In one of the secondary plazas of Karluin, on Aincrad's 5th floor, Drifter and Kirito grinned at each other. The spearman may have lost their practice duel, but he wasn't at all putout.

Drifter twirled his spear with practiced ease and sheathed it in his back. Kirito did the same with his sword. They were turning to talk to Asuna and Yuuki, and ask their views on the duel, when a smattering of applause startled them.

Looking around, the two fighters realized that, at some moment, they had unknowingly drawn quite a crowd with their duel. Two dozen players were watching, clapping, and discussing the fight. It was not every day that they had the chance to watch frontliners duel, much less in person.

While Kirito shyly scratched his head, Drifter waved at the crowd. This was a good chance to promote their guild - not that they wanted any random person joining but still - and, more importantly, to show anyone who still wasn't convinced of Kirito's innocence that he wasn't a beater, no matter what Kibaou and his cronies called him.

"Thank you, everyone. There'll be a few more training duels between the Reavers in a few minutes, and you are welcome to watch. I wouldn't recommend betting, however. At least not on me. Our guild leader made quick work of me, as you all saw."

Drifter chuckled at his own joke, prompting the crowd to mimic him. Kirito blushed and stammered a reply, which Drifter simply waved off. Then he turned to their guildmates.

"Well, Asuna and Yuuki, are you up for it? Or do you have stage fright?"

The wink he sent in their direction dulled the edge in the question, and Asuna, always quick on the uptake, smiled and strode towards them. Yuuki, of course, was just as excited as before, with not one bit of shyness.

Drifter sat down on one of the many stone blocks that passed as benches in the plaza, watching as the two girls went at it. His mind, however, was on his own duel, as he tried to pinpoint what he had done wrong, and how he could improve.

To start with, he shouldn't have used a starting stance that displayed his intentions so clearly. It allowed Kirito to think of a countermeasure for it. Drifter had thought that, with his bigger reach, even if the swordsman knew his plan, he wouldn't be able to defend against it. The mobs never had. But then again, Kirito wasn't a mob, was he?

That was probably his biggest mistake. He fought as if Kirito was a system-generated monster. He was only partially to blame for that, having never faced another player, but still, he should have thought of that. Thankfully he realized his error in a friendly duel, and not in a real battle.

Back to his retrospective, Drifter thought he had dealt well with Drifter's first counterattack, but could have done better than trying to hit him with the blunt end of his spear. Sure, this was just a spar, but in a real combat situation, the blow would've been pretty ineffective. He also shouldn't have allowed Kirito to close the distance. He had the advantage of a longer weapon, he should capitalize on it.

The kick, though... The kick was good. He could still see the moment Kirito's expression morphed into one of stunned surprise, never having seen it coming. Though all members of the original party had the << Martial Arts >> skill - as an afterthought, they had to take the new members of Reaver's Requiem to acquire it too - and incorporated it in their fighting style, the unarmed skill still felt uncomfortable, so they rarely used it.

This was one of two ideas of how Drifter could improve that he and Yuna had come up with during their late-night talk. They had come to the conclusion that diverting his attention to learning an entirely new skill would only do harm in the long run, and that it was better for him to focus on improving what he already knew. And that was his spear skills, and the << Martial Arts >> skill. If he could take inspiration from the latter, his playstyle might see a massive overhaul - and for the better.

As for the second idea they had come up with, Drifter still thought it was dumb, even though he was the one who first suggested. Deciding not to think about it now, he turned his gaze back to the duel. It was already winding down, with Asuna keeping Yuuki on her back foot, as it was to be expected. He could already see that it was a matter of a just a few more blows for one of the fencer's stabs to get through the purple-haired girl's guard.

"Can we sit here?"

Drifter looked up to the origin of the tingling voice, and saw a familiar face. Two big round eyes, light-brown hair, and twin ponytails. The young teen he had met back when they just unlocked the third floor.

"Of course. Your name was... Silica, right?"

"You remember! Yes, I'm Silica, and this is my friend Vallerk!"

Scooting to the side, Drifter opened space for the excited girl to sit down, along with the older boy following her. Drifter glanced at him, the emerald-green eyes catching his attention for a brief moment, and nodded a greeting before looking back at Silica.

"Hi. And you made quite the impression, Silica. Your encouragement was very much appreciated. But what are you doing on the 5th floor? Sightseeing?"

He didn't think Silica could fight on this floor. Rather, he didn't want her to be fighting on this floor. She was much too young to be amongst the clearers. But the young girl dashed his hopes when she giggled.

"Nope! I and Vallerk can already deal with 4th floor labyrinth mobs, so we thought we would try our hand at the 5th floor."

Drifter snapped a quick glance at the green-eyed boy, trying to see what he thought of Silica's statement. But the player kept an unreadable expression.

Worried, Drifter looked back at the ongoing duel - now it was Kirito versus Yuuki - to try and compose his next words. He knew they might hurt the duo, but better that than learning that they died later.

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"Silica and... Vallerk. I appreciate the effort you are making to clear SAO. I really do. But every floor we go up, it only gets harder. More dangerous."

"We know, but we can't just do nothing when you are fighting for us!"

"Not to mention, we are also fighting for ourselves."

For the first time, Vallerk spoke. Contrary to Silica's excitable and somewhat hurt tone, his voice was calm and stern. Drifter could see why he was wearing a full set of heavy metal armor. His temperament really suited that of a tank. But Drifter powered on, despite their objections.

"Like I said, we appreciate the sentiment, Silica. But trying to conquer a new floor is different than grinding in the ones below. We never know what to expect, and your lives will be in danger - much more danger than normal, that is - with every step you take in uncharted territory."

"We can..."

Drifter raised a hand to interrupt the teen. It spoke loads of the respect a frontliner commanded that she stopped talking immediately, even though it was obvious she wanted to rebut his claims.

"We lost 17 clearers on the 4th floor, Silica. Four of them because they met a field-boss no one had any idea existed. They didn't stand a chance. And if you become clearers, what happened to them goes from being an unfortunate accident to being a hazard of the job, and even a very real possibility. Think about that, please. You are far too young to take on this kind of responsibility."

"We aren't much younger than you! And almost all of Reaver's Requiem is just a couple of years older than us! Why can they fight, but we can't?!"

"We just want to help, Drifter. And above all else, we want to get out of this hell."

Drifter heaved a sigh, and held his head with his hands.

"I can't really argue with that, Vallerk. But Silica... Look, this is going to be insensitive and you are probably going to hate me, but you are what? Twelve, thirteen?"

"Twelve..."

Silica mumbled, looking down at the ground. She could imagine what Drifter was about to say, and didn't like it.

"Twelve. Barely a teenager. That's too young to be risking your life on the frontlines. If I had it my way, I wouldn't have my guildmates doing it either. Don't tell them I said that, or Asuna and Yuna are gonna hit me."

Silica laughed dryly at his joke - without knowing it was actually the truth. Drifter too smiled sadly.

"But even the youngest of the Reavers is two years older than you, Silica. In our circumstances, not only I can't control them, but the frontliners can't afford to lose them. Us. I can't... I won't put you in their position."

"That's not your choice to make. It's ours."

Before Silica could answer, Vallerk did it for her. Drifter stared at the emerald-green eyes for a long while, before rubbing his face with his hand in resignation.

"No, it isn't. But I would hate myself for the rest of my life if I let you go now and something happened to you. Asuna! Come over here for a sec!"

Even though it was unintentional, Vallerk and Silica were guilt-tripping Drifter into accepting it. And it worked, much to his chagrin.

"What's it, Drifter?"

The fencer approached them and greeted the two other players, recognizing Silica just like Drifter did. The spearman nodded towards them.

"After duels are over, think we could take them for a field trip? They want to become clearers, and I'm trying to convince them that it is a bad idea, but they used logic on me, and you know I can't do that."

"What? But you are too young, Silica! Err... No offense."

Before the girl with ponytails could embark on the same argument she just had with Drifter, he stopped both of them.

"I already tried to tell her that, Asuna. Since it didn't work, I thought we might take them to level in one of the zones Sinon and the others mapped. That way, it will at the very least be somewhat safer than the two of them on their own or with randoms. They've got two people, we've got four. A closed party."

Asuna stared at him for a minute, her face scrunched up, before her expression eased. She knew Drifter wasn't the kind of guy who would play with the lives of others, so it only took her a few moments to realize that what he wanted was to show Silica and Vallerk how dangerous the frontline was, so they would give up becoming clearers.

"All right. We can do that."

...

Not much later, the improvised party found themselves in one of the 5th floor's many catacombs. Those dungeon-like maps were the perfect place to scare someone away from the frontlines, Drifter thought. Cramped, dark, gloomy, with general mobs like skeleton soldiers and mummies.

Not that it was working. Silica, while a little more jumpy than normal, seemed almost ecstatic at the idea of farming experience with the famous Reaver's Requiem. Vallerk, on the other hand, barely had a change in expression. Drifter wasn't sure if it was because he truly wasn't feeling any different, or if he was just really good at keeping a poker face.

And, Drifter had to admit, they weren't bad players. An odd duo certainly, but somehow they made it work.

Silica was a dagger-user, but unlike Sinon, who only used her blade as a last resort, it was clear the ponytail girl had poured a lot of time and effort into her fighting style. She utilized her small frame well, dodging under the swipes of << Moldy Mummies >> and << Humid Mummies >> - Drifter was still trying to decide which of those was grosser - and attacking their joints, aiming for a 'crippled' status effect.

Vallerk was the exact opposite of his partner. He was tall, almost at Drifter's height - not that he was exactly a giant, but Vallerk was still just fifteen. The player was also, as Drifter had noticed before, donning a complete set of heavy armor. His weapon of choice was a bit surprising. He was only the second player Drifter had ever seen using a tower shield.

It was damn useful, though. Drifter stabbed a mummy through the right side of its chest by thrusting his weapon over Vallerk's shoulder, noticing as the player stumbled back a little from a swat of the mob. Just like he thought, Vallerk and Silica's level weren't quite high enough to be on the 5th floor yet, but his skilled use of his shield and her nimble reflexes made up for a portion of the lacking numbers.

Kirito, Asuna, and Yuuki were also beginning to see that their plan to discourage Silica was going down the drain quickly. They were debating what to do when a new message popped up in the guild chat, and they forgot everything else.

After glancing at the message, Drifter burst forth with action, jumping past Vallerk with a << Snake Bite >>, followed by << Martial Arts: Brick Break >>, << Horizontal Arc >>, << Vertical >>, << Martial Arts: High-kick >>, << Sting >>, and << Double Tap >>. He took two hits in the process, having forsaken defense in favor of an explosive offensive, but quickly finished off the mob, leaving behind a gaping Silica and a Vallerk who was for the first time showing some kind of emotion. The spearman didn't pay attention to them, as he was too occupied looking through the guild chat.

[ Sinon: We've got trouble. Two players discussing PK. ]

[ Nautilus: One of them is the guy who Kirito fought. ]

[ Sinon: They saw us! ]

[ Sinon: The bastards ambushed us with a group of mobs. ]

[ Sinon: We need help right now! ]

[ Yuna: Come fast! ]

The messages stopped there, presumably because their friends entered combat state. Drifter, Kirito, and Asuna quickly sent messages asking how they were, but received no answer. It was only because they could see in the guild tab that all of them were alive and in the green that they weren't panicking.

"We need to go!"

Using his authority as vice-guild leader, Drifter opened his map and found the cluster of dots that represented their friends. After a quick glance, he started running, Kirito, Asuna, and Yuuki right next to him. They didn't even realize Silica and Vallerk were hot on their heels.