Sword Art Online Version Vongola

by Nain Tarlow

11 year old Sawada Tsunayoshi was one of the ten thousand players who logged into Sword Art Online. He found freedom in this virtual word far away from anything associated with Dame-Tsuna. Now, as the Death Game begins, watch as the swordsman Natsu takes his first steps into this world and grow into the leader he was meant to be.

11. Level 10

Hey everyone, NainTarlow here with the latest chapter.

Here comes part 3. This incursion into the labyrinth proved to be much longer than I first anticipated but I enjoyed writing it. For those who didn't like that I skipped Heathcliff's introduction and 25th boss fight, hope you will forgive me with this chapter.

Thank you, everyone, for the support, seeing that this story has more than 21k views always amazes me whenever I check it out, especially when it's almost a year since I started this story. Thank you everyone for sticking with me and Natsu.

For the reviews:

DPSS: If you think about it, it's not hard to understand why his intuition looks faulty, especially compared to the older Tsuna in my other fic. He still has a seal on his flames, though it is slowly breaking, self-preservation, and all that, he was never trained to use his hyper intuition, and also he is not used to listening to it like even canon Tsuna learns it through the course of his story. So him missing something like that is not that surprising, though as this chapter shows he had some inklings but simply ignored his instincts.

Let's get started already.

Level 10: Mysteries of the labyrinth part 3

Roger and Basil walked side by side in the narrow tunnel, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. Neither chose to speak, the former too tense for any kind of small talk, while the Italian teen was used to the silence. Usually, Wedge and Ken would fill the silence with more than enough chatter, letting him keep silent. It was a system that suited everyone.

"When I get my hands on those two, there will be no escaping from me." Roger grumbled angrily to himself, breaking the silence between them. He seemed to disregard Basil's presence, so focused on revenge.

Basil kept silent, not sure how to approach the older man. Unfortunately because of his training by Natsu's father, it left him socially inept in most situations. Though in time he found a way to interact with Natsu and other members of their guild when it comes to new people he preferred that the others took lead. Nonetheless, He could understand Roger's desire to avenge his friends, but what they needed right now was a clear head.

"Well, I was almost getting bored here." a crackling voice surprised both of them, as a figure stepped out of the shadows in front of them. It was one of the pkers, the male who was grinning at them broadly, pointing his little larger than normal dagger at them. As he focused on it, Basil noticed its edge was serrated, giving it a menacing look in the faint torchlight. "Lucky for me, seems our players finally arrived." he laughed to himself as he stood before them without a care in the world.

Roger was ready to dash forward, but Basil held him back, staring at the cloaked man before them in suspicion. The corridor was narrow, if they started to fight here, only one of them could fight at a time, especially since both of them were shield users, limiting them in their movements. On the other hand, the orange player was definitely fast and no doubt skilled at using that dagger of his, not to mention his skill at hiding. It would be ill-advised to attack recklessly.

It didn't sit well with him this sudden change in tactics. He let himself look to the edge of his vision for a moment, confirming that all of his friends had their health bar full. That meant the others weren't ambushed, or at least hadn't begun fighting yet.

Still, instead of stalking them from the shadows, they chose to appear in front of them, confronting them head-on. There must be a reason if they chose to disregard their previous approach. Maybe they had some kind of trap waiting for them, or with two of them dead and the other two leaving they finally felt confident to attack without the cloak and dagger stuff? Maybe this guy was simply reckless, disregarding his partner's plan, and made his move too soon. There were too many possibilities and he didn't have time to figure it out. It took almost everything he had to keep Roger from attacking and playing into their hands.

"What are you playing at?" he hissed, nervously looking around, trying to spot whatever trap that they prepared for them.

Their attacker only smirked at them, before he pointed his dagger at them.

"The name of the game" he declared with a maniac laugh. "Don't die too soon." he declared as he rushed at them.

-0-

"As expected of the famous Orange Blaze." Morgana praised Natsu as she twirled her spear carelessly, a cruel smirk on her face. "Anyone else and it would have been an instant kill, but you had such reflexes that you avoided my attack." her smirk widened as she leered down at him."Well, almost."

Natsu laid on the ground not too far from her and her twin, the orange player Arachne. A small red line was on his right cheek, where Morgan's spear grazed him. He was able to move in time, rolling away from most of the attack. He quietly cursed himself for being so careless. Ever since he met her he got a strange vibe from Morgana, though he chose to ignore it for the sake of concentrating on their current problem. Now, he was paying dearly for ignoring his instincts.

The damage that was dealt to him was minimal, not even making a noticeable dent in his hp gauge. What he found worrying was the small yellow paralysis icon just under it. That was strange in itself since they have been fighting together for a while and she didn't show the ability to cause paralysis. This ambush was planned and he had been caught completely unaware.

"Why?" he asked as he struggled to move his body, despite knowing how paralysis worked."Why are doing this? Why betray us?"

In response, Morgana began to giggle like a deranged little girl, while Arachne only looked on with a cold smile on her face.

"Is it betrayal if I planned to do this since the moment I met them?" the spear user who now had an orange symbol since she attacked him asked when she finally calmed down."Those naive idiots made it far too easy for me."

"It's nothing personal." her twin took over as she stopped in front of him, crouching down and smiling at him mockingly."But I wanted to make a proper initiation for my little sister. You on the other hand just got in the way."

"Initiation for what?" he asked, obviously stalling for time.

He noticed something behind the two women, his eyes widening in recognization. He subtly signaled with his eyes, thankfully the gesture went unnoticed by the two women who were busy mocking him

"Aren't you curious?" Arachne cooed at him with a deranged smile, enjoying the visible discomfort on Natsu's face."Don't you know that curiosity killed the cat?"

If he had the ability, Natsu would have turned his face in disgust, her touch making him feel uncomfortable and unclean as she began to pet his hair, her actions in stark contrast to her cruel words. Safe to say she was freaking him out.

"Does it matter, big sister?" Morgana asked after she stopped playing with her spear. "He is gonna die in the end after all. He is helpless and thanks to the item there is no help coming." as she laughed to herself, it was really hard for Natsu to reconcile the image of the Morgana he met earlier this day to this cruel person.

Arachne hummed for a moment before she suddenly let go of Natsu, stood, and delivered a back-handed slap to her sister, making the girl cry out in pain as she landed on the ground. She had one hand on her reddening cheeks as she looked up fearfully at her twin, tears gathering her eyes.

"B-Bis sister?" she whimpered as the form of Arachne stood over her menacingly.

"What are you an idiot?" she demanded as she glared down at Morgana."You were the one who led those idiots into that miniboss that almost took all of them out. And you had to activate the item you were provided with, involving four of the top players, complicating things needlessly. We are in this mess, because of you, you good for nothing." she cried out as she began to kick her sister without mercy, ignoring her cries.

Natsu closed his eyes, not wanting to see Morgana being beaten. Even if she betrayed them, he did not like seeing anyone suffer but he also knew that every second they wasted on this meant his chances of getting out alive grew.

"Please, Big Sister." Morgana pleaded as she curled up into fetal position. "I-I didn't have any choice if I wanted the plan to succeed. Please, stop, no more!" she cried out. Thankfully her sister seemed to calm down slightly as she stopped kicking her but she kept her glare up.

"You almost ruined everything, you worthless idiot." she seethed, though at least she didn't hurt her physically this time as she ran a hand through her long hair in frustration."Do you know why you were given the chance to join Laughing Coffin?" the name did not ring any bells for him, but Natsu marked it down as something important in his mind, in case he survived this."Because our leader thought after seeing my potential that if my sister could even show a little fraction of it, she could help our cause. But you are just as utterly worthless as always, aren't you? Even with the item that leader-sama himself created to shut down the map feature of these idiots, to cut them off from any help, you were still unable to do a few simple things."

Natsu couldn't help but gasp loudly at what he was hearing. Laughing Coffin, it must be some kind of group that these pkers belonged to. But more importantly, an item with the ability to shut down maps? That was unheard of, an item made solely for PKing something that could easily break the balance of the game itself.

Despite many people calling the game unfair, stacked against them, it wasn't true at all. It was hard, yes and there were a lot of dangers, a lot of traps but in the end, the game was balanced. It was not impossible to take down the bosses, to get out of various traps, wasn't easy by any means, but there was always a way. But this item that was able to disable the maps, something that was essential to all of the players, threatened to destroy that careful balance.

Unfortunately, his gasp gained the attention of Arachne who simply moved away from the whimpering form of her sister, and walked back to him with a wicked smile on her face. She placed the edge of her curved sword near his face, touching it without causing any damage. The cool feel of steel on his cheek made Natsu shudder, something that simply delighted the woman.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Natsu-kun. Unfortunately, the paralysis will still hold for a bit of time, so I guess you waited for nothing." she mocked him and Natsu cursed in his mind. Just like she said the paralysis icon was still shining bright under his health bar."You know I wanted to drag this out a little more. To make you suffer, break you down to the point you would beg for death." she told him with a blissful smile, blushing at the thought of what she wanted to do to him. It made him shudder in revulsion. "I pride myself on being a stealthy fighter you know. And seeing you avoid my attack so easily while I had all the advantages on my side, it makes me furious." she snarled at him in fury, before she took a breath, her face gained a tranquil look. She raised her sword, ready to end his life with a simple swing."But as I said, time is of the essence, so it's time we said goodbye to each other, Natsu-kun."

As the blade descended towards him, Natsu strained his body, trying to move with all his might. Despite how calm he looked outwardly he was scared, very scared. He didn't want to die, not here, not like this. He didn't want to cause grief to his friends, to his comrades. He wanted to keep fighting along with Ken, Basil, Wedge, Biggs, Buzz, Agil, Argo, Kirito, Klein, and Asuna. He wanted to beat the game with them, to see his mother once again. He didn't want to die. He wanted to live!

"I won't let you!" a voice roared just as Arachne was about to strike Natsu. Out of nowhere a shield with a large body attached to it slammed into the PKer, catching her completely unaware, sending her flying a few feet away.

"Big sister!" Morgana cried out as she hurriedly stood up, spear held in a defensive stance in front of her. "How dare you!" she snarled at the one who attacked her precious sister, standing in front of the still motionless Natsu, radiating a quiet fury of his own.

"Biggs." Natsu muttered the name of the large man with a relieved smile. He was afraid the gentle giant would not make it in time, but it seemed he was worried for nothing.

What a lot of people seemed to forget, that like earlier MMOs, SAO had its own version of text-based group-chat. Though it usually was only used between group members who got separated in a dungeon or something like that, it was still reliable and a lot faster than simple private messaging each other. Especially in a dungeon that disabled PMing outside. Roger and Morgana didn't join their group, choosing to remain in the one with the kids to monitor them to make sure they were alright, they didn't see him send a quick message to his friends while they talked about splitting up.

He asked Biggs and Wedge to tail the two groups from a distance, so both groups would have a back-up available in case they were attacked. But he never thought of being betrayed by one of the people they helped. That made him nervous, worrying about Basil and Wedge, not to mention his status.

"I-impossible!" Arachne shouted as she gingerly stood up, her face showing an ugly sneer as she stared at Biggs. "My searching skills are one of the largest in our guild, I can detect anyone, save for leader-sama! How could a lowlife like you sneak up on me?" she shrieked, waving around her hand in hysteria."Answer me, you waste of space!"

That wasn't true, though Natsu thought better of explaining it to her. The thing is, while both the search and hiding skills are very useful, there was one thing that limited their effectiveness. They were active skills. It meant if you wanted to use them, you needed to activate them, or they wouldn't do anything at all. You may have the skills to spot anyone coming from a mile away, but if you didn't pay attention and didn't activate the skill, it would be no use.

The basics of the game were something that Buzz made sure everyone knew by heart. Simply having a skill meant nothing if you couldn't use it when the moment called for it. SAO was a much more complicated game than anyone would have thought. Along with the skills, you had to use your senses, your instincts, and your judgment to the best of your abilities if you wanted to get through it in one piece.

"We trusted you." said Biggs in a dangerously low voice as he stared at Morgana who looked taken aback. Even Natsu's eyes widened at hearing the anger in the normally kind and reserved teen's voice. "But you chose to betray us, betray your comrades. You killed Ian and Grumpy, almost killed Natsu, hurt so many people, and for that," he straightened out, bellowing in a strong voice that caused the two women to reflexively step back in fear."I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!"

"Biggs..." Natsu whispered, surprised at his usually calmer friend. Though he shouldn't be. While among their group, Ken, Wedge and he were the hotheads of the group, even Biggs who liked spending his time in the garden would be horrified by what went down here. Morgana helped and aided in the murder of two of her comrades, something that any real player who fought in boss battles would condemn. After all, if the 25th floor taught them anything that they must be able to count on the one fighting next to them without a doubt. "Be careful. Their weapons carry poison one small graze and you are paralyzed." he advised before looking at his health bar in the corner of his vision, seeing the paralysis icon slowly blinking."Stay defensive. The poison in me soon will run its course and I can join to help."

Biggs only nodded in response to his words, his grip on his sword's handle tightening as he watched the two women standing in front of him over the rim of his shield.

"You won't forgive us?" Arachne asked back incredulously before she began to laugh in an insane manner, even her sister stepping away from her, looking at warily."Don't joke with me! I, the great Arachne-sama, subdivision leader of Laughing Coffin and one of his most devoted followers, would never lose to a nobody like you." she snarled, looking more like a wild animal as she hunched forward than an intelligent being."Know your place you cretin!" she roared as she charged forward, not even bothering to activate a sword skill, Morgana hurrying after her.

"Don't worry Natsu." Biggs gave Natsu a brief smile before he turned toward his attackers with a grim look. "I'll protect you." he declared before he charged forward as well.

Showing a surprising show of speed that not many would think a big man like him was capable of displaying, Biggs met Arachne's charge, surprising the member of Laughing Coffin, using the basic shield skill shield bash to the lack of a more correct term, swat away the surprised woman. Quickly switching focus to the incoming spear user, he widened his chance to have a proper footing and prepared to block the attack.

As much as Wedge sacrificed defense for the sake of speed, his brother focused an equal amount on being an immovable object in every sense of the word. In terms of defense, he probably had the strongest in all of the game, save for Heathcliff who Natsu knew after only one boss battle together that thanks to his unique skill had a strong defense that could easily be called OP. That's why he was not surprised that Biggs was able to withstand the simple Thrust skill Morgana launched with ease, pushing back the surprised woman.

"How dare you!" Arachne shrieked as she stood back up, blindly rushing at Biggs, began slashing at him, completely forgetting about using her sword skills. Biggs calmly held up his shield, blocking one after another, not giving any ground to her blind attack."Just die already!"

Natsu, still on the ground watched as Morgana once again joined her sister, but they were not coordinating at all, getting in each other's way, all the while Biggs calmly held them back, not letting them advance not even a feet. It was not that much a surprise. Biggs was one of the top players, with the skills and experience to back it up.

Morgana on the other hand was no slouch from what he observed but she lacked the experience born from fights with their lives on the line. The difference between a mid-level player and a high-level one was in the risk they were taking. A mid-level, like Morgana, would mostly play on floors that were already mapped out, there was information available on all possible dangers. On the other hand, those on the frontline didn't have such luxury. They will have to look out for the slightest indications of an enemy trying to use a sword skill, never really sure what skills, resistances, and tricks the next enemy would have.

In terms of raw ability, Arachne was probably below Morgana. It was a logical conclusion. With how high her hiding and searching skills were according to her, her other skills had to suffer, most probably her combat skills if her preference for stealth attacks and poisons were any indication. If you focused on leveling up a skill, some others would have to suffer. That's why Liz who focused on blacksmithing was not a frontliner and Agil who planned to run a shop full-time also planned to retire from the cleaners.

Not to mention that the two women were off-balance and ill-coordinated. They also had to hurry and deal with Biggs before Natsu could move, neither of them wanted to try their chances at a 2-on-2 scenario. Their dirty tactics could only carry them so far, now that they were aware of said tactics.

Biggs weathered the blows with a stoic indifference that was in great contrast to his earlier anger. He didn't try to attack, he knew as well as Natsu that he only needed to buy time for Natsu to move again and/or the others to catch up. He stayed in one place, his footing solid, no matter how many attacks Arachne and Morgana unleashed, thanks to their poor cooperation they were not able to drive him back, his shield easily stopping all of their attacks.

"It's not working, Big Sister." Morgana said after her latest attack was blocked, prompting her to fall back next to her sister."We are running out of time."

"Thank you for stating the obvious!" Arachne snarled, fury marring her face. She was trying to stare holes into Biggs as she panted, already drained."Make yourselves useful and do something instead of whining."

"I have a plan, sister." Morgana said with a wicked smile twisting her face.

Meanwhile, Biggs stayed back, content in simply watching them for their next move while he defended Natsu who was still on the ground, courtesy of the paralysis.

"Natsu, how are you doing?" Biggs asked quietly without taking his eyes off the two PKers.

"Should wear off any minute." he answered as he struggled to move his body, eying the paralysis icon in the corner of his vision in frustration. "Most poisons that cause paralysis should have worn off by now. This might be something really high-level. Just what kind of resources these guys have?" he asked himself.

"That's something we can think about when we get out of here." warned Biggs, raising his shield as he saw Arachne and Morgana getting ready for the second round."For now, here they come."

True to his words, Arachne and Morgana charged forward once again, this time the spear using blonde leading. Biggs likewise ran forward to keep them away from Natsu's defenseless form, while the young teen could only watch helplessly, not wanting to be a burden.

Morgana's spear glowed with a faint purple light just a few feet before she reached Biggs. As she raised her weapon Natsu already recognized the sword skill, courtesy of all those training sessions with Buzz, doubtlessly one of the most proficient spear users in the game. Vent Forth, a four-hit sword skill, that was mostly used against multiple enemies.

Like most spear skills, it was a thrust skill but Natsu was quite confused about why she would use that one. As the user thrust forward four times, hitting the four points of an invisible rectangle in front of them, it was too wide of a rectangle to aim at a person properly. It was mostly used to force multiple enemies or opponents with high agility that relied mostly on evading stay in one place, allowing other players to attack them.

His eyes widened as he deduced why would she use this skill of all the available ones, but he had no time to shout out a warning to the big guy. Biggs predictably stopped, hunkering behind his shield that was almost as large as him, the skill's attacks only cathing the edges of it, nowhere near strong enough to overcome his defense or even unbalance him. But it was not needed, after all, he didn't fight against only one opponent.

Arachne instead of charging at him, drew a large half-circle around him, seemingly running toward Natsu with an insane grin n her face. Biggs noticed it and with a shout he jumped toward her, intent on stopping her and in the process fallen into the trap laid before him.

With a laugh she suddenly stopped and turned around, facing the oncoming teen. Her curved sword shone in a pale blue light as she unleashed a sword skill. She twirled around, her blade drawing a circle around her, sending two quick horizontal slashes at Biggs midsection, before she suddenly started spinning in the opposing direction, sending two more slashes from the other side.

Biggs tried to bring up his shield and he was able to block the first two attacks, but the force behind them and his hastily raised defense was his undoing. His shield was pushed aside, the last two attacks catching him in the chest, making him stagger back, stunned. Thankfully his chest piece blocked most of the attack, so while he suffered damage, Arachne's sword was not able to bypass his armor. Still, he was stunned if only for a brief second.

"Biggs!" Natsu cried out in worry as he saw Morgana, out of her cooldown, raise her spear with a sadistic smirk at his unguarded back. And the paralysis indicator was still blinking, his body useless, no matter how hard he struggled to move it.

'Move, body, move!' he cried inside, pleading for the paralysis to end, not wanting to see his friend get hurt.'I don't want to lose anyone, to see a friend in pain. Please, for once, let the game be on my side. Just let my sword reach them.' he pleaded on the inside, looking at the still form of his beloved sword that helped him for so long, Benevolent.

"Please feel free to scream!" laughed Morgana as she thrust forward with her weapon, Biggs unable to do anything defense. As the spear came closer to the big-boned teen for a moment everything stood still.

-0-

"Stay still, you hooligan!" Roger roared as he ran at the cloaked PKer, his mace raised above his head, glinting with golden light. He struck down, narrowly missing his opponent who moved away with over the top acrobatics, laughing all the way. The mace crashing into the ground, sending a small tremor through it thanks to the force of the blow.

"My, how scary!" the boy, because by his voice he sounded young, laughed to himself even as he narrowly dodged a strike Basil tried to launch from his blind spot, before he threw small daggers at Roger, the knives shining with a faint green light, indicating the throw ability being used. The older man grunted in as one of them bounced off his shield without any difficulty but the other found its way into just below his right arm, finding a spot not covered by his armor.

Despite the size of the small corridor, their attacker was able to move with surprising agility and acrobatics, avoiding most of their attacks, while keeping them on the defensive. The only evidence of the vicious attacks by the two green players was on his cloak that had many parts of it cut off, though it still served to keep his identity secret. Basil otherwise was mostly unharmed, was looking at him calculating, trying to think of an effective strategy. Roger was the worst off, who in his rage sacrificed a lot of defense, full of small cuts, nothing life-threatening but it was enough to slow him down.

"It's been a while since I had so much fun." the youth grinned at them, his large grin visible even from below his hood. "Come, entertain me a little more." he said, holding up his dagger in a reverse grip, taunting them with his other hand.

"Just what are you playing at?" Basil asked with narrowed eyes, his frustration leaking through his ordinarily calm demeanor. Something felt off ever since he showed up in front of them and engaged them. He tried to be cautious, fearing the sudden ambush from his accomplice or some kind of trap prepared for them, but there was nothing. Not even his weapons were poisoned.

His eyes widened as he arrived at the only possible conclusion, a conclusion he didn't like. There was only one reason for him to play around like that, he was the diversion, meant to keep them from going to help the others.

"Whoa, such a scary glare." he gulped in mock fear at the glare Basil sent him, even though he didn't lose his smile, not even a bit. "I'm getting excited here, you know? Don't leave me hanging." he told Basil with a laugh, sounding as if he wasn't in the middle of a life and death fight.

He would have talked more, but he suddenly jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the rapier aimed at his head. The blade whistled as it sailed through where their attacker's head was a moment ago, revealing the grim visage of Wedge who didn't let the missed attack discourage him and pointed his blade straight at the orange player.

"Oi, oi, nobody told me about any new players." he grumbled with a little nervousness creeping into his voice as he found himself backed into a wall, Wedge on one side and the very angry duo of Basil and Roger on the other."If you all come at me, even I can get overwhelmed, you know? Not cool at all, man." despite all of that he still stood confidently, twirling his dagger in his hands.

"Well, usually I'm not one to cut the fun short, but in your case, I'll have to make an exception." Wedge said with a deadly serious look on his face as he slowly lowered his center of gravity and took a stance, ready to fight.

"Wedge!" Basil cried out to his friend, though he did his best not to take his eyes off of his opponent, who proved to be very slippery. "It's just a diversion, to keep us away from the others." he declared and he heard Roger gasp at his side, realizing the implication.

"I figured." agreed the older teen with a nod."Unfortunately, if we were to separate further we would be easy pickings. That means we will have to defeat this guy as fast as we can before we go and help Natsu and Biggs." he told them, causing the other player to began laughing to himself.

"You can't leave someone behind to fight me because you fear that with some underhanded move I will kill them." he grinned at them, while almost unnoticeably moved his free behind his back. "That's why I don't like good guys, too many restrictions. Me on the other hand, none. So let's fight to the death." all of them tensed as he suddenly whipped his free hand out, holding some kind of potion with black liquid in it. "Just kidding." he laughed at the look on their faces loudly.

He turned around and throw the vial into the wall, the glass broking to pieces loudly. The black liquid as if it was paint or ink, slowly began to slide down the wall, painting it black.

"As much as fun this was, time to abandon Arachne-chan to your tender mercies. It will be good character development for her." he laughed as he put his hand on the strange black liquid and to their shock, it simply went into, a moment later most of his body disappearing into the wall."Kill you later." he called back with a wave before his arm and head disappeared, leaving the three players alone in the corridor. Soon the black liquid disappeared, seeping into the cracks of the floor, leaving nothing behind.

"What in the-?" Roger gaped at the spot their enemy disappeared."What kind of item is that? I never heard of anything like that." he looked at the two others in question who were busy looking around, in case the orange player left behind any other surprises.

"No idea." Wedge said with a frown and it said a lot about a guy who worked a lot with former betas with more knowledge on the game than all other beta testers put together. After so much time with Buzz, Argo and Kirito encountering something they never heard of did not sound reassuring.

"Wedge, we better hurry." Basil called out after apparently finding nothing else suspicious. He had a panicked look on his face, that the older teen immediately understood with a quick look at the health bars of their group in the corner of his vision.

"Let's go." he agreed with a grim face before the three of them began running back the way they came, praying that they made it in time. None of them wanted to lose any more of their comrades.

-0-

For a moment everything and everyone stood still. Even the fire from the torches seemed to freeze for a moment as everyone took stock of what happened.

Biggs's eyes were wide as he was half-turned towards Morgana, watching helplessly but Morgana and Arachne themselves wore shocked expressions too, caught off-guard by these new turns off events.

"Lucky. Looks like I made it." Natsu said, giving a pained smile as he stood before Biggs, Morgana's spear running through his left shoulder, the blade peeking through the other side of his virtual body. The attack took a rather large portion of his health bar but thankfully it missed vital points where the damage would have been larger. "Just as I thought. No paralysis." he commented when he experimentally clenched his right fist, his body reacting to his commands right away.

Further shocking his audience, he suddenly grabbed the shaft of the blond woman's spear and forcefully lodged the long blade out of his body before he shoved away from himself, raising his sword with the other hand in warning.

"What are you?" Morgana asked a little fearfully as she instinctually stepped back. Despite his age and short stature, in the low lighting, with his eyes practically glowing orange, and for that matter, when did they become orange, a fearless smile on his face he looked really intimidating. The only evidence of the injury he suffered was a small red circle on his left shoulder that slowly but steadily was shrinking. "Just how are you immune to paralysis?" she demanded, holding up her spear in defense.

Arachne instead of wasting time with words tried to use the confusion to attack, but she was soon rebuffed by the large teen's shield who stood in her way with a fierce expression.

"I won't let you!" Biggs declared, not moving an inch when Arachne attacked him with all she had.

Natsu finished testing how his arm worked, noting just a smidge of discomfort. If this was the real world he wouldn't have been able to use his arm so well, but that was game mechanics for you. Any pain he felt was incredibly dull, more like discomfort since it was not his body just a virtual one. It also meant that the injury itself did nothing to restrict the movement of his arm, so it let him fight at full potential.

"Biggs, please take care of Arachne." he called out to his friend with a small smile, before he turned his attention back to Morgana who seemed to tremble in anger at being dismissed so easily. "I'll join you as soon as I can." he declared in a rare display of confidence.

"Don't you dare look down on me." she roared as she ran forward and attacked Natsu with abandon but much to her shock the young kid calmly blocked or evaded her attacks without difficulty, not even taking a step back, not losing that confident smile on his face. The difference between them was clear as day.

In this game, there were two factors that more than most mattered when facing an enemy, especially in player versus player fights. The first was level. This was a level-based game where if you got high enough numbers, you can be practically untouchable. It extended to item levels, skill levels, everything. And safe to say Natsu outclassed Morgana in most aspects. He had better items and while she was strong enough to face most things on this floor, Natsu who practically spent every waking moment training or farming on monsters had much higher numbers overall.

The second most important difference was the experience. This was a virtual reality game where there was no button smashing. You had to get used to the fact that you are fighting for real, that enemies before you are real for lack of a better term. That you are holding a sharp weapon and the enemy in front of you intent to stab you with theirs. Acclimating to that, fighting to became second nature is not as easy as that sounds.

Even at the frontlines, there was a clear divide among those who had been fighting since the early floors and those who only gained the courage to get out and join months later with the obvious exceptions, the likes of Heathcliff who took to these fights to the death like fish to water. And Kirito, come to think of it, that guy tended to be in a completely different dimension sometimes.

That didn't mean that he had nothing to fear. Far from that. But now that she couldn't stab him in the back and take him by surprise, he had the upper hand. That was the advantage both he and Biggs had over their opponents. When it came to pure combat, without the aid of shadows and traps, they lived in that world every day.

With a frustrated cry, Morgana attacked one again, using the 3 stab sword skill, Triple Thrust. It was basically 3 simple thrusts in quick succession, the third one easily having enough strength to throw someone back if it connected. Not losing his confident pose, he expertly maneuvered his body, blocking the first strike with his sword while he simply evaded the succeeding thrusts before he finally began his counterattack, forcing back the traitor.

One massive advantage he had over her, he knew the spear related sword skills she used as the back of his head, thanks to all of those training sessions with Buzz. That was the most dangerous part of the PVP fight. Sword skills were incredible and powerful but on the other hand, weren't flexible at all and predictable. The system executed the skill, you had no control over it once you launched it. It meant that you couldn't cancel a move once you committed to it but worst of all, if one recognized the skill from the first few movements, it was not that hard to prepare a block or a counter for it or evade it completely.

Once started, he didn't let up. He began to apply pressure on Morgana by a furious series of attacks, choosing to forgone the use of sword skills until he had a definite idea of her skillset.

Morgana had to back away because of his assault, trying to keep him at distance with her spear's reach and she was partially able to keep him back, though that forced her mostly on the defensive. Still, Natsu knew he needed to hurry up. While statistically he and Biggs had the upper hand, it did not mean either of the twins couldn't think of something up if they got the time for it. They needed to use their own tactic against them, attack fast, and without pause, not giving them ground to think of a counterattack. There was also a possibility of reinforcements showing up, something that was not out of the realm of possibilities.

As he avoided a stab from Morgana he spotted something interesting. The shaft of her spear was a dark brown color with many decorations but what piqued his interest that close to the head was a small section that seemed much lighter on color. He couldn't help but grin as he thought of an idea to finish things up quickly.

"You know, outside of Sword Skills, there are mostly two ways to cause paralysis." he said conversationally as he dodged a wide sweep from Morgana, backing away and stopping a little distance away from her. Morgana was breathing heavily, none of her earlier confidence showing. In the background, he heard Biggs fight with Arachne, the orange player giving grunts of frustration as she couldn't pierce the large teen's defense. "One of those to have a weapon with the ability to cause paralysis but those are very, very rare and we would have noticed if either of you had something like that. Am I right?" it was a little strange how his usual behavior changed in the middle of a battle, growing more confident and a little more snarky. Something to think about later.

"What?" she asked back, shocked. Morgana looked unnerved by his attitude. Looking back on it, it dawned on him why he felt like something was wrong with her ever since they met, though he didn't have any idea back then that she would betray them like that.

"That leaves only one option, coating your weapons with poison capable of causing paralysis." he raised his sword, pointing the edge at her. She looked taken aback, confirming his thoughts."But, that method is mostly usable in surprise attacks, almost useless in real combat because of three drawbacks. First of all, from the moment it was applied, it will periodically lose its effectiveness as time passes, making the chance of activating paralysis less and even lowering the duration the effect will be active." he explained and the moment he finished speaking he charged forward and sent a vertical straight at Morgana who struggled to raise her spear for a block.

He pressed forward, not letting up even for a moment, trying to create the perfect moment for the execution of his plan. Morgana's defense held but only just so with small cuts appearing on her form after his attacks, no clean hit but still enough to steadily drain her health bar, little by little.

"The second drawback to using this method," he continued to talk, remembering how Argo told him how effectively could it throw off your enemy, distracting them. The key was not to let himself get distracted while he did that. "is that with every swing of your weapon you further decrease the time and effectiveness of your poison, so in the middle of the battle a few swings are enough for your poison to become nonexistent." he grinned as he saw realization shine in her eyes. Her reckless attacks against Biggs were more than enough for the poison to come off by the time he jumped into the fray.

"Just stop talking:" Morgana cried as she began to fight back, quickly taking a familiar stance. Soon her spear shone dark purple as she charged forward, using the sword skill Fatal Thrust. It was a simple thrust attack with enough power to one-shot weaker enemies but in response to that had a ridiculously long cooldown. She played right into his hand.

He avoided the attack with an ease born from countless mock battles against Buzz and without a moment of hesitation launched a skill of his own, a diagonal but the target was not the blonde woman but the shaft of her spear near where the blade rested. The wood resisted for a moment before breaking with a loud sound that even earned the attention of Biggs and Arachne who were in the middle of their version of cat and mouse. Morgana simply stood there staring at the broken wood shaft that used to be her spear, frozen either by shock or the post motion delay as the blade of her weapon fell to the ground.

"The third drawback is," he told her, raising his sword so it pointed at her chest." that it lowers the durability of the weapon making it more susceptible of weapon break." Considering that spears had one of the lowest overall durability out of all weapon types, it was easier than it looked.

For a moment everything stood still, Morgana trying to get grips with what happened. Then a second later, the two halves of the spear disappeared leaving a bunch of polygons in their place. It prompted Morgana to began to back away from him, trembling in fear.

Natsu looked at her, feeling a little bit puzzled at the sudden show of fear. It wasn't like they were gonna kill her, now that he thought about it he had no idea what they could do with them. Getting out of the dungeon while holding them prisoners would be challenging enough but what would happen after? They couldn't just let them go and hurt others, so they needed to think of someplace, a prison to hold them until they beat the game. Food for thought, something to decide later.

His instincts suddenly flared, just as he heard Biggs shout out in worry.

"Natsu! Look out!" turning back he caught sight of the big guy trying to run after Arachne who made a beeline toward him and was in the middle of throwing a pair of knives at him.

Some kind of sixth sense screamed at him not to try and block them, and since his instincts had yet to betray him, he followed them without question. Not bothering with Morgana he jumped away, the knives just sailing past him. He landed a few feet away and his eyes widened as he heard a pained scream. Looking back, he saw both projectiles hit the blonde woman, one in her leg the other on the chest, sending her health bar to the red zone. She also fell to the ground like a marionette that had its strings cut, most likely the blades were poisoned.

Arachne stopped next to the slumped form of her sister, turning around to face them with a cruel smirk, while Biggs stopped next to Natsu, the two teens sharing a nod between them. Arachne and her sister were in front of the open boss room while the two green players were a little distance away from them, their back facing the tunnel that led them to this room.

"B-Big sister." Morgana whispered, unable to even move her head, completely helpless. Arachne looked at her with a blank look, before she lashed out and kicked her in the stomach, eliciting a cry of pain from the younger twin.

"Shut up you useless twin of mine!" she shouted as she once again kicked Morgana, much to the horror of Biggs and Natsu before she turned toward them, sneering at the two."I had enough of your interference."

"She is your sister." Natsu cried out, aghast."Why are you doing this?" he asked, not able to believe why would someone do this to their sibling, to their family. Biggs next to him looked enraged, and only Natsu's hand on his shoulder stopped him from charging ahead. They needed cool heads for this, both of them knew, but it didn't come so easily.

"Not like she's good for anything. I always thought she was worthless and this proved it." she told them, ignoring the tears gathering in her sister's eyes."Well, all in a good day's work I suppose. The original objectives were met. My sister proved to be the weak link I know she was, but at least the effectiveness of leader-sama's item was proven. Guess it's time for me to make my escape. Though I would have loved to play with you more, Natsu-kun." she said as she licked her lips, making Natsu shudder at the action.

"As if we would let you. After what you did do you think you can be forgiven?" Biggs cried out in rage, stepping forward while pointing his sword at Arachne.

Natsu never saw him this angry, though he could see where he came from. Those deaths, the cruelty, it was more than any of them were prepared to face. He knew himself well enough to know he will break down the moment it was over, but until then he needed to keep himself together.

"You won't let me?" Arachne smirked at his words, before reaching down and grabbing Morgana's hair and lifting it, eliciting another cry of pain from her."You won't have a chance if you want to save the life of my darling little sister." she cackled, much to their disgust. Forget the way she treated her, using her sister's life as a bargaining chip? That was disgusting.

With a grunt of exertion, showing a surprising amount of strength they didn't think she had, she threw Morgana behind her, directly into the boss room. Both teens watched in horror as the unmoving form of Morgana landed in the boss room, a large shape from the other end of the room slowly moving toward her. Meanwhile, Arachne used the distraction to run toward the nearest wall, throwing some kind of glass at it that shattered, spraying black liquid over it.

Biggs was about to run after her, but Natsu stopped him.

"Biggs, let her go." he said, looking worriedly at the direction where Morgana lied helplessly, the large form of this floor's boss steadily coming closer."We have to save Morgana."

"But-" Biggs tried to object, but it was clear he was debating with himself. Natsu didn't like it any less, the thought of letting Arachne go left a sour taste in his mouth, but he hated the thought of leaving someone, even Morgana to die much more.

"If we sink to their level, if we abandon someone, even if it's an enemy then what are we?" Natsu asked back, staring into Biggs's conflicted eyes."If I did that I could never look into a mirror again." he explained. Biggs was silent for a moment before his shoulder slumped and he gave a nod to Natsu.

The two of them spared a look at Arachne's retreating form, only catching sight of her body disappearing into some kind of black goo before they ran into the boss room.

As they ran into the boss room, both of them had a brief feeling of deja vu. Unlike the rest of the labyrinth, the boss room was very spacious with a smooth black marble floor and the torches along the wall were held by stone statues and shone with a bright light It was eerily similar to how the 25th floor looked like.

Morgana lied not that far from the entrance, pleading for help but far enough that her mere presence gained the boss's attention who began to walk toward them with footsteps that caused the floor below them to slightly tremble.

Biggs and Natsu were nervous sure, but they were aware they didn't need to fight the boss, only to get Morgana and get out without suffering any casualties. But both of them froze when they caught sight of the boss. They should have anticipated this, the whole undead theme of the dungeon, the reappearance of Illfang the first boss they faced. The identity of the boss should have been pretty easy to figure out.

No, Natsu had a pretty good idea about the boss, ever since he fought against Illfang but he didn't want to believe it. Didn't want it to be real, he didn't want to relive that nightmare. But all that hoping was nothing.

Ulrik, the two-headed giant that guarded the gate leading to the 26th floor, the enemy that killed so many players before they were finally able to defeat it. Before its death it was a giant, its height rivaling Fuscus, the 5th-floor boss, with its skin-deep blue and very hard to penetrate. It had two snarling heads, both of them wearing Viking style helmets. Keeping up with the Viking theme, its armor was a strange mixture of leather armor and animal furs and it had two double-headed axes as weapons.

Ulrik was a very aggressive boss, more than any other they encountered before. It used a few skills but even its basic attacks were very strong. It could easily one-hit players with lighter armor, was a lot faster than its size would indicate and its defense made shrug off attacks with ease.

The 25th boss was nothing short of the terrifying and its undead version did his best to live up to this reputation. There was no flesh on the monster, only a skeleton dressed in that strange armor of Ulrik filled with holes and for some reason, arrows sticking out of its back. A blue fire burned inside the eye sockets of the two skulls on to its body. The left one was missing its jaw, while the right one had a big crack running through its helmet and skull. Ulrik, the Undead Giant still held its all too familiar double-bladed axes, though they seemed to be rusty and blunt. Still, Natsu did not doubt that it could still easily slice him in half if given the opportunity.

As Ulrik slowly walked closer and close, Natsu desperately tried to move, to look away from the monstrosity but he couldn't. He didn't hear Morgana's pleas any longer, he even forgot about Biggs standing next to him, his sword almost falling out of his hands, he was trembling so badly.

He found himself back on the 25th floor, players crying out in terror around him. Ulrik easily cutting through their hastily raised defenses, Basil and Agil swatted to the side with a simple strike from the boss, his ears ringing as Kirito and Buzz tried to give orders, organize them instead of running without direction.

'I don't want to die.' was the sole thought running through his head, lost in the memories of one of the toughest fights of his life.'Not yet, not like this. I don't want to die, I want to live, I want to see my mama, stay with my friends.' all the while Ulrik was getting closer neither young men able to move ironically paralyzed this time by sheer fear.

Sudden pain in his palm made him look up. Somehow, despite his body being nothing more than a bunch of ones and zeros, his free hand was clenched so strongly it caused minuscule damage to himself. As if coming out of a daze, he looked up, watching Ulrik slowly lumbering closer. He was still scary as hell, but Natsu was able to fight off the memories, focusing on one thing. There was someone in danger.

Looking to the side he found Biggs in the same fearful stupor he had just been. No time to be gentle, he simply slapped the giant teen's shoulder lightly, causing him to jump and look at him in question.

"Biggs, we have to concentrate. We have to get Morgana out of here." Biggs looked uncertain for a second but nodded in the end, turning back to Ulrik with a determined expression. Natsu meanwhile thought furiously about what was the best course of action, running was the only viable option, no way the two of them could stand up to the undead boss. He gulped, painfully aware of what he needed to do. "I distract Ulrik, get Morgana out of here." he said, his friend looked at him in alarm.

"What are you talking about?" he objected strongly."You are much faster than me, it should be me, I will act as a distraction-" he began to say but Natsu cut him off with a glare that reminded the older teen one of the reasons Natsu was chosen as guild leader.

"We don't have a raid party along with us. You can't withstand his attacks for long but I can avoid them." he explained, holding his sword with both hands, trying to ignore the subtle trembling of his body. No matter how much he feared the monster before him, he knew what he needed to do."Don't argue. Get her out of her as soon as you can and I will be right behind you." when Biggs didn't move for a long moment he shouted at him."Go!" before he changed forward, toward the undead boss who almost reached Morgana.

He tried to bury whatever apprehension he felt, concentrating nothing but his job. He remembered the lessons Buzz gave him and tried his best to find the best approach. Sword Skills were out of the question, he didn't want to deal great damage, only to get Ulrik's attention and without other people attacked the boss the post-motion delays could put him at a disadvantage.

"Come on you big brute." he cried out when he couldn't think of anything better, running past Morgana, directly between Ulrik's legs. He lashed out with his sword, cutting into the armor on his legs, a red line appearing below the beast's left knee, but it gave no sound only stopping for a second, confused.

Natsu ran behind it, the two-headed giant slowly turning around, it's skull cackling in an eerie fashion. Ulrik raised his right ax to strike him down but he jumped away at the last possible moment, avoiding the powerful attack just in time, slowly but noticeable retreating, trying to get him away from Morgana and Biggs as far as possible.

While in this form it was even scarier than in the previous, for now, it looked like its stats were very similar to what it had before its defeat. That meant while it was almost insanely strong and sturdy as hell, its speed was low enough that Natsu who only needed to buy time could avoid his attacks. Hopefully.

He tried to lead it away when he spotted Biggs running to Morgana's side who was crying either in fear or relief, periodically darting closer and landing a few attacks on its legs to make sure to draw all of the aggro. In response, Ulrik haphazardly swept at him with his weapons, led by no real tactic but simple impulses. Still, Natsu had to use every one of his points put into his agility to dodge them without falling too back and let it turn its attention to the others.

Suddenly Ulrik raised both of his arms, both axes shining with a light blue light. He instantly recognized the skill a double downward slash that functioned as an AoE attack since it hits the ground with such force that almost everyone falls over in the vicinity. This skill was one of the primary reasons while their defenses failed so easily when they initially faced this boss.

But it was not impossible to avoid. He saw Kirito demonstrate it during the boss battle. You needed very precise timing for it, to jump over the aftershock just in time. For most people, it would be an impossible feat but Natsu felt confident he could make it.

He had to since he was too close to be able to get out of its effective range.

Ulrik's axes landed on the ground with great force. Just as they reached the floor, Natsu jumped backward, putting all of his strength into the jump so he could remain above the group as long as he could. For a moment he feared he missed the timing as he landed he felt the floor tremble below him but it soon passed and he remained on two feet. He made it, barely but he still made it.

He was about to make another run at the giant when Biggs's voice reached him.

"Natsu, we are almost out." he shouted, Morgana, thrown over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes."Hurry up." they were almost at the entrance to the boss room.

Natsu gave a relieved smile before he focused on Ulrik. The undead giant was coming out of the post motion delay caused by the skill, he needed to move now. He began to sprint, trying to keep his distance from the boss that noticed him and turned to cut him off.

Retreating from the enemy was always a risky business, opening yourself to an attack from behind, which almost impossible to dodge. Most players normally only try with someone staying behind watching your back, but right now Natsu had no such option. He had to be quick if he wanted to get out unscathed.

He draws a half-circle around the giant form of Ulrik before the boss clued into his intentions and raised one of his weapons to strike. It sent a horizontal swipe at Natsu who ad to duck low to avoid being sliced in half by the powerful blow but he didn't notice the second ax coming from above.

His eyes widened as he saw the attack but it was far too late to dodge. He raised his blade in a block and deflected some of the damage but in the end, he still got hit. With tremendous power the blade embedded itself into the ground, Natsu was thrown back by the force of the blow.

He landed on his back, his entire body crying out in pain. Opening his eyes, he first noticed his health bar, a large part of it missing sending it into the middle of the yellow zone. He heard worried cries not far from him but his largest problem was the two-headed giant skeleton slowly walking towards him.

He should have seen that attack, should have been able to dodge it. Yet, despite the numbers saying otherwise he was still hit. And as he struggled to stand up, Natsu understood the reason for it.

Mental fatigue. One of the largest dangers of spending too much time on the field fighting. The bodies they had in this world may not be flesh, it couldn't get tired but the brain certainly could. The brain working overtime, exhausting the player as if he was fighting for hours in the real world. It causes players to make mistakes and mistakes get them killed. That was the reason why it was not recommended to fight out in the fields for more than three or four hours without rest. That was common sense in this new world, Kirito said to him once.

In retrospect, it was not that surprising. It was probably around late afternoon and he and his friends entered during the morning. All that time they spent fighting in the dungeon, one danger after another. Illfang, the attacks of the PKers just made things worse.

Though they did stop to rest from time to time, to eat and drink, so the feelings of hunger and thirst wouldn't distract them, it simply wasn't enough. Resting in a dungeon for a few minutes was nothing compared to resting, sleeping in your home in a safe zone.

With great difficulty he got up, finding himself face to face with the boss that almost killed him with one hit. He felt so tired, his body weighing down like nothing else. Even holding up his sword felt like something out of the realm of possibilities. Natsu gritted his teeth, trying to get over the feeling or he will die without a doubt.

"I won't let you!" a voice cried out just as the boss was about to attack. Looking to the size in surprise, he just caught sight of Wedge unleashing multiple thrusts with his rapier at Ulrik, Basil quickly following him, making the boss forget about him, much to his relief. "Biggs, get him out of here." the rapier user ordered before he and Basil began to attack the undead.

Natsu was about to open his mouth when he was unceremoniously grabbed by the big arms of big and draped over his back. By the time he finally understood what was happening the big guy was running toward the entrance of the boss room with him on his back while his two other friends covered them.

Before long, Biggs stopped, gently putting down Natsu, holding him when he almost falls over. They were outside the boss room, Morgana and Roger not far from them, the latter keeping an eye on her, though he looked visibly confused at what was going on.

He looked worriedly in the direction of the boss, fearing the condition of Wedge and Basil but as he turned around he caught them leaving the room with scraps and tired but very much alive. Ulrik didn't seem to follow them outside and a moment later the doors closed, signifying the 'end' of the boss battle.

For a terrifying moment, everyone stood still, not wanting to believe it was over just yet. The room was silent save for Wedge and Basil huffing, trying to get their breath back and the crackle of flames in the torches. In the end, it was Roger who was eying the boss room's door warily who finally broke the silence.

"Is it over?" he whispered, feeling as if he tried to speak louder the boss on the other side would hear and decide to attack.

Natsu looked at the faces of his friends, searching for the answer himself. Was it over? He didn't think so. Ian and Grumpy died and the main perpetrators got away. They caught Morgana, but what should they do with her? Where to take her? Arachne also mentioned they had a guild, Laughing Coffin. How many player killers are out there? He felt as if the very rules of the game changed. It was unheard of, PK at the frontlines.

He broke out his morose thoughts when he felt a hand pat his head. Looking up he met Wedge's tired face, the older teen offering a small smile to him.

"For now it's over." he told them, more for Natsu's sake than Roger's. He eyes Morgana, who didn't dare to move an inch, even though the paralysis probably wore off by now."But I fear it's not the last time we saw these guys." Natsu gave a nod, not doubting for a second it was not their last encounter.

"At the very least, it looks like our maps started working once again. It looks like it was simply blocked since it recorded where we were even when we couldn't access it." said Basil, checking his menu and giving a relieved sigh as he found everything in working order.

"Man, am I glad to hear that." Wedge laughed, his shoulders dropping in visible relief, before he turned away from Natsu, letting Biggs help him up and look after him while he looked at Morgana with a pensive look on his face."Guess, it's time for us to leave this labyrinth. We have quite a few talks before us." he said at it was hard not to miss Morgana suddenly tensing from her spot on the ground. But before she could decide to try anything Basil was already next to her, pointing his sword at her in a warning.

'I-I'll cooperate." she said fearfully, looking as if she just signed her death warrant. Wedge only grunted, not betraying his thoughts on the matter, causing her to tremble before he signed to Basil who told her to get up and get going.

"Let's go home." Biggs told Natsu quietly, giving him an encouraging smile.

"Yeah, I had enough of this labyrinth for a lifetime and a half." he agreed with a faint laugh as he stood up properly.

-0-

"Here you go, Natsu-kun." Asuna said with a kind smile as she placed a cup of tea before Natsu who was deep in thought, almost jumping when he noticed her.

"Ah, th-thank you, Asuna-nee." he answered, blushing a little at being caught off-guard. Normally he couldn't call others with such a familiar honorific, but Asuna insisted and it helped he liked to spend time with the older girl. Despite her worries and constant lectures about being reckless, she treated him more or less as an equal. She had that aura around her that helped him relax a lot easier. It was part of the reason why he decided to go to the headquarters of the KOB as soon as they left the 27th floor's labyrinth.

He picked up the still-hot cup of tea and took a sip from it. Calling it tea in the traditional sense would be a mistake. It was not made with ingredients found in the real world and even the method of making it different from traditional methods. It was made from different drops from monsters, using the game's cooking system, producing something similar to tea.

He couldn't help but smile at the sweet taste that reminded him of the tea his mother used to make whenever he had a bad dream. Asuna's cooking skill come a long way, even though she only began to work on it as some kind of hobby in the last month after she visited them at the mansion and encountered some of Basil's earlier experiments. After that, she suddenly decided to try her hand at cooking. And no offense to Basil, but she really had a talent in it.

"It has a very nice taste, thank you." he thanked her with a smile that for once didn't feel forced. After the day's events, he would have thought it would be harder to smile but being among friends had an effect on him. "Also, thank you for looking after Fives and Annabelle while we were way over our heads." he told her, feeling a little embarrassed. Even if he didn't like it, a lot of it was pure luck that all of them were able to get out of that trap, with only two casualties.

Roger was with Annabelle and Fives, huddled together at the corner of the room, whispering among themselves. Natsu didn't want to know what they might have been feeling. They almost died, not from monsters but at the hands of other players, humans like themselves, Ian and Grumpy died before their eyes, and worst of all, Morgana one of their comrades turned out to work for the very people who wanted to kill them. It was enough to shake up anyone.

Basil was resting on a couch not far from them, seemingly sleeping. Natsu knew better, his friend was alert even in a safe zone of a friendly guild but took the opportunity to rest a little since all of them were very exhausted by the day's events. Wedge and Biggs left them, went back to the manor to inform Buzz and Agil of what they found. It reminded Natsu he definitely had a few things to talk about with Agil and Buzz but that could wait for a while.

"Fortunately, they arrived when they did." said Asuna with a thoughtful frown as she also looked at the three survivors."Agil was getting worried since you didn't come back and I was just about to grab a group and go after you myself." she stated, messing his hair up with a small smile, ignoring his embarrassed protests.

"I'm glad you didn't." he said, losing whatever levity he had, looking down the ground."I don't want any more people to get hurt."

"Yeah." Asuna looked on helplessly for a moment before she sat down next to him, throwing an arm around him, drawing Natsu close to her. After a tense moment, he relaxed, melting into her side, basking in the warm feeling the brown-haired girl provided."How are you feeling?" she asked softly, prompting him to look at his hands in his lap. They were trembling.

"I," he hesitated, not knowing what to tell her."I feel angry, scared, terrified. A lot of things." Asuna didn't interrupt him, only giving his shoulders a gentle squeeze, to remind him she was there for him."It's, I got used to fighting fairly easily. It's scary as hell but there is a certain, how do I say this, flow to it. Once you catch onto that flow, it comes naturally. But it was never like this. Until now we have been fighting monsters, computer programs who couldn't help what their programming is. And intellectually I knew that Kayaba, the one who imprisoned us here is the one responsible for it and I accepted it. But, maybe it was naive of me, but I never thought something like this could happen. Other players could choose to kill others, especially if they knew that if they kill anyone here, they die out there too. It just," he sighed in frustration, trying to organize what he wanted to say."I never thought some could betray their comrades like that, to kill someone without any remorse. They enjoyed it and it makes it so much worse." he gulped, trying to blink back the tears that gathered in his eyes."The thought of people capable of that, that there are people like those in this game, it scares me more than any boss." he admitted, turning to Asuna fully, giving her a strong hug, trying to hide from the rest of the world."

"Oh Natsu, I'm so sorry." Asuna whispered as she embraced him, letting him get out his feelings. A lot of people tend to forget it, because most of the time he is the one to lead a charge, to see the positive side of things, that he was still just a kid. Just like Basil, Ken, or even her or Kirito, they were still kids. Yet for one reason or the other, they were here, fighting on the frontlines, risking their lives for the sake of others. But it didn't mean they weren't kids, kids who could get overwhelmed by the cruelty people are capable of.

They stayed together for a while, Asuna petting his head with a sad smile on her face and ignoring the slight tremble of his shoulders. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Basil open one eye and look at them, body tense before he relaxed and went back to rest. Because of her duties and the fact they were in different guilds, she didn't see the boys as much as she would have liked, but she was happy to see that they had each other's back.

After a few minutes, they let go of each other, going back to their seats. Natsu quickly tried to rub away the tears while Asuna acted as if she hadn't seen that or the small wet spot on her shoulder. They basked in the quiet of the usually busy waiting room of the KOB HQ, something she knew Natsu needed to come to terms with what happened.

"What will happen to Morgana?" he asked after a while, looking at her curiously, though he seemed unsure if he wanted an answer.

Asuna opened her mouth to answer but loud footsteps caught their attention, causing them to turn their hand to the nearest door. Stepping through was a heavily armored man that both young teens instantly recognized.

The uniform of the members of Knights of the Oath Blood was white armor with red crosses, similar to the templars from the Crusades. This man instead had red armor with white crosses. And if that wasn't enough for him to stand out of the crowd then the large shield he had on his arm and the sword stored inside it would be more than enough to gather attention to him.

The man itself was tall, muscular, the image of an ideal swordsman. He had sharp features and steel-grey hair giving him a slightly intimidating look. it didn't help that the man hardly changed his neutral expression, giving out an air of an unapproachable man. Despite that, he was highly regarded as one of the upcoming players of the frontlines, with the unique skill, Holy Blade giving him an edge that not many could rival.

The man in question stopped, looking around the room before spotting the two of them. Giving a nod to himself, he walked to them, both Asuna and Natsu standing up to greet the man.

"Guild leader." Asuna greeted him with a smile and a small bow.

"Heathcliff." Natsu greeted him with a simple nod, watching him with a little warily. He didn't have anything against the man, but whenever they talked a little voice in the back of his head warned him against trusting him. And after what happened with Morgana, he decided that following the advice of his instincts might be better for the time being.

Heathcliff nodded in greeting to his sub-commander and the leader of one of the strongest guilds in the game, his expression not changing at all. Natsu found that the most unnerving about the man, feeling like he was talking to an NPC and not to a human being.

"Asuna, Natsu." he addressed them, his grey eyes seemingly seeing through them, causing Natsu to squirm a little in place."I came to inform you that we placed the player killer Morgana is one of the lower-level rooms with two members of my guild watching over her, just in case. Though I doubt she could get through the room's locks and escape it's better safe than sorry." he explained, Asuna nodding along.

"I'll have the others form a rotating guard among the low-level members so the time they miss out on farming won't be too much, while still staying on the safe side." Asuna agreed with a hand on her chin, already thinking deeply about the issue. Natsu couldn't help but smile, he knew Heathcliff was a very charismatic leader, despite his worries about the man, but the one who really led the guild was Asuna most of the time. She had a knack for this whole administrating thing.

"Sorry for the trouble on such short notice." Natsu said with an apologetic shrug."Unfortunately, our mansion is not capable to function as a prison right now." he immediately felt depressed, who would have thought they would need prisons in the first place? Didn't they have enough trouble with the death game itself?"I'll talk with the other guilds and try to work out something where to hold our criminals. Because the worst thing is, I don't think she would be the last player killer we have to imprison."

"Agreed." the leader of the KOB nodded, deep in thought. "In the meanwhile, we will keep her under our surveillance. Though the existence of this Laughing Coffin is troubling, I find myself more troubled about an item that capable of rendering maps useless." he admitted, sending a questioning look to Natsu.

The brown-haired kid understood where he was coming from, other players, they could fight them, no matter how little they wanted to, but defending against something like that item would be hard indeed.

"I don't have all the details on that item, but assuming it has a limited range it's still very dangerous." he said, telling them what he learned about it from Arachne and Morgana."Unfortunately, there are more questions than answers. Not exactly what we needed after the whole tragedy that was the 25th floor." he grimaced as he was reminded of another information."At least we found the boss room." Heathcliff raised an eyebrow in question, wanting him to elaborate. "I already shared the map data with Asuna and I plan to have Argo circulate the info as soon as she can and plan for a strategy meeting. But I'm not looking forward to it." he shuddered as he remembered the undead giant that was waiting for them on the 27th floor. Not many people would be up to that fight when it becomes common knowledge who the boss is.

Asuna put a hand on his shoulders, squeezing it in reassurance. He told her with his brief second encounter with Ulrik and she remembered just as well the kind of massacre that boss did on the 25th floor.

Heathcliff only watched on with a detached expression, before nodding to himself as if he reached some kind of conclusion.

"I'll leave you to that then. Until we meet at the strategy meeting." he nodded both of them, before turning around and abruptly leaving the room much to both of their surprises.

"He is a little hard to relate to but he really works hard for our sake." Asuna apologized to him for her leader's strange behavior. Natsu only shrugged it off.

"I still don't like him." he admitted freely and smiled at the pout his big sister sent to him. He soon lost whatever levity he had as he looked over Roger and the two kids who seemed to calm down but it didn't look like they planned to move away from their little pile anytime soon. "I'm sorry to ask more of you but can you keep an eye on those guys. They went through a lot and I want to wait a day at least to talk with them about what went on." he requested.

"Sure." she agreed with a smile, giving him a hug that Natsu was happy to receive."Guess it's time for you guys to go home?" she asked. In response Basil gave a huge yawn as he got up and walked to them, giving a lazy wave.

"Agil will be worried until he sees us safe for himself, so yeah, we should be going." Natsu said with a small smile. "I'll talk with Buzz and Argo about the PKs and alert Klein so he could look out as well. Can you talk with Kirito so he doesn't get into trouble?" he asked in a teasing tone.

Asuna's face reddened in an instant, gaping at him. The last person who she would have thought to dare and tease her was Natsu. Slowly, anger replaced embarrassment and she sent a glare at him that made him hide behind Basil just in case.

"Ki-Kirito? Why should I-? To talk to that lazy bum- I mean I don't dislike him but he can be so infuriating- Just what are you grinning about Natsu?" she demanded her face resembling a cheery. It was always fun to tease her about Kirito since she got flustered almost every time.

Still hiding behind Basil, Natsu gave her an impish smile before he grabbed his friend and began to leave, still using the surprised blond as a movable shield. He waved to Roger and the kids with his free hand who looked perplexed at the strange behavior from the top players of the game while Asuna still fumed in her place.

"See you later Asuna-nee! Please say hi to Kirito from me too." he couldn't help but tease her one last time as he finally backed into the open corridor, abandoning Basil and running away, laughing all the way, much to the shock of nearby members of the KOB who never saw the famous Orange Blaze act so much like his age.

"Natsu!" she cried after him in embarrassment before she began to chase after him, further shocking those unfortunate enough to get in her way.

-0-

"Seems like your little sister was captured by the members of the Keepers of the Seven Rings." the leader of PoH observed with an indifferent expression.

He was in a large cave with the rest of the Laughing coffin. He was sitting in a rock formation that resembled a throne while the others were perched around on various columns or standing near the opening leading to the elaborate cave system that served as their base and fortress. Arachne was in the middle, kneeling on the ground, visibly trembling at disappointing her leader.

As if his words were some kind of permission nearby members began to jeer at the one who wanted to introduce the failure to their magnificent guild.

"Suck to be you, princess."

"What did you expect? If one is incompetent, the other one bound to be the same, no?"

"Can I kill her yet?"

The last one was asked by a man who's whole body was hidden under a cloak save for a skull mask on his face, the red eyes of the mask almost gleaming in anticipation. He fingered the handle of his weapon, a moment away from trying to kill Arachne. Despite the threats, the woman hadn't looked away, awaiting the decision of her leader.

All of them were silenced with a single wave from the leader who hadn't looked away from her, violet eyes boring into her very being. He then gestured to the man standing at his side who obediently stepped forward. He was a young man barely out of his teens, short black hair, and a positively deranged smile on his face. He had a small stature that made him look like a kid at first glance. He was playing with the knife strapped to his back in an absent-minded way.

"What is your assessment, Johnny Black?" PoH asked him, his powerful voice easily carried over everyone.

"Well, it's not like either of us thought that little girl would be of any use, so it's no real loss right?" he asked, shrugging his shoulder. "She didn't really know anything important about us, but we were able to test out successfully both the black portal and the jammer, so I guess the mission was a success, right?" he asked before his grin widened, making his face even more dangerous looking."But man, those high-level guys the real deal. It was such fun playing with them, I can't wait for the next time. The fire in their eyes, it really got my blood pumping, you know, boss man?"

"It had been the plan to eventually reveal ourselves to the whole of Aincrad, so it's not the end of the world. And since the original purpose was fulfilled, you won't be punished Arachne, but I won't accept a second failure. Do you understood?" when she nodded resolutely, PoH simply waved away the rest of his men."Then dismissed."

Some grumbling, some more eager to leave, the members of Laughing Coffin slowly left, broking into pairs or simply walking away on their own. Johnny Black mockingly patted Arachne's shoulder as he passed her, only smirking at the glower she sent to him.

"Arachne, stay back. I want to talk with you." PoH called back, prompting the black-haired woman to cheer softly with a blush on her face as she walked up to it.

"What do you need, PoH-sama?" she asked eagerly as she leaned closer to him. PoH remained expressionless before he gave her a small smirk.

"There was one thing in your report that sparked my interest. Tell me all you can about the Orange Blaze, tell me about Natsu-Kun." he laughed menacingly to himself as Arachne began to tell about her encounter with the famous guild leader.