Author's Note: Chapter 4 today! We'll see where one of our heroes is off to today...

Also, I don't own SAO or Dark Souls.

-4-

Undead Burg

"HA!" So if the Kirito kid dies while he's Hollowed, then that's it? His brain gets fried like SAO?" The first kidnapper with the obnoxious voice was not trying very hard to show his amusement at the situation. "Oh man, I hope you can hack that stupid NerveGear in time."

"It's not hacking that will take time." Said the second man, who appeared to be the quieter one who also knew his way around a computer. "I already broke that thing's security protection the moment the kid logged in. It's finding the file that will take me forever. I have no idea what I'm looking for, it's that unique of a file...plus when I do find it, the download time will surely be a long one." He tried to get his mind off the tall order of finding the small unknown file in the in-depth haystack of a hard drive located inside Kirito's NerveGear. Their orders were to retrieve a highly advanced Top-Down AI program from the former SAO player, Kazuto Kirigaya, but trying to dig through an entire system for a file without knowing what it was proved to be even worse than they thought.

"Anyway, the girl is on to the Undead Burg. We figured by the time she gets to the Undead Parish, the kid will be awake." The second kidnapper gave his team an update on the situation inside the game. Asuna's avatar was wondering into a region off Firelink Shrine known as the Undead Burg, while Kirito's character was still lying in slumber back at the Undead Asylum.

"Whatever, as long as you don't make it easy for them to find each other." Said the nasty first kidnapper, who still had his feet lying on top of a desk in front of his chair.

The leader sat behind them both, trying to connect a phone call. "Kirito doesn't even know his girlfriend is in the game, plus he's starting out Hollowed, so he may not even make it to see her if he's not careful. And without a mini map, the Lightning Flash girl will have a hell of a time trying to find his avatar."

"Yep." Agreed the second man. "It should be pretty hard for...huh, that's really bizarre."

"What is it?" The leader pulled the phone from his head to look at the screen. "Something up with her stats?"

"No, just her character choice." The second man had the starting stat sheets for both Asuna and Kirito. "She picked her class."

"What did she go with?" The first guy leaned up off the desk, and put his hands on his knees as he leaned over to see the screen "We have Kirito set to be a deprived. I suppose letting her pick a class may come back to bite us."

"She picked Cleric." The second man scrolled through all the stats to check them individually. "Not a nice option for someone who may have never played this game before...Hmm, based on her play-style in SAO and other games, she'll have to learn a lot about this game to make a build tailored to her abilities. Dex/faith, I guess?"

The leader listened for his phone, which was still silent. "What's her starting item?"

"Master Key." He replied, now leaning closer to the screen. "She must have some idea what game this is, after all."

"Mgh..." The leader leaned back in his seat. "Well, that will give her a quicker run through the game, equipment-wise, and now the little girlie will be able to cast miracles for her boyfriend, but that just means we won't see as much flash coming from the Lighting Flash."

"Yea, unless she leans more heavily on the lightning-side...hell, it'll make this more entertaining." The computer expert let the odd discrepancy pass his mind by as he carried on watching Asuna progress. "The first scan over his NerveGear is almost done. Ever get a hold of headquarters?"

"Not yet." The leader sighed. "The boss must have his phone on silent. I can't get the Critter guy or his friend, Gabriel either. I'll try back later."

The hacker chuckled. "Sure, but ya may not want to tell them we're trying to kill the kid before the file's been found. Might make 'em mad. Plus we'd have to start all over trying to find a new AI file for Gabriel."

"Well that's their fault for having our team try to do this instead of those Glowgen punks. They're the ones who want him alive. Letting the kid die without getting his file wouldn't hurt me any..." He hung the phone up, and took another drag from his menthol.

"Keep trying to break into that helmet of his, and don't let the Flash distract you."

Asuna made her way up a thin set of stone steps as she entered a narrow hallway guarded by a gross pair of zombified rats. She easily dispatched them, and turned for the next set of stairs that quickly took her to the outside again, and into the next region—the Undead Burg.

The Undead Burg was the town that developed around the Undead Parish, and became home to the many humans living in Lordran. Regretfully it was reduced to ruins after the onset of the Undead curse arrived. The city was divided into two main areas; the Upper and the Lower Burg. The upper Burg seemed to have once been the nicer part of town, but now showed marks of revolts, urban fights and death, was also home to several monstrous beasts. Prior to the outbreak of the curse it may have been a pilgrim's resting place on their way to the great God's City before the entrance to the City was walled up.

Asuna rolled underneath the swiping blade of two separate undead ghouls, then smashed the third with her slightly heavy cleric's mace. She slung it into the ground, then turned to slash the second one upside the head, and drove her weapon finally through the chest of the third before pressing on through the burg's entrance. A vast array of stone bridges, mossy parapets, and wooden Tudor-styled homes with white walls lined the narrow valley way as the abandoned town came more and more into her view.

Despite this, Asuna tried to capture all of the wonderful spectacle in a single view, but was forced to fight off more and more small waves of sluggish Undead. They rarely brought sharpened weapons, and usually died in one shot despite her distaste for the weapon at her arm. She preferred lighter more furious weapons than that of the powerful mace. Hacking and hammering were more arts for Kirito, or even Lisbeth or Agil, while Asuna preferred pokes and slashes, pinpoint and precise.

"Maybe I rushed on picking my class..." She reluctantly sighed to herself, now realizing her brother was a far different gamer for playing Cleric all those years ago.

She noticed a set of peculiar barrels standing in the middle of an opening, and as she hacked them down, she slowly figured out that this was her next route. Eventually she fought her way to a white mist wall, and loaded her checkpoint as she observed her surroundings. This area gave her two options, but one was simply a small wooden bridge that was asking her to plummet to her death.

She took the other, and after coming across a vast open area of the burg, a great sight took her eyes, and a small degree shock locked her heart. A huge red drake perched atop the bridge to the far side of the Undead Burg glared over the entire valley. Its statue was thin and lanky, but blood red spikes dotted its hide, while gnarly broken wings flapped behind its body to display its dominance over that section of the burg.

"I don't remember my brother fighting that boss, so..." Her voice fearfully trailed off as she quickly turned back the other way.

The drake's surveillance over the upper bridge and surrounding areas forced Asuna to hold her breath, and proceed into the next area with caution. A trio of Hollow warriors were obviously hiding behind a set of wooden planks to ambush the female cleric. She quickly killed them all and proceeded up the stairs to kill a further Undead knight who was also happily armed with a crossbow.

Several bolts stuck from her weakened starter shield, and after finding a sturdier wooden shield around a corner of the street, her path eventually led her to a bonfire. After fiddling with her skills for a short while, a surprising reality hit her in the warmth of the flames.

"So Faith and Strength are my highest stats right now. Not bad, but I guess I should probably try to focus more on dexterity if I want to play like I do in SAO." If she remembered one thing from her brother, it was the difference between strength-based builds, and dexterity-based builds. All weapons in the game either had a set strength or dexterity level required to use them in battle. Strength usually followed larger weapons, and two-handed tools like clubs and longswords, while dexterity was better suited for thinner swords and spears. Knowing her quick, flurry style of playing to match Sword Art Online, Asuna tried to put more points in the dex category than strength every time she leveled up.

Also, thanks to her unusually long time spent around the Firelink Shrine, and a small sneak peak of the New Londo Ruins, Asuna had a grand amount of souls saved up for any merchants she managed to find along the way, such as the one discovered in the middle of the Undead Burg after her time resting at her checkpoint fire.

"Well, now… You seem to have your wits about you, hmm?" A shriveled skeleton man, sitting alone with his legs crossed in an Undead Burg villa smiled at her with wide teeth and a floor full of supplies.

He was quick to judge her, and kindly waved her over. "Then you are a welcome customer!"

"Uh-m, thanks." Asuna liked watching her brother fight bosses. She rarely paid any attention to his meddling in Lordran otherwise.

The Undead Merchant rubbed his hands together. "I trade for souls. Everything's for sale! Nee hee hee hee hee!"

"Okay, well that sounds good." It was far from the appropriate definition of a 'friendly face', but Asuna treated him as such because of his warm attitude and humorous style. She sat down in front of him and eyed his products all scattered across the floor on a rug. "You seem to have a lot for being here in an undead town."

The Undead Man sighed as she picked at a few objects. "It's actually quite nice here, you know? The hollows don't care for a skinny old twig like me."

"Well, that's nice." She agreed. "I'm glad to see you haven't fully Hollowed, yourself!" She knew what that was thanks to her sibling.

He nodded, then pointed to his side. "I've got Yulia… And nobody pelts me with stones anymore. You're Undead, you know how it is."

"Sort of..." Her eyes tried to follow him when he mentioned a person named 'Yulia', but he lost her quickly. She carried on, regardless. "I try to stay human as much as possible. That Hollow skin kind of grosses me out, ya know?"

He laughed, and scratched his forehead. "Yea, I was treated worse back at home."

"I'm sorry to hear that!" She thumbed through the swords, some of which were blunted and broken. "Um, say...did you just steal these from the side of the road or something?"

"Eh? My wares?" he laughed. "Of course they're stolen; what did you think? And when you lose your head, I'll sell it all again! Nee hee hee hee hee!"

In a normal setting, his cackle would have sent her over her edge, but Asuna found his friendliness far more comforting than the rest of this repressive world.

He let her look some more as he peered over her shoulder. "Things are getting treacherous in these parts. A horrible goat demon has moved in below. And up above, there's that humongous drake, and a bull demon, too. If you stick around this place, it might end up being your grave! Nee hee hee hee hee!"

She ignored the cackling this time as a shining, and actually sharpened thin sword took her eye quickly. It was a rapier. A fencing foil from the styles of Europe. Just like her Wind Fleuret and Lambent Light from Sword Art Online.

It was just the thing she was looking for.

"Oh, I need this!" She smiled greatly, and picked the sword up, along with a paired buckler shield for its size. Finally, two peculiar objects took her liking as well, as they seemed very important to her for the future.

The Undead Merchant gave her a wave goodbye, and cackled some more as the pretty knight from SAO wondered back out the door with new wares and weapons at her side. Asuna pulled the shiny new rapier off her belt, and twirled it lightly in her hand, with the delicate blade collecting sunlight from every swing.

Asuna ran into a set of new Undead, and quickly back stepped to the left, letting the enemy's blade pass by her head. She took her own blade, and guided him along past her body, which set her up for an easy back stab. She continued to dance with the remaining two enemies, and let one run into the other as she slashed her thin sword by both their heads, and took a fair bit of skin from the outside opponent. The second fell to her blade, and the final was easily dispatched as she took a ripped piece of tattered cloth from one of the fallen bodies to clean her still sharpened sword.

"Ah, just like SAO." She gladly mused to herself as things were starting to look a fair bit brighter inside the world of Lordran. Asuna was even starting to feel confident, and tested her ability the moment she came across the tallest enemy in the burg thus far.

A lofty black knight stood with a slick suit of steel armor, and a gleaming black sword ready to strike her. Asuna gave her rapier a twirl yet again, yet as she took the ready, he charged her swiftly with his shield raised sideways. He kept his sword low, and jabbed at her with the pointed bottom of his shield. He moved fast, even for Asuna. She used her small buckler shield to knock his attacks back, but quickly found that her feet met the stairs behind her as she walked up a floor to avoid a further onslaught.

The black knight went to attack her again with his shield, and forced her to block again as she tried turning around the corner to get better footing. As she blocked the shield, the knight jabbed her sharply in the left shoulder with his long black sword. She felt a pinch against her armor, and left with decent health damage as she continued back peddling around the corner.

She eventually found a clearing after running up a few flights of stairs, and quickly downed an Estus Flask. As she finished off her drink, she rolled forward to dodge an anticipated strike from behind by the black knight. The wide-open courtyard space gave her enough room to even things out, and as such she took to the offensive. Several jabs to the knight's central figure caused him to move his shield around to catch Asuna's attacks. She tried catching him off guard with a few outside pokes, and then reared back to let him bash her shield a few times to keep him honest.

Asuna's tactics were bizarrely tailored to fights in Dark Souls, but all her experience thus far was a display from her earnings inside SAO. She was, after all, a girl who trained herself to stay alive during all fights for three years in the world of Aincrad. Also, as a rapier-user, she knew patience, and learned how to dance with enemies for a long period of time before making her final strike.

They traded blows with little ground being gained on either side. He was much taller, and more powerful with his attacks, while Asuna kept herself small to shrink his target, and started out patient to study her foe. Eventually she shifted her style, and attacked often to keep him from retaliating. She remembered a very successful backstab move from early, but before she could use it the knight came in quick with his sword hand.

She moved her shield with lightning speed to bash his sword hand away, and left his stomach wide open for attack. She slammed her rapier's point into his chest, and lowered his health by half with the swift riposte of an attack. That parry allowed Asuna to earn enough time for a reposition, where she shifted to the side and avoided another swipe from his great black blade. She let him turn slowly once again, but now she was already at his back, and made her final move as she drove her blade through his back in victory.

Asuna let the enemy fall before exhaling her held breath, and picked up the extremely rare titanite shard from his fallen corpse. She placed it in her now widely open bag, and carried on for the great parapet tower to the south that connected to a lofty bridge over head.

Upon her arrival, and after earning a second titanite shard, she passed through the fabled white doorway of the Undead Burg's tower, and entered a broken stone bridge that was empty of all life. She walked slowly out to the center, trying to find her way around the rest of the burg, until several crossbow blots flew over her head from behind.

"Lousy jerks." She never liked being attacked by enemies who chose not to fight fair, and as such turned to figure out a way to get to her two new best friends. She did this, until a haunting roar took her ears from the front of the bridge.

A great demon, dawning the head of a wicked bull, jumped down from the other tower on the bridge to greet his new visitor. The Undead Merchant from before mentioned something about a great bull demon moving into the burg recently, and now Asuna could put that image to reality as the monstrous opponent charged for his assault. Asuna's eyes grew wider now, as she had no way of rolling from its enormous curved mallet. She tried to force her way back through the white fog ridden door, but the passage was clearly blocked.

She did happen to notice a thin but sturdy ladder hiding to the side of the stoop. This camouflaged fire escape led her quickly to the top of the first tower, and allowed her to find room to roll around on the roof as her two friends from before shot more arrows towards her at a closer range. She let them fly into the floor, then spun behind one as the second shot his own ally. Using her lower leverage, she swiped up on the legs of the hollow still standing, and brought him down too as her blade sliced through flesh and bone.

Asuna remembered how unforgiving this game was visually, but the smells that took place around her gave Aincrad a run for its money. The vile stench of the dying city, combined with two freshly slain hollows did not pair well with the odor of the daunting bull demon slamming his hammer into the side of the tower.

"So I'm going to have to use my speed to beat this guy. How am I supposed to get down there too attack him if he just slams his mallet into the ladder?" Her mind began to wonder as the dreadful bovine bashed his weapon repeatedly into the stone surface of the tower, but then she noticed just how close he was standing underneath the platform she was currently looking down from.

"Hmm..." She raised her rapier in a curious manner, and gave it a small twirl in her hand as she looked back down to the boss. "Well, it's a little more Kirito's style, but I could give it a try..."

She let out a dauntless battle-cry, and pointed the tip of her rapier downward as she held the sword to face her target. The demon was caught by surprise, but was not made fully aware of the girl's assault until her sword was jammed into the top of its skull. She pulled the blade from its scalp, and gave it a second slash across the face for good measure. As the acrobatic knight landed on her feet, Asuna looked to her HUD and noticed the beast's health was down one third of its value after her strike.

"That looks a little better! I think that's how my brother even beat this thing!" She took a grin as the best turned to greet her once again with a blow from his hammer. Asuna knew one hit from the mallet would be her doom, and made sure to roll underneath the titan's legs to set herself up on the other side of the bridge. She had been putting points into dexterity, with a little extra into endurance as she leveled up through the Undead Burg.

That was important as the daemon took his next stampede toward her stance, which caused her to roll back underneath his legs to return to her original side. Sprinting toward the ladder, she tossed a small brick at its head to keep it distracted long enough to climb the ladder for a second charge.

"This ladder mechanic is too easy! Did my brother really have that much trouble with this when we were younger?" She soon wondered how her beloved Kirito would fare in the fight as she charged her sword up again for a second leap of faith, striking the skull of the bull once again in the same pinpoint location.

Asuna charged its legs once more with a series of violent slashes, while also managing to block the butt of the demon's hammer with her shield as he tried to back swipe her from the side. She took to her somersault mechanic again, and dodge the head of the hammer as it smashed a new crater into the ground. The ruble made it hard for her to land, but her thin frame made the maneuvering a little easier as she came out the other aide. Asuna noticed no ladder on the other side of the bridge, and made the move for one more roll between her enemy's legs as she gave him a few extra slashes for good measure.

The Lightning Flash took on a dead sprint toward the ladder for her final victorious assault, but just then the hammer of the bull passed over her head, and slammed into the medal ladder, smashing the center piece inward and making entry to the rooftop impossible.

"Not fair!" Asuna shrieked as the mindless NPC boss ignored her acquired agro to hit the ladder instead, and also took a hit on the side from its hammer as she flew from the bridge toward the edge. Her armor left a small sliver of health floating over her head, but her avatar was now dangling over the broken ledge of the bridge as she struggled to keep herself alive. The beast walked toward the ledge to give her a killing blow, which was perfect as Asuna noticed it standing just as close to her as it did to the tower in the beginning of the fight. It left her open with one more idea.

She tossed her buckler shield toward its face, and let it cry out in pain as she jammed her rapier sword into the side of its leg in a painful jolt of energy. Asuna then pulled upward in a brilliant momentum, and hurled herself into the air with sword still in hand, driving down a glowing green blade powered by a sword skill to drive the remaining health of the Taurus Demon down to zero.

VICTORY ACHIEVED

"Wow, I don't think that move came from Dark Souls...is this game combining my skills from SAO with its own?!" The Lightning Flash landed with her desired message taking her screen. She raised a fist in delight, and sheathed her sword as she strolled off for the end of the bridge, collecting her souls on the way out.

After felling the Taurus Demon, however, Asuna continued through the door and down the staircase to find the other side. Yet as she turned to the left, the holy gamer walked out onto and open landing, where a second human stood gazing off into a brilliant virtual sunset.

The man turned to find the victor staring back at him with a look of confusion, and gave no notice of her frozen attitude as he greeted her with a jaunty introduction.

"Ah, hello! You don't look Hollow, far from it!"

We're going to hold off on Sun Bro for the next chapter ;)

So this is Dark Souls, but waaay more open world. The players will be able to interact with things more fluidly like Asuna being able to pick up bricks. It also lets the enemies do the same, like how the Taurus Demon broke the ladder. It adds an interesting new mechanic for the heroes...

Also remember in SAO the Seed system works differently than other game systems. Their avatars are transferred through different games. Like Kirito when he had stats from SAO follow him to ALO, but no items. Asuna has different stats from SAO, but her skills seem to have joined her.

And don't worry! Of course, it's Dark Souls. They will be dying! They're just going to have to be strategic about it like the rest of us! That being said for being two players trapped in the death game SAO for 3 years, they're fighting survival skills are probably more advanced than most. It shouldn't be a surprise that a girl wielding a weapon she has personal skills with is able to keep herself floating so far in a combat-based game.

Let's see how far those skills can take her. Until the next chapter!