Author's note: Everybody is wondering when Touma is going to appear in the story. I am also excited to include him but his appearance will come later.
Chapter Three: Fighting Onwards
After finding her strength in sword fighting, Asuna was able to build a passionate fire within her very being.
She recalled the miserable state she was in during the first week of SAO. She simply stayed in bed and tried to close her eyes, hoping to wake up and realize that this was all a bad dream. No matter how times she opened her eyes, she was always hoping that she would be back in her dorm room or even asleep on a bench back in Academy City. In reality this was all a living nightmare, one that they could not escape out of. Every now and then she put a pillow over her face and just screamed as loudly as she could. After every scream she would have tears pouring out of her eyes.
It was thanks to Mikoto that she was able to become motivated to find a way to survive in this forsaken world. Asuna's skill was forged through her die hard dedication and hard work. She began devoting her time to improving her speed, steadily increasing the speed of her rapier every day.
The rapier was meant to be a swift weapon, specializing in thrusts. The first rapier technique she learned was called linear, which was a basic forward thrust. She became so good at executing linear that her blade strikes were not visible to the naked eye.
However Asuna was not the only one getting stronger. She could see the progress in Mikoto's sword skills.
The two girls were now sparring against each other, bare handed style. On a previous floor, the two of them were able to gain the Marital Arts extra skill after completing an NPC's request. Even though they would be mostly relying on their swords for combat, it couldn't hurt to learn how to fight without them.
Tokiwadai Middle School was able to provide a close combat course for its students, so the two girls had at least a background in martial arts. However Asuna knew she was at a disadvantage against Academy City's famous Railgun. Even if Mikoto was not capable of throwing lightning in SAO, she still had far more real life experience in fights than Asuna.
Asuna and Mikoto have a timed duel of one minute set up. They were practicing outside of the town area at the grassland. There were no monsters and hardly any players around to disturb them.
The match commences once the starting clock hits zero and the two girls take off.
Asuna accelerates her right hand, going in for a right hook. Her fist becomes a purple bright color as it was being supported by the system. Marital arts in SAO was similar to sword fighting since one just needed to access the skill's technique and the system would help the body execute the technique.
However just before Asuna thought her hook attack was successful, Mikoto ducks down. The Railgun shifts her weight and momentum forward and retaliates with an elbow strike that glows a bright yellow. The elbow strike ends up hitting Asuna in the gut, sending the long haired girl flying back a few feet.
"Y-you're really strong Misaka-san." Asuna was thankful that pain could not be felt in SAO.
"My senses are sharper because I am accustomed in having to fend off Kuroko's constant love attacks. Thanks to that pervert my skills and reflexes have become a lot better." Mikoto grinned proudly.
Asuna can't help but laugh hearing Mikoto say that. She knew that Kuroko was very open about expressing affection for Mikoto and was always amused by the relationship between the two roommates.
Mikoto charges forth with a jump front kick which Asuna barely blocks by forming a cross with her two forearms. However the kick's impact sent shockwaves throughout Asuna's body.
After that, Mikoto's fist is charged up as an uppercut was sent straight for Asuna. Asuna barely leans her upper body back to avoid the strike. The long haired girl retaliates back by sending a swarm of jabs towards her friend's direction. Asuna found out that she had decent speed when executing techniques that had a lot of forward thrusts. Perhaps it was because it was like using the linear skill with her rapier.
Mikoto did the best she could to block or avoid the jabs. Mikoto gained the upper hand when she was able to grab onto one of Asuna's outstretched wrists and pulls Asuna forward towards Mikoto's center of gravity, sending up a knee strike at Asuna's mid-section.
Asuna felt the wind get knocked out of her body.
"Y-you're too good at hand to hand combat compared to me…"
"When you live with a perverted roommate, you learn to fight better."
When the minute was over, Mikoto was the winner of the duel.
Every day they would train together or go out farming for monsters. Their goal was to assist the frontlines and do whatever they could to get everybody out of SAO as quickly as possible.
Asuna had those moments when she felt distressed about all of the time she was missing back in the real world. She would think about how much she is behind on her schoolwork or even the different opportunities that were now gone. Her reasoning was – the stronger she became, the faster she could go back to reality and resume her normal life. Every moment spent in SAO was a moment that was wasted back in the real world.
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-A few months later-
Floor 15: The Taiga Forest
"Geez this place is cold…" Asuna was shivering.
"It doesn't even get this cold back at Academy City." Mikoto put her arms together.
The two girls decided to head to the frontlines after being confident in their levels. According to the SAO newsletter that is freely distributed to players, the leading group was able to defeat the fourteenth floor boss just a day ago. Mikoto was a level 27 and Asuna was now a level 26 after fulfilling numerous quests. They also explored the dungeons of the previous floors, killing many monsters. With the amount of Col they earned, the two girls were able to purchase suitable armor and better swords. Asuna decided to stick with the swift rapier and Mikoto decided to use the power type broadsword.
The Taiga stage was a naturally cold atmosphere with snow on the ground and all over the fir trees. The cold air blew past the two girls, making them shiver even more. The teleportation gate led them to a town where there was a visible NPC shop nearby selling coats. Asuna and Mikoto ran towards the shop and immediately purchased warm, wooly and comfortable coats to alleviate the coldness.
The town resembled a ski resort in which there were log cabin types of infrastructures for the businesses and inns. Snow was everywhere and continuously falling to the ground.
Asuna and Mikoto could see some groups of people in this town area, perhaps they were the frontline guilds. There weren't any guilds that were too large or well known at the moment. Only a small percentage of the guilds were active on the frontlines while most other guilds stayed on previous floors.
Asuna saw guilds as effective means of teamwork and protection but there were the risk and reward tradeoffs to consider. She and Mikoto were not sure if they were ready to join a guild yet…the words of Kirito the black swordsman resounded in her mind: "if one day someone you trust invites you to a guild, don't you refuse."
Right now there wasn't too much of a need to join a guild because Asuna wasn't alone in this world, she had a reliable friend with her.
After wandering around the town, they were able to find an NPC's request to fulfill.
The quest was called "Aiding the Black Smith"
The NPC black smith's shop was smaller than the other nearby shops but had a lot of weapons offered. On the right side of the shop were swords adorned on the wall, though the swords were out of the girl's price range. On the left side were shields of different shapes and sizes along with other non-sword weapons.
The NPC that gave them the request was a strong looking man. The NPC wanted the two girls to venture through the forest and go to Kyber Lake, the largest lake located in the middle of this floor. To fulfill the quest, one needed to challenge the monster of the lake.
Once the monster was defeated, it would leave behind a metal that the NPC desired. The reward for finishing the request was actually a mystery, but the two girls decided to embark on the journey.
They knew that the trip through the forest would be dangerous, especially since there were always monsters lurking outside of Aincrad's towns. The two girls also had to make sure not to stay out too late since the temperature got coldest at nighttime.
"We are so getting some hot chocolate once we finish this request." Mikoto murmurs.
"Haha agreed." Asuna smirks.
With their winter gear on they set out of the town and went towards the forest.
The types of trees in a Taiga biome were coniferous, which meant that they were the types that had pine cones and the ones most people got for the Christmas holidays. One positive aspect of SAO is that players still celebrated holidays. During the New Year's, there were some parties that happened in restaurants and in some of the inns. The celebrated holidays were one of the few joyous times one could experience while in this virtual reality death game.
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While on their quest, the two girls were suddenly surrounded by a group of bobcats. These bobcats looked even scary with their glowing red eyes.
Asuna and Mikoto were now back to back to each other, facing towards the bobcats.
"If things go bad use your teleportation crystal." Mikoto utters lowly.
"I don't plan to have the situation get bad." Asuna grins confidently.
The bob cats leap towards the two girls who had their swords out.
Asuna uses the rapier sword skill linear to take out the bobcats that were attacking her. The long haired girl was confident about how her sword strikes were becoming faster and faster.
Mikoto activates the skill vertical arc, in which she slashes twice, creating a V shape.
The two Tokiwadai girls continue to maintain their back to back position, covering each other. The strength, reaction speed and execution of their techniques allowed them to take out each bobcat in one hit. It wasn't long until the entire group of the cats was eliminated.
Asuna was panting and could feel her partner panting as well. The two girls looked at each other with a satisfied smile, glad that they had each other's backs.
Luckily trouble did not approach them for a while so they decided to stop for a lunch break. They sat under a large tree, backs leaning against the trunk.
Asuna pulls out two pieces of bread and hands one to Mikoto.
"You know… I've always wanted to have cooking be one of my skills here." Asuna chimes.
"Cooking? That's a strange noncombat skill to have." Mikoto gives her friend a strange look.
"I promise if I can cook well, I will surely let you try my food."
"As long as your cooking is better than this bread I will accept your offer."
"We all need a hobby aside from fighting and exploring dungeons. Why don't you join me? It'll be fun if the two of us can cook together."
"I'll think about it. I never did learn to cook correctly in the first place."
The bread tasted like the regular bread back in reality. In SAO, a player did not have to eat three meals a day but most people decided to stick to that habit. One piece of bread a day was good enough for a player to have enough energy.
"Did you ever try to cook before?" Asuna asks.
"Well…" Mikoto takes a second to recall the occasion. "One time I wanted to make some cookies as a way to say thank you to this certain guy. Unfortunately I couldn't summon up the courage to actually give it to him." The Railgun sighs. "I worked so hard on making those cookies!"
"So… you were trying to make cookies for a guy?" Asuna grins widely while resisting a chuckle. "It must be very special guy if you went through all of that trouble."
"N-no way is that guy special to me! I just wanted to show some gratitude for his help." Mikoto averts her eyes away; her pinks are a faint pink.
The two girls continued to converse while eating their bread. Asuna thought that if she learned how to cook, they could be eating something tastier like homemade sandwiches.
Asuna did not want to stick to eating the same food everyday which is why she wanted to learn how to cook in this world. Perhaps her cooking skill would be useful in the future.
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"The NPC said that in order to call for the monster of the lake, we need to merely throw something into the water." Asuna points out.
In the middle of the fifteenth floor was a large lake had a half frozen surface. The two girls were at the lake's edge and staring into the water. The water was a beautiful blue color with a thin layer of ice above it.
Mikoto finds a pebble on the ground "Let's hope this works." She tosses it high in the air.
Once the pebble was tossed into the water, a splash could be heard. They waited for a few seconds before anything happened.
C-C-RACKKK!
Suddenly a large creature broke forth from the water's surface. The two girls could see that it is a monster with a long neck, sharp teeth and four flippers. It was the very famous loch ness monster.
"Isn't that creature supposed to be in Scotland?!" Mikoto exclaims.
Asuna and her friend stare at the creature in disbelief and a second later regain their fighting composure. Aincrad's creative monster designs never ceased to amaze them.
The loch ness monster emerges from the water and swims towards land. The creature was the size of a house. Even if it wasn't the level of a floor boss, this still meant the two girls couldn't let their guards down.
The monster reaches its long neck out, aiming to bite at Mikoto. Fortunately the Railgun was able to jump to the side to barely avoid the bite. While the monster's head was a few feet in front of her, Mikoto executes a slash skill that dents the monster's HP. The loch ness creature recoils its neck back, roaring in pain.
"Switch!" Asuna shouts. The long haired girl jumps into action by going towards the monster with multiple linear strikes.
With the ground being so slippery, the loch ness was able to use its flippers to slide against the ground and charges head on into Mikoto. Asuna came to her friend's rescue by running towards the monster's main body and does a Vertical Arc skill, which are 2 strikes that create a V shape trajectory.
Now the monster turns its head, changing direction of its target which was now Asuna. The monster turns its neck and head back, now going down for a bite attack. Asuna was prepared to counter with a slash to its head but the monster's neck was struck at by Mikoto. Mikoto took advantage of how the monster was not paying attention to her and decided to attack when it had its back turned.
The two girls looked at each other, giving a short nod. Asuna understood what she was supposed to do. Asuna and Mikoto would switch the roles of who gets the monster's attention and who attacks it at the side. This method of constant switching made the monster confused on which target to concentrate mostly on.
The loch ness monster was definitely not as difficult as dungeon monsters. Dungeon monsters usually wielded weapons, but the loch ness had no physical weapon.
In a short amount of time, the final blow was dealt to the monster and it disappeared into a thousand polygons. In the wake of its defeat were a few drop items including the black metal chunk. Asuna checks out the metal and sees that it is called Melast.
"That reward better be something good." Mikoto mutters while examining the monster drop items.
"Even if isn't, we still earned Col and EXP taking down that monster."
They were now walking through the forest part again. During the trip they ran through a few more bobcats and wolves, but those animals were easily taken care of.
The metal must have been rare since it was a drop item from a monster, meaning that the NPC's rewards should be interesting. Asuna mentally noted.
They return to where the NPC's shop was located at and hand him the Melast metal.
The NPC nods pleased. "With the request completed, here are your choices in rewards."
The NPC reveals the two girls a set of items. There were a few potions, a mace and a shield.
The difference between an NPC blacksmith and a real player blacksmith was that player blacksmiths could be bargained with and their quality of work depended on their weapon making stats. If a player blacksmith's level of metal work was high enough, that meant they could easily produce better weapons than a regular NPC.
"Hm… I'll choose the potions because we need some healing ones." Asuna said.
The NPC gives Asuna the set of potions and she places them in her inventory.
Asuna notices the Railgun's eyes were captivated by the shield.
Overall the shield was noteworthy since its material looked better than the other shields players had. It was shaped like any knight's shield and colored in blue. The blue color resembled the color of lightning.
"How good is the shield?" Mikoto asks the NPC
"Best shield I've ever made. It was forged out of a very durable metal." The NPC responds.
The short haired girl examines the shield once more and checks out its statistics. Asuna looks over and sees that the shield had rather impressive numbers. A smile escapes from the Railgun's lips.
"I'll take it." Mikoto collects the shield and it disappears.
"One of the most convenient parts about life here is that everything is automatically digitized. There's no need to physically store items at all." Asuna comments.
They head out of the NPC's shop, content with their rewards. Asuna considered choosing the shield earlier but it would have clashed with her fighting style. She felt glad knowing that her closest ally now possessed an effective defense weapon.
"It's been sort of a long day, let's head find an inn and call it a night." Mikoto yawns.
The daylight within the fifteenth floor was slowly but surely disappearing. When it was nighttime, the two girls found an inn to stay at and were examining their inventory.
"Before we head to the dungeon tomorrow, I really want to try out my shield." Mikoto's left arm was holding onto the blue shield. She was continuously lifting the shield up and down, getting used to its weight.
"I'll be glad to help you test it out. Though having a shield means you can't focus too much on speed." Asuna points out.
"I know I'll never be as fast as you." The Railgun smirks. "A good defense does make for a good offense."
"I'm counting on you to take all of the hits from the monsters and bosses."
"Hey! I am not going to let you take advantage of me like that!"
Mikoto and Asuna burst out laughing.
The two continued to talk for another half an hour before they decided to call it a night and sleep.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
In the early hours of the morning Mikoto was able to use her shield in a spar against Asuna. The two girls were within the town's parameters, which meant that they could not hurt each other's HP. After an hour of practice Mikoto was able to get the hang of using her shield. Asuna was impressed how quickly Mikoto was able to incorporate a shield in her sword style. Once they ate a piece of bread for breakfast, they headed out to the dungeon.
While going through the forest, they faced some more animals that were easily defeated. Mikoto and Asuna were able to level up after going against some higher leveled bobcats.
They found the dungeon's entrance and opened its massive doors to enter inside. The dungeon had a literally cold atmosphere.
The ground was with frost and the cold winds were blowing. However the two girls were not fazed by chilly atmosphere because they were wearing cold resistant coats.
10 minutes while exploring, they were met with a bipedal bear with an axe. The bear had on shoulder guards and a helmet but its chest was fully exposed.
The bear warrior immediately rushes towards Asuna and Mikoto with a swing of its two handed axe.
"I'll handle it first!"
Mikoto grins as she goes forward and ducks the axe swipe. She has out her trusty broadsword and new shield. Asuna steps back and watches as her friend handles the monster.
The bear goes in for another axe swipe but Mikoto manages to guard against it with her shield. Much to Asuna's surprise, Mikoto was able to use her shield to press forth against the axe and make the bear lose its balanced stance. Asuna knew that Mikoto had a higher strength stat but she was still amazed at her friend's ability to adapt fighting with a shield.
The bear left an opening which Mikoto took full advantage of by performing several quick slashes. While Asuna's sword style was based on fast paced thrusts, Mikoto relied on powerful slashes.
The bear roars out angrily as it was attacked and its axe turns a yellow color. The axe is sent towards Mikoto's side. The Railgun pivots her body so that her shield is able to block the incoming axe.
"Now!" Mikoto shouts out.
Asuna charges forth and her rapier's blade was glowing green. She runs behind Mikoto and jumps up on Mikoto's shoulders. Asuna uses the shoulders as a spring board to leap forth and send the two rapier thrusts in the bear's two eyes.
The bear groans out in pain and begins to swing its axe around madly. Asuna now was the bear's target.
Mikoto moved back, now letting Asuna handle the situation.
Asuna crouches to the ground as she lands from her jump and aims a few more lightning fast linear thrusts at the bear's legs. From the looks on the bear's HP bar, it would not last any longer. The bear was now backing off as its eyes have not recovered at all yet.
"Mikoto finish it off!"
Asuna jumps back and Mikoto goes ahead with her shield forward. The shield was used to block and divert the bear's axe leaving the bear wide open for attack. Mikoto's broadsword glowed and she did several slashes that formed an X on the bear's chest. A few seconds later the bear disintegrates into pieces.
The teamwork between the two girls has shown remarkable improvement after each floor they conquered.
During their time traveling through the vast dungeon labyrinth, they were able to create a map of the area. Since this was their first time fighting on the frontlines, this meant that their map would be extremely valuable for the clearing guilds.
"If we sell our map, we could make a lot of Col." Mikoto mutters while her eyes scan the area.
"We don't necessarily need more money right now. This feels so exciting to explore uncharted territory."
A while later they felt that they already mapped as much as they could for the day. They were now going to head back to the inn to rest and come up with ways to further improve their teamwork.
The different types of monsters they encountered while in the dungeons resembled the types of animals one would find within an actual taiga biome. One of the difficult monsters they faced against so far were the white coated bipedal wolves that could camouflage with the snow and ambush any players. Mikoto's high detection skill allowed her to spot the wolves before they could make the initial attack.
They made it outside the dungeon and were walking through the cold forest. It was right now a very quiet trip since they did not encounter any monsters.
"I think we might sooner or later feel the limitations of being a two member party." Asuna admits.
"So far we're managing just fine." Mikoto says. "It's not like we're solo players who face the constant danger of being overwhelmed by monsters. Those who solo at least don't have to worry about splitting up monster items."
"Are you saying that it's a pain to split the rewards?" The long haired girl gives an amused grin.
"Possibly…"
They looked at each other and let out a small chuckle.
Asuna was confident in hers and Mikoto's strength but felt scared about the increasing risks that would be inevitable at the upper floors. She was starting to see the benefits of joining a guild because they would be protected and supported by more comrades.
"AHHHH!"
As they were halfway to the town, a scream pervaded the air. It was no mistake that the scream belonged to a female.
Mikoto and Asuna acted without a second's thought. They bravely ran towards the direction of the scream. Surely somebody wouldn't come into the forest alone unless they were really strong.
They ran through some thick bushes and trees and saw the scene before them.
A girl was frantically trying to fight against a pack of wolves. She looked like she was overwhelmed.
There were eight wolves present, which was definitely difficult for just one person to tackle head on. Just as a wolf was about to pounce on the girl, Mikoto immediately jumps in and uses her shield to block the wolf's path. The wolf was pushed back by the shield's sheer force.
Asuna uses the technique Rage Spike as well as a combination of linear strikes upon the wolves.
Because the two girls intervened in so abruptly, the wolves were surprised and had little time to react or defend themselves.
"Leave it to us!" Mikoto shouts out.
A few minutes later Mikoto and Asuna finish off the wolves with hardly any trouble.
They put their swords back into their respective sheathes and look towards the person that was in distress.
"Hey are you alright?" Asuna asks the girl.
"Y-yeah I am… thank you so much for rescuing me."
Asuna looks at the girl and feels that this person was a familiar face.
"Oh my goodness!" The girl nearly falls backwards in surprise. She points a finger at Mikoto. "It's the Railgun!"
"You just called me Railgun? Does that mean you're from Academy City?" Mikoto looks at the girl with a surprised expression as well.
"Y-yes I am!"
"Wait I recognize you." Asuna smiles. "You go to Tokiwadai right?"
"Uh huh! You certainly deserve to be called the beauty of Tokiwadai." The girl beams at Asuna.
Asuna blushes at the compliment.
"Ooohh you do look familiar. It certainly has been a while since anybody called me Railgun. What's your name?" The Railgun looks at the Tokiwadai student.
"My name is Venus and it is such an honor to meet two of Tokiwadai's outstanding students."
Venus was a gray eyed girl with shoulder length curly blonde hair. She had on a dark green cold resistant jacket, boots and was equipped with a sword.
"We never thought we would meet anybody else from Academy City or even Tokiwadai." Mikoto utters.
"What were you doing out here by yourself? Soloing can be pretty dangerous." Asuna chimes in.
"Yeah I'm a solo player. I was fine for the previous floors but then I underestimated my opponent. I guess soloing has its limits because I get tired just fighting one after the other." Venus says sheepishly.
"It would have been even more dangerous if you headed to the dungeon. We managed to map it out but there's still some more left of it to explore." The Railgun notes.
"You two managed to make it to the dungeon and survived? That's pretty amazing!" Venus' eyes light up even more. "There are guilds that have a tough time going in there."
"Why not party with us? The more people we have, the safer we can be." Asuna suggests while giving a friendly smile.
"R-really?" The gray eyed girl was speechless by the offer.
"Academy City and Tokiwadai students should stick together." Mikoto smirks.
"Y-yeah you're right." Venus nods happily.
Asuna sends Venus a party request and Venus accepts it.
"Let's head back to town and grab something warm to eat and drink." Asuna yawns since she was feeling tired.
On the way to the town, the two girls were able to get to know their third comrade better.
Venus' choice of sword was a sabre. A sabre had a handle like a rapier but its lower part was curved. She was a level 3 esper who had the ability to create ice at will. She was also a second year like Mikoto and was one of the few lucky or rather unlucky individuals from Academy City who managed to pre order the game.
They reached the inn and managed to get along just fine. The three of them were able to find comfort in discussing their former lives back in Academy City.
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The next day they decided to practice with each other in one of the empty parts of the town. While they were in the town area, none of them were in any danger of depleting their health. If one was struck with a sword while in town, there would only be a knock back effect.
Mikoto takes out her broadsword and shield while Venus was equipped with her sabre. The sabre was nearly half a foot longer than Mikoto's broadsword.
Venus charges for towards Mikoto with a slash combo but Mikoto puts her shield forward to defend against the attacks.
Asuna watches the two at the sidelines and makes mental observations of their spar. She noticed that the sabre's main advantage was in its extended length because Venus was able to attempt more strikes upon Mikoto. However Mikoto was able to get good practice with her shield and blocked all of the sabre's attacks. The three girls took turns sparring against each other, to the point where each of them was familiar with each other's styles.
Once Venus was done sparring against Mikoto, she went against Asuna.
Once the spar began, Asuna was able to dominate the match because of her fast sword skills. Venus was forced to be defensive or else suffer multiple strikes from the rapier user. Asuna's fast and trained eyes were able to find an opponent's openings easily, and she was sure to take advantage of those weaknesses.
"I think I'm starting to face the limitations of being a solo player. There's the risk and reward factor to consider but sometimes the risk isn't worth it." Venus pants while taking some deep breaths.
"Now that there are three of us, I think our chances of survival are much higher." Asuna says optimistically.
After less than a week of exploring the dungeons, a party was able to confirm the location of the boss room. Many players, guilds and parties gathered at the ninth floor's town hall to discuss the plan of attack.
As usual, the first phase of the plan was to have a group of brave warriors be scouts. Being a scout was a risky task because it required a group of people fight against the floor boss while gathering up as much information as possible about the boss's techniques, attack patterns, and algorithms.
It was not always a guarantee that those in the scout group came back alive; though the same could be said about the main raiding group. Once the scouts found the information about the boss, the main raid would be formed out of guilds, parties and the occasional solo players. It was taboo to speak out loud about who gets the last would kill bonus, but that issue was on most player's minds.
The last time Asuna and Mikoto went to a boss raid meeting was when a certain blue haired knight led the mission. The one leading the ninth floor raid was not as charming as Diabel, but gave off a very strong and serious aura. Currently the guild with the most prominence was the Holy Dragon Alliance because they boasted the most members.
There were a noticeable percentage of the Holy Dragon Alliance members present at the meeting and some displayed cocky dispositions. Asuna promised herself that she would never join their guild.
A day later the scouting group came back, thankfully all of its members alive. They reported what they found. The boss was a large bipedal fox named Wrath. Wrath wielded twin hook swords which were incredibly deadly and sharp. A hook sword's back side could be used like a regular sword while the hook end could catch and trap enemies. The main way to ensure everybody's safety was to make sure nobody gets caught by the hook.
Reports said that sentinels would appear once its first HP bar is depleted.
Squad formation and assignments were determined next. Mikoto, Asuna and Venus stayed together while they were in Squad F along with 3 other individuals. Again, they were expected not to participate heavily in the boss fight because their main task would be to keep the sentinels at bay while the others fought Wrath.
Asuna felt a bit of déjà vu happening again, but felt that their commander made a good decision. Compared to the others, she and Mikoto were not as experienced as the other frontline battlers. They knew that Venus was indeed a strong player but was not too experienced in the frontlines as well.
"Alright everybody, we're going to head out to the boss room within an hour!" The commander lets out a proud warrior cry that boosts up everybody's spirits.
An hour later, the boss raid group went straight to the dungeons and to the boss room.
Once they found the large doors that were the entrance to the boss room, they opened the wide doors and saw the large fox with twin hook swords in its hands.
Wrath was an orange colored fox that had on a helmet and some armor on. It was slightly bigger than the Kobold Lord from the second floor but Wrath looked tougher.
Once Wrath spotted the players, it charged at them, madly swinging its twin hooks.
The commander shouted out orders, organizing the positions of each squad. Asuna and her friends were positioned in the back.
Not too long later, the first HP bar of Wrath is depleted.
The sentinels dropped down from the ceiling and began trying to attack the players.
Before the sentinels could reach the squads, Asuna and her two other allies were able to hold them off. The situation was like back on the first floor.
Venus was on standby while Asuna and Mikoto took care of the sentinels.
The sentinels were human sized two legged foxes with a mace as its weapon. Asuna was able to deliver multiple sharp thrusts at the foxes and then switched with Venus.
Venus took out her sabre, dodges the mace swipe, crouches down forward to the sentinel and delivers a horizontal strike at its lower mid-section.
Mikoto was able to use her shield by blocking an incoming strike and then jabbing her sword forward at the sentinel's eye.
"Ahhhh!" One of the players screamed as he was suddenly slashed by one of the hook swords. The force of the strike sent that player flying towards a pillar.
"Richard!" One of the Richard's allies shouts out in distress.
The one called Richard had 25% percent of his health depleted. Before Wrath could reach over and finish off Richard, some of the other squadron started attacking Wrath from all sides. Their formation was breaking up and the commander was shouting out orders madly.
Just before all hell broke loose, a certain black swordsman leaps forward to engage in combat against Wrath. Asuna looks at the swordsman in surprise, wondering why she had not spotted him during the boss attack meetings. Perhaps it was because the swordsman did not wish for his presence to be spotted, especially since he was the proclaimed beater.
"Everybody get back together! We can't let our fear get to the better of us!" The commander calls out while trying not to lose confidence in his leadership.
At the sight of the black swordsman holding together the vanguard, the other fighters mustered up their courage to help out.
Kirito-kun is so strong, it's like he doesn't let the fear of death get to him.
Asuna gets herself together and rushes forward to the vanguard along with Venus and Mikoto. Mikoto is able to use her shield skills to help provide the defense, working together with the other two to have smooth switch timing.
While Asuna was on the defense, she was able to do several successive hits along with multiple rapier thrusts forward. However, Wrath was spinning around its twin hooks madly and one strike was aimed towards Asuna.
"Asuna look out!" Venus shouts out.
Before the long haired girl could react, Venus pushes Asuna aside and blocks the incoming sword hook with her sabre. Some of Venus' HP is depleted because of the sudden force and impact. Venus' sabre is no longer able to withstand the hook sword and she is sent flying away and hits her back against a wall.
"VENUS!" Asuna and Mikoto shout out.
Asuna wanted to rush to Venus' side to see if her friend was alright, but her instinct was telling her to finish up the fight first. Asuna and Mikoto continue their teamwork along with the other players.
Ten minutes later the boss is finished off and the next floor was opened up.
The players all rejoiced and shook hands with their comrades.
Asuna and Mikoto went over to Venus to see if she was alright.
"Thank you so much for helping me out there Venus. If I took that hit then my HP would have been in trouble." Asuna smiles gratefully.
"Y-yeah sure… I'm just looking out for my senpai."
The three girls gave each other high fives before they entered into the sixteenth floor.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
It was another few weeks until the sixteenth floor was conquered. The three Tokiwadai ladies continued to party together, taking on the dungeons and even participating in the boss fight. Asuna felt that her survival was ensured when she was with her two companions.
Before she moved to Academy City, she did not know what it was like being relied on and supported by friends. Asuna is the daughter from a rich family, which made people either fear or resent her. But in SAO, players had to work together in order to survive. Asuna found herself appreciating this world.
The world of SAO was of course cruel since it was intended to be a death game, but somehow it felt more than that. Her sword was able to shape her destiny and take her to places. This was a world where a person could discover a part of themselves that they never did before.
The seventeenth floor was discovered to be a very interesting place. It was considered to be a jungle stage because of the jungle like setting it had. Players had to be very careful if they entered into the jungle because there were a variety of dangerous traps present. Such as how a player could fall quick sand that was capable of completely depleting a player's HP within 30 seconds.
The Tokiwadai trio planned to explore the wild jungle the following day.
Asuna and Mikoto were fast asleep while Venus quietly walked out of the inn and onto the streets of the town…
Venus was wearing a dark cloak as she moved in the darkness.
Author's Note: Thank you readers for your support! I am sad to report that my upcoming updates will be slow since I am back in school. Do not worry; I will not be going on a long hiatus or drop the story since I have a lot of cool ideas planned out.
Tune in next chapter to find out who exactly Venus is. Some interesting surprises and appearances in store next time!