The Drifter Logs || Sword Art Online Fanfic

Chapter 1 - The Katana Witch

10 September 2023

Forest of Wandering, 35th Floor

Somewhere in the dimly-lit forest, footsteps as soft as a rabbit rang through the vicinity.

A little girl, with a height not even matching half the length of a Dire Wolf, was frantically running for her life.

All she could see as she ran were the things that lighted up the forest: egg-shaped structures that were scattered among the trees that had somehow survived in this dark environment.

Her panting was mixed in with her sobs; tears running down from her swollen eyes without warning. She didn't dare to look back at her pursuers, whom she was sure were still focused on capturing her.

Her pursuers, however, were seen in the form of black shadows dodging the trees without fatigue. The egg-shaped structures weren't bright enough to reveal their appearances, but it was certain that they weren't ghosts.

The little girl blinked hard on her eyes to shake off the tears as she continued to flee. She was just fine an hour ago, living peacefully in the cottage with her family in the middle of the forest.

But now....

She clearly remembered the terror that turned her life upside down just minutes ago. Figures barging through the door, the clashing of metal, and the sight......of her parents and siblings bursting into blue fragments.

It was just too much for a girl of her age to handle. And yet she had to force her legs to carry her away from her home, to somewhere that she didn't care to know where.

Run, she had heard them shout. It was just that simple. Until she reached somewhere safe, she would keep running, no matter the cost.

The girl's eyelids suddenly fell shut, her body still running. It was inevitable that fatigue would strike her so soon, but she had to keep going. Her heavier pants might not help, and she could feel the numbness growing in her legs.

And in the way of her path was....

The thing that the girl had crashed face-first into wasn't soft, but wasn't hard either. She couldn't see anything at that moment, as she fell back onto the ground, landing on a sitting position, with her legs spread out. Her eyes instinctively opened, giving view to another terror staring right at her.

A Giant Gorilla, armed with a bat that was almost the length of its arm, glared at the already fear-stricken girl. It also had wooden beer jugs strapped on its waist. Boasting a size a few times bigger than the girl, the monster raised its bat.

The girl sat frozen on the dark ground. She would be pulverised by a swing by this monster, or get caught by the pursuers behind her. Either way, it would mean death for her. Her throat stopped making sobs. All she could do was stare at the bat that was going to rain down on her head.

But the bat didn't start the swing. Instead, the Giant Gorilla's body shook, but it didn't fall. The girl heard a female voice behind the monster, amid her endless flow of tears.

"Oops..........!"

A katana, held by its female wielder, had dug into the back of the Giant Gorilla. It had no light effect enveloping its blade, despite the wielder knowing that she was up against a pretty high-levelled enemy mob in the Forest of Wandering. Simply told, she didn't unleash any weapon skills at that moment.

She was holding the katana with just one hand. Although there weren't many one-handed Katana skills that can be found in the Katana skill tree, the swing motion that the female player had tried to make with only one hand wasn't one of them.