A/N: You can all see how impatient Lightning is getting trying to clear this game. Can you blame her? Wouldn't you guys want to leave a death game that will cost you your life if you die? You'll never see me entering a game like that. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go put on the Nervegear and play Sword Art Online.

LINK START!


MARCH 10TH, 2023. FLOOR 11, THRONE OF CHAOS

Learning about Shinon's past was pretty shocking, even for me.

Five years ago, she was involved in a robbery with her mother at a post office. The man was about to shoot the mother, but Shinon attacked the man, stole his gun, and shot him to death. No wonder the girl is terrified. An eleven-year-old killing someone. She mentions how whenever she looks at a gun, either it's real or some model, in TV or a picture, she enters some panic attack and faint, or hurl at the least.

I remember this robbery event. It happened days after Hope's accident. I only arrived to find the body, but there was no little girl and mother, and the people that worked there said the man died when his gun misfired. They must have lied to protect the girl.

If only they knew how she's feeling right now.

Right now, I'm doing some quest kills with my guild, the Lunar Twilight. Soloing has been hard, but this floor does drop decent gear. Right now, I'm just in silver steel shoulder pads, a black sleeveless top, long thick fingerless gloves, brown leggings, and silver mail boots.

I'm level 53 with 7462 HP.

Right now, we are doing the quest: 'To Hell and Back' where we have a kill a ton of Demons in Throne of Chaos. We are not having too much luck since all the level 50's have been crowding these floors. We can barely get a good hunting ground.

"This bites!" Raphael complains. "We can't even get a good hunting ground for leveling."

"That's what happens when an expansion is released," Spellbreaker says.

"Expansion? All we did was beat the 10th-floor boss." I say.

"Expansion means a major up-grade, much like a next phase," Aerith explains. "When we unlock this floor, we were able to level further than 50 and there are powerful gears that drop from these mobs."

"Gears that outrank the epic stuff from even the tenth floor," Rokel adds.

That is true. Raphael tosses his daggers in front of him in frustration. "I'm out of there. I'm gonna get up early in the morning to clear off this area."

Raphael storms off. "Raph. Come on." Elementalist says. "Don't be like that."

Elementalist and Spellbreaker went after Raphael, leaving me with Rokel and Aerith. "So, what now?" I ask.

"Guess we should head back into town," Aerith says.

"I suppose. I promised Silica I would meet her on the second floor after our questing." Rokel says.

"Oh, for your date?" Aerith asks, excited. Rokel just looks embarrassed. I don't see why he should be, we already know about his girlfriend.

"Leave him alone, Aerith," I say. The girl just giggles.

Rokel teleports to the second floor, now it's just me and Aerith. We decided to head somewhere else. We couldn't finish our quest here but we didn't want to return to town just yet. Aerith tries to start up a conversation, but I just stay silent. I don't have anything against her, she's a sweet girl after all. I just don't have anything to say.

"Hey, Lightning!" Aerith and I stop. We both turn to see it's Kirito.

"What is it, Kirito?" I ask.

"No need to get all cold with me," Kirito says. Kirito looks next to me, I'm guessing he's looking at Aerith. "Who's your little friend?"

I look at Aerith. She seems shocked and speechless. Even her eyes are wide open. I got a feeling she is crushing on Kirito here. "She's uh...a friend from my guild," I say.

Kirito smiles. "I figured. You two have matching marks."

I wonder what he means marks, then I realize. The guild mark at the start of our Health Bars. "Right. What do you want?"

"There's a Battlesong camp in the southwest area of this floor, it's crawling with elites. I need some help but Leafa and Asuna are busy with doing the dungeons with their guilds." Kirito says.

"Start regret being a solo player?" I ask.

"No, I can still make out as a solo. But this camp is full of elites. Just another Vanguard and a Cleric would do." Kirito turns and walks.

I cross my arms and sigh. "OMG! He is so cute! Who was he?"

I'm astonished when Aerith usually gets gaga over me like a fangirl of a Jones Brothers band. She really thinks he's cute? ...Well, he might seem attractive, but I don't really see it. As far as I know both Aerith and Kirito, he's out of her league.

"He's nobody." I grab Aerith and start pulling her. "Come on. Let's give him a hand with this orc camp."


FLOOR 11, BATTLESONG CAMP

Kirito takes Aerith and I to the Fel Orc camp. He's right about the enemies here being elite, each of them is carrying two Health Bars, one bar for the Wizards/Witches, but are just higher than any average caster. Aerith seems scared, she grabs hold of my arm, clinging to my side.

Kirito is on his menu, changing gear and setting up his healing potions and abilities. It's probably best for Aerith and I to do the same.

"On second thought...maybe I should head back to town," Aerith says.

And I thought Rokel was the scared one. "There's no backing out. We are gonna need you or will die out here." I say.

"Lightning is right. Clerics do have an important role in Warlords Wrath Online." Kirito says. Kirito faces the corrupted orcs. He takes out his swords. "Right! Let's do this!"

Kirito rushes in. I was about to yell at him to stop, but it's too late. He's already charging in, attacking a Battlesong Grunt. "Intruders! Sound the alarms! Do not let them escape!"

I groan in annoyance. "He's as reckless as that moron Snow. Great." I take out my sword. "Just stay back and watch our Health."

I make the first strike doing a Sonic Charge ability. It's just two elite grunts we are facing. Aerith keeps her distance and heals us when we need it. Kirito makes this fight look easy. Every damage I do to my enemy, he's doing it nearly twice as much. We defeated the corrupted orcs, when we do, I stomp Kirito on his foot.

He wails and hops on one foot while grabbing the one I stomped on. "What were you thinking charging in like that?" I ask.

"Hey! Take it easy. Ow." Kirito sets his foot down. "I had everything under control."

I begin to wonder why it is he needs us here if he's going to be this arrogant and stupid. "You are starting to remind me of my brother-in-law." He smiles then I continue shortly afterward. "It's not a compliment. He's a total idiot and I can't stand him."

"Oh...it's that Snow guy you said before, isn't it?" I nod.

"Yeah." I glare at him closely. "If you were him, your HP would be at zero before you could even say 'oops'."

"If I had known that, I wouldn't have broken that staff you had back on Christmas," Kirito says.

Darn right he shouldn't have broken it.

After that little scene between Kirito and I, we invade this little camp. It's not an easy one. It takes a minute just to kill each of these Orcs. Aerith stays behind and keeps our HP's up.

My battles here reminds me of the Abduction Agency three years ago. That was a dark day for me. Both Serah and I were targets, and Hope tried to save us when our house got invaded, but he ended up hurting himself. We were both kidnapped, train, and imprisoned to be sold as some kind of sex slaves, or 'mistresses in bondage' as they called it.

The one thing I hated on that night is that their leader was the treacherous Rufus Zero.

He was once my instructor in the Guardian Corps, but after the Gapra Whitewood battle during my training years, his true colors were revealed. He escaped on the night the agency was taken down, but he was never seen or heard from again. People believed he was killed, but I am not convinced. He's no fool, he's very smart and cunning.

He's still out there, in the real world, somewhere...Hopefully, he hasn't heard about what happened to me with this death game. If there's one thing I know, he'll likely use it to his...advantage.

After nearly an hour of killing, we arrive at some fortress building. When we arrive, it's empty. That's pretty strange. However, it's not completely empty. At the right wall, there's a green-skin Orc. He's on his knees and his wrists are bound in chains.

"An Orc!" I draw out my sword. Kirito holds his arm out in front of me.

"Wait..." Kirito looks at the Orc. "He seems...different."

"How so. He looks the same as the other blood savagers from this floor and others below." I say.

"Kirito might be right. Why would the Orcs imprison one of their own?" Aerith asks.

"Trick us? A trap maybe?" I look at Kirito. "Please tell me your smart enough to know this is a trap."

Kirito looks at me offended, then sighs looking at the orc. "Well...he is imprisoned. Looks hopeless...but has an HP gauge. Hmm..." Kirito thinks for a moment. "Can't say for sure it's a trap. I'd say we free him, but we should arm ourselves just in case."

I hesitated but then agree to this plan. Kirito and I take our swords out, then Aerith casts a protection shield on us. When we're prepared, Kirito cuts the chains that hold the orc in place. The orc just sits there, rubbing his wrists. He looks up at us, groans tiresome.

"Thank you..." His voice was little, almost growly like. Strange, his tone isn't hostile. "I know we have our...differences, because of the Battlesong Clan, but I am nothing like them." The orc stands up on his feet. "My name is Slave. I'm an Avatar of the Coldwolf Clan."

"The Coldwolf Clan?" Aerith asks.

"I've heard of them, but never actually believed they were real," Kirito says.

"I have unfinished business with Grommash. He made a grave mistake, bringing shame to Orcs everywhere." If that's what Slave thinks, he should have seen what Garrosh and all the other Warlords did on the first ten floors.

A quest window opens. 'Shackles of Freedom'. It states that Grommash is somewhere in this camp and we have to take Slave to him. "An Escort quest?" I ask.

"Interesting. This wasn't even on the Beta Test." Kirito says.

"Just how many times are you gonna say that?" It really is starting to get annoying to hear him say that every time.

"As long as unexpected stuff and events that happened on the first 30 floors really weren't on the testing," Kirito says.

I groan a sigh as I roll my eyes then accept the quest. Under our bars, Slave's name and HP bar appear. His mark is Avatar. Not much of a surprise since he did tell us he's an Avatar.

"Let's go, heroes. But first, I need my weapon." Slave says.

So the three of us follow Slave around the camp. Firstly, he leads us to some barrack to pick up his weapon, which is some silver hammer with a wolf icon on the side of the hammer. What is he, Thor? Once that's done, we follow him to the outskirts of the camp. It's a single path that leads to some alter.

Thankfully, there are no enemies for us to fight. We follow Slave on the path. In front of the alter is Grommash and the Damned Lord. They kneel in front of the image of some creature. It's a red skin Draenei with wings and devil horns. I'm guessing this is Chaos.

"Master. We have found the Draenei. They have come out of hiding just to save these...outsiders." The Damned lord says.

"Those light-worshiping creatures still live!" Chaos says. His voice is echoing and loud. Like thunder shouting through a megaphone over sound equipment. "Destroy them all! Every single light in this pathetic world must perish! The Inflamed Legion will crush this wretched world and-" Chao looks past the two orcs. "Wait...What is this!?"

Grommash and the Damned Lord turn to see this. "My, my. It's the outsiders I told you about, my lord." The Damned Lord says.

"And it looks like the traitor is with them!" Grommash says. "So. You have come because you finally came to your senses?"

"Grommash! Stop this madness!" Slave says. "You must fight the corruption!"

"This is no corruption! This is a gift!" Grommash says. "If you refuse to accept it, Slave! Then you will die!"

The Damned Lord channels dark magic. His magic unleashes a summoning circle than some dark portal behind him and Grommash. "Come, Hailroar. We have other business to attend to."

The Damned Lord and Grommash walk through the portal, then the portal vanishes. The circle channels dark magic, then some demon appears. It's like a Felguard, but it's female, unarmored, and has four arms. Mistress of Torture is its name.

"You will know the meaning of pain! For the Legion!" The mistress says.

We have no other choice but the fight. Kirito and I attack the demon while Aerith keeps us alive with her healing. Slave was a big help for the fight. He mostly casts Lava Bursts and Lightning Bolts. It's nice to see not all Orcs are evil. Mistress of Torture starts to grab me.

"You will suffer!" She leaps high and slams on the ground with me beneath her. I suffered over 4000 HP for that. Sure did hurt. Kirito holds off the demon while I recover. I watch him fight. He does powerful swings with his swords. I can see the enemy's HP running down.

Once I'm restored, I join in on the fight. The Mistress of Torture loses her first Health Bar, then shouts. "Scream in agony!" The demon starts shooting bolts of green fire at us, they even hit Aerith. Slave channels water magic. A barrier of water shields each of us. "Pathetic Avatar! Do you really think your magic can stop me?"

"The Elements are always with us, demon! With its strength, the Inflamed Legion will fall!" Slave says. This is a surprise. First, there are Orcs that serve the demons, then Draeneis that worships the light, now it's an Avatar that relays on the Elements.

Religions in this world are nuts.

Mistress of Torture cackles. "Your pitiful false hope assumes me!" Mistress of Torture says.

Kirito and I strike at the demon at the same time, but the mistress parries both of our attacks. As our weapons clash, I kick the demon in the face. She staggers then Kirito and I give her a couple of slashes with our Sword Skills. In the end, the demon loses the rest of its remaining HP.

The Mistress of Torture stumbles back and yells in agony. "Ah! The pain! I can feel it! It's...too...much!" The demon glows then shatters.

We all stand in place. Slave approaches the altar, looking up at the skies. "Grommash...I will free you from this curse. If it's the last thing I do!" Slave turns to face us. "You have my thanks, heroes. I don't have much to repay you. But if you ever need any aid, the Coldwolf Clan will lend you their blade. Until we meet again."

Slave turns into some ghost wolf and runs away. We are surprised to see that. I've never seen an Avatar transforming into a ghost wolf. We completed our quest, only earn some Experience. Aerith did made it to level 52.

"He seems friendly," Aerith says.

"He was helpful I'll admit, but I don't trust him," I say.

"He is different than any of the other Orcs," Kirito says. "Freeing him didn't seem to be a trap."

"Maybe so, but I have a feeling he'll turn on us." I put a hand on my head and sigh. "I'm talking about an NPC. I feel like I'm losing my mind."

"The NPC's in this world are living beings. Just...different from us." Kirito says.

"Right. Cause we act on our own will while those things are just following the program." I say.

Kirito puts his swords away. "Let's just head back to town."

Without saying another word, we do return to Karador. I'm not sure about that Slave Orc. He's friendly, but is he really trustworthy? I'll be keeping my eye on him. The Orcs in this world are nothing but trouble, and I am not risking my life being backstabbed by one.