The Knights of the Blood Oath, along with Dark and his party, continue their journey
Chapter 9 Online
"Sir are attacks aren't having any effect!"
"Aim for it's weak point!"
"It's defending it too well, we can't hit it!"
We were in the 17th floor boss room and the boss, a treant, Woodmane, Lord Of The Trees, was defending it's weak point, a crack in it's back, too well for us to hit it, we got it down to half before it started defending itself really well. I had proven myself and though I hadn't joined the guild yet I had got put in charge of a group of 5 men, not including myself, Lea or Sienna.
"Sir! What should we do?" One of my group asked.
"We need to allow an opening, our swords can't reach the point. We need to distract it so it won't turn and stop the attacks going at it's weak spot."
"Sir, that's a dangerous move."
"I know it is, it put us in danger, but soon everyone is going to exhausted and then that tactic won't work."
"That is right. So we shall distract it then."
"Good. Lea, you're the only archer in our group, so position yourself behind the boss as we distract it and aim for the crack, everyone else, let's go!"
My group ran towards Woodmane, and attacked quickly and moved back, it was a slow monster, but had devastating power, I was hoping the other guild members would see what we were doing and aim for it's weak point. I focused my cutting edge but Woodmane shot a tangle of vines at me so I had to move before I finished my attack and ruined my focus as well. I noticed the other members were distracting it pretty well, but it must have known I was setting up a skill. Lea was in position and ready to attack, Rocky was by her side. I readied a quicker skill, my sword went on fire "Flame Whip!" I swung my sword in front of sending the fire on the boss. It hit and the boss turned to me.
"Lea Now!" she nodded and shot an arrow bomb, which she had learned recently, at the crack on Woodmane's back and hit it directly! Woodmane let out a very strange sound, that I can't even begin to describe, and then it turned to Lea. I smile and focused again "Cutting Edge!" I sent the wave at him and he was too focused on Lea, that he didn't turn in time and his weak spot was hit directly again! He made that sound again and turned around too quickly for some members to move, and he hit the ground with his hand of sharp wood. He hit a few people back, but they seemed fine, except for one that stood at it's feet, a hole directly through him! I was about to try and move him, but Sienna did before me, and grabbed him and bought him over to where I was. I knew he had no chance.
"I-I failed..." He said weakly
"No...my plan failed, no one was supposed to die...I'm sorry."
He shook his head sightly as his hp hit 0 and he burst. I looked at Sienna and she looked blankly back at me, how does she keep a straight when people die, even though she said before she didn't like seeing, or hurting anyone? I got up and saw there were more archers near Lea now, waiting for a chance to hit the weak point. I walked a few steps forward and focused my energy again, and this time it finished instantly and it was different too "Cutting Barrage!" I sent a flurry of energy waves at Woodmane and when they hit he turned at me and walked towards me.
"Archers, Fire Now!" I shouted to them. The arrows flew and they all hit it's back, but I don't know how many hit close enough to damage it. I heard something explode then Woodmane's hp bar fell to 0 and it burst. Lea had used her arrow bomb to earn the final hit, and received her bonus. The groups merged into one.
"So, we have defeated a boss, and with a causality this time..." Takumi said "Who's group was he in?"
I stepped forward "He was in mine."
"Dark. Can you explained what happened?"
"I gave orders to distract the boss, giving others the chance to attack the weak point, when I hit the point with my skill it turned around and hit the ground, wounding a few others and stabbing right through him with it's sharp fingers."
Takumi watched me for a moment "So you gave your group these orders, hoping it would allow others to defeat the boss?"
"Yes sir, I believed if my whole group attacked it we would have a chance to allow others to damage it. It was my mistake, and I will accept any punishment you give me for giving orders without informing you first."
"No. You did what you thought was right, you gave orders to try and help us win, you were thinking of the good of the guild. We can't to anything about the causality now...we can only continue on. Let's go." He walked towards the door leading to the next floor. We all followed him. He pushed it open and unlike the other doors leading between floors, it lead like to the next floor.
I looked around and saw we were high in the clouds and I noticed the piece of land we were on was floating. The nearest town was on a nearby piece of land, and a bridge was leading from ours to it.
"This is different." I heard a female member say
"Yeah, we in the sky this time."
"It's really pretty!" Lea said
I smile "It is. In the sky...I have a feeling the boss could be a flying enemy."
"All right everyone, we head to the inn now, scouting parties will be sent out tomorrow searching for the boss room tomorrow." We headed towards the town.
We got two rooms at the inn, I offered to get Lea her own too, but she seemed to like sharing one with me so I accepted it, and we headed to our rooms. Sienna sent me a message another 3 minutes later telling me she wasn't feeling well and she was going to stay in her room for a while, I sent her a message back, telling her it's all right.
"So, has that ring helped you much Lea?" I asked
"No, it has such a small chance of lighting the arrow, there's almost no purpose to it."
"It still helps, you never know when it could light one and really help." I look out the window and it was getting late "For now let's rest."
I awoke maybe an hour after I fell asleep, I got up and decided to walk around a little then I can try get to sleep again. As I walked past Sienna's room I heard a sound, it sounded a little sad. I tapped the door lightly with my knuckles.
"Who's there?" I heard Sienna ask.
"It's me. Can I come in for a minute?"
"Yeah, come in."
I turned the door knob and saw she was looking out the window, her back turned to me "What do you need Dark?" Her voice sounded sightly strained.
"Well, first I'm here to check if you are feeling better. Plus I thought I heard a noise coming from in here. I think I was wrong though."
"I'm fine, thanks for worrying and I didn't hear any noise."
"Oh...guess I'm just hearing thing then." I noticed she was still looking out the window "What are you looking at Sienna?"
She seemed to hesitate a little "Nothing, why?"
"Well when you talk to someone you usually look at them, plus you seem a little out of it right now."
"I guess I am a little...Dark...can I trust you?"
I was confused "Yeah, of course you can, we're friends aren't we?"
"Yeah...but if I tell you something, can you keep it between the two of us?" Her voice was strained more now.
"Sienna...you can trust me, is something wrong?"
She turned to me and I saw her eyes were wet and red, I realized she had been crying recently. "Sienna...what's got you so upset?" I asked clearly surprised that she, of all people, had been crying.
She went over to her bed and sat down, then made a motion for me to sit too, I sat beside her and waited until she was ready to start. After a moment she started to talk
"I'm upset over what happened today...in the boss room."
I knew what she meant, the death "You seemed fine while we were there."
"I know...I hide how I really feel. I never act scared when something scares me, and I don't complain about being in this world, because it would make it worse for others, the same for when someone dies, I don't allow myself to be sad in front of other people, but when I'm alone...I can't help it..."
"You keep a blank face and don't say anything about this world so you don't make it harder on others..."
She nodded "Also another reason I'm upset is because of something I can't ever forget..." Her eyes were getting wet again.
"It must be pretty bad if it effects you like this."
"Yeah...it is...is it okay if I tell you?"
"Are you okay with it? I mean, you say it is bad."
"I am...I can trust you, and it might help if I can talk about it to someone."
"Then go ahead, I'll listen."
"Okay." She took a deep breath "When I first came into SAO I was going to meet my friend. We had met at the beginner town inn, and we started training against the weak monsters until we got teleported into the main plaza where we were told we were stuck in here until the 100 floors are completed. She told me if we wanted to have a better chance we had to fight more powerful monsters and gain more experience and equipment." She stopped for a moment, I could guess where this story was leading "We had managed to beat some stronger monsters and we had made it to the second floor where she got an extremely rare drop from a monster, and we continue on to the third and then the forth floor." She paused again, I was guessing this is where something happened, I met her alone on the fifth floor "We went into the cave known as the Behemoth's lair a strong level area. We started fighting and we were doing good, until the behemoth itself appeared...we tried to run, but it had cause rocks to fall near where we came in, so we had to fight it. I used my speed to attack it from the sides as she attacks it's front, it quickly caught on and swung and hit me and her away from it. It was coming over to me and about to deal a finishing blow..." She took a deep breath again, tears now going down her face "I closed my eyes...and when I opened them I saw the behemoth's claws...through her...she took the hit...she protected me and died!" She started crying a lot, I put my arm around her hoping to help her a little.
She leaned closer and buried her face against my chest, I sat there with my arm around her, slowly rubbing her back trying to calm her down a bit. After a few minutes she was starting to stop, and after about another minute she had stopped completely. I looked down at her and noticed she had cried herself to sleep. I moved her so she was lying on her bed and I placed her head on the pillow. I left the room and stood there for a moment, my body shaking with rage, Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of this game, when I get out of this game, he better watch himself, I'll be aiming for my revenge, I don't care what I have to do for it, but he deserves whatever he gets, he's holding people in this world against their will, he's ruining families, he's killing friends, but worse of all is he killing innocent people by trapping them in this forsaken world, where crimes can be committed easier then in the real world, I swear one day I will gain my revenge on him. I walked back to my room thinking of other things, about Sienna, she has been keeping all of that bottled up, inside her and not allowing anyone to know how she feels, she lost a friend and yet she continues like it never happened even though they both knew each other in the real world too, and now when she returns...I don't even want to think about that...she has put up with all the pain of what happened because she doesn't want to make it harder for anyone else, but she lightened the burden now by telling me too. I was still surprised that she acted like that, she seemed tough but in truth she's like the rest of us, scared and confused, being held here against her will. I have to stop thinking about this for now.
I walked into our room and I saw Rocky sitting right in front of the door, almost like he was waiting for me.
"Why are you up?" I asked him. He looked at me and tilted his head questioningly
"I woke up and decided to walk around, then I checked up on Sienna." I said answering his unspoken question. He walked up to me and let out a small whine.
"I don't know how I understand you, but yes something is bugging me, and it's nothing you can help with." He barked at me.
"I'm telling the truth. You should go back to bed." He stared at me and didn't move.
"Fine, it's your choice. I won't be getting any sleep either..." I opened my menu trying to find something to entertain myself, when I remembered something, I opened my inventory and went to the bottom, sitting there was the dagger named Expired Light, the symbol of Demise. Why hadn't I gotten rid of it? I took it out of the inventory and held it in my hand, Rocky came over curious.
"You know Demise the guild that almost killed me and Lea, this is there symbol." He growled at it.
"I almost joined that guild...to enter I was supposed to kill Lea." He kept growling and bared his teeth now.
"You're very protective of her aren't you? That's good, it means you will do anything to help her." He continue growling and baring his teeth.
"Fine, I'll put it away." I put the dark dagger back into my inventory "Better?" He just looked at me and sat down now. I opened my skill menu, I had four skills at the moment, Cutting Edge, Dragon's Flame, Flame Whip, Cutting Barrage.
"I should try and learn some passive skills..." Rocky looked at me for a moment then looked over at Lea.
I smiled "Very protective." I muttered.
Like I said the night before, I hadn't gotten to sleep, and Rocky had stayed awake the whole time too. I sent a message to Sienna asking her if she was awake, it took 15 minutes for her to respond with a simple yes.
"I'm going to see her, you stay here." Rocky made no move, he just watched me leave.
I walked down the hall and knocked on her door "Sienna, it's me can I come in?"
"Yes."
I opened the door and saw she was looking like her usual self again, but I could tell she was a little embarrassed about last night.
"Dark...about the way I acted last night...I might have overreacted a little."
"No, you lost a friend and talking about it made you remember it clearly."
"But..." She blushed a little remembering how she was last night "I never did finish it last night."
"Well, don't worry about it, I don't want you reliving it more then you already did."
"I want you to know though."
"...If you want to tell me then go ahead."
"I will." She paused and then started "After she got stabbed and had fallen, she gave me her sword, which was the rare drop she got on the second floor, Unity, the sword I hold now. She trusted me with the sword and then gave me her final word 'Survive' then she took her last breath. As she died I don't know what came over me but I was blinded by my anger and I defeated the Behemoth. Then I continued on, like she wanted me too."
I stood there silent for a moment "So that's where you got the blade. I also have another question to ask."
"Ask then."
"You say you don't like hurting people and don't like seeing people dying or getting hurt, did you first start staying with that when she, died?"
She shook her head "No, two years ago when I was 13, me and my friend, the one that was in this game, helped stop a man from kidnapping a 5 year old girl. After that I made the vow, that no body would be hurt if I could help it."
"Really? Wow."
"Anyway, let's get off this topic, we have to be ready in case the boss door was found."
"Yeah...you're be okay right?"
"I'll be fine. Remember I am like this a lot, but now that I've talked to you about it, I think it will help."
"Okay, and just remember if you need someone to talk to again, I am here."
"I'll remember. Let's go and check if Lea is awake." She said leaving the room. I followed her and when we walked into the room Lea was awake.
"Where were you two?"
"I went to talk to Sienna in her room so I wouldn't wake you."
"Okay."
"By the way Lea, you got the boss reward for Woodmane didn't you?"
"Yeah, it's a wood bracelet, that makes me take less damage from earth type attacks and it gives me 10+ defence."
Sienna spoke up "So it's gives an effect and some defence."
Lea smiled "Yeah! When do you think the next boss door will be found?"
She thought a moment "If we'll lucky, it will be soon, but right now we can only wait."
*Time skip again*
Another week had passed, until the boss area was finally found and a meeting was called. It was being held by Takumi and many people had come, I was paying some attention but I already knew what I had to do, I was still in charge of my group. The scouting parties had not seen the boss but they expected it was a flying enemy given the layout of the floor. Like on the first floor everyone was told to make parties. I watched as people talked and made groups as I stayed where I was with Lea and Sienna. I noticed one person wasn't moving to make a group, he was wearing black clothes and I knew him, it was Kirito. I got up and went over to him.
"Still a solo player I see?"
He looked over "It's you again. Yes I'm a beater remember?"
"Remember Asuna?" I asked
"Yeah why?"
"She joined The Knights Of The Blood Oath, a guild I'm travelling with at the moment and she's a vice commander."
"She's a fast worker."
"Yes she is. Anyway, I'll talk to you later." I walk away.
Once everyone made parties we started moving out. The boss area was on the same island we were on, so it wouldn't take long to arrive, My group had all bows except me and Sienna, who stayed with our swords. I followed the groups ahead of me, not paying much attention to everything going on around me, my thoughts were on a mess of other things, mostly on what I learned about Sienna and about how to get my revenge on Akihiko Kayaba, the sick psychopathic creator of this world. I was so deep in my thoughts that I almost ran into someone when they stopped, I looked up and saw all the groups had stopped. Takumi stood in front of everyone.
"There is not a boss door for the floor, but in this open plain, is where the boss will appear, the power of the boss can be felt past here, so everyone prepare before we continue on."
Everyone was checking their equipment and making sure they were ready. I didn't bother checking mine but Sienna and Lea double checked just to make sure they had everything they need equipped.
"Are you two ready?"
"I am." Sienna said
"Me too." Lea said closing her menu.
After a few minutes everyone was prepared. Takumi started talking again.
"Now that it looks everyone is ready, we will start our strategy. With the boss is a flying monster, like we expect, then we will need the archers to spread around it, swordsmen with any ranged skills must try and aim at it as well so we can bring it to the ground so the swordsmen without skills can attack as well. Does anyone have any problems with this plan?"
No one said anything.
"Alright then let's go." He walked into the plain and we followed.
As we walked into the plain we we heard what sounded like a huge gust of wind, then a shadow came into view. We looked up and we saw a big figure coming in for a landing, unlike when we fought Dragoon it didn't try to land on us, but it came down and landed in front of us. It was a griffin, with golden feathers, it's four bars of health appeared and it's name, GoldWing. It stared at us silently for moment, then it let out a high pitched howl, and flocks of birds with blood red feathers came down and surrounded us. They looked like the Blood Raven I fought before, but these were level 20 and were called Blood Hawks. Most of the people here were around level 20, I was 21, Lea was the same as me, Rocky was 22 and Sienna was 24.
"New plan! Swordsmen, handle the Hawks, archers fire at the boss!"
I turned my attention to the hawks, that had now taken flight and I focused my energy and quickly used my skill "Cutting Barrage!" I shot 5 waves and took down a few of them, but there were still a lot more, I saw Sienna's sword started to glow and then she disappeared and a group of hawks burst. She appeared beside me.
"A skill?"
"Yeah, it helps me deal massive damage to one enemy or I can damage multiple enemies."
"I'm guessing a requirement for that skill is high speed, right?"
She smiled a little "Yup, so there's no chance for you to get it."
I smiled back "I don't need it." My sword went on fire "Flame Whip!" I swung my sword and the whip of flames told down another group of Hawks "See?"
"My skill is still better." She used it again and then continued fighting, there were only a few hawks left after our attacks, so it wouldn't take long to beat them.
We managed to defeat the Hawks, and then we heard something fall behind us, we turned and the Griffin had fallen from the sky, it was at half health now. It got to it's feet and spread it's wings, I recognized the stance.
"Everyone! Get on the ground now!" Some people in shock quickly obeyed me and others didn't react in time, the griffin shot gold feathers from it's wings and some the people that didn't listen fast enough got hit and were sent rolling to the ground. The griffin stopped shooting and was about to take flight again, when Sienna used her skill again and attacked it from all angles at once, the Griffin's health was slowly going down. It to one bar until it flapped it's wings and took to the air, Sienna moved back then ran and jumped up, before it got to high, and stabbed her sword right into the top of head. It tilted in the air then went downwards, Sienna jumped off it and landed on her feet. The griffin's hp hit 0 and it burst and a reward message appeared in front of Sienna. She tapped it and a necklace appeared around her neck. The groups tended to the injured. Takumi came up to me.
"How did you know the griffin was going to shoot feathers?"
"I fought a winged enemy once before, I knew the stance."
"Well you might have saved a lot of people, so as a reward, you and your party will be the first ones to set foot on the new floor, so get them and head on up."
I nod "Okay." I walk to Lea who is talking to Sienna now "You two, we are given the reward to go to the next floor first, before anyone else."
"Really? That's so cool!" Lea said excitedly
Sienna smile "It does sound nice."
We went into the door leading to the next floor, we opened it and it opened to reveal a dark hallway, with the entrance to the next floor at the end of it. We waked over to the door.
"Ready?" I asked them
"Ready!"
"Ready."
I pushed the door open and we all were surprised by what we saw, the ground was all black, there were dead trees all around, there was no town in sight and tombstones stretched out as far as the eye could see.
"Not what I expected."
A message appeared it said: Welcome To Floor 19, Hill Of The Cross.
Chapter 9 Offline
