A/N: Okay I just wanted to say, I'm very sorry about the sudden hiatus from new chapters. In addition to some personal stuff going on that hindered my motivation and added to the fact that I've been helping out my friend TheSib with our collab fics, I've been kind of burnt out on my motivation for solo writing. But with SAO 3 and RWBY Vol 6 now airing along with a bunch of other seasonal gems that have inspired me, I'm back in action! Expect an update for Grimmborn to be coming soonish for all my RWBY fans reading this. Anyways I hope you all enjoy and forgive me for my absence.

The waterway lay out of Floor 4 was a welcome and open contrast to the restrictive woods of the floor below. It allowed more freedom of movement with a visible amount of area viewable to watch out for enemy mobs. And the open area meant less sneak attacks from the enemies that didn't give a queue for their attacks. This was now becoming a bit more commonplace with certain enemy types now beginning to attack unprovoked which was a rarity on the past three floors.

These enemies included armored crabs by the lakeside and mudskippers that felt courageous enough to start a fight with larger creatures. Of course, any competently leveled player should have no problem in dealing with these mobs even if they got the jump in.

"Agh! Help me!"

That is to say, unless you decided to aggro too many at one time and ended up surrounded.

Both Kirito and Leafa looked on in amusement, and at the ready to intervene if need be, at the Holy Dragon Alliance member who got too greedy for his own good. The knowledge of crabs dropping great valued armor enhancing drops got spread around and caused a rain of eager players. As such, the lakebed was now a cesspool of players either trying to make a quick stack of col or upgrade their own armor.

"Wanna bet dinner that he gets disarmed by a crab?" Kirito wagered.

Leafa shook his hand while keeping her eyes glued to the scene. "You're on. If he manages to run away then you also treat for dessert."

"You and your greedy stomach."

"Hey." Both turned to see Asuna looking none too amused at their leisuring at the expense of another player. "You shouldn't be betting on the wellbeing of another player. What would others think of you?"

Both siblings looked to each other and shrugged to the rapier user. Much to her annoyance at their dismissal. "I do wonder how low the sterling reputation of the Beater and his Opportunist Lackey can be dragged down to."

"Honestly, I think helping him would be even worse." Leafa commented. "People would think we're just sitting here griefing players of their EXP by waiting here."

Asuna honestly wondered why she dealt with the pair's smarmy attitude sometimes. These two could go from a tour de force in clearing the floor to a duo of bums sitting by doing nothing. She could somewhat understand their casual nature given that the three of them have hit the current floor roadblock for the Dark Elf War quest that seemed to spam multiple floors. Not to mention their levels being pretty high for the area given that this was one of the beginning areas fresh out of the floor stairway. But this was on another level for just being plain rude.

As she was about to open her mouth to scold the two again, both of them jumped into action once the struggling player got disarmed by one of the crab mobs. "Ha! You owe me Leafa!"

The younger sister growled and muttered something under her breath as they both moved in to save the helpless fool.

Asuna stood by on the hilltop watching the two of them take down the crabs at such quick speeds. Once they hit the sand the two diverged to handle both sides the player was surrounded in, cutting their swords through the shells and shattering them into pieces. The mobs began to get more organized to account for the interlopers and focused their attention to the black haired duo. Leafa chunked her sword into the head of one mob but the delay of pulling it out gave another the opportunity to take a lunge at her.

However she didn't even flinch at the leap as Kirito slid past an attacking crab and grabbed a fist full of rocky gravel and tightened his fist in a sword skill. The harsh lob from the violet colored stones pelted the airborne crab out the sky and threw it to the ground helpless. Following up from her partner, Leafa tore through the crab with ease and ran to Kirito's side to finish off the remainders who began to target the other player.

"Oh no you don't!" Leafa yelled. Wrapping her sword in a green light, her push off the ground barreled her to the monster trying to pick on the poor soul and tore through its skull. The other player yelped in fear seeing the blade tear through the twitching crab before it shattered into fragments.

Ignoring the gape from their saved citizen, Kirito and Leafa fistbumped each other while looking through their inventory. "How many did you get from this?"

"Only two. What about you?"

"Not much better. Only one, and the small variant no less." The male rolled his eyes at his sister's snickering and poked her on the nose. "Don't forget you're treating when we get back to Rovia."

Leafa mumbled an agreement softly before her attention was focused back on the person they just saved. "Hey, you alright?"

"I'd be better if I didn't have to be saved by Beater trash and his little backup dancer." He muttered vehemently while brushing himself off. "Is stealing floor boss kills not enough for you two or something?"

"Tough talk from a guy who's above leveled of the mobs here but got surrounded like an idiot." She countered with amusement in her voice. "Maybe if you didn't get so greedy then this situation wouldn't have come back to bite you."

The other player moved his hand to attack in retaliation for his wounded pride. The motion of his movement was more than enough for Leafa to move her hand forward to catch the offending limb before it could make contact with her. Despite her appearance, her strength stat in comparison to the other player ensured he wouldn't be moving that arm until she decided to let go. "Don't even think about moving that other arm of yours. You know what attacking another player outside of a safe zone means for you, right?"

It was practically an unspoken rule that other players should never attack each other outside of dueling or sparring in town. If a player were to reduce another player's HP by any amount outside of those conditions, it would turn their icon cursor orange. The cursor color was a huge factor to interactions with NPCs and towns and what consequences could arise of being a color other than green. Orange means the person either committed a crime or attacked another player which would cause many NPCs to either shoo the offender out of town or be denied services that most need to survive in Aincrad.

Red icons were only help by the truly worst scum of all in Aincrad, be they monster or human. A player killer.

This guy didn't look like he had the brass to be the latter, but his wounded pride would for sure make him act out to become the former. But the Kirigayas didn't want to have to deal with the problems that would ensue from being a factor of the situation so a push would be enough to make him leave.

Leafa did just that to the guild member who stumbled back a bit. He gave one last contemptible look to the pair before walking off to pick up his sword. He moved away from the lakebed and grumbled harshly past Asuna who looked as annoyed as the leaving player.

She marched towards the two who were verbally patting each other on the back and pulled both of them by the ears. Hearing their annoyed cries was a bit of relief from dealing with their antics but not enough to completely forgive them. "This is why the two of you have such a bad reputation. Can't either of you be more considerate towards others or did Kirito's negative influence turn you rotten, Leafa?"

"Hey, I take offense to that!" Kirito complained as he managed to free himself from the woman's grip, as did his sister. "Why should I bother making friends with a bunch of overeager glory seekers? If I go and buddy up to the big guilds they'll only either use me and Leafa or drive me away for being 'trash'."

Leafa nodded in agreement to the sentiment. "I always hate having to carry. Especially when others getting lazy could mean death here. At the end of the day, this is still a death game that takes no prisoners."

"I understand but at least don't go around taunting those who you 'help'. You'll only end up alone with no one to watch out for you."

This advice made Kirito want to sigh. Not out of rudeness but of weariness from hearing the same point again and again. Much as he liked Klein, his offers to join him and 'Fuurinkaazan' along with Leafa grew tired. A crowd was something that neither sibling had experience in or any pleasure in being in, Asuna being a sole exception thus far. But even then, there was the old saying of three's company and her near insistence on keeping near was interesting to say the least. More on Leafa's end as it meant another set of eyes to watch her idiot brother and having another girl to talk to. For Kirito though he would rather some space to himself. A guy needs some time to himself too after all, not that Leafa was willing to give it.

"The concern is noted Asuna but it's fine. Even if everyone in this world hates me, as long as I have Leafa to watch my back then it's enough. I wouldn't need anyone else." Kirito answered.

"Not even me?"

That was a loaded question that neither player felt comfortable answering. Asuna was a rare breed of player that both of them respected, even if she was a bit overbearing. She was skilled, strong yet not cocky or self important. Almost 'big sister' like in her actions to defend others and fight for herself and a good friend that made their core.

To lose that…

"Alright you win Asuna." Leafa relented for the both of them. Her brother didn't look pleased to be answered for but kept his mouth closed. "We'll try and play nice but don't expect us to keep our mouths closed whenever someone tries something. In the end, we're still the Beater and his sidekick in the eyes of most of Aincrad."

Asuna sighed. This was probably as best as she was going to get from these two stubborn mules. "I'll see you two around in Rovia. Don't go around making messes for me to clean up."

"Yes, yes, we'll behave. But only if you treat me to a blacksmith upgrad- guck!" Kirito cradled his head in pain as he was tripped up by Asuna for his snide comment. "Rude!"

"Look who's talking." Helping her brother up from the rocky bed, Leafa waved off Asuna as she made her way back to town. "You know she means well right?"

The black swordsman sighed, brushing off the dirt from his coat. "I know but she's really the only outlier. Other than that there's not much else other than Klein and even he pushes it sometimes."

"What about Argo, you two seem to hit it off pretty good when she's around."

He knew where she was going with this. Better to nip it in the bud sooner than later. "Leafa, for the last time she's nothing more than a business partner. You just don't like me hanging around her because she antagonizes you the most."

"She's gonna… get what's coming to her, that's what she's gonna get…"

"Leafa."

"Geez, alright I get it! That doesn't mean I have to tolerate that rat."

Kirito rolled his eyes as he started to move forward. "Knowing her, she'd probably take that as a compliment. Let's get out of here before the next wave of eager farmers show up to abuse the mobs."

The twilight of evening began to paint the sky a light hue of crimson after Kirito and Leafa finished their dinners. At the sister's treat of course. The swordsman wouldn't let his younger sister out of their deal no matter how much she tried to weasel out. With some light banter and shoves, they found themselves back at their room at the inn with a familiar, yet infuriating guest laying on Leafa's bed.

"Why hello there Ki-bou and Sweater Stretcher!" Argo said in a semi-taunting gesture as she spread herself even further into Leafa's bed. It had the intended effect of causing the black haired girl to puff up in rage. "How's my favorite duo doing?"

"About ready to rip your head off!" Leafa unsheathed her sword and took a swing at the info broker. Being the quick little rodent she was, Argo managed to scamper away from the attack and slipped behind Kirito.

"Oh no, Ki-bou. Tell that scary sister of yours to put her sword away. Or else I just might have to hold you close for protection." Her little statement was punctuated by wrapping her arms around Kirito's chest and holding him close. Snickering all the while at the tension being formed.

"Oi! Watch where you're grabbing! Get off me Argo, this isn't funny!"

"To you maybe~"

"AGH! Forget this, you two flirt all you want! I'm gonna go out and farm some more!" Leafa shoved both of them aside and stomped her way downstairs. Clearly in a rotten mood with Argo's antics.

Finally managing to push the info broker off, Kirito set the girl with a hard glare. "Will you stop that? I'm kind of getting tired of you teasing her like this."

"Aww but that's no fun. She's such an easy target so how can I resist?"

He sighed, knowing full well this wasn't going to stop soon. He just had to teach his sister later on about emotional self control when it came to Argo's teasing. Lord knows that it took forever to do that when they first met during the beta. "Seriously, why are you here?"

Materializing a notepad from her inventory, Argo flipped around until she found a particular page. "Well since we've past floor 3 I've been noticing some key differences from the beta that might have an effect on the state of affairs."

"Such as?"

"Well for one, I think we've noticed the sudden value in mob drops recently. As well as the sudden aggressive behavior that they seem to have."

That was a rather unique disposition compared to the beta of SAO. It wasn't until floor 10 where monsters and the like started attacking unprovoked. To add to that, they were usually big monster types like goblins and skeletons that began seeking enmity. Not crabs or local wildlife. "That does raise concern but most players on the front lines don't really bat an eyelash to it. After the whole sneak attack thing some of the spiders and treants did the floor prior."

"Which is also strange considering sneak attacks weren't a thing in the beta either." Argo went on while flipping through her notes. "That and a few new quests have shown up that weren't there before."

That got Kirito's attention. Unknown quests could be problematic if not taken into proper care to map it out. "Anything dangerous?"

The info broker shook her head which gave a soft bit of relief to the front liner. "Not anything yet but there's the other problem. For you front liners this stuff might not be dangerous but for someone like me... "

"Argo?"

She sighed with a melancholy of self pity. Kirito couldn't be sure if she exaggerated it or not. "I'm gonna keep it real with you Ki-bou, it's getting harder for me to keep info up on these quest that have monsters in them. So I think you know what I'm getting at here."

"You seriously expect me to be your personal bodyguard?" The gall of this girl. To be so pushy and still ask for favors. "You've got to be joking."

"Ki-bou, I might mess with you and ol' Knockers a bunch but info is my livelihood. What good is an info broker that can't properly track the flow of fresh news. Plus who knows? Maybe this rat might slip out a detail or two about the hottest news to 'ya."

'I swear this girl is going to be the death of me.' The bribe alone was enough for Kirito to consider this deal. Fresh information could be invaluable in the long run. But if he was going to do this, there was something else that had to be done. "Fine, I just might help you but under one condition."

"Oho? What does Ki-bou want? A kiss maybe?"

Her Cheshire grin almost made him want to throw her out the room but he managed to keep a still face at her tease. "You have to stop teasing Leafa so much. She's gotten really frustrated at both you and me for 'protecting' you."

"Ouch, that's a hard bargain right there." Argo placed a finger under her chin in thought. "I like riling her up a bit too much to want to give it up. Hmm…" The deadpanned expression from her 'favorite' customer made her finally give a nod of approval. "Fine, bring her over here so we can make up. I'll be waiting right here."

She made a move to jump back onto the bed but was quickly intercepted by yanking at her ear. "Oh no you don't! If you're gonna request me for help, you're gonna be the one to apologize!"

"Ouch! Hey that wasn't part of the deal!"

"It was a compound deal that I just added. Now come on!"

Another yank made girl hiss in discomfort as Kirito pulled the two of them outside the door. While he ignored the looks given to him on the streets as a result of Argo's ranting and raving, he made note to change the room settings as to avoid this problem in the future.

As the artificial sun began to sink into the depths of the horizon, the swishing of a blade and the shattering of enemies could be seen amistad the twilight. The lakebed was still populated by players who were looking into the material grind. Rotating groups of three of more was a common sight.

But most were watching in curiosity at the opportunist Leafa making solo rounds against a side spawning mob. Her stance held up its guard as crab after crab came after her. Their numbers were great but her skill outweighed their advantage as she cut through them left and right.

'From the right.' Twisting her sword after the end lag of her last skill expired, she parried the big claw from the mob and chopped into the head of it. She cleanly pulled out the weapon as the HP bar fell to zero and got back into stance. 'From the left.' She leapt back to dodge a lunging blow from another big clawed crab and moved to slice off the right side legs from it.

Her swings and strikes began to feel like a flowing stream of attack to attack. One thing that she was still lacking in comparison to her brother was field awareness. Often she would find herself surprised by a side mob and either get sidewinded or saved by Kirito. But despite all his hounding, at the end of the day she knew that there was no more room for error.

'One mistake here could mean death. A fatal error will cost a life regardless of it being myself or someone else.' Leafa thought while moving through the mobs of attacking crabs. 'I have to keep up with him and Asuna. I can't let either of them carry me or my mistakes.' She rounded the trail to a small cliff near the lakebed that they wouldn't jump from. She backed them into a corner and ran them through with her sword skill. The blade in her hands glowing in a purple arc as they were ripped in half into a mass of shattered pixels. The black haired girl breathed a sigh of relief as she sheathed her weapon.

Looking to where she was, her routing trip left her a bit on the further end of the lakebed from town. In her focused haze Leafa didn't realize how for she strayed from the beaten path once she finished. She kept close to the riverside as she began her walk to where the other players were around. With her experiences on the floor below, it was never a safe bet to stay close to the trees without a party to watch all sides.

Leafa ignored the looks she was receiving while walking back to the grassy knoll that connected to the lakebed path leading to town. She didn't care much for the stares but the possibility of her creating a show with her slight rage filled kiting. She just had to avoid eye contact and the path to town should be clear.

"Oi! You, girl!"

'So much for a nice trip back to the inn.' Piling on new stress after having worked out the previous weight was not something that put Leafa in the best place mentally. Seeing a pair of armored guys block her path to town made her eye twitch. "What do you want?"

The one wearing a full helmet stepped forward, looking down at her from his height. "That was quite the show you put on. Stealing away a bunch of kills for those who were waiting." Moving into her personal space, the guy placed a tight hand on her shoulder. Whether it was a form of intimidation or just trying to move in on her, she was not enthused about the contact.

"I don't want any trouble." She moved to remove the hand from her shoulder but the grip only tightened. "I was just dealing with some stress and you're making it worse."

"Stress ain't an excuse from kill stealing a huge wave of mobs." The other said as he approached. "We already have a proper schedule for planning our proper rotations and turns for players to get their fair share. You think you're better than everyone else who were waiting their turns?"

The small crowd of around sixteen players began to boo at Leafa for her impulsive action. An annoyance that only continued to irk the girl as the jeering continued. "I don't care. Just get out of my way so I can go relax. I don't want to waste any time with this."

She stood unfazed at the way the two armored players tried to big themselves up. Their levels were certainly below her own by a good seven so their threatening gestures didn't flinch her at all. She grabbed the hand that was tightening on her shoulder and slowly moved it off of her. She didn't let go of the arm as she stared into the face of the player. "For the last time, move. I'm not in the mood for any of this."

"You don't get to look down on this situation just because you're eating the leftovers of that Beater trash. A bitch like you needs to run along with your owner and stay out of decent players business." He barked at her.

That wasn't something she was going to let slide. The moment he mentioned Kirito was the point she twisted his arm with her higher Strength stat and shoved his elbow into his own stomach. Her icon cursor stayed green as she wasn't the one to directly hurt him with physical contact. A scummy work around, but one that she used to prove a point to these players. "I was trying to be nice about this but the second you made that comment is when you pushed too far." She watched the player recover his sense of balance from the work around jab. He stood tall once more and glared at her hard. "For the last time, I just want to get back to town for some rest. You can have your schedule back to normal once I leave."

The other player pulled out his sword at her comment and pointed it at her. "Don't you dare talk down to us like you're better! A cheating duo like yourselves should just jump off the edge of the world and make things more pleasant for everyone else!"

Having had enough of their bluster Leafa decided to unsheath her own sword and knock the blade out of the player's hand. The look on her face was beyond irritated and looked ready to teach these two a lesson in manners. "You think that us dying would solve all your problems? The front lines would be a hellhole without him and I watching over you flailing morons. Quit thinking that every problem is caused by one person because that's only going to drag the efforts to escape down."

"Bitch! You won't get away with that!"

The other player who she struck back materialized a new sword from his inventory and charged in at the beater sidekick. Leafa grit her teeth and pulled her blade back. If she attacked him outside of a duel, nothing but headaches would result of it. She moved back to dodge to swings that was coming from him, striking when he pushed in a bit too deep to disarm him. However he seemed to have learned from the first experience and held sword with two hands to prevent losing another weapon.

The swordswoman held her ground with her stance and focused on deflecting the blows from the two handed swings. It was hard for her to defend herself in such a way that prevented her from attacking her unofficial opponent. Putting strength into her next attack Leafa managed to disarm the player after he missed with his last swing. Kicking the weapon near the water she pointed her sword at him to prevent from getting up and trying again.

"Just walk away. I'm in no mood to continue this pointless fight." Her warning was clear as could be. Leafa was not afraid to shove back if it came to it.

Just as the fallen player was about to get up, a roaring yell came barreling towards the two. Leafa looked up in shock to see the other player running at her with a sword skill attack pointed right at her. The one who was on the ground rolled away from his partner's path just as he use the Rage Spike.

Try as she did to move and dodge the attack, she was tripped up by the other one and was left falling as the sword skill connected. Despite the difference in level, the direct hit to her stomach took out a big piece of her HP. Falling to around 80% with the single hit.

Sliding back from the impact of the hit Leafa fell on her backside once her ankle hit a rock that tripped her up. The duo both looked at her and laughed at her stumble, not bothering to notice the attack had his cursor change to orange. "Serves trash like you right! That should learn ya good!"

The swordswoman growled at the taunting from her aggressors as she got up from the ground. Glancing quickly to her HP bar she had indeed been hit hard and now was being mocked in front of the other players who were just sitting there watching this happen. Her vision grew red as all her frustration and anger had finally reached a boiling over point.

She had enough of these people.

Leafa picked up both herself and her sword, slowly making her way to the two players.

Enough putting up with the abuse, insults and disrespect.

The two noticed her approach and both picked up their weapons. Eager to continue teaching the girl a lesson that she was too stubborn to take in.

She just wanted to be left alone.

Both of them charged in with swords raised high to knock her back again.

But these people insisted on dragging not only her, but her brother through the mud because of their reputation.

However, as they laid eyes on her face they saw an inferno of emotions. The only one registering in their own minds is anger.

She had enough for today, and they would know it.

The hesitation brought a mistake in the strikes slowing down, allowing Leafa to parry the both of them at once. The two stuck in stun delay, they could only watch in fear as Leafa's sword began to glow a vibrant green color as she tore through their armor with a Vertical Arc.

"LEAFA!"

Her senses returned hearing Kirito call out to her right after the blow had been dealt. Both players laid flat on their backs, chest plates shattered from the attack and shivering in fear. She didn't even have to turn around to know what was waiting for her. Her brother stopped after she had put away her weapon and moved to face him and the tagalong in Argo.

Though nothing physically changed about Leafa, the orange cursor hovering over her name was all telling at what she had done.

A/N: And that is that everyone! Leafa's in quite the situation now, isn't she? How is she gonna get herself out of this mess? Well you're just gonna have to find out next time! Hopefully the next chapter won't take nearly three months to come out lol (God I hope not.) Anyways, thanks for reading and drop a review if you liked it. See you next time everyone!