Chapter 20: Stone
Kirito went flying backwards and hit a tree trunk. The loud crack of the otherwise solid-looking tree made Asuna wince as Kirito rag-dolled to the ground before staggering back to his feet. Checking her own healthbar in the top left of her vision, she saw that she was in the high-yellow; relatively okay. Kirito's health was approaching mid-yellow; still okay.
The forest floor shook, tearing Asuna's focus from Kirito to the source of the sound. Standing at slightly more than twice her height, and taking up about three times as much space as her, a hulking humanoid of rock stomped into view. It looked as if someone had taken a large, close-to-square-shaped rock, and attached longer, but equally as thick rocks to the underside and sides of it, resulting in a rock-man. The only indication that the rock-man was indeed alive, was found on the smaller square-shaped rock on top of the body. Right in the middle of the head, evenly spaced from each other and shaped exactly the same, were two triangular holes, that both glowed red.
The forest floor shook again as the Stone Golem took another step. Asuna and Kirito had figured out about two minutes into their fight that the Stone Golem was slow-moving, and decided to use that to their advantage. However, just as Asuna had suspected, the Stone Golem took no damage from their weapons, no matter how hard they tried. They had danced around the Stone Golem for a good hour, slashing and stabbing until they tired; it was then that the Stone Golem struck. Fatigued from their hour of useless combat, Kirito and Asuna both found that dodging the attacks of the Stone Golem was much harder, and took heavy blows.
"Kirito!" Asuna called out. A few trees away, sword still in hand, Kirito looked at Asuna, his attention successfully caught. "We can't continue like this! We need to fall back and get a better plan!" Kirito glanced at the Stone Golem, still several minutes away from being able to swing at either of the two again. After self-concluding that his head had no more ideas after hitting a tree-trunk, he turned back to Asuna and nodded.
Kirito sheathed his sword on his back before he started to jog towards Asuna. "That way," he said, pointing to somewhere past Asuna. He jogged past Asuna and Asuna followed, soon to emerge into an open-field that the Stone Golem was coded to not be allowed in.
Asuna was capable of running much faster than Kirito's pace, especially with her Wind Rider cloak, but she kept her pace even with her wounded partner's. Out of breath and out of energy, Kirito was grateful that Asuna stayed back with him as they jogged to safety. The light seeping through the trees got gradually brighter and brighter as the two neared the edge of the forest, until the trees suddenly ended and a small field was laid out in front of Asuna and Kirito.
A soft 'thump' was heard as Kirito sat down in the grass of the field, panting for breath. Asuna sat down beside him, and materialized a sandwich from her inventory, which she then handed to Kirito.
"Thanks," he said in-between pants. He took the sandwich and took a regular-sized bite out of it before materializing a potion from his inventory. "We should heal up," he said, lifting the potion in emphasis.
The materialization of a second potion signaled that Asuna had gotten the message, and both potions shattered into blue rectangles as Kirito and Asuna both downed their potions. "Well that was terrible," Asuna began.
"Yeah."
"Our weapons did nothing."
"Yeah."
"We need a new plan."
"Yeah."
Asuna materialized a sandwich for herself before turning and looking at Kirito, quickly learning the reason for his repetitive answer; he wasn't done with the sandwich yet. Asuna gave up on conversation and bit into her own sandwich. How are we supposed to beat a giant rock? Next to her, Kirito took a large breath of air, signaling to her that he was done with the sandwich. Ah well, I'm not done with mine yet, so I guess I'll give him the second one I brought for him. Asuna paused her eating and materialized another sandwich, which she handed to Kirito.
"Thanks," Kirito said as he took the sandwich. Eating much faster than before, Asuna knew that Kirito was back to normal. She glanced at their healthbars in the top-left of her vision, and confirmed that the both of them were now very near full health.
About ten seconds later, with all three sandwiches gone, Asuna reattempted to start a discussion. "So how are we supposed to beat that Stone Golem?"
Kirito looked at the sky, watching the passing clouds as he thought. "I'm not sure," he started. "I think that if we're high-enough level, our weapons will do damage just fine, but as for now… there's probably a built-in way to beat the Stone Golem at this point, since no 'Quest' is made to be impossible." Kirito stopped talking, lost in thought as to what that built-in way could be.
"Did you notice any possible weak spots?" Asuna asked.
Kirito shook his head.
"Yeah. Me neither."
Kirito replayed the events of the fight in his head. "I don't recall anything ever doing any damage to him."
"Yeah," Asuna agreed. "The most we did was apply a knockback effect, which was when you charged at it head-on, and that cost you half of your health."
Kirito sat silent for a moment, staring at the grass in front of him. "Knockback effect…" Kirito's head shot up. "That's it! Asuna, the knockback effect!"
[Time Shift]
An hour later, Kirito and Asuna both found themselves in the forest again, the Stone Golem in sight. "Asuna, any questions on the plan?" Kirito drew his Emerald Blade.
Asuna drew her Silver Stinger. "Nope."
"Alright, let's do this." Kirito stepped forward, into the boundaries of the 'Quest'. The large rock in front of Kirito started to rumble, before standing up, and opening its glowing-red eyes. The healthbar appeared above the Stone Golem, along with its nametag. Seconds after the nametag appeared, Kirito jumped backwards to avoid a swing by the Stone Golem.
"Alright Asuna, this is the easy part of the plan." Kirito ducked another swing from the Stone Golem and ran under the arm and past the Stone Golem; Asuna quickly followed, not having to dodge anything.
The ground shook as the Stone Golem took a step, now out of swinging range of both of its opponents. "This is going to take a while," Kirito told Asuna.
[Time Shift]
About an hour later, Kirito and Asuna had had the Stone Golem follow them up a mountain path, which was, Kirito now realized, purposefully not outside of the 'Quest Zone'. Kirito reached the peak of the mountain first, quickly followed by Asuna. Looking back down the path, the Stone Golem was seen not far behind.
"Man, his pace didn't even change once we started hiking," Kirito commented. Luckily, Kirito had expected something similar to this, so he set the pace so that both he and Asuna would have plenty of energy for the next part of the plan.
"Ready for phase two of the plan?" Kirito turned to Asuna, who was drawing her Silver Stinger. She looked back and nodded. "This is the hardest part of the plan," Kirito warned. "But I'm pretty sure it should work."
The ground rumbled once again as the Stone Golem started to reach the two of them. Kirito drew his Emerald Blade. "Asuna, take the front to make sure aggro goes to you," Kirito directed. Kirito took up a new position farther away from the steadily approaching Stone Golem, while Asuna stood right where the Stone Golem would be soon. Silver Stinger at the ready, Asuna prepared for her part in the plan.
A few rumblings of the ground later, the Stone Golem was in range of Asuna. It swung horizontally, to which Asuna responded by ducking. Asuna dodged a vertical swing next before jumping backwards, forcing the Stone Golem to take a few more steps. Kirito had silently moved his position, and was now standing a good distance behind the Stone Golem. Asuna dodged another vertical swipe of the Stone Golem and jumped back again. Just keep the aggro, and keep it moving forward.
Kirito only watched as the Stone Golem followed Asuna. He had insisted that he have Asuna's current role in the plan, but Asuna had countered by saying that he was the only one who had successfully triggered a knockback effect; the knockback effect was crucial to the plan. So he watched on, nervously, reading the Stone Golem's every move and hoping Asuna was doing the same as she dodged.
During a break in the Stone Golem's attacks, Asuna glanced behind her. Not much room left before the edge of the peak. Although not high enough to have any snow on the peak, the cliff side of the mountain was 90 degrees, and high enough to kill any fool who fell down. Better stop jumping, she decided. She turned back to the Stone Golem, who was readying a horizontal strike. Asuna ducked, letting the strike fly overhead before she took a few steps back, luring the Stone Golem a step further. Just a little more, she thought.
Just a little more, Kirito thought. The grip on his Emerald Blade suddenly got tighter, and his muscles tensed. Almost there... He raised his Emerald Blade up to his head, pointing it as Asuna would with his rapier, and holding it with both hands.
Asuna dodged yet another attack and stepped back further, her feet almost at the edge of the cliff. Kirito's Emerald Blade began to glow as he used a sword skill. The Stone Golem took one last step towards Asuna, close enough for the plan to work. Kirito waited. Asuna has to get around it, and then I do my part. Asuna repeated the plan inside of her head too, and watched as the Stone Golem readied another vertical strike. She dodged to the right as it came smashing down, but the ground shook terribly as the blow connected with the edge of the cliff. Asuna landed her dodge, but was sent to all fours as she lost her balance on the shaking ground.
The ground started to crack, and it became increasingly more obvious that everything was about to fall. Kirito remained in his previous stance, sword glowing with a readied sword skill. "Asuna!" He yelled. "Get off of that! It's going to collapse!" How was I supposed to know that the cliff side was coded as 'Destructible'?!
Asuna got to her feet, intending on leaping away from the shaking ground, but only stumbled a few steps before another vicious crack of the ground put her back on all fours. Kirito rushed forward, sword no longer glowing. The ground started to give, starting with the ground underneath the Stone Golem, who went into a freefall of the mountain. Nothing but rocks down there, Kirito thought, panicked. We made sure of that so that the plan would work. Asuna frantically crawled towards the crack in the ground that represented stable ground, while Kirito ran as fast as he could towards Asuna.
However, the ground gave before either of the two could reach their goal. Asuna's hand reached, outstretched, towards the stable ground as she started to fall towards the same fate as the Stone Golem, but Kirito was too far; there was no magic movie moment where he caught her hand as she fell.
Kirito continued running as he accessed his inventory, storing his Emerald Blade quickly and scrolling frantically for another item, pressing buttons by muscle memory as he focused on the now-expanded cliff side a few feet in front of him.
The world had turned to slow-motion for Asuna. She could see her hair as it flowed past her, like a parachute for her head that had opened the wrong way. She watched as bits of earth flew past her, as she fell back-first, watching the ground above her as it got smaller and smaller. I guess this is the end, she realized. I was never a survivor in the first place… She slowly began to close her eyes, accepting her fate, before a sudden streak of movement caught her attention. Realizing what it was, her eyes grew wide with surprise.
Kirito had jumped off of the cliff. His face was hardened again, in battle mode, and he was falling much faster than Asuna was, having angled himself to fall face-first. In his hand, were two blue rectangles. He soon caught up to Asuna as she fell, and pressed one of the blue rectangles inside of her hand; the world returned to its normal speed "Hold it!" He yelled above the wind. "And say: Teleport! Town of Beginnings!"
Asuna had no idea what he was talking about, but decided to do it anyways. Yelling as loud as she could, she gripped the blue rectangle tightly. "Teleport! Town of Beginnings!" She heard Kirito do the same next to her. As soon as she finished her sentence, she was enveloped in blue light, and looked to the side to see Kirito enveloped in the same light. Before she could ask what was going on, her entire field of view turned blue, and sound stopped. A second later, Asuna found herself staring at a paved, stone brick road.
What… just happened? Her mind was going sluggishly slow, and nothing seemed to make sense anymore. She turned to her side, and saw Kirito, who was attempting to tell her something, but she could hear nothing. She watched as his mouth moved, but no sound came out, and soon, just like her ears, her eyes gave out. She felt the same sensation of falling once again before her consciousness left her.