I'm so sorry for the delayed upload but I have been having some health issues over the past week and I wasn't able to write. Enjoy!

Chapter 8

44th floor, 20th March 2024

The Order came charging out of the woods and in the disorganized orange players. It was mayhem. Orange players trying to flee to the woods only to find more horsemen waiting for them. They were cut down and in an act of desperation they formed a circle to fend of the horsemen but it utterly collapsed as they could not stop the horses. As the battle began the Order prioritized the players with spears as they posed the number one danger and in a few minutes all the spearmen were neutralized. It was a truly terrifying sight for the orange players as they had never seen horsemen in SAO but the Order was also very experienced in this type of assault and so they had trained their members to handle horses. Their speed made it impossible to block them and as no one in SAO had fought against horses they could not apply tactics to fend of a cavalry charge.

Elisa although scared, mastered her courage when she saw all the pkers running and she charged the enemy. She was clumsy and almost got hit by an orange player as she charged but another member of the Order came out of nowhere, as was often the case in this battle, and saved her. As the battle came to an end, most of the players of the Order headed to into the forest to pick up the bodies of the paralyzed pkers and bring them to the clearing so that they can send them to the prison using teleport crystals. Those men had dismounted and there were still some horsemen around the forest to make sure that no one escaped.

As they collected and dragged the bodies to the clearing, Knightmare noticed a white figure hiding behind a tree staring at them. He recognized the figure and was stunned.

"Knightmare, come on. The bodies are not going to collect themselves. Another member said to him.

"What are you looking at?" Knightmare pointed at the figure and the soldier went on ahead and pulled out his sword.

"What are you doing?"

"They must have gotten away. Don't worry I'll take care of this."

"I am not sure that's an orange player."

"If they're here then that means they belong to the orange guild."

"No I am pretty sure that that player is not a pker." The member didn't listen to him and continued on his way towards the player. Said player noticed them and pulled out her sword. Her thin body made it clear that she was a girl and her equipment made her way too easy to spot but Knightmare because of his high skills could actually see her face. He stood there staring at his fellow member while he approached the figure.

The mysterious girl simply disarmed the member of the Order with relative ease but instead of killing him or even injuring him she just stared at him and at the end she let him go. He slowly backed up and noticed Knightmare who was slowly creeping up behind him with his arm to his sword.

"Vice Commander?" Knightmare called out.

"Knightmare? Is that you?"

"Unfortunately it is me."

"You two are acquainted?"

"Not for long."

"What do you mean, Knightmare?"

"You'll soon find out, Vice Commander." He said as he spotted ten or fifteen more members approaching them to see what is going on.

"What the hell is going on around here?" Anton said as he rode towards them.

"We found someone you ought to see."

"What sort of scum would even be here that I would want to look at for more than ten seconds?"

"She's a lot of things but scum she is not." Knightmare said as he knew Asuna very well since they were both from the Knights of Blood. Anton sighed at the sight of her as he knew that his future was grim at best with her knowing about the Order. He proceeded to call for Gideon and he arrived shortly after.

"What is all the commotion about?" He asked. Because he was wearing his mask he terrified Asuna but was the first and only one to notice the player lying behind Asuna on the ground with a lance sticking out of his stomach but he chose to not pay much attention to him ,figuring that he was just another pker.

"Well, see for yourself." Anton said as he pointed at Asuna.

"And who might you be?"

"I'm Asuna. And to whom I am speaking to?" She was scared but she didn't look she was.

"You're speaking to the man who runs things around here. Now you have thirty seconds to explain your business or these men will retrieve that information the hard way." Everyone was on edge because a KoB member was not a usual occurrence in these kinds of situations and neither were they welcome. If not handled well this could end catastrophically for the Order but everyone trusted Gideon and his handling of crisis like these.

"Umm… I came here to scout this guild for the clearing group but it seems like you've taken care of them."

"By yourself? I can hardly believe that."

"I can handle myself if that's what you mean."

"I'm sure you can but I just have a feeling that you're not alone. And I tend to trust my instinct."

"Well what else can I tell you? I'm all alone."

"You better no be lying to me." It was at that moment that Gideon went and checked out the body of the man behind Asuna. She tried to stop him by getting in the way but she failed. Gideon ordered his men to help the man up by supporting him on their shoulders as he was paralyzed. Gideon approached him and turned to Asuna.

"You have no idea who he is?"

"No I-I don't."

"So I suppose you don't mind if I killed him."

"No-no go on ahead." Gideon pressed the spear that had struck the man in the chest even further and his health gradually began to decrease until Asuna stopped just when his HP turned to red.

"Stop!"

"Yes?"

"Don't kill him."

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because I might know him."

"I figured as much." He then pulled out the spear and gave the man a potion to recover his HP. The man or boy because he seemed young had all black equipment on and had a sword at his back.

"What happens now?"

"Well, considering you lied to me I guess I'll just have to kill you." When she heard that Elisa grabbed his arm and looked at him with a confused but upset look.

"What are you doing?"

"I got this. Don't you trust me?"

"I do but… it's just…"

"Relax. No one is going to get hurt." They whispered. "Now if you be so kind as to lay out your hand." He turned to Asuna.

"Why?"

"Because I say so. That's why."

"Fine." She put out her hand and he merely scratched her enough with his sword so that it would paralyze her. After that everyone went on about their duty but Anton approached Gideon.

"What do we do about them?"

"I am open to suggestions."

"Kill them in cold blood while on a duel." He was clearly joking and didn't really mean it.

"Come on I need real suggestions."

"I don't know what to tell you. Take them back to the tavern and see what we can learn from them."

"You really think spending more time with them is a good idea."

"I never said that it's a good idea but it's AN idea." Gideon pondered this for a moment and agreed but not before Knightmare approached them with a worried look on his face.

"Guys, we have a problem. She recognized me."

"Shit." They all stared at each other in complete silence.

"Suddenly killing them doesn't seem as such a bad idea." Anton said but Elisa yelled at all of them.

"NO WE ARE NOT GOING TO KILL ANYONE."

"She's right. That 's not the right thing to do."

"And what is?"

"I don't know but I'll figure it out. For now just take them but to the town." After that conversation Gideon went and pulled Elisa away and behind a tree to speak to her.

"What is it, Gideon?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes of course."

"Then why are you so worried that we're going to kill someone when I'm around?"

"I don't know how to explain it but you seemed like you actually considered it."

"Of course not. Such terrible crimes are what we prevent, we don't commit them."

"Did everyone else consider it though?"

"They did since a lot is at stake here. We can be exposed if we don't handle this well."

"That's why I thought you considered it."

"That's not the reason is it?"

"What do you mean?"

"You think that because I killed once I would do it again but I have news for you. It was a mistake that doesn't define me." He grew angry and after saying that he turned around and left.

"Wait!" She chased after him and grabbed his arm once more but he didn't look at her.

"What is it?"

"I am sorry ok? I really didn't think of that."

"You did. And it troubles me as to why you'd think of me as such of a cruel person after all the time we've spent together."

"I wasn't thinking clearly and I jumped to conclusions. I don't think of you as a bad person." He didn't say anything more and left for the town and she chose not to chase him again.

44th floor, 21st March 2024

Most of the members of the Order had left the 40th floor but Anton, Knightmare, the girls and Gideon remained to deal with their 'guests'. The tavern, where they would all stay, wouldn't open for a whole day so that they could deal with this in peace.

Gideon exited his room only to find Elisa sitting on the floor besides his door, sleeping peacefully. He looked at her for a short while. He didn't know why but he continued looking at her beautiful face as it slept so peacefully and he wished that he could sleep that peacefully too but perhaps that's too much to ask for him. Perhaps he didn't deserve a quiet sleep like that. But then again he thought that he must have earned forgiveness for his crimes through all the pain he had to endure. That was not up to him to judge but rather God himself, all he could do was pray and have faith.

She woke up and looked back at him with a warm smile like nothing had happened the day before. He was understandably surprised but deep inside he was happy. All night he thought about his reaction and, as was often the case, he realized that he overacted a bit.

"Good morning."

"Why did you sleep out here?"

"I was waiting for you."

"Why?"

"I wanted to apologize and so that you couldn't avoid me since I know how much you love doing that when you get angry."

"You don't need to apologize. I overreacted a bit."

"So are we cool?"

"Yeah we're cool."

"Great because I have wanted to ask you about something has been troubling me."

"Let's get inside first." They entered his room and sat down.

"I know it's rude to ask but yesterday you were talking about a girl named Fujikawa and I was wondering…"

"What my relationship with her is?"

"Pretty much."

"I'll answer your question if you answer mine. Why do YOU care?"

"Well… I mean…. Out of curiosity." She lowered her head to hide her red face.

"I see. She is a childhood friend of mine and Knightmare's and she used to have a crush on me but after Izumi she changed her focus to Knightmare which was a relief for me."

"I see."

"My turn now."

"Your turn?"

"What? Don't I get to ask a super private question?"

"You do, I guess."

"Great. Did you have a boyfriend?" At the sound of the question she almost turned into a red pepper with all her blushing. Why he would ask that was all she could think of.

"I had but we broke up a few weeks before SAO."

"Any particular reason why you broke up?"

"He wasn't very faithful."

"I'm sorry." She didn't seem to care at all and was even surprised when he apologized.

"Don't be. It's better that way."

"Well let's get going, shall we?" He said as he got up.

"Wait why did you ask me such a thing?"

"That's something you're going to figure out on your own."

"Do y-you like me?" He didn't respond, he only gave her a smile and continued on his way.