“Kya!!”
She screamed and snatched her hand out while glaring at me. But then she started laughing at my expression.
“That’s what I made the sandwich out of.”
“…it’s amazing! Perfect! You could make a fortune with this!”
To tell the truth, the sandwich tasted even better than the Ragout Rabbit meal I had yesterday.
“R-Really?”
Asuna smiled sheepishly.
“No, it’d be better not to sell them. I can’t let my share disappear.”
“Uwa, you’re so greedy! …if you want, I’ll make it again for you sometime.”
She added the last bit quietly and leaned slightly against my shoulder. As a calm silence filled the room, I even forgot that this was the front lines, a place where we fought with our lives at stake.
If I could eat this sort of thing every day, I could steel my resolve and move to Salemburg…right next to Asuna’s house… I started thinking this without realizing it, and just as I was about to say this out aloud-.
Suddenly, the clanking sound of armor heralded the arrival of another group of players. We quickly widened the distance between us.
I glanced at the leader of the six-man party and relaxed my shoulders. He was the katana-wielder that I had known for the longest time in Aincrad.
“Oh, Kirito! It’s been a while!”
I stood up and greeted the tall person who had started to walk this way after recognizing me.
“You’re still alive, Cline?”
“You’re as foul-mouthed as ever. Why are you of all people in a par-ty…”
The katana-wielder’s eyes went wide under his bandana as he saw Asuna, who had stood up after quickly packing away her things.
“Ah-, …you’ve probably already met each other during the boss fights, but I’ll introduce you two anyway. This guy is Cline from the guild «Fuurinkazan», and this is Asuna from «Knights of the Blood».”
Asuna nodded lightly when I introduced her, but Cline just stood there, both his eyes and mouth wide open.
“Hey, say something. Are you lagging?”
After I jabbed him from the side, Cline finally closed his mouth and introduced himself in the politest way possible.
“H-Hello!!!!! I’m just a guy c-c-called Cline! Bachelor! Twenty-four!”
As Cline said something stupid in his confusion, I jabbed his side again, with more strength this time. But even before Cline finished talking, his party members had rushed up and began to introduce themselves.
They said that all the members of «Fuurinkazan» had known each other even before SAO had started. Cline had protected and guided all of them, without losing even a single member, until each of them had become a capable player of the front lines. He had managed to bear the weight that I had run away from in fear two years ago—the day that this death game began.
Ignoring the self-hatred that had deeply permeated my heart, I started speaking to Asuna,
“…well, they’re not bad people, if you ignore the leader’s thuggish face.”
This time, Cline stomped down on my foot as hard as he could. Upon seeing this, Asuna started laughing, unable to hold back any longer. Cline smiled sheepishly, but then returned to his senses and asked me in a voice filled with murderous intent.
“H-H-How did this happen Kirito!?”
As I stood there with no answer coming to mind, Asuna responded for me in a clear voice:
“Nice to meet you. We’ve decided to party with each other for a while. I hope we get along.”
I was shocked by what I heard. As I thought ‘Eh!? This wasn’t just for today!?’, Cline and his party made expressions that switched between anger and depression.
Eventually, Cline glared at me with rage burning in his eyes and growled while grinding his teeth.
“Kirito, you bastard…”
I sagged my shoulders and thought that this was going to be hard to get out of. Then…
Footsteps resounded through the same doorway that Fuurinkazan had recently come through. Asuna tensed at the strangely uniform sound, then grabbed my arm and whispered.
“Kirito, it’s «The Army»!”
I immediately turned my gaze towards the doorway, and sure enough, the heavily-armed unit that we’d seen in the forest came into sight. Cline raised his hand and got his five companions to back into the wall. The group that marched into the room, still in its twin column formation, was no longer as orderly as they had been in the woods. Their footsteps were heavier, and the expressions under their helmets seemed very tired.
They stopped at the wall opposite from us in the safe area. The man in front gave the order “dis-missed,” at which point the other eleven people collapsed onto the floor. The man then walked towards us without even glancing at them.
Now that I looked carefully, his equipment was somewhat different from the others. His armor was very high in quality, and a crest in the shape of Aincrad was engraved onto the chest—something none of the other eleven had.
He stopped in front of us and took off his helmet. He was pretty tall and appeared to be somewhere in his late thirties. He had a sharp face, very short hair, a pair of sharp eyes below his thick eyebrows, and a mouth that was tightly shut. He swept across us with his eyes, and then started speaking to me, who was the one in front of our group.
“I’m Lieutenant Colonel Cobert of the Aincrad Liberation Army.”
What the hell? «The Army» was originally a name that people had started calling them as a way of making fun of them. When did it become their official name? And «Lieutenant Colonel»? Feeling annoyed, I answered concisely:
“Kirito, Solo.”
He nodded and asked arrogantly:
“Have you mapped the area ahead of here?”
“…yeah. I’ve mapped the area all the way up to the boss room.”
“Hmm. Then I hope you would supply us with the mapping data.”
I was surprised by his attitude. But Cline, who was behind me, had gotten angry.
“What? Supply you with it!? You bastard, do you even know how hard mapping is!?”
He shouted in a hoarse voice. Maps of unexplored areas were important information. They could also be sold to treasure hunters, who sought out locked treasure chests, at high prices.
As soon as he heard Cline’s voice, the army guy raised one of his eyebrows and announced loudly.
“We are fighting for the freedom of players like you.”
He thrust his chin forward and continued.
“It is your duty to cooperate with us!”
-The word arrogance must exist for attitudes like his. The Army hadn’t even been on the front lines for a year now.
“Wait a second, how could you…”
“You, you bastard…”
Asuna and Cline, who had been standing on either sides of me, both stepped forward with their voices full of outrage. I spread my arms apart and stopped them.
“It’s okay. I was going to spread it around when I got back to the city anyway.”
“Hey, hey! You’re being way too kind Kirito!”
“I don’t have any plans to sell the maps for money.”
As I said this, I opened a trade window and sent the information over to the guy who called himself Lieutenant Colonel Cobert. He took it without any change in his expression and said:
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
He replied without a single note of gratitude in his voice, and then turned around to head back.
I said to his back:
“Some advice from me, you’re better off not attacking that boss.”
Cobert looked back.
“…that is for me to decide.”
“We checked out the boss room just a while ago. It’s not something you can tackle with just anyone. Besides, your men all seem pretty tired as well.”
“…my men aren’t such crybabies to be tired out by something like this!”
Cobert emphasized “my men” a
s he answered with annoyance. But the guys who sat on the floor didn’t seem to agree.
“Get up you useless pieces of trash!”
At Cobert’s command, they stood up shakily and reformed two columns. Cobert didn’t even spare us a glance as he returned to the front of the column and gestured with his arm. The twelve men then lifted their weapons and began to march once again, their heavy armor clanking away.
Although they still had 100% of their HP on the outside, the strenuous fights of SAO left a fatigue that couldn’t be seen. Our real bodies in the other world may not be moving a muscle, but the feeling of weariness still stayed until we either slept or rested on this side. Based on what I saw, those Army players were already exhausted, since they weren’t used to fighting on the front lines.
“…I wonder if they’ll be okay…”
Cline spoke in a worried voice as the Army members disappeared into the passageway that led to the higher floor and the rhythmic sound of their footsteps vanished from our ears. He really was a good person.
“They’re not really foolish enough to go and challenge the boss are they…?”
Asuna was worried as well. There was definitely something in Cobert’s voice that hinted at a sort of recklessness.
“…should we take a quick look at what they’re doing…?”
When I said this, not only did Cline and Asuna, but even the other five members of his party agreed.
…and they say that I’m too kind…
I thought this with a bitter smile. However, I had already made a decision. I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight if we left the Labyrinth now and heard that they never made it back.
As I quickly checked my equipment and started walking, a sound reached my ears-
I could tell that Cline was whispering to Asuna behind me. I was wondering if he hadn’t received enough jabs when the content of their conversation surprised me.
“Ah—Asuna-san, how should I put this…that guy, Kirito, please treat him well. Even though he’s not very good with words, isn’t very fun, and is a battle-crazed idiot.”
I dashed back and yanked Cline’s bandana as hard as I could.
“Wh-What are you talking about!?”
“B-But.”
The katana-wielder cocked his head and scratched his beard.
“It’s remarkable that you’re partying with someone. Even if it’s because you fell for Asuna, it’s still an extraordinary amount of progress. That’s why I-”
“I-I didn’t fall for her!”
I argued back. But for some reason, Cline, his party members, and even Asuna all looked at me with a smile on their face. I couldn’t do anything except silently turn back around and keep walking.
Then I heard Asuna declare:
“Please leave him to me!”
I ran to the passageway that led up to the next floor while making a loud racket with my boots.
Chapter 11
Unfortunately for us, we ran into a group of Lizardmen on the way up. By the time the eight of us arrived at the top-floor passageway, thirty minutes had already passed, and we still hadn’t caught up to the army members.
“Maybe they’ve already used their crystals to escape?”
Cline said jokingly, but none of us believed that they would have done that. As a result, we unconsciously sped up our footsteps as we walked down the long passage.
When we were about halfway down, a sound that confirmed our fears echoed off the walls. We all immediately stopped to listen.
“Ahhhh…”
The faded noise that we heard was, without a doubt, a scream.
But it didn’t belong to a monster. We all looked at each other and then started sprinting. Because of our high dexterity, Asuna and I ran faster than everyone else, and a gap quickly opened up between us and Cline’s group. But this wasn’t the time for us to care about that. We dashed like the wind through the shining blue corridor in the opposite direction as we had gone last time.
Soon, the great double doors came into sight. They were already open, and we could see the blue flames flickering inside and a huge shadow moving slowly within its depth. We also heard the intermittent sounds of screaming and metals clashing.
“No…!”
Asuna screamed with grief and accelerated her speed. I followed closely behind her. Our feet were barely touching the ground, as if we virtually flew through the air. I figured that we had already reached the limits of the system’s support. Meanwhile, the pillars on either side of the passage flashed past us.
As we neared the door, Asuna and I quickly reduced our speed. Sparks flew off our boots, and we managed to stop just barely in front of the gateway.
“Hey! Are you guys alright!?”
I shouted and leaned my body forward for a better view.
Inside—it looked like hell.
Bluish-white flames were burning all across the floor. A huge figure stood straight in the middle of all this, its body shining as if it was made out of metal. That was the blue demon: The Gleameyes.
As The Gleameyes flourished its enormous zanbato-like sword around, a huge flaming breath streaked out of its mountain goat head. The damage dealt to it hadn’t even reached one-third of its HP. Across the room from it, there were a bunch of silhouettes, their sizes tiny compared to the demon. They were the army group, and their members were busy scrambling for their lives.
They no longer had any order to speak of. I checked the number of people and immediately noticed that two of them were missing. It would be good if they had escaped by using a teleport item, but-.
Even as I thought this, one of them was hit by the side of the zanbato and went flying. His HP had gone into the red danger zone. I don’t know how it had gotten to this situation, but the demon had managed to get in between the Army members and the exit, and as a result they couldn’t even flee. I shouted at the player who had fallen.
“What are you doing!? Use your teleport item!”
The man looked my way. His face reflected the bluish color of the flames and was full of despair. He then shouted:
“That doesn’t work…! T-The crystals aren’t working!!”
“Wha…”
I couldn’t say anything. Did that mean that this room was a «Anti-Crystal Area»? It was a rare trap that appeared in dungeons once in a while, but it had never appeared in a boss room up till now.
“How can that…!”
Asuna breathed in sharply. This was a case when we couldn’t even just rush in and save them. Then, a player on the other side of the demon raised his sword and shouted.
“What are you saying!! The word retreat does not exist for the Liberation Army!! Fight!! Fight I tell you!!”
It was definitely Cobert’s voice.
“You bastard!”
I screamed. The fact that two people had already disappeared in a no-crystal area—it meant that they were already dead, already gone. Something that should be avoided at all costs had already happened, and this idiot was still saying those things? I felt my blood boil with rage.
Then Cline and his party arrived.
“Hey, what’s happening!?”
I quickly told him what the current situation was. As he heard it, Cline’s expression got darker.
“Isn’t…isn’t there anything we can do…?”
We might be able to run in and make a way for them to get out. But since an emergency escape was impossible in this room, we couldn’t ignore the possibility that one of us could die as well. We just didn’t have enough people. As I struggled with this thought, Cobert had somehow managed to get his men back into order and shouted.
“Charge-!”
Two of the ten had already lost almost their entire HP and were lying on the ground. The other eight had gotten into lines of four with Cobert in the center, who led the charge with his sword raised high.
“No-!!”
But my voice didn’t reach them.
It was such a pointless attack. If all eight of them ran in togeth
er, they wouldn’t be able to use their sword skills properly and would only add to the confusion. They should be fighting defensively, rotating in one person at a time to deal damage, and then quickly switching out for the next member.
The demon straightened up and gave a ground-shaking roar before breathing out a blinding jet of fire. It seemed as if the breath counted as a damage-inflicting attack, and the eight slowed as the blue light of the flames engulfed them. The demon seized its chance and swung its huge sword. The body of a person was knocked into the air, flew over the demon’s head, and then crashed hard into the ground before us.
It was Cobert.
His HP had vanished. With an expression that didn’t even seem to understand the situation, he slowly moved his mouth.
-This is impossible.
He said soundlessly. Then, with a nerve-rending sound effect that pierced our souls, his body had shattered into a swirl of polygons. Next to me, Asuna gave a short scream at this meaningless death.
With their leader gone, the Army members immediately fell into chaos. They ran around screaming. All of their HP counts were already below the halfway mark.
“No…no…no more…”
As I heard Asuna’s strained voice, I glanced sideways towards her. I immediately rushed to grab her arm…
But I was already too late.
“No-!!”
With this scream, Asuna ran off like a gust of wind. She drew her rapier from thin air and charged at The Gleameyes like a flash of light.
“Asuna!!”
I screamed. With no other choices available, I drew my sword and followed her.
“Eh, whatever!!”
Cline and his party then shouted and followed suit.
Asuna’s reckless strike hit the back of the demon while its attention was elsewhere. But its HP hardly decreased at all.
The Gleameyes roared, then turned around and swung its zanbato downwards. Asuna immediately sidestepped to dodge, but she couldn’t evade it completely and was knocked down by the shockwave. The second strike then swung towards her without hesitation.
“Asuna-!!”
I felt my body go cold with fear as I flung myself between Asuna and the blade. My sword barely managed to deflect the attack in time. Then, I felt an impact across my whole body as the shockwave hit me.
Sword Art Online - Volume 1 - Aincrad Page 10