Alice, Mai, Riku, Helios, and Angel all stood together at the outskirts of Karluin. It had already been a terrifying and eventful night for the three girls, having to fight their way out of a dungeon as a makeshift party and nearly dying a couple of times. But it seemed the night had more in store for them, since it turned out the same people that had made off with Alice and Mai's main weapons were now attempting to lead Ren into a deadly trap.
"We have to find Ren right away!" Alice exclaimed. "He's going to die if we don't!"
"Easy, Alice. I'm sure we all agree finding Ren is our top priority right now." Angel told her. "But we won't be able to find him if we panic. Let's calm down and think this out."
Alice took a deep breath, knowing Angel was right. If they ran around blindly, they weren't going to succeed in their mission.
As they tried to think, a new voice called out to them. "Hey. What's going on, you guys?" All heads turned to see the duo of Kirito and Asuna walking their way. "You guys look tense. Did something happen?"
"You two are a welcome sight. We need all the help we can get right now." Helios said. "Ren's walking right into a trap set up by that PKer group from the third floor."
Kirito and Asuna gasped in understandable shock upon hearing this. "What?!"
The five of them gave Kirito and Asuna a brief run down of the situation. After hearing the story, it was clear to both of them that time was not on their side. They had to find Ren and fast.
"Where does the menu say he is?" Kirito asked.
"Karluin." Riku explained. "But we don't know exactly where in town he is."
Kirito tried to remember what he could of the town through his beta experience. "The central area of town would be the most crowded. If they were planning to kill Ren, they'd want to do it somewhere quiet where there aren't many people."
"In other words, the outskirts of town." Mai realized.
"Most likely. Only that's also a lot of ground to cover in a short time." Kirito told them. "Let's split up for now. We'll all search around different parts of the outskirts and slowly work our way inwards."
"I'll message Ion too. He should still be in town and able to help look." Angel said, opening up her menu.
"Alright then. If anyone finds Ren or someone suspicious, message the group. Karluin is a safe zone so we shouldn't be in any danger of losing HP, but those PKers have proven to be crafty. Don't let your guard down."
A collective nod was exchanged amongst the players as they all took off running in different directions. Alice ran with Mai, desperate to find their guild leader at all costs.
Ren was in this mess because of them. Because they had gotten careless and manipulated by Davide and his friends. If Ren died because of their mistake, they'd never forgive themselves.
Ren… please be safe.
Night darkened the streets of Karluin as Ren silently walked through them. A majority of the frontliners were over at the next town on the floor, Mananarena. Only about a third at best were still in Karluin, and they were all likely asleep by this point. Tourists were also a bit of a rarity, since many were still in love with the far more beautiful setting of Rovia. And the location that Ren was heading to was in the southeastern area of Karluin, far away from any buildings of interest in the city.
Put all of that together, and you had a perfect set up to do what you wanted and not attract any attention.
Earlier that night, Ren had seen Alice and Mai's HP take a sudden drop. He knew they were out in the field hunting for relics, but the monsters there typically weren't anything to worry about. He considered going out and checking on them, just in case they were in serious danger, but their HP bars slowly started to recover after a minute or two. He kept a close watch on their HP bars to see if any major drops occurred again, but thirty minutes went by with nothing more than a few minor losses in HP that were recovered shortly after.
Just as Ren was about to let it go and call it a night, he received a message. It was short and simple with its contents, since messages between players that weren't registered as friends couldn't be very long, but it was enough to terrify Ren.
[Come to this location. Alone. Or the two girls die. One hour. -Morte]
Seconds later, a second message was sent that showed a map of Karluin with a specific point dotted on it. It didn't take a genius to figure out what Morte was saying. Ren already knew from the third floor that Morte was a member of the mysterious PK group so he likely had no qualms about killing players if Ren didn't meet his demands. One hour was the time he had to arrive at the designated location.
It was likely a trap. Actually, it was almost definitely a trap. But what choice did Ren have? Alice and Mai still hadn't returned to town yet, and even they wouldn't stay out this late for relic hunting. That meant he had to take Morte's threat seriously.
He had sent a quick message to Helios and Riku, explaining the situation. He left out where he was going, knowing the two of them would almost certainly try to follow if he did. Morte's instructions had been to come alone and he couldn't risk it with two of his friends' lives hanging in the balance.
Forty minutes had passed since Ren had received the message from Morte, and he was only a minute or two away now from the meeting location. Several scenarios of what would occur played out in Ren's mind.
There was about a 3% chance of Morte and his friends simply using this to take Ren's high quality equipment for themselves and releasing Alice and Mai after he complied. Then, there was a 7% chance that they would use the leverage they had over Ren to instead get him to do something for them. Dig up info on clearers, lead players into a trap, etc. After he did what they wanted, they would let Alice and Mai go free. But the most likely scenario was the 90% chance of them doing one of the above, and then killing all three of them anyway. Heck, maybe they'd skip the blackmail and just kill them the second he arrived.
Put simply, he was almost certainly walking to his death. But he didn't have a choice. Even if there was just a 10% chance of getting through this with Alice and Mai staying alive, then he had to risk it. Even if the chances were 1%, he would still be doing this. Because if he didn't, then there was almost a 100% chance of Alice and Mai dying. And that was an outcome Ren needed to do everything in his power to prevent.
Finally, the meetup point was within sight. Ren saw an old abandoned house on the outskirts of town about fifty meters away. It was made of dirty gray-colored stone and a brick roof. Leaning against the closed wooden door was a player wearing a hood, likely either Morte or one of his buddies.
Once the player was sure Ren noticed him, he motioned for Ren to follow him and walked into the house. As he was about to follow, Ren noticed a message notification from Helios flash before him. No doubt another of his attempts to talk him out of this dangerous endeavor. But there was no talking him out of it when the lives of two of his friends were at stake. Ignoring the message and not even bothering to open it, Ren walked up to the house and opened the door, following the player that had gone inside seconds ago.
The interior of the house was just as simple as the exterior. An open dining room with a round table big enough to seat about four people was what greeted Ren at the doorway. To the right was a simple rocking chair and the left led to what Ren could only assume was the bedroom. Finally, at the far end of the house, was a kitchen. And leaning against the kitchen walls casually were three hooded players. Ren couldn't see anyone else in the house, but he couldn't remove the possibility that there could be others hiding.
"Look who finally decided to show up. What a dutiful guild leader we have here." the one at the middle said as he took a couple steps forward. "I have to admit, I was starting to fear you might not show. And that would have really been a major party pooper."
The two others snickered with amusement, but Ren didn't flinch as he glared at the one in the middle. "I take it you're Morte?"
"Ding, ding! Let's give the guy a cookie, shall we?" Morte said with a chuckle.
So this was Morte. Ren hadn't managed to get a good look at him when they were on the third floor, but he sounded like he was somewhere around the same age as Ren, maybe a little older. His outfit consisted of a non-metallic dark-grey scale mail. His hood over his head was a chainmail coif. The border of the metal hood was ragged and had tendrils of chains hanging down from it like locks of hair.
"Where are Alice and Mai?" Ren asked.
"Aw, how sweet. A dutiful knight coming to save the princesses locked in the tower." Morte remarked jokingly. "What's the rush? Let's have a fun chat. Maybe play a few rounds of poker."
"I'm not here to play games. I came here to get my guildmates back." Ren told him sternly. "Now where are they?"
"Geez, you need to lighten up, you know that? Girls will never like you if you're so serious all the time." Morte showed a grin. "I know! Since you're so interested in those two girls, why don't we settle this all with a fun little game?"
"As long as it's not Candy Land. I always have the worst luck once I reach Lollipop Lagoon."
Morte let out a laugh at Ren's response. "I take it back, you do have a sense of humor. But no, not Candy Land. I have something else in mind." Morte moved his hand to his waist and brought out a one-handed axe, roughly the size of a hatchet. "I think we can all agree that a little PvP would be far more entertaining."
Ren narrowed his eyes. "You want to duel?"
"That's right! You win, and those two girls of yours will be free as birds. We win and… well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
"We?"
"That's right. Considering you're a big shot guild leader and I'm just little ol' me, it's only fair that I have a handicap." Morte opened his menu and shifted through it. A few seconds later, a window popped up in front of Ren.
[The team of Morte, Richie, and Klinger have challenged you to a duel. Do you accept? Y/N]
Ren raised his brow. "A group duel?"
"Pretty nifty feature, isn't it? One on one duels are fun and all, but fights between parties have their own unique type of fun." Morte smirked. "Although in this case, it's just one on three. But I'm sure we'll have a blast either way."
Not having much other choice, Ren accepted the duel. After he did, another window appeared in front of him, asking him to choose up to two allies for the duel and to pick the type of duel.
"Go ahead and select Total Loss Mode. That'll spice it up even more."
Ren grit his teeth. They really didn't have any plan to release Alice and Mai. Duels in SAO could be split into three categories. First Strike Mode was the closest thing to a friendly duel one could have in SAO, where the winner was decided by whoever got the first clean hit in to deal at least ten percent of the opponent's HP as damage or whittled their HP down to the halfway point first. Half Loss Mode was like the name implied, a duel where the winner was decided by whoever knocked their opponent below half HP first. And finally there was Total Loss Mode, a mode that was practically unthinkable to use in SAO. It was a duel where the winner was decided when one side's HP hit zero. In other words, whoever killed their opponent. And with duels being an exception to the Anti-Criminal Code, it would allow someone to PK while avoiding their cursor turning red.
So if Ren accepted this duel under Morte's terms and lost, he would die.
There was no going back anymore. Even if Ren declined the duel and walked away, he would just be sending Alice and Mai to their deaths. But did he really have what it took to take another person's life?
I'm just going to have to cross that bridge when I come to it.
Setting the duel to Total Loss Mode, Ren hit [Confirm]. A warning message popped up, reiterating to him that the mode he selected was one that was settled by the death of the losing side. He hit [Confirm] once again and the window vanished.
A 60 second timer appeared between Ren and his three opponents and began ticking down. Frankly, it was an annoying amount of time to wait for the duel to start, but in this case Ren was thankful for it. It gave him a chance to observe his opponents.
Morte's using an axe and small shield. If the info Kirito told me about him is right, that's his main set but he has a one handed sword set as his sub-weapon to use with Quick Change. If he's more handy with his axe, he likely won't swap sets for this fight given that he already has an advantage by outnumbering me. That Richie guy is using a dagger. I wouldn't be surprised if it has some kind of poison bonus to it. Gotta avoid that at all costs. That leaves Klinger, using a one-handed sword. He'll likely be the one keeping me occupied to give his companions an opening to attack.
As the timer ticked down, the three PKers began to spread out around the room. Richie stayed in the kitchen while Klinger moved towards the rocking chair to Ren's right and Morte blocked off the doorway to the bedroom on the left. As an AGI player, speed was Ren's main asset in battle. But in an enclosed space like this, he wouldn't be able to make full use of that speed. And his speed would only be hindered further by the fact that he was dealing with three enemies instead of one.
Ten seconds left.
Ren knew his best chance was to try and get one of their HP into the red. He could use their life as a bargaining chip to stop the duel and free Alice and Mai. It wasn't much of a plan, but it was the best he had right now.
Five seconds left.
Readying his sword, Ren decided to aim for Richie first. He was a dagger user, so his defenses would be the weakest. But the three of them were already likely well aware of that fact and expecting Ren to do just that. Which was why his going to Richie would really be a feint and he would instead aim for either Klinger or Morte with a surprise attack.
Two seconds left.
At that exact moment, all three of Ren's opponents took action. Richie reached for his belt and brought out a throwing pick. He reeled his arm back and the pick took on a color effect from the Throwing Knife skill. At that same time, Morte and Klinger both began to activate sword skills and kicked off the ground towards Ren.
Ren widened his eyes in shock, realizing their ploy. The very instant the timer hit zero, the duel would begin. Normally, one would think that would be the moment both sides took action. But by timing an attack that would connect a fraction of a second after the timer hit zero, it would still be completely legal and Ren would take massive damage.
"Die sucker!" Richie laughed as he let the throwing pick fly.
Acting on pure instinct, Ren predicted their movements. Assuming Richie's projectile had some sort of poison or paralysis debuff in store for those it hit, he wouldn't risk hitting one of his partners. And if they had coordinated this formation ahead of time, then Morte and Klinger would be keeping their bodies low to avoid the risk of the throwing pick hitting them. In order to avoid all three attacks, Ren backflipped off the ground, deflecting the pick with his sword in the process. Morte and Klinger collided at the point where Ren had just been standing, their weapons slamming against each other.
Meanwhile, Ren's feet touched the wall over the door behind him. Kicking off with all his might, Ren sprang forward and rocketed towards Richie. His original plan had been to make his attack on Richie a feint, but their surprise maneuver had forced him to change his plans.
Richie gasped in shock as he saw Ren flying at him. "Woah, what the hell?!"
In an instant, the distance between Ren and Richie was closed. Richie attempted to dodge as he dashed to the side but he wasn't fast enough to avoid Ren's sword entirely. Ren delivered a slash to Richie before landing on the floor with a roll. Richie's HP had fallen by about 10% from the attack and he now had a red gash along the left side of his chest.
Ren had gotten the first hit in, but he couldn't relax yet. The same trick wasn't going to work twice against these three. And he didn't have much that would be able to catch them off guard.
"Hahaha, man this is going to be even more fun than I thought." Morte laughed. "This is what makes PvP so fun. Players are much trickier than mobs with set attack patterns."
"Let's see if you're still laughing when this is over!" Ren shouted as he kept up the pressure and chased after Richie. The PKer managed to avoid Ren's first slash and countered with an attack from his dagger. A quick exchange of slashes occurred between the two, but neither managed to get a scratch on the other.
Ren could hear Morte and Klinger running his way and backed away from Richie. But he was too late and quickly found himself trapped in a triangle formation between the three PKers.
"Time for you to die!" Klinger grinned.
Morte's team attacked Ren, smoothingly switching in and out between attackers and giving Ren no real openings to counter. He desperately tried to dodge and block, but he was too outnumbered. Little by little, his HP began to whittle away.
Finally, as Morte swapped out with Klinger to attack, Ren saw a brief window of opportunity. He dashed straight on at Klinger. The PKer attempted to cut Ren down, but Ren managed to kick off to the side before slipping right past Klinger.
"Damn, he really is light on his feet." Klinger cursed.
"Not for long!" Richie said as he brought out a trio of throwing picks this time, holding them in between his fingers. The picks all took on a color effect as he threw them all Ren's way.
Knowing he couldn't block the picks in time and wouldn't have time to dodge once Richie threw them, Ren lunged forward. His body flew over the table in the room and he cupped his hand around the far edge of it. He yanked it with all his might and flipped the table on its side. The table acted as a makeshift shield, blocking the picks as Ren took cover behind the thick wood due to almost all furniture being classified as Immortal Objects.
Barely a second later, he could hear a pair of footsteps rushing his way. Likely two of the three were coming from both sides to cut him off whichever route he took. And if he didn't move, they would box him in. Not liking having to stay on the defensive, Ren sprang into action right away. He leaped up and kicked off the edge of the table, taking flight in the air.
Morte and Richie were the ones that had been coming to ambush him. That left Klinger across the room and away from his cohorts. Klinger saw Ren falling his way and readied a sword skill to meet him with. Ren recognized the starting motion for the three-hit skill Sharp Nail and prepared a sword skill of his own. He put his sword to his back right as Vermillion Brave took on a sky blue color.
Morte recognized the skill Ren was initiating and widened his eyes. "Crap! Klinger, move!"
It was too late though. Just as the words escaped Morte's mouth, both Ren and Klinger unleashed their attacks. With the first hit of both skills, the blades collided with each other. But Ren's sword was stronger and he won out, pushing past Klinger's blade and continuing his skill. The first hit had been blocked, but Ren's attack didn't just consist of one hit. He slashed a second time, and a third time after that. Finally, the fourth and final hit came. Throughout the four slashes, Ren had moved around Klinger's body, creating a square silhouette of light from the skill.
It was a four-hit sword skill, one of two that Ren had learned upon getting his One-Handed Sword skill to 150 earlier that day. Horizontal Square.
Taking three direct hits from a powerful sword skill caused Klinger's HP to drop drastically and fall just below the 50% mark.
"Damnit…" Klinger muttered.
Ren was frozen for a brief moment due to the post-motion delay. Once he could move again, he turned and saw Morte come at him. Ren desperately tried to block with his sword in time, but he hadn't been able to get a strong stance before it collided with Morte's axe. Ren let out a silent curse as he lost his grip on his sword and watched it slide a few meters away.
Before Ren had a chance to go for his sword, Morte used a roundhouse kick to the side, knocking Ren even further away from his Vermillion Brave. Ren's body tumbled along the floor. When he got up he found Morte, Klinger, and Richie all standing side by side and blocking his path to his weapon.
"Hehehe, now you're unarmed on top of being outnumbered." Richie chuckled. "Sucks to be you."
"Make sure to let me get some hits in. I want to pay him back for that attack just now with interest." Klinger commented.
Ren grit his teeth. His situation was getting worse and worse. He had been hoping to at least get one of them to low HP, but at this rate even that was going to be hard.
"Let's end this." Morte said as he ran towards Ren with his axe gripped tightly in his hand.
Ren met the PKer's charge with his own, running directly towards him. Morte kept his gaze fixated on Ren, expecting him to try and dash past him from the side at the last moment. But to his surprise, Ren didn't do that. He kept moving to meet Morte head on.
"Fine then! It's your funeral!" Morte shouted with a grin.
Morte raised his axe, planning for a downwards diagonal slash. As he swung his weapon down however, Ren sped up, closing the distance between them. Morte gasped, realizing that Ren hadn't been running at full speed earlier to make him mistime his swing.
But rather than punching Morte's exposed chest, Ren instead turned around. He grabbed Morte's arm holding the axe mid-swing. Using all of the strength he had, Ren threw Morte over his shoulder, slamming him onto his back with a painful thud.
Really need to thank Alice for those martial arts lessons later.
With Morte down for the next few seconds, Ren turned back around and continued running towards his two companions. Klinger and Richie were still in shock over what they saw, but they quickly regained their focus upon seeing Ren come their way.
"You're not getting past us!" Klinger yelled. "Take this!"
Ren managed to sidestep just enough to avoid getting ripped in half by Klinger's blade. But the cold steel still cut into Ren's avatar, dipping his HP down to just below the halfway mark and causing it to go yellow. It was a necessary sacrifice however, since it allowed Ren to slip past Klinger and Richie, and reach his Vermillion Brave. He picked up the weapon with a roll and turned to face his three opponents.
Morte got back up, his body still aching a little from being slammed forcefully onto his back. But he didn't seem angry or even annoyed. Instead he was chuckling. Morte soon exploded into laughter as he looked at Ren.
"Man, you might be just as much fun as Kirito! I really wasn't expecting that much from you, but you really are proving to be a tough bastard to kill! I haven't felt this pumped up in awhile!"
Despite Morte's praise, both he and Ren knew that the odds were still stacked greatly against Ren. The chances of Ren managing to take down even one of them before he ran out of HP were low. His chances of defeating all three of them on his own were practically nonexistent. It was taking everything he had just to stay alive in this three on one duel.
Ren watched as the three of them began to spread out again. If he let them close him in near the corner he was at, he wouldn't be able to escape. He acted quickly and ran at Klinger, who met his challenge head on. The two clashed their swords against each other, stuck in a stalemate.
Gritting his teeth, Ren tried to push Klinger back, but gasped when he saw the hooded figure of Morte appear from behind Klinger, keeping his body low. With a swing of his axe, he slashed Ren's right leg clean off.
Now down a leg, Ren lost his balance almost immediately and fell onto his back. A red icon with a hand on it appeared next to Ren's HP bar, the indicator of an Amputation status effect. The severed limb would regenerate in a couple minutes, but in this situation it might as well have been a couple years. Ren's eyes widened when he saw Morte and Klinger both raise their weapons and swing them down at him. Ren held his sword up and blocked them with the flat edge of his blade, but the force of the two weapons were quickly pressing down on him.
"That sword of yours won't hold out for long." Morte smirked. "But I guess it's pretty fitting. A swordsman and his weapon perishing together. Maybe I could find a bard to sing a tale about it someday."
Ren found himself losing the battle of strength with each passing second. The two blades were less than a foot away from his body right now. And with each passing second, the durability of Ren's Vermillion Brave was decreasing. Even if his strength didn't give out, he estimated his sword had another twenty seconds left in it for this at best.
Is this really it? Is this how it ends?
"Don't worry. We'll tell those girls you came to save all about how you begged for your life before you died." Klinger said. "They'll be joining you shortly of course."
Alice… Mai… I'm sorry. I wasn't strong enough to save you.
As Ren found his strength fading, the door to the house slammed open. Ren didn't have the freedom to look and see who it was, but a second later he heard a voice he recognized all too well.
"Ren!"
Morte turned his head and gasped, but it was too late. A Rage Spike sword skill slammed into him and Klinger. They were still technically in a safe zone so the only ones that could harm their HP were those taking part in the duel, but the force of the skill was enough to send both of them flying into the wall on the far end of the room.
With the two weights off him, Ren looked up and saw who had just saved him. Although he could tell who it had been from the voice, he still couldn't believe his eyes.
Kirito
Kirito instantly read the situation and wasted no time as he stood between Ren and the PKers. "Ren, Alice and Mai are safe! Quit the duel! Now!"
It took a second for Kirito's words to sink in, but he soon acted on Kirito's instructions. "Resign!" As he shouted the command, a confirmation window appeared over his lying body. Ren slammed his hand against the [Confirm] button. The duel ended right then and there as a sign appeared in the room declaring Morte's team the victor. Ren had lost the duel, but won the battle overall with how the current situation was. He hadn't lost all his HP and Morte's group now had no way to bring it down any further.
Another player soon rushed into the house, this time being Asuna. She ran over to Ren and kneeled at his side. "Are you alright, Ren?!"
"Barely."
Morte clicked his tongue in disappointment. "Tch, you always have to spoil the fun, don't you Kirito? Are you mad that I was cheating on you with Ren? Don't be jealous. You're still my favorite after all."
"It's over, Morte." Kirito told him. "Give it up. You've lost."
"Seems so." Morte sighed as he shrugged. "I was hoping to give the boss some good news, but oh well."
"You've got nowhere to run. Surrender now and tell us everything you know."
Despite the situation he was in, Morte still managed to crack a grin. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a round capsule. "Sorry, but I'm going to have to take a pass on that. But don't worry, we'll meet again real soon. I promise."
"Wait!" Kirito shouted, but it was too late as Morte threw the capsule down, causing it to explode and create a thick smokescreen. "Damnit! Asuna, the door!"
Understanding her partner's intention right away, Asuna nodded her head. "Right!" She hurried to the door, hoping to block off Morte's escape route. But this turned out to be a futile effort when they heard a window shatter.
"Nice try Kirito! But you need to think a bit outside the box! Toodeloo!"
"Shit!" Kirito cursed, realizing they had failed to stop their escape. As the smokescreen cleared, Morte and his friends were gone without a trace. The raven haired swordsman let out a sigh. "Well that's a shame. But at least Ren's safe now."
Asuna walked over to Ren and handed him a health potion. "Here."
"Thanks." Ren ripped off the cap of the bottle and quickly guzzled down the potion. He let out a sigh of relief as his HP started to recover. "How did you guys know I was in danger?"
"Your guildmates filled us in on what was happening. We all split up to search for you, since the menu said you were still in Karluin." Kirito explained. "Alice and Mai weren't being held captive. Some of Morte's friends mugged them for their weapons and trapped them and Angel in a dungeon. They must have thought it was the perfect chance to trick you into thinking they were being held against their will and set up this trap on the fly."
Ren let out an aggravated sigh. "Why is it that the cleverest ones are always the craziest?"
"Once the three of them returned to town, Helios and Riku figured out Morte's group was lying and we all split up to look for you. Kirito and I heard ringing metal as we were searching and it led us here."
"It's a good thing you showed up when you did. Another minute and I would have been a goner."
Asuna sent out a message to everyone, telling them that they had found and rescued Ren. A minute passed by before the amputation debuff finally wore off and Ren's leg regenerated. He stood back up and shook his leg around to get some feeling back into it.
"Is it weird to say I liked the old leg better?"
"Heh, well if you're able to crack jokes I'd say you're fine." Kirito told him. "Let's go. I'm sure you're exhausted after everything that happened."
"You can say that again."
The trio walked to the door and out of the house. They only made it a few meters out the door before a shout was heard in the distance.
"REN!"
Squinting his eyes, Ren saw his guildmates running over to them, as well as Ion and Angel. The one that had shouted just now was Alice, who was at the lead of the group.
Ren waved to his friends. "Hey guys. Sorry if I worried you- Oof!" The teen found himself cut off as Alice lunged and wrapped her arms around him, tears falling from her eyes. "A-Alice?"
"I… I was so scared…" Alice sobbed as she hugged Ren tightly. "I thought… I thought you were going to die… all because of me…"
"Alice…"
"I don't know what I'd do if you died." Alice told him, her voice choking on tears. "I'm so glad. I'm so glad you didn't die."
Ren stood there as Alice hugged him. She had already gone through the pain of losing friends she cared about once in SAO, so he couldn't blame her for being terrified of going through that again. He brought his own arms around her and held her close. "Don't worry. I'm not going to die. I promise." As Ren looked in front of him, he noticed everyone looking at him with smirks on their faces, causing his cheeks to go red when he fully realized how many eyes they had on them right now. "Umm… Alice? Everyone's kind of staring and-"
"Ren, shut up for a minute." Asuna told him with a knowing grin as she and Kirito walked past them. "Just let her have this."
Alice wasn't showing any signs of letting go and Ren didn't want to force her off him with how emotional she clearly was right now. So he resigned himself to his fate and continued to keep Alice close, knowing that he was bound to be on the receiving end of many jokes once tomorrow came.
December 31st. New Year's Eve.
It was hard to believe that such an important holiday event had been the day after one of the scariest few hours the members of Wyvern's Inferno had gone through. But perhaps it was a good thing. After three of their members nearly dying at the hands of PKers, a holiday was something their morale desperately needed.
If Ren was being honest, he wanted to sleep until noon with how exhausting yesterday had been for him. It was almost midnight when they had finally returned to the inn and went to sleep. But given that the majority of the front lines were already ahead of them in Manananera, Wyvern's Inferno couldn't afford to waste time and fall behind. So after pushing back their meetup time two hours to 6:00 am, they set off right away for the next town once Alice got the sword she had pilfered off of Davide upgraded to +3. It was no Sparrow's Light, but it would suffice for at least the remainder of the floor. With the underground tunnel shortcut, it only took about two hours to reach Manananera.
Once in Manananera, Wyvern's Inferno picked up a couple quests and began getting to work. A New Year's party set up by both the ALS and DKB was set to happen that night. While they had skipped out on the Christmas party, they needed a little celebration right now to take the edge off.
Most of the quests they had undertaken had been rather easy and were cleared within a few hours. On top of that, their time doing the quests that took place between the field and Manananera had allowed them to discover the location for the fifth floor's elf campaign quest. But just as they were about to undertake it and see their friend Saripha again, they had received a surprise message from Asuna.
[Sorry. I know you guys are busy and tired, but could you meet us at Manananera? There's an urgent matter we need your help with. -Asuna]
Asuna wasn't the type to use the word "urgent" without meaning it. So the guild reluctantly decided to postpone their quest for now and return to town. After submitting the quests they had finished and collecting the rewards, they met with Asuna at a predetermined location. An abandoned house far from the center of the city.
Ren couldn't help but find irony in the fact that he had just nearly met his death at an abandoned house in a safe zone just last night, yet he was walking into one again. The interior was worn and ragged, but furniture was basically indestructible in SAO so there was no need to worry about it.
Sitting at a table were four players. The first two were Asuna and Argo. The other two were a surprising sight however. One was a male black-haired player with metal armor, a blue shirt, and a breastplate on top. A shield was strapped to one arm while sheathed at the adjacent side of his waist was a sword. Ren recognized him as one of the higher up members of the DKB. Shivata was his name if he recalled correctly. The fourth player however was a new face. It was a girl with long orange hair. She wore a green cape over the heavy steel armor that showed she was a tank player.
"Ah, you made it." Asuna said with a relieved smile. "Sorry to call you out of the blue. Especially with everything that happened last night."
"It's fine Asuna." Ren assured her. "What did you need us for anyway?"
"It's a bit of a long story." Asuna said. "Take a seat and we'll try to give you a brief explanation."
Wyvern's Inferno accepted Asuna's offer and grabbed some seats, placing them down at the table the four were sitting at. Once everyone was seated, Asuna began her explanation.
"First, let me introduce these two. You may already know Shivata from the raid meetings. Our other friend here is Litten, from the ALS."
"You're with ALS?" Riku asked. "How long?"
"Since December 22nd." Litten replied. "They scouted me thanks to this armor of mine."
"I'll bet. I haven't heard of any other players with a full set of steel plated armor yet in the game." Ren commented.
"Ahem!" Asuna coughed, trying to get the conversation back on track. "Anyway, Litten confirmed some information that Kirito and I came across that could pose a major problem for the clearing group."
"What's that?" Mai asked.
"The ALS is planning to tackle the floor boss tonight. Alone."
This piece of information caused the five members of Wyvern's Inferno to gasp. Alice was the first to speak up. "But why?! Are they really that desperate to get all the spoils from beating the boss that they'd attempt something so dangerous, and even go behind the DKB's back when there's supposed to be a party happening tonight?!"
"Actually, the boss rewards are exactly why they're doing this. To be more specific, one reward in particular." Argo said.
Ren narrowed his eyes. "Is the Last Attack Bonus for this floor's boss really that good?"
"I don't know if it's the Last Attack Bonus per se, but there was an item that dropped in the beta from it that turned out to be extremely powerful according to Kirito." the info broker explained. "The Flag of Valor."
"The Flag of Valor?" Ren questioned.
"Yup. At a glance, it's just a weak polearm weapon. But it has a powerful extra ability that makes up for it."
"And that is?"
"If you stab it into the ground, as long as it remains that way, all players in the same guild as that person receive a buff to attack, defense, and status resistance so long as they're within about fifty or sixty feet of the flag."
The information sunk into the minds of Wyvern's Inferno. When their minds finally finished processing the shocking news, they all let out a collective yell.
"WHAT?!"
"If the ALS goes through with this, it'll destroy the clearing group." Asuna told them. "Either ALS will end up getting the flag behind the DKB's back, destroying the relationship between the two guilds, or they'll suffer heavy casualties from losing the raid and possibly be forced to leave the front lines altogether."
Ren brought his hand to his chin. "You weren't kidding when you said this was urgent. So what's our plan to stop this from happening."
Asuna took a deep breath before answering Ren's question. "We're going to form our own raid party and beat the fifth floor boss before ALS."
It was risky, but given the situation, it was probably their best move. However, a raid attempt brought up another question. "What's our total count? The maximum for a raid party is 48 players."
Asuna bit her lip, almost regretting having to give an honest answer. "Right now, based on our estimate of who we contacted… we'll have just under 20 players."
A/N: Hey readers, hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Things are heating up for Wyvern's Inferno. Next chapter will be the Floor 5 boss fight. Hope you're all looking forward to it.
Also for those of you enjoying this story, feel free to check out the other SAO fic I'm working on, Broken Wings. It features an original VRMMO of my own design and I'd like to get some feedback. So if you're interested, check it out and send a review.