Shattered: A SAO Tale (Sword Art Online)

In the aftermath of the << Bullbous Bow >> battle, players collapsed one after another. The battle, while not exactly dangerous, was intense, and everyone had to maintain 120% focus the entire time. It was exhausting, both physically and mentally.

Under these circumstances, nobody really paid attention to Drifter's last attack. If anyone saw it, and the silver glow on his body, they just thought their eyes must have been tricked by the lighting. After all, there were dozens of skills flashing around at the time. Not to mention, they all believed it was impossible for someone to use a skill without a weapon.

But it was a fact that Drifter had, indeed, done just that. If one wanted to understand this matter, it must start from four days ago, the afternoon after Argo had led the party to that dreadful clearing.

--------------------------

"Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Periodic shouts cut the air, each time followed closely by a low 'thud'. Nautilus wiped the non-existent sweat off his face, and panted.

"Damn... Rock... Is too... Hard... Aff!"

"Slow down, Naut. We've been going at this for almost two days now. A few minutes more or less won't make a difference.

Yuna tapped the ash-haired boy's shoulder, and dragged him to sit down with the rest of the party. Nautilus took the water Asuna offered him and eagerly gulped it down.

"Ack! I know, I know. But when I think that we are wasting time here while everyone else is leveling up..."

The blade-user sighed, and stopped talking. It wasn't like the others didn't understand what he meant. All of them were so-called frontliners, the group of people who charged head-first into battle, always climbing higher and higher. How could they not feel restless when they had to punch a stupid rock the entire day?

"Think of it as an investment, Nautilus. We are losing a few days of leveling, but we will get an extra skill, and one which doesn't share a cooldown with sword skills on top of that. It's more than worth it."

"Besides, we haven't even started clearing the tower yet. We need to get past the field-boss first."

Only a few days had passed since they unlocked the 2nd floor, but the players had already found the entrance to the tower, and were almost ready to fight the field-boss << Bullbous Bow >>. Drifter even had a feeling that finding the boss room wouldn't be so hard this time. It was quick. Part of it could be attributed to the players getting used to SAO, but Drifter was almost sure that month-long period of terror and despair had been caused by Kayaba's direct interference.

He didn't know what the madman wanted to accomplish by trapping all of them in SAO. Akihiko Kayaba was a name known throughout the entire world due to his contributions to virtual reality technology. So what could he want? Fame? He was already famous worldwide. Money? He had more than he could spend in ten lifetimes.

Maybe he was overthinking it, and Kayaba was just an evil megalomaniac who wanted to be God of a world of his own creation. Drifter sighed. Thinking of this was a waste of time. Getting up, he idly scratched the dammed whiskers on his face, and walked towards the rock.

After an entire night and almost two full days of six players taking turns to hit it, the boulder was now a spiderweb of cracks, some as wide as two fingers. Every time someone struck it, large amounts of dust and debris would fall.

Taking a stance, Drifter closed his right hand into a fist, and punched with all his strength. The entire rock shook, and the cracks expanded a few millimeters more.

For the nth time since this hidden quest started, Drifter thought about how lucky they were that SAO didn't simulate pain. He didn't know if that was because it was too complicated to imitate, or because Kayaba still had a little bit of morals left - doubtful - but this was probably the only thing the players could feel thankful for. Otherwise, not to mention two days, even if he spent two years in this clearing, their party wouldn't be able to shatter the boulder. After all, which sane person could continuously punch a rock while feeling the pain of broken bones every time?

CRACK!

Drifter was so absorbed in his thoughts that he only registered the loud noise after throwing a few more punches. He looked at the big rock, and saw it shaking slightly. A large fissure had appeared underneath where his blows landed, and was spreading quickly!

"Hah?"

"Wait, is it breaking? It's breaking!"

The other five who were sitting in a circle not too far away also heard the noise, and looked over. Their faces first showed confusion and then astonishment, before lighting up with joy. They all quickly rushed over to inspect the boulder.

"Haha! We are almost done! Finally!"

"C'mon, Drifter! Hit it a few more times!"

Just as excited as the rest, Drifter increased his pace. Now the cracks were getting visibly larger with each blow. Kirito, Asuna, and Yuna also couldn't hold themselves back, and started hitting it too.

CRACK!

In the end, it was, ironically enough, the songstress, who had the lowest strength stat of the whole party, who landed the final blow. With a loud noise and a lot of dust, the huge boulder shattered completely.

Everyone stepped back, covering their eyes and nose because of the dust. When their vision cleared, what they saw were many irregular rocks and debris scattered around. All of them, even the usually silent Sinon, laughed and celebrated.

"Ho ho ho! I did not expect the brave warriors to complete my test so fast, I did not. But a reward shall be given where a reward is due. Here, here!"

The old man, who had jumped away from the rock without anybody noticing, startled the party by suddenly appearing behind them, and clapping Nautilus on his back. Then, just as quickly as the first time, the old NPC waved his hands in front of everyone's faces. When the party looked at each other, they discovered the whiskers were gone.

"Just like that?"

Asuna wasn't the only one who felt it was very anticlimactic, the others too were speechless. But the old man ignored them, and jumped from rock to rock until he disappeared into the trees, agile like a monkey. All he left behind were a few cryptic words.

"Heroes, warrior heroes. Take the newly given strength and reclaim this precious land from the tyrannical one above. Ho ho ho!"

"That was... Something."

The party automatically ignored what the old man said. For the past two days, whenever the mad NPC opened his mouth, he would belittle them, so they couldn't be bothered to try and make sense of his parting words.

"Stop complaining and look at your skill tab. We really didn't waste those two days."

When Sinon spoke out, the others immediately opened their skill tab. Sure enough, the << Extra Skill: Martial Arts >> was there. Furthermore, this was a whole new skill branch instead of just one skill. For now, since they just acquired it, the only skills unlocked were << Martial Arts: High-Kick >> and << Martial Arts: Brick Break >>.

No one felt discouraged by the simplistic names, however. If anything, they were more excited than ever. Look, they had just acquired << Martial Arts >>, but they already gained two new skills! How many more would they have when they reached full mastery of it? And not only that, but it was also a skill with a separate cooldown from the sword skills.

"Sinon's right, it wasn't a waste of time, not by a long shot. No, more than that. Even if we had to spend a week here it would be worth it."

"True. But we still have to make Argo pay."

"That's for sure. Hahahaha..."

Seeing everyone in a good mood, Drifter suddenly had a very mischievous idea. He clapped his hands to catch their attention, and smiled. For some reason, the others shivered.

"It's great that everyone is happy. Now all we have to do is catch up to the rest of the frontliners!"

"Drifter, you don't mean..."

"Yep! Let's get to grinding!"

----------------------------------

Back to the present, 2nd floor wilderness.

How come the last-attack bonus wasn't there?! Drifter clearly saw the << Bullbous Bow >> shatter as he hit with << Martial Arts: High-Kick >>! Could it be that someone else hit it at the exact same moment? That was the only option Drufter could think of. And, if so, how unlucky was he?!

Now, he couldn't care less about the other rewards from the field-boss. Drifter quickly turned to his group.

"How is it? What did you get?"

Unfortunately, he was bound to be disappointed. Everyone knew what he was really asking about, and shook their heads. Sinon was biting her bottom lip with a surly look. To her, getting the last-attack bonus wasn't just a matter of getting a new weapon, but of survival. Her throwing picks were becoming more useless by the day, and if she couldn't get her hands on the bow, the only weapon which truly suited her, soon she would have no choice but to leave the frontlines. She knew Kirito, Drifter, and the others would never kick her out, but she would be the one to make that choice. She couldn't accept becoming a liability and deadweight to the party. But, as someone who chose to dive into the labyrinth on her own, who fought << Illfang the Kobold Lord >>, how could she easily accept leaving the frontliners? She just didn't want to be a burden.

"I got Argo's quest item, but not the other thing."

Enkidu shared a screen with the rest, showing a broken horn. At least not all was bad. As much as they would like to get Sinon her bow, the quest item was still more important to the SAO players as a whole.

Seeing as the ALS and DKB were already dispersing after trading insults a few more times, Kirito gestured for everyone to go back to Urbus.

"We'll get Argo to ask around and discover who got the last-attack bonus, Sinon. I'm sure we can trade with whoever it is."

"Hmm."

The short-haired girl mumbled something in agreement, but everyone could see how dejected she was. Unfortunately, there was little that they could do now.

Just as they were arriving in Urbus, Orlando halted, his brows furrowed at a message he had received. The leader of the Legend Braves sneaked a glance at Kirito before gesturing to his party members to follow him. He turned to the rest of the group and apologized.

"Sorry everyone, something came up, so we will go ahead. T'was a mighty battle we engaged into tonight! I hope to share the battlefield with you again!"

Without giving the other two parties a chance to make heads or tails of what he just said, Orlando rushed with his team members towards Urbus. Drifter, Kirito, Agil, and the others exchanged glances.

"Okay?"

Before they could reach the city, a repeat of what just happened occurred, but this time Kirito was the one who stopped to read a message. Immediately, afterwards, he opened his mouth, as if to speak, then closed it again, glancing at Agil's party. The merchant noticed it, and waved.

"We will be goin' to. I'll see y'all tomorrow?"

"Sure. Thanks for all the help today, Agil. and sorry. Party business."

"Don't sweat it, Kirito-san. See ya!"

"Bye people!"

Drifter's party was much more familiar with Agil's than they were with the Legend Braves. They warmly bid farewell to the merchants, and Asuna and Yuna hugged the cheerful blacksmith. Liz might not have contributed much to the battle today, but just the fact that she was willing to follow them to fight a field-boss in the middle of the night meant a lot, so everyone felt grateful to her.

After waving goodbye to everyone, Drifter turned to Kirito, and waited for him to speak. Nautilus, Yuna, Asuna, and Sinon also looked at him inquisitively.

"I've just got a message... From Kibaou."

"What?! Kibaou?!"

"What does that cactus hair want with you?"

Instead of answering, Kirito changed his menu settings to public, and showed everyone a print of the << Grafted Horn Bow >>, as well as Kibaou's message.

[ Kibaou: Beater, that girlie from your party wants this, right? Meet me behind the old market tonight. And bring your sword with you! Don't try to cheat me, beater! ]

Reading this, even Drifter couldn't help but curse under his breath. Just how rude could someone be?! But it was Asuna who noticed something which they didn't at first.

"Wait. That part of the message here, where he's asking that you bring your sword - as if anyone would go anywhere without their weapon. It's almost like a challenge, but the meeting point is in a safe zone. Unless he wants to duel... Kirito, wasn't there somebody pestering you and Argo to buy your sword?"

"You don't think Kibaou is that guy, do you? He hates me!"

Kirito seemed to be panicking slightly, so Drifter stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"No, it all checks out. You should go, Kirito. That bow is important to Sinon. To us. Having a long-range fighter could make a big difference in boss fights."

"B-But! I can't trade my weapon!"

As he spoke, the boy placed a protective hand over his << Anneal Blade >>. But Drifter smiled. He swiped at his menu for a few seconds, materialized a second sword, and threw it to Kirito.

"You don't need to. We have a replacement, remember?"