Sword Art Online: Side Stories

<<switch>> Was called out by Masaru. Star threw 3 of her daggers while charging him. Her sword had been using the preset combos. It was abnormal for her to use it it general so she never took the time to learn better sword skills, which she began to regret doing mediocre damage. Another problem was on the way, Magnarok was closing in on them. "We need to rush to the other side and avoid the big guy. He is getting closer to us!" She ran past the Golem's. The large one smashed the ground right behind her. She just evaded the attack. However, the Golem had another technique, separation. It detached its arm, launching it at her like a rocket. She had to throw a few daggers to stop its large projectile speed. Only then was she able to block it with her sword. It did tremendous damage though, 10% of her max HP was down. "Dang. 90% left. i need to be more collective." Golerat appeared in front of her. She had no time to block before its attack. She gasped in fear. All she could do was pray Masaru was at the exact right place to stop him.

 

Masamune lounged beside the warp gate, waiting. He knew it was dangerous to have stayed up all night and now all day but a twitchy feeling had settled in his gut and the only time that happened was when he had those rare run in's with death. Seeing Mya fly out of the warp gate, he snagged her arm and hugged her from behind. "That didn't take long. I was almost certain you'd ignore me." Despite his casual words, his heart was still racing. "You've no idea how difficult it is to type messages when there's a crisis." A part of his mind screamed mistake at calling her out here, but his craving for someone who wasn't afraid or hateful towards him...someone to confide in was louder. "Red-Eyed XaXa is no longer my ally. Which means no more updates on the movements of the front liners. So I'll have to go myself." He smiled while he spoke.

 

Masaru saw the detachment attack then Goelrat attacked her but eh used his <<Sprint>> skill to get in front of her while opening the <<Phantom Blades>> activated, spiltting his sword in carbon copies and brought them into a cross guard, grunting a bit as the pressure was coming down on him and he pushed back Golerat and spoke. "Double...Circular!" he said and dashed, slicing with left and right sword consecutively against Golerat before it grabbing oen his swords with a hand and he let go of it, forcing the copy to disappared and he cried out. "Vorpal Strike!" as his balde's length doubled and he conencted it with Golerat dealing a high amount of damage, however the cooldown would be a long one, afetr all, the msot powerful attack fo One-handed Swords skills had to have that drawback.

"I'll handle the detaching arms, you send projectiles in, it may cause small damage but it's better thna doing nothing, besides, Vorpal Striek will take a while before it's useabel again, and Phantom Blades." he said to her, keeping his eyes on the Golems.

 

As Mya arrived at the floor, she was suddenly grabbed and hugged from behind, making her jump and blush a little at the time. "What the...Masamune? Of course I'd come! Sending a message saying you're in danger would cause people to come, even your enemies!" She looked around the area, realizing he wasn't really in trouble at the moment. She sighed as was about to snap at him for sending her a false message until she heard him talk. H-huh? The frontlines? He can't! She turned around to face him. "You can't go to the frontlines! You're wanted remember? Everyone wants you dead!" What the hell is he thinking?!

 

Golerat = 30%
Magnarok = 99%

"Right. Thanks, Masaru." The golem's health was at a good amount down. The Golem continued to throw its rocks as she threw her daggers to stop the attack. every set of 3 daggers seem to damage it by 1%. The projectiles were a part of it after all. A small orange light could be seen in the head of Golerat. "It must be a weak point." She went down the menu and selected her skill, "Infinity Bow! Lightning Strike!" The dagger glowed as she aimed deeply into the Golems skull. With a precise shot, it hit the Golem, killing it. A Congratulations window opened as she gained 2 levels. "Nice."
"Masaru! Look for the glowing orange spot! its a weak point!" Magnarok was the only one left. It was a good thing AI's didn't have emotions like avenging his fallen partner.

Golerat = 0%
Magnarok 95%

 

He sighed, "Yeah...kinda hard to forget." Releasing her, Masamune frowned down at her, "But if I wanna keep an eye on what's happening...I'm going to have to go for a while. It's not like I'm going to hop right out front of all those big guilds and say 'Hey, I'm your wanted murder, care to share some info with me?'" Rubbing his head, Masamune shut his eyes for a moment, "I'm only going to be hanging around the back. Meeting with a few others who aren't Red Players that label themselves as PKs." Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he grinned, "But first...I'm betting you want to scold me for sending you that message when I'm fine. But really...would you come if I simply said I had wanted to only see you?"

 

Masaru nodded at the indication of a weak spot andslashed at Magnarock a few times before rotating his body to avoid a counterattack and leapt upon it's swinging arm before jumping off in mid-air, sword glowing ina blue light as he activated the <<Vertical>> Skill, slicing down upon his head and leapt off it's shoulder, moving behind it before the sword glowed again, this time activating the <<Vertical Arc>> A V-shape tracjectory at the monster's unguarded back.

 

Mya nodded."Yea...I should've thought of that. You wouldn't be that simple minded to go out there." She scratched her head and looked away nervously."W-well true I should scold you for that message, but I don't feel like scolding you at the moment. I mean, after our last encounter, I didn't think I'd see you again for a long time. Well...I would say yes...I would've gone to see you in danger or not..." She blushed a little brighter as she said that.

 

As much as Masaru tried, the golem was built like a tank. it was at 75% and Star's HP was dropping. "I don't know how much longer we can keep it up like this. Right when we see his weakspot, he maneuvers the stone in him to cover it." She realized something. The longer it fought, the more aggravated it became throwing much more devastating attacks. This meant when it launched it's own body at them, a weak point could be used and he would have no time to recover. "Masaru, when he attacks me, aim for him then, I'll be fine." Star ran to the wall, provoking the golem who, as planned, launched a good amount of its own self at her.

 

Bending down to meet her eye level, he slid his hand onto her forehead and up a ways into her hair, "You're not sick are you? Can you even get sick in this game? Hmmm...I don't think you can." Touching his own forehead, he frowned, "Feels the same to me... Maybe my headset is glitching out. I could've sworn I heard you say you wouldn't mind if I asked you to see me for no reason at all." Folding his hands behind his head, he rocked back on his heels, "If you're not going to scold me...and here I was all prepared for a scolding....then I guess I get off scott-free this time. Never had that happen before...unless I killed you. But that would be...really troublesome and I generally don't want to." Masamune knew he was rambling. Flicking open his menu, he pulled up the notice of Mya's store's opening, "I saw this...and figured I should show you this..." He pushed up his sleeve and showed her the traditional Laughing Coffin guild mark of the black coffin with it's tongue sticking out tattooed onto the inside of his wrist, "Those in my guild have this mark somewhere on them. Not...everyone is a Red Player in the guild. Our tell-tale orange cursor doesn't belong on those people. They're green, just like you and your friends, but they're just as dangerous. You'd best steer clear of customers that come asking about the tournament, me, the guild or anything not related to clothes. I can't save you if they come knocking and I'm still gathering information and replacing XaXa's position."

 

Mya sighed, ignoring his hand on her head. "No Masamune, I am not sick. And I don't plan to scold you. I'm not really in the mood to scold. Yes you heard me right." She then listened to his warning and all that fun stuff and nodded seriously. "Don't worry about me. I know how to stay clear of trouble. Besides, we're in town and it's a zone where I can't die. I'm not foolish enough to dual them if they really wanted to go to that extreme. Even if something were to happen, it won't really matter. I mean...I don't mean THAT much to you to a point whee they would attack me. Right?" She then remembered the scene at the tournament where he said she meant something to him. Is it really true about that? Would the guild take what he said seriously and come after me?

 

Masamune inwardly flinched. He hadn't been thinking when he'd warned her. Keeping a blank expression, he nodded, "Right. Even if they thought you meant something to me, they shouldn't want to risk the wrath of a PK." The mass murderer within him wanted to frighten her into staying within the town at all costs but...it wasn't right to make her feel like she couldn't move freely just because he'd decided to take a liking to her. "I can't believe you don't want to scold me. I kinda feel like I should make you want to yell at me." Mischief entered his red-brown gaze, "But that would be wrong, wouldn't it. Something like...suddenly kissing you or even..." he touched his forehead to hers, a devilish smile spreading across his lips, "Killing one of your friends." Enjoying PK humor, Masamune chuckled, his mind flicking back to the faces of those she considered her friends. So far...they'd all been people he'd met on the first floor on that day. Was there a connection between that day, the people and Mya that he was missing? Or was it all just by chance that she'd met each person who'd witnessed him kill that boy?

 

Mya cocked her head. "Why would you want that?" It wasn't until he moved close to her and touching his forehead with hers that made her blush furiously and look away. "Don't joke like that! Y-you wouldn't do that! Kissing me or killing my friends!" She hastily stepped back, pressing her hands against her hot face. "Ugh...you and your careless words...one day its gonna hit you where you don't want it t be."

 

Masaru nodded and ran forward to strike at the exposed weak point his cooldown for <<Vorpal Strike>> ending which eh put to immeidtaely used literraly, ranning the blade through it's soft soft with a cry but that wasn't all, hie activated his <<Phantom Blades>> one mroe time, using the second sword to thrusrt it into the small exposed area, effectively wedging both blades inside.

 

Straightening, Masamune laughed heartily, "Ah, there's the scolding I was waiting for!" Laughing so much, he drew the attention of the waking people of the town. Sobering, he flicked his fingers down, opening his menu and equipping into casual clothes. Wearing a dark green plaid long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbow with a red t-shirt underneath. His camouflage pants tucked into black military boots. "Feels good not to wear armor." stretching his arms over his head, he paused mid-motion, "Oh...PoH reminded me when my birthday was. I, heh, guess I'm not as old as I thought. Lucky for me, eh? I'm around twenty-two. Give or take."

 

She sighed angrily."Seriously, you need to find another hobby besides pissing people off you know?" She leaned against the warp gate."So you're 21? Figures. You didn't look like a 30 year old. You think people would have a better grasp at their age..." She smiled."You're young you know?"

 

"Another hobby? But what will I do with all that free time if I'm not pissing people off? Plus...it's fun," he clasped his hands behind his back and leaned forwards, "The expression on your face when you're angry is cute." His smile vanished, "Young, huh?"

 

She exhaled sharply, trying her hardest not to punch him in the face from his constant teasing."Yea young. It's sad though. At 21 years of age, you're branded as a murderer. It hurts me on the inside seeing after all of this, you're thrown into a prison for a long time. I don't want to see that even if everyone else thinks so..."

 

The golem fell to the blade strike as it dispersed into computer particles. Star ran to Masaru and hugged him tightly. "Thank you Masaru. Couldn't have done this alone. Lets go to the core." Star lead the way as the two warriors traveled into the volcano. There it lay, the Magma Core. One of the rarest items to date. It sat on a solid molten pillar. Star grabbed it and it warped into her inventory. "Yes, lets get out of here..."

A dart came shooting from a corner of the room. It was a paralysis dart. It stuck Masaru, causing immediate paralysis towards his body. Star ran to him but a girl jumped in between the two. "I didn't expect to find you here too Starlight." Inferna stood there with her spear ready. "As you can see, my target here is your precious Masaru. Lets just say some men got jealous that he had you instead of them. So I was hired to kill him." She was serious about this. Of course Star would never let this happen.
"I won't let you kill him..." Her fists tightened up. "Masaru, hold still."

 

Moving back, Masamune frowned at her. Why was she always saying surprising things? "You don't, huh? And why's that?" True, he didn't want to be thrown into prison either once he woke up...but it was his way of atoning for what he'd done in the real world. "I wasn't always such a nice person, Mya. There are people out there that know me for a monster. I can't say I disagree with them. If someone had killed my parents...children...friends, I'd want them to die."