I do not own Sword Art Online or any of the characters. Oh, forgot to mention, Archon is an OC. Incase you didn't figure that out.
Success
Michael stepped up beside Kirito, grinning at him as they looked up at the door above them.
"Remember," Michael said as they extended their wings. "One guardian comes out. When he dies, every circle releases one. After three minutes, archers come out."
Kirito nodded and they rocketed upward. A guardian formed and moved to intercept them and Michael met it head on, bisecting it easily. Just as Kirito neared the door, a sword wielder stepped out of each circle and flew at them. Kirito was forced to stop when a guardian slashed at him from behind. Kirito blocked it, shoving the sword aside and killing him just as Michael caught up, slashing three guardians who had been about to attack Kirito from behind. Kirito thanked him and they held their weapons ready as the guardians surrounded them in a sphere.
"This doesn't look good," Michael growled.
"Nope," Kirito agreed. "Think you can get me to the door?"
"Easy," Michael nodded just as guardians began to fly at them rapidly.
Michael deflected two into two others using his shield and slashed three as they passed. Kirito was doing nearly as well, blocking blades and slashing the wielders as soon as he could. Michael flew up to Kirito, who had drifted away from him, and blocked a sword, slashing the wielder then flying at the sphere, slashing multiple instantly and most of the guardians followed, seeing him as the greater threat due to him going on the offensive. Kirito slashed his way through what was left, breaking out of the sphere quickly and flying at the door. Just as he reached for it, a glowing yellow arrow drove itself through his hand. He stopped, looking back to see hundreds of archers below him, all aiming at him.
"Archers!" Kirito shouted.
Michael spun, slashing a ring around himself then flew up, smashing a guardian aside with his shield and flew to Kirito, arriving and turning around just as the archers all fired. He raised his shield, curling into a ball behind it as arrows began to shatter against it. Finally, it stopped and Michael straightened, moving the shield out of the way and grinning. Then, he flew downward, half of the archers following him, allowing Kirito enough room to hopefully avoid the arrows. Arrows began to rain down around Michael, making him swerve and dodge as they did. He spun, blocking them with his shield and then curved up into the air again, seeing Kirito getting shot rapidly. Michael swore, reading off a spell and blasting several archers as he rushed to aid Kirito. He reached him just in time to slash several swords out of the air as they flew at him. Again Kirito stopped, guardians surrounding them.
"This might be a bit of a problem," Michael stated. "I can handle the archers but you can't. Get to the door. I'll handle these."
Kirito nodded and flew upward, slashing several guardians out of his way. Michael followed, drawing as much attention as he could to buy Kirito time. Then, just as Kirito's hand came within an inch of the door, the plan went south. A wall of guardians formed between Kirito and the door, forcing him to back away. Before Michael could react, the guardians formed bows and arrows and all fired, killing Kirito instantly. Michael swore but before he could go after Kirito's Remain Light, the Archers turned on him. He raised his shield, blocking the arrows just before Leafa flew past.
The guardians turned on her but Michael flew to them, slashing as many as he could reach, drawing their attention and receiving a dozen arrows, dropping his health rapidly.
"Damn," Michael growled. "Get Kirito out of here! I'll cover you."
She nodded, flying straight toward the exit with Michael just behind her. When the arrows began to rain down around them, Michael flipped over, raising his shield and blocking them. Swords began to spark against the shield as well just before Michael curved up and Leafa exited the tree. Then, he arched around, shooting toward the door. Guardians flew toward him but he deflected them either with his shield or his sword, killing any he could without slowing. He broke through the outer line of guardians and reached for the door just as one arrived in front of him, slashing. He dodged out of the way, narrowly avoiding being bisected then killed it just in time for six to stab him all at once from different sides. They all flew back and Michael watched his health drop.
"Sorry Asuna," Michael sighed. "We failed after all."
Then, he was also a Remain Light. He looked down, seeing the guardians very slowly returning to their circles as a timer counted down. Michael watched the door, wondering whether Leafa or Kirito would be saving him. After a moment of nothing happening, the timer hit zero and he woke up in the inn. He flew to the base of the tree again, arriving at the same time as Leafa and Kirito returned.
"So you got killed too huh?" Kirito asked. "Sorry."
"Yeah," Michael shrugged. "It's alright. Where were you guys?"
"We were...taking care of some stuff," Kirito stated. "Turns out Leafa is actually my little sister."
Michael glanced back and forth at the two then grinned. After a moment, he was laughing.
"What?" Leafa asked, blushing slightly.
"What are the chances?" Michael laughed. "Come on. I assume you're going to help us this time around."
Leafa nodded just as Recon landed beside them.
"I'm coming too," Recon stated. "I can help."
Michael nodded and looked at the tree. Then, up at the cage.
"Alright, so, ten minutes max to make it up the tree," Michael mused. "Aught to be fun."
Kirito shook his head, smirking.
"Just focus on healing me and Michael," Kirito requested. "We'll handle the hard part. Really only one of us needs to make it through."
Leafa and Recon nodded and the four of them headed through the door, instantly taking off. One guardian formed, Michael blasting it the moment it did. The circles all glowed and guardians began to form and charge at them in several waves.
"Here we go," Michael growled.
"You know, I just thought," Kirito spoke up. "If you left that one alive, I might be able to get through the door."
"Oh yeah," Michael said. I never thought of that."
He and Kirito separated from Leafa and Recon, carving their way through the guardians again. After a moment, Kirito was assaulted by a swarm and began to fall, health critical. Leafa and Recon healed him and a moment later, a dozen guardians were flying at them.
"Oh that figures," Michael growled, intercepting the guardians and destroying them. "Looks like they'll target you too."
"Then we'll help," Recon stated flying into the air and using a spell that allowed him to send arch blades of wind out of his fist, allowing him to destroy numerous guardians with ease.
"Recon that's enough!" Leafa shouted. "Just get outside!"
Just then, two appeared over her. As they did, Recon spun, destroying both with his wind blades before letting the spell end and beginning another as he flew up into the swarm.
"Recon no!" Leafa shouted.
Michael began to fly to Recon to stop him but before he could, an explosion went off out of Recon's hands, incinerating him before clearing a gaping hole in the guardian cloud above them. Kirito and Michael both flew toward it, slashing any guardians that got in their way. Then, a tidal wave of guardians crashed into Kirito, blasting him away from the hole and several swords stabbing him, dropping his health to critical again. Just as they did, Michael raised his shield, a second swarm crashing into it, blasting him into the ground and continuing to pound against the shield as he held them back as best he could. Finally, he pushed up and launched the next guardian into the swarm halting it just long enough to get out of the way, flying to Leafa as she healed Kirito. Two guardians arrived, slashing at her but Michael blocked one sword with his shield and slashed the other guardian.
"Thanks," Leafa sighed just as dozens of voices began to shout below them.
They looked down to see dozens of Sylphs flying in followed by an equal number of catsy, all riding dragons. Michael blinked in surprise, then grinned.
"Hello there," Sakuya spoke up flying over. "I hope we're not late."
"Yeah sorry," the Catsy leader, Alicia, said. "It took us a while to get ready but we're here now."
"Nice to see you," Michael grinned. "Care to thin the crowd a little?"
Alicia grinned and flew up to the rest of the Catsy ordering them to attack. All of the dragons instantly launched a stream of fire, obliterating a massive portion of the present guardians. Then, the Sylphs all fired beams of energy out of the tips of their swords, blasting a massive portion of what was left. Then, just as the troops all rushed to fight, archers began to appear. This time, however, they were ready. The Catsy all fired at them, blasting all of the archers at once. Sword-wielders began to fill in the gaps again, flooding down at them as they did but with the number of people they had, everyone was able to have someone watching their back. Michael was lucky enough that he was the only person fighting alone, just the way he liked it. While everyone else was fighting down below the cloud, down where the enemies had to go to them, Michael flew up to the cloud, rolling out of the way of the initial surge that tried to reach him. Then, he shoved his sword into the stream of enemies, destroying countless as he flew up to the cloud. He slashed his sword over his head, clearing a littler room then smashed his shield into the guardian over him, forcing the rest away. He stopped level with the cloud, slashing anything and everything that came at him while using the shield to keep himself alive. After several minutes, his shield shattered and he sword, putting his sword away, drawing his knives in time to block a slash and kill the guardian wielding it. Then, he saw that the Catsy were preparing to attack at a pinpoint strike, exactly where he was.
"Michael move!" Leafa shouted at the last second.
Michael cursed and flew out of the way, dozens of streams of flame and energy beams hitting where he had been and exploding, blasting a gaping hole in the cloud. Kirito flew at it, a guardian hot on his heels. Michael hurled a knife into the guardian's face then drew his sword, holding it out to Kirito as they passed. Kirito took it, grinning as he flew up at the guardians. Michael reached the one he had thrown his knife into and grabbed the knife, dragging it down out of the guardian and killing it. Then, he stopped as Kirito put the two swords together, multi-colored energy flying off of the tip of the swords and allowing him to blast through the guardians, obliterating any that tried to fight him.
"The heck kind of attack is that!?" Michael demanded.
After a moment, Kirito broke out of the cloud. Just as it was closing, Michael's sword fell through it, killing a guardian as it did. Michael rolled his eyes and caught the sword after putting his knives away. Then, the hole was closed and they were cut off.
"Dang," Michael sighed. "Wonder if I could still get through."
"We're pulling out!" Sakuya announced. "Everyone, fall back!"
Michael waved as they all passed and Leafa stopped.
"What about you?" Leafa asked.
"I'm going to keep them from noticing Kirito," Michael stated. "God only knows if he's safe just because he's on the ceiling. For now, I'm going to continue to fight. Besides, if I die, I get my shield back."
He flew upward, slashing at a guardian who was rushing to stop them and Leafa turned and left the tree. After a moment, the entire cloud of guardians descended.
"Oh that's just lovely," Michael groaned. "Well, guess I get my shield back after all."
He sighed and flew up at the guardians, slashing all of five before the entire cloud drove their swords through him.
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