Chapter 3:
Every day since this 'game' begun I've always had this thought 'Is father watching my every move? Is he happy he finally made the 'castle floating in the sky?'
"Let's go over the plan again." Kirito's voice brought me back to my surroundings.
"Since we were unable to form a full party, our job is to target the boss's underlings, the Ruin Kobold Sentinels." "I understand" was my response while Asuna just said "I know."
We were headed towards the boss and were currently walking through a forest field. "I'll use swords skills to knock away their poleaxes. The moment I do, Asuna switch in and then Saki, you have the final attack on it."
I had no complaints so I nodded, but Asuna with a questionable voice asked "Switch?"
"Is this your first time ever being in a party?" "Yes" She replied. I could hear Kirito sigh heavily beside me.
In fact, it's also my first time being in a party with other people, but I've played plenty of games before. Luckily I learnt things about multi-playing even though I thought I would never join up with anyone.
In other words, I knew what he meant by 'Switch'.
We were now in front of the boss room.
"Listen up, everybody" It was Diabel speaking. "I have but one thing to say, let's win this!"
To my surprise no-one cheered like I thought they would.
"Let's go." He opened the doors to the room.
A monster was sitting on a throne, as we walked in, the room lit up and he jumped down. His minions appeared in front of him and together they ran towards us. "Commence the attack!" People charged at them, with Kiabel giving orders.
I looked down the sword I was holding, I had rushed out to buy it this morning. It didn't look that powerful, but that's to be expected since it was from an NPC shop.
Me, Kirito and Asuna did what we planned and I was surprised at how good they were. I got the hang of swinging this sword really quickly, although I rather like battling hand-to-hand combat better since in real life I do Martial Arts.
As I finished another minion off I heard Kirito say "Good job"
The boss HP was on it's last bar and also in the red zone. It threw away it's weapons, most likely to get another one according to the guidebook.
"Stand back, I'll finish him." Kiabel ran forth alone. He activated his sword skill while the boss took out another weapon. I looked at Kirito and knew that he noticed it too.
The weapon wasn't a talwar but a nodachi, different from the beta testing and guidebook.
"Stop!" he shouted, "Retreat as fast as you can!"
Of course Kiabel didn't listen and charged at the boss, the boss jumped off a pillar and slashed at him from above also sending him flying. Kirito ran to him. They had a short conversation and I saw Kirito offering a potion, Kiabel rejecting it and then he shattered, indicating he died.
He most probably wanted that rare item bonus for the one who lands the last hit on the boss. Kirito stood up and me and Asuna were next to him in an instant.
"We'll go too" I said quietly, "Thanks" He replied. All three of us ran to the boss "We'll do what we did with the Sentinels"
"Yes"
"Got it"
The boss activated a sword skill and so did Kirito, he blocked the attack and called switch. Asuna charged in and I saw a change in the bosses eye. "Asuna!" She managed to dodge but in the process her hooded cloak got ripped off. She was quite pretty and looked about one year older than me. But this wasn't the time to think about that.
She activated her sword skill and knocked the boss away followed by me landing some attacks on it too.
"It's coming back" Kirito charged at the boss again clashing his sword with the boss's nodachi, the boss managed to land a hit knocking him into me. We tumbled back, and I saw Kirito's HP had gotten down to half way. The boss advanced in on us about to land a strike when this man stepped in and stopped it.
"GO! We'll hold him off until you recover!"
The act was nice but their actions weren't really; They got knocked to the ground, Kirito stood up again.
"Watch out!" He charged yet again at the boss. "Saki!" I got to my feet and ran to help him.
Kirito blocked an attack and then I knocked the nodachi out of the boss's hand. Kirito got the last attack slicing then boss twice killing it.
Cheers went through the room. A Congratulation sign appeared in front of us, I gave a small smile to Asuna and she returned it. The room went darker a little just the way it was when we first came in.
"Good work." I said. "That was quite some fine swordsmanship" It was the man who helped us earlier.
"Congratulations, we owe this victory to you" Everyone else clapped for Kirito as well. "Why!... Why! Why did you let Diabel die?!"
The voice came from Kibaou. "Let him die?" Another voice said.
"Thats right! You knew the techniques the boss used! If you gave us that information from the get-go, Diabel wouldn't have died!" Murmurs passed through the group.
"He must've been a beta tester! That's how he knew all the attack patterns, He knew but didn't tell us!" "There are other beta testers here too, right?!" "Show yourself!"
No-one did, I mean, who would?
Asuna and the man tried negotiating with Kibaou but I knew it wouldn't work.
Kirito suddenly started laughing, a near crazy laugh. "A beta tester, you said? I'd rather you not compare me with those newbies"
"Wh-What?" Kibaou said. I just glared quietly at him, he defeated the boss and now he thought he could act cocky cause he thinks he's better than us? Un-be-liev-a-ble.
"Most of the thousand SAO beta testers were beginners who didn't even know how to level up. You guys are better than they are" He was talking while walking through gap people made as he was approaching.
"But I'm not like them, I made it up further than anyone else during the beta test."
"I only knew about the boss's katana skills because I fought katana-wielding monsters on floors far above here. I know a lot more than that, way more than any information broker"
"Wh-What?! That's way worser than a beta tester!" That makes me even more worse than I thought.
"Your cheating! Your a cheater!" Others agreed with him but me and Asuna stayed quiet. I looked at Kirito. He was useful but I'm pretty sure I already knew everything he currently knows. If I was a normal player, I'd make friends with him despite my cold attitude but since I'm not, I didn't do anything.
"A beta and a cheater" "He's a beater!"
"Beater... I like the sound of that. That's right, I'm a beater" He pressed some buttons on his screen. "From now on, don't put me with those other testers."
He suddenly had a black cloak on top of his clothes, probably the boss reward, and walked away. Stopping a little to face me and Asuna, "You guys will become really strong, so if someone you trust ever invites you to join a guild, don't turn them down, there's a big limit to what you can do as a solo player." No-one said anything as he opened the door. A message popped up in front of me saying the party was disbanded.
Slowly everyone else exited the room and the only ones left were me and Asuna.
I thought about it for a second, and then asked her "Asuna, would you mind if we became partners"
"Partners?"
"Yes, as in to fight together from now on" She smiled at me "Of course!" As we were walking out she said to me "You know Saki, your always talking coldly towards everyone"
"I'm aware of that" And I actually was, no-one hung out with me in real life, so I kind of built a wall separating myself from others, Besides, my real name is Rin; It means 'cold' so it makes sense I'm like this right?
"Well, be prepared, because I'm going to change that!" Asuna said looking at me with determined eyes. I just nodded, she was completely different from before.
But, I've just made a new friend, it felt kind of good. I then thought about how the others reacted to Kirito, I was way worse than him, and also partly the reason everyone's trapped in this game. If I tell them who I really am, they would probably...Kill me. I can't really tell if I was scared or not.
I looked at Asuna, will she still accept me if she finds out the truth? I might have tell her one day, but for now, I'll keep this secret to myself.