It can’t be, he died when he reached his objective? Thinking that, Lyfa rushed to his side and forced her ear below his fur. A faint, periodic, bass ‘boom boom, boom boom’ can be heard, relieved, Lyfa removed her head from his side.
He was still alive. Lyfa turned to see his HP gauge had recovered from his battle with the three-faced giant and it’s now full.
“This means… he’s just sleeping? When we have been working hard all night?”
Lyfa pouted, she went up to Tonkii and was about to pull his fur in revenge, when Kirito raised his voice from behind her.
“Hey Lyfa, look at the top, it’s amazing!”
“What….?”
Lyfa raised her head to look at the scene, indeed, it was an amazing sight.
The roots of the World Tree and the inverted cone they wrapped around that they had seen from far earlier were now directly overhead. Though it was still hard to estimate, the diameter of the icicle above was probably about the same as the hole stretching below. Looking very carefully, it was possible to see some sort of structure in the icicle. Transparent halls and corridors were lit by fires, casting bright blue light through the ice.
“Really, amazing… if this is all part of one dungeon, I don’t doubt it is the largest in ALO.”
Lyfa sighed and unconsciously reached toward it. However, there was of course a space of 200 meters or more to the bottom of the large icicle. It was a distance that even a member of the Imp race, which could fly underground, would not be able to cross.
“How do you get there…”
Lyfa asked Kirito, but before he could answer, the little pixie sitting on the black clad shoulder spoke up with a piercing voice.
“Papa, there are other players approaching from the east! One… no behind that are… twenty-three!”
“…!!”
Lyfa took a deep breath.
Twenty-four people. This is obviously a party formed for hunting evil-gods.
Originally, they are what we wished to encounter. If we told them our situation and they let us join, we could use the dungeon with stairs and escape aboveground.
However, now. In a word, the purpose of players who approach in this situation…
Lyfa bit her lip, staring eastward, and after a few seconds heard the faint rustling sound of feet moving through snow. It was a sound that would have been inaudible if not for her acute hearing as a member of the Sylph race. She could not see them, so they are probably using stealth magic.
Lyfa quickly held up her hands, preparing to use the magic that would allow her to see them. However, a space no more than ten meters away started to distort like a film of water. A single player appeared.
He was a man with pale white skin that had a bluish cast and long, light blue hair. There was no doubt, he was an Undine. The engravings on his grey leather armor mimiced the appearance of scales, and a small bow hung from his shoulder.
This man is probably responsible for reconnaissance and locating the enemy’s position, in other words a scout. Judging from his supple movement and high-grade equipment, you could tell he was a high ranking player.
With a sharp glint in his eyes, the scout stepped forward and said the words Lyfa most feared.
“You guys, that evil-god, are you going to hunt it or not?”
Of course, he was refering to Tonkii, who was curled up in a ball next to Lyfa.
When Lyfa did not answer, the man’s countenance grew even sharper, and he continued.
“If you are going to kill it, then do quickly. Otherwise, get out of the way, or you will get caught up in our ranged attacks.”
Before finishing those words, many footsteps sounded from the ridge behind the man. It seems the main force of the party had caught up.
If they were party formed by mixed races in the neutral zone, there was still hope…
But Lyfa’s hopes were quickly betrayed as more than twenty players walked across the snow. They all had the same white skin and blue hair. In other words, they were an elite Undine evil-god hunting team, probably from «Crescent Moon Bay», far to the east.
If it was a mixed force formed by «renegades» who had left their territory, they might have overlooked the combination of a Sylph and a Spriggan. But if they were all honorable members of the Undine race they wouldn’t be quite so nice. They might actually accumulate “honor points” if they kill the mixed group of Lyfa and Kirito. They would probably just consider the two of them fair game. Thus we could be thankful they bothered to warn us.
‘- But, for now we just had to be unreasonable. We couldn’t let them kill our companion, Tonkii.’
Lyfa thought so from the bottom of her heart, and moved between Tonkii and the blue-haired scout, and said in a low voice:
“…I ask at the risk of bad manners. This evil-god, let us have it.”
Hearing that, the man and the battalion of players behind him showed a light, bitter smile.
“In the lower-level hunting grounds maybe, but saying this in Jötunheimr is something else. ‘This place is mine’ and ‘This monster is mine’ have no meaning here. If you came here, you should be a veteran and should understand.”
What the man was saying was quite right. Insisting on the right to a field or monster, if the situation was reversed Lyfa would be amazed too. Of course, priority was granted when in battle with a monster, but right now Tonkii was just curled up and the Undines want to attack, Lyfa had no right to interfere.
It was painful. As Lyfa was biting her lips, a shadow moved forward. It was Kirito.
Lyfa suddenly sucked in a deep breath. No way, was he going to do something unreasonable again, like when he confronted General Eugene and the Salamanders, that was - would he fight them? Would he draw his sword against so many opponents?
It would be a useless fight. There were twenty-four players in front of them, and they must all be super veterans or they wouldn’t be here in Jötunheimr. They were on a completely different level then those Salamanders in the Ruger corridor. Heavily armored warriors and mages with their staffs showed the difference clearly.
However, the actions taken by Kirito were totally unexpected.
The black clad Spriggan, without touching his sword, knelt on the snow and bowed his head.
“I beg of you.”
The voice that left his mouth was entirely serious.
“…Although the cursor is yellow, this evil-god is our companion… No, our friend. We came all the way here after it almost died. Till the end, we want it to do what it has to.”
With that, Kirito bowed his head more deeply, the blue haired scout closed his eyes for a second.
When he opened them, he let out an enormous gale of laughter. A laugh quickly echoed by the pack of players approaching from behind him.
“Hey… hey, are you really player? You`re not a NPC, right?”
With a final laugh, the scout spread his hands and shook his head. Then reached over his shoulder and removed his elegantly designed bow. He drew a silver arrow from his quiver and notched it to his bow.
“…Sorry, but we are not just playing around in this field. Just a little while ago, we were wiped out by a huge evil-god. It was very hard to collect all the Remain Lights and restore our party. When I see easy prey in front of me, I want to hunt it. Because I’m a nice guy… I’ll give you ten seconds to get out of the way. When that time is over, we won’t see you anymore. Mage team, begin casting support magic.”
The man waved his hand, and the players in back row began casting spells. One after another, colorful light effects appeared, granting various stat boosts to the warriors.
“Ten…Nine… Eight…”
The noise level increased severalfold with the sound of the magic as the scout’s loud countdown began.
Lyfa`s fists clenched so hard her knuckles creaked and her whole body trembled with anger. Facing Kirito’s back, Lyfa exclaimed:
“…Let’s back up, Kirito.”
“…Ok.”
Kirito w
hispered with his head down, he turned west, moving along the edge of the bottomless pit. Lyfa also walked with him, side by side. The scout continued the countdown behind them.
“Three…Two… One… Begin attacking.”
With no fighting spirit, she heard the calm instruction, and after that…
The sound of ferocious attack magics overlapped with metallic sounds that echoed as the warriors launched their assault.
Right behind their backs, a succession of overwhelming explosions shook the ground followed by a blast of hot air that sent Lyfa’s green ponytail streaming in front of her.
Kirito and Lyfa turned after they had moved about 30 steps away.
At that moment, the warriors’ swords, axes, spears and other weapons hit Tonkii’s big body, one after another. Intense light effects and heavy impact sound effects followed the attacks. Despite having the defense of an evil-god, the repeated attacks from players with high-level equipment was taking its toll. Tonkii’s HP steadily decreased.
The eight warriors continued to attack for several seconds before moving back some distance. As soon as the warriors moved away, the second volley of attack magic was completed and released along with arrows from several archers.
The magic caused a terrible explosion which completely swallowed Tonkii, even though he was more than four meters in height. With a pillar of flame, the glossy fur was burnt, scorching it. With that, around ten percent of Tonkii’s total HP was gone.
Over the sound of the flames, they could hear the flute-like Yururuuu, Yururuuu, roar.
That was definitely Tonkii’s cry. It was even thinner and more tragic than when he was being overwhelmed by the three-faced evil-god.
Not wanting to watch any more, Lyfa turned her face to the left.
Doing that, a scene that pricked her heart was seen. Kirito stood with his hands in fists, from his breast pocket, the little pixie, Yui, showed her face and clenched her hands over the rim of the pocket.
Her pretty face was distorted by grief, from her dark eyes tear after tear came dripping down. Watching the tear streaked pixie holding back her screams while her shoulders shook, Lyfa felt something hot ooze from her eyes.
‘- If only the Undine forces were just a ruthless PK group!’
Then Lyfa could hate them. So she could swear that she would take revenge for the dying Tonkii.
But now they are just exercising their legitimate rights as players of an MMO. Killing monsters to earn money and experience was the first reason for playing, it originated in the table RPG games from many years ago, and hadn’t changed over the years, eventually it evolved into FullDive type games. Neither the manners nor rules of ALfheim permitted Lyfa to speak against the Undines.
However, even if he was a monster, since he became a friend and a travelling companion, what kind of manners won’t let you protect him? ‘This child is a friend so don’t kill him’, if we couldn’t say that, what was the meaning of the rules?
Lyfa believed that even in this world, there was «freedom of spirit». Lyfa believed it was possible to show feelings here that you would never expose in the real world. However, as players increased their status, donned rarer and more powerful equipment, their rank increased, but at the same time, their wings were bound by chains. At one time, even those Undines were beginning players who didn’t know right from left, when they saw non-active monsters in the field, some might have thought that they were cute and not want to kill them.
With attacks that sound continuous, Lyfa stood inconsolably. As the attacks got louder, Tonkii’s cries, which were inversely proportional, become more and more feeble. Tonkii’s HP had already sunk below 50%. There were two minutes - no, sixty seconds left.
“…Kirito-kun.”
“Lyfa.”
They spoke almost simultaneously.
Lyfa raised her eyes to met the Spriggan’s black pupils and said:
“…I’m going to help.”
“I’ll go too.”
‘Your goal is Aarun so run away’, Lyfa swallowed back her words and nodded her head. If the two of them interfere, they will be dead in ten seconds or less. There was no meaning behind their actions.
But, like with Kirito, Lyfa’s beliefs won’t let her sit on the sidelines and do nothing. They had saved Tonkii from the three-faced giant and Tonkii had saved them in return. Even if the evil-god is nothing more than a bunch of code buried in a corner of the server, they had became friends, and even given it a name, there was no way they could just stand there and watch him die, or else there was no point in playing VRMMOs.
“…You know, today I’ll help you travel from Sylvain to Aarun again.”
Lyfa said quickly, Kirito nodded and put a hand to his sword’s hilt.
“Thank you. …Yui, hide well.”
“Yes… Papa, Lyfa-san… good luck!”
Yui hid deep in Kirito’s pocket, the pixie’s face now free of tears. Kirito and Lyfa drew their swords at the same time. At the sharp metallic sound, an Undine mage at the side turned with a questioning look.
We will go after the low defense mages first. Confirmed by eye contact, they both dashed forward at full speed. Snow scattered high as the air shook with the force of their passage.
Lyfa too moved at the limit of her speed bringing down her katana with both hands as she reached her target.
“Eyaa!!”
Down came the katana with fierce momentum. Like green lightning, the katana bit into the shoulder of the mage on the back left edge.
The light blue robe he wore was a considerably rare piece of equipment, and his HP was only reduced by about 30%. As he went to raise his staff, a black flash hit his body horizontally. A bit later, loud booming attack sound effect was heard. His HP was reduced another 40% by one of Kirito’s godspeed blows with his greatsword.
Not showing any mercy, Lyfa relentlessly continued to attack the player floating silently through the air. With each hit, the mage’s HP decreased until with a final blow it became zero.
Then in a column of blue water the Mage’s avatar disappeared. All that remained was a Remain Light, and brushing it off, Lyfa turned to the next enemy.
At this point, the other mages who were focused on attacking Tonkii with long range spells finally seem to notice that something was wrong. With a dumbfounded expression, one started yelling.
“…Are you serious?”
“Well, what do you… think!”
Shouting in response, Lyfa kicked snow.
They were indeed the Undine elite troops, their reaction speed was very fast. They stopped the long incantations, and switched to high-speed short range spells. However, Lyfa and Kirito`s speed was slightly higher. In position to use the second mage as a shield, they continued their sword crossing attacks. The Mages still released their spells, but the most that happened was that their clothes were grazed as the mages were using the type of magic that moved in straight lines.
Lyfa frowned as one or two homing-type spells, which were mixed in, scored direct hits. Killing her second mage, Lyfa turned to see Kirito already moving on to his next target. With a swing of his sword, Kirito broke the ground, sending snow flying in all directions.
Suddenly, there came a sound as a silver arrow sank into Kirito`s left shoulder.
Turning around to look at the scout leader, standing a fair distance away, who with a straight face readied a second arrow. Opening his mouth, he loudly ordered:
“Warrior team, fall back! The mage team is under attack!”
The second arrow shot toward Lyfa`s chest, silver trailing it like a meteor. Too fast to dodge she blocked it with her left arm. Thunk! With the sound of impact, Lyfa’s HP was reduced by more than ten percent. While she was staggering, a high pressure stream of water that was more like a laser pierced her right leg. Of course, Lyfa did not feel any pain, but her face contorted with the unpleasant numbness.
As Kirito fought his third opponent, who had already lost more than half of his HP, he was engulfed in an ice t
ornado. Lyfa got close, ready to use recovery magic, but found the mages gathered in preparation for a large-scale magic attack. Moreover, the warriors who had been attacking Tonkii came rushing over with the look of demons.
‘- Is this as far we go?’
Nearly fifty seconds had already passed since the battle began, and they have fought well considering the number of opponents. With this, Tonkii would no doubt forgive them.
Lyfa shut her eyes and laid her head on Kirito’s chest, waiting for the moment that sword, arrow or magic would blow their HP away.
However, before the sound of attacks, the flute sound of a cry tens of thousands of times louder was heard. The intensely cold air shivered, the sound echoing off the distant snow covered mountains, it was definitely Tonkii’s cry, but it was totally different from his earlier weak cries.
It couldn’t be, had Tonkii finally died? Lyfa thought as she turned her pained face to the top of the hill.
That oval body was engraved with many scars, but one was especially long and deep. As she watched that crack extended until the ends connected.
“Oh…”
Lyfa whispered. She had expected to see the black blood of the evil-god gushing out of the crack on its body.
But -
Gushing out, was pure white, dazzling light.
The white light shot out accompanied by a high-pitched resonance that enveloped warriors, mages, and scouts, not sparing a single Undine. The aura of support magic surrounding their bodies became smoke and dissipated and the effects of attack magic evaporated.
…Dispel Field!
A special ability that only high-level boss monsters possessed. For a low-level evil-god’s ability, it was way too strong. Not understanding what was happening, Lyfa, Kirito and the 22 Undines were frozen for an instant.
With all eyes gathered, the light that covered Tonkii’s body silently dispersed. No, that’s not it. Only its thick, hard husk blew off. The continuing light source stretched out like a spiral minaret.