Disclaimer : We do not own Sword Art Online
Wolf is owned by Dark wolf knight 3
Oblivion is owned by Urolutze
Kirito flew upwards, hoping he could reach Asuna. Leafa told him beforehand that they put a barrier at the top of the tree, but Kirito flew off anyways. The rest of the group followed him up there.
"Kirito! That's a barrier! There's no point!" Leafa yelled.
"No! I have to try!" Kirito said, trying to destroy the barrier.
"C'mon Kirito, there's no point man, we gotta go in through the bottom." Oblivion said.
Suddenly, Yui tried communicating with Asuna, but she didn't know if she could hear her. Later though, a card was dropped from the top of the tree. It was a GM access card.
"A card? What is this Yui?" Kirito asked.
"It's a GM access card! We can access a GM with it!" Yui said.
"Any GM?" Kirito asked.
"No, it only works for one GM console." Yui said.
The group flew down to the entrance of the World Tree. The group took a closer look at the card, and wondered why it fell from the top, however Artemis already knew why it fell from the top of the tree.
"Asuna dropped it from the top of the tree." Artemis said.
Yui flew out her pocket and said, "I did try and communicate with her, but I don't know if she heard me."
"If that card fell from the top after you did that Yui, then she is definitely up there." Oblivion said.
"Hey Raven, is there anyone up there?" Wolf Asked.
*A young girl is trapped in a big bird cage up there. Artemis is right, she is up there.* Raven said to everyone.
"We have to clear the tree, but I'd rather wait for the Sylphs and the Catsith to come first. They should be buying new gear to raid it." Artemis explained.
"They aren't gonna be coming for a while though." Leafa said with a slight frown.
"No, I'm going alone." Kirito said.
The group glared at him as if he was crazy. Artemis then said, "No Kirito, I know what's gonna happen. There's gonna be too many npc's, the quest is designed to be unbeatable, and we only need to open a gap big enough to let you through, and then Yui can use the code in that card to get into the palace."
"Let's just take a nice walk over there and then if they don't get to the tree yet then we can have lunch. Yes, I did make lunches for everyone." Oblivion said.
The group walked to the base of the World Tree. The Sylphs and the Catsith didn't get there yet, but Wolf suggested that they walked into the tree and test the NPC's skills first. Artemis agreed to the idea, just because he wanted Kirito and the others to get the idea of the Tree's difficulty.
"You guys ready?" Artemis asked before approaching the gates.
"Ready when you are," Oblivion said.
"What are we waiting for, an invitation? Let's burn this fucker to the ground." Wolf said.
The group readied their weapons and charged through the gate. Kirito fought the NPC's with pure rage, slashing his weapons at them, killing many.
Artemis was cool and collected, burning through the enemy units, his skill not at all diminished from SAO. He knew that these were AI rather than regular monsters, thus managed to gain the upper hand in the fight, he understood that these enemies were crazy strong in numbers, yet extremely weak one on one. He ducked under one strike while slicing upwards, ending another's life, before turning and decapitating the one who attacked him. He shot upwards and aided Kirito, fighting off those against his back, but it was then that Kirito shot upwards himself, and was shot by many arrows, each one striking him did little damage, yet it wasn't long before swords were flying his way, each striking did a lot of damage, it ended his life slowly, and painfully. The pain was not as bad as in Aincrad, for the pain reduction was at 5 in SAO, leaving Kirito very surprised at how much pain he was really feeling, as he'd died before, very painfully at that.
Kirito's remaining light fell slowly, but as the NPC's began to target him, Artemis flew past Kirito's remaining light, picking it up in the process, he then called for a retreat, which everyone abided by, and exited the dungeon.
As they landed outside the tree, Artemis began his resurrection spell, and as it cast, Kirito appeared, he was in a weird mood, "Thanks, but don't do that again."
"Nope, not gonna happen, and if you think you're going in again right away, you're wrong, I know the Sylphs and Caitsith are almost here, and will be here in a couple hours or so, so I feel like a duel, what do you say?" Artemis said, smirking.
Kirito was surprised to say the least, he'd never seen Artemis this way, he never ordered anyone around and always respected his friends wishes, but if it was a duel he wanted, then a duel he would get.
"I see you've decided, and we will duel at the North Terrace, meet you there, I suggest you go and eat up, I'm gonna log off for a bit, so see you there," Artemis said. He then went through his menu and logged off.
Kirito did the same, and as he logged off he found Suguha coming into his room, she grabbed his collar and yelled into his face, "Why did you accept, he knows that you can't defeat him, and while you're dueling you might die, both of you, because you're still using Nervegears, so please don't do it. He doesn't understand, he refuses to understand that he may be killed by his Nervegear, so please don't do it."
"Don't worry, we're not in SAO anymore, there is no program that would allow me to die, besides we are dueling not fighting to the death, or so I think," Kirito assured went downstairs to go eat something before the duel.
Back where Caleb lived, he was driving his car to the store for his mother, as she was laid in bed and didn't want to get up. "Man, this sucks, but at least the store isn't far from here," He said.
He got to the store and back in one piece, though he had gone and got himself some McDonald's for the road home, however as he was leaving he saw a guy trying to hurt someone, the man was armed with a knife, but little did the man know, Caleb carried his swords in the back seat of his car. He drew his katana, and exits the vehicle, he walked towards the man and stopped, he was no less than 10 feet away from the man, his hood was up on his sweater, and his eyes were covered in darkness, "I thought there would be less people like you in this place, but guess I'll have to kill you, won't be too hard, for you only have that puny little knife, while I have myself a masterly crafted katana, it'll cut through that blade in no time," He said, chuckling darkly.
The man quickly realized his folly, sensing that the boy in front of him was experienced with his weapon, he ran and Caleb sheathed his weapon, and looked to the poor woman, and called the cops, he let the woman handle that, for he didn't like police, he never knew why though.
He waited for the cops to arrive before driving off in his car, he refused any reward the woman tried to offer him, and drove home.
As he logged on he saw Leafa waiting for him, he instinctively knew that she wasn't happy, "What the hell are you doing on so late, you should have been here an hour ago," She said.
"Sorry, just had to deal with someone who was attempting to murder someone," he replied nonchalantly.
Leafa, for as long as she knew him, knew that he never let someone kill someone and live to tell the tale, "You killed him, didn't you?" she asked, worried.
"Nope, just had to threaten to kill him, he ran off pretty quick, little fucker, trying to kill a woman, turns out he's her ex, and he was very upset to see her leave him," Artemis replied, knowing that he couldn't lie to her.
"Anyway's, you have a match with my brother, so you best be off, I'll tell him why you're late," Leafa told him.
He flew as fast as he could towards the North Terrace, as he arrived, he saw Kirito get a message. He quickly read it, and nodded to him, "So you fought off a murderer in real life, good job."
"Thank's, now, a fight to the death should be fun, don't you think, rather than some dumb duel, but in duel format, so we don't lose anything if we die," Artemis said surprising Kirito, as he thought this would be a simple duel.
He nodded, "Um… yes ok, duel to the death it is," He said stuttering, for he was slightly worried what his sister told him could happen.
Artemis sent the duel request, and Kirito accepted it, and the 60 second counter began. Artemis shrugged his shoulders, relaxing the tension in them, while Kirito stretched and drew his swords.
Artemis's Shadow can do a life drain ability and thus prevented him from dying on multiple occasions, it also, the long in remains embedded in its victim, drains the opponent's HP bar faster and heals the user faster. His other sword, Hellfire, only added fire damage, and in turn, can increase the damage significantly, and on top of that, it does more damage the angrier he was.
Kirito's Elucidator can block any weapon, no matter what type of weapon it is, and it also adds 48 Strength and 28 Agility, and the other blade he wielded, a custom named sword called, Demon's Fang, could do burning poison damage, a type of poison than felt like fire, and spread just as quickly, when a body is fully poisoned, the damage stops and all it does is make the poisoned opponent feel pain equivalent to fire damage. Though one with any way to block status effects, like Artemis's amulet, or a high fortitude, could resist all effects of the poison.
The counter reached 0 and the two charged at each other, Kirito swinging, only on the offensive, but though he had a full offence, his Agility was high enough to black many of the strike that Artemis could put out. Artemis however was not even thinking about offence, not because Kirito was overwhelming him, but because he wanted Kirito to wear himself out, but after a while, he realized that wasn't going to happen, so as Kirito went in for a strike many call the double thrust low, Artemis crossed his blades and pinned Kirito's blades to the ground, he then took a kick at Kirito's head, knocking him away. Kirito got up quickly and, now, was on defence, Artemis blocked a swing coming at him from the right while ducking under a swing from the left, he then swung his leg at Kirito's leg, effectively tripping him. Artemis, as Kirito was falling took an upwards swing at Kirito's neck, but was blocked by an extremely fast swing by Elucidator, Kirito managed to push himself up from that block and swung Demon's Fang at Artemis, but he once again blocked the strike, Artemis landed a cut on Kirito, slicing his arm. A strike came at Artemis, and he blocked it, but that strike was only a distraction, as Kirito, cunningly, took a hard swipe at Artemis's leg, smashing it to the side, toppling him, but as Kirito went in for the finishing blow, Artemis rolled out of the way and flipped over Kirito, faster than Kirito could achieve at the moment, due to his stance, and stuck him in the back with Shadow, healing himself back up, and as Kirito squirmed in pain, decapitated him, with one backhanded strike from Hellfire.
Artemis quickly cast Resurrection on him, and Kirito once again appeared from his remaining light.
"If we were SAO right now, there'd be no way of reviving him Leafa." Artemis said, smiling.
"How'd you know I told him not to duel you?" Leafa asked.
"If I wasn't here, you'd be dueling Kirito, so it's not because of my reincarnation. I just had a hunch is all. I knew you'd be worried about him using the Nervegear." Artemis said.
The rest of the group flew towards them. Oblivion heard a bit of what they said. Oblivion said, "The only way that someone can get microwaved by the Nervegear is if the game a person is playing is programmed to do that. We used to program our own little games in High School."
"Maybe that Suguo guy added something like that, then that could be the case?" Leafa questioned.
"If Suguo did that, then this game would get all the media attention SAO did already." Oblivion said.
"He's right. When a person dies, there would have to be code that would have to be executed in order for the Nervegear to know when to microwave a person's brain. Suguo's goal isn't to make another death game. His goal is to manipulate a person's thoughts or dreams." Artemis explained.
"Well, I think we all get how difficult the World Tree is now. I think we're ready to give it another go." Oblivion said, nodding at Artemis, which he nodded back and gestured the group to follow him.
The group stood there for a moment, thinking of a plan. They talked to each other, suggesting plans or ideas. Artemis told the group to wait as he wanted to wait for the Sylphs and the Caitsith to get there. However, Recon came a minute after and told Leafa how he escaped the sewers. Recon decided to join the raid as well. The group continued suggesting a battle plan and ideas before the Sylphs and the Caitsith got there. When they did, Artemis gestured them to follow them into the tree. Shortly after, the NPC's were spawning...
