Sword Art Online

The Shield

Chapter 1

The Beta Testers

"You're absolutely crazy if you think this is actually going to work... There is very little chance that two people can complete a floor boss on their own and that definitely goes for this one. Even with all the scouting, the information we have dug up about this boss, it's pretty much a suicide attempt."

No response.

"Hello!? Are you even listening to me? Kirito!"

He turned and smiled slightly, "Of course I am, I am just going over the strategy we came up with. Also, you're here by choice. You have always had the choice to follow me, I never forced you here. You don't have to come and run this boss with me, you can still leave or just log off." He opened his menu and started looking through the items in his inventory. He had a slight asymmetrical hair cut and kind eyes, both midnight black.

"To be perfectly honest, I feel like if I don't follow you when you go on these crazy runs of yours, then you're going to do something stupid. Although I do question myself every time I follow you..." she sighed softly, shaking her head. Her hair was long and white, plaited into two lovely pony-tails which were looped and attached to the back of the head so only the loops were flowing, her bangs swept just over her right eye. Her eyes were purple and a red scar swiped across her left eye.

He chuckled and stood up, walking up to the large door. He stopped, turning to look at her, "You awake over there?"

She gasped, jumping up and running towards him, "Yeah, I was just thinking over the strategy we discussed earlier."

He nodded, "So, let's go over it again, shall we?"

Nodding slowly, opening up her menu, bringing up what looked like notes, "The boss we are about to face is called Envy the Witch. She is immune to bleed status ailments. She has spikes in her skirt which will randomly pierce all around her. She swings her broom left and right in front of her. When she raises her broom and swings it down in front of her, it will stun. She summons three spheres which move around the room and will deal continuous damage to those who stand near it. She summons shadow attendants which if they land a hit, they will flinch their targets. When she waves her broom above her head, it could be one of two attacks, if its pink, it's her long-ranged area attack which does a very high amount of damage. If it's blue, it is her animation for summoning shadow attendants. When her HP goes down to fifty percent, she glows red and summons a clone, making her invulnerable when the clone is still alive."

Kirito put his hand to his waist, thinking over it, "So, what strategy did we come up with then?"

She smiled, "Not to rush in with attacks until we are confident of her attack timings. Don't stand too close to her when spikes are shifting around, best to stay behind me when that happens. Once you are able to, get behind her so you can continue attacking her when she is swinging her broom. I will keep the attendants on me, so you can continue attacking her. Keep out of her AOE's, kill the clone quickly so we can continue attacking her. I will be calling out if I see anything else, but I think we will be fine, keep your health crystals handy, I will be standing in front of her, watching for any changes and calling out the timings. Did I miss anything?"

Kirito smiled, "I don't think you missed anything."

She gasped slightly, "Sorry, I did forget something, you need to work on your timing with your sword skills, you are still a little off."

Kirito leaned against the wall next to the door, folding his arms, "Yeah, I guess you do have a point... wait for a second.."

She chuckled, "I am just messing with you! We will be fine, we have enough information to run this, it would be easier to do this with a lot more people, but no one is at our level, well not anyone who is interested in running it at least."

He laughed, "You nearly got me there! But yeah, we will be fine. I will call out anything if I spot something from behind her." He put his fist out to her.

She smiled, resting her fist against this, "Let's do this, partner!" She stepped towards the door, placing her hand on it to cause it to glow. She pulled the shield and sword off her back.

Kirito unsheathed his sword off his back, they nodded to each other and ran in, she ran a couple of steps ahead of him.

...

Four hours later.

...

Walking up the stairs, Kirito sighed in relief, "I can't believe we actually did it! I didn't expect to see that final ability charge up she did."

Following him, she smiled, "I didn't either, but I am just glad I was able to spot that last-ditch effort AOE, it did a decent whack to my HP, but we did it!" She yawned slightly as she stretched.

Just then, bells started sounding all around, Kirito groaned, "Seriously... I thought we had a few more hours..."

She giggled slightly, "I guess we spent way too long fighting that boss, looks like we don't get to explore this floor this time around." She turned and looked at him, "It has been fun, thanks for a great beta!"

He sighed and nodded, "Yeah, it's been amazing!"

The stepped forward and high-fived each other.

"ANNOUNCEMENT! THE BETA OF SWORD ART ONLINE IS NOW OVER! THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING! YOU WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY LOGGED OFF SHORTLY! WE HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN IN THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF SWORD ART ONLINE!"

She smiled and looked at the sky, "Well, see you around, Kiri-"

"Hey, Reiki!"

She gasped and looked at him, "Yeah?"

He smiled, "Thanks for everything, I hope to see you in the full game, Reiki!"

Reiki smiled and nodded, "Yeah, definitely, see you around, K-"

Everything went black.

Deep blue eyes opened, staring up at the ceiling, "Kirito..." she sighed as she sat up, pulling her nerve hear off, setting it down on the bedside table, her light brown hair flowed to her shoulders.

There was a knock on the door, "How did it go?"

She smiled and jumped off the bed, opening the door, "it went really well. We got to floor nine!"

He walked in, "Good girl, Ayano. I will be needing your help tonight."

She nodded, "Of course, Dad. I will help!"

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Sword Art Online. Alterations to the story have been made so that I can use my OCs in the way they were intended.