Chapter 3: Cousin!
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Eric woke up at about 11:54am. "I can't believe it's already Sunday." Eric said as he checked his phone. "Texts from a number I don't know." Eric said to himself as he checked them. They were from Sinon, she got Eric's number from Kirito and was wanting to know if he wanted to meet for lunch with her and Kirito and Asuna. Eric just stared at his phone. Eric marked the messages as read and called her.
"Hello?" Sinon asked.
"It's Eric." Eric said with a yawn.
"Are you just getting up?" Sinon asked.
"Yeah." Eric replied.
"Well did you wanna meet for lunch at 12:00?" Sinon asked.
"Where?" Eric asked.
"Well Kirito said you were a good cook so…" Sinon said.
"… Kirito can text you my address." Eric said.
"Cool, see you soon." Sinon said.
"Sure, bye." Eric said as he hung up. Eric went downstairs and started cooking. After a few minutes Eric's doorbell rang. Eric answered it and it was Sinon.
"Hey, turns out I live pretty close." Sinon said as she walked in.
"Cool." Eric said as he shut the door. Sinon sniffed the air and smiled.
"Whatever you are cooking it smells good." Sinon said.
"T-Thanks." Eric said smiling. After a while Kirito and Asuna showed up. They all ate Eric's cooking, it was some fried porkchops and rice.
"That was so good." Asuna said.
"Eric you could so make money off this cooking." Kirito said.
"I need to start coming over for your cooking." Sinon said. Kirito and Asuna agreed with her.
"Well whenever ya'll want I'll gladly cook." Eric said.
"Eric there is a reason we wanted you to play ALO and power up." Kirito said getting serious.
"What?" Eric said getting even more serious.
"Ragnarök." Kirito said.
"I read about that quest on the ALO Forums, it starts in a week." Eric said.
"So you know the danger, we need to do two things." Asuna said.
"First, stop any Fire giants from getting into our world." Kirito said.
"And second kill the king of the fire giants." Sinon finished.
"I'll help!" Eric shouted as he stood up. "I haven't had anything to really fight for since SAO." Eric said with fire in his eyes and a huge grin.
"Good, I need to judge your skill though Eric, I brought my dive gear, let's go and duel right now." Kirito said.
"Ok." Eric said. Eric and Kirito laid down on the ground with their Amuspheres on. "Asuna, Asada, feel free to use my kitchen and Tv while me and Kirito are fighting." Eric said. They nodded.
"Link Start!" Eric and Kirito yelled. After some flying Eric and Kirito landed in some open plains. Kirito took out one of his swords and then took out Excalibur. Eric drew Demon Blood and equipped a sword with a pure orange blade and a black handle. Eric and Kirito charged at each other. Kirito swung at Eric, Eric blocked with one of his swords. Eric and Kirito went crazy, slash after slash. Eric's Demon blood sword lit on fire.
"Sword skill time." Eric said as he slashed at Kirito. Kirito blocked with his other sword and his Excalibur gained a purple aura. Kirito cut Eric in the chest and it was a lighting skill so Eric was shocked and knocked back. "Þeír hræða nótt dýpt, renn helvegr" Eric used a spell.
"Not that spell." Kirito said as he watched Eric be ingulfed in flames. The flames exploded and The Skull Reaper boss from SAO appeared. "Nice try Eric!" Kirito shouted. "Þeír hræða nótt dýpt, renn helvegr" Kirito used the same spell. Kirito was ingulfed in flames and when those exploded the gleam eyes boss appeared. Eric and Kirito fought as Skull Reaper and Gleam eyes. Eric tried to head butt Kirito, but Kirito dodged, picked Eric up and threw him into the ground. Eric wrapped his body around Kirito.
'T-This is insane!' Eric thought as he started stabbing Kirito.
'It's not over yet!' Kirito thought as he broke free of Eric's hold. The spells ended and Eric and Kirito activated their wings and started fighting in the sky. Kirito used a fire sword skill then an ice, fire, ice, fire, ice. Kirito landed all the attacks and sent Eric crashing into the ground with his hp in the red. Kirito charged downwards towards Eric. Eric dodged as Kirito slashed at him.
"I will not die!" Eric yelled as his mind started thinking he was back in SAO.
"Wait Eric you kn-" Kirito was cut off by Eric thrusting Demon blood through Kirito's stomach. Kirito slashed at Eric but Eric ripped his sword out of Kirito and jumped back fast enough to dodge. Kirito dropped down into red. 'His eyes, for him this is not ALO, it's SAO.' Kirito thought as he ran at Eric. Eric unequipped his orange sword and held his Demon blood sword with both hands. "Just one sword won't win you this battle!" Kirito yelled as he stabbed both his swords into Eric's chest. Eric sat there as his health started to fall.
"I couldn't beat you, but I could make it a draw like this." Eric said as he stabbed Kirito in the head. Their health both dropped to 0. There souls just floated there. After a few minutes Asuna logged in and revived them. They all went back to Kirito and Asuna's house and logged out. Eric, Kirito, and Asuna all sat up on Eric's floor.
"Who won?" Sinon asked.
"We both died at the same time." Kirito said.
"Wow Eric! You kept up with Kirito?!" Sinon asked.
"No! he held back." Eric said as he shot a death stare at Kirito.
"Sorry about that, but you shouldn't have held back so much either." Kirito said with a laugh.
"Fair enough." Eric said with a sigh. "So do you think I have enough power to help?" Eric asked.
"Of course you do!" Sinon answered.
"I agree, but we could still use some extra help." Kirito said. Kirito's phone started ringing. "Hello." Kirito said.
"Hey, Eric any good?" Silica asked.
"Yeah, it was a draw." Kirito answered.
"Well even with him, would you like my friend to join?" Silica asked.
"Sure, meet us in ALO." Kirito said. They got off the phone. "Hey Eric since me and Asuna are already here mind if we dive here?" Kirito asked.
"Sure." Eric said. Kirito and Asuna dived into ALO.
"I have to go back home to dive." Sinon said.
"can you drive?" Eric asked.
"Yeah…" Sinon said.
"Here." Eric said as he tossed Sinon some car keys. "Get there and dive quickly." Eric said as he put on his Amusphere. "Link start." Eric said. Sinon left and took Eric's firebird. After about 3 minutes Sinon walked into Kirito and Asuna's house, Kirito and Asuna were siting together on the couch.
"Where's Eric?" Sinon asked.
"Here." Eric said from outside. Sinon went outside and saw Eric flying. "I'm doing a bit of training." Eric said as he flew around doing some air tricks.
"Cool." Sinon said as she sat down and watched.
"Hey guys." Silica said as she walked up. A boy was next to her. He had blue eyes and blue short spiky hair, similar armor to Silica only he had whiter armor and his gloves were green, he was short and a cat-sith, and he had a beast on his head, it looked a lot like Pina, only it was light green. "This is-" Silica was cut off by Eric screaming.
"HUNTER!" Eric yelled as he flew towards the boy, Eric had his Demon Blood sword out and ready for killing.
"Eric!?" Hunter shouted as he pulled out a katana. Hunter just barely able to block Eric's fierce slash. Eric landed.
"Good to see you again cousin." Eric said.
"Yup, been a bit bro." Hunter said.
"I see colada is just fine." Eric said.
"Yeah, he is now in ALO." Hunter said as he petted colada.
"Ya'll are cousins?" Silica asked.
"Yes, we used to live close by but we moved to Japan and split onto our own paths." Hunter answered.
"And here we are, meeting again in a new VRMMO." Eric said.
"Wait your that Eric?" Silica asked.
"Yup, now I remember you." Eric said.
"We all knew each other in SAO." Hunter said.
"Well if your anywhere as good as Eric, it will be nice having you on the team." Kirito said.
"I'm right there with him." Hunter said.
"We should go ahead and go to a dungeon once Klein and Lisbeth get here." Kirito said. Soon everyone was there and they went into a dungeon. They made it to the boss with ease, there was two bosses, a werewolf and a vampire. Sinon, Silica, and Lisbeth was fighting the werewolf while Eric, Hunter, Klein, and Kirito fought the vampire, and Asuna was healing them all.
"This vampire is so dang tough!" Klein shouted as he got hit into a wall. The vampire was 3x stronger then the werewolf. Eric and Hunter was pulling some crazy but combo moves, them and Kirito was the ones that was really hitting the boss hard. Hunter held out his Katana and Eric jumped on the blade and jumped high into the air and when he started falling he slashed the boss on the way to down. The boys heard the girls scream and they looked over. The werewolf ran right past Lisbeth and Silica, knocking them down, and was heading for Sinon.
'My feet… are just moving!' Eric thought as he started running towards Sinon. "I'm coming!" Eric yelled as he activated his wings and gained a speed boost. Eric flew right in front of Sinon and the werewolf clawed him so bad it broke his wings and dropped him into red. "Die!" Eric yelled as he activated his Demon Blood sword power. It trapped the werewolf in blood chains. "Attack now!" Eric yelled.
"E-Eric you jumped in front of the attack." Sinon said.
"Attack! I can't hold him forever." Eric said.
"Why? Why did you do it?" Sinon asked. Lisbeth and Silica slashed the werewolf and killed it. Eric was able to move again. Before anyone could say anything Eric was already running back to help with the vampire.
"Ha!" Eric yelled as he thrusted his sword through the vampire's throat, it finished him off. They all got lots of exp and money. Sinon walked up to Eric.
"Drink this quick please." Sinon said as she handed him a health potion. Eric drunk it. His health was in green. "Don't ever do anything like that again!" Sinon yelled as she slapped him so hard he dropped to yellow. Eric fell to the ground.
"Honestly I'm to numb to fill that pain right now." Eric said with a sigh of relief.
"I'll just do it later." Sinon said. "But thanks for saving me, but next time drink a potion before going back to fighting." Sinon said. Eric just smiled and closed his eyes.
"It all worked out." Eric said. "Oh yeah, here." Eric said as he transferred an item to Sinon.
"What's this?" Sinon asked as she opened her menu.
"Just equip it." Eric said as he opened his eyes and sat up. Sinon equipped it and it was a golden bow with orange glowing triangles in it.
"Wow, the stats on this thing is amazing." Sinon said.
"I got it from the Titan of Arrows, Bowus." Eric said.
"Bowus?! Lot's of players have tried for this bow but couldn't get it. Wait that means this is the Titan bow." Sinon said as she fired an arrow, it flew across the room in an instant.
"The 3rd best bow in the game." Eric said as he got up.
"When did you get this?" Sinon asked.
"Well I may or may not have snuck some time in the middle of a night." Eric said as they all started walking out the dungeon.
"Thanks so much." Sinon said with a smile.
"No problem, just promise to enjoy the bow until you get a better one." Eric said.
"I will." Sinon said. Eric departed from the group and went to a safe hotel and logged out. Eric got up and put up his Amusphere.
"Well since Kirito and Asuna are still in there I might as well make supper for all of us." Eric said to himself. Eric was going through his fridge when he heard his firebird. 'Sinon.' Eric thought. Eric almost ran to the door, he opened it and Sinon was standing there. "Well you coming in?" Eric asked. Sinon nodded and came in.
"So I see they're still diving." Sinon said.
"Yeah, I was going to fix supper for all of us, wanna help me cook?" Eric asked.
"Sure." Sinon replied.
"I was thinking about making some homemade pizza." Eric said.
"I love making pizza." Sinon said.
"Well we should start now right?" Eric asked.
"Yeah." Sinon said. After a while Kirito and Asuna got up and packed up their Amuspheres.
"What smells so good?" Kirito asked as him and Asuna walked into the kitchen. Sinon was watching the oven with a smile. "Sinon, hey, where's Eric?" Kirito asked.
"Taking a shower, cooking got, kinda messy." Sinon replied. They all looked at the floor and it was covered in food stuff.
"Hey, I can't help I really get into cooking." Eric said as he walked in. Eric was wearing a black t-shirt and red cargo shorts.
"Wow Eric, is that the only colors you have? Red, orange, and black?" Sinon asked.
"No. I have white." Eric said with a smirk. Sinon and Asuna laughed.
"Nothing wrong with having a favorite color." Kirito said.
"Yeah, you probably only have black." Eric said.
"I have more colors then that." Kirito said. The oven dinged. They all ate pizza and Kirito and Asuna said their goodbyes and left. Sinon stayed and helped Eric pick up his kitchen. After a couple of minutes.
"Eric…" Sinon said.
"Yeah?" Eric asked.
"Why did you step between me and the werewolf?" Sinon asked.
"Because you were slightly low on health so it might have killed you, don't want teammates dying." Eric answered.
"Then why didn't earlier in the dungeon when Klein almost got killed, why didn't you try hard to save him?" Sinon asked.
"Well I knew Kirito would handle it, why you asking?" Eric asked.
"No reason." Sinon answered. "Well it's late, I should go." Sinon said.
"Yeah, see you later." Eric said. Sinon left. Eric walked up the stairs to his bedroom. He crashed onto his bed. Eric's phone rang, he picked it up. "Hello?" Eric asked.
"Hello EricRising." A deep voice said.
"Do I know you?" Eric asked.
"No, not really, but I know you. And Kirito, Asuna, Klein, Lisbeth, Silica, Hunter, and Sinon." The voice replied. Eric stood up in his room.
"Just who the heck are you?" Eric asked getting mad.
"All you need to know is that I am the leader of Laughing Coffin." The leader said.
"L-Laughing coffin's leader?" Eric asked.
"Yes, you and your friends should watch your back, playing VRMMO's is like playing with fire." The leader said before hanging up. Eric sat down his phone.
"The leader of laughing coffin…" Eric said.