The Exploiter (A Sword Art Online Fanfic)

Chapter 21:Sacrifice

The sun was beginning to set by the time kirito and I went to the entrance of the dungeon to meet the clearers. Fifty of the strongest level players had assembled for the raid against laughing coffin. As soon as kirito and I arrived, several people began whispering to their friends.

"The killer is here." 

"I don't trust him. What if he betrays on us?"

"Maybe after this is over, we can execute him too."

At the head of the group, asuna was standing on a raised platform, shouting orders and organizing the clearers into several groups. The murderous stares and angry grumbling only intensified as I went and stood next to her.

 "Get murderer off the platform! He doesn't deserve to be here!"

Asuna looked at me, and I nodded before walking forward.

I cleared my throat, and the crowd fell silent." I know what you think about me. And I know what I've done. But everything I've done, it was to save lives and help people, even if it meant killing others."

I looked at the crowd, and continued.

"To gain back your trust, I am prepared to do anything. Even sacrifice myself. So to show you how much you all mean to me, I will enter the dungeon first and scout ahead for the laughing coffin base."

This time, there were no shouts, and everyone stared at me. Some looked at me with forgiveness, some with respect, and some with quiet hate. As I moved toward the dungeon entrance, kirito grabbed my hand." This is too dangerous. What if something happens to you?"

I pushed him away." If I don't do this, then they'll just kill me anyway. If I don't return in 10 minutes, come in. "

I sprinted through the dungeon, and soon enough spires of blue stone rose out of the ground, and the air grew colder.

I reached the laughing coffin base in record time, but what greeted me chilled my blood. The base was empty. The guild had escaped.

I clenched my fists until my knuckles went white. All that preparation, and all the suffering, and the rats had escaped once again.

I ran back to the clearers, angry that the guild had escaped, and afraid of what the clearers would do to me. They might think I had warned laughing coffin beforehand, and the mob might even execute me.

As I ran wrapped in my thoughts, a throwing knife embedded itself into my shoulder. I went down, tumbling on the ground and hitting my head.

I quickly jumped to my feet and assumed my stance. Another knife flew at me from the darkness and I deflected it.

A man stepped out of the darkness, and another followed. Soon, I was surrounded by laughing coffin. I froze as I realized what they had planned to do. They knew the clearers were coming, and had planned to ambush them.

I opened my message window to warn kirito, but another knife flew at me, and I was forced to close the window to deflect it.

Xaxa and johnny black, the sub-leaders of the guild, stepped out of the crowd.

Johnny laughed." Not so tough now, are you? This time, we'll take revenge for all our members you've killed. Get him!"

The members of laughing coffin rushed forward eager to kill me, and I drew my sword. The first one to reach me slashed at my neck, and I parried and opened him up at the stomach. The next one fell to a thrust to the neck, and I threw my sword at the last one.

I opened my inventory to take out an axe and continued the battle. But even I knew that I couldn't win. Every kill I made whipped the guild into a frenzy, and for each person I cut down, two more took their place.

My weapons began to break, and I started to fight with my hands. The longer reach of the swords and spears of my enemies made my hp go to the yellow and then to the red.

I slumped to the ground on my knees, exhausted. A large player with an axe stepped forward, as his friends cheered him on. As he raised his axe, I felt peaceful.

And then the memories flooded in.

Memories of meeting kirito and klein, eating with asuna and kirito, sitting in agil's shop while he talked about prices and inflation. I was scared, scared of what would happen after I died in the game, and what would happen to my friends.

A growl built up in my throat, which turned into a roar. The axe came down.