Their manner of speech was so archaic that my first thought was the eight players before my eyes had to be NPCs.

But the HP bars above their heads were the same color and shape as Itsuki's and Zeliska's, and their display names were not the sort NPCs would have either. The samurai standing in the middle of the group was Sendai Koreto...at least that's how I assumed the kanji were read. The samurai to his right was Potapota Sai, and the samurai on the left was Striped Sakon—those had to be PC names.

Just as I had this thought, it struck me—the HP bars of everyone, including Itsuki's camp, had evolved slightly. GGO HP bars were shaped simply, with just one horizontal line. That aspect of it had not changed, but short horizontal lines had been added beneath, along with something that looked like an emblem affixed to the lefthand side—the letters G, G, and O, arranged in a triangle to form the Gun Gale Online logo.

The HP bars of the samurai were of the same design, with the same mysterious bars beneath—except they looked even shorter than our bars. The emblem on the left was two katana and a bird with its wings spread. That had to be the logo for Asuka Empire.

Asuka Empire was a Japanese-style VRMMORPG which boasted the highest concurrent number of Japan's top-tier gamers. Like GGO, it used the same The Seed Connector, so you could convert your characters over to compatible games. My knee-jerk assumption was that the samurai before me were a party converted from Asuka Empire—but I quickly discarded the idea.

All you could convert from another system were avatar skills and stats. You could not bring items or money over. And yet, the eight people before us were equipped with Japanese katana, armor, and Miko shrine maiden clothes that did not exist in GGO.

I remembered what ArFA-Sys had said a few minutes ago:

——This map appears to exist in a system outside of the GGO servers.

That had to be it. This one-kilometer radius circular map filled with golden hexagonal tiles was a space that existed outside of Gun Gale Online, Alfheim Online, and Asuka Empire. It probably linked all the VRMMOs that utilized The Seed's Connector with that one-way wall of light.

In other words, the thousand-meter giant had not appeared exclusively in GGO. Itsuki had said earlier that the exact same guerrilla event was in progress concurrently in other VRMMOs besides GGO. But it wasn't a copy of the event happening concurrently. It was literally the same boss and map. Which would make this the biggest raid event in Japanese gaming history, where players across multiple IPs had to join forces to defeat a giant boss... This begged the question, why then were these samurai attacking us?

Perhaps having the same thought, Kureha warily readied her giant optic launcher, pointed toward the center of the map with her elbow, and bellowed:

"Hold up!　Your target should be that giant guy! Why are you attacking us?!"

Then the samurai on the right—Potapota Sai—pointed the tip of a very long and thin katana at Kureha and bellowed back:

"There are no questions on the battlefield! Unless you claim that big cannon is for show?!"

"Listen, buddy, if you're gonna roleplay, maybe pick a more authentic character name! Sakon and Koreto, I can understand, but what the hell kind of name is Potapota Sai?!"

"Potapota is the sound of the never-ending stream of blood from countless enemies dripping from my mystical blade Chogo-maru, while Sai refers to a Buddhist title!"

"Pick a better name for your sword, too, while you're at it!　Not to mention, there isn't even a drop of blood on it!"

As I listened to the two squabble, I thought to myself that something was a bit off here.

For all their bravado about claiming our lives, neither Potapota Sai nor the other samurai showed any signs of charging to cut us down. The ninja, Shinto shrine maidens, and monks behind them also held their weapons at the ready. If they stalled until Itsuki's paralysis wore off, they would lose the advantage of their ambush.

So was the Askua team waiting for us to strike first...?

Supporting my sniper rifle on just my left hand and right shoulders, I slowly released my right hand from the grip and gestured orders to Zeliska and ArFA-Sys behind me: "Three seconds from now"..."Attack"..."Debuff bullets." Since my rifle was so large, I could signal to them using my right hand without the enemy seeing. Not that I minded if they did, though.

One...two...three.

I counted to three in my head, then used the thumb of my right hand to push hard on the back portion of the grip. Of course there wasn't a physical switch there, but the movement of my thumb in any direction made hexagonal semitransparent icons pop up. This was GGO's skill selection and activation system, called Thumbflicker.

The four icons let you set your weapons' skills. Flicking your thumb in any of the four directions would select the relevant skill, which was activated when you pulled the trigger. I had programmed my sniper rifle's attack skills with [Explosive Bullet 3], [Explosive Bullet 4], and the defense skills with [Electromagnetic Stun Bullet 4] and [Armor Break Bullet 4]—and here I chose the fourth option.

I flicked my thumb directly downward. With an electric charging noise, the rifle glowed with a pale yellow light. I heard two of the same sound go off behind me in unison.

At our moves, the Asuka side finally reacted. However, it was only the two monks in the center guard who moved. They swiftly lifted their right feet and stomped them down, bringing up a dozen or so icons on the ground surrounding them.

This was the first time witnessing it firsthand, but I had seen this many times before in videos. That was the skill select system for Asuka Empire, called Ground Circle. The two monks pressed the righthand icons with their feet in perfect sync and thrust the staffs in their right hands into the ground.

Countless paper spells glowing silver twirled from the tips of their staffs, enveloping the eight fighters. And right after, I pulled the trigger of my rifle. A yellow beam of light shot toward the samurai from my gun's muzzle. Zeliska's and ArFA-Sys's debuff skills shot by from behind me at the samurai on the right and left.

But the three beams were repelled by the two layers of barrier produced by the spells, ricocheting off in random directions. Only two seconds had passed since I used my skill.

Her squabble with Potapota Sai cut short, Kureha spun around and yelled:

"Hey, warn me before we attack!"

I yanked on my old friend's arm as she hoisted her optic launcher onto her shoulder.

"We aren't attacking!　We're making a tactical retreat!"

"Uh...what?"

With a dubious frown, Kureha lowered her gun. I whirled around, and with a quick apology to the still-paralyzed Itsuki, I hoisted him over my shoulder. Between the weight of my own AMR Breakthrough-4 heavy sniper rifle and Itsuki's own Dragon Killer-2 sniper rifle, my avatar was beset with the sensation of creaking joints. If the ground were sand or mud, I might have sunk into my hips, but the hexagonal tiles didn't seem destructible, and the unexpected benefit of carefully selecting my accessories meant my level counter-stopped it. Because of that, I never surpassed my weight limit.

"I gotcha, buddy...!"

I gave myself a little pep talk and ran in a straight line. Kureha, Zeliska, Daisy, and ArFA-Sys all followed behind me.

When I reached the twenty-meter mark or so, I turned around to see that the eight Asuka members were still staying put inside their protection spell. Seeing this, Zeliska let out a grunt of understanding:

"Nowww I see. Their strategy was to provoke us into attacking first."

"Uh... But why would they do that?"

I adjusted Itsuki on my shoulder as I relieved Kureha of her confusion:

"I think that barrier completely cuts off any objects flying at it. They knew items consumed in this map can't be recharged, so they were trying to get us to waste our ammunition on them."

"What an incredibly shady team they are!"

ArFA-Sys sounded indignant.

I wondered where she had learned a word like shady from, but didn't have time to ask. Now that we knew their strategy, Asuka had two choices open to them: They could either drop the barrier they had raised to engage us at close range, or stay within it and attack from a distance—knowing full well their three samurai would be sidelined. If they chose the former, retreat would be our only option, since they outnumbered us and we couldn't abandon Itsuki. But if they went with the latter, we did have a way to fight back.

I held my rifle in one hand and barked an order: "Don't come out!" It was unlikely they were actually heeding my message, but two seconds later, the ninja and two shrine maidens called up their Ground Circles and unleashed their skills from within the barrier.

Red and blue lights swirled together on the other side of the barrier, and two dragons rose out of them. Both were Japanese dragons, but the one on the left had flames engulfing its long, thin body, while the one on the right had water currents swirling around it. The eight members of Gakkatai were probably at the level cap like us and could use attack skills of the highest rank.

The red and blue dragons traced broad arcs in the air as they swooped to the attack. I forced my gaze away from them and back to the front of the barrier.

Just then, a tiny silver light shone between Potapota Sai and Sendai Koreto, who were standing at the front line. Without a moment's delay, I double-tapped the grip on my rifle to change my skill palette to a gadget palette, then flicked downward. The rifle glowed and disappeared, replacing itself with a small, cylindrical device in my hand.

I set it by my feet...and with a loud "vwoom," a shield of translucent green light burst forth. Just like skills, we could set up to four support gear slots. This was a "Cover Vision." It would only last for thirty seconds, but just like the spells the monks cast, the Cover Vision would deflect most ranged attacks.

Not a second later, a dry CRACK! rang out, and blades in the shape of a cross—shuriken—plunged into the shield's surface. The ninja had hoped to hit us with skills while we were distracted by the shrine maidens' dragon summons. That being said, the dragons were not mere decoys...in fact, they were far more powerful than shuriken. What's more, since they flew on a curved trajectory, the Cover Vision could not block them.

I switched back from gadget mode and gripped my sniper rifle again, screaming:

"Kureha! Take the blue dragon!"

"Easier said than done, buddy...!"

As Kureha readied her Deneb Kaitos Type-Z, I lifted my own rifle beside her. But right before we could shoot, a familiar voice rang out:

"I'll take the red one, Master!"

I spun around to see ArFA-Sys had swapped her gear from a submachine gun to a grenade launcher. Specifically, an Abbadon 3+ live ammo grenade launcher. It baffled me how somebody as small as ArFA-Sys could hold it in just one hand, even though it was on the smaller side for a launcher in GGO.

Kureha and ArFA-Sys quickly operated their skill palettes and pulled their respective triggers simultaneously. Black energy bullets enveloped in golden electric light shot from their guns. The shots exploded in the faces of the advancing dragons, creating micro black holes about two meters in diameter. This was "Gravitational Field Bullet 4," an attack skill that sucks in enemies as it deals damage.

Since the red and blue dragons were not enemies but enemy attack skills, I momentarily worried that they might evade the attack, but the dragons got sucked into the black holes, struggling violently to escape. Apparently, that skill had summoned monsters with physical bodies, not mere visual effects.

The two shrine maidens had just performed grand feats and were probably in cooldown, and the two monks still had their barrier spell up. The three samurai, meanwhile, seemingly had no way to close the gap. So though the ninja creeped me out a little, now was our only chance to launch a counterattack.

"Guys, we're attacking now!　No regular attacks. Skill attacks only!"

Aside from Itsuki, who was still slung over my shoulder, everyone shouted "Gotcha!" back.

I opened my skill palette again and selected "Explosive Bullet 3." Without using my scope, I aimed for Koreto in the center of the front line. Since I would be shooting one-handed from the hip, the projected impact circle was rather large, but since my target had a defense spell protecting it, I didn't really care if my aim was fuzzy.

I pulled the trigger, sending a bright-red bullet of light shooting through the Cover Vision before my eyes, and hitting the barrier with a bombastic explosion. Kureha, ArFA-Sys, and Zeliska each unleashed skill attacks of their own. Their gravitational waves, plasma, and fireballs all lit up the field.

Though each skill attack was of the strongest class in GGO, the monks' barrier spell deflected them all. Unlike Cover Vision, their barrier did not seem to have a time limit. It was definitely a very useful defense spell, but surely it would not last forever...or at least I hoped it wouldn't.

I used up my main weapon skill, then switched weapons without delay. In my Longstroke Type-Z live ammo handgun, the skills I had programmed were "Hypersense" for defense, and "Quickshot 2," "Quickshot 3," and "Quickshot 4" for offense. My palette was so heavily slanted towards offense because the "Quickshot" skill unique to my handgun, which instantly fired all the bullets in the clip, was way overpowered.

The fact that this skill never underwent a downward revision was one of GGO's eternal mysteries, and I started at "2." I pulled the trigger, unleashing the satisfying sound of successive shots　and battering my hand with intense recoil. Without sufficient muscle value, skill value, and player skill, the recoil would send the shots everywhere...but one doesn't simply max one's level out for nothing. The stream of bullets hit the barrier, causing a number of six-digit damage indicators to pop up overlapping each other. ArFA-Sys and the others also unleashed their sub-weapon attack skills with reckless abandon, smashing mercilessly into the barrier spell.

To an outsider it would probably look like a one-sided fight, but this was exactly what the team from Asuka had been aiming for all along. But there was something I doubted they knew... Most GGO skill attacks do not deplete magazines or energy packs. In other words, if we used only skill attacks rather than normal attacks, we could attack endlessly without fear of depleting our ammo.

The Asuka team was bound to notice this eventually, of course. But if we could break through their barrier before they did, we would win this. Otherwise, the win would probably go to them.

"Dang...this wall is tough!"

Kureha cried out in irritation, switching out her sub-weapon, a Drake L Haboob+ live bullet submachine gun, for a gadget. A black ball about the size of a small melon materialized in her hand. She pushed the button protruding from the ball, wound-up with perfect form, then hurled it at the barrier.

In the real world, it was doubtful Kureha—or myself, for that matter—could throw a ball more than ten meters, but here a ball backed by triple-digit strength whirred through the air with an unapologetic boom. The moment it struck the barrier, it set off a gigantic plasma explosion. It was a large grenade boasting the highest power of any gadget in GGO, appropriately dubbed the "Meganade."

The systemic damage was one thing, but maybe it was Kureha's sheer grit—

But either way, the countless spell cards forming the two-layered barrier began to crackle with orange fire before exploding one after the other. The two monks were blasted backwards—likely a recoil effect from their spells being destroyed—taking out the two shrine maidens with them.

This was a turn of events the Asuka team had not foreseen. But these were no ordinary foes. A mere second later, the three samurai in the front were charging right at us.

This would be the turning point in the battle. Before I could even give the signal for an all-out attack, everyone besides me had switched from their sub-weapons to their main ones. Surprisingly, even Daisy, who usually didn't participate in battles, gripped her Procyon SL4+ compact optic handgun.

I kept my currently-equipped handgun, used Quickshot 3, took aim at Striped Sakon on the lefthand side, and pulled the trigger. Gigantic bursts of muzzle fire erupted from the gun again, enveloping Sakon's entire body in the flash of the shots hitting home.

If he were a throwaway GGO enemy, or even any of the enemies in the new Abyss Dungeon, the skill would mean certain death. But against one of the elites of Asuka Empire, I figured I'd be lucky to whittle off even a third of his HP...but this prediction of mine turned out to be wrong in a good way. Sakon's HP bar dropped terrifyingly fast—all the way down to the halfway mark.

If I was shocked, then Sakon must have been absolutely sucker-punched, but he didn't show a flicker of emotion. I suppose I shouldn't have expected any less from a samurai. What's more, he was using a no-stagger skill, so his dashing speed didn't slow in the slightest.

That meant I didn't need to go easy on him.

I opened my skill palette and selected "Quickshot 4." It was mostly similar to "3" in power and had a long cooldown, which meant not many players programmed it into their palettes. But in a battle like this one where every second counted, it could sometimes be a lifeline.

Trusting that my allies would take care of the other two samurai, I took aim at Sakon. There were just ten meters between us now, but I stayed calm, waited for the bullet circle to contract...and pulled the trigger. My trusty gun let out a ferocious roar, sending forth a barrage of a dozen or so bullets, which all hit the cuirass of the samurai armor Sakon wore.

His HP fell away, reaching zero in no time at all. Sakon froze with his katana mid-swing, and in the next instant, a golden light enveloped him and shot him into the sky. He died...or at least that's what I assumed...but it was completely different from the blue shatter effect of GGO deaths.

In the next instant, Potapota Sai on the right lost all of his HP from the concentrated fire of Kureha's team before also turning to light and flying away. But the last man standing, Sendai Koreto, stopped at 5% health, and opened his Ground Circle right in front of me. He then stomped with a force fierce enough to break the hexagonal tiles on the ground and unleashed his skill. The pale blue glow of electricity imbued his sword, which he now raised high—

"Prepare to face Chiyo Koreto!"

—Wait, that "Sendai" kanji read as "Chiyo"?

—Oh, wait, is his name supposed to be a pun on "chocolate"?

As I mused over this in a corner of my brain, I aimed my handgun at Koreto's forehead.

But before I could act, I heard a woosh-woosh-woosh-woosh on my 5—the sound of a rapid-fire optic gun. Daisy was using Quickshot with her Procyon. The torrent of energy bullets pierced the lustrous brown armor, whittling the rest of Koreto's HP to zero.

"...Most impressive."

Those were the samurai's parting words before he soared into the red sky. We'd fended off the enemy's coordinated assault for now, but we still had the monks, the shrine maidens, and the ninja to handle—

BANNNG!

Suddenly, the sound of a large caliber firearm rang close to my left ear, causing me to jump with a start.

I looked to the side and saw Itsuki pointing a rifle straight down from where he lay on my shoulder. He had finally recovered from the paralysis, only to shoot at something... Wondering what it was, I looked at the ground and received yet another shock.

The upper half of a human body was sticking out of the shadows Itsuki and I cast on the hexagonal tiles.

He wore a dark gray mask and attire, with a metal band on his forehead. This could only be the ninja that had been in the middle of the Asuka team formation. Apparently, he had an ability that let him teleport between shadows.

The ninja stood rigid, his thin ninja sword readied in a reverse grip. The yellow electric glow running over the surface of his body was a stun effect. Itsuki had picked up on the shadow-attack immediately and shot him with an electromagnetic stun bullet. And in doing so, he'd saved my butt yet again.

No time for that now, though. I selected Quickshot 2 once the cooldown ended and fired on the ninja. Since there wasn't even two meters between us, every last bullet was a headshot, instantly depleting all his HP, which was probably less than that of the samurai to begin with.

After I watched the ninja turn to golden light and fly away, I returned my focus to the front line. The monks and shrine maidens had just gotten back to their feet. Strategy-wise, one would think the battle was finally even at four on four—except it wasn't. We also had Daisy on our side, and now that Itsuki was back with us, it was now six on four. We could now win the fight with brute force.

Just as that thought crossed my mind, the monks and shrine maidens turned on their heels and ran back the way they came. They had probably deemed there was no chance of winning.

"Hey, don't run from us!"

Kureha shouted, readying her Deneb Kaitos. I put my hand in front of her gun and said:

"No, we shouldn't spend too much time on them."

"Aww, why not?"

"I think I know why they attacked us..."

I only got that far in my answer when Itsuki spoke from my shoulder:

"Sorry, but could you maybe let me down before we talk?"

"Oop...sorry, I forgot."

I finally set Itsuki down after keeping him on my shoulder for the entire battle, then thanked him again.

"Thanks, Itsuki. That's twice you've saved me now."

"No, thank you. A normal player would've left me to die."

He was probably thanking me for shouldering him during the fight. Maybe he was right. Maybe most people would have left him. But my body had moved on its own. As I stood there, unsure of how to answer, ArFA-Sys offered a proud response for me:

"Well, Master is not a normal player!"

Her phrasing was so odd, I was unsure whether I should take it as a compliment. So I just smiled sheepishly and got back on topic.

"So, regarding why the Asuka party attacked us...everyone, look at your HP bars."

Everyone's eyes shifted to the right. Zeliska was the first to react.

"Oh...the short bar under the HP bar is a bit longer than before. What does it mean...?"

"I don't have any proof, but I think it's the total damage GGO players have inflicted on that giant."

Right after I said this, my allies looked up at the western side of the map.

The giant, who had resumed his progress while we were fighting, was covered in multicolored lights. Hundreds, no, thousands, of players transferred here from The Seed Connector were unleashing a furious storm of offense with swords, magic, guns, even punches and kicks. But the menacing 100-level HP bar was only just losing its third level. Seven minutes of the 30-minute countdown had already elapsed. Eliminating the remaining 97 HP bars in just 23 minutes would be absolutely impossible at the current rate.

Likely drawing the same conclusion, Kureha took a deep, frustrated breath and said:

"But that giant said, 'Whomever should break my golden crown'...didn't he? Which means we need to destroy his crown to win, right? Then what does this inflicted damage counter mean?　And why is the total by game and not the individual?"

"Ahh, I see what it is."

Itsuki snapped his fingers.

"Take a closer look, Kureha. So those hundred HP bars...see how the top one lines up exactly with the lower rim of his crown?"

"Uh... Ohh, you mean that...?"

"In other words, the crown won't break from a direct attack from a player, only when you deplete the final HP bar. And whichever camp has inflicted the most damage at that point will be the victor...or at least that's my guess."

What Itsuki said lined up for the most part with my own theory. But many mysteries still remained. And ArFA-Sys brought one of them up:

"But Itsuki, remember what else the big guy said? 'Whoever does this shall receive everything...' Given that phrasing, we can assume he only meant one select player."

"Hmm, that would make sense, yeah... So, of the camp that destroys the crown, does the player who inflicts the most damage in the end become the winner...? Wait, if that's true, then it wouldn't make sense for that new gauge to show your camp's total inflicted damage instead of your personal inflicted damage..."

As Itsuki fell into thought, Zeliska lightly raised her hands.

"Okay, so we know this new gauge indicates the achievements of GGO as a team, but what does this have to do with those guys from Asuka attacking us?"

"Simply put, they wanted to slow us down."

I thought back to what Chiyo Koreto had said as I gave my answer.

"When they introduced themselves, they said, 'We recognize you as the commander in chief of Gun Gale Online,' remember? They deemed us to be the commanders on the GGO side and came to smash our chain of command...in other words, it's a complete misunderstanding."

"Ah, I see. Occam's Razor."

As Itsuki nodded in understanding, Zeliska pressed a finger to her delicate chin.

"Well, if you're right, things are about to get prrretty annoying, aren't they."

"Why is that, Master?"

Daisy asked in earnest. Zeliska explained promptly:

"We scared those eight Asuka players away without any losses, right?　Now of course that's a good thing, but I have a feeling it'll only exacerbate their misconceptions about us. If that attack was ordered by Asuka's leaders, I doubt they'd give up after one failure, so it makes me think maaaybe the next attack will be even bigger."

"...You're right."

As I murmured this, I gazed in the direction the four surviving members of Gakkatai had retreated. The hexagonal tiles covering the map's surface were completely flat and free of obstructions, and yet some sort of mist or sand effect prevented us from seeing too far into the distance. And since the map itself was only two kilometers across, Asuka's base camp might be surprisingly close...

But just as I reached this conclusion...

"Agh!"

Kureha shouted, lifting her Deneb Kaitos. Itsuki, Zeliska, Daisy, ArFa-Sys, and I were a moment behind her in readying our weapons. From the mist came 20...no, more like 30 human silhouettes at least. They were already charging right at us.

And though I had my sights set just on the one person at the front, if everyone in this platoon was the same level as the members of Gakkatai, our chances of coming out on top were nil. So I shouted, "Run for it!" and spun around—only to freeze in my tracks again.

From the opposite side—the northern edge of the map—there was another mob of about 20 charging our way. I could only make out their silhouettes, but I could see they were carrying not guns, but swords and axes. In other words, they were not GGO players.

Maybe the Asuka Empire team had used hammer and anvil tactics on us... There was no telling whether or not the other forces were just happening to attack at the same time, but this very well might be checkmate for us.

"Wh-wh-wh-what should we do, Master?!"

ArFA-Sys cried out. I turned to her and my friends at either side and, with all the courage I could muster, barked an order:

"Push through the center of the ones coming from the north—it's our only shot! On my signal, we fire a full barrage, then rush into the space it clears! Counting down, four...three...two...one..."

When I was just a gram of finger pressure away from triggering my Quickshot—an HP bar appeared over the the player at the head of the pack. I removed my finger from the trigger and shouted:

"Abort! Abort!!!"

Everyone immediately flipped up their guns. And right after, the small player at the head of the pack jumped high into the air. With unbelievable speed, she flew clear over our heads. Upon closer glance, she had four semitransparent wings sprouting from her back.

As soon as the fairy-like player landed before the Asuka platoon's front line, she drew a longsword.

"We may be from the same place, but I'll show no mercy!"

And with a shriek, she launched into a succession of thrusts, her sword moving in a raging torrent.

Five strikes diagonally down, right to left. Five strikes diagonally down, left to right. With each flash of violet light, heavily armored samurai fell to the ground or went sailing into the air.

After 10 swings of her sword, she traced a giant cross in the air with her blade, then bent her entire body backward like a bow once more, pulling her sword as far as it would go.

"Yahhh!!!"

Her ferocious cry tore through the air, followed by a mighty stomp that shook the ground. Her eleventh thrust transformed her violet longsword into a spear that penetrated the enemy camp, toppling even the players all the way in the back radially.

I knew that sword skill. Though this was my first time seeing it in person, I had seen clips of it on social media and video sites more times than I could count. It was the original sword skill of one of Alfheim Online's most celebrated heroes, Yuuki, AKA Zekken, the Absolute Sword, called "Mother's Rosario."

With that one thin longsword, Yuuki's attack packed more punch than two rocket launchers. The trade-off for this great feat was that Yuuki now found herself frozen in place with her sword thrust out. Those samurai and ninja who had avoided a direct hit readied their skills to unleash their counterattack.

I tried to rush to Yuuki's aid...but it turned out I wasn't needed.

A sparkling sound rang overhead. And a vibrant, comet blue shine illuminated the area. I looked up to see a human figure hovering 10 meters in the sky, with several giant phantasmal swords floating around it.

The silhouette held longswords each hand. The swords lowered, causing blue phantom swords to shoot out one after another, skewering the players trying to attack Yuuki. Physical damage kicked in first, followed by a light-elemental blast which inflicted even greater damage. Several samurai were blasted back, their HP completely depleted as white balls swallowed them up and carried them into the sky.

This beautiful physical attack that rivaled Mother's Rosario in power was another move I had seen in clips. It was called "Thousand Rain," an OSS that combined magic and sword skills—the only one of its kind in ALO. Its user was also called Rain, who in GGO wielded machineguns and shotguns, but in her home turf of ALO, I heard that she was a rare swordsman wielding dual blades. In other words, Rain, along with Yuuki, was not from GGO, but had plunged into this battle as an ALO character.

Faced by this ruthless onslaught of legendary dual-blade attacks, the Asuka team were stopped dead in their tracks. But the surviving twenty-some-odd players held their ground, forming up in a dense square of defense. That formation made them virtually indestructible. I had discovered that the hard way in our skirmish against Gakkatai.

Recovering from her temporary paralysis, Yuuki performed a giant back-jump as Rain shot down to her right. And as the pair of players mercilessly advanced, swords in hand, the rest of their party lined up on either side of them.

Even though most of them were not GGO avatars, I could tell even from behind who they all were. The lady with light purple long hair and a rustic two-handed sword was Strea. The lady with short blond hair, holding a comb-shaped short sword—a sword breaker—was Philia. And the girl with short indigo hair holding a needle-thin rapier—an estoc—was Premiere. Beside her, with silvery-white hair twisted into loops and gripping a giant sword in both hands, was Premiere's little sister Tia.

And bookending the six players in the front line were another five players on each side. On the left: Agil, Klein, Leafa, Lisbeth, and Silica. On the right: Argo, Asuna, Sinon, LLENN, and Fukaziroh. It would seem that only the final three were GGO players...but more to the point, the boy that ought to be here with those players was nowhere to be seen.

But just as this thought crossed my mind, a jet-black silhouette descended rapidly before Kureha and myself. He slammed the brakes with his gray wings at the very last minute, landing with an epic BOOM!

The moment I saw the dual blades across his back, my jaw dropped.

"Kirito! What're you doing here?!"

He looked slightly over his shoulder, and with a little grin at the corner of his mouth, replied,

"I've come to help, of course."