[IC] Sword Art Online: One Hundred Levels Up

[Hero]

"Little bread-and-butterflies kiss the tulips, and the sun is like a toy balloon..."

Artemis brandished her sword to her side, eyeing the enemies in front of her carefully. Three on one, at her own insistence--their levels wouldn't be a problem for her, and the last thing she wanted was for her brother to get hurt.

"There are get up in the morning glories, in the golden afternoon..."

One decided to attack, raising its feeble hammer as if it believed it could actually scratch her. She lazily raised her blade, blocking the attack. Despite this, the other two felt that this was their chance to attack.

"There are dizzy daffodils on the hillside, strings of violets are all in tune.."

Without missing a beat, Artemis pushed the hammer off her sword. It glowed a light blue, signaling the start of a sword skill.

"Tiger lilies love the dandy lions, in the golden afternoon, the golden afternoon..."

She jumped into the air and spun her body so that she spiraled downwards, her sword a flurry of attacks. Each hit connected to the three of them, all perfectly gathered for her attack. Once she landed she spun around, completing the attack: the blurred line of her sword became solid, and each monster fell.

"There are dog and caterpillars and a copper centipede, where the lazy daisies love the very peaceful life they lead..."

At this point, she let out a small sigh, though Apollo popped up behind her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her along with him. He hadn't shut up since they got there, and now he was singing his little song all happily and whatnot. Never mind that this death game around him was happening Still, the journey was going well, so to speak. Sure, a few players here and there, but they avoided one another, so much that for a moment, she almost thought they were going the wrong way. Still, with each monster affirming their direction, she knew they had nothing to worry about. Most people avoided monsters anyway. Artemis gladly welcomed them.

"You can learn a lot of things from the flowers, for especially in the month of June." Apollo sang gladly, at this point releasing Artemis and stepping to the side, bowing deeply and twirling his wrist a bit. Now it was her turn for the next line it seemed. She didn't really see the point of it, but he seemed to be having fun.

"There’s a wealth of happiness and romance, all in the golden afternoon." She sang for him, returning his gesture with a very dramatic curtsy of her own. They both straightened up and resumed walking, their laughter filling the halls. It had been some time since the two had both laughed like that. Apollo grinned, playfully poking her cheek. "Alright, I get the message, I will try to smile more." She replied, a small smile on her face as they walked.

"Good." Apollo replied happily, though his smile faded as a voice was heard. The two stopped in their tracks, listening carefully. It sounded like a taunt. What was weird was that it sounded like only one person. Really, one person thought they could take on the boss alone? Apollo let out a small laugh, lightly nudging Artemis. "Hear that, sweetheart? Looks like we're going the right way." He grinned lightly.

Artemis rolled her eyes. "It doesn't sound like they're with anyone. If they want to go on their little suicide mission, so be it. We're only here to collect the map data." She reminded him as they kept walking.

"I don't know, that loot sounds tempting." Apollo argued, placing his hands on the back of his head. "But taking on the boss alone? Maybe we could help."

"Don't be ridiculous. If you're soloing at this point in the game, it means you want to stay solo." She snapped. "Even if we wanted to help, what makes you think that they would even want it?"

Apollo began jogging ahead of her, though he looked back. "Hey, you never know! Come on, let's see if we can catch up!" He told her, breaking into a run.

"Hey! Wait! Don't go too far ahead without me!" She called, running after him.

[Redwing]

After a little while the raid party left the cafe. They hadn't had much luck on getting anybody else. So they would just meet up with the other front liners at the camp. Right now Mitsuru was paired up with Abel and one other person. They had split off into groups of three for now, things may change when they get to the camp. Every boss fight Mitsuru had been in, the moment the raid entered the boss room, they had to watch and some idiot who wanted the drops died. Did people not understand that this was a death game? The drops didn't matter as long as the bosses were beaten. The only thing that was important was getting out of the game and back into the real world. Though she did have a couple of friends in game, none of her real world friends had made it in. So she was completely alone in that sense.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as the raid party was attacked by a group of monsters on the way to the tower. One of them was some sort of winged creature. "I got the flying one!" She called to the rest of the people as the fighting began. She had fought with some of, if not all, of these people before. And her reputation as a Dragoon was pretty good. So nobody argued. With a battle cry, she ran at the flying creature, her spear grasped lightly in her right hand. When she got close enough she leaped into the air, the flying enemy seemed rather confused as his prey was suddenly at eye level with him. She drove her spear straight into his torso and let gravity do the rest, bending her knees to absorb the impact as they hit the ground. The creature shattered and died from the combined damage of her spear and the ground.

The victory screen popped up shortly after as the rest of the monsters were taken care of. She didn't get any drops from the flying creature, but the money and experience was decent. At the very least she worked on her acrobatics skill.

Nothing else happened on their way to the tower. They met up with the rest of the front lines and set up their own section of the camp. Away from the guilds. The group Mitsuru was with was made up of people who didn't belong to guilds yet. After plans were set, the groups that hadn't entered the tower yet did so. Once they got to the boss room they would wait for the other groups. Nobody would go in unless everybody was there. It wasn't worth risking your life for a little extra loot. Those were the types of people Mitsuru hated most. Yeah, she was reckless, but she wasn't stupid. Her and the rest of the raid group began to make their way through the tower, searching for the boss room and fighting everything that came their way.

[Shadowcatcher]

As Aura walked through Gilmer's Tower, she had her left hand resting on the hilt of her sword that was sheathed at her side. As she walked, it gently brushed the red armor that protected her left leg, making the faintest of sounds, but she heard it clearly as if it was right next to her ear. She was practicing her Straining skill as she listened to the sounds that surrounded her. She could hear mobs that were far away, and the footsteps of a few people who seemed to be behind her, but nothing was more interesting than hearing a faint girls voice talking.

"Can't wait to see the looks on all your pretty little faces when you see no boss and me with all the loot, sweat hearts!" was what it sounded like she said. This made Aura raise her brow as she began her ascent of the steps to the next floor. So another solo player is going for the boss loot? Hm... should i be nice and allow her to get it herself then?" she asked herself as she continued walking up the long stairwell. When she reached the entrance to the next floor of the tower, she hid in the shadows for a moment and listened. This time, for mobs. She was only 5,000 exp away from leveling up and that was mainly her goal for coming to this tower.... that and to get a bunch of useless items to sell or trade. After a few moments of listening, her ears picked up on what sounded like flapping wings. At her skill level she couldn't yet tell how many there were, but she was sure she could take them by surprise, no matter how many there were. Slowly with her left hand she drew her sword and started to walk towards the sound. She tried not to get distracted by anything else but it was quite a challenge so far. Aura made a mental note to continue practicing on her skills so she could get better at them. Finally she spotted two winged monsters lurking a few meters ahead of her and she gripped her sword tightly in preparation to attack.

When they turned and she escaped their line of sight she charged, taking full advantage of her Sprint skill, and Aura was upon them in seconds. They heard the sound of her steps coming closer and as they turned she lept into the air and cartwheeled over them. Activating Sonic Leap, her sword glowed and as she fell to the ground, she brought her sword down and hit one of them right in the head. It burst into a mass of blue glitter to which she smirked as she knelt to avoid the attack of the other one. Aura activated Horizontal Square as the creature came around and tried to swing at her with its wing. With a curse she sliced the wing in two with the first strike. The second hit its body, the third she aimed to its other wing, and the forth came down on its head. When she was done, it too erupted into the blue glitter and her award screen popped up. Sheathing her sword and kneeling down on one knee, she noticed she was feeling weaker for some reason. "Perhaps I should consider increasing my stamina once i level up." she spoke to herself as she relaxed and healed herself with an HP Crystal.

Faintly she heard the sound of wings again and she looked in the direction of the sound. Soon it got louder and louder to a point she stood and covered her ears. What looked like a swarm of those winged creatures were heading in her direction, straight at her. Aura's eyes widened and for the first time in a while, she was actually afraid for her life. "Shit!" she yelled as she turned the opposite direction and started running as fast as she could. Help! Is anyone there!? Help me!" she called out to no one in particular. She could hear anything over the loud sound of flapping wings, so how could anyone else? This was bad.... very bad. She didn't want ot have to be some sort of damsel in distress but there was no way she could take on that big of a mob on her own. So, setting her pride aside, she did what she thought was the best thing to do if she was going to get someone to notice her.

She screamed at the top of her lungs.

[Irisity]

Ace tried her best not to jump at the sound of his voice. She should've been expecting it, but she was startled none the less.

"Hi there. You lost?"

Ace turned to see a boy, probably as old as herself. He looked somewhat inconspicuous. You could trust most players in this world to not stab you in the back, but you still had to be cautious. The Laughing Coffin, a gang that encouraged player killing, was known for giving off the appearance of kind and helpful, but the moment you turned your back you found a knife severing your spine.

This guy looked trustable enough.

"No, I'm not lost. Just trying to find the boss, like all of us are. I expect that's what you are here for too," she lightly smoothed the words over to make herself seem confident, but not too arrogant.

"I uh.." Ace's words were slow at forming in her mouth. "I could use a partner. No one knows exactly how powerful this boss is." Ace sighed, burying her pride under thick layers of survival instincts. She didn't want to tell this guy how much she knew about where the boss was. He could easily kill her and hop off to floor 17.

A scream echoed through the halls.

"Shit," Ace whispered under he breath. "Dunno about you, but I've gotta go."

She ditched the guy and sprinted around the corner towards the scream. Even if it's a trap, no one needs to die anymore. No one.

[Hero]

"Did you hear that?"

The pair stopped in their tracks, having heard the scream from behind them. Apparently, they were in between the cocky solo player and a damsel in distress. The pair looked at one another for a moment. They didn't know what kind of person was ahead, but they did know the person behind them was in trouble. Maybe they had run into a trap; Artemis wouldn't be surprised if an ambush lay in wait for them. She suddenly felt very regretful that she brought Apollo along now. That regret came full blast when Apollo decided to run back, towards the scream. "Wait!" She called out after him (again) and she let out an irritated groan. It's not that she had never encountered PKers before, but if anything happened to her brother...She quickly shook that thought of and took off running after him.

Apollo ran as fast as he could, his sister's quicker footsteps indicating that she was right behind him. It didn't sound too far off, so that much was good. As he turned the corner, he spotted the problem: a swarm of winged creatures had decided to make a young looking blue haired girl their next meal. Boy, there were sure a lot of them. Apollo stopped in his tracks for a moment, though Artemis ran right past him. As both the girl and the monsters got closer, Apollo braced himself for what was probably going to be a difficult fight. Artemis had the same thought, though she made sure she was going in with her sword ablaze. Said sword glowed its usual light blue, and once she was almost face to face with the girl, she side stepped and whirled around her, cutting down the first monster in sight.

[Shadowcatcher]

Aura saw two people ahead of her who were running her way and instead of a feeling of gratitude, the first thought that hit her burned a hole straight through her pride. I'm officially a damsel in distress.... The second thought she had was that she needed to fight alongside these two if she was going to make it out of this mess alive. Upon getting closer to them she could see that one was a guy and one was a girl, and the girl had readied her sword to dive head on into the mob. "These are Giant Wind Wasps. Careful of the stun!" she called. Aura quickly took out her sword to get ready to defend the blonde haired girl and as she was sidestepped and heard the sound of a blade slicing an enemy, she turned on her heels and dashed back towards her. As soon as the girl raised her sword from her strike, Aura moved in front of her and kicked the Wind Wasp that was coming at them before using her Vertical Arc skill to take it down.

Moving out of the way once more, Aura went to stand back to back with the girl as the Wing Wasps began surrounding them. "If we win this, we're going to get a shit ton of exp. You came to help so make sure you don't get in my way." Aura said looking over her shoulder at the girl. Though the words seemed harsh to say to someone who came to her rescue, the tone she had used was not one that would be taken offence from. If anything, one would take it as a sarcastic kind of tone. With that, Aura jumped into the air and did a flip as she activated her Sonic Leap skill again. She landed directly on top of one but it didn't die, turning and ducking past a stinger aimed at her head, she activated Uppercut and then Rage Spike at a different one before the wasp beneath her began moving again. Driving her sword through its body at her feet was enough to kill the creature but the next attack aimed at her was unavoidable. Two Wind Wasps used their Bite move on each of her arms and as she tried to get free, she kicked at one that came at her from the front. Aura's health started dropping and her heart started to race as the thought of dying here passed through her mind.

I should have just gone to Sunshine Forest! Shit, shit, shit! she raged at herself in her head.

[Irisity]

Ace rounded the corner and peaked her head around, not wanting to risk exposing her body as a target. Not like her head was any better though.

She could see three other people striking down huge ass wasp, but there were a shitton more.

Ace sprinted towards the group and sliced down one wasp.

"I'm so glad we don't have this shit back home," she muttered to herself as she bathed in blue light and experience from a few wasp.

[Sketcher]

Edge found himself in the area soon enough. "Aura," he said to himself, confirming his suspicions. He quickly pulled out his rapier and shot himself fiercely at one of the wasps biting on her arms, dropping its health significantly. He spun on his heel and dropped its health to the point it dissipated. He used his Unarmed skill next which had a weak stun effect strong enough just to push back the second wasp as he kicked it off of her. He looked towards the other wasps coming their way before speaking to the girl, keeping his eyes locked on the bugs. "Nice seeing you again," he said jokingly before lunging at one of the wasps. Each dealt damage would half heal itself in a matter of seconds, allowing him to trade more blows and cut through more enemies quicker.

[Shadowcatcher]

Two more people had come to help her against the Wind Wasp ambush. One girl just ran up without a word and started fighting. Aura cursed and stumbled slightly when the Wind Wasps were painfully ripped away from her arms. It was a good thing her sensitivity wasn't too high or else she might have screamed. When she heard the familiar voice of the one who freed her from the creatures, she turned and saw Edge's familiar face. "Its you." she said simply while shaking her arms out and getting ready for an attack. "It's ironic how we end up in this kind of situation again together. fighting for our lives..." Suddenly Aura felt something like a twinge of pain in her heart. The last time he had saw her he talked about doing something about the player killers, and now... she was one of them. Regret was what she was feeling at that moment, but shaking her head Aura told herself to focus on the fight and maybe she'd get a chance to explain herself later. She activated her Rage Spike skill and ran past him, aiming for a wasp that was coming towards them. Come to think of it, she wondered why everyone here had even bothered to help her. Her orange cursor couldn't have escaped their notice and she began feeling a bit singled out in the group. As she attacked the wasp once more she paused as she thought back to that day she saw her comrades die.

Familiar Faces

~1 month before the events in Gilmer's Tower~
* Damp Forest *
A collaboration between Sketcher and Shadowcatcher

Aura's heart pounded in time with her footsteps as she sped through the Damp Forest of Floor 15. Never in her real life had she been more afraid, and this fear she was feeling was driving her mad. She had sworn since the man who attacked her on Floor 1.... she had sworn that she would never run from another player. That she would fight until she died. But turns out... when she was faced with that situation, her promise to herself was the farthest thing from her mind. Three others were already dead. While there was still no real confirmation that if you die in-game you die IRL, she wasn't going to be taking any chances. Her health bar had already dropped to yellow since she had dared to go up against one of the players with the orange cursor. They had come together, 2 against 1 were the odds between them and her party. Now the only people left were her and...

"Edge?" she called as she looked around her. She didn't see him, and she didn't want to stop running. For a moment she thought maybe they had gotten him too and she should just go... but she couldn't. "Fuck!" she shouted as she dashed behind a tree and crouched there panting. She looked from around the tree back in the direction she came and started to listen. "Edge.... can you hear me?' she called into the darkness.

Edge was still back at the site where they had been attacked. He kept hiding, letting his Battle Heal ability fix whatever damage he'd gotten and trying to escape again, only to be attacked each time. One on one wouldn't be too much trouble since PKers never really fought on the front lines and didn't have enough levels to pose much of a threat to those who had but still, when they were together, they were extremely dangerous. He realized that he was the only one left in the visible area among the group. Cursing under his breath, the boy sheathed his sword and ran through one of the people blocking his way with his unarmed and sprint skills, making a run for it. He soon heard a familiar voice. He made his way towards the source without answering. The last thing they needed was the others finding them again. He soon lost the attackers though they were still searching. "Aura, over here," he said, coming to an opening where he could see her. "They're still looking for us!"

Staying low, she quickly made her way over to where he was. Though she'd never say it outloud, she was happy to see he was still alive. "I don't know if we should keep running or stay and fight. But, I don't think I can do much of either for too long. Do you have any health crystals? I'm all out." she said to him keeping her voice low. In the distance she could hear the sounds of them walking as they stepped on twigs and dried leaves. She still was unable to tell how many there were by just listening so she looked to Edge for help. "Did you see how many were left?"

Edge pulled out his inventory and scrolled through the list. "I usually keep these for emergencies since I trained my battle heal skill but I guess this is one," he said and a small panel popped up in front of her, asking if she would accept the two crystals. "And sadly, no. I didn't look out for their numbers. I'm in favor of running. What I know is that there were more than we can beat. Unless we divide them or something, they'll definitely overpower us and even that can be risky."

Aura accepted the crystals and used one immediately. "Thanks." she said elbowing him in the arm. "And I agree.... fighting them would probably be suicide. I'm not risking my life for that. But i do suggest we split up. It might be our best option so at least they wont be chasing us all in one big group." she pointed with her finger to the place where his name was shown under hers. "If one of us sees the others health bar start to go down, we can meet up and help. That sound good to you?" she jumped slightly when she heard something close to them and she quickly stood and pulled him to the safety of a different tree.

As he followed her, he thought for a moment, pulling up the map they'd made after going through the area and located the four exits, three of which would require passing through their camping point. "Pull up your map," he whispered after finally getting to safety. "We can split up but we should still stay close. Being on the main path would be suicide so I suggest we both go through different sides and meet up in front of the exit of the forest here." He pointed at the exit point as he emphasized on the last word. "That way we'll have a good idea of where the other is in case there's trouble."

When he told her to pull up her map, she had done so and listened to his plan. It seemed like it was worth a shot so she nodded and put it away. "Sound good. Just... make sure you dont trip and fall like those stupid girls in movies, ok? I can't really afford to drag you along." she said bitterly but with also a hint of a joking tone. She gave him a smile then stood up and took out one of her throwing picks. "I can hear them... i'll send them off track if I can so wait for my signal." She stayed quiet then and listened to the talking of the players who were after them.

"They couldn't have gotten far. Find them, they know our faces thanks to someone." she recognized the voice of the one who was most likely the leader.

"Dont put this all on me, I just wanted to have a little fun with the pretty girl."

Aura frowned and turned in a different direction and threw her pick randomly into the woods, hoping it went far away.

"Yo, I heard something over that way." one of them said.

"It could be a trap. Stay on track." the leader said again.

"Like hell they could trap us, come on man."

Just like she thought it would, the sound of her throwing pick had distracted them and made them go in a different direction. Tapping Edge lightly with her foot she nodded and turned to run away.

Edge smiled upon seeing the dumber player killer divert the rather wiser one off track by falling to the simple trick Aura had used. He looked over to her and nodded back, following her for a few seconds before dashing across the path without being sighted. They were spread out far, though. Some of them were ahead, even though there were few. The men all travelled in pairs which was quite troublesome. He made his best to avoid them, putting distance between himself and them. However, one of the trackers had already picked up on the boy with the poor hiding skill.

"There's something there," was the only thing he heard before starting to run without caring about being heard. "After 'im!"

The two men started to follow him, their bloodlust getting the better of them. Instead of informing the others, they went after the boy alone.

As Aura ran, she was careful to make as little noise as possible. She was good at it, but diverting from the path and into the thick brush of the forest made it hard for her to stay quiet for too long. Her Acrobatics skill made it easy for her to jump and avoid fallen logs and other things blocking her path, but at one point while she was running, a twig got caught in her impossibly long blue hair, and she had to stop. Biting back a cry of pain as her head was pulled back, she quickly tried to untangle herself from the bush she was caught on. Her trembling hands didn't help, so out of desperation she pulled out her sword and carefully cut the section of her hair that was stuck.

As it poofed into a bit of blue glitter she turned and continued to make her way through the forest. Her sword came in handy and after a moment she heard voices and stopped, becoming completely still.

"There's something there." she heard and for a moment she thought it was her that they had found.

"After him!" someone said again and then she knew she was in the clear. But, that meant Edge was in trouble. Fighting her way through the trees, Aura started running some more. For now he seemed to be okay, his health had not dropped at all, and so with her ears focused on listening out for him, she kept running on her path, still determined to make it out of this godforsaken forest alive.

Looks like we're far enough from any help they can get... If I damage them enough, they might panic, Edge thought to himself and stopped, spinning on his heal and leaping forward to the man who was now rushing into Edge's sword skill. A significant amount of the man's health dropped in that instant. He didn't wait for the man to react to land another attack, kicking the man to the ground. At that moment, the second man hacked at him, dealing some damage which showed that they were lower leveled than Edge and Aura. He quickly continued attacking the first man, though this attack was blocked. Maybe I'm a bit in over my head taking two opponents at once, he thought in regret but there was no going back now. He drilled through the second one with Linear just before the man swung his sword at the air.

In the corner of her eye she saw Edge's health drop slightly. That meant he was probably fighting them. "Damn you. You'd better not die on me." she said but made no move to help him. She was sure he could take care of himself, and Aura thought she was getting closer to the edge of the forest. She used that as an excuse to herself for not going to help. It wasn't that she was afraid. She was not afraid... just being cautious. Yeah. Just being cautious. she repeated to herself as if trying to get the lie to sink in.

Edge kept dodging for a while before trading blows with the two. His health bar kept replenishing during the time he was dodging and one out of two hits were Sword Skills. Before long, the two low leveled PKers were down to red, and so would have Edge been if it weren't for his healing. Their movements were dulling which was the boy's cue. He turned and made a run for it once more before they could attack another time.

Aura sighed in relief as she saw his health bar slowly start to increase. So, he won then. Nice. she thought kind of proud of him. Once she got to the point where he suggested they meet up, she slowed her pace to a light jog and looked around for him. It was not too much longer that she heard footsteps and her left hand went to her sword just in case it wasn't Edge's smiling face she would see.

Edge had fallen behind when he was fighting the PKers but he could see the exit. He heaved a sigh of relief, slightly slowing his pace as he continued to run towards the way out of the forest. He finally found himself a few meters away from Aura. "Sorry! I ran into some trouble on the way here. I didn't want them following us out so I... incapacitated them."

As soon as she saw him coming through the forest, she marched up to him and punched him hard in the arm. "Stupid! Don't do something so reckless next time! I don't like having to worry about people." she mumbled the last part as she grabbed his arm and led him out of the forest. Geez, this kid had me all stressed out for nothing. she thought, glaring straight ahead as she pulled him along.

Edge ended up getting dragged out of the bloodbath. "Right, right... Though if they followed me to the exit, it would've been much more troublesome, don't you agree," he said, smirking at her last comment. The expression faded quickly. "We should spread the word that there are some PKers on the loose. I don't know how anyone's gonna solve this kind of problem." He knew that one way was just staying in safe zones and the other was having the Front Liners hunt for them which was the same as sinking to their level.

Aura listened to him speak as they walked towards the nearest town but didn't say anything for a long moment after he was done. "There is nothing we can do about the player killers except avoid them. I doubt any Front Liners are willing to risk their lives just to put a bunch of freaks in the prison. In any case, we were lucky this time." she said with an annoyed tone. This whole situation had turned Aura's mood dark and her pride was hurting more than she'd care to show. The experience made her want to get stronger so she could protect herself. First I have a ghost wanting me dead IRL and now there's a weird guild going after innocents like hungry wolves? My life is shit right now. Sighing, she let go of Edge and allowed him to walk on his own. "When we reach the town I have something I need to find so we'll be splitting up again." she said simply. She pushed a bit of hair from her eyes as she thought maybe she should say goodbye in a 'nice' way. "Though I don't plan to join any more parties, if I see you again, I won't pretend I don't know you." Aura paused again. That was nice.... right?

A smile curled up on the boy's lips as he looked back to the forest that they'd gotten farther from. "Right, I understand how that feels," he said, chuckling. "I guess this could be called a traumatic experience since it happened during a party raid. Anyway... Thanks. I'm hoping to see you again as well. I'm gonna try and get the front liners to do something about this as soon as I can." He held out his hand for a shake. "Till next time."

Aura looked at the boy's outstretched hand then back up at him. Scoffing she turned around. "See you around." she said walking in a different direction and waving over her shoulder.

The boy sighed and pulled his hand back. Not bothering to respond, he kept his smile as he walked off in another direction.

[Hero]

Make sure she didn't get in her way? Either this chick had a funny sense of humor or Artemis was going to have to remind her exactly who was saving her ass. She ignored the comment and began striking whatever monster had the misfortune of being in her line of sight. They weren't difficult individually, simply the sheer number of them. A raid party probably would have not had so much of a problem. Even as two others jumped in, she wasn't stupid enough to assume that everything would be fine. It was five people versus lord knew how many there were. At the very least, the other people weren't that bad. Of course, Miss Damsel in Distress found herself in another pickle, but it seemed the other boy who joined rescued her. So much for anyone getting in your way. She thought, rather enjoying the irony.

Apollo remained towards the edge of the mob, mainly killing around the edges rather than jumping into the middle as most of the others probably did. His eyes would briefly flicker up to their HP every once in a while; it seemed for the most part, everyone could take care of themselves. Except for that one girl that got caught again. But it looked like her and that dude knew one another, so it was all good. This was just one reason he didn't want Artemis to solo anymore. What if she had been the one to get caught in this mob? Then again, as he thinks this, he watches her effortlessly slice through the wasps like they were made of butter. The other guys weren't doing too shabby either. Maybe after all this, they could maybe team up? Well, he wasn't too sure about Miss Orange cursor there. Still, no one deserved to die in this game. And who knows? Maybe it was in self defense? Or something. He wasn't one to judge, all things considered.

[Paingodsson]

A collaboration between Shadowcatcher and Paingodsson

Waltic walked out of the town as a couple people waved goodbye to him. That was the thing you never knew if what you said to a person really would be goodbye or not. But he left the safety of the town and walked out into the forest. He wasn't afraid of the things that the game had to offer, he wasn't like any of the people who were still at the town of beginnings just hoping and praying that someone would save them. No, he couldn't allow himself to be afraid he had to keep searching the front lines and all around for Natasha. Which meant he had to get stronger.

He looked to the side to see a wolf growling at him, he took out his sword as the wolf lunged, in one quick movement he glided across the ground dodging the attack as he slashed down and then thrust forward. The wolf dissipated into nothingness as he put his sword back. after traveling around a bit killing random creatures that would pop up he heard the sounds of battle. Waltic ran towards the fighting as all he could think of was, if it was a player killer, could he bring himself to kill that person if it came down to it. As he ran though and things started to clear up he saw a group of people fighting what looked like a very large amount of angry Wasps. In the middle of that group was a girl he had seen so many times before on the frontlines and around, she was a solo player named Aura. There was just one thing that was different though, she now had an orange cursor, which meant she hurt somebody or did something bad.

Waltic rushed in now as he brought his sword out, he could feel the energy in his body skyrocket as he got closer to the inevitable battle. Waltic pulled his two handed sword out and slashed at a wasp. Who didn't go down, but instead turned and charged him. Moving out of the way by rolling under it he stood up right next to Aura, "Long time no see!" he said as he used his parry skill to parry the next wasp attack. "What's up with the orange cursor?" he asked as the attack vibrated his sword as he pushed the wasp away and sliced at it once more. This time when he connected he followed up with another stab. The sword delved deep into the wasp, he followed up by violently slicing to the side as the was dissipated.

Aura blinked out of her trance once she her the voice of someone else she was familiar with. She raised her sword just in time to block a stinger attack coming at her, and after killing the thing, she turned to the guy who spoke to her. "Seems like everyone is coming to help me out with this one." she said in a bored tone. When he asked about her cursor her eyes narrowed and she looked away. Just as she was about to speak, she got hit in the back and fell forwards on her hands and knees. That was when her health dropped from green to yellow. "As if I have the time to explain myself to you." she said.

Reaching out to grab a part of his shirt to help with getting on her feet, Aura activated her Linear skill and as she stood, thrusted her sword through the Wasp that was closest to her. The stinger ended up falling off and then it died. Looking again at the familiar face, she thought about the name that went with it. After a bit of thinking she gave up. "Who are you again?"

Waltic felt something scratch his shoulder as he was being used by Aura to gain her balance. He quickly turned and smashed it with the flat side of his sword. It shoved the wasp into a tree as he looked back at Aura. "Come now you have to remember me! Don't you remember that wonderful time in Taft." he said with a half grin.

He rolled his eyes as he realized she really didn't remember, "It's me, Waltic, my friends call me Wally!" he said as he parried another attack.

Aura lept and kicked one of the wasps in the head and as she landed on her feet, she paused. "Taft huh? Wally? Not ringing a bell." she lied. In fact she did remember that day. She remembered doing the most idiotic quest with an equally idiotic guy. A small smile crept on her face as she started to remember.

Search for the Missing Kid!

Working Together - A silly Quest in Taft - Floor 11

Waltic walked towards a building he had heard still had a quest in it. He had heard it was a rather simple one that shouldn't take too much effort. Good amount of EXP and not cost much of his time, this was one of the reasons he was good at MMORPG's was his efficiency with time.

As he entered the little building with an NPC that was obviously crying he walked over to her. "What happened?" he said as he started the interaction. The NPC named herself as Ulga, she started to tell Waltic about her son. My son, he has run off into the hills over in the south. I tried to go look for him but I can't find him. Please, help me. if you could just go find him, bring him home! Heavans knows what trouble he has gotten himself into!" she said crying.

Aura had been looking around all day so far for the Quest NPC that was supposed to be in Taft. One of the easiest ones supposedly and she needed the exp to level up. Absently she noticed a guy ahead of her walk into a random building that seemed small and wondered if maybe that was where the quest was. "Nah. That's probably just his house." she muttered to herself as her frustration began to grow. Aura was anything but patient and she was really close to just giving up the search and go kill a few mobs to get her last bit of exp. As she walked by the house, her Straining skill picked up on the sound of crying inside the house and she paused. "Still, that doesn't mean anything." she said as she kept walking.

She was getting more and more pissed at the information broker who had told her about the quest and she took out the slip of paper that had a message written on it. Reading it over, she paused. There was a description of the building and one part that she didn't notice when reading before was that it had a dark blue roof. Turning back to the buildng she passed, she noticed it too had the same colored roof.

"Ah, like hell that guy is going to get that quest instead of me!" she said to herself as she ran back towards the building. She kicked the door open and marched inside right up to the guy who was in the middle of taking the quest. "You there! This quest is mine so be nice and step aside for the lady."

Turning around at the sudden interuption Waltic eyed the girl up and down. She didn't look like someone he had seen on the frontlines but that doesn't mean she wasn't any less dangerous. However she was wanting the same quest he was about to accept. He raised his eyebrows, "Are you implying that because you are a female that you have the right to a quest before I do even though I got here before you?" he asked with half a devilish grin on his face.

"Because I don't play that game, I'll be chivilarous to a lady but it's when you expect something that I get turned off to the fact that you are a girl." he said. "Now then, I am going to accept this quest and I don't want you interfering, understand?" he said as his tone got serious and his eyes narrowed. He wasn't going to let someone else just walts in and demand the quest from him and then get it. That wasn't how he played MMORPG's he didn't allow others to take quests and items when he was there first simply because they asked.

He turned around and continued to talk to Ulga now asking, "How could I get to the mountains from here?" he asked as she started to give directions to him. He now chuckled a little bit inside because he realized he was about to take this quest right infront of this girl. It was kind of cruel, but hey, his sense of humor was morbid before this whole SAO thing started.

Aura just stared at the guy as he seemed to simply brush her off. [i]What the hell did he just say to me? ...This guy... she frowned and crossed her arms then and just listened to the lady talk about where the quest was to take place. In her head she was thinking of what to do to solve this dellimma she was in.

"Hey, you can't take this quest. Its way too hard for someone to do it on their own so... so... if you ask me nicely I'll think about coming with you." she said crossing her arms. She tried to not sound snarky or sarcastic when she said it so in the end she ended up just sounding bored. "And, I know a shortcut to the hills where she said he ran away to. The way I see it you totally could use my help."

Waltic grinned as he pressed something right infront of him as she started to talk to him. "Well, I was wondering when you were going to ask." he said as he turned around and looked down to her. He was pointing at a small screen that invited her to his party. "I figured it was only a matter of time that you either asked, or challenged me for it." He said as he then turned around and clicked the accept button on the quest.

"Ask? Who's asking? I'm only doing this to help you out. its not like i really want to." she lied, speaking in a bitter tone as she clicked the accept button to join his party.

He started walking to the door as he put his hand on her shoulder and patted it, "Don't worry it'll be a blast!" he said. He had a smile on but the second he walked passed her everything in him changed. He remembered how he let down his friends in that dungeon. And although this was suppose to be a simple quest he couldn't help but think maybe the information was wrong on the difficulty of it. Aura's amber colored eyes glared at his back as she silently followed him out.

He looked back at her and with a very straight tone asked, "You can take care of yourself if things get dicey, right?" he asked very seriously, "I don't know what guild you are in if any I just hope you know what you are doing incase things take a turn for the worse!" he said as he remembered back to the walls crashing infront of him with the large monster cutting off him and his friends in the dungeon.

Waltic stared at her for a second, "Aura is it?" he asked as he looked at her cursor above her head. "The name is Waltic, my friends call me Wally, my real name is Caleb." he said with a half smile now extending a hand to her.

Crossing her arms when he extended his hand, she frowned up at him. "The last time I shook hands with a guy in this game, he nearly killed me so its nothing personal. No im not in a guild, because I don't like partying with people. I prefer to be a solo player so unfortunately i have to do stupid quests like these to help out with getting stronger. I assure you i can take care of myself and you if things get bad. Just dont make me have to be your babysitter." she said that last part as she turned her head away from him. "Its cool to meet you Wally." she added that last part in so she didn't come across as too mean. Afterall he could disband the party and then she'd be screwed. She gestured with her head for him to follow her when she turned and started walking towards the entrance to the town.

Waltic looked at her very seriously as she talked to him, "Be assured one thing." he said as his voice turned cold. "I am no player killer, and I will take the life of anyone who is." he said with malice showing in his eyes. And I understand the quest thing, you don't have to explain it to me. I am a solo player now, I am exactly what my old guild was known as, we were known as The Nomads. So that is me a Nomad." he said now following her.

He kept close by her as they walked and he explained to her, "I was not trying to say you were not able to take care of yourself by the way. I was simply wanting to make sure the same thing you just said, I didn't want to have to babysit someone who doesn't know what they are doing." he said. He was following close to her as he said, "Sorry also if I'm too cheery, some people find it to be annoying, so I'm just warning you now. But to me it keeps me going to have positivity. Positivity like, I will beat this game and not have to worry about it ever again." he said with a semi-serious tone, it was hard to tell if he was being serious as his grin though was a bit devilish. This was only because he was thinking of defeating the final boss and how he envisioned it in his head.

Aura listened to Wally talk and stayed quiet as he did. As they came to the town exit she looked around for a large tree as a marker for the direction of the south hills. She stood on her toes then looked at Wally. "Yo. Giant. Give me a boost on your shoulders." she demanded.

Waltic shrugged, he wasn't that tall, but whatever. "You got it." he said as he bent down and quickly put his head between her legs and then lifted up. He felt her weight add to his, but it honestly wasn't that bad. In fact she was super light. "That good?" he asked as he stabilized her by holding onto her legs.

Her hands went to grab onto his hair as she was scared for a moment after being lifted up. The change in height was scary at first but after a few moments a grin crept onto her face. She felt like a kid and she allowed herself this moment because she knew he couldn't see her. Looking around she spotted the tree in the distance and pointed in that direction. "over there." she said to him.

"You got it!" he said as he started to walk at a fast pace instead of taking her off his shoulders before he got moving. "Sorry, obviously' you'll be able to see the shortcut from up there so it's easier this way." he said. Truth was though he hadn't had touch interaction since Natasha and him were split. So he was enjoying remembering they were all people and not just pixels. He grinned as he got an idea and now started to run with her on his shoulders.

Aura squealed like a little girl as he started walking and looked down at him. "Are you sure im not to heav- aaah!" she screamed as he started running then. She fisted her hands in his hair to make sure she didn't fall off and squeezed her eyes shut. After a bit of freaking out in her head she peeked with one eye then closed it again. "Slow down! I feel like im gonna fall!" she yelled at him.

He slowed down suddenly as his hair was being pulled. "Ow ow ow." he said as he stopped and grabbed her hands from his hair. He sat her hands down on her thighs now. "I've got you, it's fine don't freak out." he said as he kept his hands on her hands to keep them from going back to his hair. "If you pull my hair I might, well, you never know I might just-" he acted for a second like he was gonna fall backwards but caught himself as he started to move forward again chuckling. His hands still on hers to keep them out of his hair.

"Even when you say that it worries me. I want to make sure I don't fall off. I could die." Aura said angrily. Her mood did not reflect from her tone however because she was actually having a bit of fun. Just in case, she turned her hands and held onto his tightly instead of his hair.

"I want to make sure that you don't pull out a ton of my hair as well." he said as he now started to run even faster. "And don't worry you aren't that heavy, in fact your really light!" he exclaimed. He was now in a full sprint as he saw the tree with the marking on it. He moved his hands just infront of hers so that way she could move her hands, he was trusting her to now end up pulling his hair though. On the way to the tree a small cobald and a couple wolves appeared and charged them. "Okay, hang on!" he yelled as he pulled out his sword and slashed the cobald faster than it could even raise it's sword. He spun in a circle now with her as he slashed down the two wolves. He stopped and put his sword away as he relaxed and started to walk now towards the tree with her still ontop of his shoulders. "How you doing up there?" he asked halfway sarcastically as he looked up at her. He had a huge smile on his face though. He hadn't had this much fun since Natasha and his other friends were around.

Atop Wally's shoulders, Aura was flung around like a ragdoll. Everything had happened so fast that all she could do was strangle the man with her legs as she fought to hold on. That and scream like a three year old. When he finally came to a stop and asked her how she was, she looked down at him. "Release me or else I will throw up on your head!" she threatened.

Waltic shrugged as he let her down by grabbing her by the sides and setting her down to the ground. "Sorry about that." He said with a grin "Hope I didn't scare you too much." Waltic said with a smile. He walked up to the tree and put an arm around it. "So.... Where to now? Or do you need another lift?" He said jokingly.

"Scare? Who was scared!? I just like to use my own two feet thank you very much." she said crossing her arms. Her face was bright red from embarassment and all her pride had been killed in that not even 10 minute ride on his shoulders. Taking a moment to regain her composure by fixing her hair and her gear, she cleared her throat before speaking. "If you look over there to your left, you'll see those grassy hills. Some people say that there are caverns and stuff through there. I'm sure if we look there, we'll find him. Come on." she said leading the way while walking this time. All the while she had a pouting look on her face.

Waltic grinned as she seemed emberassed and upset. He walked with her towards the caverns. "Come now don't be like that! Have some fun! Its something that is important here. Yes we are trapped here, but you know, if we dont have some fun we will lose who we are. We lose hope. It is why i am so into positivity, because then my hope doesnt falter." Waltic said.

Aura listened to him speak but when he wasent looking she rolled her eyes and began playing with the ends of her hair. Waltic followed close by Aura as he spoke, "Okay so ive told you a lot about me, tell me abo-" he was interrupted by the sound of yelling. He grabbed Aura's hand as he ran toward it.

H-hey, what are you doing? Dont drag me along!" she yelled but followed him anyway.

"Come on! Lets go! That might be the kid!" he yelled as he ran towards a group of caverns as he heard another scream in the caverns. To her surprise, he held onto Aura's hand tightly as he looked it into one of the caves. "I think he is in here!" he said as he let go of her hand and grabbed and readied his sword.

As he and Aura rounded the corner there was a giant Cobald with a kid next to him. "Come on buddy!" Waltic said. The kid ran over to them and then whispred to them, "Catch me!" he said as he ran out of the cave. As Waltic turned around to run after him the cobald jumped infront of both of them. "Hey fatty get out of the way!" Waltic yelled.

"I figured this was going to be harder than we thought." she said pulling out her sword as well. "I'll keep him distracted, you focus on damage. That way we can finish him off quickly." Brushing her hair aside with her right hand, Aura ran foreward towards the Cobald and appeared to get ready to strike him. At the last possible moment, she ducked and rolled between the creatures legs until she was behind him. Instead of trying to make an impossible dash towards the fleeing kid, she took a glance to remember the direction he was going and then activated her Sonic Leap skill. She dashed forward and attacked the back of the Cobald right before it turned around to face her. Its fist came down and she blocked with her sword, knowing that this was a good chance for Wally to strike it from behind.

Waltic nodded as he watched her move very smoothly with her agility. "I've got you!" he yelled as he backed up and attacked the Cobald. He lifted his sword into the air feeling the energy of his sword as he slashed horizontally twice in opposite directions making an X. Then he stabbed the Cobald right in the middle of the X. It yelled in anger as it swung a fist to Waltic. Who blocked it with it's sword. The Cobald's body was twisted now and off balance. Waltic quickly dived now and smashed it's head. He was hoping Aura got the jist to attack him low next since he was already off balance. If she did he would follow up with causing the cave to cave in on top of the cobald.

Aura watched Wally's movements and wondered when the best time it was to come in on the attack again. Then he did a move that caused the large Cobald to stumble and start to lose his balance and she took that as her sign. Activating Rage Spike as she ran forward, Aura dropped to the ground and slid like a baseball player while slashing at its legs. As she slowed in her slide, she rolled into a crouch and watched with satisfaction as it fell. "Nailed it." she stated smugly.

The Cobald crashed to the ground as it's legs were taken out from underneath him. "Nicely done!" Waltic said as the Cobald struggled to try to get back up. "Quick!" he said as he grabbed Aura's hand once again and ran out of the cave. In which he activated the energy he felt for a special sword attack. He smashed the rocks above the Cobald and caused them to crash on him. "There we go. That should do it." he said with a grin. "Now then where'd the kid run off to?" he said with a smile.

Aura smirked when she saw the rocks fall on the Cobald and finally feeling like the fight was over, she spun her sword once before sheathing it on her left side. Flipping her hair away from her face before turning to Wally, she pointed in the direction she saw the kid running. "That way. Towards town." she said and started to walk in that direction. After taking a few steps she had an idea and turned to face Wally again. "You said I should have fun right? How about we have a race to town?" she suggested with a cross of her arms.

Walic grinned, as he nodded. "That I did. I did tell you to have fun." he looked up at the town and grinned. "I guess if I told you to have fun I should endorse when you try to." he said as his smile got wider. "So in that case..." Waltic sprinted toward the town as he yelled, "Your on!!!" Waltic was cruising through the field now at top speed as he ran.

Aura's eyes widened as he charged ahead of her before she got a chance to say 'start'. Frowning for a moment before running after him, she yelled at him. "Your going to get it if I catch you! Cheater!" Though she tried to sound threatening, it hardly came out that way as she smiled as she began running. With a determind mind set on winning, she pushed her feet to move faster, but then she had an idea. Instead of trying to beat him, she decided to just catch a ride on his back when she caught up.

Waltic pushed himself as he ran. He needed to be able to go faster. He needed to b- suddenly he stumbled as he tripped over something. He looked behind him seeing Aura catching up. "Shoot!" he said as he started to run. He dodged through some trees as he tried to get away from her. But he could hear her catching up, until he felt something suddenly shove him forward. "What the hell?!" he said as he looked back. Seeing Aura hanging off his back as he ran he looked at her with a surprised look, "What are you doing?!" he exclaimed with a large smile.

Holding back a laugh when Wally fell, she decided to take advantage of that moment and used her Sprint skill to catch up with him completely. With a little hop, she ended up on his back and to her satisfaction, he looked surprised. Smiling back at him she held on to his shoulders and said excitedly, "Run like the wind giant man! Run!" To be totally honest, this was the most fun she had in a long time, not only in this world, but the real world too. Then she remembered he wanted to know a bit about her. "When we get to town I'll tell you a bit about myself. But you have to carry me there." she teased him.

Waltic grinned at this comment. "Okay, but if thats what you want." he said as he put his arms around her legs to keep her steady. "Hold on!" he said as he was now sprinting as fast as he could down the hills toward the town. There was one moment where he almost lost his balance but he regained it as he got to the bottom of the hill. The town was in sight and he was at full sprint with Aura on his back. He missed this, the fun, the friendship, the wonderful way he used to interact with people.

He kept sprinting as he finally made it to the town where the kid stood at the entrance and said, "What took you so long? Come and find me!" he then ran off and disappeared into the town. Waltic set Aura down on the ground, well, while we look through the town you can tell me about yourself then." he said happily.

As Wally ran with Aura on her back, her blue hair fanned out behind them like a long blue tail. Though most of the time she had her eyes closed, this time when she was squealing, it was out of excitement and not fear. The way he moved was just like a train, and while she was on his back, it had felt as though she was flying through the air. Too soon however, it was over and they had reached the gates of Taft. There stood the little boy who challenged them to find him in a cocky tone before running off. Sighing as she slid off of Wally's back, the two of them started to walk casually through the streets. "Fine. A deal's a deal. Hmmm, where should i start?" she said mostly to herself, raising a hand that rested under her chin as she thought.

Waltic smiled, "Wherever you want you can talk about who you are in RL or you can talk about the things you've done and seen here, your morals, whatever you want I'm open to talk to. Oh and one more thing." he said very comfortingly, "I don't judge people, so you should know that, I try to love everyone equally even if they've made mistakes so don't be afraid to tell me anything!" he said with a smile. It was a rather comforting gaze that he gave her, he was always the person in his group that seemed to be there for anyone no matter what they did, it was almost like he was a counselor; and he was proud of that fact.

All the while he spoke, Aura had been listening to the sound of his voice. It was one that she wanted to commit to memory for some weird reason. Looking at him sideways and frowning when he gave her an annoyingly cute look, she rolled her eyes and said sarcasticly "Careful bud. You keep looking at me like that and I just might fall for you." Crossing her arms across her chest as habit, she thought about where she should start. "Unfortunately wether I tell you about my real life self or myself in the game, it might be a bit of a mood killer. On the one hand, I suppose its good for me to tell you so someone remembers me in case I end up dying here." she paused again and turned a corner before speaking once more.

"In real life I'm a model. I kind of took a break from it because of an accident I had a while back. Before that, my life was normal, nothing too special I suppose. But after I got into a crash and lost my best friend, I haven't been the same." Aura dropped her head and looked down at her feet for a moment before mentally shaking off her guilt. Her name is... was Nora. We did everything together. Now that she's gone I kinda didn't know what to do with myself. I had been going to a councelor but it wasen't helping because shortly after, one day I woke up and I couldn't speak anymore. I was really shocked when I got here that I could speak again... it made me happy." Turning her head to look at him, she gave a weak smile.

"Unlike most people here, i'm not so in a hurry to get out of this world. Here its easy to forget about everything that happened, and I can finally get away from Nora. I've been seeing her ghost for the longest time. Everywhere except for my room.... and here. I'm afraid that if I go back to the real world, she's going to get me and do something horrible because its my fault that she died." Feeling a few tears fall down her cheeks made Aura stop in her track and wipe them away. "Ah, sorry. I wasen't supposed to start crying." she gave a fake laugh to brush it off.

"Ummm.... anyway. I can't say that I hate being stuck here, but just like in the real world, I'm afraid that if I die, Nora is going to find me and torture me for killing her. That's what keeps me going I guess. I have to keep getting stronger so I can live as long as I can. I keep thinking in time, she'll forgive me and all of this will be over... and she'll finally leave me alone." By this point Aura's tears had started falling faster than she could wipe away. "Shit..." she mumbled angrily at herself as she turned away from him. "Don't you ever tell anyone you saw me like this." she said bitterly.

Waltic had started to fall behind, but as Aura finished he put his hand on her shoulder and turned her around and hugged her, embracing her. "I'm sorry, but when I don't know what to say I generally turn to hugs to try to make people feel happier. " he said as he patted the back of Auras head as it rested on his chest. "It must be really hard and I understand, you don't have to be sorry to be sad." He tightened his hug on her as he spoke. "I know that it must be hard, I do believe it will get better though. You are too good of a person to just have to be stuck in this type of situation." He said.

As he hugged her he spoke softly, "I know what it is like to lose someone, I lost a lot of friends here, and I have lost my girlfriend from real life here. I don't know what happened to her and my other friends; a few levels ago we got separated and I've never seen them since. I know how it is like to have lost and I know there is not much I can say to make it feel better, that's why I'm a touchy person, touch brings out the words that we can't say." He said as he continued to hug Aura and held her in his arms. "I'm sorry my issue isn't like yours so it doesn't relate much, but know that I may have just met you, but I care for you." He said.

For the first time in a long time, Aura didn't pull away when someone tried to touch her. All this time she didn't want to take any chances of being hurt, but besides the obvious fact that she was in a safe zone, she actually trusted Wally and what he was saying. She didn't hug him back, just allowed him to hold her for a little while, and she said nothing in response to his words. After she had calmed down enough, she raised her hands and gently pushed him away. She noticed a few passerbys were looking at them and so she took a step away from him. "Come on. We have to find that kid." she said, all traces of sadness were gone from her voice and what was left was her normal, bored sounding tone.

She turned and started walking away but paused a few steps away and pulled up her menu. After a few clicks, she looked at Wally as a screen would pop up in front of him asking for a friend request. "Dont you dare reject it." she warned bitterly.

Waltic smiled as it popped up. He accepted the request as he walked up next to her "Yes lets find that kid." Waltic said as they started walking. They looked through many buildings and such trying to find the child that had ran off. "This kid is honestly starting to bug me." He said as they came out of another empty alleyway. "Where is this little kid!" he exclaimed after about an hour of looking, "Where would I go if I were a kid?" Waltic wondered as he realized one place they didn't look. "Come on!" he said running to the building with Ulga the NPCs house. He went around to the back where the yard was and behind a tree sure enough there he was.

"You found me!" the little boy said with joy a he ran up and hugged them, causing Aura to frown. "Thanks for helping me!" he said a he ran inside. "Rather odd NPC." Waltic said with a grin. He walked into the house to accept the reward, he pressed a few buttons as exp was given to both him and Aura. Then someone else barged into the room. "Wally!" the man yelled as Waltic turned around.

"What's up Zeke?" he asked with grin, Zeke though looked like he was sweating as he talked with heavy breathing between his words. "Floor 5 forest area of it, looked like your friend Natasha and your Friend Sosa!" he said as Waltics eyes widened. "We need to hurry that area is ran by player killers!" He said as Waltic nodded. He looked at Aura, "I'm sorry, I have to go... I yeah." He said as he gave over all the gold and items to Aura. Next thing he did was disband their party. "I'm sorry, I have to go." He said his face was more serious than ever. He looked like tears were almost out of his eyes but his face was serious. He had reached that heightened zone he gets in, in video games when he got dead serious. He ran past Aura as he yelled back, "It was nice meeting you! Keep positive Aura!" he yelled as he ran off to head toward the 5th floor.

Aura barely had enough time to wave, let alone say goodbye as Wally rushed out with a fiercly determined look in his eyes. She ran to the door and looked out, watching him run away towards the Teleportation Gate in the center of town, and for a split second, she wanted to follow him, but she didn't. Sighing and slamming the door shut behind her, Aura crossed her arms and began her walk to the gate to head to the next town. "I swear if I ever see him again, he's gonna get it. Right in front of his girl, i'll just bash in his stupid, stupid head!" she yelled and caused a few people to jump or stare at her. Turning a bit red from embarassment, Aura walked out of Taft, heading for the nearest town, and she didn't look back. She also refused to think about wether or not she'd regret not running after him.

[Irisity]

Ace sliced through another giant wasp thingy and knelt down to breath as the larger portion of the mass focused on the others. The guy she came with was within the swarm along with another young man and a girl that-

A bright orange diamond sat above the girl's head. Time seemed to slow down. Ace wanted to run and leave the killer behind. No one knew for sure if people really did die for real, but even the threat of it massed large amounts of fear into everyone's minds. But it was her greatest discipline, her greatest strength and it was what has kept her alive these few months.

She already knew a few dumbly brave souls had gone a sworn mission to slay every player killer out there, but she didn't get the point. It was the ultimate contradiction and a serious paradox. But then again, running away from them didn't make much since either.

Ace flinched as a cut sliced through her pixelated cheek. Sure, it didn't hurt, but everything in this world felt so real and she had been in it so long that at some points she forgot that it wasn't real.

She often wondered if the wounds she got in here somehow materialized in the real world. She imagined herself on a hospital bed in a coma, all wired up as her father is sitting by her bed when suddenly her skin starts to rip open and blood rains out of the wound.

Ace dismissed these thoughts and buried them in the files she labeled "Real World". All those distractions, all those memories where no help at getting out.

Ace sprinted towards the cyclone of insects and shred through another wasp as the ceiling of the dungeon lit up in blue masses of pixels.

[OutlawedPanda]

Erios stared at the tall structure of Gilmer's Tower. The girl told her self over and over; this was a really stupid idea. The quest she'd been sent on was simple enough; there was a low level wasp-like monster in Gilmer's tower; kill it and collect it's drop, bring it back and she'd receive 120 col. The NPC that she'd received it rom was slightly... interesting, maybe a little bit shady, but it seemed easy enough. Low level boss... Erios was quick on her feet, as she'd taken up the speed skill sprint, but she also had spent time leveling up her hiding and searching skill. At her belt, her long dagger hung ready to be drawn. She only carried that weapon, but with her speed and stealth it was easily deadly enough to take out a low level monster. She breathed, drawing her dagger, and repeating her thought like a mantra: This was a bad idea...

As she entered Gilmer's tower, she opened her menu, selecting her Searching skill and opening Tracking mode. She also equipped the Hiding skill, so to blend in with her surroundings, making her harder to see for both players and monsters. She followed the highlighted footsteps on the ground, the dark area also becoming clear, another perk of the Searching skill.

Faintly, she could hear a slight buzzing in the distance. That meant she was getting close to this wasp monster. Then it hit her; the sound of a shout and the clanging of a sword. Players? Why were there players fighting one low level monster? She went faster, quickening her stride.

When Erios turned the corner, she found that she had been drastically mislead... There was no low level monster; there was an enormous swarm of Giant Wind Wasps, encircling a group of about six players. Erios stifled a yelp, but cut herself short by covering her mouth. Her Hiding skill was useless now that she'd given away her position, as one of the wasps turned towards her, racing forward and baring it's stinger. She turned heel and dashed in the opposite direction, but faltered in her stride. She hit the ground, striking her palms against the dungeon's floor. The wasp bore down on her, but she simultaneously swung her arm, bringing her dagger into the monster's side. It shattered into blue hexagons, but not before it's stinger collided with her arm.

Erios found herself stunned, unable to move because of the wasp's attack. It seemed that another wasp had seen her, as it flew towards the stunned girl. She had about 8 seconds of effect left, but the wasp would be there before she could move again. This had definitely been a bad idea.

[Hero]

The wasps lessened in numbers, signaling their efforts were not in vain. It looked like this would be over sooner than later. Artemis had actually found it an excellent test of endurance. Less and less, the number of monsters dwindling, and soon there were about less than a dozen left. Artemis watched as the blue pixels signaled another victory for her, though she noticed a few Wasps heading in another direction. She quirked an eyebrow; it seemed they had an audience. Or at least, someone spying on them. Someone was on the ground; they weren't part of the little group that was attacking the mob originally. After seeing that the rest of the group could no doubt handle whatever fodder remained, she dashed over to the player. Her sword glowed as she sliced through the wasps surrounding the person, and she saw it was another girl. It seemed today was 'Save the Damsel In Distress' day. Artemis looked down at the brunette, seeing that she had been paralyzed. She remained expressionless, fishing out a crystal from her pocket. "Heal." She said, the crystal shattering and freeing the girl of her paralysis.

Apollo was sick and tired of these damn things, and if he never saw one again, it would be too good to be true. Still, he was only half battling--he was half watching the rest of them. It looked like that one orange player knew the two dudes, that one dude knew the other girl that had came, and Artemis had gone to help someone else. No doubt the entirety of them had been solo players. As he punched through his monster, he realized that they had finished. He let out a huge sigh of relief, though he held a thumbs up to the group. "Would you look at that? A little effort and a whole lot of teamwork!" His grin was wide, obviously pleased with their combined efforts. "Man, I bet we could even take on the floor's boss together!"

[Shadowcatcher]

Finally the number of Wind Wasps began to die down. Aura managed to crawl away from the group to a few meters away where she healed and let everyone else fend for themselves. The battle was all but won. As the guy in the back using fists punched the last one, an award screen popped up in front of her and she accepted the money and exp. Just like she thought, the exp was just enough to boost her to the next level and she allocated her stats accordingly. Aura looked back to the group then and wondered if she should maybe thank everyone for coming to help. With a sigh she walked back over, a hand on the hilt of her sword, so she could acknowledge everyone who came to assist.

"I was sure all of you were going to just get in my way, but it seems that was not the case." Aura paused. It seemed like a good place to start but it wasen't really an expression of gratitude. "I um... want to say thank you all... for.... helping me." she said. Though she had a scowl on her face, she hoped her tone sounded at least appreciative. Even if it didn't, she didn't care. She had said it and that was that. She really hated having to be saved by everyone, no doubt they didn't want to help her in the first place. Maybe that meant they were... nice? Rolling her eyes as she thought the word, she pushed a bit of hair from her eyes as she continued to speak. "I also want to say sorry for dragging all of you into it. Had i not fallen for the trap they had set, none of you would have had to go out of your way." This whole situation was bad. Not only did she have to come to terms with the fact she was a Damsel in Distress, she had to apoligize for it. Aura was so angry at herself, she probably had steam coming out of her ears, but she kept the expression of her face neutral.

I really don't like this whole situation. I'm outa here. she thought to herself as she started to walk past everyone towards where she was wanting to go. "That boss is calling to me." she mumbled under her breath.

[Sketcher]

Edge cut through the last wasp he was facing with ease, looking around once more to see if there were any more monsters left. Seeing there were none, the boy turned to the guy who suggested they could work together to take down the boss. He opened his mouth to say something but he shut it again when Aura started talking which was when he noticed the repelling orange cursor above her. He narrowed his eyes as she started to quickly walk away.
"You're not the only one headed there, Aura. Not like you can take it on alone," he said, walking up beside her with a quick pace and looked up at the cursor. "What's up with that?" He didn't seem too unnerved because of it though he still hadn't sheathed his sword.

[Paingodsson]

The wasps kept coming, Waltic ignored the fact that Aura couldn't remember him for now. He focused on his sword skill as he slashed and cut down Wasp after wasp that came at them. "You freaks! DIE!" he murmured in anger as he cut another one down as a second barely missed him with it's stinger. The next wasp that came Waltic plunged his sword into it, he lifted his sword in the air with the wasp on it as he then threw the wasp off the sword by violently bringing it down. The wasp was flung off the sword as it smashed into one of it's friends. He focused as he watched more come at them. Waltic charged a small number of Wasps as he broke away from the group. He was able to distract some as he sliced them down putting his back to a tree. Finally they all died. And everything had calmed down. Waltic grinned, "Well wasn't that a load of fun?!" he said while smiling ear to ear.

He walked over to the group as they chatted, Aura started to walk away as he heard what she said, but some guy had just started to talk to her right before Waltic could say anything. But Waltic decided to throw in his two cents, "So, Aura, you don't remember me? fine, You have an orange cursor, fine I just hope there's a reasonable explanation, but you aren't going to face that boss alone." Waltic said as his face and voice were dead serious. "I won't allow it, I won't allow you to walk in there to your death." he said. Waltic walk forward to next to her, he wasn't afraid he believed that she would remember who he was. "I want to go with you, I just want to know one thing." he said as his voice lowered. "How did you get orange?" he asked.

Waltic was hoping she hadn't become a player killer, hoping it was defense or something along those lines. But he wanted to know what she did, he just hoped nothing escalated, because he'd defend her. He pulled his sword out again as he saw the guy not sheathing his sword. He wouldn't let these people team up on her until Aura explained everything that happened, and then after that, he would head to the boss room. He planned 5 different scenarios in his head really quickly as he turned to show the rest of the group the back of his head as he winked at Aura and gave her a grin as he turned to the side so that he could see the group in his peripheral.

[Shadowcatcher]

Aura had tried her best to look calm while trying to escape the group in order to avoid discussion about her cursor. Turns out she haden't gotten away soon enough because after taking a few steps, Edge came up to her followed shortly by Wally. Turning around to face them and the group, the hand on the hilt of her sword tightened. She noticed the wink from Wally a moment before but gave no response. "I don't want any trouble from anyone here... but it seems I wont get away without an explanation so listen up because i'm only explaining it once. You either believe me or don't, like I care." She looked from Edge to Wally as those two were the only ones she cared in the moment who had an opinion about her.

"The second day in this game a man I later found out was named Raiden attacked me and almost killed me. Normally i'm not the type to hold a grudge but his madness didn't stop there. Recently I had heard around there were other girls he had attacked, and I knew it was him because of the description of his appearance. Just like he did to me, he would attack them until they gave him their items and gold then poison them in the hopes that they'd die after he left. Fortunately for them they were in parties and eventually had help come to them but i had no such luck. If someone haden't found me i'd be long dead." she paused as she thought back to that day. How afraid she had been... how weak. And then the satisfaction she had felt when she ended him... maybe there was something inside her that took pleasure from killing. Blinking then scowling at the thought, she shook it off and continued to speak.

"After waiting for the Liberation Force to do something about him, I realized he didn't seem to be too high up on their list. Their occupied with those Laughing Coffin creeps, but whatever. I decided to do something about him myself and return the favor to the man who dared to piss me off. And, if you think about it I did this world a favor. Who knows who else he would have attacked in the future. I'm sure there are more like him out there. Fighting monsters is what we do, right? Just turns out i found one that came in the form of a person. Before any of you tell me it wasen't my decision to choose who lives or dies, think about putting your life on the line. If it was you he had planned to kill next, would you want me to wait around for the one who gets to 'decide' who lives or dies? Of course not. Like I said, I dont care what anyone thinks of me or if they like my reasons for doing it. I know what kind of person I am., and i'm not someone who gets a kick out of... seeing someone die... or killing..." with one last glance at Wally, Aura turned around and continued walking. She was heading to that boss room with or without the others.

Why is it the same? Here, I thought things could be different but its not. My entire life here, and in the real world, is going to be about one mistake I made. It isin't fair! First nora and now Raiden! God, why can't I just get away from all this death!? she yelled at herself in her head. And then it was happening again, the crying. No matter how many times she told herself that what she did was a good thing, she knew in her mind that the reasons didn't matter. She had blood on her hands now... and that truth alone was enough to make her walls crumble. But by hell was she going to let anyone see her again. Aura raised her arms up and wiped at her eyes as she walked away from the group, praying that no one would follow her. If they did, she'd lose it and erupt into a crying fit. So, she wanted to leave now with whatever pride she had left.

[Paingodsson]

Waltic listened to her and watched the others reactions, hoping none of them would try to get up and fight her. He thought about what she said and never needed a second thought. He took a deep breath as he put away his sword. After all, what she did was kill a Player Killer, and Waltic couldn't blame her for that, because he had done it before. Hell, he had hunted them before. He looked over to watch the group and see what they did next.

However, the next thing he knew Aura was walking off in a fast pace. "Hey Aura wait up!" he yelled as he ran towards her. He kept looking behind him though now sure on what these guys would do, so he kept ready, his hand stayed in a position where he could draw his sword at any moment if necessary. "Aura!" he yelled again as he slowly caught up to her. But while he was a decent distance away he stopped running and started walking fast. "I told you, I'm not letting you fight that boss alone." he said with a grin. He saw her arms come up to her face.

He finally caught up to her and put his hand on her shoulder, "Hey, it's okay, it's no big deal the man deserved it..." Waltic had never usually admitted this but he figured he should now. "I've done it too, I've killed player killers as well. I hunted them down for awhile, those that camped outside of floor 7, It's where I lost one of my friends to them because he wanted to go out on his own at night." Waltic said. "Don't let it bother you, I won't judge you for it." he said with a very soothing voice.

Waltic was now side to side with her, "Besides!" he said with a grin, "I can't let you get all that loot by yourself!" he exclaimed. Waltic smiled at Aura as he spoke, "Even if you don't remember me, I remember you! So let's go! This boss doesn't stand a chance!" he said happily. He looked off in the distance and could see 2 huge doors which had to be the boss room, he was hoping the others would come along, because even with him and Aura, 2 manning a boss was not gonna be a simple task at all.

[Irisity]

Ace took in deep gulps of air as she listened to this chick's story. Sure, it was probable. Ace had heard about that guy before, but it could still be a cover lie. Laughing Coffin members were expert liars.

Ace slowly made her way next to the guy she came in with and held out her hand, her eyes nowhere near his. "Ace," she introduced herself while staring at blue hair.

"Nice to meet all you fine and dandy solos!" Ace called out, wasting away her last bit of confidence. It was obvious all of them were, except the dynamic due of blondies.

"Do any of you even have any idea of where the fuck this boss is?" she spread her arms out, open to all information. "Because I am sure all of us, including our front line buddies would like to know."

Ace didn't know what shit was getting into, trying her best to look self assured and confident.

Before a response could come, she immediately pointed at blue hair. "What about you, orange? You got any other secrets up your sleaves?"