An Englishman in Castle Aincrad

Floor 9 - Chapter 2 - Fight For Your Lives

SHINK. PFFFPH. ''Gyyyaaa-''PFFFPHH.

If Mito's sudden appearance had caused the group to be on edge, then right about now... their nerves were currently leaning backwards off the side of a cliff. The rustling of the hedges began to increase in frequency, and the group all readied their weapons, unsure of what they were about to face...

The rustling, and the screaming came closer... until it didn't. What had sounded like the screams of someone running for their life had just ceased, and the bursting sound that they all knew oh so well.

Whatever, or whoever had been heading their way... was gone.

The group looked around the clearing they were stood in, looking at one another. No one dared break the status quo that was now the silence, for fear of what was actually lurking in the trees. Jet took a moment to look towards Koharu, and saw something he hadn't seen in her eyes since they'd been on the first floor, months ago... she looked helpless.

Even just breathing felt as if it might attract the wrath of whatever had been heading their way. It's often said that 'There are no atheists in foxholes', and for Jet... that was true at the moment, as he prayed to a god he really didn't believe in, that whatever it was had gone away...

As he did that, a familiar silhouette appeared from the treeline. The single handed axe, buckler and that stupid chainmail hood... ''Morte...'' Jet snarled, fighting every urge in his body to not cut the man down to size... literally.

''Well, if it isn't my lucky day! Not only do I get to see my old buddy again, but I find out the Grim Reaper of Aincrad is here too! I should've bought a lottery ticket, really!'' Behind him, Rain spotted a pair of eyes in the bushes, eyes that began moving rapidly, soon giving way to the back of the figure's head, before a pick slammed into them, dropping them straight to the ground... ''Now, now... we were just having a game of hide and seek, ya know?'' The figure became more evident as a boy, probably about the same age as Silica was dragged back into the clearing, and bought to his knees...

''Let him go, Morte!'' Koharu yelled, as Morte took heed of her objection, and walked over to her instead, the young boy collapsing back to the ground.

''I don't believe we've had the pleasure of introductions, have we?'' Koharu stared into the face of the psychopath who stood in front of her. She'd remembered how Jet had told her that Morte, despite being a complete bastard, was a very good fighter, easily on the level of their supposedly not an emo friend. She knew not to underestimate him then, but that grin on his face... it was sickening. She hadn't seen what he'd just done, but she had a good enough idea.

''Why would she introduce herself to a murderer like you!'' The young boy screamed at Morte, who chose simply to laugh.

''Oh, that is precious...'' Morte mocked, as he walked up to the boy, and pulled him from the ground by the scruff of his neck. ''What did you think to achieve by doing that, really? You watched your friends all die... for your own sake, and now, you throw your life away for this lot... who don't even care enough to know your name, and won't mourn you when you depart this world.''

''Be-because...'' Morte steadfastly refused to give him chance to answer, throwing him back to the ground.

''It doesn't matter.'' Morte spoke callously, before he swung his axe. Before the swing was finished, the young boy had disappeared from their view, with only small pixels still being left.

''Bastard! You didn't have to kill him! He was unarmed!'' Jet yelled, enraged and horrified at the execution he'd just witnessed.

''He didn't have to... he wanted to.'' Phillia, for all she'd seen in Aincrad, from mummies to the clutches of trees, she'd been fortunate enough to avoid seeing the spectre of death, and seeing it appear before anyone she knew. She'd hoped to go the entire game without seeing it, but the creature stood in front of her had just bought the crushing reality down onto all of them. The boy who's name they'd never known, and who'd stared a murderer down, with no care for his own safety, was now dead, and there was nothing they could do. He couldn't have been older than fourteen, she thought to herself. Just one more life snuffed out by this game, people would say naively. No, his life hadn't been taken by Sword Art Online... it had been taken by a monster, masquerading as a man!