[OP-F1] Coming to Grips �COMPLETE】

[Shiro 0]

Seeing this, Shiro's eyes went wide and that smile from before reappeared on her delicate face, wider than ever. Quickly she drew her thin foil from her hip, dropped expertly into her practiced stance, and stared down the boar. It was obviously hurt badly. It appeared that Seld had nearly finished the beast off. Just as well. This would be her chance to test her skills. She called her one rapier skill into memory: 《Linear》.

Leaning back a bit into her stance, she held her foil level with the boar, drew back with both hands, and felt the skill activate as the elegant weapon began to glow. Suddenly, with a great burst of speed, she lunged forward towards the creature. Unfortunately, she had underestimated the beast's speed and just barely brushed by without dealing any damage.

1 - 5 Miss

6 - 8 Hit

9 Crit +1 Damage

10 Hyper Crit +2 Damage

Total Damage Dealt: 0

Seldentar 37/37

Shiro 5/5

Boar: 1/5

[Seldentar 0]

Seldentar watches her miss, and smiles. Not too different from how he had started this game. Raising his sword, he moves towards the boar as it starts to charge at her. He slashes down at it with all of his strength. As the boar begins its charge, he slashes his blade through the boar, and in an explosion of shattering light crystals, it vanishes from existance.

Obtained: 1 Boar Tusk

[Shiro 0]

Shiro's smile never left her face, despite having done essentially nothing the whole fight.

"Seld, that was amazing! Alright, the next one is mine!"

She suddenly declared this as she jogged near to another boar. She dipped back into her stance. It felt so natural, to stand here and fight like this in this world. But the system-assisted skills felt even more amazing! She though that she should continue to home her actual fighting abilities and avoid using skills for now, but she had to experience《Linear》once more first.

Leaning back once again, she brought her left hand up to the handle of her foil, took aim, and... stood there. Was she not performing the starting action properly? While she attempted to figure this out, the boar began to charge at her.

"Oh, god, Seld!"

1 - 5 Miss

6 - 8 Hit

9 Crit +1 Damage

10 Hyper Crit +2 Damage

Total Damage Dealt: 0

Seldentar 37/37

Shiro 5/5

Boar: 5/5

[Seldentar 0]

Seldentar watches amused at how excited she is getting. Watching her try again, his eyes go wide as he realizes what is about to happen.

"Wait! No, stop, there are cooldowns to sword skills."

Rushing forward, he brings his sword around and down at the boar as it charges. Tripping as he runs, he gets hit by the boar instead, and gets knocked back a few feet.

Seldentar 36/37

Shiro 5/5

Boar: 5/5

[Shiro 0]

"God damn it..."

She muttered to herself. She was completely embarrassed for not remembering that there was a cooldown. It seemed Seld had taken the hit for her, though. Probably a good thing since she was still very weak by comparison. Somewhere along the way, though, she had leveled up, and was now very angry. However, she was an experienced fighter as well.

Shiro decided she would stick to normal attacks until she had a better understanding of skills and their cooldowns. Instead of her《Linear》sword skill, she opted for a standard advance-lunge. Taking a huge step forward to close the gap between herself and the boar, she lunged the foil right for the beast's face.

She could feel her sharp sword pierce the creature's skin, but the damage wasn't significant, so she jumped back to regain the gap between her and her foe.

Total Damage Dealt: 1

Seldentar 36/37

Shiro 7/7

Boar: 4/5

[Seldentar 0]

Seldentar raises his sword again, as he sees this new girl stab the boar in the face. He laughs, before lunging with his own blade. Hyper focusing on the boar in front of him, his eyes begin to glow blue as his extra skill activates. Charging forward, he lunges at the boar. Aided by his gear, and his extra skill, he slashes into the boar, depleting most of its hit points.

Seldentar 36/37

Shiro 7/7

Boar: 1/5

[Shiro 0]

Now things were finding a rhythm. Not wanting to be embarrassed again, the lithe rapier-user opted for a "direct" attack. her blade would end this just as it had started this. She moved faster than she felt she ever had, though something inside her reminded her that this was only the beginning of her adventure. Things would be getting much more grand. She thought this as her blade pierced the air on its path for the killing blow. The board quickly side-stepped the attack. A small little "clink" could be heard as its tusk gently brushed the sword.

Total Damage Dealt: 0

Seldentar 36/37

Shiro 7/7

Boar: 1/5

[Seldentar 0]

Seldentar jumps back for a moment, before dashing forward again. His blade slashes out at the boar, trying to take it out before it manages to launch another attack. As the boar spins and starts to charge, he dashes past it, slashing through the boar before it can react.

Obtained! 1 Boar Tusk

[Shiro 0]

She stood perfectly still for a moment as the second boar shattered into several polygons and vanished. After a few seconds, she started to laugh again and sheathed her sword.

"This is amazing!"

Shiro honestly couldn't recall the last time she had felt this alive. She sat down on the lush grass, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, gulping in the fresh Aincrad air. Yes. This was the world for which she had longed.

[Seldentar 0]

Seldentar takes a seat next to her, relaxing and enjoying the breeze. He looks over at her as she smiles.

"See, nothing to be afraid of. Not from the boars at least. You seem to genuinly like it here."

He turns, looking across the field.

"A lot of us are fighting every day to get home, but still, some days its nice just to relax, and forget about the terror for a little bit. Its moments like that that keep everyone going."

[Shiro 0]

Breathing out one long breath, Shiro opened her eyes again and stared at the rolling hills in the distance.

"I know that we're on a limited time table here. Even if we all resign to our fate and opt to live out our days in Aincrad, our bodies outside of SAO will eventually wither away. But you should know that I'm happy here. Even though everyone came here expecting this to be nothing more than a game, this world is real now. And it's a world that I've yearned for for a long time. You may think less of me for feeling that way, but aside from one friend, my mother, and my father, there's nothing for me in that other world. I've... embraced... this new world as reality. I want to live life to the fullest while we've still got time here. So hopefully you can understand why I feel like I have to be incredibly strong."

After she finished her speech, she didn't turn to look at Seld. She didn't care if he thought less of her or not. She wasn't going to let the opinion of a man she just met kill her mood.

"I feel happy, Seld. For the first time in a long time. Thank you."

[Seldentar 0]

Seldentar shakes his head.

"I wont judge you for that. Ive made some great friends here, and had experiences in this world I could never have in the real one. But I won't ever stop fighting to go back, no matter how nice I may find it here. This is our life now, and it will be for some time, but one day I plan on going home. Im far too stubborn to ever give up, its the whole reason I joined the Assault Teams."

He falls onto his back, staring up at the digital sky.

"Ive dreamed of coming to a virtual world for so long. I just wasn't expecting it to become so permanent. But I won't miss out on my life just because im in here. Ill live my life here, and when I go home, ill adjust to life back there as well."

[Shiro 0]

"Adapt and overcome."

She had heard that somewhere before. She couldn't remember where, but it wasn't important. Stretching her legs out in front of her, Shiro put her small hands on the ground behind her and leaned back on her extended arms. She admired Seld's ability to roll with the punches. Nobody was here right now because they wanted to be. But everyone came here because they wanted to. Shiro was sure that that part of people still existed, so she wasn't too worried about how her views were received. There wasn't a lot of difference, anyhow, in how she saw things. Only a sense of scale. Where most people thought like Seld and saw their time here as too long, Shiro felt it would be too short. She would just have to cross that bridge when she came to it.

Suddenly, a realization hit her as her brain caught up to Seld's words.

"Hang on a minute, did you say you're on the《Assault Team》?"

[Seldentar 0]

Seldentar looks over with a grin on his face.

"Yeah, I was recently invited to join the 8th floor boss fight. We are gonna try to open the 9th floor."

He raises one hand, curled into a fist.

"Our strength here is only real here, and part if me wants to keep it forever. But there are too many people counting on us to set them free. We can't let them down."

[Shiro 0]

"I'm impressed. And here I was thinking you were just some guy who went around crashing into girls because your bread is so interesting."

She smiled as she delivered that jest. She didn't know what it was, but at some point, Shiro had apparently decided that Seld was an alright guy. She felt at ease around him. If she was being honest with herself, she felt relief. A big part of why she wanted this world so badly was to relieve her loneliness. But ever since she'd arrived, she hadn't so much as made a single friend. Seld just may have been the person she needed to meet.

[Ruri 0]

As she walked out of a teleport gate she wondered around the town finally finding a familiar face with a girl... Deciding to go greet the two with a smile on her face. "Hello Seldentar, who's this?" The bluenette had asked, turning to the girl with a smile as she put her palm out in front of her. "Hello there, My name's Ruri." SHe greeted the girl.

[Seldentar 0]

Seldentar rolls over looking at her with a smile.

"Nope, just running into you apparently."

He looks like he's about to say more when Ruri walks up. Sitting up, he gives a wave.

"Hello Ruri, its been a while. As for her, well, ill let her introduce herself."

He kept his voice slightly formal, not knowing if there was any bad blood since had left guild.

[Shiro 0]

Shiro turned to look at the girl who had approached. At first, she was just going to offer her name and turn back around when she saw the girl's appearance. And then she noticed the orange cursor. Jolting up to fully standing, she took a step back, apprehensively. This was clearly a PKer, but Seld didn't seem worried in the least. Shiro relaxed her posture a bit, but edged closer to Seld subconsciously.

"Shiro..."

[Ruri 0]

"Hello Shiro. Nice to meet you." The fourteen year old bluenette had said before turning to Seldentar. "So what happened since you left my guild?" She had asked him in a softly knowing at this point unless someone was to attack her she wouldn't attack anything. A smile still spread across her face as she talked to the two hoping to not be awkward in the situation

[Atlas 0]

After being able to kill some time earlier, Atlas came around to see some players having a chat. "Hey there, How are you all doing?" he said with a smile. He was quite interested in the conversation of everyone he had meet, but some have turn him down. Since this is a game, there is no harm in trying to make some friends. There were still many players hiding in the Town of Beginnings, but this is only just the beginning.