I do not own Sword Art Online

The Scarlet Angels

Chapter X

The Prince of Hell

April 5th, 2023. Floor

I sighed and cracked my neck as I led my guild off of the teleport dias, and the sound of polygons shattering followed me as cardinal teleported our second party. Three members of the Knights of Blood were waiting for us, and I did a double take as I saw who was leading them. For a moment, her eyes widened in shock, and then a look of disgust flashed across her face before she hid it.

A smile tried to escape me as I reached the ground, well this is just great. I thought, before I composed myself, and said through gritted teeth, "Yuuki."

Asuna glared at me, "Don't you know it's rude to talk to people with their names from reality here, Hayashi? I would have expected better manners from a guild leader."

My guild went silent at her words, and I struggled to keep a lid on it, It's okay Etsuo, business rivals aren't supposed to get along. "Well then, what should I call you, second in command of the Knights of Blood?" I smiled as she lost just a shred of composure as I stressed her station, reminding her that in Aincrad, as far as Cardinal was concerned, I outranked her.

She pursed her lips, "Asuna." She said, "My name here is Asuna."

I placed a finger to my lips, thinking, "Hmm, Asuna, Asuna, where does that sound familiar from?" There was a click as I snapped my fingers, "Oh! I know! You used your real name as your character name! And what was that about real names being rude? Well, I don't really have any choice but to have bad manners with you in that case."

For a moment, I had a fleeting impression that she would snap. Asuna's hand clenched around her rapier before the tension eased out of her frame, and she gave a sickeningly sweet smile, "Well, I don't know. I could forgive the transgression as long as you don't use my surname. When you were working down in that grubby blacksmithing shop on the first floor I didn't recognize you - maybe it was because you had finally found your proper place, and weren't pretending to be equals with my family?"

There was that sickeningly sweet smile again, "Or maybe, just maybe, it was because you didn't have your little bedbuddy with you. I see you found him since, has he been keeping you warm at night? No, that's not it," she pretended to think for a moment, "Ah, that's right." Her smile shifted to a sneer, "I think it was the lack of your walking stick that tricked me into thinking that you were someone else."

Behind me, I could sense the guild rippling from her words, and my left hand fell to my sword, "Well, I don't have a cane here, Yuuki. Just like you don't have your daddy's name to hide behind. So what do you say, shall we settle which of our family is really superior, or are you going to run away and hide behind Heathcliff's name now? You seem to be good at doing that."

Asuna smiled, and drew her rapier, "I would be glad to stomp you into the dust, Krathys. Now I won't even feel bad about it."

"Bring it newbie." I said, drawing my blade and holding it at my side. For a moment, it actually looked like we were going to fight, before Asuna's composure finally slipped, and she let out a giggle that she had tried desperately to stifle until then. Behind me, I could hear Silmaryl let out a snort as he failed to contain laughter of his own, and I struggled to maintain a straight face, before finally, Asuna and I both burst into laughter.

I put my sword away and covered my mouth with a hand, "What even was that Asuna? You've been slacking since we got to Aincrad!" I took a moment to breath, "I don't think you've ever failed to keep it together longer than this on earth!"

She was also doubled over laughing, and took a moment to answer, "Well I'm sorry! You should have seen the looks on your guild's faces! I guess we should have considered what that looked like to everyone else!" Asuna's knees wobbled for a moment before she steadied them and straightened, then doubled over again, "Oh my god! They're still trying to figure it out!"

"Eh?" I glanced behind me. Most of the Angels looked confused, Silmaryl looked like he was testing whether one could survive off of laughter rather than oxygen, and if Argo had her face planted any deeper in her palm she would turn into a sprout. I grinned at them and waved over to Asuna, "Asuna and I are old friends from IRL. We do this whenever we meet up to see who breaks first. Don't worry, it rarely reaches the point where we actually fight."

A few feet away, Asuna had regained control of herself, "Oh please, I'd feel too bad to actually fight with you, Krathys. Well, aside from the fact that you stole my castle, but you won that fair and square while I was defending the gate, so I suppose that I can forgive that." She held out a hand, "It's good to see you again, Krathys. Silmaryl."

"A- as always, a pleasure, Asuna. We should t-talk again soon." Silmaryl gasped in between bouts of laughter.

Asuna smiled slightly, "Well, then, I believe you have an appointment with Heathcliff. If you'll accompany me."

I fell into step next to her, "I wouldn't have expected Heathcliff's second in command to effectively be acting as his secretary," I teased, "Trouble in paradise?"

She turned red, "Heathcliff and I aren't like that! I would have expected better manners from you Krathys! Besides," Asuna touched a hand to her rapier, "I don't think he expects you to be too happy with him wanting to renegotiate the agreement. He thinks that a duel with me will get you to agree with the changes he wants."

"Hah." I scoffed, "a 'renegotiation' indicates that we're going to debate on points that we want changed. So you're telling me that Heathcliff wants to rewrite the Cardinal Agreement as he pleases once you beat me in a duel?" She nodded, and I sighed, "Figures. A first strike duel then?" She nodded again, and this time I smiled, "Well that would hardly be fair to me, fighting the Lightning Flash for my guild." I turned around and called back to my guild, "Taylaria? Your agility is maxed out, right?"

"Yeah!" Taylaria yelled, sounding confused, "Why do you ask?"

"How do you feel about fighting Asuna in about ten minutes?"

The girl's eyes shifted from me to Asuna, and she sized the girl up, "Any reason you're trying to avoid fighting a girl, boss?"

I smiled ruefully, "Oh, not really. Mainly this:" I turned to Argo, "Oy! Rat! In a single strike duel between me and Asuna, what would you rate my chances?"

"What chances?" Argo raised an eyebrow, "She's got the title Lighting Flash for a reason, Krathys. Unless you've started dumping your strength points into agility and have equipped big agility boosting gear, I'd guess you've got about a point two percent possibility of winning."

"Jeez, Argo." I said, "Don't sugarcoat it or anything."

The Rat shrugged, "You owe me a hundred and fifty col. Yes that's after your discount, no I'm not haggling that. You've got questions about another player, you pay to find out your answers."

"See what I have to deal with?" I asked Asuna, "No respect I tell you. Just none at all."

"I respect you Krathys!" Rathion shouted.

"Thanks Rath! Have a cookie!" I called back.

Asuna laughed as she led us through the courtyard of a manor on the edge of town, "You've got a good guild Krathys. Keep them safe."

I saluted her as she opened a door, revealing Heathcliff waiting behind a desk, "Yes ma'am."

Silmaryl accompanied me and Asuna inside. Argo slipped in behind us while the rest of the Angels waited in the courtyard. I smiled at the commander of the Knights of Blood as I sat down across from him, "Well then Heathcliff, shall we get to business?"

He frowned slightly, "Of course. As long as you're prepared to renegotiate our agreement, that is. Otherwise I have little to say to you."

I raised an eyebrow, and behind me, Argo and Silmaryl coughed to stifle their reactions to his blunt statement. My eyebrow went down, and the corners of my mouth raised instead, "Well, Heathcliff, that's not very nice. I come here in good faith - better than good faith, actually, since you're the one who wants to change the agreement, not me - and you start things so . . . tersely? My my, you didn't do much business of this sort IRL, did you?" I leaned back in the chair, "Since you're the only party that wants the Cardinal Agreement to be changed, but you need my approval to do so, if I were you," my lighthearted tone dropped to a chilling level, "I would be much more grateful, Heathcliff. If you want anything to come of this meeting, that is."

My smile returned, and I tilted my head, "Care for some tea? I've never liked negotiating when I'm thirsty." I pulled a tea set out of my inventory and set it on his desk, avoiding any paperwork as I poured two cups and handed him one, "Now. You want the agreement altered. I understand that. What I need you to understand is that in this scenario, you aren't the boss. I'm not a subordinate for you to jerk around and tell me what to do. We're equals, and since you need my help, that means that you don't have any advantage here. I'm willing to negotiate in good faith, Heathcliff. I need you to do the same."

Heathcliff's lips pursed, and I sighed internally. I could practically see the wheels turning in his head, and I wondered if they would land on 'negotiate in good faith' or 'force a duel so Krathys has to do what I want.'

"How about a duel?" He suggested, and my internal sigh turned into an internal groaning eye-roll. Apparently the wheels had landed on 'force a duel so Krathys has to do what I want.'

"I assume the terms are that if I lose, we renegotiate the agreement onto your terms whether I like them or not, and if you lose, what, we renegotiate the agreement but I'll have a say in it?" I raised an eyebrow, "This is when you're supposed to deny that, Heathcliff. Not everything in Sword Art Online can be decided on with who's stronger than whom. If you want a duel, fine. But all winning will get your guild is a bad relationship with mine. Do you still want a fight?"

It was Heathcliff's turn to raise an eyebrow, "You overestimate the influence of your guild's thoughts on my conscience, Krathys. Yes, I intend to settle this agreement over a duel, if my guild wins, I can choose one thing that will be changed on the agreement. If yours wins, you can choose one thing that will stay the same on the agreement. Alternatively, the winner may choose to add any one thing to the agreement that cannot be argued with, as long as it is reasonable. The duel will be settled as a First Strike duel, will that be satisfactory?"

I sighed and waved a hand, "Fine, fine. Courtyard in five minutes, we'll send out our representatives then?"

He nodded, and I stood before leading the others out of the office. Argo muttered darkly under her breath, and Silmaryl didn't sound terribly happy either, "Sure this is a good idea? I've heard Asuna can actually win a fight here."

"I know, I know." I said, "But I have faith that Taylaria can beat her. Bows and Rapiers don't use strength for damage, so both of them will have maxed out their agility. The deciding factor will be experience in combat and who has the better instincts."

We stepped into the room where the rest of the Angels were waiting. I clapped my hands to get their attention, "Okay!" I called out, "Heathcliff is under the ancient and repeatedly disproven concept that Might makes Right. So, he wants a duel. The terms he's given are rather simple and rather clear - and he'll regret making them when his champion loses. Taylaria!" I turned to the girl, and she nodded, "It's a first strike battle. Of the Angels, you're our fastest fighter. Are you up to the challenge?"

"Of course!" Taylaria grinned, "I'll make sure Heathcliff wishes he had negotiated to start with, don't you worry about that boss."

"Good. Stop calling me boss."

"Okay boss!"

I hid my sigh at Taylaria's grin, "Their courtyard in four minutes now. Get ready. Everyone else! Head out and get good seats. I expect it will be a short fight but I want everyone's eyes on it to make sure Heathcliff doesn't try to pull anything. Considering how badly he wanted this fight, I don't trust him as far as I could throw him - tempted though I am to find out just how far that is."

The angels filed out, and Taylaria sat back down, scrolling through her menu. I walked over to her as she began swapping out her gear, and she glanced up at me, "Yeah boss?"

"First, why do you call me that?"

She grinned, "Because you're our boss, and despite your shortcomings and the fact that you sometimes seem determined to piss off the Knights of Blood, you're a good leader and a really good guy. The way you handled Aragoth and Eva proves that."

"Okay." I nodded, "And second, about las-"

"Don't worry about it." Taylaria cut me off, and stood up to place a hand on my shoulder, "Just because you're our boss doesn't mean you aren't human. And humans can be weak sometimes, all you need to do is make sure that when you can't handle it all, you come find me. Or maybe Silmaryl, since he knows as well, but find someone who can help you. Don't try to handle it all by yourself, that just hurts us as much as it hurts you."

I smiled and touched her hand, "Don't worry, Aria. I'm not trying to handle everything myself - I'm trusting you with this, aren't I?"

Taylaria laughed, "Fair point, I suppose, but one duel is just a first step. Let me be there for you the way you and Rathion were there for me that day in the woods, okay Krathys?" She smiled, then turned to the door, "Now then, I believe I have a princess to thrash. Any suggestions?"

"Not really." I shrugged, "You've seen her fight as much as I have, and as recently as I have. Anything I've noticed, you've probably seen as well."

The archer shrugged as she checked her arrows, "What about from IRL? Any habits that I might want to be aware of that you know? Strategies she typically uses?"

I shrugged again, "I've never actually seen Asuna fight on earth. She never seemed to be the type for physical combat there. Verbal, yes. But I never saw her as much as throw a punch. The only thing I know is that she thinks fighting like a rogue makes more sense than fighting like a knight, but in a flat open space like this one, I don't really know how much that could help."

She frowned as we made for the door, "Doesn't sound like you'll be much help here." A smile tugged at her lips, lessening the sting of the insult, "But she's only the second in command of the Knights of Blood. I'm sure I can handle her just fine." Taylaria stopped for a moment at the door and pulled out a single arrow with a green shaft that set it apart from her standard black-shafted arrows. She gave the arrow a quick twirl and inspected the tip and shaft for a moment before she nodded to me. I opened the door and she stepped through into what promised to be a short fight.

Almost as soon as both players were in the courtyard, with their guilds lining the sides, Asuna sent the challenge. Taylaria flicked through the options before selecting First Strike, and the two girls readied themselves. Asuna's rapier came up to head height and her free hand extended towards her opponent, obviously ready to lunge forward as soon as the timer rang. Taylaria, on the other hand, casually nocked the green arrow to her bow, the only indication of her readiness aside from a slight tensing in her legs. The minute leading to the duel was so silent it felt like a fabric draped over the courtyard.

Then the bell chimed.

For a split second, both girls seemed to vanish, and my spot skills took a moment to readjust to find them. Asuna was standing just behind where Taylaria had been, rapier extended in a thrust that would have skewered any opponent standing between her starting and ending points.

But Taylaria had been nowhere on that line.

In the moments that it took Asuna to recover from the cooldown of her sword skill, four green bolts flashed by her and embedded themselves in the ground, then faded to reveal four identical arrows, attached to each other by a net that now pinned Asuna to the ground. Twenty feet in the air, Taylaria completed a leisurely flip and landed neatly on the ground a few feet from her starting position. She paused there for two seconds as the cooldown from her skill ticked by, then nocked one of her regular black arrows, turned, and fired it into Asuna's ankle as the sub-commander of the Knights of Blood struggled within the net.

There were some downsides to dumping all of your points into agility and not strength. One of which was being unable to tear your way free of a net woven from steel cord. With a different weapon, of a superior material, Asuna might have been able to cut her way free. But rapiers are not so well designed for slashing, being made to stab things.

The duel bell chimed, and Taylaria twirled her bow before slinging it across her back. Several of the Knights of Blood hurried out to assist their restrained vice commander as Taylaria strolled over and collected her «Net Arrow» before coming over to join us as the Angels moved over to her like a wave, giving cheers and pats on the back at her victory. On the other side of the field, the Knights of Blood were looking . . . well, rather pissed to say the least. One of them - the dark haired one that had spoken at the Castello after we snatched it out from under them - started to move forward, but Asuna restrained him with a hand on his arm and a few terse words.

Heathcliff . . . well, looked as stunned as he could look. It was hard to tell with the statuesque expression he always maintained. I sauntered over to him, "So, Heathcliff. About those renegotiations." The looks his guild directed at me were positively murderous, but I ignored them - the fight was Heathcliff's idea and his fighter had lost - and continued speaking as if I hadn't even noticed them, "Care to continue them over tea?"

For a moment, Heathcliff didn't respond. Then, he closed his eyes and exhaled, "That is a rather kind offer for you to make, Krathys. I appreciate it."

"There's no need for bad blood between our guilds, Heathcliff." I smiled and extended a hand, "Now then, how about we put this messy business behind us and start that deal over?"

()()()()

With a little negotiating aid from Argo, we came out with a deal that . . . while no one was entirely happy with it, both parties agreed on. The counterpart list was erased. Instead, the deal kept a tally of the number of members of The Scarlet Angels. While more than half of the Angels spent at least three quarters of their time below the front lines, the deal would automatically see that one fifth of the spoils of battle and quests would be sent directly to our guild vault, to be distributed as we pleased. The system would do so automatically, spoils of battle wouldn't even be missed, and quest rewards would only be missed because they were listed as rewards and not always delivered.

On paper, that would mean we lost about a third of the tax we had been paid originally. In action, I estimated we would break about even, since Diavel and his group made less than half of the guild, we would receive the payment regularly. It did mean that our Hunter Party would probably need to stay off of the front lines aside from boss raids - no more grinding up to the maximum level on the front lines. It meant that we wouldn't be able to grind up to the new level cap with half a day's work, we would need to spend about three quarters of the day on the second highest floor instead. No big loss, in that regard.

Alternatively, if we failed to uphold our end of the deal, the tax would be negated until we returned to keeping our end of the deal. I doubted it would become a problem, but I would need to start keeping track of where our players hunted when we really started growing. Great. Paperwork. Maybe I would dump it on Silmaryl.

()()()()

May 17th, 2023, 22nd floor. Front Line: Floor 24

A tree branch whipped my cheek as I raced almost suicidally through what was nearly a maze composed of tropical trees and low hanging vines. In the last month and a half, the membership of the Knights of Blood and the Scarlet Angels had nearly doubled. Heathcliff's forcing the duel had finally made sense - he didn't care so much about the agreement, he wanted word to spread about the guild. Word of his beautiful second in command being faster than the eye could follow had attracted many hopeful front-liners to his guild, and my beautiful sniper beating his second in command had brought in another entire party and a half into the Scarlet Angels, bringing us to a total of three, with a couple of extras to work full time as guards and aids to Argo. Thanks to the Rat, I knew that most of the players hoping to become clearers had joined the Knights, while the players who wanted to help clean up the lower floors had joined us. Heathcliff's rumor mill was certainly rather specific in which guild did which tasks.

I had hoped to snatch Kirito up as well, but he hadn't been on the front lines for several weeks, and Argo was having trouble tracking him down. I wasn't sure which fact was more unbelievable. With the recruitment rates up, both guilds had prospered, and the party that had joined the Scarlet Angels had found a player killed by damage marks that didn't match the fangs and claws of the local mobs. Which meant that either there was a rare mob in the area, or there were player killers. Which led to my current situation - chasing PoH through a jungle infested with venomous mobs and more than enough trees for him to hide behind to attack me from stealth.

The fact that the thought had just crossed my mind was probably the only reason I wasn't surprised to see a swprd come out of nowhere, bound straight for my neck. Maybe next time I went off to chase a maniac, I would bring backup.

()()()()

Six hours earlier

I sighed and wadded up the latest piece of paper that had crossed my desk. Kibaou had been wondering how Aragoth was doing - a rather unsubtle way of asking if he had stepped out of line. Rather than figure out how to subtly tell Kibaou that Aragoth was being a model citizen and that if he asked again I would shove his sword up his ass - Kibaou had gotten a lot better since our first meeting, but first impressions and all that, and if he wanted a member of my guild, he would have to go through me for them. I had just tossed the wadded up third draft when one of the new members of the Angels burst through the door. It was a fairly young girl by the name of Kakani, rather intelligent, fairly plain features, short brown hair, maybe a year older than Rathion, and a heavy DPS player like Aragoth. The broadsword across her back was at least as tall as she was.

Kakani took a moment to collect herself, then blushed as I raised an eyebrow at her for bursting into my office with no warning. I set my pen down, "You know Kakani, most people knock before coming in here. I understand that you're new, but don't expect that I won't hold you to the same standards that I hold the rest of the Angels. Now then, out with it, what's the big news?"

The girl swallowed hard, then drew herself up to her full height - six inches taller than Rathion, meaning that she came up to my chin rather than the top of my stomach - before stammering out a garbled sentence that had no pauses whatsoever. I raised a hand to cut her off, and she breathed in again before starting again, "Sir, my party was on a hunting trip on the western side of the Thirteenth Floor when we came across the body of a player. The area in which we found them is heavily populated by cat-type mobs, but rather than marks that would have been left by fangs or claws, it looked to be the work of blades. The player had been dead for two minutes and thirteen seconds, based on the time left on the body's preservation timer. My party attempted to locate the tracks of whatever caused it, but found none."

I leaned back and took a moment to digest her report, "What makes you think it was bladework rather than mobs?"

"The fatal wound." Kakani replied quickly, "It showed on both sides of the body, indicating that they were cut cleanly through. There was only a single cut showing, while the local mobs would have left multiple gashes with their claws." She raked her fingers across her face to demonstrate, "Additionally, when we looked through the player's materialized belongings, we found dog tags similar to the military - we suspect the player was a veteran from the Pacific War, judging by their age, my estimate was early to mid eighties." One of the rare elderly players then, possibly logging on to play with a grandchild or simply wanting the ease of a younger body again.

Kakani continued her report, "When we compared the name we found on the tags to the Monument of Swordsmen, we discovered that it was a player name. The rest of the party sent me on ahead, seeing as I'm the quickest, to inform you that they had been killed by a sword wound dealt by PlayerId: PoH."

The blood froze in my veins, and my hand clenched around the arm of my chair hard enough to make the wood creak. It was my turn to compose myself, and I let my eyes close, "You've done well, Kakani. Let the rest of the Hunter parties know that I want them to be in the main hall in half an hour, and that they will be ready for an extended venture in the field. Inform them of the area we will be investigating and everything you just told me. As for yourself, I would like to give you and your party a day off for discovering this, but it will have to wait until after we get back from this job."

The young girl grinned and bowed before leaving the room. I stood and turned to the corner of my office where my coat hung. I didn't need to put it on manually, obviously, but it didn't hurt. I shrugged the crimson coat on and smoothed out a wrinkle before I brushed off the gold stitched shoulderpads. A katana was leaning against my desk, and I picked it up before buckling it on under the coat and heading out of the room to debrief the rest of Kakani's party, and contact Diavel's party on the front so they could come down and provide us with a little extra manpower.

()()()()

Half an hour later, three parties stood in rows in the main hall of the Castello Di Osservatori. I stood at the top of the steps they were arrayed before, and crossed my arms, "You have all been made aware of the situation today. We have found the first fresh lead against the murderer known as PoH, as a result of the work of Morgiane's team."

Morgiane, the player in charge of the second Hunting party, gave a brief nod as I looked to her. She was a tough player, but didn't look the least bit like it. Blonde hair fell to her shoulders in bouncing curls, which framed what was far too pretty a face for her to be as badass of a tank as she was. A tower shield that she fondly called the Fortress was slung across her back, five feet tall and made of corundum that curved slightly inwards, with a small opening at eye level, covered by corundum mesh to halt any would-be snipers. She was decked in dull grey plate mail that had black runes swirling across it's surface, and a longsword was strapped to her right hip. Kakani was a member of her party, dressed in dark red leather armor with a wicked dagger on her hip. The rest of their party wore silver half plate and used a variety of weapons for all ranges of combat.

Diavel's party from the front lines was dressed in a wider variety of armors. The blue haired knight himself was dressed in chainmail with a gold breastplate and a red half-cape, getting into the spirit of the original dress code at last. His party wore everything from full plate with a pavise shield to scarlet and gold robes that looked really badass and apparently made up for the lack of armor with stat boosts. I kind of wanted some.

The final party was the one I was familiar with. Aside from Aragoth, who was dressed in all black leather with a silver scythe, we were all decked out with varying shades of red armor with either trenchcoats, or, in Rathion's case, a red cape to go with his golden pauldrons. We had started to conform to an unspoken color code of red and gold.

I continued speaking, "It is unclear at this time whether PoH is working alone, or if he still has his team with him. I want to find him and anyone working with him before they can harm anyone else. PoH will regret the day he turned to murder, we will make sure of it. Morgiane, it was your team that found the lead, I want you to take us to the site. From there, Evangelion will take the lead, since her tracking skill is the highest in the guild at this time."

"When we find PoH, Aragoth and I will engage him while the rest of you cover any possible escape routes. In the event that he has allies, everyone will engage, whenever possible with two or more players against anyone with him. I don't want any casualties today, so use non lethal force if you can, but if they won't go to prison willingly, then put them down permanently. Anyone we fight on this mission will be an experienced killer, and will have far less trouble ending your life than you'll have ending theirs if it comes down to it."

The silence that had been draped over the Angels turned grim. Most of them - the new players that had joined since the Angels split from the front - looked fairly shocked. Out of them, the only ones who weren't obviously rocked by my statement were Aragoth and Morgiane. I took note, and looked over the rest of the Angels. Argo seemed unaffected by the order, as she absently fingered the claws hanging from her belt. Rathion looked a bit queasy at the thought of killing someone, Taylaria had the look of someone maintaining a poker face, but I could tell for certain whether she was alright with the order or not. Diavel looked mildly surprised by the directness of my statement, surprised and maybe slightly impressed? I filed it away for future reference.

Aragoth and Morgiane though . . . they were new. They hadn't been there that Night, and hadn't been given the full story like Argo. Aragoth I could understand, since he was unfortunately familiar with putting down threats, but Morgiane? I hadn't expected her to be so unphased by the thought of killing a human. I would definitely have to talk with her later.

Once the group had been given a moment to digest the orders, I started down the stairs, "We'll leave via the teleport plaza in Geradi Village. The destination is Nanvega, on the thirteenth floor."

()()()()

It took us all of three hours to reach the forest, and most of the next three to reach the point on Morgiane's map where she'd marked the body. Evangelion knelt where the tank indicated the body's location, and paused for a moment before her eyes turned bright green. She looked around, bit her lip slightly, and pointed west, "The tracks aren't very old, but they have faded some. Kakani, you did well to get the information to us quickly. I estimate that these would have stayed available to me for another half an hour, at most. Tracks fade quickly here."

The martial artist stood and pointed to a gap in the trees, "The victim was probably camped here for a few minutes to catch his breath and maybe eat something, probably didn't want to use a teleport crystal and waste his progress. Six players came in along that path and surrounded him before he had a chance to get on his feet, and left the same way."

Argo let out a hiss, and slipped her claws on, "Six? This PoH bastard has gotten five more psychopaths to follow him?"

"That's exactly the problem." Diavel rested the point of his sword on the ground. He wore silver armor with sapphire inserts, a custom job, if the matching sword and shield were any indicator. The Knight looked . . . displeased, to say the least, "If they really are psychopaths, then it's no wonder that PoH got them to follow him. They won't even realize that it's wrong, going by the standard definition of psychopaths. What I'm worried about is if they're simply players who PoH has convinced that this is still just a game. If that is the case, I'm not sure whether or not we can reason with them."

"Well why would you need to do that?"

I didn't even need to say a word for the Angels to form a defensive circle as the deep voice echoed through the trees. Which was good, because my mouth had gone very dry from hearing it. It was a voice I hadn't heard in quite some time, which was a good thing. The fact that I was hearing it now was making my mind race back in time to several months ago in the Astral Forest. Rather than allow myself to become more distracted, I bit the inside of my cheek until my health dropped by a single point. The pain let me focus on the task at hand - finding the speaker and shoving a sword through his gut. Maybe dragging him to the Black Iron Prison after that, but that was honestly secondary as every fiber of my body screamed destroy!

"Remember. Aragoth and I will handle PoH." I said, "The rest of you, deal with his cronies."

With that, I triggered my search skill and swept the treeline as the rest of my guild did the same, making a slow circle until I had picked out the six players hidden in the trees. Two had orange cursors, marking them as lesser criminals, not murderers, while three had a deep red markers. PoH, and the two that escaped that Night. The last one . . . was the biggest problem out of the entire group. A bright green cursor floated above their head, marking them as an 'innocent' player. Recalling what had caused Aragoth's marker to go red in the first place reminded me that cursors weren't everything. But they were still important, so . . .

"Aragoth." I muttered, "Change of plan. There's a green player at three o-clock. Subdue them as efficiently as possible. Eva, back him up, but don't go orange if you can avoid it."

Aragoth nodded and spun his scythe before he sprinted towards the green player. A taunting voice yelled, "Are you color blind?! I'm Green! You can't hurt me without -" they must have spotted Aragoth's cursor, because their next words were, "Oh, Shit!" before a panicked scream trailed off into the trees, followed by what looked like a Shinigami. Eva vanished into the trees after her brother, a streak of red and gold as swift as a tiger.

I kept an eye on them until it was clear that none of the official criminal players were going to risk turning their backs to us before continuing my orders, "Silmaryl, you're with me on PoH. Everyone else, split up into groups of three. Pick an orange or red player and bring them to heel." The Angels shuffled slightly as a mocking laugh echoed through the clearing, and I raised my voice, "PoH! I was hoping that I would never see you again. Come on out and face me, or run away like the cowardly rat you are. No offense Argo."

"None taken." The Rat replied, striking her claws against each other. Sparks fell from the impact, and she dropped slightly, "Orange players are bad for business. And as you know, I'm first and foremost a businesswoman. If I have to get my hands dirty to do good business, then I'll have to make sure to wash them off later."

"You always impress me, Rat. Remind me to hire you when we're done clearing the game."

"You mock us!" Snarled a new voice from the trees. Higher in pitch than PoH's, and also localized, rather than spread about the clearing. Argo turned and ran at the source, claws bared as the two members who worked as her guards ran on either side of her. There was a strangled yelp from the orange player as the Rat dove into the treeline, and I watched the first of the orange players run off, followed closely by the Rat Pack.

The rest of PoH's party seemed to realize that there was no more point in hiding, and stepped out of the trees. They were all dressed the same, a dark green/gray cloak that stopped at their waist, masks that covered the top half of their faces and resembled skulls, and, from the ones with their forearms bared, a black and white tattoo of a skeleton reaching out of its coffin. PoH himself had his hood down and wore no mask. He looked . . . different. Foreign blood, probably, spanish from the looks of it. Angular face, nose like a hawk, and cheekbones sharp enough to cut glass. His voice was as deep and silky as ever, "So, Krathys. You've finally caught up to us. It took long enough for the famous Scarlet Angels to stumble across us, Laughing Coffin. I'm surprised, but I suppose we're not very well known yet. Infamy will be just as good for spreading word of us as fame."

He gestured to us with the shortsword in his hand, "I'm surprised at you, Krathys. To bring so many to hunt little old me? Even if you knew that Johnny and XaXa were still with me, I doubt you knew we filled a party. Had you hoped that a show of force would be sufficient to make us stand down? And to have brought all green players - your scythe wielder aside - what folly. Can they kill if necessary? Because I have no intention of going to the Black Iron Prison and it's holier-than-thou keepers."

I raised my katana, "No, PoH. I didn't expect you to surrender. But you're murderers, and so we're going to bring you to justice." My weapon caught the light as I lifted it slightly, "Angels. We're being paid rather well by the Knights of Blood to hunt down criminal players. So, now it's time for us to earn that paycheck. The only order I have for you now, is don't die." My legs tensed for a moment, and I shouted, "Luceo Non Uro!"

With that, I ran at PoH. He met my blade with a snarl, and the rest of our two guilds leapt into action. 'Laughing Coffin' split up and ran into the woods, with three members of the Angels in hot pursuit of each. Silmaryl stayed in the clearing with me, and PoH broke our lock as Silmaryl's whip lashed at his cheek.

He was given no time to catch his breath, as I closed the distance between us as quickly as possible. Silmaryl didn't interfere any more, the two of us were moving too fast for him to use his whip or a bomb without almost certainly hitting me. A soundless snarl split PoH's face as he parried my attacks, and his ripostes came very close to trimming my hair. Small cuts began appearing all over our bodies as blades came too close for comfort, and with a grunt of effort, PoH knocked my sword aside and took a swipe at my suddenly unguarded chest.

Cold, sharp pain spread across my front as I tried to dodge back, but couldn't quite get away in time. A red line crossed my chest, from right shoulder to the bottom left of my ribcage. My health dropped drastically, and I jumped back to Silmaryl's side as I fumbled for a healing crystal, and I gasped out, "Switch!"

Silmaryl darted forward, his whip leading the way as it wrapped it's way around PoH's ankles. With a great tug, he introduced PoH's face to the ground. Due to the fact that Silmaryl relied heavily on his bombs, he funnelled most of his skill points into Agility rather than Strength, which proved useful at this point as the glint of a crystal twinkled in the air before he used his whip as a grappling hook to pull himself quickly to safe grounds as the bomb went off.

PoH flew to the side and collided with a tree. Before Silmaryl could get another bomb off though, the murderer was already back on his feet and running at the boy, sword flickering out in a deadly dance. Silmaryl was barely fast enough to get out of the way, with the blade only glancing his side. His health rose back to full as quickly as it dropped as he crushed the healing crystal stashed up his sleeve. PoH's back glowed red as the boy's whip cracked through the air before he jumped away from the murderer once again.

Or rather, tried to jump away. The downside to using a whip, as it turned out, was that it didn't coil up on its own after you attacked with it. PoH's hand wrapped around the cord and yanked hard, pulling Silmaryl back to him before introducing the boy's face to his knee as he released the whip.

Doing so, as the murderer found out, was a bad move. Silmaryl rode the blow and landed gracefully before he launched himself over PoH's head. He promptly got his revenge in the form of a kick to the back of PoH's skull, sending him face-first into the hard ground. Again. As PoH pushed himself back up, he brought his sword around, but met nothing but air. A brief 'thud' was audible as PoH's sword was yanked from his hand before Silmaryl tossed it away. The alchemist followed up with a kick to the gut before he jumped back again.

PoH dropped to one knee as Silmaryl landed at my side, and I flung a throwing pick at the healing Crystal PoH tried to use. The red crystal fell into the bushes, and the look that the murderer gave me would have left naught but a pile of ashes if looks could kill. He staggered back to his feet, his chest heaving with every breath, "Very well . . . boys." He wheezed, "I submit . . . to you. But before that, allow me to give you a present. My name . . . PoH, stands for 'Prince of Hell.' That, boys," he drew in a shuddering breath, "is exactly where I hope to meet you again someday."

His left arm rose sharply, and a dull red crystal flew across the clearing to land at our feet. I recognized the crystal from Silmaryl's hoard, and both of us threw ourselves away from the bomb as an explosion ripped through the clearing. Debris showered me as I covered my head with my hands, and I flipped over as soon as the world had stopped shaking. PoH was gone, as was his sword. Mine was embedded halfway through a tree some twenty feet away, and on the far side of the clearing, Silmaryl staggered to his feet. I retrieved my sword as I waited for the ringing to abate, and crushed a healing crystal to restore my health - again.

The bushes in front of me rustled, and I slashed at them instinctively, almost glad when a trio of shining gold claws brought my sword to a halt. Argo poked her head out of the bushes, "Really Krathys? I bring back a present and this is the welcome I get?" She stepped out of the brush and looked around the clearing before she gave a low whistle, "What happened here?"

"PoH dropped a bomb." I said tersely, "And apparently has the same level of Alchemy that Silmaryl has, except he actually makes the biggest bombs."

Argo nodded, "Well, it's certainly effective. But fortunately, so am I. Boys!" She gave a short clap.

The two players that had accompanied her came into the clearing, holding a squirming sack between them that they unceremoniously dumped to the ground. The player that the Rat Pack had pursued into the forest poked his head out, and gave me a glare that was pitiful in comparison to the one PoH had given me earlier. I reached down and grabbed him by the hair, "Where is your rendezvous?" I asked harshly, "Give me a location, and if it's wrong, we're going to leave you here for the mobs."

The criminal player's face paled, and he stammered out something about a safe zone on the far side of the forest. I thanked him, then knocked his head against the ground hard enough to knock him unconscious, "Argo, take him to the Black Iron Prison. I'm going after PoH."

Without letting the others respond, I sprinted into the woods across the clearing, putting my high agility to full use. A tree branch whipped my cheek as I raced almost suicidally through what was nearly a maze composed of tropical trees and low hanging vines. My search skill was also being put to use as I followed the freshly made tracks that PoH didn't have time to cover up. Something suddenly occurred to me that nearly made me trip - PoH had mentioned that we had taken a long time to find them, which meant that he wanted us to find him, which meant that he was probably not trying to be stealthy because he was going to try and ambush me.

Which was probably the reason that I wasn't surprised when a sword came around a tree aimed straight for my neck. Next time I went after a maniac in a forest, I was going to bring backup. And probably wouldn't leave the available backup in the dust by running off at full speed when none of them could run as fast as I could. Taylaria or Evangelion could keep up with me easily enough, but Silmaryl and the Rat Pack were either simply lower in Agility, or weren't as good at using the system to boost their speed. It was a little trick that Evangelion had shown me.

My attention was brought back to the present by the sword coming far too close to my throat. I dropped to the ground, and felt the blade tug at my hair before I spun and kicked at the tree. It had been more than a month since I had barely been able to smash apart rock, and the tree that I attacked fell with a sharp crack. There was a startled cry from the other side, and PoH jumped away, his cloak almost being caught in the branches. I capitalized on the moment, jumping after him with a feral yell and swiping at his sword with mine. The impact knocked the blade from his hand, but he recovered almost instantly, as the edge of his newly free hand slammed into my wrist. Pain shot up my arm as my fingers spasmed, and PoH kicked my sword away before he pivoted and elbowed me in the gut.

I gasped in pain, then repaid him in kind, as I drove my own elbow into his collarbone. His response was to land a hard punch in my groin, and my vision went white. Dimly, I felt PoH grab my collar, and there was something sharp pressing into my neck for a moment. Then, it was violently removed from my neck, and I fell back to the ground with a moan of pain. I failed to comprehend the angry words that PoH exchanged with whoever had just hit him. Then there was a shout of rage, which suddenly turned to pain, and then the sound of a teleport crystal as PoH gasped out a city. Someone turned me over, and as my vision slowly returned from wherever it had gone, it was filled by Evangelion's disapproving face. When she tried to help me to my feet, my legs crumpled, and I did another faceplant into the dirt, and squeaked a very soft "Ow."

"Oh for the love of . . ." Eva muttered a few things that I was too busy being in pain to hear, before she slung me over my shoulder and started to run back to the clearing. Silmaryl and Taylaria met us moments later, and I was told later that they took great amusement in my less than combat capable state.

()()()()

In the end, we managed to drag in the green player and all three of the orange players from PoH's new guild. PoH and the other two reds had escaped, however. On Earth, Rathion, Taylaria, and Diavel would have had the wounds to prove the fight they put up to keep them from doing so, bombs and poisons were not to be taken lightly. I could hardly blame them, having let PoH escape myself. At the moment, the orange players had been incarcerated in the Black Iron Prison, and the green player?

Well, they were sitting tied up in my office.

Which led to my current headache.

Diavel's party had returned to the front lines, and Morgiane had taken her group out to celebrate their first major success. We considered our first major success the raid on Dragon's Den, so we had elected to stay behind and figure out what to do with the player that we had dubbed a 'Lure' over dinner.

Obviously, we couldn't kill them. Well, we could, but I wasn't going to force Aragoth to do that in cold blood. We also couldn't let them go, again, for obvious reasons. They'd go right back to PoH and we'd have more trouble with them in the future.

So, we had to figure out what to do with them, and future green players that ended up running with criminal guilds to ensnare victims. I had no idea what to do, so I called a meeting, and we had tossed ideas around. Simply chaining them up and dangling them from a wall was considered before we recognized that later lures - and possibly our current predicament - would have a high enough strength parameter to break chains. Mithril and Adamantine were damn near unbreakable - no one so far had even managed to dent either material - but both were too rare and expensive to be a worthwhile possibility. The conversation continued until the plates had been cleared away by some of the NPC's we had hired from the town - our castle was a big place, we needed someone to clean it, didn't we? After that, the idea stream ran dry.

So instead, we put the matter on hold, and played cards.

Or, we tried to. Rathion roped Evangelion into building a card castle, Taylaria decided she wanted to add playing cards to her arsenal of ranged weapons, and Silmaryl . . . was burning them and sweeping the ashes into a vial. Aragoth and I simply watched the confusion with our cards before we exchanged a look, shrugged, and tossed them onto the table.

The table proved to be fairly slippery without a cloth to cover it though, and a couple of my cards slid a ways and knocked over some of the supports of Rathion and Eva's card house. For a moment, the two froze, before Evangelion looked at me and jumped up from her chair before she spoke in a badly faked accent, "Bad boss! To ze dungeon wiz you!"

Everyone froze. Then stared at her. Then at the pile of cards sitting on the table, the Joker that I had tossed sat mostly buried underneath the rest of the cards. Dungeon. We had a castle. A very nice castle that was based somewhat on castles from medieval Europe. Many of which had dungeons. We all looked back up at Evangelion, and then with an unspoken agreement, rushed away from the table and streamed to different parts of the castle.

Aragoth was the one who found it, and we gave ourselves a tour, raising eyebrows at the complexity of what Kayaba Akihiko's mind had clearly conjured from a fevered dream. A key was hanging on a peg by the door, which likely unlocked the dozens of cells along three of the walls. I had Rathion test them out, and rather than bending as I had expected the apparently steel bars to do, all that came of his efforts was a grunt of exertion and a bit of dust being dislodged from the bars. Unlike the improvised cage that the criminal guild Dragon's Den had thrown Argo and me in, the entire cell was made of the material, instead of being having walls of cement that would break like wet paper compared to the bars.

I looked over to the wall that was not covered by jail cells, and cringed. It was a sadist's dream come true. Either Kayaba Akihiko had let a dominatrix design this particular room, he had been particularly insane while designing it, or the Cardinal System had done it to make the castle more authentic. I wasn't sure which option was the most abhorrent, so I made a note to remove the implements at some point. Or leave them there for mental trauma. No, bad idea, that was crossing into dark territory.

When we dragged the Lure from Laughing Coffin down to our newly discovered dungeon, he was suddenly far less smug in his certainty that we would have no choice but to release him. Aside from tossing him in a cell and informing the NPC servants to provide him with food and water, and resolving to check up on him in a day or two to make sure that they actually did so, we were able to wash our hands of having to deal with him. Which was a wonderful thing, because we didn't want to have to figure out a way to make him damage us often enough to make his cursor go orange three times so that we could shove him into the Black Iron Prison and make him stay there.

Our meeting's purpose fulfilled, we decided to go and meet up with Morgiane's party. We all felt like we needed a drink to distract us from whatever Kayaba had been thinking when that dungeon was created.

End of Chapter X

Whoa . . . what is this? I'm posting chapters within a month of each other? Madness!

This chapter turned out surprisingly fun to write! That . . . may be a bad thing, considering it's content. Still, I hope you enjoyed it, the next couple of chapters are going to be a break from fighting. No fighting at all in the next chapter, and little to none in the one after that. I feel like giving the Angels a break from the grimmdark, but there are no holidays approaching soon enough . . . what to do, what to do . . . XD

Yes, I realize Krathys and Asuna have met each other in SAO before and didn't act like that. The subject will be covered next chapter, don't worry. Before anyone complains that I'm making Asuna anything less than the fastest player in SAO, I'm not. In a single strike duel, speed is an important factor, but so is strategy. Asuna's strategy in the duel was basically 'stab her as quickly as possible', while Taylaria's strategy was 'get out of the way of the stab, pin her down, and then shoot her before she can get out of a net.' That was the deciding factor, not speed. In a race, Asuna would still beat anyone in the game. Also on the note of speed - the system assist that Krathys used while chasing PoH. For anyone who doesn't know, that wasn't my idea, that's canon. The technique used to increase speed is basically to focus on moving faster and faster. Asuna uses it all the time, and she's the best one at using the technique in SAO, but plenty of other players were capable of using it, they just didn't take it as far as she did.

I would like to thank TheMisprint for your truly awesome review last chapter. Feedback like yours is wonderful and amazing and I want to give you a virtual cookie for the warm fuzzies it gave me! I'll work on the critique you gave me, and thank you again for the review!

Keep Writing, Keep Rocking!

Undeadmonkey8