A/N: I'm enjoying this small arc, I'm gonna try and make all my arcs small pieces as well gradually ascend Aincrad. Review Time.
To Isshion:Duly noted. I am not responsible for whatever happens to Daora.
[Daora]: Huh!? What's that supposed to mean!?
[Artorias]: No-no, go, fight the mythological entity, I wanna see how pans out.
[Nagi]: Mmhm, I'll keep that warning in mind, but my water isn't technically real, it's my haori's visual effect on my sword skills.
Enjoy.
|Feb. 4th, 14:07|
|Sword Art Online, Floor 8, Town of Frieven|
There was a loud clang of beer mugs against the table, toppling the carefully built spire over as many laughed. Once more, Daora laughed maniacally as the non-alcoholic beverage was gone. "-then I swooped in, breaking down a whole wall with my bare hands, the runt didn't know what hit him!" The people he entertained with his overly biased story were the small guild known as the Legend Braves.
Artorias grumbled, rubbing her temples, "Alright, Nezha, I'm about ten seconds away from committing a war crime, so spill what you know." She wasn't in the mood for this.
Nezha, former blacksmith, frowned with a worried look on his face. "I-I told you, no one's said anything, not since the scam on floor two," He was forever grateful to Artorias, Kirito, and their friends for helping him and his party set things right again. He leaned forward to whisper. "That guy in the black poncho probably realized with my connections it's not worth bending the wrist a second time."
Artorias nodded slowly, this was smart, had a PKer approached the Legend Braves, Nezha could easily squawk and that would be all she wrote. Unfortunately, not even a whisper came by. "Right... well, guess we'll move on," She threw her head back at the roof of the inn, the large branches of the tree dividing the panels above. "Say, what about EXP spots, any change there?"
The plain-looking boy pursed his lips, running a gloved hand onto his mouth to recollect those memories. "Hrm... now that you mention it, I guess some small-time parties said a bunch of high-level players threatened them to scram, but that's all," He didn't realize it, but that small tip just made Artorias crack a grin after three hours of nonsense.
"You're MVP today, chief," Artorias slapped the barrel table, walking over to drag Daora as he laughed. "Chuckles, let's go meet with... uh, what's that pink-haired chick's name again?"
"Lizbeth the Holy Blacksmith!" He declared, prodding his finger against Artorias' right breast. He blinked, then dropped the guy like a sack of bricks.
"Right, well, let's book it - thanks again, Nezha, I'll fax you a reward when I'm doing drowning this idiot in the swamp." Artorias waved as Nezha nervously watched the redhead drag her companion out the inn doors. "I swear, one button press and I'm sending you to that prison."
"Hahahaha, even the system thinks you're a girl!" That earned him a right kick between the legs, though it didn't hurt at all, Daora still recoiled and fell off the nearby railing to the murky water below the town.
"I swear I'm going to kill him." She adjusted her leather coat, and casually whistled her way to the teleport gate.
|Feb. 4th, 14:15|
Once arriving in Arcadia, Daora led the red warrior in the direction of the marketplace to find Lizbeth, the only one left on their list of names Argo had them interview. Much of what they found matched Agil's own claim. Some prominent spots for rare items, materials, and such were all taken or hoarded by high-level players, but most notably, the same ones.
"Taking into account the numbers, a party of four," She jotted it all down in her own notes. "They've been at this for two weeks, rotating between floors five, eight, eleven, and fifteen, dividing their efforts between EXP grinding, material gathering, or rare item farms," She drew more lines between her notes, brow creased in thought.
"If players were on-sight, they'd be frightened off, fight in a duel only to lose, or be threatened, some have even gone missing if the party was small enough - but only smaller groups, no one from the frontlines has been touched," This made sense. Why attack the big fish when you can gather a bunch of small ones under the radar?
"Ah-hah, The Holy Blacksmith!" At the nickname, Lizbeth's focus on her items menu faltered, a steady pink hue rising to her cheeks as she shot the two a piercing glare.
"Yikes, Princess Asuna's got competition," Artorias thought, closing her menu. "So, Pinkie's trying to set you on fire with her mind, neat."
"I thought I told you to stop calling me that?" She grumbled at the wolf-headed boy.
"You do know this idiot hears through one ear, and it pops out the other, right?" Artorias deadpanned, then motioned to Lizbeth while looking at Daora. "You seriously weren't kiddin', her hair's pink?"
"Dyed that way, a friend said it would be a nice color," Lizbeth replied, moving away from her smith wears to the counter. She own a small stall, not as grand as Agil, but it held together well for a poor person, Artorias thought. "So, whatcha want, Daora? Your friend here need an upgrade, or...?"
"Actually, we need to ask you a few questions, doing some private investigation for Argo," Artorias answered, leaning against the counter to keep watch for prying eyes. "Anyone approach you about weapon crafting or maintenance that you thought were sketchy Pinkie?"
Liz's brow twitched. "Hmph, don't think I have." She deflected.
"You want me to call you worse? I have a list, Cottencandy," Another jab made that fire in Liz's eyes direct itself at Artorias, she just smirked with a condescending stare. "Oooh, I actually felt that, Kawaii-Chan."
"Seriously?" Lizbeth deadpanned.
"My references are vast," Artorias admitted with a shrug.
With a reluctant breath, Lizbeth dropped her glare a little. "Two people, one kinda stood off to the side, not really doing much, the one at my counter was a guy, said he wanted me to craft him, get this, a dozen weapons," Even the blacksmith herself looked skeptical. "I mean, sure, big guilds can happen, but every weapon was to be the exact same, with the exact materials, ones that were rare too. Don't you get how hard it is not to fail a batch of crafted items, but with rare items atop that?"
"So you refused?" Artorias inquired as Lizbeth smacked Daora's hand away from two axes she had on display.
"Hands off - and yeah, he said for me to reconsider next time, but the way he looked at me, it was almost like he wanted me to say no, you know?" Liz looked a little uncomfortable now. "He's... not just sketchy for the looks, is he?"
"'fraid not, lemme hazard a guess, he wore something like me? All dark leathers, looked like a discount victorian era snob?" Artorias gestured to all of her, and the pinkette's eyes lit up.
"Yeah... yeah, that exactly!" With that, it confirmed Artorias' suspicions. Arawn was carrying out these orders and had an accomplice that wasn't the black poncho man.
"Hah, I'd like to see him try and hurt any of my loyal followers!" Daora boasted, slamming his ax into the ground. "I'll cleave him and his lackeys in two so fast they'll be begging me to spare them!"
"You guys aren't seriously going after them?" Lizbeth spared them a worried look but Artorias didn't crack a joke. "Just... be careful."
Then the redhead smirked. "And miss out on your verbal smacktalk? I'm starting to like you," Her quipped lightened the mood a bit.
"You know what? Forget it," Lizbeth rolled her eyes, then perked up. "Oh! Someone else was here recently, actually, looking into the same thing you were?"
"Huh?" The pair looked at one another, then Lizbeth.
"Who?" Artorias inquired.
The smith rubbed her knuckle on her brown apron. "Um, it was strange, I thought they were an orange player but their cursor was yellow, but the way they spoke was almost too real, like, not like an NPC should," She leaned over her counter, and pointed toward the mayor's office. "I think they left up toward the teleport gate about twenty minutes ago - h-hey, wait-"
"You really pulled through, thanks a lot!" Daora raised his ax high, Artorias already taking off down the street with Daora in-toe.
Searching the plaza was easy, NPCs that weren't quest-related could teleport but they were mostly for-hire guards. This meant that someone had to be meeting with the NPC to teleport with them, that was their assumption anyway. For once, only once, Artorias wasn't sure since so much of the NPCs' mechanics had shifted. Kizmel the Dark Elf and Shirayuki of House Winter were prime examples.
No yellow cursor to be found, "Let's check the garden behind the office," Artorias suggested, and Daora followed. Fewer people were around, which was a good thing, it meant spotting a bright yellow cursor would be easy enough.
The garden was wide and rectangular against a stone railing that overlooked the edge of a sheer drop toward the rest of the hedge maze of the floor. You'd think from here players could survive the fall and run atop the maze itself, but some invisible force would throw you down into the maze when you stuck the landing.
Neatly trimmed bushes, a pond encircling a red-brick plaza with a few benches, hedge archways, and the occasional tree. It was a beautiful sight at night when fireflies from the maze would rise to illuminate the garden. However, one other distinct sight caught their eyes. A yellow cursor and the NPC whose back was to them, standing by the barrier to the cliff.
"Heh, looks like we found them, not so sneaky for an NPC," Daora snorted sharply through the mask, Artorias would've agreed, but something was... off. The wind was cooler now, and the vibe the clearly female NPC gave off left a bad taste in his mouth. "..." Daora noticed it too, his hand near his lower back close to his weapon.
"You call me that strange title," She spoke, turning to meet their gaze coldly. "I know what I am, it is you who lack stealth."
Her body was petite, standing as tall as Artorias, making her shoulder than Daora. She wore a simple black skirt and loose-fitted grey shirt, and a pair of leather boots. Attached to her hip by a belt was a silver-handled rapier with a faint blue blade. Her raven hair fell to her shoulders, and two onyx eyes greeted them with a cold but fierce stare. A faded scar across her right cheek to her nose.
/Hotaru\
"Let's skip the song and dance; what's up with you poking around about an issue concerning players?" Artorias didn't beat around the bush, if she said she didn't understand, it meant this was her acting just a little outside her parameters. But she admitted she is an NPC, but whether or not she knew what that meant remains to be seen.
"Because innocent lives are in danger," She answered plainly, "The wicked torment the weak, we cannot allow that." Another big hint, 'We'.
"Heh, would you look at that, Numbnuts, this one's self-aware," Artorias chuckled once, then her eyes sharpened, blocking the point of Hotaru's rapier as it slipped against her new grave carbon black grave shield. Kicking wide, Artorias knocked the girl aside, luckily, the safe zone kept them both from turning orange. "And short-tempered."
Hotaru spun to greet Artorias, rapier raised forward. "Your humor is dry and wasteful, my business is concluded here, swordswoman." She spoke directly and without mincing her words. "Stand aside."
"Whadda gonna do, stab me through the heart?" Artorias threw her arms wide. "Safe Haven's put us in a stalemate, so stop having a temper tantrum, and talk, why are you and some partner of yours after the same orange players?"
For once, Hotaru's eyes flickered with regret, she realized she slipped up. Daora approached but Artorias stopped him, waving for him to watch their backs. He huffed, but turned, shoving Artorias' shoulder. Mature as always.
"I... cannot say," She slowed her speech, but Artorias didn't go for her weapon.
"Enemy of my enemy, right? Have a... well, whatever counts as a heart for you guys," Her eyes flattened. "Right-Right, no jokes... tough crowd... but seriously, we're after the same assholes, let's compromise."
"This is bigger than a small party," Hotaru answered, lowering her rapier. "I'm afraid this web is beyond what we anticipated if we have come to the same conclusion."
"So someone else is getting them to take action, who? Poncho man?" Artorias asked.
"...you know of him?" Hotaru inquired.
"Nearly tried to make sweet love to me with the business end of a dagger, but you tell me." She shrugged nonchalantly.
Hotaru went to say something but quickly cut herself short. "Hide!" She whispered, diving for a bush nearby. Artorias spun fast, grabbing Daora who yelped before he was thrown over the edge of the balcony with the redhead.
"I heard 'em, I swear!" One person whined. "Look-look-look, if I was lying, I'd have been offed long ago, you know that." He had quite a snarky tone. Through the gaps in the white stone railing, Artorias and Daora hung off the cliff, peeking through the gaps. Hotaru was just to the right of them, peeking through the bush with her rapier taut.
The one looking around hastily kept a dark green hood up, but clearly wore leather gear with steel gauntlets fore the legs and forearms. His cursor was orange, beside him, another, the more familiar player had a green one. Arawn, his eyes scanning the area with a venomous glint to his pale green eyes bored and unassuming. "You are both depressing and unhelpful."
"Aim to please, sir!" The orange player gave a silly salute, and Artorias had to hold her breath, seeing his eyes catch theirs. Daora's fingers shifted against the stone, and Artorias had to quickly snap his arm out around the guy's waist to hold him as still as possible, a sweatdrop rolling down the girl's face.
To bewilder them into holding off on attacking or outright fleeing, the guy made a curt flick of his hand behind his cloak, he was telling them to stay down? Daora and Artorias glanced at one another, then back through the gaps.
Arawn sighed, running a hand down his face, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Whatever, Harriet wants you to get rid of that damn cursor of yours, we already got looks from the teleport plaza for it, come back when you do, 'kay?" With a shrug, Arawn turned around to walk away.
"Of course, not an issue! Have to avoid the guards, the players, mostly the guards though... and you're not really listening to me anymore, huh?" The orange player rubbed his nape, seeing Arawn wave.
"Now you're catching on!" Soon, it was just them and this orange player. A few seconds passed, then a minute before he slumped.
"Okay, you guys can come out now," He spoke up again, only to find a rapier, trick-ax, and sword prodding at his face. "Hey-hey, take it easy!" He pushed his fingers against their weapons. "Just... let me explain."
He tugged his hood down, revealing spiky, bedridden blackish-green hair, and lime-green eyes. His cheeks dotted with freckles as he smiled nervously, tugging at his snood underneath his cloak. "Hey, y'know what I always say? Get awkward outta the way first, hehehe..." None of them were moving, and he frowned anxiously. "Okay, yeah, this looks bad."
"Ain't that the million yen question," Artorias snorted. "Daora, if he moves, toss him off the balcony.
Daora sheathed his ax, cackling as he slapped his hands together. "With pleasure!"
The guy backed up a bit, hands still up near his chest. "Look-look-look, I get it, I'm orange, don't trust us, I get that, really do - but... not all of us had a choice, y'know?" His tone was rough as if it irked him to admit it. "I've messed with good people thinkin' 'hey, what's the harm in a little fun? No one dies, everyone walks away', yeah... for a time, I guess."
"Really?" Artorias didn't buy it.
"Yeah, well, lemme tell ya, I don't buy it, not anymore, not since we broke a deal with... Him," His tone was sharper, dripping with malice as he glared at his feet then back to the three of them. "Guy in the poncho, acts like it's all a big show? PoH's his name, and a real scumbag, you wanna talk evil, guy carries it like a mantle, real proud type,"
"Maybe together we take this OP of his down, huh?" He waved with a slight grin, looking at Hotaru. "Yer partner's in danger, if he goes after my... well, old team, he'll walk right into a trap," That made her eyes shift uncomfortably. "I ain't lookin' for pity, or expecting any of you to trust me, just... I don't want people to die, that wasn't the deal, and all this stealing and tricks is really leaving a bad taste in my mouth."
"Yeah, I really don't trust you, hell, I don't trust her," Artorias rolled a shoulder at Hotaru. "But... you have information we need, and as I told her, enemy of my enemy, and blah-blah-blah, so, wanna help? You come with me," Sensing the pregnant pause, the orange player smirked.
"Right-Right, call me Fynch, honor to be working with ya, like... for real,"
With that, Artorias stared at Daora, jabbing his chest. "Don't throw him off the balcony.
"Why not!?" He really wanted to do it.
"Don't you do it."
"I wanna do it." His hands rose toward the orange player, his face drained of color, shivering in place.
"Can I get a second opinion?" The orange player raised a shaky hand.
"Do it, and I'll get you, don't fucking test me." The redhead glowered.
"With what, that toothpick?" He flicked her sword's pommel as Artorias groaned loudly.
"Yeah, can clean your teeth after I'm done brushing them off the floor." She remarked, switching to look at the NPC of the hour.
"If what this man speaks of is true, then I must return to my companion, he will need to know what I've learned," Hotaru stated, keeping her rapier stiff in her hand. Artorias stared at her for the longest time before letting out a defeated sigh, rolling his eyes.
"I hate this... if your partner's not got a stick up his ass, tell 'em to send you to floor eleven's marketplace, my boss might want to speak with him," Artorias suggested, then made a 'shoo-shoo' motion with his hands. "You can go now, short-stack."
"We're the same height," She pointed out but Artorias threw his arms down.
"Don't care. Didn't ask. Now go." She opened a gap between the group for Hotaru, and she left as quickly as they arrived. Now, only Fynch was left, looking around with a whistle. "Now then, about you, smartass."
"You, heh, really like those nicknames, huh?" Fynch grinned. "What with investigating an orange player plot to steal from players, bartering with me and that NPC girl, and you still crack out jokes like a whip!"
"I can be quite the multitasker." Artorias nodded loftily.
To Be Continued...
Conversation heavy this one, this 'mystery' element isn't one I handle often so I hope the plot of this arc is going well so far, nothing too complex. We've got another two reveals. Fynch, an ex-orange player working with Nagi's side. And the NPC Hotaru, and her mysterious partner. I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate the support as always; seeya in the next chapter, Players!
030 - Seige of Darkdrinker Keep Act I
Pulling together their evidence, the gang looks to bring the orange players' growing cabal down atop their heads. But a deal must be made...