Big Trouble Chapter 21
Author's note: *Facepalms* Well, I was very wrong with part of the menu. Turns out the last icon isn't for stats and such, but maps and quests. In episode 11, which just came out, there's a moment where they actually show the menu when Asuna's on that screen. *Dies* I'm confused now, where the hell do they actually keep their character stats in the menu then? Mmmmmmm...
While PoH spoke, I noticed a dark shape move up out of the woods. Something like a bird. It passed in front of the sun, which still shone through the gap between here and the next floor above our heads. I saw something move off to the side which caught my attention for a moment. I glanced back to PoH and River in time to notice something out of place. PoH was looking at River with a worried look.
Snap— A massive jaw closed on River. The of the beast it belonged to seemed to materialize in the middle of the field. Only the tiniest afterimage told me it had fallen from high above. I could see PoH's eyes go wide in shock. With the sound of breaking glass, River's avatar— no. That was actually River. The man before me shattered with a wavering blue light and a flourish of tiny glowing polygons. River was gone. I didn't even know him, but now he was gone. Dead in both this world and the real one.
My eyes moved and my brain registered the information in a moment, automatically, without me even thinking about it. Six health bars.『The Harrowing Fang』. The wolf seemed to vanish as fast as it had appeared, but I caught the slight blur that told me it had actually jumped over us, heading toward the town. After this moment, everyone shot to their feet at once. Everyone except PoH, who stared into the empty space where River had been.
My eyes flashed around the clearing. There were already many shouts exploding all around us. It was so much that it drowned out any sound that may have come from the village. I finally caught sight of fur moving out of the forest. The wolves tore out of the forest and into the crowded clearing, many engagements popping up with the clash of steel and claw.
However, the lightning fast attack caught the panicked players off guard and I saw many flashes of light, along with the shattering polygons and the terrible sound of breaking glass. I drew my sword from the scabbard at my waist. There were no wolves immediately in front of me, but I would not allow my life to end by being caught flat-footed like that. I stood atop the rock I had been using for a seat, pressing back to back with Keiko.
There were already many more wolves in the small clearing than the pack we saw the day before. Despite the huge crowd of players, it seemed that most were inexperienced and didn't know how to fight against the ferocious animals. So, they fell one after another to the merciless attacks. If fact, having so many of players was more of a burden, because no one couldn't move around well enough to fight.
Somehow, after going through one crazy situation after another, I felt somewhat calm in this situation. I considered our chances in this fight. The wolves were only coming from the forest in front of us now, toward the mountain. However, that didn't mean they weren't going to attack from the sides as well. The town behind us was sure to be in shambles with the sudden attack.
It was strange, I contemplated fighting with the players here or going to help in the city. I actually considered what would be a better option, as if I, the person who couldn't even read my own stats, could possibly make a reasonable choice of which battle I should join. And yet, I felt like I could. Looking around at the scared faces of everyone around me, it seemed that I had learned a good deal about fighting in this world, even moreso than all these competent, long-time gamers.
Without thinking about it, I opened my menu and switched the the party section. I dragged a party invite to the people closest to me. The signature ringing bells seemed to snap these players, supposedly the best players among us, out of their daze. When they saw the party invitation appear in front of them, Klein and Diabel accepted immediately.
"We're going to go fight the boss," I declared. By my estimation, we would need the strongest players to beat it. If we couldn't beat the boss, the rest of these wolves wouldn't matter because we would all be dead anyway. Heathcliff looked me up and down for a few moments, then accepted as well, with just a nod. The others shook their heads, saying they needed to stay and protect the field.
As we moved away from the fighting, Klein's group pushed their way toward us, apparently having waited for him to make his move. We joined up and he explained our plan in shorthand while we continued to push through. As soon as we cleared the field, walking quickly through the short stretch of tree-cover, a hand closed over my arm.
I turned back to see who it was, and found Heathcliff behind me. I raised an eyebrow as we all came to a stop. "Before we fight such a monster, we need to be fully prepared. That means we have to go to the tailor and get you two some armor first. With the inclusion of my sister, I realized that he had grabbed her shoulder as well.
"Everyone else here has some sort of armor, but you two really need some. It would be extremely unwise to fight such a strong monster without any protection. I can speak for everyone here— we don't want to lose you in this fight." All the rest of the men nodded solemnly.
I thought about it for a moment. Every second we delayed, that monster was still rampaging through the city. However, we would be no help fighting it if we just died. I nodded back to them. "Ok, let's get all set up before we go in."
To make up for lost time, we all ran for the town, but Keiko and I quickly pulled away from everyone, so we had to slow down, moving at, for us, little more than a leisurely pace.
"How much AGI do you guys have?" asked a man from Klein's group. AGI... «Agility», I figured. With a swipe of my hand and a tap on the status icon, my character stats came up.
"14 points," I informed them.
A number of them gaped, then one asked, "What level are you?"
My eyes shifted back up, landing on the first bit of information in the window. "Level 5," I answered. Then, I scanned down a bit. I was at 40000/60000 exp to level up again. That meant 20000 more points. That could take quite a bit of time.
"Wait, level 5 with 14 AGI. That means you only have 1 STR?" Klein asked, looking astonished.
I nodded, then my brow furrowed. "Is that a bad thing? At the time, we put all our points into «Agility» so we could run away from those wolves. Turned out we needed every point," I explained. Now that I thought about my low «Strength» stat, I remembered that sword from before. The one I didn't have enough strength to carry.
"Hey, I have this sword that I can't use," I started. "Since you all raised your «Strength» more, do you want to use it? It's called the «Wolf-Tooth Sword»." I saw all eyes go wide. "What?"
"T,that's a super rare monster drop! It's on the level of the «Anneal Blade»," Klein informed me. Not that I really know what that meant... "I would definitely take you up on that offer, but I use curved swords. I glanced over to Heathcliff. He used a straight sword.
"I must decline." he bowed slightly. Then my gaze moved to Diabel. "Diabel-san?"
He gulped before bowing low, "I,it would be an honor!" We all stopped momentarily while I pulled the sword from my inventory window and it materialized in midair. I took hold of it to pass the weapon to Diabel, but fell forward on my face when the weight of it came down on my outstretched hands.
"Ack, ow, I forgot how heavy it is." I winced as I stood up again, hauling the sword up after me with both arms. I swear it felt like it weighed two-hundred pounds. I slid the sword forward, resting the end of the sheath on the ground, until Diabel reached out and took it in his right hand. He unsheathed the blade easily and held it up to inspect it closely. I stared in wonder as he held the sword up which I couldn't even stand with, in just one hand.
"Well, use that in the coming fight. Every bit of help is welcome," Keiko spoke from the other side of Diabel. We all moved forward again, at the same pace as before. We cleared the trees and the town came into view. We had two parties. Our party of five contained Keiko and myself, Diabel, Klein, and Heathcliff. The other was a party of six, Klein's men.
We crossed the short stretch of grass to come to the closest building and looked down the street. There were still a lot of players, but they were all shouting and panicking. I heard much louder screams, along with a horrifying sound like a car crashing through a shop of mirrors.
The tailor was straight down the road ahead of us, but we spread all our potions evenly before moving from our cover and heading into the city.
Author's note: I'm going to have a lot less free time, so my updates are definitely going to slow down. :(
On a happier note, from what I've seen from episode 11 of the anime, it'll definitely be longer than 12 episodes! ^_^ Unless they screw up the ending. :(