Kirito

As Jaymes leads Mito and Koharu in the direction of Stachion, Kirito keeps Morte and his partner's attention on him. Kirito has several things on his mind.

The first is that Asuna was left behind in the poisonous green gas, which is concerning. Kirito knows Jaymes well enough to know that he will protect Koharu at all costs above the others (which he's been vocal about before). But he took Mito with him, so at the very least, the statement isn't completely true. He and Asuna may not get along, but he wouldn't leave Asuna behind...would he? But even if he didn't, the gas lasted longer than thirty seconds. Was the length of the gas in the "cutscene" for that one instance, while it lasts longer now? And why is Asuna still there if Jaymes didn't leave her alone and she's not paralyzed?

The second concern is Morte's picks. As previously experienced, paralysis is dangerous. In SAO, it is classified as a type of poison, although typical poison effects are also present. But at this stage of the game, a high-level agent, even with the Mixing Skill, would be challenging to craft. Application to a weapon has no effect unless the weapon has the rare Toxicity attribute. Kirito has not seen or found a weapon of the sort in the beta or the current game. If the man in the black poncho wasn't bluffing, he'd been the first.

Yet it is clear as daylight - or moonlight in this situation - that Morte has something coating the tips of the two remaining picks between his fingers. Because this will classify as dual-wielding, Morte wouldn't be able to use axe skills, but that's a small problem right now. Kirito's stuck in a two-on-one situation as "Joe" emerges from his escape from the giant male NPC. Whatever Jaymes is planning is unknown to Kirito...and if Asuna's in trouble, this situation just grows dire for Kirito. Yet... something tells him to trust in the other boy.

"Damn, he's still alive? What's up with this smoke anyway? We weren't supposed to be usin' this, right?"

"It's not mine. Kirito here found a way to utilize the NPC's poison item. Aha-ha-ha."

"What a pain in the ass. On the other hand…maybe I'm lucky, now that I get to finish someone off? I still haven't gotten over my rage at having my Cilvaric Rapier stolen from me on the fifth floor. Hey, where's the woman?"

"She still seems to be paralyzed inside the smoke cloud. Same with the rest."

"Cool. Then let's kill the beater over there first." Joe pulls his dagger from his waist, locking his sights on Kirito.

His blood mildly rushes at the mention of Asuna, but this confirms Morte and Joe are clueless about the three who escaped. That's the only advantage in Kirito's favor right now. He calms his nerves, keeping his eyes on Morte, for he's the greater danger with the picks. Kirito's Coat of Midnight, his LA reward from the first boss fight, has been strengthened to protect him even on the sixth floor, but it is weak to piercing attacks. A slash from Joe's dagger or a cut from the blunt force of Morte's axe may not do Kirito in, but it is weak to piercing objects - lances, spears, rapiers, and throwing picks.

Morte has to go first, but the problem is that Morte isn't going to just up and leave even with a pixel of HP left. If Kirito is going to protect himself and Asuna...he might have to cross the line. It wouldn't turn his cursor orange, Morte and Joe have seen to that themselves by attacking Cylon and the other NPC, but the only downside to PKing in SAO is the result. Death in-game is death in the real world.

Is it murder to protect oneself and another? Jaymes might answer that question, but it leaves Kirito indecisive. And he pays for it when Morte strikes first.

Kirito leaps left to avoid the axman and keep eyes on Joe, but Morte smoothly follows and swipes sideways. Kirito barely has time to land and lean away from the axe as it cuts the air where his neck would've been. Preventing him from countering is the presence of the second hooded figure, Joe, who begins to dash toward Kirito and Morte.

Just when Kirito is thinking of retreating to the woods to separate Morte and Joe, something he didn't expect happens: Asuna appears from the green gas behind the hoods. Her face is covered by a mask, which Cylon used earlier, and her rapier is drawn. She lurked in the gas for over a minute to make her move...but could Asuna strike another human being? Can she engage in mortal combat, knowing the consequence if she goes too far or hesitates for a second?

No, he has to trust Asuna. Jaymes would not have left her alone if he didn't believe in her. Mito would not have left Asuna behind if she didn't believe in her. Kirito has to trust his partner. So while keeping the orange players' attention, Kirito focuses on Morte's axe. He trusts Asuna will use a sword skill and go through with it completely.

Morte resumes his attack, baiting Kirito to block, but the swordsman is mindful of the picks. He continues dodging while watching Asuna from the corner of his eye. The fencer increases her speed and retracts her rapier. If Morte's partner finally notices her, he's too late, as Asuna's weapon takes on a red hue.

As Kirito silently cheers, "Go Asuna!" she hits Joe in the back with a trio of impacts. The rapier skill Triangular knocks him into a roll along the ground, though he manages to get back to his feet instead of collapsing in the grass.

"She ain't paralyzed! That was a dirty trick!"

Quickly recovering from the skill delay, Asuna removes the mask. The moonlight reflects off her beautiful features, showcasing a fit of anger that not even Kirito has managed to produce in his worse moments. "Leave this one to me. You get Morte, Kirito."

Kirito nods to her, then turns his full attention to Morte, who loses his smirk for good. "Oh, my," he growled. "Our fun has turned into a real predicament very quickly."

"You thought you were going to have an easy time killing some immobilized people? Think again."

"...Where are the other three?"

"Jaymes and the girls? They left long ago."

"Tch... Now, now, it's not settled yet. Those two newbies might be put to work after all against your friends. And I still have two poison…picks!"

Jaymes

Two things happened so quickly that Jaymes paused to wrap his head around it. The good thing is that Mito does as instructed and safely gets away from the PKers, so all ends well. He planned to hold off long enough and overwhelm this masked hood for a bit.

But before he could reach him, the mask sidesteps and engages Koharu to his left. If Koharu's stunned, she did manage to block the mask's surprise with her dagger. Jaymes only knows that by the sound of things behind him because his attention is on the fourth hooded figure of the night. Well, sixth - Asuna wears hers up and Koharu had equipped her green cloak right before the masked man charged her. In the wake of his charge, the fourth PKer appeared as if they rose from the shadows of the night. They have a lengthy spear in hand, and it took all of Jaymes' finesse to get between the spear and Mito so the purple-haired girl could get away.

Damn PKers are growing in numbers. Yesterday, there was only three they knew of. Now two more are added to the ranks...that they know off.

The mask, he called himself Annihilator...kinda on the nose. Jaymes can't see the name of the spearman, but he can see their features. Their cloak is similar to Koharu and Asuna's; it is more of a thin fabric than the thick cloaks the others have. Because of that, it waves with the breeze, revealing their armor. A tight, black top cut at the pectorals and goes down to the pelvis; long, slender black boots that reach the mid-thigh; and between those two pieces of armor is smooth, ivory flesh. Confused, Jaymes looks up, his eyes landing on a dark, short line of cleavage, then up to another half-masked face. Small, red lips curve into a smile as his jaw slacks.

"You're...a girl?" Of course, Jaymes isn't surprised there's a female gamer in front of him, but one with the PKers as a PKer? That is something he did not expect in all the unexpectedness of tonight.

"Oh, will you die easily now because I'm a woman? That makes me sad."

"You're mistaken. I'm not that honorable of a man. A protagonist in one of my favorite animes believes in gender equality, and I strive to live like him." Jaymes quickly takes his eyes off the girl to Koharu and her opponent. They've begun to duel and of course Koharu's holding her weight against another dagger user. Both are fighting with tremendous speed on equal ground. Clearly, the masked man has greater experience and is not holding back as he takes the offensive. Those poison picks remain in his left hand, too. Part of him wants to trade places with Koharu, even if it places her at a disadvantage in a match with the spear, but...

"Koharu... Do you think you can fight another player like the PKers now?"

"...I... I don't know, to be honest."

"I see... Let me ask another question: Do you think you can fight them if it means you have to protect someone else?"

"...Mhm. Yes, I think. If it means protecting someone, then I can do it."

Jaymes asked her that earlier today after they left Rain and Lisbeth to meet with the others at the old butler's home. The questions are similar, but there's a key difference; the first question was simple, while the second added a reason. Koharu would, as of now, hesitate to fight another person outside the rules of a non-fatal duel. Give her a reason to fight - protecting another in this case - and she'll do it without a thought. Right now, she's protecting Mito and the golden key in Asuna's possession. She's the best dagger user he knows, the most agile person on the front line (if Argo's extreme AGI build doesn't surpass Koharu's natural talent), and the second strongest girl. Maybe third, if he includes Mito, but the gaps between Mito to Asuna and Koharu wane daily.

If she could beat Rain, who fought with two swords, Koharu could beat anyone. That's why he didn't protest her participation. Even if she doesn't, he believes in her strength.

But what's keeping her in the fight is clear: She has to protect Jaymes from a two-on-one fight. He must do the same. He told her that one day she would surpass him, but he wouldn't make it easy. Call it male pride or gamer pride; it won't be today. He'd be damned if some chick bests him in a duel and kills him before he sees Koharu truly shine.

He steps back and pivots on his left heel, resuming the fight with the woman with a circling upward swing. Her spear is about six feet long, and the bladed end comes in three parts: A long, pointed blade that forms the end of the pole and two intersecting, curved blades. One of the curved blades is short, no more than half a foot long, and a couple of inches wide, and its tip points outward toward the pointed end. The other is larger and longer, with its tip curved backward toward her.

She nearly catches Jaymes' sword with the latter hook, but thankfully Imperial is light and slender. That allows him better dexterity than if he wielded a heavier sword like Kirito. As his sword connects and the woman tries to reel him off-balance by tugging back on the hooked sword, Jaymes flicks his fingers, half-spinning his sword out of the hook's grasp and into a backhand grip. He adjusts his grip to normal and assumes his typical stance, placing his sword parallel to his body and above the top of the Flame Shield.

The woman looks impressed as she twirls her spear. "Ha! Is that all - GRAAAAAAH!" The girl, defenseless as Jaymes suddenly rammed her with the shield skill Bash, flies off the road to the dark grass. Either his strengthened shield hits harder, or she's pretty light. She lands to the south, bounces twice, then rolls four times before sliding to a stop at the base of the surrounding woods. All that talk, and she acts amateurish by lowering her guard and taunting. Shields are weapons too.

Before he chases after her, he takes a glance at Koharu's health points. It looks like she's suffered about ten percent of damage, but she isn't poisoned. He could assist her, but that would undo all her progress. But if she continues to fight the masked man, who continues to wail endlessly at her, she'll lose. Meanwhile, her better match is to the south, stunned.

"Koharu, switch!" Koharu slides her dagger against Annihilator's, then flips with excellent timing over Jaymes as he takes her place. "Head south and take care of the other!

"Alright! Kick his butt." She honestly can read his mind. Green eyes meet brown for a second, then Koharu takes off. Jaymes places his concern in the back of his head and faces the masked hood, who snickers while watching Koharu take off for the south. Koharu might have been on the defensive, but she did some damage, five percent more than Annihilator did to her. If Jaymes weren't in a pissy mood, he'd smirk. He'll give her props later.

"Man, she's smoking hot. I mean, my partner is a fine work herself, but your Koharu has a different aura. It's like day and night between those two girls. Have you had a piece of that yet? I mean, how could you not have done it? If not, let me have her. I'll treat her right."

He doesn't need anyone telling him that Koharu's beautiful; Jaymes is well aware of that and the troubles it presents his youthful mind. But he'd be damned if anyone lays a threatening hand on the sole ray of sunshine in his life within this hellhole. "Over my cold, dead body."

"Arrangeable." Annihilator furiously swipes at Jaymes, eager to make good on the "arrangement." However, Jaymes' defense is entirely impenetrable. While Koharu didn't have much defense, Annihilator still couldn't hit her with the poisoned picks. Jaymes keeps his shield between him and the masked assassin's left hand and uses the length of Imperial to hold his opponent at a distance.

But at the same time, Jaymes isn't getting close. He's waiting for Annihilator to slip up first, so he battles him as he did against Koharu long ago, like an expert swordsman fighting a young child to teach them the basics. Annihilator doesn't seem to notice - he keeps hacking away at Jaymes' sword, knowing that if Jaymes loses his sword, he loses half of his defense. Not that Jaymes can't fight with his shield, but it will allow Annihilator to get in close.

"Haaa! Shaaa!" Annihilator changes tactics. With his left elbow, he slams it against the shield, and then spin kicks the same target. Not expecting either, Jaymes is thrown off balance and stumbles on his legs. He gets low, his dagger glowing with red light as the dagger skill Slice activates. He springs forward, coming down on the kneeling Jaymes very quickly.

At the last moment, Jaymes raises the Flame Shield. Daggers are a light, weak weapon, but in the right hands, they're as dangerous as any other weapon. Unlike his companions, Jaymes doesn't have a second layer of armor in the form of a cloak or coat over the starter armor. That second layer is the durability of his shield, and it is tested as the dagger grinds against it like a power saw. The shockwave vibrates through his left arm and the adjacent anatomy to the shoulder.

And as Koharu did long ago with a similar tactic, Annihilator had slipped up: Jaymes is using a regular attack instead of a sword skill to defend himself. That means he can make a move.

Springing the trap, Jaymes activates Vertical. Annihilator, stuck in place with his sword skill dueling for control, came in too close and exposed his left side. Jaymes swings in a vertical line through the middle of the clavicle to the hip. His left shoulder and flank burst into blue crystals.

"Grah!" Annihilator collapses on the ground, red bleeding effects spilling out of him. Around the orange cursor above his head - it was green when they met, so Koharu must've intentionally taken damage to prevent herself from going orange - his health depletes. 80, 75, 70, and it goes past 50, turning yellow. Jaymes thought it'd stop there, but it continued to plunge more toward the critical levels.

He looks at the wound left on Annihilator, then realizes he got a severe hit on him. Like on a normal body, there are a couple of vital weak spots that, if struck, could deal critical damage even at full health, if not a killing blow initially. That is beheading, of course, and a strike to the heart. Jaymes had more or less cleaved Annihilator's heart in half.

The depletion eventually stopped around 25 percent, but Annihilator is still grounded. He's at Jaymes' mercy right now. His avatar lies immobilized on the ground, but his actual body lies in a hospital bed in Japan. His life, in a literal sense, is in Jaymes' hands.

Looking away from the cursor, Jaymes glances down at Annihilator's face. His mask covers the upper half except his eyes, so Jaymes can determine that the guy is probably close to his age, maybe a little older. Most people, even the PKers, might show some fear from seeing that they were this close to death and that is what unnerves Jaymes. Annihilator...is exuberant. With a quarter of his health remaining, with a fifth of his upper body sliced away, he has excitement in his eyes and a grand smile.

"So this is how sister felt. This fear of dying... So exciting. Wonderful! I must thank you, Jaymes."

"What?"

He raises his right hand theatrically. "I know what it is like to impart fear. My first kill in this game was to my sister. We were twins, so we were together from birth. She was my one and only love and only for me. When other boys looked her way, I ensured they'd never bother her again. I loved her so much that I didn't want her to suffer in this cruel world. But before that, I had to express my love in the purest way possible. She resisted, but that made me want to display it more...then I saved her from annihilation."

He may not have a stomach, but Jaymes feels a need to hurl. Annihilator...killed his sister? And if he put together the context clues, he... "You sick bastard!"

"It's okay; I understand how you feel. I, too, want to bring love and salvation to Sword Art Online. And I spotted my next love: your partner. Allow me to save Koharu from this hell. Allow me to share my lo-"

Jaymes snaps and swings down on Annihilator. He cares not if it labels him a murderer. He cares not if it worsens his reputation. He doesn't care for the consequences. But his blade is blocked by a dagger - not the smooth grey steel of Annihilator's but a black and blue blade of elvish craft. What impeded Jaymes' rage is the mercy of his partner.

"Jaymes, don't!" Koharu counters his strike and tackles Jaymes. He lands about ten feet away from Annihilator's supine body, Koharu holding him down. He lost his grip on his sword and heard it clatter in the grass. Meanwhile, Koharu keeps her eyes on Annihilator, meaning she didn't come alone.

"Almost had him, love." Love? Confusion mixing with his disgust, Jaymes lifts his head to see that the spearwoman is back, clutching her partner's body. In her right hand is a spherical object that Jaymes is recently familiar with; a smoke bomb. The woman kisses it and chuckles. "Another time, you two. This was more fun that I thought. Next time, maybe you'll kill my love or me without him telling terrible lies. Tata!"

When the smoke screen clears, Annihilator and his partner are gone.

Koharu sighs and lifts off of Jaymes, putting her dagger into the sheath on her back. She scans the area, looking for their enemy. After confirming that they're in the clear, she helps Jaymes to his feet, but she holds his hand sternly. "You almost killed him. Why?"

"He threatened to hurt you...more than I wish to speak about." Loosening the grip, he searches the grass for his sword. Once he finds it, he checks the other three status bars underneath Koharu's. Mito's remains full, while Kirito and Asuna's health is depleted slightly. Either they're done with battle or still in the middle of it...they should go check.

But he's tired, and despite his rage and disgust, he feels a third feeling - disappointment with himself. He did not feel bad about nearly killing Annihilator when he cut him down, but the potential killing blow, which apparently was a trap to turn Jaymes into a killer. He fell for it. Worse, he almost killed the enemy in front of Koharu. No, this whole ordeal from when the quintet was paralyzed was a miscalculation on his, Kirito, and Mito's part. But there's more he feels bad about.

When the cart toppled over, Jaymes couldn't see as much as the other five, so he did not spot Morte or Joe. But the entire time, all he thought about was keeping Koharu alive. At most, just him and Koharu. He left Asuna behind to stay with Kirito; he told Mito to continue running because he only wanted to protect Koharu. He did not care for others aside for Koharu in a moment of fear and weakness.

Then again, if he didn't care, why did he order Asuna to don the mask? Why did he send Mito to town, even getting between her and the spear to ensure she gets away? Maybe his mind did not care, but his body did...it's too complicated.

But of all the mistakes he's made, the reason they were in danger in the first place was the worse. Sighing, he turns to Koharu, drops to a knee in medieval Western fashion, and bows his head. "I'm sorry, Koharu. I know there was no way we could have avoided the paralysis event, and we were in no danger, so I told Kirito and Mito not to mention it to you and Asuna. I...couldn't have expected this, but I exposed you to danger. I should have taken greater care."

For the first time, he wasn't her protector. Until now, he's been wary of danger, ready to react, But he knew they were absolutely safe when Cylon came for them. He reassured that point to her earlier. If he hadn't, if none of the former participants in the beta's quest series had given that promise, Koharu and Asuna would have been more perceptive.

He hears her footsteps and sees her boots stop right before him. She lowers herself to his left. He lifts her head to face her. Her eyes are emotionless, making it unbearable to look deeper into them. "As your partner, I'm sorry."

"...Hehehe." He expected anger. He envisioned a slap to the face and some heartrending words. But what Koharu did was something out of left field: she giggles. He glances back at her with a dumbfounded expression, in which she stops laughing but maintains her smile. "Usually, it is I who feels like I'm not worthy of being your partner, so this is a welcomed change."

"Huh?"

"I'm not mad. There's no way you could have known this would happen. Even if you, Kirito, and Mito told us, I don't think it would have changed anything. But I am happy you trusted me to fight at your side, to protect you as you did to me. I'd been madder if you hadn't."

"...Uh huh..."

"But I must ask: why you switch me with the spearwoman? Devesta, I think she called herself. You know I was at a disadvantage."

Jaymes stands, shrugs, and sheaths his sword on his back. "Well, she was too easy for me, and I knew you were better. Looks like I was right, and turns out Annihilator was easy for me... Wait a minute; he executed a sword skill with his dagger while holding those picks. How the hell..." Jaymes looks at the spot Annihilator fell. A couple of feet away is a pick, but he held two in hand last he checked. The lone one must be the one Jaymes deflected. "He must've put them away when he kicked me. He wasn't being serious himself except at that moment. Good grief." Annihilator really wanted to experience death and turn Jaymes or Koharu into a killer, huh?

This night is tiring, but before rest can claim him, they have to check on Kirito and Asuna. "Ko, send Mito a message. We're going back to check on those two."

"Got it."