Hello~! Welcome back to another chapter. I know, it's been awhile. With the commotion of hurricane Irma, and my long-ass break from working on it, we've kinda been away for a little bit. But Topaz and I made a promise that we wouldn't let this die. And I intend to keep that promise as it stands. So yeah. That's all I have to say, stay tuned for more, and I'll let Topaz take it from here.
Hey there Topaz here, now I'm not gonna lie, This entire chapter was written by my partner here and I think that is all for the better because I can't write Blake to save my life. Now hopefully we get ourselves some nice weisscakes going on next chapter. In any case have fun with chapter.
Also Volume 5 if for some reason you do not already know is dropping Saturday, October 14th. Prepare for the HYPE!
Floor 3, Zumfut, December 14th, 2022,
Blake awoke to the gentle motion of a hand shaking her. Opening her eyes, she quickly noticed a young lady with red hair, and her extended arm leading to Blake's shoulder. A part of her tensed up slightly, though it soon melted when she spoke.
"Ah, you're awake!" The redhead said, almost sounding in relief. "I was worried you'd be out all night."
The black cat simply blinked, trying to remember where she saw her. But her mind had all but a few seconds before she realized that she was staring blankly at the redheaded girl. "O-oh, um. Thank you…?"
The girl smiled as her head cocked to the side. "Just happy to have been able to save another fellow player." Asuna spoke.
Kirito stepped into view as he simply smirked, giving a single nod in agreement. "If it's alright with you, we'd like to ask you a few questions about this attack." He spoke.
"Kirito, she's exhausted," Asuna spoke in Blake's defence. "She needs to rest first!"
"I know, I know," Kirito replied. Calming down the redhead. "How about we schedule a meeting tomorrow, Asuna knows a cafe in the southwestern tree."
Asuna opened her mouth to speak, though was cut off when Blake replied with "Sure."
"Alright. We should exchange friend invites," The black clad man continued, making Blake tense up slightly as a small, uneasy feeling crept along her spine. "That way we can message each other."
"O-okay." Blake replied, though still on-edge about the idea of starting another friend's list.
Once the invitations were exchanged between the two players, they both made their way through Zumfut, though with some minor reassurances that Blake'd be fine from thereon. Once the duo left, Blake made her way to the rendezvous spot she told her friend to meet at, carefully sitting down on the bench as she pulled out her book she had been reading.
One hour later.
Although Blake looked to be calm, quiet, simply reading her book on the bench. She was becoming impatient, concerned, checking her surroundings and looking up at the time bar every now and again. She was starting to get worried about her friend. She had told her to meet up at the bench Blake sat at. Now she was almost an hour late and there was still no sign of the hooded girl anywhere. Blake had messaged her a bunch of times, getting a quick reply in return. It was starting to gnaw at her, until her cat ears perked up, alerting her of someone behind her. She turned her head, finding the hooded girl, cloaked in her cape as she walked up to the cat girl.
"There you are, I was starting to get worried," Blake greeted as she closed her book and stood up. "You're late."
"I know, I'm sorry," Argo replied as she waved her hands in peace. "I was doing some last-minute info cramming. I completely lost track of time."
The duo gave one another a hug as they sat down on the bench, making it look as though they were just mere strangers.
"But I think what I've found out might help you out a lot, though." Argo continued, making Blake turn her head.
"Oh? What do you got for me?" Blake replied.
"After I teleported back here, I started searching for the players behind the attack."
"Did you find where they are holed up?"
"Even better," Argo replied, handing Blake an envelope-like item. The raven haired girl clicked on it as a bunch of photo's appeared before her eyes, making hers widen. "I've found out that the guys responsible were mere thugs looking to get into the murder guild laughing Coffin, they aren't even affiliated in it yet. They were simply trying to make a name for themselves by targeting us. They're a mere small murder guild with no talent and little to no bite."
"What's the name of their guild?"
"They're known as the 'Bloodhound's' Though don't be intimidated by their names, they aren't a high ranking guild."
Blake slumped down as she planted her elbows in her thighs and clasped her hands together, thinking back for any clues, until she remembered something. "Wait a minute. The leader said he was with Laughing Coffin though, said killing me would bring him up the ranks."
"The leader of the group supposedly is, working under the Bloodhounds' name. From what I've found, they've been gathering other murder guilds recently," Argo explained, sending more photos to Blake. "That one in particular, the one supposedly you fought, is only a lackey in the group, killing him won't be too much of a big deal to LC."
"That's the problem, though," Blake spoke, clearing her screen of the photos. "He's pretty strong, for a lackey. We were at a fair fight when I crossed swords with him. But with the other guild members, I'd be completely swamped."
"I think I can help you there-"
"Argo, I told you, I'm not going to force you to have to kill. I don't want you to get caught up in all of this."
"I know. Which is why I've found a way to do both; provide a distraction for the guild members without having to dirty my hands, or my cursor."
Blake looked at her funny, tilting her head to the side in confusion. "Oh? And what are you gonna do, send a bunch of monsters towards them?"
Argo opened her bestiary as she scrolled to the one she was looking for, opening it before flipping her screen for Blake to see. The raven's eyes widened as she looked to the hooded player, earning a devious smirk.
"This will be enough…"
Floor 3, Southwestern area, Forest of Wavering Mists. December 15th, 2022, 11:20 p.m.
A calm breeze blew through the trees as they swayed lightly to the current, though it didn't distract Blake as she sat atop a branch, reading through the report Argo had given her. There was a small camp just to the southwest area of the map where the initiate guild was cited. And her sources were proven right, though the sight of it was far more than what could be described in a data log. The place was in a small patch of land, fairly secluded in the fog, though it wasn't a safe zone. To any normal player, it would take a less-than-fortunate stumble into the place to ever find it. Fortunately for Blake, her advanced detection skills, along with the accessory advantages from her apparel, made finding the place a little easier for her. The camp was large, taking up a good chunk of the southwestern land. Large wooden structures filled the place, with at least 2 or 3 dozen players living among the encampment. Guards patrolled the interior of the camp, with scouts in the trees watching the exterior of it. Blake easily found them and eliminated them first, awaiting the signal to infiltrate. She continued to scout the place out, finding the main building to the far end of Blake's location. The cat shinobi sighed, knowing she'd have to go rooftop to rooftop to get there. Upon further inspection, she found the rooftops were the least patrolled, having only 3 or 4 guards on the different corners of the camp. If she could avoid them, she'd make it easily to the leader's quarters without even needing to unholster her weapon.
Blake finally got a message from Argo, telling her she found the beast and was about to lure it. Blake replied with the commencement as she finally put on her face mask, standing up from her spot in the tree as she took a deep breath.
'It's show time.'
With a simple hop off the branch, The shinobi plummeted down towards the lower branches, along with the ground at the bottom. Blake got into a full nose dive before unsheathing her switchblade, switching to katana as she dug the blade into the base of the tree. Slowly, she started to slow herself down, enough to see where to land as she pushed off of the base and landed on another branch. It swayed lightly to the new weight and the g-forces that came with it, though stopped shortly after as Blake pressed on. She ran up to the tip of the tree, where it just reached into the camp as she leapt off. The cat girl did a few corkscrews before landing on the ground below, doing a recovery roll before planting herself against one of the wooden structures. She peered over the wall, finding none of the players had even seen a thing, what with the mist going around the camp. With a nod, The cat shinobi sheathed her weapon as she ran up the side of the wall she was on, grabbing ahold of the roof as she pulled herself up.
Blake scanned the rooftop next, finding all 4 guards at each end of the camp, with no clue as to their most recent intruder. With a silent snort, Blake continued on as she leapt from rooftop to rooftop. Coming across the occasional gaps that she had to wallrun across, or just pull herself back up on. The mission was getting too easy, as she found herself getting closer and closer to the leader's base. As she neared it, it became apparent that it was not gonna be easy to get into. The exterior walls were fixated with wooden stakes, to try and deter anyone from trying to climb the tower. What's more, Blake started to find more and more guards around it, hiding in different spots around the building. From a distance, the cat girl couldn't see them, but now, she could spot them easily as she crept up behind one who didn't seem to be paying much attention. She walked up slowly, quietly, until she could be seen by the guard. But he had no chance as he was dispatched of quickly.
With the first guard eliminated, she toggled her player highlighting ability, finding the place riddled with guards all around the entrance. The black clad player gazed in surprise, knowing she'd have to be careful. 'There's too many to deal with, even if I was to eliminate them quietly.'
Blake scanned around the place, finding the guard posted at the corner of the camp not looking outside of the camp, but watching the inside as well. At first, Blake assumed he was just glancing around the camp, looking around at the place. But soon, another guard came over to relieve him of his duty as he too stood, facing the area of the leader's base. Blake mentally cursed the circumstance. She knew either the leader was a high value player, or he expected her to attack. Either way, he was prepared for whatever circumstance.
Well, almost.
Blake received another message from Argo, making the black haired girl turn around the corner as she opened it. "I got the beast's attention, but I think I've gotten more than what I bargained." she wrote, making Blake confused.
"Wat do you mean by that?" Blake replied.
"U will see, B there soon." Argo concluded, making Blake wonder just what she was planning. The cat shinobi pushed it to the back of her mind as she remembered the mission at hand. She was running a bit behind schedule, and she'd have to find another way to get to the top of the leader's quarters before Argo arrived with the backup. An idea sprung to mind as she jumped to the bridge along the camp's wall, walking over to the posted guard at the corner.
The guard sprung to action as he grabbed his blade, though the cat girl simply sashayed slowly over to the man, giving him a seducing look as she bent over. The man slowly released his sword as he walked over to the girl, giving an intrigued smirk as he grabbed the cat girl's hips.
"Easy there, big boy," Blake spoke. "Haven't you ever heard of man-bait before?"
As soon as she said that, the guard's eyes widened as the girl before him disappeared, and a blade appeared in the player's chest with Blake behind him. The black shinobi simply pulled her sword out of his body, sheathing it as the guard fell to the ground.
"Men, so easily driven," Blake spoke as she walked over the dying guard. "That's why I'll never date one again."
With that, the player disappeared, leaving her to figure out how to scale the large, spikey fortress. A simple thought came to mind as she leapt toward it. She was coming into course with one of the spikes, but as she was impaled, her body disappeared as her real player landed atop the stakes along the walls. She simply walked across, from spike to spike, until she saw an opportune opening at the top of the building. She grabbed her blade again and switched it to it's kusarigama mode, flinging it up in the air as it dug into the exposed side. The cat girl simply walked on the wall, with the blade and the bow as leverage. Before she knew it, she was almost at the top. With a simple jump -and her blade repositioned at the top to hoist her there- Blake landed on the roof as she spotted a couple of guards atop it as well. They weren't paying much attention to the outside, as shown by them huddled over their menu's, looking through their inventories and comparing items from the recent hunt. As Blake noticed them, the two tried to get up as they went to grab their weapons. The easiest to dispatch of, as the black haired simply threw a couple kunai at them, landing in both players' heads as they died. Another guard opened the hatch to the roof, assumedly to relieve one of the guards as he soon noticed the black cat shinobi, along with the crystallized pieces floating away in the calm breeze. He froze up, realizing he was the next victim. Blake simply stabbed him with another kunai, whispering an apology as he too disappeared.
The black cat watched, from the other side of the camp, as a hooded player, along with a wolf with a vibrant yellow mane from the top down, entered the camp. The hooded player stopped suddenly as she dodged the wolf's pounce, slashing it vertically across the lower body as it yelped. The beast landed on it's feet as it's health dropped past halfway. Blake questioned why the attack, until the monster let out a loud howl, echoing throughout the encampment. Suddenly, a pack of wolves jumped out of the woodworks, along with a bunch of other monsters that was chasing the player beforehand. The hooded player simply ran forth, drawing the attention of the guards at the leader's base as they all ran over to see what was going on. It amazed Blake the amount of monsters Argo had alerted, as a huge mob charged at the girl, whom charged at the base. As soon as the players were in a decent range of the hooded figure, they started to draw their weapons as they all charged forth. Blake pointed her fingers to Argo, summoning a shadow clone as it grabbed the girl and jumped to the roof of the building closest to her. The cloaked girl looked at the roof of the fortress, where Blake gave a simple wave and a nod. The girl gave a nod back as she walked over to the back of the building, accompanied by the shadow clone as she started planting the bombs. Blake looked to the mob, where the guards were trying their best to fend off the impending horde, to no avail as it pushed forth. With that in play, the cat shinobi walked to the hatch on the roof, opening it as she hopped down.
Blake landed quietly in the building as she checked her surroundings for any signs of players. When the area was deemed clear, she moved quietly to the stairs, where she could hear subtle running footsteps of the players on the lower floor.
"Sir, there's a breach in the camp, we don't know how, but there's a growing horde of monsters outside!" One of the guards reported to the boss.
"What?! How is that possible, I thought we set up guards to protect the outer wall!" The boss shouted in anger.
"We haven't heard anything from them recently. I don't know if they abandoned their post, or they were killed," another guard reported. "Nevertheless, what should we do?"
The man seemed to stay quiet, either in thought, or in defeat. Either way, his voice finally entered again. "Try and contain the monsters for now. If there's no chance of winning, order the retreat." The boss finally stated, in a calm response. The guards acknowledged his orders as they ran toward the exit.
"I know you're in here, Black cat shinobi!" The boss announced, making Blake tense up. "I had a feeling it was you when none of my scouts reported this incident."
The black clad woman froze, checking her surroundings as she expected more to appear from the accompanying rooms. "It's just you and I here, everyone else is fending off the horde of monsters you sent here," The boss continued. Walking toward the middle of the first floor. "Come out, so we can have a chat, eh?"
The room went quiet as the man looked around the balconies of the second floor. The quietness grew wary as he sniffed the air. Suddenly stepping back as a few of Blake's shadow clones pierced the spot the man once stood at. They disappeared as the real Blake landed on the other side of the room in front of him. A calm composure to her body as she took out her weapon in it's cleaver form.
"Ah, there you are. The black cat ninja who was rescued by the black swordsman, and that redhead with the fast rapier skills," The man spoke, unsheathing his huge weapon as the tip bounced a couple times on the ground. "I was very disappointed when we had to retreat, but now, I think of it as destiny."
"Destiny?" The cat girl parroted. "What do you mean?"
"When I thought about it, you were equal in skill to me," The man explained, walking closer as his blade slid on the ground, leaving a crease in the wooden floor.. "If it wasn't for those pathetic grunts at my disposal, I think it would've been a lively deathmatch between you and I."
"So, why don't we reenact our previous battle, without any interruptions," He concluded, throwing what looked to be an explosive at the door behind him. It exploded upon impact, sending a scorch of flames around the entranceway as it burned the wooden interior. "Just you and I."
Blake stood motionless, for a brief second, before giving a single nod to the boss. She grabbed the hilt on the back of the cleaver. Unsheathing it as she stood in a fighting stance. The man got into his stance as well, as the duo locked eyes with one another. A brief moment, with only the sounds of the blaze in the background, before they finally charged at one another.
Blake jumped up as she started a vertical spin. She hit the man with a series of 360 degree slashes, but the leader blocked every attack before countering it with a bash, pushing the cat girl back as he pounced at her. His blade activated behind him in a charged sword skill as he hit a shadow clone of Blake, breaking the ground with his blade as the real Blake smashed him away with her cleaver extension. The man skidded slowly to a stop, wiping his lip as he charged again. This time, he brought his blade behind him as he charged at the cat girl again. Blake tried to jump over him in an attempted dodge. But she hadn't anticipated his next move, as the guild leader jumped as well, doing a similar spinning attack Blake had attempted previously. It hit her a couple of times before the black clad brought her katana up to block the rest. As if on cue, the sword skill finally activated as it knocked the shinobi girl off-balance, smashing her back down to the ground. She had little time to react, as she dodged his piercing blow. Doing a couple flips backwards to distance herself.
'Not bad, he knows how to manipulate his heavy sword with the sword skills, using them as momentum to counter my light blade.'
The black cat scanned her surroundings, noticing the fire was starting to spread rapidly up the walls, creeping up towards the rest of the building as it ate away at the structure of the wooden fortress. She soon noticed the wooden beams as well, noticing the torches fixated to them as an idea struck her.
'Hopefully this works!'
Blake flipped her blade around in a reverse grip as she sprinted around her opponent. The man reacted quickly, running towards her in an attempt to cut her off. He swung his heavy sword at her. Instead of her making another shadow clone, she threw up her cleaver extension as she grabbed the wooden post, twisting herself on the spot as the man's blade jammed into the wood, nearly an inch away from her fingers. As quickly as the moment happened, blake swung downwards as she hit the man vertically down his body, stopping at the floor as she gripped her cleaver blade and slashed him horizontally. The shinobi pushed off of the leader as she slid backwards, until she stopped at the other beam. The boss, now grunting in anger and frustration, grabbed his sword again as he sliced through the wooden beam, charging at the calm cat girl with berserk rage.
"Fucking cat girl!" He shouted angrily as he activated another sword skill. "WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!"
The tall leader swung his sword in a fast horizontal attack, though the shinobi girl simply flipped over his attack as it sliced through the next beam. Very quickly, she dug her blade in the lit part of the torch as she activated a sword skill, dousing the blade in the flame. With Blistering flashes of speed, she slashed the man across, bringing herself down with a vertical slash before hitting him with a series of quick speed slices and finishing with a rapid-spinning horizontal slash. The man staggered to his knee as the beam he had cut through finally collapsed with the weight and the burning inferno. The structure was starting to implode with the growing calamity of the fire, causing burning wood and debris to fall on the duo. To add to the chaos that was ensuing, the black cat soon discovered how long the fight was as several explosions rained around the area, making Blake realize it was time to set off the final stage of the massacre. She also realized she was running off-schedule again as she took a parcel out of her bag. The last bomb she was supposed to plant before high-tailing it out of the blast radius. She quickly shortened the fuse as she lit it, sprinting towards the stairs as she tossed it behind her.
Time seemed to slow down as Blake remembered the small details: her turning her head, to see a giant sword smash her across the room. She slowly regained some consciousness as she staggered back up, using her katana as support as she placed her cleaver part on her back. She looked to the culprit as the leader walked forth, emerging from the smoke as he carried his sword across the floor, almost maniacally.
"You… aren't…. Getting out that.. Easily!" He managed to say, tossing the blade up as it bounced on his shoulder.
The black haired girl tried to stand a bit, but her groggy state brought her down as her head spun lightly. Shaking it off, she tried to charge at the man, in a last attempt at beating him. But the leader simply smacked her away, sending her through the walls up to the second floor. Blake quickly recovered from the blow as she grabbed a healing potion from her pouch, she was about to drink it, but remembered the situation at hand as she reached for her blade on the ground in front of her. She got up from the floor, finding a hole in the outermost wall as she jumped through and grabbed the roof of the building next door. She climbed up and leapt for cover as the headquarters exploded in a fiery blast. Breaking the surrounding buildings down.
As a billowing mushroom cloud arose in the air.
Blake slowly and groggily awoke to a potion being put in her mouth, the cat instinctively drunk it as her vision slowly started regaining. Argo came into view as they both sat on the ground, with the black cat's body slightly propped up on her leg. Blake started regaining her control as she flexed her body, surprised that she wasn't in a large amount of pain, before remembering there wasn't any physical damage inside of the game. Argo smirked, grabbing her shoulder calmly. "I gotcha, partner." She spoke, slowly helping Blake up. The cat girl stumbled slightly, though Argo swooped in to catch her.
"It's okay, just regaining my balance." Blake spoke, walking forward as she slowly regained her posture. The black clad turned to her hooded friend, as said friend gave her katana blade back to her.
"You're probably gonna need this," she spoke, prompting Blake of something behind her. Cocking her head to see, she found the leader, held in the spot by a couple of wooden stakes that used to be on the outer walls of the burning rubble that was the headquarters. His only movement was the rising and lowering of his breathing chest as he lay on the ground. Blake turned her head, looking to her friend. "Now, it's time to finish this," Argo concluded. "I'll meet you back in Zumfut when you're done."
The black cat girl gave a single nod. Sheathing her blade, she turned around as the hooded player jumped over the wooden debris that lay in the stone pathway and fled the scene, disappearing in the smoke.
Blake hopped over to the grounded man, his gaze turning as he heard the noise. He soon noticed who it was as he simply relaxed his body. "There, you are… I was beginning to think you died in the blast." He spoke softly, staring blankly at the raven haired woman.
"I thought you were dead too, how the hell did you manage to survive that explosion?" Blake returned.
"A rogue's got his ways," He replied solemnly. Turning his head slightly to look at her better. "But, alas, I lost. It seems… I underestimated you."
Blake walked up to the man, unsheathing her blade as she flipped it into a reverse grip. "There's something I want to say, before you kill me." The dying leader spoke, stopping Blake.
"Shoot."
"It came to me as we fought yesterday, after I fled back to the tower," He spoke. "I heard rumours, about a woman in one of the promising guilds on the LC recruitment list, White Fang. She had exceptional skills with a switchblade, and was nicknamed the 'leaders apprentice' in the guild. I heard she had unexpectedly betrayed the guild leader by sabotaging a raid-op on the second floor, disbanding from the guild and disappearing in the game. We surprisingly never gotten a bounty for you, but I knew it the second I saw you. And I am starting to understand why: you are a ruthless, violent, hostile being when it comes to personal matters, distancing yourself from this virtual society like the rest of us. You are one of us, yet you chose not to believe it."
Blake paused for a moment, letting the thought sink in for a bit. Suddenly, she started to snicker, which turned into an unbelieving laughter, as if mocking the man. She let out a light sigh, looking down at her victim emotionlessly.
"Perhaps I am. I'm just a numb-minded, psychotic, merciless killer, with a desire to bury my name for good." Blake spoke, looking down at the man with an emotionless stare. "But I saw what my ex-boyfriend was becoming, what was coming of him. All I saw was a beast, with a newfound way to vent his frustrations through this game, this killing game. And I know damn well, I could not stand with him as he killed innocent players, but I could not kill him either."
Blake resumed walking towards the man, bringing her blade up in the air. "There is enough hate and sorrow in this world, it doesn't need murderers killing innocent players. That's why, I must at least try to better this world. Even if it means killing other players,
to restore peace and order. By shouldering the burden alone."
With that, Blake simply thrusted downward, piercing the player in the heart as she watched his health bar finally deplete. His body starting to glow as a death message appeared in front of him.
"Your past… will catch up to you… eventually…."
And with that, his avatar exploded into tiny little light-blue pieces, showering Blake with tiny, pixelated triangles all around her. She rose up from her spot as she pulled her blade out of the ground, twirling the blade in her hand before finally sheathing it on her back. The black haired girl finally lowered her mask from her face, suddenly realizing the two figures; Kirito and Asuna, standing not-too-far in front of her. Blake's eyes widened slightly as she stood, motionless. The look on their faces said all Blake needed to know: Horror.
Another thing came to Blake's mind as she continued to stare at them. How much had they heard of their conversation? She knew she had to ask; she couldn't just continue to stare at them, hoping they didn't see what just happened. And so, she opened her mouth, hoping to elicit something, anything of a noise.
"H...H..how long…" Blake mustered, in what almost sounded like a whimper.
"You were a part of a murder guild, this whole time…" Kirito spoke, dumbfounded by the info. "All this time, I thought you were the victim…"
"Look, you don't understand!" Blake's voice finally returned as she shouted. Her eyes looking on the verge of watering. "And you never will! I see the look, the look of fear, horror, imbedded deep in your eyes. You will never understand the amount of struggle and sacrifice I've went through, in order to even try to clean my slate!"
The duo grabbed their swords as they unsheathed them, Blake grabbing the hilt of hers as reality struck her. A small pain arose in her chest as her eyes started to tear up. "I am sorry you had to find out this way, and I truly am grateful for you rescuing me." Blake spoke, a single step back as she looked at them. "But please. I never killed an innocent player -that's not how I obtained such a reddened cursor- don't make me start with you two."
"It's too late for intimidation," Asuna spoke, charging up her sword skills, readying for an attack. "We're taking you to prison, one way or another."
With that, the redhead blasted forth with impeccable speed, piercing her through the lower chest. Blake stood, motionless, looking down at the blade before back up at the woman.
"I'm… sorry." Blake said. A single tear streaked down her face as a shadow clone disappeared, leaving just the two at the crumbling encampment. Blake watched, from a closeby tree, the duo scanning around for her. Them in a readying stance, awaiting some sort of surprise attack. Little did they know the cat shinobi had already teleported out of the area, leaving just them, in the wreckage of the burning camp.
Argo tapped her foot impatiently, looking around the area for any sign of the woman, to find nothing. All of a sudden, her detection senses alerted her of someone to the left of her. Coming around the corner was a simple figure cloaked in black cape. Argo looked slightly worried as she backed up slightly, she was in a secluded area, not a lot of people knew about it.
"Relax Argo, it's me." The hooded figure spoke, pulling down her hood as Blake appeared.
Argo sighed as she slumped slightly. "Jesus, Blake. You creeped me out for a minute there," Argo admitted as the black-cloaked woman walked over to her. "Listen. There's something I have that just might help you. It doesn't work with my category of field, so you take it."
Blake received a gift box from Argo as she opened it up, opening it to find a unique ability that not even Blake knew of. "It's a rare ability that you can't ordinarily find twice. A one-of-a-kind type of item," Argo explained as Blake read 'Eyes of The Sabre-Tooth' in the title. "From what I gathered, it boosts the player's attack power greatly, makes them really nimble, light on their feet, And allows them to read the battleground and their opponent."
"Wow, this ability is outstanding," Blake spoke, equipping it immediately. Her eyes changed from her original chosen colour, to a golden metallic colour, along with vertically slit pupils. Blake reacted instantly to the new ability as her new eyes widened. She was able to read Argo's health, weapon of choice, sound bar, and even her main sword skill. It shocked the girl how much it presented her. "Holy crap. This thing's amazing! I can read your status like it was shown right in front of me!"
"That's the power of the ability. Apparently, the developers were gonna have this ability implemented into the game for everyone to use, but they later realized that the amount of data needed to run the thing would make the game crash if everyone used it. They didn't want to scrap the thing, though. So instead they gave it to the one with the highest knowledge skill in the game, activated it a month after the game started."
"Wait, so you're telling me…"
"You're looking at the player with the highest knowledge skill in the game!" She quipped, doing a statue-like pose in glory of her title. "I've had the skill for a little while now, I was actually going to give it to you yesterday, when we met in the forest."
"B...But, why would you want to give this to me? I'm just some lowly player."
"Because you are my friend," Argo stated, making Blake's eyes widen once more. "That's what friend's do, they help one-another."
Blake's face showed shock, until a smirk formed on her lips. "Thanks Argo." She finally spoke, earning a smirk from the latter. The black cat shinobi lowered her head slightly as another thought came to mind, the next question on her list.
"There's something I have to ask of you. A favour," Blake spoke, earning her undivided attention. "Can I trust you to keep my identity, my location, a secret?"
"Of course Blake, I would never rat out a friend."
"Okay. Thank you," Blake spoke. "There's a couple looking for me right now: A man named Kirito, and a woman named Asuna, they saw me execute the leader. Just forewarning you now. I have no quarrel with them, but they mustn't learn of my hideout you've established, and as far as we know, this never happened."
"Understood," Argo nodded, giving a salute. "Here is the key to your hideout, while the subject is still open."
Argo handed Blake the key, the latter putting it in her pocket as she turned back to the info broker. "Thank you so much, for everything." The black haired girl said, wrapping the latter in a hug as the two embraced one-another. For the last time in probably a long time.
"Make sure to drop a text every now-and-again, come see me." Argo spoke, earning a nod in her shoulder as the duo finally parted.
"I will. I hope to see you sometime after New Year's," Blake stated. "But for now, I have to disappear, until at least the incident has blown over."
"What incident?" Argo asked, feigning a puzzled look.
"That's my Argo," The cat girl spoke. "Take care, friend."
Blake walked forward, passing the hooded info broker as she turned her head to the side. She gave a single nod, before jumping over the railing and landing in the alleyway of the shopping district. She flipped her hood up as she walked forward, looking at the key to her hideout as a small feeling of abandonment sunk in the girl's heart.
"...Goodbye..."