A/N: This chapter came a lot faster than the last. It is a lot more action packed than the other chapters before it which worries me a little because I always felt that writing fight scenes is my biggest weakness so if there was any feedback that anyone wanted to give on that end it would be much appreciated. I hope that I can keep turning out chapters this fast because I want to get to the next arc which I have some ideas for that I am pretty excited to get writing. In the meantime I hope you enjoy this chapter and I would like to say thank you to everyone for all the support for this series.

When the four friends walked into the room they found a very dejected team waiting for them. They were all sitting around the room staring at their perspective walls. "Woah. Something is definitely wrong with this atmosphere, especially since we just had an awesome win." Klein was the first to speak up about the scene that the group was facing.

"We watched a video of The Laughing Coffin's match yesterday and it was brutal." Even Agil looked down about the match. "They were smiling and joking as they slaughtered the guild."

"That is to be expected. They do have the name Laughing Coffin. If they didn't smile while killing people it wouldn't make much sense would it." Kirito tried to lighten the mood a little, but it didn't help. "Look. I won't say this match will be easy. These guys have a lot more experience fighting players. They now how to frighten people like they have firghtened youl That is where they get their power from. You are just as skilled as they are. If you go into the match scared they will win."

Everyone was staring at Kirito. A man, who to everyone there was a stranger that has always fought alone. Now look at him. He is here trying to rally the troops against a very difficult foe. The only reason he is able to be so calm right now is that he wasn't even thinking about Laughing Coffin. He had been so focused on Snow Princess and Heathcliff he neglected to even worry about this match.

"They may have experience in killing players, but the way they do this is by causing panic and making their opponents flee and fight erratically." Kirito had encountered the PKers a few times in the past and could recall their style. "If you hold your ground and work together we can win. They are the complete opposite of The Army who we faced yesterday. They have no teamwork and fight on their own. If you stick together and fight as a group they will get in their own way and make mistakes. Capitalize on those and attack."

Everyone was frozen in place staring at the solo player. It had surprised them that he could talk like this. Just then he felt a weight on his shoulders and looked to his left to see Klein resting his arm on Kirito. "I knew you had in you." Kirito looked back at his team and they were all standing up and getting their equipment ready for the upcoming battle with a new fire in their eyes. They weren't going to lose to those pathetic excuses for gamers. Kirito knew they were going to win, but what would happen tomorrow was a mystery. He was never able to get that shield user out of his mind.

The group entered the arena for the second time to go into battle. Across from them they could see the hooded and cloaked figures of Laughing Coffin snickering at them, but it had no effect on the team. They kept their gazes focused on the enemy and didn't falter.

The team had decided to stick to a strategy of fighting in pairs. Everyone had teamed up with someone they worked well with (of course Snow Princess and Kirito were together) everyone from class had paired up with friends while Klein and his friends stuck together in two pairs.

When the buzzer began it was chaos. Their team had held off against the Laughing Coffin better than anyone else but the constant attacks didn't allow for time to heal their wounds or rest like the last battle did. The enemy used poisoned blades to slowly chip away at their forces.

Even though everyone had paired up they still tried to stay together in a large group overall so as not to get singled out, but that is where Laughing Coffin proved the most skilled. They had picked off groups before and knew how to separate people. The loses on either side were almost even when it was Kirito and Snow Princess turn.

Laughing Coffin knew that those two were the powerhouses of the team and singled them out and separated the two from the group. They also knew that even if that those two were separated they were still a force to be reckoned with and worked to separate them from each other. That proved much more difficult since they had experience working together.

Finally while defending back to back very successfully against six people on their own, one of the hooded figures purposefully left himself completely open as a sacrifice and the bait was taken and Kirito could see it happen before his eyes. "Snow Princess! No!" She used the powerful thrusting attack and launched herself at the sacrifice. The sword went in and took the player, who only had a small amount of health in the first place, out.

She realized her mistake right away as she was surrounded by 2 players and was more than 30 feet away from Kirito who was surrounded by 3.

"We get to take on the best player in the whole game. This will be fun." One player that was surrounding Kirito was wielding a powerful slashing sword, another held a dagger (which was probably poisoned like the rest of their weapons have been), and the last held a piercing sword that Kirito couldn't remember what it was called. It was the man with the slashing sword that had spoken.

"I should feel honored being singled out by the three top members of Laughing Coffin, but for some reason I am not." Kirito knew enough of the guile to be able to recognize the leaders. He couldn't help but smirk at the three figures surrounding him. Where would the first move come from?

"I wouldn't worry about the others, I will take care of you all by my-" Just then the hooded figure that held the piercing sword disappeared in a shower of pixelated shards. In his place stood the black swordsman who in one quick move dispatched the lieutenant. He turned around to and smirk at the two remaining members.

"He was talking too much. Now are we going to fight?" No one was listening to what he was saying. They were busy staring at his hand, well both of them to be specific since there was a sword in either hand.

All of their research about being able to defeat this team went out the window with the appearance of a duel wielder. Kirito had decided it might not be necessary for this battle to use both, but with the tricks that this group could use was a risk he didn't want to take and regret later. Plus he knew if they won he would have to reveal the use of duel wielding when fighting Heathcliff tomorrow anyway. These guys were only a stepping stone to reaching the real challenge and they were being really annoying.

The two leaders that remained attacked simultaneously and were both pushed back simultaneously. Kirito had never fought like this before and it was the first real challenge he had faced in the game in a long time. He may have been better than these two but they were skilled. PoH, the man with the sword, let lose attack after attack on Kirito. His attacks were savage and unpredictable. He was clearly the more powerful of the two and it was wearing him down. It took all his focus to block them.

This was all meant to be the distraction while the knife wielder was trying to sneak in a deadly attack on Kirito's flank. Unfortunately it worked. The knife slipped into the back of Kirito's leg while he was blocking PoH's overhead slashes. Kirito immediately spun around to where the attack had come from and brought his sword's down on the knife wielder turning him into a cloud of shards.

Once again Kirito's guard was down after that attack and PoH brought his sword down in a vicious slash to where Kirito's arms were extended severing Kirito's left hand at his wrist. The problem for PoH was that he overlooked one crucial detail after this small victory in which he let his guard down. Kirito still had one more hand which held another sword and he spun it around and got PoH in the back and he too joined his teammates in defeat.

After his battle was done Kirito dropped to his knees. He had been poisoned by the knife wielder and his hand cut off, but he survived a 3 on 1 battle with the leaders of Laughing Coffin. He was pretty ecstatic about it until he remembered the battle wasn't over and he turned to see Snow Princess on the ground with a man over her laughing with his sword raised and Kirito ran.

Just a little earlier.

Snow Princess had just been separated from Kirito. Which was admittedly her fault but she could deal with two on her own. She only hoped that Kirito wouldn't suffer from her mistake. What had stopped her in her tracks though was when one of her attackers who was laughing at her getting caught in their trap had dropped his hood. It revealed a face she had not expected to see on this battlefield.

"Kuradeel? What are you doing with laughing coffin!?" The man couldn't stop laughing at how much he caught her off guard. While she was distracted by him the other attacker made his move. He launched his attack which Snow Princess had expertly dodged, only receiving a small scratch, and spun around behind him and launched a powerful piercing attack on his back as she caught him surprised at her sudden dodge. No one was ever prepared for her speed.

She turned back to Kuradeel to deal with the traitor. She turned to see him still smiling like he was confident in his standing. Then it happened. She dropped to the ground. The small scratch she had received had paralyzed her and she had failed to see the icon that appeared by her name during the scuffle.

Kuradeel sauntered over to her prone body. "Looks like you are finally getting what was coming to you."

"Why?" She couldn't understand how her number two could betray her like this.

"You ask why? It's because you are weak! You ruled over one of the most powerful guilds in the whole game and did nothing with it. You could have conquered and claimed whatever you wanted. I wanted to help you achieve that power! Then you threw it away and did nothing. You let everyone do what they want and never asked for anything in return for what you did. You were weak and there was no way I could serve someone as pathetic as you." The vehemence in his voice shook her to her core. How could he harbor these kind of feelings right under her nose. She trusted him so much and he had turned traitor.

"So when my chance came I joined up with Laughing Coffin. I gave them information on everyone from our guild. Stats, equipment, level, skill, and even fighting style. When we fight Knights of the Blood Oath tomorrow there will be no way we can lose. Then I can play a major role in making them the strongest guild in the whole game. No one will mess with us and we will be able to do whatever we want and everyone will run in fear." The look on his face was so twisted and dark Snow Princess couldn't even recognize her former subordinate.

He raised his two handed sword and swung to bring it down on his former captain. Snow Princess closed her eyes. It felt like it took forever for the sword to come down until she heard a voice. "Huh?!" She opened her eyes to see a flabbergasted Kuradeel drop his sword and look down and see a small black form in front of him. It was Kirito and his hand was imbedded in Kuradeel's chest. Kuradeel looked into the eyes of the boy and then burst into shards.

Snow Princess turned to look at Kirito and saw his injuries and the poison marker next to his name. He must have won his battle, but it was much closer than it should have been.

He fell back down to his knees next to her. Both of the slumped forms look over to where the rest of their group had been only to see Agil bring his large ax down on the last remaining member of Laughing Coffin thus securing their victory, but considering Agil was the last person standing over there leaving only the three of them in the arena. The battle was a lot closer than they had hoped.

The arena was silent for a moment. Then the cheers erupted as the signal for the end of the match rang out. It was deafening and rang out so Snow Princess couldn't hear anything, which is why she thought she was going crazy hearing what she heard as she whipped her head around to check. Her eyes were wide as she saw that Kirito was staring at her.

"Wh….What did you say?"

"I said let's get married."