Them

Gladened as Krysta confirmed that she was okay, Cleo observed the closing moments of the fight. After the boar's grating squeal, she felt relief over the encounter's end and, after a brief survey of their surroundings, removed herself from cover. No more threats were in sight, but she couldn't trust observations alone, and as the last boar seemed to appear out of nowhere, the Player kept her wits about her, staying on high alert. In response to Krysta's wish to leave at the earliest convenience, she agreed. "Yeah, let's get out of here as soon as we can. I'm practically boar food out here." A

After hearing Nari's apology, Cleo stood still, chin tucked into her chest and her eyes closed. Was it worth holding a grudge over something so small? In the end, she knew the other Player's criticism to be wholly warranted, given Cleo had performed about as poorly as one could during combat. She knew that it was silly to hold hate for something so small. Releasing a sigh, she responded, eyes opening. "Yes." Realizing that Nari was offering a handshake, she reached across to complete the gesture. "I forgive you. Sometimes I take criticism too personally, but I fully deserve it in this situatio

Breath drew from her lungs when the boar flipped Krysta up into the air before crashing into the grassy floor. Cleo could do nothing but watch as the beast, and the other Player went in for another attack. She saw that neither of the combatants landed a significant blow against the other in keeping track of the blonde's health bar, but the tension had only risen since the fight's inception. "Krysta! You okay?" she shouted across, half-wanting to spring up from behind the log and take the boar by surprise. The other Player's words echoed in her mind, however. This creature, it is balanced

Cleo's face lit up with shock as Nari took to roasting her mid-fight. The skeletons' fates were sealed by the shieldbearer's spear, exploding into shards and leaving naught but a dim glow, and their existence ceased to be. However, before the chamber could grow quiet, the purple-haired player posed another question to the blue-haired one, and Cleo's smile faded. Cleo's immediate reaction compressed into her thoughts; you know that it doesn't, you made it! She noted the change in the woman's demeanor since before they'd engaged in combat. Something seemed to change. A coldness or darkness set i

The fact that the recoil damage existed as an ability blew Cleo's mind. Another thing to learn? I should start writing this stuff down. With the plan set in stone, she nodded firmly and took position a few strides back and to the side. It was simple; she'd wait until the skeletons were close enough to Nari to attack and then run in speedily while they're in mid-swing, finishing them off before they knew what's what. That would have been the plan if one of the skeletons hadn't killed itself after bashing the shieldbearer's armor and diminishing the remainder of its health, while the o

She heard Nari's intentions to weaken the first foe so that Cleo could finish it off. "I can try!" She stood, readying to strike again despite her critically awful attack from before. With the skeletons bundled together, Cleo seized her moment. She approached speedily to deliver another swing, barely missing the first yet connecting with the second, draining its health into the red zone. Thrown from its attack, the mob tumbled and fumbled the attack. "Missed. Look out!" The first skeleton drew its weapon backward and swung at Nari, doing itself more harm than good as its health dipped int

"Chest. Huh." Curious about the contents, Cleo stood a bit behind as the other Player opened it up, wondering what could be inside that would threaten them. It opened with a click, and she leaned forward despite the warning to get a good look at the contents. "A weapon and some potions? Nice!" Whether or not the loot was good, she hadn't a clue, but the other Player seemed to be satisfied with it. "Agreed, let's get going." Nodding as Rebekah mentioned they should head back, she closed the chest's lid and made way for the path. With that, they set off for the Town of Beginnings.

Cleo listened as Rebekah explained the premise behind floor twenty-five, the giant maze, and the overall dull execution of the floor. She nodded, unimpressed. "Alright, agreed, that floor sounds like a nightmare. Just a maze with no scenic features sounds depressing as hell. Plus, imagine getting lost in there without a teleportation crystal? Yikes." The thought was somewhat disturbing, and she quickly tried to distract herself with something else. Thankfully, Rebekah located the last of the materials, to which Cleo stood up with an arm raised victoriously. "Way to go! Let's get that poti

With a plethora of suggestions to consider, each as enticing as others, Cleo sat on her thoughts for a moment before answering Rebekah's question. "Something new, not like this floor. Four is a strong contender. I live near mountains in the real world, so skiing was frequent for my family and me. Snowy weather's a bit blah, though. Had way too much of that in Norway." She sat down on a nearby fence to take a little break from gathering. "I think floor twenty-four might be more my jam. It would be nice to sit in the sun and think about nothing, what better place to do that than the beach?" Thro

"Go get 'em!" she cheered encouragingly. From past experiences, she found that the river was always a great place to come and look for materials. That said, it was likely her experiences were hyperbole and that there was an equal chance of finding something no matter where one looked. Looking around herself for any materials, she decided to look around the same area she'd searched in the past. There stood a dry, withered tree stump, bereaved of its tree long ago. Alongside it lay a tree trunk, hollowed out by termites long ago, large enough for a Player to crawl inside. In doing so, a sma

The boar dodged away from Krysta's attack, Krysta deflected an assault from the boar, and Cleo watched from the sidelines, whelmed with anticipation. It was the first time she'd bore witness to a high-level player in combat, and against an enemy scaled to their level no less, so she'd take the time to study the other Player's movements. The fight seemed one-sided, with the boar not having landed a single attack and its health almost entirely depleted. Still, for Cleo, it was an excellent opportunity to start to fill the most glaringly obvious gap in her Sword Art Online knowledge; combat.

"I trust you," replied Cleo, absorbing Nari's plan as she stood behind the other Player, grip tightening around her dagger. The clanging of bones as the skeletons arose from their centuries-long slumber led the hairs on her arms and neck to stand on end, thinking the sound more than unpleasant. When the shieldbearer stunned the assailants, Cleo heeded the time to strike. She ran at them without fear of retaliation and lashed out with a sweeping attack, the dagger's point tracing an arc in the air, which missed both targets. Tripping on the first skeleton's boney foot, Cleo stumbled arms-f

Cleo mobilized a few steps behind Nari as the two pressed onward, dagger at the ready. Then, when the other Player inquired about the creature, realization filled Cleo's eyes. "Oh. It's this sort of cat, with beige, long fur, beautiful blue eyes, and its ears look like little wisps of smoke. Its tail is always on fire. Flametail." The Player recalled seeing the creature clear as day in all its majesty and smiled slightly, looking to Nari. "Sorry, I should have described what we were looking for earlier. The cat will stick out like a sore thumb around here." To that, her eyes began to swee

An extra couple of terms trickled into her mind-dictionary, evasion and mitigation, concepts she'd known of but hadn't been able to put names to the ideas. The recommendations stuck with Cleo the most out of what Nari told her. Teamwork, a concept foreign to her of yet, seemed to play a key part in the higher levels, as she'd now heard from multiple players, but it wasn't something that worried her too much as of then. She nodded, uncertain herself about how much she was genuinely taking in, though feeling that most of it were beginning to stick. From the pause, followed by Nari's distant

The exposition of information brought Cleo back into a headspace she hadn't been in since childhood. As a child would struggle to absorb the frightening twelves times table, she would try to take in as much info as possible from Nari, her wires likely crossing on a couple of points. Three key things were: damage, support, tank. These could mix, intermingle, to play on the strengths of one and dampen the pitfalls of the other. If there were any more critical points, these became lost on her, though she could refine her understanding later on if need be. "That's a lot to take in. But I'm startin

The stranger's health bar fell to one, and Cleo's last sword art rendered the duel won. In a panic, she recalled her dagger and leaned down, catching the person as they fell. "Hey, you okay?" Though afflicted with a wound that would have killed under usual circumstances, they nodded weakly, smiling to signal nothing was amiss. "Very well done. Thank you for sparing me. It seems I'll need to be stronger yet if I'm to best you." Cleo held them as they moved to stand and let go once the stranger was on their feet. As they drank from a strange little potion that sat in their belt, the strange

If she were to win this fight, she would have to try one of two things; outsmart her enemy or roll the dice and see which one of them came out on top. Having taken a hit, Cleo was already a step behind in the fight, so rolling the dice became a risky strategy. The only option was to think outside the box. As she and they circled one another, genius finally struck the Player. She launched into another attack. Cleo came to a forceful stop a short way from the target and, planting a foot into a puddle, showered them with a veil of water. The figure recoiled and, with enough time to pull

Cleo strafed left, and the figure followed. She strafed right, and it shuffled right, too. A quirk about the figure struck Cleo as curious. If she switched the hand holding her dagger, so would they. She recalled the previous attack where they'd tried to attack each other and missed comically, and a realization dawned—it was mocking her fighting style. Not in the sense that it was making fun of her, but in that every movement she would typically make, they would copy. They had studied her movements long enough to learn how she fights, to mimic the moves she would typically make. However,

Whoever this was, they intended to play dirty. Fair fight, my ass. Cleo decided against waiting to be struck so freely again and, blade held similarly to the stranger, targeted her enemy with a sword art intended to stun. She ran forward, as did they, and the two made swings at each other that would miss by an arm's length each, before both stumbling to the ground in opposite directions. Fearing the stranger would seize the opportunity to strike, she scrambled to recover her weapon and back onto her, only to turn and realize they'd made the same error. "Oops." "Mhm." Silently, t

Equipment in check, Cleo was feeling ready to square off against the stranger. "I think I'm ready. Wait!" Before she had even a second to react, the stranger plunged their dagger deep into Cleo's stomach, their <<Disguise>> skill proving a helpful distraction. She was frozen in panic, half from the shock of being stabbed somewhere where it felt so real and half out of the sudden start to the fight. She watched desperately and helplessly as her health bar trickled down to nearly half after taking one hit. As they yanked the dagger from the Player's stomach, the cloaked fig

Wordlessly, the hooded figure led Cleo on a winding path through the jungles of the fourth-floor, passing valleys and rivers and a jungle temple—something she might come back to at a later time. Trees began to blend as the seconds turned into minutes, and minutes into an hour, until, finally, they would come out to an opening in the forest, an area of respite. Flowers adorned the open ground, and the dense brush receded into the tree-line, creating the perfect location for a duel, which she knew was inevitable. Their back turned, the stranger appeared to be tending to their equipment, whi

Profession, combat, healing, searching. Terms all blurred into one as Nari delivered crucial information about which skills a familiar could have, and Cleo had the idea that some research would have to be done, sooner or later. Oy vey, so many options. Then, crucially, the purple-haired woman asked Cleo what her plans were for herself. The question caught her tongue, and though the Player pondered for a moment, she already knew she'd no proper answer to give. "My focus?" Eyes searching around the ruins, she thought for another precious moment before giving up. "I don't... know. I have no

Seeing that the Player was more on-board than before, the figure lowered their arms and breathed calmly, prepping to explain. "It's a simple measure of strength. I watch a lot of people, follow them on their journeys, to see how far they've come since the beginning. I promise, one duel is all I ask for, and I'll be forever out of your hair." Weird. That was the only thing that sprung to Cleo's mind. Never mind all of the stuff about being 'watched,' but this person's purpose—an NPC, she swiftly realized—was gathering information on the players as they progressed through the game. When all

"It's simple. I wish to duel you." The figure was unmoving beneath its cloak and hood, though Cleo could see the outline of their lips shuffling in the dark. The challenge was not to Cleo's liking, and without a second of thought, she shook her head, denying the request. "Nuh-uh, not doing that. I've heard stories about duels, about people getting tricked into a fight to the death. I don't know who you are, not letting that happen." Though she wouldn't let it show, she grew uneasy from the conversation, her feet shifting uncomfortably. As if to calm Cleo's nerves, the figure raised i

"I hope to find out soon enough, too." To bond with a creature, with anything, would be a godsend to her mental health, and Cleo found comfort in Nari's reinforcement that she'd find the same thing she shared with Yuki. They breached what could be considered the entrance to the ruins, a half-collapsed archway that led further into the dilapidated structure. Then, when the purple-haired woman posed a question which Cleo hadn't yet considered nor indeed heard of before, she looked over to the other Player quizzically. "I wasn't aware of that all, no. Hadn't thought about anything like that