Sword Art Online Episode 19

The Lugru Corridor (ルグルー回廊) is the nineteenth episode of the Sword Art Online anime adaptation. It aired on November 10, 2012.

Plot
Kirito and Leafa enter the caves toward Lugru. On the way they talk about each races' spells, and Leafa unexpectedly receives a somewhat cryptic message from Recon, which states "I was right. Be careful. S." They are interrupted from their speculations about the message by Yui, who informs them that twelve hostile players are approaching, prompting Leafa to hide them with concealment magic. Kirito notices a red bat and tells Leafa, who immediately recognizes it as a tracer and strikes the bat with magic, effectively destroying it. She then tells him to run because they were being followed by Salamanders.



They arrive at the lake surrounding Lugru and just before they enter the city, a large stone wall emerges before them, blocking their advance. Kirito asks if they can bypass the wall by going into the river, but Leafa tells him that there are powerful monsters in the lake and is almost impossible to kill without having an Undine. Kirito tells Leafa to stay back and support him, which she agrees to and he begins the assault, but is stopped by the Salamander shield formation. Due to the combination of healing mages, attacking mages and blocking soldiers Kirito is having a hard time breaking through the formation, so Leafa suggests surrendering and starting again from Sylvain, to which Kirito refuses saying that while he's alive he won't let any party member die.



On the last attempt to fight the charges, Kirito is stopped once again, and is forced to jump back. Yui tells Leafa what to do and she protects Kirito with a defensive spell, allowing him to use his magic. Kirito transforms into a creature resembling The Gleam Eyes. The soldiers begin to panic, although the leader tells them that it's just a scary looking monster with a long reach (and low stats, although he didn't know about Kirito's abnormal stats). Kirito kills the soldiers, and the leader tells the mages to use explosion magic, but Kirito interrupts them and kills most of them, leaving him and one mage (who is not seen yet). The leader panics and dives into the river, getting killed by one of the lake monsters as a result. As Kirito is about to kill the last mage in the party, Leafa manages to stop him in time, so that he can be interrogated.



At first the mage doesn't comply to being interrogated (as Leafa was threatening him with her katana). It was only until after Kirito manages to bribe the Salamander with the battle spoils that the Salamander reveals the leader's name by accident (G-Takusu) and that they were going to hunt two players, which he thought was unfair. Takusu told the party that they had defeated Kagemune's party earlier on. He also tells them that they were heading north, which Leafa thinks that they are going towards the World Tree, but he tells her they are not heading there, as he knew that the army would require ancient gear to do so. After telling what he knows, the mage leaves happily with the items that he was promised for being interrogated.

Leafa asks Kirito afterwards if the monster was him. Although Kirito tends to forget most of his battles when he loses control, he remembered being the monster, and that it was very fun. As Leafa tells him that he had also chomped on some players while being the monster, and wondered what it tasted like, he tells her that it was something like yakiniku before being burnt. After that, Kirito stops and tries to taste Leafa's hand, who then hits him very hard on the cheek.

They enter the city and Leafa, at Kirito's suggestion, logs out of the game to ask Recon what his message meant. Suguha calls Shinichi and demands to know what's happening, and he informs her about Sigurd's plan with the Salamanders and how he 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 can escape and was shot with a poisoned arrow. Shinichi reveals that a group of Salamanders are planning to attack the Sylph leader and the Cait Siths during the establishment of the alliance treaty between the two races.

Leafa connects once again and explains the situation to Kirito. She tells her that he should work for the Salamanders, as she expects the Salamanders to kill the leaders and take their money for their ascent on the World Tree. Kirito declines, stating that he would never use his friends for his personal benefit. Suddenly realizing that they are wasting time talking and not getting to the alliance treaty, he calls Yui to lead the way. He then grabs Leafa's arm and with his speed, get out of the caves in no time, running past the Orcs that spawn to stop them.

New Characters

 * G-Takusu
 * Sakuya (cameo)
 * Alicia Rue (cameo)
 * Eugene (cameo)

Named Monsters

 * Orcs

Location

 * The Lugru Corridor (neutral territory)

Adaption Notes

 * Adapted from Sword Art Online Light Novel Volume 03 Chapter 4


 * In the anime, it wasn't mentioned that the Illusion spell Kirito performed turned the player into a monster, the shape of which randomly depending on the player's combat skills and that, usually, the end result would be a weak monster with no change in stats.

Episodio 19