Chapter 2-The Very Best
A silent yawn escaped the lips of the crimson eyed adolescent, the sun was shining down on the large group of players gathered in the small half coliseum. The players were well spread out among the stone seats, they had been here for a while and new players kept entering and finding their own place to be seated.
Blue was tapping his fingers rapidly against the stone seat he was slouching on, humming a tune from a local band he had taken a liking to and heard before he was trapped in this virtual world. Red was surprised how patient his friend was being, he never usually stayed still for this long, he always had something to do.
Blue let out a sigh of boredom "I knew we shouldn't of came early." Red had to agree with his mate's statement, they had been here for over an hour. He cast his gaze into the morning sky, passing time by watching the clouds within the virtual world flow above him, it was as if he was in the real world when he did this.
It had been half a month since the death game known as Sword Art Online had begun. Kayaba had switched the dungeons around and added more making it a challenge to find the first floor boss. The rumor going around the mill was the person holding this little get together had found it.
The gentle breeze flowing through the area swayed his hair and ruffled his clothing. It relaxed him slightly, the volume of chatter began to rise a few dozen decibels as more people flocked into the stadium. The place was about halfway full as the last few entered.
At the center of the stage stood a light blue haired male, with a dark set of blue eyes. He wore a set of bronze amour over his blue attire, a smile on his face as he began to get everyone's attention.
"All right! Let's get down to business."
His voice grasped the attention of every gamer attending this little get together. "I'd like to thank you all for coming today. My name is Diabel, I like to consider my job as a knight."
A few chuckles and laughs broke out with that statement. "There's no job system in this game." Shouted someone from the crowd. "No shit Sherlock." Blue muttered, causing Red to smirk, everyone here knew how the game worked, and Red found it amusing how frustrated his friend was. People should really learn not to state the obvious.
"Enough joking around. Yesterday our party found the first floor boss room." Shock rung through the crowd at the 'knights' statement. "We need to defeat the boss, reach the second floor and tell everyone at the Town of Beginnings, that it's possible to beat this game. Everyone present here is the very best and we have to share this duty! Do you all agree?"
Claps and cheers broke out from the crowd, Red had to admit, Diabel was quite charismatic, he had everyone in high hopes. "Alright! Let's start our planning. First off, get into parties of six. A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss; that's why we need a raid party made up of multiple parties."
Raid parties where made up of ten parties, meaning a total of sixty players could compete in a raid. Raids are only possible with boss fights or raid quests, the rewards are greater but the difficulty is raised, and with the threat of death not many raid quests where done. People began making parties fast leaving very little to join with. Blue began to scavenge for anyone free to tag up with to make a party of six, a tap from his childhood friend snapped him from his searching.
"What?" He was rather annoyed, he had been sitting here for far too long and now he might miss grabbing someone for their team. His annoyance quickly disappeared as he saw what his friend was pointing too.
Two players, one in the starter gear, and black hair, that's all he could really make out of the guy from their distance, they were at the opposite end of the coliseum. The second was wearing a brown cloak, making it impossible to tell what gender it was from this distance.
A predictor smile formed on blues face, these would be easy pickings. "well no point sitting around, let's go introduce ourselves." He pushed of his seat and headed towards his hopefully new team mates, Red right on his tail.
Making his way over to the pair, the blue end teen from the Kanto plains plopped down in the seat behind the two. "You two seem to be a bit short on team mates, how about you join up with me and my friend?" He pointed his thumb in Red's direction as he said friend.
The grandson of Samuel Oak knew that he and Red could most likely handle the first floor boss, but as his father told him repeatedly, better safe than sorry. While he did want to prove himself in this world he wasn't going to be stupid and recklessly throw his life away for fame.
"Sure!" Blue was a bit disappointed, that was too easy, he wanted more of a challenge. It was the boy that spoke up, the girl simply stared at the two newcomers, focusing more so on Red, and Blue could guess why, his crimson eyes. Blue was about to send them an invite but was beat to the punch by his childhood friend. The two accepted.
"Well, that brings our party up to four. Now to find two more players." As he said this he could see that everyone was set up into pairs of six's and fives. "Easier said than done." Muttered Blue under his breath, they would just have to get by with four players.
"I'm Kirito by the way." Blue looked down at the gloved hand extended to him, it was from the raven haired teen that sat beside the cloaked girl. He firmly grasped his new teammate's hand. "Blue, and 'Mister Brightside' over there is Red." Sarcasm dripped from his voice as he referenced his friend with 'Mister Brightside.' Red sent a friendly glare at his comrade.
"I thought everyone's appearance was changed to how the look in real life." It was the girl that spoke up, her voice was soft and gave a sense that she wasn't very talkative. Kirito quickly confirmed that it happened. "Then how come he has red eyes?" This caught Kirito's attention and he too looked, a surprised and slightly unnerved expression making its way onto his face. He couldn't blame the dark haired teens reaction, Red always looked serious and with his blood red crimson eyes he looked beyond intimidating.
Blue was about to explain his friend's predicament but his childhood friend was a step ahead of him, using his hands to communicate "I was born like this, it's a very rare genetic disorder." Subtitles played out at the bottom of everyone screen who was looking at the hand gestures. The fact that he didn't speak surprised the two more so than his eyes, but before the two could spout anymore questions they were interrupted by Diabel.
"All right. Looks like everyone's teamed up. Now then…"
"Hold up a sec!"
The shout stopped Diabel in his tracks as a fellow gamer began to make his way to center stage. His hair was a very light brown and seemed to spike out slightly in several different directions, something similar to that of a cactus. He wore an unpleasant look on his face, a small goatee adorned his face.
"My name's Kibaou, got that? Before we take on the boss, I want to get something off my chest! We all know about the two thousand people who died so far and some of you need to apologize to them right now!"
Diabel place a hand on the raging Kibaou, calming him slightly. "Kibaou, I think I know who you're referring to. You mean the ones who were ex-beta testers, right?"
"'Course I mean them! The day this stupid ass game started, the beta guys just got up and vanished, right?" Blue snorted in disgust, most players were beginning to believe in the ramblings of Kibaou, as a few 'yeahs' could be heard coming from the crowd. "He sure has a big mouth. I can't understand how so many are beginning to flock around him." Red took a glance at his friend, he could tell he was annoyed by what Kibaou spoke, not because it was true. Red and Blue had teamed up with several individuals over the past half month, some being beginners who they helped out.
Kirito who was shaking from the words spoken by Kibaou looked up shocked slightly by the attitude of Blue and decided to speak up. "The beta testers could have done more to stop those deaths." The golden-brown haired teen let out an audible groan. "There was only a thousand beta testers and only 700 actually used the beta. Over 10,000 have this game from its release and they are all trapped in it, when you get down to it there simply are not enough beta testers to go around. Then some of the beta testers may not even have logged in on that faithful day this game started. Heck, even if you gave everyone pointers or helped them out they still have a chance of dying. One mistake in this game could lead to your death in this game and real life, it just can't be helped. Blaming it on a specific group of people is arrogant and illogical if you think about it."
Kirito was surprised by the response he got, for one Blue's tone was serious, something he hadn't expected from his short time knowing him. He had taken the Blue eyed teen to be a joker yet that didn't seem to be a case, he couldn't help but think of that one saying, 'you can't judge a book by looking at the cover' that saying rang true here. It helped him to hear that, he probably would have felt guilty if he had not.
"Can I say something?"
From the front of the crowd up stepped a tall man, dark skin in colour. His voice was deep and his interruption stopped Kibaou from continuing his rant and gather everyone's attention to him. He was bald and had a brown goatee, two sliver ear rings where in his left ear.
"Hey, my name's Agil." He addressed the crowd as he walked to center stage sharing it with Diabel and Kibaou. He turned to cactus haired male. "Kibaou right?" Said man gave a nod to the man that stood more than a head above him, looking nervous at the sight of the tall bulky man before him.
"I want to make sure I'm on the same page. You say the ex-beta testers should be blamed for the rookies' deaths because they didn't help them, and you want them to apologize and give up their winnings. I leave anything out?"
Kibaou looked to be becoming more uncomfortable by the second, he could tell Agil was about to bring up something that would counter his argument on the beta testers. "No, you didn't." Agil opened up his main screen, looking through his inventory before finding what he was looking for, tapping on the screen before him a small A4 book materialized before him.
"The item store hands these out for free. It's a guidebook. You got one, didn't you?" Kibaou was slowly losing his nervousness and becoming annoyed. "Sure I got one. So, what about it?" Agil began to tap the small book with his free hand as he began to speak. "You know who was handing these out?" Silence rand through the crowd as people wondered who.
Agil's voice raised as he continued "The ex-beta testers. Listen up! Everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, lots of players still died. I didn't come here to point fingers at anyone. I'm here because I want to learn from those player's deaths. I'm here because I want to find out how we're gonna beat the boss."
Once he was finished people began to hold more respect for the ex-beta testers and in turn Kibaou could not think of anything to say that he could use to argue against the large man and remained silent but looked displeased.
Diabel the supposed knight clapped his hands to get the attention of all the gamers gathered. "Okay, can we get back to the meeting now?" No one decided to interrupt, not having any major problems to discuss.
Before continuing to speak the 'knight' pulled out his own guidebook, holding it above his head for people to get a good look at it. "For info on the boss, it's all in here; the latest issue of the guidebook you just heard about." At the mention of this some players started to take out their own guidebooks to have a look.
"According to the book, the boss's name is Illfang the Kobold lord. Also, he'll be surrounded by his minions; the Ruin Kobold Sentinels." Diabel continued to list off what they knew about the first floor boss, before discussing how loot would be distributed evenly among all participating. Whatever party defeated Illfang would get the experience points, and whoever got an item, either it be from defeating the Kobold sentinels or the boss itself would keep that item.
"Meeting adjourned, people. We leave tomorrow at ten in the morning!" and with that the meeting came to an end. People slowly began to make their way out of the small semi-circular coliseum, excitedly chatting about how they were going to be beat the first floor boss, everyone seemed in high hopes of the upcoming raid on Illfang.
"Well I'm not sure about all of you but I'm hungry, how about we all go get something to eat?" No objections were made at Blues question and the party of four made their way to the closest place to get a bite to eat.
Sitting down in what could be described as your stereotypical looking tavern from something in the middle ages, the four ordered from a lack luster menu. "So I suggest we come up with a plan for tomorrow's boss battle, so let's share our stats and see what we come up with."
Kirito was the first to show his stats, he was at a respectable level 15, all his stats where roughly the same attack being his highest by a slight margin, his player type was light. There's tree types of character types, you have your heavy class, the could gain the highest defense or attack in the game but have incredibly low speed and evasiveness, they also had a unique set of skills that only they could learn, they can master the weapons that do the most damage, from hammers to gauntlets easily and use them most effectively.
The next type would be supporter, these types had skills only they could learn which can affect the whole party such as raising stats like attack or healing. Supporters where effective with long ranged weapons and are the only class that can use a bow and arrow. Speed, evasion and precision is their best stats to raise as the start of high, the lacked in the defense and attack side of things.
The light class was the all-rounder type, all its stats start evenly and it's up to the player to decided how to progress. The could use any weapon, but you had to work to master the weapons of your choice, depending on how you use this character you can gain any number of skills and skills are easier to acquire with this class, however there is no unique skill that a light class can learn.
"I'm Asuna." It was the girl that spoke up, finally introducing herself to her new party, she was next to show off what she had accomplished since SAO started. She was at level 12, her strongest stat being speed, it a good deal higher than the rest of her stats, she was the same class as Kirito.
Red and Blue showed theirs of next, both slightly higher with blue at level 19 with red just below him at level 18. While most games of this standard usually went up to level one hundred SAO took it one step further, you were able to reach level one thousand in this game.
Red and Blue where also off the same class as their new companions. Red was similar to Asuna in speed, however he was also working on perception while keeping the rest of his stats relatively ok. Blue was working more so on defense and special attack. Special attack increased the attack power of your offensive skill set.
"This is going to be difficult if we are all the same class, we'll most likely be put up against the Ruin Kobold Sentinels while more diverse groups will take on the boss." Blue spoke aloud his thoughts on how the boss battle would most likely turn out, more soto help with his thinking rather than filling in the others of his party.
The others just kept to themselfs as the player with the higgest level muttered to himself with a look of ferice concentration plastered on his face. After a few minutes Blue ran a hand through his hair, letting out a sigh. "Don't suppose any of you have any ideas?" As he asked the question he looked to the two infornt of him as the looked at him blankly before turning to his childhood friend compeletly zoned out while playing with his food.
Blue let out a low growl of annoyance at his partners lack of attention and swatted him with a not so light slap to the back of the head, snapping him out of his trance. Red turned looked at his blue eyed friend with a dull confused look as he rub his head where it had been hit.
"Don't give me that look, you should be attention! This is an important discusion on what we will do in the boss battle!" The crimson eyed teen just shrugged his sholders before moving his hands "You'll come up with something." Blue let out a long sigh at his friends response.
"If we don't prepare properly we could end up getting killed due to recklessness, just dont shrug it off!" What the grandson of Samule Oka got in return was silly looking grin, which after a few seconds spread to his friend. "You worry to little." After that Blue turned back to the other two who had sligltly amused looks on there faces from the small argument between the two. "Well since lazy over here has no input what about you guys; any plans or experance leading a party?"
Kirito began to scratch his cheak sheepishly. "Actually i've been soloing through the game so far." The usally stoic face of Red was dumfounded while Blues jaw was slightly agape with a look shock printed on his face. Then Asuna spoke up. "Me too." She said it as if it was the most normal thing to say.
Once Blue had recovered from his shock he took a deep breath in. "So let me get this straight. The both of you have been playing this game, which is ment to be played in parties so that leveling up and sucess is easier as well as safer with the fact that if you die here you won't be coming back, alone?"
A faint tint of red sprung to life on Kirito's face as a wave of embarisment, while Asuna nodded, but now slightly embarssed when Blue pointed out how much easier and safer it would be in a party. Blue brought his fore finger and thumb to the bridge of his nose. "I'm surrounded by idiots!" he quickly began to chukle at the situation he was in.
"Well guess we can just use a simple plan. Me and Red will stay up front while the two of you stay back, when we unblance the Sentinals we switch and you two go in for the kill, got it?" The two spoke in union "Yeah!"
Blue turned to his friend. "You get all that?" A small nod was all he got in return. "Good." He turned back to his two newest party members. "You can go, we'll meet up at the gaherting tomorrow." With that Asuna left but Kritio stayed. "Something you wanted to ask?" The raven haired teen stayed quite for a momment before looking Blue in the eyes.
"Are you two the Red and Blue?" He looked hopeful as he asked the question, Blue couldn't help the smug smiirk that came to his face while Red looked rather emtionless. "We're the one and only, the spetacular Red and Blue. The very best!"
A smile of relife made its way to Kirito's face. "Thats good to know." And with that the teen left leaving the two boys from Kanto alone. "It's gonna be a long day tommorow, i'm going to get some gear to prepare for the big fight, see you back at he inn later." With that Blue left.
Red sat there by himself in the small cafe, not quite sure what to do with himself, he was already prepared for the fight ahead of him, so he sat in the cafe, eating and drinking every now and then, watching everone who came into the small building to get a bit of grub and some liquid to quinch the thirst and hunger their virtual bodies had.
The black haired teen's gaze shifted to the glass widow looking out into what was slowly becoming night, relasing he had spent way to much time in the cafe, he left the premises and strolled out into the brisk night.
The night was quite lively as players where out singing under the light of torches or have some fun the night before the big battle. Red queitly obsevered the going ons of the town, he even spotted Kirito and Asuna along the way. As he was heading back to the inn to retire for the night he stopped in his tracks, truning his head to his left to look down an ally way and at the end on the other side he saw familliar long light brown hair that traveled down to the waist of a female player.
Red was in shock at the sight and immediatly raced towards the ally. The female had passed the opening on the other side as she left Red's vision. Red thundered doen the ally, nimbly dogeing anyone who was using said ally as a shortcut while maintaining speed.
He brust through the opening on the other side and began to frantically look around, desperation clearly inprinted on his face, but there was not a single trace of the female with waist length brown hair. Red brought a hand to his face. Had he truly just immagened it, he shook his head trying to clam himself, after all the mind couldn't play tricks on someone in a game, could it?
Was his desperation to see her that much causeing him to huillicnate? He shook his head viscously, before taking one last look around to see if he could spot her, but there was nothing. With that the gamer traped within SAO made his way back to the inn dejectedly, when he met with Blue he reverted to his useawill demenour of boredness and emtionless, he wouldn't tell blue what he saw untill he was certain it was her, but for now he needed rest.
The two friends left each other for the night and went to there respected rooms, it would be a long night for the mute teen.
-Fight for Survival-
Diabel stood before the large metal doors which behind them held Illfang the Lord of the Kobold. The doors began to slowly open as the leader of this raid raised his sword. "LETS DEFEAT THIS BOSS AND SHOW EVERONE ITS POSSIBLE TO WIN! LETS BRING HOPE TO EVERY SINGLE PLAYER THERE IS!" his scream reached everyones ears and as the charged in a large warcry was emmitted from most of the raid party.
The fight had begun!
A/N: This was a long time coming, some of this chapter and next chapter will be setting up on the game mechanics that will be used in this fanfic so bear with me. I would like to thank all those who followed and favorited this story it means a lot. A special thanks to all those who reviewed, o realisticFantasy o, lightstar and Elliryanna, these reviews gave me a boost of motivation to write this chapter and hopefully you enjoy this one. If any mistakes are seen I would greatly appreciate it if you mention it in a review. Have a good one till next chapter.