Death's Song (SAO Original Character Story)

Chapter 3 - Close Encounter

"Zu. Zu!" Senna whispered in my ear while I was sleeping at night. "What's wrong Senna?" I said turning to face her. "I can't sleep.." She said in a shaken tone. "Don't worry. Just remember what I always tell you. We'll be fine if we stick together." I said. It somehow turned into the three of ours motto.
"Okay. Thanks Zu." She said hugging me and going back to bed. Two months. Two whole months in this game and things have changed, a lot. Most people are holed up in the Town of Beginnings still. They're scared of dying. Some committed suicide, not wanting to take part in this death game. If I didn't feel like I was responsible for getting my friends stuck in here, I would've killed myself too. I'm not gonna let this game get in my head. We got past floor one. But the problem is now were all stuck on floor 2.
I heard Jayce snoring over in his bed. Tomorrow we were heading to the meeting for the raid on the floor 2 dungeon. We're determined to get through the floors and make it out. For all of our sakes.
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Morning time and we all woke up. We ate our breakfasted I made, because I wanna get my cooking skill up as well as my other skills.
"Okay you two ready?" I said in a cheerful voice. "As ready as I'll ever be." Jayce replied to me. Once floor 2 opened we went to leveling. I'm level 14, Jayce is 13, and Senna is at 12. Overall were going good.
"Kay let's gear up!" Senna said in her little voice. I took all my gear out of my inventory and started putting it on. I had a red cloak with a black chest piece, some boots, fingerless gloves, and as well as some pants that we're good for fighting. I equipped my black single handed longsword that was laced with silver metal and strapped in on my back. Senna had her purple chest piece with some boots as well as a little coat she got from a boss. She has her red and yellow dagger on her waist. Jayce has some pretty tankish armor. Probably because he's our tank. He has a huge shield that can cover his whole body when crouched and a one handed sword that's silver and lined with gold.
We headed out the door to the meeting point. The meeting took place near a tree in the main town of floor 2. There was a decent amount of people there. All with decent armor. I didn't see anyone I recognized from the floor 1 boss.
Once the meeting was over they told us what time to meet at the boss gate, 12 in the afternoon tomorrow. We were prepared.
Since it wasn't till tomorrow we decided to go out for potions and essentials for the fight.
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  As I was searching through everything and buying stuff I accidentally bumped into someone.
"Ow. Sorry dude my bad." I said as I turned around. The guy didn't look that much older than me. Probably the same age. He wore a black cloak and had a single handed longsword like me. He had black hair and black eyes. "No it's alright dude. It was my fault." He said rubbing his head. I noticed he dropped something so I went to pick it up. "Here you dropped this." I said to the black swordsman. "Thanks. Oh I should introduce myself!" He said. "My names Kirito." He said holding out his hand. "Hi names Zuduko." I said back shaking his hand. "So you going to the floor 2 boss fight?" He asked me curiously. "Yea as a matter of fact I am. Me, and my friends are going." I said. "I'm going to the boss fight as well!" Kirito said to me.
We chatted for a while. He seemed to know a lot about the game. I figured he was a beta tester like me.
In the middle of him speaking I got a message. "Oh is it important?" He asked curiously. "Dunno. Let me check" I said back opening the message. The message was from Jayce. It read, 'Some punks are trying to steal our potions and crystals Senna and I bought. Come help us' "Sorry Kirito, but my friends seem to be in trouble." I said getting ready to jolt. "It's alright, hey how about if I add you as a friend." He said. "Sure I said in a cheerful tone. He opened his menu and clicked a few buttons. Then a message popped up for me, it read, 'Kirito would like to add you as a friend' with a yes and no button. I clicked yes, said my goodbyes, and bolted to where my map said Senna and Jayce were.
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I eventually found them, and what I came to wasn't pleasant. Some guy had Jayce under his boot like a bug, while another held up Senna by the collar of her shirt. "Put me down!" Senna said angrily but scared. "Aw is the little girl scared" the man said in a deep evil voice.
Just when he thought things were good I came in and used a sword skill and he stumbled to the ground. I caught Senna and set her on the ground. "Hey punk who do you think you are?!" He said to me. "Oh well you see I think I'm me. I think your you, and I think your messing with my friends sir!" I said in a mocking tone. The other guy got off Jayce and he came to my left side. "Now I'm gonna ask nicely. Can you please return our stuff you stole?" I said innocently. "Or you guys can beat it unless you wanna deal with me and my friend right here." I said angrily. "You three chumps don't look as tough as your selling." He said mocking me.
"Oh we then how about we duel this out. If I win, you leave us and return or stuff. And if you win, you keep our stuff and uh..we'll give you all our col as well." The burly man's eyes gleamed with greed and cockiness. "Alright let's duel." He said to me. He opened up his menus and sent me the duel request 'Grey has requested a duel' it said. I hit yes and chose One Hit Mode. So if either of us even lands one hit whoever gets the first one wins.
I grabbed my sword out of its sheath and got into my fighting stance. Not gonna lie this was my first time dueling but I've seen it enough times to know how to duel. The timer reached zero and he can flying towards me.
He used a two handed battle axe. He had good reaction time with that giant axe, but mine was better. He was swinging left and right and I was blocking all his hits. Finally I saw the opportunity and seized it. I swung upwards and slashed at his left side as I heard pixilation noise behind me. I turned around to see him on his knees holding his wound. His health was in the yellow now.
"Fine. You can take your stuff. I don't feel like dying in a duel" he said as his accomplice dropped our things. "Why thank you." I said bowing to him. "Not gonna lie kid, your a pretty good fighter. But watch out, the Laughing Coffin don't like people who look like they'll get in their way." He said as his buddy helped in walk away.
"What was that about?" Jayce said as confused as I was. "Eh who cares we have our stuff!" I said happily. "Yay!" Senna said hugging me. "Ouch your gonna cut off my circulation Senna!" I said joking as she pulled away. "I knew you could do it Zu! Your an amazing fighter!" She said to me. I blushed a little to be honest. "Yea out of all of us, your our strongest dude!" Jayce said to me which made me blush more. "Thanks guys, come on. Let's celebrate with dinner. My treat!" I said as we walked into a cafe. At that moment I realized, that being in this world wasn't so bad, and being with my friends made it even better. It was as if we were a family. We grew closer fighting together each day.