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.

The light fades, and one hundred and fifty-six players appear before the gates of Black Iron Palace, on the south side of the plaza where this death game began. Strange to think that just five days ago, I was being held prisoner here, as a criminal. Now, I'm here to rescue the players trapped inside.

Between us and the gates however, wait an army of PKs. Hundreds of orange player indicators hover in the air, seemingly as numerous as the stars in Aincrad's digital night sky. Yulier had warned us of the Endless Night camping outside of the Army's headquarters, but we hadn't anticipated this many.

The Player Killers begin attacking almost as soon as we arrive, as though they had been expecting us. The survivors of the skirmish at Granzam must have warned them that we were coming. The Endless Night close the gap far too quickly. The Clearers had hoped to thin their ranks a little with a volley of arrows or two, but it looks like that's not happening.

I dimly hear Heathcliff giving the order to charge, and I turn to face my company of archers. "They're too close. We won't be able to lay down cover fire without hitting our own." I pause, considering. "Barton, Ollie, Artemis, you're with me. The rest of you join the others. Move out!"

The three I've singled out are my fellow snipers. Barton and Ollie actually were quite advanced in the Archery skill before the siege of Granzam, and Artemis was just starting to learn before I began training her, making her the most proficient amongst the new archers.

"What's the plan, boss?" Barton grins. He and I go way back, we used to grind monsters for XP when the game first started. Barton was a member of Rogers's old guild, the Abenjazu, before it fell apart.

I point to the buildings arranged in a circle around the plaza. "We get to the high ground, and take out as many PKs as we can."

Ollie nods, and pulls on his green hood. "C'mon Artemis." The two sprint off to the western side of the plaza, and Barton and I head to the east.

The battle's been raging for almost twenty minutes now, with no end in sight. I'm firing arrows at every orange indicator I see, but so far it seems like I haven't made any dents in the ranks. Worse, we're down to just over a hundred and twenty Clearers left. Before the battle, we formed a huge party so that we could keep track of each others' health. It's helped somewhat, but since our medics are also fighting, they can't get to the injured in time.

A strike force of about twenty of the Army's strongest forces was deployed some time ago, led by Silica, but they're not making much of a difference. I saw Heathcliff go under a while ago, buried under a mass of PKs, but he's still alive. Kirito, Alina, and Rogers are carving a path through the Endless Night toward a player with a skull mask. They must be trying to cut off the head of the snake.

"Naita-" I hear Barton's shout get cut off, and whirl around. Another player with a skull mask is attacking him with what looks like a large meat cleaver. I switch to my sword and sprint toward my friend and the PK.

I'm too slow however, and Barton explodes into shards of light before my very eyes. "NO!" I scream. I waste no time and charge the PK. Close up, I recognize the heavy knife as Mate Chopper, PoH's signature weapon. This is the real leader of the Endless Night. Whoever's down in the plaza must be a decoy. I can't tell anyone though, I don't have the time to compose a message.

"You really are a pest, Naitama." PoH growls. His weapon has a shorter reach than mine, but he's quick enough to get in close to strike.

I'm constantly backing up to keep him at the range of my sword, Arbiter. PoH is mind numbingly fast, it's a struggle just to avoid his blade. There's no room for my usual sarcastic quip. For the first time, I find myself wishing I had bothered to learn how to use a shield in my off hand. I preferred to use a two-handed sword for the speed, but it came at a cost to my defense.

I move my blade to block PoH's, but to my surprise, Arbiter shatters into pixels, and Mate Chopper slams right into my rib cage. The pain's not as bad as it would have been in real life, but I still feel like my side's on fire. I can barely breathe, and in the corner of my vision, my health bar dips into red. I slump to the tiled rooftop. Dimly, I'm actually annoyed that my sword broke. I've had Arbiter for a long time, which is probably why the durability wore out.

PoH looms over me, Mate Chopper raised high. Strangely, I feel no fear, just tired resignation. I wonder if the outside world knows anything about what's going on in Aincrad, if they know about the Player War.

For the first time in years, I think about my own family. Do my parents know how much I've fought? Do they know what I've been doing to help everyone trapped in the game escape? And my sister, Aiko. She's just twelve, does she even remember me? Wait, no, that was before. Aiko must be fifteen now, the same age as I was when this madness started.

What about Kichiro, my older brother? He was a beta tester for the game, it was only because he got grounded for his bad grades that I got to play SAO on the day of the release. I remember, he was just about to log in when Mom checked his grades and began yelling at him. But for just a few seconds, he'd be the one in the death game. Would he have been a better Clearer than I was?

I'm so lost in thought I barely notice that PoH hasn't killed me yet. I dimly hear shouting, and I look over to see Silica of all people fighting PoH. Her tiny blue dragon is hovering over me and sparkling. Suddenly, my health is back into yellow.

Silica screams as PoH's blade cuts into her shoulder, and she drops her knife. PoH rears back, ready to chop the girl's head off. I don't know if the game mechanics can do that, but the leader of Endless Night looks ready to try.

I can't really explain what happened next. I had no weapon in my hand, my health was still low, and I barely knew Silica. She'd been the one to arrest me, for God's sake! But after seeing so much carnage in the plaza before me, watching Barton die before my eyes, I couldn't take any more death today. Something snapped, and I found myself with my fist stuck inside PoH's chest. There's a horrifying noise coming from somewhere, and it takes me a moment before I realize it's emanating from my own throat.

PoH chuckles, a grim deep noise that sends shivers down my back. "Looks like I got you in the end, Niten."

I look down to see Mate Chopper sticking out of my chest, just above my heart. My health bar is down in the red again, but it's not stopping. I'm gonna die, for real this time.

And worse, PoH's health is only in the orange. I couldn't even kill him.

As my health drains and empties, I turn to Silica. "R-r-run." I manage to choke out. For all the good it does, I might as well have told her to jump off the building, because she's in shock.

"What is this?!" PoH shouts suddenly. He pulls his blade from my chest and starts hacking at my body. Really? This seems excessive. "WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!" He roars in anger.

With a start, I realize that my health is actually regenerating. Every hit from Mate Chopper is putting a dent in it, but the bar is filling up faster than PoH can empty it. What the hell?

I don't know what's keeping me alive. By all rights I should be dead. But my health just keeps filling up, until it's filled up the meter. PoH actually takes a step back, and I think I see a glimmer of uncertainty in his eyes.

Time to end this. I snatch up Silica's knife, and stab the leader of Endless Night right in between the eyes. His health bar empties, and PoH dissolves into shards of light. It's over.

Remembering Silica, I turn to find the girl already standing, her health having been restored to half full by her dragon. "You okay?" I ask.

She nods. "How... how did you do that?"

I shrug. "I don't know. Maybe it's a bug in the game, and I'll die any second now."

Silica shudders as I open up my menu and send a message to all the Clearers who are left. "PoH is dead. I killed him myself."

"And you have no idea what caused the massive health regeneration?" Heathcliff leans forward.

"Nope." I shake my head.

After PoH was killed, the battle continued on for some time. A few PKs wouldn't stop, and had to be killed, but most of the Endless Night just surrendered after hearing that their leader was killed. By the end of what was coming to be known as the Player War, just ninety-eight of the Clearers were left alive. Aincrad was changed forever by the Player War. Entire guilds had been wiped out, and a good third of the main fighting force was killed. The total death count of the game is just about five thousand. Half of the people who logged into SAO three years ago are dead.

We still don't know what allowed me to escape the fate of so many others. Heathcliff, Silica, and I have gone over the fight with PoH so many times and we've still gotten nowhere.

"Maybe it is a bug in the game?"

"No." Heathcliff mutters, sounding frustrated. "That can't be it."

"Maybe it's a Unique Skill?" Silica pipes up. "That would explain why your health keeps regenerating even now."

"I don't think-" I'm cut off by Heathcliff's exclamation of agreement.

"That might be it! Naitama, check your menu!"

I know Heathcliff's not gonna take no for an answer, so I pull up the list of skills I've unlocked and start scrolling through them. "See, I told you..." My voice trails off as I reach the bottom and find something that wasn't there before. "Eternal Life?"

"What is it?" Heathcliff asks.

"Passive constant regeneration ability... Can transfer this healing ability to any other player in the near vicinity..." I read off the description. "Given to the player with high health and endurance stats, as well as a willingness to sacrifice themselves to save another. Unique Skill."

"The final Unique Skill has been discovered." Heathcliff smiles. "And it couldn't have gone to a better player."

A/N: Well... this is awkward... Sorry about that really long wait guys, I was kinda busy for a period of several months, what with school and all, and also I'm currently on a RWBY craze, some of you might have noticed that. I'm afraid that it'll probably be a while before the next chapter too. Finals are coming up, I have several other stories going, and life in general likes to throw frozen lemons at my head. Not to worry though, Naitama isn't going away anytime soon. His story is almost finished, with just three or four chapters left. Hopefully it'll be finished by the end of the year.