AN: Sorry this took so long. I don't even have the excuse of it being a long chapter, I just lost interest for a while. But here it is! Enjoy...I hope.

CHAPTER 6: Another New Friend

Tobias was silent on the trip to the gate; he walked on my right, leading the way by a few paces. I knew he didn't approve of the way I had handled that situation, but I didn't care. I wasn't exactly known for thinking before I act. I realized that it was a problem, but never took any steps to prevent it.

"Hey, Tobias?" He grunted in response, looking over his left shoulder at me, "We never did go buy me a weapon, you know? I know it's a waste of time but..." I cut off mid-sentence when he paused and turned to face me.

"It's not a waste. A weapon will keep you alive, and that is more important than ever now. We might have some powerful enemies now, thanks to you, and I have to keep your dumbass alive," he growled the sentence at me, glaring the whole time. "Now, what kind of weapon do you want?"

I glanced downward, I hated disappointing people...my bestfriend least of all...

"Listen, man...I'm-"

"What kind of weapon, Ryan?"

I thought about it as I felt a spike in my blood pressure. I hated it when he threw all of the blame on me, he could have said something! When he let me do all the talking, he should've known that I would have said something stupid.

"Throwing knives and a shortsword I guess." The sentence was kind of spat out, usually when Tyler and I fight like this, we just get off the games and give each other a while to cool off; seeing as logging out wasn't an option, however, we simply dealt with it.

Following his lead, I walked in the direction of the nearest weapon shop. Suddenly, a movement in the shadows brought my attention to the right. I know we were in a safe zone, but it still creeped me out, so I blew a soft whistle, signaling Tobias to halt all movement. I slowly crept toward the shaded area in the alley to our right. My «Hiding» skill was slowly becoming my favorite.

Not sure what to expect, I poked my head around the corner, with Tobias just behind me. About halfway down the street I saw two players beginning a duel. I couldn't believe it! The game only just started, not to mention the death penalty! How were these guys already fighting?

The closest player to us wore a faded grey cloak and weilded a single blade, while the other wore a bright green set of shining metal armor and weilded a sword and sheild combination. 9...8...7...the timer counted down from 10, the players took their stances and prepared for battle.

3...2...1...The counter dropped to 0 and the player in green leaped into battle, slashing away with his sword at his competitor who moved with blinding speed to block all of the attacks, returning none of his own.

"Can we be done with this foolishness?" The grey clad warrior's scratchy voice echoed through the alleyway, making me cringe. That man was not friendly. The attacking player growled and increased the brutalilty of his attacks, striking with all of his might, only to be promptly blocked by his opponent. Finally the fighter in grey slashed out in rapid succession, swiftly dominating the other player, leaving only a small portion of health left.

The 'victory' banner appeared over the head of the winner, who skulked away, disappearing into the shadows. The player in green stood, hanging his head in shame, and walked toward the other end of the alley. Once he too, disappeared, Tobias motioned me foward and we continued on our path. Unsure of how to comprehend what we just witnessed, we stayed quiet until we pushed passed the door into a weapon's store just inside the city boundries. "The Bladed Edge" it was called, and true to it's name, every peice of weaponry in the building was bladed. The walls were lined with swords, daggers, and knives of all kinds. Our feud immediately forgotten, we fanboy'd over basically every deadly peice of forgery.

"This one is wavy! Great for blocking enemy strikes without using a shield, but this one over here is double edged for multiple strikes!" If it wouldn't have killed me, I would've been rolling in the blades and hugging them close like stuffed animals. Tobias was wide eyed over the wide variety of broadswords and greatswords, he loved the double-edged swords for the look and fashion of medievalness.

Eventually we calmed down and began to seriously consider my new weapons, and our gaze turned to the throwing knives. I knew I wanted a sheath for holding at least ten kunai knives, no less than ten shuriken and twenty senbon needles.

After sifting through multiple bags, sheaths and holsters, I finally found one that caught my fancy. It was a fitted sash-type sheath that wrapped from my left shoulder down to my right hip. I tried it on and glanced down at myself.

"How does this look?" I asked, twisting my head in as many angles as I could to try and get a good view of my upper body. Tobias looked at me and shrugged, saying that he doesn't really care about looks as long as the equipment is efficient. After I looked down at the price, I walked to the vendor and purchased the sash, filling it with the weapons, and turned my attention to the swords. I needed a weapon that I could use quickly and efficiently without sacrificing too much power.

"Tobias, I need your opinion on this," He walked over from his position near the broadswords and glanced over the options, "I was thinking maybe this one," I said, gesturing toward a sword named 'Wolf's Fang', "It has excellent accuracy and stealth capabilities, as well as decent speed and power."

After a small amount of deliberation, we decided to buy 'Wolf's Fang' and continue to the next town.

Following Tobias to the front door, I stepped in front of him to pull it open; and Tobias stepped outside with me shortly behind him. We caught a blur of black as a player ran passed us and on toward the gate.

"Tobias, you think that was shadowboy from earlier?" He glanced at me, and I nodded. We took off after the player in black at a slightly slower pace than he used. We didn't want him to know we were tailing him, we needed some information.

Four hours.

We followed this guy for FOUR hours. He finally stopped to take a break so Tobias and I took a crouching position and began surveillance. It was apparent fairly quickly that this young man in front of us was not one of the noobs from before. He had a very concentrated look in his trained grey eyes as he studied the map.

"What's he doing out here alone? Doesn't he understand that death is permanent here?" I quietly whispered to Tobias, who just nodded and kept his eyes on the player.

"You might as well come out, I know you have been following me," Looking up, I saw the grey eyes staring intently in my direction. Not exactly on me, so he didn't know where I was exactly, but he did know we were here.

Sighing, I stood up and motioned for Tobias to do the same. I swiftly examined the crouching player, who was obviously very experienced. His eyes, calmly shifted between the two of us.

"You guys must be pretty determined to have followed me all the way out here. What's your deal?" His piercing eyes narrowed. I immediately shifted to my "charisma mode," thinking that I could smooth this over with just my silver tongue. Tobias, of course, grimaced and took a defensive stance.

"Well, you are certainly better than I expected! I don't think I've met a player with a detection skill high enough to find my brother and I," I grinned at the black-clad player, who simply shrugged and smirked. I adjusted my posture as I walked toward him, gesturing for Tobias to follow suit, I stretched out my hand for a shake. "My name is Rilos, and this is Tobias," I said, nodding my head toward my best friend.

Shaking my hand, the young man introduced himself as Kirito, asking for the second time why we were following him.

"A simple mistake, my friend. We thought you were someone else, so we followed you in order to gather information, once it was obvious you weren't the person we thought you were, we followed simply out of curiosity. Why are you out here all alone? Solo gaming isn't the best survival strategy, you know." His eyes slightly narrowed, then returned to normal as he replied.

"Working in too large a group is just as dangerous. The masses make stupid choices and people end up dead. I prefer to be alone so as to not be the cause of those deaths." I could see Tobias nodding in agreement to my right, and I rolled my eyes. A high pitched binging noise pulled my attention to my message menu.

"Rilos, it's Gazzy. Max and Sky don't know that I'm sending you this but I think you can be trusted, and Iggy agrees. You saw how Angel trusted you and if she trusts you, well let's just say she's a very good judge of character. Anyway, my point is, we have a problem and you guys are the only two we know in this game. Please help."

I relayed the message to Tobias, and began to gather the few packs of food we had retrieved to snack on while chatting with Kirito. I stood up and nodded at the young solo player, "Sorry again for following you all creepy like, but we gotta go." He laughed and said that he understood.

"Think you will need any help? I'm pretty good with a sword, you know," Kirito remarked. I shook my head and explained that Tobias and I could probably handle whatever it was. After shaking Kirito's hand once more, we took off toward the East. Even Tobias knew that I couldn't resist helping these new players, not when the stakes were so high, so all he could do is follow me and be my calming voice of reason. Good thing too, I was gonna need it.

AN: Ok...so I'll work on the next chapter. I promise. No promises that it will be done quickly though. Just bare with me here, and don't forget to review. I need all the help I can get! Thanks!