Kyr

DOM REQUIRES DRUNKEN POST

I MUST GIVE HIM ONE.

He stared into the eyes of his assailant with a blank, thoughtful look. There was no pain. There was the sensation of pressure on his throat, but it hardly felt like what he had felt so many times.

Josh loved his father, but the drink was a monster. Dark nights back home were spent in his room, sequestered away for fear of patriarchal wrath. The sensation of his throat nearly being crushed was far more terrifying than this. What did rouse something in him was dangling far above his imminent death, a world below.

It was almost ironic. This world had hundreds of ways to die. All of them were surrounding him at all times. Now that the one unrealistic death stared him down, it felt like the first time all over again.

The moment when Kayaba told everyone that Sword Art Online was a death game.

In that instant, the cold fear in the pit of his stomach rushed through his veins. His body froze over. "Power is the only path that does not lead to death," Kyr answered, each word breaking on his lips.

"I will be free of this."

Until that instant, the only sound above the wind was his own breathing. The tiniest of sneezes alerted him to the presence of another player- one he would never have been aware of otherwise. Kyr opened his eyes slowly and stared hard at the sky. How many stronger players would approach him, and how close would he come to death before it decided to close its jaws around him?

The fear was gone now.

Instead of speaking initially, Kyr reached up and opened his inventory. He sifted through and summoned a blanket, which fell gracelessly over his person and significantly warmed him. He hardly cared if a mob came by while he was at rest. Huddled close to the false heat of a virtual fire, the youth sighed.

His breath manifested as a plume of white, warmth that railed against the frigid night. "You can come closer to the fire, if you like," he spoke just loudly enough that someone nearby might hear. "It's a cold night."

Flakes of frigid white alighted on his nose as Kyr sat at the edge of a frozen lake. The cold reminded him of home, a place where winters stretched long into the rest of the world's spring, and the smell of evergreens greeted him when he went outside. Delightfully warm, the small campfire he'd stoked just next to him offered the familiar scent of smoke, and the heat licked at his pale flesh not unkindly.

He wore only the clothes that he started with, barely interested in the motions that correlated to acquiring better gear. The idea that he needed to get stronger or be more defensible against attacks was sadistic. He cared nothing for the back and forth that other players threw themselves mindlessly into.

He did desire, desperately, to be among those fighting on the front lines. But Kyr knew better than to commit to such a daydream readily. It would take far more effort on his part than he had put forward yet. He was years from the strength that the people who fought bosses had.

Instead, he enjoyed the smaller luxuries of life. Levels were irrelevant when it came to being human. So many people stuck in Aincrad forgot their lives before it. For some of them, perhaps, that was better than the alternative. For Kyr, it simply meant an understanding of what he had lost.

What he hoped, perhaps, to go back to.

Until then, the slightest of shivers shot down his spine as he turned his gaze toward the winter sky. Aincrad followed the Northern Sky's constellations, and he found Cassiopeia quickly; then Draco, and Orion, and once he found Andromeda he closed his eyes.

"Ahhhh," he sighed. "What a nice night."

Probably not Lessa. Pretty sure she's Azure.

"So.... more like- that!"

As Calrex finished explaining the importance of striking over outright damage, Kyr immediately understood. Accuracy and consistency far outweighed pure power in terms of battle. The system remained largely stacked against newer players because of raw inequality of numbers. It stood to reason that they needed to put forth effort to mitigate that advantage, but the game seemed hellbent on stopping them.

Kyr doubted that had been the original intention of the Cardinal System. Somewhere along the line, the rationale of the AI become vicious. It learned from players, and from the way players interacted with parts of the system. It watched the human psyche deteriorate, and it created logic around the things it discovered. SAO was a perfect example of why humanity should never develop sentient technology. If a machine ever became powerful enough to play god...

He watched as the boar evaporated in a stream of data, then turned to regard Calrex. "I think I get it," he stated.

ID: 50387, BD: 7, MD: 8.

Boar and Kyr both successfully hit.

Kyr deals 2 damage.

Calrex: 270/271

Kyr: 8/8 | O/2 E

Boar: DEAD

Hell, I'll jump on it.

Kyr stood in shock for a moment as the stronger player not only offered up his weapon, but removed his helmet and took the opportunity to familiarize himself with a lowly beginner. He did instantly as he was bidden, and he fingered the command to equip Duskreaver instead of his current weapon. The bastard sword at his back dissipated in a brilliant flash of pale blue, which left Kyr with only the wicked weapon in his hand.

He stared hard at the gift, and he heeded what his newfound patron said. It had slain legions of creatures and hordes of players alike. What a strange sensation. The bottom of his stomach growled low at the idea of holding such a tool.

Kyr bid his body silent as he strapped the powerful blade to his back. "Only what I have found in my relatively short journey," he answered. Of the few people in Aincrad he knew, few of them were exceptional. "I've chanced upon a few higher level players, but I've never really interacted with anything they might have faced."

He turned his own gaze out toward the spiral clouds, dyed orange by the late day sun. "I have seen so little of this world, it's pathetic."

Again, he took a powerful swing at the boar. He let out a huff of annoyance as the strike went wide once more, frustrated by his inability to make his mark. "I thought I was ready, anyway," he grumbled bitterly. "Does this part get easier, or am I stuck slashing air for the rest of my life?"

He realized how terrible that sounded in Sword Art Online. "The rest of his life" could very well be three minutes, if he took one false step. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead as fear slipped into the forefront of his mind. Don't think that way, Josh, he reminded himself. You have to get back. Remember all the people who are waiting for you.

ID: 49932, BD: 2, MD: 2

Misses all around.

Kyr: 8/8 HP | 0/2 E

Calrex: 271/271 HP | 59/59 E

Boar: 2/2

He watched, almost enchanted by the wicked beast of a man before him. It was a monstrous sort of compulsion, the type of near-sickness one might suffer just before evacuating their guts in terror. Kyr felt a low rumble in the pit of his stomach, and for a moment he worried he might lose his composure and buckle right there. 

But he didn't. 

Instead the player killer summoned a behemoth blade and stretched it out toward him, so slowly he felt agony in every breath he took. Then, the blade fell at his feet. He watched in confusion for a moment as the beast of a man spoke, both to demand his name and warn him that he needed to do something impressive- quickly.

Unfortunately, Kyr was unaccustomed to impressive. In lieu of some magnanimous speech or grandiose rise to the challenge, the youth simply did as he was bidden. "Kyr," he spoke evenly, a tone that did not betray the initial fear he felt. Of course, he had grown good at driving down his emotions. He had become a master of owning them. Rage ruled the men and women in his family, and Kyr had suffered many times because of that fact. "My name is Kyr."

His fingers traced the sturdy hilt of the ebon blade that the Berserker had dropped, in awe of the excellent craftsmanship. Though his gaze did not waver or break from the man before him, he could feel the spirit of that blade like warmth in his arm. A dark fire that raged deep within it whispered of the countless lives it had ended- and Kyr could not be sure whether those lives were computer generated or real.

It unnerved him.

The idea of a blade that had ended life, so much life, at his disposal- it was a promise of power. Great temptation, but also, the weapon condemned whoever would wield it to grave responsibility.

His fingers gripped the hilt of the blade now, and against his spirit screaming for him to stop, he hefted the sword and looked along the blade. Every inch of the blade glistened a dark color, free from imperfection. "I can feel them," he muttered quietly. "Every life that ended at the edge of this weapon. Like links in a chain, threatening to inevitably drag me to hell."

Kyr moved his gaze back to the Berserker. "What is it you would have me to do?"

"Dude..." Kyr widened his eyes as the other player opened a trade window and offered him vaunted protective gear. "I... woah." His mouth gaped a little at the prospect of someone in this world showing him such great kindness. It was a first, to be sure. But to Kyr, one small act of kindness had the potential to spark a storm to follow it. "Absolutely, I'll give it back. Heck, I don't mind giving it back after we finish here, it's more than enough that you're willing to let me use it at all."

He gladly accepted the trade and quickly equipped the item. Kyr almost fell forward unexpectedly as the unfamiliar weight caused his center of gravity to shift, and though it was hardly as bulky as some of the higher level armor, to an inexperienced player it was something to get used to. "This'll help keep me alive for sure," he said gratefully. "Thanks a ton, man!"

With that caveat in place, Kyr was much more enthusiastic about moving forward. "Alright, let's give these boars hell! I want to see what I can do now that the odds are evened."

He readied his blade and strode out into the field, for the very first time confident that he would not die. This time, he had Icarus watching his back.

Well, that was a surprise. Icarus equipped some armor suddenly that demanded Kyr's attention, and the shorter man nodded appreciatively. "Man," he laughed, "you really did a head start. Wish I had some spiffy armor to keep the tusks away."

He went through the motions of inviting Icarus to his party and watched with satisfaction as the window appeared. At least he was starting to get a feel for the system. "Well, all things come with time, I guess," he checked over all his vital statistics- health, energy, experience- and nodded once more. Everything was in order.

The only thing left to do was take on a boar.

"So, I guess you're built a little sturdier than me," he joked, though there was a hint of truth in his words. "How should we tackle this?"

"That's not far at all!" he proclaimed excitedly. Then, it hit him. "Woah... well, that's pretty weird to think about. Y'know, when we get out of this place, we'll have to grab a beer or something. I..." he paused and glanced down at his hands. "Well, it's been two years. Outside, I'm old enough to drink now."

It hit him that he had missed his twenty first birthday, and his stomach sank. He wondered if his parents had taken the time to visit, to celebrate. He wondered if there had been cake, and celebration, and even a drink at the most recent in his honor. That's what he would have wanted. None of that silly sadness. They could do that every other day if they wanted to, but his birthday was a happy time.

That's how he would have had it.

"I guess that means we have to make it out alive, huh?" he smiled as best he could. "I... have enough Col for a beer, in the meantime, if you want."

"You got it!"

Kyr hardly waited from the instant Calrex popped his hate skill. The bastard sword glided upward and down in a single, destructive slash toward the boar, which seemed solely focused on the stronger player. As he came perilously close to hacking a nice chunk off the side of the thing, Kyr grunted in disapproval as the pig shrugged safely out of harm's way.

"Woah," the newer player gasped, "how did I miss?"

Unlike most newer players, however, his disbelief did not beget shock. The moment his weapon cleared out of the original arc, the swordsman swung it back around and into a ready position. Already, he had begun to accrue some accumen with his preferred weapon. "Keep it steady," Kyr called to Calrex, "I'll get it with the next one!"

Spoiler

ID: 49646, BD: 4, MD: 1

Misses all around.

Calrex: 271/271 HP

59/59 E

Kyr: 8/8 HP

0/2 E

Boar: 2/2 HP

"Sure," the dark haired boy acquiesced. "That sounds like a pretty good idea. Lead on!" With a few swipes of his finger, the menu dissipated and he replaced the blade at his back. "I would say that we could probably handle a few more of those boars, but I'd rather not play with fire if I can avoid it. And I don't mitigate any damage that's coming at me, so they'd tear through my HP bar with a quickness."

He watched idly for a moment as Lycan accepted his friend request, then smiled. It felt good to actually know someone, to have someone he could talk to. The game was so insanely lonely, most of the time. Sure, he could talk to Juan, but the older man was usually wrapped up in some ludicrous activity back in town. He spent all his time helping the kids who got stuck on Aincrad, which made sense, but it also meant he rarely had time for chit chat.

Kyr understood the necessity of Juan's chosen path, though. Someone had to give the small children direction. It was such a horrible thing that players that young had even made it into SAO. Kyr's expression darkened.

"We have to beat this game," he said suddenly. "There's so much at stake. So many innocent lives that hang in the balance."

"Heh," Kyr chuckled in response to the negative view on catching up. "They're only on the fourteenth floor or so," he pointed out. "We have a better chance of catching up now than if they were in the seventies or something!" He was rarely ever so positive himself, so to show that sort of enthusiasm meant that Kyr was immensely serious about the matter.

However, he smirked because Lycan shared his goal. "Well hot damn, we're on the right track." He sheathed the heavy blade at his back and shuffled through his menu for the Friends' List. With a bit of effort, he sent an invitation to the other player. "It's not much, but we do have a unified goal. We should try to help each other out, yeah?"

He neglected to mention to Lycan that he was the first person to get on Kyr's Friends List. "Name's Kyr," he added. "Let's work hard and do our best."

"Huh," Kyr responded when the man mentioned his ability. "That's pretty nifty. You must be one of those tanky types." With a quick glance in Calrex's direction, he assessed the other man and nodded. "Alright, then you go ahead. I'll take care of mopping the floor with the boars."

Kyr wore a mischevious grin at the thought of tearing apart his piggish adversaries while they threw themselves against a wall to no avail. "That's a far cry from what I'm used to," he laughed aloud at the silent joke. "Thanks for coming along, buddy. This'll be a nice change of pace."

He hefted the weapon up into a ready stance and stared down the blade toward a nearby boar. "Since we have a system, I'll defer to your lead for now!"

"Who even knows," Kyr threw up both hands. "They probably appeared after the floods opened up, and since the game doesn't have blinders like most RPGs- the ones that cap you below a certain level- it's probably taken a few casualties." He sighed. "People should know better than to go traipsing off to the tenth floor at level one."

After a moment, he stretched his neck. "Just a little bit more luck, but not much. There's a quest available for when we hit level five, something that awards a nice weapon- just, obviously, at the risk of dealing with a fairly strong enemy." Kyr paused, then added, "obviously nothing that will profit us in an immediate capacity, but it's good to have a goal in mind. For now, getting the experience to level up will put us in the running. We need to be strong enough to survive the quest before we undertake it, after all."

He tugged at his nonexistent beard and mulled over the prospective courses of action. "I tried to fight a boar by myself the other day. Ended up another player jumped in and saved my backside, but I got a pretty good idea of how combat works. What do you think, want to try and see how you and I fair against one? That'd be a pretty good test of our teamwork."

"Yeah," he nodded, "from Grand Rapids." It was weird to be able to talk to someone about home. He realized instantly that it meant someone else was stuck in this game, in some hospital bed, maybe even the same state as he was. He blinked as that registered with him. "Does that mean you're from Michigan?" he asked, hopefully. 

Then he bit his lip. "Let's talk and walk," he added, "I don't want to hold you up any more than I have to. I really appreciate your doing this," he added thankfully.

"Ha!" He let out a chortle at her pun, mostly because he had not expected it. The best things in life were like that, after all. Complete surprises. "Haha," his laughter quickly died down into a slight smirk. "Explosive..."

Kyr shook his head slightly and then opened his eyes. The reds bled slowly from the sky as more gold rose to take their place, and his mind wandered back to the nights where he and his sister used to play while his parents sat together without a care in the world. Those were simpler times. Those were better times.

He missed they days where life didn't feel like a constant struggle against his younger sibling for affection. But now more than ever, he just missed them. Kyr would happily have accepted the rebellious teenage lifestyle if it meant he could live a day without fear for his life. Sword Art Online opened his eyes to what life was really about, and in a way, he was indebted to Kayaba for that. In an entirely other way, he knew Kayaba had never intended that. It was a brief, positive aside to the nightmarescape he had brought to life.

"They never last long, though. Maybe a few more minutes, if we're lucky."

As he spoke, the sky flashed brilliantly. Pastels like sunset illuminated every inch of his vision, and for a moment, night turned to day. Blasts of explosive rang in his ears like grenades at close range. Every care in the world dissipated as his expression turned to awe, and he committed the moment to memory. 

It would be one of the things that, when he got home, he would tell his sister all about. Maybe that would make her less... sad about the whole thing. If that was possible, anyway.

"Too bad," he murmured in a low voice. "It's always nice to have a break."

"Well, it didn't," Kyr replied flatly he folded his arms and gauged the man who chastised him sternly. "Not that it couldn't have, and I probably won't be doing that again for a while, but I think I did pretty good."

He slung the large blade over his shoulder in one sweep, then used the weapon as a resting place for his other arm. "That's not to say I'm not grateful. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't come along."

Of course, up to that point, Kyr had been blatantly ignoring the question that the newcomer initially asked. With some measure of embarassment, he cast his eyes downward. "Well, see... I only just decided to try out combat. I mean, I know we've been in this game all this time- I just never felt confident enough to try it on my own. I thought it would be a good experience."

He bit his lip. "I need more experience and better equipment. I want to help out with the front line initiative. I know I'm a little far behind for that, but..."

Without warning, a new player descended on the boar from one side. Not one to ask questions in the thick of a life or death situation, Kyr silently thanked the powers that be for his good fortune and took the small window of opportunity to his advantage. Though the other player missed and did nothing to the creature, it seemed to take a short notice of him- just enough that Kyr was able to move in the instant that it did so. 

His mighty blade struck again, and it carved out another red line in the flank of the beast. Annoyed and angry now, it let out a powerful yelp and then snorted billows of fiery steam. The young player knew that the next few moments would be the difference between whether he lived or died, and he was infinitely glad he wouldn't be alone in them.

"I really should get some armor if I'm going to keep doing this," he commented almost casually.

ID: 49548, BD: 6, MD: 3

Boar takes 1 Damage.

Kyr: 8/8 HP | 0/2 E | 1 Hate

Lycan: 16/16 HP | 3/4 E | 0 Hate

Boar: 2/4 HP

He let out a grunt as the boar delivered its timely reprisal. With a deft step, he managed to evade the blow, and the dark haired youth began to twist his body in order to bring his blade around for a powerful strike. "If at first you don't succeed," he called out with a grin.

"Keep hacking til it dies!"

With a concerted effort, Kyr ripped his blade clean through the air- and he missed as the blade flew narrowly over the pig's head. The creature showed only a modicum of alarm, instead much more interested in exacting vengeance.

Spoiler

ID: 49545, BD: 2, MD: 1

Kyr: 8/8 | 0/2 E

Boar: 3/4

Kyr stared down the edge of his bastard sword toward the boar only a few feet beyond. It was the first time he'd ever contemplated taking one on alone. The real chill crept up his spine as the thought struck him- if that thing hits me enough times, I could die.

He stood there for several long moments, uncertain of himself. Both knees bent and his body low, the swordsman let his blade hang overhead. "No time like the present," he steeled himself. "If I don't do it now, I might not get another chance."

In a rush of supreme effort and adrenaline, Kyr lashed out with an upward slash toward the boar's gullet. 

It let out a roar of agony as a line of crimson appeared along it's side, and the beast faltered beneath the surprise of being attacked.

Spoiler

ID: 49543, BD: 8, MD: 3

Boar takes 1 Damage! (2-1)

Kyr: 8/8 HP | 1/2 E | 0 MIT

Boar: 3/4 HP | 3 DMG | 1 MIT

"The Wings always go," he waved a hand dismissively when she casually offered the statement, "if nothing else, we can rely on them to do great. Wish I could say the same for the Lions..." he growled lowly at the admission, then glanced around himself. "It's a tough thing to be, a Lions fan."

When her attitude shifted to a more cold, dissproving glower, he held up his hands. "Hey, hey, no harm, no foul. Most people who are good at something don't do it for free. I just wanted to let you know up front that I was a charity case, since that seems to be par the course. It isn't a statement about you or anything."

With a sigh, he let his hands fall. "I guess I get it... this place changes people. It's easy to get caught up in different things, and expectations. I didn't mean nothing by it, honest."

"If you're offering, I won't say no," Kyr replied evenly as he began to shift past the seemingly strong player. "I'm not afraid, and that's the only thing that's ever gonna make me better." True though it was that fear kept people alive, it also had the tendency to hold them back. For so long now, it had afflicted Kyr thus, and at last he had grown tired of it.

"So, here..." he flipped through his menu with graceless inability and sent a party invite to the player, totally unaware of how skilled the man might be. As the window appeared before his blue haired friend, Kyr set his eyes on the world beyond the doors. "Here we go!"

Without hesitation and with little warning, Kyr burst through the exit and broke into a jog toward the edge of town. He unslung his blade and let it drag along the ground where it clattered loudly against the cobblestone. "This time, I'm ready!" he asserted.

"Let me at those damn boars!"