Sword Art Online - Volume 3 - Fairy Dance

When Recon reached just about the same height, Lyfa matched his speed as they flew together.

  Recon flying by her side, showed an expression of great reluctance and spoke, “High, somewhat too high, right?”

  “You don’t find the high altitude pleasing? If your wings are tired, we can always glide.”

  “The second she starts to fly, her personality changes…”

  “What did you say?”

  “No- no. Nothing!.”

  Recon quickly shut his mouth as they headed for the southwest area of ALfheim, that is, Sylph territory.

  Earlier today, Lyfa had formed a party with four reliable, like-minded players and travelled to a dungeon area in the northeastern neutral territory. Fortunately, they were able to hunt without encountering any other teams, so the harvest was very fruitful, and they acquired a great deal of money and items. Upon preparing to return to Sylph territory, however, they were ambushed by a party of eight Salamanders.

  There is fighting between different races in ALO, but it is uncommon to run into large groups of bandit players who band together and rob other players. Today’s ambush is especially strange, considering it is a weekday afternoon in the real world. We did not expect to be attacked, particularly not on such a large scale… we were careless.

  While fleeing, they had engaged twice in mid-flight team battles «AIR RAIDs», during which both sides had lost three men. They’d started off with fewer people, and now only Lyfa and Recon were left. Taking advantage of the fact that Sylphs’ flight speed was greater than that of the Salamanders’, they’d managed to avoid capture, and make headway toward Sylph territory. However, because of vertigo experienced during two consecutive battles, Recon became seriously disoriented and they had not been able to reach Sylph territory. Instead, they had hidden in the forest to give Recon time to recover. Just as Lyfa lost all sense of tension, and turned back to the forest behind her-

  From underneath the side by side growth of dark green trees, flashed a point of orange light.

  “Recon, dodge!!” Lyfa cried, swinging rapidly to the left. Immediately after, from the ground, three vicious lines of fire shot forth, passing through the gaps left by the leaves of the tree.

  Fortunately, they were flying much higher, and the long trail of a fire-ray stopped just short of them, and disappeared into the night sky.

  There wasn’t any time to appreciate how close things’d been, though. The attack magic released earlier from within the sea of trees caught the attention of the other pursuers, and five red and black shadows were rapidly approaching.

  “Damn it, how stubborn!!”

  Lyfa complained and looked northwest. She still had yet to catch a glimpse of the light of the Tower of Wind, standing in the center of Sylph land.

  “There’s no way around it! Get ready to fight!” Lyfa called, pulling a curved longsword from around her waist.

  “Uwah, don’t!”

  Recon cried as he took out his daggers and positioned himself.

  “There are five enemies. There is no way to win, but I won’t give up so easily! If I pull out all the stops, I can take at least one with me.”

  “That really is the right way to look at it.”

  “Occasionally, I also want you to see my good side.”

  Recon moved his shoulders slightly. Lyfa’s face tensed, and she assumed a diving posture. Tightening her body, she circled once before shooting downwards, her wings bent at a sharp angle. To the Salamanders, in V-formation, this move simply seems unplanned.

  Even among veteran ALO players, online from the beginning, the experienced, well-equipped Lyfa has only suffered defeat for two reasons: numerical superiority and the recently devised Salamander formations. At the expense of mobility, they equip heavy armor and lances and take advantage of the extra weight to perform powerful thrusting attacks. Facing an onslaught of so many lances is like staring down a ferocious wave. The Sylphs’ advantage is in their lightweight, agile movements, but for them to fight a protracted battle is difficult.

  But Lyfa, having fought this enemy twice already today, roughly understands the flaw in their style. With courage born from desperation, Lyfa dove fearlessly at the vanguard of the enemy group. She closed the distance in practically no time, but all of her attention was focused on the razor sharp tip of the silver lance the enemy prepares to attack her with.

  The Sylph’s lunge issued a high-pitched screech even as the friction caused by the movement of the Salamander’s gripped metal looses a discordant howl. The moment the two cross, the air rumbles in an explosive roar.

  Lyfa gritted her teeth, and with a slight movement of her head, avoided the lance tip. She ignored the blazing heat where the lance grazed her cheek, and charged in, attacking the blood-red helmet with her sword.

  “YAAAAAA!”

  A straight thrust.

  “Aaaaaah!!”

  Taken by surprise, the enemy’s eyes opened wide with dismay before disappearing behind a burst of yellow-green light created as a special effect. The ferocity of the attack caused the heavy armor of her opponent to shudder in response.

  Unable to resist the blow, the enemy quickly plummeted toward the ground, and upon impact, received additional damage due to the weight of his armor, resulting in his HP decreasing by about 30%. Not a fatal blow, but due to the strong blow to the head, it’s impossible for him to re-join the formation. Lyfa immediately switched targets, heart crying in hope.

  —It’s here!!

  With the heavy assault tactics the enemy uses, their weakness is that when their formation is broken it takes time to get reorganized. While the four remaining Salamanders were unsure about what to do, Lyfa stretched her wings as far as possible and forcibly moved left.

  This made her body groan in pain because of the forced movement and excess friction. Lyfa endured the pain. In order to rotate as quickly as possible, she beat her right wing strongly while braking with her left wing. Using such an absurd action she quickly brought the next enemy into her sights.

  The targeted Salamander, despite recognizing her intent, couldn’t possibly hope to match that movement. Her turn completed, Lyfa’s sword struck the Salamander.

  The enemy on the left side took the blow perfectly, further disrupting their formation.

  — If this continues, we can do it!

  Of the five enemies, only the leader, dispatched just a moment ago, was capable of “Voluntary Flight;” the rest can only use the secondary flight controllers. Since Lyfa is using “Voluntary Flight”, her agility greatly exceeds the Salamanders during melee combat.

  At this point she was searching for Recon, who was fighting the Salamander on the right. Despite an unreliable appearance, he is also a veteran player. In close combat, his ability with his daggers is something to be reckoned with.

  Lyfa, with longsword in hand, brought her attention back to the enemy she was targeting, and continued to deal precision damage. This might just work, she thought. The only element that made her uneasy was the previous magical attack. That fire magic meant that among the five, at least one of the Salamanders was a Mage. The possibility exists that among these metal armor-clad five all have some magic ability, that is to say, they might all be magic swordsmen. Even if the level of their magic was rather low, its power was still quite fierce. In accordance with the common sense of formations, the mage is probably arranged on either the right or left flank, Lyfa thought. In other words, the person she should now defeat is the seemingly frail opponent currently engaging Recon. At this distance, he shouldn’t have sufficient time to cast any spells. So, if we can just take down those two, the survivors can be easily be dispatched in 5 minutes.

  “Yaaaa!!”

  Lyfa once more delivered a two-handed strike she could be proud of. Beautifully wounding her opponent’s shoulder, his already red HP reduced even further.

  “Damn!!”

  Her enemy screamed curses even as his body was wrapped in crimson flame. Accompanied by the sound of burning, his body tu
rned to ash before spreading to the four winds, leaving behind only a small red flame. This flame is called «Remain Light», after it had disappeared, resurrection spells and items could be used. However, after one minute in this state, the player was automatically returned to the hometown of their race and brought back to life.

  Lyfa shook off this thought and focused on the next enemy. The remaining three have slightly dull movements. They seem inexperienced in the use of a lance, and are very slow in close quarters combat. Watching them continue to execute extremely lame and slow surprise attacks, Lyfa, who can see through it all, feels their efforts are wasted. Attention drawn again to the other side, Recon was almost run through. His HP had been reduced somewhat, but not to the extent of needing recovery magic. At this rate, even with the overwhelming disadvantage of five vs. two, it is possible to win. With this in mind, Lyfa again lifted her sword.

  However, in the next moment an eddy of flame engulfed Recon.

  “Oaaaaaaaa!”

  Recon screamed pitifully as he froze in mid-air.

  “Stupid, don’t stop, keep moving.”

  This sentence had not even reached Recon before he was pierced through by the nearly dead Salamander’s lance.

  “Sooooooooorry.”

  With the sound of this last apology, Recon’s body was wrapped in a green whirlwind. This effect is called «End Frame», and only appears at death. Dissolving, Recon’s body disappeared, and as with the Salamanders earlier, left only a Remain Light.

  To Lyfa, it is unpleasant to see the Remain Light of a fallen companion, even if she knows it will disappear immediately as they revive. She bit her lip, knowing that such sentiments are a luxury she can’t afford. In order to avoid the blasts of flame coming from below, she desperately rolled to the side.

  …Damn, the mage turned out to be that guy at the beginning!

  If I knew that earlier, I’d have chased him down and run him through. But it’s too late for regrets. The situation is now absolutely disadvantageous.

  However, she didn’t give up. Until the end, even at an extreme disadvantage, she continued to look for a way to turn the situation around. These are the beliefs that she has cultivated over many years and which have become stronger since she took on the role as a swordswoman.

  With the cover fire coming from the Salamander on the ground, the two in the air got in position and began high-speed thrusting attacks.

  “Come!!” Lyfa shouted, raising her sword in challenge.

  Part 2

  “Uaagh!!”

  After a seemingly endless descent, accompanied only by my unseemly screams, I found myself in some nameless place. A surprised grunt escaped as I landed on my face rather than my feet. Remaining in that position for a few seconds, my face buried in the underbrush, I slowly righted myself.

  The free-fall now ended, my heart relaxed, and I lay on the ground and glanced at my surroundings.

  It was now night time. I found myself in a deep forest somewhere.

  This forest was made up of giant trees that are probably hundreds of years old, all stretching up toward the sky for as far as I could see. However, the foliage was so dense I couldn’t see very far. A full moon hung in the black starry sky, emitting a golden glow.

  All around me, insects buzz and nocturnal birds sang. In the distance, I heard the roar of a wild beast. The fragrance of plants tickled my nose. The breeze gently brushed skin. Terror enveloped me as my senses took in the world around me. This world felt more real than reality - those were my feelings regarding this illusory world.

  I had been a little skeptical when Egil said that «ALO» was the equal of SAO in the quality of it’s high-precision modeling and structure, but it seems that is indeed the case. Despite the fact that there was less than a year of additional development time, a far greater amount of information is running between my nervous system and the game than was the case with SAO.

  “I…In the end, I still came back…”

  I closed my eyes. In the two months since being liberated from that world, I had given up on ever coming back to a «VR WORLD», but here I was once more. Ah… I really never learn, do I? This thought flashed across my mind, and I could not help but laugh.

  However, this world was a little different. Namely, even if my HP reached zero, I wouldn’t die in the real world, and I was free to depart at any time and from any place. As I thought this, something else drew my attention.

  What was with the abnormality in the imagery and that mysterious relocation…what on earth had just happened? Why had I been brought to this place? I should be at the starting town of the Spriggans, at least according to tutorial.

  “Hey, no way…It can’t be…”

  My face began to spasm, I quickly lifted my shaking right hand, with the index and middle finger together. Nothing happened. I break into a cold sweat and quickly tried a few more times before remembering what the tutorial had just said, the menu and flight controller are both operated with the left hand.

  I held out my left hand and repeated the action. This time, when I waved my fingers, sound effects and a burst of light occurred, then a translucent menu window opened. It had almost the same design as SAO. The menu has many buttons lined up side by side along the right edge.

  “There, it’s there.”

  At the bottom of the menu the «LOG OUT» button is flashing. I tried giving it a press. A warning message popped up to confirm the exit, along with «YES» and «NO» buttons.

  I breathed a sigh of relief. Propping myself up on one arm, I sat up.

  Looking around again, I seemed to be in the middle of a dense forest. Surrounding me was an expanse of trees that stretched endlessly in all directions, so far that not even the light of the stars above could be seen. I had no idea why I fell down here. Well, let’s take a look at the map first, I thought. I looked back at the menu window. Pointing with my finger, what I saw displayed there made me freeze.

  “Whaaaaa…!?”

  I couldn’t refrain from crying out.

  At the top of the window, my nickname was displayed: Kirito, and my race: Spriggan. Below those were my Hit Points and Mana Points, which read 400 and 80, the beginning values. No problem so far.

  What surprised me were the learned skills in the following column. I don’t remember choosing any, so of course all I should have is empty columns. Instead, there are no less than eight listed skills. Perhaps these were the Spriggan starting skills, but it’s still a bit much. Not quite believing my eyes, I touched the skill bar with my finger for more detail.

  In the skills window, I saw several skills side by side. These skills included: «1-H Swords», «Unarmed skills», and «Parry», the Combat skills, as well as «Fishing», a support skill, but the proficiency values were abnormal. Most were at just about 900, and some had even reached 1,000 and had a tag denoting «MASTERY». Usually within MMORPGs these skills require a very long time to complete, which meant that having skills maxed out from the first log-in is impossible.

  No matter how I look at, this must be a BUG. That might also explain why I somehow flew to this place, maybe the system really is a bit unstable.

  “Is this game ok? Is there GM support available?”

  Looking down at the skills again, I’m hit with a slight feeling of déjà vu. Looking at the proficiency values again, it felt like I’d seen them before. 1-H Swords: 1000, Unarmed skills: 991, Fishing: 643.

  It hit me like an electric shock; I finally made the connection. I started breathing hard.

  I’d seen these before. These were the skills that I had spent two years developing in SAO. Unfortunately, «Dual Blades» is not there - probably because the «Dual Blades» skill doesn’t exist in ALO. The skills of the «Black Swordsman Kirito» that caused the destruction of the floating city Aincrad had appeared before my eyes again.

  I was truly confused, impossible things were happening; I couldn’t even imagine what was going on. SAO and ALO are completely different games administered by completely diffe
rent companies. If the saved data could’ve moved like that… Could it be that - here is…

  “SAO?” I uttered, as I fell to my knees.

  Shaking my head vigorously to clear such ridiculous thoughts, I turned back to the skills window.

  I still wasn’t sure what was going on, but hoping to gather more information, I navigated back to the main menu. This time I opened the items window.

  “Whaaaa… what’s this.”

  I can’t understand anything. Displayed in front of me are dozens of lines consisting of numbers and characters. Enigmatic characters, numbers, letters, and pictures are all mixed together.

  It appears these are really the items I possessed in Aincrad. Sure enough, for whatever reason, the save data for Kirito seems to have come to this world.

  “So…wait a second”

  I suddenly thought of a possibility.

  If these are the items from Aincrad, - then «that» should be here too. I touch the item window, and scroll down the menu with my fingertip.

  “Please, please, please be there.”

  I quickly scroll down the list, ignoring all of the gibberish. My heart started beating faster and a feeling like ringing bells resounds through my body.

  “!”

  My fingers unconsciously stopped. Below my finger was a line of letters like all of the others save it was emitting a warm green color. «MHCP001».

  Almost forgetting to breathe, I touched the name with trembling fingers. After selecting the item, the color reversed. Moving my fingers I pressed the button labeled “Use Item.”

  A white glow appeared in the center of the window and spread toward the edges as it stretched out in my direction. As it emerged, it turned into a colorless, tear-shaped crystal.

  Clutching the precious stone in my hands, I raised it, feeling its warmth. Realizing all this, I felt a little feverish.

  God, please, I beg you… I prayed from the depths of my heart, gently tapping the crystal twice with my finger. Pure white light exploded forth from the crystal in my hands.

  “Ah!?”

  My astonished voice unconsciously leaked from my mouth as I crouched down and placed the crystal on the ground, retreating a few steps. The crystal floated off the ground a couple meters before stopping. The light coming from the crystal gradually grew until even the moon seemed pale in comparison and the surrounding trees were dyed in whitish-green.