Hey everyone, Naintarlow checking in.
FIrst of all, sorry for the incredibly late update. Life just got in the way, with my new job and a few other troubles, as well as me being committed to too many stories to count. I will try to keep updating as soon as I can but even if it's a later chapter, I will try to at least post bigger chapters in apology.
In the first half of a chapter you guys get a cameo of sorts. The story behind it is that me and a couple of other sao fanfic writers decided to write a story where we SI ourselves to SAO and just cause chaos. This little scene showcased my character Nain and my friend's Panzer_Hippo's Panzer. Hope you enjoyed it, I might have the rumored Sages show up from time to time.
For the end of the chapter, yeah I dropped a rather large bomb. Sorry it felt natural to stop there. Know that it had to be done and I have a plan in my mind. Until then I will be in hiding, in case of any backlash. Just kidding. Do your worst.
Thank you everyone who reviewed, favorited or followed so far. As always I welcome any feedback so let it out.
Enjoy the chapter.
Level 18 The fall of the Orange Blaze
"Ki-bou!" Argo's panicking voice reached him in the middle of fending off an attack, making him stumble in surprise, caught off-guard.
Still, he wasn't a veteran member of the Frontline and former beta tester for nothing. Instead of trying to right himself and finding himself in the direct line of his opponent's attack, he used the momentum to get behind the guard of the monster he was fighting, an undead skeleton warrior that he knew had no business appearing on this specific floor.
The rusty blade of the skeleton flew above his head, almost nicking a little of his hair, then he launched a diagonal slash at its torso. The attack met no resistance as it casually went through the bone, its owner letting out a mournful cry before disappearing into unnerving, violet flames instead of polygons as was usual.
Momentarily forgetting about the Rat running towards him, Kirito frowned heavily as he observed the phenomenon. It was pretty disturbing when these monsters appeared out of nowhere, not even accompanied by the usual sound of spawning. Worse, they didn't even have cursors above their heads, something he never saw before and only made him more nervous about this entire scenario.
He was part of the group that stayed behind to cover the back of the advancing groups and provide a route to fall back to if anything happened. Thankfully most of the other players were from the KoB who didn't show any reluctance to work with a beater and Kirito simply resigned himself to wait, knowing their position was crucial, even if relatively less fighting was promised for them.
Of course, soon he was proven wrong, and he couldn't help but curse his bad luck.
At first, nothing happened. The three groups advanced into the tunnels and after a couple of minutes, even the sounds of their feet disappeared into the darkness. There was nothing that looked amiss so they prepared for a long and tense wait when suddenly these monsters appeared out of nowhere, surrounding them, and without a moment's hesitation attacked them.
These mobs were stronger than any other monster on this floor but still easily manageable with their levels and experience. The real problem was their numbers and the frontlines found themselves barely holding their ground thanks to the element of surprise.
Worse, he couldn't help but frown as he thought the other groups probably encountered opposition similar to that but currently they couldn't even send a group after them, lest they risk being overwhelmed. He just hoped that the other group leaders decided to retreat instead of pressing forward. Though knowing the ego of a few of them, he had his doubts.
Still, he was shaken out of contemplation as the information broker reached his side, heavily panting, more out of habit than anything since their virtual bodies didn't work like flesh and blood. Her eyes were wide in panic and fear, that didn't really hint at anything good.
He subtly locked eyes with a player fighting next to him. He was a veteran member of the Frontline as well, one Kirito fought together a few times. They didn't need more than a few gestures to understand each other.
The other player nodded as he directed his comrades to keep the monsters out of Kirito's way while he checked on their new arrival.
"Argo, what happened?" he asked her, immediately trying to think of the worst. Maybe the boss team was ambushed sooner than they thought, with a larger force? Or these strange monsters appeared over there too?
"Kirito, there is no time," she said hurriedly, looking him straight in the eye. Whatever happened must have truly spooked her because he never saw her panicking so obviously at the very least. Usually, she took greater care to conceal her emotions."Where is Diavel? We need to find him right now!"
Diavel? Kirito's eyebrows crunched as he frowned in contemplation. What did the leader of the very first boss fighting party have anything to do with whatever was going on? At least it sounded like there was nothing wrong with the other teams or at least nothing as concerning as whatever spooked the information broker to this degree.
"He and his party went into one of the tunnels to investigate, along with Natsu's group while we stayed to provide back-up." he saw her pale to an extent that he previously doubted the system would replicate and for a moment she suffered some sort of status effect.
"Which one? We have to go after them immediately!" she declared suddenly and Kirito felt his frustration grow.
He was tempted to raise his arms and gesture around them, at the monsters besieging them. It took everything for them to stand their ground and even him talking with her, they were taking a large risk. Moving into one of the tunnels, with the other groups unaccounted for, that was not a decision he could make.
Damn it all but he much preferred playing as a solo. Lot less responsibility came with it. Even looking after the moonlit black cats was easier on his soul since they at least followed his instructions.
"We can't! We don't have manpower currently and the tunnels are probably crawling with just as many, maybe more of these monsters. And we still have seen neither hide nor tail of the player killers we are after." he told her, a slight note of frustration seeping into his voice despite the lid he tried to keep on it.
"Kirito we can't wait. Diavel died yesterday." the Rat blurted it out and for a moment everything stopped around him, his blood, virtual and probably real one too, stopping cold.
"What?" he croaked out in shock. He remembered seeing the self-proclaimed knight among their group, even spied Natus talking to him briefly. Though he wasn't close to the man at all, he would still easily remember his face even from afar, that was the kind of effect he left on people.
Then, it begged to question. If he died, how could he have been here at the start of the raid?
"I sent one of my contacts to check the monument of life. Diavel and his party members were killed by monsters yesterday night! There is no mistake. Diavel who showed up here and possibly his party members, are fakes."
Death by monsters? It was an innocuous enough death in this world but seeing the timing and the appearance of the apparent imposter made Kirito's mind already jump to a much uglier truth. Monster PK. One of the most favored, hardest forms of player kills to prove.
But it still begged the question. How did they know? The raid was something that was kept quiet until the last minute, even him only learning about it in the middle of yesterday night. And how did they do it? As far as his and other betas' knowledge went, there was no way to disguise yourself in SAO, not to the extent that you looked like another player. And there were other members of the Dragon Alliance among the raid group who should have recognized that the blue-haired knight wasn't who he claimed to be.
No, even he should have noticed something off. He fought at Diavel's side before and even if he retired from the frontline, for the most part, he was familiar enough with him that he, along with many others, should have noticed something amiss. Yet they didn't because that man masquerading as their comrade looked just like the deceased beta player.
Just what sort of situation did they stumble into. It was beyond the normal levels of danger that SAO posed.
Unbidden, his eyes instinctively turned toward the tunnels, especially the right one, the one Natsu's group started exploring. Alone with that group of imposters.
"Damn it. If what you say is true then Natsu's group is in danger. But we also can't leave the others groups to their fates, we need something, an opening to exploit but it seems already we are already playing into their hands." he swore, gritting his teeth before his eyes widened and whirled back to the information broker, realizing his mistake."Argo, you can't-"
He didn't really get to say much before the Rat was nothing more than a blur as she darted away from him, using a nearby monster's head as a springboard to sail over the group blocking the way into the tunnels.
Strangely enough, the monsters didn't even seem to register her presence as they allowed her to pass without any opposition. Then she was off, using her pure agility build to its fullest to run into the dark tunnel that possibly contained a myriad of monsters, traps, and whatever else the Laughing Coffin had in their stores. Barely a moment later, even the sounds of her footsteps disappeared.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it," Kirito swore loudly and if he was a little older and a little less disciplined, the curses might have been worse, the type to make even a sailor blush.
He rushed after Argo but was promptly blocked by two monsters sending attacks his way. He dodged the first one then barely parried the rather clumsy attack of the second one before using a horizontal to force them back and let him take a proper stance.
He gritted his teeth as he looked over the state of the battle. The monsters seemed to slowly decrease in number but nonetheless, there were still many left and they undoubtedly were getting tired. Worse, they needed to send reinforcements to Natsu and now Argo who was probably in danger but they didn't have the luxury of numbers on their side.
Looks like he needed to do it himself.
"Hafner!" he cried out to the player that covered him earlier. The man was a veteran member of the Divine Dragon Alliance, starting from the days of its early days as Dragon Knight Brigade. "I'm going after Argo. Hold the rest of the group together and send reinforcements as soon as possible. They clearly knew we were coming and they were prepared." he exclaimed.
"What are you thinking, blackie?" the large tank whose arms were wider than the whole torso of the black swordsman cried out with furrowed brows as he held back a particularly rapid skeleton with his two-handed sword."Are you suicidal? You are one of the strongest in this group, if you leave you might get overwhelmed yourself but we definitely will be. You can't leave just like that."
Kirito gritted his teeth but couldn't refute the statement. Still, they also couldn't just leave Natsu and now Argo to their fate. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.
That is exactly the reason why he didn't want to be responsible to other people. Who's bright idea was to leave him in charge of a group, again?
"Kirito-san, Hafner-san!" a nearby member, a spear user that if he remembered was a former member of the ALS before leaving and joining a small group of solo players. "It seems we lost a couple of our players." he stated nervously before ducking under a wild slash sent his way.
What now? Was it too much to ask for nothing to go wrong for one minute while he decides what to do with the problems already in their hands?
"What happened? Were they overwhelmed?" he asked, already thinking of the worst-case scenario even as he casually continued to battle for his life.
It was definitely strange, they should have called for help if they had trouble, they weren't far enough from others that no one could have gone to their aid. So what happened? Maybe Laughing Coffin made their move, unnoticed by the rest of them?
An uncomfortable look passed on the player's face which gave the teen a pause.
"Sir, I don't think they died. It's more like, they just got lost?" he added nervously, shrugging his shoulders in a 'what can you do' sort of way.
That's it. Kirito is never, ever going to be a leader of any kind of group. He would rather leave it to masochistic idiots who enjoyed these things. He had enough.
-0-
Two players were leisurely walking through a dark tunnel, no monsters or enemies of other kinds in sight.
"We are lost." said one of them with a heavy sigh after five minutes of non-stop walking.
The man who spoke was thin and frail-looking. He wore a dark hooded coat without sleeves. Black trousers, with a single grey line running down the edges, and black boots. The assembly was finished by a long white shirt, dangling over trousers, and similarly white gloves with a grey underside. His hood was up, covering his face from the outside world.
The weapon on his back was a large contrast to its wielder's thin frame. It was a large double-bladed battle-ax with a thick handle. It had a spear-like top, between the ax heads. Its light grey edge was polished incredibly well, the inside darker grey, covered in patterns. Even from a glance, it was easy to tell it was a very high-level weapon.
In his hands he was holding a green Japanese teacup, occasionally sipping from it, looking completely relaxed despite being in the middle of a dungeon.
His question was answered by boisterous laughter from his companion as the other man gave a hearty slap to his back, almost making him drop the teacup, thus earning a glare that was promptly ignored.
"Don't worry so much my friend. We are exactly where we should be, on our way to show those cowardly, dastardly murderers the error of their ways," he told him, his voice slightly distorted from behind his helmet.
He wore pitch black heavy armor that had gold linings on it, giving it more character. It was very well made, probably a rare drop or something similar. On the chest, there was a symbol of two swords, one gold, and one purple clashing. He wore a large red cape that billowed behind him, also covering his left shoulder. His face was hidden behind a bascinet with a rounded visor in similar colors, looking like a wealthy, obviously heavily armored black knight.
On his back rested an enormous sword that was almost as large as its wielder and quite unconventional in shape. It had a long, sturdy grip and a skull-shaped crossguard with a spike on it that was split in half, with the frontward, more elaborate half forming a small blade that curves around the bottom of the main blade. The main blade had a spine-like structure attached to two curved blades via an organic-looking substance. Together the blades formed one large blade that looked like a curved, overly large butcher knife. The top portion had a large glowing red gem-like object in the center that disturbingly resembled an eye. The whole blade had an air of malice around it.
"Nain, we still don't know the way back or even if we were in this tunnel previously or not. We have no way to know how to reach our destination. That's the definition of lost." the first one said in an emotionless, flat voice. Even through his hood, one could feel the deadpan stare that he sent to his companion.
"But neither do our enemies know where we are." apparently quite the optimist, Nain declared with a confident tone as he stopped and put a hand on his comrade's shoulder. "Right now they are shaking in their boots waiting for their judgments. Believe in me, Panzer, my friend. Believe in the Nain who believes in you." he told the one apparently named Panzer solemnly, nodding to himself as if confirming his own words.
"Nice reference," Panzer said back, completely unaffected as he took another sip of his tea that regrettably slowly started to cool down.
"Thank you. I wanted to use it for a while." Nain replied with another laugh before quieting down as his body slowly tensed."We are surrounded aren't we?"
"Yes." was the calm answer as the ax wielder took a sip once again.
"Excellent. I was getting a bit bored myself." he declared as he stepped away and turned toward the tunnel they had followed so far."Show yourselves cowardly scum, face my mighty sword and at least die with honor."
As if summoned by his sword, several figures stepped out of the shadows, people wearing long cloaks that concealed most of their bodies and wielded various weapons, from spears to daggers and even maces. There were at least a dozen of them, six standing in front of them, while the second half blocked their possible retreat.
"What's this? We got a couple of lost sheeps?" the apparent leader asked with a shit-eating grin as he drew a long rapier. "Here I was worried that we would miss out on all the action but it seems like PoH rewarded me with entertainment. I always loved playing with my toys." he giggled in a manic manner and the others around him laughed with him, apparently, not taking the two players caught in their trap seriously.
Which was the reason why they looked a bit off-guard when instead of being intimidated and panicking, the two reacted with preciously little to their declaration to torture and kill them. Nain crossed his arms, not even trying to draw his blade, his confident posture daring to challenge his authority, while Panzer calmly pulled out a large teapot to refill his cup then went back to sipping it, a content smile peeking out from the hood.
"I admire your bravery. It is foolish to stand against us but it's still praiseworthy to see you here without trembling in your boots." Nain addressed them in a cocky, arrogant tone that took a few of the cloaked PKers by surprise."You face two of the Sages of the Roundtable yet instead of running away, here you are. Wonderful, truly wonderful."
He suddenly raised his hands to his helmet and pulled it off, revealing the face of a young adult of European descent. He had blue eyes and a spiky mane of white hair that tried to reach out to almost every direction, reaching to his shoulders, giving him a bit of a wild look. He wasn't exactly handsome, more average-looking than anything.
"I applaud your warrior spirit in light of these overwhelming odds." he addressed them with a winning smile, his voice sounding much higher without the helmet distorting his voice."I, AgraNain, leader of the Sages acknowledge you as brave men-"
"I'm a woman!" "That's sexist!" at least three of the cloaked ambushers cried out, interrupting AgraNain. He coughed uncomfortably, a small blush appearing on his face.
"My apologies, it was just a figure of speech, didn't mean anything by it," he admitted, looking chastised as he tried again. "As I was saying, I acknowledge you as brave men and women, worthy of my eternal respect. Let's enjoy a splendid battle!" suddenly finding his earlier enthusiasm he declared it with a large grin as he opened his arms in an open invitation.
Nobody said anything for a long moment, the formerly cocky murderers looking at the strange man with fascination or sheer shock. Then the moment was broken when one of them, the one standing next to the apparent leader, spoke up in a confused voice.
"Who are you again?"
At the question, the dark knight suddenly fainted, falling face first with a mass of limbs, that shocked the onlookers. It was an act straight out of a comedy anime and seeing it in real life, even if it was a virtual rendition of it, left them speechless.
Meanwhile, Panzer watched it with that same indifference that he faced everything down so far, finishing another cup of tea in the meantime.
"I told you it will go like this," he commented with a bored tone as slowly Nain stood up, none of his earlier cheer remaining on his face.
"Even so, one can only ignore an insult like this for long without losing themselves to their rage. To have the gall to say to not know our name," he replied in a low voice that made those who heard him take a step back, suddenly feeling a sense of danger from the man.
The leader of the laughing coffin group didn't appear intimidated in the least, pointing his weapon at him almost lazily.
"Listen, I don't know who do you think you are but if you think you can escape alive then you are-"
"FOOLS!" Nain interrupted him with a large shout, instantly shutting him up.
Out of nowhere, a drum began to play a fast, lively rhythm. Nain raised one hand toward the players facing him, showing his palm while he showed his other hand to the back, one leg in the air, and began to hop on the remaining one. If one looked past the armor that was clinking like hell, he looked remarkably similar to a certain hermit from an anime centered on ninjas of all things, who he shared hair color with.
"Just how ignorant can you be to not know me by my face? They call me many names, Bane of Villains, Protector of Innocent, Lover of women all around Aincrad, the Shining Light in a Sea of Darkness. Lay down your weapons and feast your eyes on me, because I'm the one and only Sage of Darkness, AgraNain the dark knight!" he declared with a large shout, his voice echoing all through the tunnel.
The player killers watched it in stunned silence as the drumming slowly trailed off, some inadvertently looking at Panzer who painfully slowly put away the small instrument into his inventory, acting like nothing was wrong with him or with his friend and raised his teacup to his lips.
If anyone could see under the hood of the leader, they could see a bright red face as he grit his teeth, fed up with this circus. Since when killing two idiots who wandered away from their group was so tedious?
"Kill them!" he roared, his temper snapping finally."Kill them all!"
"Hm, you were right my friend, the negotiations were indeed short." the dark knight said with a laugh as he finally drew his sword, the eye-like gem in the middle shining with malice. Nain turned the sword parallel to the ground, its tip pointing straight at the ambush leader. "Let's rock!" he cried out with a cheer as he launched himself forward with surprising speed.
The PKers let out war cries as the six facing them charged at Nain who didn't look worried at all at the sudden opposition facing him. Meanwhile, the ones behind the two drew their weapons, warily eying the hooded player as he calmly, without any hurry on his part, put away his teapot and turned to face them.
"Watch out, he might be just as much of a lunatic as the other one." one of them warned, ignoring the hypocrisy of an actual murderer calling someone a lunatic.
"Now that's just rude. I'm just a chef." Panzer replied evenly, making no move either to grab his weapon or to do anything other than staring in their direction.
"Oh yeah? What do you serve?" one of the more careless ones asked with a mocking grin, taking a few steps toward the man.
The smile quickly died on his lips as it only took a blink to find Panzer in front of him, his large ax raised into the air and ready to chop him into tiny pieces.
"YOUR HEAD ON A PLATE!" the until now much calmer man roared with a volume that rivaled his companion's.
The unfortunate Laughing Coffin member tried to parry with his two-handed sword but his knees buckled under the sheer strength with what Panzer attacked. He was sent to his knees, a moment later his weapon breaking under the strain and greatly injuring the player.
"Just what kind of monster is this guy?" one of them asked, only to yelp in shock as the tea enthusiast turned his attention to him.
"Damn it, it's just one man." a woman cried out, even as she backed away from the range of the large weapon. "At least keep him occupied until the others are done wit-" her words died on her lips as a burst of loud laughter echoed in the tunnel.
Those who had the time and opportunity looked to the side, born witness as Nain almost casually sent flying two of his attackers, a dark, malevolent aura around him and a laugh that questioned the status of his sanity bubbling out of him.
"Come on, you can do better than that!" he encouraged them, even as he spun his gigantic sword around, almost slashing one of the slower of his attackers into two pieces and still left a deep wound."Make it at least interesting before you die!"
With an insane, seemingly unstoppable dark knight laughing on one side, a bipolar and dangerous chef of all things on the other, the members of the red guild wondered if they managed to awaken some kind of hidden bosses and if it was too late to ask the other players to arrest them.
-0-
"Damn it, there doesn't seem to be an end to them," Buzz complained as he blocked a slash aimed for his head with the shaft of his spear.
His enemy, a large lizardman that appeared out of nowhere and acted in a way that was drastically different from most mobs, hissed in a foreign language before it reared its sword-arm back for another attack.
"Buzz! Duck!" Natsu who had been fighting a few meters from him suddenly cried at him as he dodged his own opponent and charged toward the older man.
By this point, they have been fighting together for months, watching each other's back. Buzz didn't even hesitate for even a moment, ducking low and letting Natsu's sword fly over his head, blocking the dagger that a player killer that sneaked up behind him planned to plunge into his open back.
"Nice catch, kid!" he retorted with a small smile but wasn't given much time to talk, he had to block again the lizardman he was fighting with a moment before.
Today was long enough already but it seemed they wouldn't get any rest anytime soon.
After getting through the first ambush, with their way back cut off they decided to go forward, no matter how much they disliked this option. It was obvious that the enemy prepared multiple traps to greet them and possibly thin their numbers if not outright crush their advance. That begged the question, how did they know the frontline guilds were coming with an assault of their own? Did they learn from a spy that got hold of the information even though they did their best to keep it silent until the last moment, or, and that was an even more worrying thought, did they know it from the beginning?
In the back of his mind, he always knew it was awfully convenient to find that Byakuran guy and his little friend when they did, running from Laughing Coffin. How convenient it was that the kid knew about their plan to attack and aided his rescuers by providing a lot of information on their enemy but he put those doubts away, not wanting to miss this chance.
Was he wrong after all? Did they walk into a death trap with no way to break through?
Either way, this was not the time to focus on these thoughts. For now, their priority should be to stay alive, advance, and learn what their enemy was planning exactly. After that, they can start pointing fingers at each other.
From the corner of his eyes, Buzz spied Natsu jumping from his opponent, his speed letting him intercept any attackers who seemed to be getting the best of their current opponents. It seemed the kid didn't have time to realize how far this trap might have reached, which was good. The kid wouldn't be able to concentrate, feeling as if all of this was his fault. Things like that had no place on the battlefield.
"Man I must be getting senile if I get lost in my thought so much!" he admonished softly himself, before all amusement as he twirled his spear around his body, swiping his enemy's sword aside and then thrust forward, with the simple one-hit sword skill Thrust.
While a pretty basic attack, he performed it so much that his mastery of the skill would put most masters of the spear to shame. The tip of the spear came out on the other side of the lizardman in an instant, piercing through the rough leather vest, his heart, and anything else in the blade's path with ease.
The lizard fell to the ground, lifeless as he pulled out a spear, but worryingly didn't disappear in the usual fashion, nor did it reward any experience. It was more than a little suspicious but he didn't have time to think about it as he went to battle the next enemy closest to him.
He didn't even need to look around properly to know they were in big trouble this time.
After the first ambush, they didn't stumble into anything problematic for a while. They encountered a few classical traps, hidden pits, arrows flying from hidden holes, and similar. There was even a large boulder that began to roll toward them and would have flattened them if it wasn't for them finding a convenient side tunnel to run into. All weapons and projectiles were as expected heavily coated with poison.
They would have lost a few of their already depleted numbers if it wasn't for Natsu's high point in the Search skill and that almost otherworldly sixth sense of his. Thanks to him, they didn't even receive an injury.
Despite the relative success following the first battle, they didn't lower their guards and it paid out. Arriving into a larger cave, similar to the one where they decided to split their forces up, they were almost immediately under attack by the strange lizardmen mobs, who were difficult to defeat even with their levels and another group of Laughing Coffin members, a dozen or so who looked for an opening to anticipate or soften them up for the monsters.
The strangest thing was that the lizard completely disregarded the hooded players, intent on attacking them. No, that was not the best word for it. They were controlled by the players somehow, seeing that they responded to simple commands to the orange players. Still, it was not something he had time to ponder on at the current moment.
"Don't let up, men! Keep a lookout for the ones next to you, don't let anyone be separated from the main group or they are done for!" Diavel's voice rang out in the cave as he directed his party members while holding off two of those lizards at the same time.
Seems like the formerly disgraced knight was quite strong and high-leveled despite not keeping up with the frontline for the last few months.
Unlike last time, they quickly gathered their wits and formed a somewhat working strategy. Spear users like Buzz or Tanks like Diavel were to concentrate on the lizards mostly, digging their feet into the ground and not letting the half-circle they formed get breached. Meanwhile, Tsuna and other agility-based players were running interference, lightening their load as much as they could.
It seemed to be working so far. They haven't received any other casualties though their health potions were getting used up at an alarming rate. They defeated at least a half-dozen of these monsters but new ones appeared almost instantly, keeping them from either advancing or retreating.
At least half of the Laughing Coffin players who were incapacitated and/or killed weren't replaced by new members of their brethren so it was something to be thankful for. Still, they were getting nowhere much to most of their annoyance, nor did they see any evidence of the other groups.
"Lancelot!" Diavel cried out suddenly as the heavily armored mace user next to him was dragged further into the monsters' horde, courtesy of a strange lizardman who used a whip of all things and wrapped it around the helpless player's neck.
"Diavel! Don't!" Buzz roared as he saw the knight leave his position to charge after his comrade but he couldn't do anything else, busy as he was trying to hold together their makeshift line.
"Don't worry! I'm on it." he faintly heard Natus's voice before he passed him, blade already shining with a blue glow as he jumped into the fray himself.
For his part, the young leader of the Keepers of the Seven Rings was feeling more exhausted than anything thanks to the constant back-to-back battles they had to push through. If their enemies planned to exhaust them they were doing a good job.
Still, there was no time to think about it. He let out the Vertical that he was preparing as he ran forward, slicing straight through the back of a monster that tried to sneak up on the blue-haired player as he tried to fight his way through to his friend.
"Natsu?" Diavel asked in shock, before simply grinning and sending him a grateful nod as he held up his shield properly."Appreciate the assist."
"Let's do it," he replied resolutely as he stopped next to him, his sword close to his body as the two prepared to charge forward.
From time to time, usually, when he faced a particularly strong opponent, a curious sensation tended to take over Natsu. His mind and heart would calm down as if he was stripped away from all his worries. He felt as if he was sitting behind a TV, simply watching his character perform various moves, without any of the innate worries for his own body
It was a very useful state, it gave him clarity and insight to his opponent's moves that turned out to be essential if not to their defeat but for him and his friend to get out of an engagement alive.
He had no control over it when it happened, nor how long it would last but he nonetheless started to recognize when his entire perception changed, just like it did now.
With a detached feeling in his heart, he watched as he and Diavel charged forward, trying to get to Lancelot in time. Diavel took point, taking all of the attacks with his shield raised while he simply used the slight opening around the knight to pepper their enemies with sword skills of his own. They moved in tandem, Natsu anticipating every one of his partner's moves and reacting accordingly, much to Diavel's surprise. That kind of teamwork needed weeks if not months to develop, yet here they were, working as a cohesive and highly experienced pair despite only fighting together for a few hours.
It took what felt like hours but in reality nothing but a few seconds, they fought their way through the lizards and arrived next to Lancelot's side who was writhing on the ground, hopelessly grasping the whip around his throat, his armor severely dented and damaged its wearer's hp already closing to the red zone.
Without the need to talk, both of them knew their part. Diavel met the lizard that caught the knight's party member in its weapon. It was much larger than its brethren, and if it were regular monsters, that one would have been a chieftain of short.
Diavel's shield met the large saber held in its dominant hand, while Natsu used the opening to launch a slash as the whip, aiming for the point where the tension was the greatest, for a critical strike to make sure he cut through the weapon of undetermined origin.
Criticals worked strangely in SAO. The point where an attack would be critical changed from mob to mob but usually, it was a place where it would leave a devastating, even lethal wound if it was in the real world. Generally, the head, the heart, places like this would be considered critical points but there was no confirmation or hint, save for what the players figured out through trial and error.
Most of the time, the attack had to be very precise, which was hard to deliver in the middle of battle, so most people tended not to rely upon or seek out critical strikes.
As far as he knew only Asuna, whose aim with a rapier was legendary, and Ken who always just knew where to attack to leave the largest amount of damage specialised in that. Not many players bothered to exploit critical strikes and base their fighting styles around that.
Breaking a weapon worked on a somewhat similar principle, you just needed to strike at the place where the weapon was the weakest or most likely to break. It was hard to use conveniently but right now Natsu was handed a prime opportunity on a silver platter.
His sword cut through the whip, like butter, easily snapping it into two, the larger half of the whip striking its user in the face after suddenly having been let go on one side, before disappearing into pixels a moment later.
A trick like that probably wouldn't have worked in real life, or at least not without injuring Natsu himself but despite the realism of the game in general, there were still several things that remained firmly as they would be in video games.
The lizardman in question growled furiously and Natsu could only let out a nervous laugh before the beast was on him, abandoning Diavel completely.
"Not good," Natsu growled as he hastily turned his blade, barely stopping the attack sent to his torso, and even then he found himself slightly pushed back.
As they ever so briefly strained against each other, trying to win in a contest of strength, it allowed Natus to briefly look around. Lancelot was still on the ground, even after being freed from the whip's grip, probably trying to come to terms with the fact he almost died. Their other opponents were apparently ignoring them, even the Laughing Coffin members for some reason, focusing on the others of the frontline team.
Were they that confident in that big lizard dealing with them or was there something else going in the background? He had a bad feeling in the back of his head as if he was overlooking something but for the life of him, he couldn't tell what it was. Whatever it is, hopefully, it won't bite him back anytime soon.
"Natsu!" Diavel shouted suddenly, raising his sword high above his head, eerily reminiscent of the time he tried to get the last attack bonus back against Illfang, the first-floor boss.
Unlike that situation back then, at the start of the game, his enemy was neither prepared nor had a trick under its sleeve. Though the lizard was able to turn around at the sudden shout and raise his own sword in a parry, it had no chance or ability to counterattack.
Even before the last syllable left the knight, Natsu was already in motion. He blocked out anything at that moment. The others fighting around him, his worry for his friends and comrades, even his anger at the player killers or his untold and constant longing for home. He focused on one thing at that moment, he focused on his sword that he was about to drive through the heart of his opponent.
Unknown to him, his eyes changed to orange, not for the first time that day but unlike before, they stayed instead of fading away a moment later.
The two moved in sync, strangely aware of the other's movement, following a plan they never had to discuss, yet both of them knew what their part was in it.
Diavel's sword clashed against the lizard's own with a show of sparks before he won the brief battle of strength, the sword skill continuing straight forward, hitting the weapon away from the center of its user, opening the lizard up to Natsu's follow up attack.
"Take that!" he roared with all his heart as he simply thrust his sword forward, not unlike how he saw Asuna or Wedge do it many times.
It wasn't a sword skill, not a true one at the very least. He didn't have a rapier equipped, nor did he have any thrust attacks that followed an even familiar pattern. It was just an action born out of seeing his friends execute the rather basic Linear countless times. There was no system assist involved, each and every move was his own, a skill he gathered by living in this world of swords.
His sword was barely visible even without the system's guiding it or the customary glow, as Natsu thrust it straight through the large lizardmen, who could only gape in shock for a long second before its body burst into violet flame that was quickly snuffed out, though a few small fires lingered on his sword before completely disappearing.
Diavel watched the phenomenon, standing between Natsu with a large creepy smirk on his face.
"Wonderful, truly wonderful." he whispered in glee, his eyes nothing more than burning pits of violet fire."You will be a wonderful tool to use, to return the world to the state it's supposed to be in."
The young teen whose eyes lost their otherworldly glow once again heard nothing of it. He stared at his sword in wonder, both surprised by the strange phenomenon and by the skills he used. He knew he practiced a lot with his sword, even without relying on his sword skills, like most frontliners worth their salt but he never was able to produce an attack like that. If he didn't know better he would say he used a sword skill from the rapier skill tree.
Movement in the corner of his eyes broke him out of his contemplation as the player they came to rescue tried to rise clumsily, his large helmet barely hanging from his head. With that, he suddenly realized he was in the middle of a battle, not just any battle and he didn't have time to daydream.
Silently admonishing himself, he quickly ran to the fallen player's side, falling to a knee as he grabbed his hand to try and pull him up, one eye keeping an eye out for anyone trying to attack them with their guard down but it looked like both PKers and lizard monsters had more pressing matter on their hands.
Though it looked mighty suspicious that not one of them tried to use their distraction to their advantage, especially after the spectacle they created of themselves.
"Don't worry, you are alright now." dismissing his worries, he tried to sound reassuring as he offered his hand to Lancelot who still wasn't fully looking in his direction as if not ever aware that his life was no longer in danger.
Well in less danger than it was before, but the point stands.
Unknown to him, Diavel stepped behind Natsu, his shield nowhere and his one-handed sword raised to his chest level pointing straight at Natsu's heart, a maniacal smile on his face. Slowly the sword was surrounded by a haze of violet flames, completely different from the activation of a normal sword skill and he got ready to drive the tip of his blade home, into the unaware back of the young teen.
"Come Decimo. Embrace your destiny," he whispered with malice but just as he thrust his weapon forward, a voice cried out, reaching over even the sounds of battle.
"NATSU! DUCK!" cried out some female and much to the knight, or whoever was masquerading as the former raid leader could only grunt in anger as his target moved at the last minute.
He ignored everything and everyone as he went forward, intent on finishing what he started but he silently made a promise.
That woman, whoever it was, will die in the most painful ways for interrupting him.
-0-
"Just give up already," Buzz growled impatiently as he used the shaft of his spear to knock down a player killer that didn't seem interested in his dwindling health points and tried time and time again to engage him and possibly kill him and he was getting fed up with it. With the whole situation if he was honest.
Finally, someone near him managed to nick the fanatic with a paralysis needle, the poison acting up instantly and sending the thug to the ground one more time, this time finally the last one.
With barely a grunt, the older beta tester moved toward his next opponent, a pair of lizardmen that tried to flank their right now weakened line of defense, thanks to those idiots rushing forward into the midst of the enemy without any concrete plan.
He was sure to give Natsu a piece of his mind after the fight was over, and once more back at home. Of all the idiotic things that kid would do, he had to do this. He didn't know if he should be surprised that it still caught him off-guard or lament the sanity of kids nowadays. He shuddered at the thought of his own daughter growing up to be that reckless.
He silently promised that he would do everything in his power to never let Natsu be a role model for his little Keiko. He would rather die first.
Of course, his little internal rant didn't mean he was anymore impressed with Diavel, but unlike Natsu, the blue-haired knight wasn't his responsibility, and honestly, he lost a lot of his respect at that reckless stunt, trying to get the LA bonus, despite parroting about working together.
He couldn't help it but ever since the raid began in earnest, he couldn't help but keep an eye on him. For someone who did nothing when Kirito exposed himself as a beta tester and pulled all the blame into his person and for trying to undermine him even before the battle in hopes of securing the LA bonus if the black swordsman suspicious were correct, Diavel sure continued to keep up his facade of a just knight.
Still, he was a comrade in a sense and that meant that he would try his best to keep the idiot alive. Didn't mean he had to like Natus getting a partner for his idiotic stunts.
"That's all you got? Don't mock me!" he roared suddenly, his mind turning back to the battle at hand as he engaged the pair of monsters whose path he blocked with a smirk on his face.
His spear was barely visible as he launched a long series of attacks, no system-granted skill but pure skill born from months of fighting with the weapon in his hand. He was untouchable, whichever monster was stupid enough to try and get inside his guard, had to quickly retreat, wounded and defeated.
Spears were usually not the most effective weapons. Compared to most weapons, with the exception of the dagger maybe, its sheer ability to deal damage was much lower. Its advantages were the variety of debuffs a spear user could cause through sword skills, as well as the safety provided by the reach of the weapon. But even that could become your own fatal weakness if you aren't careful.
Most spear users among the frontline players were simply support, providing crowd control and occasionally helping out the tanks. The sole exception to that was Buzz.
He used his knowledge from the beta and all that fighting experience he gathered from this death game, to bring his skills to their upper limit, creating a fighting style that allowed him to use the advantages of the spear to the fullest while still dealing as much or maybe even more damage than dedicated DPS players.
He carefully maneuvered the shaft of his weapon, stabbing straight through a careless lizardman before spinning around, the other end of his weapon hitting the arm of a cloaked person who tried to stab the man fighting next to him, a mace user of their guild, disarming the attacker in the process.
His comrade was busy holding back his opponent and didn't notice the assassin in time to react. He nodded gratefully to him, quickly using a needle to incapacitate the now unarmed opponent before going back to continue his own fight. Buzz didn't give him any more attention, his narrowed eyes quickly surveying the battle around them.
It was going well for them, despite their enemies' relentless attacks but he saw no hint of the two idiots who rushed into the horde surrounding them. They were alright for the moment since he saw Natsu's health bar remain firmly in the green but it didn't help his worry.
Something very bad was going on behind the scenes and he didn't want to wait around for the other shoe to drop. Not with the kid's and others' lives on the line, not if he can help it.
"Come on slowpokes, wake up and start fighting for real." he roared suddenly, addressing his comrades, most of whom immediately turned their attention to him. Though Diavel's comrade's face was lost to him since all of them wrote bulky helmets that covered their whole head, which unnerved him a little, something he would never admit to any living being."Let's show them not to make light of us. We are frontliners, these little traps and ambushes are like a well-deserved nap for us."
He wasn't the most noticeable or most eloquent speaker, one of the reasons he usually didn't lead directly and left Natsu and the others to act in public, but his words worked nonetheless, his guildmates giving out an enthusiastic roar before rushing forward with renewed vigor. And while the other group with them didn't react in any visible way, they seemed to pick up the slack, not wanting to be upstaged, he thought.
He was about to charge forward himself, not wanting to leave behind the dust when he noticed a most peculiar thing happen from the corner of his eyes.
As far as they could see the room had two tunnels connecting it to the rest of the cave system that made up this dungeon. One, behind them, was the one they entered, and across the room was their way forward, or so they believed when they were ambushed once again. But at that moment, to his right where there was nothing but stone according to his eyes, an interesting sight took place.
The wall began to ripple like a lake pond, much to Buzz's confusion when it still looked like a solid wall save for the strange phenomenon. Then at the point where the ripple originated, a cloaked head of a person appeared, followed by a lithe, relatively small body. Whoever it was, it sounded like a female as she landed face first, with a soft grunt.
Though her face and most of her body were hidden under a light-brown cloak, the spear user had a distinct suspicion toward the identity of the new arrival.
"Argo, what are you doing here?" he asked, finding himself a little dumbfounded before his brain started working again and regarded the girl with a mix of suspicion and dread.
Argo was supposed to be out of the dungeon, able to communicate with the others in case of emergency. In the end, it was definitely an emergency, what with being cut off from the others and lost in this literal maze yet why and more importantly was the information broker found them?
The Rat in question let out a groan before she pulled herself up, her eyes turning to the surprised spearman standing in front of her. Instead of her mischievous or unreadable, business mask, her emotions, her fear, and anxiety plan for all to see.
She looked momentarily relieved when she noticed him, giving a brief look to the fight around her and when she saw something, she visibly began to panic as her eyes jumped back to him, even the hood of her cloak falling down from the sudden movement.
It honestly unnerved Buzz a little, to see the usually unflappable Argo act like that. Something seemed to spook her and it wasn't a good thing for them.
"Buzz! Where are Natsu and Diavel?" she asked as she suddenly was in front of him, grabbing the front of his leather vest and pulling him down to her eye level.
It looked like he judged her wrong. He thought she was panicking, but from the snarl in her face, it looked more like Argo was so angry that she might have even scared herself.
He heard a few of his guildmates chuckle or even grumble while that was happening. before they had to divert back their attention to their fights. A fight he really should have been more involved in if not for the strangely acting girl in front of him.
"What are you talking about girl? What's going on?" he asked, trying to get a picture of whatever might have been doing with the others, but he couldn't help but get a bad feeling about this. Argo showed up, looking for just the two idiots who charged forward and were cut off from the rest of them. No matter how he looked at it, it didn't look good.
The petite blonde in front of him apparently wasn't in her most patient of moods and simply yanked on his armor, eliciting a grunt from him, snarling into his face.
"I don't have time for this. We have to find Natsu, Diavel can't be trusted." she got it out in a rush and Buzz felt like he would be sick.
He cursed quietly, his eyes jumping toward the direction Diavel and Natsu charged off, his worry skyrocketing. Of course, he entertained the thoughts of a possible traitor but he wouldn't have thought of Diavel of all people. Sure, he might not have the greatest opinion of his fellow beta tester but even then the idea of him working together with the player killers never even crossed his mind.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it." he cursed with gritted teeth. He would have time to scold himself and Natsu because he just knew he had something to do with this whole situation, but right now there were other priorities to work on. "That idiot Natus broke through the line of lizards with Diavel. Argo, stay back, we will break through their line and get that reckless idiot before Diavel could do-" he started to order, his mind already running through several strategies when he was interrupted by a small body running past him.
He watched with astonishment as Argo used her Agility stats to the limit, jumping on the head of a nearby lizard who was almost two meters tall, using it as a sort of springboard to vault herself above the enemy line. It was reckless, idiotic and it was the exact same thing all of them agreed to somehow stop Natsu from doing it, yet here she was doing the same thing.
Nonetheless, she got through, the mobs not even glancing in her direction, more than occupied by the rest of the, more battle-ready players and Buzz just let out a shout of frustration at being surrounded by idiots all the damn time.
"Of all the reckless and idiotic-" he cursed before cut himself off, promising to have a really important talk with the Rat one of these days.
With her spending so much time with Natsu, she should have been a much better influence, yet here he was influencing her in the reverse.
"Alright idiots! Let's break through these pathetic wastes of space before either Natsu or Argo gets killed by their stupidity. On me-" he was interrupted for a second time much to his obvious frustration, this time by a large two-handed sword descending toward his neck, which he barely blocked in time.
His angry eyes met with his attackers, expecting either one of those annoying lizards or a cloaked player killer standing there but what he saw stopped him cold. It was one of Diavel's teammates, a big guy in large silver armor, that he was fighting next to only a minute ago.
Cold gripped his heart. Did they have even more traitors in their midst? But then his eyes finally adjusted properly and he noticed something glaringly wrong with the picture in front of him and it didn't ease his worries a bit.
Instead of a face of a man a little younger than him that he expected to see staring back, all he saw was a bare skull, its mouth hanging open in a grotesque smile, and deep in its eyeholes two pits of violet fire danced. It looked more like a monster than a player but the still bright green cursor above him told him otherwise.
An unfamiliar feeling gripped him at that moment. Fear. He was used to being cautious of monsters, bosses, and other players but never, not even when the death game started did he feel true fear. He was always able to blow through, to remain steadfast, for the sake of his comrades and himself, yet now, faced with this thing, he found himself unable to shake himself out of his stupor.
Just what was going on here?
-0-
Just what was going on here?
Natsu asked himself in mute horror as the helmet of the player he was trying to help up, fell off, revealing the face of the player called Lancelot. Or at least in normal circumstances that would have granted him. Instead, he was staring face to the skull with just that, a bare skull, snarling silently.
He found himself shaking in terror as he took a few steps back, his grip on his sword tightening out of sheer instinct.
"Diavel, something strange is going on-" he started to say but then a loud, familiar shout reached him through the sounds of fighting and his own beating heart that made him instantly stop in his tracks.
"Natsu! Duck!" Argo cried out to him, and as his head snapping toward her direction, he saw her ducking under a slash from a PKer, her face pale and panicked, yet she still ran toward him like the hounds of hell were behind her.
He only hesitated for an instant, or maybe even less. He trusted her unconditionally, she may tease him but she never meant anything bad by it and she always had his back. So without even stopping to think, he jumped to the right and just in time.
His eyes widened as a familiar-looking sword, wreathed in violet flames passed through where he was just a moment ago, striking the ground with an abnormally loud thang sound. His eyes followed the blade upward, the hilt, the arm holding it until his eyes with the eyes of his attacker, Diavel.
"Diavel. Why?" he mouthed in shock, horror and so many other emotions. The teen's face didn't transform into a skull, like Lancelot's but his eyes were still surrounded by violet flames, giving him a somewhat otherworldly feel.
The blue-haired knight's expression changed drastically. Nowhere was the charming, warm smile nor the fierce protectiveness he saw from him so far but instead he wore an irritated, not frustrated but annoyed expression, clicking his tongue as he pulled back his arm.
"You really shouldn't have dodged Natsu-kun." he scolded him with a sickeningly sweet tone, a malicious smile blooming on his face."It would have hurt a lot less."
The young teen stared at him uncomprehendingly before he felt strong arms wrap around his torso, trapping his arms also and lifting him into the air slightly. He let out a grunt as he tried to break out from the rather strong grip of Lancelot or whatever that skull thing was but to no avail.
Worse, Argo was still running toward them, rage coloring her face as she brought out a strange claw weapon she tended to use as a last resort. But both of them knew that she had no chance of fighting against someone like Diavel.
Argo to keep constantly ahead of the always advancing frontline and get all relevant information on newly opened floors put most of her stats and skills to be able to slip past and leave behind any monsters without suffering any damage.
That of course came with its own downsides. She had preciously little health points to her, she also barely wore any armor to be as fast as possible, which meant a single strike from a stronger monster or player could be devastating to her. It also meant she had little in terms of combat ability.
"Argo! No! Stay back." he cried out in a panic as he struggled against the embrace he was trapped in but to no avail. Even with his not that small strength stat, the arms holding him didn't even budge.
"Guess I should deal with the interloper before she could disrupt any of my other plans." Diaval started with a carefree smile on his face that greatly contrasted the murderous look in his eyes. "Don't go anywhere I will be back." he said with a small laugh as he turned to face the information broker.
By then Argo almost reached him and Natsu could only watch in helplessness as the two former beta testers met on the battlefield. Diavel's sword, still surrounded by those strange flames descended toward the Rat, only for the girl to suddenly smirk as she veered to the left and threw a small black ball at the surprised knight, that burst into thick black smoke when it came in contact with him, soon engulfing him and a large half of battlefield in it.
"Natsu!" a sudden cry to his right snapped him out of his shock, just in time to watch Argo burst out of that smoke, leaping right towards him, her claw poised to strike.
She struck the thing that might have been a player straight at its skull, shaking him considerably. And while it was simply not enough to kill it, especially with Argo's stats, it was enough to force him to let go of Natsu, who didn't miss the opportunity presented to himself.
Landing on the ground, he crouched down, his hand finding the hilt of his sword that he dropped at some point, the weight of it sending a comfortable feeling into his arm before he suddenly spun around and without even bothering to stand up properly let loose a sword skill.
The almost customary orange light engulfed his weapon as he let out his usual go-to skill, Sharp Nail, straight at the armor-wearing skeleton who could hardly defend himself since it had no weapon on him.
Despite the appearance of the armor, his sword easily cut through it, Natsu barely even feeling it trying to resist before it came out on the other side. The skeleton let out a pained growl as the fire in its eyes was snuffed out and he soon disappeared into a pile of ashes thanks to those same violet flames. Just like the lizards they fought.
That knowledge calmed him down significantly. He was prepared to do what needed to be done but it felt like a great burden leaving him, knowing that his enemy was some sort of monster, instead of a real, alive player. As if responding to his thought, the slight shaking of his dominant hand ceased and he let out a brief sigh of relief at the chance to breathe and get stock of the situation.
"Natsu. Are you alright?" Speaking of the situation, Argo stopped next to him, worriedly looking him over. It was a little hard but he managed to give her a small smile to reassure her as he tried to still his beating heart.
"I'm in one piece." he decided to say, omitting a lot of things that they didn't have time to waste on. "More importantly, something on with Diavel-" he started to say but the information broker cut him off with a sad smile.
"That's not Diavel. I just had one of my informants check it earlier, Diavel's name was crossed out yesterday. He died, Natsu." she told him with a sad face and Natus felt his world suddenly spin around him at the shock of it before he forced himself to concentrate.
"Thanks for coming to save my hide," he said to her gratefully, still crouching slightly, a graceful smile on his face that she returned as she turned fully toward him.
He felt the world slow down around him as he noticed something moving from the corner of his eyes but simply being aware of it wasn't enough to make him able to move in time.
It took less than it took to blink and he heard a shocked gasp come from the girl standing in front of him as the tip of a curved blade exited the middle of her chest.
It was no sword, it was far too large, curved, and sharpened on the inside. Standing behind the motionless Argo was Diavel, or whoever was pretending to be him. The right side of his face was distorted as if it was trying to melt off, while the other retained its handsomeness, though it was slightly ruined by the malicious smirk on his face.
In his hand, he held a long, black shaft that looked like a really long arm of a skeleton than anything, with a very small spearhead at the tip and a large, curved blade coming out to the side. It was an honest to god scythe, though he never heard of a weapon like this existing in Aincrad before.
But all these thoughts left him as his eyes met hers, the relieved face that she was making giving way to fear, horror, and a plea and the worst part of it was that he found himself unable to move, to help his friend. All he could do was stand there and watch as her health points plummeted into the red one rapidly and red pixels, meant to be blood flying everywhere.
"Argo!" his cry, filled with sorrow, denial, and most importantly rage, both at himself and the man who did this, rang through the battlefield, forcing everyone to stop fighting and witness the famous Orange Blaze fall to his knees in defeat.