I really have to work on the speed of my updating, shit. Suppose it's my own fault for getting into new anime... oh, and in advance, this chapter sucks.
Enjoy!
Congratulations!
Kirito doubled over as the boss of the 97th floor fell back and exploded, panting and trying to regain control of his breathing. He slowly looked up at the corner of his HUD to look at his health, which rested at a reddish-yellow. Kirito's health had not been that low for a long time, and it made him feel nervous seeing it that low. The 97th floor had been a deathtrap in of itself, riddled with false flooring and walls that were covered with spikes and closed it on them.
"Glad that's over." Asuna said, also catching her breath. "You okay, Kirito-kun?" He nodded at her question, finally standing back up straight.
"Yeah, just winded." he reassured, watching the rest of the clearing group heal up and check their armor. The boss of the 97th floor had a weapon coated with armor degrading poison, so it had been a difficult boss to beat. Kirito opened his menu and scrolled down through his endless assortment of items to find his healing potions, using up a few to restore himself to full health. He would have used a crystal as he had more, but potions required time to heal you, so they were best for out of battle healing. It occurred to him that others may be having a shortage of said healing items, but there wasn't much they could do about it now.
"Everyone okay?" Klein asked, earning more than a few half-assed answers. "I get the terrible feeling we won't make it to that checkpoint outside the palace." The place Klein mentioned seemed like heaven to Kirito. Before he had disappeared, Kayaba mentioned the area to them, saying it would save their progress from the last few floors so they could go back to the other floors and get what they may have needed for the final battle. Kirito observed the clearing group's weary faces as they healed and talked calmly among themselves, but Kirito could sense how tense everyone was. They weren't the only ones, after that floor.
"Kirito-kun?" Kirito jumped and whirled to find his partner at his side. "Are you sure you're alright? You seem troubled.
"Ah, it's nothing." Kirito excused, making her frown at him. Damn, caught red handed.
"Don't lie." She replied. "Tell me."
"*Sigh* alright." Kirito rubbed the back of his neck as he watched her. "I'm worried is all, about the last two floors. The difficult jumped exponentially from 96 to 97, so..." Asuna nodded and placed a hand on her chin as she thought.
"I can see what you mean." Asuna agreed. "But we're here, so there isn't a lot to worry about."
"That's exactly what I'm worried about, Asuna." He said, careful to not let anyone else hear his words. "We both almost died during that fight. You were in the red, I almost was." Kirito frowned at her, which caused her to do the same to him. "If the game gets any harder, we'll have a problem. Not to mention I don't think anyone stocked up appropriately for this extended clearing period."
"Hm, yeah..." Asuna said, leaving her sentence hanging as she thought. "We'll just have to be careful, I guess."
"Careful is putting it lightly." Kirito said back, leaving their conversation to address the clearing group. "If you're all ready, we can keep going to the next floor." he got a collective nod from everyone else, so Kirito walked up to the teleportation gate.
May 12th, 2025, Ruby Palace Courtyard
As soon as the clearing group landed on the 98th floor, Kirito raised an eyebrow at the extravagance. The floors pathway seemed to consist of hedges, which they would get to by walking on the solid gold bridge flanked by statues of Heathcliff. As they walked over the bridge, Klein leaned over it and whistled as he ran a hand across the statues.
"Woah, how much col do you think we could get if we ripped this thing out and brought it back with us?" he asked, causing more then one chuckle from other players.
"More than you need, Klein."
"Come on man, you're rich enough!"
"Don't get greedy for money so late in the game, Klein." Kirito opted to ignore the others as they talked to each other about Klein and the statue, a topic he really couldn't care less about. He was focused on making sure they didn't get caught in any sort of deadly trap like last time, but that almost seemed unlikely given the floors peacefulness so far.
"This place is so calming, right Kirito-san?" Silica asked, casting the player a big smile. Kirito nodded.
"Too calming if you ask me." he replied quietly, waiting for something to jump out at them at any second. He hated jump scares. Just as they rounded a corner of the hedge, A squad of Heathcliff's Guard was patrolling and spotted them, initiating an attack. However, unlike the ones before on other floors, these ones line up and advanced slowly, defending against all forward attacks and slashing players during their drawback period.
"What is that?" Asuna asked, breaking the silence that had enveloped her since they ascended to the next floor. "It's like they've evolved their strategies. The others one below just rushed uselessly." Kirito knew she was right, the mobs were using a more advanced strategy than before. He watched as the others rushed ahead and kept making the same mistake of trying to attack head on, which just got them hit.
"Either it's the difficulty increase or they learned from our other strategy." Kirito shook his head as another wave of attackers got thrown back. "Stop rushing senselessly! It's not going to do any good."
"What do you suggest?" Agil asked, which made Kirito think for a minute. Finally, Kirito got an idea.
"Hold on." Kirito drew his blades and rushed forwards like everyone else. The difference was, however, that when Kirito was about to swing, he paused and stopped his attack. Like Kirito predicted, the mob assumed he had been stopped and moved the shield to attack, which Kirito used as an opening to attack. As soon as he managed to deal with the one that he'd tricked, the rest of the wall of mobs quickly fell apart when a hole opened up. It took all of twenty seconds after Kirito broke though to finish them all off.
"Well," Asuna said, watching the last of the Guard explode. "That was...unsettling. The fact that the had more of a strategy then a head on assault."
"Being careful, huh?" Kirito asked, but gt no reply as Asuna continued to stare at the ground. Deciding against asking her what was wrong, as she clearly wasn't listening, Kirito turned to the path and walked down it, everyone else close behind. A few more mobs in similar formations attacked after that, but were quickly dispatched after Kirito learned how to deal with them. As they continued on their way, Kirito's mind drifted back to how difficult the last floor had been. Despite being hung up a first, the mobs were really not that hard to deal with.
After a few hours of senseless attacks, the clearing group found themselves in a small clearing. There was a fountain in the middle of it, and no mobs popped out to attack, so Kirito was willing to bet it was a safe zone. After giving the order that they were taking the chance to rest, the group dispersed to find a decent spot of dirt to sit in. Kirito, however, watched the southern part of the small opening, away from everyone else. His thoughts about difficulty had led him to strange fears about the following floor, and obviously the fight against Kayaba. So far this floor was disproving his difficulty theory, but he didn't want to risk being stupid and thinking that.
"Kirito." Kirito turned at the sound of his name being called, seeing Klein walking up to him. "What are you doing, man? You're just standing over here by yourself."
"Just thinking." he replied quietly, turning back around. "About our progress, mainly."
"Ah, don't think about it too much." Klein replied, crossing his arms. "we'll get to Kayaba fast enough."
"I know." Kirito said, "I'm just worried about how long it'll take until we see something we can't handle."
"Don't talk like that." Klein scolded.
"Same to you." Kirito replied, watching Klein fidget. "Saying that we won't see anything we can't handle is foolish." Klein watched him seriously for a minute before he laughed.
"I'm just trying to lighten to mood, man." he said cheerfully, and Kirito rolled his eyes. "Anyways, you should go and get some sleep."
"I'm fine."
"Maybe so, but we can't have one of our best players sluggish from lack of sleep. Go and rest, the others will watch the border." Kirito didn't want to rest, but he didn't plan on arguing with Klein either, so he caved and walked away from Klein. Spotting Asuna's sleeping figure from afar, he made a beeline towards her. She was probably using sleep as an excuse to get away from her own worries, which he could understand. Lying down next to her and resting his head on his arm, Kirito forcefully shut his eyes and allowed the system to send him off.
"Kirito! Kirito!" Kirito's eyes snapped open and he sat bolt right up, which was a mistake. On top of almost head butting Klein, he inhaled a lot of smoke and began to cough uncontrollably. Observing the area around him, Kirito paled.
"What the...?!" Kirito began, observing the carnage around him. The hedges were on fire, sending out the smoke that limited Kirito's ability to breath. The whole clearing group was under attack by an uncountable amount of Heathcliff's Guard, all of which teamed up on the separated group to systematically take them out. "What the hell is going on?"
"A sneak attack, of all things!" Klein shouted, an angry look on his face. "What were you saying about difficulty?" Kirito knew what Klein meant, but this was on a whole other level than what he had imagined. A sneak attack while players slept? He'd only experienced this once before in the Castle of the Ancients, but it wasn't in such numbers. He could see players getting swarmed by the Guard, and he could tell already there was no fighting this.
"Where's Asuna?!" Kirito asked, realizing his partner wasn't where she had been when he'd gone to sleep.
"I don't know, man!" Klein shouted in reply. "You look for her, I'm going to help!" Kirito nodded and ran a different direction then Klein, helping out anyone he could on his way. No matter how many Kirito killed however, three more sprung up in it's place. At this rate, the whole clearing group would be wiped out.
"Asuna!" Kirito shouted, looking for her chestnut hair anywhere as a sign. "Asuna! Where are you?!" Kirito's chest began to constrict with worry as he checked around the area, still not able to see her anywhere. There was a small chance that she had perished in the sneak attack, but he didn't want to believe that. "Asuna! Asun..."
"Kirito, we got to get out of here!" Kirito whirled around to find Klein behind him, dragging him away.
"I haven't found Asuna!" Kirito roared in reply, trying to free himself from Klein's grip. The older player was having none of it however.
"We don't have time!" Klein said. "We have to leave, there's no other option!"
"But..."
"Kirito, stop!" Klein turned and grabbed Kirito by the shoulders, glaring at him. "If we don't leave, everyone is going to die! I have no doubt in my mind that Asuna if fine, but we don't have time to look, I'm sorry!" Kirito watched Klein with conflicting emotions, before he looked down and sighed.
"...Fine."
Asuna wasn't among those who had escaped. Kirito had quadruple checked, and she wasn't among them. Their group consisted of Klein and his guild, some Knights, and some of the Alliance. He was quite certain that in the confusion, people had just looked for any players to escape with. Only after the attack did they discover that was the way the area was set. To lull people into a false sense of security, then invade with such numbers that you had no choice but to retreat and run. Kirito had heard the whispers that the rest of the players had escaped in another group, which gave him a little bit of hope that Asuna was with them. He wasn't sure what he was going to do if she wasn't though. One thing he was sure of, however, was that the whispers he kept hearing on the subject pissed him off.
"Hey man, what's up with Kirito?"
"Do you see Asuna anywhere?"
"Wha...? Oh shit..."
"Yeah. People are saying she's gone."
"That...no, surely not."
"You never know man, there was a lot of mobs. She didn't have Kirito to watch her back."
"What the hell was he doing?"
"Sleeping, I hear."
By far the worst part of the whispers was that Kirito felt like they thought he couldn't hear them, despite them being the only two talking and being directly behind him. Every word out of their mouth was true, but he didn't want to admit it. If Asuna was dead, it was because he was sleeping. Although it wouldn't have been hard for Asuna to wake him up, she hadn't. Had she been killed before she herself had woke up?
"Hey, don't listen to them." Kirito looked over at Klein, who had leaned closer to him. "I'm sure Asuna's fine. She's more than capable on her own."
"I know." Kirito replied quietly. "I'm still going to worry." he was silent for a minute as he weighed Asuna's odds, before he sighed. "How much longer until we get to the boss room?"
"Maybe, like fifteen minutes," Klein said, observing the huge door in the distance. "Depends on how many more times we get attacked." Kirito nodded in understanding, going quiet as oppose to continuing the conversation. He also blocked out the people whispering behind him, mainly because he didn't want to listen to that. As they got closer to the boss room, he though about the rumors of another group that ha escaped. It was totally possible obviously, but how many other pathways were there to the boss room? Unless they had taken a completely different path, Kirito was certain that it wasn't true. On the other hand, however, he had to believe in hopes Asuna would be with them. Just as they finally got close to the boss room, Kirito could hear talking.
"We have to go back! there may be survivors all alone!"
"That'd be pointless, we'd just get attacked again!"
"Enough!" Kirito's eyes widened. "As much as I want to go back, we can't! We have to keep going for everyone we lost." Just as Kirito and the other rounded the corner, they saw the other group already standing in front of the door. Silica was there, as was other Knights and members of the Alliance. As they got closer, people began to take notice, and shout happily in relief.
"Look, there they are!"
"You guys made it!"
"I knew there were more survivors!" Kirito ignored the majority of people swarming them, looking for a certain person in particular. Just as he was about to give up, he saw a flash of chestnut through the crowd, and pushed his way through.
"Asuna!" The flash stopped moving and turned, and Kirito saw her worried face flush with relief.
"Kirito-kun!" Kirito was slightly taken back when she tackled him with a bone crushing hug., happy sounds coming from her mouth. "I was so worried, I thought I..."
"...Lost you, I know." Kirito replied, giving her a comforting squeeze. "But we're fine." Asuna left the embrace and smiled at him happily, nodding enthusiastically. "So, looks like everyone who survived made it." Kirito said taking a quick head count before he paled and choked.
A grand total of forty people stood before him.
They'd lost forty people in that ambush.
"What's wrong, Kirito-san?" Silica asked, noticing the look on his face.
"We..." Kirito stuttered. "We lost forty people..." Other people did a head count as well, and slowly came to the same realization. "Just how many will we lose in this boss fight, and floor 99?"
"Don't dwell on it." Asuna said slowly, obviously trying not to do so. "We need to keep going." Kirito nodded weakly and walked towards the door with her, pushing it open.
At first it was nothing dark and depressing, like Kirito was expecting. Rather, it was a large courtyard with a fountain in the center of it, water flowing from the thing god Heathcliff was holding. As they advanced, Kirito could see the generic making of a boss area. The area was cut off in all directions by a flow of water, and a bridge on the opposite side of the area was up, presumably to drop once the boss was defeated. As soon as the last of the group crossed the bridge, it went up quickly to avoid anyone leaving.
"So we win or die." Klein muttered, drawing his sword. "Perfect." Just as Klein finished his sentence, the area began to glow. As the glow faded, Kirito looked out over the area, now faced with a few hundred of Heathcliff's Guard. Right near the back of the army, a small figure stood solitary, health bars showing up over his name.
Heathcliff's General.
"That General in the back is the boss." Asuna said slowly, as the General paced back and forth slowly. "I'm willing to bet he's not actually going to fight us."
"So what's the plan?" Klein asked.
"We have to play heavy defense for a little." Kirito said, loudly enough for everyone to hear. "We can't risk losing to many more people." Just as he said it, the general pointed forward and shouted in a language Kirito didn't understand, causing the army in between him and the General to start advancing, using the same shield in front strategy as before, just with ten times the mobs. Kirito couldn't find any opening in their advance, which only made it worse.
"I have an idea." Asuna whispered to him, and he leaned closer to her. "If we can take that General out, these lesser mobs will fall into disarray, making them easy to kill."
"Great idea." Kirito replied. "We could actually try it if we could actually get close to him, there are way to many of these mobs for us to get close enough."
"He's probably really weak." Klein said, butting into the plan. "Just has a big army to compensate for it" Kirito knew this was most likely the case, but the others were failing to realize the span of the army in between them and the target. Kirito began to swing as the army got close enough, and spotted what they needed.
"Opening to the left!" He shouted. "Start moving, together! We need to get to the General!" The general shouted something no one understood, and the army spread out to fill the gap, effectively cutting them off
"Well, shit." Klein grumbled and blocked an attack aimed for his head. "Now what?" Kirito didn't have an answer, he was too busy fighting off mobs. However, one thing caught Kirito's eye. Just as they started to kill off a decent amount of the mobs, the openings in the ranks became more apparent. The General was just ordering them to fill in the gaps left by the fallen.
"Asuna!" Kirito shouted, turning to the girl slightly. "When I say so, boost forward towards the boss and attack him!"
"What?!" She shouted in return. "There's too many..."
"Trust me!" Asuna grunted and nodded, and Kirito waited for his opening. He sliced a mob in two, and he saw it, a clear shot. "Asuna, now!" Asuna boosted past him and right at the General, who didn't have enough time to order a counterattack. Asuna's rapier went right through his midsection. Asuna and the General disappeared behind the wall of Heathcliff's Guards, and Kirito waited. Just as he had begun to wonder what had happened, the mobs stopped moving and looked around quizzically, probably looking for orders they weren't going to get.
"Now!" Klein shouted, and they took their turn being on the offensive, hacking and slashing their way through the Guard. Finally, the last one was defeated, and Asuna stood behind the whole army, a solemn look on her face as she observed them.
"What's the matter?" Kirito asked her, and she sighed.
"We lost ten more people." Se said slowly, watching Kirito realize this as well.
"Damn it..." Kirito hissed, clenching his fists.
"Well, let's hurry up and clear the next floor so we can take a break." Klein said, trying to get their minds off of it, but to no avail. Kirito and Asuna walked behind the rest of the clearing group, both feeling heavily responsible for all the losses.
"Kirito-kun." Kirito looked over at Asuna as she addressed him.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"I have an idea." She said, the look she gave him never being more serious. "And I wanted to ask you what you thought about it."
"...Alright." Asuna nodded, but looked around worriedly.
"Not here, later. When we can get away from everyone." Kirito raised an eyebrow as he watched Asuna run ahead, activating the teleportation gate.
Just what does she want to ask me...?
Asuna being all secretive again, huh? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, leave a review!