DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN SWORD ART ONLINE!

CHAPTER 5

REUNION

"Agil, don't you think we can see the other people's position on our tracker? I mean, since they are on are friend's list, we should be able to see it right?"

"You are correct Lyfa. Great idea. Let's check it out."

Sinon looked on as the conversation between Lyfa and Agil continued. Sinon was lost in her own thoughts about this game. While fighting with those AI, she had been hit only twice. But the pain she felt was real. Somehow, it was different from being shot in GGO. Better not tell them otherwise they'd think I am weak.

"Yes! I found one. Not far from here."

"Only one? What about the others?" Lyfa asked in a disturbed tone.

"Well to begin with, Liz isn't one of the strongest. Maybe someone got her." Sinon said in a cold manner with a smirk on her face.

"Come on. We should believe in them. Many games nowadays have trackers with limited range. Maybe ALO updated to one of them. We haven't really put it to use in the past. So, we wouldn't really know. I guess the others are just out of range, so at the moment we can't see them. Let me send them a message, so that they know where we are headed." Agil quickly typed a message and sent it to the other members of the guild.

Lyfa felt relieved on hearing these words. They started moving towards the only other person they found on the map. Even though they didn't know who it was, they hoped that this person would be safe.

Initially, the marker was moving, but all of a sudden it stopped. The marker was only a few miles away from them, when they heard entered a forest area on the dungeon.

None of them liked the eerie silence of this forest.

Somehow, it doesn't feel right.

Lyfa was the first to hear it. It was very faint but she swore to god that, it was the sound of metal hitting metal. Someone is fighting.

Quickly she opened the tracker and checked the map. The marker which was moving before some time, was now stationary. Lyfa told Agil and Sinon about this and they quickened their footsteps. Lyfa kept the tracker opened and the marker was still stationary. They were only a few miles away when they heard the sounds again. And this time sparks flew high into the sky.

These are not normal sparks. These are... Lyfa turned to Agil and looking at the expression on his face and she knew she was right. Asuna.

Asuna had once shown her OSS to all her friends. An eleven hit OSS. Mother Rosario, one of the most devastating moves in the whole game.

If someone as cool and composed as Asuna is using this, something has to be wrong. Even though SInon had only met Asuna before a few months, she definitely knew what type of a person Asuna was. She turned to Lyfa and their gazes met. Asuna is in danger.

With a nod, and no words spoken, Lyfa and Sinon took off in an instant. Agil was left to stare in shock, at the speed at which they both had taken off. Regaining his senses, Agil followed them and did his best to keep up, but the two were just too fast and had already disappeared deep into the woods.

Damn, how are they so quick?

Liz had received Agil's message and on opening her tracker, she found only on person in her surrounding region. They started moving towards this person.

After some time, when Klein decided to check on the tracker once again, the one person they were approaching had now gone off the tracker. Instead there were three of them moving in a totally different direction.

"What the hell? What happened to the single marker? Did you check it correctly Liz?"

"Of course I did. Why? What happened?"

"That marker is not there anymore. But there are three on the other side now."

"Maybe that person joined up with the others?"

"Okay. Let's head to these three then. More the merrier, after all. Let me just check again."

Liz and Klein looked into the map once again. What they saw next left them astounded.

Both of them looked on at the map with gaping mouths.

"What.. What just happened? Those two markers just moved at lightning speed. Klein ! "

Klein regained his composure and said in a confident manner, "The third marker is really slow. It has to be Agil. I have known him for 4 years now. That's him alright. And the other two will be Asuna and Lyfa, I guess. They are the fastest two, apart from Kirito."

"For once you actually make sense."

"What? I make sense all the time, you stupid blacksmith."

"Hey! How dare you? Wait. Why are they moving so fast? I think someone is in trouble."

"Sinon. Yes. We should hurry. Come on Liz, let's hope you can fly faster than the speed at which your brain works!", with this Klein also took off and flew towards the others.

"What? Hey, wait up!"

Asuna slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was till blurred and out of focus. She couldn't hear clearly as well. What happened? Am I dead? Where am I?

As she regained consciousness slowly, she found Lyfa standing in front of her chanting healing spells to restore her HP. To her right, Sinon stood with a worried look on her face.

In a few minutes, Asuna's HP was restored to full and she managed to get up.

"What happened?" Asuna was totally confused about what had transpired. The last thing she could remember was the Spriggan about to attack her and her HP almost hitting zero.

"Sinon saved you. That's what happened." Lyfa said, pointing at Sinon before starting to laugh.

"I didn't do anything. It was all Lyfa. The minute we saw the Spriggan who was about to attack you, in a split second, Lyfa flew so fast that my eyes couldn't even follow her movement. And the next instant, she blocked the Spriggan's attack with her sword and knocked it out of his hand. I just followed up, sneaked behind and stabbed him in the back. He then, disintegrated into white polygons and disappeared."

"He would have died either way, his HP was very low."

Asuna looked around and quickly asked, "What about the other person, the masked Salamander?"

"Yes. I too remember seeing him lying on the ground, but was focussed on attacking the Spriggan so didn't pay much attention to him. Then I totally forgot about him, while trying to heal you."

"I looked for him once the Spriggan was finished, but even though I heard his distant footsteps, I couldn't see him. Besides I saw his HP hit rock bottom, he wouldn't last long." Clearly neither Sinon nor Lyfa understood the seriousness of the situation.

Asuna controlled her anger at Sinon and Lyfa for letting him get away and was grateful for the two for saving her. Also, Yui came flying by, and the sight of her delighted face, melted away any bit of anger in Asuna's heart. Yui-chan.

"Thank you Lyfa. Thank you Sinon. If it wasn't for you too I would be dead by now."

"It's alright Asuna-san, I couldn't let you die."

Agil slowly walked upto them with a horrified look on his face. He stood there, at a distance, totally silent and with a shocked expression on his face with his eyes wide open and mouth gaping in terror. His face looked pale and his expression suggested that he had just had seen his biggest nightmare come true.

Out of nowhere, Klein landed just nearby Sinon and Liz followed suit.

"I won, Liz. You owe me a drink on the other side."

"Yeah, right. Whatever." Turning to Sinon, Liz caringly enquired, "Are you alright Sinon? We thought you were in trouble. And we came as fast as we could. But I guess Asuna and Lyfa saved you. You should take care of yourself, you know."

Sinon and Liz had never been the best of friends. There was always a sort of jealousy lurking in between them. On hearing what Liz had said, Sinon pouted in an annoyed manner, "Really? You thought they saved me? You are wrong. Asuna was the one in trouble and I SAVED HER."

Liz was quite surprised at what Sinon had just said.

"Yes they did save me. I was the one in trouble." Asuna replied as she also noticed Agil standing at a distance. She noticed the horrified expression and walked to hi along with the others. What's happened to him?

"Hello! Are you alright?" Not a reply.

Agil seemed to be lost in deep thought.

"Are you lagging man?" Klein said in a jovial voice while waving his hand in front of Agil. "What happened man? Did you see some kind of a ghost?"

The words which came out Agil's mouth left Sinon and Lyfa in confusion and the other three, Asuna, Liz and Klein in utter shock.

"The... The... The Fallen..."

A/N : Wow. That was my longest chapter till now. I hope it was as interesting and thrilling as I felt it was (or at least meant it to be).

Thanks for reading and as always, PLEASE REVIEW!

Next Chapter : THE FALLEN!