62Author's Note: Hello! I'm HappyCamper999, and I'm back with an all new story! I have been away from the website for a while, but I'm finally back with one of my favorite projects to date. Anyway I hope you enjoy this new crossover!
It is important to note that I do not own Sword Art Online. It, its story, characters, settings and all other aspects are the property of A-1 Studies, Aniplex USA, and Reki Kawahara. I also do not own The Lord of the Rings. It and all its components are the property of New Line Cinema and the J. R. R. Tolkien Estate. The only aspects of this story I can claim are minor pieces to the plot and several original characters.
Sword Art Online: The Battle for Middle-Earth
Book I - An Unexpected Journey
Chapter One
The Labors of Aincrad
"It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish."
― Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings
"Alright guys, this is it. The Floor 30 boss is right on the other side of this door."
Kazuto Kiriguya, or "Kirito" as he was known inside these video games was leading his usual assault team inside a new level of the Castle Aincrad, a mythical palace floating in the skies of the virtual reality realm, ALfheim Online.
For our purposes as readers the date is roughly April in the year 2026. The assault team of ALfheim had been on a rigorous campaign to clear all the castle's 100 levels over the recent year of release, and after finding a few major distractions over the past few months they are finally catching back up to their original goals of clearing every floor and defeating each boss that lie within the chambers.
Now, Kirito prepares to lead his team of roughly 40 or so players into the new arena as they each sit outside the dungeon doors and await for the plans to finish unfolding.
"This won't be an easy one to beat, but I have a good feeling about it." Dressed in a cloak of black, Kirito the in-game Spriggan had all the confidence in the world as he looked to his crew of merry fighters.
"Agreed, but we'll need to have a good plan of attack if we want to make it out with a win." With him was the skilled supporter and blue-haired Undine warrior, Asuna Yuuki, or "Asuna" for short.
Asuna stood at the ready as she pulled up a mock-map of the dungeon that sat beyond the door. "Once we go in the ranged attackers will have to be using their best efforts to spread out along the outside of the arena floor. The melee-ers will want to rush in at first, but be on lookout for the boss's first breath attack."
Most of the players nodded and prepped for battle, but a few of the more "comfortable" players decided to try and lighten the mood.
"Wow, I know we're back at the standard floor boss fights, but seriously this round table jargon is really bringing back old memories of SAO." Klein, the fiery and comical Salamander swordsman leaned up against the wall beside the door, and slowly spun around his Karakurenai katana long-sword as he smiled in a joking manor. "How's about we stick to the usual slash and burn and just send this one to the floor like the rest of 'em?"
Asuna went to make a comment but was once again interrupted by another party member. This one was a female and she was sitting at Asuna's feet with her legs crossed and her head leaning on her fist.
"No kidding. Asuna I'm not even sure how you can do this command stuff anyway. It has to get boring after a while..." Lisbeth, the pink haired Leprechaun blacksmith sighed as she made her statement. She wore a red tunic with plates of armor dotted about her upper body, and wielded a one handed mace on her back.
Kirito raised an eyebrow and leaned out to look down at Lisbeth. "Hold on why do you say that about her and not me?"
Lisbeth didn't give him eye contact and let out a tiny smirk. "Well that's easy. Asuna's not a total weirdo like you, Kirito."
People in the front of the group started to chuckle, and Kirito crossed his arms and shook his head due to the lack of seriousness he felt from the group, but before he could defend himself another female player spoke up from the front lines of the huddle.
"Guys, are we sure we have enough people?" Said the little Cat Sí, Silica. "I mean we have no info on this boss other than a few breath attacks. What if he's really big, and our group is too tiny to beat him?"
Silica was cloaked in a coat of blue and a head of golden blonde hair tied in two pigtails. She also had two tiny cat ears that matched her hair, and a thin cat's tail poking out of her lower back as she started gripping her tiny dagger tighter and tighter. She stood ready with her tiny pet dragon Pina sitting atop her head, but she also looked a little nervous for the mysterious fight ahead.
"Ah I think we'll be okay!" Another quest member spoke next, and this one happened to be Kirito's cousin and a long-time Sylph mage Leafa. She wore her usual green and white Sylph cloak and pants and also held the handle to her thin elven longsword tied to her belt.
Leafa waved a hand and smiled with confidence. "I mean, Kirito and Asuna are both confident, so why should we be worried?" She then lost her smile and turned to her two commanders. "You guys are confident, right…?"
Asuna laughed and nodded, but Kirito face-palmed and tried wrapping up the conversation with haste. He then remained silent and turned to face the daunting path that lied ahead.
It appeared as a great stone door of mostly grey, but tiny accents of emerald green trimmed the face of the rock, and a faint glow of lime fog cracked from underneath the door as the attack party waited with anxiety to make their next move.
Finally Kirito reached back and put a hand around his long sword. "Like Asuna said, let's keep the ranged attackers on the perimeter, and the rest of us can go in and out of the boss's reach to wither down its health."
Asuna nodded and drew her tiny support wand. She then looked at a nearby Cat Sí archer with aqua green hair. "Sinon you'll be good right? To be honest I'm not even sure why I'm asking, but it doesn't hurt to…"
Sinon, the girl dressed in a soft green tunic with a white breastplate spoke with a nod. "Yea I'll be fine. I'm actually pretty excited to get a few shots off on this guy." She smiled with pride and drew her Light Bow Shekinah, forged in grey steel and silver by the hand of Lisbeth. Then she and the remainder of the party stood at the ready and let Kirito open the door.
Finally, as the door cracked and fog rolled in as a thin sheet a crossed the lobby floor, Lisbeth sighed and stood as she drew her mace. "Okay, but no breaking any of my weapons in here, or so help me I'll…"
Her breath and quote were silenced as the entire crew heard a vicious roar coming from inside the door, and right then without making a second thought Kirito charged in with a yell at the top of his lungs.
"LET'S DO THIS!"
"YEA!" The rallied party of fighters yelled in response, and swiftly followed their group of leaders into the dark green chamber, lit up by tiny dots of green lantern light on the periphery of the ringed arena. Yet as they made it inside, the doors shut and the full room lights flashed on, revealing the beast within.
It wasn't pretty by any means of measurement, and in fact looked rather deformed. It appeared to be a large, winged dragon with scales black as night. Its eyes glowed with a bright shade of green, and cracks of sparkling green shined from beneath its armored body. It also had large open pores of bright green liquid pouring out of its spine, which truly made it a sight for sore eyes to behold.
However, one unique feature was latched around its neck, which depicted a thick collar of steel that was adorned with a single chain, and although it appeared to be longer in the past it was clear by the burnt up chain holder pinned to the ground that the dragon had burnt itself free. Finally, its head was crowned with two daunting grey horns that mangled around over its skull, which complimented the rows of yellow and white teeth within its mouth.
Its name read Corrodier-the Caustic Drake, and as it reared its head, the beast let out a screeching roar and prepped for defense of its palace.
Klein tried to laugh as he noticed the burnt chain around its neck, but kept his voice to a yell as the crew ran in. "GREAT! YOU'RE TELLING ME THIS GUY WAS SUPPOSED TO BE PINNED DOWN BY THAT CHAIN!?"
Everyone ignored him as the dragon breathed a heavy cloud of green fire and smoke, which barely missed all the runners.
"KEEP GOING!" Kirito realized the inner arena had a larger radius than he expected, and as a result he and the other melee-ers had to run a few extra lengths to get their first hits off on the dragon.
Archers and mages encircled the outer rim of the floor and let off several beginner shots as the dragon had no time to choose its target carefully. As a result, it lowered its head and sent off a breath right for the charging swordsmen once again.
"SPLIT UP!" One player with a Salamander skin and a fierce battle spear cried out with tenacity. "IT CAN'T HIT US ALL IF WE'RE MOVING IN SEPARATE ASSAULT GROUPS!"
"WHAT ARE YOU NUTS!?" Said another player. This kid was from the race of Imps, and held a very spooky looking black dagger as it trembled in his hands.
"LOOK OUT!" Klein ran over and shoved Kirito out of the way from a point-blank green breath attack, and barely made it out of the way himself as several men behind them burnt up in a cloud of green smoke.
However, Kirito did manage to grab the hand of one other extra player, and it just so happened to be the cowering dagger-wielding Imp.
The others weren't so lucky.
"AGH!" They cried out, and as the smoke cleared their virtual bodies were turned into bubbling piles of corrosive aftermath, and quickly disappeared with the usual particle effects of a dead ALO player.
"Well, I hope they still have their stuff when they re-spawn..." Kirito cracked a joke, and nodded to the fact that the dragon clearly burned them down with an acid attack, hoping their luggage made it out as well.
"Really? A joke Kirito!?" Lisbeth yelled out and dodged a cloud of green fire on her end. "This guy is way too legit! How can we get any closer?!"
"I'll say!" Said the random Imp behind Kirito. "H-Hey, thanks for the help too…man how are we gonna beat this guy!? He's too legit for even 40 players!"
"No kidding…" Kirito turned and noticed the arrows from the back party weren't even making it to the dragon, because as they flew to the centering a cloud of green fog burnt them up in the atmosphere and turned them into nothing.
"Figures." Sinon cocked her head and drew back on her long bow with extra force, allowing for a vail of orange to cover her arrow, and as she released her new shot the projectile turned into five and went right for the dragon.
Unlike the regular attacks, Sinon's light arrows made it past the cloud of acid, and even hit the dragon on the neck. The beast let out a roar and flapped its wings to push back the foot soldiers at its front, and tried to back up and away from the archers.
"HERE! I'll keep it distracted again while you all push up!" Leafa sheathed her sword and raised her hands, surrounding herself in a ring of enchanted scripture as she began to recite an incantation.
Kirito and the others would have waited, but Asuna stood right beside Leafa and was also reciting an enchantment of her own, only instead of using attack magic like her Sylph friend, the Undine warrior began to provide buffs for her attacking friends.
"NOW!" Both Leafa and Asuna yelled, and right then Asuna powered on her shields for the attackers, and as she did Leafa released a wave of tiny golden daggers, which pierced through the cloud of smoke and blinded the dragon's bright green eyes.
Meanwhile, Silica the tiny Cat Sí began running for the dragon's hind legs way before the others. It only had two as the upper arms appeared to be part of its wings, so all's she had to do was give it a few slices and send it to the ground injured and let her friends lead the final attack.
As her heart beat faster and faster, Silica rolled away and missed a new pool of acid spawned from the dragon, and then flipped forward and got right beneath the drake, delivering two precise dagger slashes to each inner ankle. However as the cuts began to spew liquid acid, Pina removed itself from its perch on Silica's shoulders and flew her away to safety.
The dragon went to stomp around in pain, but Lisbeth barreled in and smacked it right on the wing with her mace of thunder to catch it off guard. Then Klein charged in with a crew of other swordsmen and powered on a sword-skill to level out a few slashes on its well-armored chest, which knocked a few larger scales off his body.
Kirito ran in to deliver a lasting final hit, but as he did he heard very quick footsteps running from behind him.
"I'LL HELP YOU ON THE FINAL HIT!" Asuna yelled as she now wielded a swift light blue rapier-styled sword.
Kirito kept running, but looked her way with a smile and nod. "I WOULDN'T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY!"
Asuna smiled back and as they looked forward, both warriors ran in and pointed their glowing swords right at the dragon's now exposed chest.
As Asuna sent in a flurry of rapid attacks, Kirito mimicked Klein's powerful slash from before, only this time the dragon didn't have an extra row of scales to defend its stomach.
Then, as they removed their blades, Kirito powered on his unique sword-skill and revealed a brightly glowing golden blade in his off hand.
As he powered on his dual-wielding perk the mighty faux relic of the Holy Sword Excalibur flew down from Kirito's slash and ended the battle, delivering the final blow to the dragon's chest and leaving it to turn into a cloud of green smoke, followed by a poof of in-game particles.
The green cloud exploded as a last second bomb of acid which scattered a crossed the entire in-field, but luckily Asuna had time to throw up a shield for her and Kirito. Some extra players went down, but for the most part all the other attackers were well out of the cloud's range.
Kirito stopped moving as he and Asuna finished their breaths, but as everyone else began cheering, Asuna narrowed her eyes and looked his way.
"I didn't think you'd need two swords to beat it?" She said with a demand of clarity in her voice.
Kirito gathered his breath and composure as he put away both swords and shrugged. "I didn't, but eh I wanted to have some fun."
Asuna shook her head and sighed as she stood tall. "Right, but you told everyone you would never need to use Caliber." She looked his way as all the bosses drops fell around them and into the hands of their friends.
Kirito laughed and shrugged again. "Right, and I don't plan on using it regularly, but this fight was looking pretty bad. I mean that guy took out half our forces with two clouds of acid."
"Yea…" Asuna hated playing chaperon with Kirito, but she wasn't comfortable with him choosing that sword of all his weapons to dual wield. "I-I'm just saying, you do have other swords that make for good dual-wielding. Maybe next time we can bring extra players in so you don't feel the need to…"
Kirito stopped her there and grabbed her by the hand. He brought her in for a quick kiss on the lips, and after they finished he looked her in the eyes.
"Hey, I didn't know it would bother you that much, but I understand. I won't use it again…" He then got a goofy look in his eye. "Unless you're just jealous that I got to use it without you?"
"Yea yea, not quite…" Asuna had a smile, but rolled her eyes and pushed herself out of his arms. However, she didn't let go of his hands. "Besides, you only had the final hit because I escorted you all the way there."
That made Kirito smile, and possessed him to lean in for another kiss, only to be stopped by his alarmed party members.
"Geeze…let's go you guys we need to gather this stuff and get outta here!" Lisbeth had a laugh in her voice as she waved at Kirito and Asuna from the door of the exit.
"Agh!" Kirito tried to compose himself, and Asuna let out a giggle as she took is hand and ran for the escape stairs at the back side of the dungeon.
However, as Kirito looked around at all the un-wanted drop items, one very unusual black dagger caught his eye.
"Hold on, that's not a drop. It looks like a player item…" He stopped Asuna as he found the dagger was tagged with an extra note overhead.
Now looking with curiosity, both Kirito and Asuna stopped and crouched down to look at the dagger, and Kirito picked it up.
"Huh, it looks like the same dagger that one kid had who was with me in the front group…the name says it's owned by a player named Klint?" Kirito scratched his chin. "Normally items like this don't hold an ownership tag unless they were freshly dropped."
Asuna nodded and then smiled as she stood up, realizing what it was. "Well, it must be an item from one of the players that died. Let's go back to the World Tree and see if he's there. Whoever it is I bet he'll be looking for it eventually."
After agreeing, Kirito put the dagger away and followed Asuna through the stairwell and into the back room of the dungeon, securing their names on the Monument of Swordsmen as the party leaders and exiting back to the open world of ALfheim.
After finishing up with the raid, some of the members gathered together for a celebratory drink at one of the in-game restaurants, but it appeared that the party leaders were not high in their usual spirits.
"Ugh, why do we have to have that stupid exam tomorrow!?" Lisbeth moaned as they stood in one of the main city courtyards.
Silica nodded. "I have one too…school is really starting to get hard." She also attended the same school that Kirito, Asuna, and Lisbeth attended for survivors of the original SAO game.
Even girls like Leafa and Sinon who went to a regular school were also in need of fresh study time, and Leafa turned to her cousin Kirito. "Well, mom's out for the night so I guess we'll have to find our own dinner also."
"Yea…" Kirito sounded annoyed and shook his head. "It'd be nice to have a cook for the night…" He hinted at Asuna coming over for a visit, but the blue haired fairy shook her head.
"No way, I need to do my own work tonight, and I know if we hung out it'd only give us an excuse to dive back in to ALO."
Kirito sighed. "Fine, but I'm not jumping off yet. I gotta find this Klint kid and get him back his weapon."
Klein laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "Eh, you have fun with that. Meanwhile I'm going to log off and not study…maybe I'll just take a nap!"
The elder gamer laughed and logged off before the girls could yell at him, and one by one they all logged off too.
Then Asuna and Leafa both gave Kirito a wink as the latter spoke up. "Don't be on too much longer, dinner in 30."
Kirito nodded and waved good bye to both of them. He then took a breath and looked around the city. "Alright Klint. Who are you and when can I get this dagger back to you?"
To be honest Kirito really had no idea how to locate the kid, and he had no way of knowing if he or she was even in the town. He could have used a standard name search, but you had to be friends with the player in order for that to work.
However, Kirito also had a secret weapon in the world of ALfheim Online, and just in the nick of time she sprouted up right before his very eyes.
"Where you going, daddy!?" Yelled the tiny pixie follower Yui as she popped out right in front of Kirito.
The black swordsman laughed and held out a hand. "Hey Yui, didn't see ya in the boss fight!" He then got a bright idea. "Actually I may need your help…"
~Meanwhile in the capital's general market
"Oh come on it has to be here!"
A boy with a purple tunic and short brown hair tried pleading with a town merchant about an item he desperately needed. "I know no one would want that ugly dagger, and this is where all the junk loot from boss fights gets sold to!"
"Sorry sir but the item you're looking for is not in our records." The store woman tried explaining the situation to him. "Please buy an item or leave."
"Mgh…" The slightly tall but scrawny Imp from the boss fight before lowered his head in defeat as he turned around. "Man…I'm totally screwed if I don't find that dag…"
"Hey! You looking for this?" Kirito was standing in the doorway of the store, and he also saw the familiar name 'Klint' above the Imp's head and pulled out the black dagger.
The boy who appeared to be Klint smiled as soon as he recognized the player and dagger. "Yea that's what I need! And hey you're Kirito!" He ran over to deliver his thanks. "No way, I joined up in that boss party just to meet you! Kirito the Black Swordsman!"
Kirito smiled and handed over the dagger. "Yea that's me, but that's not important. I mean come on, you and I fought with each other for a moment there! Pretty fun boss fight, right?"
Klint laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Ahahaha yea…I was having fun until I charged in with the last assault. That Lisbeth girl got a good hit on its one wing, but I got shot before I reached the other. Then I died…"
Kirito shrugged. "Hey who cares? That's the way the game's played." He then handed over the item. "I just want to make sure you got your dagger back. That's a pretty gnarly looking piece you got there."
Klint nodded and clutched it like a child. "Oh you have no idea how happy I was to see you with that thing! My game partners would flip if I lost is, but actually I made this dagger myself. It's not that strong here in the world of ALO, but it means a lot to me."
Although the wording confused him, Kirito liked the sound of that. "I can imagine that if you crafted it yourself. I have a friend who's a blacksmith, and she goes pretty nuts over her creations all the time."
Klint rapidly shook his head. "O-oh no you don't understand, I didn't make this weapon in ALO. I made it in another Seed game."
That took Kirito by surprise. Sure the Seed allowed different games to join avatars and experience with ALO, but he never heard of someone bring items back and forth between games. What if he saw a player running around with a GGO rifle all the time in ALO?
The thought puzzled him enough to ignore the clock for dinner and carry on. "Alright I'll bite, how'd you get that dagger in from…whatever game you made it in?"
Klint laughed and stood a bit taller, revealing more height to his body than Kirito first realized. "Oh sorry where are my manors. I'm Klint Rojer, its northern European. I'm a head developer of a private company called Mystic Gaming. I have an upcoming project concerning my new world in the Seed…" He then got a smile. "And I'm actually looking for volunteers to join me on cracking the beta for the demo level!"
Kirito stood back for a moment. "Woah a new game that connects to ALO? What's the title?"
That made Klint raise a thumbs up and smile. "I'm glad you asked! Actually my company has premiere production rights to a pretty popular series of stories, and we're slowly bringing it into the Seed system."
Kirito gave him a grin in response. "No way, sounds pretty sweet. Do you think I'd know the series?"
Klint let out a cocky grin and sheathed his tiny dagger back inside his belt. "Well I'd hope so, after all a lot of people know it all around the world. It's called the Lord of the Rings."
Well thank you to all who came to read the first chapter! I just wanted to set the mood with a typical boss fight from SAO, so hopefully this one worked! This is my first ever story for Sword Art Online, so I am both very nervous and very excited to reveal the completed project! It's also been like 2 months or so since I've released content for this website, so I am VERY excited to get back into the game! (I recently graduated from undergrad, and I'm now in a master's program with summer classes, so I've been very busy. Hence the J RR Tolkien quote in the beginning!)
Please without hesitation leave comments and reviews, because they help me as the writer, and you as the reader to better improve the story. This will be a very fun crossover story for me to tell because I love both of these series very much. Stick around for the other chapters (because the entire story is already finished on Microsoft Word and I will make my chapter releases as timely as I can.)
Anyway I hope you come back for the second chapter! We'll have our first hero fulldive into the new game. Until then!
