A/N: Hey guys, its me again back with another chapter for Tales of the Brave. Sorry it took a while for me to post it, university has started again and things are pretty busy at the moment, but by next week things will have calmed down so it will be back to normal. Anyway I hope you enjoy it and please don't forget to review.


It had been a couple of days now since Kayaba revealed the true nature of Sword Art Online and in that time there had been so many deaths, so many suicides, so many people who thought that if you died then you would just wake up in the real world again. We hadn't even been in the middle of the worst of it as we headed out so early, we just got scraps of information from the new players slowly filtering into Horunka Town, and when I say slowly I mean about one hundred players are here with most of them still shell-shocked and hiding in the Town of Beginnings, either way that didn't bother me so much it just meant that they're too weak to help clear the levels that are ahead.

Me, Nenru and Viktor have been training solidly for these past days now anyway, gaining levels has been slow but definitely worth it as we've just been going round the town and doing all the smaller quests which means we don't have to go out and risk our necks at the moment, less experience but safer for now at least. We've stayed at the same inn for the two nights that had passed since we first arrived and found that the NPC innkeeper was more helpful than we thought, he gave us tips on new quests and told us where good prices for equipment were around town, that was if you knew the right phrases to get him to tell you.

Right now Viktor is level eleven and getting annoyed with how long it's taking to level up now, it took him a full day to get from ten to eleven, but Nenru and I aren't at that annoying period yet as we've just turned level ten. My skill points have been going into strength and HP mainly but some have gone into endurance, it's only just come to my attention that it helps lessen the damage that you take so I'm levelling it more frequently now, so here's hoping that incident with the wolves won't happen again.

The last few hours have made it apparent now that the last quest in this town available is the quest we got at the start, the quest called 'Attack of the Killer Plants', I mean it looks like we've exhausted all the others around town, either that or we just can't find them and it feels like we've spoken to every NPC around this place,

"Well looks like we've got to get it started then," Was the final verdict from Nenru who, during this time had come to be the sensible one of our little group as he started to lead the way down the street before the two of us managed to catch up.

"Stop acting like the leader again Nenru, remember we decided to not go down this road, it won't end well," Me and Viktor scolded him in unison, it was true though as we sat down the second night we were here and after a night full of arguments and threats we came to the conclusion that none of us could lead on our own so we should keep everything equal. While Nenru might have the most level head, Viktor was the best fighter and I was the best trying to get any information out of new players that came around, the other two just didn't seem to get it, Viktor said stupid things constantly and Nenru just lost his patience with the player halfway through and ended up calling them a moron or something less sanitary.

As we approached the first guard on the main gate the little quest marker appeared again as it was automatically made our active quest due to it being in close proximity, we went to talk to the guard who gave us this new addition to the beta,

"Oh thank you so much for the help, this town really needs it. You see there have been attacks in the walls, not by people but by plants. I don't really know much about it but you can go talk to the cleric whose healing all the injured up at the town hall, that place is about the only safe place around here these days."

As we walked off me and Nenru turned to Viktor with quizzical looks,

"Plants killing people? I didn't know that could happen on here and what's more I thought you couldn't get hurt in city walls!" Nenru seemed shocked by this but Viktor just laughed,

"You thought it was only going to be monsters like Boars and Wolves that could kill us? No, there's monsters out there called Nepents which look like plants, and him saying there's injured is probably just for the quest, we won't be in any danger in these walls, well I hope so anyway."

We all fell silent at once almost in preparation for what might come over the next couple of minutes, that was until we reached the town hall and as we entered we were met by a haggard looking man who was so bent he looked tiny, as he approached us he began,

"Oh thank God, are you here to help with the plant problem, the guards told me they would try to send someone. The plants are coming out of the forest. Kill them all and make the pay for what they've done!"

It was shocking to see the look of hatred on the NPC's face as he was talking, the reaction was almost human. But still we had our mission and a marker appeared on our maps directing us where to go but just before we headed out we stopped by one of the item stores and stocked up on health crystals, 'just in case something goes wrong' as Viktor put it and really it was best to think like that especially now there were no respawns.

We left the town quite soon after all the stocking up was done and soon we were in the forest moving deeper and deeper in, the sun was slowly becoming blotted out and I began to stumble on the tree roots that were protruding from the ground,

"Jesus Christ, how much longer till we get to the marker?" I asked as I righted myself again after nearly tripping over yet another tree root.

"Don't worry bigfoot we'll be there real soon," Viktor's jokes were still bad but it always made me and Nenru smile as it lightened the mood which was always in danger of slipping into depression. It was only a few more minutes until the woods suddenly disappeared on all sides and led to a clearing which stretched out for about half a kilometre square and in the middle was a giant group of Nepents which had strangely gathered in a mob facing inwards.

It wasn't until all of us heard a high pitched screech and a shatter of glass which signalled a player dying.

"We've got to help; we can't just let that player die!" I was eager to help and wasn't going to stand around waiting for permission to go.

"Yeah just wait a second and…" Nenru's words of sense didn't reach me, I'd already started running unslinging my axe with Viktor right behind me and Nenru now shouting about how much of a moron I was but I didn't care now, I just couldn't let someone die so soon as this, especially when they were trying to do something and not just waste away.

As we reached the mob I jumped and brought my axe down on one of the Nepents,

Execute

The Nepent I struck with my attack didn't even see the attack coming and shattered in a single stroke, probably a critical hit, as the first nepent died a large portion of the mob turned their attention from the player who was blocked from view to the three of us. As the group of 9 nepents gathered Nenru just shot me a glare of pure hatred which I kind of understood, I mean I did kind of screw up but with our levels being so high for only a few days in there shouldn't really be any major chance of us dying.

"Help, I'm in the red. Please just help!" A girls voice came through the mob of monsters and my ears perked up, swinging wildly at the nearest enemy to me activating my other sword skill and staggering another with a boot to the mid-section, this gave me enough of a chance to dive through the hoard of enemies still crowding around this girl with Nenru and Viktor now swearing at me. As I burst through the crowd I rolled through and stood up with health crystal in hand and almost threw it at the girl,

"Here use this, you're lucky we got here when we did," I scolded the girl still not looking up as I turned around and faced the nepents and my stomach turned slightly as the nepents I left behind had joined into the thronging crowd, it wasn't a good situation to be found in but before I could even move a small girl, no taller than five foot five and brunette jumped onto the closest one and began stabbing at its neck with a long dagger, the creature howled in pain as its health rapidly drained away and just before it disappeared she jumped onto the next while I just stood there dumbstruck that she was able to fight so well. That was until I realised that her health was consistently decreasing so with a yell I jumped in kicking out at one enemy before swinging in a long diagonal arc and jamming the pole of my axe into the neck of the creature which dropped its health to zero.

This carried on with the acrobatic girl jumping from nepent to nepent with me just dishing out damage to them from the ground, during this I could tell how much that my levelling had helped as the damage I was taking was vastly reduced and I was able to kill one of the nepents in a quick manner and after about 15 minutes of grunts, shouts and curses the mob was cleared. As the last nepent had disappeared into a shower of glowing polygons I collapsed on the ground with my axe resting on my lap, breathing heavily I looked up at the three people who were round me and were just as tired,

"You…IDIOT!" I winced as Nenru started his rant, "Do you have any idea how many me and Viktor had to deal with, SIX! Six between the two of us, this isn't the boars that we fought on the way here. I've known you for a long time now and you've never been this god damn stupid!"

He paused for breath but before he was even allowed to carry on the girl who we came to save sidled up beside me piped up for the first time,

"Erm, sorry to butt in but he saved my life so why are you shouting at him so much, it's what you wanted to do as well isn't it?" Her voice trembled as she was trying to keep her emotions in check and not let it all out on three strangers who had just rescued her.

Nenru's eyes bulged and he looked like he was going to erupt into a violent rant at her as well but he then noticed Viktor sanding back observing what was going on and chuckling quietly to himself,

"Question Viktor, what's so funny?" Nenru had gone quiet all of a sudden which was a sign of bad things to come,

"Oh come on now Nenru things might not have gone perfectly but we got what we wanted to done, there's no harm in that." Nenru just buried his face in his hands before looking back up to the three of us before realising he was the only one who was so angry about all of this,

"You really don't see it do you? Of course it's bad, if you lot just keep running head first into things like this without thinking of what might happen we'll die in no time flat. While I might not be the man with the plan I sure as hell am not going to die because of a split second decision that went south!"

His voice got louder as his explanation went on and by the end he as back to shouting and his original rant again, he went on for a while about all manner of things, most of which he repeated as he started to go round in circles. I hadn't really been listening as I probably heard this in the real world on a monthly basis for the past 5 years. Instead I was focused on the girl who was now sitting by me but was looking at the ground in between her crossed legs, like I noticed before she had brown hair hanging loosely just below her shoulders and was about five foot five, she had hazel eyes she didn't look like your average Japanese girl but I'd been wrong about this kind of thing many times before. After a time she looked up and saw me staring at her and she blushed which snapped me out of my trance and I finally spoke up,

"Look Nenru while it's been lovely hearing about how much of an idiot we all are I think it's best if you just quiet down a bit now before you say something that will piss one of us off. Surprisingly we didn't exactly have time to come up with a plan otherwise she would have died," I motioned in her direction before carrying on, "If this was just the quest in itself then I would have stopped to listen, you know as there was no time limit but this time it was different, get over it."

I was blunt with him but it was at this point of his anger cycle where nothing else would work, after I finished my little speech he went quiet for a second obviously processing what I said before saying just one thing with no anger in his voice at all,

"Alright I can understand wanting to save her, but what happens if one of us died because of it? I'm not like you CaleM and I don't want to risk my neck like that." And with that he disappeared off into the trees with Viktor trailing in his wake, just before Viktor disappeared off into the trees he turned around and called out that he would talk to Nenru and bring him back.

Minutes went by in silence as me and this girl just sat right next to each other before she broke the silence herself,

"I haven't said it yet but thank you for saving me. We, I mean I should never have come out here." She hung her head in sadness again and fell back into silence obviously depressed about the other player that had died,

"You don't need to thank me; I wouldn't have let you die, why were you out here anyway? Didn't you think it might be too dangerous, I mean that was a big group of Nepents after all?"

She winced at the question before looking up at me, tears brimming in her eyes, her voice cracked as she answered,

"We didn't know it would be like this, I came out here with another player, a girl called Katrina, she said it would be easy, kill a couple of monsters and get good experience. But then this giant mob appeared out of nowhere while we were having a rest and then…"

She could even finish her sentence properly as she began to cry and just bury her face in her hands before she looked up with red eyes,

"She died because she gave me her last health crystal, it's completely my fault." With that she let out a loud wail and her head went back into her hands. I realised with a pang of guilt that if the Nepents appeared out of nowhere then it was partly my fault as well as the quest probably made them appear before we got there. I put an arm around her shoulder as she continued to cry loudly.

"It's not your fault; you couldn't have known that so many of them would appear. Don't blame yourself, I don't' want all my efforts to save you be wasted now would I?" I smiled at her and she looked up at me as she giggled herself before wiping her eyes with the back of her hand,

"I'm Miyu by the way, I probably should have said sooner."

I smiled back at her, "Its fine, you've had other things on your mind. The name is CaleM."

After this little exchange we just fell silent again, she just needed time to grieve about her friend dying and I was more than happy to give her that time. An hour or so passed in silence before she spoke up again,

"CaleM I Know this might seem a bit much but I don't really know what to do next, my friend made all the big decisions like that. What I'm trying to say is do you mind if I tag along with you and your friends for a while?"


Nenru POV

I just needed some time to myself for a while, you know just to get myself back under control. It wasn't that I couldn't understand where CaleM was coming from but I want to survive as well, not that I don't want to help out others, I just don't want to risk my life at the same time.

"Oi Nenru hold on a second, just wait up!" Viktor was running slightly to catch up but I just kept walking, I didn't really want to talk about this to anyone yet Viktor came along anyway, people just didn't get these things, I don't know why.

"Look Viktor I just want a bit of time to myself at the moment, it's nothing personal," I gave false smile to make it seem like things were fine but it didn't really work as Viktor just shook his head while still smiling,

"You're obviously still annoyed at CaleM charging in and leaving us and I can understand why but everything worked out in the end , we saved the Damsel in Distress as well!" He pulled off a swooning pose as he said and threw me a sidelong grin,

"Actually you're wrong about that bit, he does this kind of thing all the time but this is the first time where he's had a good reason for it. It's that he can risk his neck to save strangers. He doesn't think about his own health, he's a complete moron!"

I hit the one of the trees I frustration and a sign indicating that it was immortal object came up, when I looked back at Viktor he wasn't smiling this time, it was probably the first time I had seen him being concerned since the first day,

"It takes all kinds to make a place like this. Not all of us can completely ignore the other players round here now. I guess it comes back to what you would do in real life, if you would try to save a life or just walk on by. You can't be annoyed by it; you've just got to accept things like that. I'm not going to lose my soul trying to get out of this place or what's the point?"

What he said made sense, well kind of anyway. I never really cared about saving the day, just making sure that I saved my own skin. Like hell would I ever do something like this but maybe it was time to stop criticising others for doing it.

"Heh, maybe you're right. It does take all kinds and if CaleM wants to play the hero who am I to stop him?" As I said this Viktor's smile crept back onto his face,

"That's the spirit, kind of. Just let him get on with it and don't get on his back every time, now shall we get back, we've been gone a while." I nodded in agreement and we both walked back toward the clearing both laughing and joking about nothing in particular.


CaleM POV

When she asked the question I just sat there in silence looking at thin air, I wasn't really sure what to say to her. I mean I didn't really want to leave her on her own but at the same time the three of us already were doing well and I didn't want to risk that,

"Erm, I really don't know. I'm not the leader of our group, I mean none of us are so the others will have to agree." She looked downcast like she had just been rejected,

"Oh that's alright, I didn't think you would say yes anyway,"

"Woah wait hang on, I didn't say I wouldn't try but I just don't want to get your hopes up."

She grinned widely and threw herself at me hugging me really bloody tightly, just as I thought I felt myself turning blue I pushed her away gasping for air,

"The best way to tag along isn't to kill one of us!" I laughed along with her joking around and she blushed and turned away while apologising and when I looked back up from her I saw Nenru and Viktor walking back toward us and saw Viktor slowly wink at me and Nenru just smiled slightly and shook his head.

"Just wait here, I'll be back in a second with your answer," I muttered to her as I got up and sauntered over to the two of them,

"I was talking to the new girl…"

"Oh we could see that CaleM," Viktor laughed as he winked again

"Not like that you pervert. I mean we were talking and she asked. Well she asked if she could tag along for a while." I looked away from the two of them for a second before continuing, "Look I know what you two are going to say, that it's just the three of us, we don't know if she'll get us in anymore trouble and everything like that and I understand. But I've see her fight and she's surprisingly good, we can just test her out, you know for a week or something and if all of us don't get along with her or she gets us in trouble then we can go separate ways."

I finished my explanation with my voice getting quicker and quicker and when I noticed this I blushed slightly, making myself look a fool. I waited for the rant that would resume but instead all I got was Nenru walking past me with a stern look on his face as he marched up to her.

"Name? What level? Any extra skills?" He asked all these questions like he was conducting an interview for a new position which made me laugh openly,

"My name's Miyu, I've got alright Blacksmithing and Cooking as well. My level…well I'm level nine but I'm nearly level ten," She mumbled out not making much eye contact with Nenru, instead she was looking about two inches below his neck. When she finished with her answers he turned around completely without emotion as he walked back to me and Viktor leaving Miyu looking downtrodden. As he reached us again he shook his head,

"I can't believe I'm doing this," as he turned around with a wide grin on his face an spread his arms wide open,

"Welcome to our own little slice of madness!" He shouted, causing me and Viktor to jump nearly as much as Miyu yet a split second afterwards she sprinted toward us and flung herself on all of us at once giggling insanely which caused us to collapse and fall into a tangle of bodies in a roar of laughter, after a moment or two of squirming around Viktor's head poked out just under Miyu's armpit,

"Hey, I didn't get to decide on this,"

"Shut it Viktor, we all know you would have agreed you're about as soft as butter." My response was muted as the pit of Nenru' back was pressed against my face. After another minute or so of untangling our mass of bodies we all stood still chuckling before I slapped myself on the head comically,

"Oh and I forgot, this is Nenru and Viktor," I explained to Miyu and I motioned to them both in order and she giggled very girlishly,

"I Miyu, nice to meet you," She proceeded to turn away and walk away, confused I shouted after her

"Miyu, where are you going?"

"Back to town silly, where else would I be going?"

"Oh well it's good to go back and all, but you're going the wrong way." With this Nenru howled with laughter and collapsed on the ground as she blushed again and after we waited for Nenru to calm down again we all moved off back to town with a new member of our little party.


A/N: So what did you all think? Good or what? No seriously what. Don't be scared to review or even just send me a message about it. I would really appreciate some reviews by the way. Anyway until next time...

PEACE!