular mmorpg.
Clearing- The equivalent of a Boss Raid
Sinon's Game Data
Level: 22
HP: 1300 (200+50xlvl=HP, where lvl=level)
Col: 113,743
Main Equipment
Pyrolith Giat- Sniper Rifle ideal for players under level 32. Real counter-part, FR Giat.
New Tech Sturmgewehr- Light Rifle ideal for players under level 24. Real counter-part, STG Sturmgewehr.
Sexy Commando Outfit- A green, black and white outfit made by Ashley.
Mk II Kevlar Field- Low-level Energy shield that can be purchased in Base Camp.
Skill Slots: 9
Skills (Basic 0-249 pts, Advanced 250-499 pts, Proficient 500-749 pts, Expert 750-999 pts, Master 1000 pts)
Sniper Rifle- Makes the user more efficient with Sniper Rifles. 431
Light Rifle- Makes the user more efficient with Light Rifles. 154
Steady Aim- Shrinks the Aiming Circle by default, raising accuracy. 407
Night Vision- Gives the user the ability to see in the dark. 201
Hawkeye- Reduces the distance effect (zooming in) and increases visual identification rate. 94
First Aid- Allows the user to quickly treat wounds, restoring HP. 93
Cooking- Assists the user in the art of cooking. 42
Unarmed- Makes the user more efficient with hand to hand combat. 201
Tracking- Allows the user to track mobs–and people–more easily. 131