The silence that followed Drifter's declaration was defeaning. Even Heathcliff, who had been told about the battle by Cardinal and watched a recording, couldn't quite believe his ears.
It was one thing when Drifter revealed, long ago, that he had killed Morte. But the guild leader was almost proud, if cold, in his announcement of Reaver's Requiem having taken 12 lives, murderers they might have been.
Even Klein and Orlando, the leaders of the two closest guilds to Reaver's Requiem, didn't quite know how to react.
Good thing they didn't have to, because Drifter had more to say, and they weren't gonna like it.
"We can give you a play-by-play of how it happened later. Now, take off your bracers and roll up your sleeves."
"What?"
The frontliners blinked in confusion as one, and frowned. Ambros narrowed his eyes at Drifter.
"Why?"
The spearmaster didn't hesitate.
"To show that none of you carry Laughing Coffin's brand."
Well, if that wasn't lighting a powder keg, Drifter didn't know what was. After 10 seconds of stunned silence as they processed his words, the room erupted in shouting of righteously indignant rage.
The spearmaster was unfazed. He let them shout and scream and curse and glare, his arms crossed in front of his chest. And then, when they finally stopped to breathe, he unequipped his own gauntlets, bracers, and undershirt, to show his wrists to the scowling frontliners. To his sides, Kirito did the same with his gloves while Asuna rolled up her sleeves.
All three were wholly unblemished. And Broken Spear stared down all the players glaring at him.
"We checked Reaver's Requiem last night. The entire guild, one by one, in front of everyone. I trust all of them with my life. They are my family. I still checked them. Because that's how important this is."
"Myself and Fuumaningum too."
Argo the Rat showed her bare arms, as did Shadow Blossom Akari. Drifter had yet to blink.
"Do it. Or you can leave the Assault Team. And your guilds with you."
"Who the fuck do you think you are to decide that? Huh?! Who died and made you king?!"
Ambros punched the table and yelled, face red with anger. The spearmaster's expression was still carefully blank, to the point some people, like Klein and Orlando, were starting to get worried.
"Reaver's Requiem won't fight with the possibility of being stabbed in the back. I've lost too many people I love because I trusted too much. No more."
"And you will risk all of the lives in SAO because of it? Blackmail us into collaborating?"
Heathcliff's tone was casually curious. Drifter didn't even look towards the other guild leader to answer.
"Yes."
Heathcliff narrowed his eyes.
"That's a dangerous precedent to set."
"I know. Now stop stalling and show your wrists. Or get the fuck out."
Tense seconds trickled by as the guild leaders went through several stages of emotions, from anger to rage to fury to confusion to empathy to resignation. Finally, one of them sighed.
"Alright. Just my arms, or would like me take everything off and give ya a show as well?"
Drifter ignored the jab, mostly because it was Lind of all people who took the initiative.
"Every Laughing Coffin player we came across until now had the tattoo on their wrists."
"Includin' two of my informants, so we can't just assume 'cause someone's green that they're good. They are in Black Iron Palace now. Cardinal was kind enough to recognize that if someone took Laughin' Coffin's brand, it's 'cause they plan on killin' someday. That's a 6 months stay just for havin' the tattoo. Life, or until we finish SAO, if they killed, but ya already knew that."
Argo piped up from her corner, and the frontliners eyes widened. If even the system had changed regulations, it was a sign that the very AI that controlled Sword Art Online like a god recognized Laughing Coffin as a threat.
With that in mind, Lind was much more eager to swipe through his menu and take off his gloves and bracers. His wrists were clean.
"Right, okay... Still don't like this, but- Ah, fuck it."
Orlando was next, and from there, they went around the table until everyone had shown they weren't involved with the red guild.
It wasn't a perfect method, as there was no law to say that absolutely every member of Laughing Coffin had the tattoo and that, if they did, it would be on the same spot, but Drifter would take it. He already trusted most everyone in the room, this was just to make sure and stave of complaints later.
"Thank you, everyone. If it means anything, I am genuinely sorry it's come to this. But we can't risk it. Having a Laughing Coffin mole here would be disastrous. With that in mind, let's get to the hard part."
"That wasn't the hard part?!"
Klein yelled, incredulous, only to choke on his tongue at the deadpan look Drifter shot him.
"No. The hard part is deciding what to do about Laughing Coffin now. And let me cut the needless debating and give you the only real option: they need to go."
That was both incredibly menacing and vague at the same time. Shivata raised a finger.
"Erm... Just to be clear, Drifter, when you say they need to go-"
"Dead or in prison. One way or the other, Laughing Coffin has to disappear in the next 5 floors."
"Five floors? Why so specific?"
"We are less than a week away from clearing the 43rd floor. Then it's only 6 more to the halfway point. The 50th."
"Another sure-death floor."
Kirito added, his first words this entire meeting, and the gathered players grimaced. That was never a nice reminder.
"Laughing Coffin doesn't care about clearing SAO or escaping. All they want is chaos and killing. And if we let them, now that PoH has declared open war, there are only two possible outcomes: either they will attack us before the 50th floor raid, and leave the Assault Team so shorthanded we will suffer grievous losses or fail the raid altogether, or they will attack us after, when we are at our weakest, and destroy any future hopes we have of going home."
He gave them a few minutes to mull over his words, and from the increasingly distasteful expressions, he could see they liked both outcomes about as much as he did.
"I see your point, Drifter. I hate it, but I do see it. So what are you proposing?"
The spearmaster inclined his head to Klein.
"We will attack them first. A calculated strike with all of the Assault Team. Laughing Coffin, while scary as a whole, aren't actually very strong in their own right. Red-Eyed XaXa was supposed to be one of their executives, and Akari has confirmation that he has killed at least two dozen people, and yet I brought him down in less than 40 seconds without receiving a scratch. The other red players we fought yesterday were much the same. Their levels and equipment are miles below ours. So is their battle experience, with a few notable exceptions. The only real field where they compare to us in skill proficiency."
"If they are so weak, why do you even need our help?"
"First of all, Ambros, because Laughin' Coffin isn't a Reaver's Requiem problem. They are a fuckin' cancer to all of SAO, and they need to be excised."
Argo scowled, and because Ambros had the survival instincts of a frontliner, he raised his hands in surrender and let the info-broker continue.
"And secondly, because Laughin' Coffin are cowards. They rely on numbers to hunt weaker players. We turn it around on them, pit the hundred-so Assault Team against their number, and suddenly the game's tiltin' the other way."
The guild leader nodded his head in grudging acknowledgement. Strength in numbers was a tactic all frontliners could respect.
"There are two major advantages Laughing Coffin has over us, however. If you can even call them so."
Drifter knocked on the table to catch everyone's attention again, while sending a silent thanks to Argo for directing the conversation here. Her words carried a lot of weight with the Assault Team.
"What advantages?"
"They are ready and willing to kill, and they are utterly fucked in the head."
Drifter's fellow players blinked. The first point kinda made sense. The second not so much.
"I get being willing to kill, most of us probably are gonna hesitate if it comes to that-"
"It will."
"-but how's being insane an advantage for them?"
"It is, because they don't care if they die. Some of them seem to seek it, actually. Morte impaled himself in my spear. And they will use their lives, and deaths, to break you. Some of the more twisted members of Laughing Coffin - again, Morte - seemed to derive almost orgasmic pleasure from transforming other players into killers. XaXa kept laughing until the second he died and going on about how he was going to make me Broken for real."
He paused to see if they understood what he was saying. If they captured just how twisted Laughing Coffin truly was.
"All that is to say, when we go against Laughing Coffin, people are going to die. And I would rather it be them than us. But make no mistake: they won't go down quietly. And you, the leaders of your guilds, need to be prepared to do whatever is necessary to ensure as many of our own make it through to the end. Even if it means getting blood on your hands."
Drifter let his words sink in. For close to ten minutes, the only sounds in the room were low murmurs of people talking quietly to their guildmates or themselves.
Eventually, Shivata raised his head. He glanced at Lind, who nodded, albeit hesitantly, before clearing his throat.
"Alright, Drifter. We are in. Gods forgive our souls, but we are in. Where do we start?"
The spearmaster gave his friend in another guild and drinking buddy a tight smile, the first one to grace his face since yesterday. Then he took a deep breath.
"Argo and Akari will share everything they have on Laughing Coffin. Little rat has been collecting intel on them since they first appeared, and Fuumaningum has clashed with them several times in the shadows. They lost several people to those red player bastards. Kirito, Asuna, and myself will also share what we know and our experiences fighting them. And from there... From there we come up with a plan."
And maybe the gods forgive their souls.
------------------------
Of course, before the Assault Team could take any actions against Laughing Coffin, there were many matters that needed to be solved.
Chief of which was finding out where their base was. The red players were too organized not to have a centralized command, but damn if they made it hard to find where.
It took Argo two entire floors to realize why. Laughing Coffin wasn't posted up on any one floor. They were in the labyrinth. More specifically, the 32nd floor tower.
It was a ballsy move. While there were hidden safe zones in the labyrinths, to make your base there meant being at a constant danger from getting attacked by mobs when you stepped outside, or being discovered by players - although, it was likely Laughing Coffin didn't mind the latter as it only meant more victims for them.
"It's a trap."
Also, there was that. Drifter looked at Argo, who shrugged.
"It's so obviously a trap, little rat. You've been trying to find them for what, 20 floors? That's over a year. And suddenly, a month after we took out Red-Eyed XaXa, one of your informants just so happens to stumble upon a red player in the labyrinth, follow them without being noticed, and then get away with no repercussions whatsoever?"
Drifter was both incensed and disappointed. It was a trap so bad it was good. Because PoH - and it had to have come from his mind, the red player guild leader had already proven to be smart with how long he had evaded Argo and Akari - was laying the perfect bait in front of the frontliners. And they had to take it.
"Fuck sake. Do you know if your snitches in on it or just being duped?"
"I think she's being threatened, actually. Lux isn't an angel, but she's no criminal either. I fished her up after the whole Titan's Hand debacle, and she took it pretty hard. Her entire party got killed while she was out on a date. I don't think she would join hands with red players after that. She wouldn't look at me when we talked, though."
"Hm. Wanting to live is no sin."
If Drifter hadn't blamed Ceba - too much - for what happened to Shigio, he couldn't very well blame another person for virtually the same thing.
And if anyone had the right to be scared, it was someone who lost their entire party to red players.
The criminal guild, Titan's Hand, had been weeded out by Argo and Akari a few months back. Their guild leader, a beauty named Rosaria, would endear herself to mid-tier players, and, when she judged they had something of value, lure them into an ambush by the rest of her guild, many of whom were orange, and even a few red players.
As far as Argo could find, 9 parties, close to 60 players, had fallen victim to the scam. And it got worse. While at first Titan's Hand would only rob players of their cor and valuables, they slowly transitioned to murder as a way to silence witnesses.
In a way, it was almost worse than what Laughing Coffin did. PoH and his monsters killed because they enjoyed it, while Rosaria and her guild did it so they could keep robbing players.
Fuumaningum had put an end to that. Drifter wasn't entirely sure how, but it ended with all Titan's Hand guild members arrested, and it was revealed that two of them had Laughing Coffin's tattoo. Rosaria had been as shocked as Argo when she found out.
"That was nearly 5 months ago now, wasn't it? Some of them, those who kept their green cursors, should be out soon, if they aren't already, no?"
"I've got eyes in them. And I'll get Akari to put some tails on Rosaria when she gets out. Hopefully we'll have dealt with Laughing Coffin by them, so she'll have more manpower available."
"Yes. Laughing Coffin."
"What do you want to do? Trap or not, we might not get another opportunity."
Drifter drummed his fingers on his thigh. Argo was right. Even if it was a trap, it was still a chance to take out the bulk of Laughing Coffin's numbers, if not the entire guild.
"We fall into the trap."