A/N: I do not own Sword Art Online in anyway, nor am I making profit.

Ends Meet

May 9th, 20232:00 pm

After the encounter at the end of the twenty eighth floor the party had been bereted by shouting and screaming, most prominently by Kibaou.

"I told you I wanted him alive!" He had screamed for what had to have been the fourteenth time. The rest of the crowd seemed to be screaming for their blood, never mind that they had just saved them from a would-be assassin. So they did the only thing they could do in such a pressing situation.

They ran away as fast as they could.

The trio had the privilege of being the first players to step foot in the twenty ninth floor and it all rushed by in a blur as they fled from the crowd.

The group found the nearest inn, rented a room and locked themselves in for the next few nights, not daring to go outside. Eventually Vlinn received a message from Kibaou stating that after much deliberation he had decided that the trio had taken the best course of action available to them at the time. He informed them that they would be receiving more work in the future.

After another day in the self-induced prison, they quietly made their way to the teleportation gate under the cover of night and fled to Panareze. After they were comfortably settled in again, the party waited for their next job. After much discussion the three felt as if that was all they could do, the front lines would recognize them, so exploring the newest floor was off-limits for a while. Kibaou had of course assured them that everything had been explained but people always tended to make the worst out of situations.

They had done nearly the same thing to beta testers, branding them with the name beaters.

What does that make me? Vlinn found himself wondering, he had only watched a little of the beta testing, that certainly didn't make him a beater. Regardless of the semantics, the group assumed they would probably get off lighter than the beta testers did.

Weeks passed without word of a job, so they spent the days by themselves. Sky went off to whatever floor she pleased and did not return until night. One evening she came home with a curved sword hanging at her waist when asked why she changed weapons, she only replied with a shrug.

Cronan spent much of his time either at the local blacksmith, using their forges or helping Lisbeth with her smithing orders as he was the only one she trusted to assist her.

Vlinn was content to just stay in their rented room and play with his ocarina, he had managed to learn several of the songs that were played by the NPC musicians that gave background music to each floor and even a few from games he had once played. In the mornings he would visit his favorite tea shop in Panareze and then stroll through the town, checking the different shops.

It was on one such stroll that a weapon caught his eye. A small player owned smithy sat on the main street and it had two large windows in which many different weapons were displayed. To the side of the larger window sat a thin curved sword, it was rather plain in terms of beauty, the hilt was a simple leather wrapped one and the scabbard was basic black with no embellishments.

But that is what made it beautiful, its simplicity, if Sky was going to switch weapons why shouldn't he? So he purchased the weapon without a second thought and equipped it right away. Later that night Sky would cast an accusing glare at him and mutter "copycat" to herself.

Aside from Vlinn's monetary loss and weaponry gain, their days were lived in that simple routine. Eventually their funds would run low, they were aware of this and so they waited for work. The group found that they did not particularly enjoy the fact that they were relying on Kibaou.

They could have gone to the front lines and started questing again or even attempted a dungeon dive, but whatever Kibaou had for them was significantly safer than heading to the front lines straight away, or so they hoped.

After almost a month of silence Vlinn finally received a message from the sub-leader, for once he did not require that they meet face to face. Instead they were to meet one of his guild-mates on the current front line on the twenty ninth floor.

It was there that the mercenaries first met Thinker.

The party arrived at the main square of the twenty ninth floor several minutes early however Thinker was already there, his assistant Yulier ever present. Thinker was a slight man, no taller than Vlinn and almost half the width. He wore a standard army captain's uniform; complete with commanding officer ribbons, on his waist rested a silver rapier.

Yulier wore the basic uniform that all soldier of the army wore; her silver hair gleamed in contrast to her dull grey/green clothes. Her eyes flickered back and forth, watching for danger, her whip coiled in her hands as if she were expecting it.

"We finally get the privilege of meeting," The leader said cheerily. He extended his hand toward them and they each shook it awkwardly. "Kibaou speaks very highly of your skills." Did he now?

"We just do our job," Cronan said, shrugging listlessly

"Yes, well you do them well." He said with a smile, a rather brilliant smile. Was it radiating light?

"What sort of job are we expecting this time?" Vlinn crossed his arms and leaned back against a nearby wall. The cheerfulness diminished quickly, replaced with a strange somberness.

"One very similar to your last mission…" The guild-leader stared at them intently.

"Fantastic." Vlinn heard Sky mutter, she frowned and stood up. "Our last job wasn't exactly the best example of our skill."

"What you did was needed." Thinker said quietly, turning away from them to look at the fountain. "The players may not know it and neither did Kibaou at the time. He admitted to me later that what you did was probably for the best. It's unfortunate that someone had to die, but many more would have died if he hadn't."

Then why didn't that make the death any easier?

"Well," Thinker turned back toward us. "Will you take the job?"

"You haven't even told us-"

"Yes!" Sky cut Cronan off, her eyes locked onto Thinkers as she steeled herself.

"Glad to hear it," The vibrant grin had returned. "There have been several assassination reports in this town in the past few days. All of them were attempted, or in some cases completed, on player merchants. The remaining merchants are frightened and they are threatening to leave this floor."

"Then let them leave," Vlinn sighed, reclining against his wall further, he let his head loll back and stared up at the beautifully azure sky.

"If only it were that simple." Thinker frowned. "The Clearers rely on merchant players these days, especially on this floor of all places!" He gestured beyond the wall of the city. The twenty ninth floor had garnered the nickname; Bone Yard. The entire floor was a desolate wasteland covered in human cemeteries or the graveyards of monsters. The water was toxic, the land parched and barren, the only monsters on the floor were all undead type creatures, so no one could hunt for food and without plants players could not mix healing potions. "Without the player merchants the Clearers would have to rely on the shops here, but they're expensive and their stocks are very low."

"Wait," Sky's eyebrows furrowed. "You said that they were killed in town, but the System restricts deaths from other players in town settings."

"You are correct, the System normally does, however on this floor there are no towns, even this smattering of buildings is not recognized by the Cardinal System. I guess it's part of the floor's theme." Thinker shrugged and then regarded the party with a smile. "So?"

"So we need to stop the assassination attempts and keep the merchants here," Cronan summarized.

"At least until this floor is cleared." Thinker nodded, smiling again.

"Any useful information?" Vlinn asked, scanning the immediate environment. The army leader nodded to his assistant and she bowed her head before stepping forward.

"There are two remaining merchants in the city; from the interrogations we have conducted we have concluded that the attacks all occurred around the same time, midnight."

"Cliché," Cronan snorted. Yulier pointedly ignored him and continued.

"They have been attacked every night for the last week, the first night was just to serve as a warning, the two merchants hired guards and they have been enough to fend the assassins off. However from what the guards told us, it seems that the PK'ers are simply toying with them."

"Where can we find them?" Sky asked after seating herself on one of the available benches.

"The first merchant, Guzil, resides on Fourth street, the second, Mullin, is on main street."

"That's all the information we have readily available." Thinker said, stepping up next to his assistant. "It's up to you from here, inform Kibaou when you have completed the job or have any information that we should know." At his nod Yulier materialized a large bag of Col and tossed it to Cronan.

"Your usual fee, you will receive the second half on completion," the whip user stated with militaristic monotony.

"One last thing," Thinker said, stopping and glancing over his shoulder. "The bounty on these assassins is posted as dead or alive, preferably alive…but we understand accidents happen." So he did have a cold side. After that the two walked to the gate and teleported back to the first floor.

"What's our first move?" Vlinn asked no one in particular.

"Well," Cronan began. "We could-"

"Let's go question the merchants first." Sky said loudly. She stared at the red clad player expectantly, ignoring Cronan's growls. He shrugged, it was the best option they had and so they made their way to the two shops.

Guzil's store was extravagant; he sold not only potions and field equipment but also furniture for housing and other luxuries that were hardly needed in this kind of landscape. The merchant was a very large man with an annoying habit of laughing at his own jokes. With each loud guffaw his rotund stomach would jiggle and shake.

"You have a very fascinating shop," Sky remarked, taking an interest in a small wooden carving instead of focusing on his large stomach.

"Thank you!" He chuckled. "Although I sell such rare and high quality items, for fair prices I might add (pause for laughter), all of the Clearers seem to favor that other little store. They just can't see the divinity in my items I suppose." The fat man threw his arm over his forehead dramatically.

Divinity? Cronan mouthed to Vlinn, he shrugged as they left the shop, heading for the next stop.

Mullin's shop was a much smaller affair and a little on the shabby side, however his inventory was stocked with food, potions, water bottles and even camping supplies. His prices were about even with Guzil's but his shop seemed much less…pompous. This merchant did not offer any information different than what Guzil or Yulier had but he was much more pleasant to talk to.

"Even more pleasant than Yulier," Sky remarked as we stalked back to the city square. "All that woman did was bark out sentences and glare. Seriously I thought she was going to burn a hole through my skull with her eyes."

"That's probably because you were getting a little too close to her beloved leader."

"What do you mean?" the woman scowled up at her comrades.

"He means you were basically all over him," Cronan remarked. "It was pretty gross, we're in public for crying out loud."

"I was just talking!"

"Uh-huh, you a flirty hoe." Vlinn smirked and sat down.

"So," Cronan said ignoring Sky's screams of outrage. "We should probably set guards to both of them. You and I could take Mullin and Sky could guard fatty." Vlinn nodded, trying to hide his smile as Sky sighed in disgust.

Vlinn sat atop Mullins counter in his meditation pose, when meditating the system gave his targeting system a wider scope area, so hopefully he would be more aware of their surroundings. And if he was not, with any luck Cronan would be, the warrior-smith sat in a chair in the corner, eyes closed, head cocked to the side.

He was listening for anything that might betray an assassin' presence, the duo had been waiting for the better part of an hour. Mullin sat in a chair behind the counter, absent mindedly tracing circles on the polished wood with the toe of his boot. Vlinn heard the merchant sigh and shuffle impatiently behind him. Vlinn could not blame him; it had been the same way for the past three days, simply waiting like that until the morning.

"Quiet," The warrior growled lowly.

And that was when they made their move, the assassins were well trained player-killers, they had recognized Cronan's Listening skill and had waited until one of them spoke loudly enough to cover their initial approach. Cronan swore and leapt to his feet, a yellow glow falling onto his fist. As the warrior-smith punched at the darkness Vlinn finally caught a glimpse of the player as the shadows themselves seemed to leap over Cronan.

Vlinn attempted to disentangle his crossed legs so he could intercept the player. As he was struggling to move the black armored assassin's arm moved across his body and Vlinn, in his state of heightened awareness, caught the glint of a knife flying toward him. Before he could react Vlinn felt the unpleasant tingling of a wound on his upper arm.

"Shit," The player growled watching his healthbar decrease slightly, then to his chagrin the indicator took on a yellowish hue, he was paralyzed.

An unpleasant shiver ran through the mercenary's body before he lost all feeling and he tipped backwards crashing to the floor behind the counter. Mullin gasped, leaping up from his chair and pressing himself into the corner.

Beyond the counter Vlinn heard Cronan engaging the assassin, several shouts and the clang of metal on metal. The prone player cursed at himself silently and experimentally attempted to move his body. The only thing that responded was his left arm and it reacted sluggishly.

So I can't even open my menu, awesome.

His body still somewhat resembled the meditating position so Vlinn set to work slowly re-positioning his arms and legs just using his left arm. When he was in the appropriate form he laced his fingers together and closed his eyes.

The player tried to block out the sounds of battle which mostly consisted of Cronan swearing creatively at the enemy. Boots thudded softly above the paralyzed player.

"Stay b-back!" Mullin stammered as the slither of a sword leaving its leather scabbard rang out. He was answered with a chuckle and although Vlinn heard nothing he knew that the player had drawn one of his throwing knives. The player slowed his breathing further as the merchant went from frightened defiance to crying and groveling.

Vlinn felt a wave of cold wash over his body and all of his limbs resumed function, training the Meditation skill had paid off. Vlinn rolled over, uncrossing his legs and then leapt up, drawing his curving sword. The knife left the assassins hand as the mercenary came to his feet and he swung his sword in an attempt to intercept the knife but the targeting system was not meant to block an attack aimed at someone else.

The projectile zoomed past the blade and sank into Mullins poorly armored shoulder, the merchant let out a cry as his health dropped and his legs gave out beneath him. His healthbar took on the paralysis color and the PK'er moved to pounce. Vlinn's weapon glowed blue and he dashed toward the enemy who simply somersaulted over him and landed in front of Mullin. Before Vlinn could reorient himself the assassin had drawn his dagger.

"No!" The red armored player shouted, summoning a charging type skill to his curved blade. It was too late, before he could release the skill the assassin plunged his dagger into Mullin's chest. The merchant gaped down at the weapon with tear rimmed eyes. As the man burst into red light the assassin spun around, right into Vlinn's blade, it was thanks to his quick reflexes that he only received a shallow hit on the cheek. Unfortunately Vlinn could not stop quickly enough and as the assassin dove over the counter the mercenary found himself sliding face first into the wall.

However the player killer had found himself face to face with a forgotten Cronan.

"Boo-yah!" A yellow glowing fist sped toward the player, their enemy's eyes widened for a split second before he threw himself to the side causing Cronan to slam his fist into the counter. Cursing the warrior spun around as several red notices popped up above the counter, he found the room empty and the door to the shop slightly ajar. Cronan swore again, loudly, as Vlinn peeled himself off the wall.

"Have I ever mentioned how glad I am that this game doesn't let us feel pain?" He turned toward his friend as he massaged his nose. Cronan had the door open and was peering intently down the street. "He's gone man; we'll just have to hope that Sky did a better job than us." Cronan slammed the door shut and approached the counter grumbling.

"Well that sucks," He muttered, staring at the spot where our charge had died.

"Yeah, I hope they don't take that out of our pay. What?" Vlinn asked as Cronan gave him an incredulous stare. The red clad player shrugged and turned back toward the counter, a small crack had appeared where Cronan's fist had connected. "Did you crack an indestructible object!?" Cronan rolled his eyes and stalked out of the building without waiting for his comrade.

Guzil's shop looked like a bull had been goaded, threatened, bribed and then been thrown into the large store before combusting spontaneously. In short, the place was trashed, however Guzil was alive and well, barring the irritated grumbles as he took stock of his destroyed merchandise. Sky perched proudly on top of the extravagant white marble counter, her smile seemed to radiate smugness.

"He's alive," She practically sang as she swept her arm out toward the merchant.

"We can see," Cronan said dismissively, examining the destruction. Sky deflated visibly, scowling at the warrior.

"Where's your guy?" She asked suspiciously.

"Taking a nap," Vlinn said quickly before Cronan could answer. The bodyguard that Guzil had hired to assist Sky stood unobtrusively in a corner of the large room offering no commentary.

"You may leave now," Guzil said without turning toward the mercenaries. "It's daybreak and they only attack at night."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea sir. Perhaps we could-"

"No!" The merchant cut Sky off quickly. "I've had more than enough of your company thank you very much." And with that he ushered the three of them out of his nearly destroyed store.

"Why does the other guy get to stay!" Sky protested loudly. Cronan and Vlinn shared a conspiratorial glance, why did he get to stay?

"Come on Sky." Cronan said picking her up, much like a kitten and leading the way to the inn they were staying at.

"So what happened to Mullin?" The swordswoman asked quietly, after several minutes of walking in silence.

"The assassin was stronger than we thought." Cronan replied simply, frowning.

"Something didn't feel right when I was fighting my guy." Sky matched Cronan's frown and furrowed her brow. "Like he wasn't really fighting me. And then that other body guard didn't do much except stand in front of Guzil." Cronan set her down as the party continued toward the inn. "And then there was Guzil…he didn't seem frightened at all. At first I just chalked it up to the fact that he'd been attacked before. But…no matter how many times I'm faced with possible death, I'm still terrified. And that man certainly doesn't have the spine to stand up to death like that."

The small swordswoman fell silent, staring at the dirt sidewalk as we walked through the almost barren streets. The NPC's were few and far between and the players even more so.

"Something definitely isn't right about this." Cronan mused, playing with one of the spikes on his pauldrons. "Maybe we should ask around, some players might have a better insight to what's going on." Vlinn snorted loudly causing Cronan to glare at him. "Yes?"

"That plan is all well and good, you're just missing something rather crucial."

"And that would be?"

"Players!" He practically shouted, spinning around and sweeping his arms out. "This place is an absolute graveyard, for lack of better term. The odds of us finding any player at all is rather slim." As he finished the small public display of cynicism Vlinn heard quiet chatter behind him, followed by several footsteps and laughter. Cronan stared behind his comrade, an amused smile threatening to widen. Vlinn heard the chiming of the inns door bell and then the heavy wooden door slamming shut. Cronan's eyes slid over to him and he raised an eyebrow triumphantly. "Fuck off."

The player spun around again and stomped into the inn not bothering to wait for his irritating party. Cronan followed quickly still smiling and Sky let out a small giggle before bouncing in behind them.