As a quick reminder

Kirito = Kazuto

Lisbeth = Rika

Leafa = Suguha

Aurain = Ryan

Kept my promise, despite Tales of Xillia 2 coming out a few days ago. Hoorah. To the one anon I said one to TWO weeks and I updated two weeks ago on a thursday :P I didn't break any kind of update promise for once! Though it did almost take until midnight to upload...

Chapter VII: Rescue

Kazuto walked down to the kitchen with Suguha and I in tow. The grim look was still on his face. We turned the corner, and found Rika waiting at the table. Her face brightened seeing Kazuto was up. It immediately soured however.

'Here comes the storm...'

"Kazuto Kirigaya." Rika ground out, her face beginning to turn red, "I appreciate you recovering so quickly, but if you EVER and I mean EVER clam up like that again over Asuna being in trouble instead of thinking of ways to rescue her; I will make you wish you were back in SAO fighting Kayaba Akihiko. Are. We. Clear."

"Yes ma'am!" Kazuto looked visibly shaken. I didn't blame him. Angry Rika was scary when it was you she was angry with. I thankfully had very little experience with that side of her.

"Morning Rika." I chuckled, kissed her on the cheek and sat down next to her. I faced Kazuto, and my face went from affectionate to fully serious. We needed to get the elephant in the room out of the way, or I'd end up throwing breakfast up from nervousness/impatience. I already didn't feel like eating as it was.

"What happened after Sugou stabbed me Kazuto? Rika'll be coming with us so it's best to get it out of the way before she heads home."

Kazuto paused, looked over at Rika like he wanted to protest her coming, took one look at the fierce look on her face; he swallowed, probably remembering her rant a few moments ago, and turned back to me.

"To make things brief." Kazuto cleared his throat, "Sugou hasn't locked us out of the game. Before he killed me and forcefully logged me out; he left a challenge."

"A challenge?" Rika asked, her hand tightening around mine.

Kazuto nodded and continued

"Sugou has some kind of virus programmed into ALO. Using it he can control players, it's why each faction hates each other so much and why everyone takes the game far too seriously. He's going to use that virus to make Ryan and I targets to every single person in the game not strong-willed enough to resist. His challenge to us is to get to the top of the World Tree while being hunted like animals. He'll re-fight us then, though I doubt it'll be a fair fight. He told me we would placed at the farthest point possible from there. That's the long and the short of the situation."

I nodded, my mind already whirring. We still had Asuna's GM card, unless Sugou searched our inventories. We didn't necessarily have to play by his rules then. What if we found another GM console and just forcibly logged every member of ALO out of the game? It was better than doing what he expected.

"I say we ignore Sugou's challenge." I said bluntly. Kazuto looked at me like I'd grown a second head, and opened his mouth to protest. I held up my free hand, "H-Hear me out. We still have that GM ID card from Asuna most likely. So instead of doing what he expects, we use the navigation data stored in Yui to go find another GM console besides the one Asuna told us about in the tree. We then force log-out everyone in the game. Sound good?"

Kazuto stared at me with his mouth wide open. I gave a cheeky grin (mostly inspired by all my time with Rika) and kissed my girlfriend impusively on the cheek. I felt rather pleased with myself.

"That's brilliant!" Kazuto finally found his voice, "With any luck we'll be able to avoid the more populated areas this way."

I nodded, "We'll have to be fast though; Sugou is going to notice something's up pretty fast when we aren't showing up in Arun. He'll check to make sure we're doing what he wants."

Kazuto nodded, looking thoughtful. Suguha placed down some cereal and bowls in front of us, and we ate breakfast in silence. I wasn't hungry, so the cereal tasted bland. I just shoved it down so I wouldn't feel woozy in game. I ate in in slow mechanical bites.

Once we'd finished, Rika excused herself and got up to leave; I followed her. I told Kazuto and Suguha to go ahead and dive and that I'd be right after them. I wanted to talk to her one last time before we dived. We stopped just outside Kazuto's house, facing each other.

"Hopefully you won't get in too much trouble." I rocked back and forth on my heels.

"I shouldn't." Lisbeth smiled reassuringly, "Mom doesn't care too much these days. She's been depressed lately over my dad. It was so hard for her dealing with it all alone while I was in SAO."

"Speaking of, I've been meaning to ask about your dad." this wasn't the best timing but it would have to do, "I've heard you mumble in your sleep several times about him, and you always tell me not to leave you."

"That..." Lisbeth looked at the ground, "Is now really the best time."

I answered honestly, "No. But I'm liable to forget later."

"It r-really can't wait?"

I looked down at her. Her eyes were glistening with tears. I sighed deeply. Damn my heart. I didn't want her to cry. It hurt to even watch her. I gathered her up in my arms, eliciting a little gasp of surprise

"It can wait. Sorry for being pushy."

Lisbeth nodded, then replied softly, "'S okay... you deserve to know. After we rescue Asuna I'll tell you everything."

"Thanks."

Lisbeth nodded again and reluctantly detached from me. She gave me a brief kiss on the cheek before taking off down the street, her loose clothing flapping in the wind. A smile tugged at my mouth. I waited until she disappeared out of sight before turning around and heading back inside. It was time to dive again, and I wasn't looking forward to it. My chest twinged again where I'd been stabbed as if reminding me of what could happen again. I tried to ignore it and headed up the stairs to my room. I got there a few moments later and slipped my nervegear on my head before lieing down on my bed. I closed my eyes.

"Link start!"

I opened my eyes and looked around warily. All I could see for miles in front of me was the same unfamiliar grassy field. Since I had little actual experience in ALO, I could only guess I was somewhere in Sylph or Cait Sith territory from my lessons. I couldn't even see Kirito anywhere. I rubbed my hair in irritation and pulled up my friends list along with my map. I quickly added Lisbeth, hoping she'd use the same name as SAO, and scrolled down to Kirito's name. I also noted Sugou/Oberon had plopped me in the farthest southeastern corner of Sylvan territory. Gamalir's name tugged at my eyes for a brief moment. He and I were still supposed to meet up for that thing he wanted to investigate. I'd have to apologize later, saving Asuna came first. He'd probably be mad that we already solved that great mystery he wanted to investigate.

I wondered what he'd think knowing a GM was behind it.

I shook my head and opened up a video message channel between Kirito and I. He picked up almost immediately, looking as bewildered as I felt. There was ice behind him, so I was fairly sure he wasn't even remotely close to me. Ice meant either Gnome or Leprechaun territory. Far from me either way.

"Awww it looks warm there..." Kirito shivered.

I chuckled. Kirito just glared at me halfheartedly in response.

"Yui find a GM console yet?"

Kirito's face fell. That on top of not seeing Yui at all in the window made dread creep up my spine.

"Yui's gone." Kirito replied stonily, "I don't know where, how, or why. Sugou probably did it. The bastard revels in taking things away from me that I love."

"Damn."

I sighed. Sugou was making us play into his hand whether we liked it or not. To Arun it was then. No real other choice.

"Kirito."

He looked directly at me.

"We've got to head straight to Arun. We don't have any other leads. I hate to do exactly what Sugou wants but..."

"I'll see you there then." He nodded reluctantly and closed the chat window suddenly. My heart ached for Kirito. He wasn't having the best month.

I sighed and closed the empty window. It wasn't going to be fun sneaking my way all the way to Arun to meet up. No other choice though. Without Yui it would take weeks to find a GM console, and we didn't have the time due to Asuna's forced marriage in roughly three weeks.

"And here I thought it would be easy." I chuckled morosely and looked up at the sky, "Things are never easy for our group."

One foot in front of the other as Lisbeth would say. I shook myself out and headed inland, hoping feverishly that I wouldn't run into any players. It was time to play the role I'd once played in SAO. I flipped up my hood and took off towards the nearest grove of trees marked on the map. Regardless of what Sugou had planted in players' heads, I could still be hunted for being a Spriggan in Sylvan territory. After a few minutes of swift travel, I reached the edge of the forest. I felt relieved. Here I could hide, open grass plains made me nervous. I hopped up into the trees, and began hopping from branch to branch, following the waypoint to the Ruger Corridor I had set.

'This brings back memories' I laughed softly, still hopping through the trees, 'I was so damn paranoid in SAO before my friends mellowed me out.'

Not a whole lot happened for the first few hours of travel. I hopped from tree to tree, enjoying the nice simulated weather. It was cold in Japan at the moment, and the sunlight and the breeze felt good. Despite the fact that they were both being filtered by trees of course. I wished that I could fly, but I knew that would attract attention, hence the continued tree hopping. Unfortunately the peace didn't last. There was no hide skill to level in ALO.

Warnings lit up on my UI and I dived off the branch towards the ground. Green bolts of energy blasted where I was moments before, tearing up the tree. I flipped over and landed on the ground in a crouch, my weapons out and ready. There were three Sylvan warriors looking at me enraged. Occasionally their emotions seemed to flicker, but they remained angry at me. There was a fourth one, but he wasn't like the others. He seemed almost hesitant to be attacking me. I surmised that he managed to resist the program Sugou activated to make people attack Kirito and I. Four versus one was not going to be fun. Then again, I was Aurain the Shadow from SAO. Even if I didn't like the title, it held some truth. I didn't need to fight them did I? I grinned to myself and muttered a quick illusion spell under my breath. Black smoke billowed out from under my cloak, quickly filling the woods in the nearby area. The Sylvan's coughed and covered their eyes, and I made my escape.

I crept close to the ground, not wanting anyone to hear me. The spell I'd cast lasted quite a long time all thing considered, so sneaking along was safer. A ding interrupted my thoughts. A mail icon blinked on my UI. I opened it curiously, still sneaking along the ground.

"Oh hell..." I moaned.

Enclosed was a notice for a bounty on two players. Specifically Kirito and I, along with our last locations. Sugou didn't just make players hunt us down if they saw us. He attached a bounty to go with it. The bastard used us as way to make an event for players. It was clever really, everyone probably assumed we were GMs, so no one found anything suspicious about the event at all.

I crept along the forest floor for a few more minutes, before deciding it was safe. I hopped back into the trees and began jumping from branch to branch again. I only hoped no one was smart enough to set up a blockade in the pathways leading to Arun. That'd complicate things.

My UI suddenly went crazy again, and I dodged to the side, this time a fireball blasting the tree I was just on. I looked to see a different group of players this time. Salamanders of all people.

'I must've crossed over the border at some point in the confusion.' I happened to look down and noticed that some sand had begun to coat the forest floor lightly. Bother.

"Surrender now Spriggan scum." the biggest Salamander sneered at me. There were three of them, one big one with a lance and armor, and two smaller ones in dark red robes that looked like mage types. I sighed. I was almost at the edge of the trees, so using the smokescreen spell to escape wouldn't be easy unless I backtracked. If I backtracked I might just run into them again, or another group of pursuers. I sighed and let my claws slide out silently.

"It's all fantasy." I muttered to myself, 'This isn't SAO. They won't die. You've already done this before in the Ruger Corridor.'

"You're going to try and fight us 3v1? Brave for a Spriggan." the big man scoffed

I just looked at him under my cloak with a bemused expression. He was way too confident. I sighed and muttered another illusion spell. Two intangible clones of me sprouted from my body and launched at the Salamanders They were caught off guard completely. The two mages bumbled around in terror and ended up falling to the ground, while the big one was unfortunate enough to have the real me in his face. I rammed my claws into his torso and kicked off of him, sending him plummeting to the ground. He dispersed into particles as soon as he slammed roughly into the sandy dirt that made up this part of the forest.

'Must've been really under-geared. I didn't expect to do it in one blow without sneak attack bonuses.'

I looked over at the two mages and saw them trembling. They didn't seem to have much backbone, even reminding me a bit of myself, but they didn't want to flee. Sugou's program was good if it forced people to stay and fight even if they were scared silly. I decided to make it quick since they were victims. I rushed the closest one before he could chant a single spell and stabbed him in the chest.

"Sorry..." I frowned as he disappeared into nothing like his friend.

Fire blasted into my side and sent me head over heels into a tree. I moaned out in pain and pushed myself to my feet. Alarms went off on my UI for the 3rd time that day and I dived to the side to avoid another fireball. That's what I got for not paying attention. I smoothly transitioned the dive into a roll before launching myself full speed at the other player. I practically tore him in half with my claws, my adrenaline getting the best of me. He died just as swiftly as friends, with the same terror on his face. I felt disgusting. I'd never been a fan of PKing in video-games, even before SAO. Killing another human that looked 99% real wasn't something I enjoyed.

"Gotta save Asuna. This is for Asuna." I repeated several times out loud. I shook my head violently and took to the skies, once again back on track for the Ruger Corridor. I passed the treeline and soared into open skies. Another alert on my UI startled me, almost causing me to fall. I opened the notification up, and saw that Lisbeth had accepted my friend request. I opened up a video chat window and shoved it slightly off to the side so I could travel and talk.

"Hi Aurain!" Lisbeth answered cheerfully. I noticed a lot of snow covered rock behind her. I wondered if she was near Kirito.

'Gonna guess she didn't get in trouble with her mom.' I smiled back, "Hey dear. I've got some bad news. It's not horrible, but it does complicate things."

She nodded, and I continued

"First off Yui, you remember Yui right? Anyways she's been taken away by Sugou so we're going to have to find a GM console on our own. This means playing into his hands and heading straight for Arun since we know for a fact there's one there. Oh and Sugou told the entire server where Kirito and I spawned so we're being hunted."

As if on queue a fireball shot past my head, followed by a wave of green blasts that forced me to dive to the ground.

"I'll be right back." I groaned and closed the video chat window on a very confused/concerned/disgruntled looking Lisbeth.

I looked at the new group of people trying to hunt me. It was a group of Salamanders and Sylvans working together.

'Weren't they at their throats less than a week ago?' I sagged.

There were ten people in total. six Sylvans and four Salamanders. Not good odds for me, especially since I was in an open field. The illusion spell only made two-four clones. I bit my lip nervously. Fight or flight?

Will it be fight or flight? :3

Happy early 100 favs on this story. It's at 99 as I finish up this chapter. This story has recieved so much love since I created it, and I really really appreciate it. It helps my confidence going forward since I'm attempting NaNoWriMo in Nov (warning this story probably won't update at all in November but I'll try to get a backlog if I can)

-Forscythe