We stood around the cracked stone table with the same yellowed area map once again, the sunlight yet again filtered through in the same patterns as before only slightly different, we all stood around in the same way that we had the previous day waiting for a plan to be proposed by someone and then for it to be explained and picked apart bit by bit by those who felt it necessary. All was the same expect for one thing, next to the reluctant yet resigned looking Asuna stood a little girl with light brown hair which stuck out at placed tied that back with a large white and blue rimmed ribbon, she had large green eyes and she wore a simple yellow and pink frock like clothing. She was up on her tip toes with her hands holding her head just above the table so that she could see what was going on and didn't seem to feel the slightest bit out of place around somewhat battle hardened players who all wore some form of armour and all who had a weapon visibly sheathed.
She was a level 1 NPC, young weak and without responsibility, her name was Ruru and was one of the few NPCs that had actually taken care of us Frontliners and had previously helped us in any way which she could, from ferrying simple messages to giving us a better knowledge of the local area, who to trust and where best to go for certain items.
Everyone gathered, although they held nothing but admiration and gratitude to Ruru, all wanted to know why she stood here in the strategy meeting among warriors such as us, many gave Ruru and Asuna questioning looks, some laughed and some waited to be given explanations before making any judgements. Once everyone had arrived and the doorway had guards, keeping random NPCs and players from interrupting the meeting, Asuna stepped forward in a less arrogant and authoritative way that we had become accustomed to, she had obviously taken the loss against Kirito pretty hard.
"Hello everyone." She said reluctantly, almost not wanting to talk to us. "Lets get to the point. I assume you're all wondering what mad idea I've come up with to try regain some face and to defeat this boss at the same time. I'm not here to try and hide my loss yesterday, but a loss is a loss! Now are you willing to hear me out as this plan will most likely succeed and it doesn't involve the town, only Ruru here." She addressed the players that looked at her in a way that showed that after yesterday they were somewhat unwilling to listen to her plans. "Last night I was talking to Ruru around midnight, while talking to her I seemed to have triggered a special conversation pattern. During this Ruru sang a lullaby." She explained quickly what had happened and let it settle in with people for a few seconds.
Most of the players including myself quickly saw where this was going and nodded and murmured in agreement with what she was proposing, however some of the Players were less convinced and made a show of it. "So I assume you mean that this, lullaby, will put the Geocrawler to sleep, allowing us to kill it with ease. How can you be sure that her song is meant for this, or are you yet again throwing caution to the wind and hoping for the best with this." One of the Holy Dragon Alliance's players asked sceptically while trying to push people over into his point of view.
"Why else would she have been helping us so much then, I think that she was to help us so that it was physically possible to find out that she held the key to defeating the boss. I mean come on, can anyone else think of any other way to take this metal clad worm?" everyone remained quiet, "And up till now the floor boss pattern has been a bit linear, find labyrinth, find boss room, fight, proceed. Do you seriously think that's how every boss battle is going to go all the way up to floor 100." She countered his argument with momentum and confidence, the outspoken player stepped back from the table seemingly not knowing how to come back from this.
"I think we should see what Ruru says about this, as we will be using her in this wont we?" Kirito joined the conversation, obviously still against using the villagers to a degree that he would only be happy if Ruru agreed without any influences telling her what to do. At the mention of her name she looked round at Kirito curiously but stayed quiet. "So, Ruru do you think you could help us with the Geocrawler, its okay if you don't want to do it, its all up to you?".
She looked at Kirito, then slowly looked around at Asuna who gave an encouraging smile for a few seconds and then looked over at everyone else, all of whom were watching her every movement. She looked back at Kirito and with conviction said "If it helps, then I'll do it." She gave a quick nod as she spoke and looked straight at Kirito without wavering at his somewhat sceptical but content look which he threw at her.
"Happy now?" Asuna said with sarcasm, she looked away from Kirito and down to the yellowed map which was laying on the table. "So in link to using her lullaby I have created a small side long plan to draw the Geocrawler out into open ground." She moved around the table so she stood next to the outer rim section of the floor and pointed to a small hill like feature which was represented by a number of faint contour lines. "This is roughly where the Geocrawler's lair is located." She quickly looked up to make sure that people agreed with what she had just said before moving on, "So, I think we should send out a small team of players, evenly split between light and heavy weaponry, they will draw the Geocrawler out of its lair and run like hell to over here." She ran her finger along her proposed route, a number of winding valley paths up to a large open gorge like area about half a mile from the lair. "When the advance team get back with the Geocrawler in tow we will get Ruru to sing her lullaby to put it to sleep so that we can kill it." She finished expecting people to protest in some way, but instead everyone was nodding their heads or had reaction less faces obviously waiting for something more to be said before making a decision.
Klein moved forward so that he stood on the opposite side of the table to Asuna and asked, "Who do you want to stick in the advance party then?" he said very bluntly picking out the one thing she hadn't fully specified that could make the plan succeed or make it a complete failure.
She looked at Klein for a few seconds, thinking over her options, before coming to her conclusion. She looked up at me and the Rangers and said "I think the Rangers would be a good team to send out along with 4 other soloers to make it an even 8. For the soloers Woods and Sky are normally with the rangers so those two are going, for the other two I don't know." As we were mentioned we nodded our agreement and waited for the next two players to be known.
At that two players moved forward to the table, one had brilliant green eyes bright blue hair which hung down her leather trench coat like jacket the other had long flowing fiery red hair, matching the colour of her eyes who wore a short sleeved purple shirt. The two girls had rapiers sheathed around their waists with handles matching their hair colours. The one with blue hair was called Celestia, the other was named Ruby. The two girls had joined the Frontline very early on, somewhere back in the third and fourth floors, and had gained a reputation as a skilled and ruthless fighting pair who could win a battle that where the odds were stacked against them greatly. However they weren't very well known outside of the small number of Frontliners due to them constantly fighting at the front and that they were practically only soldiers for the guilds such as the Knights to command.
"We'll do it." Celestia said shortly with confidence and a hint of cockiness in her voice, Asuna looked at the two of them with a slightly smug but content grin.
"Any one got any other questions?" She asked the players, when no one posed any questions she brought the meeting to an end "Well then that's settled then, we'll go at this at 12 again. Meeting adjourned."