SAO: Roleplay

Following her into the tavern, I sat opposite her. "Easier yes. Just.......I don't know, I'm still not able to wrap my head around this. We know that if you die here, you die IRL. So why become murders instead of just working together to get out? Makes no sense."

"Yeah..." I said absent-mindedly, opening my inventory and using some food that I'd bought earlier. "So will you be in the raid?" I asked him.

"Always," I said with a smile. "Gotta clear the floors so we can get out of here."

"Yeah..." I said, "It shouldn't be much longer before we start the raid, now that there's maps in circulation."

"Now we just have to hope we can coordinate the raid well enough to be effective," I said. "Otherwise we'll just be throwing meat at the boss and it'll be a waste."

Four days later; Boss Raid
I was in a DPS party for this raid, the group I was in consisting of two two-handed sword users, a katana user, a rapier user, and myself. This boss was, thankfully, a straight out DPS race between the group and the boss, so we had to hit it harder than it hit the tanks. I had several skills lined up, along with equipping as many of the fighters with poisons as I could. I'd already picked a skill rotation to deal as much damage as I could, but despite the preparations we'd made, I was still nervous.

As for myself, I was in a DPS party as well like Astra. We were meant to use our speed as an advantage, move fast, hit hard, then double back before the boss could counter. It wasn't meant to be flat out power attacks, but we were meant to whittle it down.

The leader of the tank group charged forwards, drawing the attention of the boss with a downward strike from his longsword and crouching behind his shield. The boss turned and raised one of its massive fists and struck back. Thanks to the successful block, the tank didn't take full damage but it was still heavy. As my group approached the boss, I took the initiative and launched a throwing pick with almost perfect aim, striking the boss in the head. While it didn't do that much damage, the poison began to act quickly, corroding the boss's health before we'd even begun to launch our attack. A flurry of sword swings and claw strikes later, we had switched back to let the tanks do their jobs.

While Astra and her group moved back, my group circled around behind the boss, letting the tanks get his attention. As the boss attacked them, we moved in and attacked the rear. My sword glowed with light as the skill activated, along with every member of my group, and soon we struck, gleaming red marks appearing on the body of the boss as we did damage. It roared, turning to attack us, even as we retreated to et the tanks get his attention again.

I looked at the boss's health bar, the amount of poison debuffs on it made me feel proud of myself, as it was obviously working; the tanks were taking less damage, the boss was reacting more slowly, it had lower accuracy... all thanks to my poisons. It came back to our turn to face the boss, and we charged, though the instant the boss's HP hit the red zone, the entire raid was thrown into the walls of the room, two of my group were killed by the impact, shattering into red pixels before they vanished. The remaining two handed sword user was crying, the other having been her brother. I looked away and back to the boss, which was now free of debuffs and taking less damage than before, all while dealing extra damage to the tanks.

If this kept up, we were going to risk a wipe. So I used a health crystal and applied poison to my claws, and charged striking the boss with as many skills as I could. One of the tanks was still standing, a much older man wielding a longsword and a massive tower shield, and he caught on to what I was doing, switching in wordlessly as I jumped away from the boss. I took a quick glance around, nobody else seemed to have died, though many of them were unable to move, apparently under some kind of stun effect.

Slammed against the wall by the blast, I lost my breath as the wind got knocked out of me. On all fours when I hit the floor, I regained my breath and rose to the challenge of the boss before us. My group was wounded and down, not dead but out of the fight. That left me and a few others from the parties to hit the boss with everything we had. Letting out a wordless cry of challenge, I raised my sword and charged my most powerful skill, running at full speed to the enemy. There was a tank moving to attack him, and I joined in intending to combine our attacks.

As the tank switched with me, I could see Tavi running towards the boss, though I didn't have time to worry about that now. I jumped forwards, hitting the boss with as many skills as I could before the boss was ready to attack again. I jumped backwards, dodging it as I waited for someone to switch in.

Switching with Astra, I unleashed my skill attack upon the boss, a combo string attack that hit him several times. My arms moved on their own as the skill took over, a steady one two of attacks that landed, once, twice, going all the way to six times. The probem with the skill though, was in addition to the cooldown, my movements were slowed, so I was unable to dodge the attack that came fro the boss as he backhanded me away like a fly, and my health bar began to drop.

I watched Tavi fly, though before I could even think about moving to help him, the tank took a serious hit. It was an easy choice; tanks were always more important than DPS. I ran forwards, claws glowing as I charged a skill that I hoped would finish the boss. I jumped up at the boss as soon as I was in range.
1... 2... 3... 4... 5... I counted as each strike landed, and finally CRIT. I landed on the other side of the boss, praying that it would die.

It did, and the victory announcement flared up.

I wasn't dead, but not for lack of trying on the boss' part. That hit sent me down to the red and I was holding on by the skin of my teeth with barely a sliver left. I had a healing crystal so healing wasn't an issue, watching my health recover as I used the item. Standing up, I looked to where the boss was and saw that Astra was there, having defeated the boss and clearing the floor. "Huzzah," I said meekly.

"Well done." Niko said as he moved inwards with some of the reserve. "The battle is won. Titan, pass out some health potions. Let's take a damage assessment, shall we?"

I removed myself from the party immediately, not taking the time to celebrate. I wanted to keep going. I accepted the last attack bonus (a new cloak) and set off for the next floor.

"Astra wait!" I called out after her. Breaking into a small run was difficult since I still hurt. I don't care if this was all in my head or not, it sure as hell felt like I was bitch slapped by a giant monster and my ribs ached. So I moved a bit sluggishly as I tried t catch up.

I barely heard Tavi over my own thoughts reeling about the girl's reaction to the death. He probably wasn't even dead in the real world. When I did notice Tavi, I turned to him.
"Sorry for not helping," I said, "But without the tank we'd have all died."

"Not it's fine I get that," I said, smiling a little. "Just wondering why you're already heading out. Peple normally celebrate victories."

"I don't have time to be celebrating," I told Tavi, "I need to keep levelling."

"Yeah same here," I said. "But that doesn't mean we can't take breaks between leveling to appreciate our victories."

"I'll take a break once we're done." I answered. "I'll see you around."

As the fog creeps in on a shore with a softness akin to the paws of a cat so did Niko disappear into the next level. Leaving behind Titan and some of the others of his men scattered throughout, gifting out potions and giving a sort of counseling to those who lost friends or family. His network of spies grows with every passing day. Some formed their own little guilds, fractions of the work. Like Thieves in the night, a group that had gained quite the hand at pickpocketing, an occasionally orange guild, as it were. Many of the network don't form guilds, but rather apply some form of tattoo to their body to distinguish themselves from others, or some sort of clothing item, like a cloak, a bracelet, an earring, face paint, or some other such accessory. Or just color schemes on armor. Those wearing Purple and Black, were The Midnighters, they functioned, in essence, as elite spies and information gatherers. Then there was, as their usually is in such an organization, Nyx A group who wore an array of colors, from a light violet with white, to black and red. Each member wore a different color. All of them, however, had the same sigil marked on their clothes, and none of them were in a guild. These were elite fighters. It was possible that they were among the highest leveled players in the game. Possibly. People don't often share their level information. That information was valuable and easily exploited in the wrong hands. Like Player Killers. Murderers that they were.

April 8th, 2023.
Floor:26

True to my word, I had seen Tavi around. I hadn't been apart of the clearing group on the last floor, which had been cleared on the first, and I was glad that I hadn't. About a third of the clearing group had died on that floor, and not just in the dungeon. For the most part, I'd steered well clear of floor 25 until it was explored, and even then I'd only ever trained on field monsters. The Aincrad Liberation Corps had lost half of their members there, and I didn't want to lose only a quarter of the way through the game. I was in the raid meeting again, now though, and a new guild had taken charge; The Knights of the Blood. They were going to make up a large part of our forces on this raid, and they definitely knew what they were doing.

The only problem was, they knew what they were doing too well. Better suggestions were ignored in favour of inflating their own egos, and they were making arrangements for the last attack bonus for themselves. So far, they'd overlooked that the fact this boss used poison, and a deadly one at that, paralysing and doing Damage over Time while in effect. I'd already started making antidotes en masse, seeing as how demand for them was about to skyrocket.
"So what about the poison?" I asked over their bickering, "About one in twelve attacks are tail strikes, and that adds a paralysis and DoT effect."

"We should buy antidotes." Someone suggested from the back, though he was shot down when they realised that, when paralysed, potions couldn't be used.
"Have someone in your party give it to you," I said, opening the message window to the Knight's treasurer, telling them that I was willing to sell them my antidotes.

With the worst of the PKers gone (for now I suspected) and new floors being opened up, it gave me a lot of new room and freedom to start leveling up and gathering loot. Twice I found a piece of gear that was too high level for me, but I hung onto it until I could level up and actually make use of it. Besides, my current gear was good for now, and I couldn't help but chuckle at how I almost looked like a Jedi.

One of the new armors I got was some kind of coat or duster thing, like a trench coat I guess only....made for a fantasy game? Look it hung around my ankles and was open down the front what more do you want? It came with a hood attached, which was a nice addition. Beyond the fact that it looked cool, the gear had some bonus effects to speed and agility. My new sword was also coming in handy, and despite my high speed it was not in fact a rapier but a longsword. Sadly, unlock my clothing, it was not black. Oh well.

So, there I was at the raid meeting, garbed in black with a not so black sword, listening in on the conversations among the players. I was in support of Astra when it came to the antidotes, and the strategy for the boss seemed.....I don't know, just not that well thought out, like they weren't taking everything into account.

Thirty Minutes later

Honestly, I'd expected more of a fuss before starting the raid, but the KoB were actually very efficient in handing out potions and finishing the plan, and we were already nearing the end of the boss fight. Nobody had died, and then it was over. The group before mine had dealt the last blow and the floor was cleared. Like always, I didn't stick around. I headed straight onto the next floor.

January 1st, 2024, 00:10
There they were, some guild celebrating New Year, and PoH had planned this raid out perfectly. I'd gotten the message a few days ago, Laughing Coffin was officially formed. Each of us had the emblem somewhere on our bodies. Some had it on their arms or hands, and mine was on my left shoulder, completely hidden if I had my cloak on. My crystal was firmly orange now, so it didn't matter if I killed them myself anymore, and I just had to hope PoH's exploit worked if I ever needed to go back into a town, I probably wouldn't need to though, my new claws had a set bonus of bleeding damage, which ignored armour; like PoH's "Mate Chopper".

"It's showtime." PoH said with a grin, and like that the fight started. We took them by surprise, and we killed some before they even had time to react. I was excited, the adrenaline of a difficult fight flooding my body. It didn't even take that long, and I was the one who caught the leader and his best friend. Xaxa and Johnny Black made them fight for their lives, then killed the winner anyway. I found myself half-amused by the fight.

January 27th, 15:00
And just like that, Laughing Coffin were everywhere. Everyone in the game knew about us, but knew almost nothing other than the most brutal PK attack yet, an entire guild wiped out. Completely hidden in our dungeon HQ on the 39th floor. We still had green players in the cities, and I still had most of my information brokers, though I could only contact them via PM. Since New Year, we'd attacked players all over Aincrad, I'd even gotten a nickname; Banshee. I'd taken to starting ambushes playing the flute, and rumours were flying about it. I was easily one of the most feared PKers in the game.

Right now, I had two people with me; Zasha and another member of LC. We'd been hired to kill someone. I was almost surprised that people would need assassinations, but I didn't really care. There was a player begging for his life, paralysed on the ground.
"Poison making is so convenient." I said before I delivered the killing blow.

It had been a little over a year since we were all trapped here in the game. A lot could happen in a year, as I was quickly learning. There was a new player killer guild out there, called Laughing Coffin and based on the word spread by survivors, they were worse than killers....they were sadists. Oh great, now I was stuck in here with a group of bat shit crazy people. But that didn't mean I wasn't a danger in my own right, quickly leveling up to 80 and gaining a host of new skills, both for combat and other things. My wood carving skill for example was out fucking standing.

Still, strong as I was, those Laughing Coffin guys were just as strong as me if not a little stronger, since they had been killing players to level up. I wondered if Kayaba would ever deal with them or not, since in a way they were kinda screwing with his experiment. Twisted as it was, this just had to be some kind of experiment, since he did after all set a goal for us with clearing all the floors. And Laughing Coffin was going to screw that up for him.

Well, whether he'd do something or not, no one could afford to wait, especially me. While I wasn't planning on hunting Laughing Coffin (yet anyway) I took some preemptive measures and did the most debasing of actions......I started a guild. It was just four of us, but we were all clearers from the front-lines, so that made us a deadly group in our own right. There was Eduardo, a player from Spain whose English was pretty good, tall and using heavy armor and a large two-handed battle-axe. He was friendly enough, and when we weren't in combat and just traveling or celebrating victories at an inn, I shit you not he'd pull out some kind of guitar-like instrument and start singing in Spanish.

Our second member was Artemis, a girl from up-state New York. She was a dagger user, wore light armor which she claimed was made of dragon-hide (but no one had been willing to prove), and while quite and reserved around strangers, surprised me when after a few days in the guild when she began to open up and become more outgoing towards us.

Finally, we had a sword and shield user named Takashi, from Texas. According to him, he was an anime fan, hence the name. His shield was more of a buckler, but damn if he wasn't good at using it to block and deflect sword attacks at practice, and he was just as fast with his sword.

We were the Demons of Razgriz, my epithet becoming something of a symbol it seemed. They knew me as Tavi....but apparently, to the rest of Aincrad I was Razgriz. Despite our small size, we were one of the top clearing guilds on the front-lines, up there with the Knights of the Blood. Brought us into contact, twice in fact, with that guild leader, Heathcliff. Clad in red armor and using a slim longsword and massive shield, the Commander had invited us to join his guild....to which we politely refused.

With my level so high and the fact that I had no real wants for gear, I was just PKing for fun. Someone had suggested that we should attack clearers, as they'd have the better gear and it would show them not to try anything with us. Back at our hideout, they were still debating it. What if a clearer guild came after us? What if they start ambushing us? Yet the promise of better things made a lot of people change their minds, even if it was only in the game. With my spair time, I'd been levelling up my poison mixing, and my instument skill, and as of right now, I was out gathering ingredients. I trusted that my hiding skill was high enough that I wouldn't get ambushed by green players.

My friends and I were out and about on the newest floor of Aincrad, wandering through a jungle that seemed straight out of a National Geographic magazine. We had to contend with a bunch of enemies, like monstrous gorillas and what looked like cat-people, and not the sexy anime ones. More like bipedal tigers that had little human qualities. Still, they weren't much of a match for us, and our strategy was working out well: Eduardo and Takashi served as our tanks, blocking blows and drawing attention while Artemis and I flanked the enemies, our speed helping us to deal fast, damaging attacks.

It resulted in both some leveling up of skills, and very good hauls in the loot and money department. While we moved, I kept my eyes peeled for any trouble, trouble not related to monsters......PK'ers were still around, Laughing Coffin prime among them. All that had me on such constant alert that my detection skill had no choice but to go up.

I stopped as I heard voices. More than two, so it was probably a party. I crouched, activating my hiding skill and basically becoming invisible. I watched them pass, looking at their faces where I could, one of them was wearing a hood. It'd be better if people were discouraged from coming here, so that we wouldn't get found, but I didn't call for backup yet. I wanted to make sure we could actually take them out.

"So Tavi," Takashi said as he sheathed his sword, "Where to now? Back home for some R&R, or did you want to get more loot?" I considered the question for a bit. "Meh, let's head back. We've got the gold and loot we need, might as well take a break. Besides, we've been at it for a bit, so if something bad happens we'll be too tired to fight back." Artemis nodded in agreement, Eduardo shrugging as he said "Price of progress I guess. So, walk back or teleport?"

"Hmm.....we should have the crystals for it, so teleport," I said.

From my hiding spot, I could hear them pretty well. If they were leaving, then there was no need to do anything about them, but I was now in agreement that this area should be made dangerous to stop this happening again. I sent out two PMs to Zasha and another LC member, telling them to come to me, and invited them to a party. I crept closer, wanting to make sure that I'd heard right, and that the leader was Tavi. He was around the same level as me, so he was currently a threat.

We all took out our crystals, and said "Teleport: Mishe!" Bright light surrounded us, and the next thing we knew we were sent to the town of Mishe o the 35th floor. We had a house there, four rooms and it served as our home and HQ.

"Astra!" Zasha shouted as he ran up, "What happened?"
"Clearers," I said, "We need to stop people coming here." I added, looking back at the road. "I think the next people to come down here should get ambushed." Zasha nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, you're probably right." He said, "We should go back, tell the others." I nodded back to him, leading the way back to our hideout.

Mishe had a lot of people, which seemed appropriate. It was one of the largest towns on the new floors, and a lot of decent housing. There was one place I liked, a few floors lower, where it was all nighttime and had big mountains of crystals. Still, this place was fun, and we walked through the player filled streets for our home. "So, few hours rest then head back?" Takashi asked. "Find the dungeon and maybe the boss room too," I suggested. "Hmm...sounds doable."

On the way back, I felt like I should tell Tavi not to come near here anymore, because even if I was a member of Laughing Coffin, he was still my friend.

Astra wrote:

Tavi, you need to stay away from the forest on floor 50. It's more dangerous than the front line at the minute.

As we got home and inside, a message popped up for me. From Astra, which got me curious. When I opened it, my suspicion grew a little.

Tavi wrote:

My guild and I were just there. What's so dangerous?

Astra wrote:

A friend of mine said that Lauging Coffin have been ambushing people there recently.

It was a lie, but a neccessary one. I just had to hope Tavi would take my advice before it was someone else who caught them.

I started to type out my reply, but stopped and deleted it. What would I do?
Kill them. I thought to myself. In fact, I'd already done it when Tavi and I had been attacked by orange players.

Astra wrote:

I guess you're right.

This was bad. If Tavi felt that way, if I felt that way, other players would too. I was on the opposite side to them, though. We needed to do something.

Tavi wrote:

Hopefully. And sorry for pressing when you were just trying to help, I do appreciate it. My guild and I will probably be heading that way son after we rest and restock.

The guild in question was busy relaxing, Eduardo on his lute (that was the name!) while Artemis went to her lab to work on more potions and poisons. She was actually a big help to us, saving us buckets worth of Col for potions she already made. As for Takashi, he was crashing on the couch, taking a quick nap.

Astra wrote:

Tavi, don't go back that way. I'm telling you, it's dangerous.

Regardless of whether Tavi came back this way, PoH had made up his mind. We were going to kill the next group to come this way.

Tavi wrote:

How do you know?

I was getting worried, just a bit. Was it really as bad as she said?