I'm not dead! Just. Really, really distracted by life.

So I ended up failing NaNo. Both the 50k mark and my own personal 40k. I suppose that's okay though. What I learned from it was that I was able to consistently do 2k a day and then spend three or four days editing. In a few cases, I was actually able to do 3k+, but that was mostly dialogue.

Upload dates are kind of in the air right now. I'll try and stick to the once per week schedule, but there may come a time when I'll have to fully commit to every other week if not longer. We'll see how things go.

Happy Holidays!~

Thunder roared across the cloud splattered sky, jolting me from my slumber. The sixth floor, termed «Dragon Spire Valley» by the locals, was simultaneously a splendorous and unforgiving region of four distinct biomes. According to the head of the «Breezy Scavenger's Base», the weather in the region was generally windy, thundering, and experienced the occasional downpour of rain. Fully clear skies were an oddity, but when the sun did decide to show up it was the best time to operate, despite the winged creatures flying around.

For the fifth time in half as many minutes, I pulled open my map interface and cross referenced the the instructions Kirito had sent me. The inseparable teens had gotten an early head start on the floor's local quests yesterday. After I explained how the rest of my guild was currently exploring the west part of the fourth floor on foot, the teens ended up inviting me to assist them in exploring the newest (and very much lonely) front lines. "Where are those two?" I checked my map once more, various pointed comments concerning NEET's and obsessed gamers mumbled through my lips. After several minutes of cursed silence an apologetic notification popped up, two more messages appearing in short order.

#We still don't want anybody else to know that the fifth floor's been unlocked, not for a couple more days.#

#There's a people who have me on their friends list and if I wasn't set to invisible then they could easily figure out that I was up here.#

With a sigh, I shot back a message regarding my location outside the starting city. Another streak of lightning tore across the sky, its crack following a few second later. "What the hell kind of floor is this anyway?" I groused. "I swear every single one of the rock formations here are are as high as the other floors are." Pushing off the ledge, I caught myself on the cliff face and began scaling my way down, the action granting my Acrobatics skill the last bit of experience needed to push it over to level 160.

As I crossed the rope bridge, my mind once again questioned whether or not it was a conscious decision to base the entrance to the sixth floor's teleport city off the secret entry to the another fictional kingdom said to have been located in a realm separate from Earth. Certainly, the broad doors that were slightly ajar resembled the hideout in question, but considering that the material seemed to have been the same black metal from the first floor as well as the doors leading to each successive floor as opposed to pure stone, I supposed it was distinct enough to evade copyright infringement. "If we have to fight a thunder based monster here though, all bets are off."

"Do you normally talk to yourself, Asasaki?"

"Only sometimes," I admitted, needing a moment to realize the male voice had been verbalized and not procured from my own head. "So where have you two been?" I looked behind us and gave Kirito's waiting partner an unrequited wave.

"Out and about." Kirito glanced through the archway, his body sagging in relief at the lack of players. "You're stocked up on potions and other consumables, right?" At my affirming nod, the noiret led me across the bridge. "Have you done the elf quests yet?"

"Not really." I offered a small smile at the redhead, Asuna returning a nervous one of her own. As we walked, she subtly inched away until the black haired male was fully between us.

"That's what we're doing right now, alongside anything on the way like kill quests or item retrievals." The two teens led the way alongside the edge of the cliff. Several times Kirito would scamper up a small wall and offer an hand for Asuna. He'd done the same for me the first time, only to give a soft 'oh' when I refused by running up it on my own.

"So does that mean there are elves in the area?" When we entered the mouth of a cave I pulled out a torch, manually lighting it before holding the unprotected flame up.

"We've only seen a few Dark Elves wandering around in a camp down one of the other paths, but apparently the Forest Elves haven't been seen in awhile." Kirito motioned for the light source, guiding the way across the gaps once I handed it over.

I filed that bit of information away, wondering if there was any connection to fight back on the third floor. "Are there Spirit Trees around here?" I took two steps back before running alongside the wall, neatly flipping over his head when I neared the end.

Unfazed, "If there are, we haven't asked." Kirito raised a hand and beckoned Asuna over, the girl letting out a irritated cry direct at me before hopping over the flat topped spires. The instance she joined us, the two set off, comfortably walking side by side.

I wonder what sort of things they've gone through.

In the time since Asuna had latched onto Kirito as a lifeline and an instructor, the two seemed to have developed a very close and trusting relationship, the one handed sword user assisting Asuna in most travel aspects while the girl effortlessly took advantage of any openings Kirito created on the monsters we came across. In the rare instance that there was more than one monster, I was left taking care of them on my own, the two teens watching me with an unreadable gaze once they took care of theirs.

"Where are we going, anyway?" I questioned.

"The path to the others settlements here can only be access along this path. If you take any of the other routes you just end up at one of the repeatable dungeons, though one of them takes you along the canyon floor leads right out to the Water region." Kirito started climbing up the rungs. It didn't truly hit me why he went first until I noticed that Asuna was wearing a skirt as opposed to the more practical decision of pants.

"Sounds like this place is nothing more than a huge hassle in terms of travel." I ignored the rope and wood ladder nailed to the wall, instead running up the rock face beside us. Upon reaching slightly above the next level I kicked off and landed in a roll, left hand instinctively falling to my sheathed blade.

"I thought Kirito was bad with how much extra he does once I decide to call it quits for the day, but I think you just surpassed him in terms of obsession with training."

I blinked at Asuna's remark, not sure whether the condescending tone was supposed to be joking or insulting. "I only recently got told about some of the things I could achieve once I reach a higher level, so I want to try and get as much practice in before I do the real thing."

"Why wouldn't you just wait until you can unlock the actual things though?" As we exited the cavern, Kirito dismissed the torch into his inventory. At the next ledge, he jogged over and braced himself against it, hands folded in front of him for the running Asuna to use as a launch pad.

"If I can learn how to do the individual components, when I actually get to doing the real thing it'll be much easier." I waited for the teen to scale the ledge before clambering after him. "Sort of like if somebody taught you each portion of a sword skill before you had access to it. Once you can finally use it, you're much better off than somebody else who only unlocked it because you're familiar with the motions."

Asuna turned towards me, a cheery grin on her face. "Like math, then. You can get taught how to insert formulas into a calculator but if you don't know how to actually do it on your own then when you don't have access to the technology you're completely stuck or you can't check your work."

"Sorry about her." Kirito gave her a playful look of admonishment, the girl returning it with a friendly leer. "Even though we've been here for two months she still keeps trying to equate everything to studies."

"Sorry about him," she immediately retorted. "Even though we've been here for two months he keeps trying to pretend that there isn't another world we came from and that we should be doing our best to keep real world habits to make our return easier." Towards the end her voice gained a singing tone, my mind placing the previously snarky undercurrent as standard behavior, much in the same way as Kunimitzz' normal expressions.

I chuckled. "It's good to see that you two are so close. It's important to have that sort of connection with your allies." I folded my hands behind my back, focusing on the sunny looks they gave each other.

At the mouth of yet another cavern Kirito stopped, waiting for us to join him before pointing at a swarm of floating islands, vines and roots creeping down towards the earth. "That's our first goal. We need to take care of some stuff in the area before we can get up there, but the quest item we get for it is usable on nearly every floor, even if it's hard to find the right spot to use it and the durable basically gets halved."

"What's the item and should I be concerned like the last 'quest item' you said we had to get?" I blinked at Asuna's frank delivery.

"It's a glider." After a moment of thought, "And I don't think so, so long as you wear pants and not a skirt. That or make sure that you're behind me."

"Time out!" I slipped between the two and brought my hands into a T, blocking the path. "Did I hear that right? That we're going to be using a glider?"

"Err, yeah. Those are floating islands, after all." Kirito jabbed his thumb at the objects in question, stepping around me once I relented. "Really, Asasaki. I know you're older than us, but are you really that old to forget things explained ten seconds ago?"

I consciously ignored Asuna's snort, taking her place by Kirito's side as we walked. "I'm going to answer yes to that, if only because I want to hear your response to it." My lip twitched when he refused to answer, the rapier user instead breaking down farther and wrapping her arms tightly around herself in a commendable attempt to contain her amusement. "Do we at least get a tutorial on how to use this thing? Hopefully so we don't end up crashing into the side of a cliff?" The laughter quickly ceased.

"It's pretty intuitive. It's all about how far you lean in certain directions as well as some footwork. There's a few updrafts that you need to learn how to read if you want to travel on your own, but since you'll be with me we won't need to worry about it." Kirito pulled open his interface, pressing a few buttons before dismissing it. "There's a bridge we're going to have to run across. Don't worry about its appearance, it's sturdy, but back in the beta there was a chance that a dragon would fly across the bridge and blow you over the edge."

"I'm sorry, did you just say a dragon?" Asuna and I asked in tandem.

"Well, maybe not a dragon per say," his hands grasped each other behind his back, spine straightening, "but definitely a flying reptile that can breath fire." He began chuckling nervously, taking long and measured steps towards the bridge. "But yeah, we should definitely start running. The coast might look clear, but that thing could swoop by at any moment."

"Fine, lead the way. But the next time we stop you better tell me everything about this area! I don't want to have a repeat incident like those rat thieves again!"

"They're «Sly Shrewman», Asuna. Now come on and hurry up!" The three of us dashed across the rickety, wooden bridge every board creaking under our steps. I was certain that if it wasn't for how fast we were running, Asuna would have been furiously looking both ways in anticipation.

Eventually Kirito brought us towards a village that felt like it was on the ground floor of the region. "Welcome to Ellana." He turned around and spread his arms towards the simple wood walls, directing his smile first towards Asuna and then towards me upon remembrance. "It's the local safe zone and hub for this area, not including the Scavenger's Base."

"It looks so cute! I feel like I stepped into a western reenactment festival!" Asuna brought her hands together and led us through the gates, Kirito happily playing the role of tour guide for the red head. We made a quick round of the settlement, Kirito pointing out a few buildings that would be of import to us while we were in the area. "Miss Asasaki, what level is your equipment?"

I pulled open my interface, relaying the basic information. "Is that not good enough?" I questioned when they gave each other looks.

"It's fine for now. Actually, I'm surprised you're as maneuverable as you are in all that armor. Kirito and I only wear armor on our torsos because we need to be so quick, but I guess if you're focusing in Dexterity as much as you seem to be you can get away it easier than we can." Asuna leaned towards me, staring studiously.

"Don't forget that she has a high level in Acrobatics. You saw what she did during that Raid." Kirito pressed a finger to Asuna's cheek, the girl batting his hand away after a moment.

"That's true. So then, Mr. Beta Tester, now that we got some sight seeing out of the way, what's first on the list?"

"First we need to go talk to the village chief. He'll let us know about some of the quests in the area. At the end of that we need to fight off one of the lesser bipedal reptiles around here, report it, and then he'll let send us off to go inform one of the other villages about the incident." Kirito eyes briefly focused on something nonexistent before he snapped his fingers. "Provided nothing's changed, we should get the glider by then. It needs to be upgraded before we can use it fully, but it'll make travel a lot easier in this region."

"Asuka, why can't you give me a kill quest for once?" I joked.

"I'm sorry?" Asuna turned to look at me in surprise.

"Personal joke, and a different person." I waved a hand in dismissal. "Don't know how I never made the connection until now. Ignore me."

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I swung around the outstretched blade of «Florenti, Tarragon Wind Sentinel», yanking the scaled limb up and bringing my sword arm across his neck. "Oi, stop gawking and hit him already!" A series of lights broke out, one after the other. When the green tinted color of Asuna's «Quadruple Pain» faded, I spun the stunned humanoid around and unleashed a series of unassisted attacks on the beast, kicking him away into Kirito's waiting form. "Are all these fights as one sided?" I yelled. When the final strike of Kirito's three hit Blade and Body combo sent our target towards me, I crouched low and struck, manipulating the Aggression numbers with as many strikes as possible before Asuna followed up.

"One sided, sure, but never this bad!" The rapier user's blade splashed out from where I started, the final strike in her revolving chain of stabs being the stronger thrusting strike called «Oblique». Without missing a beat, Kirito charged in and fired off a sword skill, his weapon tracing a shining light blue square.

The instant Florenti took in a deep breath we all leaped back. With a reverberating roar, a visible gale of his tribe's namesake tore around him, the sheer force causing our clothes to ripple in the wind. A half second before the area of effect attack ended, Kirito called for us to head back in, leaning to the right while I went left. The three of us stabbed in with our respective dash attacks, successively firing off a multi-hit combo while the previous recovered from the post-motion. Soon enough the reptoid fell, collapsing to the ground dramatically before shattering into shards of data.

I stopped myself mid flick, my sword ending at my armed side instead of returning to the opposite side of my body like it usually did. Ahead of me, Kirito and Asuna performed their own post battle flourishes meet feet away from where they dealt the final blows, their weapons sliding neatly into their sheaths at their back and side respectively. Without finishing the motion I slid my sword into its scabbard, dismissing the after action pop up without bothering to check its contents. "I've heard from Argo that the usage of AoE moves from enemies weren't that common back in the beta, but I wanna hear it from you, Kii."

The teen turned towards me, Asuna fiddling around with her interface as she walked beside him. "There were wide hitting attacks, but not actual area of effect abilities like what we've been seeing."

"It's actually kind of scary going up against stuff like that. The first time that happened during a quest fight both of us got knocked back hard. Lucky Kirito's good at this sort of thing and we got the timing down once he figured out the pattern." The girl patted Kirito on the back. "For once, being a total shut in actually resulted in something worthwhile!" She beamed, ignoring his half hearted grumbles.

"It's only the first round or two of learning the attack patterns that's difficult, after that it becomes easier to figure out. Since it's mostly just the two of us we don't have to worry about accidentally causing too much damage and activating one of the defensive variants like we've been hearing about on the lower floors." Kirito cupped his left hand, presumably holding his map to help navigate through the tunnels sparsed by beams of sunlight.

"That's one of the biggest pains, isn't it?" I folded my hands behind my back, drifting slightly away from the duo. "Need to kill things fast enough they don't cause any problems, but you can't damage them too quickly or else you get knocked back by whatever." I shook my head. "Kayaba's an ass."

"Language," Asuna quickly admonished.

"Sorry about her. She got raised all 'prim and proper'." He laughed at her biting retort, the insult fueled with a level of sarcasm that could only be found among friends or vengeful enemies. "How are things with Fūrinkazan?" He questioned. "I know you said they're on the other side of the mountain range over on the fourth floor, but from what Klein's been messaging me this is the first time your group's been separated for longer than day or two."

"Klein messages you?" I blinked rapidly, surprised by the revelation. Except for that first month or so when we were still practicing various martial techniques, my fellow curved sword user had stopped talking about Kirito.

"Practically every other night, sometimes every if something 'interesting' happened." Kirito let out a dramatic sigh of suffering. It wasn't fully practiced though and was just a smidge too much. Instead of bringing about amusement it only created a small amount of annoyance..

"And here I was thinking you were cheating on me with some non-combatant. But I suppose the leader of a guild is fine, even though I'm incredibly insulted." Asuna's comment brought about twin snorts, one of them them developing into a coughing fit.

"You two figure out your little spat. I'll take care of this." I Sprinted forward, unleashing a manual combo on the «Fertile Salamander», the chain ending with a series of system assisted punches and swings. "But things are good, if you're implying something happened," I commented as I rose from my ending stab. "While I was helping you guys out on the Fifth, the others decided to continue on through the mountains west of Rovia. It was a huge hassle for them to make it to where they are now, so they figured it'd be easier if I just did stuff on my own for a time while they continued working down the peninsula.

"So it's more a convenience thing than an argumentative one." I nodded, too much uncertainty lingering in my mind to vocalize a response. After a moment Kirito frowned, questioning how I managed to chain skills together and why I used so many normal attacks.

"I'm not a huge fan of the post motions, even if they're barely more than a second long. As for the combos," I cracked a grin, "if you can figure out the positioning leading up into the next strike you can swap between Sword Skills and Martial Arts. Isn't that what you did when you did that three hit chain against Florenti? It was a diagonal slash, a cross, and a shoulder check wasn't it?"

"Er, no. Not at all." Kirito looked at me blankly. "It was only a single skill called «Heavenly Rush». But chaining skills together?" The teen cupped his chin, staring down in thought.

"There's got to be some drawbacks to it," Asuna mused, taking the position of Lead now that Kirito had become lost in thought.

"The post motions for each skill you use stacks up, and the moment you fail or miss one you automatically get pushed into it. I mostly use it as finishers or when I have somebody who can take care of Aggro." I raised my hands above my head, basking in the warmth of the now clear skies over Ellana. "So, gliders?"

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I stared at the odd leaf and leather contraption, eying the black haired swordsman with concern. "Are you sure this will support us?" I lifted it above my head, shaking my head at its stability.

"It will. And besides, the area here is meant for training. We can't actually properly fly out until we get through the tunnel at the end of this canyon." He frowned and tilted his head. "When I say that, I mean that we can't actually reach any of the islands. We can skip some of the walking paths, but we'd still have to work our way back on foot."

"Um, Kirito, you mean we walk through a tunnel, right? Not fly through a tunnel?" Asuna stared at him, eyes wide.

"Er, yeah." The teen smiled apologetically. "You two remember the guide the village elder gave us, right?" At our nods, "So long as you don't try to overcorrect too much, you'll be fine."

I frowned and shook my head once more, doing my best to destroy the doubts of the contraption actually working. "The weird parts are still a game, after all." I ignored the questioning sounds the two gave me and started running, diving off the cliff without hesitation.

Having never gone skydiving before, the glider felt surprisingly fast. In terms of safety, the only thing I was lacking was a pair of goggles to deal with the wind. Slowly, I began testing the controls. While simply adjusting my weight would move the glider in the general direction, fine control came from working my feet and the small wooden slats they were attached to. If I moved a foot into a position comparable to standing, the glider would move in the relevant direction. When both feet were lowered, the glider would slow down until it eventually stalled. All in all, I was grateful we had a contained area to practice in.

"Asasaki, dive into that vortex of leaves! That's how you get higher!" Kirito pointed at a swirl of leaves and other debris hovering near a hole in the side of the canyon, his glider pulling slightly to the right before he corrected it.

On a whim, I pulled up several feet. Only when I started to stall did I pull back down down and dive bomb into the presumable thermal. A rush of air enveloped my ears. Suddenly I found myself far above the lip of the canyon, a blessed silence enveloping me. All around, an endless sea of earthen hues spread before me. I wasn't quite high enough to fully see the rest of the floor, but the lush canyons were more than enough to sate my wanderlust.

"That's the island we need to get to!" Kirito braced himself on the handrail and pointed at the largest of the islands, the levitating collection of nature looking as if it rivaled the Labyrinths in how wide it was. "Let's try to get there by the afternoon, any later than that and we won't be able to take on the Water region before sunrise!"

I jerked, cautiously regaining control as I directed myself to complete the wedge on Kirito's left. "Did you just say sunrise?!" I questioned. A glance to my clock revealed that it wasn't even midday. The few hours of sleep I had gotten were nice, but I didn't look forward to potentially pulling an all nighter. At least I still have some of those petal fragments.

"Once the other players start arriving we're going to head back to the 5th floor to complete the Elven Questline there." Asuna looked away from us and shivered. "Kirito, can we get down now!? It's too cold up here!"

"Next time bring some pants instead of a skirt and long socks!" Despite the jest, Kirito slowly brought us back down, guiding us back into the canyon. As we neared the far end, he pulled back so we could hear. "Just turn on the brakes and pull your legs out! Try to balance yourself so you still have some momentum but not fully stopped, you'll want to take a running stop!"

"I'll go first!" I gave the redhead behind me a thumbs up before performing the same near stall as before, tightly gripping the wooden hand holds as my feet skittered to a standstill. A moment later, Asuna's panicked yelps flew past me as she skidded along the ground, her glider comically tilting to the side and hiding her body from view.

Before I could finish putting away the contraption into its designated tab, Kirito landed gracefully beside her, his set of leather and wood wings disappearing in a flurry of digital motes. "You okay there, Asuna?"

The girl mumbled something out, accepting his hand and crawling out from the pseudo wreckage. "Do these things have durability?" She asked, dusting imaginary dirt off herself.

"I'm actually kind of disappointed you didn't check that out for yourself." Kirito crossed his arms and gave her a petulant look, his expression unchanging even in the face of her annoyance.

"Fine, fine. Yes, there's a durability for these things, and yes mine is down a little. Now how do I repair it?"

"You can only repair it at the villages here," he answered dutifully. "Outside of this region you need to search a little harder to find the right people, but they're capable of upgrading the gliders for better flight times and maneuverability once you get the relevant items. You saw that large mountain in the north, right? Over in the desert region?"

"Why do I have the feeling I'm not going to like what you say next?" I grimaced, thoughts of what kind of diversions the creators would have set up for us entering my mind.

Kirito led the way into the cavern, quietly gesturing at the small glowing crystals embedded in the walls when I started moving a torch around. "It's nothing too bad. Ordinarily you'd have to cross the desert on foot if you wanted to reach the Labyrinth here, but with a fully upgraded glider you can get over there if you start in the Wind region or the Fire region."

"So it's a matter or whether or not you value time spent doing quests for an easier time or just making the trek normally." I sprinted in and kicked a «Tarragon Wind Scout» away, Kirito quickling setting upon it with another one of this third level sword skills before Asuna finished it off. The two teens shared a quick smile and fist bump before moving on, Asuna knowingly prattling on about something she remembered seeing in Karluin to fill the silence.

I tuned their conversation out, taking the time to check through my messages. Despite its boxed in design, the tunnel was still classified as a field. Klein and the others were working their way down the western part of the fourth floor and had taken refuge at a small village built by a lake. With it being a safe zone, they had decided to take advantage of the vacation spot. In his words, 'It's a good thing you aren't here. A single woman at the beach alongside eleven guys? I'd feel extremely awkward in your position.'

"Asasaki, take point. Asuna, stay with me."

I snapped out of my thoughts, blinking at the smoke trails visible through the exit. "You want me to go on my own or stay close?" I asked, my voice instinctively hardening in grim anticipation.

"Stay close for now. We don't know what's going on and I'd rather not risk anything."

Advice in mind, I broke ahead and dropped to the ground. It was hard to get a clean image through the haze rising from the buildings, but from my vantage point on the cliff all I could see were moderately armored figures wandering around, hacking and kicking at obscured things. In the center of the settlement, the survivors were huddled together fearfully. Ringing them in a predatory manner, bipedal figures similar to how Florenti appeared jeered raucously.

"This is a quest," a voice still going through puberty muttered beside me.

I scooted back and reached forward, not wanting to risk the monsters below seeing anything. Sure enough, listed at the top of the quest log was a line that read 'Reptilian Repel: Save the villagers from their attackers'. "We go as one?"

"No. I want you to go in ahead and kite what you can. Try not to get caught out by more than three of them. You might have armor, but you're still a good three levels lower than us." Kirito sat up, pulled open his map and marked a few places before sharing the desired combat zones with me.

With a smirk and a two finger salute, I jumped to my feet and charged off the ledge, a full body tingle overcoming me as I fell through the air. Find a stable house. Take advantage from the skies and lure. Plan established, I pushed the tingle through my legs, launching myself onto a rooftop made from mud tiles. There's barely any screaming or crying. A soft smile rueful smile spread across my face. "At least that makes this easier."

I drew «Tormenting Reaver», leaping across the road and onto another house before inverting into a backflip and driving my blade into the unprotected neck of one of the reptilian bipeds, a Tarragon Raider. "Hey, do you guys breath fire?" I asked, kicking the monster away once I pulled my sword out. "If not, you're going to have a bad time."

Its two companions charged towards me, each of them hobbling forward from foot to foot in a manner surprisingly similar to how a lizard walked. With a screech, the first of the two raised its straight sword to its head, the metal glowing a familiar blue. In a flash it fell down, cutting nothing but air. Beside it, the other Tarragon foot soldier stabbed out, the strike deflected upwards by a simple block.

With a grunt of exertion, I surged into the first monster's range, holding its arm out to the side while I stabbed up through its unprotected pit. Its health bar flashed into existence, first dipping by two percent and then four on the drawback. My left leg slid out in a lunge, a sense of calm overtaking me.

They're monsters, pure and simple.

I sprung back up and slammed the pommel of my sword into the beast's chin, quickly taking a step back and bringing the edge down along its armored front. A front kick turned into a side kick aimed at the one with a buckler, both of them sent flying back several feet. I took a moment to glance to my right before dashing out of the alleyway, one last jump kick that missed buying me a moment. "Three behind me! One shield!" I whirled around and deflected another strike, crouching down and springing up in a system assisted skyward strike to the forehead.

"Basic sword skills, pack tactics, vulnerable necks and strong tells!" I twisted my sword and caught the raider's blade in the curve of my own, holding it in place while Kirito let loose a glowing tri-strike. The instant his strike ended I curved my blade to the side, pinning the reptoid's sword in place and driving my knee into its unprotected gut a few times.

After my third strike, Kirito shot back into the alley and took on the two beasts within, Asuna taking his place with a few revolving strikes of Linear that ended with her usual Oblique. "We have this covered, go clear the others!"

I released my hold on the biped weapon and gave a quick slash before Sprinting off, drawing the attention of Tarragon forces in groups of three and four. Every so often I would arrive just in time to interrupt a beast's attack on an NPC with a quick, stabbing Reaver followed by either «Embracer» or «Crescent Moon», the fearful villagers managing to buy me enough time with their tantalizing vulnerability that I could safely recover from the Post Motion and continue my onslaught. In some thirty minutes, we had cleared out the majority of the creatures in the outer ring of the settlement, the two teens surprisingly able to keep up with the harsh pace I had been setting.

As we approached the village square, I found myself letting out an outraged cry. I blinked in, my blade fully burying into the monster. In an instant my fist coiled out several times in a row, the impacts drowning out the screams of the rapidly retreating child before I twirled around fired off a «Waning Moon», my now regripped sword yanked out by the side kick. "Take care of the rest, I'll keep Big Bad busy!" Kirito and Asuna shot past me, their cries fading away into the noise of the surrounding fire and crumbling buildings.

«Kel'varar, Wind Tarragon Raider» clicked angrily at me, waving its sword and buckler aggressively. After a brief moment, the two of us met, my sword latching onto the inner edge of its shield and tossing it to the side. I unhooked my blade and quickly spun into his reach, slamming my hilt into his torso a few times before knocking him back.

Kel'varar growled and charged back in, his glowing thrust nearly stabbing me through the stomach. I sneered and snapped my sword out, an angry red line etched across his face. "And that's just the start!" I retorted, skipping back with the momentum of the shield bash. Over and over we traded blows, our strikes nothing more than glancing blows that shaved our bars away percent by percent.

A few minutes later I snatched the reptile's extended arm, holding blade and limb in place while Kirito and Asuna flew in with their sword skills. When the beast finally passed, I jerked the weapon out of my chest and hissed, angrily exchanging the weapon with a potion from my inventory. "Fuck these monsters and fuck the designers that made them constantly aim for the torso!" I tossed the empty bottle into the hovering panel, dismissing it with a harsh swipe before gingerly rubbing the non-existent wound.

After a moment I glanced to the side, suddenly recalling that I wasn't with Haru or the Tolbanians. "Sorry about the language." I looked away from the two, a wave of guilt washing over me at Asuna's pale face. "It just ticks me off every single time that happens."

"D-does it hurt when it gets stuck in you?" Asuna asked tentatively.

"What, the sword?" I clicked my tongue, watching the fires slowly subside into smoking embers. "It's like somebody pressed a railroad spike against your body for a brief second, and then once it goes through it's a void of nothingness that feels more wrong than anything."

"Neither of us have really had to deal with being hit like that." Kirito tried to smile, but ended up looking more like he was eating particularly distasteful dish. "I mean it's one thing to get hit, but to have a weapon fully stuck in you?"

I snorted. "No reason in hell being stabbed or slashed at should be any different, reality or otherwise. Once you get it in your head that there's a difference, that's when you start making mistakes and paying for getting complacent." I jerked my head towards the slowly recovering villagers. "Now c'mon, Kii. I don't mind taking over and doing the talking if I need too, but you're the experienced one here. I'm sure there's stuff we'll miss if you don't take care of this for us."

After a moment Kirito nodded, the cold dread on his face changing to something slightly resembling composure. "Is everybody alright?"

One of the NPC's fussed over a child one last time before striding over to us, bearing a false confidence that had to have been purely for show. "Much better, now that you folk are here. Did Isa send you?"

I glanced over at the teen, wondering if I should be berating myself for not recognizing the name.

"Elder Jacque, actually. He was worried about the lack of correspondence from the other villages and sent us in his stead." Kirito looked around slowly, stopping to look at the smouldering ruins surrounding the plaza. "We actually haven't been outside the Scavenger's Base much," a well crafted lie if I ever heard one. "Is this supposed to be a normal occurrence?"

"Nay. We were supposed to have had a treaty with the Tarragon folk, but the past few days they've been harassing our own Scavengers away from any of the fallen beasts." The woman's countenance slipped, a short but heavy sigh summoning heavy weights onto her shoulders. "We thought we had peaceful relations with those dragons. I don't know what could have caused this." She put on a sad smile, her gaze passing over the three of us. "My name is Lei. I wish I could give you lot a better welcome, but as you can see." She gestured hopelessly. "For what it's worth, we of the Whispering tribe are more than happy to accommodate you in whatever way we can."

"We can always stop by later, maybe for a meal or a place to rest," Asuna interjected. "For now, why don't we do what we can to help you out? Supplies, deliver a message, anything like that?"

Lei nodded to herself and looked at the slowly recovering survivors, most of whom seemed to have been of teen years or younger. "Supplies and a message would do nicely, I think. We'll need wood to repair everything, some reeds for thatching, and then a message over to Elder Jacque about what's happened. The Echoing tribe is far enough from the Tarragon lands that they likely won't see any of what's to come, but depending on how things fare we may need to send the survivors their way."

"Forgive me for asking, but how do you return back from here? We came down the ravine on some gliders we were given, but it didn't seem like there was a way back." I shifted my stance, hip cocking to the left. In the corner of my eye I saw Kirito move as if he was about to start talking, but ended up thinking better of it.

"There's a passage to the north west that loops back towards the Scavenger's Base. It's a long path, perhaps the better part of a day, but it's sheltered from the sentient Tarragon here and so long as we send enough combat able people with anybody that goes through we've never had any problems."

I subtly opened up my quest log again, slowly bringing the tip of my tongue along the bottoms of my teeth at the newest blocks of information that showed up. "You said combat able. Does that mean that are aggressive monsters along the way?"

Lei nodded solemnly. "They aren't much of a threat, but sometimes they gather in large quantities so it's better for us to send a group that's larger than needed as a precaution." A shrug. "Those that volunteer for the task usually treat it like a day off more than anything, so we're never hurting for members." The woman very purposely stopped herself from taking another look around at her ruined home. "Usually."

"Where can we find some wood? I noticed on the way over here that most of the land is nothing more than grass and shrubs." Kirito was staring out at the slowly reclouding sky, the words leaving his mouth feeling more like rote recitation than engaged conversation.

"Ordinarily we'd have to set for help from the other villages, but since you said you have gliders," Lei trailed off, a glimmer of hope in her smirk that I was relieved to see. "Take that same path up in the north. You'll be wanting to head east instead of west. It loops up to a cliff that you can jump off from. Ah, yes." She brought a fist down into her other hands, another resolute nod confirming whatever thoughts she had. "You'll need to collect some branches from the trees growing there first and bring them down to us. There's never enough to build a proper glider, but what you can find on the ground or in the tops is enough to replace certain key parts of the frame." She beamed. "You'll be able to maneuver a bit quicker once you make the change, as well as being able to fly just a little more farther thanks to the lower weight."

"Alright. We'll go ahead and bring some down." Asuna grabbed Kirito by the hand and began tugging him along, waving at Lei and some of the children that were still gathered in the center of the square.

"We'll try to be quick. I imagine it can't be very thrilling knowing that your homes aren't fully protected from the elements. Especially here." I pointed up at the sky, idly reminding myself that it wasn't a true open sky, despite the fact that the ceiling seemed to be a good twenty miles higher than usual.

Lei stared at me a moment, something in her expression causing my heart to cry in pain before it disappeared. "If nothing else, we kin always tear down some of the new buildings for resources. Some of the children might not be happy about it, but I suppose we can call it a sleepover or something. They might enjoy that." The glimmer of humanity in her eyes blinked away, the woman waiting until I uttered a farewell to move off to whatever her programming dictated.

I took deep breaths as I slowly caught up to the twin figures of red and black, forcing myself to focus on how easily the people of this village rebounded from the disaster. "They're not just AI," I whispered, gripping tightly onto my sword. "They can't be."

The trip up the hill and back barely took an hour, and the time needed to enhance our gliders no more than ten minutes each. In that time, the three of us had done what we could to make some of the homes habitable again. By the time two pm rolled around, we were already back atop the hill, what seemed to be the highest grounded point in our sector.

"You're not having second thoughts, are you Miss Asasaki?" A sunny red haired girl peeked into sight, her hands folded behind her.

"Not at all, Miss Asuna." I returned her smile, glad at least one female combatant younger than me was able to treat me like something normal. "I'm just enjoying the calm while we have it. We're supposed to be raiding giant, floating islands after all. Speaking of which," I maneuvered my glider into one hand and manifested the «Banner of Inspiration». "You okay if I use this while we go up there?"

Kirito shook his head. "Sorry, Asasaki. A promise is a promise. No matter how helpful it might be to even the playing field, the agreement was that we were only doing the Floor Boss early to prevent the guilds from fighting over it."

"Yeah, I thought so." I dismissed the banner, maneuvering my glider into a ready position. "Hey, Kii? Quick question about something that's been bugging me. Why would we get an upgrade to our gliders so soon? Especially something that was specifically mentioned to 'improve maneuverability'?"

"That is," Kirito's voice caught in his throat, his lips parted in unformed words. "There are wyverns and winged Tarragon monsters that travel the skies in this section of the floor. There's a rare chance we might end up having to dodge some of them."

I pursed my lips, keeping my swear laden thoughts fully internal. "Any advice you might part upon us, oh wise one?" Asuna's derisive snort did nothing to change my features, as much as I wished to express it.

"In a pinch, you can always pull open your inventory and reequip the glider if you really have to. You'll fall quite a distance, but if there's no way to shake an enemy off your tail it's your best option aside from dive bombing the ground and pulling up at the last second."

"I don't need to be a Beta Tester to know that doing that last one doesn't have a good life expectancy rate." Asuna shook her head and readied herself. "Lead the way, Kirito. We'll stay right behind you."

One by one we leapt off the ledge, our gliders carrying us on the wind. A small part of me worried at the significantly more notable vibrations I felt through the frame but a glance at the durability bar, a small orange box that was above my health bar revealed that it was nothing more than sensations.

I let out a slow breath as we neared the village of the Whispering tribe. At this point in time, the fires had all been snuffed out, and the children were all playing in the center while the remaining adults and teens roamed in pairs of three's and four's to take stock of the wreckage. A few heads turned skywards when Kirito's shadow first flew over them. As Asuna passed by, a good portion of the people had taken to see what was going one. When my turn arrived, nearly every single worker below had expression some form of acknowledgement and well wishing.

There's absolutely no way they're not human.

Both my glider and heart dipped after Kirito, the teen leading us down through a rocky tunnel. Guided by small glowing stones the teen's had attached to the tails of their crafts, I focused a good portion of my mind on ensuring that I didn't stray from the path. After a few tense seconds of travel, we leveled out into a large cavern that felt as if it had brought us somewhere into the region that the stairwell from the previous floor took up.

"Up ahead is a large updraft! It's the strongest in the region and it's the only way to get to all the islands! We still need one more upgrade before we can get to the main one, but it's something to keep in mind if you ever decide to come back here without me!" With any further comment, the teen pulled down and dove in the center of the cavern, his glider shooting up and out of sight.

"Women and Children first!" Asuna called out, a small speck of fear tainting her expression.

"Why thank you, kind sir!" I gave a faux salute. Without giving my mind time to protest, I leaned forward and dove into the near invisible vortex of wind, air howling in my ears the instant I entered its zone.

A split second later the entirety of the sixth floor was laid out before me, a strip of darkening clouds stretching from this region to its diagonal counterpart. The only other distinctly green area was made up of large and isolated mountains, similar but contrasting to the carved canyons of the Wind region. I performed a few lazy circles, keeping roughly at the same speed as Kirito. When Asuna finally joined us, we set off towards the closest of the floating islands, a large grove of trees growing atop the large collection of earth.

Upon landing, the black haired swordsman crossed his arms and stared at the hazy, translucent circle resting in between two trees. "Asuna, what does this mean?" He pointed at the circle, bearing a surprisingly professional appearance.

"It means it's an instanced area. It's similar to some of the dungeons we ended up seeing on the fifth floor, but whether or not its repeatable and has a different lay out each time we won't know until we check it out multiple times. At minimum, only a single party is able to go in and interact with each other. Everybody else that happens to go in at the same time will find themselves in their own instance."

"Gold star, Miss Asuna." He chuckled and gave her a thumbs up. "Asasaki, stay close to us, no matter what. Even if we end up sending you to scout ahead or there are monsters that are closing in on us, if you can't see us, do everything in your power to get back within sight, alright? This probably isn't like the Forest of Wavering Mist, but who knows what's been changed." The teen fiddled with the three pouches on his belt, exchanging a few potions from his inventory. "Keep some items for statuses on hand. Last time I was here, I only had to deal with the Tarragon soldiers, but there might be other stuff as well."

"I got it, Kirito. This isn't the first time you've given this speech to me, you know." Asuna rolled her eyes and stepped impatiently towards the entrance, giving a soft apology when she realized it was meant for me. "You know if you're scared, all you have to do is say so and I'll take point," she sung.

"Hey, I'm the one with the higher Vitality stat here! Besides, whoever heard of a DPS player taking Point?" The two disappeared into the mist, the arcane script completely removing all trace of them as they passed through.

"This isn't just a game," I muttered to myself, reaching through the cloud. "It can't be. This is," I took a sharp breath, reminding myself that my forearm was not chopped off and that it was only hidden from view. "This is our new reality." I closed my eyes and stepped through, fiercely shoving the thoughts away.

Don't expect the next chapter until around January 5th or so. I might get something up before then, but family's staying until the new year or so and they're fairly distracting.