In the idyllic lakeside of the 22nd floor, a scene straight from hell was playing out.
Four of Reaver's Requiem's number stood in a tight circle, surrounded by a dozen other players. And the ones closing in on Shigio, Keita, Tetsuo, and Sachi weren't just any players.
"Laughing Coffin."
Shigio hissed the two words like they were a curse. His eyes darted from the paralyzed Ceba, who he now knew had been nothing but bait - which they had eaten up hook line and sinker - to the murderers.
"Red-Eyed XaXa."
One of the cloaked figures was easy to recognize, XaXa not having bothered to cover his head with a hood, red eyes leering at the Reavers from under his skull mask, and Shigio spat his name with just as much venom.
"Shigio. When we asked the pretty little artist here to lure the deadweights, I didn't expect to reel in a big fish along with them."
Shigio's fingers turned white as he gripped the straps of his shield. XaXa wasn't laughing like a maniac or throwing curses. His malicious smirk was visible under the mask, but he was still being mostly serious. Restrained. That didn't bode well for their immediate future.
"I would ask why you red bastards tricked us into coming here, but it's pretty obvious. So the question is: is Laughing Coffin ready to go to war?"
The tank glared straight at XaXa, taking his eyes off the other murderers for a moment to to reinforce just how much weight he was putting behind his words.
"Because that's what it will be, XaXa. War. And not just against Reaver's Requiem. But all of the Assault Team. All of Aincrad. You've been allowed to exist - for too long clearly - because we had more important things to worry about. But not if you go through with this. Laughing Coffin will be signing their own death warrant."
He was being half serious and half bluffing. The only reason the Assault Team hadn't exterminated Laughing Coffin yet was because they couldn't find them. Even with Argo the Rat and Shadow Blossom Akari tracking them, the red guild had managed to hide exceedingly well.
But it was also the truth that neither the Assault Team, the info-broker, or Fuumaningum had put their full effort into it. The three factions had to coordinate all aspects of all of Aincrad. Their time and manpower were limited, and Laughing Coffin had been laying low recently.
Not anymore. Today would change everything. Shigio was under no illusions that he could lead his party out of this trap without spilling blood. And as much as he wished Laughing Coffin would be the ones to bleed, he wasn't that naive.
Especially when Red-Eyed XaXa smiled, the madness he was known for adorning his face.
"War, hum? Sounds fun! Kekekeke!"
"Crazy fucker."
Shigio grit his teeth. A quick glance over his shoulder showed Keita, Sachi, and Tetsuo had their weapons raised, but they were trembling.
"Keita."
"Y-Yes?"
"When I say, make a break for it. Don't bother with fighting back or Teleport Crystals, they will never let you use them. Just focus on surviving and getting Sachi and Tetsuo out."
"W-What about y-you?"
They were speaking quietly so Laughing Coffin couldn't hear them, but Shigio turned back to XaXa. It was somewhat forced, but he had a feral grin to match the murderer's on his face.
"They want war, I'll give them war."
The Laughing Coffin players, well, laughed at that. They kept laughing when Shigio spun around and Unrepentant Charged into the 3 murderers blocking their retreat path.
Two of them jumped to the side to dodge, while the one in the middle raised his sword to meet the Reaver head-on.
That was a mistake.
The red player was sent sprawling, a fifth of his HP gone, and a 'stun' status effect afflicting him.
Shigio didn't stop. His body glowed silver and he kneed the stunned enemy right in the face with a Martial Arts: Hiza, before following through with a Shield Bash.
Just like that, the red player got cut down to just about a third of his health. And, while Shigio had almost exhausted the very few offensive skills inside of Shield Mastery, there was still one more he could use.
And use it he did. The tank caught a glimpse of genuine fear in the masked face of the Laughing Coffin player on the ground before he slammed his shield down with Fissure.
The bottom edge of the tower shield, blunt and thick, met little resistance as it crushed the abdomen of the murderer. Everyone was given a very clear view of the red player's body splitting in two halves, each tumbling in a different direction before shattering.
They stopped laughing after that.
Everyone in the area, murderer or not, watched slack-jawed as Shigio absolutely demolished one of the red players without him being able to put even a semblance of resistance.
Everyone but Shigio.
"Go!"
His powerful shout jolted Keita, Sachi, and Tetsuo into motion. They wasted half a second to shoot sorrowful glances at their party leader before they started running.
Running away from the lake shore, away from the Laughing Coffin encirclement through the opening Shigio provided. Away from him.
Oh, how they wanted to do the opposite. To charge the red players and fight alongside Shigio. But for all that the former Black Cats were brave, well, they were brave enough to admit that their hands were shaking.
They would be a burden to Shigio if they stayed. And right now, there wasn't even the time to consider 'maybes' and 'what ifs'. The red players would snap out of their stunned disbelief at witnessing one of their own get so summarily decimated soon. And once they did, their opening would be gone.
The three Black Cats made it about 15 meters away before Laughing Coffin started to react. The two closest murderers, those who had dodged Shigio's initial charge, jumped at them.
Or at least they tried to. In the precious few seconds he had bought with his awe-inspiring bout of brutally, Shigio hadn't stayed still.
One red player caught a Shield Bash to the face, while the other the Reaver simply punched. It did almost no damage, but a fist to the chest, especially from someone who invested nearly all of his stats into strength, was still enough to halt anyone, and almost knock the Laughing Coffin member on his ass.
"Ugh!"
For his troubles, Shigio got a dagger to the back. It barely tickled him.
The tank spun around, eyes blazing, and the Laughing Coffin player who attacked him gulped. Then he rolled away, narrowly evading a bash from Shigio's shield.
Now, Keita, Tetsuo, and Sachi were over 50 meters away. Shigio caught a glimpse of the later looking back, only now tears starting to form on her eyes, and made a gesture with his right hand. A thumbs-up.
Shigio thought he heard Sachi stiffle a sob. But his back was turned to her and the other two as he slammed his shield on the ground and engaged the remaining 11 Laughing Coffin in a staring contest.
Daring them to try and get past him. Begging them to.
They could go around him. That would be easy enough. It wasn't like he could stop them all, and Shigio was, after all, a tank. He was much slower than all of them.
They didn't. After some muffled orders from Red-Eyed XaXa, the red players reformed their formation, now in a half-moon in front of Shigio.
The un-titled, easily forgotten, one of the weakest members of Reaver's Requiem, or so others saw him as, cracked his neck. His glare never left XaXa.
"Good. You aren't laughing anymore. Now let's find out just how many of your dog lives a frontliner's death is worth."
------------------------
XaXa didn't like the recent developments. This wasn't how things were supposed to go at all.
This was supposed to be his day. Boss had finally given the go-ahead for Laughing Coffin to start their moment of glory! And he had been put in charge of it!
They were finally going to stop hunting those weakling low-level players and go after some really challenging prey: frontliners. XaXa had been positively giddy when boss told them that!
And who better than Reaver's Requiem as their first target and opening salvo? The guild who had that odious Broken Spear Drifter, one of the few players Laughing Coffin was actually wary of.
XaXa had made a perfect plan. Simple, but effective. Snatch that little bitch painter their spies reported was spending a lot of time with Reaver's Requiem recently, and use her to lure the three weak links of the guild: the 3 clearers, Keita, Tetsuo, and Sachi.
Start at the bottom and work his way up, XaXa thought. Get the Reavers angry and desperate at having three of their number killed right under their noses, especially since they were all so protective of each other.
He had been bursting at the seams when the three Reavers finally showed up. And when XaXa realized they had Shigio with them? Oh, he almost gave the game away, here and there.
It couldn't have been more perfect. Reaver's Requiem's only 3 clearers, and one of their weakest frontliners? It was like God, no, Cardinal and Kayaba themselves were giving him a gift.
That had been XaXa's first mistake, though he didn't know it at the time. Everyone saw the flashier, more eye-catching Reavers. Broken Spear, Black Swordsman, Lightning Flash, Aero Huntress, Songstress, Indomitable Knight, and so on.
They saw all of the guild's titled players, and dismissed the rest as weak. Forgettable. Looked at Shigio as if he were just another of the merchant trio, and the taciturn one at that.
They underestimated him, as did XaXa, and paid for that. Because weakness and strength were relative. And sure, maybe Shigio was at the bottom of the ladder when compared to the rest of his guild.
But he was still a frontliner.
The Laughing Coffin group paid dearly for forgetting that. In a blink of an eye, the player had moved, much faster than a tower shield-user like him had any right to, and crushed one of the red players like he was a gnat, while creating an opportunity for the other three rats to escape.
XaXa... Honestly, XaXa had been too dumbstruck to even react, though he would never admit it. It was one thing for Broken Spear Drifter to kill Morte and almost take his head off when confronted with Laughing Coffin.
But Shigio? A no-name, insignificant--!
When he finally recovered from his shock, XaXa had been sorely tempted to order his subordinates to split up and chase after the Black Cats. They hadn't gotten that far, and he was sure Shigio would never be able to stop all of them, at most one or two. And with the tank's build and equipment, he would never be able to catch up to Laughing Coffin.
But something stopped him from issuing that command. Something in Shigio's gaze. XaXa felt a vein ticking in his forehead.
Disdain. That motherfucking bastard was looking down on them just because he managed to kill one fucking distracted weakling?!
If the guy Shigio took down wasn't dead already, XaXa would kill him just for causing this situation. Shigio was supposed to be trembling in despair and begging for his life
Instead, here was the fucker, glaring down at them while surrounded by 11 bona-fide murderers, and acting like they were the ones who should be cowering.
"Motherfucking son of a--! I'm going to fucking kill you. I'm gonna rip your tongue off and shove it down your throat and watch you choke! And then I'm gonna find those three little shits and I'm going to-"
"Die. You are going to die."
Shigio cut him off, and XaXa's eye twitched under his mask. He scowled at Shigio with madness in his gaze and venom dripping from his every word.
"What did you fucking say?"
Shigio shrugged nonchalantly. XaXa knew the Reaver was buying time, but he didn't care. He was going to stab his throat. Poke his eye out with his estoc. Gorge his-
"I. Said. You. Will. Die."
"Mother-"
"Don't you get it, Red-Eyed XaXa? This... This isn't some great blow you are going to strike against Reaver's Requiem or the Assault Team. This isn't even a reprieve to stave off your bloodlust. This... This is you signing your death sentence."
Shigio snarled.
"And my guild will come to collect!"
"Kill him!"
XaXa couldn't hear it anymore. His perfect day, his perfect plan, it was all ruined.
Shigio had to die.