The Lightning Flash

Chapter 9: The Hecate II

Boom!

A loud explosion echoed throughout the wasteland-like area of the world of GGO as an enemy soldier was torn to pieces from the blast.  The body parts of the enemy flopped onto the street, as blood from what was left of the enemy splatted onto the ground next to it.

"Jesus, Agil, isn't that a little bit overkill for a single enemy soldier?" asked Klein, scratching the back of his neck.

"Yeah, you're right...I got a little carried away," answered Agil, looking at the enemy soldier he had just killed with his grenade launcher. 

"I still can't get over how bloody this game is compared to Aincrad Online," commented Asuna, feeling a bit of unease from getting a glimpse of what was left of the enemy soldier that Agil had just killed. 

"Most shooters are actually like this," added Shino, remembering some of the shooters she used to play before the incident at the post office.  "I've heard that to add realism, the more recent ones have added the ability to severe limbs or completely turn enemies into a puddle of blood and guts."

"Ugh, that's kind of gross," mumbled Asuna to herself.

It had been a little over a month since the group had begun playing GGO and each of the members of the party had leveled up significantly.  Asuna and Kazuto were both level 52, Klein was level 48, Agil was level 45, Shino was level 49 and Suguha, who wasn't currently with them, was only level 30.  She had fallen behind the others because she had been so busy between homework and Kendo practice.  From what Asuna had seen so far, the main types of enemies featured in the world of GGO included enemy soldiers, automated machines, various mutant creatures, insect-like creatures, dragon-like creatures and other strange kinds of monsters.  There were also, other players, themselves, who would sometimes try to attack the group and steal their loot.  The party was currently partaking in a quest...or, mission, as GGO referred to them, where they had to fight some kind of dragon under a bridge.  The bridge in question was still quite a bit of a ways from where the group was but Asuna could vaguely see it in the distance. 

Kazuto could tell that Asuna was peering off into the distance at the bridge and stated, "We have quite a bit to walk still.  Hopefully, we don't get attacked by other players on our way to the bridge.  That would be a bit of a pain in the ass to deal with."

"It's weird, huh?" asked Asuna.

Kazuto looked at her funny and responded with, "What's weird?"

"That worrying about other players attacking us in this world is...just a pain in the ass. Compared to the fear of having your brain fried in the real world, losing some items and currency doesn't seem so bad."

"Yeah, I guess you're right about that.  No matter how much of a pain in the ass, at least this time, we don't have to worry about losing our lives for real.  Those days are, thankfully, behind us and hopefully, we never have to deal with something like that, again."

"You love-birds ready to keep moving?" asked Klein, getting impatient.

"Y-Yeah, we should be able to finish this mission before having to log out for the night," said Asuna. 

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Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!

Damn it, I nearly missed all of my shots, criticized Asuna to herself, in frustration. 

She held out her Uzi sub machine gun with one hand and was firing it at an enemy that was at a little bit of a distance from her.  Having seen Asuna struggle with aiming at the flying insect-like enemy, Shino moved Asuna's free hand and positioned it so that she was aiming with both of her hands, instead of just one.