"So, what are we gonna do about these guys?" Sinon asked.
I stared at the still unconscious townspeople in front of us. They're alive, but they won't wake up anytime soon. Maybe I was too hard on them last night...but hey? It's for our own survival.
Five guys, five normal guys...that's just what they are right now. Nothing more or less.
But last night...
What the hell were them last night?
What happened to them?
Guess this is all going nowhere until they wake up. With luck, they can explain about what happened.
"We can't do anything for now. Let's go back to Mayfair. Might as well as brought these guys with us." I said.
"Are you crazy!?" Asuna yelled. "There's only three of us, but there's five of them! How do you expect us to carry them all the way back!?"
Crap.
"You had a point, KBO knight," Sinon added. "But we can't leave them here like this, either."
"First of all, it's Asuna, and if we're really gonna take them, we can only bring two of them back with us."
"Wait, only two?" I said. "There's three of us."
"But we're women!" Asuna argued. "These are muscular guys down there! It's gonna take both me and this girl here to lift off even one of them!"
"She has a point, Kirito." Sinon interrupted. "We're gonna need more manpower to carry all of them back, and Asuna, my name is Sinon, by the way..."
I nodded, sighed in defeat, before proceeding to the nearest townspeople and carry him up.
Might as well as take who we could. After we reunite with the Black Cats, we can come back for the rest.
As much as I don't want to, I must leave the rest of them here for a while. It's too risky for one of us to be left behind to guard them. We all witnessed how those beasts could do last night. If there's going to be another ambush like that, we're all dead for sure.
In the end, we all managed to carry two men back to Mayfair, with me carrying one, while Asuna and Sinon helped with the other.
It took us about an hour, but we safety travelled back to Mayfair Meadows.
Two familiar faces are waiting for us inside the inn.
"Oi! Kirito, Asuna! Where the hell have you been!?" Agil shouted. His face is a mixture of worrying and 'I'm-so-gonna-kick-your-ass' look.
"Yeah! We've been looking everywhere for you guys!" Another high-pitched voice came from Lamia, who's sitting at the coach looking at us disapprovingly.
"Wait, who's those guys? And who's that girl!" She pointed at Sinon, who tried in vain to not to make eye contact with anyone in the room.
"Isn't she one of the HDA paladins?" Agil asked.
"It's alright, she's a friend." I said. "But right now, we need to take those guys upstairs. There's still three more of them in Tranquil Forest and we need to go get them." I explained.
"W-wait a sec, you've been missing all night, can't you tell us about what happened first?" Agil asked.
"It's a long story, sir." Sinon finally spoke. "We'll explain on the way there."
"Where is everybody, anyways?" Asuna looked around "There's only you and Lamia here."
Lamia sighed. "Thanks to you guys suddenly disappeared, Keita ordered us to split into groups and search the town to find you. Me and Agil were left waiting here at the inn in case you guys get back."
Damn it, what have they done!?
If...if they left the town and find more of those beasts we've fought last night, they'll stand no chance against them!
"Come on Agil, help us take these people upstairs. We need to hurry!" I said.
Ten minutes later, we're back at the town entrance, along with the horses we've 'borrowed' from the stable nearby, and returned to the Tranquil Forest.
Along the way, I explained to Agil and Lamia about what happened last night, from the meeting with Sinon to the ambush by those beasts, which turned out to be the missing townspeople transformed by...something, and they're very, very dangerous.
"That's...that's just horrible!" Lamia gasped. "To think that players could be turned into...into those monsters..."
"But how could they do it?...I mean, how could they do something like this to the townspeople!" Agil commented.
"My guess is Kayaba's behind all this." Asuna said. "He's a GM, after all. Only he could do something like this."
"Now, now, let's not get to conclusions just yet." Sinon replied. "Last night, those people have the markings of a rogue guild I've been tracking down. Maybe they're the ones responsible."
"But that means they're capable of altering the game's data!" I said. "Even Beaters can't do that kind of feat! If it's not Kayaba, the only ones who could do this kind of thing must be..."
"Hackers," Asuna finished. "I hate those people."
Okay, as if Kayaba isn't bad enough for us...
"But if what you said about them is true, then we're clearly outmatched." Agil noted. "You guys almost died took down just five of them! That's not even half of the missing townspeople. If we're to face a dozen more of them, we'll just be slaughtered."
"Then we need to take down those hackers fast. I don't know how good those hackers are, but changing entire player data and replacing them with monsters is very difficult even to the most skilled hackers. It should take a very long time to even create one of those things." I explained. "Hopefully, we're not too late, and the townspeople are not all transformed. If we take down the ones behind this, then we might be able to stop the process."
"Amen to that." Agil said, before turning to Sinon "Hey, Sinon, you're a spear user?"
"Yes. I happen to have an interest in long-range weapons. It's a shame that this game has no bows and arrows, though..." She replied.
"The game's called 'Sword Art Online' for a reason, you idiot." Asuna snarkily said, earning a few laughs from Lamia, and even Sinon giggled a bit, too.
"Ah...I happen to possess an excellent spear in my inventory. Well, technically, it is your spear. The HDA accused me of stealing it from them...might as well as give it back to you now." Agil spoke carefully. He's having deep thoughts about this.
"Oi, what are you doing!?" I whispered. "You're giving that spear back to her!?"
"What's wrong with it? There's nobody in our party who could use it anyway, plus it's a HDA weapon. I'm just returning it to the rightful owner."
"Damn it, just do whatever you want..." I gave up.
Actually, it's somewhat a good idea, too. Agil does have a point. Sinon's an excellent spear fighter. She'll be deadlier in combat with the Fierce Dragon as her weapon.
Sinon stared at Agil when he gave her the weapon. "W-where did you get this?"
"It's a long story...and not a pleasant one either." Agil sighed. "I'll tell you more when all of this is over."
At any rate, we made our way through the forest, all the while shouting for Keita's group, to no avail.
I'm starting to worry about them.
Sachi...
I shook my head. Damn it, she's alright, they're alright.
Now I need to focus on rescuing the townspeople first.
Everything's gonna be fine if we get this over with...
The same cannot be said for Lamia, though. I caught a glimpse of her worried, almost terrified face. I can notice her anxiety and nervousness when she's riding the horse.
The poor girl lost her entire guild once already, and now she's afraid that it might happen again.
"It's gonna be alright, Lamia." I rode my horse near hers, before putting my hand on her shoulder. "We're gonna find them eventually, they'll be fine."
"...Ah, it's okay...Thank you, Kirito-kun..." Lamia spoke softly. "I was just...I'm just wishing that I could've gone with them, too."
"Don't think like that. You're more safer in the town, Lamia-chan." Asuna said.
"But what about my friends!? They're out there risking their lives! I can't just sit back and wait for it to be all over! I wanted to do something!" Lamia protested.
"I...I failed them...last time...my previous guild...They all died because I did nothing...because I'm too afraid to do anything..."
Her voice trembled.
"Hey, Lamia...don't blame yourself for this." Agil joined us. "This is not your fault, nor theirs. It's just a bad accident. Accidents happen, Lamia."
"You wouldn't understand, Agil." Lamia replied, she's almost about to cry right now. "To watch my friends dying one by one in front of me...and wondering why it is me that's still alive. What makes me so special? What makes me the one that's alive but not them?"
"You know, I once thought the same thing as you, Lamia." I said. "Back then, I was afraid that I'll let my friends down, that I'll failed them, that I'll let them die..."
I stared into her teary eyes.
"Until now, I still have that fear inside me, the fear of losing my friends, but you know what? Have you ever thought about if it was you who was left behind? If it was you who died but they survived?"
Damn it, I'm just rehearsing what I heard from Sachi's message to me...
Lamia didn't answer anything yet, so I continue.
"Everyone is important to one another, Lamia, and the unbearable pain of losing them is just too much for anyone to handle, but it is also life, and to let ourselves to sink deep within those negative thoughts won't do you any good."
Lamia remained speechless, though she stopped crying now.
"Think about it, Lamia. Your friends gave up their lives to save you. They wanted you to be happy, to move on, to live your life for them. You can honor their memory by doing your best and win this game, to get out of here alive, to be yourself. An adorable, playful, master saber user Lamia."
I patted her head and gave her a smile, hoping that it might cheer her up.
Thankfully, it worked. Lamia finally managed to form a little smile.
"Thank you, Kirito-san...you're very kind to me." She spoke. "I'll do my best with you guys, and we're gonna get out of here together."
Agil started clapping his hands, while Sinon just smiled at us, and Asuna kept staring at me.
"...Never thought you could pull something like this, Kirito. Nice job."
Heh, guess I have to thank Sachi for this later...
The good news is, we arrived at the location of where we left the three townspeople in the morning without any incident.
The bad news is, they're all gone.
"Ah, come on!" Asuna groaned. "Why can't something just go our way for once!?"
"Perhaps they woke up when we're gone?" Sinon said.
"Or they might be recaptured by those people who were behind all of this..." Agil suggested.
"Either way, this is not good at all."
I glanced around, and saw some footsteps on the ground.
Ah, right, time to use the Trail Tracking Vision.
I turned on the TTV using the console, allowing me to see the footsteps more clearly.
"Let's follow these footsteps. If they woke up, they might not have gone pretty far. We could still catch up with them." I said.
"Whatever you say, Kirito-san." Sinon agreed. "Let's get this over with."
And so, we followed the footsteps through the forest.
I'm just hoping that something doesn't happen to them, or to Keita's group...
I'm just hoping that we're not too late...
Editor's note: First of all, SORRY for the very long update, guys! It's been a very busy month in college and I don't have any free time to continue the story at all! It's just...well...
Anyway, this story will be continued, don't worry!
About this chapter, well, I did my best to develop Lamia's character, though it might not be the best. If this is an episode in an anime, I'd say this and the next three chapters will be 'Lamia's arc', something like that. Also, I tend to limit the character roles in each arcs. Like in Lamia's arc, Keita's group doesn't have too much roles, and the story focuses on Lamia, Kirito, Asuna, Sinon and Agil in particular. That's how it goes. :)
And the Trail Tracking Vision? It's one of the 'Tracking' skills, one that Kirito used in the anime to find Sachi in the city drains, in 'that one episode', yeah...
Will be working on the next chapter as soon as possible! Any suggestions or ideas welcomed! Please review! :)