Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online
My name is Tanaka Niten, and I am seventeen years old. I tell myself this every day, just to keep remembering. It's been over two years since I logged into a game called Sword Art Online and couldn't log back out. Two years I've been fighting digital monsters and leveling up, just to stay alive and maybe get out of this death trap. Two years since Kayaba told everyone we can't leave until we beat the last floor and that we can really die in this world.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Yulier bangs her gavel. "Order! I will have order!"
The man in the skull mask laughs loudly. "You know, Naitama, you've done more for me than I could ever have hoped for. Thank you." He moves so fast his hand blurs. A throwing pick whips toward Yulier's throat, only to be met by a shuriken. The two weapons clatter to the floor.
Kotona is on her feet, more shuriken ready. The other Clearers are standing as well, weapons drawn. The Army is a bit slower, with its members only just beginning to realize their second-in-command was almost assassinated.
"Stand down, PoH." Kirito's swords burn with colorful fury. "You can't beat us all."
"Hh." The masked player spits on the ground dispassionately. "Well, that's one less than I hoped for. NOW!"
At the back of the courtroom, the doors burst open, and a multitude of players rush in, weapons blazing. To everyone's horror, they begin cutting down everyone who has assembled for the trial, Army, Clearers, and noncombatants alike. Within seconds, over twenty players have been killed, bursting into polygons of light.
"Everyone, teleport out!" Heathcliff shouts desperately.
"Oh, your crystals won't work in here." PoH laughs. "After all, what's the point of a courtroom if the guilty and condemned can escape their fate?"
I've never faced PoH before, but his reputation precedes him. After all, he held control of the biggest and most dangerous gang of murderers in all of Aincrad. That alone speaks volumes for his strength, but now it becomes evident that he's no slouch in the brains department either. Somehow, unbeknownst to everyone, he's built a new guild of player killers, and managed to lure the game's strongest players into a single room we can't escape from.
"They're only in the courtroom!" Urian shouts. "If we can get out of here, we can all teleport out!"
"Jaina, Klein, clear a path!" Asuna orders as she parries blows on her rapier. "Don't be afraid to cut down the PKs if you have to!"
Lightning flashes and the Battoujutsu carves a swathe through the players massed at the courtroom door, every one of them with a sinister orange indicator above their heads.
"NOW! BREAK THROUGH THEIR RANKS!" Heathcliff's voice booms as loud as the thunder from Jaina's Jupiter Bolt. The Clearers and Army members charge toward the gap in the PKs. I fire arrow after arrow at orange indicators, but it seems like for every one that falls, two more rise in its place.
"You can't escape the Endless Night forever!" PoH laughs harshly. "We will come, and free everyone from Aincrad!"
"We are trapped." Heathcliff sighs. The leaders of the Knights of the Blood, Unique Skill users, and many of the Clearers have managed to barricade themselves inside Granzam, the headquarters of the guild. "We cannot teleport out of here, and an army of Player Killers await us beyond those gates."
"So what do we do?" I ask. "It's not like they can get in here, right?"
"No." Heathcliff scowls. "But we do not have unlimited food supplies, and there are currently fifty more players here than Granzam normally holds. Worse, this 'Endless Night' attacked at the worst possible time, just before our supplies were due to be restocked."
"How long do we have?" Alina speaks, making me jump. She never talks unless she absolutely has to, which really drives home the point that we are in a lot of trouble.
"Less than a week." Heathcliff's shoulders slump. I've never seen the leader of the Clearers like this, looking defeated. "Five days at most, and then we starve or fight."
Things are looking bleak. The Endless Night won't be able to break down the walls, but they can sit out there forever, waiting for us to break. And we don't know how many of them there are. There could very well be hundreds, even a thousand players that PoH leads. And that's really the most terrifying thing, that there are so many players who want to murder their fellow human beings. Even my Death Rain arrows can't possibly beat this. Wait, a rain of death...
"I've got an idea." I hear my own voice cut through the quiet conversations in the room. "Heathcliff, is there anyone in the KoB that knows how to make poisons?"
"Yes, Enzo is capable of brewing a potion that deals damage." Heathcliff looks at me. "What are you suggesting, Naitama?"
"I'm going to make everyone masters of Archery." I announce. "In five days." The room fills with commotion as everyone realizes the implications of what I just said. Archery is my greatest skill, essentially putting me on par with the Unique Skill users because no one else can do what I do. And I have just offered to make that value worthless by giving it to everyone.
"You're going to shoot the PKs with poison arrows." Kirito looks impressed. "Do you think it'll work?" He asks in a low voice.
"Not really." I reply in the same tone. "If there are more PKs than the ones camped outside our doors, the arrows will only do so much. But someone had to boost the troops' morale, make everyone think we have a chance of getting out of this alive."
"You don't have to do this." Kirito puts his hand on my shoulder. "Your archery is special, it's as good as a Unique Skill. You don't have to give that up."
I snicker. I can't help it. The Black Swordsman's concern is touching, but it's rather misplaced. "Kirito, I can't take this back now, after I've told everyone I'd train them. And it's no choice really. Either we starve in here, or we go down fighting, and I for one would rather die with a weapon in my hand than with an empty stomach."
Five days have passed since that meeting. We've gotten in-game messages from Yulier and a few other guild leaders. They, like us, have been trapped in their own headquarters by this Endless Night. They are the lucky ones. Several major guilds such as the Kaiju Krakens and the Divine Dragons Alliance have been wiped out entirely. Rumors are circulating that the Endless Night have swept through the cleared floors and slaughtered every player.
Personally, I don't believe that Endless Night has the manpower to pull off that much killing. Of the six thousand players still remaining before the attack, only a little over a thousand were capable of combat, the rest serving as shopkeepers, blacksmiths, and other service providers. Of those, about four hundred were active Clearers, with the rest being players who for whatever reason didn't take part in fighting through the levels of Aincrad. Unless a lot more players were secretly high levels, the Endless Night can't possibly have more than four or five hundred members. Of course, that is more than enough to do some serious damage to the population of SAO. And in any case, they can't break into houses or anything, since walls and doors are Immortal Objects. So long as everyone stays inside, they'll be safe.
"Fire!" I shout. A hundred arrows sail through the air and into the targets set up for the new archers. Now, they could all master Archery given time, but as I've mentioned before, the skill is a very difficult one to master, and so many don't feel it's worth the effort. Fortunately, I know ways to maximize the experience needed to boost the stats and minimize the time needed to at least bring these Players' skill level to adequacy.
How Archery, and any ranged weapon in SAO, works is by probability. If you're a novice with the skill, any projectiles you use have only a ten percent chance of hitting the target or so, regardless of your aim or real life skill. It's a lot more difficult than just hacking and bashing like you would with a melee. As you increase your skill level, the statistic increases. Being a master of Archery, my probability of hitting whatever I aim at is ninety-nine point five percent. Fortunately, I don't have to train everyone to that level, just to above fifty percent, enough so they can hit what they aim at.
I survey the targets, a line of straw mannequins in a line. Most of them have at least three arrows stuck in them, some have more. Not a single arrow has missed.
"Good." Kirito remarks. I turn to look at him. Kirito's not the most talkative of people to begin with, but he's been even more quiet lately, often talking with Asuna for hours at a time. Yeah, they're a married couple alright.
"Think this'll be enough?"
"It'll have to be."
The attack began at midnight. We had an advantage over the Endless Night, being relatively well rested, while they had been waiting outside our gates for days. What's more, the walls of Granzam actually have ramparts we could station the archers on. It's almost as if Granzam was meant for withstanding a siege from a massive hostile force. It's almost as if Kayaba intended for this sort of situation to be a possibility. Unlikely as it is, the man is demented enough to trap ten thousand people in a virtual reality, so I wouldn't put it past him to initiate a Player War.
I force these thoughts out of my head. Right now, we have to get out of this alive, and that's going to take all our wits. I raise my fist high into the air, and the first wave of archers draw their bows.
There are currently one hundred and fifty six players inside Granzam. Seventy of them have been trained in Archery, and are standing on the ramparts with me. Enzo, one of the potion makers, has brewed a deadly cocktail that causes paralysis and a massive health drain. Every arrow is coated in it.
I bring my fist down swiftly. Thirty five arrows hiss through the air and find their marks within the ranks of the PKs below. As screams ring out from below, I raise my bow into the air as the second wave of archers take aim. Thirty five more arrows fall upon the Endless Night, as I release the Death Rain into it's most devastating trajectory.
The single arrow climbs through the night until it's almost lost to sight. At the apex of its flight, the arrow splits into a multitude of deadly splinters. Many of the cries of pain are cut ominously short. But more voices rise in their place, tinged with not fear or anguish but defiance and madness.
"Fire at will!" I shout, and the archers begin shooting at their own pace. I turn to Urian, who's hanging over the ramparts, watching the enemy intently. His eyes are glowing with an eerie golden light. He's watching the PKs.
"How many are left?" I ask.
"Maybe three quarters." He replies. "After your first volley, they got smart and started using each other as shields."
"What?" I draw in a quick breath. These PKs really make me sick. Do they really disregard life so much as to use each other as human shields?
"The poison will kill them soon enough." Urian continues. "Wait... They're retreating!"
"Hold fire!" I yell, and the arrows stop. "Heathcliff! Now!"
"ATTACK!" The leader of the KoB roars, his voice echoing through the night.
The gates of Granzam burst open, and the remaining eighty six players charge through them, led by the strongest people in all of SAO. They crash into the Endless Night like a tidal wave on the shore.
The archers and I follow after them. As soon as we are all out of Granzam, we take hold of our teleport crystals and head to our next destination: Black Iron Palace.