Sword Art Online

After The Incident

Chapter 33 – Bullet Hell

~The Tournament Area, Kirito's POV~

I looked around me quickly as we spawned into the tournament area. It really seemed like there was as many contestants as Sinon had said. About 50 or so people was standing in a circle in front of a massvie tree in something that mostly reminded me of a swamp or a wet jungle.

I frowned silently as I looked around me. Our plan was an extremely delicate one to say the least. Who knew if Sugou actually would come out of hiding if I won the tournament? He was sadistic, but not stupid, I knew that much. But it was the only possibility we had left. We had no leads to where he was, or who he had associated himself with. This was our best chance at finding him.

Finally a signal horn blew through the air, signaling for the players to spread throughout the arena. I frowned silently and ran as fast and far as I could, with only the thought of isolating myself from the other players as much as I could.

I pushed my way through the mushy ground of the swamp and ran in-between the trees. As I ran, I saw a short glance of Deathgun, the guy I had faced in the semifinal of the qualifying tournament. He looked over at me, his red glowing eyes piercing mine, and I could have sworn I could hear him chuckle with his robotic voice before he disappeared in the undergrowth.

I frowned a bit and swallowed my spit in fear. He was worrying me to say the least. I knew he would become a challenge to beat, but I had to. I simply had to. I didn't have any other choice.

As I could see the jungle begin to thin out, I smiled softly as I could see the dessert not far from here. The map didn't make much geographical sense, but that was not one of my worries. If I could get into the dessert, I could camouflage myself long enough to at least let the competition thin itself out a bit, and give me less to worry about. And then I could also focus on finding Asuna and Shino.

When I began to feel soft sand underneath my feet, I took a look around me. There didn't seem to be anyone around, but I could always be wrong, so I was still on guard when I began to slow into a casual walk. I had to save my energy for when it counted.

I still couldn't help but look over my shoulder a couple of times though. I had been a bit paranoid lately, but I think anyone who had been through what we had been through would be in this situation. So I was still tense when I took shelter in a rock cave, with purple crystals illuminating it's walls and ceiling.

I pulled out my pistol and my lightsaber. I didn't have the most heavy equipment of all, but at least I had some means of defending myself if I was attacked by someone.

I wanted so badly to get out there and just get it over with. I was so tired of waiting around for things to happen. I wanted to go out there and get rid of the opposition even if it meant endangering myself.

I still knew that it was dangerous of course. I wasn't afraid of dying, cause I knew that both the game's, and my own personal security was of high quality. But I was still worried something bad would happen.

When the neutral faze of the game had finally ended, I took a look outside the cave. A silent breeze rolled over the dessert, the grains f sand picking up and hitting me in the face softly, the wind whispering silently into my ears. It soothed me somehow, the sound of the wind, but I didn't have time to think about it.

I ran across the dessert and began to search for other players. I knew that my opponents had to be strong to have gotten this far, but I wasn't about to back down without a fight. I needed the torture to end. No matter what.

I was suddenly ripped out of my thoughts as I had to jump to the side to dodge a eave of bullets. I growled softly as I rolled behind a rock, my back hitting the hard surface as I took cover. Who the hell had tried to take me out.

I tried to take a peek over the top of the rock to see what I was up against, but I had to duck down immediately to avoid a throwing knife swooshing right past me, even taking a snip of my hair off in the process. The hair landed in my lap and a shiver ran up my spine. Geez, whoever this guy was, he was damn accurate.

I growled silently and looked through my inventory. Had I been as smart as to buy some grenades to help me deal with this guy?

"Damn… Not a single one" I mumbled as I realized I hadn't bought any "How am I supposed to kill him if I can't even come out of hiding!?"

I growled a bit from adrenaline and frustration. I jumped out from my hiding place, looking around to all sides before dashing forward and sliding to avoid another wave of bullets. The bullet storm suddenly came to a halt and I guessed the guy had to reload. This was my chance!

I looked around to all sides and saw a cloak cladded figure stand in the middle of a group of big boulders, having cover from mostly all sides. Maybe it was Deathgun!?

As he reloaded I growled and rushed forward, shooting at him with my pistol to provide cover fire. I didn't have the most confidence in my aiming skills, so as I shot at him I prepared my lightsaber. As he panicked to reload he forgot to dodge my bullets, and I actually managed to hit him in the shoulder and leg, before I reached him and pierced his side with my saber.

A choaked cry of irritated pain left his body but I kept going, ripping my saber through the guy's ribs and out through his side, securing his death and his loss in the tournament. His body collapsed with the huge blood red wound in his side, the message "Dead" soon appearing over his head.

I panted quietly and smirk. First victory. As far as I knew, there was only 48 other competitors left besides me now. I had no way of knowing though. Sinon had informed me that a visual satellite would appear and give a chance to see where everyone was every twenty minutes, but so far, barely 10 minutes had passed of the actual game, so I couldn't check where my next opponent was.

I decided to set my sights at the resting cave that Sinon had told us about, since that was the plan from the start. And besides, I was worried about the girls, so I wanted to make sure that they were okay.

On the way there I met several other players who immediately tried to kill me, but I either managed to escape or kill my opponent without much effort. When I arrived at the cave, I had had seven different encounters, where I had killed three.

When I entered the cave it was still empty, so I decided to sit down and take a break. I had already had my need to get stuff to progress satisfied, so now I wanted to wait here until the girls arrived, or at least until I had calmed down and had a bit of rest for a moment.

"I hope they're doing alright"

~The Western Sea, Asuna's POV~

I was sailing around on the Western sea of the BoB tournament when I was suddenly attacked by several players. I had thought if I wanted to be isolated from the other players, an empty sea of nothing would be the best choice right? Well, about five other players had had the same idea, and now we were each sitting in our own small sail boat, trying to kill each other from afar.

I growled silently as some of the other players turned their attention towards me, and began to shoot at my boat. The boats wasn't system protected, so that meant that the other players could easily sink me if they wanted to. Several bullet holes were created beside me and I flinched from each, before jumping up and shooting back at them with a battlecry.

Me and Sinon had thankfully went in mostly the same direction, and she was trying to provide me with as much covering fire as we could, but it seemed that some of the other players had teamed up as well, and they had some pretty amazing firepower. Among them was that guy Kazuto had been battling in the qualifying tournament, Deathgun.

He seemed to be targeting the other players though, so at least he wasn't against us for the time being. He seemed to be a formidable opponent, quickly taking out some of the heavy based players left and right.

Soon there was only Sinon, Deathgun, me, and another player left, and me and Sinon quickly worked together to push him to his boundaries, and finally kill him, his body falling out of the boat and into the water.

I frowned a bit as Deathgun stood from his position and took a quick glance around at us. He chuckled softly and raised his hand to point it at us.

"Just know girls" he said in a deep tone "that you are not my target. But you better protect Kirito with al your might"

I widened my eyes a bit as he mentioned Kazuto, and I could feel how my body tensed up. Who was this guy? And why was he after Kazuto of all people?

"What do you want to do with Kirito?" I asked angrily "Why are you targeting him!?"

"That is not of your concern" He said, a chuckle escaping him "Let's just say that I have a personal interest in him"

His words was disheartening, worrying and mocking all at the same time. I felt how my feelings welled up inside me, making me want to get over there and force him to tell me what I wanted to know.

It was just a little hard, considering how worn down my boat was from our previous battle. I should have concentrated on keeping it afloat rather than on Deathgun, cause the next second my boat sunk, and I was quickly soaked.

"God dammit" I yelled as I flailed around "My weapons can't handle water!"

Sinon quickly sailed over and fished me out of the boat, but when the commotion fell, Deathgun was already long gone. I growled and coughed up the water that had made its way into my lungs as Sinon helped me onto my feet.

"You okay Asuna?" She asked silently and worriedly.

"I'm fine Sinon, thanks" I mumbled, still irritated that Deathgun escaped "I'm worried about that guy. He's after Kazuto for a reason"

"Just calm down okay?" Sinon said with a calming voice "Kazuto is a brave and smart guy. He knows how to defend himself"

"You saw yourself what happened in the qualifying tournament Sinon" I said as I looked at her "Kazuto lost to that guy. I hate to say it, but he is just a bit stronger than Kazuto is"

She frowned a bit and sighed softly. She knew I was right, I knew I was right. I wanted to go find Kazuto, make sure he was okay. Of course I knew that Deathgun impossibly could make it across the map in the matter of seconds, but I still knew that he would reach him before we did if we didn't do something right now.

Kazuto might be able to hold his own for a while, but not only was Deathgun stronger than him, in about five minutes, Deathgun would have his exact position with help from the map satellite. Luckily, us three had agreed to meet up in the save cave in the dessert if we split, so we might have a slight chance to get there before Deathgun.

I frowned as I looked over at Sinon.

"Sinon, we have to get to that cave" I said with a stern expression "We have to get to that cave before Deathgun"

"What are you even saying Asuna!?" She asked in a loud voice "You do know there are several kilometers between us and that cave right!? Without even mentioning the sea we have to cross and the dessert!"

"Sinon please!" I yelled at her desperately "I have a really bad feeling about that Deathgun guy! And he's after Kazuto! What if something is going to happen!?"

She fell silent and pinched the bridge of her nose, deep in thought, before she sighed softly and nodded.

"Alright, alright. We'll get there soon enough" Sinon said with a sigh "But you better work for it. We need to get there really fast!"

I lighted up a bit as she finally gave in and I hugged her by the neck in joy.

"Thank you!" I almost cried of desperate happiness "We need to get going straight away. We can't let him be alone Sinon, we can't!"

"Alright, alright already!" She said with a laugh "I still think you're overreacting, but love always wins right?"

I chuckled silently and wiped the tears of my cheeks before we began to set sail towards land. To get to the dessert we first had to reach land, and move through the mountains until we reached the central city.

From there we would probably have to battle with several players, and fight our way through the city until we reached the dirt-roads to the south. From there we would have to move towards the dessert in the southeast.

The whole map was about ten kilometers wide and long, no questions there. With the route we had planned here, we had to travel around twenty kilometers to reach the dessert, and another half a kilometer to reach the cave in the middle.

If our calculations and assumptions was correct, we would be there in rough one and a half hour, if we were fast and lucky. And if we thought about the fact that Deathgun didn't know of Kazuto's exact location just yet, maybe we could be lucky to see him move in the wrong direction.

Just as we got to land, a notification for the map satellite popped up on me and Sinon's HUD. We looked through the map, and thankfully, we realized that Deathgun had taken the wrong path, away from the path to the dessert. I smiled softly. We were about a kilometer in front of Deathgun.

"Alright, if we take this path here, we should arrive at the dessert eventually" Sinon said confidently "And luckily we have a head start it seems"

"It seems like it" I said with a smile as we followed the road "I hope we get there first"

"If he catches up to us, we'll meet him on the way there" Sinon said as we ran "He can't get to the dessert unless he wants to bump into us"

"Can't he get in front of us in the city though?" I asked, or yelled maybe "I mean, it's a big place. How do we know he doesn't take another road through the city than us?"

"All of the streets in there run into four main roads" Sinon said as she huffed from running "Each of those go north, south, east and west. If he want to go to the dessert he'll need to take southern road"

"Alright, sounds good" I said clearly.

"Shouldn't we just ambush him at the southern main road?" Sinon asked as we ran with all our might "I mean, then he won't get to Kazuto, and he'll be eliminated as a player in the tournament"

I think that's a bad idea"

"Huh? Why?"

"Because he's stronger than you think Sinon. You might have beaten him once before but he has much more firepower now. He's powered up, and I don't think our efforts are enough"

"So you're saying we should join up with Kazuto before trying to take him down?"

"Exactly. He would have to be superhuman if he could take down three players at the same time"

"That does sound logical, but still. I have a suspicion you want your hero to be there"

"H-Huh!? What makes you say that!?" I yelled, a blush creeping onto my face.

"You know it's true" Sinon said with a teaseful smirk "You want to battle by your hero's side. Isn't that right?"

"N-N-No! That is not my intention at all!"

"Whatever you say girl" She said with a smile "Just make sure to protect him when we get there alright? It's going to be tough to take down our opponents"

My blush slowly died down again and I simply nodded to her statement. It was true, our opponents was powerful, not only Deathgun, but all of our opposition. If we wanted to win in this tournament and lure Sugou out, we'd have to give it our absolute best, and not hold back.

As far as the map told me before, only 43 players was still alive in the tournament, including Sinon, Kazuto, Deathgun and me. That meant that there was still 40 players to take care of, including Deathgun.

I knew it would be tough, but I was still willing to fight. I had been watching on from the sidelines for too long, and this time, I was going to fight too. For my family, my friends, and for myself.

Whatever the cost.

A/N

Hey guys! Thank you so much for reading this weeks chapter!

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Thank you guys again for reading, and I'll see you next week!