Shigio was dead. Shigio, loyal, silent, stalwart, brave Shigio was dead. Drifter knew from the moment they left the safe zone that it was all but inevitable.
Even so, he had held some modicum of hope. Running into the Keita, Tetsuo, and Sachi, running away on Shigio's orders, had almost crushed it, but the fact he could still see the tank's HP bar, no matter how low it was, kept it aflame.
That hope was doused, stomped, destroyed. He watched Shigio's lifeline vanish, his name disappear from Reaver's Requiem's roster, and then he heard it.
Laughter.
Shigio was dead. And his murderer was fucking laughing.
Drifter recognized the sound from a mile away. It was that insane, unhinged, twisted laugh only Laughing Coffin had. Almost hysterical. Completely crazy.
"XaXa!"
Drifter saw red when he heard XaXa laughing like Shigio's death was the funniest joke in the world.
There were 8 other Laughing Coffin players around, and Drifter only had eyes for XaXa. His spear was flying before he even knew it, a guttural roar of hate escaping his throat.
The spearmaster was vaguely aware of his guildmates rushing forward to engage the other red players as he recalled his spear - XaXa had dodged, damn him.
"Die!"
Weapons clashed, the deafening roar of steel striking steel echoing over the shore, and XaXa was still laughing!
The man was a special brand of insane. He just knelt amidst Shigio's shards, sometimes chuckling, sometimes howling.
Drifter was going to kill him. He was going to tear him apart limb by limb. But before that-
"Fuck off!"
A Laughing Coffin member interposed himself between Drifter and XaXa, aiming an overhead slash at the Reaver's seemingly exposed head.
A bad move. The red player wasn't helping snuff Drifter's belief that they were all crazy. After all, who in their right mind would think that they could take on the Reaver's Requiem guildmaster, Brokenfucking Spear, when just Shigio had managed to kill two of them, and nearly a third?
Drifter's spear lashed out faster than the red player could blink, the tip accurately hitting the middle of his saber and knocking it - and the player holding it - wildly off course.
The murderer barely managed to keep his footing, but perhaps falling would have been a better option. At least he might have avoided Drifter's Sting to the side of the head.
Since he didn't, the red player watched in horror as a third of his health evaporated from just that one attack. And before he could come out of his shock, a Horizontal cut clean through his chest, before a Tendon Snap to the back of his knees brought him to the ground.
"Wa-"
Just because Laughing Coffin was insane and enjoyed hurting others, didn't mean they were immune to fear themselves. On his back, mind still reeling from how easily he had been taken down, the red player started to beg.
And then he realized Drifter wasn't even looking at him. All this time, the spearmaster hadn't taken his eyes off XaXa.
The last thing the red player saw were the two spiraling prongs of Drifter's twisted bident closing in on his eyes.
"Kekekeke! How brutal, Broken Spear Drifter! He was begging, y'know? Like your little friend, Shigio, begged."
XaXa tried to bait him. And in any other time it might have worked. But right now, Drifter was so besides himself with rage that he had gone past hot and into freezing.
"Shigio would never beg, not to the likes of you. Now die, Red-Eyed XaXa. Warm up in hell before I send all your friends to make you company."
And he meant every word. After today, Drifter wouldn't stop until every last one of the red players was dead.
Maybe later, once he cooled down and Shigio's death started to ache instead of burn, he would ammend that line of thought to include 'or in prison'. But one way or another, Laughing Coffin would end.
"Kekeke... How scary! Why so angry, hum, Drifter? Maybe- Are ya hurting? Are ya... bro~ken?"
The last word was spoken in a sing-song voice, clearly intended to be a pun on his title. It was a weak one, and XaXa scowled when Drifter showed no reaction.
The red player raised his estoc, the same weapon he had used to kill Shigio and so many others. Red eyes flashed behind his skull mask.
"Well, what are you waiting for, Broken Spear?! Come on!"
"Not yet."
The murderer frowned in confusion. Drifter's every action until now all but screamed his intent to kill the red player. XaXa had been waiting to capitalize on that anger and Drifter's mistakes so he could either kill the spearmaster or escape.
"We are done, Drifter."
"What-"
Kirito's carefully emotionless voice caused XaXa to start. The red player suddenly realized that in the minute or two that he had been trading barbs with Drifter, the noise of fighting around them had subsided.
Furthermore, XaXa was noticing a distinct lack of Laughing Coffin members around. Counting the one the spearmaster killed, there should have been 8 of them. That was 1 more than how many Reavers - the Black Cats didn't count, they could barely lift their weapons - there were. So, where the fuck had they gone?
"They are dead, XaXa. As you will soon be too."
It was Lightning Flash Asuna who spoke as she took the space to Drifter's right, with Black Swordsman Kirito on his left. Dark Elf Kizmel, Untamed Storm Yuuki, and Precise Blade Ran spread out to form a full circle around him, effectively eliminating any of XaXa's escape routes.
In the background, Aero Huntress Sinon stood with her bow drawn over Ceba's fallen form. The paralysis on the painter had long worn out, but she was still on the ground, eyes wide and full of tears. It was only that expression that convinced Sinon she wasn't in on the trap, and stopped the archer from plugging her full of arrows.
XaXa narrowed his eyes at the Reavers. All of them were stone-faced, but the anger and, dare he say, hate, in their eyes was clear. Behind them, 8 small whirlwinds of shards were very quickly disappearing.
There were no Laughing Coffin players kneeling on the ground or immobilized like he expected. Clearly, all the Reavers had opted for the lethal alternative.
XaXa... Was honestly shocked. Broken Spear Drifter was one thing. The man had already proven he was capable of and willing to kill.
But the other Reavers? Excluding the dark elf, they were all kids. The oldest was just 16 years old. He hadn't expected that level of ruthlessness from them.
It was one of the reasons XaXa had targeted Reaver's Requiem first. Other than getting revenge on Drifter, he also thought a lot of their players might hesitate to deliver the final blow.
To XaXa, watching those kids get corrupted, forcing them to choose between staining their souls forever or their hesitation leading to other people dying later?
It would have been delicious.
Only, that wasn't what was happening. He had succeeded in transforming them into killers, murderers, yes. But they weren't broken.
Unacceptable.
Seething with rage on the inside, XaXa turned to the one he saw as the weak link in the group. Lightning Flash Asuna was famous for having a rigid set of morals and integrity.
"How are ya feeling, girlie? Now that you finally had your first taste of blood? It's-- Exhilarating, ain't it? Kekekekeke."
Asuna didn't answer, but something flickered in her eyes. Hurt. Pain. Disgust. Hate. It didn't matter. It was all XaXa wanted to see. And he needed more.
"What about ya, Beater? Always knew you had it in ya. After all, you let Diavel die, didn't ya? Ooh, and all the other players who died because ya didn't want to share. Hehehe! You might just be the biggest murderer in SAO, heh, Black Swordsman?"
There. A twitch. And it was definitely guilt that XaXa spotted crossing his face for the briefest of moments.
This was it. This was what the red player lived for. Killing others was fun, but breaking them? Breaking them was bliss. It was freeing on so many levels.
He spun around to find his next target. Who would it be? The sisters, Ran and Yuuki? Or maybe the archer, Sinon. She had one hell of a mask, but he bet he could tear it down.
Yeah, it would be the archer. Her he was going to break for real-
"Oh!"
XaXa barely caught the arrow coming at him. He would have definitely lost an eye if he didn't tilt his head in the nick of time.
"Sorry, Drifter. I know he's yours, but his eyes were passing me off."
The archer lowered her bow and returned to watching Ceba. XaXa licked his lips.
"Oooh, I'm yours, Broken Spear, am I? Well, why haven't you come and got me yet?"
Of all of the Reavers, Drifter was the only one whose mask XaXa didn't think he would be able to crack. The man was a killer through and through, whether he admitted it or not.
"There are more people who deserve to watch you die, Red-Eyed XaXa."
The red player snarled and was about to ask what the hell Drifter meant - somehow, the spearmaster always managed to pierce through his good humor - when he saw them arriving.
At first, it was a bunch of black-clad individuals. Even in the daylight, they seemed to find shadows to melt away unto, displaying their high mastery in Hiding.
Only one of them stayed in sight, her tight clothing clearly showing her female curves, dark eyes watching him from behind an equally black mask.
XaXa recognized Shadow Blossom Akari, of course he did. She had killed more Laughing Coffin members than anyone else. Which meant the other players were Fuumaningum.
Silently and with measured steps, Akari took her place to Kizmel's left. The circle was a little more complete now. But there were more to come, and they were just behind the more agile role-players.
Argo the Rat, taking the spot to the right of Asuna, her claws glinting in the sunlight. Indomitable Knight Nautilus and Songstress Yuna, pushing into Drifter's right and left respectively, widening the circle.
Forge Master Lisbeth, her chubby face and pink hair completely out of place as she and her boyfriend Vallerk saddled up next to Ran. Griselda, taking Kizmel's other side with a grim expression.
Dragon Tamer Silica, a look of absolute hate on her face that didn't have any place on someone as young as her. The feathered dragon, Pina, was perched on her shoulders, growling at XaXa.
Merchant Warrior Agil and Wolv, matching Pina tooth by tooth in their snarls. XaXa idly wondered how they felt now that they were forever missing a third of their trio. Maybe it matched their long dead fourth member?
"XaXa..."
It was the first time in a while anyone had spoken, and XaXa's smirk widened ferociously when he saw the three Black Cats completing the circle.
"Hoh. Look who came back. Are ya sure you brought enough backup, kiddos? Who's gonna die so ya can run away this time?"
Keita's body shook, XaXa's words ringing true regardless of whether he believed them or not. Sachi and Tetsuo just cried harder.
"That's enough of your rotten mouth, XaXa. Enough of the killing, the hate. Enough of the game and Laughing Coffin. But most of all, enough of you."
The last words were all but spat as Broken Spear Drifter stepped into the circle. His spear dragged onto the ground next to him, the tip carving a trench across the soil.
XaXa spun on the spot as Drifter slowly made a full circle around him. His eyes narrowed. And then he laughed.
"Kekekekeke... How scawy! Should I piss my pants now or later?"
He mocked them, because they deserved it. Because they didn't see it. They may have him surrounded... But XaXa had already won!
He won the moment he forced them to kill. He won the moment he put those emotions in their hearts and the masks on their faces.
Regardless of anything, XaXa had won. Laughing Coffin won. So that only left one thing to do to break them more. Break them completely.
"I-"
Red-Eyed XaXa dropped his estoc and raised his hands above his head.
"-surrender."