The Tri-Blade Alliance
Chapter 7: Shadows
A/N: Hey, guys! Here's another chapter of this story, where there will be action and potential bonds formed.
Disclaimer: I don't own SAO.
Key:
'Message'
Thoughts
(x)
Wow. It's been awhile since this was filled in, huh. The last record of these logs dates back to a month ago, before…
Anyways, let me bring you up to speed. With the Tri-Blade Alliance on the front lines with the other guilds, like the Knights of the Blood Oath and the Holy Dragon Alliance( which, I may add, only focuses on increasing their numbers, those idiots), we managed to clear several floors. If I'm not mistaken, the next floor is Floor 50.
Something happened in the guild a while back. It affected one of our… better members, and he took some time off-for real, this time. He hasn't come back yet. But he will. I'm sure of it. He has to. We can't do this without him.
(x)
'Have you had any luck?' Solar sighed in exasperation as he responded to the message.
'No, but I'll stick around a little longer, see if I can find anyone.' After he sent the message, he walked back into the square of Floor 22. He tried to get people to join him in the impending boss raid, but they always refused. Finally, when it looked like his efforts were pointless, he started to leave, when someone caught his eye. The player was checking out a sword from the local merchant-nothing out of the ordinary. It was his appearance that got Solar's attention.
The mysterious player appeared to be the same height as Solar, and he was dressed all in black―black armor over a black shirt and pants, a black duster that went down to his heels, black gauntlets over the long sleeves of the coat that were followed by a pair of black gloves, black combat boots, and finally, a black hood connected with the duster, as well as a black lower face mask. The figure seemed to notice Solar, as he looked up from the broadsword he was holding and returned his stare. He had the most unsettling pair of red eyes Solar had ever seen-the kind of eyes you would forever see in your nightmares.
Laying it a bit thick on the black, dont'cha think? Despite all of the impulses that screamed, Don't hire this guy!, Solar walked towards the figure, who gave the broadsword back to the merchant. Now that they were at a closer distance, Solar didn't see how armed he was. Blacky had a holster of throwing knives hidden under his duster, a black handle of what appeared to be a sword on his back, in a position that indicated that he was a lefty. He also noticed the teardrop-shaped necklace Blacky wore.
Yep. Same height.
To clear the tension in the air, Solar cleared his throat and smiled. "Hi," he started, "Are you interested in participating in the upcoming boss raid?" When the figure said nothing, Solar awkwardly stuck out his hand and began to introduce himself. "Anyway, my name's Sol―"
"I know who you are."
"O-Oh," Solar said, retracting his hand. He took note of how the stranger spoke; his voice was monotonous, yet held a dark tone that obviously said, Don't fuck with me.
"And yes, I'll join."
"Gr-great!" Solar said, immediately perking up. Catching himself, he asked, "What's your name?"
"...Shadow," Blacky, now formally known as Shadow, replied. "And as payment for my services," he continued, "I want whatever comes from the boss, last attack bonuses included."
"Okay," Solar said, writing down a message. When he finished, he gave it a once-over. The message read, 'Found a guy. Goes by Shadow, and he's a mercenary. His payment is whatever the boss drops, including the last attack bonus.' After he sent the message, he looked back towards Shadow, and told him, "The raid's tomorrow. It's best if you attend the meeting tonight." He stuck out his hand again.
"Yeah," Shadow said, shaking Solar's hand. "I'll be there."
(x)
"You made it," one guard said, honestly surprised that the guy Solar hired actually showed up.
"Of course," Shadow said. "I told Solar I'd be here."
"In that case," the second guard replied, "go in." He gestured to the tent behind him. Shadow walked past the guards into the war room.
Once he was inside, he wasn't surprised to see the place packed to the brim; he was even less surprised to see all eyes turn to him. He returned the stare, causing those who were staring to look elsewhere.
"That's him?"
"The hired help?"
"Looks shady. Don't trust him."
If Shadow heard the murmurs, he didn't show it. "You made it," he heard Solar call. He turned to see the smiling player. "Have a seat. We're about to start."
Shadow simply walked to the back of the room and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. It was so dark that the only indication he was there was the pair of red eyes cutting through the darkness.
"Okay, everyone," Solar said, him and Skye taking center stage. "Tomorrow we're facing the Floor 50 boss, Count Nightshade. It's imperative that we all stick together; if he isolates you, you're done."
"Our scouts have seen what he does," Skye took over. "He has an insane level of agility that outclasses any of ours, which plays to his advantage. Compared to the previous bosses we faced, he has relatively low HP; but if this anything like the Floor 25 boss, it's bound to be extremely difficult. Which is why we're going to give you a chance to leave right now. We understand if you do leave, and we won't hold anything against you."
When no one left, Solar smiled. "Just what I expected from the guild's strongest. Now, Count Nightshade will, at half his last HP bar, strike you and drain you of your remaining HP, killing you near instantly and replenishing his own HP.
"As a way to counter this, we decided that you'll need to be in a group of 6 or 7; but if you fight solo, then you need to at least have a partner. Now choose your partners, and get some sleep. Meeting adjourned."
As soon as Solar finished, everyone started forming parties with each other. Shadow, opting to stay out of it, was approached by Kirito. "Surprised to see you here," Shadow said, not sounding surprised at all.
"The leaders and I go way back," Kirito replied. "You heard what Solar said; you should at least be in a party.
"With whom?"
"Hmm…How about me?"
"I'm not opening my menu."
Kirito sighed. "Fine." He sent a party request to Shadow, who accepted. "Us lone wolves gotta stick together, right?"
"Doesn't that defeat the purpose of being a lone wolf?"
"You know what I mean; sometimes it's better to hunt in packs."
After a brief period of silence, Shadow spoke again. "Get some sleep. You'll need it." His tone held no room for argument.
(x)
Everyone participating in the raid were busy sleeping to help make them more alert. However, one person is staying up, despite everyone's insistence; and that person is the "hired help," Shadow.
Shadow was sitting on a tree branch, not bothering to get any sleep, as he knows what will await him if he does. He was sharpening his knives when he heard a voice. "What are you doing up there?" He looked down to see one of the people who held the meeting; Skye, Shadow believed her name was.
"Minding my own business," Shadow replied. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"
"I should be asking you the same thing," Skye replied, jumping to his branch and sitting down, much to Shadow's chagrin.
"Why did Solar hire me?" Shadow demanded.
"Honestly…" Skye bit her lip, trying to find the right words to say. "It must be because if you die, no one would really care, since mercs normally don't have people who care about them."
"I see," Shadow said in an emotionless tone. "I overheard your conversation with Solar."
Skye looked towards the mercenary, surprised. "What did you hear?"
"Not much," Shadow said. "But I heard you lost someone important."
"Don't worry about it," Skye replied, waving it off. After the two sat in silence for a couple of minutes, she face palmed. "I remember why I came up here," she said to herself. She reached into her pocket to pull out an object wrapped in paper. She offered it to Shadow, who looked confused. "It's a sandwich," she explained. "I made it for you."
Shadow took the sandwich and unwrapped it. He took a bite. "..." He quickly wolfed down the rest, causing Skye to laugh.
"Is it that good?" she asked, still laughing.
"It's the best thing I've ever eaten," Shadow muttered, barely heard by Skye. When her grin widened, he added, "I said it's the best thing I've ever eaten. Don't read too much into it."
"Nope," Skye said, still smiling. "Everyone likes my cooking."
"Figured as much," Shadow said in his usual monotonous voice. "Did you really come up here just to give me food?"
"Pretty much," Skye replied.
"Get some sleep," Shadow said after a moment's silence. "And don't worry about me," he continued before Skye could interject. "I'll be fine."
Skye nodded and jumped down from the branch and walked inside, leaving Shadow to his own devices.
(x)
Kirito stretched as he walked outside. He was dumbfounded to see his party member sitting up on the tree. "Did you really spend the whole night up there?"
"..." was his only answer.
Kirito sighed. "At least get down from there," he called. "We're leaving soon."
"I heard you," a voice said behind him. Kirito jumped back and turned around, hand on his blade. Seeing Shadow was the one who scared him, Kirito let go of his blade and gave the other a glare.
"Don't do that again," Kirito said darkly.
Shadow ignored him and asked, "Aren't we leaving?"
"Yeah," Kirito said, now calm. "But not now. We gotta eat first."
"Alright, then. Let's eat."
(x)
After breakfast, which was eaten separately in the case Kirito, or not at all in Shadow's case, the raid party made its way to the boss room. The dungeon had been cleared beforehand, so it wasn't that hard to reach the boss room.
"Wait up!" A new voice called from behind the raid party. Everyone turned back to see a guild that was supposed to be a part of the raid party.
"Ren," Solar called out.
The leader of the new guild, Ren, called back, "Hey, Solar, sorry we're late. Some of us," Ren and the other members of the guild shot a glare to an axe-wielder in the group who merely shrugged in response, "got a little carried away with EXP grinding."
"Don't worry," Skye interjected, "you're just in time for the raid."
"Again, sorry about that. Anyways, I took the liberty of formulating a strategy against Count Nightshade. It'll go like this…" The rest was hushed as Ren talked to Solar and Skye, who listened intently and grew more and more excited with each passing second.
"Ren, that's genius!" Solar exclaimed.
"No wonder you're one of the top tacticians in SAO," Skye said approvingly.
Ren smiled proudly. He quickly got the introductions out of the way between Solar and Ren's guild members; Helios, the loyal jackass and axe-user of the team; Alice, Ren's girlfriend and a scythe user; Mai, Alice's little sister and the rapier-user; and Riku, the guy who everyone seemed to forget about.
With the addition of the new guild, Wyvern's Inferno, the party continued on to the boss room. Once they reached outside the room, Solar stopped and looked back at the party.
"Everyone, I'm going to relay the strategy that Ren gave me; in order to make it harder for Nightshade to pick us off, we'll stick together as a whole, with the tanks forming an outer circle. If our plan is to have no casualties, then we have to follow this to the letter. While Nightshade is attacking, we will pull an Illfang; the tanks parry, then switch into the sword users; then the sword users will parry, and the axe users will deliver devastating blows. Keep in mind that he has less health than most floor bosses. Don't forget, people; sword skills whenever you can."
"How did Ren's guild get the information?" One of the party members asked out loud.
Solar looked questioningly at Ren, who quickly replied, "I have a very sneaky friend." Solar nodded in understanding as he glanced briefly at Shadow.
"Alright guys, let's win this!" Solar yelled as he raised his katana in the air. Everyone in the party, minus Skye, Akira, Ren's guild, Kirito, and (unsurprisingly) Shadow, raised their weapons in the air and cheered as well. Without any further words, Solar turned around and pushed the door open.
(x)
As they were fighting a vampire, it was unsurprising that the room was pitch black. When the party got to the middle of the room, however, the room was lit up by candlelight, enough to see in the room.
From the ceiling, a shadowy figure dropped, and stood upright as it landed on the floor. As it rose, the three health bars that indicated its HP filled up.
The monster, revealed to be a humanoid with alabaster white skin and blood red eyes, fangs and nails, roared at them.
"NOW!" Solar and Ren yelled simultaneously. Following their leaders' command, the rest of the guild charged the monster as whole.
After getting a lot of damage on the boss, everyone felt confident that they could beat Count Nightshade. That changed, however, when the whole room went pitch black.
Everyone was silent. Until…
"Get down!"
Everyone followed Shadow's command out of instinct, and they only realized how fortunate it was for them when the boss swooped down on them, trying to pick them off one by one. Foolishly, one of the stronger members of the Tri-Blade Alliance stood back up to attack the boss, but was picked off.
When the room brightened, the remaining players could only look in horror as the boss held the struggling player in his hand. They were even more shocked when Count Nightshade drained his HP, killing the poor player and adding to his HP, bringing the bar they just depleted back to half its maximum amount.
"When the room goes dark," Shadow said to the stunned crowd, "get down. Otherwise, that'll happen," he finished, inferring to what just happened. Without waiting for the others, he and Kirito rushed the boss.
"I'll boost you," Kirito said while they ran. Shadow nodded and prepared to jump. Kirito ran ahead and stopped, crouching in front of Shadow, the latter using the former as a footstool.
Shadow let out a low growl as he charged up a sword skill. The boss tried to grab him as well, but Shadow simply dodged and stick his blade in the monster's hand. When he landed, he grabbed his blade and, with it still in the flesh of Count Nightshade, he dragged it up towards the head of the monster. He backflipped off the boss and drove his blade through the left eye of the monster, piercing through it and landing in a crouch with his hand still on his sword, which was planted in the ground.
Nightshade screeched in pain as its HP depleted all the way, including its last bar. At ground level, Solar, Skye, Ren and the others were watching in awe.
"Holy…" Ren started.
"Shit…" Skye continued
"Exclamation Mark!" One of the other members finished.
Shadow dropped down in the crowd as the boss was destroyed, and sheathed his blade as the monster died. A sign appeared a second after Nightshade had disappeared, reading, "Congratulations!" After seeing this, everyone cheered, and those around Shadow clapped him on the back. Shadow ignored most of it, as he was too busy looking at the last attack bonus he received. The drop read, "Black Star of Nightmares."
Shadow looked at the flavor text, and saw that it was a special teleport crystal. I'll check it later, he thought to himself.
"Not bad," Shadow heard Solar call. He turned to look at him. Solar motioned for him to go to the door. Shadow realized what he was doing, then walked to the door. He put his hand on the door and shoved it open, and as he did so, a window appeared in front of all of the party members, reading "Floor 51: Allsdale, open!" At this, further cheers erupted from the party as they all rushed through. Shadow stayed behind, and approached Solar as he walked to the door.
"Why did you hire me?" Shadow demanded as the elated players ran past the two.
"Why do you think I hired you?" Solar questioned back.
"Skye told me that you hired me because no one would miss me if I died. Is that true?"
Solar stood silent for a moment. Finally, he responded, "Far from it. I hired you because I needed people who I know can hold themselves well in a fight. You were that person. We couldn't have finished this fight without you. Keep that in mind, Shadow."
Now it was Shadow's turn to stay silent as he pondered what Solar said. Everyone else had ran through by this point; leaving the two players alone. Finally, Shadow said in his usual monotonous tone, "I assume you'll come looking for me when it's time for the next boss raid?"
Solar replied immediately, "Yeah, I will."
Shadow nodded, then turned around and walked beside Solar as the two reached Floor 51: Allsdale.
A/N: Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers and followers! Also, special thanks to TheSib for allowing us to use his OCs, the members of Wyvern's Inferno and their leader, Ren. If you haven't done so already, go check out his stories, especially I Will Not Bow, the remake I Will Not Bow Again, and the sequel Blazing Revolution (these are the Wyvern's Inferno stories). Also, I meant to upload this yesterday, but I was busy with other things.
Read and Review!