Yua

Soon after parting ways with the person who helped me, I met up with the team I'd been offered to join. The party (they plan to become a guild) was called the Faith of the Honored. It was a good name but their leader wasn't the best nor very skilled compared to Flame.

The name he went by in this world is Apollo, meaning destroyer (Although so far the only things I've heard of him destroying are his dignity and dinner). He was a relatively big guy, athletic, with dark purple hair that was spiked in a strange downward fashion, and his eyes were a nice hazel. He wasn't unattractive by any means, it was just how he acted. He was very aggressive and sharp-tongued. He seemed to have some sort of feeling of superiority over us. His main weapon was a 2 handed battle axe.

I wish Flame didn't let me join them. What I had wanted is him to offer for us to be a duo of sorts. I had my hopes crushed at the fact he did not plan to have me join him...alone...just the two of us...to take on the world... Sigh. A girl can dream I guess.

I swiped the menu open.

[inventory/equipment]

[friends/party]

[communications]

[Map/quests]

[systems/ main menu]

I clicked communications and it was very bare, to say the least. There I only had two different messages, one from the person who had invited me to the party and this Apollo jerk, planning a meeting to see if I was fit to join his group.

He is a pain but had a tight group of average-level players. As far as I know, most players are around levels 4 to 6. I wonder what level Flame is. I would assume he is at a much higher level than most considering what I have seen of his feats.

"Are you going to message someone or what?" Apollo suddenly spoke up, for the first time in a few minutes.

As I put together a jumbled response in my head someone beat me to the punch. "Apollo mind your own business, let the girl do as she pleases," Another girl that goes by Achira said to the leader. Achira was a tall girl, the tallest here in fact. She had bright orange hair and her eyes are a deep green. She was...blessed in the breast department. She was well endowed enough that many were jealous, me included. Achira's weapon of choice is a Katana. A really interesting choice.

"How about no? If she wants to join us then she should be able to do things quickly, if not one of us could die if she hesitates" Apollo snapped back

Achira remained calm, "We are fine for now, this is the first floor, the only remotely difficult mob is the boss."

"But still!"

"But nothing, What is the point behind a group again? To cover each other's weaknesses, besides this is not something that she will keep doing forever."

I looked back and forth between the two as they argued a bit. "So, can I join you? I know a lot about this game, and I could try to get a well-informed friend of mine to join"

Apollo turned towards me. "Did your friend teach you these things? How informed is your friend?"

"Well, yes and he was one of the betas that got as far as most of them went into the game."

"How far?"

"There was only one person that was ahead of him, he never told me what floor he made it to."

Apollo seemed to consider it. He then opened his menu and started to click a few buttons. A screen appeared in front of me.

Apollo is requesting to party with you

[y/n]

I clicked the blue circle and now, I was part of their gang. Achira patted me on the back, "Welcome."

"Thank you" I now had to message Flame. I quickly opened my menu and hit communication, I typed in Flamed name and started typing.

Yua: Flame, I was just officially joined that group I told you about, do you want to join too?

A few moments later I got a response. Flame: Not now! I'm a bit busy! TTYL! Now that's worrying. I hope he isn't in trouble.

"What's wrong?" Apollo asked me.

"He said he was busy..." I told the "Destroyer".

"Was it frantic?" Achira asked

"Yes...You don't think he's in trouble do you?"

"Probably the dumb beta got cocky and-" Apollo was cut off with a jab to the stomach

"Of course not Yua." Achira finished glaring at Apollo.

"Ok...whatever you say."

"Achira...watch your FUCKING ELBOW!" Apollo yelled

Achira, who ignored him put her hands on my shoulders. "Yua, it's going to take a while to get back to the rest of the party, how about you show us a spot to rest that would be safe" Does she think I know that kind of info?... I mean I kinda do. I wonder who else is in this group? They planned to be a guild but apparently, you need to complete a quest on the third floor to do that. I only knew three members but according to my little friend we need to get back to, there were a few others.

I lead the two over to a small spot that no mobs spawn, it's not within a safe zone so mobs show up but nothing too bad. Just a frenzy boar or 2.

Next day

I was shaken awake by Achira. "Come on, we are going hunting." She informed me with a grin. I quickly got up, equipped my sword, and also put on a bit of light armor. After we geared up, we all headed out into the woods. It couldn't hurt to go hunting, it's only on the first floor. We all planned to return to the meet-up spot after getting some loot.

But as one could suspect about Sword Art Online, nothing ever goes so easy. Not too long after our hunt began, Achira, Apollo, and I are running for our lives. Somehow, someway, we attracted a large amount of mobs that far outnumbered us. There were maybe 30 of them, boars, dire wolves, and goblins. We all were at about 45 hp left. We had sent out messages and yelled for help.

Soon we hit a dead end within the forest. "No NO NO It can't end like this!" Achira yelled frantically

"Well, I'm going down fighting," Apollo said grimly as he pulled out a healing potion. Achira followed his example as the monsters caught up to us slowly.

Suddenly I got a message from Flame. Flame: Stay where you are I'm almost there!

We were doomed. We were all prepared for our end. Weapons were drawn as we waited for them to charge. The mobs seemed to enjoy our suffering, us just wanting them to end it. A wolf charged at me, and Apollo smacked it to the side with his axe. After it charged again Achira slashed it's next and I stabbed where its heart would be.

We had no time to read the screen in front of us before another charged.

They were sitting us down, we each took a hit every so often. After about 5 Dire Wolves had gone through the cycle, the attacks stopped. A lone figure was standing behind them. It was Flame! Surely he brought back up, right? All three of us looked behind him desperately, praying for more help.

He reached behind him and pulled out a sword from behind him. I could see that this sword was very different than the one he had before. The shadow of the blade showed it was not a straight sword that provided the balance between slashing and thrusting attacks, this sword was long and very wavey. It almost didn't seem like a sword someone would use to fight.

"Well well well, Looks like you could use a hand," Flame chuckled, running a hand through his now dark red hair.

"NO SHIT SHERLOCK" Apollo yelled

"Now now, no need to yell." Flame held up his hands in false surrender, a sign that the nearly forgotten mobs took advantage of. A Frenzy Boar and two Dire Wolves attacked him from different sides while a Mountain Goblin charged from behind. Before I could yell for him to watch out, he turned and caught the club with his left hand before it could hit him. "It's not very nice to sneak up on people, it is?" Flame said, sounding like he was speaking to a small child.

He then shattered the club with his hand. He backflipped while his sword glowed with a dark red light, and landed behind the mobs that changed at him. "Tisk Tisk. You'll have to do better than that" Flame kicked all three of the mobs that had tried to rush him into the goblin and ended them with one slanted slash.

Apollo was dumbstruck.

Achira was also shocked.

I didn't blame them, for being able to catch and break a weapon easily on the first floor. These mobs were not super difficult to beat, but to break its weapon with his bare hands? The other mobs seemed to have been planning an attack while Flame just stood there, looking through the loot he had received. Another boar had the guts to charge at him but Flame didn't even look as he slashed it in half. After he soon fished with his loot looking, he turned to face us and the mobs.

"Honestly Yua, you need to be more careful. Let's get dinner to discuss this later." Flame informed us, "I heard about this nice shop that was kinda pricey but it should be no problem."

"I… Uh, no offense, but are you going to save us or not?" Achira asked, sounding nervous.

Apollo seemed to have accepted that he was either going to die painfully or get out of here without another scratch. "About that place, do they serve any meat?"

"Not sure, I could ask someone to send me a menu and I could forward it to you," Flame said considering it. He opened his menu and started typing, killing mobs that tried to sneak up on him without looking. "Well I should get started on collecting the cash for dinner," Flame said as 3 more mobs charged him. His blade glowed with a dark red color as he readied himself. "Now I can test out that new skill, huh?"

He suddenly flashed right next to us, leaving a trail of mobs destroyed. "Hm, so that's what that does"

Now Apollo was shocked again. Achira was awestruck. I was too.

His sword was smoking after that attack, it must have a massive cool-down time. I spoke up, "So Flame, what took you so long?"

"Oh you know, I got lost on the path of life."

Apollo yelled, "BITCH WE ARE IN A VIDEO GAME."

"Why are you yelling again?"

"Fine, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around" That response earned all of us dropping a bead of sweat. "What? Black cats are serious business"

Silence

"Fine, I'll kill them" With his glowing red sword, he mercilessly slaughtered all the remaining mobs. The whole thing lasted about 5 minutes but it felt like hours.

"That was...brutal to say the least," Achira said.

"Yeah...remind me to not get on his bad side," Apollo said softly. "I'm 98% sure I saw him bite a boar while smacking his sword deeper into a wolf with the club of a globin."

"Yeah, sorry about Flame there, I didn't know he could go off like that," I apologized/

"Wait, you know him?" Apollo asked.

Achira smacked her forehead, "Did you call him or see him talking to me or you?"

"Well...no."

"Ah- your friend here is correct," Flame said as he got off the ground and spat something out of his mouth, "Yua called me and I came running."

"So are you the beta tester that helped her?" Apollo asked.

"No, I'm her third cousin twice removed from her mom's uncle three times removed great-great-niece," Flame said sarcastically.

"Ok ok, I get it," Apollo snapped.

"Watch your mouth big boy," Flame retorted. "If you want to get snappy, I'm not paying for dinner."

Apollo fell to his knees, "NOOOOO," then just died, landing with a thud on the floor

Flame patted his back, "It's ok, let it out." Meanwhile, me and Achira were just watching them, wondering why boys act like that. Flame suddenly teleported next to me, "Ok I'm off." I looked at him, How the fuck did he do that? "My speed is now godly for this floor." Flame responded to me with a knowing smirk.

"How?"

"Specialized training." Talk about minimal details.

"Wait, what about dinner?"Achira asked.

"Ah, right. I forgot about that."

Apollo shot up off the ground, "LIAR YOU WANT TO DODGE PAYING!"

Flame proceeded to teleport in front of him and elbow him into the ground. "Hush." That was all he said. He got up and opened his menu, "Yua I'll send you the location and money to pay."

"You're not coming with?" I asked.

"I actually have to be somewhere in a few minutes," He told me. "They are looking for players around a certain level." look passed over his face after he said that. I heard him mutter"and they are hunting others"

"I guess they aren't looking for us," I said.

"They are actually," Achira told me. "Everyone that's on track to be around level 9." I'm only level 6 and am not on a good plan to get higher. I will need to go out to the field soon to train. Flame messaged me the location and sent over enough cash to make my eyes change from wide-eyes to dollar signs.

"Good God, Flame," I said.

"That should cover it," He said, "I'm off!" With that, he did a mock salute and dashed into the distance.

"I see why you were hesitant to join us," Achira stated. "After traveling with someone like that, it's not hard to see."

"Yeah."

"He's kinda cute," Achira said giving me a knowing smile. I could feel the bright red color spread across my face. "I could especially see why you were hesitant to join after I saw him," Achira laughed.

"It's not like that!" I shouted and covered my mouth.

I could hear Apollo chuckling as he walked back towards us. "That just confirms it."

"Enough teasing lets go get some dinner," Achira chuckled even more. I stormed off in the general direction of where the place was.

.

After a meal full of teasing and expensive food.

.

"Well that was good" Apollo sighed.

"I could see myself eating there again if we had the money for it," Achira stated.

"Yeah, maybe Flame could lend us some cash," I said thoughtfully.

"He has progressed way too far for how long we have been here," Apollo said suspiciously.

"Well, if you lived up to your name, maybe just maybe, you would be on the same level as him" I thought to myself

"Yeah, he has, that speed and strength, makes me wonder what level he is," Achira said thinking.

I was already messaging him and he told me the answer "He is currently almost level 10 and he had the effect of an item boosting his strength," I read out loud

"Wow, how much was the booster?" Achira asked.

"uh, only 20 for half an hour" I read as he messaged me.

"Damn, only a 20 boost?" Apollo asked.

"Yeah, is that good or-"

"No, that means his stats were only boosted by 20 of them normally and he was taking it easy the whole time. He probably didn't even need the boost." Apollo explained. "Crazy to think you're involved with someone so strong, maybe he wanted to show off for you." He finished with a smirk.

"IT NOT LIKE THAT" I yelled, embarrassment taking over.

"Never said it was," Apollo replied with a smug grin.

Achira lightly punched him in the arm. "Stop it" She was laughing though so it made it hard to think she believed in her own words.

I grumbled, "These are the people I'll be with until we die...great."

I didn't know it at the time but there was a single figure watching from a distance. One wearing a bright red cloak. He just chucked. "I made the right choice."

Another figure showed up behind him, "It's time to go."

"I'm coming."

"No games this time, Flame." All that was given in return was a smirk as Flame followed the other person into the dark alley.