Floor 55: October 23rd, 2024

"...this gang of player killers was the next step." I finished talking and fell silent, watching everyone around me to see what their reactions would be. I mean, it's not every day that your friend just explains why he's a mass murderer, so I kinda wanted to know if my story would have any effect on them. Not that anything was exaggerated for effect; I actually delivered everything with the same matter-of-fact tone regardless of whether I was talking about being a bully, fighting Asuna, or watching as Emi died in front of me.

Raph was deep in thought, studying me; he knew that I didn't sleep well, and he probably understood why now. He wasn't stupid, so he could probably put two and two together to get four. After he processed what I just said, he'd probably come talk to me tonight to offer his ear if I ever needed to talk about it. Mao was gnawing on his lower lip for some reason; if anything, he finally understood why I was chasing after PoH so intently and why I refused to let people die. He was the best fighter out of all of us, and he had asked me before why I was the only one that could kill the PKers we hunted. I had refused to answer him before, but now the truth was out.

Gain's face was a mixture of shock, horror, and sympathy; I thought I could see red in his eyes. I hadn't cried about what happened for a long time, not since I resolved to find and kill PoH no matter what. The tears I had to shed could wait until I had finally avenged Emi and fulfilled my promise to her. If anything, I was protecting her memory by sharing the story with the Four Horsemen and with Serra. When I was gone, they could remember her for me. Uri's eyes were filled with unshed tears, and her mouth was hanging open - I guess it makes sense, because that story would shock anyone. I mean, I just talked about how I started out as a bully, reformed through the power of 'true love' - and yes, there are massive air quotes around that, mainly because it's just that ridiculous - and then watched as my life was torn to pieces. And then I started killing people. That's why I left the Knights of the Blood, actually - because murdering people would look bad for the guild, I told Heathcliff I was leaving and started off as a solo player.

Hell, I'm surprised I'm not insane after going through all of that. Come to think of it, I actually might be; how is an insane person supposed to know they're insane?

I eventually turned to look at Serra; she was the only person I hadn't looked at yet, and I was curious how she was handling my story. When I looked at her face, though, I couldn't read it; probably because I didn't know her well enough. She had a strange look on her face that, after she realized I was watching her, softened into sympathy. "Asmodeus, I..." She swallowed. "I didn't know. I'm sorry if I made you relive anything you didn't want to..."

I barked out a short laugh. "I relive it every night." Raph jerked slightly in surprise, probably because he didn't expect me to come right out and say something about my sleeping problems. "I still have nightmares about that day. Every night." I grimaced. "It's why I only sleep when I'm absolutely exhausted, and only four hours at a time. When I'm exhausted, well... I don't remember the dreams."

"I'd wondered about that," Mao murmured. "I did the math once."

I nodded at him. "Raph knew about it, but only that I didn't sleep well." I shrugged. "It just wasn't that important to talk about and besides, it was more important that we find PoH. Would you have treated me any different if you knew I had nightmares?"

Gain opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. "Yeah, probably." Well, at least he was honest about it.

I shrugged. "That's why I never told you." I raised a hand to forestall any protests. "I didn't want any of you thinking I was doing this solely out of revenge."

Uri glared at me. "So instead you let us think you were some kind of crazy person who got off on murder?"

"Did you really think that?"

Uri hesitated. "...No, not really."

There was a bit of an awkward silence before I stood up and stretched. "Well, by now any manhunt for me is probably far away. This is your best chance to get in, buy a Corridor Crystal, and get out." I didn't want the Horsemen to be connected to me in any way, and buying a Corridor Crystal - they were pretty damn expensive, but they were my only real method of covering ground quickly - right after I was spotted on the floor would be pretty suspicious.

Serra visibly shook herself and looked up. "A Corridor Crystal?" She swiped open her menu and offered a trade with me. I was shocked to realize that she was going to trade me a Corridor Crystal. "I picked one up for you earlier - that's why I met you guys out here." Nice of her to go to that length for us; I told her so, and she grinned. "Well, Raph mentioned that you'd need to burn one when I talked to him about the meeting and I figured this would be a good way to make up for it."

"The information alone was enough," I protested weakly. "You didn't have to go to the trouble..."

She glared at me. "And I wanted to, alright? So take the damn crystal before I shove it down your throat."

Talk about mood swings.

In the end, Uri took the crystal from Serra - I was justifiably frightened that Serra would follow through on her threat. Serra said her goodbyes to the Horsemen and turned to me; but instead of saying goodbye, she paused. "So..." She didn't continue right away, but eventually locked eyes with me. "When we were on the 68th Floor together, I had to convince you to rescue that player. Remember?"

I grimaced and looked away. "Yeah." I wasn't too proud of that moment, really.

"If I hadn't been there, would you have helped him?"

"Without a second thought," I replied instantly. "But you were there, and I was... I don't know, trying to convince you that I was a prick, so you'd stay away. Everything was to make sure that I didn't drag anyone else down with me." Since I couldn't exactly tell a random green player everything I had just told the Horsemen and Serra, I needed to make sure people stayed away from me for different reasons.

It just so happened that those reasons were, in chronological order of when they were encountered with Serra, 'He's a killer', 'He's a jerk', and 'He couldn't navigate his way out of a tunnel with a piece of string'.

That's... that's not the phrase? Then what is? ...'He couldn't find his ass with a roadmap, a GPS, and both hands'? Wow. That's something.

Serra's face was a mix of conflicting emotions; I couldn't exactly read them, though. "I see." She started to leave, but turned back at the last second. People seem fond of doing that - maybe somebody think it's dramatic or something. "Have you ever considered that maybe you have more friends than you thought?" She left without giving me any chance to reply.

Seriously, some cosmic force must all think it's dramatic or something. Christ.

Uri got the crystal out of her inventory and tossed it to me; I put it away in my pouch. Looking up, she asked, "Where to now, Boss?"

"Hm..." I thought about it for a bit. "Well, we don't have anything important to do for a bit." We didn't have any leads on PKers or PoH, so there was really no need for the Fallen Angel. "I figure we can just start making our way to the front lines again, fighting through." The Horsemen groaned pretty much in unison, and I cracked a grin. "Oh, suck it up. You guys at least have the option of using warp gates and teleport crystals."

Mao chuckled. "So you're making us suffer with you? Harsh, Boss."

The group dynamic was back, at least.

But there was one more surprise waiting for me that night; we had covered quite a bit of ground after leaving that glade, only stopping once it became too dark to see easily. When we were setting up who would take what shift, Gain offered to take the first shift, something that surprised me; he usually liked taking a night shift just so he could get some sleep first. But I didn't argue, because he seemed very insistent on it and the others had no problem with it; that meant, of course, that I was lying on my back by the banked fire, wide awake and with no chance of falling asleep.

I heard movement near me and I sat up, looking around; the glow from the banked fire illuminated Uri's face as she walked over and sat down next to me. "Can't sleep?"

I shook my head. "I'm not tired enough."

"I never knew..." Uri whispered. "All this time, and I never knew anything about that."

I cracked a grin and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't let it bother you, Uri. I kept it a secret from everybody." Looking back on it now, I'm not really sure why I kept it a secret, but it probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

There was silence for a time as we both stared at the glowing embers. Then, Uri swallowed. "Was... was Lylith pretty?"

I closed my eyes. "Beautiful. More than I could ever describe." I missed her so much; having to relive that moment every night, every time I closed my eyes... I guess it was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, I had to watch her die, over and over again; on the other, I got to see her every night.

"What... what about m-me?"

I turned to Uri. "What?"

She looked at me, and her eyes were brimming with tears. "Do you think I'm beautiful?"

I was taken aback; I didn't expect anything like that, and I had no idea how to answer the question. "O-of course I do, Uri. You're very lovely." I figured that would be the best answer I could give her.

Uri smiled weakly. "I get it, though. I'm not her, right? I can never hope to be." Her voice broke at the end, and she glared at me through her tears. "I wondered why you never picked up on it, but I guess I know now. It's because you're still in love with a dead gi-"

"Shut up, Uri." My voice was flat, and Uri jerked back as if I had slapped her. "You have no right to say that." I turned to her. "What do you want me to say? That I'll fall in love with you? That I'll sleep with you?" I looked away and bit my lip. "I can't betray her like that. If it wasn't for me, she wouldn't be dead right now. If it wasn't for me, she wouldn't have even been in this game in the first place." Survivor's guilt was a hell of a drug. "But she's dead and it's my fault. I can't just throw her away," - I snapped my fingers - "like that. I can't do that to her memory."

Tears still falling, Uri pushed herself to her feet and stumbled back a few steps. "I..." She never finished her sentence; she just turned and ran away from the fire into the night.

"That could have gone better." Mao appeared from the darkness and sat down on a rock on the other side of the fire pit; pulling out a half-carved piece of wood, he started whittling away at it with a small knife.

I sighed. "So is that why Gain took first shift? So that Uri could..." At a loss for words, I just waved a hand. "...That? So that could happen?"

"Not that exactly, but Uri had asked us to make ourselves scarce," Mao replied without looking up from his carving. "Gain took first shift, and Raph and I took a long walk. Uri ran past me without even noticing I was there, so I knew something happened."

I hugged my knees to my chest and stared at the fire. "I just don't know how she wanted me to react, Mao."

"It wasn't exactly the best timing," Mao said. "But she does have a point, you know." He tossed the wood carving over to me; it was an angel holding a staff with its wings drawn around itself, creating a barrier between itself and the rest of the world.

I felt my lips curve up slightly. "Subtle."

"Just think about it," Mao said. "And if you ever want to talk about it, we're here. All of us."

The next day, either Uri or Mao must have told Gain and Raph the basics of what happened, because there wasn't much talking during the day. We fought silently, every one of us fighting with our inner monsters more than the outer ones.

Floor 67: November 7th, 2024

Two weeks later, the tension amongst our group had diminished slightly; things between me and Uri were still a little formal, but five of us were at least speaking to one another again. I guess I was trying to get things back to the way they were, before all of that drama went down.

On one of the restocking runs, Mao handed the wooden carving of the Four Horsemen and myself that he had been working on to an info broker with instructions to get it to Asuna as a present. I almost wanted to give it to her myself, just to see her reaction, but with what happened on the 55th Floor, I decided that talking to her was probably not a good career move if I wanted to stay alive. Kind of a disappointment, really; her scream of absolute rage would have been hysterical.

Anyway, we were making our way through the 65th Floor when I got a message notification. I raised my voice and called out to the Horsemen, "Hold up a second. I just got a message."

Raph glanced back at me. "Who'd message you?"

"That's what I want to know," I muttered. Tapping the icon, I opened the message and took a look. My eyes widened at the sender's name. "Holy shit."

Uri looked over. "What's going on, Boss?" As an aside, she hadn't called me by my name since that night. Part of her way of coping with it, I guess. "Who is it?"

"Heathcliff," I said, completely shocked. "You know, leader of the Knights of the Blood? That Heathcliff." The Horsemen swore at the same time. "Yeah, that's about right."

We found a good place to sit - one where we could sit down but where we could still watch around us for any signs of danger - and I started reading the message out loud. "Greetings, Asmodeus. I understand that you are no longer part of the Knights of the Blood, by your own decision, but I would like to extend an invitation to you and the Four Horsemen. Yesterday, ten members of a twenty-person recon team were wiped out by the boss of the 75th Floor. According to the testimonial of the remaining members of the recon team, the door closed and there was no way to enter the room until it opened again. As a result, the Knights of the Blood is forming a raid party to challenge the boss today at one o'clock. I remember your prowess with a spear, and from what several of the members of my guild say the Four Horsemen are formidable warriors in their own rights. As the boss room likely cannot be escaped, we need as many fighters present as possible; therefore, I would like you and the Four Horsemen to attend the raid. You have my guarantee that you will not be harmed by any players present." The last bit of the message was coordinates for the entrance to the boss's room.

After I was finished, Gain whistled. "Wow. That's pretty heavy."

I looked at the Horsemen. "Do you think we should take him up on the offer?" If it was a big decision that affected all of us, I let the Four Horsemen think on it for a bit and give their own thoughts and vote on it. They only got one comment each, so they had to think carefully before making their vote.

Mao hummed in thought. "It's been a while since any of us fought a boss, so I don't know how much help we'll be..."

"But think about it!" Raph said, leaning forward. "If we show that we'll help, maybe that will give people a reason to trust Boss, even though he's an orange player." Well, technically I was a red player, but I only killed other red players. And before you say anything, shut up, Lures counted as red players in my eyes. "Plus, Heathcliff gave us his word that we'd be safe. I say we should trust him."

I looked at the two Horsemen that had remained silent. "Gain? Uri? What do you think we should do?"

Uri shook her head. "I think it's too dangerous. There's no guarantee some player won't take it on themselves to try to kill us, and the boss itself is probably going to be deadly. It is a milestone, after all." Oh, yeah, that's right - a milestone was every 25th floor; they usually had incredibly difficult bosses.

Wait, you know all that already? Then why... oh, whatever.

Gain grinned and leaned back. "Why the hell not? It sounds like fun. Besides, we were going to the front lines anyway, right? So why don't we just take this to the extreme?"

Pretty much as one, the Horsemen all turned to me. "Well, Boss?" Raph asked. "It's two to two. You're the deciding vote."

I had to think about it; they all made very good points. If we went up and fought, there was a good chance we'd all die - meaning I'd never get to kill PoH - but there was an equally good chance we'd earn some favors and build some goodwill with the clearers. And that was too precious a chance to pass up. "I say we go. It seems like it'll be fun." I grinned. "Besides, Asuna might be there. We should make sure she got our present." A round of laughter followed that snide comment. "If the raid is starting at one, we should probably be there early. Wouldn't want to be surprised by anything, would we?"

Uri laughed. "Crystal, please." I pulled it out of my pouch and tossed it to her; she caught it one-handed and started programming in the coordinates Heathcliff had given us. Once she was finished, she tossed it back to me.

It was like a well-oiled machine - so long as neither of us thought about what had happened between us. We could still work together, but it was stilted, awkward; I think Uri regretted what happened between us, regretted that we had grown apart, but I couldn't be sure unless I asked her.

Why didn't I just ask her? ...Have you ever tried that? Seriously.

I checked the time; it was just before noon. "I think we should get there around 12:45. That way, it'll give us about fifteen minutes to find a good place to wait."

Raph looked around. "Uri, where's the nearest place for a campfire?" I wanted lunch, too, so I didn't complain about having to walk a few miles.

After a delicious lunch, we grouped together and got ready. "Everyone ready?" I asked. Once I got their nods and murmured assent, I pulled the Corridor Crystal out of my pouch. "Corridor open!" I shouted, lifting the crystal in the air. It glowed white, and a ripple in the air appeared in front of us; the crystal shattered moments later. "Let's go."

Once we stepped through the portal, we were on the 75th Floor. I looked around with interest; it seemed pretty fancy. "This is the what, second time we'll be facing a boss?" I wondered out loud. "We're moving up in the world."

"Last time, Kirito killed the boss," Raph reminded me.

"Shut up and let me have this."

After the Horsemen put on their masks, the next item of business was finding a good place to wait for the rest of the raiding party. There weren't any trees, so we couldn't replicate what we did the last time we surprised a raiding party. I thought about it; I knew Heathcliff pretty well, and so I figured he'd be leading the pack no matter what. Eventually, we just decided to stand in front of the door to the boss room, just to make a point. We just hoped we wouldn't die before Heathcliff could stop them from trying to murder us. That would be a pretty bad way to go.

Just a few minutes past 1:00, another corridor opened several feet from us. The Horsemen and I exchanged glances, then took our positions, waiting for the other players to appear. As expected, Heathcliff was leading the pack. He approached us without a care in the world; as soon as other players saw us, they froze, only to be pushed forward by other players appearing through the gate. Heathcliff stopped several feet from me and inclined his head. "Asmodeus. And the Four Horsemen. I'm glad you could make it; this will require everyone to fight to their fullest extent." As the raid players filed out of the corridor the room filled with more and more tension, rising higher as each new player recognized me and the masks of the Four Horsemen. Once the last player was through - I thought I saw a black coat, a sight that didn't exactly fill me with the warm fuzzies, if you know what I mean - Heathcliff turned to face the crowd. "The boss we will be fighting today is very deadly. Ten members of the recon team were wiped out in under five minutes, and there was no trace of the boss. As such, I have taken the liberty of calling in as many fighters as possible." He gestured to me and the Horsemen. "Many of you undoubtedly recognize these five players. They will be joining us in our fight for liberation, and they have been given my promise that they will not be harmed by another player. Anybody who does so will answer directly to me, is that clear?"

It was about a fifty-fifty split between players whispering to each other to figure out who we were and players muttering under their breaths about orange players and murderers. I didn't really care; we had been given our free pass. But we weren't going to wear it out - I led the Horsemen over to the wall and we stood there, removed from the other players. There but not there, so to speak.

"Hey, Asmodeus!" The loud greeting caught my attention. Klein was standing there, backed by six or seven of his guildmates. "Good to see you again."

"Hello, Klein," I replied. "Good to see you as well. How's the guild?" We all chatted for a little bit, catching up on the latest goings-on; he had no problem with the fact that I was an orange player, strangely enough. I think he understood that I was searching for something or someone, and that to find it I needed to kill. At least he didn't run screaming from me or draw his sword at the sight of me, so that was progress. "By the way, are Kirito and Asuna here?"

He grinned. "Those two lovebirds? They're over by the back. Did you want to say hi?"

I shivered. "No thanks. I was just wondering if Asuna got our present."

"Present... oh, the carving!" Klein chuckled. "She was ranting about it earlier. Something about how you were taunting her or something like that. What'd you give her, anyway?"

I snickered. "It's a wood carving of me and the Four Horsemen." Klein laughed. "Mao's pretty talented." Then I realized what I had just said – namely, I had just given away the real name of one of the Horsemen.

Klein raised an eyebrow. "Mao?" I shot a quick glance at the Horsemen behind me; Mao gave me a small nod. He figured that Klein already knew how to find us, after all, so him knowing the real identities of the Horsemen couldn't hurt.

But, I still had to try to keep him off of our trail. What was that saying about people and secrets? 'Three can keep a secret only if two are dead'? Anyway, I shrugged. "He's a woodcarver. Pretty good at what he does, too, and he doesn't care that I'm orange. A commission's a commission, after all, right?"

"Why haven't I heard of him before?" Klein asked.

I chuckled uneasily. "Um... orange player resources?" It sounds stupid now, I know, but it was the best thing I could come up with at the time.

Klein shook his head, somehow not falling for that cunning ruse. "Mao's one of the Horsemen, isn't he?"

I turned back to Klein. "Er..." I sighed. "Damn it." I waved at the Horsemen. "Let me reintroduce the Horsemen. Could you block us with your guild?" Klein nodded at his guild members, and they formed a small ring around the six of us; we couldn't be seen from the outside. The Horsemen removed their masks. "Meet Gainriel, Maotaro, Raphile, and Uriyama," I said, gesturing to the Horseman respectively.

Klein smiled as the first three nodded, but his jaw dropped when he saw Uri's face. "H-hi!" he stammered. "I'm K-Klein. 24 a-and single and looking for-"

Uri cast a despairing glance my way, and I covered my wide smirk. "She knows who you are, Klein. We've met you before." The Four Horsemen put their masks back on, and Fuurinkazan subtly regrouped around Klein. "So, everyone. We're trusting you to keep our identities hidden."

I would have said more, but we were out of time. "Everyone ready?" Heathcliff's voice rang out over the murmurs of the players and the sound of status screens opening and closing. He stood calmly in front of the door, a pillar of strength. "The Knights of the Blood will be out in the front, distracting the boss and blocking its attacks." It made sense, I guess; after all, his Unique Skill gave him perfect defense. "In the meantime, the rest of you have to stay sharp, and try to figure out its attack patterns. I won't lie. This battle will be hard. But I have faith that we can and will prevail." His voice was calm and strong. "For our day of liberation!"

The assembled players cheered, and the Horsemen and I gave a half-hearted shout as well. Might as well show our support for the cause, right? But Heathcliff was very charismatic; when I was in the Knights of the Blood I would have followed him into the ends of the Earth.

Heathcliff pushed at the door, letting it slowly creak open. Every player waited, weapon unsheathed, except myself and the Horsemen; I had a feeling the raiding players wouldn't be too happy if we had our weapons out. The doors finally slammed open with a resounding crash. "Forward to battle!" shouted Heathcliff. The assembled players charged forward with different war cries, each mixing with the others; if I had been the boss in that room ahead, I would have been pretty scared. As everybody spilled into the boss room, though, the cries died off in confusion; we were all on a single large platform in the center of the room. It was dark, and I couldn't see the ground over the edge - as for the boss, it was nowhere to be seen. Everyone waited with bated breath for the boss to reveal itself. Suddenly, the door slammed shut behind us and disappeared, locking us in the boss room until we killed the boss or died trying.

I just hoped it was the first one.

Gain leaned over. "I hear something, Boss. It's like bones clacking together, or something..."

I raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?" I listened carefully, and my eyes widened. "I hear it too."

"The ceiling!" somebody - I realized a second later it was Asuna - shouted. We all looked up and swore simultaneously as we saw a pale shape on the ceiling. Its bone legs twitched, kinda reminding me of some sort of bug.

"You just had to say you wanted caterpillars in the game," Uri breathed. "Didn't you?"

"That's actually closer to a centipede," Raph said absently.

I gulped. "Whatever it is, I want nothing to do with it." We were being a little flippant, but it was to distract ourselves from the gigantic skeletal centipede clinging to the ceiling. It was understandable.

"The Skull Reaper..." Gain murmured. "Holy shit."

The Skull Reaper hissed, eyes glowing red as the health bars quickly filled. My eyes widened as I realized it had five health bars, one more than The Gleam Eyes - I wasn't sure if that was normal or not. I realized that maybe, just maybe, we should have been a little more prepared for fighting a boss. "Stay away from it!" shouted Heathcliff. Immediately, the various players underneath it scrambled to get out of the way as it dropped from the ceiling. "Spread out!"

Two players didn't move, staring at the descending boss and trembling. Someone shouted at them, telling them to move; they finally tried to get away. The Skull Reaper landed, sending out a shockwave that knocked them into the air and made the rest of us stumble slightly. A gleaming scythe-like arm sliced forward, catching them both in the torso; they were sent flying and died before ever reaching the ground. The rest of the boss room lit up in strange red and brown colors; I wasn't sure if that meant something special or not.

"That was one hit!" Klein exclaimed.

I looked over to see that he was standing there next to a tall dark-skinned man - I recognized the player, at least. His name was Agil, and he was a merchant that I had done business with back before I was still in the Knights of the Blood. Dude drove a mean bargain. "Man, we are so dead," Agil said.

Suddenly, The Skull Reaper lunged forward, scuttling toward a group of players that hadn't gotten far enough away. Heathcliff lunged forward as well, meeting the strike with his shield perfectly. He didn't move, absorbing all of the impact on his shield. Strangely, The Skull Reaper shoved him aside and swung its other arm at the player Heathcliff had protected, killing him instantly - normally, blocking an attack would have drawn the monster's aggro, but apparently The Skull Reaper wanted nothing to do with him. The Skull Reaper started moving, way faster than it looked like it should have been able to move; suddenly, it jumped, soaring over our heads. I just swore under my breath a bit and took a few deep breaths. The Skull Reaper landed and swung, trying to kill another player; I watched as Kirito lunged forward, catching its attack with his twin swords. Despite his strength, he fell to one knee, the scythe biting into his shoulder; The Skull Reaper was so strong, even Kirito couldn't stop its attack. It swung with its second arm, trying to kill Kirito, when Heathcliff came out of nowhere to block the strike. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Asuna dash forward, rapier glowing green. She struck the boss over Kirito's shoulder and it recoiled in pain.

Well, we hurt it, at least. Only two casualties so far. That was a good ratio, right?

Sliding back from the impact, The Skull Reaper hissed at the trio of players that were confronting it. It dashed forward, slamming its blade down on Heathcliff's shield. "Me and Asuna'll deal with the scythes," Kirito shouted. "Everyone else, flank it and attack!"

The Horsemen looked at me, asking for their orders. I just shrugged; I had no better idea. Might as well follow what Kirito said, since it sounded like a good enough plan. We charged with the rest of the players, trying to get close to the boss and attack it. Since I wasn't fighting other players, I could fight without worrying about the Horsemen; it was a liberating feeling. Suddenly, The Skull Reaper reared back, throwing a few players away; its tail flashed out and slammed into a few players. Two died, while Agil - the third - was bent over, arm heavily damaged.

The Skull Reaper hissed, rearing aback again, and its legs twitched abhorrently; I fought a shudder of disgust. This boss had nothing on Gain's cooking, I told myself, and it helped a little bit; seeing the charred remains of what had been supposed to be our dinner in my mind's eye settled my nerves - if not my stomach.

I'm still not sure how he managed to set water on fire, but that's a story for another day.

The Horsemen and I charged, Agil and Klein near us; Klein slid under the boss and struck with the point of his katana while Agil attacked from above, slamming his axe down onto the boss's back. It reared up in pain and I took the chance to swing my trident like a club, using the circle of metal on the end to attack the boss. "Blossom Dance," I murmured, and let the system take over. «Blossom Dance» was a higher-level «Martial Arts» skill that required some sort of staff; my trident counted, fortunately. I grabbed my glowing trident in both hands, shifting my grip so that my hands were shoulder-length apart; I thrust forward and cracked the end of the trident on one of The Skull Reaper's legs; as soon as it collided, I pulled back and spun the trident in my hands, catching it and striking out with the trident end. I flipped backwards and planted the end of the trident on the ground; jumping forward, I used the trident shaft as a fulcrum to swing around and strike The Skull Reaper with my feet - a similar attack to the one that caught Asuna by surprise a long time ago. Jumping and spinning in the air, I landed and thrust forward with the trident, just barely missing the closest leg. As the skill ended, the reddish trail in the air started to fade; that was the hallmark of «Blossom Dance», a trail of the staff's movements. It looked pretty neat, and though it was a bit long it got the job done.

The fight raged on, players switching in and out as needed; the Horsemen and I fought as a group, staying together at all times. After all, Heathcliff had promised that we would be safe, but there was no guarantee we wouldn't experience some strange 'accident' or stumble into the boss's attacks. The various effects of the different Sword Skills flickered in the edge of my sight like will-o'-the-wisps, a visual representation of the damage that we were doing to the boss. Strangely enough, most players didn't mind fighting next to us; they were uneasy at first, but after time passed we just became other faces in the crowd.

"Everyone! Attack!" Heathcliff shouted. I spared a second to glance at the heath bar of the boss; it was low in the red. I hadn't realized we had done that much damage, but we had been fighting it for over an hour by that point. Everyone that could still fight followed Heathcliff's orders and charged in, screaming various cries of anger and defiance. The constant barrage of blows took its toll on The Skull Reaper; it tried desperately to stand, but its legs must have been damaged during the fight or something because it couldn't do more than prop itself up with its scythes. As its health drained further and further, it lost more ability to stand, eventually lying almost flat and barely moving. Our combined attacks had finally robbed it of the danger, leaving it as nothing more than a bony punching bag. I didn't see who landed the final blow; it wasn't me. The Skull Reaper reared back, twisting unnaturally and roaring; it glowed a brilliant blue, half-blinding me, and burst into light. The same congratulations message we had seen on the 74th Floor appeared, along with the rewards screen. The Four Horsemen and I exchanged glances, grinning tiredly and just being glad that we were alive.

Despite the fact that we were three quarters of the way through the game, nobody celebrated; we were too exhausted from the fight to do more than weakly cheer and find allies that were still alive. I sat inside a circle made by the Horsemen - no sense in taking chances, after all - and looked around; Klein was sitting near his guild, Agil was lying flat on his back, and Kirito and Asuna were sitting back to back, resting against each other. I grinned to myself - it was kinda cute, so long as I ignored the fact that Asuna probably still wanted to kill me.

Klein spoke up from a few feet away. "How many did we lose?"

I watched as Kirito swiped open his menu and quickly counted the dots of light on the map. He grimaced. "Fourteen of us died."

"Oh my god," Agil muttered. I heard various whispers and mutterings start through the room as the news spread like wildfire; I counted the heads of the Four Horsemen without even thinking about what I was doing. I knew that they were alive, but I still counted and recounted to assure myself that I hadn't made a mistake, that my friends were still alive.

"And we've still got twenty-five floors left to go..." said Klein.

"Twenty-five more floors... How are we gonna make it that far?" asked Agil.

I tapped Mao on the shoulder. "We're not doing this again," I murmured. "It's way too dangerous." I did like the feeling of being alive while fighting, though.

I felt him grin underneath the mask. "I had fun, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Uri said. "I mean, sure it was dangerous, but it was pretty damn fun while it lasted."

I rolled my eyes. "Are we going to get a promise of safety from Heathcliff every time we want to fight? Because I'm still an orange player, if you all haven't noticed." I was still pretty tempted to keep fighting bosses since, you know, adrenaline junkie and all that. I glanced at Heathcliff after I spoke; he was the only player still standing, and his health was still in the green zone. I just shook my head in amazement.

Suddenly, Kirito lunged forward, his sword shining brilliantly. It stopped only a few inches from Heathcliff's throat, but not because Kirito stopped; no, it was because a purple hexagon had appeared in the air, blocking his sword. There was some text on it, too.

The hexagon said 'Immortal Object'.

Er. A combination of drama and incredibly cool fighting? I'm okay with that.

Many thanks to everyone who favorited, followed, or reviewed. Special thanks goes to UndeadMonkey8 and Alicornication for being dedicated reviewers.