Sword Art Online

Worldwide

Chapter 5 – Exhaustion of Battle

Everything went to hell. We weren't ready for the mini boss, and we were slowly being overwhelmed by the mini boss's minions. The main boss didn't even have to battle us, since we had more than enough on our hands with his minions. We had been separated relatively quickly, and each of us must have been battling five different skeleton minions each.

Luckily, they weren't very strong individually, so even if they did manage to break my defense and hurt me, they wouldn't hurt me for that much damage. The problem was that they were quickly overwhelming me, to the point that I couldn't even see my surroundings for all the skeleton in my way.

I growled as they pushed up against the dungeon wall and surrounded me, watching me with a grin on their faces. I watched their movement for a while, making sure I knew what each of them were doing. When each of them took a few steps forward I used another sword skill named "Whirlwind Slash", swinging around in a circular pattern and slashing them across their boney chests, bursting them away from me.

Each of them landed on their backs with a scream and I smirked and jumped forward before slashing down at two or three at the skeletons and finishing them off, leaving me with only two opponents left. I looked around me and tried to find Celine and her 5 opponents, and I spotted them somewhere in the other end of the cave.

I growled quietly and fought my remaining opponents off, before sprinting over to support Celine in battle. Her opponents was also closing in on me the same way the had been doing it to me, and I whistled at them and smirked before slashing at them vigorously. Three of them vaporized in blue glass shards in the air, and this gave Celine enough space to get rid of the last two skeleton minions.

"Phew, thank you Sebastian" She mumbled tiredly as she wiped her forehead from fatigue "I'm not sure how long I can go on like this. If he spawns more minions, I'm not sure I'm going to survive"

"If he want to spawn more minions, he's going to need more ribs" I said as I tossed her a health potion "I don't think he can spawn anything else."

"Good" she mumbled as she placed the flask's opening to her lips "Now this should be easy enough. We just have to look out for his attacks. They should be faster since his weapons are lighter and smaller"

"That sounds good" I mumbled with a nod as we moved our focus to the mini boss "Let's go by the same tactic. I attack and distract, and you go in for an attack. When you need to cool down, we switch and I take your place"

"Sounds good" She mumbled with a serious expression "Let's make him kiss our boot"

"Sounds like a plan"

And with this we charged, each our own battlecry singing through the air, as we charged towards what was only the second half of our long battle.

We were completely exhausted as we stumbled our way back out of the cave. We were very tired, and our HP was down to the last tens of points. We would have healed ourselves by now, if it wasn't for the fact that we didn't have any health potions left. If we could manage to get back to town without encountering any monsters or NPC's, we might be able to make it.

Of course, we weren't that lucky.

Just as we were only a couple of tens of feet away from the safe zone of the nearby town, we were attacked by a viscious pack of silver-fur wolves. We could barely even manage to pull our weapons before they had pushed us against a nearby rock, our backs against the cold stone.

I growled quietly and looked over at Celine with a sad expression.

"I'm sorry i couldn't protect you... This must be the end, for the both of us..."

"It's not your fault... No one could expect only two players to get away from a mini boss alive... We're lucky to even have gotten out of the cave..."

I closed my eyes a bit, and began getting ready to meet my demise. I opened them again sharply though, when i suddenly felt Celine's hand in my own, squeezing it tightly in fear.

"At least niether of us are alone..." She mumbled silently as she looked over at me "It was good to train with you Sebastian..."

I blushed quietly as i squeezed her hand back, the wolves closing in on us with aggresive snarls.

"You too Celine..."

We both leaned our heads back against the rock behind us and closed our eyes as we began to wait for our end.

It never came though. A couple of moments of snarling, then everything went quiet. Sudden sounds of blades piercing virtual flesh was heard, and then silence again. By the time i had gotten too curious as to what the hell was happening, and i slowly opened my eyes to see what was happening.

Help had arrived just at the nick of time. Two young men, one seeming older than the other, was now standing in-between us and what was left of the wolf pack that had tried to kill us only moments earlier.

The smaller man of the pair, was a quite handsome guy with raven coloured short hair and sharp eyes. He was wearing a blue shirt with a metal plate strapped to his chest, along with dark brown thick jeans and heavy dark boots to follow,

The other man was a bit taller than the raven haired boy, and also seemed to have a bit tougher build. He seemed to be about 22 or 23. He had red-ish spiky hiar and had a red and yellow cloth bound around his head. He was wearing a beige shirt with a brown leather plate on his chest, along with brown jeans and beige heavy boots, complete with a long knife strapped to his hip by his belt.

They seemed very confident in each other's abilities and in each other. It felt like they had been training together just as long as me and Celine had. They drew their weapons again and quickly disposed of the three or four remaining wolves in the blink of an eye.

"Wow..." i mumbled in awe as they were engulfed in a sea of broken NPC pieces.

The raven haired boy sheathed his sword and looked back at us with a serious expression.

"you guys okay?" He asked, looking at us inspectantly.

"Y-Yeah, barely..." i mumbled back as i looked over at Celine, who nodded at me "Both of us are..."

"Good. Take these" The taller man smirked and threw us a healing crystal each "Wouldn't want anymore players dying on us"

I nodded quietly as both of us used our new healing items, and sighed from relief as i saw both of our healths go back to almost full health. I smiled quietly and stood back up to my feet, helping Celine back to her feet by her hand as we looked at our heroes with curious expressions.

"Who are you two?" I asked, looking at the two "You didn't have to put your life on the line for us, you know?"

"Hah, we barely risked our lives by helping you guys" The taller man said with a smirk "We're so high level, this is barely a challenge"

"I don't know what you're talking about Klein" the raven haired guy said with a doubtful expression "you we're kind of tripping on your ass when we were sprinting over here. That, plus i totally had to show you the ropes on your first day here"

"Man, you didn't have to say that in front of those two" the older man, apparently called Klein, said with a sigh as he hunched over in defeat.

I couldn't help but chuckle quietly at their jabbing at each other, and i could see from Celine's expression that she was enjoying herself as well as we continued to listen to their bickering for a while. I wasn't quite sure if i should break in between them or maybe just stay quiet like i normally would when meeting new people, but it seemed like Celine cut me short, when she stepped up to them and smiled sweetly.

"Before you two continue your husband and wife bickering," She said with a teaseful smirk "Do you guys want to go back to the village and get some beer? It will be on our tab, since it's the least we can do for what you've done for us"

The two guys looked back at us with bewildered expressions before chuckling quietly and taking a look at each other, shrugging casually.

"That sounds pretty good actually" The one named Klein said with a smirk and a thumbs up "Though i'm not sure Kazuto can have any, since the alcohol actually works just like in real life in this game"

"Huh!? It actually works like that!?" I mumbled in surprise as me and Celine followed after them back into the safe zone of town.

"Yeah, surprisingly enough" Klein said with a laugh "Though, if you set your personal information to be 17 or under, the effect gets nullified"

"Wow, you have to give Kayaba," I mumbled as we walked towards the main center of town "though he's a bastard, he's really thought things through"

"Yeah, sadly enough" Kirito mumbled with a frown "This means that if we really do reach him in the crystal palace at the top of Aincrad, He'll have some well-thought plan or strategy"

"Yeah, i know what you mean" i mumbled with a frown "It's going to be tough even getting to the Ruby Palace in the first place"

"Right" Klein said, breaking into a grin "But right now, we're going out and having fun, so let's at least push away the subject for now!"

"Sure we're gonna have fun" Kirito said with a laugh "The only fun we're gonna have is to drag your drunk ass home from the pub!"

"Damn straight, so take good care of me, guys and gal!" he said with a laugh as we walked into the town square.

It was strange. Even though we were litterally trapped inside a deathgame, we were still able to laugh, to chat heartily. We were still able to live, the people that were actually alive. i found it weird, but nice. It felt like a victory over Kayaba for once. Despite the many people who had been killed already, we were still going to fight to revenge them.

I took a quick glance over at Celine. A bright smile was still plastered onto her face, and i couldn't help but smile as well as i watched her chat with Kirito and Klein, our two new allies in the war against Kayaba and his world. I made a vow with myself at that moment. To protect her, keep her alive until the very end. If she had died in that boss battle, i don't believe i would have been able to live with the shame or guilt.

She's way too young to die already, we both knew it. I was in debt to Kirito and Klein for saving us, when i myself was unable to protect her. But that would never happen again. i promised both myself and her.

~A Few Days Later, Village Main Inn~

"Come on, Celine! We're gonna be late!"

I sighed quietly and tapped the ground with my foot as i waited for Celine in the lounge of the inn. We were about to head for a meeting the top players of the game had set in the excavation ruins in town. The meaning of the meeting was to come up with a strategy and team positions for the upcoming first boss raid.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!"

I heard this as i heard Celine scramble down the stairs, almost tripping on the way there. I sighed a bit and shook my head at her.

"I swear to god Celine, sometime you're going to stumble and crack your head open."

"Hey, it's not that bad!" She said with a pout "It's only the second... or third... time i trip"

"You shouldn't be tripping at all." I mumbled as I watched her for a moment "Anyway, let's get going. The meeting is starting in five minutes"

"Yeah, yeah. It's no big deal you know?" She said with a smile "Even if we are late, we already have a strategy for our team, right?"

"Even so, we don't know what can happen in the boss room" I mumbled as I looked over at her with a serious expression "I might have been a Beta Tester, but i barely even made it to the second floor. Besides, it's been several years between the Beta and the actual game coming out. the version of the game was updated several times since then"

She pouted a bit and rolled her eyes.

"You've been such a downpour lately" she mumbled as she puffed out her cheeks "Why are you being so paranoid and suspicious all the time? nothing is going to happen to me you know."

"How could you know that?"

she was about to protest but fell silent, thinking about it for a moment. I huffed quietly and put my arms across my chest.

"See? You don't even kno-!"

"Because you're there to protect me..."

i blushed quietly and looked over at her with a surprised expression when she cut me off.

"huh? What do you mean?"

She blushed quietly and smiled as she scratched her cheek and looked at me.

"Well, we're partners right? I know you'll be there to protect me, so I know I'm safe"

I blushed dark red and looked away from her in embarrasment.

"And even so... Since we're partners, I'm supposed to protect you too. So you don't have to be so paranoid, okay?"

She said this in a much more comfortable and confident voice, and i felt my blood pressure in my cheeks fall a little as my blush disappeared, and was replaced with a small smile.

"T-that sounds good"

~Later, At The Meeting~

I frowned quietly as Celine and I, along with the Kirito and Klein, gathered around a tactics table along with the other players as the Tactics portion of the meeting took place. On the table was a map of the Boss' main area, which seemed to be a medium sized throne room. Along with it, small digital figures of players and monsters spawned on top of the table, free for the players to move around while we discussed tactics.

"Alright, listen up, guys"

A young looking guy with blue hair, clapped his hands to gain our attention. Our gazes turned to him.

"My name's Diavel" He said with a confident smile "I'll be taking control as commander of this operation, and keeping an eye over the different squadrons, ranging from squad A to squad E"

We all nodded quietly. His simple being here, radiated an aura of leadership and cconfidence. Even without knowing the guy, i could tell that he was the born leader.

"Under this meeting, we'll discuss which signals i will give to who, and who will focus on what. Also, we'll be establishing squadrons, and who are in which squad"

I nodded quietly at him and watched him come up with a strategy. I got a feeling that he had played war-based games before, caused he moved the samll figures on the table around like he was the born warleader.

First, the squadrons was established. Since there was so many shield bearers, Squad A C and E was set to form the defensive line in front of squad B and D. Squad B and D was the attackers, who was going to keep the boss and his minions on the ropes. Squad D was to take care of the minions, and squad B was to beat back the boss, and eventually kill him if possible. If squad D managed to kill the minions, they were to back up squad B in attacking the boss until new minions would spawn.

"How does that sound, everyone?"

Diavel looked up at the rest of us. This strategy sounded like something way better than anything i could come up with anyway.

"Alright. We're setting out to the boss room first thing tomorrow morning. Please begin forming squads and teams. Come back and tell me your teams in half an hour."

And with that, the crowd dispersed, several people already talking. Celine, Klein, Kirito and myself, stayed behind so we could have a talk about who would be on team with who.

We formed a circle, the four of us, and quickly formed a team. I noticed how Kirito's gaze was elsewhere.

"Kirito? You okay?"

"Yeah, just give me one second"

He broke away from the rest of us and approached a caped girl sitting alone the tribune. He talked with her quietly, before coming back to us.

"What was that about, Kirito?"

"Nothing, she just seemed lonely, so i recruited her to our party"

Just as he said that, i noticed a name popping up on my HUD, along with the other names of my party.

"Asuna, huh...?"

So she was was going to join our party? We were now a five man party, and our chances of survival had definitely increased. I just hoped no one would get killed.

A/N

Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter of Sword Art Online – Worldwide.

It's been a while since I've written on this story. It's good to come back to it. And now that all my exams are finally over, I can finally relax and focus on writing and making good content on youtube, focus on doing what I want to do.

I hope to see you guys next time. Peace out friends.