Chapter 8: The Mission

"Mission start." The Spriggan smiled.

The Spriggan, now Kamen Rider twirled his weapon around and fired. Bullet holes started to appear immediately, and his opponents began to scurry away. The Sylph troopers however, were taken out immediately. He then did a twirl and somehow got Silica right on her shoulder.

"Silica!" Liz shouted.

Silica fell to the ground and rolled into the Rider's feet. He was put his foot on her stomach, and continued shooting.

"Pina!" Silica managed to shout.

Her trusty dragon dived down towards the Rider. It poked and jabbed his head.

"Get- Off of me!" He shouted, grabbing Pina and chucking it out of the way.

"Why you little!" Leafa grimaced. She landed on the ground, and charged.

The Rider scoffed, and pressed the B Button. The magnum became an automatic SMG for a few seconds, and it shot bullets that took a chunk of Leafa's health.

"Leafa!" Asuna shouted. She began to dart towards the Rider.

"Too easy." He smiled, pressing the A Button this time. The magnum then turned from a hand-held magnum into a battle rifle with a scope.

ZU-KYUUNN!

Rider picked up Silica. Then he threw her straight at Asuna's path as well as shooting the rifle. The bullet tore through the air and smashed Asuna with Silica through several trees.

"What is it with this guy?!" Liz shouted.

"Liz! Get some distance!" Kirito yelled. "Get out of his range!"

Liz nodded and took to the air. She went on for a good long. Yui, on Kirito's shoulder, slowly counted the distance.

"50m… 52m… 54m…" She slowly counted.

"Hmph." The Rider scoffed. Then he picked his rifle up to his face, and looked through the scope.

"No one can hide from my sight." He chuckled.

He fired, and what is more surprising, is that the bullet landed. Lisbeth was knocked unconscientious, and began falling through the sky.

"Liz!" Kirito screamed, quickly going after her. He caught her, and gently floated down to ground level. The Rider only folded the rifle barrel back in, turning it back into a magnum.

BA-KYUNN!

He twirled it around, and looked at Kirito condescendingly.

"Welcome to the boss level." He announced.

Kirito looked up, livid with anger. The last time he was like that was when fighting Death Gun.

"Haven't seen that look on you for a while." The Rider laughed.

Kirito didn't reply. He only drew his Elucidator and Excalibur.

"Why…" He whispered. "What's this about?"

The Rider laughed. "Do I need a reason?" He replied.

Kirito then began to take a few steps forward. He then began to pick up speed. He went for a dive, but the Rider twirled around him, and shot his back.

"Is that all you got?" The Rider taunted.

Kirito got back up and slashed and swung his swords like a maniac. But as he was attacking out of pure emotion, the Rider was dodging easily.

"Seriously, you're not even trying right now!" He teased.

And with one high kick, he knocked out Kirito back onto the ground, swords clanging on the ground beside. The Rider slowly began to move towards him.

"Stay away from him!" Yui yelled, flying towards him.

She threw tiny and measly punches at him. The Rider just swatted her out of the way, near Asuna. Kirito grunted, pulling himself back up. But when he looked up, he only saw the barrel of the magnum with the Rider holding it.

"Stay down, kid." He said. "It was fun. I-"

GACHANN! LEVEL UP!

TADORU MEGURU! TADORU MEGURU! TADDLE QUEST!

Out of nowhere, Brave jumped in and slashed at the Rider, who hopped out of the way. Kirito turned to his side and looked on. Brave and the Rider stood for a few moments before talking.

"Snipe…" Brave uttered.

"Well, well, well." The Rider, now known as Snipe, said. "What up, doc?"

"Haven't seen you in a while." Brave commented.

"Well, I had to come back." Snipe joked.

The two stayed silent for a few more minutes.

"Hey." Snipe said. "We could stand here and ogle at each other until Christmas, or we could help Ex-Aid with that Bugster over there"

He pointed to his side. In a nearby plain, there were some explosions happening.

"Huh… right." Brave conceded.

Snipe put his weapon away, and began to run towards the fight with Ex-Aid and the Bugster. Brave, on the other hand, just stood there for a few minutes. He put his hand out, and enchanted some healing on the SAO gang.

"Stay here." He said when he was done. And with that he ran towards the direction of the Bugster outbreak.

"Ex-Aid!" Poppy shouted. "Incoming on your left!"

Ex-Aid jumped into the air, and avoided the attack.

"Rockets?! Seriously?!" He yelled.

The Bugster he was fighting seemed to be a robot. He was entirely made of metal, and his left arm was a 50mm caliber machine gun.

"Mission Status: In-Progress. Target: Alive. Probability of success: 98.43%." It said.

"Let's change that, shall we?" yelled a voice.

The Bugster looked up and saw Snipe shoot several shots. It rolled out of the way and fired a barrage of missiles. Brave quickly swung his sword and blew up the missiles in the air.

"Open fire." The Bugster says.

That's when a platoon of grunts materialized on the battlefield, rifles in hand. They began shooting at the cover the Riders took. Metal clanging sounds ensued.

"So glad you could join us!" Ex-Aid said annoyed.

"Thank you." Snipe smiled.

He got up, fired a couple of shots, which took down several grunts, and got back down.

"Would you guys mind if I change it up a bit?" Snipe asked.

Brave didn't respond, as he was busy deflecting some bullets. But Ex-Aid gave him a thumbs-up, which was good enough for him. He reached to the side of his belt, and pressed the button.

STAGE SELECT!

They were now in a metal junkyard. The lush trees and bushes of ALO were now replaced with metal pieces of scrap lying around.

Now, the Riders began their offensive. Ex-Aid jumped into the air, and used his nimbleness to jump around and distract the grunts. With the distraction though, Brave was able to slash, slice and dice the grunts. Snipe was doing his own thing. He let himself be surrounded, only to twirl like a drill and shoot everyone in the face. One shot landed on Brave's shoulder, causing him to fall.

"Hey! Watch it!" He yelled.

Snipe just giggled, and continued to shoot. He pressed the A Button, turning his magnum into a battle rifle again.

ZU-KYUUNN!

He then proceeded to get headshots from three grunts, who were conveniently standing in a line. That's when the main Bugster decided to do the work itself. It punched Snipe in the face. Ex-Aid and Brave quickly reconvened together.

"Target: The Kamen Riders. Priority: Eliminate all opposition. Status: In Progress." It said robotically.

Then, it shot a barrage of missiles from its back. The Riders ducked and weaved, but some of the missiles were agile enough to get them. All three tumbled and rolled from the attack. Ex-Aid stood back up triumphantly.

"That all ya got?!" He taunted.

Brave and Snipe stayed down, as their health bars are now down to the last 10%, which is 10 HP.

Unbeknownst to them, the SAO gang followed them. Reminder, they still heard Brave's heed to stay out of this conflict. They just chose to ignore it.

The Bugster took the chance and shot two cannon shells at Brave and Snipe. They blew up with an explosion. Brave and Snipe looked up and saw Kirito and Asuna, their respective swords in hand.

"I thought I told you kids to stay out of this!" Brave reprimanded.

"Since when did we listen to you?" Kirito joked.

"Encountering more hostiles." The Bugster said. "Engaging. Probability of success: 94.26%."

And as it proceeded to keep shooting, Asuna and Kirito provided cover, while Leafa and Lisbeth got Snipe and Brave to get behind a metal debris.

"How are we dealing with this?" Leafa asked.

"We're not." Brave answered.

Then, he cancelled out of his transformation.

GACHUNN! GASHUNN!

Brave reverted back to his Undine body. He was panting heavily.

"What are you tired about?" Lisbeth asked.

"My HP was almost close to 0." Brave responded. "Had I continued, I would've died."

Kirito, who had just taken cover with Asuna, heard this, and just had befuddled look on his face.

"What do you mean, 'died'?" He asked.

"The Rider Gauge!" Poppy explained, flying out of Ex-Aid's pocket. "If it reaches 0, they get a Gamer Over and they die in both here and IRL!

Everyone froze when they heard that. The last time someone died from a VR game was back in the whole Death Gun debacle in GGO. Is it going to start again?

"How is that possible?" Silica asked.

"We don't know." Brave said solemnly.

"Wait. What about Ex-Aid?" Klein suddenly yelled. "Will he be okay?"

"Relax, dude!" Snipe shouted back, shooting from his cover. "That guy cheated death, like, 12 times! This one should be a breeze for him."

Snipe was right. Ex-Aid's HP was only half-full, and is jumping around all over the place. The Bugster just can't get the right precision on him. Ex-Aid then smashed a block he was on.

"Item: Get!" He cheered. "Defense: Up!"

Now, Ex-Aid landed back on the ground, and turned into solid metal. The bullets are now just bouncing off of him.

"Target: Improbable status." The Bugster said. "Unable to calculate. Standby- Standby-"

"You're open!" Ex-Aid shouted.

Then, grabbing his hammer, he inserted his Gashat into it.

GASHUUN! GASHATTO! KIMEWAZA!

Ex-Aid cracked his neck, and charged towards the Bugster, who was still trying to counter him.

MIGHTY CRITICAL FINISH!

With the blink of an eye, Ex-Aid then slashed the Bugster in half, killing it instantly. However, the game area didn't disappear. The area was still a metal junkyard.

"What… it's not over yet?" Kirito asked.

"Huh…" Ex-Aid shrugged. "Thought that would've been enough."

Snipe stood up. He inserted his Gashat into his rifle and pointed it viciously at Ex-Aid.

GASHUUN! GASHATTO! KIMEWAZA!

"H-h-h-hey! Wait a minute! Dude!" Ex-Aid pleaded.

Snipe ignored his plea and just pulled the trigger.

BANG BANG CRITICAL FINISH!

The recoil of the shot sent him back a good 4 feet. Ex-Aid ducked, but the bullet wasn't meant for him. It went right past his head and above his shoulder, and hit the same Bugster that was behind him.

"Cover: B-b-blown. Mission S-s-s-success rate: 0.00%. Mission: F-f-f-failure." The Bugster said before it blew up.

Ex-Aid looked behind him and saw the explosion. Snipe twirled his rifle out of pleasure, putting it up to his face.

"Mission complete!" He smiled.

GAME CLEAR!

Now, the area began to disappear. The heaps of scrap metal and other junk dissipated. They were now back in the plain of ALO, where they started. The forests were to their backs.

"Warn me next time, man!" Ex-Aid griped.

"Hey, we got the job done." Snipe said nonchalantly.

"Your antics almost cost us that Bugster!" Brave scolded.

"Relax, doc." Snipe teased. "I'm here, so who cares if a few get away? We'll get them later."

The SAO gang just watched on. They couldn't help but chuckle.

"Hey, did I miss anything?" asked a voice.

The gang saw Sinon flying in. She landed just behind them.

"Sinon…" Kirito sighed. "You… missed a lot actually."

Sinon turned around and saw Ex-Aid, Brave, and now Snipe.

"There's a third?" She asked with cat ears twitching and a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah…" Klein replied.

Snipe saw Sinon. He smirked, and cancelled out of his transformation.

GACHUNN! GASHUNN!

Snipe reverted back to his Spriggan body. Then, he approached her.

"Yo, Shino!" He called.

Sinon turned around and saw Snipe. She tensed up quickly. She resisted the urge to pull her weapons out, and only kept a face.

"Why's that man here?" She asked in a serious tone.

"Huh?" Kirito uttered.

"Isn't it obvious?" Snipe responded. "The Bugsters."

Sinon didn't reply. She only looked up at Snipe, who towered over her by about a foot. He smirked one more time, then took to the air.

"Hey, if you convert back to GGO sometime, how about a fight?" He yelled.

Then, he flew out of sight. Sinon looked down on the ground.

"Hey, Sinon, you okay?" Kirito asked.

"Yeah… I'm fine." Sinon replied.

But, she logged out as soon as she said that. Everyone was just befuddled how fast she just came and went. Brave, only took to the air. Ex-Aid also followed later with Poppy. Kirito looked up at the direction where Snipe flew. Asuna put a hand on his shoulder.

Snipe landed near a river. There, he laid down on a nearby log and closed his eyes.

"Ha…" He sighed. "Now for some relaxation."

There was silence for a few minutes. Only the sounds of the river flowing, birds chirping, and the trees rustling in the wind. Then, he heard steps. He kept on lying down as the steps got closer and closer. When the step broke a stick, he kicked up and pulled out the magnum.

A man approached him. He was in a brown cloak that cover his left arm and torso, while his right arm sleeve was green. He also had brown pants that stopped just short of his ankles, as they were cover by his black shoes.

"Snipe…" He muttered. "You are nothing but a walking corpse. It is high time that I erased you from this world."

"I'd like to see you try." Snipe chuckled.

The bow staff appeared in the man's hand. He twirled it around, and Snipe grabbed his magnum. They were about to kill each other if someone else hadn't interfered.

"Now, now, now." He said. "You really like jumping the gun, don't ya?"

"Pallad…" The man groaned. He grunted and walked away.

Pallad smiled and looked at Snipe.

"Sorry about him." He smiled.

"Who are you?" Snipe asked.

"Just know me as a player of the game." Pallad laughed.

And with that, Pallad disappeared. Snipe put his magnum down. He had no idea what just happened.

"Who is he though…" He asked himself.