Chapter 160 - All the Time it Takes

Every frontliner hated routine. For people used to thinking on the fly and to everything changing a thousand times every second, the monotony was hell. Which was why most frontliners absolutely detested grinding and fighting the same mobs over and over again.

But there was something to be said about routine, especially after the day they had yesterday, and the nightmares all of them experienced. Something calming. Secure.

Certainly, doing nothing and drowning in their own thoughts was a lot worse. Hence why nearly every frontliner other than the ALS was awake before 5 o'clock, and already out hunting before five-thirty.

It was a good thing the 26th floor was comparably easier, for more reasons than one. Most frontliners had gotten no more than 2 or 3 hours of sleep, and were just mindlessly slaying mobs.

Drifter was no different. And for his first day as guild leader of Reaver's Requiem, he had chosen his own party: Sinon, Griselda, and... Keita, Sachi, and Tetsuo.

The reason Drifter had chosen these 5 was because they needed to talk. Maybe not right away, but he was sure it would come up eventually.

Griselda, for all her maturity, had never experienced what it was like to lose someone in the same guild as her. Although, arguably, she had lost someone much closer in the form of Grimlock's betrayal.

The Black Cats, those who were left, were suffering a lot more. They had been close friends even in real life, so the loss of Sasamaru and Ducker had hit them hard.

Sinon was there to support him. She was one of the oldest Reavers, and a member of the original party. Everything that Drifter had gone through, so had she.

"What do you think, Sinon?"

Drifter and the archer were walking ahead of the party, talking quietly. The girl shook her head.

"They are like Ran and Yuuki were when Merida died. I don't think there's much we can do other than give it time and be there for them, Drif."

Shortening his name always indicated that Sinon was either mocking him or feeling fragile. It was pretty obvious which it was right now, so Drifter put an arm around her shoulders.

"Hey, don't you go closing yourself off, okay?"

"I'll be fine."

"I know you will. But you will be fine even faster if you lean on us a little. Talk to us, okay? We are here for you just as much as we are for them."

The archer tilted her head to look at him, and scanned Drifter's face. Her gaze brightened up a little and she smiled softly.

"The same goes to you, guild leader. You would do well to take your own advice."

She bumped him with her shoulder, and Drifter rolled his eyes. Inwardly, he was still somewhat distressed. No one should have to deal with so much death that they could just say what he and Sinon did so casually. But that was their life.

"Heads-up. Another Animae Shrine incoming."

Griselda called out, and Drifter turned just in time to see the fading lights of the mob spawning in the shallow water to their left.

Turns out this floor wasn't as innocent as it first appeared. While far less perilous than the 25th floor, it still had some deceptions.

The Animae Shrines were exactly that: shrines with soul, or living shrines. They were huge, the same size as the normal, non-living shrines. They were identical, in fact, and easily mistaken to be the safe zones, when what they actually were was mimics.

Still, other than the surprise when they first stepped into a shrine and it started moving, the mobs didn't cause much trouble to the Reavers party. They were slow, and their attack methods were simplistic.

The flailing 'arms' of the slug-like creature under the shrine - the real mob - however, gave them some uncalled for flashbacks. If you looked at it sideways, squinted, and were traumatized by watching 80 people die, they could look a little like the Two-Headed Giant's fists.

Drifter and Sinon poked it full of holes very quickly. They wanted it dead.

"You ever thought about how messed up our life is?"

Sinon asked while calmly firing two arrows into what passed for the Animae Shrine's face.

"What are you on about?"

Drifter casually ducked under a tentacle and stabbed it. Sinon shrugged and used a skill, White Streak, to finish off the mob.

"I mean, even putting aside the whole 'trapped in a death game' thing, we are not exactly normal, are we?"

Drifter looked at her, then at the dissipating shards of the living shrine monster they had just killed.

"Uh-huh."

"There has to be something wrong with our heads for us to not just accept we are in SAO, but proactively and voluntarily choose to be in the most dangerous position there is."

The spearmaster raised an eyebrow. He could kinda see the point that the archer was trying to make. However-

"No doubt we are all a little broken, Sinon. But you already knew that. And I know you are not saying all this because you want to quit. You are a frontliner through and through. What brought this on about?"

The cyan-haired girl considered it for a minute, then lowered her voice to a whisper. Drifter had to lean in to hear her.

"Yuuki didn't sleep well last night. Neither did Ran. Nautilus and I spent pretty much all of the night awake with them. Yesterday brought back bad memories. The day Merida died."

Drifter stopped. He looked at Sinon, and spotted something he very rarely saw in the archer's eyes: fragility. She was hurting, because Yuuki was hurting.

"Shit, I didn't even think of that. I'm so sorry, Sinon. If I knew I would've let you party with them. Do you want to make a change? It's still early, they shouldn't be too far."

Drifter felt like slapping himself. So much had happened in the past 48 hours that asking about how the twins were feeling had completely slipped his mind.

Sinon, however, shook her head and placed a hand on his cheek to calm him down. She locked eyes with Drifter for a moment, then uncharacteristically hugged him.

"No need, but thank you, Drif. You are the best self-appointed big brother a gal could ask for."

He had to smile at the remark and her teasing smirk.

"Besides, Yuuki is a big girl, she can take care of herself. And I've been getting her to drop the mask more and more since we started dating, so she has been opening up to more people. I trust her sister and Asuna to get through to her. And if they can't, there's always Kizmel."

"There's always Kizmel."

If Drifter was the big brother of Reaver's Requiem, then Kizmel was the big sister. The soft-spoken dark elf was quiet, but when she spoke, she always knew what the right thing to say was.

Well, that was just another point in favor of Sinon's 'we are really messed up' argument, really. Never in a thousand years would Drifter have thought he would one day consider an artificial intelligence as his family, but he considered Kizmel part of it. And he wouldn't change it for anything.

After ruffling Sinon's hair, Drifter cranked his neck to look at his other party members. They had stopped and were looking curiously at the senior Reaver duo.

The three Black Cats were still somewhat listless, which was perfectly understandable. Still, the mental fortitude of SAO players who survived until now, and clearers on top of that, couldn't be underestimated. None of them had hesitated when Drifter told them they would be going hunting today. If anything, they were almost eager.

"Sachi, come here. You too, Keita, I suppose. Although this is more up Sachi's alley."

The two he called jogged over to him. Any distraction was welcome, and Drifter's were almost always useful ones.

The spearmaster nodded inwardly when he saw the silent question in their eyes. That expression was much better.

"Here, there's an idea I've been toying with, but still haven't been able to complete. Maybe you'll have some input. Even if you don't, it will still be useful in the long run. Probably. Maybe."

That certainly picked their curiosity. Even Tetsuo, Griselda, and Sinon approached them to listen.

"What's the idea, Drifter?"

"A new move I'm trying out, but it's been a right- Err, it's been very hard to develop. Here, let me show y'all."

Drifter took a fighting stance, body slightly turned, left foot in front, right foot behind and a little to the side, knees bent, spear held horizontally about a palm higher than his hips. The basic position for a thrust.

"Haa..."

Taking a deep breath, Drifter stabbed the empty air in front of him. At first it seemed like a normal thrust. His right hand, the one closer to the butt of his spear, pushing to give the maximum amount of power and speed, his upper body unwinding left, and his right foot jumping forward as he took a big step, while his left foot stood in the same spot but rotated, all to maximize his reach.

All in all, a perfectly standard stab. The first pose, set of movements, and attack any spear-user, in SAO or the outside world, invariably learned.

It was then that Drifter's idea came into play, and Sachi and Keita furrowed their brows. Drifter had done a basic thrust, and the attack should have ended there. Either he had missed or been blocked, in which case he retracted his spear and stabbed again, or he had hit, in which case he moved to the next enemy if it was a kill, or retracted and tried again.

But the spearmaster didn't do that. Instead, he let his left hand go, allowing the momentum to continue turning his body, his step widening, and his right arm stretching nearly to its limits.

That was called overextending, and it was completely inadvisable. No matter what type of weapon you were using, overextending left you defenseless and full of openings. The possibilities for counterattack were endless, and if you missed or were parried, odds were better than none that you would fall flat on your face.

In the case of a spear-user like Drifter, it was even worse. He had only his right hand holding his spear, and it was positioned about three-fourths of the way down the shaft. Even a child would be able to knock it out of his hand if they just struck it near the tip. It would quite literally be ripped out of his grasp.

That notion was so ingrained in the players' brains that they noticed it in that fraction of a second. What came after was a lot harder to understand.

Drifter let go of his spear. Now, if it were someone else in his place, they might think they had lost control of their weapon - another danger of overextending.

But this was Broken Spear Drifter, SAO's number one spearmaster. Hell, he would probably be one of the foremost experts even in the outside world, just for the sheer amount of real life experience he had with the weapon.

No, forget dropping his weapon, Drifter hadn't made a mistake as basic as overextending since... Probably never, actually. It had to be on purpose.

And they were proved right in the next 0.1 seconds. Just before it flew out of his reach, Drifter's fingers wrapped around the spear again.

Then he stumbled, unbalanced by the forward momentum of his own weapon, and his spear escaped his grip, clattering on the ground. He almost fell right next to it, and had to take three large steps forward before he could stand straight again.

"Well? What do you think?"

With an almost shy expression, the spearmaster rubbed the back of his head. Sinon, Griselda, and Tetsuo - bow, sword, and mace-users respectively - looked lost. Keita and Sachi, on the other hand, had pensive expressions. They could almost grasp what Drifter was trying, but not quite.

Sachi, as the other spear-user in the group, was the first to get it. Her eyes lit up with realization and a little bit of awe, and she exclaimed.

"You are trying to throw and grab your spear, aren't you? Like a super short throw?"

"Yup! What do you think?"

Drifter beamed. Sachi frowned, likely going through all the whys and hows in her mind.

"It would add a lot more power behind it. And range and surprise too. Suddenly amplifying your reach by... What, 30, 40 centimeters? Half a meter?"

"Initially, yeah. I'm hoping to get 70-80 centimeters once I get the hang of it, however. Maybe even a full meter."

Drifter smirked, and Keita whistled. He could see how useful that attack would be in battle of he managed to master it. No, devastating would be a better word. For a skilled wielder of spear-type weapons, an extra meter would more than triple their offensive power.

Of course, there were also some drawbacks, otherwise everyone would be running around with ten-meters-long lances. The larger a weapon, the more unwieldy they were, and the easier to get disarmed. But Drifter's new move didn't have those weaknesses.

Well, as long as he got it right, that is. Otherwise, he would drop his weapon and almost fall like he just did, in which case he might as well spread his arms and let the mobs attack him.

Drifter seemed to be thinking the same thing, because he grinned sheepishly and picked up his spear.

"I don't dare to use it in battle yet, for pretty obvious reasons. But I think it has a future, don't you?"

Sachi and Keita nodded. Drifter patted them both on the shoulder.

"Good! Now you try it."

"Huh?"