A/N: One more time! There will crossover cameos so that otherwise boring background characters who aren't really important to the story will have some form of consistent personality. Deal with it or stop reading. You have been warned. In addition, this is an AU based on the Hollow Fragment continuity and Girls Ops manga. Note that last bit, it is very important. Otherwise, just do an [SAO] wiki search for someone named 'Lux'. Seriously how has no one heard of the wonderful, wonderful Lux?
Beware scatological references. You have been warned. Oh, and Suguha nailed herself to Kazuto like a two by four. Seriously.
Well, maybe not.
Or maybe… ?
….
Living Outside the Database
by Shadow Crystal Mage
Chapter 3: THIS IS CLEARLY KIBAOU'S FAULT! KILL HIM!
Disclaimer: Log Horizon and Sword Art Online are both antithetical to each other and combining them should go like matter and anti-matter. I like blowing things up. Hence why I'm doing this. Also, I own neither series. Also, has anyone read Sword Art Online Girl Ops?
….
Don't Worry, It's Argo!
Argo wondered what it said about her that she took the transition so smoothly.
When… whatever… had happened two days go during the [Elder Tale] update, she'd been in the field checking out rumors that some old, commercial tie-in quests had stealthily been put back in place with the serial numbers filed off. So far she had confirmed the [Variant Excalibur] quest, the [Returning Mighty Shield] quest, the [All-Killing Revolver] quest and the [Orange Armor] quest had been returned, renamed and likely with some slight cosmetic changes to the final item so that they wouldn't have to pay royalties. Argo had even finished the [Returning Mighty Shield] quest since she'd luckily had the right items in her inventory, coming away with a nice new round shield whose special property let it be thrown around like a boomerang, even if she couldn't equip it. She was just confirming that, yes, the [White Cat-Rabbit Thing] NPC that gave the variant [Mahou Shoujo] subclass– the one that gave you strange stats more in line with the vampire subclass than a spellcasting class– was to be found in one of the 5 random locations after activating the quest when weirdness had happened.
When she found herself waking up in a semi-ruined, overgrown Akihabara, she had sat there for maybe half an hour before rousing herself, dusting herself off, and seeing what information there was to be had.
It all felt so distressingly familiar. So perversely comfortable, like a familiar routine she hadn't done in a while but whose motions she could do with her eyes closed. Face down, not making eye-contact but scanning everything, her hood pulled down low to obscure her face, Argo had wandered, trying to pass through all the [zones] of the hub city to try and get the most accurate view of the general opinion.
Most of it boiled down to [WTF Just Happened?-!].
Many were going around engaging in perfectly normal Akihabara behavior.
Some were crying in addition to being confused and afraid, and Argo noted a disproportionate number of them seemed to have very small avatars…
And a few, a bare few, maybe a two or three in each area, were going with [DAMN IT, KAYABA! NOT AGAIN!].
Argo took special note of those players and extra care not to be seen. She'd have bet money they'd recognize her on sight, and it wasn't sound business sense to advertise yourself when there were still no products for sale. It just needlessly frustrated customers.
So she did what she always did and searched for product.
She did not find it where she thought she would.
Who would have thought she could make so much money using her [Scribe] class to make [toilet paper]?
This new deathgame certainly had some disgusting mechanics.
….
The Thing Not Usually Included In A Game? It's In This One
Some time after her first experience with the, in her words, 'badly designed' hunger mechanic, Yui found herself undertaking toilet training for the very first time.
Everyone agreed it was an absolutely disgusting mechanic to add to a game, even a deathgame, and clearly their new tormentor (who had still not bothered to show himself) was a skeezy, disgusting pervert with weird fetishes. The exclamations of 'Damn it, Kayaba!' were almost longing. At least he hadn't been a disgusting pervert. The most excessive he had been in-game– besides the aforementioned deathgame, of course– had the proliferation of ramen carts at all levels. Since some of the ramen had actually been good– some of them actually had flavor, which made it an infinity +1 step above the ramen available in this game!– it wasn't something they added to Kayaba's [con column], and thus generally ignored.
Fortunately, Yui had been paying extra attention to her own status since the 'badly designed' hunger debuff had afflicted her that morning, and had been able to warn ahead of time that some kind of unlisted counter was filling. What followed… will not be uttered here, as even this evil chronicler has standards. All that will be said was that no one's dignity was compromised, although some awkwardness had ensued, and the benefits of big leaves was recognized and discussed. Whether it was utilized will be unlisted.
"I take it back, papa," Yui said once the ordeal was finished and they had moved off a ways. "This is the most badly designed mechanic in this system, with the hunger mechanic a close second." Despite the recent trauma, Kirito had to struggle not to smile like a loon at the very cute 'determined' face Yui put on. "We'll need to be careful to avoid these [debuffs]. I'll have to check my [spell list] to see what can get rid of their effects."
Kirito almost didn't have the heart. Almost. "Yui," he said, sounding sad. Yui looked up sharply. As gently as possible, he continued, "If whoever programmed this deathgame modeled those mechanics as accurately as he could… then there's no doing that. Removing one [debuff] will instantly lead to another."
Yui's face turned an interesting shade of pale and Kirito straightened abruptly as Yui let loose a vile and disgusting expletive he hadn't known his cute and innocent little girl knew.
"[Rule34]!" Yui swore.
….
When In Shibuya…
"It's getting bad out there, Asuna," Klein reported with a grimace. "It's not like what happened in [SAO]. Most people are just sort of sitting around, but there are plenty who seem to be picking fights. We saw [Royal Guard] show up a couple of times. Some people got killed."
Asuna winced. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's kinda hard to miss when a mecha beats a guy so hard his whole [HP Bar] goes down in two hits," Klein said. "And they turned to sparkles. No one turns to sparkles unless it's [game over]."
Asuna frowned, one hand going down to her new rapier for reassurance. As [Equipment] went, it was actually a fairly high-level one for her level range, since more powerful weapons had level restrictions she didn't meet yet, but it was a rapier and one that fit smoothly in her hand. Klein had given it to her, saying it was a drop he'd picked up before [SAO] that he'd never gotten around to getting rid off. She was fairly certain he'd picked it up for her recently. He was really sweet. Not her type, but sweet, especially when he wasn't trying so hard to impress. "Why though? I mean, why turn on each other so soon? We're all in this together, aren't we?"
"Maybe they don't see it like that," Issin, who had accompanied Klein on their scouting run, said. "We shouldn't assume things will turn out the same way it did in [SAO]. For one thing, all the starting conditions are different."
"What do you mean?" Asuna said. She'd found it was good to say things like that instead of just nodding.
"Well, in [SAO] everyone started from the same place, on the same level," Issin said. "Never mind the bullshit about [beta testers] having an edge. Plus we had a goal: get to the 100th floor and beat the boss to get out. Here, we've got people from all levels, all with different gear, different amounts of starting cash, different everything. We've got pre-established guilds, multiple starting points, and no goal. We have absolutely no clue how to get out. At least Kayaba told us what we had to do and he always played straight with us. Mostly. If something doesn't change, we're going to dissolve into anarchy."
Asuna and Klein winced as Issin mentioned the elephant in the MMORPG. So far, no one had taken credit. Unlike last time, there was no giant hooded figure floating beneath a sky that bled digital blood, no convenient villainous exposition. Hell, unlike with Sugou at the upper floors of [Aincrad], there wasn't even a ridiculously overpowered new person they could definitely point and say, 'That guy is suspiciously overpowered! He must be a GM account!'. With many people at [level 90], that was like looking for a needle in a haystack, and they didn't have the option to use magnets.
"Damn Kayaba," Klein said, sounding strangely wistful. "Items for sale are starting to disappear too. Either their owners are pulling them out from the resale [NPCs] or everyone is buying everything they can get their hands on. Maybe both. Though there's still plenty of food available."
"That is not food," Asuna said, in the tone of a one who had maxed out the cooking skill and had managed to make soy sauce from scratch.
Klein and Issin took a wary step back. "The [NPCs] don't seem to be running out of fruits, so we should be fine there, too," Issin said. "A bunch of guilds were recruiting. We got a lot of dirty looks in some places. I think they were afraid we'd scoop up their recruits."
"Guild rivalry," Asuna groaned, rubbing her forehead. "Fantastic."
"Actually, they're more like gangs," Klein said. "Shibuya doesn't have a [Guild Hall], and everyone's too afraid to try and use the [Fairy Rings] to get to Akiba, so they're pretty much grouping together as color gangs. If we had spray paint, we'd already have gang graffiti marking turf."
"We know there's been fighting for who gets to use which field zones," Issin added. "Which makes sense, I guess. People are hogging the best places to level up. No one seems to be making outright [Player Killer] guilds yet, though."
Asuna became very conscious of the fact she was still [level 1]. All she had was one basic [Skill] that she didn't even really need. What good was getting a greater defensive bonus for using a shield when she never used the damned things?
Klein seemed to know what she was thinking. "Asuna-chan, you really need to see about leveling up. All those [EXP Potions] you've been getting won't do you any good if you can't use them." There was a pause. "What do they taste like, anyway? I always figured they were grape-juice flavored."
"The flavor-engine is bugged in this deathgame, remember?" Asuna said. "It tastes like plain water." She paused. "Though I suppose it could be worse. It could taste like distilled water. Look, forget about my level. What else?"
The two members of Fuurinkazan looked at each other. "Asuna-san, I think we better get ready to defend ourselves," Issin said. "We might have boxed ourselves into a corner without realizing it."
Asuna frowned. That sounded… ominous. "Go on," she said.
"Look, mostly it's been threats and posturing in the city because it's a [Safe Zone]," Issin said, though he seemed reluctant to apply the word. "They can't do anything without [Royal Guard] showing up to kick their asses. But the [Ancient Stadium] is a [PVP] area. [Royal Guard] don't show up here. There's no system in place to stop us getting attacked."
Asuna paled, turning around involuntarily to look at the kids. The three vampire kids were, with difficulty, trying to stay up, but their daytime debuffs still seemed beyond their power to shake off. At least they weren't thirsting for blood or actually taking damage from sunlight. Many of the others were messing around with their skills, with various older but occasionally lower-level player nervously supervising them. A part of her wanted to exclaim in horror that they had kids, and who would dare do such a thing. A colder part of her, the Commander of the Knights of Blood, knew damned well that wouldn't really stop anyone. Quite the contrary, in fact. Kids were very annoying.
"Pass the word around, quietly," Asuna said, unconsciously lowering her voice. "Have the tank builds ready to secure the entrance points so we can buy time to get into position. And set someone out to scout. Tamagogo, maybe, she's fast. I want warning if anyone even thinks of coming our way."
No one messed with the [Clearers]. It was time to introduce that concept into this new world.
….
The Blood of Battle Is Thicker Than The Water Of The Womb…
It did not take long to re-accustom themselves to fighting. They just found a field no one was using and went nuts. There were several false starts, since someone would stumble in the middle of an attack, their rhythm thrown as the [System Assist] that had used to take over in [SAO] didn't. Fortunately, between Leefa and Yui they had more than enough healing capability to survive it. Kirito, of course, being the combat focused loner that he was, was the first to get over the instinct to rely on [System Assist], simply continuing the movements as he remembered them, in a strange form of muscle memory.
"Is it still muscle memory when no actual muscles were involved at any point?" Lisbeth later asked while they took a brief break.
"I have no idea," Sinon said. "I'm a sniper, not whatever doctorate degree you need to answer that question."
"I thought you were a [Bard]?" Leafa said.
"I'm mostly taking the archery-boosting skills," Sinon said.
"Yeah, well, watch out," Lisbeth said. "This isn't [SAO] anymore. You're not the only one in the game who can use a bow!"
"Yes, [Assassins] like Kirito can as well," Sinon said. "Unlike [Kannagi] and [Guardians]. It'll be something we'll share, just the two of us…"
Blonde and pink eyebrows twitched in annoyance. "Onii-chan's not the bow type," Leafa said, somewhat weakly.
During this they ascertained that one of the changes their still-unknown evil deathgame mastermind had made was removing the [pain absorption], meaning everything hurt a lot more than they were used to. [SAO] had some pain, but it was never anything worse than the equivalent of a light slap or pressing down hard on your skin with a finger nail and scratching. Kirito, who had once had his hand cut off, said that losing sensation in his hand afterwards had been worse. Here, the pain was all pretty intense, but had a strange logic to it. The pain seemed to correlate with what percentage of their [HP] had just been lost. Losing one [HP] was barely an itch. Losing, say, 10 percent felt like a serious blow. Losing more…
Kirito had done that strong, silent, broody action-hero thing he did that was simultaneously annoying as hell and a real turn-on as Yui healed him.
Healing felt strange, but pleasantly so. It was like going into a just-right air conditioned room on a hot summer day, and the coolness washed into your hot muscles, sinking in and leaving them refreshed. It was like being dirty and taking a bath, all the ick just washing away. It was like a good defragmenting and memory cleaning, all the useless temp files getting deleted and their slots ready to be reassigned.
"Yeah… we'll take your word for it, Yui-chan," Lisbeth said.
They'd eventually discovered that Leafa's damage-interception and defense-boosting [Kannagi] spells also granted a degree of [pain absorption], a fact that brought a degree of relief. It certainly made facing enemies easier, though it meant the battle order shifting to Leafa being in the rear, with Yui more likely to engage the mobs directly. Yui's dual-wielding shield build was surprisingly effective, and between her relatively high defense, her position and her high [HP], she asked for fewer damage-interception spells to relieve pain.
After the second night camping out, they were all relatively confident in their ability to protect themselves and use their skills. It was time to get on with business, in Kirito's mind.
Where.
Was.
Asuna?-!-?-!-?-!-?-!
….
The Battle For Shibuya
Asuna almost missed out on being attacked.
After having Klein and Issin get the word out to prepare for an attack, Asuna had gone over their inventory with one of the former middle-floor farming players, Drizzt2154, a currently [Level 63 Elf Druid] with a magic bag. Though theoretically available to anyone of high enough level who took the quest to gather the materials, they only had five in the group right then, one of which belonged to a little kid who had the look of a completist. All their purchased foodstuffs were currently in the other four bags, and every so often one of the kids– child or adult– would try to talk their keepers to give them just one apple, just to hold them off until lunch, please. Fortunately, the players were made of stern stuff backed by high-level equipment. People kept asking them for items all the time. This was no different.
During their discussion Drizzt2154-san had assured her that they had enough for a few more meals, but had been quietly disapproving that they had needed to actually buy their food from [NPCs]. Not only was it limiting, since they had to pay with [yoru], without any income it was also going to be bad for morale. Besides, as a farmer, it was always better to cut out the middle man and get your drops yourself. Asuna had been about to organize a small farming party to, at the very least, get more money for them, and perhaps see what drops were decently edible, while at the same time maybe finally get a little [EXP] under her belt, when one of the lookouts they'd posted had come running, yelling about how they 'had incoming'.
Asuna made a mental note to take what pseudo-military jargon everyone thought they knew and at least make a standardized list of meanings for her budding guild-esque group. She was 44% sure that wasn't how you used that phrase.
For a moment, her left hand gripped the rapier sheathed at her waist. While it was relatively strong equipment, it was made for players between levels 1 to 10, and thus kinda pathetic when viewed by anyone at twice that. Given how quickly Yui and Kirito had been racking up levels as she'd watched, she'd identified Elder Tale was relatively forgiving when it came to leveling up… but that wasn't much consolation given she hadn't had a chance to do so yet.
So, a fight at first level. Good sword, but starting gear everywhere else. Few [Skills], only one of which was offensive in nature, though the stat boost from [Fencer Style] worked very well with her equipment.
She tried to confidently tell herself this would merely make the fight an even one, but that was no help. Sportsmen might make a big deal of 'fair' fights being just and good, but gamers, and especially [Clearers], knew that the more things were tipped in your favor, the better. Everyone else was going to cheat, after all. The damned computer certainly would be.
The first order of business was getting the children somewhere safe. That was easier said than done, however. Half wanted to 'join in' and Asuna regretted being unable to stop them from using their [Skills]. Because the older players had been busy getting organized and dealing with the logistics of the situation, this ironically meant the children were more experienced than they were at using the combat system. Certainly they had learned to activate them quickly enough to be able to play act, yelling out spells and throwing them at each other. But given the point of this exercise was to not involve them, that was sort of self-defeating. Besides, Asuna was unsure how they'd hold up under pressure, but they'd definitely be bad at following orders.
They were gamers too, after all.
They were still trying to round up the children, with the three semi-conscious vampire players being carried, when the invasion arrived.
It was a very colorful gang. Their gear was in a wide variety of styles and colors, meaning they lacked a uniform appearance. A few, however, had the weird, gaudy look that typified high-level, rare equipment, and some that did lacked the ostentation. Player-crafted gear, hopefully.
Asuna had hoped they'd open with negotiation. Or at least, something they could draw out into negotiation. Posturing. Threats. Something.
Instead, the short player in heavy armor and ridiculously big sword in the lead smirked, crossed his arms and nodded. "Looks nice. We'll take it!"
Asuna stared at him, and after several moments calmly decided that testing death effects on him would still be immoral.
Perhaps.
"I don't remember them offering that as a hair option for your avatar," Klein said, voice and face both suddenly flat with dislike. Indeed, most of the members of his guild seemed to have the same expression.
"It's a helmet," Wasabi said conversationally, pulling out one of his elemental short swords from his inventory. "He just had it recolored. I recognize it. Decent stats, but not exactly something to wear unless you're farming. It just raises the gold [drop rate]."
"Greedy bastard," said another player whose gold count had long since surpassed the double digit billions.
Perhaps Asuna should have started with negotiations. Posturing. Threats. Something.
Instead, faced with the bastard who had made her boyfriend a self-made exile and byword for 'scum' for nearly two years, who'd taken a noble guild and turned it into his personal fascist goonsquad and extortion ring, whose very arrogance and stupidity in doing so had cost people their lives as they pretended to delusions of an incompetently run military that would have been the laughing stock of any 3rd world nation and the SCA, Asuna firmly protested this invasion by taking two steps forward and kicking Kibaou right in the crotch.
It is a very unfortunate fact that many video game armors were designed more for aesthetics over real-world utility, and thus tended to lack a codpiece. And that some hits were always critical.
So far, Asuna had found the current deathgame she was in completely lacking compared to the previous deathgame she'd been rapped in, which had at least been programmed by someone competent who had been meticulous about game balance, internal self-consistency, and giving his inmates some small comforts and good food. This deathgame had obviously never game through beta testing. The food tasted like shit, the safezones were lacking, the environments were too realistically uncomfortably hot or cold, and disgustingly, apparently defecation was now a thing.
At the moment, however, she was prepared to cut them a little slack for adding 100% pain sensitivity. The way Kibaou's eyes went cross-eyed before he fell over whimpering was so soothing.
After that, it was blind luck she hadn't gotten stabbed straight through. She darted back, avoiding weapon blows that ranged from clumsy to almost competent as Kibaou's companions saw this as a declaration of war, which of course it was. Her new rapier, on the other hand, moved with the smoothness of vast experience. Had she been an amateur, she'd have tried to use it to deflect, parry, or even block which would have been the stupidest thing she could have done. A rapier could really only do that with another rapier, and maybe some knives. But that wasn't what a rapier was for. It was, in some ways, the simplest weapon to use, because there was only really one way to use it right. Oh, there were different styles, and Asuna subscribed to the single rapier style, rather than having a dagger, cloak or buckler to defend, and only Kirito would have been comfortable with the florentine style. But using it was fairly simple: you thrust repeatedly until your opponent stopped moving. Most of the action happened at the tip, and if you had to defend, if you knew what was good for you you did not use your rapier to do it.
That's what party members were for.
"Anchor Howl!" more than one person cried behind her, among other things, and suddenly the people in front of her weren't looking her way anymore. Couldn't look her way.
So of course, she started stabbing even more.
After that it got kinda blurry.
And thus, the battle was joined.
….
Asuna Quest
Were these events occurring in, say, a history where [Sword Art Online] hadn't bugged and required them to reach the 100th floor to leave even after killing Kayaba, but instead in one where, say, Asuna had been trapped by an unscrupulous pervert (yes, there are as things as scrupulous perverts) to be his digital sex slave, among other people, and she had found herself unknowingly going on a quest with her unknowing brother, while they unwittingly violated the bounds of blood in every inn between them and their destination, Leafa would have had flashbacks at Kirito's very Asuna-obsessed turn of mood.
"Kirito, Asuna's a big girl. She can take care of herself," Lisbeth said, going for the not-unreasonable-considering-the-person-involved feminine empowering argument. Sisters before misters in all things not involving honorably fighting over the same guy, after all.
"She was just going to make her account that day," Kirito said. "We were going to meet up to power-level with Klein's friends, remember?"
Sinon blinked. "Klein has friends? I thought Kirito was his only friend?"
"Actually, for a long time it was more like Klein was papa's only friend," Yui said helpfully. "Klein even invited papa to join his guild."
"Klein has a guild?" Sinon repeated, feeling like a brainless shouen series main character for doing so. "Are you sure we're talking about the same Klein? This tall, red hair, likes using a katana, RP's being a samurai?"
"You should hang out with him more, get to know him better," Leafa said. "Klein is actually a deep and interesting person."
"Stop trying to hook me up because you feel threatened by me," Sinon said flatly.
"No choice," Kirito said, nodding to himself. "I need to walk to Shibuya and look for Asuna there."
"Do you even know how to get to Shibuya?" an exasperated Lisbeth said.
"Sure. It's that way, right?" Kirito said, pointing.
As one, Sinon, Lisbeth, Leafa and Yui pointed in the exact opposite direction.
"I knew that," Kirito said.
And that's how Kirito found himself tied to a leash.
….
Meanwhile, In Susukino
Philia, Takemiya Kotone to herself and her parents, was used to being on the run, due to a whole video game's story arc's worth of stuff we're not going to get into right now. Yup, on the run, just her, the gnawing dread of not being a real person, the dark temptations of a psychopath trying to lead her to become a monster, and the occasional appearance bland, generically good-looking, dual-wielding guy of the sort you see anywhere as a main character in some anime adaption of a light novel… yup, practically old home week rife with nostalgia.
Yup, there was plenty of déjà vu to go around as she and the girl she was with– whose name was apparently Serara, and who was shockingly about her age despite looking way younger and smaller– had found themselves running around like hapless fugitives as huge, scary men who were intent on doing them great bodily harm and worse chased after them.
Being saved by a dual-wielding badass was also déjà vu-ful. So was hiding in a hidden safe house. Yes, that was very, annoyingly familiar.
Thankfully, the food was pretty good. Quite delicious, in fact. By that standard alone, this was already a massive improvement over the last time she'd been trapped in a deathgame and isolated in a particular area by forces beyond her control.
….
Object Lessons in Superiority
The battle for Shibuya was short, bloody (figuratively), and hilariously one-sided, if bloody and total wipeout massacres are your idea of a good time. You sicko.
This was due to several factors. For one, the [Ancient Stadium] being a PVP area, there was no interference from the Royal Guard. That meant there was no one to stop anyone from bringing things to their (il)logical and deadly conclusion as the two sides fought. Secondly, there were the differing philosophies of those involved. While one side were arguably only frightened people trying to bring some sense of order to their existence after a sudden and terrifying shock by descending to mob mentality and opting for a classical nihilistic approach, the other side viewed themselves as protecting innocent and no doubt frightened children (regardless of any evidence to the contrary) who had been caught up in a sudden, shocking and terrifying event from a violent mob. And then there was the matter of leadership.
Kibaou fell right away, a victim of splash damage, gradual attrition of being trampled by his own side, and people taking potshots at him as soon as they saw anything even vaguely Kibaou-shaped. This would have resulted in demoralizing his side if he had anything to do with their morale to begin with. As it was, though he was their leader, he was leader by virtue of being a loud, insistent son of a bitch who sounded like he was [Someone With Their Shit Together], and offered (in a very loud, insistent and repetitive voice) leadership and protection. After all, a loud, determined-looking person who talked a lot and gave firm-sounding orders had to be a leader, right? And if you followed a leader, any leader, you'd be okay, right? It stood to reason, after all. Besides, he looked like a real tough guy. Yeah, you'd be okay.
Asuna's side, meanwhile, had Asuna, a leader by virtue of being part of organizing, training, and actually leading a group of what were, essentially, desperate child soldiers into not just an organized mercenary company, but an actual military body complete with standardized training, mostly standardized uniforms, if not standardized weapons then at least optimized weapons, a command structure, and a penal code, and helped make them the most dangerous bastards in a battlefield of dangerous bastards (and Kibaou, who was just a bastard) against even more dangerous bastards. By now, it was no secret to any of the people that had joined her group that she was a level 1 rookie with what was essentially shiny and top-tier but undoubtedly starter-grade weaponry. It was also clear that at least one guild and several unattached high-level people in rainbow-pimp gear jumped when she said to, she kept the food coming, she ate the same healthy fruits and vegetables as everyone no matter how obviously she disliked it and so far no one had yet to see her sleep.
She also made sure everyone was partied up, and had ordered everyone to know exactly how to use every single one of the skills that happened to be on their skills list. And how to set up enfilading fire.
Such leadership is the difference between a gang of frightened, inexperienced thugs who really didn't have their heart into it but were going with the flow and didn't really have a leader because he'd just taken crit damage, and an organized, tactically positioned defense manned by unblooded but determined amateurs who had planned out in advance how to nuke anyone stupid anyone to come their way, stiffened by a core of hardened, blooded, maxed out and equipped veterans who knew what they were doing.
Really, they'd have taken down the attackers without killing them if they hadn't underestimated the range of the children's spellcasting skills, summoning skills in particular, and if some of the kids hadn't decided to join in the 'games' to unleash wide-area, high-damage skills.
Horrified adults stared in aghast silence as their opponents burned and exploded into sparkles of light while behind them, children cheered and yelled about how "They'd helped!" and "We won!".
And a girl named Asuna, who in another life had been called the 'White Flash', knew that she'd screwed up.
….
- To be continued…
….
A/N: wow, a lot more fics in the SAO/Log Horizon section since I started this fic…
…
Yeah…
Please review, C&C welcome.
Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.
