Kirito and Leafa entered the Legrue Corridor and Kirito used night vision magic to brighten up the room. Leafa then teased Kirito of how ineffective Spriggan magic is in combat but muses that it may some day save their lives. As they walk, they continue talking about the spells in the game. Suddenly, Leafa unexpectedly received a somewhat cryptic message from Recon, which stated: "I was right. Be careful. S." Before Leafa was able to make sense of the message, they were interrupted by Yui, who informed them that twelve players were approaching them, prompting Leafa to hide them with a concealment spell. While hiding, Kirito noticed a red bat and told Leafa about it who then immediately recognized it as a high-leveled tracer and quickly stepped out of her cover to strike the bat with magic, effectively destroying it. She then told him to run because the tracer was fire-attributed, meaning that the 12 players chasing them were Salamanders.
They then arrived at the lake surrounding Legrue, but just before they could enter the city, a beam was fired overhead and had erected an stone wall front of them, blocking their advance and deflecting Kirito's attack. Kirito asked if they could bypass the wall by going into the river, but Leafa denied this by telling him that there were powerful monsters in the lake which are almost impossible to kill without having an Undine for support. Kirito then told Leafa to stay back and support him, which she agreed to, and he began the assault against the Salamander group. However, he was stopped by the Salamander shield formation which were then healed by one group of the Salamander mages while Kirito was blasted away by fireballs fired by the other group, though Leafa healed him. Due to the combination of healing mages, attacking mages and blocking soldiers, Kirito was having a hard time breaking through the formation and at this rate he would be killed, thus Leafa suggested surrendering and starting again from Swilvane, but Kirito refused, saying that while he was alive he would not let any party members die.
On the last attempt to fight the charges, Kirito was stopped once again, and was forced to jump back. At that moment, Yui told Leafa to use all of her mana to block the next attack; she hesitated a bit before casting her spell, allowing Kirito to cast his own illusion spell. As the flames from the Salamander attack faded, Kirito transformed into a creature resembling The Gleam Eyes. The soldiers began to panic and broke their formation, even though the leader tried to inform his fellows that it was just a "scary looking monster with a long reach", but Kirito killed the panicking defending soldiers with ease, and so the leader told the mages to use explosion magic, but as they were chanting incantations, Kirito struck fear on the Salamanders and thus interrupted their chanting and killed them, leaving the leader and one mage. The leader panicked and dived into the river but was shortly killed by one of the lake monsters. As Kirito was about to kill the last mage in the party, Leafa stopped him so that the mage could be interrogated.
At first, the mage did not comply to being interrogated, as Leafa was threatening him with her katana. It was only after Kirito managed to bribe the Salamander with the battle spoils that the Salamander revealed the leader's name and that they were gathered to hunt down two players, which he thought was a bit too much until the leader of the party had told the party members that two players had defeated Kagemune's party earlier on. He also told them that a large Salamander force was heading north and Leafa's first thoughts were that they were going towards the World Tree, however the mage told her that they were not ready to go there yet, as he knew that the army would require ancient-level gear to do so. After telling what he knew, the mage left happily with the items.
Afterwards, Leafa asked Kirito whether the monster was him. Although Kirito admitted that he had a tendency to forget most of his battles when he lost control, he said that he remembered being the monster, and that it had been very fun slashing at the Salamanders with his claws. As Yui told him that he had also chomped on some players while being the monster, and Leafa wondered what it tasted like, he told them that it was something like yakiniku before being burnt. After that, Kirito stopped and jokingly bit Leafa's hand and in return she hit him very hard on the cheek.
They then entered the city and Leafa, after noticing that Recon was not online, logged out of the game under Kirito's advice to ask Recon in the real world what his message meant. After logging off and checking her phone, she noticed that Nagata Shinichi had been calling her for awhile now and suddenly, the phone rang again. After hearing Shinichi's complaints about her not answering his calls, she demanded to know what was happening. Shinichi informed her that Sigurd had been collaborating with the Salamanders and that he had sold out their leader, Lady Sakuya. Shinichi had caught Sigurd acting suspiciously and decided to tail him, eventually stumbling upon his meeting with the Salamanders. However, he was found out before he could escape due to hitting a stone and was shot with a poisoned arrow. Shinichi revealed that a large force of Salamanders were planning to attack the Sylph leader and the leader of the Cait Siths during the establishment of the alliance treaty between the two races.
Leafa connected to ALO once again and explained the situation to Kirito. She told him that he should work for the Salamanders, as she believed that they were the most capable race to ascend the World Tree, and thought that they would most likely kill the two leaders and get the money needed for their equipment. Since Kirito was a Spriggan, he could work for them as a mercenary. Kirito declined this option, stating that he would never use his friends for his personal benefit. Suddenly realizing that they were wasting time talking and not getting to the alliance treaty, he called Yui to lead the way. He then grabbed Leafa's arm and with his speed, they got out of the caves in no time, running past the Orcs that spawn throughout the Corridor.
Rating: 7/10
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