The Tri-Blade Alliance
Chapter 23: Redemption
A/N: Sorry for the late update. I was also working on the next two chapters. Enjoy.
S/N: Disclaimer: We don't own SAO.
Key:
"Darkness dialogue"
(x)
"LEMME AT HIM!"
"CALM DOWN, YOU TWO!" Solar shouted as he and Akira held Skye back, while Cupid and Pearce held Eros back, the two girls looking like they're ready to stab someone.
That someone, also known as Arctic, was pushed up against the wall as a result of this. "It's alright," he assured the other four. "I deserve every bit of it."
Reluctantly, Solar and Akira released Skye first, who briskly walked up to Arctic and decked him across the face. While the latter stood there in slight shock, he turned to face the former. "You calm now?"
"Yep," Skye replied. She stepped back to let Eros have her shot. When she was released, Eros walked up to the former leader in the same manner as Skye and sent an even harder punch to the opposite cheek, causing everyone watching to wince.
"I nearly forgot I was training you," Arctic said through the pain.
"Shadow was training me," Eros curtly corrected.
"Okay. I deserved that, too."
"Damn right you did." The archer/swordswoman hugged her punching bag. "Don't ever pull stuff like that again."
"Don't pull your punches," Arctic replied, hugging her back. Once the two ended the hug, Skye hugged Arctic even harder.
"Don't you dare leave again," she warned, tightening her hold.
"Got it," Arctic said, slightly choking at the lack of oxygen, opting to return the hug. "Can you let me go? The lack of oxygen is making me lightheaded."
"Sorry." Skye released Arctic, and Solar stepped forward.
"You want your room back?" he asked his pseudo-brother.
"Please."
(x)
The Next Day
Floor 66: Grandzam
K.O.B. Headquarters
"Okay, everyone," Solar said to all front-line fighters present while planting his hands onto the table in front of him. "How in the hell are we gonna take down this boss?"
"Well, for starters," Asuna stated, following Solar's example. "We should go over what we know."
"Alright. What we know is that this is an even more cancerous field boss than Sheeptar, and its name is 'Deadeye'. It's more or less a behemoth, and its armor will be very hard to get past."
"Is that all?" Skye asked. When the two leaders nodded, she sighed. "Then there are some things Argo doesn't know. Is there anyone else who has anything to share?" Kirito stepped forward.
"I think I have something," he said. He pointed to a spot on the map on the table. "The boss's lair is around this area. I've done some scouting, and the boss can't see from its right side. If we put the archers around that area, we can repeatedly strike it in its blind spot." Kirito, and everyone else, chuckled at the Black Swordsman's joke.
"Good plan," Asuna said. "But there's a flaw. We'll need a distraction. And we're not going to waste any of our men. We'll need a solo player―preferably not you."
"Why not me?"
"'Cause then, you'll make everyone else look bad," Skye stated.
"Right. And where is Arctic, exactly?"
"He...didn't want to come," Skye said somewhat nervously.
"Shame. He would've been a really valuable source of info," Asuna said. "Could've made a good distraction, too."
"Hey! You can't go in there!" a voice rang outside. Recognizing it as the voice of one of the guards outside, everyone tensed.
"Why not?" Arctic's voice shot back. "I know the commander of the K.O.B."
The door opened, and Arctic walked through. Looking around at the numerous faces staring back at him, the former mercenary sighed to himself. Knew it was a bad idea to show up.
Just as he turned to leave...
He was surprised to hear the immeasurable cheers the players gave him. When he turned back around, it was to everyone smiling and clapping; even Kirito and Asuna seemed genuinely happy to see him again.
"Welcome back!"
"You're the best, man!"
"Thanks for everything!"
"My wife wants your autograph!"
Arctic chuckled and smiled. "Nice to know you all love me."
"We've always loved you," Kirito stated. "There's no way we can forget you."
"Get up here and help us!" Asuna called to him.
When Arctic walked up to the table, his only question was, "Field boss?"
"Deadeye," everyone responded.
"Oh." Arctic's eyes narrowed. "What do you want to know?"
When Kirito overlayed his strategy to the hero, Arctic raised his eyebrows. "Not a bad strategy," he said. "But you'll need a distraction. A solo player would be best. Since you'll be attacking the boss, the next best choice will be me."
"That's right," Asuna said. "And we feel you can be invaluable now, because of all the info and items you may have."
"No problem. And Kirito, I think we should place the archers on the left side, so the tanks and melee fighters can blindside it from its blind side."
"...Yeah, that can actually work. Do you know where Deadeye's lair is?"
"There," Arctic immediately replied, pointing to the exact same spot Kirito pointed to earlier. "How soon should we attack it?"
"As soon as we're finished preparing."
"Understandably. Now, how―"
"Wait up!" a voice shouted. Everyone turned to the source: a lancer wearing black armor. "Why should we listen to you?!" he continued, pointing towards Arctic. "Last I checked, you're a killer!"
"So? Didn't we all kill someone at least once?"
"True. But your body count is higher than all of ours!"
At that moment, Arctic felt his world blacken, before it was restored. During this, his vision was in negative colors, but he could see everyone's cursor colors clearly. The guy who's speaking…
Is orange.
Because his hood was up, nobody saw Arctic's eyes blacken over. They did, however, note his malicious smile and change in tone. "If you've got a problem, then how 'bout we duel? You can set the rules."
The lancer chuckled arrogantly. "Sure, buddy." He sent Arctic a duel request. When the hero read over the rules, he accepted. 'The duel ends when the loser is at half their max HP.'
The crowd cleared an area for the two fighters, curious as to what'll happen next. "You made a grave mistake facing me, friend. I'm one of the best," the lancer boasted as the timer counted down.
"No, you're not. Kirito and Asuna are over there, the Tri-Bladers are over there, and I'm fighting you."
"...You're going down."
3…
2…
1…
Begin!
It happened so fast, almost nobody caught it. Arctic rushed the lancer the second the duel began, jumped up and landed on his head with one hand, twisted and slashed his neck with the Darkness Blade, then landed behind the lancer with his head in his hand. He threw it back boredly, the head lodging back in place.
When Arctic left the room, the lancer fell to his knees. His head rolled off as the body fell over, the limb and corpse shattering.
"...Boss?" Pearce nervously said, his tone reflecting everyone's terror.
"Yeah, Pearce?" Solar uneasily asked.
"That dude scares me."
"He's starting to scare me, too."
Asuna growled and walked out of the room to pursue after Arctic.
(x)
"What happened in there?!" Asuna demanded, walking up to Arctic, his back to the K.O.B. vice commander. He turned to face her.
"He was orange," the player-in-question calmly answered. "I don't know how, but I saw it―clear as day."
"Right. And how did you kill him, despite the duel's rules?"
"There's a reason why the Darkness Blade is feared. It can ignore all rules that keep players safe, and it always has a chance to kill; something shared by both the weapon and skill."
"Next time, just call them out. I'll go back and defuse the situation."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it. We'll see you at the boss fight?"
"Sure. I'll head there now. Don't worry, I'm not going to engage him without you guys."
"Thanks." With that, Asuna ran back into the room.
Arctic sighed as he turned and began walking. If he was going to get there first, he may as well take his time getting there. Besides, if I teleport everywhere, I wouldn't have time to enjoy the small things in Aincrad. If I'm going to be here for God knows how long, I may as well have fun.
While he walked through the fields and headed to the designated waypoint, as marked by a very stealthy player that was not Arctic or Shadow, he killed a couple mobs, and realized how much he missed not having to go all out in every fight. Why did I ever give this up? Arctic asked himself as he got EXP from killing a Dire Wolf.
When he finally got to Deadeye's lair, he looked around, seeing no one in sight. Shrugging, Arctic looked around some more for a tree to lay in. His eyes lit up when he saw a shaded tree, then walked up to it and looked up to see if there was anything in the shaded branch. Satisfied that there was nothing there, he jumped up and relaxed. All he had to do now was wait.
(x)
"Where is he?" Eros asked the leaders as they approached Deadeye's lair. "I thought he got here before we did?"
"That's what he told me," Asuna replied as she looked around. Finally, her eyes rested on a shaded tree, and she smiled. "Old habits die hard, huh, Shadow?" Asuna went over to the tree and looked up. She smiled even more when she saw Arctic sleeping peacefully for a change. She reached up and poked him. "Get up. It's time."
Arctic stirred awake, then snapped awake fully when he saw the vice commander. He jumped down and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry. I walked here, and you guys took a while, so I took the opportunity to sleep for a bit."
"Feel better?"
"Honestly? Yeah, I do." Arctic stretched. "Let's get this boss raid started."
"Remember: you're the distraction. Lure the boss out, then we all fight."
"Got it. And if I may: after I get it out, close the doors. Don't give it the opportunity to retreat." Asuna nodded, and the two walked back over to the group.
"Hey, man. You ready?" Solar asked the "distraction". Arctic nodded. "Good luck."
"Thanks. I may need it." With that, the former leader/mercenary walked into the dark cave.
(x)
"Alright, you ugly bastard," Arctic muttered. "Where are you?" Due to the lack of light in the cave, Arctic took out a torch and lit it…
Only to be face-to-face with a sleeping Deadeye.
The "distraction" jumped back in alarm, and took the time to analyze the boss fully.
Deadeye was truly a behemoth; its body was massive, spanning throughout the entire cavern, which was surprisingly deep. The behemoth was purple, and it had horns, unsurprisingly. What was surprising was the broken shard that was in the place of the right horn, and the scar running down the right eye, which was closed. The boss isn't too horny, apparently.
Cautiously, Arctic opened the right eye, and was relieved to see that the boss was indeed half-blind; its right eye was completely colorless, indicating complete blindness in said eye. He closed it and walked over to the left eye.
When he opened it, Deadeye looked around its surroundings, before focusing on the player in front of him. Its good eye narrowed in pure anger as it sat up and roared.
(x)
Kirito sighed as he checked the time. 5:00 already? "What's taking him so long?" he asked out loud.
"Dunno. But there's no way he could have died, right?" Eros asked nervously.
"SHIT!" Arctic cried out as he was knocked out of Deadeye's lair. The behemoth stepped out, its head poking out, as it roared. Everyone got ready to attack, until Arctic shouted, "WAIT!" Still tense, everyone lowered their weapons. Arctic cautiously put a hand on his back, where his sword would normally be. Instead, everyone saw an extremely faint shadow of something that wasn't even there. And yet, Arctic was drawing his pitch black blade from its shadow sheath.
Upon seeing the Darkness Blade, Deadeye roared and retreated back inside the cave. Deciding to experiment, Arctic sheathed his blade again, and the behemoth stepped back out. "Get to the right," Arctic lowly said. "All of you. And get ready to close the doors."
After everyone followed the former leader's orders, Arctic stepped back again, prompting the boss to step out fully. It stood on its two hind legs and roared at the sky.
As its name and HP bars appeared, Arctic screamed as he rushed the boss. Deadeye slammed a hand down on where Arctic stood, and the hero dodged and ran up the arm, reaching it head, where he jumped up high. Arctic stabbed downwards at the exposed flesh of its right eye―only for his blade to bounce off like rubber upon contact. "EXCUSE ME?!"
Deadeye gave the hero something akin to a rather terrifying smirk as it shook its head side-to-side, shaking Arctic off.
"Close the doors!" he instructed. A second after he said that, two fully charged arrows hit the cave behind Deadeye, causing an explosion that created a cave-in. When the behemoth focused its attention back to Arctic, it looked around, as its prey disappeared.
Then, a flurry of arrows hit Deadeye from its left side, forcing it to turn and swipe at the approaching archers. It wasn't ready for the numerous axes, maces, and hammers to collide with its right side.
Soon, Deadeye was getting ambushed from all sides, and everyone was getting frustrated at how little HP the behemoth was losing. "What is its defense?!" Pearce asked aloud, exasperated. Nobody was able to reply, as Deadeye roared, knocking everyone back.
Solar grunted as he got back up. Scanning his surroundings, he found dozens of red barrels focused at certain parts of the field.
His first thought was, Why? His second thought was, Wait a minute…
Luckily for him, Pearce and Cupid landed beside him; Pearce stopped himself hard, and Cupid planted her lance in the ground to prevent herself from sliding further. He put his hands on their shoulders and pointed to the barrels. They immediately caught on to his plan and charged two arrows, Cupid switching to her bow.
Solar dashed to Arctic and Eros, both of whom were getting back up. "Distract it!" Solar shouted to his best friend, and pulled Eros aside. The leader pointed to the barrels. "Lure it over there," he said. The swordswoman nodded and rushed after Deadeye, running side-by-side with Arctic.
The two charged the boss, repeatedly striking it from every angle, forcing Deadeye back into the barrel.
Pearce And Cupid fired their arrows, striking the barrel and causing it to explode, an action that took out one-and-a-half of Deadeye's five bars. Everyone cheered at the massive amount of damage dealt. "Knock it into the barrels!" Asuna shouted.
"Archers, get ready to fire!" Solar shouted after her.
"Arctic!" The hero turned to see Skye running up to him. "Knock it into the barrels," she instructed.
"Done and done." Arctic raised his blade to his face and charged up a black sword skill.
He turned and met Deadeye's swipe with one of his own, knocking the boss back. The former mercenary took advantage of this moment and slashed at the boss, every strike hitting true to its mark.
Deadeye roared and grabbed a boulder. It turned and chucked it at Cupid, who didn't see the rock hurtling towards her. "LOOK OUT!" everyone screamed.
The archer/lancer turned to see the boulder coming towards her at mach speed. She quickly braced herself for the impact…
Which never came, replaced by the feeling of pebbles spraying on her face. She looked in front of her to see Solar, sword in front of him as if he had cut through something. "You alright?" he asked the female lancer.
"I'm fine," she replied. Upon hearing a sound of impact, everyone looked towards the poor object/player. Oh, shit…
The tree that Arctic was resting in earlier?
Everyone watched it shatter into a million polygons. Arctic watched in shock and horror as his temporary haven was destroyed in front of his eyes.
Arctic growled and equipped his scythe, the familiar purplish flames rising from his hands. He dashed past Solar and Cupid. "MOVE!" he shouted to the fighters in front of him, with all of them dodging to the side. Deadeye roared and swiped his clawed hand at Arctic, who deflected it with a mighty swing of his scythe. He immediately spun around and twirled Blood Rose, slicing Deadeye at a speed that surpassed his already ungodly battle speed. He quickly turned and punched the behemoth with a charged martial arts strike, sending it flying and crash-landing near a red barrel.
Immediately, Cupid launched an arrow she had been charging. "This is for trying to kill me, you bastard," she said under her breath once she let the arrow fly.
The resulting explosion sent Deadeye's HP down to two bars. The behemoth roared as its body was suddenly covered in scaly armor plating. When Solar slashed the boss, he was outraged to learn that the boss took no damage. He jumped back to avoid an attack.
After noticing the boss's exposed underbelly, Arctic suddenly formed a plan. He wasn't proud of it, but it would do some damage, and answer a question he had in mind.
He re-equipped his longsword and charged the boss from the front. Dodging an attack from Deadeye, he slid under the boss while charging a darkness skill. He then stabbed and dragged his blade across...well, let it be known that Arctic knew at that point that Deadeye was a "he."
The boss actually whimpered as he held his package in pain that ones and zeros couldn't replicate. When Arctic slid out behind the boss, he stood up and looked at his sword in disgust. When this is over, I'm taking a bottle of Mystic Fire to this.
That attack dropped Deadeye's HP to a mere sliver. However, that meant that its armor was impenetrable. The boss roared in triumph as dozens upon dozens of arrows, lances, and spears bounced off it. "Should we try the barrels again?" Eros asked when she jumped back to Kirito and Asuna.
"Um," Skye pointed out once she stopped sliding back, "I don't think they'll work."
"And why not?" Asuna asked worriedly as she faced the boss.
"Because I don't think red barrels are supposed to be white," Kirito stated, pointing at the barrels, which were indeed white.
Judging from the steam rising from them, Asuna deduced that they froze over, rendering them useless. "Dammit! What now?" she growled.
Skye looked around for a solution...and noticed the sparkling aura around Deadeye's good horn. Without a word, she dashed forward, meeting Arctic along the way. "Boost me up!" she instructed, pointing to her intended target.
Putting two-and-two together, Arctic stopped, got down into an Olympic running position, and rocketed forward, grabbing the arm Skye outstretched towards him and throwing her upwards after gaining enough momentum.
Skye jumped onto Deadeye's head and put her hands on its horn. With all her strength, she ripped the horn right off and jumped up high to dodge the hand Deadeye tried to slam her with. She screamed as she thrust the horn downwards, the horn glowing white the second she drove it through Deadeye's good eye.
The boss roared in pain as its killer stabbed through its body. Deadeye fell to the floor, causing a minor tremor. Everyone cheered as the boss shattered and Skye stabbed the horn into the ground. Everyone got a massive reward and EXP, more so Arctic, Solar, Cupid, Pearce, and Skye. The female responsible for the victory stood up―and promptly shuddered in disgust.
Arctic ran up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You got out through the balls, didn't you?"
"Yep."
"I'll run a hot bath for you later."
"Can you also clean my armor?"
"Mystic Fire does amazing things."
"Thanks." Arctic patted her shoulder and walked away. Skye looked at the horn in her hand.
The horn wasn't a horn anymore; instead, it was a sword. Like a katana, there was no pommel, but the sword itself was far from a katana. The handle of the double-edged blade was an off-white color, and the blade was a stormy grey color with a solid black outline. There was a ribbon wrapped around the handle, and the ribbon was an appealing yellow color. Deadeye's Horn? S-Class, classified as a Tanto Machete, yet it's a one-handed longsword...Looks nice, Deadeye's killer thought to herself as she looked over the blade. She unequipped her current sword and equipped her new one.
"Great job, everyone!" Solar shouted. "You all helped in completing a huge task today! This couldn't have been possible without you!"
"But we couldn't have done it if we didn't have Arctic's help!" Asuna said. Everyone cheered after the vice commander spoke this statement.
"True. Arctic...GET OVER HERE!"
"Yo," Arctic's voice said behind the group. After everyone let out a very manly scream, he rolled his eyes and smirked. "Smooth. Real smooth."
(x)
After Skye had gone to take the bath Arctic had drawn for her, he turned his attention to his Darkness Blade and Skye's armor. He took out a bottle of Mystic Fire and opened it. Holding it over his sword, he let a single drop of the purifying flame fall onto his blade. The blade shone upon contact with the fire, and when Arctic opened his eyes, his blade was clean enough to reflect the light, but still retained its fearsome design and everything that made it it. He picked it up and sighed. "It's not purified," he said to himself, "but damn if it's not disinfected."
He did the same process with Skye's armor, and he prepared to send the tactician a message to let her know her armor was purified, when a voice behind him said, "Thanks." He turned to see Skye. In a towel.
He quickly averted his eyes while blushing. "No problem," he managed to say through his embarrassment. He turned back around to face his friend once she put her armor back on. "G'night." He turned back to leave.
"Where are you going?" Skye asked him.
"Outside," he stated, turning to face her.
"Why? You have your room back, remember?"
"True. But I have days where I want to sleep on my tree."
"...Why?"
"It's better you don't ask."
"Okay, then."
When Arctic left the building, he looked around to find a good tree; he didn't feel like going all the way down to Floor 51, where his tree stood. His breath caught when he saw the tree. "No way…" he said under his breath. He walked over to a tree that was just within walking distance to the guild house, and yet was still far enough that nobody could bother him by shouting from the base. He ran his hand over the tree's trunk. After analyzing the pattern, he deduced: it was the exact same pattern as his tree.
Probably just a coincidence. He thought otherwise when he saw a branch with a slight groove in it; a groove that could only be caused by a body lying down on it all the time. Never mind.
To test his idea, he jumped up in the branch. Not only did the groove perfectly fit his body, the branch was also shaded from the setting afternoon sun. "Oh, yeah," he sighed in pleasure. He closed his eyes and began to sleep. The last thought that ran through his head before he let sleep overtake him was, Thank you, Kayaba.
(x)
A/N: This chapter was more humorous than most, I noticed while writing it out. Still, hope you enjoyed it!
S/N: Till next time!
A/N: And as always, Read and Review!