Sword Art Online Progressive 3

by Reki Kawahara

  “Um…uh, okay,” I stammered. Asuna smiled and closed her eyes.

  In less than a minute, I heard true sleep in her breathing. She said until she was asleep, so if I could roll her down onto the sofa and retreat to my bedroom, she couldn’t complain, but given her difficulty in staying asleep, that seemed nearly impossible.

  I was stuck where I was until she eventually woke up. I tried to relax my shoulders and leaned back against the back of the sofa.

  Be stronger.

  That was a command I gave myself when I was racing out of the Town of Beginnings—or fleeing, depending on how you looked at it. I rushed to gain levels, get new gear, and power myself up faster than anyone else, for some reason I couldn’t really explain. I was driven by something I couldn’t name.

  Was it Asuna who gave me a reason? I had to be stronger so that the next time she or someone else revealed their weakness to me, I could be that reassuring presence who said, “No, you won’t die, it’ll be okay.” Was it right for me to think that way…?

  Suddenly, Asuna shivered as she leaned on me. She hadn’t woken up—she must have felt a shiver in her sleep. The winter night seemed a bit chilly for just a sheer tunic.

  If only I had some kind of player skill to whip up a nice warm blanket for her. Sadly there was nothing of the sort in my inventory—

  “…Oh,” I murmured and opened my window. Over in the storage tab, I selected a particular item and materialized it.

  A thin, silvery fabric fell lightly into my hands—the Argyro’s Sheet that came in so handy in the Fallen Elves’ watery hideout. It was big enough to hide an entire gondola, so it would easily serve as a blanket. There was only a bit of durability remaining, but because we weren’t on the water now, it wouldn’t drain anyway.

  I wrapped the blanket around us, and the chill that filled the room seemed to vanish at once, bringing a pleasant sleepiness into my head.

  Before I closed my window, I set my alarm to go off at five thirty in the morning and closed my eyes.

  December 25 and 26 passed in the blink of an eye as we spent them undertaking the “Lapis Key” quests for Viscount Yofilis.

  They weren’t easy quests by any means, but with the latest level-up for the both of us, plus the usual overpowering presence of Kizmel the elite knight, we never really struggled at any point. The prelude quests on the first day had us running back and forth, but by the afternoon of the second day, we found the underwater dungeon that housed the key. We defeated a dullahan-type boss monster, its body covered in verdigris, to gain the second of the secret keys, this one a brilliant marine blue. There were no sneak attacks by masked Fallen this time, and we were back to Yofel Castle before dinner.

  After reporting on the quests to the viscount and receiving our considerable rewards, the large window at the west end of the hallway showed a brilliant sunset. I stretched to my fullest in the red light.

  “Mmmm…Well, we managed to get the second key right as planned. The viscount put it away in that little chamber behind his desk. I wonder if the first one’s in there, too,” I murmured to myself.

  Kizmel answered that question, happy to be back in her familiar armor. “That’s right. That means if the Forest Elves managed to reach the fifth floor of the castle, it’s quite likely they might make off with the keys. Viscount Yofilis might be excellent with the rapier, but he cannot be forced to fight in his sickly state…”

  “Don’t worry, Kizmel. They won’t even step onto the dock, much less reach the fifth floor,” Asuna proclaimed confidently. She’d been quite energetic and spirited the last two days. She must have really enjoyed the chance to fight alongside Kizmel again. “Whether they come with ten or twenty ships, we’ll sink them all!”

  “Ha-ha, I am glad to hear it,” Kizmel said, patting Asuna’s back before she turned to me. “Kirito, Asuna, the fact that we have recovered the Lapis Key in just two days is a sign of not just your own strength, but that of your ship. And what makes me happiest of all is that you chose to give such a beautiful craft my sister’s name…”

  She trailed off and strode toward the nearby window. The north-facing window looked out upon the front garden and gate, as well as the long pier beyond that. To the sides of the pier were eight large gondolas painted black and one little white one—our Tilnel—bobbing in the waves.

  “My sister loved to swim, ever since she was young. She and I often rode on a little pleasure boat in a city on the ninth floor. Looking at the Tilnel brings back old memories…”

  Asuna quietly approached the reminiscing Kizmel from the right. I watched the setting sun sparkle in their hair and thought hard.

  The possibility that a Dark Elf herbalist named Tilnel, who was Kizmel’s twin sister, actually existed as an NPC in Aincrad was very low. SAO’s service period began only fifty days ago. In a sense, Kizmel’s Dark Elves and their Forest Elf foes were born in that instant. Tilnel was nothing more than data created to serve as background for Kizmel.

  But each time Kizmel spoke her memories of Tilnel, that data in the server got overwritten in a more detailed form. Even a woman who existed only as background information became truth through those memories…it seemed to me.

  I cleared my throat at Kizmel’s left and told her about something Asuna and I had discussed during the key quests.

  “Um, Kizmel. We have a request.”

  “As long as I can help.”

  “Yes, well…our books of Mystic Scribing cannot hold large objects like ships, but we also cannot pick ours up and climb the Pillar of the Heavens with it. When we move up to the fifth floor, we will need to keep the Tilnel somewhere here on this floor.”

  As the Dark Elf listened patiently, Asuna spoke up next.

  “You see, Kizmel, before we leave for the fifth floor, Kirito and I want to leave the Tilnel with you. Even if you just leave her here on the dock at Yofel Castle…”

  Last night, the two of us had discussed whether this would be even possible. If the game system prohibited it, we were afraid that this might cause undue stress on Kizmel’s AI.

  Normally, it was not possible to pass items on to NPCs. When we found the Dark Elf knight’s sigil in the third-floor cave and tried to give it to Kizmel, she claimed that we should pass it to the commander ourselves. And when Asuna gave Kizmel her purple bikini at the bath, Kizmel returned it before they left the changing room.

  But there was no need to change ownership of the item if we were just leaving it moored at the dock. If Kizmel just accepted the Tilnel in spirit, and thought of her sister when she gazed upon it, that was all we could ask for. How to get from this castle to the labyrinth tower was a problem, but we had the inner tubes if it came to that.

  As we waited on her answer with bated breath, the knight turned to the window, her armor clanking.

  After a few moments, her voice emerged—quietly, but with emotion you would never hear from a NPC.

  “…Of course. Of course you can. I will take responsibility for your precious boat. But promise me one thing.”

  “What is it, Kizmel?”

  “Come back to this castle sometime, and give me a ride on her.”

  Then it was our turn to shout, “Of course!”

  8

  “FROM THE LEFT, KIRITO!” ASUNA SHOUTED.

  I gritted my teeth and plunged the oar to the left. The Tilnel was maneuverable thanks to its small size, but it had its limits. The turning radius of the gondola at high speed was about twice the length of the boat, a full fifty feet, and required foresight at all times.

  “Nuaaaah!”

  I rowed with all of my strength. A large brown boat plunged into the corner of my vision. Though it was hidden behind the boat’s spray, the prow was equipped with an enormous ram, and even with its excellent defensive ability thanks to our choice of fine materials, the Tilnel was not likely to emerge unscathed.

  A Forest Elf soldier standing at the prow brandished a ten-foot spear.

  “I’ve got him!” Kizmel shouted from t
he center of the boat, raising her saber. With a brilliant, speedy swing, she lopped the tip off of the spear as it plunged toward me.

  It was worth trusting in Kizmel’s assistance and staying the course, as it ensured the Tilnel just missed the ram and slipped past the large ship’s port side.

  The enemy ship began to turn, but once we were at their rear side, there was nothing they could do. Our foes’ defenseless stern came into view as the two ships circled around each other.

  “Asuna, Kizmel, here we go!”

  “All right!”

  “Ready!”

  They crouched and clutched the sides of the ship as we charged at full speed. The Fire-Bear’s Horn affixed to the Tilnel’s prow crunched directly into the sturdy Forest Elven ship’s sole weak point, its rear end. The red-hot ram split the thin wood and evaporated the water around it, causing an explosion that blew up the rear half of the ship.

  Even as we used that backward pressure to reverse the Tilnel, the enemy ship began taking on water and sinking from the stern end. The eleven Forest Elves aboard the ship were thrown into the lake, screaming, and immediately began to swim away.

  “Yes, that’s two!” I crowed.

  Meanwhile, Asuna shouted on lookout. “Enemy ship to the rear left! They’re facing away from us, so this is our chance!”

  “R-roger!”

  I regripped the oar and plunged it to the right this time.

  It was Tuesday, December 27. Just as the Fallen Elf General N’ltzahh had proclaimed, “five days later” was right on the money: A small fleet of boats carrying Forest Elves plunged into the lake around Yofel Castle just after noon.

  We were ready for them, as our Dark Elf scouts warned us three hours in advance, but I couldn’t prevent a chill from running down my back when the enemy ships appeared, horns blaring. They showed up sixteen strong, much more than my initial estimation of ten ships.

  That was twice the number of ships for the Dark Elves at Yofel Castle. That meant that, assuming the ships on either side had the same battle power, our little Tilnel had to sink eight ships on her own.

  I had never expected to experience a large-scale naval battle in Aincrad, but here we were, two lines of brown-and-black ships charging each other like ancient Greek fleets. Two Forest Elf ships and one of the Dark Elven boats took on holes and sank in the first clash. That left fourteen enemy ships against seven.

  But as a roving wild card, the Tilnel had no obligation to line up properly. Instead, I utilized a tactic from the Battle of Salamis and surprised them on their flanks.

  Of course, in a giant circular lake, there was no place to hide. But we did have the very useful Argyro’s Sheet on our side. With Asuna’s Tailoring skill and some patience, we even managed to repair some of its lost durability.

  Safely hidden from sight at the east end of the battle area, we carefully timed our first strike for the exact moment both sides had stopped and sank the first boat with a perfect blow. After that, things got chaotic, but we had just sunk our second, which meant the Forest Elves should be down to twelve ships.

  “Kizmel, count up the number of surviving ships!” I shouted as I rowed frantically. It took all of two seconds for her reply.

  “Six on our sides, twelve for the enemy!”

  “Ugh…”

  The enemy number was right where I expected it to be, but we’d lost another ally.

  As one might expect from ships hastily cobbled together from wood acquired from dismantled boxes, the Forest Elf ships had ugly, squarish prows and sterns. They were slower and less maneuverable than the Dark Elves’ elegant gondolas, but much sturdier.

  On top of that, as Kizmel had feared, the Dark Elf discipline and morale were lower than the enemy’s. A few ships were lined up and locked in furious on-board combat, but more Dark Elves were falling to enemy blades and plunging into the water than the other way around.

  “Valiant warriors of Kales’Oh!” bellowed a large knight who had the look of an enemy commander, at the center of a ship bearing a green flag with golden shield and sword. “Send these cowardly Dark Elves to sleep at the bottom of this lake! They have allied with humankind and built ships for the purpose of bringing down our castle! Fortunately, their plot was foiled, and we claimed their ships for ourselves! We must not miss this opportunity!!”

  …Whut?

  I puzzled over that one as I rowed with all my strength. Did the enemy commander just say that the Dark Elves were allied with the humans? Did that mean that the Dark Elves hired humans to build ships and the Forest Elves stole those ships? As far as I knew, that wasn’t true. At the very least, I knew that the Fallen Elves had built those ships the Forest Elves were using now, at their behest…or so I thought.

  “They’ve spotted us, Kirito!”

  Asuna’s shout brought me back to the scene unfolding before my eyes.

  The oarsman of the Forest Elf ship we were aiming for was attempting to make a right turn as he stared at us. I pushed our boat left, then waited for the right moment to make a sudden right turn. Predicting the location the enemy ship would pass through ten seconds from now, I started rowing madly.

  With two swift strikes faster than the eye could follow, Asuna disarmed two enemy spears, and in the next moment, the Tilnel’s ram burst through the enemy’s rear starboard hull. Kizmel had to lean over and pull Asuna back before she fell over with the impact.

  There was another blast of steam, and the enemy ship was destroyed. That made…

  “Three!”

  I ignored the enemy soldiers falling into the water and searched for our next target. On the north side of the lake where the main fight was taking place, the Dark Elves continued to fall behind. The six remaining ships were lining up to prevent entrance to the castle and engaging the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, but more Dark Elves were falling into the water than Forest Elves.

  Meanwhile, the enemy still had eleven ships active, and three of them were spinning off the main fight to approach the castle dock from the west.

  “That’s not good,” Kizmel murmured, just as the Dark Elf commander in the midst of their fleet raised a scimitar and bellowed at us.

  “You there, the little boat! Stop wasting time and stop the enemy swing force!”

  “H-how can he speak to us like that?” Asuna demanded, outraged. This was coming from the same commander who haughtily informed us that we wouldn’t be a factor in the battle and to stay out of the official navy’s way.

  But in this case, we had no choice but to obey. There were only six guards left at the castle gate, and if the thirty Forest Elves on those three ships disembarked, they would easily break through those defenses.

  “Damn! We just have to do it!” I growled, paddling furiously. I futilely wished that I had raised my strength a bit more, but even as it was, I had to be thankful that it wasn’t real life, where my arms would be useless for all the lactic acid buildup by now.

  The three swing-force ships in side-by-side formation were pointed away from us. We could sink one of them with a rear charge, but the problem was what came after that. For the battering ram to work properly, we had to be going at full speed, and the enemy wasn’t going to sit there and wait for us to back up so we could charge again.

  Kizmel could tell what I was worried about, so she turned back and shouted, “Don’t worry, Kirito, just charge the center ship!”

  “R-roger!” I had to respond. I set sights on the middle ship and adjusted our course. The spearmen at the rear of that ship had already noticed us, but they didn’t seem inclined to stop their progress toward the castle.

  “Gooooo!”

  I plunged the oar one last time, roaring like every anime or movie hero making his last suicidal charge. Once again, Asuna defended against the enemy spears, and our burning ram broke right through the flat stern of the ship.

  Our fourth target sank in moments, and the Forest Elf soldiers aboard swam away for safety. I watched them go and started to back the Tilnel up, but then the two r
emaining ships abruptly cut us off from both sides.

  The Tilnel’s stamina gauge just below Kizmel’s HP bar dropped about 5 percent. But the damage didn’t stop there; it continued to fall bit by bit. The two oarsmen were rowing madly perpendicular toward our facing sides, trying to crush the boat between them.

  On top of that, the spearmen on either side were jabbing their sharp weapons at me. I hurriedly drew my sword and knocked the points away, but it was only prolonging our decline.

  Kizmel calmly suggested, “Kirito, Asuna, leap onto the right ship and strike down the oarsman! I will handle the left!”

  “Whuh?!”

  I was not expecting that command, but it was clearly the only way out of our pinch. Asuna and I made eye contact, then leaped recklessly over to the other ship.

  “Filthy human rats!” an elven spearman spat, but those ten-foot-long spears were meant for naval battle, not close combat. I struck him directly with a Slant sword skill, not even bothering to feint. The elf flew overboard. On the left, Asuna overpowered another spearman with a two-part Parallel Sting, her special silk cape waving.

  The fearsome Forest Elven Hallowed Knight we fought at the start of the third floor was quite memorable, but he was a high-level elite mob like Kizmel. But the Forest Elven spearmen and Forest Elven swordsman on board these ships were no different from the average fourth-floor monster in terms of power. This brief sparring reminded me that in a one-on-one fight, they posed nothing to worry about.

  Still, there was no point getting careless. In a ship battle, the ship’s hull absorbed the damage, but when fighting the sailors on board, our HP was at risk again. Even in the midst of this dramatic, climactic story event, it was imperative that we remember our lives were on the line in this cruel game of death.

  Asuna pushed the spearman overboard with a knock back–heavy combo of attacks, and the swordsman behind him approached.

  “No need to actually defeat him! Just use him as a wall to keep the guys in the back from getting closer!” I ordered my partner, stopping the blow of the swordsman attacking on my end. The oarsmen—officially named a Forest Elven rower—was on the other side of this fighter.