|Sword Art Online, Floor 70, Timelost City|
|June. 28th 13:13|
An arid floor that was akin to the 5th, decorated with ruins where only the 'Timelost' reside, as well as other creatures now reside, as well as the remnants of magic from before the Great Separation, allowing for glimpses into the land's past, perhaps predating Aincrad's lore-wise formation.
Through the streets of an old, barren city, a streak of water cut through the air, Divine Sakura buried into the wall of a building, skimming the person who slid to their right, making a break for the edge of the town, and a large, stone bridge that spanned a great chasm. Nagi didn't say a word, the others were already in hot pursuit of the player. A man marked with an orange cursor above their head.
They were clad in dark, scorched platemetal from head-to-toe, a matching greatsword swinging in their right hand as though it weighed no more than a feather, moving just as fast as a person in leather armour, making for a deadly combination of speed and strength.
He reached the bridge when he turned on a heel, catching Divine Sakura against the broad edge of his weapon, sweeping diagonally to counter, twisting to draw it back, slashing Nagi's shoulder, giving him enough leverage to strike the shinobi with a solid kick to the gut, continuing on his race across the crumbling bridge, evading the holes and missing sides.
A chained blade sailed into view of Nagi, wrapping around his left forearm when Mito dug her heels in, swinging him wide over the edge of the bridge, and straight toward the orange player who took note of the flowing cascade of cherry blossoms across the katana's scabbard. Coming to a halt, the orange player swung wide, blocking the first, powerful blow of petals in a flow of water and petals, a secondary, vertical cleave nearly burying his weapon into the ground, clipping his breastplate, forcing the player back a few inches.
"Afraid to kill me too, Nagi?" He questioned mockingly, seeing the raven-brunette eyes flicker with anger and doubt. A striking Tempest struck Nagi's katana that moved in time to block the brunt of the thrust skill, throwing him backward into Mito, the two nearly stumbling off a ledge, giving the player time to continue their retreat.
Rummaging through his quick select, he procured a teleport crystal, only to pocket it when a crushing wave of wind tore down before him, a sweeping, navy edges of Destroyer cutting through the dust, Daora grunting with each swing, merciless and wild, but it forced the orange player to hop along a fallen pillar and over Daora, parrying the ax on every swing.
"Is that all?" Pushing forward, the orange player swung their left forearm out, catching it on the underside of the axe's head, gripping the weapon tightly to pull Daora forward. "I thought you were the strongest?" Then promptly carved a deep line through Daora's chest, snatching the dragon mask in his left to forcibly slam into the nearest stone column, disarming Daora in an instant, throwing him across the way, toward a gleaming blade draped in yellow.
Sliding under Daora, Artorias kept his skill charged, bouncing to his feet and off the same, fallen pillar the orange player used, twirling sharply to deliver a twin strike, Horizontal Edge ringing off that rugged greatsword, the same blade striking down against Artorias's shield, Red Dawn, briefly freezing the battle.
"You aimed for my head, then again, killing isn't an issue for you, is it? I'm sure you spared Arawn no mercy," The orange player dug up, but unlike the others, Artorias's expression remained the same, flat glare.
"'Oh no, how could you possibly know about that?', honestly, you think I give a crap now?" Artorias forced their weapons apart, leaning into Savage Fulcrum, an electric purple channelling across Red Death, matching the orange player's. "Not much of a threat if you're running, dipshit!"
Their weapons collided, Lightning matching Fulcrum blow-for-blow, neither landing a definitive blow, though a thrust left the orange player wide open to Artorias's foot coming down on it with Uchikesu, Red Death scraping against one of the gaps in the visor. "Oh, I do have one word for you," Artorias remarked with a sharp grin. "'Switch'."
From seemingly the shadows themselves, a black longsword encased itself in a harsh blue, dragged through two pillars to cleave against the man's left forearm, nearly severing it had they not fallen in the direction the weapon cleaved, performing a surprising handstand in such heavy armour, now a fair distance from the whole of Misfits, their back to the edge of a cliff, the bridge having led them straight to an old overlook of the city.
"And the Black Swordsman, but someone else wants you dead," The orange player pointed out.
"You're done, Wolfram," Nagi declared, keeping Divine Sakura raised at the formidable orange player. "You and the rest of Laughing Coffin."
"Do you even hear yourself? Speaking like some would-be protagonist, grow up, brat," None of them reacted much to Wolfram's insult. "Oh? Oh, I see, you're all delusional."
"Coming from the guy that's slaughtered numerous innocent people, that's pretty rich," Kirito narrowed his eyes. "That's all this has been to any of you, a game with no consequence."
"Isn't it?" Wolfram acknowledged, wounded arm outstretched to the side. "In here, there aren't any rules against PKing, a death in here will seem like a harmless, avoidable death in the real world. Hell, we don't even know if that's true, even now."
"Why, why kill people when the potential risk is there?" Nagi questioned, out of every PKer they've seen, Laughing Coffin were only in it for the thrill, but there had to be an actual cause to take someone's life, right? Or maybe Argo was right, that some people do it for the sake of feeling superior.
"Why shouldn't we? Ever since we wound up stuck in here, we get to live however we want, no rules, laws, justice system, nothing, not a single thing can tell us 'no'," Wolfram pointed out with a gravelly tone. "In here? People like you can die and no one will even know how or remember you existed," That same hand came to point directly at Nagi, like a cold knife to his chest. "You think you've cornered us? You haven't seen anything yet, brat."
In the same instance, he held up a teleport crystal, and immediately jumped off the edge behind him, all of them rushing to see him speak something muffled by the harsh, warm wind. Within moments before striking the ground, his body vanished without a trace, successfully teleporting to safety, far from this floor.
"Graaah, come on!" Daora nearly threw his ax off the ledge, missing his chance to return the favour for being tossed around.
"He was stalling, sorry," Nagi apologized.
"Don't sweat it, boss, he wasn't going to surrender anyway," Artorias shook his head, leaning onto the pommel of his sword. "Guess we're back to our regularly scheduled workload."
"I'll go and let the other know what happened," Kirito gestured, already opening his menu to spread the word.
They failed in their capture of Wolfram, but he proved one thing to them all. Laughing Coffin was growing desperate.
|Floor 70, Town of Shiva|
|June. 28th 13:27|
Unlike the many ruins and the distant labyrinth tower to the south, Shiva, to the north, was a livelier place. Gardens and trees sprouted up around the tan stone buildings, a vast majority of the liveable spaces built in and around the very ruins of the floor. Its signature areas being the teleport plaza placed within the middle of a lake on an island, the centerpiece the town formed around. A grand library where the main questline began and most other side-quests.
The most significant sight was the massive wall that kept the town safe, marked with two, titanic doors left open from centuries ago, gathering flora of all kinds, the walls and door reaching nearly sixty meters high, the walls either side only running for the length of the town before they mysteriously cut off, like the rest it were attached to simply vanished.
"...and he got away, leaping off the cliff with a teleport crystal," Nagi finished informing Argo who jotted all of it down as fast as he spoke, she was pretty good at that. "Mito, are the other players okay?"
Peeling her eyes away from her glass, she nodded. "Yes, shaken since they lost one of their members, but I don't think they stopped thanking me and Fynch." It at least made her smile. They couldn't save everyone, but the others were okay.
"That's good, I doubt they'll be heading out of town anytime soon," Nagi hoped they'd be okay after a while. "Anything else, Argo?"
"Nothin' important, except one thinG," She turned her head to look to Fynch who seemed to be fidgeting a little. "You holdin' it together over therE?"
"Huh? Oh! Ye-yeah, just, y'know, little anxious, maybe a bit sweaty?" He leaned back into his seat. "We're close, every lead I've stretched, I can feel it, the answer's only an inch away, and... and I dunno how this'll end when I find it. Big end game's comin' up."
"You've been hunting Laughing Coffin down since you were drafted into this guild, even I'd feel a bit antsy for the final push," Artorias admitted, swirling the lemonade in his glass with the straw. "How long have they been tormenting the Frontrunners? Since the start?"
"Yeah, PoH was... he was there when the 1st boss was defeated," Nagi could never forget the scent of bloodlust, he didn't push on it back then, but he didn't blame himself for it, how could anyone know what would've come of a single man? If anything, it hardened his resolve. "Which is why we're counting on you, Fynch, but don't be afraid to ask for help, you've risked your life constantly to get us closer to finding their location, I'd feel bad leaving you to do all the hard work."
"Agreed," Mito concurred.
"Ain't a solo gig, remember thaT," Argo reinforced with a small smirk.
For Fynch, their words of encouragement were enough for his worries to dampen, smiling bashfully. "The fact you all mean it, that... that really does a lot to a guy like me, honest. I swear, I'll find them, then you bring in the cavalry!" He threw a fist high for good measure.
"Alright!" Slamming the round table, Daora practically glowed with a murderous aura of his own, the veins on his face bulging. "Then I'll show that Edgelord how strong I really am!" Snatching his drink, he downed it in a single gulp, nearly choking, punching his chest as Mito sighed and patted his back.
"Pfft yeah, with a face like that, you'll definitely strike fear into the hearts of our enemies," Artorias snorted, playing with his straw. "His shattered ego brushed under the rug."
"Huh!?" Daora nearly shot up from his seat, Artorias ignored him, pushing the remainder of his drink beside the brute to distract him.
"What's the gameplan now? Stick to quest-clearing until we get the word?" Artorias asked. "Me and Cupcake might have our quest wrapped up by the end of the day, all this time jumping nonsense was starting to scramble her head, don't blame her, jumping through those rifts is like an acid trip without the benefits."
"How do you know what an acid trip is like?" Mito questioned.
"Figure of spea- oh up yours, Reaper," She smirked at his eye-roll. "But yes, that."
"Gotta wait for Kii-bou to give me a shout, said his next quest mark is stuck in an instancE," Argo replied, fingers gliding across her menus practically on their own.
"Until then, me and Argo are just gathering information on the floor, and in turn, keeping an eye out for any other orange players, Wolfram might still be here," Nagi was on edge, rather, overly cautious. And having at least him on standby if and when Fynch needs it was higher on his priority list. "Work at your own paces, if anything comes up, I'll send out a message."
"Sounds good, I gotta follow up Asuna on her quest," Mito then smiled knowingly. "Though I doubt she'd need the help, she's got her own."
"Byyye~" Artorias waved, departing from the group and filtering into the streets.
Thus, their meeting came to a swift end.
Taking a stroll through the market district to resupply, Nagi and Argo stuck with Fynch, discussing his plans once the heat on him dies down, Wolfram's threat wasn't something to take lightly, especially if they're keenly aware of the former orange player's significance in catching other PKers over the last few months.
Various stalls were run within one of the curved streets, a block behind the waterfront of the town's lake, so many players were gathered here, everything in constant motion. In the midst of their shopping, Nagi leaned toward Argo, her eyes studying the paragraphs before her intensely. She had barely said a word, say for the occasional muttering when she read through her notes, messages, and other assorted data hidden in plain sight. "Could use the break, you've been working non-stop."
One brow quirked, her eyes static. "Ya know the word 'break' doesn't really mean a thing to a broker, HerO."
He rolled his eyes a little. "You've been staring at the same batch of notes for nearly ten minutes, and you're anxious, waiting for a reply from Kirito or any others handling quests," Nagi watched in amusement when her hood dipped slightly, trying to keep her face obscured, what little that did to mask the emotions. "And we just finished a fairly difficult side-quest not long before that emergency came up. We were down there for hours."
"...ya drive a hard bargain, and I hate that about yoU," Argo gave a heavy sigh, lifting her head so to meet his keen eyes with a flat stare, nudging his hip. "Got a lot of nerve sayin' that when you're just as bad with pushin' yerselF."
"Haha, guilty as charged!" His toothy grin made it hard for her to pretend she was annoyed, hand on her hip. "Then let's agree to take it easy and help Fynch out this afternoon, once night hits, we'll pick up where we left off. Deal?"
"DeaL," They shook on it, but their hands remained interlocked at their sides, spotting Fynch jogging back from a player-run stall nearby.
"Hey, got the goods, we're all set to- woah!" Someone stepped out into view the moment he cut across the crowd, causing himself and the player to stumble back sharply. "Gotcha!" Reacting fast, Fynch righted himself and catch the wrist of the player, keeping them steady with Nagi and Argo approaching the pair.
It was a girl distinct, flowing silver hair and deep amber eyes, both staring up widely at Fynch. She wore what appeared similar to an officer's uniform, a charcoal blazer with a gold hem and cuffs, a white blouse, two straps over the top of her chest, and a high-collar. Two bands of black and gold around both thighs, leaving her legs bare down to leather boots. Strapped on her left hip was a single longsword.
"You alright?" Nagi asked, tapping the girl's shoulder when she finally snapped out of her daze, her face growing redder, pulling her hand away from Fynch before bowing her head quickly.
"I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going!" She shot her head up again. "Thank you for not letting me face plant, I don't think I could show my face if I did that here..." She tapped her index fingers together.
"Ah, no worries, both walk away unscathed, right?" Fynch smiled, earning a small grin from the girl, the heat in her cheeks dying out. "You were in a hurry, huh?"
"Oh, um, yes! I needed to work on levelling and gathering some materials from the monsters outside town, and... well..." She trailed off, deflating a bit. "I've never been up to a floor this high, so everything's got me on edge- Oh, sorry, I'm rambling on without introducing myself, I'm Lux."
"Upper floors can be nerve-wracking, name's Fynch," He greeted.
"Nagi," The shinobi then gestured to Argo. "And this is Argo."
"SuP," She kept it short and simple.
"It's nice to meet all of... you..." Then the gears in Lux's head clicked seamlessly together, her eyes growing wider, looking between Nagi and Argo who each blinked in obvious confusion. "Y-y-you two... y-you're the leader of Misfits, and-and you're the best broker in SAO!" Now she felt a second onset of embarrassment for her awkward run-in with the pair, and their friend to boot.
"Hehe, we don't usually advertise our status, so I forget how some players look at us," Nagi's face went a little pink from Lux's reaction, scratching the back of his head.
"Bein' well-known brings in the business, so I ain't gonna say no to some praisE," Argo's whole appearance seemed to twinkle with pride, hand to her puffed out chest.
Noting Lux's dizzy expression, Nagi offered a friendly smile. "We're just normal players, so don't worry about needing to act differently."
"S-sure, okay." Lux nodded, biting her cheek for a moment. This might be a golden opportunity, but would they even accept the request? She wrestled with the thought, knowing the longer she dragged it out, the less likely her chances became. Swallowing hard, she looked between the three. "Um, actually, do you... think maybe you could... help me?"
"Need some inteL?" Argo was quick to assume, but Lux shook her head, cupping her hands together nervously.
"No, but, I'm still very unsure about this floor, everything I've heard made it sound far more advance than even the floor below, but I have to gather monster drops here..." Lux felt bad asking this out of the blue, but she had no one else to rely upon. her only other friend was busy.
"Sounds like we got our afternoon quest, boss," Fynch's chuckle drew a surprised look from Lux, seeing him offer a silly flick of his hand in salute. "Need a hand, fine by me."
"Same, it's nice to just pitch in for other parties," Nagi concurred, with Argo nodding in unison.
"Gives me time to prod ya for yer skills and other details, if ya don't mind the odd question or twO?" Argo pursed her lips, and Lux felt like she was being studied head-to-toe by the hooded broker.
"Um, t-that's no issue- are you sure? Aren't frontrunners very busy on this floor?" Lux questioned out of habit.
"We've got others handling quests so far, and we're not long out of our own, so a slower pace would be great to unwind, and we help in your cause, so its still a productive use of our time," Nagi answered, sending forth a party invite to Lux. "If you want our help, that is?"
Could he tell she was reluctant to steal them away for the day? If so, maybe the claims that Nagi had some unique skill was true? She'd have to see him in action to know for herself, but for the moment, she was really happy to receive the request, and from those on the frontlines to boot!
"No, this is more than enough, thank you so much!" She practically beamed, seeing her name appear alongside Fynch, Nagi, and Argo. Even Argo, who had the lowest level, was still four levels higher than Lux. "Your levels are so high already..."
"Better to be over levelled this high up, but we'll get ya there in a flash," Fynch assured her, clapping his hands together. "So then, what's our target, Lux?"
|Floor 70, Timelost City, Outskirts|
|June. 28th 13:44|
Nearest the woodlands that borders a vast majority of the ruins, and what separated the city from the Labyrinth, the number of buildings thinned out, with most ancient structures buried within the trees or surrounding a large, crescent lake that made up a waterfront of the city outskirts. It also made for a good place to grasp one of the basic enemies of the floor.
"Switch!" Fynch called, swiping high with his greatsword to parry a charging thrust skill from the monster, watching as silver hair blew by his face, in a flash, Lux manage to land Snake Bite's parallel slants across the entity's body when it disappeared in a flash of bluish-white light, appearing behind her. "Dodg-"
But Fynch was caught with his mouth agape when Lux leapt into a roll, evading the deadly Rage Spike from the monster, twirling to face her opponent that wound up an orange, charge skill. It was the standard enemy for the floor, a Time Leaper, they were mechanical in nature; made from light-grey stone and bronze metal between the joints and gaps in its eroded body, almost humanoid in shape and carrying weapons usually made from clock hands. Most distinct was the single, red core wedged in its chest.
Lux kept her feet light, dodging the charge as the Leaper spun its upper half around on its waist, slashing horizontally, then thrusting the tip of its sword toward her, each thrust she swerved her head to evade, counting in her head. Thrust, thrust, thrust, thrust-thrust, slash! She parried its skill at the last second, leaving it wide open for her own, Sonic Leap to ripple and tear through its body in a mint-green tinge.
The body fell apart but remained standing, the core pulsing in the air. "Slash it!" Nagi called from the side-lines, having put his own pair of Leapers down, noticing Lux's battle. She flinched and quickly plunged her blade through the core, causing it to shatter, its body dispersing into shards not long after. Nagi sighed in relief. "Phew, close one. That's the gimmick of this floor, regenerating monsters."
"Did ya pick up my guidebook before comin' herE?" Argo waved, hopping off a fallen pillar she had used as a perch.
"I didn't realize one was available already," Lux apologized, seeing the items she was after filter into her inventory. "Does it have to do with the cores?"
"Yep, the cores need to be destroyed or they'll regenerate up to 10% of their HP," Nagi elaborated, seeing Lux nod her head quickly to follow, the raven-brunette gesturing to Argo. "You wanna?"
Clicking her tongue, the Rat pulled up a tab containing the info she had written into her guidebook on the subject, making it public for them to view the stats for the floor gimmick. "Put it simply, cores come in various colours, each tier marking how many times it'll rebuild after a successful strike. Red ones can't regen if they're already struck, but will come back to 10% if left unscathed. Next is green, hit it once, it'll turn red and regen to 10%, if not, 25%. Gettin' all that so far, FairY?"
"'F-Fairy'? And yes," Lux dismissed the nickname, nodding with her brow furrowing, a finger curled close to her lips. "So if I don't strike a green core, it'll regenerate to 25% of its HP, if I do hit it, it turns red and instead regenerates to 10%. And this repeats for the other colours?"
Argo gave a curt nod. "Basically; Blue cores are 50%, and the last, Purple cores, upto 75%, rinse and repeaT."
"Best of all, even though it makes for drawn-out fights, the rarer the core colour, the bigger the EXP gains, so it's made for some pretty efficient farming," Fynch smiled, spotting a blue core Leaper not far from the lakeside. "Plenty of folks come around to boost their levels, and out here, enemies don't group up as much, and town's not that far."
"That's amazing...!" Lux looked around wondrously. "Thank you, I guess it helps you guys too helping me."
"Exactly," Nagi winked, then an earlier observation came to mind. "You're pretty skilled too, Lux. You only started fighting these Leapers a few minutes ago, and you already have their whole pattern down. That's quite impressive."
"Eh? You think so? I-I'm not too great at battles without back-up, I mean, I nearly let it regenerate." Downplaying her actions, she started tapping her left foot. "It's hard to explain, but, whenever I do fight, a lot of mobs have a set rhythm to them, so I attune my movements like a metronome. So even if I can't always deal a lot of damage, I can reduce the chances of being struck," The silverette then gave a shy smile, looking away from their stares. "S-sorry, I'm not good at explaining it..."
"Think ya got something I never figured before, at least, never put into wordS," Argo spoke up, jotting Lux's explanation down. "Everyone learns to pick up on certain sword skills, how they function and move the body in a set direction, but yer able to read every move a mob makes and adapt in seconds, that takes havin' serious analytical skills, like a brokeR."
That gave Nagi an idea, one he'd bring up at a later date, for now, he just enjoyed seeing Lux's expression warp with embarrassment and joyfulness. "I-I don't know if I'm all that, but thank you, some people just think it's weird when I start muttering numbers and attacks to myself."
"So what if you do? Hey, everyone I met has got some strange tick, so if everyone's got one, then everyone's normal by default." Fynch waved off her dejected outlook on herself.
"Was that supposed to be a compliment or an insulT?" Argo hummed, one brow raised. "Cause it definitely wasn't the formeR."
"Hey-hey, I'm just trying to say we all have something unique about us, so there's no reason to feel alienated!" Fynch waved his hands defensively, but the blonde continued to stare a hole through him from beneath her cowl. "It was definitely a compliment!"
"That sO?"
"Yes!"
"Uh-huh, I believe yA."
"I-I get the feeling you're not convinced." Fynch slumped.
Their brief argument was cut short when Lux stifled a giggle behind her hand, her body trembling to control herself. If had only been a brief amount of time, but what Nagi had said to her finally clicked; they were just as normal as any other player, despite their statuses amongst most players. And it made her feel at ease. "I-I understand what you meant, Fynch, thanks." Her expression glowed, even with her eyes closed.
"Just... better wording, buddy." Nagi pinched two fingers close together, sharing in Lux's amusement.
[To Be Continued...]
[Author's Notes]
Happy New Year! Kicking off 2025 with the new arc! And we've arrived to the 70th floor, the big 3rd quarter is on the horizon! But this arc, its time to see to Laughing Coffin. But first, a new player has appeared, Lux! And I've got plans for her, hahaha! I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate the support as always; see ya in the next chapter, Misfits!
099 - Move to the Beat
To Lux's surprise, Nagi invites her the next day for another small outing to meet with someone who may give her the confidence boost she needs...