Asuna came to an abrupt halt before she left the canopy, commotion barely within view had nonetheless caught her attention with the violence of each motion. She studied the situation, once again enhancing her vision to catch every detail. It seemed a single sylph was being attacked by a large group.
"Yui, can you get any information about the people fighting over there?"
"Not yet Mommy, they're out of range," she said sadly, probably upset that she wasn't more help.
With a sharp nod, she thought about her options. So many in one spot meant there was a possibility that one had Kirito, but she didn't want to risk being spotted as there was a possibility these players would turn their attention on her when they defeated the Sylph.
"Could you fly closer and find out if Daddy is there without Mommy?" she asked.
With what passed as a sharp military solute, Yui said "On duty mommy!" and flew off.
While she waited she watched the fight and was very impressed with what she saw. Whoever that Sylph was, she was better at the sword than any player she'd ever seen, including herself and Heathcliff.
She heard Yui before she could have possibly seen her. "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! It's him! Daddy's there. The Sylph has him. Her name is Leefa. Lets go, lets go!" she yelled impatiently.
Yes, there was no time to waste. This sylph had Kirito, and she was solitary. Easier to talk to about returning him, or if needed take him by force. A much better chance than the larger group.
She saw the majority of the group dive into the trees after the sylph. a handful remained above. Without delay flew in while they were distracted looking through the trees, firing off a higher-tier fire spell the fireball splitting and targetting each player, cutting them down without a fight.
Looking down she tracked the combat as best she could. The sylph was surrounded, but still managing to keep up a decent fight. Unaware of the threat from above she used the opportunity to cast the same spell, picking off any near the sylph before charging down, stabbing another and pinning him to the ground. Before his hit points hit 0 she quickly grabbed his sword, the weapon at a much higher level than her own.
Turning on her heel, she readied for any who might counterattack and found the handful who remained completely motionless as the fierceness of her attack left them stupified.
Grangar never saw the attack coming. He'd had full hitpoints when the fireball tore through his avatar leaving just the Remain light for him to view what happened next. He didn't wait for it to time out though. He knew a respawn point was close. If he could rez quick enough he had a chance to return to the battle.
From the rez site there were several others starting to pop up. "Lets go already!" he yelled, flying back in the direction of Lillith and all the rewards of killing her. Some random player wasn't going to snipe his prize!
The others didn't follow however, completely drained of the will to continue. Fuck'm. They were close. He'll finish her by himself if need be.
Leefa saw the attack but was at a loss who had unleashed it. She recognized Flame volley. A mid-level spell that targetted enemies dictated by the caster, but she'd never seen it loosed on so many, nor with such damage to one-shot so many players. A second later she saw the dark red of a salamander slam down. The speed made her nothing but a blur until she hit the ground.
Was this random player going to act as some much-needed reinforcements? It didn't matter, she wasn't going to waste the opportunity and charged, taking out one player after another before the shock wore off, and from the corner of her eye saw the salamander doing the same.
When the last fell, she turned on the Salamander, prepared to defend herself if necessary.
Mopping up the remainder of what might be considered a raid group, Asuna wasn't surprised to see the sylph's sword warily pointed in her direction.
Landing, Asuna sheathed her sword as a show of goodwill. Nodding, the sylph did the same as she landed far enough away to give her a chance to run if needed. Who wouldn't be cautious to the point of being paranoid though?
No point beating around the bush though. "You have Lambent Shadow. He... It belongs to me and I would like him back, Leefa." She hoped showing she knew everything would be enough to cow her and give her the upper hand in getting her husband back.
The surprise in the sylph's eyes told her the move had at least some of the results she hoped for. Leefa's eyes darted to the upper right-hand corner briefly, telling Asuna she was looking at her nameplate. That was fine though. In case someone knew her real name, or that ridiculous "Titania" that Suko had branded on it, she'd used a high-level spriggan spell to make "Yuukana" appear instead. Adopting the technique Kirito used to come up with his avatar's name seemed appropriate.
The sylph wasn't in any condition to fight, but nonetheless Lambent Shadow flashed in her hand faster than Asuna's eyes could follow. "Since you know I have it, no sense in hiding it is there?" Leefa asked, looking ready to attack at any provocation.
"Give back my daddy!" Yui cried, her little body flying at ultra-speed from her hiding spot in the trees.
Startled, Leefa backed up further as she became even more on edge. "Daddy?" she looked at Asuna. "What's going on? Since when did a Nav Pixie act so independently, and who the hell are you anyways Yuukina?"
Raising a placating hand, Asuna shook her head. "That's more than I'm ready to tell you. Let's just say I'm a neutral party who needs that item. I'll do what it takes to get it back but forcing you to give it is the last choice I'll take."
So, Yuukuna wasn't going to let her keep Lambent Shadow if she had any way of taking it. That left her with few choices. She could put the sword back into storage where it would be safe, but leave her vulnerable against a strong, possibly stronger than her, opponent. Or use the overwhelming strength of the sword against Yuukina's overwhelming magic.
Of course, she could also negotiate, but it was already made clear that Yuukina wasn't going to leave without it. She'd known as soon as someone knew about it there wasn't going to be an end to people trying to take it. This was just the first.
Besides, she was already hurt. This wouldn't be a fair fight as it stood. "Okay, so what are you offering?" She finally asked, returning Lambent Shadow to the safety of her inventory while at the same time pulling a Healing potion out as if it was only natural to do so and hoping this Salamander let it slide without attacking. She figured she had a better-than-average chance at that.
With a quick nod, Yuukuna sheathed her sword but kept her distance. Without a second thought she pulled up her inventory and pushed it towards Teefa so it would pop up on her own virtual console. "All of that."
Sure to keep an eye on the Salamander, she let the other scan the list. There was a lot. Most were from monster drops. The locations of those monsters were somewhat random, but she could see a possible pattern in relation to the map locations which would lead back to the world tree.293Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡap1HUpdKbZ
As for money, it was lower than what Leefa had on her, let alone what she had in the bank. Again, some of it was from drops, but the remaining yrd was from the players she had just defeated here. It was a joke.
She was going to play the card that had been given to her. "This isn't even close to enough Lillith," she said betting she was right based on the monster drops and her apparent strength. Lambent Shadow is way too powerful to sell that cheaply. I could sell it to an NPC and get more.
A sharp bark of laughter left Lillith's (?) lips. It was highly amused with a slightly derisive undertone. "You realize that raid group thought you were Lillith, right?"
That tallied with a few things, but not everything. "Why would they think that?"
"What do you think? Someone posted seeing you take down a giant with Kirit... Lambent Shadow and came to the conclusion no normal player could have done that. The assumption from there was easy to reach."
Leefa shook her head, annoyed with herself and her temper to have brought out her sword for that fight, then looked at this player/npc again. "So, you aren't going to deny then that you're the real one?"
"I don't see any point. Like that raid group, you're going to make your own assumptions and I doubt anything I say will change them." Lillith's hand made a slight motion towards the hilt of her sword but stopped before it got there.
"Fair enough. How about giving me that Nav Pixie to sweeten the deal then?" At this point she was just buying time to let the potion bring her health back to full. Already her leg had regenerated. If she had guessed right, and she had every reason to believe she had, there was no chance she was going to give her a weapon that would make her basically invincible with her command of magic.
The nav pixie became indignant at the suggestion. "Mommy wouldn't do that! Mommy loves me. And besides, Yui is her own person. I will never leave mommy, except to be with Daddy. Now give Daddy back!"
Okay, that was the second time this pixie, Yui, called Lambent Shadow her daddy. Earlier the fairy had almost called it Kirito. The fact she'd seen its item name before it became a sword helped her fill in the tail end of the name.
She needed time to figure this out. It was starting to sound like a much more complicated quest than a simple kill quest. Was the soul of Lillith's significant other in the blade, or something similar? What would the point of that be? This was a game-wide quest, so it would make sense that the developers would put more effort into making it. She was just lacking too much information.
Regardless, Lambent Shadow was definitely a quest item. That made him invaluable to her if she wanted to complete this quest. A small part of her brain wondered if there were more of these swords out there then. Maybe more than one Lillith? Actually, that made more sense to her than her original assumption. So the first to complete the quest got the reward, but it wasn't as impossible as it had seemed originally?
Guesses and more guesses, and no solid proof on anything.
That was the last thought before her HP finished refilling, with two words she tried to capture Lillith in a wind cage, hoping the distraction would give her the time to pull out Lambent Shadow and attack before her opponent had a chance to extend the distance and use her magic from a safe distance.
Author's note: Okay, longest chapter I've written in a looooooong time, but I couldn't see a good point to end it until now. I've been looking forward to their inevitable meeting. The next chapter will be just as exciting for me, writing about the equally inevitable fight between them. I feel almost like I'm writing one of the vs. style comics where the good guys are forced to fight each other because of a misunderstanding or something, but it is what it is. The fight should be epic though. I might need to take my time and do it right. 293Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSD6YpOiec8
