Jax used his Equipment Appraisal skill to examine the spear. As he expected it was substantially better than his, even out weighing the worth of his shield. He set it back down on the table and looked outside at the source of the noise. "Suppose we should at that, first though I think I'll take this, how much you want for it?" He inquired. Hopefully it wasn't too much, though he expected it would cost at least half his current coinage.

The noise grew concerningly loud and Jax opened the door and peeked outside to find a nearly literal wave of monsters attacking, but they hadn't breached the safe wall. However from what little he could see they were attacking a group of players who also seemingly couldn't make it through the safe wall, because if they could they then already would've.

Jax unslung his spear and yelled inside the tavern, "Come on, some guys need our help!" Hoping that at least some of the patrons would come out and help he sprinted towards the barrier, hoping he would reach it in time to do something.

Running to the edge of the town, Umichi stopped, looking at the situation calmly. He took a deep breath, the sight before him, unbelievable. Players were stuck outside of town, with monsters swarming over them. It was like the safe zone stopped players from entering as well. What the f***? A new bug? A new glitch? What is happening? No beta player had any of this on the sites. Sh!t! his thoughts panicked. While trying to breath calmly, Suki spoke up to him, "What is this?" She breathed in horror, her suspicions slowly becoming confirmed, she looked to Umichi, terrified, "What do we do?"

Taking a deep breath he replied, "We do whatever we can. Wait here for a quick moment." His voice seemed calmed, but anxiety was hinted within. People in front of him were inches from death, but panicking now would just make matters worse. Running towards the closest person he could, Umichi reached into a bag and pulled out a teleport crystal. Reaching out, he could make out of the safe zone with his hand, he attempted to pull someone in, but to avail it did not work. Swapping hands, he handed them a teleport crystal. "Use this teleportation crystal. NOW!" he ordered, leaving them no room to think.

Holding the crystal up, they called out, "Teleport!". A bright light appeared, and they disappeared before appearing visibly in the town center. Umichi shouted out with all his might, "EVERYONE WHO HAS A TELEPORTATION CRYSTAL, USE IT! ANYONE WITH SHIELDS!! FORM A LINE AND PUSH BACK THE MONSTERS!!!" Taking a deep breath, he turned to Suki. "Get as many teleportation crystals as possible, not everyone will have one. I am going to pull as many monsters away as possible."

Giving little room for argument, Umichi jumped up and onto someone's shoulder and stepped on people's shoulders to get to the monsters, changing his skill <<Acrobatics>> to <<Blade Throwing>> while he was running. Although Umichi's stats, level and weapon were high enough that he could kill most of the types of enemies with a regular strike, there were far too many to take them all on at once, But if he could just relieve the people enough to buy sometime, then surely that would be enough. Taking one last leap, he charged through the monsters, diving with his Anneal Blade out in front, stabbing into a couple of wolves. As the wolves shattered, more monsters would appear and be stabbed.

Before he could make it to the ground, Umichi was attacked by roots. Unable to dodge, he pulled his arm back, guarding and being flung off. After flying around, swinging the blade, and being flung around some more, he finally landed on the ground. He may have taken care of ten of them, but it was nowhere near enough. He wasn't seriously injured, but his health bar took a decent shock, even though he had guarded most of the attacks. But since he was on solid ground, he would be able to take down more and get hit much less.

Slicing through monster after monster, he finally started to get a number of the monsters aggroed to himself. It was probably only about 15-20% of the monsters, but it was still a fairly large amount. Taking distance, he used hit and run tactics to slowly diminish the group he had pulled, and to lose as little health as possible. It was lucky that in the game one's stamina was generally better than in real life, and Umichi had quite a bit of stamina, but even then, he was getting tired as he was finishing off the first group he pulled away, ready to check the rest of the players and monsters. Seeing if he needed to fight more, or if he bought enough time or not.

Suki only had one teleport crystal, which was obviously nowhere near enough to help. She could probably buy a couple, but again it wouldn't be enough. But it would be a start, and taking one last look back at the...it had to be a glitch, didn't it? She ran off please don't die she thought to herself as she ran, dashing down the street to the main square, she heard a shouted "the crystals are cheap at the moment! " and pushed herself forward, going faster, she slid to a stop in front of a merchant, automatically opening the store menu when prompted.

She didn't have much money left. But she knew she'd spend it all on getting the crystals, not matter the cost. They were cheap, and Suki wondered if that was part of the glitch (oh god, it had to be a glitch didn't it?), each 5 Kol each. She quickly did the math in her head. She could get fifty. That had to be enough, didn't it? The NpC's would be alright, and in any case the crystals didn't work on them. Fifty had to be enough, didn't it? Not dwelling on it, she purchased them, and began to run back, she didn't hesitate as she reached the end of the safe zone.

She held her rapier in omega d, moving among the crowd pressing up against the barrier, passing out crystals and attacking monsters as she went, doing her best to help and stay alive. There was the knowledge that she couldn't reach all of them, in her head and she tried not to let it get to her, but as a scream rent then air, and Suki spun out, just in time to see a player shatter into data.

No, she couldn't reach them all, but she coulddamn well try. Shaking slightly, she began to move again, pretty much shoving crytals at people before moving on, attacking the monsters that were still spawning, even as they were killed. There were just so many...

'Say... Seven and a half grand. Make your choice quickly though, market's about to close.' Whatever was going on outside had intensified rapidly, leaving Pyotr more and more concerned for those who already dove out. After finalising the deal, she and Jax crept up to the door to peek out yonder and what Pyotr saw scared the living daylights out of her. As Jax pushed past to dive into the melee, she stood transfixed in shock as swarms of mobs heaved around the village. All entrances looked to be cut off and those caught outside the safe zone were stranded, pinned against an invisible wall by the mass of monsters. The others had already sallied forth to help, with Umichi pulling a characteristic one-man suicide charge. Suki seemed to have her head on straighter though, passing teleport crystals through the barrier to the beleaguered players. Pyotr had to act, though for a long moment she couldn't decide which way would be best...

A scream to her left jogged her enough to bring Pyotr's mind back to reality. A pair of women were caught alone, surrounded against the edge of the town, their HP bars nearing the red zone. She ran, unsheathing her blade as the did. Frantic thoughts bounded through her mind, ideas ranging from rushing headlong into the throng to copycatting Suki. In the end, she went with the former. Screaming wordlessly, Pyotr passed through the safe zone barrier, swinging her sabre in a wide green arc to decapitate a pair of boars. The two players rallied briefly, long enough for them to form a steady defence as Pyotr swung left and right in increasingly panicked attacks. She didn't have time to focus on them though, as another wave of mobs leapt up into her face. As she ducked and weaved, only one selfish, cynical little thought crept into her mind. If those two don't help me back, I'll fucking kill 'em... After furiously slashing her way through another pack, Pyotr had a moment of respite to glance back at where the two players where... only to find the space unoccupied. They suddenly appeared a second later... inside the safe zone. Indigent rage boiled up within her and Pyotr screamed a long stream of profanities in their direction as another pack of wolves descended upon her.

Jax's attention was brought to the sound of the merchant screaming somewhat incoherently with incredible volume. It seemed that Pyotr was now trapped outside the safe zone by herself, how had that happened? Regardless she needed help and it seemed the other areas were more under control, "Coming!" he shouted and come skidding to a halt next to her. The tip of his new spear glowed a golden yellow and he let the system take over, quickly activating Fend to strike at the wolves directly in front of him and then sending them flying back with Sweep. "Hehe can't have the merchant dying on me, where would I get my gear from then?" Jax asked rhetorically as stepped back next to Pyotr ready to fight off the snarling wolves and whatever else came their way.

As Umichi was looking back at the crowd, he saw someone getting flanked around a shield bearer, clearing one of the monsters chasing him, he tried to rush to help, but failed to reach in time, as they shattered. Stopping in their motion, he finished off the last of the monsters he had pulled, and saw that just as many had respawned. This is endless he thought, rethinking the plan. There was one thing he could do.

Making changes to his skills, he equipped a skill he didn't think he would use in SAO. Umichi called out to the players that had yet to be teleported. "Stop killing them, it is going to make it worse! Just defend against them and try to push them away!" Voices screamed back, saying it was impossible. "Just do it!" He replied, starting the skill. A <<Howl>> bellowed from Umichi, calling upon the monsters. But not all of them were taunted. Repeating the ability a few times, as he kept some distance, he started to pull away more and more monsters. As they started to come at Umichi, he turned, and <<Sprint>> as fast as possible.

Having pulled away at least 80% or so monsters, Umichi had started to run. There was no way to fight such a mob. Turning his head back, he could see that they were still following him. Based on information he had obtained, the area of effect is fairly large, but it only usually gets a few at a time, and for a short time. He would have to try to make some distance, <<Howl>> again a few times and run. Umichi had been leveling up his <<Sprint>> being able to cover quite a bit of distance over the night time training, which was useful for this strategy.

However, he had to keep it within the area. He wasn't sure whether it applied to SAO, but monsters did not leave their area's often, hence, they might go back to the others if he dragged them too far. Having to run/sprint laps around, while constantly taunting the monsters was a tough job to pull off. At most he was probably going to last about 10 minutes, since that was the period he could keep <<Sprint>> activated for.

Actually, the screaming kinda helped Pyotr to focus. She found it easier to think while cursing those cowards from the depths of her soul, slashing back and forth like a woman possessed. Nevertheless, she was way outnumbered... Her options were getting slim. Run away and risk being hounded down, or try to port back into the town? Could she port fast enough, given that she could barely hold the mobs off alone? With that thought came a fresh wave of rage and a new outpouring of curse words, along with the determination to keep it up. Luckily, reinforcements arrived very soon. 'Great flashy entrance, very nice and thank you and all, but can we just get the fuck outta here?' She booted another wolf away as if to emphasise the point. The two of them held out pretty well, scoring a dozen kills a piece at least, but it was endless. Naturally, it was that nutter Umichi who came up with a solution, albeit a suicidal one. Pyotr stared in exhausted bemusement as he began to run literal rings around the town, playing Ring-a-Ring-a-fucking-Rosies with the mobs. Now granted, it worked but... 'So, uh... Does he have a plan for when he runs outta steam? Just throwing it out there, y'know peer review kinda thing.'

Yui woke up normall for once. Well to be exact it was already pretty late to wake up. She hasn't been sleeping in the night and ended up having to sleep in the morning again. She had been lying on her bed for a while longer to relax a little and noticed a strange sound from outside by the open window. The clashing of swords? No something more obvious. The clashing of swords against the mobs. There were many of them and people screaming and yelling for help. Yui covered her ears from the horrible sounds but couldn't just ignore it. She quickly changed her clothes and ran out of the tavern. As soon as she headed out and ran through the streets she noticed people that were familiar.

Yet behind them were the towns people that couldn't pass the city gate any longer. Yui immediatly equiped her gear and dashed in between the legs of the townspeople so she could easily get through. Once she was out she took a brief look around her. There were quite many mobs but they would be able to hold them off for the time being. She readied her sword and striked the monsters in front of her trying to burrie herself inside the horde a little so she could get more attention on herself from the creatures. She kept on activating her skills a hunder of times and slowly mowed through the horde. Every now and then she would end up near the red she would swap and take a health potion. This went on for ages it seems. But more and more people were getting to safety.

Suki felt like things were getting out of control, that they wouldn't be able to survive, the numbers were just so overwhelming. She glanced about, to try and see how many players had made it to safety, and she leaped onto a boulder that enabled her to look around, seeing how many people were in trouble. Her eyes landed on Umichi, using howl, and Suki watched sickened as he drew a good chunk of the monsters away. She hoped he knew what he was doing, and Suki let her gaze fall away, biting her lip.

Her eyes fell on an odd, glowing stone, watching as more monsters seemed drawn towards them. is that what's causing this issue? That stone? going on the hunch, Suki darted down, and through the monsters, attacking and killing some as she went when they stopped her. It didn't take her long to reach the stone, as Umichi drew the monsters towards him. It was about as tall as she was, floating in mid air, glowing with a dark, purple colour.

It felt unnatural, and wrong to Suki, and she looked about for a way to smash it. Seeing no other option, she began to attack it, using her rapier, she activated a skill, and began to hit it. The rapier appeared to do some damage, but not much and Suki felt she would be here for a while, as more monsters were drawn towards them. Suki swallowed and continued.

"I could use a guard!" She shouted, as she continued to attack the stone.

Running, running, howling, running. Rinse and repeat. Umichi was on a cycle to stay alive. At least he wasn't getting hurt in anyway, but still, for the last 5 minutes, all he could do was run. But since he had pulled away the monsters, his sight was caught on a purple stone, glowing, floating. Suki seemed to have approached it too. He noticed that she went to attack it, damaging the stone. But, the stone had no health bar. It's not a monster. Is it an item? Does that mean ... it's durability will go down anyway, but that will speed it up ... But if it's an item ...

Items could be interacted with by a simple tapping gesture. Viewing it's information, or activating/deactivating the item or opening a set of options to choose. After another set of howls, he started to run again, but he shouted towards Suki. "THAT'S NOT A MONSTER! YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO DEACTIVATE IT BY INTERACTING WITH IT! TRY TAP IT FIRST AND SEE IF ANYTHING HAPPENS! IF NOT THEN TRY TO DESTROY IT!" Umichi knew that Suki was already trying to destroy it, but deactivating it was definitely a safer option as destroying it might not nullify it's effects.

Fatigue started to set in, looking towards where people had been stuck against the barrier, it seemed to have cleared up. But Yui had come out. Damn it! It's too dangerous for her like this. The instant he teleported back, those outside the barrier would be hoarded once again. "SUKI! PYOTR! YUI! OTHER GUY! WE GOTTA PORT, CAUSE I CAN'T HOLD THESE BACK FOR MUCH LONGER! THE <<SPRINT>> SKILL WON'T LET ME RUN THIS FAST FOR MUCH LONGER!" Umichi hollered to his allies. Still running for as long as he could, watching for if/when his allies would teleport.

Jax nodded, enough people had gotten out, they should follow. He had a brief moment of hesitation as he considered helping the women attacking the stone but decided either she would use it and have something work, or it wouldn't and having someone else there wouldn't help. "Lets go." Jax said as he smashed one of the stragglers that hadn't chased the sprinter into pixels. Good thing, cause he was about done fighting this never ending wave of monsters. He took out a portal stone and quickly used it before any more mobs got attracted to them, vanishing and reappearing in the center of town. Jax then jogged back towards the edge of town to make sure everybody else was getting out as well.

Suki grimaced figuring she should have thought of tapping it earlier, know that would have been good thinking. She stepped back just slightly, tapping he stone, but all that came up was



And nothing else. It frustrated Suki to no avail end: evidently it was a surprise to all players, so chances where this was the first one to Show itself,'and it wasn't in the beta-if it was surely it would be in the guidebook. Gritting her teeth, she continued to attack the crystal shouting "no use. Jus gives me the name and nothing else?" I return to Umichi.

Suki attacked the stone, glancing over her should at Umichi, hoping he could hold for s little bit longer. She started to rally other players towards her, getting additional help with the stone

All things considered, it was almost an anti-climax to be ported back to the centre of town. The spear guy had come just in time to save her bacon and perhaps he deserved a bit of recognition for that, but he ran off before Pyotr could lay on some gratitude. Fair enough, she might as well deal with that later. She also noted the appearance of another one of their party, the ever elusive Yui. Never had much chance to talk to her, she mused. Not for lack of trying of course, but the opportunity never came... It occurred to her that there were more pressing matters to attend to. With Yui and Spear-guy helping around the town and Umichi playing Sonic the Hedgehog, the most use she could be was, regrettably, helping Suki with that stone. She set off, trying to compartmentalise her ambivalent feelings toward the girl and the desire not to see her die. Pyotr charged in to swat a mob about to pounce on Suki's back, then joined in with bashing the stone in a rhythmic miner's style. 'Sorry -clang- for being late, -clang- got a bit side-clang-ed.'

Screaming out, "JUST PORT! WE CAN DEAL WITH THE STONE AFTER COMING UP WITH A PLAN!" Umichi was struggling to keep his distance from the huge mob he had drawn for much longer. The Doom Stone was still active, and seemed to have a huge amount of durability. Taking out a teleport crystal, he was ready to use it at the very last moment to keep the others safe. "Everyone! TELEPORT!" he called out once more. As he ran, he ended up tripping on a rock. With little time to spare, he had no choice but to teleport at that very moment, or he would lose the crystal and be killed. Falling to the ground, he called out "Teleport!", being enveloped by a bright light before disappearing.

Appearing in the town square, he fell flat on his face. From there, all he could do was wait, and recover. He would need some time to be able to do that once again. For now it was time to formulate a plan. They needed to plan for what happened after the stone was destroyed as well. Please make it back quickly he thought, as he started to get up from the ground.

Suki had no teleport crystals left, having given them all away to other players, forgetting about herself in her need to get everyone safe. So all she could do right then was destroy the stone. She looked to Protr, "Get back to town if you have a crystal" she said, stabbing at the Stone, knowing if she could break it, they'd have a chance of winning.

It frustrated her to all hell that this was happening, and there was a horrible feeling that this wasn't meant to happen, beyond the getting stuck in the game thing. It angered her that this was happening, and the only target she had was the Doom Stone. So she attacked it ferociously, wanting it to just shatter.

As people vanished, teleporting, the number of monsters seemed to double, pressing up against the safe zone, as if they could push innto the town. She had a feeling that they could do that, if they tried long enough. None seemed to take notice of them and the stone. For now. Suki continued trying to break it, letting herself just focus on that.

Ordinarily Pyotr would have jumped at the chance to evade danger so handily, but something about Suki's 'leave me and save yourself' attitude irked her. 'What, and leave you to be the holier-than-thou sacrifice? Fuck that, I ain't leaving you to die. I won't give you the satisfaction.' Actually it was just a fig leaf to cover her wounded pride, but the action was there was there even if the thought wasn't. 'I'm not budging 'til you budge.' And so she continued hammering away at the Stone alongside Suki, syncing their attacks to the best of her ability. God only knew if they were making a dent, but it was better than running away.

Yui stiffened on spot when she heard Suki didn't want to leave. Yui was about to run out of potions and the monsters kept multiplying. Yui yelled out to her "W-wait n-no... Leave t-there is n-no way!" Yui bit her lip but continued to slaughter the monsters in front of her to keep Suki safe so she could attack the crystal. Yui couldn't see Umichi but could clearly hear him. She shouted out to him "Teleport or help out here Umichi! The monsters won't get past each other so it wouldn't matter if you let them go now!" Yui used some more skills and saw she was getting in the red with her health. She kept on hitting and hitting but there just was no end. Yui noticed Umichi didn't reply and had clearly already teleported. She bit her lip again and hesitated to teleport too but she couldn't leave the one who took care of her.

Damn it, what's taking them Umichi thought. Heading to the town shops, he bought a number of teleport crystals. He switched his skills to include <<Item Appraisal>> and <<Acrobatics>>. The others had not returned in the minute he had teleported. Rushing over to where they were, it was as he feared. Most of the players had teleported, but Suki, Pyotr and Yui had stayed. Muttering to himself, "Damn it. They should of teleported when I told them to." he noticed their health bars lowering, and the hoarde of monsters gathering on them once more.

Running through and jumping on to and running on top of the monsters, Umichi shouted, "YOU GUYS! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELEPORT!?" The four of them stuck with the Doom Crystal and hundreds of monsters. Quickly, he tapped the Doom Crystal looking at the information, before getting four teleport crystals. He grabbed all three of his party members and shouted, "Teleport!" A blue light shone on the four of them, before they teleported back into town.

"You idiots. What do you think would of happened, staying there with all of those monsters alone? After getting everyone else out, it was safer to get out and regroup. Do you know how much you even did to that crystal? A mere 20% of it's durability. And I don't even know if that is just from the amount of time it was active or if it was actually from the damage you dealt to it." Umichi showed anger, lecturing the party members. In truth, it wasn't that he was angry at them. It was that he couldn't deal with the idea that he could not protect his own party members. Hell, he had trouble protecting himself, how could he have protected them.

Taking a deep breath, he told them "Look, we need a plan, and we can't just execute it with the four of us. We should get as many of the players who are willing to help as possible. I already have an idea for a plan, and ideas for certain contingencies. Does anyone think that there is something wrong with everything I have said so far?" his tone was starting to calm. There was no need to vent his frustrations on them. But if they did nothing, there was a chance that they wouldn't be able to leave the village, so he needed to get as many players to help them. Mentally, he had begun preparing a speech, to try get other players to help them.

The forced Teleport ticked Suki off, but being berated ticked her off even more. She waited, seemingly patiently, as Umichi told them off, wondering where he got the idea that he was in charge of them. Yes, they generally followed him, but they weren't, well, at least she wasn't, going to follow every single order! When he seemed finished, she said in a patient tone, "are you don? Good. Fist off, I didn't have a teleport crystal, so how you expected me to teleport is beyond me. Secondly, it's actually more damage, right now about 30 percent and that is a quicker decrease then I thought. Thirdly, running through the monsters would have got us killed faster then trying to destroy the stone. Fourthly, you have no right to tell us off when you took a massive chunk of the monsters after you-you aren't invincible! You could just have easily been killed!"

She did not raise her voice, but she wanted to. She knew if she did it would just make her sound childish, unreasonable and a bit of a jerk. So she kept her voice calm. She looked out to the field of monsters, all pressing up against the safe zone. It would break, she knew that and then they'd be screwed again. "we don't have time to plan! Look!" and now she shouted, pointing to the monsters, their pushing making the zone visible, a durability marker appearing, decreasing each moment, "what do you think will happen if that fails? And it will. Soon. People are terrified, and we can't ask them to o back out there! They barely made it out! We have to destroy that crystal now, not plan how to do it! We plan, we are all dead when the safe zone comes down!"

"Look, sorry for getting upset like that, but, nonetheless, it is vital, to keep one crystal on you at all times, there will be emergency situations, people need to get themselves out. Also, this says 20 percent." Umichi started to reply calmly, showing the item information that he just opened earlier.

A mysterious stone. <<Item Appraisal>> not high enough to read the rest.

Durability 812/1000

"And zone's having durability, is broken, stupid game. Either way, us alone, would not be able to do it, and it would just have ended in vain. There will be people who won't come out, but, there were others who fought with you still, until I had said to teleport, to avoid the huge monster rush." Umichi calmly looked at the marker, it was strange for such a thing to even exist. Someone, or something must have altered the game code. Zones should not have any object known as durability. Why would it now?

"There is at least 15 minutes before it disappears. We need a little time to recover. During that time, it is best to gather as many other players as possible." There was a quiver of fear, drowned in analysis, in his tone. It was not the time to be scared, not the time to panic. He did not try to be a leader, but ended up leading. "If you had stayed, if we just rush in like before, all that will happen is that we would end up dead, and the monsters will break the zone and invade anyway. That's why ..." Umichi started to stand, there were a number of players still around.

"Everyone, I ask of you to lend a hand. If we do nothing, the safe zone will break, and the monsters will keep coming until we are all dead. That is why, we need as many people as possible to go out there and help us. There is a simple plan. Four main units. The first is the assault team, the ones who will help destroy the Doom Stone. Second and thirdly, the defensive lines. Anyone with shield and heavy armor, please, defend those attacking the Doom Stone. Having two teams of defense, allows people to swap out and recover, buying more time. Lastly, is someone to lure as many as possible, to increase how long the defense team will hold out. There is one crucial element in all of this, not killing the monsters. Killing them will cause them to respawn, and we cannot have them respawning in the middle of the formation. Please, everyone who is able, gather health potions, and teleport crystals and help us to survive this crisis." Giving his speech, he begged. Hoping at least a few would help. The time they had left was counting down, but there was still at least 10 minutes left. He had started to drink his stamina potion, preparing to pull aggro once more. If people gathered, he would like to organise them quickly and then charge by the 5 minute mark.