I do not own Sword Art Online or affiliated names. I only own my OC(s).
Jinzou Kokoro: Chapter 2
The players of SAO have cleared all the way to the eighth floor. The number of casualties has dropped to nearly zero since the first floor. Most of the stupid or arrogant people had already died. In fact, most of the deaths so far were victims of player killers, who are growing in number. The problem is becoming rather troubling, as a guild of assassins for hire has appeared by the name of Laughing Coffin. They're small right now, but are growing in number.
"But the main clearing force isn't too concerned about them. They think that their advanced weapons and armor will protect them in the event that they're attacked. And for now, it might. But not for long. There will be exploits and loopholes in the system. But they won't listen to me." Jin stands up from the bed in the inn room that he's renting. He still has the armored gloves, but his leggings and tunic are new. They're a matching set, mostly cloth and leather, but with armor plates in the sections with no joints and on the chest and shoulder blades. His spear is now a boar hunting spear: a long reinforced shaft with a cross-shaped piece of metal at the end, the blade long. The metal perpendicular to the blade is meant to stop a boar's charge after impaling it. His mask is still the same, the visor down. He exits the building, heading for the dungeon.
Some rumors had spread, but not as many as those about the 'Black Swordsman'. Jin was still generally tolerated but by the most suspicious of players. The beater is only truly tolerated by those who don't know his identity and the people on the front lines who value his strength, and even then, barely. Jin had met him a few times since the first floor, mostly during boss raids.
Jin is walking along the elevated pathways that make up the eighth floor. The pathways lead from large tree to large tree, and below is an abyss of water. If one were to fall, several ladders are scattered about the floor. He strolls lazily across a large body of water. A dark silhouette appears underwater for a moment, then goes back down, too fast for even Jin to notice. A long line of heavily armored soldiers start passing Jin by. The bridge shakes, and one of the soldiers brushes past Jin, sending him into the unfathomable water below.
Jin's eyes are open in surprise as he plummets, hitting the water. Darkness obscures his vision as he sinks before a blinding light shines. It stops, and he's gone. Nobody noticed a thing, not even that Jin had fallen.
Jin feels a cool, circular breeze. He opens his eyes as he hears a slithering sound. He stands up and looks around. He's in a large, circular room, the walls made of swirling water. The floor is uneven, dark stone. And staring straight at him is a large serpent, at least eight meters long. (About 26 feet for those who normally use the Imperial System, like me.) A dark greenish-blue, with glowing red eyes, it's coated in long, bone-like plates, each a meter long, with the last plate flat and sharp. Its underside is unprotected, and banded like a snake's. It has large, sail-like fins protruding from every third plate. Its grinning maw is filled with wicked looking, curved teeth, with serrations, and two long fangs protruding from each side of its mouth.
Two health bars fill up next to its head, followed by the text: 'Basilisk, Serpent of Terror'. Jin sighs. "A boss? Really? Just my luck. At least it has only two health bars, though that armor is going to be a problem." He draws the spear from his back, holding it in front of him angled upward.
Basilisk rears backwards before lunging. Jin rolls to the side, barely avoiding being flattened by the serpent's gargantuan body. "I'm on my own, so I should avoid Sword Skills to prevent extra damage from the periods where I can't move." He dashes forward, swing the spear in an uppercut aimed for a segment with the underside exposed. The strike hits home, but barely cuts into the monster, chipping away a few pixels of health. He jumps back, avoiding the tail of the monster as it whips around. "I can't see the data of this boss… This isn't just by chance, is it?"
Basilisk's tail glows yellow before it whips around, creating circular slice with some added range. Jin avoids it by jumping backwards, getting grazed on the arm. He pushes against the wall of water in the air, launching himself towards Basilisk. He slides under the tail and uses the spear to slash and brake at the same time. As he slows, he starts to roll to the side to avoid getting crushed. He's too slow however, and Basilisk pins his left arm underneath it. Wincing in pain, Jin jams his spear into the underside of the snake. Releasing the weapon, his hand glows a magenta color before he punches several times. The bladed tail looms over him, and he moves his body to his right. The tail comes like a guillotine, severing his left arm. His health drops a large amount, and he grabs the spear and looks up. The boss's health is in the last quarter of the last bar. He jumps, landing on top of Basilisk. He run towards its head, nearly falling off due to the weight imbalance and the writhing movements of the injured beast.
At the base of the head, he jams the spear into the plate protecting the head, and leans on the shaft of the weapon like a lever. Slowly, the plate is pried off, leaving the head exposed. He picks up the spear hunting style, the point down, and charges it, the blade glowing green. He brings it down, and it created a small ripple in the air. The blade enters the head, right between the eyes, and kills the boss. It dissolves, and Jin falls to the ground.
On his back and out of breath, Jin sees a message box pop up for the last attack bonus and the other drops. The last attack bonus says 'Terror's Grasp'. He opens the menu and equips it and is surprised as his missing arm is replaced by one made of black chainmail and blue-silver plates, in diagonal shapes covering the forearm and upper arm. The elbow has a double spike on it, and the shoulder is a diamond shape, with a slot on one point creating two prongs going up. In the center of the shoulder diamond is a black orb with a white diamond eye inside of it.
The surprise is cut short as the circular air current stops, and the water starts falling inwards towards him, lifting him off the ground. Gaining his sense of direction, he swims upwards. A few minutes later he breaks the surface of the water and, looking around, Jin heads to the nearest ladder.
The Black Swordsman has been mainly grinding mobs at night recently. He has his reasons, and it doesn't matter to Jin. As long as he still makes it to the boss raids, then there shouldn't be a problem. But back to the matters at hand.
It's dusk right now, and Jin is on the trail of a band of thieves, who have been making rather frequent attacks. No real injuries and no casualties yet, but it's only a matter of time. The clearers have reached floor 28 recently, and tensions are running high out of impatience. Some well-armed group is going to get angry eventually, and the bandits won't be able to intimidate them.
Jin has been following the trail for a while now. They've stolen mostly money and raw materials for forging, so they are likely a band of blacksmiths. The attacks have all been in the range of the twelfth through nineteenth floor, and a certain smithy on the thirteenth floor has had a large increase in business due to a sudden increase in quality materials they had in stock. He had followed them, since tonight fits the pattern of attacks, and it turns out that they are indeed the bandits. They're lying in wait next to the road to the dungeon on the fourteenth floor.
There are three of them: all middle-aged men by appearance. One is slightly shorter than the other two. They're crouched down, hidden from view of the road. One is wielding a mace, one a sword and shield, and one an axe. They have fairly standard armor, similar to what Jin is wearing: cloth or leather with small plates. They wear helmets, so their faces are completely hidden.
Jin draws his spear, which is now a simple diamond-headed spear with a small bar perpendicular to the shaft directly underneath the blade. The shaft is rectangular, and is reinforced with several plates nailed to the wood. He flips the visor down on his mask and stalks toward the three men. He has a buttoned up coat over his chest, and a faint clink of metal is audible, just barely, from his arm. He presses the spearhead against the neck of the shortest man.
"You three, stop and get on the path." The men do so, although the one with the mace fidgets nervously. There are no sounds. No mobs are nearby, and no people were in the dungeon, since news of the bandits, the weaker people all stayed away during the night, and the stronger people mostly grinded the higher levels. "Okay, now, I know you're the bandits that have been attacking and looting money and ore from people. Now I want to hear a motive, and I may let you go."
The mace user wildly swings, spinning around before leaping backwards. Jin was out of range, but is instantly alert, taking a combat stance. Jin slowly backs away from the other two, before they turn as well. Luckily they don't attack. In fact…
"Calm down! We just need to explain this, we're not going to die! Drop your weapon and come back here."
"Shut up! We don't know him, and he knows our secret, he needs to die!" The man's eyes are frantic and wide, visible through his visor.
Without another word, he dashes toward Jin, the mace waving above his head. He swings downward in an unreserved overhead blow, but Jin easily sidesteps. Locking the weapon on the ground with the butt of his spear, Jin strikes the man in the face with his left hand, then combos by closing in and elbowing the man's chin.
Unfortunately, Jin is level 43. The man is probably at most level 25. The armor the man is wearing is overridden by Jin's metal arm, and the man's health drains rapidly. Jin's eyes open wide, and his hand goes to grab a crystal, but he fumbles, and the man dies.
"…" Jin looks slowly at the other two men. "I'm… I'm sorry."
The man with the axe stands up, and charges, screaming. "Don't do this! I don't want to kill you! Just calm down!" The axe comes from the side, and Jin holds up his arm. He grabs the axe and his hand glows. He closes his fist, and the axe shatters.
The man is startled and collapses. The man with the sword drops his weapons and slowly approaches the other man. He grabs him and pulls him aside, letting him sit next to a tree. He then approaches Jin. "I thought this would happen one day. We just needed some money to support the four of us… Do me a favor. Bring this money and this message to our smithy. You know where it is right?" Jin nods, so the man continues. "We'll go to prison peacefully. And I'm sorry. I know you didn't mean to kill my friend, and you only defended yourself. It's our fault."
Jin takes out a warp crystal, and the two men walk into, headed for the prison. Jin goes back to the thirteenth floor, and heads to the smithy.
Once there, he enters, picking the lock on the door. There are two floors of the building. The lower is the workshop and actual shop, while the upper is a living quarters. Jin sneaks upstairs, where there are four bedrooms. The first three are empty, but the last one has a teenage girl, maybe age sixteen, sleeping in it. She has brown hair going down to just above her shoulder, and she's dressed in red.
"… She's all alone now, isn't she? Now I feel really bad. How much was left for her?" He checks the pouch of money the man had given him. "3000? That's not enough…" He adds to the pouch, putting in another 10,000 cor. Placing the message and money gently on the bedside-table, he sneaks out, then heads to the inn of the town.
So, this chapter is finally done! Sorry it took so long, but I was running dry on ideas, especially since I was lacking on ideas to make it dark. Then I remembered something from a certain episode of the anime that gave me inspiration.
Also, sorry for the shorter-than-my-average chapter, but the chapters for this story will probably be like that. So yeah. On the other hand, I'll start working on chapter one of my own original story Kaze no Kage, found here: s/3288051/1/Kaze-no-Kage
Hope you guys have enjoyed this, also, still deciding whether or not to add romance to this story or not.