So here's Chapter 4! I'd like to thank those of you who have reviewed; feedback really motivates me to keep writing!
Additionally, I will be using original monsters in this story. This means the monsters I mention will not have appeared in the LN/Anime.
Enjoy this chapter!
"We're off to the dungeon!" Arata bellowed as the Pirates marched towards the dungeon on the fifth floor.
"We are so gonna die..." I mumbled, and thankfully, none of the members of the guild heard my snarky remark. But honestly, I thought we were going to die.
The Pirates was a guild that I founded. I needed a group of players to help me along my quest in the death game, because I knew deep down that I would die without them.
But maybe I was better off without this group.
The only members I could recruit after the months I'd been trapped in the death game were Arata, an annoying teenager who tried way too hard to be funny, Fumio, a younger kid who's extremely shy, and Kazuhiro, a teenager obsessed with saving the world. However, they are all incredibly weak.
And here the Pirates went, walking to a deadly dungeon full of traps and monsters.
We were screwed.
"So what's our plan for the boss, Haru?" Kazuhiro questioned me.
"Ehh..." I didn't know what the plan was. I hadn't even thought about it.
"Kill it!" Arata suggested.
"I-I think h-he means l-like a b-battle strategy..." Fumio gulped at the horrors of speaking to the members of the guild, even though we'd been together for months. In fact, he was the first guild member I hired.
"Fumio, shut up and don't interrupt the guild leader!" Arata commanded. Fumio looked like he was about to faint from that comment.
Silence.
"Nah, I'm kiddin', Fummy." Arata patted Fumio on the back.
"We just need to... well, kill it. It's hard to come up with a good strategy when we don't even know what the boss is yet." I settled on that as my answer.
"I was right! Booyah!" Arata jumped for joy, tripping on a rock.
The group snickered under their breaths.
"I meant to do that!" Arata started jogging.
"Here we are." Kazuhiro A.K.A Captain Obvious announced as we stepped into the dungeon.
"Are you guys ready for this?" I asked, even though I knew we weren't.
"Yeah!" Arata answered.
"You bet." Kazuhiro grinned at me.
"N-Not really." Fumio, the only honest one here, replied.
"Well, I guess the majority of us are prepared. What monsters are here?" I asked, even though I knew none of the Pirates would be able to answer my question.
"Uhh..." All three of the Pirates said, in unison.
"Guys!" Fumio called out, stepping back behind me, using the entire guild as his personal human shield.
"It's..."
"A wolf?!" The Pirates exclaimed.
"But those are low-level monsters... why are they here?" Kazuhiro drew his sword, a long, shiny bronze one.
"This isn't a normal wolf..." I gulped. This wolf looked mad. It had dark red fur, and it's eyes were glowing red as well. And this highly dangerous wolf was charging at my pathetic guild.
"YAAAA!" Kazuhiro charged right into it, slicing its leg. It barely took any damage, grinding its teeth against Kazuhiro's foot. He rolled backwards, falling on his face.
"Oh, crap." Arata muttered, taking out his crystal dagger. It was custom-made, and very powerful. If only he was strong enough to use it properly.
"Kazuhiro! Use a potion to heal yourself! The rest of the Pirates... charge him!" I ordered, pulling out my steel sword. Fumio pulled out an iron dagger with a pretty sharp looking blade. We all ran for the wolf.
It was already at 75% HP due to Kazuhiro's attack, and I was pretty sure we could take it, but the wolf proved us wrong. It jumped right over our heads and slashed its claws at Arata, but he was incredibly lucky, sidestepping the attack just in time. Then, Fumio, nervously shaking, initiated Vertical Arc, a sword skill, ripping through the wolf creating a "V" shape where he hit. I knew I had to help, and the wolf was highly damaged from Fumio's lucky hit on it. I initiated Sonic Leap, charging towards the wolf and striking it severely. It exploded into polygons.
"Woohoo!" Arata pumped his fist.
Just like Ayumi.
I tried to get Ayumi out of my head, because he hated me and I hadn't seen him ever since Kayaba Akihiko's speech on the first day of the game.
"T-That was p-pretty good." Fumio weakly smiled.
"We owe it to you, Fumio. That Vertical Arc skill was insane." I congratulated Fumio, and he didn't say anything back. We really needed to work with him about his shyness.
There was a lot of fighting, but we were, luckily, really stocked up on potions. However, it took forever to get past all the red wolves and other odd enemies. At least it seemed like it. Hours and hours passed, and the boss door wasn't in sight.
"I think we should just camp here, guys." Kazuhiro suggested as the Pirates walked on.
"Are you stupid? Pssh... we'll die." Arata argued.
"We could take turns keeping watch for enemies...?" Kazuhiro suggested again.
"We can't kill enemies alone while everyone else is sleeping..." I argued.
"Fine, fine, you guys. Let's just keep walking until our legs break." Kazuhiro grimaced.
"The boss door is nowhere! How are we ever going to get out of SAO... we can't find the fifth floor boss! It's been months!" I angrily groaned.
"I don't know, Haru, but we should keep looking. We must save everyone!" Kazuhiro heroically chanted.
"We'll never find the boss door..." I muttered, as my guild of misfits pressed on in the dungeon, hopelessly searching for something that we all thought we would never, ever find.
And then, we walked right into the boss door.