Iris' opponents surprised her with their ability, as soon as she stepped into battle. The one she had struck recovered quickly from the slash and wanted vengeance as soon as possible, the glowing gash long across his back. Focused on another who had turned around, considering him the greatest danger, she almost missed the whirling slash from the one she wounded. A long, heavy sword swung towards her and she desperately tried to block with her machete, but it slid off the lighter blade with easy, damaging its durability greatly. In the split-second that she had slowed the attack down, she spun around, letting the blade hit the armored part of her left arm. The metal protected her from a cut, but she cried out as her arm was hurt, as if she had been punched. It wasn't much, it could be worse, but it definitely brought her health down, she quickly dropped into the yellow zone. Growling, she managed to summon the strength to push the sword away with her forearm, and while her opponent's guard was dropped, she held her machete tight by the handle, punching him square in the face, which didn't take off much health but left him dazed. The girl took advantage of this to kick his leg, and push him to the ground, giving a kick and knocking the wind out of him before moving onto another opponent.... that is, if there were any left. While she dealt with him, the others had mopped up the others, their prey escaping away. They were all still alive, but in the red zone. Now it was her turn to subdue them, she decided as she dropped her machete. Stepping off her defeated enemy, she made a rounding kick to one's cheek, knocking him to the dust, before getting behind another, who was miraculously still standing, combining some harsh punches to the back with a sweeping kick to knock him over. She walked over to another, recovering her machete, she gave a bash with the handle to one's chest, throwing him at another. 

	Finally, the last one, witness to the decimation of his friends, though with the best health, she decided against knocking him out. Instead, she went before him and put the blade to his throat. Then, it occurred to her. They weren't players at all, but NPCs. They lacked the name tag designating them as players, for one thing, which she hadn't noticed in the heat of battle. However, if she forgot about that, she'd have a hard time realizing that they weren't real people. This last one, he had a look of terror in his eyes and it was a far cry from anything else she had ever seen in a game. It wasn't acted, nor invented, it truly felt genuine, like he didn't want to die. For a moment, she wondered; who, in this world was a person and who wasn't? NPCs she had seen so far acted realistically, with emotions, connections between them, routines and their own friends. This wasn't a game anymore, to her, it wasn't a death game. Instead, it was a game that became a new reality, erasing its virtual nature, in a way. She didn't need to be in SAO for long to realize that. Life could kill, on Earth and in Aincrad. Fail and death was a possibility. Maya had never experienced the situation, but she wasn't oblivious to others facing it. 

	When she thought about it, this man and the five others, on the ground, writhing in pain, crying and whimpering like wounded animals, were just as much a person as she was, only they didn't have a body within the "real" world. It was a marvel technology had come this far. If she finished them now, would they be missed? By whom? She had decided against killing when she thought they were players, not wanting to kill a real person, but when she realized they were NPCs, she became unsure. Finally, she put her blade down and looked at the players she fought with. One, a dark haired man with a red bandanna, intimidating looking clothes and an even more intimidating halberd and the other, a shorter, leaner fellow with a bastard sword. Both had a vicious look in their eyes, at least to her. "Let them go." Iris said firmly, putting the machete down from her hostage's neck and disarming the man. She threw his weapon aside and did the same with the others' weapons, until they were all in a messy pile. Standing in front of it, she made a gesture for him to go and watched, keeping an eye on the two players, Cin and TsuMeTai. "Get going. Do this again and I'm not saving any of you. And hurry, monsters might respawn soon." Those who could manage nodded, thanking her quietly and started helping each other up. Something about it felt right. It was strange the peace they found themselves in, going from the yelling, slashing, clanging sounds of battle to the peaceful ambient sounds of floor one in minutes. She'd have to get used to that.