Sword Art Online: Fate (Sword Art Online x Male Reader)

Chapter 6: Our Lives Together

February 2, 2023. Floor 20 – The Sunshine Forest

A giant mantis roar across the forest as it angrily tries to kill us. The monster is a Killer Mantis, it's basically a green mantises but with the size of an elephant. Almost forgot to mention that this monster has two scythe-like limbs which can deal a lot amount of damage.

"Nautilus, block!" I order our party tank as the Killer Mantis uses its scythe-like limbs to attack us.

"Roger!" Nautilus raises his shield and the monster strike clash with it. 

"Girls, now!"

Asuna and Yuna move to flank the monster before immediately striking its leg cutting them all down. With their light gear set up and slim body, the girls strike swiftly so that the Mantis didn't have enough time to react to them.

The monster roar in pain as it drops down to the ground. But unfortunately, the job isn't finished yet. The Mantis still has some hp and fight in it. It desperately tries to attack us with its limb trying to keep us away from its body.

"Sensei, switch!" Nautilus parry the Mantis attack before taking a step back and letting me into the front line.

Without giving the Mantis time to attack again I cut one of its limbs, neutralizing a further threat. But it still has one more and with a roar, the Mantis trying to catch me off guard and strike me down. Unfortunately for it, we know that it is going to be its next move. Just like a lightning strike, Asuna moves to cut it down. We stand back to back and look at each other with small smiles before nodding with one another. Now that all the threat that the Mantis poses is terminated, it's time to finish it for good.

We look at Nautilus and Yuna who stand by ready to attack. 

"Now!" Asuna and I give the instruction before they immediately move to blow the final strike.

Nautilus charges with his sword and stab the monster's head meanwhile Yuna uses her dagger to cut across the monster's belly. It didn't even take a minute before the monster HP finally hit zero and it disappears completely from our sight.

A reward notification then pops up from our menu as Yuna and Nautilus yell in excitement.

"Woooo!" Nautilus put his hand in the air.

"Yeay!" Yuna moves to Nautilus and they clap each other hands. 

Asuna and I can't help but put a smile on our faces as we see they're celebrating the first enemy that they defeat on this floor. To us, the Clearers, that Mantis is just another low-level mob to farm an experiment point, but to Nautilus and Yuna, that Mantis is equal to a low-level dungeon boss. Both of them are still raising their level and with each day they getting better and better at it. We don't usually travel this far before, but today Asuna and I want to push them to their limit a little further so that they can join us in no time with the Clearer. If we keep this up, it's only a matter of weeks before they are finally ready.

"Sensei! Did you see that?" Nautilus came to me with a happy smile on his face.

"Of course I did. You beat that thing down to the ground. Good job!" I give him a thumbs up.

"Asuna!" Yuna jump to hug Asuna. "Did I do it right?"

"Yes, you did a good job." Asuna pat Yuna's head as she gives her more praise.

"I must say, you used to fight like an amateur a month ago, and now you guys are par with some Clearer out there." 

My words make them smile shyly as I never praised them like this before. For a lot of players in the SAO, being on par with the Clearer is one of the highest achievements out there.