Chapter Nineteen

"Harumi?!"

My faced paled at the familiar voice. I wasn't just going to get lectured, I was going to get screamed at.

I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the yelling, but it never came.Instead, I was tackled in a massive hug.

I stood there shocked for a moment, but eventually my arms reached up to wrap around his waist. He hugged me tighter, his face in my hair. I pressed closer into his chest, not realizing how much I missed him until this very second.

"Hi, Rikimaru..."

He pulled away, making sure to keep in contact, not willing to let me go just yet.

"When I heard there was some suicidal girl going in alone, I didn't expect that girl to be you."

"It wasn't suicide! It was logic."

He scoffed, his eyes rolling. "How so?"

"I was told we had a week before anyone was arriving! That's a week of time we could have been spending getting closer to finishing this game!"

"And what part of that correlates to you taking on the boss alone?" He demanded, anger growing on his face.

"I was going to develop an army of wolves. I knew players weren't going to be willing to fight alongside them, so I went alone."

He sighed angrily, before pulling me into another hug. This one, somehow, felt even more personal than the last one, more intimate.

"You could have died." He whispered hoarsly.

"But I didn't."

He let out a shaky breath before pulling himself together and stepping away from me. I looked around at the people gathered.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, frowning. "I heard the Knights of the Blood Oath were fighting internally. Why aren't you up there?"

"It's not really internally. Kirito showed up the other day and and complications arose. Either way, our commander challenged him. If Kirito wins, Asuna can leave the guild and join his side, but if our commander wins, Kirito has to join the Knights of the Blood Oath."

I gaped at him, shocked. I had missed a lot. Kirito must be the newbie the girl had been talking about earlier. I wonder if she knew that he was not, in fact, a newbie, but one of the best swordsman in the game.

"Either way, we still recieved the boss message, and our commander sent down a couple of us, because it still needed defeated. Only when we got down here, the doors were locked and I was informed that some insane red head had decided to take on the boss herself."

I blushed, looking down at the ground. I scuffed my feet for a second, before looking up at him.

"I won, though."

Rikimaru shook his head, a grin growing on his face. He looked at me in such a way, I couldn't help but blush.

Had he always been this handsome?

"You really are insane." He told me, chuckling.

Less handsome.

I sighed, reaching down to pet Kuro, a grin growing on my face. While Gurē was limping around, eagerly sniffing the other players, Kuro stood by my side, too tired to attempt moving.

"Well, now that we don't have to fight, we can still make the duel between Kirito and Heathcliff." Rikimaru announced.

Everybody seemed excited over this new information. They immediately started making their way out of the lair, determined to get to the fight in time. Loud chatter broke out among the group, making bets on who would win and talking about the odds.

I walked a bit more slowly being the group, Rikimaru by my side. Kuro lagged behind a bit too, causing me to worry. He didn't waver once, however, moving even past the point of exhaustion.

When we finally reached the floor the duel was being held on, I was relieved. We made our way to a massive coliseum type arena. The roars of the crowd drowned out anything else. The group split up, going in search for any open seats.

Rikimaru led me to a sectioned off partion of seats. Inside sat the high ranking officers, including Asuna. We gladly sat down next to her. My wolves sank to the ground in front of my feet, eager for some rest.

I looked down at them, worried. I knew I had asked a lot of them this time, but I still didn't expect for them to be this exhausted.

The fight had already started, and as much as Asuna was glued to it, she managed to look over at us curiously.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the boss battle?" She asked, frowning.

"Yeah. We arrived right on time, only to discover that someone had decided to take the boss on herself." Rikimaru explained, shooting me a look.

Asuna whirled to look at me with wide eyes, "You went against it yourself?! And you won?!"

"Don't be so surprised." I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest.

"B-But how?!"

"I'll tell you later, okay?" I finally said, "Right now, it's Kirito's time in the spot light."

As if just remembering the fight, Asuna turned in her seat to once again watch. I yawned, moving to rest my head against Rikimaru's shoulder.

"Jeez, you are really tired." He observed.

"I spent the whole night befriending wolves and the whole morning fighting one. Sorry I'm not wide awake." I snapped.

He didn't bother responding, knowing I didn't mean to sound so harsh. He reached up, stroking my hair.

I quickly became sleepy despite the battle. However, when Rikimaru jolted in shock, I became alert.

"What happened?" I asked, my voice thick.

"He lost."

I frowned, looking down at where the two had been fighting just seconds ago.

"Who lost?"

"Kirito." He said, "Kirito lost."

I felt my eyes widen. I knew Kirito wasn't invincible, but I had been fairly sure he would win this one. He had motivation on his side.

"But this means..."

"Kirito is a member of the Knights of the Blood Oath." Asuna finished from her spot next to me.