Sword Art Online - Alternative Reality

Unexpected Debuff CHP.2

"Hmm...Mhm...Mhm..."

Klein continued to look over the conscience swordsman as he held some of his fingers on his neck and put his ear next to his nose. After the last attack from earlier, we had fallen back into the passage and kept it blocked while we tried to figure out what was going on.

"Mhm...Yep."

Standing up and folding his arms, Klein closed his eyes before nodding.

"He's gone. What's the time of death?"

"11:47 A.M."

After two loud smacks against Klein and Naut who had responded immediately, Yuna pulled at Naut's ear while I was about to yell at them when a small dragon beat me to the punch.

"GRAH! ALRIGHT ALRIGHT, I'M KIDDING! SILICA, CALL PINA OFF, PLEASE!"

Pina, who had been resting on Kirito's head, had taken serious offense to Klein's sudden comment and immediately clawed at his face. Silica who had been sitting off to the side with a face full of concern let Pina get a few more bites in before reluctantly calling her over. With both the troublemakers handled, I walked over and knelt beside Kirito before speaking to Klein in a purposefully cold voice.

"I told you it was a bad idea to bring him along. He already looked pale when we saw him, now look at him. He's nearly as white as his KoB uniform...and he's burning up..."

Putting the back of my hand against his forehead, I felt an unnatural heat and I saw that glands of sweat were flowing down his face. His features were contorted in discomfort as the occasional groan escaped his lips. Looking over towards Klein who had a darkened expression on his face, I felt a bit guilty for tearing into him, but since he had been the main force that pushed Kirito into joining us, especially after whispering about something to him, he had to take responsibility.

"So, your group is the most knowledgeable of this sort of stuff. What's wrong with him?"

While Kirito seemed off the entire trip, it was after he took a hit from the event boss that put him into this state. Since he was the highest level of us and he managed to block the strike, it didn't do much damage, and I expected him to just cut through it like he's done in the past. Instead, he was sent tumbling to the ground and no amount of yelling got him back on his feet. We had to drag him and his ridiculously heavy sword out of the arena to this make-shift safe area. The weirdest thing about all of this was how he didn't have any debuff under his HP bar.

I prided myself in my mace and blacksmithing skills, but my knowledge of the fields and the more obscure bosses and status effects was limited. The same could be said for just about everyone in the group except Klein's guild since they were always gathering information from the frontlines. But if they didn't know-

Swallowing the worry that was building up, I looked towards Klein with some expectation, only to see him shake his head.

"I've got no idea...I already tried using a healing and purification crystal on him and nothing. He's already full HP and doesn't have any system-related debuffs...his Nervegear should be fine, but since he's unconscious we can't even teleport out of here..."

The air tensed around us as we all began thinking about our situation. We were already smack dab in the middle of a dungeon going through an unknown event, and one of our friends was going through something that we had no information on either. It was one of the worse case scenarios, that could quickly turn into the worst if we mess up at any point...

"K-Kirito will be okay! We just have to get him back to town safely, I'm sure he'll pull through!"

With an incredible amount of optimism and energy, Silica had pumped both her fists as Pina squawked in agreement. The rest of us looked around and smiled at one another, agreeing that at the very least, we had to get out of here.