Back again! Hope you guys are excited, because I have a halfway decent idea of where the story is going to go from here.

And I mean that as in I know where we're going chapter to chapter, not that I just figured out my ending...That's been decided since...forever ago!

Enjoy!

February 28th, Edge of the North Sea

After Kirito and Asuna left the Leprechaun capital on their errand run to the North Sea for Tair, it gave Kirito some time to think about their situation. He and Asuna were trying to rally the other races, at least one at the moment, to fight back against the Salamanders all at once and save the Sylph's.

But in the back of his mind, Kirito had almost no interest in the war.

Although stopping the Salamanders had become their priority, the three hundred SAO players who had yet to awaken from their nightmare was his sole goal. The Salamanders had just gotten in their way.

"Kirito-kun." Kirito turned his head slightly to the left to look at Asuna, who was watching him. "I know that look. What's bothering you?" Kirito sighed and looked back ahead of them.

"I just..." He started, trying to figure out how to word his thoughts. "I'm worried."

"About what? The Sylph's?"

"Yes, but..." He looked down. "The three hundred players who haven't woken up yet." Asuna hummed in agreement.

"I see." She replied. "We're doing our best, and that's what matters. Plus if that tree is our best bet, and it's as hard to clear as Leafa said so, we're going to need all the help we can get." Kirito nodded, and Asuna gave him a supportive look. "Don't worry about it." She reassured. "We'll save them. We have too."

"Thanks, Asuna."

"No problem. Now," Asuna looked ahead of them, and Kirito followed her gaze. There, floating in the water way off in the distance, was a glacier just as Tair mentioned.

"Wow, that thing is huge." Kirito said, marveling at the chunk of ice.

"Sure is." Asuna rushed ahead of him. "Now come on. We don't have a lot of time to waste." Kirito followed suit and rushed towards the edge of the water and the ground, and when they got there, he looked around for their mod of transport.

"I don't see a boat." he said weakly. "Please don't tell me this is Redbank's boss room all over again..."

"Calm down Kirito-kun, I got this." Kirito looked at his partner just in time to see her dive head first into the water. he watched as she surfaced and gave him a weird look. "What are you waiting for? Jump in."

"We're swimming there?" Kirito asked, Asuna nodding. "Can we, like, ride a chunk of ice there or something?"

"Oh just get in the water, would you?" She asked, and Kirito sighed. She wasn't going to cave, so he steeled his resolve and dove in after her. The frigid temperature hit him hard, but it was virtual so he didn't worry all that much.

That was, until, a small effect came up next to his health.

"What the hell?" He asked. "We have a status effect." Kirito didn't know what the effect was, but thankfully a tutorial came up for him.

Icy Water: The frigid temperatures in the water and your lack of resistance to it have given you a 25% speed decrease in the water.

"Jeez, that's vicious." Asuna said as the tutorial closed. "Are we still going to swim out there? Or is it too risky?" The effect hadn't activated until they jumped in the water, so Kirito was unsure.

"Time is of the essence." He said. "So either we go at 75% our normal speed or waste God knows how long looking for an alternative route." Asuna frowned.

"So...?" She asked. Kirito sighed.

"Unless you see a big enough chunk of ice we can use our momentum on, we're swimming." Asuna have their surroundings a look and sighed as well.

"Swimming it is." She said, turning and beginning the long swim out towards the glacier. The effect was made apparent quickly, as Kirito felt sluggish and slow right off the bat. He tried to move his body faster, but obviously the effect still had a hold on him the faster he went. Asuna seemed to be going rather slow as well, but she still kept a fair pace as they made their way out. Once they got close, Kirito looked up and made a face.

"There's no entrance." he stated bluntly, making Asuna stop and look up. Just as he'd said, what greeted them as nothing but a hundred foot wall of ice. "How're we getting in?"

"Hm," Asuna mumbled. "Check the left side, I'll check the right." Kirito nodded and swam towards the left side of the glacier, looking for his way on. He didn't see one, the only change being the size of the glacier's wall. Sometimes the size fell, other times it grew. But not once did Kirito find anything that would indicate he could go up it.

"Maybe if I..." Kirito brought himself closer to the glacier and placed his hand on it. He swam down a bit and then quickly back up, seeing if he could maybe get a hold on the ice and straight up.

Nope.

He splashed right back down and made a face as he spat out the icy water. This wasn't working very well.

"Nothing?" Kirito looked to his right and found Asuna treading water there.

"Nope." He said. "Nothing." Asuna brought a hand to her chin, and her eyes lit up.

"Of course!" Before Kirito could ask what she was referring too, she raised her hands out of the water and they began to glow. She cast the spell, and bubbles started to form around his body, and a small icon of a fish with bubbles coming out of it's mouth appeared next to his health.

"What's this?" He asked.

"Water breathing." Asuna replied. "If we can't go right through, we check the bottom." Kirito smiled at her logic and nodded. It made sense after all. Asuna dove beneath the waves, and Kirito followed soon after, his sluggish movement slowly bringing him down towards the bottom of the glacier. it descended deep down into the darkness, so deep Kirito wasn't even sure he could see the end of it.

"This thing is huge." He marveled, bubbles flying out of his mouth as he spoke.

"It's a huge slab of ice." Asuna replied. "Of course it is." Kirito rolled his eyes at this and turned to comment on her sass, but her eyes widened.

"Kirito-kun, look out!" Kirito whirled just in time to see a bright blue object shoot through the water and make a move for his midsection. Kirito went for his blade, but he gasped as the creature struck him and sent him into the wall of ice behind him.

" You okay?" Asuna asked, keeping her eyes open for the beast. Kirito nodded.

"For now." he replied. "What was that thing?" Asuna made a face.

"Looked like a fish of some kind." She replied. "I didn't get a good enough look at it, it's too dark down here." Kirito slowly drew his sword and looked around, waiting to see if he could see their attacker.

It came again, but it veered off as Asuna swung her rapier through the water.

"We need to hurry up and get inside this thing." Asuna said. "Water breathing doesn't last forever. Go on and try to get inside. Kirito-kun."

"What about you?" He asked warily. She chuckled.

"Undines are great at submerged combat." She replied. "I'll be okay if I can just fend it off. Go!" Kirito nodded and swam downwards, looking for the edge of the glacier so he could search for his entrance.

The blue fish attacked him again, and he looked up at his health. roughly 80% of it remained.

"It's too dark, Asuna!" he shouted back up at her. "We need some light!"

"You're the one with night vision magic, aren't?!" She shouted back,the water rippling as her rapier fended the creature off once more. Kirito felt like face palming, but she was right. Raising his hands and doing his best to remember the incantation, he smiled as the sea floor around them lit up.

And he gulped.

It was fish attacking them alright, but there wasn't just one or two. He counted at least three dozen of them swimming around the vicinity of the glacier.

"This...Is bad..." Asuna said weakly.

"No kidding." Kirito replied. "The Icy Water active effect isn't going to help us any, either." Kirito slowly looked down, and with the help of his Night Vision spell, could see the end of the glacier near the sea bed. "We're close to the bottom, we just need to get there."

"Again, the Icy Water isn't helping us any..." She muttered. "Ready? We just have to get down there as fast as possible."

"Ready as ever." They both steeled their determination and swam downwards towards the bottom of the sea, and Kirito could hear some of the blue fish ready to attack them.

No wonder Tair didn't want to send any of his own men after this ice...

Kirito slowly swung his blade at the fish and they veered away. At least the little guys didn't like to get hit. They got close to the edge of the bottom, and Kirito swam underneath it and smiled as he saw a tunnel leading upwards into the glacier.

"It's here, Asuna!" He said. Together they started to swim up the tunnel, but the fish weren't interested in losing their prey and swam up it after them. And seeing as the fish weren't affected by the ice water, they were gaining ground quickly. Kirito turned to check how much room they had and found Asuna had stopped, and was aiming her hands at he swarm of fish.

Asuna mumbled something, and the water current warped and went into her hands. She finished her incantation and aimed her hands at the fish, and water exploded in a typhoon towards the fish and sent the whole swarm flying backwards into the open sea. She turned and tapped Kirito on the shoulder, and together they swam up into the opening.

Once they breached the inside of the glacier and got out of the water to avoid any more angry fish, Kirito looked over at Asuna.

"I'm really glad you're here." he said with a laugh. "I'd have been toast without you." Asuna's cheeks flushed, a stark contrast to everything else he was looking at, but she laughed him off.

"You just needed Undine help." She replied, standing and offering her his hand. He stood, and together they looked around the small opening they'd gotten into.

"Well," he said. "Now what?" Asuna shrugged.

"I suppose we head that way..." She mumbled, pointing towards the opening near them. Nodding, the two entered the tunnel and drew their weapons once more, checking every corner and waiting for some sort of ice troll of whatever to jump out at them.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Asuna asked. "everything I'm looking at is ice."

"I assume it looks different." Kirito replied. "Tair wouldn't just send us out here if it wasn't obvious."

"I suppose..." Kirito noticed right off the bat that aside for the murderous fish in the water, nothing had jumped out to attack them yet. It made him feel uncomfortable the longer said peace continued. Rounding the next corner brought both to an opening, which had ice crystals growing out of every corner.

"Woah..." Asuna said. "Think it's in here?"

"Maybe." Kirito replied as they entered. "Look around for it." Kirito walked off in a different direction and looked around for anything that would signify the crystals Tair wanted them to retrieve, but nothing really jumped out at him. He looked at his reflection in the ice and gave it some thought. Maybe it was the crystals in the wall?

"Kirito-kun, I think I found something." Kirito turned and saw Asuna looked up into a hole in the roof of the cavern, so he walked over and joined her.

"Think something's up there?" He asked.

"Worth a try." She replied. "Boost me up." Trying to curb his tongue about reminding her what happened last time he boosted her up a ledge, Kirito nodded and walked behind Asuna.

"Ready?" he asked. She nodded, so Kirito put his hands on her midsection and used as much strength as possible, throwing Asuna right up into the opening. Her hands gripped the edges of the hole and she pulled herself up, and he heard her gasp.

"What?" He called. "What is it?" Asuna turned and bent down, smiling at him.

"Get up here!" She said, sounding excited. Kirito jumped and grabbed her hand, and she pulled him up into the cavern.

"Woah..." He said. "You're right. This is impressive as all hell..." The cavern was filled with ice that was tinted a bright blue instead of near white. the smooth surface all around them made Kirito wary of where he stepped, because he felt like he'd slip and fall.

"This might be what Tair wants us to get." She said. "See any that can be taken?"

"Like that?" Kirito asked, pointing towards a large crystal jutting out of the way a ways away from them.

"Like what, yeah." Asuna slowly made her way over to the crystal, nearly losing her balance more than once. Kirito watched as she reached out and grabbed the crystal, pulling at it as hard as she could. Eventually the crystal came off of the wall with a loud snap, and she smiled as she brought up the information on it.

"Well?" Kirito asked.

"Norther Sea Ice Crystal." She said. "This is it! I think..." Kirito smiled.

"Good." he said. "If that's it, then let's get the hell out of he...!"

An angered roar cut Kirito off, and he jumped in surprise.

"What the hell was that?!" he asked, Asuna putting the ice into her inventory.

"Don't know." She replied. The roar sounded off again, and this time it made the cavern shake violently.

"Uh..." Kirito said as he thought for a moment. "I don't think this glacier is just a slab of ice in the middle of the ocean..."

"What do you mean by...?" Asuna asked, before the roar went off again and her eyes widened. "Oh...Oh that's not good..."


Tair watched the snow fall outside of his office calmly, wondering whether or not Kirito and Asuna were on their way back yet.

"It was a dangerous mission." He said, to himself. "Maybe they...!"

BOOM!

Tair looked back to find the door to his office had been blown open, Kirito and Asuna walking inside. They did not look happy. Tair smiled.

"My friends!" He said. "I trust your mission was a success?" Asuna opened her inventory and the ice appeared in her hands.

"Got it." She mumbled, throwing it to Tair. he caught it and inspected it slowly before he laughed.

"You two sure are something else!" He said. "I wasn't expecting you to return so soon!"

"You could've, oh I don't know, warned us." Asuna said. Tair made a face.

"Huh?" He asked. Kirito crossed his arms.

"The 'glacier floating in the North Sea' is actually a boss." He said. "The thing attacked and washed us back to shore once Asuna snapped that thing off. We would've died but we were forced to use out wings and broke the fall."

Tair stared at the pair for a long time.

And then he broke out into another laugh.

"Of course!" He shouted. "How could I have forgotten to mention such an important detail?!" Asuna growled.

"Why you...!"

"Well no matter, my eastern friends! Now, I will have to have a talk with my race, so please return tomorrow with your leaders in tow and we shall outfit your army with weapons the likes of which you've never seen!"


March 1st, Swilvane

Leafa watched as Cait Sith and Sylph worked together to reinforce the wall around the capital, and she made a face. They'd been turning the capital city of the race into a fortress for the past few days and, from what she could tell, it was going quite well.

"Like this, Leafa-san?" Someone asked. She turned to look as he and a few others worked to place as tone in the right place.

"Little more to the right." She replied. They turned in slightly, and she smiled. "Yes, just like that! Looks good guys, excellent work." She watched as everyone continued to build the wall and wondered if it was going to be enough. The Salamanders could be making their push any day, so the more stones thick it was the better for them to survive.

"Leafa!" She turned as someone else called her voice to see one of Sakuya's personal guard standing there. "Sakuya wishes to speak with you." Leafa nodded and told the others to keep building, walking towards where Sakuya was. As she walked, she wondered just what it was Sakuya wanted from her. She was doing the best she could at the moment, so it couldn't be anything like that.

Once she reached the offices, Leafa walked inside and went towards Sakuya's where, she knocked on the door and waited.

"Come in." Leafa made a face. That sounded more like Alicia than it did Sakuya...

Walking inside, Leafa saw that Sakuya was walking back and forth mumbling to herself, while Alicia watched her. Both women looked rather nervous.

"L-Lady Sakuya?" Leafa asked. "Are you okay?"

"Give her a minute." Alicia said, looking down. Sakuya continued to mumble incoherently as she sent messages, and finally turned to look at Leafa.

"How's the wall?"

"Uh, good. We're reinforcing it well, and..."

"I'm assigning more people to your workforce."

"Why?" Sakuya sighed and stopped pacing, turning to look at Leafa.

"The Salamanders have taken all of our territory in the North. They're coming for Swilvane."

Oh boy! It's starting! I hope you enjoyed, leave a review!