AN; just a heads up, I have never made an OC. So if you think that it seems bad, then feel free to criticize. This will for one to two chapters... Maybe three. I won't worry too much about background since I plan to bring them back later on.

Disclaimer; I don't own Bleach or SAO

Chapter 11: Waking a Sleeping Tiger

After the first floor had been cleared, progress had started moving at a steady pace. More players had begun joining the front lines. Large guilds, like the «Holy Dragon Alliance» an «Aincrad Liberation Army», quickly took leadership of the charge. By now they had reached the 24th floor in under six months.

Much of this progress was thanks to the many new special weapons and armor retrieved from the new quests. Many held some sort of unique added effect, like forming thin layers of ice on an enemy or setting them on fire for short periods of time. However, using such abilities did not come without a price. Whenever they were used the user would have their HP slowly depleted over time. Not to mention that it was only available once every fifteen minutes and reduce the item's durability with each use. Thus many only used it rarely and as a last resort. But not all were as cautious.

Many now made it their life's work to track down and gain any and all of these new commodities. With powerful weapons in high demand by those fighting on the front lines, one could make a small fortune just selling a handful of them. This in turn lad to more problems. More and more had begun to fight over these weapons. Many had started to work as solo thieves and gatherers, but most referred to them for what they truly had become. Mercenaries, pay them enough and you could hire them to target a player of interest. Most if not all did so out of sight and would avoid foors their targets frequented in order to avoid any accusations. But not all were as ruthless as the majority.

Mugetsu had become one of the most famous and requested of the bunch. With an uncanny luck, or misfortune from his part, he would frequently find himself against creatures that would often leave him wishing that he had stayed in town. Currently he was dealing with the latest trouble he had run into.

'I swear, I'll never take on another job like this again!' Running through the thick jungle on floor 24, Mugetsu was being chased by a giant black tiger with blue stripes that crackled with electricity. 'If I find out that those bastards knew about the lighting, I will beat them to within an inch of their HP.' Taking cover behind a stone ruin, he avoided the electrical attacks being sent his way. 'Just what the hell did I do to get that cat so angry?' The answer to that was quite simple, and could be traced back to how he came across his target in the first place.

The previous night a small guild of mid-level players had ask him for help dealing with the tiger they had encountered in the jungle. In exchange they offered him 10,000 col and one item that the boss might drop, other than the rarest one. It seemed pretty straight forward, he had dealt with other strong side-bosses by himself before. So the next morning he set out to look for the beast with the information they provided on its location. Navigating through the foliage proved to be slightly difficult, and the virtual mosquitoes plaguing him did not make it any better. When he arrived at the area where the tiger was seen there was not a single sign of such a creature, that is until he stepped on said creature's tail.

The tiger was easily three times size any normal tiger should be. The eyes were a deep shade of blue and had black scleras. Its arms were built with large muscle and could snap a spear shaft with ease, and the claws looked like they could pierce through solid steel. But what truly instilled fear into the heart of its prey was the deafening roar from a mouth full of dagger like teeth. This was a beast meant for battle.

"This is going to take up my entire morning, isn't it?" Quickly, Mugetsu drew his sword as he barely avoided the swipe from the tiger's paw. Not wasting any time, he slashed the giant underbelly of his prey. What followed was a savage fight between the two. By the end one would come out the top hunter, and the other the unfortunate prey.

All was going smoothly for the majority of the fight. The tiger seemed to be struggling trying to land a hit on his much smaller opponent, who in turn would deliver blow after blow to its sides and legs. Regardless, the creature showed no signs of slowing down. The fight finally took a turn when it was down to the final portion of his third and last HP bar. Any and all tactics that had been working up to this point became obsolete the moment it let loose a wave of blue electricity. Lightning rapped around its entire body and would be shot at him every ten seconds, forcing Mugetsu to make a tactical retreat.

'I hate my luck.' He had been running to avoid the bast for the last half hour, though not without benefit. He had figured out that if he struck while the lighting still enclosed the tiger, he would be launched back and take damage, also that said field diapered for five seconds after each blast. "Great, I discover his weakness and am unable to make use of it!"

As he continued to think of a way to strike, a sudden shout snapped him out of thought.

"Get Down!" With no time to question or look at whoever just arrived,he did as told. He watched as a throwing pick struck the tiger's nose. Thrashing about it tried to remove the pick which had entered his back towards the one who had unexpectedly attacked him, he found a boy no older than his current target.

"What are you waiting for? Get up and follow, I know where we can help you kill that thing!" Not wanting to wait for his enemy to recover, Mugetsu did as told and followed the one who had helped him. After a short run they found themselves in what looked like the ruins of an ancient stone village with intricate carvings, wrapped in vines, and with a giant stone structure in the middle. Form some reason it seemed to be the only structure without any vines covering it. "Stop, this is the place!"

"Alright then, start explaining. Who are you and why are you helping me?"

With a smirk, the crimson teen turned to him. "Now is that anyway to thank the one who saved you? Now to answer your question, the name's Kaine. As for the others I mentioned, I was referring to my brother."

Near by, the black tiger let out another roar before crouching on his left side. It quickly retaliated by shooting an arc of lightning in Mugetsu and Kaine's general direction, forcing the two to lay on their stomach.

"And if I'm not mistaken, that was probably his doing." As if on cue, another player wearing similar gear appeared. His hair, however, was black and seemed to have dark blue hair down one side of his face. "Hey Hoven, nice timing. I was just telling our friend here-"

"What the hell do you think you're doing," interrupted Hoven. "Get up and help me finish of this overgrown cat! Or are you planning to leave everything to me like with the «Undead Hunter» two floors back?"

Sorry if I took too long, I just couldn't find the right set of names. So in the end I just went with these. Anyway, review and tell me what you think.