Unital Ring II: The Virtual Study Society

Plan of Defense, Part 2

With the American players logging off shortly afterward, we moved the meeting to the cabin. Sitting on the floor - or in my case, standing - Kirito uses some of the bonfire ash to draw a simple map of Ruis na Rig and its surroundings on a bulletin board he made. "Think about this as if you were Mutasina. If you were going to attack this town with a hundred players, what strategy would you use?"

Ruis na Rig is a mini-Centoria in my mind. Four gates at each intermediate direction give way to four diagonal roads that separate the town into four quadrants, all leading to the center point, the cabin. Two roads wrap around the town, the Inner and Outer Perimeter Roads. The gates are made of wood, and the ten-foot-tall walls are made of stone. Aside from the southwest gate, which leads to the Muraba River on a cleared road, the town is locked in by the forest.

After half a minute of silence, Agil speaks up. "From what you've said, it sounds like this Mutasina has a real sick personality, so I doubt her forces will come rushing right up the southwest road."

"I agree," says Silica, Pina resting on her head. "Mutasina will want to minimize the loss of her allies, too, so I think she'll try to come up with a plan that will catch us by surprise. Like, hiding separate parties in the woods on either side of the road, then catching us in a pincer attack when we rush out at them."

"Feasible," Kureha pipes up, "but too simple of a plan. No offense, Silica, or to any of you, but I'm going to assume that some of you have never participated in a large-scale PvP raid, have you? Besides...you know, that one in SAO." While there have been a few PvE battles, such as the one Koharu, Kirito, Asuna, and I fought alongside Kizmel and the Dark Elves against the enemy Forest Elves on the fourth floor of Aincrad, Kureha alludes to the one PvP raid that I know of; the Assault Team versus Laughing Coffin.

Thankfully, she breezes quickly past that touchy subject. "True, it would be easier for her to lure us out, but based on what you've said, she thinks highly of you, Kirito, to come at you now at the game's beginning. Since she knows who you are and how much of a threat you are to her goal, she knows who's with you; Asuna and Jaymes. A former leader of a guild in Asuna and, if not as the squad leader of GGO's top squad, then as a former figure on the front lines of SAO in Jaymes. She won't play such a simple card. Instead," Kureha moves her finger in an arc, gesturing to the forests around the town, "we should assume that she'd have scouts to look over the area prior to the attack. I'm unsure how much information she would have gathered from the prior attackers."

"Kureha has a point," I cosign. "It's safe to assume that if she knows the Black Swordsman, she knows Lightning Flash and, specifically, the Crimson Warrior are with him." I glance in Koharu's direction, wondering if Mutasina knows about Koharu. If the coincidences line up, my suspicion of Mutasina's identity may suggest so, yet I proceed without mentioning Koharu's former title. As for emphasizing "'specifically, the Crimson Warrior,'" few outside of this group know that the Jaymes of SAO is the same Jaymes of GGO. "As for PvP battling, if she tried the lure method, it would work easily in our favor, too, by using the town to our advantage to bring them in. That's assuming she wouldn't scout the town as Kureha suggests."

"I wonder if clearing out the surrounding forest is the safest thing to do, in the end."

While murmurs arise, the rocking Argo speaks from her position along the wall. "I ain't just sayin' this because I'm using a scouting build, but you can use forests in a big free-for-all, too. Clearing out the trees to open up the land removes the danger of an ambush, but it also leaves us with fewer options for strategy."