AUTHOR'S NOTE
Sorry for the lack of updates, was kinda occupied this week.
Also, I'm going to give a suggestion I've never given before: you might want to consider saving up for about 5 to 7 chapters so you can read the Laughing Coffin raid all at once. I say that because I've been going a little overboard with the writing, so this chapter and the next are mostly just PoV changes to show reactions, and the very very beginning of the raid.
Anyway, it's up to you, and I hope you enjoy!
///////// START OF THE CHAPTER /////////
"It is with a heavy heart that I stand before you today."
The screen was divided. One half showed the grim-faced frontliners as they checked their equipment. The other had Japan's Prime Minister on a dias, addressing the country. It was even being broadcast in other places around the world.
"Today is a dark day. A day where people who have already been asked too much must stand and step forward again. A day when heroes walk like monsters for a brighter tomorrow."
Across the crowd of silent frontliners, Lightning Flash Asuna and Dragon Knight Lind exchanged nods. Redblade Klein and Hero Orlando grabbed each other's wrists.
"Yesterday, Broken Spear Drifter delivered a rousing speech. One I could never make. And one I am sure he wished he never had to speak."
Broken Spear Drifter clapped Black Swordsman Kirito on the shoulder, and knocked forearms with Liten the Fortress. Holy Sword Heathcliff offered his hand, and SAO's Grandmaster of the Spear shook it.
"The sins that would marr their souls, he said. And to that, I say NO!"
Argo the Rat pulled out a Corridor Crystal. Shadow Blossom Akari was the first to step through.
"We have already failed the Sword Art Online victims too much. I have failed them too much. They will not suffer more, not by my hands. They will be treated as the heroes that they are."
Uniformed rolls of frontliners walked through the portal until only Broken Spear Drifter and Argo the Rat were left. The older man bent over and touched his forehead to the girl's.
"As such, I am declaring that all frontliners and players involved in today's operation for the destruction of the criminal group known as Laughing Coffin will receive fullimmunity for their actions. I repeat, all Sword Art Online players who take action against Laughing Coffin today will receive full immunity. Furthermore, players Broken Spear Drifter, Black Swordsman Kirito, Lightning Flash Asuna, Precise Blade Ran, Untamed Storm Yuuki, Aero Huntress Sinon, Argo the Rat, Shadow Blossom Akari, and all members of the guild Fuumaningum have, as of this morning, been granted full pardons for their involvement in the deaths of red players Morte, Red-Eyed XaXa, and any other members of Laughing Coffin who carried a red cursor."
The Japanese people widened their eyes and broke into disbelieving chatter. Around the world, those familiar with Japanese history and legalese sucked in a sharp breath of air. Ignoring New Year's Day pardons for petty crimes, the last time Japan had issued blanket immunity and pardons in this scale had been after World War Two.
"Know that this was not a decision taken lightly. But we recognize the extraordinary circumstances the SAO players, and above all the Assault Team, find themselves in. Despite the impossibility of communication between the real world and Sword Art Online, I can say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it is our belief that the players fighting in the frontlines will not abuse our trust. They have proved again and again their strength of character, morality, and integrity. And so..."
108 frontliners and 24 Fuumaningum players assembled in the 32nd floor tower, glaring fiercely at an entrance carved away on the wall.
"...let us wish good luck to Sword Art Online's heroes."
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Any time now. Drifter could feel it in the air. They were being watched, and he wasn't talking about the observers he didn't know they had on the outside world.
"Steady. Here they come."
The red players wouldn't wait for them in the safe room. You couldn't fight there, couldn't kill there. That would be boring. And if there was one thing Laughing Coffin hated, it was boring.
No, they would be posted just outside of it, waiting to ambush the Assault Team. PoH didn't want just a fight. He wanted a war.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Don't you know it's polite to knock?"
They didn't have to wait long. A mocking voice bounced off the walls, and before they knew it, hooded shadows were peeling of the walls and materializing from thin air.
Argo's intel put Laughing Coffin at about 40 players after all of Fuumaningum's hunting and the annihilation of XaXa's group.
There were at least 70 surrounding them.
They were everywhere. In the bridges above and below them, to their left and right. Coming up from behind, and streaming out of the safe room.
Drifter only had eyes for one of them. He had never seen the man before, but Drifter instantly knew that the red player crouching on a bridge above them, most of his face obscured by his hood save for a few strands of black hair, was the one who spoke.
"PoH. I want to say it is a pleasure. But that would be one big fucking lie. The truth is, I can't wait to kill you."
"Gwahahahaha! Bold! I like it! I am also excited to finally meet you, Broken Spear Drifter. I entered SAO thinking I had finally found something worth looking forward to. But all I found were cowards. Not you, though, heh? You got fangs."
The spearmaster didn't answer immediately. He simply narrowed his eyes at PoH, mulling over his words. It sounded like the red player had entered Sword Art Online after it started. Truly a psychopath.
"PoH. Johnny Black. Grendel. Camer. Viper. Atrax. All you other bastards whose's names I can't be bothered to remember. You are being given one chance not to die."
At a gesture from Drifter, Kirito slapped a Corridor Crystal down.
"Walk through to Black Iron Palace and you get to live. Don't, and you die. What will it be?"
Their answer was to laugh, their cackling echoing around the labyrinth. Drifter shook his head.
"That's what I figured. Assault Team... Attack."
Drifter thought he caught PoH mutter angrily under his breath. The red player clearly wanted more of a show before the battle started. A big display of Laughing Coffin's guts and insanity for challenging the Assault Team.
He wouldn't get it. Drifter was treating this like a floor raid. PoH was the boss, and the other red players were the minions. They were just monsters. There was no reason to talk to them.
Which was why his spear was already flying in a Serpentcoil Impale towards PoH as the rest of the frontliners exploded into motion.
As if to mock him, the red player simply leaned his body forward and dropped down to the main bridge while doing a flip, almost absent-mindedly dodging Drifter's attack.
"Gwahahaha... This is gonna be fun!"
In a heartbeat, the previously tense, but calm labyrinth had become a battlefield of epic proportions.
This was by far the largest player-versus-player battle to ever happen, and the largest that would ever happen, in Sword Art Online.
And Laughing Coffin, damn them, despite being heavily outnumbered, still charged at the frontliners like they could think of nothing better to do with their lives.
Drifter himself gunned straight for PoH, but he lost sight of the criminal guild leader when two Laughing Coffin players blocked his path. One was a huge man, and fat to the point he could almost be called obese - and no, Drifter wouldn't apologize for thinking that, the man was a killer, he deserved it. The other had a hood and a bandana, and was much smaller than the first.
"Hunter Grendel and Alchemist Johnny Black. PoH not brave enough to fight me on his own? He had to send cannon fodder like you to buy him a few more minutes of life?"
He recognized them from Argo's intel packs. Grendel just frowned, beady eyes narrowing at Drifter - he was one of the few red players who didn't hide his face - and raising his ax in one hand.
Johnny Black, on the other hand, grinned under the piece of cloth masking half his face. It was him who spoke.
"Hahahah... Boss is gonna do what he gotta do. But I've been waiting to meet ya in person, Broken Spear. Ever since ya killed that shoddy shit, XaXa."
"Bad mouthing the dead? No honor amongst monsters, huh?"
Drifter sneered, but his eyes were cold and hard. Grendel and Johnny Black were different than the normal Laughing Coffin riffraff. Just their stance proved it.
While both red players appeared relaxed, slouched even, despite the war waging around them, Drifter's experienced eyes were having trouble finding openings.
If it was just one of them, the spearmaster would have attacked already. Regardless of how skilled the red players were, they could never compare to a titled frontliner.
But with two of them working together, even Drifter felt a vague sense of danger. And staring back at the Alchemist's mocking gaze, the spearmaster was even more sure.
Red-Eyed XaXa had been different. Weaker. He spent too much time boasting and laughing. Despite having the talent, he squandered it in hunting and torturing weaker players.
The two in front of Drifter weren't like that. They were well trained, either by a desire of self-improvement, or because they wanted to be able to kill others better. But they were definitely a cut above XaXa. Enough to make Drifter feel danger.
Those two could kill him.
That's what Drifter's instincts were screaming at him. It wasn't a certainty, but compared to all other members of Laughing Coffin, they could do it.
And someone else sensed it too, because before Drifter could charge, an ax and a mace crossed in front of him.
"You can have the big guy, Drifter. The scrawny little bastard is ours."
The spearmaster stared at Agil and Wolv's backs. And he nodded, despite knowing they couldn't see it.
Comet Break. Drifter arrived in front of Hunter Grendel in a purple blaze, his lance striking the red player's ax as the Laughing Coffin member cut down with it just in the nick of time.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The three nails Johnny Black threw, each coated in a different poison, were intercepted in a similar manner by Agil's ax, just before they could hit Drifter's unprotected back.
The Alchemist scowled, but gave up on attacking the Reaver's Requiem guild master, recognizing it to be impossible now. A cartwheel took him out of the way of Wolv's Hammer Down and he turned to the last two remaining members of what was once Aincrad's prime merchant quartet.
"Let's party then!"
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Kirito disengaged from a Laughing Coffin sword-user to let a wildly swinging Agil and Wolv pass, chasing a red player he recognized as Johnny 'Alchemist' Black.
For a moment, he thought to help them, his body even jerking involuntarily in their direction. Johnny Black was one of Laughing Coffin's executives, and a very deadly player.
But before he could choose, he was forced to bend this body backwards to avoid a slash to his throat.
He couldn't dodge the jagged dagger that buried into his thigh, although his reactive and un-aimed Vertical caused his attacker to jump back to avoid getting cut in half.
Turning his glare, he expected to find the Laughing Coffin player he was fighting before, only to discover an entirely new figure in front of him. Tall, lanky, and, most of all-
"Dual-wielding!?"
Viper licked the blade of the dagger in his right hand, which had injured Kirito, while deftly spinning its pair on his left hand.
"Why, Black Swordsman, one would think you are jealous. Who said only you could play this trick?"
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Heathcliff raised his shield to block the spiky head of the morning star again. Lesser players - and ones without a cheat-like Unique Skill - would have fallen to their knees from the force of the blow, and from there it would be a straight ride to the afterlife.
Two had suffered that fate already, their heads crushed and smashed in by Grave Keeper Atrax's weapon, and Heathcliff, not for the first time, bemoaned the stark lack of talent of so many of his guild members. He had waited too long to form the Knights of the Blood Oath, and by then most of the good frontliners were already taken.
That was all he had time to think before he had to, once again, use Holy Sword to transfer all his stats to defense, least he be forced to engage on the system assist keeping his HP from dropping below half.
Laughing Coffin was proving to be more troublesome than Heathcliff expected. And not just because there were a lot more of them than Argo's report initially indicated - Cardinal had already told him that - but because of how badly the frontliners were fighting.
It seemed most of them hadn't captured the essence of Broken Spear Drifter's speech the day before. Which was, in so many words: kill them before they kill you.
So far, very few in the Assault Team were following that logic. Reaver's Requiem, of course. And one or another of the DKB. Heathcliff had seen Shivata kill someone earlier, although, from his empty expression, you would be hard-pressed to figure out who came out on top: him, or the man he killed.
The red players, on the other hand, had no such problems. They threw themselves at the frontliners without a care in the world, relying on their moments of hesitation to score lethal blows.
More than one frontliner had already fallen because, when came the time deal the final hit to a red player, they couldn't do it, their weapons either consciously or not straying from their path.
This was what Broken Spear Drifter had been afraid of, Heathcliff knew. That the Assault Team, his heroes, were still too human to stomach taking a life.
"Persistent bugger. You look older than I am. Why don't ya just. Drop. DEAD!"
Grave Keeper Atrax's morning star came at Heathcliff from the side, and his shield once again intercepted it.
Heathcliff could have ended this duel already. He was certainly skilled enough, even without his built-in safeguards. But he wanted to see how many of his captives would rise to the ranks of true heroes.
And how many would fall.