===== December 2, 2022 - Floor 1: Tolbana Town =====

About a month has passed since the launch of "Sword Art Online."

In that time, almost 2,000 people have died, and the first floor has yet to be cleared.

However, a scout team has located the boss' lair and a meeting is being held today to discuss a strategy to defeat him and move on to the second floor.

Link and Zelda sat in an old amphitheater with about thirty other players, those who had answered the summons to plan the boss raid.

"Ten thousand people on this floor, and this is all that show up?" Zelda whispered to Link.

"From rumors I've heard, it's closer to eight thousand."

Zelda gasped. "You mean... two thousand people have died already?!"

"So it would seem. Thus the... trepidation at a boss raid. At least, I can only guess that's the reason for the low turnout."

"I see…"

A young man in blue armor took the 'stage' and clapped his hands, presumably to get everyone's attention.

"Okay, people... now that everyone's here, let's get this meeting started! So anyway, I want to thank everyone for coming. Good to see you. My name is Diabel, and in this game, the job I rolled is 'knight!'"

A chorus of jeers rose up from the crowd, because there was no actual 'job system' in the game. Diabel restored order quickly, however, and once everyone was silent again he continued.

"Anyway, here's the deal: our party found the boss room at the top of the tower today. First, we need to beat the boss and make it to Floor 2. The next step is, we have to tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings that it is possible to beat this game! The fact is, it's our duty as the most capable players here. Do you agree, or not?"

Another wave of murmurs went through the crowd before everyone broke into a brief round of applause.

"Okay! Glad to hear you're all with me on this," the self-styled knight continued. "Now let's figure out how we're gonna beat the boss. First, we'll team up into parties of six. A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a Floor Boss. We need a raid group, made up of multiple parties."

This announcement raised more than a few eyebrows, Link's and Zelda's included. Having to incorporate four more people into their party was not something they had envisioned when they woke up this morning.

They looked around and saw everyone grouped up. Well, almost everyone... in one of the very top rows, two players seemed to be talking about joining up. Zelda pointed them out. "What about them?"

"You sure that's a good idea?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"I'm a little bit leery about altering our team dynamic the day of a boss fight."

"Oh... you do make a good point. But it's not like 'front door and then *BAM* there's the boss.' We'll have the entire dungeon to get our timing and communication down."

"Hmm… all right. If you really think it's a good idea, then I trust your judgment."

"Okay, be right back." Zelda climbed up to where the two players were talking, while Link turned his focus back to the stage. After a few moments, two new HP gauges popped up on his HUD: Asuna and Kirito.

"All right, looks like everyone's teamed up! Now then-"

"HOLD UP A SECOND!"

Link's attention was drawn to the top of the amphitheater, where a short, spiky-haired man was bounding down toward the stage. Once his feet were under him, he 'introduced' himself to the rest of the players present.

"My name's Kibaou, got that?"

The asshole from the day before... well, maybe Link would piece together why he was in such a bad mood.

"Before we take on the boss, I wanna get something off my chest. We all know about the 2,000 people who've died so far, yeah? Well, some of you need to apologize to them right now!" he yelled, pointing into the crowd (although seemingly at no one in particular).

"Kibaou," Diabel interrupted, "I think I know who you're referring to. You mean the ones who were ex-beta testers, don't you?"

"Of course I mean them! The day this stupid-ass game started, the beta guys just up and vanished, right? They ditched all us beginners! They snagged all the good hunting spots, and they grabbed all the easy quests too. They were the only ones getting stronger in here. This whole time they've ignored us like we're nothing!"

What the fuck is he on about? Link thought, barely keeping his mouth shut. Mobs respawn and quests aren't one-time deals...

Kibaou continued his little temper-tantrum. "Hell, I bet there are some of them here! Come on out, beta testers! We should make them apologize to us, and we should make them give up the money and the items they've got! We can't expect the party to trust them when they won't trust us, and why should we?"

Link was beyond pissed now. Here was some shitstain putting the deaths of 2,000 people squarely on the shoulders of him and others like him, which was insulting as well as a downright lie. How many people had he and Zelda directly saved when they came across people struggling in the fields? How much information had they contributed to the guidebook the beta community had published?

He moved to stand up, but a hand around his belt quickly negated that idea. Zelda had returned to her spot next to him, along with their two new party members. "Sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up," she hissed in his ear, with such a tone that Link had no choice but to obey her.

"Can I say something?" A deep voice echoed from a few rows below them. It was the axeman they had met the night before. He made his way down to the stage as well, clearly unnerving Kibaou with his massive size.

"Hey, my name's Agil. Kibaou, right? I wanna make sure I'm on the same page. You say the ex-beta testers should be blamed for the rookies' deaths because they didn't help 'em, and you want 'em to apologize and give up their winnings. I leave anything out?"

"No, you didn't..."

"The item store hands these out for free." He pulled out a pocket-sized leather-bound book. "It's a guidebook. You got one, didn't you?"

"Sure, I got one... so what about it?"

"You know who was handing these out? The ex-beta testers."

And writing, and compiling data...

Agil turned to the rest of the players present. "Listen up. Everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, lots of players still died. Now, I didn't come to point fingers at anyone. I'm here 'cuz I wanna learn from those players' deaths. I'm here 'cuz I wanna find out how we're gonna beat the boss!" Agil gave one final glance at Kibaou, who took his seat rather than pressing the issue.

Link made two mental notes. Sometime, somewhere down the road, he would square up with Kibaou, and express his gratitude to Agil.

"Okay, can we get back to the meeting now?" Agil had also taken his seat, allowing Diabel to continue.

"For info on the boss, it's all in here: the latest issue of the guidebook you just heard about. According to the book, the boss' name is Illfang, the Kobold Lord. Also, he'll be surrounded by his minions, the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. Illfang carries an axe and a buckler. He has four health bars, and when the last one turns red, he switches to a curved sword-type weapon called a Talwar. He can change his patterns of attack too."

As ex-beta testers, this all fit with what Link and Zelda remembered about the first floor boss, so it made sense that it would be in the guidebook.

"That's it for the briefing. As for the distribution of loot, money will be divided equally among everyone. The party that defeats the boss gets the XP, and whoever gets an item gets to keep it. Any objections?"

None came up.

"Good. We leave tomorrow at 10 in the morning. Meeting adjourned, people!"

With that, Asuna took off almost immediately, and Kirito followed soon after. This frustrated Link to absolutely no end.

"Where do they think they're going? We have a full 24 hours we could be using to train and get used to each other."

"I wish I knew."

"Are you sure it was a good idea to bring them along?"

"Of course not. I was no more sure when I first had the idea than I am now." Zelda kept calm, but inside she was fuming. It was bad enough Link was beginning to show doubts in her decision making, but even worse because it was due to the actions of people she had no control over. "I guess we should just hope they don't get us or anyone else killed tomorrow."

"Fair enough... meanwhile, we have the whole day in front of us. What do you say we go hunting in the eastern woods?"

"I don't know... I was hoping that with some free time, we could do something a little more... fun?"

Link had to concede opportunities for leisure time had been few and far between here in Aincrad, with getting stronger and clearing the game being priorities numbers one and two over the past month. "You're right... we have a major boss raid coming up tomorrow, so some downtime today might not be the worst thing in the world. What do you want to do?"

"Hmm... I know! I wanna go horseback riding!"

Link smiled. Horseback riding was the last thing he expected her to want to do, neither of them having ever ridden a horse in the real world. But it sounded relaxing enough, and a day of relaxation before a boss battle sounded like just what the doctor ordered. They changed into lighter clothes, found their steeds at the front gate of the town, and took off along the northern road.

Link allowed his horse to follow the road at a decent gallop, while Zelda sprinted ahead of, behind, and around him. She was having fun with the wind in her face, her hair streaming behind her, screaming and laughing at the top of her lungs. Link smiled and kept close to her... until he saw a creature on a nearby hilltop. He couldn't make out much about it, other than the massive bow it was drawing from its back. Zelda was riding perilously close to it...

"ZELDA! RUN!"

She looked up and over her shoulder, just in time to duck a flaming arrow. She then saw the... monster that fired it, and spurred her horse into action. They weren't fighting this thing; it looked strong enough to kill them before they even equipped their armor. Fortunately, it wasn't horribly fast or resilient; after a few more misfired arrows, it gave up the pursuit and went back to its hill. She and Link met back up on the road. "You all right?"

"I'm fine. Just... what the hell was that thing? I don't remember seeing anything like it in the beta."

"Me either." Link turned to get a better look at the creature. From a distance, it looked like a centaur, only its top half was... not quite human. "I think we should put as much distance between us and what the hell are you doing?"

Zelda was gearing up her full plate and sword. "Going to kill that thing."

"Dare I ask why?"

"Because we can?"

"How many different ways can I explain to you exactly how bad an idea that is?! We don't know what it is, how strong it is, nothing."

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say we know nothing..."

"Okay, so here's what we do know: it's half-horse, half-demon as far as I can tell. It's twelve feet tall, shoots flaming arrows, and if I had to guess, carries melee weapons bigger than you or me."

Zelda huffed. "Fine, you win for now." She pulled up her map and dropped a note pin near the hilltop. "But one of these days, we're coming back to kill that thing."

"Why is that even necessary?"

"Like I said before: because we can."

"...Of course."

The two rode back to the safety of Tolbana, not wanting to push their luck any farther (despite Zelda's insistence to the contrary, the absolute last thing they could afford to do here and now was burn up valuable supplies the day before a boss raid). Evening fell, and the rest of the raiders were now socializing in the town square. Link and Zelda retired to their room at one of the local inns, their earlier brush with what would Link insisted would have been certain death proving to be more exhausting than they first thought. They snuggled in bed, staring out the window and listening to the din of the town below. "Chris?"

"What's on your mind?" She hadn't called him by his given name since their first night in Aincrad.

"Will you... make love to me tonight, please?"

Okay, that was completely random and unexpected. He kissed her for a brief moment, then backed off. "I can't."

"What? Why? What do you mean, you can't?"

"Lanay, I know you better than you give me credit for. The only reason you're asking me that here and now is because you're afraid of dying tomorrow."

"Yes, I admit: I'm afraid of dying tomorrow. I'm afraid of dying every single day we're in this death trap. I just... I just..." Try as she might, she couldn't bring her mouth to say the words her heart was screaming.

He pulled her close to his chest, which oddly caused her to break out into tears. "Hey, remember that promise we made to each other?"

She stopped sobbing long enough to choke out, "Get as strong as we can, and stay alive."

"And stay alive. That means, we can't die yet. We promised each other we'd stay alive and get back to the real world. So we're not going to die tomorrow. Or the next day, or anytime soon. There's no need to pressure yourself just because you're afraid."

"You think I asked you to make love to me just because I'm afraid?"

"I don't think it, I know it. If not, then why now? Why tonight, of all nights?"

"I just... because... oh, forget it!" She wrapped the covers around herself in a huff and laid down with her back to him.

Link said nothing, merely letting out a sigh and laying down facing the window, with his back to hers. He tried to sleep, but he felt her tossing and turning which meant he couldn't fall asleep either. So he just kept as still as he could and tried to focus on sleeping.

Zelda, meanwhile, was having fits on her side of the bed and it was causing her to toss and turn like nobody's business. She couldn't sleep without her body close to his, but she was just so infuriated at him turning her down that she really wanted nothing to do with him. But she still needed to sleep... so eventually she put her pride to the side and inched closer to him. She put her head against his back and her arm over his heart, and... it felt like a switch turning on. Hearing and feeling his heartbeat and breathing rhythms literally course through her body seemed to have some sort of magical effect on her, and she realized how selfish, petty and foolish she had been. She wrapped herself around his body as much as she could without disturbing him, and drifted off to sleep within moments.

Link, meanwhile, felt the tension draining out of his companion as she fell asleep. He realized he probably could have at least tried to turn her down in a bit more gentle manner, but in all honesty what good would it have done? Nobody likes being rejected, especially by the person they love, especially someone whose feelings ran as deep and as strong as hers.

Some brave hero I turned out to be... I can slay monsters by the thousands, but I'm too afraid to even tell my best friend I'm in love with her.

But... why? Why am I so hesitant? Everything is completely different when she's around. Colors seem brighter, sounds seem more vibrant... I'm just so much happier when she's near me. So why the hell am I so scared to say it?!

His thought process about the night's events were interrupted by a flash in his HUD: "New Skill Unlocked!" He opened his Unique Skills menu, and another entry had been uncovered:

Soothing Pulse

Feeling your body's biorhythms helps player 'Zelda' fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.

Reduces the cast time of "Well Rested."

Effectiveness: 1% per caster level.

Instant Cast

Limitations: Can only be cast on player 'Zelda.'

Link chuckled to himself. "Figures..." he whispered as he closed his menu, clasped Zelda's hand to his chest with his own, and finally went to sleep.

A/N: TwistedViper20XX here!

I was going to put the entirety of Episode 2: "Beater," to include the boss fight, in the same chapter, but two things:

1) I wanted to get this particular part of the story published now, before my last few written exams in my course next week; and

2) I'm taking a *LOT* of liberties with the boss fight, and I'm trying to decide how best to do that while shifting the main focus of the story away from Kirito and SAO canon to Link and Zelda and the Hyrulean mythos.

I will say that both characters each gain another Unique Skill during the boss fight, one of which is kind of sappy but I really don't care. /shrug... I'm having far too much fun with this project. Lol

Please keep the favorites and reviews coming... it does my soul good knowing this project is being so well received. :) Until next time, this is TwistedViper20XX, signing off.