AN: Hi. I know, no excuses. I said the end of March and now its mid-April. All I have to say is that I ran into unexpected problems. Also, I had to rewrite the storyline for future chapters since I didn't like how it played out. Especially how I was going to make it go to Floor 100.
Anyway, I'm so sorry. Please don't throw pitchforks at me. *Squeaks when he sees flaming pitchforks arcing his way.*
Answering reviews:
ENDDRAGON369: Will more Fate stuff appear during the quest."
A: Probably not. Unless I can find some other inspirations.
RedSS: Well, for a long while I searched for a KiritoxYuuki fanfic on Aincrad. Glad not only I found one, but also is a very good one. Keep going, lad, this is great."
A: Glad to hear that! I hope you continue to enjoy my fanfic!
RedBurningDragon: O yea just thought of this but if Yuuki and Kirito stay a duo and Kirito doesn't have a reason to fight Heathclif he wouldn't figure his Kyaba so we can go to floor 100 without the reason that Hollow frag gave. O we going to fight that fluffy xenomorph. So "group up and hit it till it died". Well time to kill a god or Titan"
A: I'll look into your suggestion. Thanks tho. And yeah, the hollow frag reason was really... weird.
InfiniteAJ: ""My sword had been knocked out of my hand when Sheeptaur decided to go Ninjutzu on us Ninjago Reference? If so then beautiful. Again another great chapter, can't wait to see where you go with this original plot. I think the divergence from cannon will ne quite refreshing, so I'm excited about that. And I see you're also a fan of Greek Mythology. That makes two of us! Reading this, I now understand where Notch (Minecraft's creator) got the idea of Golden Apples from. And people say fanfiction can't be educational."
A: Glad you got the reference. I'm also happy that you like the canon divergence, as you said, I feel like only sticking to canon can get a bit dull. I'm also glad you learnt something from my fanfic :)
HaiWulffEx: "Great chapter! I love that invisible tap trick and would totally use it myself if I could :P. I'm excited to see the mobs that are going to appear in the dungeon, though a small detail somewhat stuck out to me. If the pre-boss was already harder than anything they've fought before, I'm surprised they didn't use any items, which would be pretty normal when encountering a harder boss, esp. a new type that you don't expect. It's a small detail, but sort of popped out due to me playing so many games and always making sure to not run out of items lol. Since the lore behind the apple was Greek, does that mean that the dungeon is also Greek lore based :D? If so, then you could totally make Heracles a boss/mid-boss, esp the one from Fate (sorry, someone else mentioned Fate, and this was the first thing I thought of, and BASAKA WA SEKAI DE ICHIBAN TSUYOI), mainly cause he totally fits as a monster class, and he reminds me of the minotaur from the series, idk why, prolly the axe. Anyways, looking forward to the next chapter :3."
A: Haha, yeah, the invisible tap trick is the best thing about Hiyoto's ability. I'll admit, the pre-boss was a bit of an oversight. The overarching theme for this quest will be Greek but no Fate Heracles. I wanted a more original Heracles so sorry :(.
Krawling Khaos: "I enjoy where the story is going. It's a little rough around the edges in places (i.e. there are some spots where grammar and spell checking missed their mark a little in every chapter), and some of the dialogue in earlier chapters isn't as sharp as it could be (namely Kirito and Yuuki's whole "he's handsome" "you're cuter and more beautiful" lines... those were hamming it up a bit too much), but I still enjoy it.
It's nice to see Yuuki being used in a context without the whole "AIDS-chan" thing going on, since I still feel like her death in Mother's Rosario was a little heavy handed, even for Kawahara. Seeing her being as good at the game, if not better than Kirito at it (depends purely on a subjective measure of "power" and all) isn't all that surprising, and it's fun to see what happens from chapter to chapter.
Seeing Yuuki develop «Mother's Rosario» (which I'll admit could have been done a little better, but it's not a bad thing) was nice, though I don't know if it'd be considered a «Unique Skill» in the same manner that, say, «Dual Blades» is. I think you have some room to develop an actual «Unique Skill» that follows the same logic as «Dual Blades», wherein it is more of a skill tree, rather than just one skill. Heck, I think Yuuki gaining a «Unique Skill» named «Absolute Sword» would've been a great idea, but that's not really important for the enjoyment of the story in my mind.
One final note I'd like to hit on is the missed potential of having Aiko/Ran in the story too, though should you do an ALO-type story based around the idea of Ran and Leafa being friends, with Kirito and Yuuki going into the game to save Asuna, it'd be an interesting turn of events. Predictable, sure, but interesting.
I'll end on me saying that most, if not all of what I said here is coming from my time writing fanfiction, and seeing the potential for plot points in places I'd likely have put them had I been in your situation, and is not necessarily a full on criticism of your skills. The story has plenty of potential as it is, and I am genuinely interested in seeing where it goes. The only thing I'd recommend is maybe tightening up your editing, to catch little spelling/grammatical errors before posting chapters. Perhaps finding a beta reader would help in this regard, but don't feel pressured to do so, the story is good regardless, and it's just for the sake of making it shine a little more."
A: Thanks for the feedback. I'll admit, I tried to accelerate things too much at the start and when I have the time, I'll try and fix it. As for the unique skills things, I totally 100% agree. I have a few skills and skill trees in mind. As for Ran/Aiko, I sort of had a regret somewhere in Chapter 8 or 9 where I was like, "I could've used Aiko here. Dammit!". Oh well. Once again, thank you for your feedback, I really appreciate it! Perhaps I'll find a beta soon.
mauk10: hello this is mauk I liked the incorporation of greek myths and follow the mythos closely with the golden apple tree it was actually a gift from hera to zuess though I am not meaning to take anything away from the awesome story you have written so far but I thought you should know and yes I know there is a lot of discord about the myth and some people say the earth goddess gaea gave it as a wedding present. it might just be erises influence on the world. keep up the good work by the way 120,000,000 divided into 6 is 20,000,000 right digit number kirito saw his col ride back to six digits I enjoy your work please keep writing"
A: Thanks, glad you like my incorporation of Greek Mythology. As for the digits, yeah... thanks for pointing that out. I have no idea how I managed to miscount and misdivide but hehe... you caught it! Thanks!
Note: I WILL NOT abandon this story no matter what. It might get updated less regularly but you can hold onto the hope that it will never be abandoned.
Disclaimer:
Me: "Yes, I finally own SAO."
Kawahawa's Lawyers: "Ahem." *Holds up a file of papers*
Me: "Um... I mean.. Reki Kawahawa still owns Sword Art Online."
Chapter 12: Of Gods, Monsters and Men
Itu's POV
Falling down a pit hole is not fun.
Especially one that simply consists of the colour white. Nothing else. In fact, if it weren't for the wind ferociously howling in my ear and the sensation of air rushing up towards me, I would've questioned if we were moving at all.
Yuuki was taking things in stride, holding Kirito's hand while challenging him to several rounds of rock-paper-scissors. Kirito was losing miserably each time. The both of them were laughing after each round. They were acting as if falling down an all-white emptiness was nothing but a boring car trip. If it weren't for their constant insistence that they were only best friends, I would've suspected that they were siblings like Ilda and I or the perfect couple.
Asuna was calmly talking with Hiyoto as if they were just chilling, not falling for eternity in this pit hole or anything. Though I couldn't actually hear what they were talking about. But with the wild hand gestures coming from Hiyoto, I could only assume it had something to do with combat.
Ilda was the only one who looked remotely scared but the only reason I noticed was because I had lived with her all my life. Her exterior appearance gave off an aura of calmness and cool but peer into her eyes for long enough and you could see that they were restless, giving off mild fear. Ilda's claustrophobia must be acting up again. I wouldn't blame her either. The pure white emptiness which encompassed this pit hole was probably a living nightmare for claustrophobic people. I quickly grasped my sister's hand, giving her a reassuring smile. She gave me a thankful look and the fear in her eyes lessened significantly.
"Impact! Brace yourselves!" Kirito yelled over the howling air. I looked down to see what looked like a hard, veiny marble floor getting closer and closer towards us. Ilda gave a huge sigh of relief, though an ill-timed one since we were about to experience a new world of hurt. Within the next second, I found myself lying spread-eagled on the freezing cold marble floor, my body wracked in pain. While my healthbar didn't take any physical damage, the impact was big enough to cause pain, since pain wasn't solely decided on the healthbar. I moaned in agony, waiting a few seconds for the pain to subside before pushing myself off the ground, grabbing my weapon which had fallen beside me.
Kirito was already up, brushing his scarcely armoured coat with his hand. Yuuki was crouched next to Kirito, as if she had landed on her two feet. Hiyoto was helping Asuna onto her feet, pulling her up. Even my sister had landed in a more dignified style than me. She had managed to maintain hold of her scythe, using its blade to scrape the massive white, marble columns that supported the area we currently were in, slowing her descent significantly enough to allow a painless landing. In fact, I think I'm the only one who had landed spread-eagled.
"Nice landing Itu." Ilda teased, rubbing in my bad landing as if she knew what I was thinking about. I responded with a glare, leaning my weight towards my Guandao. I waited for the pain in my legs to numb before I started walking to join the rest of my friends who were gathered. A small window display popped up in front of me, interrupting my approach.
Quest: Of Gods, Monsters and Men
- - o - - - - - o - - - - - o - - - - - - - - 0
Progress: 0%
Status: In Progress
Rewards:
1 x Labyrinth Door Key
6 x Scroll of Weapon Techniques
? x ?!#
? x ?!#
Closing the window, I attempted to continue my original intent until another window popped up, interrupting me yet again.
Mission: Waiting for Royalty
Familiarise yourself with the castle while waiting for the king to receive you.
Reward:
Nothing. This is the easiest task in the world. Do you really expect a reward?
"Where are we?" I asked, looking around the room. The room, if we can really call it that, consisted of sandstone-coloured marble with sapphire blue veins that were smoothly covering the floor while giant, meticulously chiselled, white marble columns supported the ceiling. It looked like we were in some sort of atrium, a reception room. Sculptures, friezes and tapestries were hanging on the walls, depicting a warrior king accomplishing different feats such as slaying a dragon thrice his size or fighting an army with the help of only three people. There were two ornate glass doors standing at opposite ends of each other. The glass was stained green, a brilliant emerald green, blurring what was behind the doors. The glass door nearest to us opened and a squire dressed in golden armour walked into the reception room.
"The king will see you now." He announced with a loud and firm voice. He gave a short bow before walking gracefully out of the room, leaving the door open. The six of us followed the squire and walked through the door. Behind the door was a circular throne room where an excessively golden and uncomfortable-looking throne sat in near the back, surrounded by armed guards. Lavish cushions piled the throne, making the notion of sitting on the golden throne more comfortable.
Sitting on the golden throne was a man dressed in royal, purple robes and holding a sceptre. The sceptre consisted of a golden rod, with a spherical, glass-like material at one end of the rod. Within the glass-like material, glowing lights swam like fish, different colours swirling around the sphere at different speeds. Jutting out of the sphere was a sharp, crimson diamond which would regularly flash ominously. The king himself had traces of youth in his face and his eyes were kind and understanding. The NPC standing before us felt like a human rather than a scripted piece of code. A soft ping was heard before another window appeared.
Mission: Waiting for Royalty
Completed!
The window faded after a few seconds before reappearing with completely different text.
Mission: The Request
Ask for the key to the Labyrinth Doors.
Bonus:
Word the request as follows:
"Milord, we seek for you to break the lock sealing access to the realms beyond."
Reward:
Nothing. I'm literally asking you to ask for something basic. Heck, I've even told you what you should say.
Bonus:
2 x Speed Potion (One minute) You totally don't deserve this but…I've noticed your agility is not up to scratch.
Whoever wrote the quest text was really sarcastic. And a touch spiteful. The window then minimized itself and took form as a glowing red question mark located on the left-hand side of my vision.
"What do you want?" The king's voice echoed across the throne room.
Wanting the bonus speed potions, I quoted the quest's wording of the request.
"Milord, we seek for you to break the lock sealing access to the realms beyond." I stated confidently, looking at the NPC. While the king was 'considering' my request by repeatedly stroking his beard, I decided to take a closer look at the king. I squinted, activating my 'Analyse' ability, a standard skill which everyone had. This allowed me to see the level, health, stats, alliance and name of anything. Details started to spill onto my vision. On top of the king was a grey cursor, signifying that the king was neutral, meaning that he would not attack unless provoked. His name was hovering on top of the cursor. King Cadmus, Ruler of Olympia. The king opened his mouth to speak.
"Sure I–" The king was suddenly cut off. The air around him shimmered ever so slightly. The king pixelated for a moment, moving chaotically in a glitch-like fashion, as if the game had encountered a glitch and didn't know how to broadcast the NPC's actions. The sound of someone letting out a sigh filled the throne room as the NPC solidified again with some subtle changes. His eyes were no longer kind and understanding, instead they were ragged and glowing with malicious intent. Not only that, but his cursor turned bright red, signifying that he was a hostile being.
"No. I will not grant you this request." The king paused, allowing for the shock of the obviously foreseen response to sink in. Though it would've been funny and anti-climactic if the king granted our request. Not that I was complaining if that were the case. Which should've happened had this creepy glitching thing not occurred.
"Why would I open the gateway to kingdoms that would destroy me? They would find me and cast me out again. No, I will be safe here and you will die for your meddling!" The king snapped his fingers before pointing at us. "Shadow Guards, kill these fools!"
At once, the guards around the king mobilised, stepping out of the shadows and allowing us to get a closer look at them. The guards themselves were wearing smooth-plated black armour with black helmets that only allowed for small eye-slits for vision. The helmets themselves were like smooth, curved faceplates which gave them a cool but intimidating look. Each guard had a different weapon, ranging from bladed nunchucks and deadly sharp katanas to fearsome chained kunai. All of which were coloured in the Shadow Guard's favourite colour. You guessed it, black with a slight tinge of red. In total there were twelve guards, each menacingly brandishing (or twirling for the case of the chained kunai guard) their weapon as they cautiously circled around us.
Looking above their heads, I could see their basic information such as their healthbar, name, level and difficulty. They had full health (duh), their name was 'Shadow Guard' (again, duh), their level was 76 and there was a small, blood red diamond-prism floating above their heads, symbolising that they were a 'hard difficulty' mob for our level.
There was a soft ping and a small popup window replaced the current mission window.
Mission: The Request
Completed!
Reward:
2 x Speed Potion (One minute)
A new set of text replaced the former.
Mission: Fighting Shadows
Defeat all twelve of Cadmus' Shadow Guards.
Currently: 0/12
Reward:
1 x [Armour] Shadow Cloak
1 x [Weapon] Nightreaver
4 x [Material] Shadow Essentia
"These guys seem tough." Kirito called out, drawing his sword and holding it out in front of him. I quickly dismissed the mission screen. The guards edged forwards before splitting off in pairs to confront each one of us. The guards who decided to confront me wielded a chained kunai and a two-bladed glaive. Without waiting for the guards to have a chance to attack me, I surged forward, impaling the blade of my Guandao into the chest of the Shadow Guard wielding the chained kunai, reasoning that it would be a greater threat to me than the glaive-wielding guard. Activating a skill, I tossed the guard up into the air using my Guandao as a lever. With the system guiding me, I jumped up into the air to meet the guard, who was still stunned by my initial strike and did a full 360-degrees swing with my weapon, catching the guard mid-air with the blade and sending him flying towards a nearby wall.
I landed on the ground as the second guard charged at me. I blocked a heavy swing from the guard, holding my Guandao in a way so that the stick clashed against the glaive with my hands on either side of the glaive blade. The guard pushed with all its might, forcing me to respond in kind until it became an all-out strength competition. That was when the guard pivoted his glaive upwards, lifting my Guandao upwards and striking me with the other end of the glaive. I hissed in pain as the blade slashed right up my chest before being sent flying backwards by a powerful kick.
Glancing at my healthbar, I could see that while I had lost a decent amount of health from the Shadow Guard's assault, I was still in the green area. I got up just in time to block an incoming swipe from the glaive-wielding Shadow Guard, who pressed its attack against me, swinging its glaive in deadly and quick arcs that never gave me enough time to exploit any opening. Blocking blow after blow, I managed to land a kick on the guard, forcing it back and buying enough time for me to counterattack.
I adeptly flicked my wrist, activating another weapon skill. The blade of my Guandao illuminated a soft orange glow before I thrusted it into the guard's head, lowering its health by a significant amount. After piercing its head, I quickly lifted my Guandao so that the guard would be sent flying up into the air. As it started to fall, I rapidly slashed at it, creating a crisscross pattern on the body of the guard before delivering a final, earth-shattering strike to the midsection, cleaving the guard into two. The guard's form flickered erratically as its healthbar dropped to zero, before it exploded into pixels. I turned to find my other opponent only to find a kunai buried in my right thigh, causing me to grit my teeth in pain. Before I could find my assailant, I was sent flying into a wall, resulting in me losing my grip on my weapon. I slowly got up, to see the guard wielding the chained kunai standing a meter away from me, spinning the chain in an almost hypnotic fashion.
I sidestepped to the right as the guard was about to throw its kunai at me, narrowly missing the kunai which slammed into the space where I was previously, lodged in the wall. As the guard was struggling to pull out the kunai, I took the chance to run at the guard, grabbing my fallen Guandao and activating another skill. This time, my Guandao emitted a bright yellow light. When I arrived at the guard, I swiped at its legs with the butt of my weapon before using the blade to deliver another slash at the chest, followed by a thrust. This quickly depleted the guard's healthbar, resulting in it dissolving into pixels while still impaled with my Guandao.
Kirito's POV
When the guards had split off to confront us, I stood back to back with Yuuki, ready to fight them with her as my partner. The two guards who approached me were wielding a duo of wickedly sharp daggers and two swords. The ones that approached Yuuki held an elegant black katana while the other one held a shield and pike.
"Who should we take down first?" I asked.
"Let's take the guy with the daggers first, he looks too much like Hiyoto." Yuuki responded.
"Hey, I heard that! I look nothing like these futuristic sparring dummies!" Hiyoto indignantly responded as he fought off two guards, one wielding a spear and another wielding a twohanded great-sword.
Grinning at Hiyoto's insult towards the Shadow Guards, I lunged at the one wielding the daggers while Yuuki gracefully fended off the other three guards. I started with an overhead strike, expecting the guard to block it with its daggers. Instead of blocking, the guard merely sidestepped, allowing it to immediately counterattack. I managed to duck, resulting in the daggers aimed at my head to slice at thin air. I activated a sword skill and slashed upwards towards the guard's exposed body. My blade which illuminated with the colour sky blue, colliding with the guard and leaving a nasty wound beginning from its waist all the way towards the shoulder. The guard staggered, momentarily stunned which gave Yuuki enough time to blindside it, delivering a devastatingly fast combo of slashes and stabs that quickly took down the guard. As it shattered into pixels, a pair of swords slashed at Yuuki's back, drawing a cry of pain from Yuuki.
"Yuuki!" I yelled, cursing myself for not noticing earlier. Yuuki had fallen to the ground due to the sheet force of the two swords colliding with her back. She was getting up, but the guard was standing over her, ready to finish her off. I quickly rummaged through my coat pocket, trying to find a spare kunai I could throw. My hands quickly closed in on one and I threw the kunai straight at the guard with one smooth motion. The kunai transfixed itself on the guard's arm, sending it staggering backwards. I helped Yuuki on her feet before standing back to back once more as the remaining three guards circled us.
"I'll take the duel-wielding one while you take the katana one. Deal?" Yuuki offered, eying her selected guard distastefully.
"Revenge?" I asked, trying to guess her motives.
"Yup. That strike really hurt." Yuuki said cheerfully before running at her chosen opponent. I sidestepped an oncoming jab from the guard with the pike before engaging the one wielding the katana. I immediately opened with bunch of sword skills, all of which were blocked. Upping my game, I activated Phantasmal Shift which made my sword fade into an almost invisible state. I aimed another overhead strike which the AI tried to block, only to find that the blade phased right through its block attempt and hit it straight on the head. The guard stumbled backwards, before going on the offensive, lashing out at me with its katana.
Spurred by the sudden aggressiveness of the guard, I promptly forgot that I still had Phantasmal Shift activated and tried to block the oncoming attacks. Like how my attacks phased through the guard's katana, the guard's katana phased through my blade, allowing for the blows to strike me, causing a massive dip in my healthbar. Unable to do anything except attack, I traded blows with the guard, creating just as many wounds and gashes to the guard as it did to me. My sword finally re-entered its corporeal form just as my sword was an inch away from the guard. We both were inside each other's guard and one more blow would decide who lives and who dies.
Tapping my thumb on my sword hand against the blade's grip, I activated a sword skill known as Agility Slash which allowed me to beat the guard in striking first. Agility Slash was a single, heavy sword slash that moved extremely quickly. By assigning an easily executable gesture to it, it allowed for many versatile uses, including activating it at the last second to deliver a life-saving strike or to disrupt another's skill execution. My glowing green sword collided with the guard's chest, dropping its healthbar to zero. The guard's katana went through my body as the guard itself started to glow before exploding into pixels.
"Kirito, watch out!" Yuuki called out as she fought with her opponent. I turned around to see a pike heading towards me. Before I could even move, a purple sword intercepted the pike, deflecting it so that it harmlessly speared next to me. I stared in amazement and shock at how close I was to dying. "I think you need to heal dummy." Yuuki's cheerful voice broke me out of my shock. I immediately followed Yuuki's suggestion, grabbing a health potion and drinking it. Gagging at the bitter taste, I felt rejuvenated and my body stopped hurting. I stared at the guard who almost killed me, raising my sword to fight it.
I decided to play defensive, evading all of the guard's attacks and waiting for an opening. Sadly, the guard seemed to be a little too good at playing defensively and beat me in my own game. I could not find any tangible openings in which I could use to damage it. In my defence – pardon the pun –, the guard had a massive black shield that literally covered half its body. I danced around its attacks, waiting for an opening when Yuuki appeared next to me.
"Finally took down that duel-wielding swordsman. He was really tough." Yuuki commented. "So, how do we take down this guy?"
"Someone keeps him occupied at the front while the other sneaks behind him and attacks him." I advised, sidestepping a jab.
"Ok, I'm gonna backstab him then!" Yuuki said before running around the guard. The guard momentarily turned to Yuuki before snapping back to face me as I charged at it. I started to activate every sword skill I had, wasting them on the guard's shield. The guard simply crouched behind its shield, absorbing every strike, slash, jab and stab I unleashed at it. This allowed Yuuki to sneak behind it and activate her own skill, Mother's Rosario. Though I couldn't really see much, I could see violent streaks of purple flash behind the guard. The guard stood no chance against Yuuki, its healthbar dropping rapidly until it no longer had one. It dropped its shield and collapsed onto the ground before shattering into pixels. The two of us watched the guard disintegrate before high fiving each other.
"Phew. Nice teamwork huh?" I said to Yuuki who was busy drinking a health potion. Yuuki stuck her tongue out in a gagging motion, probably from the bitter taste of the health potion.
"Ugh, what does Kayaba put in these potions. It's like he purposely made health potions suck to discourage its use." Yuuki made another gagging face before she finished the rest of her potion, restoring her to full health while I laughed at her complaints. "But to answer your question, it was pretty good teamwork. We both saved each other from dying, and took out four extremely tough and annoying guards together."
The two of us watched as Hiyoto and Asuna quickly dispatched their opponents, who wielded an assortment of scythes, spears, nunchucks and bare fists? That's right, there literally was a guard who tried to fight Asuna with their bare hands. But you know what they say, never bring a fist to a sword fight. Or something like that, I forget the exact saying. In other words, Asuna was completely and utterly demolishing the guard. The poor guard couldn't even land a single blow before it shattered into pixels, like all of its fellow and now former guards.
Ilda wasn't even trying to fight the guards at all. She casually ducked and weaved her opponents' attacks, hacking or impaling a guard when a window of opportunity appeared. Ilda continued her graceful yet deadly dance for a few minutes, ending it when she accidentally misinterpreted a feint by one of the guards wielding sais as an attack telegraph. That lead to her sidestepping right into the real attack, leaving her with four new stab wounds on her stomach and a red healthbar. Ilda grunted in pain and stumbled backwards, holding her scythe in a defensive position as she looked at her opponents, fear dancing around in her eyes.
The two guards, one with sais and the other with a rapier, stood side by side as they approached Ilda, ready to finish her off. Ilda stood her ground, shifting her stance so that her right hand was gripping the scythe in the same manner as you would hold a boomerang or frisbee when trying to throw it. Ilda drew her right arm back before flicking it, throwing her scythe at the two guards. The throw, by amazing calculations or sheer dumb luck, managed to hit the two guards with the bladed edge simultaneously, killing both of them.
A message popped up in front of me.
Mission: Fighting Shadows
Completed!
Rewards:
1 x [Armour] Shadow Cloak {Hiyoto}
1 x [Weapon] Nightreaver {Asuna}
4 x [Material] Shadow Essentia {Yuuki, Kirito, Ilda, Itu}
Another window soon replaced it.
Mission: Oh Gods No!
Error 304! Something seems to have gone wrong with your request. I wonder what happened?
Survive Cadmus' *cough cough Ares' cough cough* attack.
Reward:
You don't die. Surely that's reward enough?
Snorting at the sarcastic tone of the mission, I dismissed the window, worried about what would happen next. Ilda gave a sigh of relief as her scythe clattered on the ground as her younger brother hurried to her side, giving her a health potion to drink. As soon as everybody's health went back to green, we were seized by an invisible force.
"So, you do have enough power to take out my Shadow Guards. Impressive, I give you that much. But I won't let you stop my conquest for chaos. This…vessel shall be the tool for my chaos. And so…it's time for you to die, meddlers." The king had risen from his throne, holding up his hand like he was using the force on us. He started to repeatedly toss his hand side to side, smashing us into the adjacent walls of the throne room. My vision dimmed, and I started to see stars as I was smashed over and over again by the possessed king. My healthbar moved at a sluggish pace, slowly being chipped at with each collision against the wall. After a while, the king stopped, holding his hand still.
"Still not dead? You truly are powerful heroes. But, you will never be able to fight against me, Ares, god of war, chaos and destruction!" The king, now Ares declared. He moved his hand to make us float back in the middle of the room. "Prepare to die, mortals."
Ares casually waved his sceptre in the air, causing ghostly red swords to appear in front of him, all pointing in our direction. Ares smirked before tilting his sceptre so that the tip was pointing towards us. The swords immediately flew towards us, piercing our bodies and draining our healthbars at a much quicker rate. I gritted in pain as I watched green turn to yellow, and yellow turn to red. At red, my vision received a red tint and a high-pitched beep started to sound repeatedly.
"Here comes the prince of ex-machinas to save the day!" A voice sang out. Suddenly, a dagger embedded itself onto Ares' hand, causing him to drop the sceptre. Ares roared in pain and clutched his sceptre hand with his other hand. Immediately, the swords winked out of existence and the invisible force holding us hostage disappeared, causing us to plummet towards the floor.
"Hey, get up and follow me. I can only incapacitate Ares for a minute or so." A scrawny blonde-haired boy whispered harshly, pointing towards the exit. All of us scrambled onto our feet and followed the fleeting boy through the exit. Yet another ping sounded, and the mission window appeared again.
Mission: Oh Gods No!
Completed!
Rewards:
You're alive! Right?
The display updated itself.
Mission: Run Like The Wind!
Follow the mysterious boy.
Reward:
You progress in this quest. Simple.
Again with the sarcastic tone! Dismissing the window, I started to run after the boy.
"How is he, huff so Kayaba-damned huff fast?" Itu panted, slowly falling behind the blonde's quick pace.
"You already answered the question." I responded cheekily.
"What do you mean?" Itu questioned. I gave Itu a look that said really?
"Oh…But still! How are Yuuki and Asuna…Is Asuna running ahead of that boy? This is impossible!" Itu complained.
"Less talk and more running!" Ilda chided, before emphasising her point by running ahead of us to catch up with Yuuki and the rest of the girls.
"How do they do it?" Hiyoto asked exasperatedly, watching as the boy and three girls left us eating their dust. For the next few minutes, we chased after the boy, dodging guards, traps, doors and pillars as we quickly navigated through the castle. The castle itself seemed a little bland, with a heavily recurring theme of golden coloured features and white walls, pillars and marble columns.
Reaching the castle courtyard made our little impromptu sprint-marathon-race a little more interesting. By that I mean a whole lot worse. At the far end of the two hundred or so metres of courtyard stood a massive metal gate that was slowly closing. And did I mention that the rest of the group was only 50 metres away from it while we were four times the distance away?
"Crap, we're never going to make it. The gate's closing way too fast." I cursed silently and tried to run even faster.
"Thanks, its not like I noticed." Hiyoto sarcastically replied. In a sudden burst of speed, he managed to close the gap between him and the girls.
"Welp, he's gone. Just the two of us now." Itu said dryly.
"I honestly regret not listening to Yuuki when she went on about how AGI was one of the most important stats in the game." I confessed as I saw the gate draw nearer to each other.
"Here Kirito, catch!"
Itu tossed me a yellow vial. I caught it and stared at it, wondering what exactly it was.
"Drink it."
"I'm sorry but my mother always taught me not to drink neon yellow vials that someone, even if it was my friend, gave it to me." I responded. Itu gave an amused smile.
"It's a speed potion. That should allow us to make it through the gate before it closes." Itu explained before popping the lid off the vial and drinking the neon liquid. Suddenly, Itu shot forward with a burst of speed, quickly catching up to the girls. I followed Itu's example, taking the lid of the vial before dumping its contents into my mouth.
Immediately, I began to run much faster, watching as the scenery started to blur. The gates were almost closed now with barely any space in between them and I was fifty metres away. Forty metres. Thirty metres. Twenty metres. Ten. At ten metres, the space between the gates was just wide enough for me to squeeze through. But that gap was shrinking at an alarming rate. Five metres, four metres, three metres, two….one.
Yuuki's POV
Honestly, I was glad that my chosen fighting style was a combination of both agility and power. I wasn't a full-blown agility class fighter like Asuna, nor was I a full-blown powerful, heavy hitting attacker like Kirito. I was more in between, using agility to wear down opponents and to attack fiercely while delivering powerful strikes at my foe when my speedy and aggressive assault created gaps in their guard. And right now, my agility was the one thing that allowed me to keep up with the young, blonde-haired boy leading us to our escape. Somehow, Asuna managed to outrun the boy, constantly slowing down to let the boy take the lead before running behind him, following him until she accidentally overtakes him again.
The boy led us out of the closing gates into the forest where he stopped, waiting for the others. Ilda, followed by Hiyoto came, both of them panting, resting their hands on their knees. I watched as the gates of the castle were closing, worried about the last two members of our party. Just a split second before the gates closed, a blurred figure sped straight towards us, crashing straight into a tree.
"Ow. That hurt." The familiar voice of Itu complained as the figure got up and rubbed at his head in pain. Out of the corner of my eye, I could swear I saw another blurred object speed past us but I thought nothing about it. "It probably was just a glitch or something." I thought, turning my attention to Itu.
"Where's Kirito?" I asked him, slightly anxious for my best friend. He hadn't appeared with Itu and definitely was not with us.
"He..huff…was right behind me. Isn't he here as well?" Itu responded as his sister Ilda patted him down to make sure he was ok. I shook my head in response. "Well, um…he's still stuck inside?" Itu suggested insensitively, earning a hard smack to the back of his head by his sister. "I mean, he should be fine right?"
"So, you're telling me that Kirito," I said calmly, pointing towards the now closed gate, "is trapped inside the castle with a murderous god-complex NPC and you think that my best friend will be ok?"
Itu, Ilda, Asuna and Hiyoto slowly backed off, Itu's hands were in the air in a gesture of surrender.
"Technically its not a god-complex NPC, it is a NPC god." Hiyoto corrected, almost completely oblivious to my anger.
"Shut up." Asuna hissed, elbowing him hard in his ribs. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself.
"You're right. I'm sure Kayaba wouldn't have created such an unfair quest. He probably is safer in there than out here." I admitted, hoping that I was right. But as life goes, Kirito's healthbar started to drop at an alarming rate.
"Dammit, I jinxed it didn't I?" I growled in frustration.
"As much as I would like to worry about Kirito, we need to worry about ourselves now. We have incoming monster hordes and not enough people to deal with them!"
"Monster hordes? That's not good." That thought went through my head as I dew my sword and prepared for battle. A small notice popped up in the middle of my screen.
Quest: Of Gods, Monsters and Men
- - x - - - - - o - - - - - o - - - - - - - - 0
Progress: 24%
Status: In Progress
Rewards:
1 x Labyrinth Door Key
6 x Scroll of Weapon Techniques
? x ?!#
? x ?!#
The text of the notice changed after a few seconds to reveal another notice:
Mission: Ambush at Night
Fend off the oncoming monster hordes for 6 minutes.
Reward:
Why do you always demand a reward?
"Wow, Kayaba must've had a bad day when he was writing the text details for this quest." Ilda commented with an amused tone. A small stopwatch display appeared on the right-hand side of m vision, slowly counting down from six minutes. As soon as the stopwatch hit 5:45, a massive warband of cyclops wielding hammers appeared, charging straight at us.
"Here they come!" Itu warned as he stabbed at the vanguard of the cyclops horde, killing them with relative ease. A huge roar echoed from the forest. I gripped my weapon tightly and prepared for all hell to be unleashed.
But it never came.
I nervously fiddled with the hilt of my sword as I awaited the next wave of mythological monsters to come charging out of the forests. I could hear the faint sounds of monsters wailing in the distance followed by the sounds of disintegrating mobs, but I couldn't see anything.
"Um…Is the quest bugged? Or are the monsters invisible and an invisible defender is helping us fend them off?" Hiyoto asked cautiously, twirling his dagger in a nervous fashion.
"Don't jinx it!" Asuna hissed, roughly jabbing her elbow at his midsection.
"Ow, sorry!" Hiyoto quickly apologised, rubbing his midsection as he did so. I slowly inched forwards towards the edges of the forest, curious to see where the monsters were. The rest of the group followed suit, walking in a tight, arrowhead formation with Asuna and Ilda at the rear. We slowly waded through the thick forest towards the sound of metal bashing each other. Finally, we got through the thick shrubbery, where a few metres in front of us, was a black-clothed figure fighting with several armoured giants, weaving swiftly around the giant metal swords that were being swung at his direction. Thud. Thud. Thud. The ground shook at the impact of each giant metal blade as the two-metre-tall pillars of steel implanted themselves in the ground in attempt to hit the figure. I squinted at the figure, trying make out his face from the darkness.
"I think that's Kirito! No need to sulk about your best friend anymore." Asuna whispered to me as I continued watching the black swordsman duel three giants who were armed to the teeth with spiky armaments. With the grace of a dancer, Kirito waited for one of the giants to thrust his sword tip first into the ground in an attempt to spear him before nimbly running up the edge of the blade and decapitating the giant. The giant crumbled into many pieces of pixels as Kirito accelerated and leapt towards the two remaining giants who lumbered towards him. With blitzing speed, he quickly delivered a barrage of slashes, alternating between the two giants.
Slash. Thrust. Parry. Slash. Thrust.
His arm and by extension his sword was blur of technicolour strobe lights, dancing in between the giants, leaving fresh, glowing red gashes where each strobing sword stroke hit. After a brief but intense barrage of strikes, the giants fell, disintegrating into pixels. Like usual. But before any of us were able to congratulate Kirito, a crimson-red blade jutted out of his chest. I gave a small whimper as I tried to run to Kirito's side but was stopped by the hindering menace that was the shrubbery. I watched helplessly as Kirito's healthbar dropped to nothing, the tiny bar of red he had left disappearing. Kirito dropped to the floor, knees first as his body grew more transparent. He was mouthing some words but blinded by my tears, I couldn't see what he was saying.
A few more seconds and he shattered into a million pixels, never to be seen again. Screaming, I drew my sword and threw it at his assailant. My sword flew in a circular motion, striking the cyclops who murdered Kirito with the dagger. Asuna was trying to comfort me while Hiyoto, Itu and Ilda fought their entanglement to reach Kirito's place of demise. I was on the verge of bursting into tears when I saw something that stopped it. Before I could fully investigate, an alarm-like sound buzzed in my ear. Glancing up half-heartedly, I saw that the timer had expired which prompted another popup to appear.
Mission: Ambush at Night
Completed!
Reward:
[Progression] +1
I feebly swiped the notification away, paying no attention to it at all. Another popped up a second later.
InterMISSION: Back to Base Camp
Follow your guide back to the rebellion base for further instructions.
You'll find some shops for supplies. Trust me, you'll need them.
Reward:
None, I mean, it's not even a mission.
"Hey Yuuki? Are you all right?" Asuna softly asked, drawing my attention. I looked at her for one second before staring at the only piece of evidence I have that Kirito wasn't dead.
"Kirito's not dead."
"What do you mean?" Asuna questioned. "I know you're shocked that Kirito's dead; all of us are. But denying it won't do anything. We need to finish this quest and avenge Kirito." Asuna continued, putting her hand on my shoulder.
"I'm being serious. Kirito isn't dead. Here, I'll show you." I responded, slowly pushing her hand off my shoulder. Asuna crossed her arms and looked at me sceptically.
"Look, Yuuki. I understand your grief. He was my friend too. Your love has just died right in front of–"
"My love?!" I indignantly exclaimed. "What are you on?" Pausing for a second, I continued. "Look, just let me show you my proof. If it's illogical, wrong and stupid, I'll drop it and accept that my best friend is dead. And probably sob, swear blood vengeance and breakdown. Not in that order." I pleaded, emphasising that Kirito and I were only really good friends, not lovers.
"Denial once more." Silica's voice chimed in my head. I really need to see a psychologist because I think I've lost the plot. Asuna sighed and unfolded her arms.
"Fine, show me then." Asuna said in a tone that said she was merely entertaining me and still very sceptical.
"Look at the party health bar. Read out all the names you can see." I ordered, staring at the collective healthbars as well.
"Ok… Asuna, Hiyoto, Ilda, Itu, Kirito and Yuuki. Wait… Kirito?" Asuna's face scrunched up in confusion as she started rereading the list of names.
"See, I told you! He's still alive but where I don't know. I mean, if he died, his name would be removed from our list and even if it didn't, his healthbar would have no colour, unlike his currently which is green again." I said, watching as Asuna smiled, confirming that Kirito was indeed alive and that I was not in absolute denial. "You are in denial" Again, I need a psychologist.
"Hey Asuna, Yuuki! That wasn't Kirito, it was an NPC that coincidentally favours Kirito's horrible fashion taste of black." Hiyoto half-shouted to Asuna and I. I giggled at Hiyoto's joke about Kirito's horrible fashion taste. "That means Kirito– " Hiyoto continued before Asuna and I interrupted him.
"–is alive, yes we know." Asuna and I walked towards Hiyoto, Ilda and Itu, the latter two were grinning in relief as they also concluded that Kirito was still alive.
"So, how are you? Anyone dead? No? Welp, let's get to my base. Let's GOOOOOO!" A sudden, rather high-pitched, child-like voice queued the entrance for the very same blonde-haired person that saved us from Ares. Except that he looks….
"Younger. I swear you looked older." Ilda commented, voicing out my thoughts. The NPC completely ignored our comments, whether it be that he couldn't hear us or that he wasn't programmed to respond to that. The NPC then stood completely still, staring creepily at me.
"Um… ok? Could you stop staring?" I asked, starting to get creeped out. The NPC did not respond and continued staring at me.
"Broken much? Or is it waiting for a key word?" Itu questioned, waving his hand in front of the boy. The boy did not react as expected.
"Ok? Let's go?" Ilda said, grabbing at meaningless possible key words. At once the boy sprang back to life, stopping his stare at me and started his dialogue once more.
"Ok, I'm going to cast a spell. It's going to teleport us straight to the base." Without pausing, he started to chant meaningless words. Well, I think they're meaningless.
"domus rebellionis Ianuae Magicae amplis caeruleum mediocris!" A blue circle started being traced around us, as if an invisible hand was drawing with glowing blue light. As soon as the outline of the circle was complete, the entire circle was filled with glowing blue light.
"Ready, set GOOOOOO!" The boy howled in delight, sticking his palm face up to the sky. A crimson lightning bolt struck his hand, quite literally charging his hand with red electricity.
"Is it just me or is this Kayaba trying to impress us with graphics and theatrics?" Asuna asked to no one in particular. Laughing, the NPC gave no response and struck his hand into the ground, causing the electricity in his hand to spread and surround everyone. The red electricity danced around our bodies, orbiting in gradually increasing pace.
"See you on the other side!" The boy cheerfully said before the electricity imploded on him, winking out of existence.
"Wait, that looks painful!" I complained but my complaint wasn't heard by anyone as my own cocoon of electricity collapsed on itself, plunging me into darkness.
Kirito's POV
Soo… not only have I lost my party, but I've managed to literally stumble across a giant monster horde of cyclops, weird half-snake ladies with bows and literal wolves from hell. Not only that, but my health was on critical red and I have no time to heal before this horde rips me to shreds. Now all I need is greatsword wielding giants, protected with punk-like spiky armour. Scrap that, I think I see silhouettes of said monsters in the background. A quest notification then popped up, something about having six minutes to survive a horde of monsters, of which should be right in front of me.
"I guess I'll have to use my crystal then." I grumbled to myself, grabbing one of my emergency use-only-if-you're-dead-otherwise, healing crystals. "Heal!" I exclaimed, thrusting it into the air. The crystal shattered as my health zoomed back to full health. Now I have exactly two seconds to get ready. Drawing my sword from my back, I barely had time dodge stampeding cyclops wielding an assortment of hammers, swords, spears and a stick? "Where are they going?" I thought to myself, watching as the "first wave" raced past me towards some unknown location to fight an unknown enemy, well… an ally in my case.
Before I could really think about the logic behind the cyclops, a volley of arrows struck me, taking out half of my health. "But I just healed!" I whined before focusing on the battle, cutting down several half-snake ladies before they could fire a second round. About half of the archers had been slain before they could fire a second volley. Firing the second volley, I deflected most of them with my sword, managing to slice a few in half. Before I could counterattack and end the archers, the previously mentioned wolves from hell pounced at me, blindsiding me. That took a good chunk of my health down and now I was near the lower end of the yellow. "Crap, I don't have enough time to whip out a secondary healing crystal. The wolves will keep me occupied long enough for the archers to launch another volley. Even with half their numbers, they probably could finish me off, that's if the wolves don't finish me off here." I thought desperately, trying to find a way out of my predicament.
"Stupid, bloody wolves." I grunted as I used another sword skill to sweep a bunch of hellhounds into the air, giving me a clearance straight to the archers. Jumping into the air, I lunged for the nearest wolf, grabbing onto it and wildly slashing at it until it died. Then I leapt towards the next hellhound, repeating the same thing. Around halfway through slaughtering the hellhounds, arrows started sailing through the air, with a distinct twang sound of a bow. By then, I was falling back to the ground with no way to avoid the oncoming wall of arrows. Desperate, I grabbed the nearest hellhound which was still flailing around and held it in front of me like a shield. Even if it didn't harm the hellhound, it should stop the arrows.
To my relief, it did. "You are of no more use to me anymore." I said to the hellhound as we landed on the ground, plunging my sword into its abdomen, killing it. Without a moment's hesitation, I ran straight at the snake-ladies, intent on finishing them off. The remaining hounds pounced at me, some narrowly missing me, other nipping me on the ankle. Though I'll admit, taking a tenth of my health is not nipping, more like chomping. I ignored the hellhounds and hastily put my sword behind my head, triggering my oldest and most reliable sword skill. Sword Dash.
Crouching, I waited for the two second charge up before being driven forward by my sword, as if an invisible force was pulling sword forwards. I closed the gap between me and the archers, impaling two with my skill. The remaining were quickly dealt with using swift sword skills. Turning around, I slew the rest of the hounds.
After slaying the hellhounds, I saw that one of them had dropped a strange potion with bubbling cyan liquid inside. Picking it up from the floor, I tapped it with my index finger, opening the item menu.
[Item] Potion of Duplication
A potion that creates an NPC version for you to fight with.
Be warned:
The clone is an insta-aggro, meaning that it will attack any monster near its vicinity regardless of your orders.
"Cool. I'm probably gonna end up poisoning myself but what the heck." I said to myself, probably a sign of madness. I took out the cork stopper from the glass bottle and drank its contents. A split second later, a blue wispy thing enveloped my body. "Oh crap, I screwed up. I done firetrucked it this time." Before full panic could ensue, the blue wispy thing surged outwards away from me, forming a perfect clone of me.
"Hi, my name is Otirik." The clone said with the perfect imitation of my voice. Before I had a chance to respond, he suddenly wandered off, his sword drawn.
"Ok, bye then!" I said sarcastically, pausing to drink a health potion before planning my next move. Cringing at the bitter taste, I decided that I would continue wandering the forest to try and find Yuuki and the others.
Walking in a random direction, I suddenly heard a maniacal-like laugh of delight to my left. Moments later, bolts of crimson lightning started to rain at a centralised point, like a beacon. Following the direction of the bolts of lightning, I soon found a glowing blue circle with cocoons of what seemed like red lightning. Curious, I stepped inside the circle, only for more red lightning to come crashing down from the sky and cocooning me as well. My vision started to fade, but for a brief second, I swear I saw Yuuki.
A few seconds later, I could see that my vision was turning from pitch black into something. A cave… with market stalls, NPCs, soldiers and the boy who rescued us.
"So… feel free to shop around in our base. When you're ready to embark on a quest to get some god-vanquishing materials, talk to me down at the ancient temple!" The boy said before running off to who knows where. Beside me, I could hear a groan.
"What happened? Why did the teleport thing take so long?" I heard Hiyoto ask.
A second question was followed up by Ilda. "Where is our guide? Where are we?"
Finally, Yuuki asked the final question. "Where is Kirito?"
"Well, you obviously teleported. The teleport probably took a long time because it was waiting for me, your guide is down at the ancient temple, as for where we are, I'm pretty sure we're at the rebellion base or something like that. To answer Yuuki's question, I'm right here." I answered methodically, taking a step forward towards the rest of my party.
"Kirito!" Yuuki exclaimed, tackling me into a hug.
"Well, we thought you were dead at first. But its good to know that you're back with us." Asuna said, a smile on her face.
"Anyway, our guide said that we could shop and explore for a bit. When we're ready to progress, he said to meet him at the Ancient Temple." I informed them, as Yuuki detached herself from me.
"Well, I do need more potions…." Asuna mused, opening her inventory. "And you're coming with me!" she said to Hiyoto, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him towards the stalls.
"I need to get some healing crystals as well." Itu said, heading off to another part of the stalls.
"I need to go with my brother to make sure he's not being… shady again." Ilda explained before running off to catch up with Itu.
"Well, I don't need anything, do you?" I asked, opening my inventory to find an area map of the base.
"Nope." Yuuki replied, making a popping sound with the 'p'. "We should just wait at the Ancient Temple. Do you know the way?" Yuuki asked, trying to peer over my shoulder. I looked at the area map only to be greeted with the sight of a literal labyrinth.
"What on earth? This place is literally a maze. I think, we should go right at this junction." I said with uncertainty, walking towards the right. Yuuki followed beside me.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME KIRITO?!" Yuuki hollered as we passed the thirty-minute mark, wandering around this maze of a base.
"Yup, I'm lost. I have no idea how we can get to the Ancient Temple." I concede, slumping my shoulders in defeat.
"You know what? I'm going to pull up the map for myself. You're hopeless at navigating with maps." Yuuki went on, opening her own inventory and reading the map.
"It's not my fault this base is structured like an impossible maze!" I shot back.
"Yes, but it's your fault for being bad at reading maps. Look! There's a clear path to the Ancient Temple." Yuuki rebutted, before pointing to her own map and showing it to me. And at that moment, I felt like walking to the nearest wall and doing 50 head bangs. To make things worse, when Yuuki accidentally tapped the Anciet Temple icon on the map, a pathway lit up on the map, in hot pink. You thought that was the worst? You're wrong. Then, in the actual environment we were in, the pathway started to light up with hot pink arrows showing the path to the Ancient Temple.
"Well, that makes things a lot easier." I said. Yuuki simply facepalmed. "I'll race you there?" I challenged.
"Your grave." Yuuki taunted, a grin on her face, a competitive look in her eyes. I swear I'm in love with that– hold up, not going there. I'm sorry, my mind hasn't been quite sane. "Denial isn't just a river in Egypt…" A voice suspiciously sounding like Agil echoes in my mind. I ignored it and instead concentrated on our impromptu footrace.
"Ok, On three, one, two…" With that I ran ahead, my eyes darting around to find the next arrow.
"Oh no, you don't." Yuuki managed to pre-empt my tactic and immediately surged ahead of me.
"Damn, I thought you would've fallen for that!" I admitted, trying to distract Yuuki.
"You've pulled it too many times for that to work." Yuuki said, smirking.
"Well, obviously, the only reason I do that is because if I don't, you'll always win!" I said, trying to find any shortcuts. Sadly, the system already planned the fastest route.
"I appreciate the flattery but its not gonna make you win." Yuuki countered, running faster and faster.
We were about three quarters of the way there when Yuuki decided to go all out. Leaving me in the dust, she arrived next to the NPC within a minute. On the otherhand, it took me two minutes to reach the NPC.
"Someone needs to work on their fitness and stamina." Yuuki said, crossing her arms and leaning on a stone pillar. I gave no response, trying to catch my breath.
"Well, you finally came, we thought you were lost or completely forgot about the quest." Asuna commented, glaring slightly at me more than Yuuki.
"Well, someone needs to go back to primary school and learn how to read maps. Because this idiot," Yuuki said, pointing to me, "got us lost for thirty minutes."
"In my defence I was never good at mazes." I said.
"Defence dismissed. Pitiful." Ilda said, waving her hand dismissively.
"Since when were you the judge?" I asked.
"Guys, we need to focus on the quest. Everyday we are here is another day lost in the real world." Hiyoto said, drawing our focus.
"How long have we been down here anyway?" Itu asked plainly. There was a collective groan before Ilda elbowed her younger brother.
"So, lets talk to the NPC then!" Yuuki cheerfully said before tapping the NPC on the shoulder.
"Hey, so you're ready? Ok, so this temple is where we can get small fragments of a mythical metal known as Hihi'irokane or Scarletitie. Through ancient myths and legends, it has been told that this metal can mortally wound any deity. I mean, it's not legend since we already know about this and also because I used it to save you. But that's not the point. So far, we've never been able to progress to the centre of the Temple as its guardians are too tough. But, we suspect that a giant ore of Hihi'iokane is at the centre and if you can bring it to us, we can craft a weapon to kill Ares with and free our land!"
"Um, ok?" Yuuki said, stepping back as the NPC started walking towards the temple interior. To be honest, the ancient temple was more like an ancient temple ruin. There was a smallish stone courtyard about the size of one football field that was littered with broken stone pillars. At the very centre was a stone sundial, plain and ordinary. The NPC quickly walked up to the sundial and grabbed the hand (of the sundial, you know, the thing that sticks out). He started to turn it anti-clockwise until it was at nine o'clock.
At that moment, the temple started to shake and rumble with two giant obsidian pillars rising from the ground. The sundial itself started to retract into the ground while the pathway in front of us started to form a staircase downwards, underneath the courtyard. At the very bottom was an ominous black door, with two purple pillars supporting it as door frames.
"Here, is the entrance to the Sacred Temple. Good luck!" the NPC explained, before guiding us down the steps to the door where he then stood motionless, beside the door.
"So, is everybody ready?" I asked, touching the door with my hand. A notification popped up in front of me.
Entrance to the Mythicon Metallum Temple
Do you wish to enter?
Warning: You cannot get out of this temple until the task has been completed.
[Yes] [No]
Everybody chorused a resounding "yes". Taking that as confirmation, I pressed the [Yes] icon. The notification disappeared. The doors started to groan and squeak as they slowly opened by themselves. When the door had fully opened, torches started to light up by their own with purple fire. In front of us was an empty corridor. We all stepped inside and as we did, the doors closed shut behind us. A new quest notification popped up.
Mission: Time to steel some metallum!
In order to progress through this overarching quest, you need to go to the centre of this do this, you'll have to defeat the temple guardians of which there are four of Gauntlet Luck!
Progress: 0/4
Rewards:
[Quest Item] Giant Hihi'irokane Ore x 1
EXP x 10000000 (Shared)
[Item] Eternal Flame x 1
"Bad Puns aside, this mini-quest seems relatively straightforward." Itu said, moving on ahead to the end of the corridor. "So now, we face boss number one.". Stepping into the next room, torches started flickering to life again, revealing a rocky room with bright orange crystals lining the walls. In the middle, a giant man dressed in little more than a loincloth and a lion-skin coat, wielding a ginormous wooden club.
"Heracles, the Nemean lion-slayer. I'm guessing he's a slow, heavy hitter." Hiyoto said, analysing the stature of the boss. Heracles, upon hearing his name sprung to life, with red glowing eyes. With a roar he commenced the boss battle, swinging his heavy club around like a madman.
"Spread out, or you'll get hit!" I yelled, ducking as the giant club narrowly missed my head. After a few swings, the boss started to tire, leaving an open window for us to attack.
"There's our window of opportunity, attack!" Yuuki yelled, running towards the boss with her blade glowing purple. "Mother's Rosario!" I followed up her attack with a skill known as Consecutive Fury. This skill made my sword glow a different colour for each hit I managed to land, increasing in damage until I was hit or stopped hitting, the combo window being three seconds. Slashing furiously, I saw in my peripheral vision that the others were unloading all their skills as well, colours glowing in an assortment of different colours. Once my strike count got to 50, Heracles started to move again.
"Crap, he's recovering, fall back!" I warned, running backwards. Everyone managed to retreat except for Yuuki, who was still performing one of her sword skills. Before Yuuki could do anything, Heracles grabbed Yuuki with his hand, leaving Yuuki to squirm under his grip. Slowly wriggling his hands, Yuuki's healthbar started to drop rapidly, with Yuuki crying out in pain. After a few seconds, Heracles threw Yuuki towards us with enormous force, damaging Yuuki even further to the point of being in critical health.
"Yuuki, are you all right?" I asked, running over to her and tipping a health potion into her mouth. Yuuki staggered onto her feet, using my shoulder for support.
"Ow, his grip attack really, really hurts. It's almost as if he was breaking all the bones in my body." Yuuki replied. Looking back at the boss, I could see that we had lowered his health down to half-health. Heracles grunted loudly, casting his massive club aside.
"PUNY MORTALS! I AM HERACLES, SON OF ZEUS AND NOW YOU SHALL TASTE MY LIGHTNING!" Heracles bellowed, forming a giant sword made of crackling electricity in one hand while creating a ball of electricity in his other.
"This isn't good, I have a feeling that we can't block any of his attacks." Ilda advised, holding her scythe in a crouched position.
"Incoming, first attack!" Yuuki warned, jumping to the side as Heracles brought down his giant electric sword towards where Yuuki had been. Circling Heracles, I tried to figure out a strategy in taking the boss down. After a few heavy swings with his electricity sword, Heracles started firing balls of electricity at us, the balls being the size of gym balls. The worst part is that they were hurtling at what seemed like the speed of sound, making extremely hard to dodge.
I started to run straight at Heracles, signalling for Ilda and Itu to do the same. Instead of a confused response, Heracles countered our strategy with a low swing of his sword, barely touching the ground. I jumped up with Ilda just in time to dodge the attack but poor Itu was caught in the attack, which sent him flying towards the wall. Ilda immediately pounced towards Heracles, managing to pull off a scythe skill, leaving some nasty wounds near his neck. That was until Heracles swatted Ilda like we would to a mosquito or fly.
Taking advantage of Heracles' concentration on Ilda, I pressed my attack, activating a few different skills in line with each other. The first was most trusty Sword Dash, followed by the Reversal Tri-slice and finally Vertical Square. At the end of my final skill, in which four identical sword slashes expanded outwards towards the boss, I saw the boss surround himself with his cloak. Looking at his healthbar, I could see that he was in the red zone for his final healthbar.
"This is it, let's finish him!" Asuna yelled, charging at the boss with her rapier. That was when things went badly. The cloak which he surrounded himself in seemed to be impenetrable, with none of our attacks doing any damage to him.
"How are we supposed to kill him?" Hiyoto asked as he tried repeatedly stabbing the cloak to no avail.
"Target his head!" Itu said, pole-vaulting using his Guandao to reach Heracles' head. From there he started to stab at his head, causing the boss' health to drop. With a few more hits, Heracles was finished, shattering into a million pixels.
"Well, that's boss one done! Three more to go." Yuuki said, drinking a health potion. A small notification popped up.
Progress: 1/4
Suddenly the torches extinguished themselves, only to relight themselves with a cyan flame. In front of us, where previously there had been nothing was another room, this time in the shape of a triangle. In the centre of the room stood a warrior clothed in purely ornate and golden armour, complete with a triangular golden shield and a curved golden sabre.
As we stepped inside, the warrior gave us a curt bow before assuming a battle stance.
"Prepare to die. Your lives are forfeit. I, Chrysaor, son of Poseidon will send you to a watery grave." With that, Chrysaor charged at us, his sabre moving at a ridiculous pace. So fast that I wasn't able to parry nor block most of his attacks, leaving me with half a healthbar. While Chrysaor was distracted with me, Yuuki and Asuna took the opportunity to strike at Chrysaor's back. Ilda and Itu struck his sides while Hiyoto dragged my wounded body from Chrysaor. Chrysaor took serious damage from that assault, but unlike Heracles, he only lost a quarter of his total health.
"Very well played. But now, I assure you, your doom arrives!" Chrysaor snarled as he jumped back towards the centre of the room. Twirling his sword menacingly, he tossed his shield, like Captain America at a nearby wall. Instead of crumpling at the wall, it started to bounce off the walls.
"Are you kidding me? So we not only have to dodge the shield but face Chrysaor with his insanely fast attack speed?" I exclaimed, gritting my teeth as I drank another health potion. Ducking to avoid his ricocheting shield held up sword in a guard. Chrysaor suddenly started to use sword skills, his sword alternating between cyan and dark green as he switched between rapier and sword skills. He approached Itu using a Sword Dash skill followed by a Quadruple Pain. This fast and deadly combo left Itu defenceless as he started taking massive hits to his health, only able to parry two of the four jabs delivered by Chrysaor. Before anyone had a chance to assault him from behind, Chrysaor switched targets to Yuuki, sabre glowing cyan. Instead of seeing Yuuki get demolished by Chrysaor's blinding attacks, Yuuki managed to parry all four of his Quadruple Pain jabs before stopping his backhanded Reversal Tri-slice.
"Switch!" Yuuki yelled as she moved backwards, allowing for Hiyoto to switch in and deliver a devastating knife attack that dropped Chrysaor's health to half way.
"That is it, you have now earned yourself a painful death. I summon thee Dolphins!" Chrysaor yelled, raising his sword into the air. At once, several dolphins with pirate sabres and eye patches spawned around him.
"Are those dolphins that look like pirates?" Asuna questioned in amusement, raising her rapier.
"I think so." Hiyoto affirmed, flipping his knife grip so that he was holding them backwards.
At once, the dolphins started to charge at us as Chrysaor stood in the middle, charging some sort of water-based attack. The dolphins weren't as agile as Chrysaor, which was a relief. As such, we dealt with them pretty quickly, aiming for abdomen attacks as they mainly focused on head-guarding and striking, leaving their lower-half exposed. As the last dolphin crumbled into pixels, Chrysaor let loose his charged attack. And that attack took form of several water swords hovering in the air before being sent flying towards us. And wave after wave it went (no pun intended). There simply was no stop to his endless barrages of flying water swords.
Taking a gamble, I decided to charge at Chrysaor head on, just like I did with Heracles. Unlike the Heracles attempt, this one was actually successful as Chrysaor heeded no attention to me, instead sending more and more water swords at my friends. Thrusting my sword into Chrysaor, I noticed that all the water swords immediately burst into harmless raindrops. Expecting a retaliation from Chrysaor, I quickly withdrew my sword and stepped backwards with a guard. But instead of seeing Chrysaor deliver crushing blows at me, I saw a stunned Chrysaor with one health bar left.
Just like that, everyone else started to attack Chrysaor, managing to kill him before he was able to attack ever again. As he shattered into pixels, imitating Darth Vader's "Nooooooo", we all drank our potions and checked our inventories. As like before, another small notification appeared briefly before fading away.
Progress: 2/4
Then the torches flickered out again, plunging us into darkness. The torches then burst into normal orange flames, revealing that we had somehow teleported into a circular room with what seemed like ice on the roof.
"Welcome to the inner sanctum of this temple. We assume that you're here to obtain the giant ore. Sadly, father has tasked us to guard it just in case you used it to permanently slay him." A voice echoes throughout the room. We looked around but saw no one. Suddenly, shadows formed in the middle of the room to reveal two figures. One had a black cloak covering his face. In fact, he looked like a Ringwraith. The other wielded two swords and was dressed in blood red robes. "Prepare to die mortals. We, Phobos and Deimos will be your doom!"
"Wow, what's with the dramatic boss monologues?" Itu asked, impatiently tapping his Guandao against the ground.
"Impertinent Mortal, don't interrupt us! Now prepare to face your fears." The Ringwraith, whose healthbar identified as Phobos snarled. Interestingly enough, the two brothers had only two health bars, which made our lives much easier. Opening the boss battle, Phobos decided to shoot what seemed like purple wisps shaped like ghosts out of his hands. They slowly meandered their way towards us. Deimos on the other hand, zoomed in like a homing rocket and started to swing his swords like a mad man. Leaping out of the way of Deimos, I started to slash at the ghosts, wondering if they would be destroyed with normal attacks. Surely enough, the wisps disappeared as my sword came into contact with it.
"Asuna, Hiyoto and Ilda, can you deal with Deimos? Yuuki, Itu and I will deal with Phobos." I ordered, leaping towards Phobos, who was sent reeling by Yuuki's Mother Rosario.
"Got it!" Ilda said before moving in to intercept Deimos, block his strike mid-motion. Focusing my attention to Phobos, I parried Phobos sword strike, calling "Switch!". Itu surged forwards, using his Guandao to pierce Phobos' hand. This was followed up with a flashing green blade slicing at Phobos' chest. Phobos fell backwards, clutching his chest as his health bar plummeted to half health.
Phobos started to chant creepily. "ignis ardentem flammam gladii potestatem metus meis!" With an emphasis on the last word, his sword caught on fire. In the abyss of blackness that is his face, a glowing red eye appeared, glaring sinisterly at us. With a battle cry, Phobos swung his sword at us, as if he was chopping down weeds. I was caught by surprise and hit several times by the burning blade. That resulted in my health plummeting straight down to red and a new status effect placed on me. Burning.
With panic, I desperately grabbed my healing crystal, intent on healing myself before the burning effect could kill me. And I just made it on time. Yelling "Heal!" I saw my vision tinting red, a sign that I was about to die. The crystal shattered in my hand into pixels as my healthbar rose up and along with it, the status effect removed.
Wanting to warn my friends, I shouted: "Watch out for Phobos' attack. He'll cast a burning status effect on you!" Phobos obviously seemed to be annoyed that I had spread information about him and so focused his attacks on me again. Blow after blow was aimed at me, of which I managed to dodge or block with my blade. This gave time for Yuuki and Itu to sneak up behind it and unleash their most powerful weapon skills on him, killing him. As the final blow was landed on Phobos, he screeched a painful sound, similar to the screeching of Ringwraiths when they were burning. As if the game read my mind, Phobos' cloak caught on fire and started to disintegrate his cloak.
"Noooo, Brother!" Deimos yelled. "THAT'S IT. YOU ARE DEAD." With this, Deimos grew two more arms, making his grand total of arms with swords to four. Swinging the back two hands at ridiculous speeds, he charged at Itu and Yuuki, intent on slicing and dicing them. Too bad Hiyoto, Asuna and Ilda had managed to finish of his healthbar before he reached them.
"Father, I have failed you." Deimos said, looking up towards the ceiling. With that, he plunged his sword into his chest and exploded into a giant fiery explosion. When the explosion had cleared, we were left with a pedestal, which on top housed an orangish ore the size of trash can. A notification popped up.
Progress: 4/4
Another replaced it.
Mission: Time to steel some metallum!
Completed!
Rewards:
[Quest Item] Giant Hihi'irokane Ore x 1
EXP x 10000000 (Shared)
[Item] Eternal Flame x 1 {Yuuki}
The sound of players levelling up sounded. I had gone up by one level. Itu walked towards the pedestal to grab the ore. When his fingers touched it, it disappeared, presumably into his inventory.
As we were walking back towards the entrance of the temple, talking about the bosses, Yuuki asked me about something in her inventory. "Do you know what the Eternal Flame does?"
"Why, did you receive it?"
"Yeah, but it won't give me any details." She replied.
"Well, I don't know either. Guess we'll investigate it further after this long quest." I said, sheathing my sword, realising that I hadn't done that but was walking with it in my hand the whole time. As we exited the temple, another notification popped up. Yuuki was first to make a comment.
"You've got to be kidding me."
That's it for chapter 12.
12,551 words.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please feel free to leave a review for feedback or suggestions. Any feedback is appreciated.
See you next time on the Tale of Zekken and the Beater!
Peace be with you all!
~Herosassin