Sword Art Online: Demon Blade

[SelenaFF]

Aki couldn't believe she had actually gotten a copy of Fatal Sword: Demon Blade. Having missed the preorder deadline, she did the only thing she could do: wait in line for hours on the release date. And she was one of the lucky people to now own a copy of the game.

Aki burst through the door of her house, did a little twirl while hugging the game, then rushed upstairs. It was less than thirty minutes until the game went live at noon. She had planned her whole Saturday around this event. She had done her homework, chores, everything anything that might keep her from enjoying this.

At around 11:55, Aki heard her mom calling. "Aki! Lunch!"

"Moooooom! Not now! You know that I've been waiting all week for this!" She yelled back downstairs.

"This is not a negotiation. You know we eat as a family!" Her mother responded.

"Dammit," she cursed under her breath. She was going to miss out on the opening events and first spawns. But she knew that if she ignored her mother, there were going to be consequences. "Commmming!" she responded, heading downstairs, the brand new game left on her bed.

 

[TheSilentProtagonist]

Andrew King was among one of the first people in line at the game store near his apartment. The tall, stocky American stuck out like a sore thumb in the Japanese crowd, but he didn't let it bother him. The man had already been here for a couple of months, working on his research concerning cultural differences in nutrition. Coming to Japan had always been a dream of his, so the language barrier wasn't too bad for him. Being a huge fan of gaming in general, and knowing how highly anticipated this game was, there was absolutely no way he would turn down the chance to play it. Finally, when the clock struck midnight and the doors opened, he rushed in with the rest of the crowd to collect his copy.

Andrew wasted no time getting his game setup when he got home. After a quick late dinner, he hops in. “Andrew, launch!” The American called out in Japanese. He was immediately sent to the character creation and got to work designing the hero Armisiel. Standing at the max height available by the game with a strong, toned looking body, Andrew kept his character looking otherwise similar to him. The skin was slightly bronzed, his short black hair was left unkempt, and the look in his dark brown eyes showed someone who took joy in battle. With sword and shield in hand, he entered the world.

While he had missed out on getting into the beta, Andrew spent what free time he had reading up on all the info and watching some clips of gameplay. As such, it didn’t take him long to get used to playing as Armisiel. Handling a few of the quests along the outside of the first village, he manages to gain his first level quickly enough and earn a few basic items. With that done, he decides to head back to cash in his rewards and see if there are any players looking to group together.

 

[TheKitsuneOfIce]

Mitsuki had her work cut out for her. It was launch day. She launched the game quickly, ahead of schedule. When it asked for log in she whispered, "kitsune." And watched the screen fade into the world. She ran forward towards a higher loot minion, but certainly tougher to kill. She spent five minutes wittling it down. The bear like creature closed the gap between them. Before it moved closer, she had pulled out her chain, going on the defense. It swiped with a now flaming paw, only to meet the chain. Moving quickly, the girl managed to wrap the chain around it's arm. She stabbed a knife into it, taking it's last bit of hp. As it faded, she heard the shouts of the people entering.

"Already? Why..." She hissed as she opened her menu, searching for the quest for the beast she had just killed. It was marked as complete. Not doing that one again. She walked back, slowly making her way to the town.

Kirito had since logged in and was sitting in the village. His character seemed to be like that of himself. He had chosen to dual wield again, but didn't have the best weapons. It is the skill that counts, right?

 

[SelenaFF]

Aki finished around 1:00, and ran upstairs to her bedroom at almost inhuman speed. She quickly plugged her AmuSphere in and entered the virtual word. Knowing she could be as creative as she wanted with her character, she chose long brown hair and green eyes, which she wished she had, and everything else the same, so as to not throw off her movement. She chose an underhanded blade because it looked interesting.

After practicing a bit in the character selection screen with her blade, Aki felt confident enough to enter the actual game. She selected the name Meiko. She didn't know why, but she had always liked the name.

She entered the game to find... A burnt out town? "Huh," she said, a bit surprised, "This doesn't seem right..."

And that was when they attacked. A giant, hellhound-ish monster leapt at her, seemingly out of nowhere. "Eep!" she squealed, which wasn't normal for her. Aki was usually a lot more confident. But this was Meiko, not Aki, and the monster had caught her off guard, its teeth deep in her leg. It began to drag her off.

"Help! HELP!" she screamed. She hadn't even leveled up, and now this thing was attacking her. Not good. She swiped up on the menu, but the log out button was grayed out. Meiko gulped. This didn't look good at all. She couldn't deal with a monster this strong alone.

 

[TheSilentProtagonist]

Armisiel is surprised as he enters the starting town to find it being deserted. There’s no one around and it looks like it’s been attacked. “Did I miss out on some event?” He wonders aloud before deciding that it’s more likely some sort of server error. The player begins to contact a GM when he sees two people in the distance running towards him. “Hey!” He waves, smiling as he begins to approach them. He quickly sees the look of despair though and stops in his tracks. “What the shit?!” Andrew yells out in shock as a pair of large hellhounds pounce on the two players, knocking them to the ground. They start screaming as they’re dragged away.

“Okay, so definitely some kind of event. Otherwise they’d just logout, right?” Immediately, Andrew starts to feel a sense of dread. Quickly opening his menu, the player searches for the log out button and tries to press it. The pit in his stomach grows as it fails to work. He’d heard the news reports with the Sword Art Online incident, but he never expected it to happen again. “No… no, no, no….” He mutters, closing the menu and starting to run. This couldn’t be possible. They’d worked out those problems to make sure this could never happen again, hadn’t they? Even in SAO though, no one had ever been attacked in a city. That was something completely different.

As he’s running for the town’s exit, one of those hellhounds jumps out at Armisiel. Quickly bringing up his shield, he manages to take the first hit that pushes him back. The tank slashes at the monster, but hardly does any damage to it. Still, the attack dealt damage, so these things aren’t invincible. That’s a good sign. It means the player can fight them off eventually. For now though, he had to get away though. Armisiel feints to the left, causing the creature to lunge forward. Dodging right, he runs past it, going into a full sprint as he puts as much distance between him and the beast as possible.

It doesn’t take Andrew long to come across another player. The brown haired girl looked to be in trouble, one of the hellhounds having its jaws sunk into her legs. Yelling out, Armisiel leaps forward, striking the monster’s neck with his sword. The attack hardly does anything, but it at least gets the dog to let go and turn to face him. “We have to run for it!” He tells the girl, smashing the monster’s snout with his shield before circling around. “Come on!” After helping his fellow player to her feet, Armisiel gets another hit in before starting to run away again.

 

[SelenaFF]

Meiko winced as she tried to get up. "D-Dammit," she muttered, looking up at what sounded like an American. "I-I can't move. My leg... AGH!"

The hellhound had been distracted, but the bite marks were still on her legs. Virtual or not, this was real pain. She managed to get up, and immediately began running at the hellhound, managing to ignore the flashing pain in her legs. "I'm... Not... Dying... Here!" She screamed, jumping on the monster's back, and plunged her blade in between the shoulder blades. It instantly disinegrated, followed by silence.

Meiko shakily to her feet using her blade as support. "Ngh... C'mon. We need to help the others," she said. Taking a deep breath, she began running again, the pain flaring up again as her feet hit the ground with each step. She just hoped the other guy was behind her.

 

[TheSilentProtagonist]

“Shit, you okay?” Armisiel asks as he notices the injury. He hadn’t even realized that he was speaking in English currently. Getting caught up in the situation caused Andrew to sort of just default to his native language. Catching himself after a moment, he reiterates the question in Japanese. There should be limiters on pain and injury in these games, though it seems clear that all of that has been thrown out the window thanks to its current state. Soon enough the girl seems to be moving though, so he is quick to follow her.

Checking the player info, Andrew sees Meiko’s name and level. Damn, a newbie by the looks of it. He can’t be for sure, since unless she’s in his party or on his friends list, the amount of information available to him is limited. The player can make some educated guesses based on what he sees though. It’s to be expected considering the game just launched that all the players would be new. Still, to be level one, in her starting gear, and close to the center of the starting village would all imply that she just now logged in. Well, Meiko certainly picked an interesting time to get into the game. That’s for sure.

Seeing the player he helped manage to land a killing blow fills Andrew with some relief. So they can drop these monsters even at their current levels. That is a good thing to know. Judging by Meiko’s weapon, she’d be more of a damaging character compared to his defensive one. They should be able to work well together, with him attracting the enemies and taking the brunt of their attacks while she strikes them down hard and fast. With that in mind, he rushes ahead of the girl to take the lead, constantly looking around in case the monsters jump in from another direction.

Another player looks to be fighting off one of the hellhounds. As Armisiel runs towards the battle, another of the creatures jumps in. Its claw meets his shield, and Andrew watches as his health bar lowers another little bit. Good thing he has some healing potions and food on him. He’ll have to use those when he has a proper opening though. Keeping the monster attacking his well armored areas, the player turns it around so that its backside will be exposed to Meiko’s more damaging attacks.

 

[SelenaFF]

Meiko hacked away at monster after monster. She jumped and spun, dived and whirled, her blade flashing into monsters repeatedly. It was like something had possessed her and was doing this. She continued to attack until there was nothing left.

After all was said and done, Meiko stood there, panting. She suddenly grimaced as pain spiked up her leg once more, this time unbearable. Her vision was getting blurry, and she noticed that her HP bar was steadily dropping. Shit, she thought. Meiko's last thought before she passed out was that she hoped this wasn't like the SAO incident. She could do without dying.