4-Boxing has Its Perks
Chapter 4: Alfheim! Land of the Fairies!
Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or any of the characters involved except Dren, Hiro, Shiro, Thiro, Iro, Kiro, and Jiro
It has been three months since the game Sword Art Online has ended. Since then, most of the players trapped in the "Death Game" have been trying to re-adapt to normal life. Unfortunately a couple hundred players haven't woken up after the game was cleared, one of these was Asuna. While Kirito tried to adapt to normal life again, and find a way to wake Asuna, Dren hadn't tried to rehabilitate to normal life. He'd participated in the physical classes to rebuild his muscle mass as well as their attempts to put his body back to the way it was before the start of the game, but he'd never really left the gaming world. After escaping Sword Art Online he'd returned to non-virtual MMORPG's, but eventually he got bored of these, after fighting for his life these games didn't present enough of a challenge by just clicking the mouse button, so he moved on.
Dren was walking down the street, two nervegears tucked under his arms; in his hands he had a box which contained six copies of the game "Alfheim Online". Dren slammed the door of his room with his foot and sat down at his desk, unloading all of the materials he'd purchased. He reached into his sleeve and produced a screwdriver, as well as a handful of other materials. After rewiring his nerve gears and installing the six copies of Alfheim on his six systems, he put the main helmet on and lay down in his bed.
"Link Start!"
Five image boxes appeared; each checked his sense of touch, smell, taste, sight, and hearing. When they were confirmed to be working and his language was selected his screen flashed white. It faded to reveal he was in a digital room. The room was mainly black, with red lines tracing along the walls and floor, a large screen appeared on one of the walls.
"Welcome to Alfheim." A voice echoed through the room. "Please select your player name and gender."
Six holographic consoles appeared in front of Dren's avatars, he entered their respective names, including two new entries; Kiro and Jiro. Then he selected Male.
"Thank you; now choose your starting race."
In front of each of his avatars appeared a rotating roster of nine playable races.
Hiro was the first to select one, he scrolled through to an armored fairy wearing red.
"Salamander?" The voice asked him
He confirmed this and Hiro disappeared after being converted to the red fairy
Shiro was next. He cycled through until he found a blue race
"Undine?"
He confirmed the choice and was teleported away
Iro chose a Sylph, Thiro chose a Spriggan, Kiro chose an Imp, and Jiro chose a Cait Sith.
The six players were teleported to their respective home towns. From there Dren purchased their equipment and armor before making his way toward a meeting point in neutral territory.
When they arrived no one would probably realize that they were the same player; Hiro was wearing his trademark red plate armor, on his back was a star shaped triple sheath, the center bar a large great sword, flanked by two long swords forming an X. Dual wielding was apparently a common part of this game, it was in exchange for magic so no one actually used, but Dren didn't have a problem with that.
Shiro was wearing a blue robe, a staff in his right hand and a spell book tucked under his left arm.
Iro was wearing green armor identical to Hiro's, but he had a large war hammer slung on his back, a small bracelet with a golden cross dangled from his wrist.
Thiro had on a black form fitting suit of cloth, as well as two daggers on his waist. His face was half covered by a mask.
Kiro was wearing a purple shirt and pants with a small cape and cowl over all of this, underneath the cloak, hidden by a special flap, was a quiver of arrows, a bow was strung across his chest. He had long purple hair that flowed straight down his back.
Jiro was wearing a yellow suit of light chain armor, in his hand was a war spear and on his off arm was a large kite shield. He was wearing a full helm so no one could see his face except for his eyes.
Dren had the characters sit down as he thought about his next plan of action. They were sitting calmly around a small forest clearing, a slight breeze wafted through the trees, rustling branches and causing small animal life to scurry away when they detected the scent of the group of players.
"Something's coming!" Jiro said suddenly lurching up out of his sitting position.
Just above the tree line a dark shape burst past them, it was moving fast.
"Damn." Hiro said drawing his long swords.
The rest of the group readied themselves; Kiro put an arrow on the string and waited. After a minute he sensed, more than saw, the shape coming back. When it was in range, he calculated distances and released an arrow that flew straight into the darting beast's wing throwing it off balance and causing it to crash through the nearby trees.
"Nice shot." The group said at once
Dren was surprised with his accuracy; normally he only used spells, which normally had a lock on system so they never missed unless the opponent has incredible reflexes or a special ability. He'd never seen the point in a ranger until he couldn't find in SAO and thought of all the moments he could've used one.
He moved the group through the trees, trying to find where the beast had landed. They suddenly came upon a straight line of a clearing, the rough ground was covered in trees and broken limbs that had fallen when the beast had crashed into them. Hiro looked down the path and saw a flicker of movement.
"Jiro!" He shouted leaping back
The small, yellow clad figure rushed forward and held up his kite shield just in time to block a charge from the beast, it had been hiding in the nearby trees. The force of blow threw Jiro back, but Iro caught him as Shiro began to chant a spell Hiro charged the monster, which they could now tell was a yellow drake, Hiro lifted the swords above his head in a double overhead blow, aiming for its neck, then a thought hit Dren.
He moved Hiro's strike to land near the section of the drake's uninjured wing. From there he leapt back and let Shiro's spell take effect, it wasn't a complex spell, it was designed to root the drake's feet to the ground to prevent it from moving. As the spell took effect the drake's feet turned gray.
"Now!" Hiro shouted.
Jiro charged through the group and leapt up onto the beast's back. He grabbed the horns on its head as it tried to buck him off unsuccessfully, without its feet it wasn't going anywhere. Suddenly the beast lurched into the air.
"Shiro what happened?" Hiro asked
"The spell has an eight second timer." Shiro muttered to himself
Jiro continued to hold on for his life as the beast continued to try and throw him off. It tried flipping, spinning, diving, and bucking, but nothing seemed to shake its small rider. Eventually, the drake began to tire and Jiro fixed his position so he was mounted just forward of the two wing membranes. His hands began to glow yellow as he gripped the horns tightly. The drake tried one last attempt to shake him, but it was futile, and soon after Jiro had tamed the drake. He released the horns and put his hands on the drake's scaly back between himself and its head.
The rest of the group was seated on the ground of the first clearing, after Jiro had been flown away Dren had left them there while he focused on maintaining his grip on the drake. Now that he'd captured it he flew it toward his five other characters. Alighting in the clearing he dusted off the drake lightly and dropped to the ground when it settled.
Iro moved to heal its wounds while Dren congratulated himself on a job well done. After the drake's wing and back had been healed and Kiro's arrow had been retrieved the group sat down, the drake curling up and laying down on its belly.
"What do I do now?" Dren asked himself
A branch snapped in the nearby trees
"What was that?" Hiro asked sitting up
A voice gasped slightly at the sudden sound of voice.
"Who's there!" Hiro shouted standing now, the rest of the group stood, including the newly tamed drake.
"Wait! Don't shoot! Please." A small figure emerged from the trees and the group saw it was young sylph.
"Who are you?" Hiro asked
"I-I'm Recon." The young sylph said
"Re-con?" Hiro asked, memorizing the name. "Alright Recon, what are you doing here sneaking up on us?"
"I saw your battle with the drake just now, you're new, but you're really strong. Perhaps you can help me?" He asked
"What do you need help with? I don't do tutorials." Hiro told him
"No no, nothing like that." Recon told him holding up his hands defensively
"I need help breaking into a salamander army camp, and you look like the guys to help me do it."
Hiro thought about it for a moment. "Alright, we'll help-"
"Yes!" Recon shouted, interrupting him. Hiro coughed. "Sorry"
"As I was saying, we'll help, but it'll cost you." Hiro said
"How much?" Recon asked, suddenly wary of this idea.
"We'll discuss that when we see this camp, but I'm gonna give you a fair estimate: 50,000"
"Fif-fif-fif-fif-fifty thousand!" Recon shouted.
"Yes, think about it. You've got six strong players who work well together as a team, we could probably take on the world tree with this group. Taking that into consideration and that you're my first client."
"Client?" Recon asked.
"Oh yes, I'm a mercenary my friend, as are my friends here." Hiro said stepping toward Recon and wrapping an arm around his shoulder.
"Well… I guess that makes sense. Alright, fifty-thousand if that's what you decide." Recon told him.
"Good boy." Hiro said, catching the fact he hadn't confirmed the price. He slapped him on the back and marched back over to the others.
"Alright gents, let's get moving." Hiro turned to Recon, "Where's this military camp?"
Recon nodded and turned, pointing directly behind him. "That way, about three miles, I only just found out about it, but it's way too close to Sylph territory."
Hiro nodded "Want to come with?" He asked.
"Uh… um… I… uh."
"I believe that's a no." Hiro said.
"No." Recon agreed.
"Alright." Hiro turned and walked past Recon. The rest of the group followed him, including Jiro, who mounted his drake.
The group made their way through the forest until they came out on top of a large cliff face, down below was a large green plain, a straight stretch of uninterrupted land, except for the large cluster of cloth tents that marked the Salamander camp.
"So… that's them." Hiro said to himself.
The group surveyed the camp from their position, not finding anything worth looking at from this distance they decided to close the gap. Jiro's drake flew each of them down until they were all standing at the bottom of the cliff face.
The group proceeded slowly, making their way through what they found to be tall grass, very carefully. They stopped half a mile out from the camp.
"Alright, this looks like a straight blow-through op." Dren thought "Thiro will slink into the grass and neutralize any sentries they may have posted, following him will be an assault by Hiro and Jiro, supporting from a distance will be Kiro, who will move up once a foothold has been made, he'll be protected by Iro and Shiro… Yeah, that'll work."
As soon as the plan was processed Thiro slunk away into the tall grass, disappearing almost instantly. The rest of the group waited until Thiro gave them an all clear, which came to them in the form of the screaming men when they started to get slaughtered.
"Time to go!" Hiro shouted as he drew his great sword, hefting it above his head "Charge!"
The group lurched forward, Hiro and Jiro out pacing the others, about thirty paces from the camp Kiro stopped, Iro rested his hammer in both hands and crouched slightly, waiting. Shiro was standing, looking around, his book tucked under his arm and his staff out.
"Shiro." Kiro told the wizard
"Yes?"
"Use your magic, see if you can detect any enemies in the camp that are nearby." Kiro was unslinging his bow and fitting an arrow to the string as he said this.
Shiro nodded before shifting through the spell book. "Got it." He said before closing the book, he let his staff drop and put the book on the ground next to it. He put his hands on the ground and began to chant a strange tongue, when he finished a blue wave stretched over the ground and to Kiro's eyes a whole city of burning red flames appeared, with three green flames in the midst of them, snuffing them out it seemed.
"The green is the others?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Understood." Kiro said lifting his bow, drawing, and sighting immediately, releasing an arrow the arced through the air cut off a charging Salamander. Hiro turned to see the man turn into a small red flame.
"Seems this will work out after all." He said to himself before he was engaged by a Salamander using a large great sword and wearing plenty of armor. Hiro pushed him off only for him to be trampled by Jiro's drake. Jiro had leapt off its back and skewered one of the soldiers with his spear early in the fight, since then he'd been fighting near the drake, keeping it safe where he could.
Thiro had disappeared during the fighting, but oddly enough some of the outer ring of Salamanders occasionally dropped and disappeared into a red fire.
"Kiro! Move up! You're not doing us any good back there!" Hiro shouted over the clamor.
Kiro charged forward at hearing Hiro's voice, Iro and Shiro following him. As they reached the camp Iro charged forward, smashing the outer ring with his hammer.
Shiro looked up a few quick spells and shut his book before putting it and his staff down, putting his hands on the ground again, chanting in the weird language he caused a large explosion to erupt from nearby one Salamander which caught another ten in the blast, killing them all. When the Salamanders near them saw the new pair in blue and purple they charged, Kiro shot them down, but more were coming, and they were constantly closing the gap.
"Little help Shiro!" Kiro shouted
As he finished another phrased a blue, transparent sphere appeared around them.
"What is this?" Kiro asked, holding his new arrow.
"Keep shooting!" Shiro shouted at him, "I have to concentrate to maintain this spell, and the more those brutes attack the harder it gets to maintain!"
Kiro didn't reply, but released his arrow into the vision slit of the nearest Salamander warrior, before resuming his relentless barrage of arrows on the advancing warriors.
Hiro noticed now that the forces of the camp were beginning to be depleted, instead of them appearing to take the place of their fallen comrade, some of the Salamanders had even turned tail and ran, dropping their weapons as they went.
"We're routing them boys! Keep it up!" Hiro called and his group cheered before giving one final push.
They cleared out of the rest of the camp with ease, after they'd finished off the main force, the four warriors fell upon the rear of the group that was waiting to attack Kiro and Shiro. They obliterated the small army and when they were all gone, looted the camp, Hiro took all of the equipment and gold and put it on Jiro's dragon. After the fight Recon and appeared, telling them he'd been watching from the air and that he was amazed at the skill of the group, telling them he'd spread word of them quickly. Recon counted out 50,000 and handed it to Hiro who nodded. He led his group away, but left Jiro to be directed by Recon back to the Sylph capital, where they would give them the money and weapons looted from the Salamander camp.
After all of this was settled, and Jiro was back with the group, they entered the inn of a nearby neutral town and rested there for the night.