Fairy Dance

Intervention and Union

~40 minutes later, Butterfly Valley, Neutral Territory

Somehow, Kirito and Jaymes decided to join Leafa in her quest to warn and protect the Cait Sith-Sylph meeting. Or, to be honest, Kirito made the gesture, Jaymes silently tagged along, but Leafa is not fretting on the details. Point is, with them, she’s moving quicker towards her goal than without. She’s just happy neither the Spriggan or rogue Salamander decided to kill her in return for aid and passage to the World Tree with the Salamander forces.

“I don’t know if we’ll make it there before the Salamanders,” Kirito says as the trio flies as fast as they can to the mountains.

“Yeah,” Leafa agrees. “Even if we warn them, we’ll either barely get the leader out, or all die together in battle.”

“Player signals,” Yui calls out. “A group of sixty-eight players is ahead. That’s probably the main Salamander attack force.” Looking down, everyone can see the sea of red just below the clouds. It is a force all right, excessive even for the Salamanders. “Fourteen more are up ahead. Most likely the Sylph and Cait Sith diplomats. Fifty seconds until they make contact.”

Leafa sighs. “We didn’t make it in time… Thank you, Kirito and Jaymes. This is far enough. You go to the World Tree. I’m going to save Sakuya. It wasn’t for long, but it was fun. I hope we meet again!”

Jaymes frowns as he and Kirito continue flying along Leafa. “Running away isn’t really our style.”

Kirito nods and looks at Jaymes as the Salamanders finally arrive at the meeting. “You got a plan?”

“Dealing with impossible odds is one of our specialties. First, we make a grand entrance between the diplomats and the Salamanders.” Jaymes and Kirito zip down to the ground as streaks of red and black, creating a debris cloud between the Salamanders and the diplomats. Kirito folds his arms as he gazes at the hovering Salamanders.

“Okay, what’s next?”

“Uhh…”

“I thought you had a plan!”

“Yeah, about that… Oh! Say something cool.”

“Huh?” Kirito sighs and clears his throat before addressing the fire-affinity players. “Everyone, put away your swords!”

Leafa raises her eyebrow at the fake deep voice of Kirito as she lands by the Sylph and Cait Sith leaders. She doesn’t get their plan, if they even have one for once, but maybe that’s how they work. “Sakuya.”

“Leafa? What are you doing here?”

“It’s not easy to explain. But the one thing I can say is that our fates depend on that Spriggan and Salamander.”

“What is going on?”

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“We would like to talk to your commander,” Jaymes says. The Salamanders split, letting a man in decorative red, black, and gold armor and no helmet through. Going to meet him, Jaymes and Kirito fly up. One thing they both note silently is that he’s huge and has a presence, vaguely similar to that of the former commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath, Heathcliff. Only difference is that this Salamander’s presence is completely threatening.

“What’s a Spriggan and a renegade Salamander doing here? I’m going to kill you both, regardless of your answer. But in honor of your bravery, I will speak to you first.”