Sword Art Online: Integral Factor

Floor 3 Questline

A/N Hello everyone and welcome back to another chapter of SAO: IF! I hope you all have been reading the story thus far and had fun reading it! I apologize for not updating the story for a bit, I had wanted to give some other stories some screentime on the platform. Anyway, I apologize for the not so... great title for the chapter. I didn't know what to name it so I came up with this. Without further ado, let us begin!

Izuku and Koharu woke up on the ground as they stretched their limbs ready for their new day of questing. They knew that Kizmel would be coming back today since they were doing the whole quest for the Dark Elves. And as they got up, the two looked around themselves and found that the sun was just rising out in the distance. And before doing anything else, they decided to do a little bit of sparring so that they don't get completely rusty. After all, one shouldn't lower their guards because of something as complacency. As they entered a small field just outside of the campsite of the Dark Elves, the two started the fight function of SAO. 

"So whoever lands the first hit is the one who buy's dinner?" Koharu asked, smirking. "You're just trying to get out of paying for dinner, huh?" Izuku asked, placing his sword on his shoulder. "You can say that again, but I will say that if I do lose to you, I will pay for dinner." Koharu replied as Izuku nodded. "Alright, just make sure that we aren't in the yellow. We need the health for the questline that Kizmel has for us, okay?" Izuku said, entering a combat stance. "Sure thing En!" Koharu said, smiling happily. 

As Koharu still had her eyes closed from smiling, a blush came over Izuku's face as he shook the blush off. He knew that she'd try anything to get him off guard and take advantage of it. So when she rushed at him, he immediately placed up his guard as their weapons clashed with one another in the middle. Jumping back, Koharu jumped from the trees surrounding the two as she tried to ascertain his weakness in his fighting style. Izuku kept moving around so that his back was not facing Koharu, he knew that she'd capitalize on his weakness if he kept his guard lowered. 

When she leaped from another tree, Izuku pulled out his bow and pointed it at where he believed that she'd be jumping to. And as he pulled the line enough to let go, he watched as the arrow had flown right past her face, but just barely nicking her skin. He scoffed at how she leaped away from the tree he shot at before hiding in the leaves of the trees above him. With that he decided to put away his weapon as he decided to use a skill, he'd gotten a few weeks before. It was a meditation skill, it allowed him to regenerate any lost stamina, and have it replaced so long as he keeps up the meditation. 

As Koharu jumped from tree to tree, he heard her silent steps on the tree's bark before she jumped down towards him. As soon as she was within striking distance, she had pulled out her knife as she prepared to land her first strike against him. But as soon as she was too close to dodge feasibly, she noticed Izuku's eyes opening up as he swiftly struck her before she could even realize what had happened. When his blade had swiped upright and sliced into her leg and went up, she watched as her full health had gone down to at least 75% from that first attack. 

Landing on the ground, she pouted as she glared at Izuku angrily.

"You didn't say that you would use that skill!" She said, pouting. "And I never said that I wouldn't use it either. I win again." Izuku said, patting Koharu's head. "Well, I... have nothing to say about that." Koharu said, raising a finger to retort before realizing she didn't have one. "Come on, we need to meet up with Kizmel. We have a job to do." Izuku said, helping her up from the ground. "Okay, but can you pay for tomorrow's lunch?" Koharu asked. "Sure thing." Izuku said, as he led them back to the Elf Camp.

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The two returned back to the camp to find Kizmel standing at the entrance with a smile. They returned her smile with one of their own as the Dark Elf had shown them around the camp. She wasn't their last time to give them a tour of the place but now that she was, she gave them a tour of where everyone was. She told them about how it was their job to protect the keys to prevent the Fallen One from returning back to the land of Aincrad. And how the Forest Elves were attempting to bring him back in order to bring about the end of Aincrad.