Yui slowly said the incantation, and Kirito raised his right hand and repeated the words. His right hand sent a wave of gray light, and it continued to spread. When it covered Lyfa, she was able to see in a wide area around them. The light did not appear to be a light source; instead, the spell gave the user night-vision.
“Wow, this is really convenient. Spriggans might actually be of some use.”
“Ah, hearing you say that makes me feel hurt.”
“Ha ha ha. But seriously, you should at least memorize some useful magic incantations. If you can’t even use Spriggans’ speciality spells in a life and death situation, it would be a shame.”
“Woo, those words hurt even more.”
While talking lightly, they continued to move further inside the cave’s many twists and turns. Soon, they couldn’t see the white light from the entrance anymore.
“I think it was ‘ARLU-DENA-RERE..’”
Kirito looked at the shiny purple Reference Manual and tried to whisper unfamiliar spell incantations.
“No, no, reading it like this won’t active the spell. The incantation is not just mechanical recitation, you must understand each «Word of Power» and associate it with the effect of magic while memorizing it.”
Hearing this remark, the black swordsman sighed deeply and dropped his head.
“I did not think that I would be learning words that look like English in a game.”
“I’ll warn you, the high level spells have at least twenty words.”
“Aw come on, I’ll just be a pure fighter…”
“Crying is useless!! Quickly start over again.”
In the about two hours they travelled after entering the cave, they fought with orcs over ten times and won without any problems. Thanks to the map purchased in Sylvain, they went in a straight line and travelled fast. According to the map, there should be a huge underground lake ahead, crossing the bridge over it should lead to the mining city, Ruger.
Ruger was not as big as the Gnome underground capital city, but it held facilities that produced high quality ore and a lot of businessmen and blacksmith players lived there. They didn’t meet any other players on the way. This cave wasn’t a very good hunting place, and above all, as Sylphs’ forte is flight, many would tend to avoid places where they couldn’t fly. The cave was plenty large, but as neither sunlight nor moonlight, the sources of flight endurance, reach this area, the wings are not able to recover.
Sylph players who wanted to go to Aarun for trade and tourism usually took the longer route from the northern part of Sylvian, passing into Cait Sith territory near the mountains. Living there are the Cait Sith race with their cat ears and tail. They could use the skill «Taming» by feeding monsters and animals, and had always provided tamed riding animals to the Sylph capital in friendship, so they had been on good terms for a long while. The relationship between the lords of the two races was also very good, it was said that they would soon form a covenant.
Since Lyfa had a few close Cait Sith friends, she had intended to choose the route through the northern pass, but went through the mountains because Kirito looked to be in a hurry. Truthfully, going through underground depths made Lyfa uncomfortable, but in the present situation going through the mountains certainly did not present a problem.
Anyway, the reason why Kirito was in so much of a hurry to get to Aarun, and the World Tree, was still a mystery to her. His attitude made her wonder at the uncertainty of his heart, but his fighting posture seemed very anxious.
She remembered Kirito mention he was looking for someone. People who lost contact in the real world and came looking in game was not too uncommon. On the bulletin board in front of the grocery store, in the asking people corner, the ‘Looking for someone’ was never ending. Usually it was for revenge or love interest, but neither seemed to fit Kirito. And, searching in Aarun was understandable, but why the world tree? Right now that was like an unreachable area, even if we could reach the bottom, going to the top was almost impossible.
Lyfa walked beside Kirito who was continuing the hard fight with Spellwords, and lost herself in thought. Usually not paying attention in the neutral zone was equivalent to suicide, but on this trip due to Yui’s fearsome senses, she would warn them of approaching monsters so there was no need to worry about ambushes.
Then, after a few more minutes, they were about to reach the underground lake when Lyfa heard a sound, it was not Yui’s warning, it was very close to the ringing of a phone.
Lyfa raised her head, turned to Kirito, and said:
“Ah, I’m getting a message. I’m sorry, please wait a moment.”
“Ok.”
Lyfa stopped, near the front of her body below her chest, she pressed the icon shown. A window popped up showing receive of a Friend Message. Lyfa’s friend list only had one name , Recon, this was not out of intention, so even before reading it she knew who it was from. It was probably irrelevant content, she thought while glancing at it. But -
‘It is what I expected! Be careful, S’
That was the only thing written.
“What the heck is this?”
She said without thinking. It didn’t make any sense. What was expected? Be careful of what? And what was the ‘S’ at the end? Even if he signed the message, wouldn’t it be with an ‘R’, wasn’t there some kind of hidden meaning?
“Esu…sa…shi…su….hmm.”
“What was it?”
Lyfa explained it to the puzzled Kirito. Then, Yui stuck her head out of his pocket and said:
“Papa, I’m detecting a response in close proximity.”
“Monsters?”
Kirito`s hand clutched his sword hilt, but Yui shook her head.
“No – players, a lot, twelve of them.”
“Twelve!?”
Lyfa became speechless. For a group of players forming a combat party, that was just too many. Maybe it was a group of Sylph going from Sylvian to Ruger, or even to Aarun as a trade caravan.
Indeed, once a month there was usually a large party gathering in the Sylph capital for a trip to and from the central area. Usually a few days ahead departure they would tell all the players to recruit participants, but this morning when she had looked at the Bulletin Board there hadn’t been anything written about that.
Here was an unknown group, if it was Sylphs then might not be dangerous, but the chance of it being a PK group of a different race was not unthinkable. Lyfa had a bad feeling about the whole thing, she turned towards Kirito.
“I have a bad feeling about this. We should hide and let them pass.”
“But hide where?”
Kirito was puzzled and looked around. They were in a long wide road, with no side branches to hide in.
“Well, leave that to me.”
Lyfa grabbed Kirito’s wrist and hid in a nearby hollow area. Suppressing the blush brought on by close physical contact, she raised her left hand for the magic incantation.
Soon a green light radiating from the foot upward, wrapped the two bodies. Vision was slightly green-dyed, but from the outside they would be almost completely hidden. Lyfa looked up at Kirito beside her and whispered:
“Speak quietly, if we’re too loud then the magic will be lifted.”
“Understood. This magic is really useful.”
Kirito watched the area they were hiding, constantly scanning the area. Yui poked her head out and said in a low voice:
“In about two minutes you will see them.”
The two of them made themselves smaller and moved close to the cave wall. After some tense seconds, Lyfa heard the sound of footsteps coming. Mixed in with the footsteps was the sound of heavy armour clanking, which made her think and look.
Kirito craned his neck, staring at the direction of the unknown group.
“What is that?”
“What? I do not see anyone.”
“I don’t see any players, but maybe monsters? A small, red bat.”
“!?”
Lyfa held
her breath looking at the front. In the darkness of the cave, there was a little red shape flying their way. This was -
“Damn.”
Lyfa subconsciously cursed out loud, and jumped from lying low on the ground out to the middle of the road. The Concealment Magic lifted at the same time and Kirito stood up as well bewildered.
“Hey, hey, what happened?”
“That is high level magic Tracer Searcher!! We must destroy it quickly!!”
While crying out, Lyfa stretched out her hands and began chanting a spell. After a lengthy incantation, her fingertips released numerous shining emerald needles. Viiii, sounded in the air as the needles head to kill the red shape.
The bat floated in the air slowly, and tried to dodge the attacks, but since there were so many needles, it soon got pierced with many. It fell to the ground, wrapped by a red flame, and disappeared. Confirmed hit, Lyfa turned towards Kirito and shouted:
“Run toward the city, Kirito-kun!!”
“Oh, no more hiding?”
“The enemy will know when their tracer was destroyed. They will probably send out a lot of searchers, so it will be almost impossible to hide. That magic pet had fire properties. This means the approaching party is…”
“Salamanders!”
Kirito frowned after showing off his knowledge. While they were talking, the rattle-rattle sound of metal mixed with footsteps became closer. Lyfa turned and saw in the distance a dark red light.
“Let’s go.”
Nodding, the two began to run.
As they checked the map while rushing onwards, this straight road will soon end, and in front is a huge underground lake. The way to pass the lake is a bridge, at the other end is the entrance to the mining city, Ruger. It is a neutral city so no attack is allowed inside, no matter how many people they have, they won’t be able to do anything.
But why is a big group of Salamanders here?
Lyfa bit her lip. Using a tracer means they were hunting us from the beginning. After departing Sylvian, because of Yui’s search power, there shouldn’t be a chance for them to cast it. The only possibility is that they used the magic while we were in the streets of Sylvian.
The number of Sylph who can use fire magic is not zero. Each race has an attribute of magic talent, the wind for Sylph, earth for Gnome, etc., and other attributes of the spell can be learned through hard practice and increasing skills.
However, the red bat they killed can follow and track the target, and search for hidden target, is a very high level magic that require a fire magic skill almost impossible for another race than Salamander to obtain. In other words -
‘There was a Salamander in Sylvian?’
Lyfa thought while running. If this is true, it’s not easily done. Although Sylvain is open to travelers of other races, due to the hostile relations with the Salamanders, their entry is very strict and checked. If the strong NPC guardians find a Salamander, they will immediately attack. Getting past that isn’t too easy.
“Oh, the lake!”
Running to the right in front of her, Kirito`s voice interrupted Lyfa`s thoughts. She raised her head and saw the rugged mountain road changing into flat stone ahead, the space becoming very open, the dark green lake water shining with a faint light.
A stone bridge spans the middle of the lake, on the other side is a huge gate reaching to the roof. It is the mining city, Ruger’s door. Once beyond that door, it’s our victory in this game of hide and seek.
This gave Lyfa some peace of mind and she took a look over her shoulder. From behind the red light was still some distance away. Since this is the case - the two ran at full speed up the stone trail.
When they got on the bridge, the surrounding temperature dropped a lot. They cut through the water scented air, speeding on the bridge.
“Looks like we escaped.”
“Don’t drop your guard. There is a large monster in the water.”
While talking with Kirito, they arrived at the center of the bridge which was a round observation area, and in that instant.
Passing over their head in the darkness, from behind came two points of high-speed light. It’s special light and sound effect showed that it is magical. It must be from the Salamanders chasing them, but it’s accuracy is very bad.
Since it will hit in front of them, they just need to slow down. After slowing, the light landed about ten meters in front.
It exploded as expected, Lyfa raised her right hand to cover her face, but what happened next was completely unexpected. Humming! A huge rock wall rose up from the bridge and blocked up the entire path. Lyfa frowned at the unexpected problem and swore:
“This is bad…”
“What?”
Kirito`s eyes got wide, but kept running forward and drew his sword to slash the wall.
“Ah, Kirito-kun!”
‘It’s useless,’ didn’t have time to exit her mouth. Kirito’s sword hit the stone wall, Goun! A loud noise came from the contact and the rebound force made him sit on the bridge. The brown stone wall didn’t have a single scratch on it.
“…It’s no use.”
Lyfa flew over to Kirito’s side and stopped, saying it. The Spriggan youth stood up with a reproachful look.
“You should have said that earlier.”
“You are too reckless. This is an earth magic barrier, physical attacks can’t damage it. Only a lot of magic attacks can destroy it…”
“We don’t have the time for that…”
They turned together, the group garbed in armor, gleaming with the color of blood, was approaching the front of the bridge.
“Flying around it… won’t be possible, huh. How about diving into the lake?”
Shaking her head at Kirito’s proposal.
“Not possible. I said it earlier, there seems to be a very high level water dragon monster living in the lake. Without an Undine’s help, fighting in the water would be suicidal.”
“So, there’s no choice but to fight, right?”
Turning to Kirito who held his sword in a graceful posture, Lyfa bit her lip and nodded.
“We have no choice… but this might be bad… For Salamanders to use such high level earth magic, there must be a rather skilful mage in that group.”
The bridge is not wide, so the worst condition of being surrounded can be avoided. Even with this, twelve against two is really long odds, and flight is not possible within this dungeon. Lyfa’s excellence in aerial dogfights can’t be used.
It all depends on the enemies’ combat effectiveness.
…But we cannot hope for too much on that.
Murmuring that in her heart, Lyfa stood beside Kirito and drew her katana. With the sound of heavy metal, the approaching enemy can easily be seen. In the front are three big Salamanders, dressed in armor heavier than the Salamanders she fought yesterday, left hand holding a mace or another single-handed weapon, and right hand equipped with a huge metal shield.
Seeing this, Lyfa was momentarily lost in thought. Within ALO the dominant hand is the same as in the real world, so left-handed players should be relatively few.
Before Lyfa can voice this doubt, Kirito looked at her and said:
“Don`t take this the wrong way, but can you be my support?”
“Eh?”
“I hope that you can heal me from behind. This way I can fight without care.”
Lyfa looked at Kirito’s huge double-edged sword. Indeed on this narrow bridge, friendly fire would be possible and avoiding that would be hard. Healing is not her speciality, but she nodded her head and retreated to just before the rock wall. There was no time for argument.
Kirito bent down and drew his sword from behind. He sent waves of pressure toward the three Salamanders. Kirito’s body is not too big, so he barely made a sound moving forward. His eyes shone with the accumulation of energy. The distance between the two sides shortened as she watched-
“- Ha!!”
In one breath, Kirito’s left foot stepped forward, blu
e special effect lights appeared as he slashed his sword horizontally at the dark red heavy soldiers. With the loud sound of air being cut, the bridge shook; it was the most powerful slash that Lyfa had ever seen. But -
“Eh!?”
Lyfa eyes wide open in surprise. The three Salamanders pulled their weapons back, and brought their shields forward, hiding their bodies behind the wall of shields.
GANG! ! Loud roar, Kirito’s sword hit the Tower Shields in a row leaving a horizontal scar. The air vibrated and a big wave spread out on the lake. But those heavy fighters were only pushed back, blocking Kirito’s attack.
Lyfa hurriedly studied their HP. Probably more than ten percent reduction, but that was only for a moment, as the next instant chants rang out behind them, and pale blue light covered the three front defenders. In reply to the healing incantations, their HP refilled completely. Then, in the back…
From behind the castle wall-like defense of steel, many red-orange fireballs shot out, followed a parabolic path through the air, and exploded at Kirito’s position.
Explosions powerful enough to make the lake surface reflect red covered the black-clad boy.
“Kirito-kun!!”
Lyfa shouted loudly, almost in despair. Kirito’s HP bar rapidly declined, instantly moving into the yellow warning area. No, in ALO’s fully skill-based system, HP increases very slowly, so it’s a miracle he didn’t die instantly. These are intensive multiple magic attacks. Lyfa immediately realized the other’s intent to kill.
This enemy group certainly knows about Kirito and his physical attack power, so they used these counter measures.
Three heavily armored defenders would tank Kirito’s attacks, using heavy shields for defense. No matter how powerful Kirito’s attacks are, if he can’t hit their body directly, he wouldn’t cause fatal damage. The remaining nine people are probably all mages. Some would heal the front line defenders, others used indirect fire magic to attack. This is the formation used for fighting boss monsters with strong physical attacks.
But why would so many people be mobilized to attack Kirito and Lyfa?
Leaving her doubt behind, Lyfa started her healing magic incantation. Finally the flames thinned, and as the Kirito became visible, Lyfa used the highest rank healing spell she had. Soon his HP bar began to fill, but she knew it would not last long.
Sword Art Online - Volume 3 - Fairy Dance Page 15