105 chapter 6

An hour prior to Leonard battle with the wolves in the grassland.

Kirito was currently waiting for Leonard to return from his hunting trip outside of the village.

"What's going on? It's close to midnight and he hasn't returned yet." Kirito was now worried about Leonard safety outside of the village at this hour.

He thought, how dangerous it would be for a level 2 players to be outside of the village hunting monsters that are higher level than his own this late at night.

He quickly opens up his friend list to check on Leonard, after he opened it, Kirito let out a sigh of relief, because he saw that Leonard name was still active on his friend list.

"I have to go and find him." Kirito thought and quickly checked for his friend location through the find friend option within the list.

However, when the map popped up, Kirito face went pale in sheer horror.

"Oh crap, he's in trouble!" Kirito quickly jumped out of bed and put on his gear and dashed off out of the inn.

As he was running, Kirito still left the map turning on, showing Leonard location.

"Don't you die on me, Leonard!" Kirito shouted as he began to pick up speed and rushed toward Leonard location, which was in the middle of the grassland.

From Kirito own memory as a beta tester for Sword Art Online, the location that Leonard was hunting in currently is where a powerful rare spawn monster would show up.

When Kirito arrived at the location, he quickly looked around- trying to find Leonard.

*Howling~ *Howling~ *Howling~

It was then that the howling of wolves attracted his attention to the location further up ahead.

When he got there, he was surprised by the number of wolves that showed up in the area, he quickly dived down into the grasses, trying to hide from being spotted by the vicious level 3-4 canine.

"What the hell is going on-" he questioned, however, it was then that he saw a figure in the middle of the wolves pack, facing against a much larger wolf, which seen to be the rare spawn that Kirito himself was so afraid of at the moment.

"Huh?! Is that Leonard? This is bad, really bad!" when Kirito notices the figure that was surrounded by the wolves, his heart skipped a beat.

"Crap, I can't save him! If I rushed out there I'll be dead!...should I...leave him?" suddenly that thought came into Kirito mind.

However when the memory of him and Leonard spending their first day together with Klein came into his mind, and what happened when Akihiko Kayaba announced that they're now trapped in this death game and that Leonard chooses to follow him instead of going off solo.

He quickly discarded the idea of abandoning one of his first friend in this virtual world.

Kirito gritted his teeth and pulled out his sword, he was ready to jump off from his hiding spot in the tall grass and charge his way in to save Leonard.

It was then that Leonard movements surprised him.

*Slash- *Swoosh! He saw Leonard drawn his sword and activate his skill, however, the skill that Leonard used wasn't one that the newbie players were given, he never saw anything like this before, not even in the beta.

The activation light of the skill was dark purple, with black gases expelling from the blade itself.

When Leonard swung the blade, the dark light and black gases expelled itself and washed over the pack of wolves that was in front of Leonard.

The skill killed off most of the level 3 monster while leaving most of the level 4 on the door of death and the boss itself with some damages to it hit point.

"What is that skill?!" Kirito questioned himself in a silent tone of voice as he keeps on watching the battle unfurled right before his eyes with excitement.

*****

Leonard, of course, did not notice that Kirito was spying on him from afar, so he just focuses his attention on the current situation that he has gotten himself in.

"So that's a combination of sword skill from Sword Art Online and real magical ability...have to say...the destruction is not half bad!" Leonard was excited by how powerful the skill sword skill generated by the Cardinal system from his own innate ability.

"Not, let finish the rest of you off, it's getting really late now." Once again Leonard gets on his skill activation stance and ready to launch another skill at the giant wolf in front of him.

Seeing that Leonard was another to do another dreadful sword attack against itself, the giant wolf decides to take the initiative to launch an attack at Leonard, along with the rest of its minions.

*Howl~! The giant leap at Leonard bearing its fangs and ready to take a chunk out of him.

"Stupid animal!" Leonard quickly activates his other skill, Shadow Step and instantly vanished from the wolves sight.

The creature was surprised at how a human can just instantly vanished from thin air right in front of its eyes, it got confused for a moment.

*Puchi until it suddenly felt something hit it really hard from the back with such a force that sent the creature came crashing into the ground.

The attack from Leonard landed as a critical hit, along with many other bonuses such as negative energy resistance being reduced on the creature.

In the end, it manages to bring the wolf down to the yellow zone, bordering the red.

"Not so tough now huh? I thought you would be stronger, however, it seems like all of those levels that you had on yourself is just false bravado if this is all you got." Leonard mocked the wolf while tapping the steel sword on his hand impatiently.

Upon hearing Leonard mocking it, the wolf was enraged, how could a mere human who is weaker than it weakest minion in term of the level, be so powerful that he managed to bring a monster such as itself, who was nearing level 10- to such a dire situation!

The wolf was now worked itself further into a rage, then suddenly something happened on the wolf Hit Point bar- a buff appeared right under it and it HP began to restore to full and to which two more HP bar was then added into the creature name.

"Huh? What is going on? Why did that thing seem like it has gotten stronger and it HP restored?" Leonard questioned fearfully in his heart.

Then suddenly Leonard heard Kirito voice from afar calling out for him.

"Leonard! RUN! That's a special monster! You can't beat it alone?!"

Leonard now noticed the teenager.

"Huh?" Leonard shifted his attention to Kirito for a moment, but suddenly he felt a powerful force rammed itself into his abdomen.

"Urghhh!!!" it was the wolf, the creature headbutted him while he wasn't paying attention, the wolf headbutt sent him flying back and crashed into the ground, the attack took almost half of Leonard HP, it would likely do even more if he didn't wear the cheap newbie armor he purchased from the Multiverse system previously.