The Black Swordsman and The Scarlet Bolt (On Hold)

~2~

"It's been a month since the game began. We've lost 2,000 people and yet no one's been able to clear the first floor. Being a beater tester you would think I'd be able to find where the boss' lair is but I haven't, not even Kirito was able to find it. Today, however, there's a meeting to figure out how to find and defeat the floor one boss."

Kirito and Reina walk over to the group having sat in the shade for a while. Once everyone arrived, they headed to the amphitheater where the meeting was held by a blue-haired guy. Kirito and Reina sat in the back away from everyone. "Okay, let's get this meeting started." The blue-haired man claps gaining everyone's attention. "So anyways, I wanna thank everyone for coming. Good to see you. My name's Diavel and in this game, the job hold is knight." Diavel says with a smile bringing his fist to his chest. This causes everyone to laugh and a guy to yell, "There's no job system in this game!" "You guys wanna hear this or not?" Diavel asks causing everyone to go silent. "Right. Anyway here's the deal. Our party found the boss room at the top of the tower today." He reveals, causing everyone to freak out. "Finally." Reina sighs laying her head on Kirito's shoulder not noticing him blush. 

"First, we need to defeat the boss and make it to floor 2. The next step is we have to tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings that it is possible to beat this game. Fact is it's our duty as the most capable players here. Do you agree or not?" Diavel asks looking at everyone. Everyone looks at each other and one player starts clapping causing others to clap as well. Kirito smiles and Reina joins in on the clapping. "I like this guy." She tells Kirito with a smile as well and the boy nods. "Okay, glad to hear you're all with me on this. Now, let's figure out how we're gonna beat the boss. "First off, we'll team up into parties of six." Diavel says causing Kirito to gasp. "A typical party doesn't stand a chance against the floor boss. We need a raid group made up of multiple parties." Diavel explains as Kirito looks around frantically seeing everyone getting into teams. "It seems like everyone's already formed their parties leaving us out." Reina observes looking around as well when hers and Kirito's eyes land on someone who was left out as well. Kirito scoots over to her while Reina simply walks over to her. 

"You got left out too, huh?" Kirito asks. "Not even. I wasn't left out. It's just everyone seems like they're already friends." The girl says. "Makes sense, you wanna party up with us?" Reina asks causing the girl to turn to her. "You heard what the guy just said, we can't beat the boss on our own and it will only be for this fight." Kirito explains. The girl gives a nod and Kirito opens up his menu and sends her a party invite. She accepts it and her name appears beneath Reina's. Said girl's eyes widen seeing the name but collects herself. "All right, looks like everyone's teamed up. Now then-" Diavel gets cut off by someone shouting, "Hold on a sec!" A guy with an atrocious hairstyle jumps down the stairs onto the platform Diavel is standing on. "My name's Kibaou, got that? Before we take on the boss I wanna get something off my chest." Kiabou says intriguing Reina and Kirito. "We all know about the 2,000 people who died so far, yeah? Well, some of you need to apologize to them right now." Kibaou reveals pointing at the players. Reina looks down feeling bad. 

"Kibaou, I think I know who you're referring to. You mean the ones who are ex-beta testers, right?" Diavel asks. "Of course I mean them." Kibaou shouts turning to the blue-haired man. "The day this stupid ass game started the beta guys just up and vanished, right? They then stole us beginners! They snagged all the good hunting spots and they grabbed all the easy quests too. They were the only ones getting stronger in here. This whole time they ignored us like we were nothing." He continues, Reina grits her teeth and clenches her fist feeling guilty. "Hell, I bet there's some of them here. Come on out beta testers. We should make them apologize to us and we should make them all give up the money and the items they got. They can't expect the party to trust them when they don't trust us. Why should we?" Kibaou suggests crossing his arms. Kirito looks over at Reina seeing her tense so he holds her hand intertwining their fingers together and giving it a squeeze causing her to calm down and blush.