Mountains
November 16, 2023: 41st floor
This was not a good idea. I'm serious man, this was not a good idea. I should have never done this. God, I'm an idiot. I should have never accepted this quest. It was all to just to prevent a shit ton of fuckups of fighting.
"Run!" I yell as the ground below me erupted and threw me up high like a volleyball being set. My arms flailed about as I tried to steady my fall. Someone might say that I was flying. But as the great Buzz Lightyear had put it, "I'm not flying, I'm falling with style!" It was at that time, I knew... I fucked up.
Earlier that day, ten kilometers north from the city of Zhipol
I knew that Haru and Hana will get off at a bad start. He pretty much told me at the start. I could also see it ever since Hana joined our party. The two kept stepping on each other's toes every time we go monster hunting or going on a quest with the rest of the KoB. Naomi and Miya are still at each others' necks, but at least they can work together. But them? Hell, it's sorta getting on my nerves. Watching them, it was a whole fuck-fest of screw up after screw up. This was the last straw.
"What the hell? Stop getting my kills!" Haru exclaims loudly as polygons of light rose into the swirling air around us. In front of him stood Hana, her blade drawn. Her dark hood stood out against the snowy landscape. I stood to the side with Naomi and Miya watching these two players argue about their kills. God, this has been going on ever since I recruited Hana a few months ago. It's really fucking annoying.
"That was my kill." she muttered back, her voice barely audible in the whistling of the harsh breeze.
"No, it was my kill!"
"Haru! Shut the fuck up before I drop your ass!" I exclaim back, angry at the two bickering like an old married couple. He glared at me, his eyes aflame. I put on a stern look on my face. "Haru, you better watch yourself."
"Whatever." Haru turned around and trudged off into the blizzard, leaving the turncoat standing in the cold. What a gentleman. I sheathed the weapon that I was holding, a hatchet that had a huge hole in the middle to lighten the ax even more. I got that weapon from Hana, who used it to kill that guy and save me.
I heaved a big long sigh as I watched his figure slowly disappear. My breath formed a small cloud in the cold, bitter air on the 41st floor of Aincrad. As you could tell, the 41st floor was one of those winters biomes. Each floor has a unique biome. Some, like the second floor, are deserts. Some, like many other floors, are hilly grasslands. And some, unfortunately, are winter wonderlands. Hell, I can't even see the sun from all the snow coming down.
This place reminds me of Russia. Its cities are Russian names and there's snow everywhere. And the snow! It was literally coming down in sheets. It's like they came down all at once. Fuck, it was really cold. I could hear the girls' teeth chattering as they tried to produce body heat.
"Wh-wh-wow! I've n-never s-s-seen you so w-worked up a-about that!" I could hear Miya struggling to say as the bitter cold stung our skin. Miya and Naomi are lucky. They got armor to protect them from the snow pelting us.
The cold really never bothered me anyway. See what I did there? But, really, I wasn't really affected by it. When I was in Ranger school, we had to do this mountain exercise. I remembered hiking for twenty days, hungry and tired, for the mountain phase of Ranger School. That shit was hell. I've done it in the winter too! It was snowing on that Georgian mountain. Thank God the next phase went to sunny Florida after that.
"What should we do about Haru?" asked Naomi. She seemed to be faring better in the cold. That was good, I guess. Deep down, I wanted to just try to comfort her in this freezing hell. You know what I mean?
"Ah, just leave him. He's gonna go back to Zhipol." I said. No one said anything after that.
Later, Zhipol
The gates of Zhipol were pretty impressive from the other cities. This one actually had one of those medieval walls with freaking red brick, green tipped towers along the wall. Again, much like Russia.
We entered the gates of the large city and made our way to the inn that we stayed at last night. Yesterday, we had just unlocked this floor in one of the most easiest boss battles that we've seen. Seriously, a knife could take down that boss. It was hilariously underpowered that we were over prepared.
After five minutes of walking in silence, we finally found the inn that we stayed at last night. I opened the door and gestured for the girls to go in. "Wait for a sec, I'll be right back." I called to the girls who were already inside.
"Alright! See ya later!" Naomi called back. I shut the door quietly and turned around. I drew a cold breath as I tried to remember where the quest board was.
Every city has a quest board for people who want to maybe level up or get more money and resources. It was a goldmine if you kept going for the easy quests. But I decided that I was going to accept one of the hardest quests on the board. It was suicidal, but I've had enough of it. I've had enough of the fighting between Haru and Hana.
Upon looking at the board, I already found one that seemed hard as hell. There was a paper in the middle that said "Help wanted! Climb Zunkov Mountain and slay the legendary Mountain Monster! Reward: 500,000 Cor."
"What are you looking at?" asked a voice behind me. I grabbed the paper and ripped it off of the board. I shoved the piece of paper into my back pocket as I turned around. there stood Haru in the snow.
"You know, I don't really like fighting in my team. That's why I'm accepting a quest and I'm taking you and Hana with me."
Haru's jaw dropped as I said that. To be honest, he looked like he was stuck in the ice because he didn't move a muscle for a minute or two.
"The quest is to kill this sort of monster at the top of Zunkov Mountain. And we're going to work together to kill this fucker."
One hour later, North Gates of Zhipol
"Do we have to do this?" whined Haru in a childish way, the wind trying so hard to make his voice unheard. God, he has been complaining for the entire time. For fuck's sakes, I'm starting to regret doing this.
"Yes! Now quit your bitching and get your shit together!" I scolded him like a father to a son. At least Hana is not complaining. But, to be honest, she doesn't talk much anyways. She's easier to handle than this numb-nut. Speaking of which, Hana was standing next to me, not saying anything.
Around us, the snow swirled as the wind blew it's cold fucking breeze. We could barely see the hills in the distance. Behind us, the great walls protecting Zhipol loomed over us as if they were those Titans from that anime Ryan watches all the time.
Haru walked past us, bumping shoulders with Hana. Hana just watch him trudge off into the snow, her face unchanging as always. You know, I've never seen her smile, frown, or do anything with her face. She just was... expressionless. Like a robot. The only time I've seen her do something was when she talked to Miya. To everyone else, she's just... an android.
"Listen, that dude lost his sister a while back to LC. Been sorta bitter ever since." I turned to face Hana. She stayed silent. She just turned her head to look at me, her face frozen like this fucking place. Seriously, it's that cold!
"Sergeant Hashimoto!" a voice yelled from behind me. I turned around, trying to face whoever said that. There stood Asuna with Miya and Naomi walking behind her.
"What's up, Asuna?" I casually asked. Asuna didn't look happy. The fuck did I do?
"Do you want to explain why you accepted the hardest quest on the board?" she yelled. Naomi and Miya both just watched from a distance.
"How about you try and figure out why?" I answered the question with another question.
"That decision was reckless and dangerous!" yelled Asuna. Yep, she was pissed.
"Why the hell do you care?" I asked. Naomi and Miya looked a little shocked.
"Don't say that!" exclaimed Miya, her mouth agape.
"I care because you are under my command and it's your and their lives in danger!"
"If these two keep fighting, then we're in constant danger! Unit cohesion and all!"
"You can get someone killed in the process!"
"I already got someone killed because they kept fighting me! I'm not gonna let that happen again!"
"This will not solve anything!" Asuna argued.
"My best friend died in Afghanistan because of a little fight between us!"
As I said that, my mind brought me back to Marjah. Back to that intersection on 41st and Kaddah.
"She's dead! Leave her! We gotta go man! We gotta go!" I yelled as I fire a quick burst from my rifle. I didn't bother aiming because there was a lot of enemies there that there was no need to. My squad and I were at a street corner in Marjah. After breaching one building to get to the hostage only to find that he was killed, I gave the order to move out.
"No! I won't leave her! I can't leave her!" Ryan said as he kneeled over Taylor's lifeless husk of a body. Around us, AK fire hit the ground, shooting dirt up. I don't know how we didn't get hit. It was a miracle we got outta that.
I pushed the stubborn soldier away from the danger and bent down to yank the chain of tags that hung around her neck. I'm sorry, Tay. I told her silently. As much as it hurt me to leave her body on that street corner, I had to. Her corpse stayed there until after the battle.
Both Ryan and I ran away from that ambush. As we turned the corner where the rest of our squad was waiting, Ryan wheeled around and sucker punched me. I fell down hard.
"It's your fault!" he shouted angrily. Her death was somehow my fault. I told her to take point, but she ended up getting shot by a sniper down the street. That decision got her killed.
It's your fault. It's your fault. His words, his painful words cut deep into my soul. It was my fault.
"Shi! Shi! Hello? Shi!" a familiar voice pulled me back to reality. Suddenly, I found myself back in SAO, in front of the gates of Zhipol on the 41st floor. The blowing dust of Marjah was replaced with the blowing snow of floor forty one.
"Huh?" I shook off that memory. I looked around. Miya was now standing in front of me, a worried look staining her young face. Again, her eyes glittered in the snow. They glittered in a sort of... mesmerizing way.
"You were zoning out." Miya placed a hand on my shoulder. "Shi, are you really okay? This is the second time I've seen you do this."
"Yeah. Of course I'm fine! Why wouldn't I be?"
"You're as pale as the snow." Naomi commented.
I grimaced. I know that it hurts, but I can't tell them that it hurts. That I've got them killed. I just can't. How can I? They looked up to me. How can I just say that I'm scared for them because of what happened. How? God, it hurts to just hold on to this.
"It's just the cold!" I said. It was your fault. Just own up to it.
Miya was just staring at me for a while. I looked at Naomi and she knew I was lying. Her face creased as worry stained the woman's face. I looked back at Miya.
"I swear I'm okay," I lied "I'm good."
"O-okay." Miya stammered.
"Okay." I turned to face Hana. "Let's go?" I asked. She nodded and we started walking to Zunkov Mountain, leaving the girls behind.
We ended up finding Haru's ass just ahead on the path. We could barely see a thing, though. The storm has picked up.
"Haru!" I called out to the person ahead. That person turned around and walked towards us. That person was indeed Haru, his face covered in snow.
"What?" asked Haru. So he doesn't see this huge ass snowstorm that has picked up?
"Storm's picked up! Let's just find a good place to hunker down!" I suggested. A piece of snow somehow got lodged up into my nose. "Achoo!" I sneezed the snow out of my nose. I ended up getting blasted in the face with my own spit from the wind.
"Yeah! Let's go!" We soon made our way off the path. Hana tripped and fell from the wind and a rock.
"Get her up!" I commanded Haru. Haru just hesitated and stared at me. "I said get her up, damn it!" I yelled. He bent down slowly and picked the woman off the ground. Again, another piece of snow hit me in the face.
I raised my arms up, using my hands to shield my face from the loads of snow coming down onto us. I said that the cold never bothered me, but the snow does. And God, it's bothering me a hella lot.
Five minutes later
Haru and Hana both collapse beside me. At least we're out of the storm. We found ourselves a cave in almost no time. It was pretty big to be honest. It was suspiciously big. Like a wolf den. The only light was coming from the sun that was being blotted out by the snowstorm above.
I looked down to my companions in pity. They barely moved. I didn't find that worrying to be honest. If anything, they could be just faking it. I mean, these bodies aren't totally ours, right? Speaking of, I wonder if anyone visited me in the hospital. Any squadmates? Did my parent's visit? It'll be nice to know if anyone did visit me.
"You guys okay?" I asked the weary travellers even though we were on the road for just thirty minutes. God, this'll be a long day.
"Get me up, please?" asked Haru. He was still laying face down. Like I said, pity. That's when I realized I was supposed to be babysitting these two for the entire quest. Oh pity me!
"Alright!" I groaned as I tried to lift the poor kid. When I did, my knees buckled. "Holy shit, you're fat! How much do you weigh?" I asked.
"Only 170!" exclaimed the Japanese kid. So how is it hard to get up?
Hana, who was sitting up right beside Haru, had her eyes wide open. "You okay?" I asked the girl, whose face turned more white every passing second.
"S-shi?" she stammered.
"What?"
"On your back." Hana pointed at my back. I looked behind me. There, a wolf bared its teeth as it got ready to eat my friends and I.
"Holy. Fucking. Shit." I whispered under my breath as the wolf took a slow step forward. Above, a red cursor indicated that it was an enemy monster. It was a little darker than the other cursors I saw. That meant that this was a stronger monster. I took out the hatchet and twirled it around my hand.
The wolf lunged, it's teeth finding my left arm. The wolf was shaking its head as it tried to tear off my arm. "Ah!" I screamed as the wolf was now on top of me. I dropped the hatchet in my hands, the ax clattering down onto the stone floor of the cave.
I reached down to my boot with my right hand and grabbed what I was looking for. My fingers grasped the hilt of the emergency dagger I had in my boot. I gripped the dagger and got ready to stab the wolf. Using my left arm to get the wolf into position, I drove the blade into it's neck.
The sight of the bright red cartoon blood and the white polygons brightened the damp and dark cave momentarily. Finally, the fucker was killed. I slowly sat up and examined my arm. There were red marks where the fangs of the wolf dug into my skin. I look back at my companions. They both watched me in shock.
"Okay! Let's go!" I called out. The storm outside stopped blasting its wind and the snow stopped falling from the sky. That wolf, though, was the first of many troubles we would encounter.
Holy shit, this is gonna be a long fucking day.
A/N: Hey guys! This chapter is shorter than usual because I want to split this quest into two different chapters. Having it all in the same chapter would make it too long.