EQG: Sword Art Online - Aincrad

by Mindrop

Episode 39 - A Day in the Life of Thunderborne

Floor 59

April 14 – Year 2

Thunderborne's menu alarm went off. After snoozing it twice, she rolled out of bed. She landed in push-up position and began to do her morning exercises and stretching. After push-ups, it was sit-ups, squats, and then pull-ups with the apparatus in her room.

Warmed up, she changed into the yoga pants and shirt Diemond had made her. Blue for the pants with red and yellow stripes on the side, and the top was red, with a rainbow cutting across the chest with a lightning bolt zip to it.

She took a short running start and leaped down the stairs, expertly not hitting the ceiling, which she had done plenty of times. She rolled on her landing on the second floor. She slid into a standing position, throwing a fist pump in celebration. Thunderborne was now awake and ready for the day. Now she just had to make it through the second floor and down to whatever breakfast AFCK had concocted for them.

Thunderborne began to juggle the soccer ball she had stashed on the second floor. It started simple with bouncing it on her foot and then moved up to her knees and her head. She kept it up for a while until she got bored. She had breakfast to get to. She bounced the ball off her head and kicked it hard across the room towards the red “goal” painted on the wall between some furniture. Across from it was the blue goal.

Diamond shrieked as the ball flew past her head. Thunderborne was denied the score by Astro coming out of nowhere and knocking the ball into the ceiling with her forehead. The ball bounced down to the floor and on the rebound Astro kicked it hard. Thunderborne couldn’t get in front of it in time because Diemond was lecturing her over something.

Astro celebrated the win and Thunderborne focused on Diemond. “Lighten up Diemond. I’m awesome. That is all that matters.”

Thunderborne walked towards the stairs, ignoring Diemond. At the stairs, she rode the banister down as it curled around once. The ride was the last piece of her morning routine.

Thunderborne jumped into her favorite chair around the table. Only Bladescape, Doombunny, AFCK, and Knightstar were there. She got first dibs on the food. Because she was faster than the others.

Thunderborne loaded up her bowl all the way with porridge and then a plate full of fruit. She grabbed two scones, having to juggle them because they had just come out of the oven. She grabbed the jar of her favorite jelly and slathered a heap onto each scone. It finished the jar, which popped into polygons since it was done being used.

It took nothing for her to scarf the food down, even with the heat of the scones. She was almost done as the last Wondercolt got there. As usual, it was Backbreaker.

Thunderborne sighed and sunk into her chair. Not from satisfaction, but from boredom. She had to wait to wait until the others got their food for her to get seconds. She had to be “fair.” She preferred the ideology of “if you snooze, you lose.”

“Yes, Thunder, you can stop pouting and grab seconds,” Bladescape told her. “You too, Astro.”

Thunderborne jumped up, reaching all around past the others to grab what she wanted.

With a mouth full of food, Thunderborne swallowed as she remembered what she wanted to ask Astro. “Astro, the windmills here are bigger than they are on the first floor. A lot bigger because they are made of stone. Want to ride them later?”

“Sure!” Astro shot back. “I probably won’t make it, but I am down to try.”

“I know who won’t make it,” Thunder chuckled. “BB. Join us, BB!”

“Yeah! But she probably will fail. We should go to the first floor. Right?”

“Well BB won’t even try to ride the windmills on the first floor!” Thunderborne declared. “She's too afraid to even try and beat me and my ability. I’m not talking speed, I’m talking agility. She obviously has no chance in a foot race.”

Backbreaker smiled a bit at Thunderborne. “Thunder, I just don’t care. I’ve told you a hundred times. I don’t care about ridin' windmills. I don’t even get why you would. You won’t goad me into that.”

“You just aren't agile enough to do it,” Thunderborne quipped.

Now she knew she was pouting. Waiting for seconds she wasn’t. But Backbreaker had gotten more and more boring as the months wore on. It was like all she wanted was to bash things with her shield and hammer. There was no fun left in her. She had stopped competing after it became clear Thunderborne couldn’t beat her strength.

But Thunderborne couldn’t even get her to do any competitions anymore. It was all about skills and stats with her. She had lost her best friend to the game.

Everyone suddenly rushed off, out of the room. Thunderborne realized that Bladescape had told them to get their gear on. She leapt up, jogging to the stairs. She wasn’t allowed to actually run in their HQ. She might have knocked a few people around on accident in the beginning. Still, she wouldn’t be the last one assembled.

In her room, she took off her clothes and popped her armor on. After fixing her rapier on her side, she rushed out. Astro was on the stairs ahead of her, meaning she couldn’t jump down. Not without tackling her. And the last time she tackled Astro, Thunderborne was forced to wear an orange cursor for three days because she accidentally broke the harassment code. It had been a high-speed tackle from Astro’s blindside. Bladescape was furious at her for making her explain to the other guilds why she had an orange player in their guild. She was not able to go to the next boss battle because she was still orange. Bladescape had to keep order somehow. That was before the days of Laughing Coffin and sleep PKers. She spent the nights in a safezone in the closest dungeon. She had to eat plain food that had high durability which AFCK had packed her.

Thunderborne was not the last one in the meeting hall. She was too awesome to be last. She wished she had her guitar to play while she waited. But none of the instruments in SAO were worth her time.

Thunderborne high fived Astro as they were paired in the same party together. It was always more fun that way. The two of them could compete for most kills. When they were in separate parties, they both tended to forget to count and run inflated guesstimates, and then they would get into an argument and Twilight, an egghead in both realities, always seemed to know how many the one who was in her party had killed.

Thunderborne jumped up into the teleport plaza. “Teleport Urbus!”

Urbus appeared and Thunderborne marked it as one. “Teleport Karluin!”

Thunderborne finally teleported to Danac. The group was still assembling. They hadn’t noticed her late arrival. It was slow, and boring, teleporting 11 people to the same area. Thunderborne had devised a game where they each tried to jump to as many cities as possible without being missed. The others had not caught on.

“Five,” Thunderborne whispered to Astro.

“Dang it!” Astro spat. “I got four. Karluin, Urbus, Tolbana, and Taft.”

“Urbus, Karluin, Coral, Panareze, and then Granzam.”

“Nice,” Astro said, putting her hands out.

Thunderborne slapped Astro’s hand down low, and then up high. Astro still tried to trick her, but Thunderborne was too fast. At least Astro was still game for fun.

The hike out was boring. Very boring. Thunderborne wanted action. And they never got it. The others were too slow as well. Astro and Thunderborne had yet to devise a game to play while they hiked out to the Labyrinths.

She was incredibly happy when they finally got to the Labyrinth. The catacombs held some really fun fights. Or they would if they could find anything to fight. It was picked clean, even after they passed the area they had previously mapped.

Thunderborne was relieved when they began to be baited into a chase by the shadow. Except Bladescape was too slow. They were good enough that they could rush in faster than they were moving.

But it wasn’t much longer until they found the chamber and Thunderborne knew the fight she had been waiting for all morning was upon them. Bladescape was the first in, with Backbreaker right behind her. But that was fine. Thunderborne paired up with Joltron and they rushed forward on their left.

Thunderborne stabbed a shadow with a four-combo strike, ending its existence. After that, Joltron blocked her side from a skeleton. She stepped just to the side of Joltron, bringing Azure Aculeus up for a six part combo. Four slashes and two stabs, starting and finishing with the stabs. It was effective, but not enough against the skeletons. Slash with a rapier was weak. Joltron boringly took the counter attack on his shield and then Kiefer jumped in, finishing off her kill and forcing Thunderborne to target something else.

Thunderborne jumped to a shadow and picked it apart with ease. A skeleton took a swipe at her, but Thunderborne danced out of the way and killed another shadow. She avoided the skeleton again, killed a third shadow, and then finally blocked the skeleton’s rusty sword with Weapon Defense. It put it off balance and Thunderborne unleashed a two hit combo followed by a three hit and then a one hit to finish it.

She could take the higher movement penalty because Joltron was right there to block her. He did his job while Kiefer drew the aggro of another skeleton. Thunderborne unfroze and leaped to Joltron’s side, dispatching the skeleton. She flipped backwards and sliced down the skeleton Kiefer was fighting.

This was what she was waiting for. Battle. Flipping, fighting, and the rush of adrenaline. And with the higher HP of the skeletons, it took a highly skilled fighter to take them down with ease. They were on Floor 59’s Labyrinth. Even though she was level 72, it wasn’t a cake walk. As easy as she made it look.

With the battle done, they found a safe zone on the other side of the chamber. Thunder didn’t want to stop. It was too early for lunch, but it would be a while before they found another one. She powered through the food, but savored the cupcake.

After, Thunderborne and Astro began to play Rock, Paper, Scissors. They were in a heated marathon. The score was 3942 to 3902 in favor of Thunderborne. They only played in safe zones. They got in another 42 games before they moved out again. The score was 3966 to 3920, still in Thunderborne’s favor but either of their game.

Thunderborne didn’t care about mapping. She left that to Bladescape, Knightstar, and Kiefer. They hit multiple dead ends, but each had a big fight and was worth it. They ran into Fuurinkazan and the fighting was done for the day. Which meant it was another boring walk back.

Once home, Thunderborne went up to her room and completely disrobed for a bath. As far as she could get naked that was.

After the enjoyable bath, she sat in her lounge chair and repainted each of her toes. Each one was a different color. If Diemond found out, she would go overboard. But Thunderborne did enjoy treating herself a bit in this game. One her next day off, she was going to head to Lindarth where there was a nice, small, day spa. Not everything had to be a competition. And it helped keep her edge in this death game.

Bladescape (SS): Lvl 79 – Two-Handed Sword – Search – Weapon Defense – Leather Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Sprint – Acrobatics – Blade Throwing – Extended Weight Carry
Knightstar (TS): Lvl 69 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Equipment Appraisal – Parry – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Search – Armor Pierce
Thunderborne (RBD): Lvl 72 – Rapier – Sprint – Acrobatics – Armor Pierce – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Leather Armor – Weapon Defense – Extended Weight Carry – Search
Backbreaker (AJ): Lvl 75 – Heavy Shield – One-Handed War Hammer – Extended Weight Carry – Heavy Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Fishing – Search – Martial Arts – Acrobatics
AFCK(PP): Lvl 72 – Two-Handed Axe – Parry – Cooking – Weapon Defense – Martial Arts – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Thrown Weapon – Musical Instrument
Diemond (R): Lvl 72 – Heavy Shield – Mace – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Heavy Metal Armor – Tailoring – Light Metal Armor Forging – Heavy Metal Armor Forging – Jewelry Making – Extended Weight Carry
Doombunny (FS): Lvl 69 – One-Handed Dagger – First Aid – Hide – Search – Listening – Battle Regeneration – Fighting Spirit – Familiar Communication (Colorra) – Drug Mixing – Reveal
Astro (PS): Lvl 72 – Two-Handed Spear - Purchase Negotiation – Armor Pierce – Acrobatics – First Aid – Light Metal Armor – Battle Regeneration – Weapon Defense – Parry – Extended Wight Carry
Kiefer: Lvl 69 – One-Handed Curved Blade – Parry – Weapon Defense – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Slash Weapon Forging – Katana – Martial Arts
Lessa: Lvl 69 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Light Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Equipment Repair – Metal Equipment Repairing – Armor Pierce – Search
Joltron: Lvl 73 – 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 – Extended Weight Carry

Comments

[Sylica telca]

I wonder if these chapters all take place on the same day?

[Mindrop]

10206249
Check the date. They do! I was trying to get them released faster, but editing is taking longer on my end.

[SuperSonicHeroes]

Nice to see Rainbow still trying to have a bit of fun. They need to escape but they shouldn’t let the game consume who they are.

[Dark Feather]

I'd sumupp Thunderborn whit one of my teachers favorite sayings:
"Wake up, kickass, sleep, repeat."

[jen_lee_hattie]

Thunderborne sighed and sunk into her chair. Not from satisfaction, but from boredom. She had to wait to wait until the others got their food for her to get seconds. She had to be “fair.” She preferred the ideology of “if you snooze, you lose.”

1. Repeating words, 2. I agree with her on "if you snooze, you lose."

[TranquilClaws]

Thunderborne sighed and sunk into her chair. Not from satisfaction, but from boredom. She had to wait to wait until the others got their food for her to get seconds. She had to be “fair.” She preferred the ideology of “if you snooze, you lose.”

I have this strange sense of Deja Vu here...

[TranquilClaws]

After the enjoyable bath, she sat in her lounge chair and repainted each of her toes. Each one was a different color. If Diemond found out, she would go overboard. But Thunderborne did enjoy treating herself a bit in this game. One her next day off, she was going to head to Lindarth where there was a nice, small, day spa. Not everything had to be a competition. And it helped keep her edge in this death game.

On

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

Thunderborne began to juggle the soccer ball she had stashed on the second floor. It started simple with bouncing it on her foot and then moved up to her knees and her head. She kept it up for a while until she got bored. She had breakfast to get to. She bounced the ball off her head and kicked it hard across the room towards the red “goal” painted on the wall between some furniture. Across from it was the blue goal.

Does something different happen if she tries aiming for either goal?

Thunderborne sighed and sunk into her chair. Not from satisfaction, but from boredom. She had to wait to wait until the others got their food for her to get seconds. She had to be “fair.” She preferred the ideology of “if you snooze, you lose.”

had to wait until*

But Thunderborne couldn’t even get her to do any competitions anymore. It was all about skills and stats with her. She had lost her best friend to the game.

It's better than losing her for real.

In her room, she took off her clothes and popped her armor on. After fixing her rapier on her side, she rushed out. Astro was on the stairs ahead of her, meaning she couldn’t jump down. Not without tackling her. And the last time she tackled Astro, Thunderborne was forced to wear an orange cursor for three days because she accidentally broke the harassment code. It had been a high-speed tackle from Astro’s blindside. Bladescape was furious at her for making her explain to the other guilds why she had an orange player in their guild. She was not able to go to the next boss battle because she was still orange. Bladescape had to keep order somehow. That was before the days of Laughing Coffin and sleep PKers. She spent the nights in a safezone in the closest dungeon. She had to eat plain food that had high durability which AFCK had packed her.

Good going Rainbow.

Urbus appeared and Thunderborne marked it as one. “Teleport Karluin!”

After the enjoyable bath, she sat in her lounge chair and repainted each of her toes. Each one was a different color. If Diemond found out, she would go overboard. But Thunderborne did enjoy treating herself a bit in this game. One her next day off, she was going to head to Lindarth where there was a nice, small, day spa. Not everything had to be a competition. And it helped keep her edge in this death game.

On her next day off,*
Huh, and here I thought Dash didn't like getting her nails done or painted.