Chapter 4: The First Frontier

Zina lurched forward to his friend and shook him. He tried and tried to get something out of his friend; a word, a movement, a groan. Something to know that he was alive. Right when he was about to give up he remembered. He looked up at JC's health guage; he had 10 HP left. Zina reached panickly for a health potion in his inventory. With shaking fingers, he selected the health potion and healed his friend.

JC groaned "Ahhhhhh that hurt like a sonofabitch."

Zina laughed with a shallow breath. He was alive, his friend was alive. He was on the brink of death but he was able to save him. "You're still the same old JC."

Diavel seemed relieved to see that Zina's friend was alive. But never-the-less, he was in a hurry. "I'm glad youre alright young man, but we really need to get this done"

Zina helped his friend to his feet "Well, I have alot of questions. How you got in here. Why you were here alone. Why the boss didn't finish you off. Oh, and I know you probably just got done fighting this guy, but there is no time for talk."

By the time he finished his sentence the others were rushing at full speed to the boss, except for Kirito and the girl they picked up. They walked up to Zina and JC frantically. Kirito grabbed Zina by the hood and pulled him forward with him "Ok, 1st order of business. The girl's name is Asuna. 2nd order of business. No time for talk, lets go" Kirito pushed him and Zina didn't hesitate. He broke into a full run with Kirito towards the boss, with JC and Asuna close behind.

"JC, Asuna, block the attacks then switch and me and Kirito will hit him while he's got his guard down!" Zina shouted.

"Got it!" They responded in unison.

"Now!" Zina and Kirito slowed down and allowed Asuna and JC to pass them.

They parried the first volley of attacks and yelled "Switch!"

Kirito and Zina bursted forward and took a big slice out of the boss. "Switch!"

After a few attacks, the boss threw his sword. The 4 of them leaped backwards and gave some safety room between them and the boss, but then the unexpected happened.

Diavel rushed full speed at the boss with no hesitation. But his expression changed when he got midway to the boss. Zina was confused; he looked at Kirito who had the exact same look of terror on his face.

"Diavel don't! That's not a Talwar; that's an Nōdachi!"

He was right, Illfang pulled out an Nōdachi. But Zina wasn't sure exactly what it meant and why it was so significant. Unless… That was it! Kirito knew this boss from the beta test. It must have used a Talwar when it switched battle sequences in the beta. But now, it was using an Nōdachi; which had much more effective range.

Kirito's warning came too late. Diavel was already soaring through the air. The boss moved faster than a boss of that size should have. He hit Diavel and everything moved in slow motion. Diavel flew across the room and landed with a thud.

JC, Asuna, and Kirito all ran to Diavel's side. Zina stood there, shocked and scared. This was the first time he had been legitimately frightened in SAO. His body stopped, unable to make any movements; he was completely immobilized. One thing ran through his mind, death… Death, death, death! He thought rationally. Then, something inside of him snapped.

"Graggghhh!" Zina roared.

It was like he was having an out of body experience. He could see everything he was doing. He flashed forward, far faster than his agility stats should have allowed. The boss was taken aback by his sudden outburst. Even though Illfang was just a bunch of 1's and 0's, he displayed visible shock and surprise. But only or a moment, the boss recovered quickly and swung his sword down with a great bellow.

"Too slow!" Zina yelled to nobody in particular. He side dashed, completely absent-minded. He counterattacked with his own sword, taking a chunk out of the boss's digitalized flesh and HP. The beast was quick to retaliate, but not quickly enough. The Nōdachi came for a horizontal swipe. But Zina shut that down hastily. He hopped on top of the sword like a spring board and jumped and sliced the boss from shoulder to hip.

The battle lasted for what seemed like forever. There was a mix of screaming from Zina himself, roars from the boss, the sound of clashing metal and the sound of Zina's sword hitting the boss. But the thing that disturbed Zina the most was the complete silence from his comrades. There were no screams of protest from his outburst; no one even seemed to fear Zina's death…

No, this wasn't an awkward silence, this was silence from shock. Nobody would expect anyone to tackle a boss head on by himself, not even Diavel.

Oh yeah, Zina thought. Diavel was injured, and this boss had caused it. Renewed, seething anger pierced through him. He was not going to let Diavel's sacrifice go in vain.

Zina closed in for the final strike. The boss swung his sword down, but Zina dashed sideways. The Nōdachi struck the ground, causing a small earthquake. Zina leaped on top of the blade and ran all the way up to the hilt.

Time slowed down, although he wasn't sure why. The boss was frozen from his previous attack. Maybe it was Zina's adrenaline that slowed everything down. He took a final swing with his sword. This was it; it was over.

The sword connected with the boss's chest. Zina slid all the way down with his sword, slicing and ripping through every pixel of Illfang's skin. It took only a few seconds for Zina to reach the ground. He saw the boss explode into thousands of tiny polygons.

"It's kill or be killed." He whispered to himself.

He could feel the weight of the battle on him. Every single bit of fatigue tore through him like a blade. It took all he had to stand straight. When he finally gave up on standing, he collapsed.

"Zina!" A familiar voice yelled.

Zina opened his eyes to see the boss still shattering. He couldn't have passed out for more than a few seconds. He stood to his feet with the help of his hands. It took enormous effort to remain standing. In fact, it took every bit of his spaired strength. But he wasn't going to give the game the satisfaction of keeping him down.

"Are you crazy?" The voice said. Zina concentrated, and finally the voice came into focus. The voice belonged to Kirito. "You could've gotten yourself killed! Sit down, you need to rest!"

While it's true that the boss had barely taken a quarter of his HP, he could still sense the strain on his body from the battle. His physical body was probably in a cold sweat at this point. But he wasn't going to rest, he couldn't until he won.

Zina looked down at his hand and noticed that he was still clutching the long sword so hard that his knuckles had turned milky white. He shook his head dazed and sheathed the sword. He shook his hand as well and could still feel the tension from the vice grip he had given the hilt of his sword. With a quick glance up, he saw JC walking towards him, seeming much calmer than the others.

"Zina, you crazy motherfucker." JC said and patted him on the back. "You're still as crazy as you ever were."

He stumbled back from fatigue and caught himself on his back foot. "Yeah, I guess I am. Do me a favor and don't do that. I feel like I'm hung over man."

Which was true, he hadn't felt this bad since he came down with pneumonia. He had a killer migraine, his whole body felt uncalibrated, heavy and his vision was blurry. He had just enough vision to see that everyone was staring at him in disbelief and what seemed to be a hint of disdain. Maybe they were jealous that he had dealt the final blow to the boss while they just sat back and watched.

About the time Zina regained his balance, an item started floating down to him from where the boss disintegrated. He reached up to grab it, but as soon as he touched it with his fingertips, the object dissipated. A text box appeared in front of him that read "Luna Ring added to inventory". He wasn't sure what it meant, but it sounded cool.

Kirito rushed over, grabbed his arm and yanked him over away to where no one else could hear them. He punched him in the arm and Zina looked at him sideways. "What's your problem Kirito?"

"What's my problem? What's my fucking problem?!" He yelled in a whisper. "You almost got yourself fucking killed! That's my problem!"

Zina grabbed his shoulder and shook him a little. "Calm down man..." He emphasized. "I'm fine, I'm still in one piece. I feel weak but I'm alive."

Kirito pulled away from his grasp and sighed. "Fine, fine. Just... be more careful Zina." He sounded genuinely concerned.

They both walked back over to the group where everyone's mouths remained agape. "Cheater!" Someone yelled at him. "I bet he's a beta tester too!" Someone else yelled. This pissed him off, but he just smiled and laughed a little.

"Yeah yeah yeah, I'm a cheater alright." He chuckled. "Oh wait... actually, I'm not." He said and turned to the guy he accused him of being a beta tester. "I'm not a beta tester either slick, so get your shit together. I just more than likely saved all of your lives. Except for 3 people who I know can carry their own, they have room to talk to me. But until any of you can say you saved lives, back off."

He slid his fingers down to open the menu. He scrolled to his inventory and equipped the ring he had just obtained. It faded into existence on his ring finger and he looked closely at it. The metal was all black and he looked closer at the stone. It was black opal with a crescent moon fixed on top of the opal. The little sparkles in the black opal looked like stars, which made him smile.

"I earned this ring by saving all of you, and if you want to be dicks about it just because I killed the boss then so be it." He addressed to his malicious audience and started walking towards the stairs to the next floor when he heard footsteps behind him. He looked behind him to see who was following him.

It was Kirito, Asuna and JC. They all looked at him with a concerned look and took another step forward. "If you think I'm staying behind then you're a damn fool Zina." JC said with a weak smile and grabbed his shoulder.

"I'm not leaving either. I may think you're crazy as hell for what you did but I also promised you I wasn't going to leave until the bitter end." Kirito chimed in and stepped further up.

Asuna just nodded silently and stepped forward as well. Zina wasn't sure what convinced them to stick with him, but he was grateful for them. He smiled and nodded at them with approval. His smile quickly disappeared as stared at the frowning audience. He took a quick step down and looked over them.

"For those of you who doubt the legitimacy of what just happened and what to turn on me, I suggest you straighten up and learn about what situation we're in…" He smirked and started walking up the stairs with his friends. "… or you're all going to die."