The Tri-Blade Alliance

Chapter 6: One Month Later

Disclaimer: I don't own SAO

(x)

It's been one month. I finally asked Takano out sometime after Solar brazenly asked Akira out. Skye seems glum though. She doesn't talk much to either me or Solar, so I'm planning on asking Takano or have Solar ask Akira to talk to her. Honestly, I think it's bothering him as much it is me. I'm just thankful that she hasn't cut us out entirely.

Skye found two new people to join the guild: Cupid, and her best friend Eros. Judging from their names, they' must like Greek Mythology.

With our guild on the front lines, we've been clearing the floors much faster. I'd reckon we're on Floor 34 or 35 by now. The only times we've seen Kirito is on the front lines, so we don't talk much. The friendship is still there, don't get me wrong. It's just, he's a loner now, and Asuna won't stop giving him a hard time. We talked at one point, Kirito with all three of us. He told us how he was in a guild, and all of its members were dead. God, it was sad. Skye was brought to tears, Solar was comforting Kirito, and I was just contemplating whether or not to ask him to join our guild. Wanting to (insensitively) keep our guild alive, I decided against it and comforted him as Solar did.

Right now, Solar's out on a training drill with Takano. Apparently, people on the front lines had given us nicknames that stuck, so they wear theirs with pride. I don't know mine though. Maybe I'm still being figured out? Who knows.

Shit, it's almost time to meet the new recruits.

(x)

All Takano felt as she rushed through the forest was the wind on her face, and it felt amazing. No wonder Solar's so agile. Is this how he feels all the time? Takano silently wondered, looking towards said fighter at her side. Solar felt her gaze on him, so he turned his head to look at her.

Solar smirked. "Careful. Keep looking at me and Akira will get jealous." Takano immediately faced forward. An angry Akira was not a happy Akira. "I'm just joking. Now," Solar said, turning serious, but still having the joking tone, "can you keep up, Unholy Axe?" Solar used her nickname, so it's only fair she used his.

"Just watch me, Red Son." Takano smirked back. The reasoning behind their nicknames is because Takano was like a demon with her axe, and Solar's favorite color was red; combine that with the fact that his name was Solar, it actually fit him. For some reason, Solar's nickname was spelled that way, but he thought it was better that way. They both reached an open field, where they skidded to a halt. In a flash, Solar sent Takano a duel request, and she accepted. This was done to avoid accidental deaths.

As the timer counted down from 10, the two immediately got ready, waiting for the timer to hit 0. Every second, due to their excitement, felt like an eternity.

3…

2…

1…

0.

The moment the timer hit 0, the two dashed towards each other, not even exhausted from their long run in the forest. It was to increase their AGI stats, Solar had told her. The two clashed weapons, with Solar's katana cutting along Takano's axe. After both had broken free from their clash, Solar immediately charged at Takano with a sword skill. Her eyes widened. She knew that if she was caught with this hit, she wouldn't be able to escape Solar's impending combo. If it landed, Solar would win this. Her reflexes kicked in as she moved left to avoid his strike. She wasn't able to avoid the kick that came afterwards, because the guild itself was still trying wrap its head around the concept of martial arts.

It was newly introduced, and somehow, Arctic had picked it up the fastest. After teaching Solar, who caught on just as quickly as Arctic had, and Skye, who took longer to get used to it, the three began holding classes for those in the guild that were interested in martial arts.

Immediately getting back to her feet after Solar had recovered from the cooldown of charging his sword skill, Takano made the move this time as she rushed at Solar with her axe ready, and delivered an upward slash, which Solar narrowly dodged. Solar retaliated with a thrust of his blade at Takano's face, just hitting her cheek and making her lose a bit of health. She backflipped away, and rushed towards Solar again, who moved to the right to avoid the slash. That was his mistake, as she feinted slashing upwards, swiping her axe across Solar's stomach. Solar grunted in slight pain. After recovering, his posture changed, as he stood up straighter.

This time, he repeated the first action he was going for at the beginning; he was moving so fast this time that Takano couldn't dodge. He immediately caught her in a combo, which involved a lot of slashing, slicing, and one or two stabs. Finally, he cut through Takano, who was left standing in shock. Solar spun his sword in his hand, then sheathed it. When he sheathed it, Takano felt immense pain, then fell to her knees. It took all her willpower not to fall on her face. The duel ended, with Solar being crowned as the victor.

Solar walked towards Takano with two health potions in his hand. He gave one to Takano, who readily accepted it. As the two drank their potions in peace, Solar took a look at the time. Suddenly, he stood up, which surprised Takano to the point that she nearly dropped her potion. Nearly.

"What the hell, man?!" Takano asked, slightly peeved.

"We have to go," Solar said, nervous for some reason. "It's almost time to meet the new recruits! We're gonna be late." He offered his hand to Takano, who accepted it and stood up. The two opened their maps, then looked towards the direction where the guild apparently was. The two looked to each other, nodded, then immediately sped off in the desired direction.

(x)

Everyone in the guild was doing their weekly tradition of heading to the fields to relax, train, or do whatever. Luckily for them, the weather was always nice, especially today.

While the new members of the guild were either sparring with each other or learning from the older members, the leader of the guild, who wasn't out training like another, was waiting. Arctic was waiting for Solar, apparently pissed off slightly. Akira was next to him, equally pissed off. Skye was out getting the new recruits for their interviews. All they were missing was their third leader.

Just then, Solar and Takano immediately burst out of the forest and stopped in front of their respective friends, out of breath from such a long run.

"You're late." Arctic sounded cross.

"What were you two doing?" Akira asked, suspicious.

"Nothing, we swear," Solar panted, hands on his knees.

"We were just *huff* training *huff*," Takano got out, her hand on her chest to help steady her breathing.

"If I find out you're lying, Solar…"

"I'm not, I swear!"

After Solar and Takano had caught their breath from their continuous long run, they stood with Arctic and Akira, and waited for Skye to show up with the new recruits. Sure enough, they saw her in the distance flanked by two people who had the Tri-Blade symbol on their chest plates. When they finally reached the group, everyone was able to get a better look at the two.

Both of the recruits had bows and arrows on their backs. Given their name choices, this wasn't surprising. However, the similarities between the two ended there.

One of the new recruits had a bright pink cloak over her armor, as well as a short sword sheathed at her hip. She had a red skirt with pink knee-high boots over white stockings. Her hair color was pink, her hair itself went down to her midback, and her eyes were a unique lilac color.

The other recruit, also female, had on a dark brown cloak over a blue shirt, white skirt with black knee-high boots over stockings of the same color. Her hair was long as well, reaching to her mid back, and was jet black, and her eyes were bright blue. She was just as beautiful as her friend. She also had a short sword at her side and a bow on her back with quiver full of arrows as well.

"Guys, this is Cupid," Skye gestured to the pink-haired girl, who nodded back, "and Eros," Skye gestured to the black-haired girl, who smiled kindly at the group.

"Great to meet you two. I'm Arctic," Arctic held his hand out to Eros, who graciously shook it, "and that's Solar." Solar shook hands with Cupid. "I assume you guys have met Skye, and these two ladies are Takano―," Takano sent a kind smile to the two, then clung to Arctic's side as she sent a warning glare to the two while still smiling, "―okay, that happened. And that's Akira." Akira did the same with Solar, who grimaced in response.

Suddenly, Eros and Cupid seemed a bit more nervous. Solar cut the tension by saying, "So what kind of interview do you guys want to go through?"

Cupid raised an eyebrow, and said, "What kinds of interviews do you guys give?" In response, Arctic and Solar looked at each other, smirked, then looked back to the two girls and got in their battle stances; Arctic raised his fist to his side, ready to draw his blade at a moment's notice, and Solar brought his right hand to his sword, ready to draw even faster. Eros and Cupid were confused, until a tag team duel request popped up in front of them, sent by Arctic and Solar. They looked up to see Solar close his menu. Taken aback by the brazen duel request, they accepted, and got ready; Cupid drew her sword, and Eros readied and arrow. The duel counter started and went down from 10, and eventually to 1. Once the duel started, all members of the guild wanted to see how the new recruits fought.

(The fight begins here.)

Immediately, Eros fired an arrow, then readied another and fired that, leaving Arctic to block every shot. Meanwhile, Solar and Cupid charged each other, and were locked in a clash. Solar broke the clash, stunning Cupid momentarily, then charged a sword skill, and swiped it at Cupid's chest. Cupid backflipped away after she got hit, and growled slightly at seeing her health go down a bit. She looked towards Eros, who nodded back. The two switched weapons, and Eros drew her short sword as Cupid aimed her bow at Solar. When Cupid fired an arrow at Solar, he caught it, took a look at it, and remarked, "Hearts? Really playing out the Cupid theme, aren't you?" Cupid smirked and fired another arrow in response that Solar cut through with his sword.

Arctic was surprisingly having difficulty with Eros, as she was slightly faster than him. She obviously used that to her advantage, and Arctic was too busy blocking her attacks to properly counter. Eventually he locked in a clash with Eros. During this clash, he told her, "You're pretty good."

Eros smiled, and responded with, "You're not so bad yourself." The two remained locked until Arctic headbutted her, then kicked her away. Looking towards Solar, who looked back at him, the two nodded towards each other, then switched targets; Solar was targeting Eros now and Arctic was going for Cupid.

The two females had no time to counter, being taken off guard by the sudden switch. Solar rushed up to Eros, then started his ever-so-famous-and-yet-to-be- named combo (the same combo he pulled on Takano), which took Eros out of the match, leaving Arctic to deal with Cupid.

Cupid's firing speed was no match for Arctic's quick feet, and eventually, he cut through her, effectively putting her out of the match. The duel was over, and the sign above the competitors read, "The winners of this duel are… Arctic and Solar!" Everyone applauded for the two, including Eros and Cupid, both of whom had managed to get back to their feet. All this showed the winners was that these two knew how to take a loss, and how to be a good sport about it.

(The fight ends here.)

As Arctic and Solar walked up to Eros and Cupid, the two looked down in shame and embarrassment as they awaited their verdicts. They weren't expecting the pats on their heads. Both girls looked up in slight confusion, to which Arctic responded, "Your teamwork needs improving. Keep training together. Other than that, you both have your own strengths and gave us a run for our money."

Solar continued Arctic's lecture, "Both of you are excellent swordswomen, and even better archers. We could really use you guys on our team of archers. Just remember to switch frequently so you don't forget your basic training with swords." Eros and Cupid, realizing what they meant, looked at each other giddily, then back at the leaders currently speaking to them. Apparently they were awaiting their next orders. Solar quickly said, "You guys can relax, this is the guild's day off." He opened his inventory, pulled out two health potions, then gave them to the new recruits. "Take these and go celebrate." The two took the healing potions graciously, and went to a random spot on the field where they started drinking their health potions.

Suddenly, the entire guild just froze. They looked towards one area of the field, where there was a lone, cloaked figure walking with an unusual black sword on his back. Everyone, especially Arctic, Solar, and Skye, could feel something dark emanating from the new player, even more so as he turned into their direction and started walking towards them. Instinctively, the guild drew their weapons and had them at the ready, only to be halted by Solar as he raised his hand in a signal. They still stood by, waiting for this player to make a move.

As the player was about halfway towards the guild, Arctic walked forward to address this new stranger. "Can I help you?"

The player responded with an Australian accent, "I certainly hope so. You wouldn't happen to know where the most skilled players are right now, would you?"

Arctic was cautious in his reply. "Depends on who you're talking about."

"Why, obviously I'm talking about Solar, Arctic, and Skye," the Aussie said in a matter-of-fact tone, as if it was obvious who he was looking for.

"Yeah, I can tell you where they are." If Arctic didn't have this guy's attention before, he certainly had it now. "You're looking at one of them. Take a guess which one. The other two are over there." He gestured toward the guild, who were still standing by, with the archers having their bows drawn and arrows ready.

"Okay, Arctic, I want you to walk with me. I'm not asking," the hooded player mysteriously said. He started to walk toward the forest. Arctic looked back at the guild and motioned for them to stay put.

However, Takano looked at Skye knowingly, who looked back and nodded at Takano. One thing that only Skye knew about Takano was how stealthy she could be if she wanted to; her stealthiness surpassed even Arctic's, though he didn't know about it. Sneakily, she went into the bushes and started tailing Arctic and this new player.

(x)

"So why do you want to talk, Mr…" Arctic began.

The Aussie didn't even look at him as he replied, "It's Kutthroat. Remember that."

"...Right. Let me ask again. Why did you want to talk?"

"Honestly, I wanted to talk to Solar. He and I have some business to catch up on. And before you say anything else, I'm not telling. That's for him to say."

"At least you're honorable. All right then, let me ask you a different question. Where are we going?"

"We're in the fields aren't we? Take a good guess."

Suddenly it dawned on Arctic. "That evil aura around you…it all makes sense now. You're a player-killer." Immediately, Arctic stopped with his hand at his blade. Kutthroat kept walking a couple more meters before turning around and mirroring Arctic's pose. "Are you with Laughing Coffin?!"

Kutthroat scoffed. "Please. While I do work with them, I don't want to be confused with those amateurs." At this, Arctic's eyes widened. "My plan here is to kill you, then Skye, then Solar. After your guild's morale is destroyed, I'm going to collect my payment from Laughing Coffin. You wouldn't believe how much the LC members hate you three. Doing your best to help clear this game and free us all. Keep in mind that there are some people who don't want to be freed."

"And those people turned to player killing to stay in this death game. Predictable, yet totally avoidable."

"Can't say I disagree with you, mate." Whenever Kutthroat said 'mate' there was no sign of friendliness; only malice. "Now, shall we get started? I'm eager to collect the massive reward that Laughing Coffin is offering."

"How massive we talking?" Arctic asked out of sheer curiosity.

Kutthroat chuckled. "You wouldn't believe the number of zeros on that metaphorical check. Now I'll ask again; shall we get started?"

In response, Arctic and Kutthroat simultaneously drew their blades at an incredible pace, and pointed them at their opponents. As if by fate, both Arctic and Kutthroat yelled at the other, "Let's dance!"

(x)

A/N: I'm sorry, were you expecting an epic fight to the death from which Arctic will clearly win? Then you have no idea what SolarEnergy07 and I have in store for this story.

We will try to upload the next chapter before the end of the Thanksgiving holiday. Till then, please R&R, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving to all my readers, both anonymous and loyal!