When Asuna and Koharu finally had their eyes on the boys, the situation could only be described as tense. The first draws Koharu’s eyes first; in what looks like a cross between a turtle and a wyvern, the beast has a dragon-like face with scales all over its body and a shell with long and sharp spikes. Behind it is a giant blue signal, this game’s icon for a barrier. As for the two swordsmen, they’re not trying to attack it, just standing in front of it, weapons out. Either they’ve figured out its attack range, or figured out attacking it leads to retaliation, but in any case, the boys did not fully retreat like Klein and Agil.
It is as if they were waiting for Asuna and Koharu. “Kirito, Jaymes, we’re here!”
“How did you two get in this mess?”
“Kirito slipped off that cliff right there, right underneath the guy’s snout. You can imagine the rest.”
“Its name is Painbringer, but I rather not experience pain while acting foolishly, so we got out of its range.”
“For once you’re thinking.” Asuna gives Kirito the side-eye glare then faces the monster. “It’s completely blocking the road. There’s no way to avoid fighting it.”
“It’s gotta be at least a mid-boss, which means it’ll be way stronger than those other small-fry. Guys, are you ready?”
Jaymes gives his sword a quick twirl. “Always.”
Koharu nods as she gets into her attack position. “Let’s do this.”
“All right… Where’s everyone else?”
“Do we need them, Kirito,” Asuna rhetorically asks, then gestures to the ensemble. “I say the four of us are good enough.”
“Good point. Attack!” Kirito leads the four into battle, striking first with his black and blue blades and a sword skill. While the hit connects and damage is applied to the Painbringer, Koharu can barely see it dip. Considering it was at full health prior, it's just a scratch to the mid-boss. Jaymes suddenly stop moving as he and the girls come into range. He holds his shield up and forward, and Koharu understands without further explanation. She follows his command, and four blades dance around the Painbringer as it fights back, with Kirito drawing aggro.
Origin’s battle system is slightly different from its progenitor, Sword Art Online. While the fundamentals are the same across the board, the addition present is a hidden break and topple system, called the weak and down mechanic. It requires players to rack up damage to enemies to increase the damage multiplier, then the break (or weak) phase occurs. That happens as soon as Kirito finishes a skill called Blazing Spin, the status appearing in thin, purple letters. Now with the defenses broken, the damage applied starts to rack up.
They manage to whittle the first of two health bars to about 75%, then Jaymes called for a shield skill and bashes it against the Painbringer’s head. “Down” appears in white letters, and the beast is immobile. At once, the four fire off their strongest skills for the few seconds Painbringer is in the stun effect, then back off once it wears off and a barrier raises around the monster, signaling its defenses are back with a quarter of the first health bar remaining.
Once again, without any words, the four resume attacking, employing the same strategy. Before they exploit the “WD”, the first bar is depleted, and after another WD, about 60% of its health remains. The four part ways and surround the monster, boxing it in a square. “Let’s finish this! Use your skills! Starburst Stream!” Kirito unloads his signature sixteen-hit combo Dual Blade sword skill. Once he finishes, he leaps back. “Asuna, switch!”
“Mother Rosario!” Asuna flies into the fight and with her renowned speed thrusts into the Painbringer fourteen times. “Jaymes, switch!” Jaymes comes from behind Painbringer with his signature One-Handed Shield combo sword skill, Dragon’s Fury. Once the ten-hit skill is done, he says two words Koharu has waited two months for.
“Just a little more! Switch, Koharu!”
“Integral Existence! Take this!” Five dark lines cross the Painbringer, then it vanishes in sparkles of blue light.
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Koharu pants as the adrenaline rush comes to an end and puts her blade on the back of her waist. She turns around, seeing Asuna leaning against Kirito and Jaymes kneeling on the ground. The fight may have looked to be easy, but it was far from it. Painbringer was strong, with many AOE attacks than they could count. The terrain wasn’t in their favor, for it rose in a slope the farther they got from the main path. Their only advantage was that Painbringer didn’t move much from his spot on the road, but that made surrounding him also a chore. If Koharu and company hadn’t had experience working together before, they would have failed quite easily.
“Nice! That was awesome!” Leafa says as she and the others (who Koharu noticed was standing and watching for obvious reasons) join up. Leafa, of course, is the most starry-eyed. Everyone else besides her and Sinon has seen or heard of the unity of the Black Swordsman, the Crimson Warrior, Lightning Flash, and the Kindred Assassin in Sword Art Online. She just heard about it for the first time last week.
“That looked rough,” Silica says.
“Seriously,” Liz agrees as she reaches for Jaymes and helps him to his feet. “Now I get why those pros needed those enhancements so badly. These monsters are a cut above anything on Ainground.”
Jaymes nods as he gets to his feet. “Yeah. I may need to ask the same of you, Liz. These monsters are much tougher than the floor above.”
“Oh, you’re willing to pay full price?”
“...What happened to my discount?”
“Have you held up your end of the deal recently?”
“...Guess not. Maybe some good ores and materials are on this level?”
Silica nods. “At least we can keep going.”
“Yeah. Good job, Asuna, Jaymes, Ko. We did it like the old days.”
“Would have been better if someone watched their step.”
“Agreed.”
Kirito scratches his head from the verbal beating of Jaymes and Asuna. “Heh, sorry… What’s wrong, Premiere?”
Premiere stares at the spot Painbringer stood, though no readable expression is on her face. “The strength of that enemy causes me concern for Tia.”
Sinon looks towards the now-cleared path leading deeper to the floor. “If Tia is here, defeating that thing on her own must have been nearly impossible. Still, she’s good enough that I’m sure she made it through just fine.”
“There’s no doubt about that, and we should know. We fought her.”
“Yeah. I hate to say it, but Genesis trained her well. She won’t go down that easily.”
“Indeed. That is a small comfort.”
Asuna crosses her arms. “Genesis had a huge impact on Tia, didn’t he? He’s the reason Tia’s ended up so different from Premiere, even though they started out the same.”
“And he’s why she doesn’t think she needs anyone else, too. Though if you look at it from a different angle, maybe it’s more that she thinks people are no more than obstacles. Reminds you of another AI, huh, Jaymes?”
Jaymes nods. “Yeah.”
“What do you mean,” Leafa questions Sinon.
“Like...she’s not destroying things for the heck of it, but to protect something. And people keep getting in her way. A year ago, Lievre was the same way. She was doing it for the sake of her master Subtilizer.”
“So you mean like when she was trying to protect Genesis. But that feels like a different thing… I can’t put my finger on it.”
“Hmm, I see what Sinon means. Lievre wanted to destroy GGO and kept her silence to protect her master, same with Tia, Genesis, and Ainground. But in the end, Subtilizer cast her aside, and it could be said Genesis would have done the same, probably. He did ‘care’ for Tia more than Subtilizer did for Lievre, in some regards.”
Kirito interrupts. “I know I’ve said this before, but I really doubt Genesis wanted to destroy this world because it would be ‘fun.’ That doesn’t explain why he was so fixated on getting stronger to the point of breaking the law.”
“It could be that creating Aincrad and then destroying the world was his way of showing off just how powerful he was.”
“That’s what I’m thinking, Liz.”
“So it was pride… He was probably trying to cement a place for himself in the world.”
“Maybe Tia feels the same way.”
“She’s just trying to find where she belongs,” Koharu finally speaks, having a similar thought about herself. Where she belongs not just in the world of her friends, but family, school, and even her dreams. Four years have definitely changed a lot of things for her.
“Well, it’s getting late for a school week. Let’s hurry to the next area terminal and call it a night.”
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Town of Beginnings
While the group began logging off, that’s when Lisbeth sent Koharu a message to meet up. Not sure what Lisbeth could want, nor wanting an encounter with the blacksmith today, Koharu begrudgingly met with Lisbeth at her closed shop. The blacksmith is already there, leaning against the stand, perking up at the sight of Koharu. “Koharu. Thanks for coming.”
“What’s this about, Liz,” Koharu says probably a little too harshly, but given the last time they spoke privately, can she be blamed? Lisbeth does catch on to this and holds her hands up.
“Wait, no, I don’t want to talk about that. I mean, it is about Joshua, sure, but not… Well…” Lisbeth’s arms go limp and so does her face as she bears a troubled expression. “I could tell something was bothering him today, and I’m not the only one, I’m sure. And not just while we were on Aincrad, but even before then.”
“You’re right, I have noticed.”
“As expected of the girls closest to him. But do you know the issue?”
Koharu shakes her head. “I have my suspicions from when he walked me home, but… I don’t know. You know him, he wouldn’t show he’s troubled unless it’s quite severe.”
Lisbeth sighs and leans back on her stand. “Yes... Well, I have no right to ask you of this, but for now, Asuna is right. I want a truce between us.”
“A truce?”
“Yes. We have to be able to work together here, and in the real world, it would be troublesome if we didn’t get along, especially if we’re going to be around Joshua. So no matter what, until we’ve found Tia and whatever is bothering him is sorted out, let’s call a truce.”
Koharu crosses her arms and thinks about it. “But you don’t have a good record of winning truces, Liz.”
“Ugh.”
“But if it means we can try to be friends again, I’m for it. I don’t want to fight you for something as trivial as--”
“It’s not you fighting me…” Lisbeth then says something that Koharu can’t hear, then pushes herself off her stand. “Well, first things first. You have to find out what’s his problem. If anyone can find out, it is the person he trusts--or trusted--more than anyone. Then maybe we can help him.”
“Are you sure we should meddle?”
“It’s better than doing nothing when someone we care and love is in trouble, right?” Lisbeth has a point. If this was the other way around, he’d be looking for ways to help her. It’s only right she does the same.
“Okay. I’ll go see him when I log off. I’m just a few minutes away, then I’ll tell you at school. How about that?”
“Works for me.” Lisbeth reaches her hand out to Koharu and smiles. “Let’s help our dear friend out together, and afterward… No matter what, let’s try to be friends.” Koharu nods and takes Lisbeth’s hands. This is a partnership she did not see coming...and who knows what it’ll lead to. But Liz is right on one thing: if anyone can find out what’s bothering Jaymes, it is his partner.