When a Monster Becomes a demon chapter 3

Tyler the left the Tavern with Little Sakura right beside him. Asuna was a little confused before running after them. Tyler's team had grown from two to three, and he was smiling as he looked forward to their adventures together. The newly-formed trio spent a good three hours fishing in the brook until night had fallen fully. Between them they had got around maybe 15 fish, which was rather surprising,

"Hey, Asuna pull up your stats real quick."

She blushed at his request, and tried to stammer a denial"

"Well, nice knowin ya, we're on our own Sak-"

"Okay! Okay! You can look! Pervert!"

"Jesus, relax, I can get a helluva lot more at a sex village then your sour apples,"

She went red with anger and wacked him before she could stop herself, and became immediately terrified, as he rubbed the now growing lump and just looked at the redhead,

"I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!"

She watched as he sighed and went to look over her shoulder and started to scroll through her stats, completely ignoring her body numbers.

"Lets see what you're packing, so dex is 45, agility 78 that's decent, defense 50, expected, aw here we go, fishing is 80? Nice, it a hobby of yours?"

"Ahh yeah kinda, my grandfather liked to fish and we were close,"

"I get it. Oh! That's interesting cooking is 120, looks like we got two company cooks now."

"Sakura can cook?"

"Yep, it's half the reason I put up with her, her cooking is 154, so you got some catching up to do. But at least I won't feel bad when I make her take a break and nearly poison us with my sadass attempts,"

"What's your cooking at?"

"!3,"

"....seriously?"

"Yep. I can't cook for shit IRL, and I guess it followed me here."

Asuna just started laughing as she called out to Sakura a little farther down the bank,

"Hey Sakura, how bad is it?"

She turned with a traumatized look on her cute face,

"We use it as a monster poison."

"Jesus, that bad?"

"Worse, it killed a grandbear."

"Okay, then Gore? You are forbidden from touching our food, understood?"

"Understood."

The trio then entered the darkened forest, headed towards the drake nest,

"Hey, Asuna, your gonna be under leveled for this, so I want you to use that speed of your and just stab any monster we come across once then climb the nearest tree, okay?"

"I'm not helpless!"

"Out here with us, you might as well be, so since we'll all get the same amount of exp from one attack or the kill, this is how it'll be until I'm confident you can actually do something other then get in our way."

Asuna was angered by his dismissal of her skills, Afterall, he'd seen her fight in the boss battle, she was about to start a vindication argument when a large bloodred lizard the size of a pickup truck came crawling out of the bush to her right. She jumped but followed his instructions using her greater speed she stabbed the lizard in the shoulder then went up the nearest tree, only to see it's health bar drop slightly, the equivalent of a scratch, she was shocked then scared when 8 more of the lizards appeared fro with in the underbrush. She watched Gore and Sakura merely draw their weapons then scatter. Gore dived into a group of four to his left, while Sakura rained arrows into the right. Gore shattered three lizards in a span of four swings, and was in the process of killing the forth. Sakura shot two lizards in the eyes, blinding them, then jumping backwards firing as she did so. Asuna watched as Gore killed his forth and fifth lizard, while Sakura shattered the two she had blinded with her arrows. The duo then slew one more, and called out,

"Hey Asuna, come on, this one's yours!"

She was surprised but hastened to the ground, she then charged forward, her Rapier tip glowing as she stabbed the lizard five times, chipping away at it's health bar. The red head then danced backward as the creature went to retaliate with a swipe of it's tail, which she dodged. She then went in for another attack. It took Asuna over an hour of attacking and dodging to finally kill it. Dropping to the ground after it shattered, panting,

"What was that thing? A mini boss?"

"Not even, that was a dark drake. Basically twice as strong as a regular drake, its only redeeming quality is its defense, which you just saw is impressive. It is easily twice as high as Ilfangs. Now then check your EXp level,"

Asuna did and was surprised,

"I just shot up 4 whole levels! I just reached level 11!"

"we're just getting started Asuna, this is how WE play."

"you guys are friggin monsters! One fight and now al my gear is underleveled!"

"relax, so is ours. We probably won't upgrade for a good bit yet. The mine we're headed to has a hefty supply of high grade Blacksteel, I can craft us all some better gear. If you have special request feel free to speak up. Just ask Sakura about how good her underwear feels."

Sakura smiled at the now red-faced Asuna,

"It's true, he made my undies from grandbear hide, and they are like ssoooooooo comfy! If you ask too, he'll make you just about anything!"

The open duo just laughed at their new friends expression, and kept prodding her as the y moved through the darkened forest.

"Yeah, Gore made me a hella cute pair of panties and a bra that fits perfectly. Hell, these fit even better then my undies IRL! SO don'[t be shy, okay?"

"If you want clothes give a shout okay? I'm sure i can come up with something you'll like!"

The duo laughed hard at their embarrassed friend.

"well, I'm glad she's having fun at least."

"it seems like that boy as taken our little Sakura a his dear sister."

"Its a shame her immediate family failed her to that degree. If they get out, I'd like for them to stay together, she needs a brother like that."

"My son is a lot of things, most of them bad, but when someone he truly cares about is in danger, he'll move heaven and unleash hell to protect them. As much as it pains me to say it. Still, if you want your god daughter to stay with him, we have no objections, they seem to be good for eachother. It's that new girl that worries me."

"That much we agree upon, her family are all snobs"

The families of the Demon and his Adoptive little Sister watched their progress on the hospital screen, since they had formed such a strong bond, the families had sought eachother out and had their trapped members moved into the same room of the same hospital. Sakura's family where still ingame so they had come too. The little pink haired girls godmother sighed as she looked at the happily smiling girl on the screen following the scary boy in the red coat.

"I really hope those three don't reunite with her actual family, I fear he'd kill them all."

Tyler, Sakura, and Asuna reached the mine entrance which was little more then a crack in the rock face. Asuna looked at the line doubtfully,

"I don't think we'll fit."

"Well, with that extra four inches on your chest, no wonder."

"Listen here you little shit! I doubt YOU could fit either! Gore most definitely can't,"

then an echoing voice could be heard from within the small crack,

"Hey, if you take any longer I'll leave you both behind!"

The girls turned and saw that Tyler had broken the outside of the crack to reveal a much larger tunnel,

"See? Now both of you can fit, if you suck in those bellies that is."

"Jackass!"

"Prick!"

They all went inside after the scary Demon. Tyler led them down the steadily darkening cave. Sakura was right behind him while Asuna...

"Hey, can you two see in the dark?"

"Yep,"

"Uh-huh."

"Oh, okay, cool. Just so you know...I CAN'T!"

"Give it an hour in the dark, maybe less given this place's level and you'll get the skill. It'll max out by the time we leave here. So for the time being grab either me or Sakura's hand and we'll guide you till you get your eyes back."

"Uh, okay, just don't let go alright?"

She seemed a little scared, unlike the firebrand she was normally in the world of light. Tyler sighed,

"Sakura, grab the scared girl's hand please. we don't need her having an accident in here!"

"Hey! I'm not a little girl ya know! I don't HAVE accidents anymore!"

"I just meant like walking into a wall or something like that. What the hell did you mean?"

"I HATE you!"

Asuna was very very red in the face but neither of the teasing pair could really tell, but they stopped messing with the still-blind girl. Tyler then stopped next to a part of the wall,

"BINGO, ladies, got me a decent Blackstel vein here. I'll collect the ore while you stand guard."

"Okay,"

"I still can't see but okay."

clack!clack!clack!

Tyler's pickaxe was heard hitting the wall, and as he did so, he set one of his favorite playlists to playing in the background.

"What's that music?"

"Gore's favorite list. He plays it a lot when grinding for mats like this."

"How'd he get access to his music?"

"He had ripped his entire collection into his helmet, and since we can access anything stored there, bang, a hell of a musical selection to game on to."

"That sweet! Anything good?"

"Lots of Anime openings, closings, themes, he has over three thousand songs to choose from. I mostly listen to his picks, he's got good taste."

"...So he's a weeb?"

"Oi! I'm a hardcore Otaku! So me the proper respect normie Girl!"

"You mean to tell me that the single most feared, most dangerous player that quite possibly is our only hope of getting out of this mess alive, is a disgusting Otaku weeb?"

"Hey, I look like this IRL. and I DO shower."

"Oh, there goes the last of my hope."

"Well, sorry, I guess we can't all be cheerleaders and Magazine Girls."

"Thank you for the sideways complement."

"Anytime."

Tyler's pickaxe smashed a sizable hunk of rock from the wall, and it gave a soft glow as Sakura touched it, disappearing into their inventory. There then was an icon that said, MINING LEVEL UP:78. Tyler smirked as he saw the number, he then was knocking more chunks off the wall in greater size and numbers. Asuna had still not gotten night vision, but her perception increased instead. She sighed,

"Well, I'm getting more Perceptive, BUT I AM STILL BLIND!"

"Chill out. Here try mining that wall. Sakura could you guide her over to it? Maybe grinding in the dark will speed it up."

"Yeah sure, whatever"

Asuna smashed her pickaxe into the wall, taking a good hunk of low tier iron out of a large vein of ore. Sakura snagged it as well, as any and all mats were useful. The trio labored in the dark for a good thirty minutes, occasionally discussing something or just listening to Tyler's banging music selection. At one Point Asuna had a question,

"Hey Gore, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, Shoot."

"I noticed you would name you sword skills and say them in battle, as far as I know they don't have names so why do yours?"

"They don't its just a habit I picked up in the beta. It kinda felt good to use a named attack like in Anime, so I started naming my attacks, and it became easier to remember which did what that way. Plus it's kinda satisfying as hell to kill a tough opponent and then say something like Dragon's Teeth, or Demon claw."

"Really? It's just for fun?"

"Yeah, try it sometime. Like that five hit attack you do could be Dancer's Rhythm."

Asuna had sighed, but she had liked the sound of it. They continued working for another twenty minutes, when Asuna realized something,

"Hey, Gore I can see you now! Yay! I can See!"

"How's it seem?"

"It's like the time just before the sunsets completely, I can see you enough tom know it's you, but not anything exact yet."

"Okay, we'll go for another hour. We need you to see our faces before going deeper."

"ahhh, I'm bored!"

"Sorry, can't be helped. I don't want to be fucked in the ass by Asuna's Rapier."

"Uh, phrasing!"

"I taught you well, young Padawan learner!"

"Thank you master"

"Nerds"

"Normie"

"uddered NOrmie"

"I hate you both."

They all laughed, and kept up the mining for two extra hours, exhausting all the ore veins close to the entrance. By this point Asuna could see Tyler's eye color at fifteen feet. Tyler gave the all clear and they headed deeper inside. The trio would stop every time Tyler would find a new vein of blacksteel or similar ore and exhaust the supply. His plan was to strip mine tunnel down to it's last metal so he wouldn't need to go mining again for a while. They kept at it for a good five extra hours, until Asuna literally fell over from exhaustion. Tyler called a halt. Sakura slapped the passed out Asuna until she came to.

"Okay, Asuna. Time to make Camp. We'll set the tent, you just stay awake until then."

"We're sleeping here?"

"Yep, Don't worry, Me'n Gore will take turns on watch. You just get as much sleep as you can. Not bad for your first day at our pace."

Tyler set up the large tent and laid out the trio's bedrolls.

"Sorry, Asuna, but your roll is wolf fur. I'll keep an eye out for a better fur to make you a decent roll from."

"Its fine I like wolf fur."

Asuna climbed into the large hide shelter and passed straight out. Sakura covered the sleeping girl with a bearskin blanket, stroking her long hair.

"you like her?"

"she's alright . She's definitely pretty. and somehow cuter asleep."

"ah yes officer, this girl right here."

"Asshole. How bout you? You like her?"

"Matter of fact I do. She seems genuine, plus it'll be good for you to have another girl around to do girl stuff with."

"Girl stuff? Like braid our hair and talk boys?"

"sure yeah why not? I mean the stuff I can't do, like for example watch out for you in the bath, or when you bathe in a river. She's not much right now, but she's got serious potential. I'm having a hard time following her Rapier tip now, so imagine what she will turn into after some of my training?"

"Oh, she'll be a floor clearing badass for sure."

"well, just remember that you're the number one badass in this game!"

"That's DEMON. Number one DEMON, missy and don't you forget it!"

"whatever you say, big bro!"

"All right, get over here!"

"yeeeeeee, that tickles! Stoppp!"

The two surrogate siblings wrestled for a little in the darkened cave before Tyler pinned the smaller girl gently to the cave floor. She had nearly escaped him this time but he was still master. He then let her up and sat against the cave wall where he could see both directions of the cave,

"Hey, Sakura."

"Yeah GOre?"

"Just for the record, but when we get out of here, out the game I mean. Ill come find you, and we can be actual siblings IRL too. Sound good?"

Sakura's eyes lit up the dark cave like little stars, she then crawled over and laid her small fuzzy pink head on his lap,

"You mean it?"

"Of course I do."

"If we could find eachother IRL, I'd be very happy."

"Then it will be as you say, Princess."

She smiled in the dark and fell asleep on his lap like that. He stroked the small girls head, smiling at the sheer irony that he, the one who struck fear into the hearts of a good majority of the player base with his reputation alone was now practically raising some random girl like his own little sister. He laid his head against the cold stone of the cave, and just enjoyed the feel of being needed so desperately by the half-his size girl with the pink hair. And silently daring anything to try and ruin this moment right now, and also daring anything to try and take her from him. Tyler stayed like that for the entire time the two girls rested, planning to just pop a stamina potion when they woke. They slept for a while, maybe a solid twelve hours before Asuna came to, and crawled out of the tent, only to get shushed by Tyler, who still had a sleeping Sakura resting her head on his lap. Asuna couldn't help but smile at the adorable scene of the fearsome Demon with his precious little charge asleep like that. She crawled over and sat beside him, and began gently her hair.

"You really care about her, don't you."

"I do. I'm all she has left. Her family abandoned her like an unwanted puppy when the shit hit the fan. My family shipped me off to another country to get rid of me, so I understand her pain."

"really? That's awful. My family refuse to listen to my side of things, they believe that if I follow a set plan for my life that I'll be happy. No, Happy's not the right word. Successful is the word they use."

"Do you come from money?"

"Yep, my father runs a company and my mother does fashion design. So we're pretty loaded. Don't get any ideas."

"I told you, I'm not into boards, plus that personality is a real turn off."

"...asshole."

"It sounds like your family already has a plan for your life."

"They do, I think they even have a guy lined up for me to marry when I come of age."

"You know him?"

"Yep, which is a plus I guess, but he is a real creep. He's like thirty, and always hits on me like he's the same age. He's even tried to cop a feel of my breasts once at a pool party."

"Bikini?"

"Yep, a_"

"Red cups, white straps for the top, with a red white striped bottom."

"You were there?"

"If it's the party I think it was, do you remember the guy who smashed another dude in the face with a glass bottle for trying to grab a ten-year old girl's ass and him being like forty?"

"Tyler?"

"Yeah! That guy!"

"seriously? Tyler is that you?"

"Sup, Assy, how's it hanging?"

"I can't believe it! How the hell did not see it earlier? We got our IRL looks back!"

"cause we never really hung around together before. Hell, I just did the math when you mentioned the creepy uncle."

"How'd you get an invite to that party anyway?"

"I was working at the restaurant that catered it. I am amazed you remembered my name though."

"well, shattering the jaw of my potential fiancé like that kinda left an impression. I also kept the guest list and the list of the ones who had helped out for some reason."

"This quite the small world ain't it?"

"That's the Truth. Though I'm not sure what to make of the fact you remembered my swimsuit choice from a two year old party off the top of your head like that."

"Take it as a complement. I thought you looked great in it."

"Awww, a complement for an outfit two years old!"

"Your welcome, for the complement and to the extreme stalker vibes it gives off."

"well, If YOU'RE the one stalking me, at least I'd know I was safe."

"You are under a guardian Demon's wing. You and little Sakura here. How long you been awake?"

Asuna jumped as Sakura poked her in the side,

"eeepp!"

"Cute noise! I was awake since she left the tent. So You're names Tyler eh?"

"That long? Yep, Tyler's the name. Lame right?"

Sakura smiled and snuggled into his sider a little more

"Nope! Tyler's a brothers' name! Goreleech is my Guardian Demon!"

"Yeah, what she said!"

Tyler smiled,

"well, please keep calling me Goreleech while ingame okay?"

The girls nodded, and they made a quick breakfast before getting back to mining. They made good progress, clearing several miles of the cave. They had amassed several thousand items when they came upon a surprise. A large metal door set into the back of the cave. Tyler swapped his mining tools for weapons,

"Sack up, I think we just found a hidden boss. Asuna go trail, it goes south get out. Sakura, take rea guard, if it goes south go with Asuna, I'll make sure the two of you get out then look after one another, okay?"

They vehemently opposed this plan,

"No, all of us don't walk out none of us do."

"I won't leave you Gore. Ever."

Tyler sighed, feeling a little teary eyed at his friends,

"Alright, if we win we win together, if we die we to that together too."

Tyler drew his sword and booted the door wide open. Inside was a single solitary chest. Tyler jst groaned,

"seriously, This old trick?"

"What"

"That chest is rigged, someone touches it, they either get chomped, trapped, ambushed or some combination of the three."

"how do we play it?"

"You two get against the wall, I'll set it off. I have far more experience then you, and better reflexes. If is a damage trap be ready with an insta heal."

"Got it,"

"right"

"let's start this party!"

Tyler walked over and kicked the chest open and the door slammed shut as a blaring alarm sounded. Tyler jumped to the girls side as monsters started to spawn in.

"Get in to the corner!"

They moved along the wall, until they were backed into a corner with the entire room filled with monsters, Tyler swung and slashed one in front of him, cutting it's health bar in half.

"Asuna, watch yourself! Sakura, get behind Asuna, use Skills! We have to thin their number!"

Tyler then set his feet and started to use surging sword skills, each skill would hit multiple targets, one hitting them since sword skills did extra damage. Asuna did what she could, using her superior speed, agility and dexterity to weave in and out of enemy attacks to poke them full of holes and shattering them nearly as easily as Tyler did. Sakura was using Skills of her own, a single Arrow passing through several targets before imbedding in the opposite wall. The monsters were similar to large plastic mannequins in the shape of diamonds, a large hole with a floating gem in the center passed as the head, each creature wielding a large spear, and easily taller then the fighting friends. Sakura was still back in the corner as that way they couldn't surround her and attack all at once, Tyler was in the center of the pack slaughtering them two or three at a time. Asuna was dancing around the room, poking holes in everything that did not have a human face, her agility skills serving her well. The trio held their own against the small horde, each having their own strategy and making them work in tandem with the others, Asuna would poke a bunch of holes, the flit back away avoiding a counterattack, then Sakura would fire a glowing area and either kill a line of them or injure them for half health, then Tyler would clean up any wounded monsters the ladies missed. If Tyler swung his blade he'd kill two or three with a single swing, and wound maybe an extra two, then Asuna would sweep in and finish them off, of Sakura's arrow would get there first. The three friends fought for hours or it could have been minutes, but then the last one fell, and they all sank to their knees, gasping for breath as the congratulations icon appeared over their heads. Apparently they'd completed a hidden monster challenge, and set the top record for fastest time to beat the challenge. Their rewards were 5000DR, 10000EXP, A legendary sword, axe, and shield. They also got a full set of high level potions too. Tyler regained his breath before the other two, and got up first.

"Okay, I've had enough caving for today. I want to see the sunlight."

"I second that motion!"

"Lets get the fuck out of here!"

The three friends then left the room after entering their party name into the records screen: Demons

They more-or-less ran out of the tunnel system. But they got quite the surprise upon exiting the cave. A group of eight players were discussing whether to go in or not when Tyler and his party exited, out of breath, and panting from a hard run out. The leader of the party then asked rather nervously what had happened,

"Hey, what's in there?"

Tyler drew a steading breath,

"Dude, the caves safe right until you reach that door at the end. It's secret monster killer challenge. It very nearly did the three of us in."

"That bad?"

"well, names Goreleech. It gave ME a run for my money so what do you think your chances are?"

At the name they all started Murmuring, then the leader spoke up again,

"What kind of trap was it?"

"single chest in the center of the room. Touch and the horde spawns in, they were all level 9s, with decent fighting stats. Took the three of us a good four hours\ to kill them all, I'm level 15, she's a 15, and she's a 12. What's your best level?"

"We don't have a prayer!"

"you said it's safe until that door?"

"yep, you can't see beyond twenty meters inside, and the door is a solid days travel inside, so you know, your life you call. We are out."

Tyler then headed off to the east at a moderate jog, Sakura and Asuna flanking him. They lost sight of the other players quickly enough, and exited the small forest soon after. The trees giving way to a large rolling grassland as far as the eye could see. Tyler ran straight out into the great emptiness without hesitating. As they ran Asuna had a question,

"Hey, you think those others will be okay?"

"Why's that our problem?"

"If they go in-"

"They die. I told you, Asuna The other players are not my concern."

"But-"

"We gave them plenty of warnings, If they choose to ignore them, it's their own fault if anything happens. Now forget them."

"Asuna, it's not our job to babysit the other players. We have enough trouble."

"Alright. I don't like it."

"Deal with it."

"deal with it."

Asuna was kinda shocked at their simultaneous rebuttal of her concerns as the ran through the grass and small shrubs. She let it go, but it still did not sit well with her, just leaving other players to their fates. Tyler Led the friends through the rolling plains, not really going anywhere in specific, but going where ever the urge pulled him next. They were passing through a spot that had some rather tall grass and at one point startled a small herd of grazing bison. Instantly Tyler and sakura pulled their bows and dropped the large beasts, killing the whole herd of about 15 animals. They stopped to take stock of the drops when a large lion tried to pounce on Asuna and got skewered by her Rapier. She scored a perfect lion's pelt out of that one. Out of the fifteen bison hides they had collected, only one was not perfect, and that being a near perfect hide. They scored about thirty pieces of bison meat, thirty bison horns, hearts, a perfect lion pelt, lion claws, teeth, and eyes. the meat too but it seemed to be good only for selling, but Tyler reckoned that between them the girls could make something pretty decent out of it. Tyler had the party split to gather prairie herbs and hunt more animals. Asuna would go with Sakura since she was still the lowest level of them. The challenge in the cave, all the mining and the hunting had raised Tyler and Sakura's level by four, while it had raised Asuna's by 5. she was still behind but only just, but she was still untrained in the siblings eyes so they would keep her close until she was up to snuff. The girls went off in on direction while Tyler went in the opposite. He was after lions and other grassland predators, the ladies were after bison and other herbivores along with herbs too. They would reconvene when the sun started to set. Tyler found a few more lions, a couple wild dogs, even a few prairie dogs and meerkats. He could just hear the TreeHugger's screaming as he killed IRL endangered animals, then he hit the jackpot, as a small family of chinchillas hopped across his path. Remembering how soft IRL chinchilla fur was, he killed them all with perfect shots. He scored fifteen perfect chinchilla furs, and was quite pleased with himself. he then found a rare tree near a small lake. It's wood was of a higher quality, so he chopped it down and got a good bit of crafting mats for his efforts. He then spent the better part of an hour fishing the small lake, hauling in a few lake trout, a big old pike, a few perch, and after a rather nasty fight, a 7 pound salmon. He then moved on, eager to have as much mats by the time he headed back. As he hunted he found himself missing the company of the girls. This struck him as strange, as during the beta, hell during his IRL life, he spent a good 90% of his time alone. He had never once looked forward to another person's company much less missed it as he had always been able to relax more fully alone. Now he kept catching himself checking his shadow for Sakura, so accustomed to the small girls presence he had become. Now that she wasn't there, he kinda felt on edge, even though he knew Asuna was there and would look after the girl. I have seriously lost my frigging mind. Tyler tried to imagine himself having to go back to solitary lifestyle, and found the prospect terrifying now. He was surprised at just how much the thought of not traveling with the pink-haired little cutey bothered him, and how much he'd missed the adorable spaz. Losing Asuna didn't affect him in quite the same way. She was a big girl and could handle herself just fine. He figured she would take off once she got tired of his lifestyle, or playstyle, which revolved around his and Sakura's survival at the cost of anyone else's. He could tell she was not like that, she would rather defend a random player then ignore them. Whereas if Tyler or Sakura came across the same situation they'd just move on and leave the poor soul to their fate and sleep like logs after. Hell if the scenario was the old fashioned guy clinging to a cliff stereotype, Tyler or Sakura would kick the poor bastard off the cliff then attempt to climb done to loot the corpse. Asuna would try to pull the idiot back up. That was the main difference between them. He had no problem with their differing opinions and methods, it just met that Asuna still had the capacity for empathy/sympathy. Tyler smiled as he contemplated their new red-headed traveling companion. She was tough and kind, so Tyler would give her the tools to use her fire to its fullest, both ingame and IRL. For any girl that could Intimidate the Demon at all was worthy of respect, or at least keeping an eye on. Tyler was resting by a small river bank, when he noticed a tell-tale log-like object floating inn the water. He smiled as he readied his bow to piss off the crocodile when a message icon appeared on his HUD, from Sakura

Hey, we got trouble, meet at split point. hurry!

Tyler was off like a gunshot. He popped a high level speed=boost potion from the cave trap and doubled his already breakneck pace.

Sakura and Asuna had made pretty decent progress on their foraging, collecting several perfect animal pelts, a plethora of prairie herbs, even a few birds and eggs. As the girls hunted they finally got the cahnce to discuss their rather scary travel partner without being listened to.

"So, Sakura, you've traveling with Ty- I mean Goreleech, for a while now right?"

"Yep, what of it? Hey, prairie chicken!"

"I got it. Wel, doesn't he scare you?"

"Sometimes, but less and less the longer I'm around him."

"That just sounds like stockholm syndrome. Aren't you worried he might take advantage of you? "He so much atronger that-"

"That he could do whatefver he wanted to me and I wouldn't even be able to slow him down?"

"Well yeah. I mean don't get me wrong, I don't think he'd ever try something like that, its just..how do I describe it?"

"He's not lke any other perosn you have ever met? So you don't know ow to handle it?"

"well kinda. He seems to be a nice person then he turns around and says stuff like how he wouldn't hesitate to kill, and brags about killling 8 people."

"you're basing all this on the belief that deep down Goreleech is a good person forced to do horrible things to survive. the thing you're not seeing is the truth. He is NOT a good person deep down. He does horrible things like killing people because it's just the easiest way to deal with the problems they end up bringing. If he has to question whether or not the kil you, he'll just kill you rather then waste the effort to find another alternative. So word to the wise? Don't ever GIVE him a reason to WANT you dead, cause he will kill you. He truly hates people, so he has no problem killing them at all>"

"But you don't think it's wrong to think like that? And you're okay traveling alone with a guy like that?"

"Whether it's wrong or right is a matter of perspective. He told you how he killed three people to rescue me, right? You and I would say that was a good thing, as he was defending me from danger, but at the same time, a lawyer or say a police officer would say its wrong to take life no matter what the circumstances are, so following that logic, if those I just named had been the ones my ,life depended on, I'd be killed while they were busy sorting out their own moral problems. Goreleech doesn't have those moral dilemmas, so he can act without hesitation and do what must be done. He also once killed a pedophile that wouldn't leave me alone when we were at that sex village a while back. The guy had yet to actually touch me, but was pretty clear what he was after, so would you call that a bad killing?"

"I would, for if he had yet to physically threaten you like grab you or something simialar, then it was just murder."

"If he waited for that pig to ACTUALLy do something like that, he'd have gone to another less well-protected girl and raped her instead. Now wheres your arguement?"

"You can't be sure opf that."

"But we can be sure he never does. That's Tyler's whole point. He'd rather be labeled a monster and have the people he cares about be safe then be called a good person and be unable to portect the ones he loves."

"Where did you get all these ideas and deep thoughts from?"

"A by-product of countless lectures and discussions on the matter with a very world weary demon. Talk to him sometime."

"I still don't like it but I understand I guess."

"That's another of his lessons, you don't have to like us, or our way of life. If you do great, if not thats great too. We al have our own way of living and doing things, and as long as you don't try to force us to accept your way over our own we'll get on fine. One of Tyler's favorite phrases is 'whatever floats your boat'."

"Yet he killed a pedophille for living his life his way?"

"They don't count. If you think they do, then you got issues."

"Well, why don't we talk about something less deep, my heads starting to hurt."

"Sure, my head hurts after these debates as well. Oh! I got one! You knew him IRL right? what's he like?"

"well, I've only met him maybe three times. They were at parties thrown by my rich family and they hired caterers. Apparently he was working at the restaurants we used. He was always quiet and efficient when on the clock, and I didn't really want to talk to him more then I had to. He had this aura around him, like he does now, that made you think he was quietly analyzing your every move. Once when the wait staff were on break I found him sitting alone in our large hedge maze. We were alone and I felt a little scared at being in such a private place with him. He noticed me and stood up and walked down another lane, like I'd disturbed him. I went ot see where he went and he'd disappeared just like that. I asked one of the others that came with him what he was like and he basically told me that the restaurant kept him on as a waiter/bouncer. He just has this intensity around him. The guy then told me that they had sent him along to keep the snobbishness under control, for Tyler would not put up with it, job or not. Hence him smashing my probable future fiancé in the jaw with a glass bottle for trying to cop a feel of my chest. My family tried to press charges, but there had been a photographer who had caught the whole thing on camera and threatened to report the whole affair to the police. My family, rather then lose their precious plan for their daughter dropped everything, but I heard that Tyler had urged the guy to still go to the police with the camera, but I guess my family got him first. The camera had mysteriously vanished. That was the last time I saw him, until SAS, that is. So to answer your question, basically the same as he is in here!"

"Do you like him"

"What exactly do you mean by like?"

"Boyfriend?"

"ahhh, no, sorry, but hard pass. He's handsome and strong, don't get me wrong, but I think our personalities are too different. I think we just barely work as friends. Why? Do you like him like that?"

"I see him as the older brother I always wished for. I love him as fiercely as a sibling can. Even if he scares me sometimes, I know he'd never hurt me. And I also know he'd never leave me, despite what he says. You, I'm not so sure about."

"Gee, thanks."

"Not what I meant. I need him, and he needs me. But do you need us? That is a resounding no. If I were to dump you here, you're tough enough to be able to survive alone, weak as you are. If it were me, as strong as I am, I'd wouldn't be able to handle the stress of being alone again, and niether could he. Actually, he would be, but it would shatter whats left of his heart. You would survive. You don't need us, and we don't need you. Its not an insult. We like having you around, and we're friends, but in terms of actually needing someone to survive nither of us needs the other. so he'd feel a whole lot better about leaving you to fend for yourself if it comes to it."

"I think I understand. Hey, whats going on here?"

The girls had come across a small group of players moving across the plains,

"get down!"

Sakura was furiously typing an SOS for Tyler she hit send and started to crawl backward,

"What it it?"

"Capture Squad!"

"HUh?"

"they capture girls and sell them for sex slaves, we need to get out of here now. wee can't fightb them without Goreleech."

They tried to crawl back, but Asuna broke a large stick and alerted the Squad,

"RUN!"

the girls took off running while the party of seven all whooped and took off after the fleeing ladies. Sakura and Asuna had both popped speed potions ands were running as fast as they could, but every now and again an arrow went lazily fly past them. Sakura was making use of Tyler's extensive training, typing updates to their position and status while running at break neck speeds. She had also made Asuna drink an antiparalysis potion and drank one herself to counteract the Capture squads favortie method. It was a good thing they did as they got grazed few times while running. Sakura was leading the fleeing girls, when she became aware of something.

"Shit, we're getting herded somewhere. Thisn is not a random Capture Squad!"

"Seriously?"

Sakura gave Tyler the heads up. Then as they were sprinting along a stretch of open ground a large net sprang up from the ground and enveloped the two ladies neatly. They were briefly stunned by the sudden jolt and that was al it took for the group of twelve to converge and stick the girls with afar stronger paralysis poison that overwhelmed their resistance. Rendering both girls helpless. The group then started cheering at their catch. Then they all got a lusty look in their eyes as they saw Asuna and Sakura's evident beauty. The girls could not move a finger, but they could still talk, which was enogh for the two fiesty ladies,

"Congratulations you just killed yourselves."

"Yep, I do not want to be in your shoes."

a fat man with a large beer belly waddled up to the girls and tossed a blade onto the ground.

It was Tyler's sword.

the fat man sneered at the girls looks of surprise,

"Yer boys dead. shattered him meself. No ones comin to rescue you."

Asuna started to cry, while Sakura just started laughing,

"oh, this is gonna be good. Asuna, get those tears out of your eyes, get that despair outta your heart. This lard bucket is gonna be first."

"ya? First to fuck ya if ya don't shut yer pretty mouth!"

"Keep talking pig man, my 'boy' as you put is gonna enjor taking you apart."

the pig man slapped Sakura across the face, and she just laughed. She then noticed a small ripple in the grass,

"Hey hero, you're late!"

the grass exploded and tyler flew out, swinging the sword he'd gotten from the cave trap. It was a one handed sword, about the same size as his long sword but this one was a good three levels above his current one. It was the first weapon that he'd found to be able to replace the one the pigman had tossed into the dirt. It was another of his tricks, use a enemy as a shield and disappear when he shattered thus faking his own death. Sakura had realized it when the idiot had dropped a sword that was to be replaced, for if he'd actually kill Tyler he'd have the blood sword he wielded now. Tyler was enraged at seeing his sister and best friend tussed up in a net. Tyler's bloodred sword was glowing and as he soon as he was in range he released the skill, shattering three players instantly as he tore through the group like a tornado.

"Dragon's Gust."

Pigman and his remaining goons split up, piggy dragging the net with the girls with three others, while rest fo the gang were to stop the irate Demon, thing was with that plan,

"Dragon's flight."

Tyler used a long-distance lunge like attack to smash through the attempt at a defensive line, and used to leftover momentum to transition into another rushing attack. This time shredding the net holding the girls captive. Sakura dn Asuna were dumped unceremoniously onto the ground with a thud. The still couldn't move, and wouldn't be able to for at least another hour. These idiots didn't even have ten minutes left to live. Tyler surged forward salshing the guys on either side of pigman, shattering them with zero effort, then he reached the remaining squad members and shattered them all. Pigman had the brillant idea to try and rape the still paraliyzed Sakura while the demon was busy with his friends, except for one problem. Pigman couldn't even get hi UI open before he was lifted up of the girl and slammed onto the gorund with a bone rattling thud. Tyler the placed a remedy potion in each girls' mouth. They were instantly cured of paralysis and could move again. Sakura was smiling wide, but Asuna, however merely sank onto her knees, as the true horrors that she had nearly been forced to endure struck home. She watched as tyler walked over to the now trembling pigman and stabbed him on the chest without pausing. The mand screamed then shattered,

"Well, one more capture squad less to think about."

"Took you long enough hero."

"I would've shown up sooner but I had to deal that idiots excuse for a hitsquad. And, Sakura? How in the blue hell did you fall for that net trap? I taught you better then that!"

"Yes, I know. I'm sorry."

"If I was not here do you know where you would be right now? And where Asuna would be as well?"

"We would be getting raped that guy and his goons. Then sold to be raped by anyone that so chose."

"Yep. You were lazy=

"THATS NOT FAIR!"

Asuna could not stand to hear Tyler berate the girl for getting caught in a surprise attack, for after all, it wasn't either of their faults. Tyler sighed, Sakura just hung her head in shame.

"It WAS my fault Asuna. If I had been more alert, more aware of my surroundings, more READY, we wouldn't have had to run. If I had been thinking and paying attention to the enemy's patterns I would have telegraphed that net tric-"

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT! We did nothing wrong. we got caught off guard,-"

"that. that right there is my whole point. You were caught by surprise. what would you have done, Asuna, if I hadn't been here to rescue you? Tell me that."

"I don't know oaky?"

"i'll tell you. You would spend the rest of your time in SoS as a sex slave, raped hourly, by everyone that wants a ride. You would be fed paralysis potions with every bit of food forced down your throat. And in case you didn't know this, there is a pain absorber so that combat is more accessible for everyone, but there is no other form of absorber. You would feel everything they would do to you. Paralysis merely prevents movement, you still feel everything. When not getting hourly fuckings, you would spend the entirety of your seconds of free time in chains. You would be chained so you could not move an inch. Do you want that?"

Asuna was crying as he explained the horrors she would have faced, her once strong voice now a scared whisper,

"No I don't"

"Speak up, Asuna. what was that?"

"I DON'T WANT THAT!"

"Good. Nither does Sakura. This the whole basis of my lessons. If you actually listen to what I teach you, you will never be taken by surprise, and in the event of capture or imprisonment, you will have all the required skills to survive not only with your soul, but escape. If you're dedicated. NOw I am not berating Sakura unfairly. Her first mistake was getting snuck up on. I figure the two of you were probably discussing something heavy enough to get her full attention, what that was I don't care, her next mistake was figuring out the herding tactic as late as she did. Its a basic trick really, show yourself to the target, then have a team of one to two along the path directly opposite the 'jump force'. Her last mistake was also a very serious one, she took zero effective countermeasures after first sighting the capture team. Babysitting a rookie like you or not. She had several options at her disposal up to the point of the net, and the only one she used was fleeing. Messaging me is NOT a countermeasure. I will do my damnedest to always be there to rescue you, but I am not a god. There will be times you have to survive on your own. Her last mistake was failing to see that net coming. That was the final nail in your coffins. It all lines up, if you have the eyes to connect the dots, that is. Now Asuna, tell me, following the lines, what was the Squads plan?"

Asuna's orange eyes narrowed as she tired to figure out the Demon's riddle. Tyler groaned,

"Sakura, educate this naive girl."

"First is they followed us from the Cave. My guess is they happened upon us by pure accident, or they followed us from the village. The only question is how long were they following us for? It doesn't really matter for this lesson though. Next they waited for a prime opportunity to set up there plan. Us splitting our group like we did was the perfect opening. All they had to do was set the net, station a few players along a desired flightpath and get a large enough group in front of us. The fact they had enough people to send a group to kill Gore and still preform their plan means that this is quite the large guild. Then think of us as like cattle being driven to slaughter. You understand?"

Asuna blinked at Sakura breakdown of the Squad's plans.

"How can you know that for sure?"

"Because thats how we survive. We use cold logic to connect reasons for why something happens. For example, if a boy and a girl start to fight in a public place, and they start to yell, then why would they do that?"

"Because of relationship problems?"

"Not specific enough. So you would need to gather more information. The more you know the more you can prepare for various outcomes. like say if the guy pulls a knife and stabs the girl, if you see it coming you can react that much faster. We use predictions based on our knowledge of previous situations to foretell what COULD happen so we are ready for what DOES happen. Make sense?"

Asuna stared at the two players from her place on the ground.

"How can you live like that? You expect the very worst things to happen, from everyone everytime, don't you see how sad that is?"

"It's how you survive, Asuna. The monsters in this deathgame are not what is to be feared most."

"Then what is?"

Tyler and Sakura both answered in unison,

"It's the other players."

Asuna then got to her feet and faced the duo,

"If you always suspect of people, then how can you ever hope to trust then?"

"we don't expect to trust people. If it ended up being just us two being the last people on earth we'd be just fine. We don't trust other people unless they give us a damn good reason to. Like you for example, I'm just barely begining to trust you. The fact I left Sakura with you is either proof of trust, or my own lapse of judgement. And for your sake, it had better not be the latter."

Tyler had taken up the speech as Sakura had noticed a rather hard to find herb bushel growing nearby and had gone to gather it. Asuna seemed to be struggling with an internal debate. She then loked up at the red Demon,

"You're a monster. You have taught that poor little girl to never trust anyone else. She looks at the world like it wants to eat her. The world has lost all of it's color for you hasn't it?"

Tyler smiled, he knew where this was going.

"Of course the IRL world lost it's color for me. Get bullied as badly as I did, shipped to the other side of the planet by your parents, basically get screwed over and tell me you wouldn't turn cold. I gave up on the IRL world long ago. As for Sakura, I have taught her how to be strong. She's not there yet, but when she is, she will never get taken advantage of. At least, not without making the other bastards bleed for their efforts. You got a problem with that?"

Asuna clenched her fists, knowing she was powerless to actually hurt the callous bastard. She loked over to see Sakura watching a small group of small rabbits hopping past. She smiled, and just as Asuna started to think she was still just little girl, Sakura pulled a bow and shattered the bunnies without mercy.

"Nice haul there Sakura! I got some perfect Chincilla pelts as well, I thin we can upgrade our clothing with it!"

"sweet! Can you make another bra and pantie set for me?"

"sure thing, just tell me what you're in the mood for and I'll hook you up!"

That was the last straw for Asuna. Seeing such a small girl mercilessly slaughter a bunch of bunnies that she should have been mesmerized by like a girl her age, she had killed then and was now asking a boy three years older then her to make her underwear for her. Plus how cold and just plain nasty Tyler was to be around, added to his extremely nihilistic views about the people around him. Asuna then remembered something Sakura had told her earliar,

"You seem to be operating under the assumption that Goreleech is a good person doing horrible things to survive. You're wrong, he is NOT a good person deep down, no matter how he may seem or now he may act, never forget that. It was too much for the still-kind hearted red head.

"Tyler, you have corrupted that girls innocence. You are a poison. I don't want to travel with you anymore. I'll just head back to town."

Sakura came over shocked at her decision,

"What? You're leaving? Why?"

Sakura's eyes were wide, and had tears welling up, but Asuna was resolute. even if her heart was breaking at leaving the adorable girl.

"I'm sorry, Sakura, but Gore is just far too toxic for me to be around. You shouldn't be around him either. He probably took you in the just to groom you into his own little toy later on. He doesn't truly care about you. He's selfish, cruel, narcissistic, and is just plain hateful. The sooner you get away from him, the better. You could come with me if you'd like. I'm going to go join a guild back in town and fight to get us out of this hell."

"That's not why you're leaving Asuna, and you know it. You're just scared of him. You look at him and all you can see is an evil monster that wants to hurt people. While that is true, he is so much more then just that. He is all those things you said and more, but he is those things to our enemies. He'd never turn them on me or you. He-he"

The small girl's voice broke, but she forced her mounting emotions down and screamed at the self-righteous redhead,

"HE LOVES US LIKE HIS OWN FAMILY! HE'D DIE FOR US AT THE DROP OF A HAT! WHY CAN';T YOU SE THAT?"

She broke down sobbing pitifully, and collapsed to the dirt. Or had least tried to, as Tyler caught the weeping girl and hugged her tightly to his chest, pressing his cheek into her pink hair. Asuna was speechless, and Tyler gave her a look that would freeze hell itself,

"Go. You made my little sister cry, you heartless bitch. She doesn't deserve a sister like you, who fails to see someone beyond what the surface shows. USe this."

He tossed a teleport crystal to the now teary girl,

"Oh, you regret your choice now? AFTER getting called out on it? You have no place here. Leave now, while you still can."

Asuna was indeed cryingh as she watched Tyler holding the sobbing Sakura like he was her father comforting her, and at the sound of Sakura's sobs. Asuna raised a hand to Sakura, who looked at the red head,

"Leave, Asuna,"

Her voice was shaking badly, and was pitifully small,

"Leave, You called Tyler evil, but at least he's not BLIND."

"Sakura. I'm sorry."

"You're not sorry for anything, you just don't want to be responsible for my heartbreak, or your own. You're not strong, you just want to be carried."

Asuna now had tears falling freely at the condemnation in Sakura's voice. She held up the crystal, but before she jumped, Tyler left her with a final thought

"If you ever need our strength, you know my name. And I'll throw this out there just because of how much you mean to Sakura: If you ever need my training, my strength, or to just hangout with Sakura, again you have my name."

Sakura looked up at her brother and smiled through her tears at his offer, Asuna nearly broke down, but stuck to her guns and teleported, a look of sincere gratitude on her pretty face. Then a flash of blue and she was gone. Sakura had waved as the light faded and then dived right back into his arms and started crying again, as the girl she had hoped would be her sister was gone.

"well, that was heart wrenchingly sad."

"Yeah, I guess only a select few can stomach his personality long-term."

"You wanna know something? I agree with him."

"that's dangerous territory Officer"

"That red head does too, which is why she left. She doesn't want to lose her own hope like he did."

"Then what about Sakura?"

"HE is her hope."

"we CAN'T seperate them now. If we did, it would kill little Sakura's spirit and set Tyler down a murderous path."

"I'm scared of what'll happen if they do get out."

THREE MONTHS LATER

"Hey, check it out! We finally made it to floor 6! Took us long enough."

"Yeah, but I guess we're getting better at this. took two whole months to clear a single floor last time."

"We? No one knows who beat the boss, all we know is that the portals to the sixth floor opened up, and there was a toll of 30DR for the main hub."

"A toll? Well, far as I know there's only one duo who uses tolls in this deathgame."

"you mean the Demon and the Princess?"

"Yep."

"Hey, watch it, and now!"

"On it!"

Tyler dived to the right as the minotaur swung its axe, only to get caught by Sakura's arrows to it's eyes. Blinded the beast reared and roared, only for Tyler to cut it's horns off. The hornless beasts then tried to ram him, but Tyler merely sliced it's head off, shattering the beast.

"Nice one, Saki!"

"Thanks, Ty!"

They had only grown closer these last three months, now using IRL names when out in the wilderness. They had decided it was more practical, since they would track each other down back IRL. Tyler smiled as his cute little sister dropped deftly out off a high cliff. This area of the floor being a rather large desert and canyon system. Tyler watched with admiration as th pink haired girl descended the cliff face, her new equipment paying dividends. Her wolf-based outfit had been replaced with a tight-fitting half shirt made from high-drake leather dyed a light blue. The scales of the drakeskin rippled when she moved, and gave her the illusion of a more round chest. The shirt cutoff at the top of her stomach and only covered her shoulders, but it increased her physical defence by 50, her fire resistance by 100, and increased dexterity by 150. She still wore her paperboy hat, but it was now made from a white tiger pelt, the black and white stripes still visible, and the soft fur was some of her favorite. The hat increased her perception by 60, and also enhanced vision based skills, like bow skill. She wore a pair of short shorts made from the same drake skin as her top, but with the metal buttons made from gold. She also still wore her grey wold fur scarf around her neck, plus the addition of a red belt made from the red skin of a fire dragon, the metal clasp and studs being a blue metal that granted extra poison resistance. Her fingerless gloves had also been replaced with drakeskin. She was pink, and blue, and red, looked cute as ever. She had alos replaced her buckskin leg warmers with lionskin dyed blue. Her boots were crocodile skin with blacksteel treads. She landed on flat ground and smiled as she rejoined the tall boy. Tyler's gear including the red jacket from Ilfang's boss fight. A revamped shirt made from dragonskin, a large spiked belt made from blacksteel, a pair of black paints made from a black elephant that resembled denim jeans, and a pair of heavy redsteel boots. His sword was the legendary weapon received from the cave challenge. It's base stats, durability and looks had kept it around, while Sakura's bow had been replaced twice. She now had one made from Dragon bone, gold, and high-grade red crystallite. It was a powerful piece of equipment, some arrows dealing poison damage or extra bleeding damage. Tyler had been rather proud of how her bow turned out.

"That was some good work up there. We got both horns and a perfect minotaur heart."

"Anything else?"

"Don't think so...oh hello, you invited you?"

"What is it?"

"Take a look."

Tyler pulled the item in question from the UI and held it out to Sakura. It was a small mirror, about the size of a book, with reflectionless glass, silver metal and a shiny finish.

"I got nothing."

"Well, If you don't know, then is it new?"

"Maybe. Come on. I think I know someone who will."

"Kay!"

Tyler pulled his teleport crystal and Sakura pulled her own.

"Teleport: Sentria"

"Teleport: Sentria"

They then jumped and were transport to the newly populated hub. It was roughly three times the size of the town of beginnings, and had transformed into a major hub for the players to share information regarding the game. Only 6 floors had been cleared out of 150, and 3 of the bosses Tyler and Sakura killed themselves. Tyler had reached level twenty, while Sakura was just behind him on Level 19, him having gotten lucky on an extra drake kill. They stepped of the platform in the center of the Arabian nights-inspired city. Sakura slung her bow across her back and stood closer to Tyler's intimidating image. Together they moved through the throngs of people, either shoving other players out of their way, or just shoving past. Anytime someone got pissed, Tyler's name plate stopped them in their tracks. The name of Goreleech had become both the stuff of legends, and pure nightmares. His name was held right up there with the leader of the newly formed Knights Of The Bloodoath, Mirackle. The rumor was that his health bar never reached the red, or yellow for that matter. Tyler didn't really care about a potential cheater, for such a cheap trick was useless against his playstyle. They one thing that had caught his eye about the new guild was that Asuna had landed the second in command rank of the guild. That was a surprise, but then again, he didn't really care. Although he was glad she still lived, if only for Sakura's sake. Sakura had been ecstatic at the news, and had begged to go visit, but Tyler had refused on the grounds that getting involved with the guilds at all was a really bad idea. She had persisted, so he promised that the next time a boss was found, whether by him or they got invited, he would get her the time to visit with the fiery redhead. She had danced around like a kid during Christmas getting her desired gift. She was skipping along right beside him now, happily humming as she held the scary boy's hand walking down the street. They turned down a more decrepit alleyway from the main street. The person they were going to se had set shop off the beaten path and was known as a information collector. Tyler and sakura walked confidently down the alley, ignoring the stares of some unsavory characters eyeing the brightly smiling girl. But Tyler's presence was more then enough to keep them at bay. The duo the turned a corner and saw a disheartened guy with a spear walk out of a shop, grumbling while a familiar voice was heard booming,

"do come back now ya hear?"

Gabol, the big black guy that wielded a battleaxe the size of Sakura was laughing jovially as his latest victim left his shop.

"Well, guess you gave out yet ANOTHER raw deal."

The big guy's chuckle died as Tyler and Sakura stepped into his shop,

"hey, don't slander my good name, Gore."

"Too bad you don't have a good name, Gabol."

They fisted pumped, but it was clear that Gabol was a little nervous at this unexpected visit from the Demon and his Sister. Sakura ran around the counter of the small shop and hugged the big guy's leg

"Gabby! Hyia!"

"well, if Little Sake's here, it must be safe! C'mere cutie!"

Gabol and Sakura were close, and the tall man always enjoyed a visit from the small girl. Tyler smiled as he saw the bigger man get completely overpowered by Sakura's sweet, happy smile.

"Hey, as much as I like seeing Sakura smile like that, I got a question for you."

Gabol was instantly on edge, for if the Demon was after information then it could only mean trouble. He put the still giggling girl down,

"Lets talk somewhere less open.

"Okay."

The trio went further inside the shop, and took seats around a small table in Gabol's living area. The host laid out some tea, and then joined them at the table.

"So, what do you want to know?"

"We got something off a minotaur in the eastern canyons. This in fact."

Tyler placed the mirror on the table between the three of them. Gabol picked it up and was inspecting it,

"I don't know what that thing is, but since it resembled the mirror from the tutorial that gave us our IRL looks ingame, I felt I needed more information."

"I see. Let me try my appraisal skill."

Gabol then held his bear-paw like hand out and a faint green glow emitted from it over the mirror. There was a loading icon, then a menu appeared with the item's information

"well, looks like you got a communication mirror."

His voice was shaking at the item description,

"What's it for?"

"You can use it to video chat with someone IRL from within the game."

Tyler and Sakura looked at each other. The Sakura nodded.

"you want it?"

Gabol off his chair at the question,

"What do you mean, do I want it? You do know this lets you talk to you families back on earth right?"

"Yeah, you just told us. We don't have any use for it though."

"yeah, my family dumped me back when we got trapped"

"Plus my family shipped me around the world to get rid of me. So why would I waste my time trying to contact them?"

"Well what about how they feel?"

"Not my concern."

"I want Gore to kill them."

"Jesus."

Gabol just looked from one to the other, and the sheer disinterest in the item most any other player would literally kill for.

"Look if you don't want it I bet I know someone who would."

"I do want it it's just."

"then take the damned thing! we don't want it, nor do we need it. Don't look a gift Demon in the mouth."

Gabol sighed and slid the mirror back to them,

"I appreciate the offer, But I can't. It doesn't feel right."

"Alright. Hey Sakura, why don't you send this to Asuna as a gift?"

"that's a splendid idea! She'd love it!"

Gabol was speechless as Sakura set up the gift feature, bought the teleport orb, placed the precious mirror inside and sent it off with a small love letter and a loud kiss in the recording and sent it off. All with zero hesitation. He just sat there as Tyler brought another menu,

"Thanks for the help Gabol. Now then, how about we empty some of our unneeded crap on you!"

"I can't believe you just got rid of something so precious. Player would kill for the opportunity to send a message back home and you just gave it away. Like it wasn't a big deal"

"We'll most likely find another one, given the places we go. I'm honestly surprised we didn't score one off that cave trap. But I did land this sick sword so whatever. Hey big guy, we trading or what?"

Gabol just sighed and opened his shopkeep UI, and was shocked at the sheer number of goods for sale the duo had.

"Seriously? You're more well supplied then my shop! And this is just stuff you don't want?"

"Pretty much. The price is final though. I don't have the patience to haggle each item."

"yeah, I figured. Here."

"Thank you. Hey, Sakura. We just scored another 700k."

"sweet! What's our current total?"

"3.4mil, I think. here lemme check."

Tyler opened his UI and looked to party funds.

"Oh, will ya look at that. We got a grand total of, get this, 657mil654thou786 Droy. Not but for a couple loners?"

"Seriously? Hey, Lets buy a house together!"

"Maybe. I'd like to wait until we at least hit floor twenty. As I recall, they had some gnarly ones in the forests up there."

"awwwww!"

"Hey, be patient. If we find one we can both agree on before then, we'll snag it, okay? Since we're not a guild and just a party we can get two houses. Watcha think?"

"NO! I want a house for just us!"

"Very well, little Princess. But remember what I said, okay? If you do well, I know a place up on floor 45 that will blow you're cute little mind."

"But I thought you only made it as far as floor ten in the beta?"

"Yeah that was the limit. But, I got to design a playerhome on the 45th floor. I even know it's exact location. All we have to do is get there first. Or if it's already bought by the time we find it, kill the current owner."

"YaaaaaaY!"

Gabol was smiling at the happily twirling Sakura, until he picked up on that last thing Gore had said. he then got a cold chill down his spine, as Gore would do just that without even blinking. Again he was reminded of just who sat in front of him. He was about to say something when Sakura received a message.

"Hey, its from Asuna!"

"Well, don't be selfish, lemme see!"

I don't know how you got this thing, but thank you. I'm deeply in your debt Sakura. And you too Goreleech, as I'm sure you're reading this too. But I need to meet with you immediately. There's something that you both need to know, and I need YOUR help Goreleech. It's dire. So please, help me.

Tyler had a grim look on his face as he finished the message. He and Sakura both looked at each other and nodded.

"Sorry, Gabol. Gotta bounce. If this is what I think it is, then Asuna just became my second highest priority right now."

"I understand. Go give that girl some Demon backup."

"Sakura, let's roll out!"

Together the duo took off running as fast as they could, back out onto the streets. Their teleport crystals not working inside cities. Sakura was a step behind Tyler, who had a fearsome grimace on his face. Other players were falling over each other to get the hell out of their way as they raced passed.

"She's at her guilds HQ. Floor 5. Tryist citadel."

"Understood, tell her the Demons have risen."

"already did."

They charged the teleporter and jumped into it, yelling the name of the Bloodoath HQ. The next thing they saw was the teleporter outside the massive castle. They paid the imposing sight no mind as they ran towards the front gate. The guards on duty spotting the rapidly approaching pair. They had orders from their leader to stop any would-be intruders, but as they recognized the trademark red and blue of the Demon siblings, they jumped to the side.

"Where is Asuna?"

"The Se-"

"WHERE?!!"

"Second tower to the left, third floor forth door on the right."

They left the terrified man to slump on the ground as they blew into the tower. The man got back to his feet as another Knight approached,

"Leadership wants you to let the Demon siblings in to see second-in-command Asuna on sight."

"too late. They're already inside"

"Seriously?"

Tyler and Sakura raced up the circular stairwell by jumping from railing to railing like strange steps on a ladder. They reached the third floor, and hurried to the specified door. Subtly never having been a concern of Tyler's, banged his fist on the door,

"Asuna!, Hey, Asuna! Open up, the monster's here!"

There was a large amount of clicking and shuffling as a large number of locks were undone and then the door opened. Asuna poked her head around the door. Unlike the last time they'd been together, her fiery red hair seemed to have lost much of it's luster, she had deep groves on her face from tears, and there was a dead-eyed look in her once blazing orange eyes. Tyler became VERY angry at seeing her reduced to this. He opened the door and stepped inside, Sakura right behind him. Tyler shut the door and locked it himself. Asuna then breathed such a massive sigh of relief that it seemed just being around the Demon was a form of comfort. Sakura ran over and hugged her big sister, happy to see her. Asuna was wearing a light nightgown that seemed kinda dirty. Tyler spotted her Signature Rapier hanging on a wall. He went and picked the light weapon up, and preformed a few stabs with the thing,

"Well, its seems your gear has improved at least. Not by much though. If you were to roll with us, I got some mats to make something seriously badass."

Asuna just broke down weeping, her fierce spirit no where to be found. Tyler was not having it. He walked over grabbed her under her shoulders like a child and lifted her to her feet,

"OI! Get those tears out of those eyes! Pull yourself together! I can't help you if you won't help yourself! Now cut the shit and tell me what happened and which ass I need to kick."

Asuna seemed to recover a bit of her spirit,

"My families ass!"

"Let me guess, they have been watching our progress this entire time, is that about it?"

"How'd you know?"

Her voice a mere whisper. Sakura too seemed shocked, but recovered quickly. Asuna's voice was pitiful, small and weak.

"I know what is feels like when you're being watched. But since the ones watching mean less then shit to me, I didn't really care. I take it you found out with that mirror we sent."

She nodded,

"and let me guess again, you got reamed for your 'improper' behavior?"

Nod

"and you will be forced to marry that pedo when you get out, right ?"

another nod.

"lets see, they threaten to pull your plug now if you refuse to cooperate?"

again another nod.

"did you at least get the hospital name?"

"General Practitioners central medical center."

"you heard the lady. You fuckwads better save her, or god help you if she shatters while under my protection. Asuna you're coming with us. There are thinks I can teach you that you will need to win this fight. Let me see, if I remember correctly your last name was…Argento right? Asuna Argento, and your mother's name was Shiro Argento."

Asuna looked up confused,

"What are you doing?"

"Showing you how I handle pompous idiots. I know their names, their last known location, and now so do the others watching, be they doctors, nurses, extended family, my family. This way your horrible parents can't do anything to your body while under the care of the hospital. If they do, they now know I can find them. Which would be a nightmare they can't escape from. I would search for them, I would find them, and they would scream for days before I let them die."

He was speaking with such evil in his voice that even Sakura was terrified, he then surged forward and peered directly into Asuna's tear-stained eyes. They were less then an inch apart, he spoke again, this time his voice a growl that would have made Satan's blood run cold.

"I am speaking directly to you, Asuna's family. If she dies inside this game, by monster or sabotage on your end, I WILL FIND YOU AND NOTHING ON THAT EARTH WILL SAVE YOU. If you want to continue your existence after the end of this game, you will not interfere any further in her life. OR YOU WILL ANSWER TO ME."

He sat back,

"sorry for the closeness, but their PoV is our eyes, so I had to get close to make my point. Which I think they do. They better cause you know DEMON."

"Who does that boy think he is? Threatening us when he can't even see us. My word!"

Asuna's crone of a mother was furiously wiping her brow with a dainty kerchief after being stricken by Tyler's hateful eyes. A tall, creepy man in a suit had also been scared, but now he was playing with the helpless Asuna's red hair, rubbing the silky strands between his fingers and breathing in her sweet scent,

"Please madam, he's merely trying to intimidate us. It's all he can do from in there. And even if he was out, he'd be far too weak to actually do anything to us. Demon? pff, preposterous."

"Well, he seems to have Asuna's respect and admiration. she called for him nearly immediately after discussing wedding plans. The way he came running is what troubles me. Yes!? Can't you see we're watching our future on the screen?"

The door opened to reveal three doctors, and ten armed policemen. The doctors began prepping the trapped girl's body for moving, while the police handed the irate woman and scared pedo behind her a sealed court document,

"Ma'am,. this is an official termination of your rights as single parent/guardian of one Asuna Argento. The miss is to be transported immediately to the Hospital treating one Tyler J. Naamani per the SaS treatment act. She will be under the care of the staff there, along with his and one Sakura Testuiry families. You two are banned from the premises containing the lady's body until she is able to ask for you with her own mouth. If you violate this order in any way, shape, or manner you will be charged with a felony attempted homicide. These documents detail the order further."

The woman and man were whiter then ghosts, as Asuna's motionless body was wheeled out and along the corridor. The officers were about to leave when one stopped and spoke to the screen before disconnecting the cables,

"Miss, you have made a terrifying ally, and an incredible friend. I just wish he'd protect my daughter too."

Inside the tower, none of them knew just how effective the demon's threat had been. They were gearing up to depart the guildhall. Asuna having put her faith entirely in the fear she had felt at his threat. Tyler was certain he had accomplished his goal, while Sakura was just happy to have her big sis back. They were about to leave the room when Tyler had a thought,

"Hey, guys. I just got an idea."

"Oh shit, this can't be good."

"I'm right there with you Sakura."

"I heard that."

"Kinda hard not to when we're in the same room."

"yeah, captain obvious."

"Whatever. My idea was, why don't three of us make our own little guild?"

"Oh My God that's a great idea!"

"Yeah! I'd have to bail on this one, and I kinda like the whole second-in-command thing but."

"I had you figured for the bossy type Asuna."

"Fuck you!"

"you can later. Right now though, how do you make a guild anyway?"

"How do you not know, mister MasterBater?"

"I played solo during the beta remember? And yes, I'm a MasterBater, got a problem wit that?"

Asuna's face turned a bright red at Sakura's and Tyler's raunchy banter. They noticed and started laughing at the prudish girl,

"Wow Asuna, great tomato impression!"

"Careful Gore, She might start leaking Steam!"

"Maybe we shouldn't take her with us! Can you live with corrupting her pure little mind?"

"I think 'perverting' is more accurate for your sense of humor!"

"Yeah, your right. I forgot just how much of a little prude Asuna is. Her innocence is adorable!"

"Will you two shut up! I am NOT a prude!"

"Still sound like a prude."

"Yep, my prudar is signaling a full alert here."

The two friends were laughing at the fuming-fit-to-burst girl when there was a hard knock on her chamber door.

"Ma'am! The guildleader would like to speak with you and your friends please."

"Tell him we'll be right there, Lax!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

"Guess we gotta explain my departure to the guildmaster."

"Okay, Asuna, first lesson. you don't have to explain anything you do to anyone."

"I'd still like to. He's been kind to me, so it's the least I can do."

"Very well, I guess killing an entire guild would be a pain in the ass anyway."

The trio exited Asuna's room, taking everything she owned along with them. They exited the tower and followed Asuna into the main keep and headed up the stairs. The guilds uniform was a red and white color on their equipment.

"I wonder where their god awful fashion sense came from."

"You talking an awful lot of shit for a guy with two flights of stairs behind him."

"Hey! A swear! Making Progress Sakura, making progress!"

"...jackass."

They were laughing hard as they entered a large chamber. The room had a large table set up at the back of the room with six seats, five of which were filled with man in fancy full plate armour. Asuna walked up and threw a military-style salute to the man in the center.

"Guildmaster Mirackle, commanders. Second-in-command Asuna reporting."

"Jesus."

"I already hate this."

Mirackle was a middle-aged guy, with light blonde hair, grey eyes, a pointed chin and a medium build. Tyler looked over the man, wondering how such an unimpressive-looking person had come to be associated with the Demon. When he looked the man in the eyes, he thought he saw a flash of recognition in his otherwise stoic gaze. Sakura nudged his arm, she had seen it too. Asuna was explaining her desire to exit the guild,

"I'd like to thank you for your help thus far, but I'm going to be traveling with Goreleech and Sakura now. I would like to stay on friendly terms with the guild though."

The commanders all broke out into quiet murmurs at the news, but went silent when Mirackle began speaking,

"Goreleech and Sakura? I have hear stories about the two of you, most of them negative. I don't believe we've ever been properly introduced. I am Mirackle, leader of the Knights of the Bloodoath. You have quite the nerve. Showing up here both out of the blue and unscheduled, you then terrify my guards doing their jobs, and now you want to poach my top player out from under me? I simply do not know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything, Asuna is coming with us, and this not a thing you can do about it."

The other commanders were left speechless by this statement, however,

"And if I tried to stop you?"

"You and your entire guild would shatter by my hand, again with there being nothing you can do about it."

"Would you like to test that?"

Tyler vanished, appearing behind the guildmaster with a sword sticking out of his back. The man's health bar dropping fast, but as it was about to turn yellow it stopped. Tyler the returned to his original position,

"ohhhh, so THATS how it is?"

Mirackle had been caught completely off guard. He had not expected Tyler to just launch an attack inside the HQ of the single largest guild at the leader like that. When he heard Tyler's understanding tone, he looked to see him sheathing his blade.

"I thought I recognized that bit about your health bar not dropping into yellow. Let me guess, it's a cheat you had loaded into your helmet, isn't it?"

The man's eyes went wide as his secret was exposed.

"How?!"

"Idiot. I helped to MAKE this game, remember? So I know that the only way you got that bit of software was by being the dev on duty when the game trapped you too. You can't exit the system, but you can use a few Admin commands. Like immunity, or to bypass teleport tolls. But Something you DIDN'T know was a little piece of security I came up with during the beta, just so idiots like you can't abuse other players with impunity, that health trick only works once a fight, so I bet you had a special HUD command like a key bind for potions, which kept your health from falling further. The term for people like you are 'safers', those who let other people take all that risks, while you reap the rewards. well, your secrets out, and in the open. Have Fun! Asuna, Sakura, we out."

He turned on his heel and walked out the door, Asuna and Sakura on his heels. They heard a loud scream as the door slammed shut. Tyler was smiling smugly at the guards as he walked out the front gate with the two ladies flanking him. Once outside the gate Tyler held his Crystal up, and Sakura did too. Asuna held hers up as well, a little overwhelmed at what had just happened.

"Teleport: Cles"

"teleport: Cles"

"teleport: Cles"

Cles was an outpost town set in the canyons the duo had snagged the comms mirror. Tyler then led the trio into the Saloon and sat at a table and ordered up some burgers, fries, sodas for the girls and a mug of ale for him. As they ate Asuna was stunned at the wild turn of events,

"Seriously, what the hell happened back there?"

Tyler took a draught of his ale before answering,

"Secured your freedom from those knights, that's what."

"But the guildmaster"

"Was a cheater. Not sure how he got that little addon past the firewall. GrandEye's supposed to keep that from happening."

"Its just a shock is all."

"for you maybe. But if you're me its kinda obvious. That shot should've sent him into the red, but it stopped with quite a bit of momentum still behind it. If it had at least turned yellow I'd have not been as suspicious, a yellow bar after a shot like that? Okay, sure I can see that. But still green at his level? No friggin way. Not with the force I put behind it."

"You really tried to kill him, then?"

"Yep. Would've too, if his armour wasn't as good, and he wasn't cheating. That shook him, which was what I was after. Scaring an enemy that badly when they think they can't be touched is more lethal then any blade. If his guildmates don't shiv him, I'm curious to see how he'll recover, or what he'll do next."

The friends finished their meal and where resting when Tyler asked a rather important question,

"Asuna. Are you really sure you want to be trained by me?"

She jumped a little at his question, but then settled back down and rested her slender arms on the table and put her head in her hands,

"I stand by what I said about you, Goreleech. I still think you're a monster. But right now, will the problems my family have given me, what they expect me to do, I realize I can't fight them alone. I can't fight them at all, but you CAN."

"So you want me to teach you to fight the battles you ACTUALLY can fight and fight the ones you can't? That it?"

"Pretty much."

"no."

"HUH?"

"I said...no."

Asuna's mouth dropped open at his blatant refusal. Her jaw began to quiver like she was about to cry. She looked to Sakura, as if hoping for support, but Sakura had the same look of disgust on her cute face that Tyler wore on his.

"Why?"

"Because if you want to fight, it has to be with your own strength. Otherwise, you're just running away from responsibility."

"I can't fight them!"

"Then accept your marriage to the pedo, do whatever your mother tells you like a good little girl, and stop asking us to fight your wars for you. Sakura lets go."

They both rose to leave but Asuna had her Rapier drawn and was blocking their exit with her body, tears falling from her face.

"I can't fight my family, their too strong. I'm_"

"Just too weak. That's all. You have no strength."

"Exactly! I'm not strong like you or Sakura! I can't do it alone!"

She dropped to her knees, the thin sword clattering to the floor as she went down on her hands and knees, groveling,

"Please help me! I want to be strong like you! Please, Help me!"

"Asuna lift your head."

She did and saw Tyler and Sakura holding their hands out to the prostrated girl,

"Accepting your own weakness is the first step to true strength. I can teach everything you will need to wage this war, and you will do it with your own strength. And we will stand with you."

Asuna broke into a large smile and took their hands and stood back up,

"Tyler, Sakura, thank you."

"Don't thank us just yet. Thank us when you finally win your war. And since you don't seem to be aware, Sakura here was a little cry baby when we first met. She was just a little lamb thrown out into a wolf infested forest at first. Ain't that right?"

"Only cause I got stuck with an ugly old bear like you! You have a face to make babies cry!"

"Okay, baby!"

"Never say that again."

"Agreed, I just shuddered"

"Understood."

They then started laughing, Asuna hardest of all, as she was now ready to learn what the Demon had to offer. They were about to go back out grinding when,

"Oh yeah, weren't we gonna make a guild?"

"Oh that's right!"

"I forgot too."

"Sooo, how we do that?"

"Asuna?"

"I think we have to go to the town of beginnings and do it there."

"I hate that place. Haven't been back since the doors closed.

"me either. Might be fun scaring the noobs though."

"Okay THAT I can get behind. Lets go give some idiots nightmares."

"Poor bastards."

The trio went over to the teleporter and hopped to the town of beginnings. The tow itself hadn't changed much, except that most of the players that had been to scared to fight had taken up residence there. As Tyler and his party landed and set off for the guild registry, they became the center of attention, as Tyler and Sakura's flashy attire with Asuna's distinct flame colored hair, they were instantly recognized,

"Holy shit, Its the Demon Siblings! I heard they never come to town!"

"I heard they killed the fifth floor boss alone!"

"That's insane! Hey, is that Lightning Flash Asuna?"

"What the hell is she doing wit the Demons?"

"hey, look! It's Sakura! Damn, she really is as cute as they say!"

"You got a deathwish? Look at that dude in red! He hears you he'll KILL you!"

Tyler shot a glance at the one who'd commented on Sakura's cuteness,

"Damn straight she's cute as hell!"

The imposing trio moved on, leaving two very shaken players behind,

"Well, At least we agree on something!"

"Dude, go buy a lottery ticket from that vendor over there!"

Tyler chuckled at that last one. The party arrived at the guild registry and Tyler went up to the NPC to register a new guild.

"Okay, lets see, it costs 2000 Droy to form a guild, you need at least three members, so we're set there, a guild crest, hmm let's see."

The crest he chose was a pair of demon wings enshrouding twinkling stars in a protective embrace, with evil eyes staring out over the top of the wings, as if daring one to make a move on the light of the stars in the demon's embrace. The girls loved it.

"Okay, now how about a guild name?"

"What do you think of Heavenly Demons?"

"Nice Sakura!"

"I like it, too!"

"cool, we're officially heavenly demons, Asuna gets her power fix since she's a co-founder and so are you Sakura!"

"YAY!"

"I am not some kinda dominatrix ya know."

"Funny how you broke out the word 'dominatrix'. All I said was you had a power fix. How I'm curious, Asuna. If you'd like to play sometime I do remember the sex village's name on this floor. Soo."

"Guess you don't need your manhood anymore."

"Understood."

Their business concluded they headed back to the teleporter. They returned to the 6th floor when Tyler got a message.

"Hey, guess the floor boss has been found, their sending a rally cry. Guess a bunch got killed already. Wanna check it out?"

"Sure, We need to get Assy here leveled more."

"Who you calling Assy? It's Asuna! And sure lets go. How many died?"

"I heard like fifteen."

"Jesus, that's a massacre, who the hell led that raid?"

"Lets go find out."

They arrived at the dungeon entrance and found a few familiar faces,

"Hey, look what the cat dragged in, Lorg ya ugly ten-cent whore how ya been?"

"Goreleech and Sakura! Looking hot as always and more dangerous then unprotected sex at a furry convention!"

"Nice image, got anything to confess?"

"What did you teach this girl, Gore?"

"Some decent jokes apparently! Hey, Is that Kirito over there! Hey! Beater! Yeah you ya Jackass! How's it hanging?"

The black jacket wearing guy came over and smacked fists with the red Demon.

"Okay, NOW it's a party! wats up Gore! Hey Sakura, gimme a hug, haven't seen you two since Ilfang. Hey is that Asuna?"

Asuna came over to the friends reunion,

"hey, Kirito, Lorg its great to see you again."

"yeah same. You're running with Gore and sakura now?"

"Yeah, we formed our own guild together."

"really? That's awesome!"

"hey Kirito, we got a place here if you want in."

"thanks man but I'm a solo player. plus.."

"If you're still letting that whole beater thing get to you, then you need to remember you just asked you to join there guild. Oh and before I forget, there's something you two need to know about SaS. And for the love of god, do not tell anyone else okay? I'll fill you in after we kill the boss."

"Okay, I'll hold you to it."

"thanks for the offer, but I'll keep riding solo for a while."

"Sure, but hey give a holler if you ever need Demon support."

"Same back atchya.

The friends all laughed. Lorg was wearing a green set of Samurai armour, with a bright yellow sword, while Kirito was still wearing the Cloak of midnight. He had a different sword though, a one handed blade with stars on the handle. As they listened to the briefing, Tyler noticed something odd,

"Hey, is it me, or did he say that only five people died in the last attempt?"

"Yeah he did why?"

"Because when I got the message, it said fifteen died. Heads up, I think it's a set up."

"you think so?"

"Why would someone do that?"

"Understood. I'll break out my big girl bow."

"Alright. I'm ready."

Lorg and Kirito watched as the ladies took up positions either side of Gore and faced outward, while Tyler drew his sword. He looked to Lorg

"Get your crew together, if this goes south, I'll do what I can to get us all our alive. There is definitely something off about this."

Kirito went and stood beside Tyler and Lorg motioned her friends over to the group. Tyler's eyes had not left the one doing the briefing,

"Once inside teleport crystals start to explode, so you need to leave them with me and my guild."

"BINGO, its a trap. Teleport crystals to NOT explode."

"Hey! You're lying! Crystals do NOT explode!"

The man and everyone else turned to see Tyler with his red sword in the air. The man just sighed,

"And what would a lowly beater like yourself know?"

"DEMON, its' DEMON you idiot. I know a helluva lot more then you'd like me to. For example, the message I got said fifteen people have died, yet you said only five, so which is it?"

They man seemed taken aback at this question,

"A lot of people have died, if I said five, I'm sorry, I should have said fifteen. But the crystals do explode."

"Bullshit. But it's easy enough to prove. Sakura! Asuna! I'll be right back. Kirito, Lorg! Keep an eye on them!" He then booted the door open and strode inside. The doors shut and Tyler was sealed inside. Sakura sighed,

"There he goes again."

"What's he doing?"

"Being reckless."

"Does he do that a lot?"

"Constantly. Its his favorite pass time. He's basically daring the world to try to kill him. It hasn't called his bluff yet."

There was an outbreak of loud screams from within the closed doors.

"yeesh, poor bastards. They must'a pissed him off."

"Who?"

"the idiots involved in the ambush inside."

A particularly piercing scream was heard from within,

"That ones a screamer!"

"Ahhh, where did you learn that term?"

"hrm? Aww, Tyler said its what someone who likes to scream a lot is called, specifically during sex."

"Why the fuck did he tell you that?"

"I asked."

"why would you ask him that?"

"Because I was looking over the list of options in a sex village we found bout a month back and it had 'screamer' as an option so I got curious."

Lorg, Svenity, and Asuna all shared a glance, Kirito was picking at the ground with a rather intense fascination. Then the ladies spoke in perfect unison,

"He's a dead man."

Sakura just looked up at the taller girls, an expression of cute innocence on her delicate face. she giggled as she squatted near Kirito,

"Hey, Sakura? You trying to get Gore killed?"

"No, why'd you think that?"

"Cause setting those ladies on him like that is basically handing him a death sentence."

"Its how we show our affection."

"Deathtraps?"

"No. evil pranks."

"You are a scary girl."

"awwww, thank you!"

The creams from within the chamber stopped and the doors were booted open and Tyler came out dragging a solitary survivor by the foot. He tossed the thin guy into view at the feet of the briefer.

"Alright, tell them what you just told me, and your death will be painless."

The terrified boy blurted out everything,

"We set the trap! The boss is already dead, but as long as the exit door is not opened, it won't register as a cleared room. The victory icon is not enough. We set the trap and have you hand your crystals over and then kill you. We split your stuff among us after."

"And your leader is?"

"HIM!"

He pointed to the man standing at the edge of the platform, and Tyler sighed as he beheaded the rat. He shattered, then Tyler charged the leader and cut him clean in half, shattering him too. Their was a collective gasp at the merciless killings, but Tyler had already turned back around and gave his instructions,

"Sakura, Asuna lets go. The boss just respawned, so lets do this quick and go. Kirito, Lorg, wanna join the circus?"

The two girls joined him on the platform and they went to reopen the doors when Kirito with Lorg and her party joined them. They marched in and just left the other raiders outside. The boss was a giant with a large battleaxe. As far as the actual fight went, it was rather straight forward, dodge the axe and then hack and slash, rinse repeat. It took the group working together merely ten minutes to kill the boss and get the loot. Kirito and Tyler had to split the final attack bonus again what with their similar attack patterns and ways of approaching combat. They stepped out onto the seventh floor and headed to the main town, where Tyler set a toll of 45DR. They then went to a large tavern and ordered some food. Tyler, Sakura, Lorg, Asuna, Kirito, and Svenity had taken a table in the far back of the restaurant behind a door to keep eavesdroppers at bay. There Tyler explained everything he knew about the comms mirrors, and the live feeds. At first they hadn't believed him, but then Asuna backed him up with her own story. The silence afterward could be felt like a wet blanket. Then Tyler spoke,

"And that's about the size of it. Gnarly ain't it?"

Kirito sighed,

"well, at least they know I'm okay?"

Lorg spoke up next,

"That's a plus, I guess. Feels weird sharing my eyes with someone though."

"Trust me, no one wants to look through that god awful face."

"Hey, Gore.. there's something I want to tell you, what was it? OH yeah! Fuck off!"

"ehh, maybe later. What about you Svenity, You okay?"

"I'm good, my parents died when I was young, and I was an only child. MY grandparents also passed. So the only ones to see through my eyes are Doctors."

"Well, that's good and sad at the same time."

"Yeah."

"The only question is does this change how any of you do things?"

The table all responded with a single voice,

"NO"

They then discussed whether or not to tell the player base about the mirrors,

"I think we should tell them."

"Yeah it would give them hope."

"I think it would do more harm then good."

Al heads turned to look at Tyler. He placed his head on his hands as he explained,

"Think about it. If you're one of the those players who's hid in the town of beginnings all this time while others fight your battles for you, and then found out your family's been watching this whole time, how would you react? Suicides would spike again, players would lose all fighting courage because they wouldn't want their families to watch them die. If the mirrors became widespread and the families were able to influence choices, then the number of unnecessary deaths would also skyrocket. Plus there's the possibility that the families would hire RPG 'experts' to coach their trapped loved ones, and poison an otherwise sound plan. Guilds would dissolve under the pressure of families that can't get passed differences, in either looks, age, appearance, gender or some other bullshit. It would basically cripple the near entirety of the fighting force. And once the players gave up, then the real shitshow would start. For I guarantee the outsiders would try to pass some form of regulations on in game life."

"You're right, the mirrors will get out eventually, but it sounds like they're rare in the extreme."

"yeah, nearly what six months of grinding at our paces and we only found the one. If the devs are smart, they'll remove them entirely Asap. Otherwise we'll never get out."

The group gave a collective groan as they all contemplated the consequences of if the mirrors became public knowledge, or widely available. Tyler threw back his drink,

"Well, there's nothin we can do about it right now. So lets just get wasted and have some fun. Order another round, drinks on me!"

They all cheered as they ordered a round of drinks, then a toast was thrown out,

"TO OUR FRIENDS! THE DEMONS!"

They threw back their mugs and downed them, and the partying began. Tyler and Kirito got into an arm-wrestling match, Asuna and Lorg played a round of drunk kings game with Svenity and Sakura. Then Lorg got called out by Asuna for having fake guns, while Kirito started teasing Sakura. Tyler was playing a SaS version of beer pong with Svenity.; The friends partied hard that night, as they took a breather from the morbid reality of ingame life.

"that Tyler sure knows how to party, doesn't he?"

"who'd have thought?"

"he is quite intimidating. Especially that stunt with Asuna's family."

The speaker being Sakura's godmother, glanced over to see the red hair of Asuna on the other side of the boy's motionless body.

"She is very pretty. I'm glad her father is such a good person."

"I'm very grateful that she made such a steadfast friend. I cannot be prouder of my daughter's choices in friends. As I understand it, you were going to have your goddaughter stay with the boy after they get out as his surrogate sister?"

"yes, that's correct."

"I'd like to extend the same offer to Asuna. If she'd lie, she can stay with him as well. I don't think there's another person on this planet that would look after her better, myself included."

"Id think she love the idea, and Sakura would too."

"That guy better be careful, otherwise he'll have a full blown harem waiting for him when he wakes up."

"Lucky bastard"

The combined families laughed as the friends enjoyed the fruits of their labor.