Walking the paths of the dungeon, Johnny whistled a jaunty tune about marching ants. He twirled his dagger about his finger, occasionally lashing out at any dungeon mob that tried to waylay him. Most didn't—his stealth was high enough to make sure of that—but every now and then he'd find himself under attack. Of course, even this deep into the dungeons the enemies weren't really a problem. The danger came more from the constant grind through the near endless waves of trash mobs that swarmed anyone who trespassed within the cold stone halls. Hidden as he was, he could move mostly unmolested. And that was why he was her: to molest some poor unsuspecting souls. He'd spent the last week or so farming and hadn't really had the chance for a while.
It was a day less than four weeks since he his run in with Wendy, the chestnut haired girl who had been his first trial run with ⸢Corruption⸥. Quite the successful trial run too. He'd managed to mostly strip almost a dozen players in that first encounter, which was more than he'd thought he'd get. Johnny supposed it was mostly because they were trying to kill themselves, and as such weren't as high level as most of the players who dared to venture so far out of town. Like that damn scruffy bastard who had tried to stop him from having his fun. Then again, that just added to the thrill. A challenge was what made something worth doing after all.
The clash of steel broke Johnny from his thoughts and he ghosted towards the source of the noise. Rounding a corner the teen grinned at his luck. A female player dressed in a brown hooded cloak very similar to his was cutting her way through the ranks of Kobolds that rushed to waylay her. The rapier in her hand flashed hither and thither with reckless abandon, skewering countless Kobolds upon its slowly dulling point.
Of course, such a mindless way of fighting would eventually lead to her downfall. The girl's movements were already slow; she had probably been doing this for days already, Johnny could tell. From behind her, a mace wielding Kobold leapt at the hooded girl's back, only to collapse as Johnny's knife found a purchase in-between the gaps of its helmet. Together the two of them tore the remaining Kobolds to pieces, only stopping once the only thing that was left was a stone floor carpeted with a dusting of shimmering polygons.
"You don't look to good miss," Johnny said in greeting as he dropped to the ground and crossed his legs. "Ever considered taking a break? Resting for a bit?"
The female player turned towards him, staring blankly. "What do you care? This game—we're all going to die in the end anyways. Me. You. Everyone. Nothing even matters!" By the end she was yelling, hands twitching hysterically.
Johnny shrugged. "Okay then." He went from sitting cross-legged to right behind the girl in half a second, his dagger raking across the ragged fabric of her cloak. She stumbled forward, the force of the strike catching her off guard.
To her credit, she managed to avoid Johnny's next swing and quickly made distance between them. "What are you doing?" she growled. Johnny twirled his knife cheerily.
"Well, you said nothing matters. So…" he was cut off as the girl leveled her rapier at his throat.
"You're going to try to kill me to convince me that my life matters? Did you get that from a manga you read?" she scoffed. "People aren't that simple. How naive."
Johnny scratched his head. "Well, I mean I'm only fourteen. I'm kinda supposed to be all naive and whatnot, you know? Though, just to let you know, I wasn't trying to kill you."
"Then what were—" the girl was interrupted as her cloak shattered into a shower of polygons. She was very pretty, Johnny thought. In fact, she looked quite a lot like Wendy, if a few years younger and with a slightly different hair colour; where Wendy's was a mix of chestnut and reddish-brown the new girl's was a light chestnut . She wore the ⸢Reinforced Beginner's Outfit⸥ as was pretty much the standard fare for frontline players. It was almost an exact copy of the default armour, consisting of a coloured (to the player's liking) tunic with a shoulder-pad and a strap across the chest. It was paired with a brown skirt that ended just above the knees. It boasted slightly higher defensive stats than the ⸢Beginner's Outfit⸥, but not by much. Still, with this being a life and death game, most players wanted any help they could get.
Not that the slightly higher defense helped protect the girl from Johnny's darting knife as he lunged forward. The blade bled angry red light, carving vicious tears across the girl's shirt and skirt. A flurry of strikes from her rapier forced Johnny to jump back and he landed a distance away, stopping to admire his handiwork. The girl's plain white bra was peeking through her shirt and her skirt had been rendered into something that closer resembled a belt rather than a skirt, doing nothing to protect her matching panties; a modest white with little decoration.
The girl quickly realized her state of undress. But rather than blush and try to cover herself up—though her face was now sporting a light dusting of red—she quickly opened her menu and tapped through it. With a flash of light, another cloak materialized over her tattered clothes, covering her from Johnny's leering gaze.
Johnny blinked, then laughed cheerily. "Well, that's something I suppose. Not many people carry extra sets of clothes—clutters up the inventory you know? Still, makes this more of a challenge, I'd reckon. I wonder, miss. Do you have enough cloaks?"
"Come and find out, pervert," the girl challenged, twirling her rapier casually between her fingers before leveling it at Johnny's throat. "If you're good enough, that is."
"Cheeky bitch." Johnny dropped into a crouch and shot forward, dagger bared. Flashing steel met his charge, the clang of metal on metal as he parried her thrusts to the side and sliced her cloak into nothing once more. A second swipe rendered her now exposed top into nothingness, her bra fully visible.
Still, in attempting to reduce the girl to a state of nakedness, Johnny overextended. Her rapier buried itself in his shoulder and he stumbled back with a yelp of pain. Another thrust punched a hole through his knee, forcing Johnny into a desperate retreat. Luckily the girl didn't follow up, choosing instead to equip yet another cloak from her inventory. It seemed that despite her fairly aloof attitude, she wasn't entirely comfortable fighting half-naked.
As Johnny clutched his knee in pain, the girl leveled her blade at him once more. "I thought you couldn't feel pain in SAO," the girl commented.
"Eh, I turned on pain link," Johnny replied. "Makes it more fun. More real. Gives my targets a chance, I suppose?"
"An honorable pervert," the girl said, shaking her head with a touch of amusement in-spite of her pursed lips. "Now I've seen everything."
Johnny grit his teeth and straightened to his full height—which wasn't much, really. 160 centimeters, flat. Slightly less than average. He settled into a stance once more. "Well, it's not really relevant. Ready?"
"Would you wait if I said no?" the girl asked. Johnny rushed at her with reckless abandon. Rolling her eyes, the girl met his onslaught. "I suppose that answers my question."
In the flickering torch light, between the slowly dissolving corpses of slain kobolds, across the cobblestone floors the two danced—blades clashing, bodies twisting past flashing steel. In terms of absolute skill, Johnny was probably the worse fighter. His opponent was not only fast, but she clearly also had some skill outside of SAO with the rapier. Her strikes, even without system assist, were fast, vicious, and aimed almost perfectly towards any hole Johnny left in his defence.
And yet, if one were to observe the fight, Johnny clearly had the upper hand thus far. While the girl might have been the better fighter, and also the a higher level, she was clearly tired. So very tired. Thrusts that usually would have been as fast as lightning were sluggish. A dodge that usually would have easily spun her out of the way of Johnny's dagger was mistimed as her tired eyes misjudged the distance between them.
And so the girl soon found herself in her underwear, on her knees, a dagger at her throat, and her left arm pinned behind her back. She glanced down at her right arm, the shattered remains of her rapier still clutched in her fist.
Sighing, she let the ruined blade clatter to the ground. "I suppose you win then. Are you going to strip me completely naked, pervert?"
"Well, sorta?" Johnny pressed his knife against the girl's throat. "I was thinking that you'd do that yourself."
"Or?" the girl questioned. "You'll what? Cut my underwear off yourself? I'll be naked either way, just one of them is less humiliating than the other one."
"Nah, I was thinking you do it or I'll kill you." That made the girl start. "What? You were basically commiting suicide anyways."
Now trembling slightly in fear, the girl glanced over her shoulder at her captor. "You… you said you're fourteen, didn't you? Isn't that too young to be killing people?"
Johnny shrugged, the motion causing his dagger to slice into the girl's throat ever so slightly. "I've always been curious. I wanna know what it feels like. To take a life. It seems so easy to just press against your delicate skin—to slit your throat and let you die on the floor. And yet, they say killing people is hard."
"It's not killing people that's hard, JB. It's living with their deaths." From the shadows, a black haired youth about the same age as Johnny stepped into the torchlight, longsword in hand.
"Well, heya Kirito-kun," Johnny greeted, giving a jaunty wave. The girl gave a sigh of relief as Johnny's dagger moved away from her neck. "It's been a while. Haven't seen you since… Anthem, I'd reckon."
Kirito nodded. "Sounds right. Still obsessed with killing people, JB?"
"You know it. Still obsessed with being a programmer, Ki-kun?" Kirito grunted non-committedly. "Aw, you totally should. You're like, really smart after all."
"Thanks," Kirito replied. "For now though, how about you let miss… sorry, I don't know your name. Well, let her go, and then we can have a nice long chat."
Johnny smiled carelessly. "Eh. Kinda a tough decision. How about I let her go, as long as you promise not to loan her any clothes until you get back to that farmhouse you're staying at?"
"Deal," Kirito agreed instantly. The girl yelped when Johnny shoved her forward, face planting on the cold stone floor with her panty clad ass in the air. "Be seeing you, JB."
Johnny's lips twisted upwards. Though Kirito couldn't see his face, Johnny knew that Kirito could tell he was smiling. Kirito was observant like that. "Be seeing you, Kirito-kun." Fading into the shadows, Johnny began meandering towards the exit to the dungeon, pausing to kick the girl in her pantyclad ass—which was still sticking up into the air—eliciting a pained yelp. It was a very nice ass.
As he wandered through the darkened halls, he whistled his ant-marching song to himself once more. Today had been fun. Sure, he hadn't managed to strip the chestnut-haired girl completely, but she had put up quite the fight, in-spite of not being in top condition. Plus, he'd gotten to meet Kirito-kun again! This game was just getting better and better, wasn't it?
And so, mind preoccupied with other things, Johnny wandered towards the ⸢Town of Beginnings⸥ to see if he could find Wendy. She was always fun to play with, and he could also usually manage to get her naked. Which was nice.
Sash: Is that character development I smell? Or is it the readers? Anyway, this chapter had fewer issues. Well, Asuna and Kirito have been introduced. Too bad we didn't get any Asuna service. Or Kirito service. Both are fine.