Chapter 3: Friends Come First

Drax sat in Lisbeth's shop, happy with the level or two that he got from completing the special rewards of the Drakore boss. He was just waiting for her to come back to the counter from her forge with the shield she made for him and the spike she had replaced on the head of his halberd. He took a quick check of his equipment and shrugged. This all would do him very nicely for a very long while, so he wasn't too concerned about needing better equipment. Well, maybe better armor. Eh fuck it, he'd jump that bridge when he needed to.

When she gave him his shield and newly-enhanced halberd, he read the stats before thanking her for it. He also expressed interest in eventually learning the trade, but she wasn't quite to the point of being a master smith. If she had been, he might have gotten even better materials, not that he was complaining. He'd be stupid to complain about his new shield and the new benefits to his halberd.

[Drakore Guard - Made from the skin, claws, and armor plating of the Crimson Drakore, this shield, as per the design and style made by Expert Smith Lisbeth, adds 20% to damage reduction and absorption. Damage absorbed by this shield may be released in a colossal shield strike, both melee and ranged. Both the melee version has a 50% chance of paralyzing on contact. The ranged version of the counterattack has a 50% chance of vaporizing armor or weapons that attempt to block it. Enemies killed in this way immediately vaporize into even less than digital pixels.]

[Sturdy Steel Halberd - Attachment: Dragon's Mantle - The sharp end of the Crimson Drakore's tail. Now attached to this halberd, when the spike-end of the halberd is used, it deals a moderate amount of Damage Overtime that may limit a target's mobility.]

He thanked Lisbeth extensively, and he offered his assistance if she needed anymore rare materials, as long as she either improved his weapons or taught him little things about smithing. To Drax's basically blind eye, she shrugged and reluctantly agreed. In reality, however, Lisbeth would look forward to it because his fighting was awesome to watch.

Drax went back to his and Agil's shop, popping all the scavenged gear onto the shelves or in the display window aftet a quick polish. He was just about done when he noticed a message that just came into his inbox. Curious, he opened it to be met with a message from...Klein? He barely knew the guy, what did he want?

Drax: Klein? What's up?

Klein: Hey man, can you check on Kirito? He just soloed a boss and seemed seriously out of it.

Drax: I mean, I guess. He is my friend, so it's kinda what I should do. Let me figure out where he is, one sec.

Drax checked his friends list and saw Kirito's name in it. He tapped on it and saw what floor he was on. He rose an eyebrow and took a short stroll down the road and grabbed 2 teleportation crystals before he left the outside of Lisbeth's shop for Kirito's location.

What he found was a weeping Black Swordsman. Drax could read a room, and this room was telling him to tread softly with his words. He also had a small guess on the general reason for Kirito's crying, considering the i signia for the Moonlit Blacm Cats was no longer next to his name. "...what happened?" He traded out his armor for normal wear, since the harness part of it was kinda rubbing him a little wrong with how long he'd been in it. He was visibly less buff without his armor on.

Kirito's voiced cracked through the tears and he managed to choke out the story through a few sobs. Kirito and the guild had gone into a dungeon a few months before. Since they knew how much higher in level he was than them, they followed his advice on literally everything. Until he was wrong about a specific area's mobs, and the entire guild besides Kirito was wiped out. Sachi, who he'd been training, had said something, yadayadayadayada (Y'all know the story from here. I just had to tweak it because of Drax's involvement in revealing Kirito's level)

Sachi's song had just finished playing before Drax had entered. Drax pursed his lips for a second before he opened his message tabs, informing Agil that he would be away for awhile, sort of a vacation type thing. He would explain surface-level details about it later, but what Kirito needed right now was a friend. Drax re-equipped his armor and sent Kirito a party request. "Let's go clear some floors, yeah? Calms the shakes real good. Then, with a level head, you can talk about how to make their deaths not be in vain."

Not very long after that, maybe a month and a half later, Drax and Kirito had taken on a client who hired them to find Titan's Hand, an orange guild. Following the lead they had, they found themselves quickly arriving to fuck up sone ogres that just killed a girl's pet dragon. She was either 17 or 7, Drax had no idea and he wasn't about to ask.

Her name was Silica, and her dragon, who she tamed, was named Pina. Drax didn't know the first thing about cheering up someone who might be a child, given that he's kinda shit with kids, so he let Kirito handle it. Naturally, Mr. Beater Boi knew what was up. Drax didn't really carry much in his inventory usually, so Kirito handled the equipment for Silica's leveling.

When Silica finally saw Drax, she appeared to partially sink into her skin momentarily. "W-w-who's he?" She shook a little in her feet before Drax unequipped his helmet.

"Heya. Name's Drax. Just so I know how I should be talking to you, how old are you?"

She stuttered for a second. "T-t-twelve." She turned to Kirito. "Don't let him hurt me." Kirito snickered at the same time that Drax belly laughed.

"I ain't gonna hurt you, kid. Now, let's go see about bringing your dragon pal back, yeah?" She calmed down a bit and eventually the three of them set off.

They got food and whatever at the nearby town, Drax having strong enough shoulders to support her weight to let her sit on said shoulders. They ran into Rosalia, and the sheer tone of the bitch's voice was enough to make Drax really wanna just become a red player. But he didn't roll that way. He was more likely to maim and or cripple rather than kill if he had a choice. "Lady, she's literally not even a teenager yet. I don't roll that way, and I genuinely pray that Kirito doesn't either."

Later that night, Drax stayed across the hall from Kirito and Silica's strategy thing. He and Kirito needed to make sure somebody in Titan's Hand was listening if they really wanted to make sure they got them. Sort of a bait & switch deal. Sure enough, Drax spotted the eavesdropper and sent Kirito a quick message via the message tabs. The eavesdropper immediately ran away. Their general plan was to get the flower for Silica and then Drax would go around, and come up behind Rosalia and her gang while Kirito humiliated her goons.

The three of them arrived via teleport on floor 47, a million different couples crowded on the edges of the path. Drax scoffed. People called this a date? He agreed that it was pretty, but he had his own ideas on what a date was.

They nabbed the flower, after an incident with a tentacle-y flower. (He'd seen enough hentai to know where that could've gone) After they got the flower, they began heading back. Drax and Kirito both passed a silent signal and then began their plan.

"Ah damn, I think I forgot something at the inn. I'm gonna have to head to the teleport gate. I'll meet you guys there." He ran off as if in a hurry only to circle back and stand, waiting for Titan's Hand to ambush, about 10 feet ahead of where Kirito and Silica were crossing.

He did a few quick sharpens of his halberd and took one or two javelins out of his inventory. Javelins are his only ranged option, but they're technically spears, so they still qualify for one or two skills that can apply to anything long range. He heard Kirito's signal, said signal being "Whoever's there, come out!" And he grinned, readying a javelin. As soon as it was spilled who Kirito was, Drax launched a javelin over the heads of the back goons and through the right kneecap of the front one, the javelin piercing through the knee and into the ground. He walked forward then, tossing and catching his axe casually. His proficiency with greataxes now allowed him to wield them one-handed if he wanted to, so that was nice. He left his shield on his back.

"Oh hey. Lookin a little pinned down there bud." He gave a pat to the front goon's back, but it waa entirely too hard, and instead tweaked the guy's leg painfully. He stood beside Kirito then, a large grin on his face.

All of the other goons went ghostly pale. The color in their faces had already drained a lot when they recognized Kirito, but they became all but monochrome when they saw Drax. "Oh my god! I-I-It's the Berzerker! He cleared an entire boss alone with just 3 moves!" Rosalia apparently didn't care, and Drax and Kirito stood there and yawned while the goons tried and failed to deal any real damage to them.

In the end, the goons and Rosalia were forced to teleport to SAO's only real prison. (I forget the name, forgive me) Drax and Kirito took Silica back to the inn and revived Pina. Shortly thereafter, Drax and Kirito both left for their next ventures.