Sword Art Online DLC

Chapter 3: In the Deep End

"It makes sense." said Taijou who also read his message. "We're still rookies when it comes to this stuff, Kirito did say that this strategy was built with the survival of every player in mind." Kirito continued speaking.

"This battle will be taking place tomorrow" the crowd began to stir. "We will meet at the labyrinth entrance at 10am game time, from there we will move as one pack through the dungeon before splitting of into the 3 units to tackle the boss. Be sure to make any final upgrades you can today and rest up, dismissed!" Kirito walked off the stage and people began to leave the theatre.

The giant pillar that stood in the north-east forest of floor 1 cast a giant shadow over the raid party. It was the next day, 9:58am game time and the assault team was making final preparations for the raid on the first floor labyrinth.

"Silvia" Kirito called out over the crowd of players.

"Yes commander?" She replied.

"As one of the vice commanders of the assault team I'm giving you the task of leading the support group." Silvia stood a little taller.

"You can count on me commander."  Jyenka, Taijou and ThirtySix all navigated there way through the crowd to get to there assigned positions, or well, ThirtySix did all the navigating, Jyenka and Taijou just sort of followed him.

"You really think we can do this?" Asked a slightly nervous Taijou.

"We have to" said Jyenka clenching his fists. He remembered back to what he said on the day everyone was trapped in SAO "Jyenka is the name of the hero who will conquer this world!"

"I won't die here, I can't." Said Jyenka confidently.

"We'll be ok, despite our situation SAO is still a VRMMORPG. If the first boss was ridiculously difficult it would through off the game balance." Said ThirtySix in a relaxed voice.  

"Good point" said Taijou. "Thanks for the little confidence boost."

"Everyone! Can I please have your attention!" Kirito stood on an elevated part of the land the raid party had gathered in. "In just a few moments we will be taking on the first floor boss. I know on the grand scheme of things that doesn't sound like much considering there are 119 other floors, but this fight might just be one of the most important ones. People in this world are scared, filled with dread and hopelessness, but beating this boss will prove that this game is beatable. Today, we restore faith in every person trapped in this game, we look this challenge in the eye and let it know we are willing to win and we tell that bastard in the green cloak that we're coming for him. No let's go beat this boss." A loud battle cry rang out from the crowd of players. The large stone doors on the labyrinth entrance slowly opened and the raid party charged in slaying any monsters that got in there way. Jyenka, Taijou and ThirtySix were at the back of the pack following the trail of drops and blue polygons left by the players at the front. The raid party continued advancing through the labyrinth taking breaks every now and then to recover HP and stamina as well as have there weapons repaired by the teams blacksmith's.

"This one should be good to go" said one of the blacksmiths as he handed Jyenka his double-bladed sword.

"Thanks" replied Jyenka before going to sit down with Silvia, Taijou and ThirtySix. Jyenka stared at the blades on his weapon, he couldn't quite put his finger on it but this weapon type felt extra comfortable in his hands, especially if you compared it to other weapon types.

"Everything ok with it?" asked Taijou who noticed Jyenka checking out his blades.

"Y-yeah" stammered Jyenka as he put his weapon away.

"And what about you Silvia?" Taijou said looking at Silvia who had her face buried in her menu. "Anytime we've had breaks you haven't taken your eyes off that thing."