Sword Art Online - The Midnight Shadow

Chapter 2 - The Shadow of the Black Swordsman

On the 35th floor of Aincrad.

Keep your eyes open, Sachi thought cautiously as a mantis approached her.

She watched it raise its scythes in alternation, as if deciding on which one it was going to use to strike her.

Clutching her sword and shield, she prepared herself to finish it off before it would strike.

A second later, it raised its right scythe.

Sachi brought up her sword to defeat the monster...

Suddenly it roared, taking her off guard.

EEK! she shrieked internally. Keeping her eye on the enemy, she saw it approaching her.

Reflexively, she raised her shield to protect herself as the mantis brought its scythe down onto her.

Kuh, she thought as she realized what she did.

An instant longer than she wanted, the strike made contact with her shield, briefly staggering the monster. Without wasting the opportunity, she used a «Storm Slash» on the mantis, killing it instantly.

Annoyed at herself, Sachi sat down. For the 13th time tonight, she failed in her objective.

Today, the «Moonlit Black Cat» guild had come to the floor to get some supplies. Due to the fact that she actually had supplies for herself already, she had asked if she could go out and train instead today.

Since he always liked to hear that she was getting stronger, naturally, Keita had agreed once she assured him that nothing on this floor could even touch her.

However, as she already knew well, strength and courage were two different things.

She was spending the time trying to build the instinct to attack with her sword rather than block the enemy first. However, saying that progress was slow was too generous.

Scanning the field, she saw that there were no more monsters around to practice on.

Before she could get up to wrap up for the night, Sachi thought she heard a faint scream from far away. Looking around, she located the source of the scream from a forest that was just barely in her sightline.

Please let me make it in time! she thought desperately as she ran into the forest at full speed.

After a few minutes, she saw the source of the scream. There was a young girl, probably not even in her teenage years, being assaulted by a huge group of apes with gigantic clubs.

A flash of aqua blue launched from the girl, colliding with the club of one of the apes, preventing it from striking the girl.

There was no time to make sense of it as she mercilessly struck the ape that attacked before turning around and killing the rest before they could react.

As soon as the final «Drunken Ape» disappeared, Sachi let out a sigh of relief. I guess I am getting stronger, she thought as she turned to the girl.

"Are you alright?" she asked gently before stopping when she heard her sobbing.

She saw the girl clutching a blue feather to her chest. "Please... don't leave me... Pina..." she heard her whisper to the feather.

As soon as she said the name, she knew that she did not truly save this girl.

"I'm sorry," Sachi whispered to her, hating herself for being too late.

The girl shook her head and tried her best to stop her tears.

"...No... I was... being stupid... Thank you...for saving me..." she forced out as she stopped herself from crying.