(A/N: Sorry, this one's a little short... ^^;)
/"Well, well... Looks like I'm gonna have fun today!"/
Everyone inside the large Boss room were unnerved, to say the least.
Even though all of the Players -and AI- acknowledged the Boss' "artificial intelligence" and ability to speak, it was still a bit frightening to all who heard those words that were soaked in an almost palpable mixture of insanity and innocent curiosity.
Nothing moved in their eyes; the room was cloaked in darkness now that the steel doors shut and extinguished their easy escape. A few of the Players that hesitantly wandered in last squeaked in shock as the slamming of the doors rang in everyone's ears; as impossible as it would seem, the room implied it was larger than they expected, judging from how long and loudly the echo from the doors emanated.
Afterwords, however, no one spoke a word.
All was quiet except for a trio of Players that decided to whisper amongst themselves.
Kirito decided to act boldy and experimented on how an attitude like that would affect his chances of victory. 'Like that would be possible,' he mused silently, not voicing his thoughts. Unfortunately, the stutter in his carefully chosen words proved how he actually felt: fear.
"W-who said that?! Show yourself!"
'Damn! Why did I stutter?! There isn't anything to be afraid of yet! ...Yet...'
/"Why should I when I am already here? Silly Player..."/
Everyone looked about, all demanding to find the source of the endearing yet terrifying tone of voice that seemed to be coming from... Everywhere...
"This cave echoes, so it's hard to find the source of the voice," Asuna whispered to Yui so as not to cause a whisper herself and throw off everyone else's concentration. Of course, it didn't go past the ears of the Event Boss, who looked from the shadows in an amused way -which wasn't seen by her slayers, as the cave was a dark as the midnight sky-.
/"Smart girl you are! This cave won't get much lighter, so try and find me if you can~!"/
What would have been a smooth, lovely chuckle from a female pierced the Players' ears like a cackling witch, the echoing amplifying the audible torture they had to go through; all the while, the Parties that entered split up into groups, apologizing to anyone they blindly bumped into.
Kirito, Asuna and Yui managed to find a wall while wandering as far left as possible and stopped there to gather their bearings and attempt to navigate or pinpoint the general location of the Boss, who is most likely hiding far into the shadows and eyeing their every move with ease...
"Asuna, is it possible to locate the source of a noise with an echo?"
"...Yes, I think so. I have an idea- of course, it involves us wandering around until we can't hear any more echoing..."
Meanwhile, Yui was listening intently to the Boss as it continued talking about how by speaking she was actually helping them out, pointing out that everyone had to hold a quote-on-quote "burden" everyone with her voice,
/"...Which is bull, after all! Why bite the hand that fed ya? ...Oh, right! Damn, I forgot how you are going to be able to get out of this dark hell! Whoops!"/
A few slaps were heard as hands quickly reached for their face as a reaction to the voice's supposed intelligence.
'...At least it lightened the mood a bit...' Kirito considered.
Somehow, the room stopped echoing, and now everyone is able to hear the directions for clearing the Boss Event. The voice that was previously speaking with bright and taunting enthusiasm gave out a bored sigh as her lazy words practically slithered from her throat:
/"Anyway, so here's how it's gonna work: there are pieces of paper in little hiding places, yeah? Those things're puzzle pieces your supposed to fit together. Once you do that, there'll be just light enough so you'll be able to see. That's when I'll bother to fight with ya.
/"In the meantime, I'm just gonna watch as you little things stumble around like blind lab mice in a maze. Have fun~!"/
After that, no more words were heard except the ones that originated from the Players themselves.
"That metaphor sure seems accurate right about now..." Asuna sighed in annoyance. "Really? A puzzle? ...I don't know whether it's good or bad that there are lots of people in here..."
"What can you do? ...Let's just try and find the pieces for now," Kirito said with equal irritation as he grazed his hand over the cold stone walls in an attempt to search for the papers.
"I kind of want to get this over with now..."
Jewel looked on at the wandering Players down below where she perched in her seat, eyes glowing a dull, blood red. As she yawned it was clear she was quickly growing tired of this stupid little game Admin Rose added last-minute.
'She's the techie, and I'm not. I have to just go with it, I guess...
'Still, I don't get why I can't just swoop in and get rid of everyone I don't want to fight! She must've known by now! ...I just don't get her.'
Jewel stifled a large yawn when she heard the happy shouts of a Player finding one of the pieces of paper, looking down at the general location of the source.
'Good! This hell is slowly ending! Maybe I can get some well-deserved sleep.' She transformed into the form more comfortable to her: a two-headed dragon, with one head sleeping and the other on guard, having the heads switch roles every once in a while.
It took a good two, three hours to find all of the pieces -a loud, obnoxious buzzer sounded when the last puzzle piece was discovered, thoroughly waking up Jewel into a startled, angered mess-, and another five minutes to solve the puzzle.
When the last piece was in place, the chandelier made of gold that was hanging dangerously above the Players flicked on and off a bit; after a few seconds, it finally found enough strength to turn itself on.
The Players looked about after having their eyes adjust to this newfound light, anxious for the inevitable battle: they passed the test, and now-
/"Hey... You actually managed to solve that! Good job, kiddies! Now y'all get to see the awesome and badass me! It's a shame only a handful of you will actually FIGHT me..."/
Murmurs and hissing whispers arose from the crowd: "What's THAT supposed to mean?" "Only some of us will fight it?" "I hope I get a chance..."
"Daddy, do you think we'll fight the Boss?" Yui looked up at her adoptive father with a questioning stare, with curiosity and anxiety the only emotions found on her features. Kirito found himself looking at two glittering orbs of ashen gray; feeling a bit submissive at her gaze, he had to say SOMETHING...
"We will, Yui. I'm sure of it."
(A/N: So... No fight scene yet! Haha... I'm just postponing it as much as possible at this point... I want the feels to be with the feels and the adrenaline with the adrenaline, so I made the fight scene start in the next chapter. «- My excuse/reason.
But you gotta wait for that since I haven't started it yet... ^_^; Anyways, drop me a review if you want and have a nice day!)
