I do not own Sword Art Online or any of the characters.

Taking A Break

"So, what are you all going to do?" Sakuya asked.

"We're going up the world tree," Michael stated. "Someone we know is being held at the top, and we need to figure out why. We're going to save them."

"I see," Sakuya nodded. "We would love to help, but it will take us a while to outfit for an assault on the tree."

"Here, maybe this will help," Kirito suddenly held up a sack full of money and handed it to the Catsy Leader who was only barely able to hold it up, where Kirito was holding it with one hand like it was nothing.

"Holy shit, look at this Sakuya," the Catsy leader gasped.

"What is it?" Sakuya asked looking into the bag and gaping at it as the amount was displayed to her. "Oh my God! A hundred thousand pieces of mythral Yrd!?"

"Yeah, I'm not going to need it," Kirito stated.

"With this bag, we've got just about enough for new gear," the Catsy leader stated.

"We'll get ready as fast as we can," Sakuya promised. "When we're set to go we'll message you, okay?"

Michael nodded then grinned.

"With me and Kirito both going at the tree, it'll probably be cleared before you get there," Michael smirked. "See you girls around."

Both waved and the fourteen players all left, flying back to their own lands. Michael turned to the others and grinned.

"Shall we Kirito?" Michael grinned. "We should arrive at Arun just in time for the update. We can take a day off then log on later and go blow some guardians away."

Kirito nodded and the three of them spread their wings, taking off and flying away as fast as they could. When they landed, it was getting late. About a minute after they reached the town, the alert system announced the update. Yui directed them to cheap hotels since Kirito was flat broke and they all logged out. Michael did some rehab for a while then lay down and went to sleep. When he opened his eyes again, it was already late in the morning. He got up and left, heading over to Agil's bar and finding Klein was there.

"What's up Klein?" Michael asked grinning.

"Not much," Klein stated. "Day off from work today so I'm hanging out with Agil. How's the game?"

"Fun," Michael grinned. "Kirito thinks so too but he's focussed on getting to Asuna. Not that I can blame him. There is a down side, however."

"What's that?" Klein asked.

"There's this other player, Archon," Michael stated. "He's about as strong as me and I've fought him three times. Once I beat him in no time flat because I used a pair of knives rather than a sword. It was kind of cheating. Anyway, the first time I fought him it was a duel and he used their weird fighting style. id never seen anything like it. Anyway, the last time I fought him he won because he started with this gigantic scythe but he was way too fast with the thing for me to get him."

"The fighting style," Klein spoke up, interested. "What was it?"

"Well," Michael said thinking for a moment. "He kept releasing his swords. He would attack with one then let go and draw another and attack, then let go and draw another. He had three going for part of it but that was the most he had. Why?"

Klein and Agil exchanged a look Michael couldn't understand before Klein looked back at him.

"There was a player in SAO that had that same fighting style," Klein stated. "He was...he was a PKer. Not Laughing Coffin, though. In fact, he was so bad that Laughing Coffin actually worked with us to take him down."

"They..." Michael trailed off as that sunk in.

"It was actually only a bit before you showed up," Klein stated. "Laughing Coffin sent us a message telling us that there was a PKer on the loose who was, and I quote, "a very serious threat that should be dealt with immediately", which of course, worried absolutely no one. We all thought he was just a rogue Laughing Coffin. We decided to let them handle it in house for a bit. Then members of the clearing guilds began to go missing. At first, we thought maybe they were defecting, or going to scout dungeons. Then Laughing Coffin showed up. They threw their weapons to us before we could even draw ours. So we knew they seriously wanted to talk. One of the leaders explained to us that a lone player had showed up at their hideout, a different one than the one we took them out in, and when they attacked he just started slaughtering them. You how there were more than we expected when we fought them? Well, apparently that was a quarter of what they had been before this guy found them. We thought maybe he was a vigilante until they explained that they had tracked him after he just up and left, leaving what came to us alive. They had tracked him to one of the lower dungeons, well, lower than we were, and they said he had found a guild that was grinding for experience and just slaughtered them. He said that a group of Knights of the Blood Oath that had been on a day off happened across the guild at the end of the fight and they tried to help but they were no mach."

"Laughing Coffin said that he had been murdering all kinds of players, but especially Clearers," Agil stated. "So, the clearing guilds all agreed to help Laughing Coffin kill him if they could find him. And within a day, they messaged us here he would be. We all met up with Laughing Coffin and they said that he was inside a dungeon on that floor. We went there and headed through it to the boss room where he was waiting, sitting in the center with three swords around him. Laughing Coffin went in first, as we had agreed. And he tore them apart. By the time we realized we needed to help, he had successfully slaughtered almost half of Laughing Coffin. The Aincrad Army, what was left of the clearing portion, got there first. That was a mistake. They were the weakest clearers so they didn't even last as long as Laughing Coffin."

"My guild was next," Klein stated. "We lost three the moment he reached us. Then we held our own until the Knights of the Blood Oath arrived and Heathcliff charged in. That was the one time we saw Heathcliff...or, I guess Kayaba...truly pissed off. I guess he didn't like someone trying to end his game the wrong way. Anyway, he was able to easily hold the guy off, not very surprising now, but back then it was impressive. After a few minutes though, he let himself take a hit and dropped to borderline yellow, backing out of the fight to recover and the rest of the guild went in. Things went south fast. Kirito and Asuna both got dropped to red in seconds and the Knights of the Blood Oath became practice dummies. In the end, we never killed him. He teleported out, going to the floor we were trying to clear. We followed, since he had said where he was going, and we wound up chasing him all the way to the boss room. The doors closed and after about twenty minutes, they opened again and when we went in, the boss was still there so we teleported out. We had assumed he died but I guess he teleported out. We never did hear anything about him again and there were no more disappearances so we all assumed he had been killed by the boss."

"What was the body count?" Michael asked, not really wanting to know.

"Fifteen Aincrad Liberation Army," Klein began listing. "Three Fuurinkazan, we estimated eighty Laughing Coffin, and ten Knights of the Blood Oath. That monster killed one hundred eight players that we know of."

Michael was silent, the knowledge that he might know that monster was terrifying. But he'd have to find him again and then figure out if he was in SAO. That wouldn't be hard. SAO players usually admitted who they were the moment they found another one. And if Archon was from SAO, PKer or not, he'd admit it. He'd be proud that he survived. At least, outwardly. If Klein was right, he'd be even prouder of his body count.

"You okay?" Klein asked.

"No," Michael smirked. "I don't have the ability to kill this fucker if we're right."

"No," Klein agreed. "But with your specific skill set, you could easily locate him and send the police."

"True," Michael nodded. "I'll probably do that. For now, however, I'm going to help Kirito save Asuna."

He stood, glancing at the clock. It was roughly an hour before they could log back on and an hour and a half before Kirito and Leafa would be logging on. He went home, doing some rehab until it was time then logging on, finding Kirito and Leafa were already there.

"Sorry I'm late," Michael apologized.

"Not at all," Leafa said. "We just got here."

Michael nodded and looked to Kirito.

"I talked to Klein," Michael stated.

"Oh yeah?" Kirito asked. "What about?"

"A guy who fights by juggling three swords," Michael stated and Kirito tensed.

Kirito nodded, knowing exactly who he meant.

"Yeah," Kirito nodded. "He...was incredible."

"He's in ALfheim Online," Michael stated. "Archon juggles three swords."

Kirito stared at him before nodding.

"We'll find him and sort it out," Kirito stated.

"But Asuna's first," Michael stated. "Come on. Between the two of us, there's no way we won't make it."

Kirito nodded and they all left, heading to the base of the tree and stopping. Kirito turned, smiling at Leafa apologetically.

"We're going to go it alone from here," Kirito stated. "Between the two of us, we'll clear the tree no problem."

Leafa opened her mouth to speak but had nothing to say, so she remained silent. Kirito opened his menu and sent an item to Michael.

"I think this may come in handy," Kirito grinned as Michael equipped the item and a tower shield appeared on his arm. The shield was about shoulder hight but light as a feather. It was also made out of a white metal. Michael looked at its states and his jaw dropped.

"Where did you get this?" Michael gaped.

"One of the monsters I killed dropped it," Kirito shrugged. "Think it'll come in handy?"

"Hell yeah," Michael grinned. "However, I now have to go save again. Back in a minute."

Then, he flew off.

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