Sword Art Online - Volume 4 - Fairy Dance

by Reki Kawahara

  Seeing the little fairy hang her head dejectedly from her perch on Kirito’s right knee, Lyfa used her fingertips to gently stroke Yui’s head.

  “No, it’s not your fault, Yui-chan. At that time I asked you to warn us of nearby players as first priority. You don’t need to sound so sad.”

  “…Thank you, Lyfa-san.”

  Looking at Yui’s moist eyes, Lyfa found it hard to believe the little pixie was just a simple piece of program code. She flashed a smile from her heart, touched Yui`s little face, and turned her attention back to Kirito.

  “Well, since it has come to this, all we can do is try our best.”

  “Try… try what?”

  Lyfa gave Kirito, who could only blink in confusion, a fearless smile.

  “I just want to try it—whether or not the two of us can reach the stairs leading above ground. Sitting here is just a waste of time.”

  “But, but, you just said it was absolutely impossible…”

  “I said that it was 99% impossible. But I want to take a risk on that 1% possibility. As long as we figure out how the Evil-gods move and stay out of their view, careful forward movement should be possible.”

  “Lyfa-san, you are awesome!”

  Yui clapped her hands, and Lyfa responded with a wink before standing up.

  However, Kirito grabbed Lyfa`s sleeve and drew her back.

  “Wh-what?”

  Lyfa tumbled back to her seat. She started to protest, but the dark eyes staring into her own from nearby quieted her. As he held her gaze, the until-now relaxed Kirito addressed her in a firm tone.

  “No, you should log out now. I will protect your avatar until it disappears.”

  “Eh?! Wh-why?”

  “It is now half past two. Didn’t you say that you are a student? Today, you have been in FullDive over eight hours for me. I can’t let you stay with me any longer.”

  “…”

  The suddenness of Kirito’s comments left her grasping for words, but he merely looked at her and calmly continued to speak.

  “Even going straight we don’t know how long this will take. If we avoid the very large monsters’ detection range, it will increase our travel distance. Even if we reached the stairs, it would be around morning. I have a reason that I must go to Aarun, but today is a weekday, so I think you better log off. “

  “No, I’m okay. Just one all-nighter…”

  Forcing a smile, Lyfa shook her head.

  Kirito, letting go of Lyfa’s sleeve, lowered his head to make his final speech.

  “Thank you for coming this far with me, Lyfa. If it weren’t for you, I would probably have taken several days just to gather information. But thanks to you, I only needed half a day to get here. No matter how much I thank you it wouldn’t be enough.”

  “…”

  Unable to fight back the pain in her chest born from these surprising comments, Lyfa could only ineffectually clench her fists.

  Lyfa was uncertain why these words hurt her so deeply, but her mouth moved instinctively and roughly spat out words.

  “…I’m not doing this just for you.”

  “Eh?”

  Kirito raised his face. Lyfa avoided eye contact with him and continued in a hard voice.

  “I… I wanted to come, that’s how I ended up here. I hope you understand that at least. What is this about forced journey? Do you think I hated coming all this way with you?”

  Her welling of emotion was detected by the AmuSphere, and it tried to make a film of tears cover her eyes—she was forced to blink rapidly to clear them. To escape from Yui’s panicked looks between her and Kirito, Lyfa turned toward the shrine’s entrance and stood up.

  “I… think today’s adventure was the best I have had in ALO. There were a lot of exciting things. Finally, I too began to think that this world is another reality, I was starting to believe!”

  Lyfa wiped her eyes with her right hand, and was about to go outside when suddenly—

  A huge, strange sound that was neither thunder nor earthquake came from a short distance away.

  “BORURURU!” That roar, was no doubt from the mouth of a huge monster. Subsequently, the ground began to shake, and there was a roaring sound of footsteps.

  ‘Oh no! My shouts earlier must have attracted an evil-god! I’m so stupid, stupid!’ While mentally blaming herself, Lyfa quickly decided to bait the monster away by running.

  Kirito interrupted her by grabbing her left wrist—Lyfa didn’t even know when he had gotten behind her. His firm grip prevented her from running out into the field.

  “Let me go! I will pull the enemy, and you can use that gap to get out of here…”

  Lyfa urged Kirito in a low voice, but he caught sight of something and he cautioned Lyfa.

  “No, wait. This is bit strange.”

  “Strange, what is…”

  “It’s not just one.”

  After hearing this, Lyfa listened carefully; indeed, there were two evil-god roars. One was a giant engine producing a low bass, but that was also mixed with a wooden flute-like wind sound. Lyfa held her breath, then shook off Kirito’s restraining hand.

  “If there are two it’s even worse! If either targets you it will be too late! After you die, you have to restart from Sylvain again!”

  “No, that’s not it, Lyfa-san!”

  That small shout came from Yui, who sat on Kirito’s shoulder.

  “The two evil-god class monsters nearby… they are fighting each other!”

  “Eh?!”

  Lyfa quickly closed her eyes and concentrated on listening. Indeed, the roaring footsteps did not sound like a gallop issued by going in a straight line but rather like it was moving around irregularly.

  “B..but, monsters fighting each other, how…”

  Lyfa murmured in awe, completely forgot about the sadness in her chest. Kirito seemed to have decided on something and spoke up.

  “Let’s go and see. This shrine won’t be much of a refuge anyway.”

  “That’s true.”

  Lyfa nodded and placed her hand on the hilt of the katana at her waist then followed Kirito out into the darkness filled with dancing snow.

  After running only a few steps, the noise resolved itself into two evil-god class monsters. They slowly approached from the east of the shrine, their movements like the shaking of small mountains. Almost twenty meters tall, both were the blue-grey unique to evil-gods.

  Upon taking a closer look, the two evil-gods were different in size. The one issuing the “BORURURU!” sound was the larger of the two, about twice the height of the other, a smaller monster making a chirping “Hyuruhyuru!” sound.

  The larger one was vaguely human shaped but had three faces lined up vertically as well as four arms, two on each side—it could be called a giant. Each of the angular faces gave the impression of a pagan god. As each face made its cry, all three together made the continuous, engine-like “BORUBORU” sound. In each of the beast’s four hands it held a sword that seemed more like a steel girder, the huge, heavy blades being swung as if they were weightless.

  In contrast, it was harder to understand what the smaller monster was modeled after. Large ears, a long elephant-like trunk, and a body as flat as a bun supported by twenty legs ending in hooked claws. The overall impression was of an elephant-headed jellyfish.

  It extended hook claws to pressure the three-faced giant, but the other’s four iron swords swung at the speed of storm and easily blocked the offensive. The claws futilely attempted to reach the giant’s faces. On the other hand, the giant’s blade easily hurt the body of the jellyfish-like monster, dark body fluids flying off like mist.

  “Wha…What’s going on…”

  Lyfa whispered in surprise, completely forgetting to hide due to her astonishment.

  In ALO, battles between monsters could occur but only for three reasons. First, if one monster was domesticated by a Cait Sith player with high taming skill; in other words, a «pet». Second, if a Puca played a melody that
either confused or agitated the monster. And third, if one of the monsters was hypnotized by illusion-type magic and forced to fight.

  In the battle taking place in front of them, none of these appeared to be the case. If one of the monsters was a pet, its cursor should have been yellow-green, but both of the evil-gods had yellow cursors. No music could be heard over the rumbling of the ground and the screams filling the air, and none of the light effects caused by illusion magic were present.

  Not seeming to notice Lyfa’s group at all, the two evil-gods continued their intense battle. However, the three-faced giant appeared to have an advantage, while the movement of the elephant jellyfish appeared sluggish. Finally, with a swing of its sword, the giant cut off one of the jellyfish’s taloned legs, the limb falling to the ground near Lyfa with a ground-shaking impact.

  “Hey, doesn’t it seem a bit dangerous to stay here…?”

  Kirito whispered beside her, Lyfa nodded but couldn’t make herself move. The blood from the wounds sprayed onto the white snow, dyeing it black, and Lyfa couldn’t take her eyes off the elephant headed evil-god.

  The jellyfish’s injuries forced it to cry out shrilly as it tried to run away again. The giant wouldn’t let it get away however, swinging the iron swords more powerfully at the body of the jellyfish. Unable to withstand the pressure, the jellyfish cried out as it crouched on the ground, its cries became weaker and weaker. The giant kept mercilessly swinging its swords, engraving cruel wounds on the gray skin of the jellyfish.

  “…Help it, Kirito-kun.”

  Listening to those words coming out of her mouth, Lyfa was surprised at herself. The expression on Kirito’s face was three times more surprised than her. Looking at her and the two evil-gods, he questioned her in a bewildered voice.

  “Which one?”

  Indeed, compared to the three-face giant, the jellyfish had a stranger form. But in this situation, there was no need for hesitation.

  “Of course, the one being bullied.”

  Lyfa immediately answered, but Kirito responded with a very natural question.

  “How?”

  “Well…”

  Lyfa had no immediate response. Mostly due to the fact that she didn’t have any idea of what to do. During Lyfa’s period of indecisiveness, more wounds appeared on the back of the blue-gray, elephant-headed evil-god.

  “…Kirito-kun, do something!!”

  Lyfa cried as she clasped both hands to her chest. The Spriggan boy could do nothing but scratch his black hair.

  “Even if you say do something…”

  Suddenly, Kirito’s hand stopped moving and he stared at the evil-gods again. Eyes squinting slightly, the flashing in his shiny black eyes reflected the speed of the thoughts running through his brain.

  “…A form like that, if it has any meaning….”

  Kirito muttered. Then, looking around the area, he whispered to Yui sitting on his shoulder.

  “Yui, is there water nearby? A river or lake is fine!”

  Hearing that, the pixie closed her eyes without asking for a reason and started nodding her head almost immediately.

  “There is, Papa! About two hundred meters to the north, there is a frozen lake!”

  “Good…Lyfa, run there like your life depends on it.”

  “Uh…Huh?”

  It looked like Kirito was talking about form of the giant with three faces and four arms, but what did water have to do with it?

  Lyfa was puzzled, but Kirito did not say anything as he bent over and pulled a long, fat nail out his belt. ‘It must be a throwing pick,’ thought Lyfa despite never having seen such a thing used before. Because ALO had very powerful long-range attack magic spells, there was no point to training simple long-ranged weapon skills.

  Kirito was doing it for real, however. He twirled the twelve centimeter pick over his shoulder, holding it with just his fingertips.

  “…There!”

  With a shout, Kirito’s right arm moved faster than she could see, and the iron needle flew straight with a stream of blue light…

  The missile hit right between the shiny, dark-red eyes of the highest face of the three-face giant.

  Lyfa was surprised, as her careful observation of the giant’s HP bar showed that its health was reduced very slightly. Such a tiny weapon penetrating an Evil-god class monster’s overwhelming armor could not be done without very high throwing skill.

  While that damage was nothing to the huge HP bar of the evil-god, it was doing any damage at all that is important here because—

  “BOBOBORURURURU!”

  A roar of anger came from the three-faced giant as all six eyes focused on Kirito and Lyfa, signaling the change of target from the jellyfish to players.

  “…Run for your life!!”

  Kirito shouted as he ran northward, spraying snow in all directions as he took off at top speed.

  “Wai…”

  As Lyfa’s mouth moved, she hurriedly followed the Spriggan who was sprinting far ahead. Then, from right behind her came a roar like thunder and the sound of something heavy trampling the ground. The giant was chasing after the two of them.

  “Wait…Nooooooo!”

  Lyfa screamed as she dashed at top speed. However, Kirito running ahead of her had a form that even Olympic sprinters would envy as he pulled further and further away from Lyfa. She had experienced his running speed as they escaped «Ruger Corridor», but being left behind was a different matter.

  “Sooo meeean!”

  While Lyfa was yelling desperately, the huge shaking sound behind her was getting closer. The evil-god was about thirteen times as tall as her, so each of his steps was about the same ratio compared to Lyfa’s. Her fear of that steel beam size sword that might be swinging at her even now made Lyfa push her entire body to the limit—that is, her brain’s movement signals worked faster in an attempt to catch up to Kirito.

  Suddenly, ahead of her, the black-clad youth stopped in a cloud of snow. He turned and caught Lyfa in his extended arms. Despite their dire straights, Lyfa could feel her face heating up as she turned to look behind them.

  The three-faced giant was close enough to be frightening. It would catch up in just a few seconds. If they were to be hit with those iron swords, the lightly armored Kirito and Lyfa would lose all their HP in a single hit.

  ‘…What on earth do you want to do!!’

  Lyfa wanted to ask Kirito, who was holding her close to him. At the same time…

  Crackcrackcrack…sounded the ground as it exploded outward.

  The giant’s legs, as large as tree trunks, had broken through the ice lying beneath the snow. Kirito had stopped in the center of a vast frozen lake that was covered by snow.

  The ice for 15 meters around the evil-god sank, exposing transparent dark water. The three-faced giant plummeted into his self-made lake causing a ridiculously large column of water to splash into the air.

  “Just sink like that…”

  Lyfa desperately begged, but that easy solution didn’t occur. One and a half of its faces appeared above water, and it slowly came closer. It seemed that below the water its lower two arms were acting as paddles; despite its a rock-like body, it certainly could swim well. If Kirito was betting on the evil-god drowning, it seemed that he’d lost.

  Wanting to start running again, Lyfa turned around only to notice that Kirito standing motionless. He held onto Lyfa hard enough to activate the harassment warning, but Kirito remained staring at the giant.

  “…Ah, you, couldn’t possibly…”

  ‘He wants to die here.’

  That thought flashed through Lyfa’s mind.

  He couldn’t be doing what Lyfa had attempted earlier, sacrificing himself to let Lyfa log out, dying and returning to the save point in the Sylph capital, Sylvian.

  Lyfa couldn’t allow that. Kirito had a very strong reason to go to Aarun, or more specifically, the «World Tree», as she’d found out during their one day of travel. The Spriggan boy’s only reason for playing AL
O was for the purpose of meeting someone up there, and he had surpassed many obstacles to get this far.

  “No, you must escape…”

  Lyfa weakly cried while trying to escape from his arms, but she was cut off by another splashing sound.

  Startled, she turned her head and saw a new column of water appear behind the three-faced giant.

  “Yururururu!” That roar was definitely from the elephant-headed evil-god that the three-faced giant had tormented earlier. Even though they had pulled the giant away, it had chased after the three-faced giant rather than escape.

  Lyfa instantly forgot her situation, her eyes going wide from astonishment as she saw -

  Cutting the water, around twenty limbs raised up and coiled around the face and arms of the giant.

  “BORUBORU!” The giant angrily roared, trying to swing around its iron swords. However, they moved slowly in water and could not cut the jellyfish’s skin.

  “…I, I see…”

  Lyfa whispered hoarsely.

  The elephant-faced jellyfish evil-god was originally an aquatic monster. When on land, most of its limbs were needed to support that huge bowl-shaped body. Now that it is in the lake, with its body floating in the water, all of its limbs are being used to attack. The giant on the other hand, needed to use two of its arms to swim, reducing its offensive power by 50%.

  The «form» Kirito was talking about was actually referring to the jellyfish evil-god. Realizing that it was completely natural for a jellyfish to be in water, Lyfa was disillusioned that she wasn’t able to notice it herself so she clasped both hands tightly.

  The elephant head evil-god was like a fish in water, the jellyfish’s power forced the three-faced giant’s head under water. The two super-sized monsters’ violent fight caused high waves, spraying large quantities of water and ice in all directions.

  The elephant jellyfish gave an intense roar, its body shining with a blue white light. The light changed into sparks which flowed along its twenty limbs.

  “Ah…”

  “Alright!”

  Kirito and Lyfa both shouted at the same time. The three-faced giant’s HP started decreasing with tremendous speed. Using the identification skill they could see what amounted to hundreds of thousands of health points disappearing every time the electricity sparked.