What happened afterward couldn't be called anything but failure.
When the staff hit the large rock, it initiated the suffocation effect of the Noose. While Mutasina herself flopped along the ground as a result of her rough landing, I fell out of the tree to the forest ground. Grimacing, I sought to fight the curse, but it's easier said than done. All my willpower managed to get me to look ahead to Kirito and Asuna, who kept their stances and activated Sonic Leap and Shooting Star, and Kureha, who fights the intense power to keep her aim on Mutasina.
Mutasina's spindle cursor is visible to me, possibly due to the Noose counting as an attack, so I can see she lost over eighty percent of her health. The remaining twenty can be taken out by either Kirito or Asuna if they hit. As Mutasina lifts herself up, two glowing swords encroach upon her to end the curse.
My eyes widen in shock as two more blades appear between Kirito, Asuna, and Mutasina. Two dark shadows had intercepted my friends, taking the form of women in black leather armor and hats. Viola and Dia had caught up to us, resisted the Noose as Kirito and Asuna had, and protected Mutasina. Once the power of the sword skills died, all four collapsed to the ground, unable to fight the spell anymore. With no one in the way, Kureha shoots before she collapses, but her aim is slightly off the mark as the bullets whiz by Mutasina's right ear.
The ordeal may be a virtual illusion, but the primordial fear that comes with suffocation is real. The act of thinking and moving is secondary to the fight to breathe. To overcome that is a strain in itself, and I use it to look around. Behind me, on the forest ground and the riverbank, are my friends and our companions, including the Bashin and Patter, kneeling. The pets Kuro, Misha, and Aga curl in their own agony. Crawling, I catch up to the whimpers of Kureha, the mark on her neck glowing bluish-purple, her blue eyes welling up in fear. All I can do is reach out for her and clasp her hand.
With her group and her army of nearly one hundred struggling under the curse's might, only the river and the cries of Mutasina's bird are audible. Speaking of her, the white-robed witch rises slowly like a phoenix from the ashes. Her staff, stuck in the rock it nearly split in half, glows the same color as the noose around our necks. She takes hold of it and removes her hood, revealing her dazzling beauty, and scans the area. The difference between her and the body double is made apparent as her lips curl into a barely visible smile. She walks up to the four of us closest to her, stopping just behind Viola and Dia.
"Splendidly done. I had a feeling you would not be so boring as to hide in your base…But I never expected you to dam the river. I had no idea the crafting system could perform feats like that. Your plan completely surpassed my expectations. I assumed that I would not take more than a tenth of my health in damage all the way to the end of the game, but you nearly killed me by forcing me to jump from my flying mount."
Mutasina's no more than twenty feet away from Kureha and me. Despite the pain, if Kureha and I steadied her gun together, we could shoot her down. If I managed the will, I could slice her myself with Sonic Leap. But the pain and panic of suffocating are stronger than any will I have.
The hand in my grip tightens, but I cannot look toward Kureha. If I do, I will succumb to the rage inside me. I've faced some damnable humans in the last four years, but none have been as cold as Mutasina, which says something for the likes of PoH and his gang. They killed for the fun, the thrill, but to my knowledge they didn't draw it out to let their victims suffer. My sole encounter with Administrator was painful on my end, and she did kill Medina in front of my eyes. Subtilizer's treatment of Lievre, spitting in the face of her loyalty, sparked a fire inside me. That was the last memory of me giving in to my anger...but even with Quinella, I didn't sense overwhelming cruelty to her methods. Not once do I remember Alice, Eydis, or the Integrity Knights speaking about their leader being overly cruel to them.
How naive was I to think the same of Mutasina? Sure, her methods are cruel, but...this goes beyond the cruelty of a VRMMO gamer playing their own way. This goes beyond PoH's murderous cruelty and Administrator's cruelty and lust for power. It's like Mutasina's not from this world or any other.
"So, are you reaching your limit?" Mutasina says. "When I tested this before, no one could break through the three-minute barrier. There is only one way to escape the Noose: to log out. Of course, that will leave your avatar right here, entirely helpless."
Three minutes is the limit of the spell? No, that's too long. Kirito, Kureha, and Asuna barely made it ten seconds on their feet fighting the curse; one hundred and fifty seconds would take an enormous amount of fortitude. It might be possible if Incarnation worked here, but that's the Underworld, not Unital Ring.
Mutasina's smile disappears after waving the butt of the staff in the air. Eyeing Kirito, Asuna, me, and Kureha in succession, she announces, "Kirito the Black Swordsman. Asuna the Flash. Jaymes the Crimson Warrior. Kureha the Crimson Princess. If you would swear loyalty to me in exchange for the end of your suffering, offer your sword hilts."
Kureha and I share the same thought, but wondering how she knows Kureha is secondary to the offer of submission. A meaningless thing in the long run. While most of our companions, including the two in front of me, do not have the personality to betray a vow of loyalty, I know I do, and I know Kureha does as well as most of Crimson Squad. Hell, we have three traitors in our gang in Itsuki, Lievre, and Pitohui (the latter following the rules of the third Squad Jam, so it's circumstantial). I fully expect Lievre, Zeliska, and Rei to do whatever it takes because we're only loyal to each other.
But while I say that, the Noose is a convincing argument not to try to backstab Mutasina. As much as I want to fight, the girl's hand in mine is suffering. Not too long ago, I discarded my final promise to Koharu in SAO to protect my friends, whatever it takes, and now that vow resurfaces while Momiji crushes my fingers. My right hand twitches as the blue beam of the Muramasa continues to sing, my thumb on the activator. If I turn it off, it's just as much of a surrender as Kirito and Asuna giving their hilts to Mutasina.
At that moment, I hear two things. To my right is a splash, then light footsteps. Behind me are heavier footsteps, disorderly and moving closer. I turn my head back first to see who's coming, then glance back at the river. At the river, red light in her hands is Yui, and she has Mutasina's attention. Behind us, shotgun in her hand, is Rei.
Rei might seem like an airheaded AI, but she is somewhat braver than I am at the worse times. I guess she picked up on it as my servant. The AI for the Arfa-Sys, or any of the top-down AI with us, has a basic personality programmed for them, and they adapt and adopt many of their subsequent traits from interacting with others. Yui and Rei, acting as their closest humans would, fight the pain and urge to breathe as they confront Mutasina.
Whether they decided to attack together or it's a coincidence that they did, what occurs is so beautiful I would be shocked if it is the latter case. Mutasina, only noticing Yui, leaps back and tucks her staff under her arm to start an awkward-looking dark magic spell. Yui starts running towards Mutasina, reaching for the short sword on her left side just as a bang erupts from Mutasina's right. Rei's shotgun blast could have hit Mutasina, but that wasn't the point; the beam hit the ground at Mutasina's feet, startling the witch enough to disrupt the dark spell.
Yui whips out her sword and leaps like a mighty warrior. "Yaaaaah!" Mutasina raises her staff to block, causing a clash of metal between them. And, unless my eyes decieve me, the gemstone at the top of the staff flickered, providing a split-second relief from the Noose. We were right; the Noose of the Accursed is connected to the staff, and destroying it cures us.
Yui presses her attack boldly, but her inexperience is prominent as Mutasina blocks her strikes with ease. As a matter of fact, while I can see Alice's style of precision and boldness in Yui's strikes, something is missing. Alice's style combines speed and power. Yui has so much speed that it amazes me that she's only been swinging a sword for a couple of days, but the power is not there. Whether it is because Yui is too small or doesn't have the power in her avatar, it allows for the weakest close-combat class to balance the scales.
Mutasina takes it a step further. Unknown if she notices Yui's inexperience, she draws the girl into a feint by making Yui believe she'll block the latter's high slice. Stepping out of the way instead, Mutasina watches as Yui loses her balance and kicks her hard and without care. As Yui's body crashes on rocks and yelps, "Augh!", my anger riles up again to the point I start seeing double.
A weight lifts out of my right hand. Alarmed, I see Rei strips me of the photon sword, ignite the blue blade, and approach Mutasina. Eyeing her, Mutasina starts the dark magic spell again. Successful this time, a black orb shoots out towards Rei, who tries to deflect it but fails. "Ahhhh!" Rei falls to her knees, and I watch helplessly as black smoke orbits her body while she winces in pain. Beside me, Kureha snarls in anger enough for both of us while trying to formulate the necessary amount of air to call out to Rei. If I could say the words, I would tell Rei to fall back.
But the black-haired Arfa-Sys doesn't seem deterred in the slightest. Furthermore, Yui had climbed back to her feet, dusting herself and readying herself. Finding herself under attack by two troublesome players, Mutasina moves the staff to one hand and pulls out a dagger with the freed hand. Not looking phased in the slightest, she welcomes Yui and Rei to try their best against her.
Yui lost twenty percent of her health from the earlier kick. Rei lost between thirty and forty from the spell. Despite how she may look, Rei has never wielded a sword before today, so she'll be as useless with it as Yui is. Even if they attack together, Mutasina has proven she can hold her own against their lack of skill. Even if she barely holds on, the Noose of the Accursed will pin them down.
But Mutasina's use of magic gave me a stinking, dirty, rotten idea. After all, I knew I had retained control over my hands.
Releasing Kureha's hand, I form a circle with my hands, the fingertips touching. The system recognizes the gesture as the opener for decay magic, and a sickening greenish-grey glow overlaps my hand. With Rei blocking Mutasina's sight of me, I cannot tell if Dia or Viola noticed me either. If they did, they haven't acted. But someone did - Kirito - and my plan to shoot Mutasina with my magic changed.
With a simple gesture on my face, I aim for my friend, praying that he will forgive me later, and glance at Yui and Rei. Rei bends her legs, holding the sword horizontally over her shoulders...and by the will of the RNG gods, her blade roars with the power of GGO's version of Horizontal Square, a skill I made my trademark in GGO but haven't officially unlocked yet in Unital Ring. To her right, Yui gets low and initiates Rage Spike. Two blue lights hum around the AIs' blades.
I shoot the grey sphere between my hands toward Kirito's opened mouth, and that nasty ass bastard engulfs it. His face expresses severe disgust, but the impromptu plan gives him enough strength to overcome the Noose's power temporarily. What we did is simple - if the Noose is "clamping down" on our throats, the way to alleviate it is to "open" it up" - and no other bodily gesture opens up the throat reflexively like the need to puke.
"Aaaaaaah!" Grabbing his sword and leaping to his feet, Kirito instantly rushes towards Mutasina. Shocked, the witch lifts her staff to block Kirito instead of Rei. He goes into the posture for Vertical, deepens his stance further, and erupts with the four-part skill Vertical Square, which he must've unlocked right at the moment.
Mutasina blocks the opening strike from above and the two following thrusts from high and low. Once again, she shocks me with her knowledge of swordplay, but even I know that her staff won't hold for long. It doesn't, for the ending downward slash slices through the staff, cleaving it in two. Black flames erupt from the severed ends, disintegrating the weapon. It continues to the blue-purple gem, dispelling the Noose of the Accursed once and for all.
"Ahhh." Taking my first inhale in what had to be no more than two minutes, I immediately got on my feet and ran to Rei. At once, all under the influence of the Noose were freed, and I could see Mutasina's companions rise up. Beyond them is Kirito, stuck in his post-skill delay, while Mutasina is freely movable.
"Jaymes!" Running with me is Kureha, but this time she bears a new weapon - a steel axe. "Finish off Mutasina! I'll help Asuna!"
"Got it!" Kureha leaps forward, taking on one of the twins and clearing a path for me. I race past the twins and open my ring menu, equipping a new sword - a steel sword crafted by Lisbeth that I kept in reserve for today. I mimic Rei's previous motion, and this incident is not a case of RNG, but of acquired proficiency. I initiate the posture for Horizontal Square and prepare to fire it off in tandem with Kirito's unannounced switch.
"You're done!" The skill takes over when Kirito rolls to the right, giving me an unimpeded view of Mutasina. She holds a hand over her forehead, covering her left eye. I guess Kirito's Vertical Strike struck her in the face, and it annoys me that she's doing nothing but staring at me with her right eye and smiling. Not an ounce of hatred or fear or something. Just an annoying calmness that I will wipe from the face of Unital Ring.
No staff, no dagger, just a wide open, smiling, motionless Mutasina, and my sword swings right through her.
But once again, our enemy dupes us.
Just as my sword was over Mutasina's head, a thick, black smoke swept the area from my left. Because my steel sword hit nothing, I tumble to the ground, confused and blinded by the smoke. Something distant inside me gets a sense of deja vu, but I quickly realize I'm not in the Underworld right now, nor is my soul being attacked by an equally as dark power with a twinge of coldness.
Close by, approximately where Kirito is, I hear a masculine voice say, "You have my highest compliments for this, Kirito. You as well, Jaymes. I hope we meet again." That's the voice of Magis, the "Sensei" I've heard about. I can't see where he is, nor can I see Kirito well, but I hear him say not to move.
Ten seconds later, the smoke begins to fade. Just to confirm my swelling suspicion, Mutasina's body is not behind me, and as the smoke completely fades, she's not nearby either, nor is Magis, Viola, or Dia. The only people in my direct vicinity are Kirito, Asuna, Kureha, and Rei.
I pick up my sword and look at Kirito, seeing his confusion. "They're gone..."
"Kirito..." We turn to see the two human girls, all unharmed.
"Where are Viola and Dia?"
"They vanished within seconds of being engulfed in that smoke. Though, they couldn't have gone far..."
"Exactly..." I watch Asuna and Kirito in silence as they turn their attention to the riverbank. Yui stands there, still as a statue, and her parents race toward her. Meanwhile, I stay in place with Kureha and Rei.
Kuerha palpates her neck while staring through the darkness of the woods. "Should we chase them down?"
I shake my head at Kureha's question. "No, let them go. We won...for now." Putting my sword away in my inventory, I approach Rei and retrieve the photon sword from her. I have no clue how she overcame the effects of the Noose to shoot a shotgun and wield my sword, but I don't care. Proud of the one like a little sister, I wrap my arm around her shoulders and hug her. "Good job, Rei."
"Did I make you proud, Master?"
Proud...and scared, but I won't tell her the second part. "Yeah. Yeah, you did." Glancing at Kureha, I nod that same gesture to her but remain puzzled by Kureha's face. Her expression is softer than usual, but there's still an unrelaxed frown on her head...and I realize we're not out of the woods yet. Exhaling a relieved sigh, I release Rei and lead my companions back to the river bank.
There, Mutasina's freed army lowered their weapons, ending our fight. Our plan fell quickly, but through perseverance, we came out on top, as always. I spot Holgar from my perch and prepare for what hopefully won't be a long negotiation. His people and the rest have been in a wartime mood for a few nights, but they were forced into it at the same time. They had no reason to fight us.
"Looks like we got things to talk about," Kureha says teasingly as she pats my shoulder with the hand formerly on her neck. She knows all too well how I hate mediating between large groups. "We'll leave the talking to you and Kirito."
"Let's get started," I murmur, and then I hear a soft giggle from Kureha.
"Don't sound so displeased," she says, the frown vanishing. Now that she's relaxed, the truth of our predicament is more real. With a smile, she holds her fist up. "Good work, Captain."
"Same to you, Vice Captain." We bump fists, pull away with finger guns, and then slide down to the riverbank. Unconsciously, I look down at the sandbar just a little bit away.
Mutasina's double is gone as well.