Date posted: 18th September 2023

I'll be honest, I'm surprised this story has gotten this much attention, at 600 follows and 500 favs after two years. This part of FF isn't exactly all that active like it was in the olden days, but I still appreciate it. Thank you for all the reviews and kind words.

Let's get to that finish line, eh? (No, the story is not ending, just the arc)

Chapter 21: In the Red

"A vile force of darkness has arrived."

- Dwarf Fortress

It was quiet that night at Eternal Vigilance, a stark contrast to the day's festivities. If you could call a sport's riot that.

Despite the amount of gold flowing into the Watch's coffers, the building's that included the main castle had not grown much in size. The walls were still clean with all the new plasterwork, and three turrets in each corner of the castle, with the main tower overlooking all, the highest point for miles upon miles.

Had the old ruined castle been a dungeon, it would have been a mid-level one, probably infested with goblins or kobolds, that would take a party of single-digit level adventures about a day to clear. Now, it had become a true bastion of strength: ballistae at every turret, a steep incline that would take someone crawling on all fours to climb, a sturdy gatehouse with two portcullis made of strong timber and enforced with iron, and with pots of boiling sand for any unlucky idiot that was able to hack through it. The harvest from the fields alone would be sufficient to feed hundreds of people for months on end.

Courtyard and keep were both packed. Old Lady Ohkwáho and her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren, were going about tending the wounded, rioters and innocent alike, cleaning bandages and feeding the unable. Most of the rioters did not recall why they were hurt in the first place.

A bard was on the courtyard stage, singing a song of valour and perseverance; an enterprising chef was flipping patties all night - morale for the soul and for the stomach. A couple of alchemists too were busy brewing potions. It was going to be a long night.

In one forgotten corner of the courtyard were two players: a big blonde haired and bearded man with a broken arm and a lithe brown haired archer with a broken leg. Neither of them had any memory of what had transpired or how they were severely injured. The man had a swollen lip and the archer had a black eye.

"Ugh … what the hell happened?" asked Thor of the Legends Brave, feeling his senses dull and dead - better than being in pain if it were real, he supposed. "Robin, where are we?"

Robin Hood scrunched her nose, definitely feeling something had broken. "We're uh … at Fort Eternal Vigilance, I think?"

"Oh yeah." The place did look familiar, because they were there back in the beta a lifetime ago. Definitely more spruced up than the last time they were here. She snapped her fingers. "Ah, we were here for the tournament!"

"The tournament!" said Thor, his memories flooding back. He also recalled their brief foray into the underground prison for that BBEG down there, which wasn't very impressive. A basic tourist trap, but at least they got tunics out of it. "Yeah, I remember drinking some beer watching the game and … and …"

"You got angry?"

"How did ya' know?"

"Because I remembered getting into a fight …" Robin racked her memory and failing. "And I don't remember."

"Then maybe I can jog your memory," said a third voice as they sat down on a stool and sat on it.

"Good evening, I am Tupi, Steward of this humble keep." He had a wax tablet in hand and was vigorously writing something on it. "Mister Thor and Misses Hood, you have been found committing acts of vandalism and assault in our home. We have numerous witnesses, so rest assured, we know it was you."

"Vandalism?!" shouted Thor.

"Assault?!" shouted Robin.

"As Lord Kirito is the master of this realm, has chosen not to throw you into the dunjon. Therefore, he will only apply a fine. I believe this shall cover all damages."

Robin took the tablet and her one good eye bulged. "What?! This is highway robbery! What the hell did we break?"

"Let's see …" said Tupi as he produced another wax tablet. "You set fire to one of our trees, broke furniture of at least six different merchants, assaulted the guards …"

"That would explain the cast, yes," said Thor.

"Oh, and you peed on one of the cats." He slapped the tablet shut. "Now, when can we expect payment?"

Both the Legends looked each other. "Uh, can we pay you in another way?" asked Robin,

At that, Tupi smiled, and the players realised that was his plan all along. He produced parchment from his robe. It read: Emergency Milita Signup - All Fines Retracted at the End of Service

"Well, I guess being fighters is what we're good at," said Thor. "Not sure how much of a help I can be with a broken arm."

"Any and all hands would help. We have an army of undead and beavers setting up catapults right now."

Both of the players blinked. "You have a what?" they shouted.

It took only an hour but it was done: Tupi had recruited every able-bodied (and many non able-bodied) warriors as he could have. It was very easy, actually. Most people would rather do a brief time of potentially fatal fighting than trying to pay off debt. The steward assumed better to do it now than have the weight of debt on your shoulders forever. He believed Lord Kirito called this 'late stage capitalism'.

Tupi returned to the office where he found the Lord of the Eternal Watch looking out the window. He was sullen, wearing ragged robes and his hair a mess, so different from the handsome merchant back in the morning. He had a half empty bottle of wine in hand and his face was red from the drink. The pieces of broken glass lay still on the floor from before. The precious longsword, the one that had so caused so much heartache, lay upon his lap, and his knife girded to his belt.

Tupi attended him and noticed the flames outside. "What is happening?" he asked, eyes failing to pierce the darkness.

"Yeoman Dumont and his fellow settlers are dousing their homes in the gunk that Abbess Natalya bought with her. Only a couple of barrels, but that's way more than enough for the entire village and then some."

Tupi need not be a tactician to understand what was going on. "They worked on their homes for months …" said Kirito.

"Home is more than a building," said Tupi.

"I guess it is," he said and chugged down his wine. "This was supposed to be easy, you know. Stay here awhile, get some passive income, do build base, grind some wheats, but nooooo. We need to handle a goddamn invasion of zombies."

He sometimes had difficulty understanding the merchant's strange way with words. "Beavers too, if reports from Miss Argo are to be believed."

"Faaaaaantastic." He was slurring his words now. "Remind me where the rest of my staff is?"

Tupi did not need to pull out his tablet for this. "Well, Captain Asuna and Slayer Sinon are still in the field; Master Smith Lisbeth is at her forge with her apprentices, Miss Yuuki is watching over the donjon with the traitor Nezha -"

"Freaking Nezha …"

"Brother Rays is with the Sisters of Saint Olga with Operation Palisade. Ser Reginald is on the field with his horsemen near the Bronze Axe Inn, waiting for orders to come from you to strike. Commander Emeri is still on his way back to Mankhlar. Professor Ramza and Apprentice Ava are handling the Prisoner as we speak."

"And Kizmel?"

"The Royal Guard is still searching for the criminal she was chasing before, but I fear it is a lost cause. All in all, we have most of the Watch on hand with a fourth of them in the field."

"And the visitors?"

"Most of the merchants have gone off, maybe they believe it's better to take their chances in the wilds than here. A few like your friend Agil of the Melee Cafe are still here,"

Kirito sighed. "Please contact Ser Reginald and have his men find these wayward idiots before they get eaten."

"Already done so before he left, lord."

"Good, and where's Argo?"

"Miss Argo is outside, waiting for you."

Yes, Kirito recalled her throwing a glare before stomping out of the room at his little outburst. "Stay here Tupi, I'm going to do the rounds." He used «Wicasa's Legacy» as a cane and shuffled outside.

When Kirito exited the tower, he could feel Argo's presence nearby, her «Stealth» was second only to Sinon. The courtyard was filled with the groans of injured rioters and the whimpers of afraid tournament goers. He had a feeling that his little outburst had very much soured her mood on him. Whatever, he could make it up to her later.

He made his way to the smith where Lisbeth lorded over her goblin apprentices like a tyrant, and a not-so-nice boss to other merchant smiths. Her staff tripled in size as she commanded men twice her age to do the work. It was a good thing then that the forge was large enough to accommodate all of them.

Lisbeth exited the forge, drenched in sweat as if she had walked out of a sauna. "Forge is hot and doing well, Kirito. Production has increased threefold!"

He summoned a smile and a confident face, failing. "That's fantastic, Lisbeth! Uh, production of what?"

She turned around and grabbed a particularly stumpy javelin, with a shaft too wide and a head too big. "Ballista bolts! These babies can hit man-sized targets from half a kilometer away!"

"That's good. So how accurate are our ballista troops?"

She frowned. "Wasn't that Sinon's job?"

"Sinon said she had said you'd do it."

The pink-haired smith's mouth went agape. "I-I wasn't told that!"

The two players looked at each other and cursed Sinon under her breath. "I am going to give her so much of an ass kicking …" he said under his breath.

"Hey, what better training conditions than live training, right?" she said. Then the two awkwardly laughed, ignoring the parked army outside their walls.

"Keep up the good work, lads," he shouted over the clangor of the work. "We'll survive the night yet!"

"Can I hold my baby?" asked Lisbeth, pointing at the sword in hand.

"Hell no. You lost it in the first place." She pouted and went back to work.

Kirito found himself speaking to everyone important. Old Lady Ohkwáho was ever the calm head and her family members were taking it better than the Watch. Brickwall was busy hyping up the garrison, ever the optimist. The Sheriffs had been given a temporary promotion of sergeants, Master-at-Arms Robert and Sergeant Hamid giving them a rundown on what to do. Even Git Guld was back in his armour, katana in hand.

As he found himself on the walls, finding going up the stairs a bit more of a hassle than going down, he found Yeoman Dupont and his men had just returned from his duty. His retinue climbed over the wall instead of coming through the portcullis, and pulling the ladder from him. He smelled rank.

"It is done, lord." He pulled off a pair of cheap gloves and threw them into a brazier, the fire jumping a meter into the air before dying, scaring Hansel and Gretel nearby. "I must say, this is one of the most painful things I've ever done."

"I'm sorry, yeoman. You'll be compensated for it."

And be more of a drain on the coffers, he thought bitterly before chastising himself; these were people's homes at stake.

"Worry not. It is war, it happens. We will rebuild and go on as we do. Everyone who answered your call knew this when they signed up."

Well, he could at least mentally check that off. Just one more visit.

He found himself in the fort's jail, where the worst of the rioters had been locked up. In one cell, Kid Lat was on his cot, still knocked out from Argo's vicious suplex, a cartoonishly large bump on his head bulging from under the bandage wraps. Yuuki was snoring at the warden's table, so much for "Keeping both eyes open." He was however only interested in one prisoner.

Kirito sat himself in front of the ex-smith. Nezha looked like shit as he sat on the floor, staring at nothing. He barely registered in his vision until he spoke up. "So … what's up?"

"Oh, you know: an undead army is outside ready to sack my project I've been working on for months, hundreds of lives on the line, my lovers are out there fighting for their lives, and I found out that some disgruntled ex-employee is trying to summon a zombie army to destroy my home, what do you think, Nezha?"

Nezha cocked his head. "Wait, so you're with both Sinon and Asuna? Shit, I lost my bet with Brickwall. I thought it was just Sinon."

There was an audible ahem from the corner of the jail, though neither men can find the source. "No, I haven't … you know, do the thing with any of them yet."

The smith looked positively offended. "Wait, so you're running around the fort, hitting up the prettiest girls here and you aren't sleeping with them? Why?"

Kirito punched the bars. "Listen jackass, I'm here to interrogate you! Not the other way around!" He leaned back on his stool. "So you better get to talking or else I'll -"

"The elf lady already took my confession. The twerp over there is sleeping on it."

"Oh sorry, let me check."

After drying Yuuki's drool off the sheets, Kirito took his time reading the testimony. Nezha held his silence as the CEO's eyes scanned the paper, taking it all in. The night was loud with chatter, the feeling of worry palpable in the air.

"Well?"

Kirito hung his head and pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering something under his breath.

"Sorry, what was that?"

More mumbling.

"Speak up."

"I said I'm sorry, alright!" he shouted. "I was wrong! I was wrong, I was wrong! You were innocent! God! I messed up!"

He slumped back in his stool, a defeated man. "After all this, I'm gonna make an official statement that you were no thief, and I promise to reimburse you for your trouble. Missed wages and then some."

Nezha closed his eyes and exhaled, smiling. "Thank you."

"That elf is still going to have you dragged back in chains to her city and hack your head off though."

"Oh no, I am aware. She did not spare the details."

So engrossed was Kirito with the chat, he didn't notice another person coming into the room and tapping him on the shoulder. "The professor would like to see you, lord. It's urgent," said Ava.

Kirito cracked his neck. "Fine, fine. I'll be there in a moment." He turned one last time to Nezha. "Again, I'm sorry I got it wrong."

"Aren't you mad about the whole trying to sabotage your whole business thing?"

"I'm too much of an enterprising merchant to care for that. Besides, it's bad for business and harmful to the soul," he said and closed the door behind him.

It was the dead of night and death was swarming the hills.

Asuna must have passed this particular piece of land a dozen times in training her troops, accompanying Kirito or running errands. It was no different from the dozens of hillsides, covered with trees and foliage. Had she investigated a bit further, she would have noticed the cave in the side.

It was a surprisingly well-hidden spot despite being only five kilometers away from Fort Eternal Vigilance. The shrubbery was well planted, a treeline hiding all their horses and even the canopy hid the rising smoke. You would have to be at least fifty yards away to actually see the group of people hunkering down there except you'd catch a bolt in the face before you actually did, which two beaver scouts found out the hard way.

Asuna was quite impressed by the almost cozy setup Sinon had: stone carved counters, pots and pans for all, a good firepit with a hole in the ceiling for a chimney, and what appeared to be dozens of bricks of pemmican enough to feed their little troop. The slayer herself was currently lying on an armchair wrapped in a bison pelt she most definitely killed herself, while the others sat on the floor, lording over them like some sort of tribal chieftess.

"So is that what you've been doing when you're out of the fort?" asked Asuna, munching on her hardtack and pemmican; not very delicious but it kept her and everyone else fed.

She supped her tea before answering. "A girl needs a place by herself. Me time is me time. Besides, training is boring."

"You've at least have trained the troops to use the ballistae, right?" Her scouts had already found the massive army of undead parked outside the fort, cutting down the immaculately planted trees around it.

"Don't worry, I got Lisbeth to do it." She scrunched her face in thought. "I think."

Despite the comfiness and cottagecore vibes the cave was giving (cavecore vibes?), Asuna was restless. She was still in her raiment, still wearing her weapons, and her poor horse was still saddled and uncurried. The Watchmen were still alert and ready, but the jousters, the sellswords, and the rest were already halfway to slumberland.

Looking back on it, the attack on that group was a mistake. Asuna had pushed the attack, killed a fair amount of zombies and decapitated a zombie here, skewered a wizard there. It was a spur of the moment decision, thanks to the sudden burst of energy of Heathcliff's crystal thingamabob. She wondered if he still had some, could use another pick-me-up.

But Heathcliff was resting as well, outside with the others, guarding the horses. The cave abode was just enough to fit herself, Sinon, Hwiatha, some of the veteran Watchmen, and the most seriously wounded. She disliked how she was taking it easy while her men were outside. The perks of being an officer, Sinon had told her. Still …

She excused herself and left the cave. The knights did grumble, lacking their big fancy colourful pavilions and tents large enough to house two families, but they were good horsemen and good soldiers, whose steeds were of high quality and well trained, keeping quiet despite their close proximity. She made sure to take her time doing the rounds, saying some encouraging and comforting words to the wounded, praising their bravery, and handing some food to the sentries.

It was surprisingly hard to find Heathcliff, what with him parking himself in front of a rock and blending into the surroundings with his green cloak on him. He had his longsword on his lap and had his eyes closed. Asuna almost went into drill-sergeant mode but Heathcliff merely said, "Worry not, captain. I am merely meditating."

"Probably shouldn't meditate in a forest full of undead."

He raised a finger. "Do you hear that?"

Asuna stopped and listened: scittering wildlife, footsteps in the distance, and the groaning dead. "You realise «Perception» isn't my dump stat, right?"

At that, the older man gave a confused look. "So you can actually hear well?"

"No, I mean I have low «Perception»."

He blinked. "Asuna, dump stat refers to an attribute where you don't invest in. It doesn't mean the stat you dump your points into."

Asuna made an 'o' face. "No wonder people give me weird looks when I say «Agility» is my dump stat. Not my fault I don't play video games."

"This is your first video game?" he asked, bewildered.

"Well, this console was my brother's but, you know what, it doesn't matter."

"Anyway, try again. Listen harder."

She did and found herself more able: wind blowing through the leaves, the crackling of nearby fire, her men complaining under their breaths and worried for their friends and family but also -

"Someone's shoveling."

"Yes."

"But shoveling what?" And how could she hear so well? She double checked her stats and found her «Perception» wasn't even in that high; 21 compared to Sinon's in the 40s.

"Shh. There, moving water. Crunching wood."

Asuna immediately understood. "Beavers."

"Yes."

"What are they doing?" she whispered, trying to focus harder.

"Doing what they do best."

It hit Asuna in the face like a splash of water. "Back to the cave."

The warchief of the Eternal Watch summoned an emergency meeting. A map was produced and pasted on the cave wall. "The Magula River is here, and the distance between the Fort and it is only 700 meters," said Asuna, marking the map with a piece of charcoal. "Sinon, you know these bastards better than I do, how quickly can they build a dam?"

"Hmm, assuming a family of twenty, they can make one in half a day. Wait, you don't think they're going to …"

"They're going to redirect the river," finished Hwiatha. "For what purpose? They could redirect the entire river to the fort and it would do nothing. It is built on a tall enough hill. They'd only ruin their own siegeworks."

"That's because they're not going to flood the fort." Asuna tapped on the road.

"They're cutting off the road from any reinforcements. Eternal Vigilance will stand alone against an army undead and beavers," said Heathcliff, smiling. "The War AI has worked stupendously well in all fields."

Sinon made a face. "Are you really happy that a bunch of people are going to die?"

"Nothing wrong with being impressed with a piece of technology, miss slayer."

Asuna stood up. "Right, so we have no choice but to destroy the dam. Do we even have anything flammable?"

All eyes turned to the crate in the corner of the room. Big brown jugs stacked in a crate, labeled with a triple X. Sinon stood before it. "Oh no, you ain't touching that!"

"Where on earth did you get it?" asked Asuna.

"Where do you think I got this cave from? A bunch of people were making moonshine right here. Told em' it was illegal to make it on Watch land, so either they give me the cave or I send them to the dunjon."

Hwiatha frowned. "But it's … not illegal, to make moonshine, and this isn't even Watch land."

"Yeah, but they didn't know that. I'm still not giving it up."

"I'll convince Kirito to reimburse it and give a 50% mark-up."

Sinon was already shoving the jugs in everyone's hands. "Well come on, that dam isn't gonna set itself on fire."

This was not the first time Argo had been besieged.

The beta had a fair number of them, all of them pretty basic. An army in the field and an army in the fort, a quarter sized, but with the defender's advantage, nine times out of ten, it was the defenders who won. Who knew the wall was such an important invention? Brickwall probably. He always went on about how one man on the wall was equal to ten men on the ground.

They were surrounded all over, but the main force was parked east, just near Second Sister, a smaller river branching of the Magula River. The Undead may have no need of water, but beavers certainly did. Even in the dark, Argo could see the silhouette of a siege tower being constructed.

"Look at them, a bunch of sad, sad, little nerds," said Argo, leaning on the (building part) with one foot, wind blowing in her hair, chewing on a haystalk which she took far too much effort to find. "They ain't tough enough to do the deed themselves, so they gotta send in the chaff instead."

"Sir."

She slammed her first into her palm. "But don't worry, rookies. Argo's here to keep you in-line! I'll teach you all my secret jutsus so you can give these zombies a righteous ass whooping!"

"Sir …"

She was really getting into it, and tried the same hand movements Kirito was doing. "I know you're afraid … but I'm afraid too. But we brave few … we band of brothers …" Wait, how'd the speech go again?'

"Sir!" Sergeant Hamid coughed. "The archers are already engaged with the enemy."

"What? Where?"

The Nadyah Watchman pointed to the other side of the castle where parts of the land had turned to day. Great pillars of smoke rose from where the settlers had doused their own homes in the black gunk that the Sisters of Saint Olga had brought them. The archers Sinon had trained raining arrows on the enemy as if was just another day at the range. Even from here, Argo could smell the stench. "Oh. Do you need help?"

"No need, sir. Sergeant Brickwall and Master-at-Arms Robert already have the eastern and northern walls under control.'

"Ah." They were currently on the south wall. "So the enemy is coming here at any second?"

"Actually, most of the southern part is covered by a large hill and very dense wood. We don't expect anyone or anything coming here, but keep an eye out!"

Argo leaned over (castle wall name) to see that this particular part of the hill was covered in stakes and rocks. The walls themselves were mostly smooth with nary a hold to them. Even the most experienced adventurer would have issue climbing this part of the wall. This would explain why there was only a grand total of five people around here and no ballistae at all. Wait a second …

"Sergeant, who assigned whom on the walls."

"Well sir, it was Lord Kirito and Master-at-Arm Roberts who checked the (find correct word for assignments)."

"And it was Kirito who assigned me here."

"Yes."

"There's only five people here, not including you."

"Lord Kirito has assumed this is a sufficient number of soldiers to keep watch."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Kirito assigned me in the rear to keep me safe, didn't he?"

The sergeant did not meet her eyes. "I do not question my lord's orders."

Argo wasn't entirely sure how to feel about this: touched that Kirito worried for her safety or angry that he had no faith in her fighting abilities. Like always with Kii-bou, her feelings were complex.

It had taken a fair amount of convincing and flattery to get her to stop being angry with his temper tantrum. But with those big brown eyes, those quivering pink lips and a flip of his hair and she was on board. The fact he looked all beat up kinda made him hotter.

"Oh, c'mon! You know I can't do all that boring military shit!" she had said to him, before he went into the dungeon. She liked adventuring, fighting and planning, but the business of tactics she left to others for the most part.

"You're the best damn info broker in this world, you've got a network of hundreds of people, you know people. You led an entire goblin-backed rebellion! I think that counts as leadership experience."

"I dunno, Kii-bou … seems kinda hard …"

"Imagine the sheer amount of people you can divekick off the walls."

"Sorry Kii-bou, but if you hadn't guessed, but I ain't really an Asuna."

"Of course, I appreciate you for who you are, not for who you aren't."

And just like that, whatever anger that Argo had at Kirito's little temper tantrum immediately dissipated. Damn Kii-bou and his completely effortless charm. "Oh fiiiine."

"Get to, Commander Rat."

"Sir, yes sir."

Before he left for the dungeon, he unwrapped the scarf around his neck and tied it around hers. "And put on some proper clothes, you're gonna catch a cold!"

"Oh, come on. You know I rock this look." She rasped her knuckles on her very impressive midriff.

"Oh, you do, but you're still gonna get stabbed here if you're not careful.'

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, daaaad."

"You've called me daddy before, don't see why this is any different."

"KAZUTO!"

Returning to the present, Sergeant Hamid shifted uneasily. "It would be best if you stayed here, sir. If not …"

"What, you ain't gonna get a bonus?"

"Well, to repeat what Lord Kirito said …" he cleared his throat, "If a single blonde hair on my Rat's head gets harmed in any way, I will flog you before the men."

"Awww, he called me his Rat!"

"Yes, quite. So I would appreciate it if you … stayed put?" he asked, very very nicely.

"Fine, but I want to give orders to 'Nock, Draw, Loose' to the archers."

At this, he raised a brow. "What? We don't do that. Everyone shoots as an individual. As for that, uh, maybe later. I need to help Smith Lisbeth with the ballistae.."

As Sergeant Hamid left to handle the walls, Argo summoned her comrades and had them sit around a table. "Alright, kiddos, listen up: because we are very much not needed at the moment, I think we can do another exercise that will surely raise our E-Spirit Decore."

"You mean esprit de corps?" asked Hansel, sitting down.

Already, cards were being handed out. "Listen, I don't speak Swedish, okay? Now shut up and start playing."

The battle raged on, the Eternal Watch effortlessly slaughtering the horde for easy XP. It was going to be a long night.

Elsewhere, deep in the dark words, the Heresiarch and his most devout students prepared to break through the enchantments of the walls and free their dark lord. A dozen «Honoured Braves», stood by, rope around their grey persons. Once great explorers and climbers, they were returned to life to commit cruel slaughter and dark deeds. Armed with bronze breastplates and axes, sharp javelins in hand, they were powerful light infantry not to be trifled with as many an invader have suffered.

"Great Lord, where do we strike?" asked one of the faithful.

He pointed a bony figure on the map where the castle was left undefended, the southern wall. "Here, where the Watch has put the least men on the walls and the runes are at its weakest. Now go forth and bring us victory!"

Sinon was in her element. Unfortunately, her fellow rangers were not.

Men and women of the Orage were more settlers than hunters. The Watch had already taken the sneakiest and the most rugged of the outdoorsmen. They weren't even all that bad, they just weren't as good as her. They stepped on too many branches, brushed on too much foliage, and their bolts click-clacked in their quivers. It was only thanks to the sound of construction and the moaning dead that they weren't discovered.

There were twelve of them in total, eight rangers and four fighters. Asuna, Heathcliff and the two sellswords were way back, so as not to alert the others.

The plan was simple: they would wait for Hwiatha and the rest to make a ruckus on the beaver camp's entrance, hooting and hollering, maybe an obscene hand gesture too, and this crack squad would set fire to the dam. Easier said than done. You ever try to set fire on wet wood? Her booze sacrifice better be worth it.

It didn't take long to stumble on a sentry: there beavers, wearing yellow painted turtle shells on their heads, bored out of their minds, munching on branches of wood in the same way one would smoke cigarettes. Not that cigarettes existed in the game, probably a good thing considering how much she had been smoking her pipe lately.

She called forward two of the best shooters, and with her new shiny siege crossbow, all three simultaneously planted a bolt in the sentries' skulls. Excessive? Yes, considering that beaver skulls are far softer than human skulls, but there was no such thing as overkill in her mind.

They rolled the corpses into the bush as everyone gathered atop the hill. Asuna observed the grounds with her spyglass which she handed to Sinon. "See that dam there?"

"How could I not?" said Sinon. It wasn't particularly large as the Magula river was narrowest at this point. Narrowest, in this sense, still being a hundred meters. It was only half finished, with the logs being stuck in the riverbed. A small group of beavers were piling up and making mud on the bank.

"I count at least half a dozen beavers, thirty shambling dead, half of them being used as mules, and a wizard nearby with a «Dwarven Steelbreakers» guarding him. None of the «Honoured Braves», thankfully."

"Can you kill the wizard from this range?" asked Asuna.

Sinon shot her a raised eyebrow. "Yeah nevermind, dumb question. I'll take the men closer by the river, see if we can kill the engineers and unstuck the dam. Heathcliff will stay to guard. You kill the wizard when Hwiatha and the rest come by."

"Try to save the rest of the booze!" she hissed, knowing full well it was a futile request.

Asuna and her group snuck down the hill they were on while the slayer set her weapon ready. The siege crossbow was a massive and cumbersome thing, weighing almost six kilos, was more hand-ballistae than anything resembling portable. The bow itself was made from quality steel and the body of dark maple was decorated with scenes of deer. A complex windlass hung from Sinon's shoulder, also immaculately made. All in all, it was a masterwork that the slayer was surprised the master crafter gave to her so willingly.

If Kariwase asked for it back, she was definitely gonna misplace it.

Standing up, using a y-shaped branch as a fork rest. She waited for the cavalry to come. Heathcliff stood behind her, a silent guardian. Fine by her, she was no fan of smalltalk.

The minutes ticked as Sinon watched the wizard. He walked here and there, shook his skull-staff at his undead labour force, as his loyal bodyguard followed. She could only worry at how big the actual main force is, wherever they were.

The silence was only broken by a sharp gasp. "Damn."

"What is it?" Sinon kept her eye on the wizard.

"Damn, damn. This is too soon." She could hear Heathcliff chuckle mirthlessly. "You are a smart, smart boy."

More silence. It was worrying enough that Sinon turned around. There, the knight stood quietly, sword and shield resting on the ground. Her brows furrowed in worry.

"Heathcliff-san? Are you okay?"

"Hah, worry not, young miss, I am quite fine," he said, suddenly gaining a new accent. "Look yonder, there our comrades have arrived!"

The cavalry appearance was explosive, coming out of the darkness as if being spawned. They gave loud war-whoops, surprising the beavers guarding the edge of the camp. Lances splintered as torches were thrown onto the tents.

Sinon returned her sights onto the wizard, he was raising his staff and chanting something at his zombies. Instantly, they dropped the things they were carrying and went to face the cavalry.

She took her shot. The bolt whistled through the air with the full force from a 700 pound steel bow only for it to thud itself in the Steelbreaker's steel shield. It lowered its shield and stared at her, glowing blue eyes blazing.

"Shit! I'm reloading!"

The dwarf was already coming at her, moving at a speed she would not have expected someone so short and encased in so much armour. Heathcliff already stepped in front of her.

"Worry not, miss! I shall guard you while you are in the process of loading your cumbersome weapon!"

"Why are you talking like that?!" she shouted, already cranking the cranequin as fast as she can. She cursed as she already lost sight of the necromancer.

Running up the hill with the grace of an elf rather than the clumsiness of a dwarf, the Steelbreaker and the knight met each other with a loud clash. Axe parried sword blows, shield rim punched into helmets as Heathcliff struggled against the enemy. "Go, miss slayer! Slay the foul mage and bring us victory!"

"Ugh, freaking dork," she said under her breath, descending the hill to find the enemy.

There on the riverbank, Asuna and the rest were engaging in a fight with the beavers. A couple Watchmen had swam up to the dam in s. At the entrance of the camp, the horsemen were cutting down as many zombies they could but it seemed even more of them were coming out of the woodworks. Sinon saw at least a dozen zombies coming out of a tiny tent like some sort of undead clown car.

She finally reached the necromancer's tent, easy to find what with being all black with a white skull on it - not very smart these nerds. She entered through the flap, siege crossbow drawn only to have it knocked out of her hands.

"Away with ye!" snarled the wizard, hefting his staff over his head. "You will not stop our holy mission!"

The staff came down at her but she caught it with one hand and swung her fist with the other. The nerd flew backwards, rolling over the table behind him and landing unceremoniously onto the floor. Sometimes Sinon forgot she had archer's strength.

The slayer stalked forward and pulled out her dagger, ready to end his life. He crawled away pathetically to the corner of the tent. "I love watching men crawl away from me in fear," she growled, before realising what she had just said.

See, Asada, this is why you can never net a boyfriend talking like that. Thank God no one was around to hear it.

She stepped behind the man's knee and dug her own into his spine to do the deed only to flung herself backward at the last second. The axe-head missed her cheek by only a few inches as she rolled backwards in a fighting stance.

Another Steelbreaker cut through the felt of the tent, armed with an intricate longaxe. At times, Sinon really regretted not investing enough in melee.

She flung a throwing knife at his face, the blade jamming in its eye-slit, throwing its head back from the impact. She launched herself onto the ground to reach for her crossbow and rolled to the side, narrowly missing the massive axehead coming at her.

Turning around and lying on her back, she shot it again in its helmet, the close range and power of the bow sufficient to penetrate the thick helmet, the vanes of the bolt disappearing into it.

The slayer took her chance and pounced on the dwarf, tackling it to the ground. She kicked the axe away, kneed it in its armoured stomach, and plunged her dagger right in its eyehole. It struggled valiantly, some sense of its old noble self no doubt fighting for its unlife. She held her dagger with both hands and put her all into it. It squirmed, struggled and finally passed into a proper afterlife.

Sinon stumbled back, breathing heavily, feeling the adrenaline rushed out of her. Slowly but surely, she staggered back up and exiting the tent, dragging her crossbow with her.

She was greeted to a huge fire in the river, as the rest of the beavers plunged themselves into the water, swimming away to safety. The necromancer dead, the zombies were aimless and without purpose, easy prey for the cavalry.

Sinon sat herself in a chair next to a campfire. The Watch and the rest were doing good work on the remnants while the jousters and the villagers were already in a looting haze. Being an officer of the watch, she was technically in charge to ensure this was kept at a minimum but with her booze being used as a weapon of war, she guessed that Asuna and Hwiatha could do it just fine.

As she stuffed her pipe with tobacco and lit it, Asuna came to, all blood and guts. "Sinon, where's Heathcliff?"

Ah right, she almost forgot. She turned to look up the hill he was fighting on and saw that he was still there, trying and failing to wrench his sword out of the dwarf's head. He raised a hand and waved, she waved back.

She cocked her head in his direction. "He's fine. Something's off with him though."

"Like what?"

"Bah, I'll tell you later."

Asuna sighed. "We really need to get these troops under control."

"Yeah, someone that's not me should get on that." She puffed smoke and enjoyed the buzz the tobacco was giving her. This was good stuff too.

Before Asuna could say anything, Hwiatha came alongside a familiar face. "Ho, warchief! A friend arrives!"

"Rays!"

The paladin dismounted and the two clasped gauntlets. "Good to see you, captain."

"What are you doing here?"

"I was sent by Lord Kirito for Operation Palisade. Saw the fire and heard the sounds, and here you are! I've the Sisters with me, as well as some of the men"

Asuna whistled. "I had hoped it didn't come to this."

"What's Operation Palisade?" asked Sinon.

"Sinon, I sent you the brief ages ago."

"Yeah, but have you considered that reading's for nerds?"

She told her. It almost made her drop her pipe. "Wait, are you telling me I spent all my booze on nothing?! Do you know how long I spent stockpiling that?!"

Kirito stared at the massive stone doors. The bronze inscription of old was barely legible beneath all the new gold engraving. There was so much gold and God bless the mages, they were working their hardest.

It wasn't just the doors that were engraved, but almost everything in the dungeon. The chains were gigantic, made of some ancient metal with forgotten techniques, and the best the mages could do was to plate it with gold. It was a curious thing, seeing Ava and Ramza cold-smithing them onto every surface with their intricate hammers. They would take a coin, and strike it ever so gently, and it would stick as easily as a stamp on paper. There was very little fire involved at all, the metal working more like bits of bronze than gold. Sometimes, they would murmur an enchantment, licked the coin, and put it onto the wall as if it were a stamp.

Bah, wizards.

When asked how they accomplished such a thing, Ramza merely said, "If I had an entire year to teach you the magic of goldthreading, I would still not be able to fully explain it."

The Watchmen were told to guard the stairs, a screen erected hastily to cover the ritual. "Wait, ritual?"

The old professor's was serious. "It … the Prisoner."

"Yes?"

"He's getting … restless and well, we need to …"

"Dammit, professor, spit it out."

"He's trying to escape," said Ava. "We need someone to go in and distract it."

Oh boy, this sort of thing never happened back in the Beta. "What do you mean escape?! What's all the gold for then?!"

He gestured to the nearby shacks: To say that this was like a dragon's hoard worth of treasure would shame most dragons. It was five pallets of stacked gold bars reaching her shoulders, twenty chests of precious Col, golden candelabras, golden necklaces, golden swords and was that a set of golden teeth from some long gone pirate - 360,547 Col in total. About 500,000 Col had already been used, though you could hardly see it. Much of the gold had gone dull and black, thus why they needed so much. It was likened to electricity, much of the power was discharged the further it was used.

The older wizard gestured to three peculiar items: the «Holy Office of the Heresiarch» staff, floating midair; the Book of Sadosma on a lectern, and a comfy looking armchair. "The necromancers outside have been performing spells of some kind, to weaken its hold. Its magic is seeping out, as you have noticed with the cold. If you were to … distract Conotocaurius, maybe confound it … well, it could mean the difference between life and death."

"Ramza, buddy, you may have not noticed but I'm not exactly in the best shape here." Long gone were the days where he beat wizards to death with his own cut off limb.

The professor shook his head. "No need, we only need you to keep him occupied. The Prisoner is no longer bound to the physical realm, but that of beyond. Using the Book of Sadosma, and the Staff of the Heresiarch, we can stun him, just enough to dispel its powers. Enough to buy us time for reinforcements to arrive. I have sent letters to my fellow colleagues at the Department of Wards and Curses but they will not arrive in time."

Kirito narrowed his eyes. "So you want me to take a nap and talk him down? What do I discuss with an evil wizard/dragon/god anyway? The weather?"

"Well, you're the one with honeyed words. We'd thought you'd figure it out."

The money problems, the undead problems, and now the evil wizard problem. The armchair at least looked comfy. "Sure, why the hell not? I'd love nothing more than to sleep through this whole thing anyway." He just hoped he didn't wake up to a ruined and sacked castle.

"Excellent!" said Ava as she produced something from a pouch on her belt. "Now, say snooze."

"Say wha-"

Ava blew the blue powder in his face and Kirito was out like a light.

Kirito woke up to the feel of wind blowing his face, the clouds above him, the sun in the horizon, and there, miles below him was the Castle of Aincrad.

The sight of it took his breath away. He stood up, feeling all the day's fatigue gone. There, he stood alone.

"H-hello?"

Silence, but the blowing wind. He gripped his sword, for all the good it would do.

"Conotocaurius, sir? I'm supposed to defeat you with my Speech skills or something?" Though Kirito doubted years of playing RPGs would help with that.

A realisation dawned upon him. Was there no Conotocaurius at all? Was this whole thing hyped up for no damn reason? Did he spend all these months, nearly a year of working on this project, for no reason?

No, that can't be, could it? Was it all a lie?

"Well, not a lie per say. More of … project mismanagement."

Kirito had never unsheathed his sword so fast. There he was, the warden of this virtual prison, the souls of hundred of thousands stuck in this damnable video game.

He looked no different from the last time Kirito saw him. Wearing the same fluffy slippers, in that cheap lab coat he bought at a costume store, and the same stained grey t-shirt and holding a steaming mug of hot coffee, "World's #1 Neurosurgeon/Video Game Developer" written on it.

Akihiko Kayaba.

"Hello, Kazuto-kun. It's been awhile."

Sorry for the lateness, was busy with work and trying to submit a short story to a publisher. I have had a terrible cough I can't get rid off and am only able to access real medical care. IT'S NOT THE PLAGUE.

Also, new space game. You know how it is. Back to Sinonon after this!