Sword Art Online : Akari's Story [Discontinued]

Chapter 6: First Step

Clatters of plates and small noisy murmurings resounded throughout the bar. There was an unsettling atmosphere between the people. It's already been three weeks since the grievous incident happened. Yet still, I see some people lament on this forever and some slowly adapting into this virtual world.

Many emit obvious hatred to the creator, even those who died resenting Kayaba Akihiko 'til the last sight of their deaths. I am also one of the people that loathes him, but not to the point that I would kill him. I wanted to question him, to blame him and place all faults on him. But maybe the fault was also in mine. If I hadn't childlessly thought of wrapping Kyo's nerve gear around my head, maybe I could've been saved and escaped this predicament.

But, if I hadn't tried to play this game, Kyo-chan would be the one in danger.

So, being in this game, I believe in my conviction that it was fate that I had stumbled upon this world, to save my childhood friend from this calamity. And so I promised to myself that I will live and survive this death penalty game.

***

I hear a hoarse and grosteque panting, heavily just a few meters behind me.

Its whiffs and deep breaths slowly approached me. The smooth and silent way it was nearing proved it to be a difficult opponent. Holding a medium long sword, I grip its handle and abruptly swallowed the saliva thickening in my mouth. Hot, warm sweat dripped from my forehead. And the noisy beating in my chest continously refuses to stop.

 Why am I nervous?

No, I'm not nervous, but excited.

I've been travelling with the party since the first day. We went to the hunting grounds to defeat some monsters and gain experience points, but since I was a girl, I stayed out of most battles. It frustrated me that I was the only one left behind. Even though the others helped me, mostly Gin in raising my level, it disheartened me that I couldn't raise EXP points without anyones help. 

Now, I'm here, hiding behind a huge rock, crouching and preparing myself to commence an attack. Slowly standing up, but still able to conceal myself, I took a peek on the lone wolf wandering aimlessly. I bit my bottom lip.

"You can do this!" I encouraged myself.

I was finally able to slip out of the party's field of vision and come here. I can finally without a doubt, experience being a solo player when hunting a prey.

Squinting my eyes, when the wolf turned around to face the other direction, I jumped on the rock and without a moment of hesitation, kicked against the rock and went for the slit in the throat. As I went for the sure kill, I noticed that I made a mistake.

"Ah! Crap!" I sweared in my mind.

My sword grazed only a bit of the wolf's throat. It's health point decreased by what I could say- is only by twenty percent. 

Losing my concentration, I fell on the ground instead of landing. Thank god, I didn't lose any of my life points during that impact. In a hurry, I tried getting up.

"Damn. Damn. Damn"

The wolf's gaze and focus was now directed at me. The wolf is a fast creature that runs on all four of its legs, I knew that running away nor hiding again won't make any significance to me.

The beast growled in distemper and leaped towards me in a moments heartbeat. My eyes widened at the sudden action and was frozen on the spot for about two seconds. All sorts of thoughts seeped into my head.

"Will I finally die here?"  

"I haven't said goodbye yet, I don't even have a will."