«Floor Twelve: It's (not) a Reunion (?)»
«Alright, everyone, time for another World Meeting.
From Yao.»
Everyone in the group received this message as soon as they woke up. They all decided to stay for a night at an inn the previous day, after arriving at the 74th floor sometime in the late afternoon. Tired and exhausted, everyone wanted some rest before heading for the dungeon located outside the city.
Until now, Arthur still remained distant from Alfred, his grudge against him didn't wane at all. Rather, it grew stronger as the days passed by to the point that he thought about killing him more than once during their journey up the floors. But he kept this from everyone, especially from Alfred and Matthew. He did think about revealing these dark thoughts to Matthew, but he knew that Matthew trusts Alfred so much that he'll definitely tell what's on his mind.
He's too weak to keep any secret Arthur thought, after deciding not to tell Matthew about it. I'd rather die than let Matthew bottle up those things inside him and spill the beans.
Before he could think about doing the same to Francis, he quickly chose not to as well. Francis? No, fuck that he added. He may be good at keeping secrets, but I don't trust him that much.
As for Alfred, once he read over Yao's message, he didn't get up for a minute. He wondered why Arthur would still refuse to talk to him; he already knew why, yet he couldn't comprehend why Arthur couldn't simply accept it and move on. Even he knew how he behaved toward him, especially during the boss battles.
It's as if I don't exist to him he pondered to himself. At some point, he needs to spit everything out. Not only to me, but to everyone...including Matt. And I don't care if needs to be hurtful; I just want him to talk to me again.
Without a word, he slowly got up and dressed.
And you, Matt, he muttered quietly, I hope this next boss wouldn't put so much burden on you. Ever since the 50th floor, I knew there was something wrong…
Once everyone gathered in Yao's room, which was also shared with Ivan, the World Meeting began.
"Now that everyone's here, let's start," Yao began. "First of all, this will probably be our last meeting together before we meet Kiku for sure."
"I'm just surprised that we'd actually make it this far," Ludwig said, facing each person one by one. "If we didn't think about saving Kiku, I wouldn't know why I'm even here in the first place."
"I don't think I'll survive for this long, too," Feliciano agreed.
"Well, at least, we're here now, right?" Alfred asked the two of them. "He's one of your close friends. Trying to know whether he's alive or not, that's enough for a motivation for both of you."
"That's true," Ludwig replied, nodding.
"I don't know much about him, but he's a country like us," Francis said, after a short pause. "I can't imagine what will happen if a country dies, whether in a virtual world or real life."
"Kiku can't die, not in a world like this," Arthur cut him off, finally speaking up for the first time. "He's too stubborn to die. It would be a really shitty excuse for him to simply die here."
Stunned by this, everyone gazed at him with widened eyes. It's not that Arthur cursed twice to describe Kiku, but it's the fact that he would speak up that took them by surprise.
Of course, Arthur couldn't understand why the others are staring at him that way.
"Okay, it's not like I would never talk to all of you forever," he blurted out, trying to shake off the awkward silence. "Let's just keep going with the meeting, alright?"
"We're just glad that you're coming back to your senses again," Francis replied, grinning at him.
"Well, what you said not long ago was definitely not true," Arthur answered back with a smirk.
"Come on, you guys, focus," Yao called. "Anyway, yeah, Arthur's right. I don't think kiku would die so easily. But moving into another subject, about the 74th floor boss…"
"Let me guess, another tough boss?" Francis asked, crossing his arms.
"Yes, but there's more than just being a tough nut. Everything inside the boss room will be really useless...including Matthew's ability to point out weaknesses."
Damn, I knew it! Alfred realised. Without knowing it, he found his fists tightened into a ball, only to find his palms lightly covered with blood. I knew this was going to happen!
«Hey, Al. Are you okay? You don't look good.»
"Hey!"
"He's not lagging, is he?"
"Nah, can't be that."
"Yo, wake up!"
"What?!"
When Alfred composed himself once more, he saw everyone's terrified faces.
"Now, now," he said. "It's okay. Something just came up."
"You knew about it, did you?" Yao asked him, shaking his head a little. "I thought so, too."
"Is there a way for us to change anything?" Arthur suddenly yelled. He stood up and stomped his foot on the floor. "We can't just let Matthew sit there and do nothing!"
Francis stood up as well and tried to calm Arthur down, before he could anything further. "Come on, sit down," he muttered to him. "We're thinking the same."
Yao swiped his menu and skimmed on the guide and his player menu for a minute. But despite finding any information, there was no way to change the system. "I can't do it," he said, restraining his voice into an angry yell. "The security level is too high for me break through. Even if I can change the settings for a bit, I'm afraid that I would risk breaking the entire game itself."
"How bad would it get?" Ludwig wondered.
"He would end up killing everyone here in Aincrad, plain and simple," Alfred replied. "You, me, Matt...everything, all gone."
"What a terrible way to die," Ivan said, finally speaking for the first time.
"No, we can't do that," Feliciano said. He tried to calm down, yet he's failing. "We have to see Kiku first!"
"Damn it!" Arthur yelled. "If there's nothing that Matt can do…"
«Everyone» Matthew spoke up, «it's going to be fine. I haven't thought of anything that I could do for now, but I'll think of something. I promise I would help all of you, so we all can meet Kiku on the next floor. I'll keep my word.»
«I may not be helpful at this point» he thought, «but I want to keep everyone together. I don't want to see anyone leaving again. Or worse, everyone going on their separate paths…»
«It's not just me who wanted to see our friend again….I'm sure our friend would want to see us, too.»
"Then we'll keep our share as well," Alfred replied back, grinning a little. "Now let's return to the subject...what will be our boss?"
"Let's see…" Yao skimmed through the guide once more. "Well, other than the fact that we can't use crystals and that Matthew's ability is useless at this point, our enemy this time is capable ofsword skills. But not only sword skills, this one also uses something else, like it can shoot beams out of their mouth."
"Okay, so it's a tough enemy, alright," Alfred said, leaning back a little. "What's our plan?"
"Wait, you've never been here before?" Francis wondered suddenly.
"I only knew the floors below 70. So all the bosses that we've faced so far from «Floor 71» up to here, I only heard it through rumours." Alfred scratched the back his head in embarrassment. "Sorry."
"No wonder you didn't say much during the boss battles," Arthur muttered.
"Anyway, I think we can start with the heavy-hitters, Ivan and Ludwig so we can see just how strong it is and how much damage we can afflict," Yao began. "If it starts acting oddly, we'll have the quick-hitters, Feliciano and Francis, to find out its defense. Arthur and I would still remain as the backup, and Alfred would at least find some weak spots while he's also fighting. My guess is that Matthew should stay as far as he can and try to set a strategy on defeating the boss. He won't point out the weak spots, but he can observe the movements. If he can do that during battle, then that's as best he could do as an "invisible" player." Then he paused. "To be really honest here," he continued, "the guide doesn't really mention anything about the boss, so yeah, I'm making quite a gamble here. I don't think I even need it at this point either."
Without a word, he went to his inventory and dropped the guide.
"And if we do end up defeating the boss," he said, "we'll make it into our own guide. So I guess tomorrow is the day."
"Yeah, it is," Feliciano agreed.
"I can't believe we're seeing him tomorrow," Arthur added.
"He's waiting for us up there," Francis said.
"Let's get some sleep," Alfred decided, standing up. "We leave at dawn."
Everyone was silent as they got up just before dawn. As they headed down to get some breakfast, no one still spoke up. There was no way to tell if it's because of excitement or mere sleepiness, yet today was the day.
On their way to the floor Labyrinth, Yao led the way. Although he didn't need the guide anymore, he referred to it after examining the faintly drawn map. He also heard rumours on their way that there should be a forest close by, in order to know that the dungeon is near. The town and the forest itself takes about half an hour. Between the forest and the Labyrinth, there would a meadow of blue flowers. Right ahead would be the entrance, carved on the one of the mountains.
Since Yao decided not to stop, everyone arrived by the entrance, exhausted and a little out of breath from walking.
"Hey, Yao, let's stop for a minute," Francis said. He placed his hands on his knees as he spoke.
"If we wait, we're just delaying ourselves from seeing kiku," Yao replied. Then he paused. "We can take a break before we head inside the boss room."
"Fine."
Once inside, they found themselves in a rather dark, yet somewhat colourful room. Everything seemed to be made from a kind of obsidian-type of stone, as the walls and the floor have thin white lines that run along the path. Here and there were patches of different colours, mostly multicolour, as well as white dead-looking trees that resemble more of spindly fingers than a tree.
"You know, for a Labyrinth, this one looks rather pretty," Francis said, admiring the place.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's a safe place," Arthur answered. "There could be some monsters wandering about here."
"Arthur's right," Yao agreed. "The Labyrinth shouldn't be any different the previous ones downstairs, so keep alert."
"Seems like a good idea," Ivan replied, reaching to hold the handle of his sword for a moment before letting it go.
It wasn't long before they had a first encounter, which is a lone «Demonic Servant». It didn't have any skin, as it looked more of a skeleton, but it can't be underestimated as it carries a shield and a sword.
"Huh, looks like we got company and something to do now." Then Alfred drew out his sword. "Anyone wanna help out?"
"I'll go," Feliciano chimed in, already brandishing his rapier. "Let's go."
Rushing at the enemy, Feliciano attacked with «Star Splash», in which he swerved in a zigzag motion before giving three quick jabs at the chest, then adding two more strong slashes at the legs and another jab up and down. But before he could add the last hit, the enemy managed to react just in time and raised its shield, blocking it.
"That's not fair," he muttered. "«Switch»!"
"Alright!" Alfred joined in. He blocked the first few attacks, before dodging it and landing a «Horizontal Square», quickly ending the fight.
"Why use a mid-level attack on a high-level enemy?" Ivan wondered aloud.
"It doesn't even look like the boss for me," Alfred explained, shrugging. "It looks more of a level 70 character than random enemy. That's too weak for me."
Without a word, they walked on.
"Hey, when we actually meet Kiku," Feliciano spoke up, "how do you think he would react?"
"I think he would be surprised that we would reach this high," Francis suggested. "Unless of course, he wants to duel with him and prove that we're right."
"But what if it's not Kiku that we meet?" Ivan asked.
Silence. Everyone stopped in their tracks. No one, including Alfred, thought about not meeting Kiku, but meeting someone else instead. In fact, finding Kiku was their only reason they dove into Aincrad in the first place. But now that Ivan asked an unimaginable question, there's really no way to answer it.
"Then we came here for absolutely nothing," Arthur finally replied.
As they kept going, they could see a door at the end of the path, with one other field boss blocking the way. Like the «Demonic Servant», this one also wields a weapon and also carries a shield. It noticed them once they're close and soon enough, everyone's monitors read the enemy as the «Lizardman Lord», which looks like a human-like lizard with blue skin and red eyes. It wears a helmet and breastplate, along with a curved sword as its primary weapon.
"My turn now," Arthur said, drawing his sword out. "Wanna help me out anyone?"
"I'll go," Yao answered, following suit.
The enemy began the fight, only for Arthur to quickly block the attack and counter with «Sharp Nail», his newly acquired sword skill. After the block, he moved his sword from his bottom-right and made a diagonal slash to the top-left, followed by a horizontal slash to the top-right and finally from the top-right to the bottom left. At that point, the «Lizardman Lord»'s HP was reduced to half.
"Okay, Yao, you're next," Arthur called out, turning towards him. "«Switch»!"
"I got it." Then Yao rushed up to the enemy, made a slash from left to right and back. Although it had two hits, it only consisted of one sound made from the attack.
"What was that?" Alfred asked, widening his eyes. "I saw two hits, but you made it look like a one-hit."
"It's a sword skill that I've been working on for a while," Yao replied, sheathing his sword. "It's called «Snake Bite». It would've been more suitable for rapier users, though, not one-handed sword ones."
"So based on how fast you execute it, it's probably a high-level skill at that," Ludwig said.
"Exactly." Then he began to walk on. "Now let's just hope that there's a safe point before we could head inside the boss room."
Soon enough, they passed through the barrier that marks the safe place. After a few minutes of rest and adding some final changes into the plan, they headed inside.
But what they found instead completely took them by surprise.
There was a large corpse lying in the middle of the room. It had dark blue skin, a pair of mountain goat's horns and a tail that looked like a cobra. Its weapon, which is a large Zanbato sword, lay a few meters from the body. Yet before the group could even take a step forward and find out whether it's been beaten, the monster quickly shattered into pieces and disappearing into air. Realising that there was someone or something in the room waiting for them, everyone kept their guard up and drew out their weapons, looking around to see if they would notice something strange.
"Why does it feel like something bad's going to happen?" Francis wondered quietly, gripping his sword.
«Al», Matthew called Alfred, lightly tugging on his sleeve, «I have a really bad feeling about this place...as if Kiku isn't even here at all.»
But before Alfred could ask what Matthew and Francis meant, he was cut off.
"Hello, everyone. Did you miss me?" an unusual, yet very familiar sound rung out from the other end of the room. "I did not think we would see each other again!"
Then out of the dark was a young man with short black hair. He wore a white formal-looking uniform and on his left hand was a katana, kept inside a black sheath. At first, it looked like Kiku to everyone, but there was something very different about him.
"Don't even bother finding your friend here in Aincrad," he continued with a dark smirk. "He's been gone for a while and I've been here since."
After trying to figure out, Alfred suddenly realised who he was.
"No, it couldn't be…" he began. He gripped his sword tighter as his eyes widened in fear.
Soon enough, the others found out.
"So it is you," Ivan said.
"Yes, I'm back," replied the young man. "The 'other' Kiku."
Sorry in advance about Ivan and Matthew not having much speaking roles and for the amount of profanity here, especially to Alfred and Arthur.