"Gah!"

Deep in the << Forest of Wavering Mists >>, a lengthy and terribly difficult battle was concluding. Even if it was seven against one, it was hard to say who had suffered the most.

Drifter stabbed his spear on the ground and leaned on it as he watched the dark elf warrior plunge her curved blade into the << Forest Elf Hallowed Knight's >> belly one last time, wiping away the last bit of his HP.

The party was in a terrible state. Kirito and Asuna were both barely above half health, and even that only because they had taken turns healing during the battle, together with Yuna's << Rest's >> constant regeneration. As for Nautilus, even though he was the one with the largest HP bar in the party, he was also the one who weathered the brunt of the damage, and, as such, wasn't in a much better spot. Drifter himself was dangerously close to the red zone due to a berserker attack from the forest knight. Now that he looked at it, the dark elf wasn't faring much better than them, her health also perilously low. Only Sinon and Yuna stayed unharmed the entire battle.

"I am... Beaten..."

"Holy... We actually won!"

Watching the last bits of health of the << Forest Elf Hallowed Knight >> vanish, Kirito exhaled, tired but happy. Near him, Asuna stared at the forest elf with a modicum of pity - he looked far too similar to a real human, after all.

"But I should warn everyone, even I don't have any idea of what will happen now. As far as I know, nobody has ever defeated him, so we have completely veered off from my beta knowledge. It's kinda exciting, actually."

Asuna stuck out her tongue at the swordsman, but didn't disagree. The fact that the << Forest Elf Hallowed Knight's >> HP gauge had already disappeared, but his body hadn't shattered like it always happened meant there was still some plot to go through.

"Ahhh... What a terrible shame."

Marred in wounds, the forest elf pulled something out of his pocket. It looked like some sort of bag made out of leaves. Drifter had no idea what it was, but the dark elf had a big reaction to it, her violet eyes widening.

"That's!"

"I'll not cede my spoils to the likes of you!"

While the dark elf lady had just started reaching for the bag, the other NPC threw it high up in the air. Drifter's confusion as to what he hoped to accomplish by doing that didn't last long, because he saw a shadow swoop down and grab the item with its talons.

A huge falcon had suddenly appeared and carried away the bag. Waiting for it was another forest elf, this one dressed much more sloppily than the first, with an insufferably smug look on his face. He had an arm outstretched for the falcon to land on, and his other hand was ready to receive the bag.

"Oh, those hopeless knights, too proud for their own good."

"A << Forest Elf Falconer >>! That's another elite mob!"

"Well, at any rate, I'll be taking custody of your 'secret key', or whatever this is. So no need to worry."

The falconer spoke in a sing-song voice, mocking the party for wasting all that time and effort, only to lose what they were fighting for. However, the smug grin was soon wiped from his face when Sinon hit the falcon circling above him, causing it to fall from the sky with a piercing shriek and an arrow skewering one of its wings.

"Pests! How dare you!"

The << Forest Elf Falconer's >> face contorted into a mask of boiling rage when he witnessed his pet hitting the ground, and his prize rolling away. But his anger was nothing compared to the bloodlust the dark elf was emanating.

Drifter had never felt chills as strong as what he experienced now. If anyone had told him about killing intent before, he would mock them for reading too many wuxia novels. But now, thanks to the SAO system, his skin was crawling with the visible bloodlust manifesting itself around the dark elf warrior in the form of a distortion in the air.

"You are... The falconer!"

Threatened by the menacing aura the dark elf was exuding, the new enemy forgot about the 'secret key' and his anger, and whistled. The huge falcon took flight and then landed on his arm, the health bar above it showing that, while Sinon's arrow hurt, it would take a lot more to kill it.

"Do I know you? I don't think I would have forgotten such a beauty... Even if you are a dark elf."

As he caressed his pet's head, the << Forest Elf Falconer >> calmed down, and even his arrogant smile returned. Drifter tensed up when several figures appeared behind him, a whole bunch of forest elves. Though they looked weaker than the knight and the falconer, there were still a lot of them.

"Although, now that I look closely, you remind me of that herbalist I killed, to get that very key."

The forest elf didn't laugh, but his mocking expression and deranged smirk showed what the distorted glee he was feeling in provoking the dark elf lady.

With a guttural growl, the dark elf threw herself at the falconer, her blade chopping down on his neck with such force that, even though he blocked it, the forest elf was still forced to crouch to withstand the impact.

Kirito wasn't sure of what was going on anymore. The hatred the dark elf held towards the falconer was palpable. He had never seen any NPC behaving like this. But now he had no time for such considerations, because the moment the dark elf warrior attacked, she signaled the restart of the battle.

"Here they come!"

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The moment he first clashed against one of the new enemies, his spear blocking a short sword, Drifter realized the mobs, simply called << Forest Elf Scouts >>, weren't anywhere as strong as the knight had been. Thankfully, the system wasn't that cruel.

Tilting his weapon, Drifter caused the opponent's sword to slide along the shaft of his spear, causing the forest elf to stumble forward, and right into his incoming knee. << Martial Arts: Hiza >> hit the mob on his belly, causing him to double over in pain. Twirling his spear, Drifter smashed the blunt end of it on the << Forest Elf Scout's >> face, then finished his combo with a straight << Sting >> to the elf's throat. While it wasn't quite enough to kill the mob, it certainly worked well to keep him at bay.

Instead of pressing on the offensive and finishing off the enemy, Drifter chose to abandon the fight, and circle around him. Without the need to communicate, all his teammates had done the same, and the party met in the middle of the clearing. In this type of situation, where they were facing multiple enemies, it was obviously smarter to group up.

The songstress and archer had already begun to move the moment the << Forest Elf Scouts >> appeared. When they rejoined with the others, Yuna and Sinon were placed in the center of their small circle, with Drifter, Kirito, Asuna, and Nautilus each facing a different direction. This was their normal battle configuration when they were exploring the labyrinth, where enemies could spawn anywhere, and it worked well in this situation too.

"You... Have to... Die!"

The whole party had this really odd feeling when they saw the frenzied dark elf warrior fighting against the << Forest Elf Falconer >>. It was as if they were side characters, and their battle was only serving as background to the NPCs'.

Honestly, Drifter didn't care much even if that was the case. He would much rather the dark elf tied down the elite-tier mob, than having the falconer target them.

Heaving a sigh of exertion, Drifter drove his spear through the chest of one of the << Forest Elf Scouts >>, thus killing it. Taking advantage of the opening, he glanced at his party members to see how they were doing.

Kirito was struggling against two mobs at the same time. Thankfully, he had Sinon as backup, and any time one of the elves lowered their guard, an arrow would surely find its way through their defenses and into their bodies. As for Asuna, the fencer was easily dealing with her opponent, her rapier leaving cut after cut in his body.

Turning over to his left, Drifter looked at Nautilus. He always worried the most about this friend of his, though he made a conscious effort to never show it. It couldn't be helped. Nautilus' FNC could resurface at any moment, so Drifter was always on the lookout. Fortunately, the ash-haired boy was doing okay.

Thanks to the broadcasts, pretty much everyone knew about their party. And yet, whenever they talked with other players, even other frontliners, two members of their party were quite routinely overlooked. They were Drifter and Nautilus.

Everyone recognized the Beater Kirito, and Asuna was also famous not only because of her beauty, but also because of her overwhelming speed and ability. Yuna and Sinon, being two very unique players in their own right, also shone brightly. Due to that, Nautilus and Drifter, who didn't have any defining qualities to set them apart, went mostly unnoticed most of the time.

However, the truth was that both were extremely skilled players. They had to be, otherwise they couldn't have earned their spots on the frontlines. Nautilus' quiet nature and low-key attitude only highlighted his abilities, if only you searched for it.

The battle right now was the perfect example. The blade-user was facing off against two << Forest Elf Scouts >> at the same time, and yet his movements were steady, without any hint of nervousness.

Blocking one attack with his shield, Nautilus knocked the sword aside and stepped closer to the mob, restricting his range of movement. With a << Horizontal >>, he almost cleaved the forest elf in half, and the position he ended in just so happened to allow him to dodge the second enemy, before performing a backwards slash on his leg. What others might consider luck, Drifter knew it was, in fact, the result of carefully made calculations.

This was the kind of fighter Nautilus was. Calm, steady, even cold. The boy didn't earn his place amongst the frontliners to being in the same party as the beater Kirito, as many thought, but had earned it himself.

Swiping his spear, Drifter deflected an incoming attack, and focused on the new enemy that appeared in front of him. The party had already killed three << Forest Elf Scouts >>, and yet three more had spawned to replace them, keeping their numbers at six, the same as the party. He could see from that that the battle didn't depend on the players, but rather on the result of the NPCs' fight.

"Asuna! Watch out!"

Hearing the desperation in Kirito's voice, Drifter's head unconsciously snapped to search for the fencer. It was so sudden that he even forgot he was in the middle of a fight, and was hit hard in the chest because of it, losing a good portion of his health.

With a grunt, he refocused on the << Forest Elf Scout >> in front of him. Using a << Vertical >>, he knocked the enemy's sword out of the way, before following through with a thrust through his head, and another swipe to finish it all off.

His attention immediately went to Asuna, and what he saw caused him to despair. The << Forest Elf Falconer >> had somehow managed to untangle himself from his fight against the dark elf lady, and had rushed towards Asuna with a haughty smirk on his face.

"Do pardon me, but as I did back then, I've identified the weakest one."

Kirito had moved to stand in front of Asuna, and crossed swords with the falconer. But, as it turned out, the mob was using himself as a distraction, allowing his pet to grab Asuna in its talons, and fly up with her.

"Asuna!"

Just as Drifter and the others were despairing, a shadow pounced on the falcon's back. A huge mob, which looked like a << Roaring Wolf >>, but with its fur many tones darker, bit the falcon's neck, dragging it down. Asuna and the two animals collapsed into a heap on the ground, but the fencer was quick to regain her footing and slip away from the brawling creatures.

Going through a roller-coaster of emotions, Drifter lowered his spear, and Sinon relaxed her bowstring. The party looked at each other while forcing back the << Forest Elf Scouts >>. Asuna was the most haggard of the bunch, her hazel eyes open wide, traumatized by the sudden flight.

"W-What is it now?!"

"Of course! If the forest elves have falconers, then the dark elves have... Wolf-handlers!"

Out of who knows where, another dark elf had appeared, this one a male. His face was contorted in rage as he immediately attacked the << Forest Elf Falconer >>.

"Falconer! In the name of my fallen wife, you must die!"

Staring at the two NPCs duke it out, the party didn't know what to do. Why did it feel like their roles were inverted, and the elves were the main characters? It was like they had been drawn into their story.

"Wife?! Fallen?! Kirito, what the hell is going on?!"

"No idea! But this should be the end of the plot for this quest. No more << Forest Elf Scouts >> are spawning, see?!"

The others realized what the swordsman was saying was true. There were only four forest elves remaining, without including the falconer.

"All right! Let's finish them off and watch the show!"