AN: Chapter three is up! This chapter is probably the most boring chapter in the world but please read it all the same… I've been having writer's block and just couldn't think of anything to write… Practically is the same to what actually happens except I changed it a little.
Chapter 3
The players looked up at the huge doors before them and gulped.
That door will lead to the boss!
It was what everyone was thinking. They couldn't help but feel both excited and frightened at the same time.
'Make sure you all do the right thing.' Sigurd yelled over the crowd.
Kirito frowned. Yelling wasn't exactly the best thing to do in a monster-infested place and somehow his words weren't very encouraging. Most of the player either nodded or put their fist in the air.
'…'
He glanced at the cloaked girl next to him. As silent as usual. There was another girl beside her who was really small. Even compared to Kirito, which was…pretty hard to achieve. Klein and his guild members were standing ahead, being in a separate group. Ah… well, it couldn't be helped that the minimum number of players in a team was three…
The day before
-The Steps, Starting City 12:50pm
Kirito arrived at The Steps ten minutes before the scheduled time. Like its name, there were large steps in a semicircle leading down to a circular court, kind of like a stadium except much more simple. There were already thirty-odd people with different pets there and he noticed that most were sitting in groups. Sighing, he walked towards the far end and sat near the back.
'Yo!'
He turned around to see Klein and his guild members grinning down at him. There were five cats following them. He noticed Klein didn't have one with him.
'Hi. And I was thinking that you weren't coming.'
Klein feigned an offended face.
'Why would I do that?' He asked incredulously.
But Kirito's gaze went past him to a cloaked figure a few metres away. It was the solo player from the ravine. He… or she… came too? It seemed that the player really did not notice me that day… even though I wasn't even hiding…
'Everyone!' He tore his gaze away when a loud voice sounded from below.
An armour-clad man with a green cape, a snake wound around his neck, stood in the centre of the stadium and smiled.
'I am Sigurd. Thank you for coming.' The man speaking had greenish hair and a handgun and sword on his side. There was also a larger rifle strapped to his back. 'As you probably already know, this is a strategic meeting to defeat the first-floor boss. The boss room was found yesterday night and, 'I'm sure we would all like to advance to the second floor as soon as possible.' He waited for the yells of consent to die down. 'The boss this time is a level 18 monster named 'Scyther: The Gatekeeper of Hell', four health bars, a mantis-like beast.' A few people in the audience whistled.
'It uses its forelegs to attack in cross-motions as well as individual slashes. It cannot, however, effectively use thrusts or stabs because of room space and its habit of standing upright. Its eyes can almost see what's happening immediately behind as well as what's in front of him at the same time but it can only attack on one side and its speed is supposed to be not so quick that… most of us can't handle it.' Kirito noticed a dark-haired girl frown.
'Ten seconds before the boss appears, there will be five smaller beasts-'Belir-the Guards'. Like the boss, they look like bugs-beetles to be exact. They crawl on all fours, using their pincers to attack. After one is killed, it will re-spawn from the back of the room six times. Once the boss' last HP bar reaches the red zone, the hairs on the forelegs will become spikes and it will attack by sweeping them and bashing them around as well as cutting. Kind of like a spiked bat and a longsword combined. Before that, the hair doesn't do any damage. Unfortunately, it can also cause pets to become paralysed for a short while.
'…Anyone who wants to leave, I won't stop you.'
No one spoke a word. Sigurd seemed to smirk, although he tried to hide it.
Resuming his friendly smile, he said, 'Thank you! Well, that's some information about the boss. You will all receive a guidebook after this meeting with further details. Can everyone please form groups? The minimum is three to be safe.'
Klein looked at Kirito.
'You're with us right? So then it'll be a group of seven!'
Kirito smiled. 'Yeah, I guess…' He noticed that the cloaked figure had grouped with the young girl who had frowned before. That made two. He couldn't see their pets either.
It seemed Sigurd had noticed as well since he walked over.
'Do you have another member?' Kirito heard him ask,
'No.' A feminine voice came from the hood. So she's a girl…
'Well, that's a problem… I can't let a group of two go to the boss room...esp-' He caught himself. Kirito knew what he was going to say: especially if you're girls. 'Especially if you don't have pets to help you.' The shorter girl huffed, 'But I do!' As she said this, a small, grey head poked out of her pocket. 'We'll handle ourselves just fine!'
Kirito saw that she, like him, carried only a sword.
Heh…
Sigurd looked somewhat irritated. 'It's not safe…'
The dark-haired girl sighed, annoyed.
'Er… um… I can…' Kirito said in a soft voice as he approached them.
They looked up at him in surprise, though he couldn't actually tell if the hooded girl was surprised or not due to her cloak.
'I can join your group.' He looked at Klein apologetically but was given a thumbs up.
Sigurd looked him up and down doubtfully but managed to squeeze out a small smile. The short girl clapped her hands.
'Alright then, that settles it! Now I can finally fight against the boss!' She smiled brightly and shook Kirito's hand. 'Ok, let's form a temporary group.' She sent group requests to Kirito and the cloaked girl. He saw that her name was Asuna from the window floating beside her. The other girl was called Yuuki.
'Well then, done!' Yuuki said. The other players seemed to be already in groups. There were a total of seven, with Sigurd leading the first one-the largest. Although he didn't say it, the groups were probably numbered in terms of ability. Kirito's group was the smallest group and looked weak so they were group number seven. Klein's was the fifth group, with six members.
Yuuki seemed happy enough with the arrangement and Asuna… he couldn't tell what she was thinking. After that, the strategies were explained in detail and Klein… er…'congratulated' him for grouping with girls… Ahem. Well, then there was a party to celebrate finding the boss room, which he mostly sat out of. Klein said he had something to do so left early and he was sitting with his new-group members in awkward silence.
Then everyone got up early in the morning to meet at the teleporting gates above Haze and they headed toward the boss room. Kirito's group was at the back so all the monsters were taken out by the other groups-mostly Sigurd's. Their destination was located in a stone, tower-like structure on the eastern part of the floor, on the top-most level. They…or rather the first few groups had to fight through the other eleven floors before they reached the top, with pets healing them constantly. Kirito only drew his sword once-when a few monsters had snuck up on the back. It was then that he saw the cloaked girl used a rapier.
It took four hours to reach the boss room. Sigurd was... smiling? He didn't know what he was doing and he quickly directed his gaze back to the entrance. Everyone was silent as Sigurd slowly pushed open the doors and everyone immediately ran in. The pet healers and helpers stayed at the entrance for backup. They waited. The torches on the walls were lighted up one after another and the room brightened. After the last torch was lit, five Belir emerged from the walls on the far side and crawled toward them at a surprisingly fast pace. Letting go of his other worries, Kirito focussed on his sword. From his peripheral vision, he saw Yuuki and Asuna just behind. A few guns were fired but they missed. Blades did more damage anyway, if used correctly. Before anyone had realised what was happening, all five monsters had shattered. There were murmurs of amazement from the other players. Kirito smiled at his group but immediately dashed forward as the beetles re-spawned and came scuttling back. They would have been taken out just as quickly if not for the boss suddenly materialising before them. A window appeared, showing that the information from the guidebook was, in fact, correct. As the beast appeared, Kirito saw that it huge, at least four storeys tall, dark purple with silver eyes positioned wide apart. The blades on his forelegs looked like they were made of metal. Its body was long, but more bulky than what you'd expect of a mantis. But that was not the problem at the moment.
The problem was that the smaller beasts were behind it, blocked by its tail.
Tail?
The AI controlling them didn't seem to be intelligent enough to crawl around it. Kirito's group couldn't really get close in case of being crushed by the boss so had to resort to shooting. The bullets would've hit but Scyther moved its leg in the way while it was launching an attack at the other groups. It turned around, its eyes becoming a reddish colour. Angrily, it swung its damaged leg at them. Luckily, it was feeling the bullets and the three jumped out of the way. While it was focussed on them, Sigurd took the opportunity and told his, the second and the third group to attack while the other two groups moved toward the back of the room. The beast noticed the action but had to twist its body around to be able to attack. The Belir were quickly pelted with bullets and re-spawned again. About seven players were near the entrance, using their assault rifles to land powerful attacks. The reloading was slow so about ten players from the main groups took turns in protecting them. Meanwhile, the first five groups seemed to have been successful in taking advantage of the boss' awful manoeuvring skills and were already starting to force its second HP bar to the yellow zone. The sixth group was in its blind spot. The mere four players seemed to think of this as an opportunity and charged. Kirito didn't notice until the boss cross-slashed, injuring many, and turned around toward the foolish players that attacked it. The main groups were temporarily winded and the assault group's bullets left little damage.
It was important to have a lot of back-up when attacking a powerful beast, but the only other group they had with them was Kirito's. He saw the boss' attack motion start. Gritting his teeth, he leaped in front of the cowering player and blocked the attack. The force made his knees buckle and he felt himself being driven to the ground. His HP had nearly reached the yellow zone from the shockwave created but he had to hold on for the other player to escape.
Fortunately, the player behind him had scurried away as soon as he realised Kirito probably wasn't going to hold. Smiling grimly, he tilted his blade and quickly jumped out of the way as the redirected leg crashed down where he was a moment ago. The 'beetles' were crawling toward him but luckily his other group members cut them down before he was in their range. He had no time for those. The boss was ignoring the attacks from behind. Kirito realised that its HP was only decreasing slightly.
'YUUKI! ASUNA! Be prepared to switch!' He said as he leapt forward. He had noticed before that there was one relatively large soft place on his body that were reachable by a sword. It was below the abdomen, where two hard pieces of shell met. For long-range weapons like guns, there was also one on its neck. Both were vulnerable from the front, which was where Kirito was. If he had been on the back, then he wouldn't be able to cut the stomach because it was covered by shell.
'SIGURD! Attack the neck!' He yelled while thrusting into the beast's stomach. It screeched and but couldn't do much as Kirito was too near its body. He used a variety of sword skills at the same spot until the boss stumbled a bit from an attack on its neck.
Good. They listened.
'Switch!' He cried as he retreated. With attacks from the front and back, the monster was on its last HP bar, but the sixth group was still struggling with the bugs. Two of the players had managed to get injured, one seriously. With guns in the game, not many players seemed to be good at close-range battles. They weren't faring well even with their pets healing them. He quickly looked over the situation. The boss' HP was decreasing rapidly. Other players were making its way toward them. He glanced at his own group members, hoping they will be alright for the moment. One of the group six players was lying on the ground and for a frightening moment, Kirito thought he was dead, but the player's HP increased into the yellow zone and he sighed in relief. He quickly slashed at two of the monsters as the other three killed two more. The last wave of beetles had already re-spawned and was heading toward them. Bullets hit two of them and they went down. Three left. He was confident that he could finish them in one go. The boss' last HP bar had reached the yellow zone and was steadily decreasing. The reinforcements should have almost arrived. Distantly, as he readied his weapon, the boss' HP bar turned red and Sigurd yelled orders at the top of his voice.
But no spikes appeared.
Instead, Scyther moved its tail.
It lengthened and swept toward Yuuki and Asuna.
AN: Well, that's Chapter 3! It was kinda obvious the 'cloaked figure' was Asuna, right? Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter! I tried to get it done ASAP coz the previous one really short. The most annoying thing is that the internet on my computer stopped working for the sixth time yesterday so I didn't bother trying to upload anything… hehe…
Anyway, Asuna is still winning in the poll… Sachi is a second but has way less votes… I personally don't really mind who Kirito goes with but… Come on people, vote!
Please R&R
