Ikuji and Hosho

About one month had passed in both the game and the real world before the whole of the world had begun to fully realize the issues that were at hand and that, if what the administrator was saying was true, the only real way was to get out of this world by advancing through each individual floor. The first floor boss, by the usual standards of game developers, should have been an easy kill to allow advancement into the next floor, but this game was like no other that anyone else has ever played before. Becoming a part of new generation of full-dive gameplay and, as well, being among those were subjected to this cruel death game, the rules of the regular gaming universe had become completely reversed.
    
A meeting among some of the more dedicated players was to be had early in the day, and regardless of Ikuji’s predisposition to not get into positions that could possibly end him and his career in the real world, he knew that the only way to further himself into this new virtual reality was to embrace the fact that this was going to be his new home for a while. In order to assimilate, Hosho and Ikuji began to work on both combative and crafting skills for the first month in the first floor, while by no means being the strongest players in the game; they were able to start making a small profit by selling small arms and light armor to multitudes of players.  
    
This meeting, while not inherently profitable, would allow him to get his name out to the populace and convince them that his weapons, armor, and his words were not overly inflated and could even defeat the first-floor boss, assuming that he would be able to do it. 
    
“Some of you need to apologize to the two thousand who have died so far!” declared a spiky haired man, who had just jumped into the center of the amphitheater that was hosting their makeshift meeting.  
    
“Kibaou-san, are you referring to the beta testers?” the self-proclaimed Knight had responded in quick response, in almost what seemed like an attempt to keep the others at bay. The crowd continued to become a little more panicky as the idea of the beta testers were among those gathered today, but as they continued to ramble off to one another, Ikuji and Hosho remained nearly silent, only trying to observe rather than truly be among the problem that was occurring.
    
“Beta testers, huh?” Ikuji whispered to Hosho, who nearly dwarfed everyone but a select few people in the crowd. Ikuji continued to seem rather stone-faced about the matter but the prospect of beta testers being among them never seemed like an issue to either him or Hosho.
    
“They’re just other players here trying to get out of this hellhole.” Hosho replied, his voice not nearly as quiet as Ikuji’s. Hosho, as he did in the real world, was taking place as Ikuji’s bodyguard and confidant, being the major muscle to those who dared, even though it was very rarely, swindle or steal from them.
    
“It’ll be important that we don’t pick a side, Hosho. Even if the majority of the population dislike the beta-testers, we’ll be more likely to lose money if we just sell to the commoner since half of them already quit before it began.” He scoffed. 
    
“You got this guide book too?” a darker, larger man asked after a quick exchange of words. His abrupt interruption of Kibaou seemed to settle down the crowd and as he explained the situation of the beta testers to the rest of the attendees, the scare seemed to simmer down.  As the man continued to explain that the beta testers were actually attempting to help the majority of the players by small acts such as this and were not responsible for the mass amount of deaths, many people began to agree that the beta tester was not as sinister as Kibaou-san was portraying them to be.
    
“This concludes the meeting!” the would-be Knight announced since the majority of players seemed to be simmering down from the hostile topic. He continued to explain the looting and experience rules for the boss fight, reminding everyone that they were still playing a game that happened to have higher stakes than usual but a game none-the-less. 
    
“We leave tomorrow at ten in the morning!” he declared before the groups began to disperse amongst one another, people trying to form up parties prior to them leaving to enjoy the rest of the day before the big fight. 
    
The sun seemed to be even more intense that day but it wasn’t unbearable. A few beads of artificial sweat fell down Ikuji’s face, quickly being wiped away by his form arm. Twisting his neck to the left and right, both in quick and elongated succession, he nodded at his companion for them to depart, the day was still young and there was more money for them to make. 
    
“Interesting group of people.” Hosho remarked, a smirk forming upon his face and his left brow furrowing as the two walked into the heart of town. The colossal man continued to walk heavy, each step seeming as if they were about to sunder the ground beneath him, almost as if his intention was to inform people of his presence and the danger and potential animosity to those who dared cross him or his friend.
    
“Agreed, but potential customers, Hosho, just like the rest of this town. We can’t let them be too weary of us that they won’t buy our goods, yeah?” Ikuji said with a bright smile on his face. The two continued out into the town, back into their small store where they would spend most of the day selling weapons and armor that they were able to craft or trade for. A decent day of trading, some would say, but Ikuji’s ambition was growing. He wanted an empire.

                                                                                                                    ---- The Fight ---
    
“SWITCH!” Hosho yelled out to Ikuji, his odachi making a clean arch in a right, diagonal and downward direction. Hosho could feel the wind being pushed onto his unarmored face while his odachi had finally made contact with the kobold minion. They were only a few minutes into the fight after entering the boss doors and everything had been going exceptionally well. All parties seemed to be working exceedingly well with the direction of the self-proclaimed Knight, a pleasant surprise to both Hosho and Ikuji. 
    
“Alright, here I go!” Ikuji responded, dashing around the right side of Hosho with his niu wei dao gripped tightly in his right hand and extended outwards preparing to make a quick horizontal slash to help defeat one of the minions. 

“Crshhhh!” echoed out into the room, a familiar and happy sound to all those fighting against the beasts. The guide was able to completely, and accurately, aid them to the path of defeating the boss, and even though they were all relatively well geared and experienced, it seemed as if this was going to be exactly as one could predict, an easy first boss fight to prepare themselves for what was ahead.

As more and more kobold minions spawned to fight the group, both Ikuji and Hosho looked out towards the boss himself in complete awe of its power. They were several meters away from it, to begin with, and were one of the furthest members of the group from the boss. They were there, primarily, to deal as support units to defend the switching parties and tanks. 
Ikuji dashed towards another kobold, raising his blade to deflect the weak strike of the kobold. The clashing of steel seemed so unnatural to him, even though he’s played plenty video games prior to SAO. Each strike of his sword and parry he had to perform were for something much more now.

“Switch!” Ikuji called out, Hosho arching his blade horizontally as Ikuji slipped into the background behind his partner. The fighting continued for several minutes, exhaustion obvious in everyone’s eyes and movements but the hope to return to the real world seemed to be more than enough will power for the group to continue and press on regardless of what was occurring.

In what only seemed like seconds, everything would change. The monster reached for a massive talwar held from his back, his health already at the brink of death. Everyone was frozen, for a few seconds, trying to understand what was going on completely but it was just enough time for the Knight to call out to the rest of the group informing them that he would slay the beast.

The talwar moved at almost lightning speed striking the Knight with a critical blow. Time slowed even more. A thud of the man’s armor slamming onto the stone floor was the last thing that Ikuji heard of him, the roar of the beast drowning out all other sounds. People began to take panic, losing all the coordination that they had to get to this point. 

“No.. It can’t be.” Ikuji stammered to get out. He had never seen anyone be completely decimated like that before, that fast. “This book lied! There was no mention of that!” he cried out to Hosho, “Back up! Back up!” he called out but his voice was lost as the scream of his fellow compatriot’s final breath filled the room. Chaos had sparked, and now, it had seemed all would be lost.