Authors Notes: Hey all, I'd like to point out before you start reading that this is my first fanfic. I'm not entirely sure if this writing style is a good one or not and I'm not too confident when it comes to first person narrative but I'd like to hear what you all think and hopefully I can improve in later chapters. My knowledge of Sword Art Online only comes from the anime and wiki page so I think I'm bound to make mistakes, if I make some please point them out.
The dungeon seemed to go on forever, the endless stone cold walls twisting at every turn convinced me that there was no way out of this labyrinth. I eyed the lit torches on the walls, they were the only source of light inside this maze. I continued walking even further into the dungeon alone, I had recently disbanded my party with a friend who complained that she was tired. I didn't want to stop her from leaving but I wanted to continue until I had fully mapped out the area, although it was far more dangerous to be in a dungeon alone.
A bright ray of blue light appeared suddenly in front of me, this could only mean one thing a monster was about to spawn. I took a step backwards and raised my hand to grasp the hilt of my sword in the sheath on my back, I bit my lip as the light faded away and a suit of black armour wielding a grey sword stood in front of me. The armour didn't seem to have anyone inside, it was just floating by itself. It raised the sword above its helmet as I drew my sword in response, a cold sweat raced down my brow as the armour raced towards me with its sword raised.
"Haaa!"
I clenched my sword tightly with both hands raising the crimson blade above my head to block the oncoming strike, a suit of armour swung it's sword down towards me and clashed swords with mine. The force of the blow was stronger than I had anticipated which caused my sword to give way, my arms gave up from the pressure and dropped down to my waist while I stared at the sword coming towards me, it pierced in between my neck and shoulder.
The enemy I was fighting against was definitely strong, much stronger than other enemies on this floor. It was called DemonicArmour, a ghost like entity that possessed a suit of armour so it could fight against players. It was one of the many spirit monsters within this haunted castle themed dungeon. This particular monster was three levels above normal, usually they're level 74 and don't pose much of a threat in a group or solo if you're the right level.
"Gah"
I scrunched up my face as I saw my hit points in the left corner of my eye, my health had started to drop. I had only lost 5 percent of health at most from that strike but it was enough to make me panic, if I continued to underestimate this enemy it would get the drop on me and I'd surely die, not to mention I was still losing health because its blade was inside my body. I had become too confident in my abilities and this was the obvious punishment one would get when underestimating this death game.
The ghost in armour growled in my face, I hadn't noticed before but monsters smell, the slight breeze behind me kept the monsters stench in my face was making me nauseous. My eyes started to water as I regained my grip on my weapon and swung my sword back up at the blade that was cutting me, the two swords clashed again causing tiny sparks to flicker. My blade force and expelled its sword from my body, I stopped losing health as soon as it came out, I was actually more relieved that I didn't have to smell its breath anymore. A bright red pixel like scar was left from where I had been struck, I glared as the Demonic Armour as it began to charge at me again, I stood ready for the next attack.
"Switch!"
A familiar voice sounded behind me. Switch? The player in the forward position was the one who usually gave the orders to change position but this order was from the other member in my party who had left recently, she came back? I eyed my hit points and noticed thanks to the damage I received I had only 40 percent of my health left. No, only 40 percent of my life was left. The Demonic Armour's sword came swinging towards me as I swiftly stepped back avoiding the attack, it lost its balance after lunging towards me hopping ever so closer.
My two handed long sword started to glow bright blue as I crouched down towards the ground for a split second, the games system recognised the Pre-Motion and began to active the Sword Skill. The suit of armour tried to regain its balance as I kicked my feet off the stone floor and ran towards the enemy who was unable to defend itself, I held my sword towards my left side of my body as it continued to glow. The games system enables that an attack from a Sword Skill will hit the target, in return the game takes control of the player until the Sword Skill finishes. The blade cut through the chest plate of the armour slicing the spirit inside and dealing a large amount of damage, it screamed out in pain as it tried to turn around and strike back. It was no use, I had already run past it and out of its striking range.
The Sword Skill ' Arc Buckler' is a powerful 2 strike attack that rushes the player past their target striking them once and then a second time once they're behind the target. It's commonly used to defeat enemies with shields or tough armour.
I stopped running and jumped backwards into the air, the system was still controlling me since my 2 hit combo hadn't finished yet. I turned around in mid air as a girl with short brown hair wearing a blue sleeveless combat dress and wielding a sword and shield charged towards the back of the unsuspecting ghost in armour. This was a move that we had practiced many times before, we had timed attacks in between combos that took time to prepare so we could make sure the enemy can't dodge at the last second leaving us vulnerable after our attack.
She dug her sword into the DemonicArmour's back, it let out a deafening shriek while turning around forcing her sword out of its back, it begun to attack her with its sword. She held up her shield just before getting struck, the sword bounced off her shield knocking the ghost in armour back a step or two. The girl raised her sword as the ghost in armour wobbled backwards, once it found its feet it started to shriek again but it sounded differently this time, it was one of its special skills it could use when its hit points were low. 'Hunted Shriek', the ability to call another DemonicArmour and have it enter the fight. This was the last thing we needed, especially with both our hit points under 50 percent. If we had to fight another one of these things at this level we'd have no choice but to retreat. The girl instantly covered her ears with her hands to block out the noise, she had been stunned from the skill.
I was now directly above the Demonic Armour as it used 'Haunted Shriek', my sword was raised above my head and I started to swing it in a downwards motion as I landed directly behind the giant suit of armour.
"Hyaaa!"
In one swift motion my sword cut straight through the middle of its armour from head to toe digging into it as I landed crouching on the ground behind it, the call for reinforcements stopped instantly after it was struck, luckily I had struck it just before it could finish it's skill. It twitched a little as it began to glow blight blue and exploded in a ray of pixels followed by the sound of breaking glass, the monster had been destroyed.
My sword clashed with the cold stone floor as I fell down to my hands and knees exhausted, experience and item drops displayed on a screen in front of my eyes as a reward for defeating the monster. Out of breath I wiped my forehead with my sleeve as I hung my head back and closed my eyes. I was breathing in and out heavily as I heard footsteps coming towards me, I opened my eyes and lowered my head a little.
"Wow that was a hard one wasn't it?" I said as I turned my head to face her.
The girl was standing beside me with a massive grin on her face, I smiled back at her and extended my hand to her, she took it and pulled me back up to my feet. I reached down and picked up my two handed long sword from the ground and returned it to the sheath on my back, it was crimson red the same colour as my sword.
I looked at the girl as she placed her sword and shield on her back as well, she sighed slightly while placing her hands on her hips and started pouting at me. I just knew I was in for a mouthful.
"It wouldn't have been so hard if you had taken the initiative to switch with me rather than taking it on by yourself." She said in a bossy tone.
I know she doesn't like it when I don't include her in fights but sometimes I feel like I'm a solo player again and forget to rely on her, it's a habit that has had its hold on me for awhile now since the start of this game. Seeing that this isn't ordinary massively multiplayer online game (MMO), I should probably get out of that habit if I didn't want to die anytime soon.
"I was worried that something had happened since you never returned, but you were just too busy caught up with fighting your way around this stupid dungeon. You should have left with me an hour ago."
She sounded angry and annoyed, she had the right to be.
I scratched the back of my head with my hand, my long dark brown hair stayed still as I scratched it. I wouldn't be able to mess my hair up even if I tried since in the game your hair would never grow or change, and I wasn't too crazy about the length either. It wasn't what most would consider long but it was long for a boy.
"You're right Epona, I should have stopped and left when you did." I agreed with her.
Epona had always been with me ever since we found ourselves trapped here. No that's not right, maybe it was just a little while after we found out, It was definitely before we joined the same guild. She seemed to think of me as an annoying big brother who she always had to correct, most of time it was helpless fun but when I ignore her she would instantly turn on me and make me feel guilty. I was starting to think right now might be one of those times, but I know deep down she's just terrified knowing any second could be our last, this was just her way of dealing with it.
Epona lowered her hands from her hips and walked up to me, she started to poke my chest repeatedly with her left index finger. She scrunched up her nose and lowered her brow as she started to stare me down, I stepped back as she poked me. I was a bit worried, she looked furious at me.
"I know I'm right, I don't need you to tell me that." She said angrily.
She stopped poking me as she tugged on my white and grey coat and pushed me away from her, I stepped back a little shocked as I noticed her eyes start to water. Before she shed any tears she spun around turning away from me, her pale blue dress blew upwards in the breeze revealing her short leggings that were usually hidden from the back, she started to walk away with her fists clenched, she was angry. I sighed as I lowered my head towards the floor and looked at my black and green pants and pure black boots. I shouldn't have made her worry, I raised my head again and watched her walk away from me.
"Don't you want to take a break now?"I asked still out of breath.
She continued walking down the haunted looking stone corridor completely ignoring me, to be honest I didn't blame her. It was not until she took a few more steps that she started talking again.
"We're not taking a break yet. The last monster was strong so we must be near the boss room." She shouted back at me continuing to look forward.
I was amazed that she still wanted to continue, she had complained that we should go back am hour ago because it was late, it must have been because she didn't like the idea of me going solo or she just wanted to kill something to let off some steam. I diverted my attention to the clock at the bottom right hand side of my eyes, it was almost 7PM. It was very late...for us, we still needed to find an inn to stay tonight which was no easy task at this time. I sighed and started running after Epona, she seemed to walk a little faster once she heard me coming.
"Once we get to the boss room we're heading out for the night." She said as I caught up to her.
She looked at me and smiled, I smiled back, she seemed to have calmed down a bit despite being angry at me just before. It wasn't that I didn't want her to fight alongside me, it was if we were both in a fight and I wasn't able to protect her...the thought of that was enough to make me uneasy.
"What you're too scared to face the boss right away?" I said back still smiling.
I was only joking with her to get that thought off my mind but I could tell by the look in her eyes she thought I was serious. Of course I wouldn't risk our lives to fight the boss right there and then, it would be suicide, there was no point to do anything so unnecessary. Mapping out the location to the boss room was our only goal tonight and it will help the other players at the front line when it was time to clear this floor, if we were able to get the whole dungeon floor mapped out now that would save time lots of lives later on when other players hunt this area.
This was the 65th floor, it had almost been 2 years since the game had started. The date was July 1st 2024, this game started November 6th 2022. A date that no one in this world or the real world would forget easily, it's the day of the incident that changed the lives of the ten thousand players who logged into Sword Art Online (SAO). We were all trapped within the game with no way of getting out other than clearing all 100 floors thus completing the game, a suicide mission if you ask me.
There were two things we could do in this game, wait for someone else to clear all 100 floors and complete the game or clear it ourselves, we picked the latter option. More than three thousand players had already died, and when you died in the game you died in real life. That being said there was no way to revive or respawn players in the game, we only had one life which was incredibly unfair to everyone playing since it's impossible not to die in an MMO which meant sooner or later even the best players will die.
I walked next to Epona as I raised my hand to place it on her shoulder, I pulled her closer to me and we walked down the stone corridor side by side.
"I won't let anything happen to you, you know that right." I said trying to calm her but I was actually trying to calm myself.
She rested her head on my shoulder while we walked, I felt a little at ease knowing that she was by my side even though she only relied on me to survive. That's what she said at least, I still think that she felt safe with me. I suddenly stopped walking as I noticed a giant door up ahead at the end of the stone corridor, it had to be about five times my size, maybe even more, it was rectangular and had circular markings from top to bottom. Epona stopped as l did but only to look back at me confused.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
I swallowed nervously as we stopped walking, I pointed straight ahead and stared at the door from a distance. Epona spun around noticing the it as well, she stood deadly still as I continued to hold onto her shoulder. This was it, the boss room. It took a second to sink in as we continued to walk until we were right up to the door, both of us were hesitant about opening it and seeing what was inside although it was incredibly tempting to just swing that door open and get the first glance at the boss.
Somehow Epona knew that I was tempted to open the door because she held my sleeve tightly tugging it as she leant in even closer to me, her body pressed against mine.
"Hey let's head back Alm. We don't need to go further than this."
I nodded in response as I took out a teleportation crystal from my inventory, Epona did the same. We raised the crystals above our heads and disappeared from the dungeon in a ray of bright blue light teleporting ourselves back to the main town on the 65th floor, Dihala.
We had both worked too hard today, it was time for a break. We had seen firsthand players dying because they think they can do more than what they're really capable of, from this we've learnt that when your performance begins to drop it's best to call it quits until you're rested and ready to go again. That last battle was definitely proof that I wasn't up for anymore today.
That's right, there had been far too many pointless deaths up until now. Not a day went by when I didn't think if I had done things differently could they all still be alive, it didn't matter though. I wasn't about to make the same mistakes again and leave Epona alone in this god awful place. Not again, I won't leave her again.
Authors Notes: Well this chapter is more of a prologue than an actual chapter. So this story will be OC based with the main character from Sword Art Online making appearances from time to time, everyone's bound to run into each other once or twice since it's an MMO. Just one thing I'm wondering does everyone prefer longer or shorter chapters? Because this was around 3000 words so it's kind of on the short side. Another thing I'd like to ask is for any OC's you might want to include in the story, if you'd like to add one please put the info in the comments/review section or PM them to me.
Finally all I can ask is that if you liked this please follow, favourite and review or one/two of the three, it's your choice but I think I could use the feedback. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I'll post more chapters soon.