The moon hangs high in the sky, dyeing the dense forest as blue as if it were sinking to the bottom of the water.

Alpheim's night is short, but it's still some time before the light of day. Although the forest in the middle of the night is usually terrifying, the darkness has helped a lot in the current retreat.

Lifa looked up from under the shade of the massive trees and looked up at the starry sky high and far away. At present, there is no ominous figure patrolling the sky. She lowered her voice and said to the team members next to her, "Let's start flying as soon as the wings are restored." Hurry up and get ready. ”

"What- my dizziness hasn't ...... yet"

The partner replied in a very useless voice.

"Are you still dizzy? It's useless...... You should get used to it, Regan. ”

"It's easy to say, but what you can be afraid of is what you will be afraid. ”

Lifa sighed with the feeling of "this guy can't be helped".

The boy named Regan, who was crouching at the base of the tree, was also a friend of Lifa in the real world, and he started playing the game ALO - ALheim Online at the same time as her. In other words, he has a year of experience like Lifa, but he still can't get over the dizziness after flying. In ALO, where the strength of the air combat ability is everything, it can be said that it is useless to be tired like this after just one or two brawls.

That being said, Lifa still doesn't hate Reagan like this. If he had to say it, he was like a younger brother who couldn't rest assured. There is a saying that his character has a short, lanky figure and a yellow-green kappa-style hairstyle. In addition, the long ears are also drooping, and the expression on his face is more fixed than that of crying.

Although the character's appearance is determined at random, when she sneaks into the game and sees him for the first time in the game, she immediately laughs out loud.

However, according to Regan, Lifa's appearance is not much different from the real world. She has eyebrows and eyes that are quite serious in the case of a wind elf girl, with a slightly burly physique.

I was expecting an appearance that met the expectation of "grace and elegance" in an imaginary world, but it was just a cute appearance that was objectively speaking. You'd have to be lucky enough to get an appearance that suits your heart — in fact, a lot of people have spent the equivalent of several years of monthly fees in order to get a satisfactory appearance — so Lifa is quite happy with her character's appearance.

By the way, the appearance in ALO does not affect the character's performance at all, so Regan's sudden dizziness is entirely due to his extremely poor balance.

Lifa reached out and grabbed the back of Regan's breastplate and forced him to his feet. Then he took a look at the four transparent wings behind his back, and found that the light green light that proved that he had regained his ability to fly had surrounded the wings.

"Okay, it's ready to fly. The next flight is directly through the forest. ”

"Huh~...... The pursuers must have been thrown off by us~ Rest a little longer. ”

"You're so naïve! As long as there's a high-level guy in the fire elves, we'll be found out in no time. If there are only two people, they will not be able to survive the next aerial battle. So I can only grit my teeth and fly back to the territory in one go!"

"Okay......"

After Reagan replied weakly, his left hand made a gesture of grasping something in the air. A translucent rod-like object appeared in his hand. The stick with a small sphere attached to the tip is the same auxiliary stick used during the ALO flight. Regan gently pulled the rod forward, and the four wings spread slightly, and the light increased slightly.

After confirming Regan's condition, Lifa spread her wings and shook them two or three times. She doesn't need to use a secondary joystick. Because she has learned the advanced technique of 'flying at will', and in ALO, the proof of being a first-class fighter is that she doesn't need to use a joystick to fly.

"Let's go, then!"

After whispering, Lifa kicked the ground with all her might. The wings on her back were fully extended, and she made an urgent ascent towards the full moon visible across the treetops. The wind struck Lifa all over her cheek, and her ponytail swayed with it.

Seconds later, Lifa and the others made their way through the forest to the sky above the sea of trees. As far as the eye can see, Alpheim is the whole way. A sense of infinite openness welled up in my heart.

"Ahh......hh

Lifa let out a sigh of excitement as she flew higher into the sky. This moment, this feeling, can be said to be irreplaceable. The excitement in her heart made Lifa almost cry. Since ancient times, humans have always envied birds that can fly in the sky. And now, in this fantasy world, humanity has finally gained its own wings.

Unfortunately, the system has a so-called air limit. If she could fly as she pleased, Lifa would be willing to pay any price.

In fact, this is also the common desire of all players who fight in Alpheim. Arriving at the legendary Sky City on the World Tree one step ahead of the other races will allow you to be reborn as a true Light Spirit - in this way, the Sky Restriction will disappear and you will become a veritable ruler of this infinite sky.

Lifa is not interested in enhancing her abilities or obtaining rare items. That's the only reason she'll keep fighting in this world.

Towards the golden moon, which was currently unreachable, Lifa shook her wings vigorously. The glowing phosphor powder that fell from its wings pulled out a comet-like tail under the night sky.

"Li, Lifa~Wait for me~"

- A weak voice came from below, pulling Lifa's consciousness back to reality. She stopped rising and looked down, only to see Reagan desperately chasing after him with the joystick. Since the maximum speed of flight using the assistance system is quite low, Reagan will definitely not be able to keep up with her if she flies with all her might.

"Hey, come on, come on!"

Lifa hovered in the air with her wings as she beckoned to Regan with both hands. She raised her face to look at her surroundings, then gazed into the distance of the Great Sea of Trees, and after finding the World Tree high in the night, she used it as a starting point to determine the direction of the Wind Elf territory.

After confirming that Regan had managed to reach the same height, Lifa began to fly as if she were gliding through the air at his speed.

Regan, who was next to him, said with a stiff face:

"Will it fly too high?"

"It's only comfortable to fly higher if you have an accident. If you get tired of your wings, you can glide directly. ”

"As soon as Lifa flies, it's like a different person......"

"What did you say?"

"No, no, nothing. ”

The two were joking as they flew towards the Storm Elf territory southwest of Alpheim.

Today, Lifa made an appointment with four good friends, including Regan, to hunt in the labyrinth in the neutral area northeast of the Wind Elves territory. They were lucky not to encounter the other squads and had a rather fulfilling adventure. While earning a lot of money and power-ups and preparing to set out on his way home, he is ambushed by a team of eight people from the Fire Elves.

Although in ALO, it is possible to fight between different races, but it can be said that there are only a few players who do this kind of obvious banditry.

After two aerial battles while fleeing, the enemy and the enemy were reduced by three men each. The Lifa team, which was originally relatively small in number, turned out to be only two people, but they finally shook off the pursuit and came to this place not far from the territory of the wind elves with the innate advantage of flying speed over the fire elves. Although it took a little longer for Regan, who was dizzy from having to wait for two battles, to recover, it seems that he should be able to escape from the sphere of influence smoothly. But when Lifa, who thought so in her heart, casually looked back at the forest behind—

Suddenly an orange light flickered under the huge trees that were lying side by side.

"Reagan!

Lifa immediately shouted, then spun around to the lower left. Then three lines of fire appeared from the ground, rushing up at a violent speed through the gaps between the leaves.

Fortunately, the two of them flew at a sufficient altitude, and the hotline with its long tail immediately passed through where the two of them had just been, and finally disappeared into the night sky with the smell of burning.

But they didn't have time to rejoice. Five dark red shadows burst out from near the sea of trees that had sent out the attack magic, and flew towards Lifa and the others.

"It's- why is it so annoying!"

After Lifa finished scolding, her eyes looked in the northwest corner. From this vantage point, there is no way to see the lights of the huge [Tower of Wind] towering in the center of the Wind Elf Territory.

"No way, get ready to fight!"

When she had said so, she slowly pulled her long, curved knife from her waist.

"Wow - I can't do it!"

Reagan grumbled as he drew his dagger and assumed a fighting stance.

"Even if you lose, there is no way to do it, but if you give up because of this, I won't be able to spare you! I will try to attract as many people as possible, and you must at least find a way to defeat one enemy!"

"I try to ...... as much as I can"

"Once in a while, let me see your handsome side!"

After poking Reagan in the shoulder, Lifa regained her serious expression and prepared to charge. She curled up, increased her speed in a single turn, folded her wings into sharp angles, and rushed down with a violent speed. This is simply a moth to a fire for the fire elves lined up in a wedge-shaped formation.

In addition to the large number of enemies, most of the reason why Lifa and the other veteran players who have been playing since the early days of ALO, and who have a lot of experience and costumes, are so embarrassed is because of the formation tactics recently invented by the fire elves. Regardless of mobility, he strengthened his defenses with heavy armor, and then used his body weight to repeatedly perform spear thrust attacks. The appearance of several spears running horizontally at the speed of a furious wave was enough to put a lot of pressure on the wind elves to bring the fight into the melee combat that they were good at.

However, because of the previous two battles, Lifa had already sensed the weakness of the enemy's attack methods. So, with her natural boldness, she swooped down without hesitation after selecting one of the enemy's vanguard groups. The distance between the two disappeared in an instant. At this point, Lifa focused all her nerves on the tip of the silver spear that the enemy had swung out.

The incongruous ensemble of the shrill rush of the wind elves and the dull heavy metal sound of the fire elves became more and more intense, and the moment the two sides staggered, an explosion that shook the atmosphere.

Riffa gritted her teeth and turned her head slightly to avoid the point of the enemy's gun, which had the power to kill. The tip of the spear that brushed her cheek left a burning heat on her face, but she ignored the pain and raised her long knife above her head to aim at the enemy's red helmet.

"Look at the ......"

Then he slashed down hard.

"Ahh

She instantly met the stunned eyes in the depths of the other party's thick helmet, but before she could think about it, the yellow-green effect light exploded. With the violent reaction force transmitted to his hand, the huge body of the enemy was completely ejected.

The enemy instantly fell downward in a spiral, but his HP was reduced by less than 30% due to the heavy armor, but with that blow to the head, there should be no way to return to the battle line immediately. Lifa immediately switched consciousness and shouted inwardly.

- Now is it!

The weakness of the enemy's reloaded assault tactics is that it takes a lot of time to regroup after passing by mistake. As she staggered past the fire spirits of the remaining four, Lifa forced her way around, fully spread her wings and turned to the left.

A powerful lateral G-force squeezed Lifa's whole body. She endured the pressure and made reluctant movements such as pushing with her right wing and braking with her left wing in order to turn around as quickly as possible, and finally found the enemy figure in the corner of her sight, which was also swirling to the left.

Although the heavily armed fire elves were aware of Lifa's intentions, they were unable to reduce the radius of their turn. Having already finished turning, Lifa immediately swept her sword towards their flanks.

Lifa's body-aimed sweep attack hits the leftmost enemy beautifully. The whole formation was chaotic.

- The next step is to force the battle situation into a melee fight!

Of the five enemies, only the captain who just fell can fly at will, and all the rest have to use auxiliary sticks. Lifa's movements in the melee can be said to be much more agile than them.

Lifa searched for Regan a little and found him engaged in a fierce battle with the fire elves on the far right. Although he is not very reliable, he is also a veteran player. As long as you can enter close combat, you can use the skills of the short sword.

Lifa, who wields a long knife, also clings to the back of the enemy she is aiming at, constantly inflicting damage on them. Then she suddenly had the idea that she might win. The only unsettling element is the fire attribute attack magic just now, which means that at least one of these five people is a demon warrior. However, the fire magic that the fire elves can manipulate is powerful even if it is not of a high level.

According to common knowledge about formation, Lifa predicted that the mage should be one of the enemies on the left and right. That is, either the enemy she is currently attacking, or the one who is clinging to Regan's side and constantly suffering from his annoying attacks. At this distance, there should be no chance of performing a spell attack. As long as these two people are shot down, the next victory or defeat will be five or five waves.

"Hey, aaaa

Lifa slashed again with her smug hands at the shout. The attack hits the enemy's shoulder beautifully, and the HP bar, which has turned red, is instantly reduced and disappears entirely.

"Damn!"

As soon as the enemy finished cursing, his body was surrounded by red flames. Then the sound of the 'boom' sound dissolved into fragments and scattered in all directions, until only a small red flame remained. Before the flame known as the Remnant Fire disappears, you can be brought back to life on the spot by using resurrection magic or items. However, after a minute, the dead will automatically be teleported to their own race's territory and become resurrected locally.

Lifa immediately threw the dead enemy out of her mind, locked on to the new one, and rushed through the air. The remaining three were still unaccustomed to using spears, and were rather slow to move in close combat. Despite the constant assaults, the stabbing without speed is not a threat at all to Lifa, who is good at dodging.

Lifa looked back at Reagan and saw that he was about to deliver a fatal blow. Although his HP bar has been reduced a lot, it is not to the point where he needs to restore his mana. Although it was an overwhelming five-on-two disadvantage, it seemed that this aerial battle should be victorious, Lifa was convinced in her heart, and waved her long knife down at the same time.

But in the next instant, flames that kept rising from the ground engulfed Regan's body.

"Whoaaaa

Regan, who let out a mournful scream, stopped in the air.

"Don't stop, stupid!"

Before Lifa's scream could reach his ears, the dying fire elf pierced Regan's body with a spear.

"I'm sorry ~~~~~~"

At the same time, Regan, who screamed and apologized before dying, was immediately surrounded by a green whirlwind. The body disappeared as if the death effect known as the [Residual Fire] melted, and then the same small flame appeared.

Although it is known that he will be resurrected soon, it is always unpleasant for a partner to be knocked down. Even though Lifa gritted her teeth in remorse, she didn't have time to grieve, and could only whirl around desperately before she could dodge the fire attack that rose from the ground again.

…… Is the magician the guy who knocked him out in the first place?

If I had known this, I should have chased him before he fell and ended his life, but now it was too late to regret it. Lifa is at an absolute disadvantage.

But she still wasn't going to give up. No matter how ugly he struggles, he still can't give up the chance to make a final comeback, which is the aesthetics and reserve that Lifa has cultivated over the years as a swordsman.

With magical support from the ground, the two remaining fire spirits were able to regroup and launch a long-range surprise attack again.

"Come on!"

After Lifa finished shouting, she took the upper pose with her long knife.

At the same time, the other side ——————

"Hmm······ Clyde, the operating ····· of this world It's hard to fly. Kirito, who was hanging upside down on a branch, was silent.

"Since you have inherited the previous data and opened the hanging, can you pretend to be a master? Clyde, who was floating in the air, said helplessly.

On the other hand, Clyde's reversal had been restored, because the heart's book of sin body had once again pressed back the power of the seed to cover it, so it recovered within half a month after Emilia and the others came to Chen Xin's house for a party.

"You are, and you weren't called a cheater at SAO, and now I'm a real cheater. Kirito who jumped from the tree said helplessly.

"But why are you in this posture again? I really miss it~ When I was in SAO. ”

"Maybe it's because of the old file? I don't have any requirements for my appearance. Kirito shrugged.

She didn't deliberately set her appearance as in the original book, but chose randomness, but as a result, she had the exact same face shape as in SAO.

Well, that's the face shape of the real world!

If this is seen by Kirito's sister (Naoba), I guess she will recognize it on the spot, right?!

"By the way, Kirito, let's get rid of the contents of the inventory quickly, after all, it's all broken residue. Clyde said.

He'd emptied his inventory beforehand, and apart from his stats, he's basically the same as a normal ALO player (and the Scythe is gone).

"Yes·······"

Kirito slid his finger across the inventory and framed all the items together.

There should be several props filled with her memories of Grace Grant, but now it's time to do it without sentimentality. And there's no way to distinguish the names anyway, and it's impossible to materialize them.

"Asuna is here, I'm sure, you must have seen that picture too, right?"

"Ahh Oh, disgusting guy. "Clyde was wearing a regular military uniform when he went to visit Asuna, so Sugo Nobuyuki didn't dare to confront Clyde at all.

But the disgust mixed with the flattery was still understood by Clyde, but instead of killing the other party immediately, he waited for Kiritto to punish him!

Of course, Clyde still gave Sugo Shin a small gift, at least until Kirito found him, there were no good dreams to sleep on.

"yes, Nobuyuki Sugo, huh, that man looks good, but ······" Kirito's eyes weren't forgotten when that guy looked at him.

It's disgusting!

It's not a look of desire, it's a look like a guinea pig.

If Kayaba Akihiko is a god on high, then Sugo Nobuyuki is a demon who likes to play with mortals.

"So, where are we going now? I'll be able to get used to flying later, but I don't know where I'm going to be!" Kirito slowly followed behind Clyde with control of the joystick.

"Let's go and meet up with Miss Lulutia first, well, they seem to be in the territory of the wind elves. With that, Clyde flew in a certain direction.

Well, that's where our Lifa and the three fire elves fought.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

6,000 words worth three more!