March 29, 2023 Floor 26

"How many places could this guy hide?" Aero groaned as we searched for Gorhon, a criminal with charges of theft, murder, and sexual harassment. "I have no idea, but according to my research on this floor, there is only one plausible place left" I told her, "the old temple south west of town, It used to be a high level Dungeon, which is why I wanted to check there last"

Aero glared at me, "You do realize that dungeons are an obvious place to hide right?" I sighed, " I do, even if I've only been a bounty hunter for two months, I've gotten the hang of this" "No you-" I covered her mouth with my hand, make her pissed, and made a 'shh' gesture, pointing at the temple, which we finally came across. Thankfully she forgot about being pissed at me...that girl can get scary sometimes, she earned her title well - Nightmare. It doesn't help that she's dressed in a black leather jacket with grey armor underneath, as well as black leggings, and was a master with a spear.

"Alright, let's go" she whispered, as we made our way over to the temple stealthily, and this time, unlike everywhere else, we saw two guards. I looked over to Aero and nodded, after partnering up with me for two months, we develop a sort of code, what I told her was to throw paralysis daggers at them, and that she did with silent grace, hitting the guards dead on. I watched with mild humor as they slumped down, unable to move.

We silently stepped over the guards, and into the temple, sure enough, there were about 6 men, and then there was Gorhon, all either orange or red, no green players at all. Gorhon himself was a red player, proof of his kills. They didn't see us because Aero and I's hiding skill was maxed out, and we were also behind pillars. "Here's the plan" Aero begins to whisper to me, "You lure the six guards out here, then I'll knock them out and tie them up" I nodded, "Then let me guess, with Gorhon, I take him out and teleport him to the jail?" She nodded.

"Let's do this" I muttered, and walked out from behind the pillar I was hiding behind. "Boss! Intruder!" I saw one of them yell to Gorhon. Gorhon was one ugly bastard, and grinned ferally, "Deal with him, and his friend behind the pillar" my eyes widened, how did he know?

I saw them charge me, and I had no choice but to fight them off, Aero came out to fight as well, her cover blown anyway. Yeah, there goes that plan… Our goal was to bring them to the prison, so we had to hold back. I was probably about ten levels above everyone besides Gorhon and Aero, so it was really easy to dodge, and even if they hit it didn't do all that much, I also started upping my defense stats, thank God I did.

I saw a spear head straight for my chest, and swiftly dodged to the right, flipped my grip, and slashed at him, only to have a dagger slash my back. I turned immediately and bashed the perpetrator away from me with my pommel, I reversed my grip back to Zatoichi Style, backing away into a wall, to stop them from attacking my back. I was getting tired of this, my HP was almost in the yellow zone, and Aero's was in the yellow zone, suddenly I heard Aero yelp as she was knocked out, and saw her body crumple to the floor, and was being mercilessly attacked by Gorhon and two of his men.

My vision went red.


I stood, panting, gripping my sword in rage, and shame, Aero was beginning to stir behind me, thankfully she was safe now, there was no one here besides us. Both our HP were in the red. "Dra...xen?" she muttered. I instantly dropped my sword, turned, and knelt down next to her lying body, as she tried to push herself up, I helped her get into a sitting position, then hugged her fiercely, tears of terror beginning to leak from my eyes.

"What's…wrong Draxen?" she asked me, still groggy, "You...you almost died, Gorhon knocked you out and brutally attacked you…" I cried into her shoulder, she returned the hug and whispered, "Thanks for saving me…" then she realized something, "Wait, where is Gorhan and his men?" I reluctantly let go, though I tried not to let it show, and stood away from her, it was then she saw it.

My cursor was orange. That's right. I killed them, all seven of them, I was horrified at myself. It doesn't matter why I killed, but I actually killed them…

"When I saw you get knocked out by Gorhon, and when they started beating on you…I snapped, I'm not sure how I killed them, don't want to either, I just remember coming back to my senses in front of you…" I explained, tears silently streaming down my face, "I don't blame you if you hate me, I know-" I was cut off when Aero hugged me, "I could never hate you Draxen" she whispered to me.

I burrowed my face into her shoulder, crying, still trying to get over the shock of what I did, Aero soothed me and was rubbing circles on my back. Once I had recovered, I lifted my head and told Aero what I was thinking, "Aero?" I muttered, "Yeah?" "I'm gonna go on a break, at least until my cursor becomes green again, could you please tell Asuna about this?" she pulled her head back so I could see it clearly and nodded.

"I'll be staying with Dusk as usual, just so you know" I told her, she nodded, we let go of each other and silently exited the ruins, I saw Aero teleport to floor 23, where Asuna was I guessed. I teleported to floor 25 where Dusk decided to set up shop for now, as it was filled with ores and materials. As normal, we lived together.

Luckily it was night, so I swiftly went to my house undetected, hoping no one saw my orange cursor, I didn't want to be asked questions. Thankfully Dusk was alone in the shop, working on sorting materials, I silently went to my room and collapsed on my bed, crying to myself, still horrified with what I did. Dusk apparently heard me and opened my door, and upon seeing me in my crying state, he immediately asked the question, "Draxen, what happened?" I silently pointed to my cursor, he looked and gasped, "What happened?"

I told him the story of how I killed those seven players. I saw Dusk go silent for a moment, then I saw him open his menu and type a message to someone. He sat down beside me, "Hey, you did what you had to" Dusk said softly, surprising me since he is normally very rigid, "From what it sounds like you had no choice, and I know you couldn't let Aero just die" I nodded, "But still…" Before I could finish I got a message. It was from Asuna:

Hey, I heard what happened from Aero. I hope you're able to get over it, I know it can't be easy. And don't worry, I won't tell anyone else, and I don't hate you, I could never hate you after everything you've done for me.

-Asuna

I smiled ever so slightly. I was glad Asuna didn't hate me, before I could think any more on the subject, my door opened again, Dusk and I turned and saw Kirito, "Hey, Dusk told me what happened Draxen" I nodded, "It's...fine, I appreciate you coming over to comfort me on this…" The rest of the night, Dusk and Kirito stayed by my side, helping me get over what happened. After some talking with them to get my mind off of it, I began to get tired. When I told them this, they nodded and left the room. I managed to get to sleep peacefully that night, instead of crying to sleep like I expected.