//------------------------------// // Episode 21 - Storm Rising // Story: EQG: Sword Art Online - Aincrad // by Mindrop //------------------------------// Floor 35 January 1 – 5 am – Year 2 Bladescape was blasted awake as the building’s alert went off. They had visitors in their entry hall. The Wondercolts were too small to have someone posted to greet players 24/7, or ever. The system allowed them to set up an alert for visitor’s arrival and for messages to be sent. This was different. They also were banging on the doors, causing the system to identify it as a "break in" and setting off every alarm. Bladescape tore downstairs, in just her sleepwear and with sword in hand. Backbreaker was right behind her. Astro and Thunder were already in the guild meeting hall. All of them had weapons ready. They fanned out to cover the door. Even though they could not knock down a player’s HP in a safe zone, they could give them a mental beating by the physical sensation of begin struck by a sword. Bladescape slid forward and pulled the door’s open as it was pounded on again. Behind it was a distraught group of DDA members. They were fully geared out, but no weapons were drawn. Bladescape stared down the leader of the party, Yamata. She had never liked him or the Holy Dragon Alliance. It was more than his stupid spiked pony tale on the top of his head or the dumb grin on his face. She didn’t trust him. The DDA was know to push things into the shady side to get a hold of rare items. The rarer, the shadier it got, but they did stay Green Players. “Nice greeting,” Yamata smiled, wryly. “Nice awakening,” Bladescape shot back as she lowered her sword. “You set the burglary alarms off. Another 15 minutes and I would have been awake. Come on in. This is obviously important. We have the chairs for a reason.” Knightstar came into the room, also in her sleepwear. The girls were not worried about it. Rarity had made them. Each was personalized and, most important, they were modest; designed to be capable of being worn in public without exposing anyone. They did have two boys in the guild. Rarity had made them dashing sleepwear as well. They could all modestly walk around and enjoy something other than their armor. “What is up?” Bladescape asked, once she was settled in her seat. Yamata was nervously standing in front of them, while the five others sat down. “Where is your poison maker?” “Doombunny?” Backbreaker asked. “Is something wrong?” “Yeah. Not too long ago, a new guild formally arrived. A group of orange players joined up together and just killed a small guild that was enjoying a small New Year’s party outside a safe zone. The guild leader’s name is PoH.” In the 13 months SAO had been online, no murders had occurred. This was the first time a player had actually purposefully killed another player, and this was a guild of players who decided to make this their profession. The first “Red Guild.” The unspoken rule had been broken, on purpose. Every player understood and knew to never let another player’s HP hit zero. Even the orange players and guilds hadn’t crossed that line. They had been careful to only toe that line, but they had not crossed it. There was no coming back from being an orange player who had killed another player. It meant you wore a permanent orange cursor and you could never go into any village, settlement, town, or city on any Floor. The only safe place for murderers was a dungeon's safe zone. “And you came because?” Bladescape asked. “This isn’t an alert about murderous players. Not at 5 am, banging on our doors, and forcing the break in alarms to go off.” “We came looking to find out what Doombunny has been up to.” “That’s a serious charge!” Backbreaker yelled, standing up. Bladescape yanked her back down, and approached the situation more delicately, but firmly. “It is a serious charge Yamata. But it is not her. She wouldn’t hurt a fly. She cries because she has to kill these game creatures.” “I heard she tore up the 39th Floor Boss. Alone.” “And barely handled the fight as a whole,” Bladescape retorted. “Also, she can’t confirm she killed him. She didn’t even take him down into his final health bar. She got one attack in. She can’t even confirm she got the LAB. She was too traumatized over the whole thing. I know she has poison mixing abilities, but she wouldn’t do it. And just because she has them, that doesn’t mean she is doing anything wrong.” “She was and is upstairs,” Knightstar calmly said. “Thunderborne, bring her down please.” “I’m right here,” Doombunny squeaked. Everyone jumped. Yamata even drew his curved sword in surprise because it came from behind them. Doombunny was sitting in the back corner in her cute yellow sleepwear dress. “I hate your hide skill,” Bladescape declared. It was a dumb thing to say, admitting she had Hide as a locked in Skill. But it was too late. Bladescape motioned for Doombunny to come forward. “Was this a restricted meeting?” Doombunny asked sweetly as she walked up front. “No,” Bladescape sighed. “We just didn’t know you were here. Did you hear the circumstances?” “Mhm,” Doombunny nodded. “But I didn’t do anything with it. Or sell any poison. I never let the poison I have leave my presence.” “But you are mixing more?” Yamata pressed. He had at least sheathed his sword. “Hold back there,” Bladescape said as she was keeping Backbreaker from leaping to Doombunny’s defense. “She has a poison snake as a tamed beast. I was there when it was tamed. It was by accident, and by that I mean she wasn’t looking to tame it because it was poisonous. She wasn’t even aware of beast taming. The two of them are great together. “So, Yamata, are you also saying she shouldn’t use her skills?” “No,” Yamata conceded. To claim she couldn’t use any particular skill would put him in a police roll, not something anyone would let happen. Multiple guilds would pitch a fit, and for a good reason. “Colorra,” Doombunny demanded. “Come here!” The snake slithered over from the other side of the room, out from under the chairs. It passed by Yamata, obviously giving him a warning, and circled around Doombunny before she twisted her way up her body to her usual perch. Doombunny scolded the snake. “That is no way to handle a situation like this, young lady. This is serious and they are just as scared as we are. This whole situation is just wrong.” “Forgive her,” Bladescape said. “I have high level Search skill, and even she can hide from me. But I know her in real life. I know she isn’t one of these problematic individuals. But we do need to have more information to look out for. These individuals are concerning and their guild is as well.” Yamata snorted, unsatisfied. “Laughing coffin. And they can be identified by a tattoo of a black coffin, half open with a skeleton arm hanging out and a laughing face on the lid.” Yamata pointed at Doombunny. “For being told you are afraid to even kill, you are not reacting much.” “Oh,” Doombunny stammered. “Sorry? I don’t know what you want me to do or act like, but if it is like those nasty players, then I won’t. I can’t.” “And you have been here all night?” Yamata pushed. Bladescape yanked Backbreaker down. She caught her at a moment when she was off balance. This was not a time for an Applejack defense. “Yamata,” Bladescape said, grunting as she tried to keep AJ from standing back up. “Yamata, unless you can make a real claim, or have any real business to update us on this incident, then please leave. I won’t let any of my guildmates be accused without evidence. And if you have that, I better be talking with a panel of guild leaders, not you and a full raid party.” “Fine,” Yamata huffed. “I am satisfied. Frankly, I didn’t expect her to be here. Even if she can hide in plain sight.” “She does that,” Knightstar replied. “In real life too. She just can be easily overlooked. She is the shy, quiet type. We are extremely proud of her for still being able to fight on the front lines. And she isn’t planning on leaving anytime soon.” “Let’s go,” another DDA member said standing up. It broke Yamata out of his fixation. They departed and the doors were locked behind them. The rest of the Wondercolts had been right outside in the hallway, listening in. “We will be safe,” Bladescape said before Kiefer could ask. “I’ve been paying attention to our surroundings from early on. We also have the higher levels. We can take care of ourselves. And we have some advantages. For one, we are a well known guild and larger than most. We are a medium sized guild, and not easy to jump. We also are well organized in appearance. We have a projected power about each member because of our organized uniforms. That gives us the advantage. We also are usually in higher traffic areas, with other high level parties. The chance that we will get jumped in a Boss Labyrinth is very low. We have much bigger concerns in there.” “I think I should get us hot coco,” AFCK said. “I’ll be right back. Sorry, I haven’t unlocked making marshmallows yet.” “And just how far do we go if we get attacked?” Thunderborne asked. “To the edge, but not over,” Bladescape said, coldly. “Self defense or not, it’s still a life. We must do what we can to not end one. I will allow you to go to the point of one strike to kill, to force submission. They may not fear to take a life, but they will fear theirs being taken. “Besides we won’t be caught alone. We won’t get there. And if it goes to the absolute worst, we will be together and know we did everything possible.” Bladescape repositioned herself. “Doom, I just have to ask. Because now we are dealing with players who have gone to a further extreme than just beating players to submission to rob them. You have control over all of your drugs, correct?” “Mhm,” Doombunny confidently nodded. “I will go double check, but I keep a tight list of them and I know what I have distributed to each of you.” “I want an account of it all by 7am,” Bladescape said. “And from every single one of you. Knightstar, get a hold of Argo and get information about a security safe, like a vault. I know in the safe zone, breaking in is supposed to be impossible, but I want to make this as hard as possible if there is a loophole. I’m talking a vault in a vault with a trap inside it secure. Doombunny is too well known about her ability to make poison. No one actually knows if she is leveling it up, but you better believe they ‘know’ it. “Also, Doom, you can’t go anywhere without two others with you. That is a freedom Laughing Coffin just robbed you of. You would be extremely valuable to them. Do you understand?” “Mhm. That makes sense. But um, if anybody tries to take us, Colorra may not be able to not harm them. The poison is DOT after all. If she is forced to use it, we can’t guarantee the end result.” “We know,” Knightstar said. “We know. We will handle it. Just stay with at least two others outside of here. We will work to keep that at a full party of six at all times. I’m sorry it has turned to this.” “It’s okay,” Doombunny said with her trademarked soft voice and soft smile. “I understand. And besides, I rarely ever go out alone. I’ll go check the poison stock, as soon as I have a drink of that coco Pinkie just brought in.” “All of us need a coco break,” Bladescape chuckled. After coco, a full account of the poison stock was made and nothing was missing. For now, they didn’t revoke any poison stocks for any members. All of them had at least 5 five various types on them for hunting monsters weak to poison. Not all were deadly. They all carried paralysis coatings to put on their weapons. Bladescape (SS): Lvl 68 – Two-Handed Sword – Search – Weapon Defense – Leather Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Sprint – Acrobatics – Blade Throwing Knightstar (TS): Lvl 60 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Equipment Appraisal – Parry – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Search – Armor Pierce Thunderborne (RBD): Lvl 63 – Rapier – Sprint – Acrobatics – Armor Pierce – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Leather Armor – Weapon Defense – Extended Weight Carry Backbreaker (AJ): Lvl 65 – Heavy Shield – One-Handed War Hammer – Extended Weight Carry – Heavy Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Fishing – Search – Martial Arts AFCK (PP): Lvl 63 – Two-Handed Axe – Parry – Cooking – Weapon Defense – Martial Arts – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Thrown Weapon Diemond (R): Lvl 62 – Heavy Shield – Mace – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Heavy Metal Armor – Tailoring – Light Metal Armor Forging – Heavy Metal Armor Forging – Jewelry Making Doombunny (FS): Lvl 60 – One-Handed Dagger – First Aid – Hide – Search – Listening – Battle Regeneration – Fighting Spirit – Familiar Communication (Colorra) – Drug Mixing – Reveal Astro (PS): Lvl 63 – Two-Handed Spear - Purchase Negotiation – Armor Pierce – Acrobatics – First Aid – Light Metal Armor – Battle Regeneration – Weapon Defense – Parry Kiefer: Lvl 60 – One-Handed Curved Blade – Parry – Weapon Defense – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Slash Weapon Forging – Katana – Martial Arts Lessa: Lvl 60 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Light Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Equipment Repair – Metal Equipment Repairing – Armor Pierce – Search Joltron: Lvl 60 – One handed Axe – Heavy Shield – Heavy Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Metal Refining – Blunt Weapon Forging – One Handed Weapon Creation – Two Handed Weapon Creation