I swing my sword round at the young Drake, aiming to hit it's weak and soft belly where it's newly forming scales were yet to reach. My black sword hits it's mark and creates a deep cut unto the Drakes pale coloured belly and taking out a quarter of it's health. The Drake suddenly let out a great ferocious pain driven roar which echoed through the caves I was in. It then caught me by surprise by launching a dark red fireball at my feet, when the inferno ball hit the ground it exploded and launched me back into the cave wall with great force while doing a lot of damage to me. It followed up this attack by charging down at me, jaw wide open with every intention to clamp down on me.

When saw this attack approaching, I quickly raised my sword and stabbed straight into the open mouth of the Drake. The blade cut through the flesh with little problem and quickly killed the beast. Breathing heavily, still winded from the fireball attack, I got to my feet and scanned the area. I was in a large dark and wet cave system which consisted of hundreds of differently splitting corridors with the occasional circular hall.

As I started to keep moving further into the dungeon the ground began to shake slightly and I could hear noises coming from the darkness behind me. I turned around and cautiously began to walk towards the noises with my sword raised and ready to attack a a seconds notice.

Suddenly 5 fireballs of raging oranges and reds came flying at me from deep within the darkness. I was able to avoid being hit by the actual fireballs but I had to brace myself for the explosions which created a stupendous shockwave. When I looked for the source of this attack I saw 5 Young Drakes barreling down the corridor at me, summoned by the pained roar of it's now dead brother.

Knowing I had no chance of winning this fight I turned to run but I was struck down by the sharp claws of a Drake that had snuck up behind me. I was now up against 6 young Drakes on my own with a good bit of my health already gone, I had trouble fighting one one its own, now I was doomed to fail. With the prospect of imminent death very close now I went into a battle rage intent of fighting these beasts till the very bitter end.

I launched a flurry of attacks upon the the one nearest to me knocking it back and giving me room to move around. However the Drakes had now cornered me to the wall behind me by forming a line covering every route of escape. I decided to charge straight at what seemed to be the lead Drake, the biggest and most ferocious of the group and engaged it in a heated combat. However I couldn't seem to hit any of it's weak spots and therefore any damage I was able to deal was a miniscule amount.

The leader gave a roar and the other 5 began to close in on me to finish off their kill. Suddenly a spear came out of no where and embedded itself into the neck of the lead Drake, killing it off with ease. Me and the 5 Drakes stood there in shock at what just happened before 2 cloaked figures both wielding rapiers materialised from the shadows and began an onslaught of attacks on the Drakes with deadly precision.

Realising what was going on I joined my saviors in the fight and soon all of the Drakes had been slain and no more monsters seemed to be arriving. I looked at the two cloaked and hooded figures, one of which was retrieving their thrown spear, with a hard yet curious stare.

"And who do I have the pleasure of thanking?" I ask with a heavy posh British accent and keeping a wary distance from the two. The two look at each other and the slightly taller of the two gives a quick nod. At this they both turn back to me and lower their hoods.

The first one I see, the slightly shorter one, was a Girl no younger than I was. She had long straight brown hair falling down to below her shoulders, she had a kind and caring face with blue eyes and light pink rose petal lips. She wore a light green shirt patterned with differently coloured leaves under the dark gray cloak. She was smiling at me seeing my unexpected shock of seeing a girl with such fighting skills.

I then turned to see Andrew looking at me with an extremely smug grin while he leaned on his spear. On seeing him my shocked face disappeared and a look of irritation came across my face.

"You are never going to let me forget this now are you." I say bitterly knowing that he would always bring up this event if he ever needed any help or just to show that I'm not as strong as I may think I am.

When I say this Andrew begins to laugh and replies shortly. "Never." He then turns to his friend "Woods this is Aurora, the newest member of the Golden-Oak Rangers." I look at Andrew for a split second confused when he uses my in game name before turning back to look at Aurora. "Aurora, this is Woods, one of my friends in Aincrad from the real world and an arrogant one at that." He ends with a smile.

I look at Andrew again and say "Just because I prefer to fight solo doesn't mean I'm arrogant. I haven't been truly arrogant since back at school." I turn back to Aurora and say "Good to meet you Aurora and thanks for the rescue back there, I've been having problems with those damned drakes for a while now."

"No problem, but its good to finally meet the famous Woods and to show him up at the same time." she says calmly and with a hint of pride.

""Famous Woods"" I repeat turning to Andrew wondering what he's said about me.

"Well yer, your sort of a known front liner and considering how long we were a fighting pair back in the day its kind of hard to miss you out when talking about the lower floors." He says with a faked innocent smile.

"Anyway how did you two meet and get her into the guild." I ask curiously knowing that Andrew isn't particularly the best at talking to girls.

"Well I was up on the 26th floor doing a bit of training and item farming to help out with Torinn's shop on the 29th floor a week ago." It takes me a few seconds to place the in game name but I realise that he's talking about Oliver. He had set up a high tier weapon shop up on the 29th floor to help the front liners and lower levels get weapons without risking death. "When I saw Aurora having some trouble with some Goblin marauders in the underground kingdom section, so I went in and helped her out."

"Bit more than just helping out, you saved my life down there. Those Goblins would have surrounded me completely and killed me within seconds if you hadn't turned up." Aurora corrected Andrew before he could continue.

"Well yer, anyway so I got her back up to the town safe zone where I asked if she was part of a party or any guild." He continued his story seemingly skipping over most of the details.

Yet again Aurora started speaking before Andrew could continue. "And as I wasn't part of any and I knew nobody in Aincrad I said I would join. From there I joined the Rangers and begun my training with Terra so that I could stand my ground on my own if needed."

"Fair enough, the Rangers are pretty small right now so a few new people is a good thing." I say now knowing the story of her joining. "What I want to know is how you knew I was up here and that I was in trouble with those Drakes, or at least how long have you been up here." I ask curiously now leaning on the wall behind me.

"Well, I can see where you are from my friends list and I knew you were on Front line duty today so it was almost certain that you would be deep in the 32nd floor caves, which you were. So for a bit of training and experience for Aurora, as she's never been to the frontline, I decided that it would be good to come down here and join up with you. So we were a good distance down the tunnel from here when we heard a loud Drake roar coming from this direction, I knew that this was likely to be your doing so we followed the direction of the noise. When we reached you you were surrounded by the Drakes. So we activated our sneak ability and waited in the shadows for the right time to attack and to see how you would handle the fight and I must say that you went a bit mad on that Drake leader." He recounted the events at a speed which I could understand and quick enough so that we wouldn't be here all day.

"Well good job you turned up when you did, now lets get out of here I've mapped out my designated area so I can bunk off duty for the rest of today." I say before getting up and walking back into the darkness towards the place where I knew the entrance would be. The two followed behind me, keeping to the shadows at all times. However it was not needed as 20 minutes later we left the cave system without meeting any enemies.

I turn back to the two which now walked behind me and begun walking backwards through the flat grassy fields which filled the floor. "So where do you live then? As my house is down in the 22nd floor and Terra's is on the 18th floor." I ask Aurora curiously without trying to be intrusive on her privacy.

"Well... I don't actually have a house." she replies embarrassed looking down and avoiding eye contact "I've always wanted a house near the front lines but I never seem to be able to get the money for it and you lot steam through the floors so fast I haven't had much chance to save for a frontal house. So usually I sleep in the closest inn to where I was or set up a tent to sleep in."

"Why don't you move in with Terra then, he's got a big enough house considering the fact that he lives alone." I say while looking at my bewildered and caught of guard friend. Aurora gives Andrew a questioning look and I see that she is smiling slightly at the idea.

"Well I don't see why not, I have two large bedrooms in my house." He says slowly, thinking it over as he spoke. This brought a great smile upon Aurora's face however Andrew was glaring at me for springing this on him so suddenly. I began laughing and turned around to see that we had reached the floor's town and the floor portal.

"Really Steven, you just had to do that didn't you." Andrew spoke annoyed at me. It was late evening and after he and Aurora had gone home and he had shown her round Andrew had instantly came to my house to talk.

"Oh, come on Andrew don't complain. For God's sake are you blind, she really likes you and to be honest you like her a lot as well. And anyway your house is big and since you don't have a guild base yet you can't exactly leave her in the wild or in an inn forever can you." I say laughingly, not taking Andrew's annoyance seriously at all, for I knew that it wouldn't last.

"That may be true." He retorted embarrassed and beginning to go red in the cheeks. "But you just had to interfere didn't you, as usual." His annoyance was already starting to fade.

"Now off that, sensitive subject, why were we using IGNs instead of our actual names?" I change the subject quickly before the previous subject changed direction, which it easily could have done.

"Well we are in a game and practically everyone uses IGNs as, really, we aren't supposed to use our real names even if other people know them. Like in the front liners meetings, do people call you by your real name." He answers as if it was completely obvious.

"At meetings, no they don't. But that's because I don't really know any of them personally. Whereas people who I can trust and know a bit more use my name because it's easier and IGNs are just too formal in my opinion." I reply with a calm voice and steady pace. I then see Andrew shaking his head at me with a look of defeat.

"Is there literally any way to persuade you of things." he says with disbelief knowing that if he pressed the matter any more that he would get no where with me.

"Nope, I'm too thickheaded and stubborn to be persuaded." I say with a grin. "But I see that your speed and shadow training has been going well." I say remembering the speed at which Andrew's blade soared through the air with unbelievable precision after he had appeared from the darkness.

"Yer, it's going good but some of the main front liners are much better than me, like the lightning flash. She's probably the fastest blade in the whole of Aincrad at the moment." He replies.

"Hmmm, I know her, second in command of the blood knights. She can get annoying sometimes with the way she orders everyone around as if we all ought to be out on the front line all the time." I saw bringing forth the image of the lightning flash Asuna who was the second in command of the most powerful front line guild in Aincrad, The Knights of The Blood Oath.

"Well I better get back home." He suddenly said after looking outside at the dark night and checking the time in his menu. At this he got up from the table we had been sitting at and moved towards the front door.

"I'll see you whenever then, I'm up on the front line most of the week so you know where to find me." I tell Andrew as I open the door and watch him walk onto the dark path with a farewell wave. I closed the door and walked back to the dining room and sat back down in my chair.