A journey to another world starting from a sword

At the same time, the fruit, as expected, swelled up.

Snapped--!

The violent cracking sound shook the entire forest.

Faced with the approaching red smoke, Asuna closed her eyes and covered her mouth and nose with her arms, but even so, the strange smell that rushed into her nose could not be shaken off.

When I opened my eyes again, my field of vision was filled with countless red cursors, and they kept increasing.

Whether it's the left, right, or back, it's all filled with small carnivorous plants attracted by the smoke.

There are probably more than twenty of them on the front... no, maybe more than thirty.

Asuna's eyes were wide open, and her lips trembled slightly, revealing the fear in her heart with each opening and closing.

The earth seemed to tremble; every single carnivorous plant in this area must have converged here without exception.

"Asuna!" Mito hurriedly approached Asuna, who was standing frozen in place, but there was no gap for her to squeeze through.

The carnivorous plant between the two trees sensed her approach, turned around, and bit at itself with its ferocious mouth.

Mitt nimbly twisted his body to dodge the monster's attack. "This won't do."

There was simply no space for her to enter; he would need to break through three or four more barriers before he could reunite with Asuna.

But before that, she will be surrounded by carnivorous plants.

She then began to circle the edge of the monster horde, hoping to find a way out.

At this moment, Asuna also reacted quickly and began to try to break through the monsters' encirclement.

He used the sword technique "Linear Attack" to instantly eliminate a man-eating plant.

"Asuna!" Mito found a gap in the battlefield and used his scythe to unleash "Harvest Slash," killing the man-eating plant that hadn't had time to turn around.

Just as she was about to move forward, her neck was suddenly wrapped with a "rope," one of the attack methods of the man-eating plant's vines.

"Ugh..." A squeezing sensation on her neck made it hard to breathe, and her body was pulled backward.

hateful!

Mitt turned around and slashed at the man-eating plant that was tethering her neck. The attack, both vertical and horizontal, caused its HP to change from green to yellow, and then from yellow to red.

With another swing of the scythe, she could kill it completely, but a carnivorous plant on her left also noticed her and approached it.

Helpless, Mitt could only jump to the side to gain more space to maneuver.

However, her dodge position wasn't ideal; it was right on the edge of the cliff.

A damaged red skull icon flashed on the surface of the rock beneath my feet, and then... it cracked.

"what......"

The moment the body fell backward, a disorienting feeling of weightlessness arose, and even Mitt didn't react in time.

He simply reached his hand toward the ever-receding cliff face...

"Mite?" Asuna turned to look in the direction of the loud noise, but did not see Mite.

It was just here a moment ago.

Mitt, who had fallen down the mountain, stared blankly at his HP bar, which had turned red. He quickly took out a healing potion from his pouch and drank it.

Then stand up and look at the wooden platforms set up on the cliff, which can be used as footholds to quickly reach the top of the mountain.

"Asuna." Constantly worried about Asuna's safety, and seeing that Asuna's HP bar had also turned red, she chose this shortcut without hesitation.

However, when she used the momentum to jump onto the second wooden platform, her foot suddenly sank again.

"Ah ah--"

The platform collapsed, causing her to fall again.

And then his body crashed into the platform below, triggering damage again, and so on "bang bang bang" until his body slammed to the ground.

"Ugh..." The continuous impacts caused Mitt to groan in pain, but there was no time for her to waste now.

She stood up and chose the other side of the mountain path, the way up from there.

Just as she reached the mountain path, three or four carnivorous plants came down from above, making her heart sink.

On the other side, Asuna was fighting alone, having already taken down countless man-eating plants.

I just felt that there was still a bunch of things around me, and my view was blocked by them, so it didn't seem like the number of people had decreased much.

At this moment, her HP turned red again. She took out the last healing potion from her backpack, drank it hastily, and only then did her HP barely rise to the yellow warning zone.

He killed a man-eating plant with three stabs, then staggered forward after being whipped in the back by a vine.

Turning around, Asuna blocked the carnivorous plants' outstretched vines and looked at the carnivorous plants swarming towards her, feeling only exhaustion.

When she made the judgment that she probably "couldn't win," her feet immediately and automatically prepared to run away, but she didn't manage to do so at all.

Unexpectedly, the small carnivorous plants, despite their seemingly sluggish appearance, possessed an unexpectedly fast movement speed. Before they could break through the encirclement and shake off the others, they were surrounded by the gathered carnivorous plants once again.

Only when she realized that it was impossible to escape this place did she grip her sword tightly and fight desperately until now.

At that moment, she remembered the players she and Mitt had encountered in the maze who had been surrounded by monsters after triggering treasure chest traps and were eventually beaten to death.

Will I die like them?

Suddenly, an indescribable fear enveloped the girl's face, and her once bright amber eyes now flickered with deep unease and panic.

The surrounding environment seemed unusually eerie at this moment. Even the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the treetops sounded to her more like the commotion of monsters gathering again, which intensified her fear once more.

I don't want to die!

Driven by an overwhelming will to survive, her body sprang to life again, and she frantically swung the rapier in her hand.

"Mite, hurry up and come here!!!"

Meanwhile, on the mountainside, after killing the last man-eating plant with his scythe, Mit looked up and saw several more running down the mountain path ahead.

In the upper left corner of the field of vision, Asuna's HP bar has stopped recovering and is now almost empty.

And it is still slowly decreasing.

“Ah…” Mit froze on the spot, his pupils reflecting a state of confusion and bewilderment.

Those eyebrows, which were originally long and slender like willow leaves, are now tightly furrowed into a canyon, as if they are trying to hide all their fear deep in their hearts.

Her heart skipped a beat.

At this rate, we won't make it in time!

The sound seemed to linger in her throat, as if she wanted to shout, but was tightly gripped by fear.

Her cheeks were as pale as if covered with a thin layer of frost, and the faint blush on her cheeks was the only trace of color she had left, which looked extremely out of place.

She forced her body to move and ran along the winding mountain path.

However... another group of man-eating plants came down from the mountain, more than ten of them, even more than before.

"how come......"

In the upper left corner, Asuna's HP dropped a little more, and she was just a hair's breadth away from truly being at rock bottom.

I don't want to see this!

Terrified of witnessing his friend's death, Mitt closed his eyes in shock. He gripped the long handle of the scythe tightly, his fingertips turning white from the force. In his closed eyes, a blurry and distorted shadow seemed to be reflected.

Asuna...

The vow I once made echoed in my ears: I will never let Asuna be in danger.

The girl's body was stiff, as if even breathing had become a burden. She longed to escape from all of this, but her feet seemed to be firmly nailed to the ground.

"I'm sorry... Asuna..." Her fingers lifted slightly, pausing briefly in the air. "I'm sorry. I couldn't keep my promise."

Finally, she opened the team interface in the main menu and left the team.

After doing all this, she turned and ran down the mountain, her back to the monsters that were chasing her.

He kept saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" as he ran without looking back.

Tears streamed down his face as Mitt fled the scene.

Chapter 19: Arriving Just in Time

Asuna never dreamed that she would die after fighting for several days in the floating city of Aincrad.

To be precise, it should be that HP drops to zero, and then the imaginary body explodes.

But she couldn't be sure whether she, sitting in a mesh chair and controlling a game character at 2-32-18 Gotokuji, Setagaya-ku, Japan, would actually die because of this.

At this moment, such an ending is gradually approaching her, and soon she will be able to prove whether Kayaba Akihiko's words are true.

But she was unwilling to give up and chose to struggle to the very end.

But things seemed to take a turn for the better. As Asuna continued to swing her sword, she gradually felt more at ease.

Because, without us even noticing, the number of carnivorous plants around us has actually decreased.

Even without the healing potion, his HP bar was almost depleted, but in the end, only a man-eating plant remained in front of him.

This carnivorous plant was surprisingly small. It's true that carnivorous plants can vary in size, but that's not important.

Is there one left?

With her lips slightly parted, Asuna greedily inhaled the air of her newfound life, yet she dared not slacken her efforts as she raised her rapier, aiming at the last man-eating monster.

Just then, a huge shadow fell over the ground where the man-eating plants stood, just as a haze appeared over a clear sky not long ago.

"boom!!!"

The ground shattered, and fragments of soil flew everywhere.

A mouth full of sharp teeth emerged and clamped down on the man-eating plant.

A gigantic monster appeared before Asuna, tossing the poor man-eating plant upwards with its mouth and then brutally chewing it with its jaw muscles.

After swallowing it, its thick limbs supported its enormous body, and this ape-like monster let out a deafening roar at Asuna.

"W-what?" Asuna hurriedly dodged to the side as the monster swung its hand at her, but her body was hit by the flying pebbles, and her HP bar dropped again, then stopped at the very last bit.

But Asuna didn't give up, because she firmly believed that if Mito came, everything would be alright.

However, just as she was desperately trying to negotiate, a window suddenly appeared in front of her, with the following words written on it:

Mitt broke away from the group.

"Huh? Mito, why?" Asuna froze on the spot.

Her eyes, once like deep pools absorbing the world's brilliance, are now dull and lifeless, as if all the flames of hope have been swallowed up by the tide of despair.

It was a look in their eyes that seemed to indicate they were deeply trapped in a trough, unable to pull themselves out.

Her dark eyelashes drooped heavily, her skin was pale, and her lips were unconsciously pursed, revealing her inner struggle and helplessness.

"Why?" she murmured in despair.

I haven't given up yet...

The world around her spun and gradually blurred in her eyes, but the despair in her heart grew ever clearer.

The ape-like monster attacked her again, slapping her with its black claws.

"!" Asuna instinctively closed her eyes, waiting for the final moment.

"Back off!" Just then, a furious roar came from behind, and at the same time, a dazzling red light, as brilliant as fireworks, streaked through the slits of my eyes that I had subconsciously opened, and then exploded.

"I made it...that's great."

The man's trembling voice sounded like a salvation, making Asuna's heart beat again.

He was panting heavily, his strong chest heaving, and his eyes filled with relief.

In fact, I am truly fortunate.

The person who arrived was none other than Dante.

Cardinal just informed him that if the important characters in this world die at the very beginning, then this world will restart, and as the only alien that will not be "formatted," he will likely be forcibly eliminated by the world.

Dante, who was already worried that Asuna might die unexpectedly due to the butterfly effect, accelerated his speed once again.

We finally made it.