Sword Art Online - Volume 23 - Chapter 9.1

9

The three ratpeople fighting alongside Sinon were a minority people in the world of Unital Ring called the Patter. There were only a hundred or so of them living within the caves of this natural border wall.

Sinon encountered them within the cave and learned about the history of the Patter from an elder who could speak human language (i.e., Japanese). According to him, the Patter once lived in a great city on the northern side of the Giyoru Savanna, but a terrible natural disaster laid it to waste overnight, and the survivors were chased by the enormous carnivorous dinosaurs that prowled the plains and had to live in the caves within the wall instead.

The Patter had a legend that, far to the east beyond the wall, there was a rich, deep forest. Some of the younger members wished to travel there and live in the forest, but to get to the eastern side of the wall, they needed to pass through the dome where the ferocious giant frog lurked. A number of valiant warriors had tested the frog, and all had been killed, so the elder Patter had given up on the dream of crossing the wall. But Sinon needed to get through to the eastern side to meet up with us anyway, so three of the braver—by their standards, at least—young Patter joined her in an attempt to beat the frog.

The Goliath Rana, it turned out, was much tougher than she’d expected, based on the story, and her musket was less useful than she’d hoped. So despite her courage, Sinon considered retreat. That was when our group jumped in to help beat the frog, with great effort.

Regardless of the trouble, we had completed the biggest goal of the night, meeting up with Sinon, and had the added bonus of finding Klein and Agil, too. The only thing left to do should have been going back the way we’d come, but there was one more, rather unexpected, part of the story. We had extra members of our retinue—not just the three Patter who fought the Goliath Rana with us but an entire twenty of them.

“…Do you think this is some kind of quest, Kirito?” Lisbeth whispered to me. We were walking at the head of what was less a party and more a full-blown procession.

I thought it over and shook my head. “No…I don’t think so…For one thing, I checked the quest tab of my menu earlier, and there was nothing written there…”

“When we reach the forest, do you think they’re just going to peace out?”

“…Yerm.”

“And do you think we’re all going to reach the forest safely in the first place?”

“…Yerm.”

“Is ‘yerm’ supposed to be a yes or a no?”

“Both.”

She loudly and transparently exhaled, then looked over her other shoulder. “Leafa, is there something wrong with your brother?”

“Ha-ha-ha…Big Brother has a tendency to regress to his childhood now and then…”

That was a mean thing to say, but I didn’t want to spend any time arguing. Ever since the twenty Patter expressed a desire to come with us, I’d been desperately thinking of a way to make everything work out.

I hadn’t given Liz a positive or negative answer to her question about the Patter, but in truth, I couldn’t imagine them surviving once we reached the log cabin’s forest—which they called the Great Zelletelio Forest. There was plenty of water and food, yes, but also many monsters, and if they came across one of those thornspike cave bears, which were even stronger than the Goliath Rana, it would wipe out all twenty of them.

I didn’t yet know what happened when the NPCs of this world died. Perhaps they would come back to life after a certain amount of time passed. But that didn’t mean we could just abandon them to a cruel fate. We couldn’t have beaten the frog or been reunited with Sinon without the three brave ratmen and their pitchforks.

On the other hand, it was going to be difficult to take in twenty Patter at the log cabin. They might all fit inside, but there were more of us now, too, which meant it was going to be nearly impossible to find enough floor space for everyone to lie down at night. I glanced over my shoulder, wondering what to do, and caught sight of Yui walking with Sinon.

She must have been overjoyed at the reunion, because she was holding Sinon’s hand and talking excitedly. Although it couldn’t have been true, it also seemed like she was just a bit taller than before. That had to be a trick of the mind after witnessing her growth as a warrior today. She claimed she wanted to be a mage, but I felt like she’d have been better off with Brawn or Swiftness, rather than Sagacity. For one thing, a day and a half had passed, and we still didn’t even know how to learn the magic skills.

Just then, I had a sudden thought and hurriedly brought up my ring menu. Over on the inventory tab, I sorted my items, newest first, and saw an unfamiliar name at the top of the list.

Fire magicrystal.

Now that was an enticing name. I tapped it to bring up the item properties. Beneath the name and durability level was a short description: A crystal made of the condensed essence of fire magic. Grants the fire magic skill. If already acquired, adds a small proficiency bonus.

Let’s gooo! I wanted to scream, but I held it in, lest I startle the nervous Patter. They were already afraid of Kuro, who was walking ahead of me.

It was clear to me now when I’d picked up the fire magicrystal. It was the red light that rose from the Goliath Rana’s body. The moment I’d grabbed it, the item had gone directly into my inventory.

So why did the light appear from the Goliath Rana’s body and not the thornspike cave bear’s? Because the frog used fire magic. In other words, learning magic skills in this world required defeating a monster that used that kind of magic. It just wasn’t clear if that could be any random monster or if it had to be a tougher, boss-type enemy.

I tapped the open properties window, and it created a smaller window labeled TIPS.

To use this item, you must materialize it, then crush it between your teeth.

“……”

That was an intense method, I had to say, but seeing that it had come from a monster’s body, I supposed it made sense. I closed that notice, then hit the button on the properties window to make it appear in physical space.

The magicrystal was not a bodiless light, the way it appeared when I caught it. Now it was a translucent crystal less than an inch in size. It was a brilliant crimson color, with a tiny flame trapped in its center. All I had to do was crunch it between my teeth like a hard candy to earn the fire magic skill, but of course I wasn’t going to do that. Instead, I turned and offered it to Yui.

“Here you go, Yui.”

“…? What is it?” she asked, tilting her head. She got a good look at the magicrystal and beamed. “Ooh, it’s beautiful, Papa! I’ll take very good care of it!”

“No, don’t do that…Try eating it.”

“………What?”

It wasn’t just Yui. Sinon, Lisbeth, and Leafa all looked skeptical. I probably should have explained it from the start, but I was possessed by a desire to make the magic skill a fun surprise for her.

“You’ll understand if you eat it. Give it a crunch?”

“……”

She gave me the exact same look Asuna did when she was feeling suspicious of me, but she popped the magicrystal into her mouth anyway. She rolled it around in her cheeks, then mumbled, “Papa, it doesm’t tase like anyhing.”

“Kirito, do you know what you’re doing?” Sinon demanded. I reassured her that it was fine and that I had it under control.

“Don’t suck on it, Yui. You have to bite through it.”

“Oh…okay.”

Yui took on a determined look, trapped the magicrystal between the molars on her right side, then closed her eyes and chomped down hard. It didn’t make the crunching sound I expected but a high-pitched, ringing craaaack.

Flames burst out of Yui’s mouth.

“Hwaaaaah!” Yui shrieked. I was about half as startled as she was, but there had been no HP loss. Lisbeth screamed “Fire, fire, fire!” and reached for her water to feed to the little girl, but the flames had already gone out.

“Hey, Big Brother! That was a really mean prank!” Leafa rounded on me, fists raised. I shook my head.

“N-no, no, it wasn’t a prank! Did you get the message, Yui?!”

“Hwaaah…Oh, I did…It says, fire magic skill gain— What?!”

Yui’s eyes flashed, and she instantly popped open the ring menu to check her skills tab. She tapped the top of the list of acquired skills and read the window that appeared.

“Wow, it says I can cast a magic spell called Flame Arrow!” she exclaimed to the shock of the others.

I beamed at my daughter and egged her on. “Well? Give it a go.”

“Okay! It seems that magic in this world is executed with gestures, unlike in ALO. Let’s see…” She looked up from the window and arranged her hands in front of her body. “This is the basic gesture for fire magic, it says.”

She clenched her left hand into a fist, then extended the fingers of her right hand in a row and struck them against the fist from a diagonal angle. A red aura bloomed around both hands.

“The next gesture will indicate the magic spell to use.”

She opened her left hand and thrust it forward, then raised her right hand above her shoulder, like pulling back a bow. A glowing red line appeared in the air, connecting the two hands. She looked around quickly, then pointed her left hand at a rock about sixty feet ahead of us.

“This will be the activation gesture. Apparently, the more accurate the physical gesture and rhythm, the more powerful and precise the magic will be.”

She clenched both hands tightly. A small magic circle appeared before her left hand, and the red line turned into a flaming arrow that shot forward with a fwoosh! It arced very slightly and struck the rock true, causing a small explosion. We all murmured with appreciation and applauded. I expected the Patter to be alarmed, but they were not that timid. Instead, they began to squeak among themselves.

The spell couldn’t compare to the high-level magic used by master mages in ALO, but it was the first magic I’d seen here, aside from the Goliath Rana’s fireballs, and I felt greatly emboldened by it. And you could increase magic skills not just by using them but also by consuming more magicrystals, so there were more avenues to improving them than there were with the weapon skills. Hopefully, I’d get a chance to learn magic eventually, but for now it was better to support Yui’s growth.

“How much of your MP did that cost, Yui?”

“Um, my maximum MP is 157, and that cost 15, so it was a little less than ten percent.”

“Mm-hmm…And what’s the speed of your natural regeneration?”

“With my Concentration ability at a rank of 1, it takes six-point-two seconds to recover a single magic point. That means it takes ninety-three seconds to recover the cost of a single Flame Arrow. It’s not suited to rapid, consecutive use, I’d say,” she admitted, looking downcast.

I rubbed her head. “Don’t worry about it, kiddo. That’s what the natural regeneration is in most games. I’m sure we’ll get some MP potions soon or learn how to make them from ingredients.”

“I hope so…”

“I’ll make sure to handle all of that—you don’t need to worry about it, Yui. For now, I’d say you should use that spell whenever your MP fully recovers. That way you’ll gain proficiency gradually over time.”

“Okay! I’ll do my best!” she said, smiling at last.

Leafa exclaimed, “In that case, I wanna learn the wind magic skill soon! If you find a wind magic stone, Kirito, give it to me!”

“Sure thing. I wonder what’ll come out of your mouth if you eat the wind stone,” I said purely out of curiosity. But for some reason, Leafa pounded me under the left arm where I had no armor. I made a big show of grunting in pain.

In the back of the party with Agil, Klein complained loudly enough that everyone could hear him,

“Awww, man. Is it gonna be like this in UR, too?”

The travel back east over the Giyoru Savanna was stunningly easy compared to what we went through to get to Sinon. Knowing where to go and having the anticipation of home sweet home waiting at the end made it possible to actually enjoy the scenery on the way.

As usual, hyenas and bats interrupted our travel, but we were massively more powerful now, and there were no more terrifying hailstorms along the way. Even water and food, the most troublesome aspects of all, turned out fine, thanks to the huge stockpile of frog meat from the Goliath Rana’s body, plus the natural spring water from the cave. The girls did not seem to enjoy seared frog meat, however.

What was very lucky was that in addition to the water and food, the cave contained a bunch of iron and copper ore. This went to the women, who resisted packing frog meat into their inventories and the little packs the Patter wore. Once we were able to smelt the ores at our base, we’d have our ingot needs met for quite a while.

We finally finished crossing the Giyoru Savanna again after ten thirty and entered the Zelletelio Forest. We just had to walk through the woods for a bit, cross the river, and we’d be back at our log cabin.

The moment the huge trees came into view ahead, the twenty Patter leaped about and hugged one another with excitement. Some even burst into tears. To them, the Zelletelio Forest was a promised land spoken of for generations, so it made sense that they’d be ecstatic, but the forest was not safe, and certainly no paradise.

Since Sinon was the one person who could speak any Patter, I asked her to tell them not to let their guards down before we went inside. We continued east, defeating the new types of monsters inside, until eventually the light began to flicker in the distance.

“Oh! That’s the river! We’re almost home!” Leafa cheered and began to rush ahead.

“Don’t run in there! There are monsters in the river,” I shouted, starting to give chase along with Kuro—until Leafa came to an abrupt stop. “Hey, what’s the…?”

“Big Brother, look!!” she exclaimed, pointing. When I followed her finger, my heart nearly stopped beating.

Beyond the trees lining the far bank of the river, the night sky was burning red. I pulled up my map to check our location. In the direction we were facing was…the log cabin. I listened closely, and behind the roar of flames, there was the faint sound of metal clashing. When it caught the burning odor on the night breeze, Kuro growled softly.

“Asuna…Silica…Alice!”

I began to run toward the cabin, thinking of the three we’d left watching over it. The others hurried quickly behind me. I crossed the rocky riverside, looking for a spot where the water was shallow, and made it over the river there. Among the trees on the eastern side of the river was a huge divot where a piece of New Aincrad fell. The cabin would be shortly past that.

At this point, I could clearly see the flames through the trees. The clashing of metal on metal was no longer muffled. It seemed undeniable that the cabin was under attack, probably by a group of PKers like Mocri and his gang last night.

I wanted to rush to aid those I’d left behind, but the first order of business was deciding what to do about the twenty Patter. Their armor was of simple cloth make, and their weapons—pitchforks and scythes—were basically converted tools. Based on the fight with the Goliath Rana, I estimated they were only level-2 or level-3. If they rushed into a battle full of sword skills, some of them were going to die.

“Sinon, tell the Patter to hide and wait here!”

She passed my message on, but after just two seconds of discussion, they all shook their heads. It was difficult to register finer emotions in their big black eyes, but I could sense the outrage in their voices as they squeaked “   !”

“She says they want to fight, too.”

I almost replied with “She?” but decided the details could wait until later. It didn’t solve my worry, but we didn’t have time to talk this over.

“Fine, just tell them to stick together. Don’t split up.”

While Sinon translated that for the ratpeople, I turned to Leafa, Lisbeth, Klein, Agil, and Yui.

“We don’t know who’s attacking or how many of them are there, but if we take too long observing, it’ll leave the three of them in danger. We’ll have to charge in, take the enemy by surprise, and then adjust on the fly.”

“If you want to fight with improvisation, I’m your man!” Klein boasted, thumping his leather armor. I was kind enough not to remind him that his best skill right now was merely Pursuit.

With our strategy set, we started running.

The furrow in the earth heading to the northeast from the river was our path to the cabin. It didn’t take long for red flames to come into view. Fortunately, it wasn’t the cabin itself that was burning but the ancient spiral pines growing around the clearing. The ten-foot stone wall and wooden gate were still standing strong.

Atop the wall, there were irregular flashes of silver light. That was combat in progress. Our friends and the invaders were battling atop that foot-wide wall. By the light of the burning trees, I could see what looked like ten—no, more than twenty—figures launching themselves at the wall and attempting to climb it. Perhaps they’d lit the spiral pines for more light.

A particularly loud clang! sounded, and one of the attackers atop the wall tumbled to the ground. Asuna, her long brown hair flying, quickly turned the other way and thrust her rapier at another invader climbing the wall. Not far away, Alice and Silica were fighting just as hard. It seemed the three of them were focusing primarily on knocking the attackers back off the wall.

Their intentions were clear. They were buying time, trusting that we’d return with Sinon to help, and doing whatever they possibly could to protect our home until then.

Based on how burnt the spiral pines were, the battle must have started over thirty minutes ago. The invaders could wait and rest on the ground, but Asuna, Alice, and Silica had to keep fighting on that narrow catwalk. Their HP and willpower had to be close to the breaking point, I assumed. Another enemy approached Asuna from behind. Silica and Alice were too busy fighting to notice. The flames in the trees were roaring all around, so I knew they wouldn’t hear if I yelled from a distance.

Even still, I sucked air into my virtual lungs, desperate to warn Asuna.

But before I could let it out, there was a gunshot behind me.

The enemy who was sneaking up behind Asuna reeled backward, took a few toppling steps, then fell on the inside of the wall. Sinon had picked him off with the musket. Her aim was as precise as ever, but if he was on the inside, he’d be able to open the bolt on the gate.

But my concerns were wiped away by a ferocious “Quaaack!” from what could only be Aga. Asuna’s pet long-billed giant agamid was taking care of anyone who fell on the inside of the stone wall.

The sound of the musket firing was thankfully not too loud for the burning spiral pines to cover up. I gestured to Sinon to reload, then picked up my running speed.

Just ten yards separated me from the enemy group.

“Kuro, protect Yui!”

“Gaurr!” the panther snarled. I held my sword above shoulder level.

In yesterday’s battle, I’d had to fight PKers in my underwear with a stone knife, which had been quite a struggle—it wouldn’t go like that today. My sword vibrated subtly, taking on a light-green hue. The instant I sensed the skill’s activation, I hurtled myself off the ground: Sonic Leap.

At last, one of the attackers noticed me.

“Hey, behin—”

But a tenth of a second later, my sword sank deep into his left shoulder. Red HP bars appeared over all their heads at once, a sign they had formed a raid party together.

The armor of the man was leather, and he carried an iron ax. I couldn’t tell if that was what he’d brought from ALO or if he’d acquired both here, but like I had with Mocri’s group last night, I didn’t think it was low-level gear.

Still, thanks to rank-5 Brawn and rank-1 Bonebreaker, my single skill took over 80 percent of his HP. It slammed him to the ground and bounced him back upward, where an orange line split his left pec from behind. That was not a snipe shot from Sinon but Yui’s Flame Arrow. It eliminated the little HP he had remaining, and he fell to the ground again. The ring-shaped cursor spun and grew, showing numbers where the HP bar had previously been: 0001:01:41:26.

One day, one hour, forty-one minutes, and twenty-six seconds. That was how long this man had survived in Unital Ring.

The rotating numbers then disappeared, and the spindle-shaped axle of the cursor shot downward, piercing the man’s body. The soulless avatar, equipment and all, morphed into a plethora of rings that quickly unfolded into tiny ribbons that rose into the sky.

Right on cue, cries arose.

“Enemy attack! Enemy attaaack!”

“They came up from behind! Trap them and crush them!”

These came from a nearby player with a shield and a spearman who seemed to be the leader of the group.

I found it highly offensive that they were calling this an “enemy attack,” but now wasn’t the time to quibble with terminology. Invaders with swords and spears immediately charged toward me from either side along the curved stone wall. About half of them had iron weapons, and the remainder had stone. If they were able to produce iron, they would have outfitted all of them with iron weapons before invading, so I assumed that, like with Mocri’s group, either their inherited gear didn’t hit the Equip Weight limit or they’d bought, found, or stolen their weapons somewhere along the way.

In that case, where had they found out about the log cabin? It didn’t look to me like they’d been exploring along the riverside and randomly spotted the crash marks. I couldn’t be sure yet, but I got the impression that these people knew about the base here and prepared as much as they could before attacking. Had Mocri or his friends leaked our info in revenge? They didn’t seem so vindictive that they’d do something that wouldn’t earn them anything in return…

But within the compressed time-space of my mind, I heard Mocri’s mocking voice in my ears again.

Well, that’s just what Sensei teaches. Don’t only look at one part of the opponent; grasp the whole. Then you’ll know what they’re aiming for—and what they don’t like, you see.

It was what Mocri said when he had me on the ropes in our one-on-one fight. His Sensei—someone who taught them the ropes of PvP combat—was still alive in the world of Unital Ring. If this Sensei was pulling the strings behind this attack, too, then I had to assume these twenty-something combatants were all similarly well-versed in PvP tactics.

The only question now was whether this Sensei had taught them more than just one-on-one combat, like also how to fight as a group. Either way, I should assume they knew.

In less than a second, I’d arrived at the answer. I called out to my companions, “Into the woods! Don’t let them team up on you!”

Agil immediately replied, “We can’t! The fire’s in the trees!”

“…!”

I sucked in a sharp breath, looked around, and saw that the flames burning the spiral pines had already spread to the undergrowth. If you jumped among those flames, you’d burn to a crisp in moments.

That was when I realized the attackers weren’t burning the forest around the cabin for light but as a means of preventing guerrilla tactics against themselves. To back that conjecture up, the groups coming at us from the sides were led by shield-bearing tanks flanked by attackers with swords and axes, then debuffers with long weapons in the rear—an orthodox battle formation. The silver lining was that they had no mages, but that wasn’t going to make things any easier for us.

Atop the stone wall, the girls were still fighting bravely. Asuna glanced back toward me for the briefest moment, and sparks flew when our eyes met.

She didn’t seem to have any secret comeback plans up her sleeve, but it was clear she was bristling with the intent to protect our house, no matter the cost. The trio we’d left behind trusted in our return and had focused on knocking the invaders off the wall. We had to make their efforts count.

Our advantages were Lisbeth’s excellent iron weapons, Yui’s fire magic, the twenty Patter, and Sinon’s Hecate II. The only one of those things that had the potential to overturn the massive numerical disadvantage we were suffering was the Hecate, but Sinon said she had only six of its bullets left. It could defeat a dragon if the shot hit a vital point—she said she’d killed a giant dinosaur with it—but six shots wasn’t going to be enough to defeat a group of over twenty players. This wasn’t the right time to use up all of the greatest firepower in the entire world of Unital Ring.

“Hey, what are we gonna do, Kiri?!” exclaimed Klein nervously, holding his thin scimitar. “If we’re just gonna go for it, I’m with ya!”

“It’s too early to resort to desperation. There’s got to be a way to turn this around.”

“Yeah, but when they’ve got such a tight formation, there’s no proper way to break them down.”

Klein was right; the enemy was not rushing but carefully closing the distance, keeping their shield users front and center. If we panicked and used sword skills, the tanks would just guard, and they’d be able to pick us off with counterattacks. It was almost like they knew we were built for attacking, not so much for defense.

Should we retreat to the river? But then the attackers would just continue their siege of the log cabin. Feeling the pressure from the enemy, Kuro growled from the rear, where it was guarding Yui. Behind them, the Patter were huddled together, speaking nervously.

If I were an utterly ruthless leader, I’d order them to charge into the enemy’s midst and cause chaos so we could pick off the tanks. But I couldn’t do that, of course. They had defeated their nemesis, the Goliath Rana, and made their way to the promised land of the Great Zelletelio Forest at last. Yes, there were dangerous monsters in the area anyway, but the very last thing I wanted was for them to die because of a squabble between players…

“…Oh!” I gasped.

I wasn’t sure if it was an advantage or not, but there was one major uncertain variable in this forest. And if we could bring that into the battle, the attackers would no longer be so confident.

“Klein, Agil,” I murmured to the two at my sides. “Throw all the frog meat you have into the flames.”

I opened the ring menu and got busy without waiting for an answer, materializing all of the Goliath Rana meat I had filling up my inventory capacity. Bright-red chunks of flesh appeared atop the window, and I grabbed them and tossed them into the blaze to the left.

Within a few moments, Klein and Agil began doing the same thing. It was only the fact that we’d known one another for so long that kept them from wondering why we were busying ourselves with such a ridiculous task, given the present danger. Although if this didn’t work, they were bound to lose a lot of confidence in me anyway.

“…What are they doing? Clearing out their junk?” asked one of the enemy fighters.

Another player replied, “They’re cooking meat. What, are they gonna lure us out with food?”

“They don’t think we’re NPCs, do they?”

As they bantered, the frog meat cooked in the flames, creating a fragrant smell. The pink was a little too bright, but the meat was quite a fine ingredient, and it somehow smelled like we’d added black pepper and rosemary, just from being seared in the fire.

That alone, of course, was not going to make the attackers give up. Their spearman leader called out from the back, “Let’s finish them off before they try something funny. Go to plan B!”

The rest of the group called out, “Yes, sir!”

But there was no way to know what kind of strategy plan B was. There was a deep rumbling from the forest, like a gigantic mortar and pestle grinding.

“Grrrrr…”

There it was.

The ground began to tremble. A new kind of horror chilled my spine. The frog meat had brought that uncertain variable into play—and it was a double-edged sword.

The left of the two groups of enemies visibly began to panic.

“Hey, there’s something behind us…”

“Gurrraaaa!”

The roar was like thunder, and one of the nearby burning spiral pines snapped at the base. A tremendous four-legged beast, over six feet tall even with all of its feet on the ground, emerged from the flames. That was the tyrant of the forest, the creature that had terrified us last night—the thornspike cave bear. The smell of the frying frog meat had stimulated its hunger; drool hung from its thick teeth, and its red eyes looked greedily upon the scene.

“Aaaah!”

An enemy fighter charged, thrusting out his sword. The bear was unimpressed and jumped with surprising speed, easily swiping the attacker out of the way.

“Gaaah!”

He slammed against the stone wall around the cabin with a nasty crunch, as light as if he were a scrap of cloth, and bounced back about ten feet before hitting the ground. The core of his cursor shot down and disintegrated his avatar, which turned into a tangle of ribbons that flew into the sky.

It wasn’t the heaviest armor, but that player had fairly decent equipment, and he lasted all of a single swipe. The thornspike cave bear had even higher stats than I’d realized. It couldn’t use magic, so its physical attack power was definitely higher than the Goliath Rana’s.

This told me that it was indeed a true miracle that we’d beaten the bear last night by rolling those logs off the roof. Klein, Agil, and I slowly backed away from the creature.

I’d expected the players to panic and flee in various directions after they saw their companion slaughtered in a single second, but I was disappointed. The spearman recovered from the shock immediately, raised his weapon—a fancifully designed fauchard, a kind of hooked polearm that was clearly inherited from his previous game—and bellowed, “Don’t panic! A and B teams, regroup and take boss formation!”

His hair was a dark-red color, and his skin was bronzed. In ALO, he would be a salamander. I didn’t recognize him, but I could imagine he’d been one of the lancers serving under General Eugene in the territorial wars.

In that case, I couldn’t help but wonder, who was this Sensei capable of enlisting such talented, hardcore players…?

The two groups of attackers quickly assembled, forming one massive raid party. The formation of tanks, attackers, and debuffers was the same as before. Even the three fighting with Asuna, Alice, and Silica jumped down to join the group.

“Grrraaaah!!”

The thornspike cave bear roared and scratched at the ground, then launched into a tremendous charge. It was the same thing it did when it nearly destroyed the wall of the cabin.

Claaank! A resounding crash filled the air. The four tanks formed a line and just barely managed to absorb the bear’s momentum. I couldn’t help but exclaim “Whoa,” under my breath.

But now wasn’t the time to sit around and be impressed. We had to make full use of this time while things were at their most chaotic.

“Kirito! What are we doing?!” Lisbeth demanded, yanking on my arm.

I thought hard. The enemy had their sides exposed to us, so I wanted to attack, but if we drew the bear’s attention, that would be making a bad situation worse.

Though I didn’t like it, perhaps it would be best to sit back and watch them fight for now. If the bear was winning, great, and if it lost, it was sure to inflict plenty of damage on the players, making it easier for us to finish them off…

It was a cruel but rational tactic. But I didn’t get a chance to explain.

“Kirito,” said a voice from the right. Somehow Silica was there, not on top of the stone wall anymore. I was going to applaud her long, tiring struggle to defend the cabin, but she held out her hand to stop me. “Kirito, that huge bear is the thornspike cave bear you wanted me to tame, right?”

“Er…yeah, that’s right. But I was thinking more in the long term…”

“But even still, if I’m going to turn it into a pet one day, I can’t just abandon it to a horrible fate now,” she said, very determined. Pina, the little dragon perched atop her head, cried “Kyuu…”

Whether that bear wins or loses, the one you’re going to try taming in the future is a different individual, I could have said, but I didn’t. Silica had been a beast-tamer ever since SAO, and it wasn’t that kind of logical decision on her part. If we used this thornspike cave bear as a sacrificial pawn now, then when she eventually tamed some other bear, she wasn’t going to feel truly connected to it. I understood that mindset, and I respected it.

I stared back into those determined eyes, then looked at Asuna and Alice atop the distant wall. They stood there, rapier and longsword in hand, hair swaying in the wind, and nodded as though reassuring me that they’d accept my decision, whatever it was.

“…All right. We’ll let the bear handle the front line and attack from the rear,” I announced. Silica exclaimed “Okay!” and Klein smacked me on the back with a “That’s the spirit!”

Up ahead, the thornspike cave bear and the invaders were locked in fierce combat. The bear’s main attacks were swiping with its front paws and charging, and the four tanks were desperately defending against them so that the swordsmen could damage it from the sides, and the spearmen from the back row. Their teamwork was too practiced to be an impromptu raid party, but I hadn’t made contact with the bear yet, so I couldn’t see if they were doing any real damage to its HP bar. Depending on our timing, we might wind up battling against a furious thornspike cave bear at peak health, but if that happened, then so be it.

I made eye contact with the others to get us on the same page, then lifted my sword, waited for the bear to charge once again—and swung it down.

Agil, Klein, and I sprinted forward in a row. We were heading for the spearman leader, who was taking charge from the middle of the back row. Agil took the first attack by using the wide-range Two-Handed Ax skill Whirlwind, knocking away the two players guarding the leader.

“Whoa…”

“They’re here!” shouted the two as they fell, drawing the attention of the entire back row of the enemy. Another two players rounded on Agil with admirable reflexes, taking advantage of his post-skill delay.

“I don’t think so!”

Klein used the basic Reaver skill for one-handed curved swords, and I used Vertical. The perfectly synchronized attacks took down the two foes.

We’d sent four enemies into a tumbled state, but now all three of us were stuck in a delay. The enemy leader reared back with his fauchard and bellowed, “It was poor form to attack us now, Kirito!”

How do all of these people know who I am? I grumbled to myself as I watched the sharp tip of the fauchard glow aquamarine. That was the color of Whirlpool, an area skill for two-handed spears. It was less powerful than the Two-Handed Ax skill Whirlwind, but it caused a dazed Debuff effect.

At that point, I finally saw the name Schulz above the enemy leader’s HP bar. I didn’t recognize the name, but I had a feeling that, like Mocri, I wasn’t going to forget it now.

Just before his Whirlpool could knock all three of us off our feet, there were two different bursting sounds behind it, and two different kinds of fire struck Schulz’s chest and shoulder. That was Yui’s magic and Sinon’s gun. He lost his skill opportunity and faltered backward. Lisbeth and Silica jumped in, adding on with normal mace and dagger attacks and knocking him to the ground.

Released from my delay at last, I leaned forward as far as I could go and raised my sword.

If I hit him with all three blows of Sharp Nail, I could probably take Schulz’s HP down to zero. But if I executed it the way it normally worked, the slashes wouldn’t hit a target collapsed on the ground. At times like that, you had to sink down close to the ground—but take a stance that was too irregular, and the sword skill wouldn’t work.

So I dug my toes into the ground in an effort to get more support, and I entered the proper motion as low as I possibly could. My iron sword glowed red, vibrating at a high pitch.

The instant I launched myself off the ground, I met Schulz’s gaze.

His eyes contained surprise, frustration, and something else. Doubt…? About what?

Very belatedly, I realized I wanted to hear what he had to say. How did he learn where the log cabin was? How did he put together such a large force? Why did they attack like this? But it was too late. I couldn’t stop the sword skill once it was in motion.

With the help of the game system, I leaped five yards in a single step. Schulz didn’t bother to get up. He did hold up his fauchard in an attempt to guard, but he estimated my slash being too high. The first swing of Sharp Nail, coming in a ground-hugging dash, snuck past the handle of the polearm and hit Schulz in the neck.

My sword bounced back and struck again a second and third time, ignoring the laws of inertia. The motions carved red claw marks in the air that mingled with the bloodred damage effects.

His HP bar promptly emptied.

“Kirito…you’re…really…”

Before he could finish, the spindle from his HP bar pierced his body and dissolved it into rings.

I’m really what?!

I didn’t scream the question on my mind because it didn’t seem like appropriate parting words for a man who was leaving this world forever after fair combat. Plus, the fighting wasn’t done yet.