Authors note: Sorry this one took me longer than the others. It is the largest chapter yet - clocking in at over 11k words. Enjoy :)
-Kazuto's POV-
I remember nothing other than a few muffled voices and the feeling of being moved around. Ever since we were rendered unconscious in the game and presumably being transported to god knows where by Herara and his team, I've faded in and out of consciousness more times than I could count. Nevertheless, I knew we were moving, however I wasn't sure as to where, or how. After what I assumed to be a day or two, the inconsistent feeling of motion stopped, and I stood dormant within my pod, completely oblivious as to what was going on around me in the real world. It took a while, but eventually, my eyes began to blink open as I saw the familiar blue sky of floor one above me.
"Geez." I mumbled and rubbed my eyes. "What the hell was that?"
"Hmm?" I heard a soft voice hum from next to me. I quickly turned. Asuna. She lied there on her side, both hands held up to her chest as if she was cuddling them. Heh... She was always cute when she slept. I brushed some of her hair from the side of her face and whispered her name quietly, urging her to wake up.
"Asuna... Asuna wake up."
"H-Huh? Kirito?" She asked before her eyes even opened.
I smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder, rubbing it gently. "You're always so confused when you first wake up. It's kinda funny."
She groaned and sat up, rubbing her face between both hands. "Were you watching me?"
"Ha... No. I just woke up, too."
"Creep." She groaned subtlety.
"W-What? I'm your boyfriend! How does that make me a creep? Besides, I said I wasn't watching you."
She let out a chuckle and playfully nudged my shoulder. "Looks like we were right. We were defiantly moved, huh?"
"Yeah..." I sighed in what I could only assume to be an emotion lying somewhere between mystified and dissapointed. Nonetheless, it showed on my face. "Just like the original SAO."
Asuna rested her head against my shoulder and grabbed my hand, holding it in her lap. "I'm not worried, Kazuto."
"What? Y-You're not?"
"Of course not. Every time anything like this has happened, we've pulled through. I'm not saying that I'm not taking this threat seriously, but I know that as long as I'm with you and everyone else, we'll be okay."
"Oh god..." A familiar, yet obnoxious voice groaned before I could respond. Asuna and I glanced over to see Love, his arms straight up in the air in what looked like some sort of weird stretch. "How long was I out?"
"I'm not sure. I think we were all out for a couple of days." Asuna answered with a scratch of her chin.
"A couple days?" Love echoed in disbelief. "What the hell even happened?"
"Our bodies in the real world were moved, just like the original SAO." I confirmed.
Love's eyes hopped around in thought. "Oh yeah, I remember that..." The teen opened his inventory and began scrolling through his many items. Once he reached the bottom, his jaw dropped to the floor. "UGH!"
Once again, Asuna and I gave Love a strange look at the sudden influx of disparity in his voice.. "What is it now?" My girlfriend said half heartily.
"My blueberries expired." The madman sighed. "All of our food items were corroding even though we weren't playing."
I nodded as if to say 'duh'. "Well yeah. We weren't logged off, otherwise we'd be dead."
Regardless, Love threw his head back to the ground and moaned like a child. "God dammit. This game is just..."
Asuna nodded and her lips pursed. "I'll speak for all of us, Love... Screw this game."
"Just say it... You're an adult, you're aloud to say curse words. You don't have to censor yourself." Love pressed.
"No. I can control my language unlike you." She smiled, knowing the madman would argue with her, thus making him hilariously angry. It's not like there's anything else to do, as everyone else was still asleep. "Besides, none of us other than you really swear. At least, not intentionally."
"You all act like old people." Love said vacantly as he began plucking blades of grass from the ground one by one, a hand propping up his chin.
After a few more minutes, Klein and Silica awoke, asking the same questions that all bottled our minds - How long has it been? What happen? - Again, we had no answers. It feels as though we should have our own word that indicates when we're clueless since it happens so often. I wish I had the knowledge we seek, whatever that is. It took time, but Lisbeth and Sinon finally came to, allowing us to recuperate and prepare to head out again. If everyone really was unconscious, then that meant the raid party within the dungeon was as well.
During our trek, Love, who insisted upon leading, began humming and quietly singing a song under his breath - even going so far as to move his shoulders and arms very subtly as if he was resisting the urge to dance.
"What song are you singing?" Silica asked from behind him.
"Just a song I used to listen to when things felt bleak. It helps me get in a better mood." The madman responded.
"Oh... Would you like to share it with everyone else?" Silica teased with a chuckle.
"I'd rather die."
"Me too." Sinon said quietly. "If you sing as good as your personality, our eardrums would surely cease to work."
Love calmly grumbled something under his breath and clenched his fist as if to keep himself from indulging in another argument with the blue haired girl - something the pair did fairly often. I didn't want to be the mediator between the two. One of them was an explosive madman with no filter or any self awareness, while the other was a calm, collected girl who didn't take anything that she deemed as nonsense. Either of them could verbally dominate me whenever they wanted to, however they were always so caught up in arguing with each other. I suppose that's a good thing. The pair didn't seemed fazed by what one another said, probably due to their shared levels of confidence.
Finally, after a few hours total, we reached the base of the mountain, and therefore, the entrance of the first floor dungeon.
"It's so... Nerve racking. Are we sure we wanna just waltz right in there?" Agil asked. Despite his nervous tone, he stood with his dominate shoulder facing the cave, indicating he was ready to stand his ground if anything were to come racing toward us.
My lips curved downward as I began to continue forward, un-phased by whatever potential danger lied ahead.
"Hey uh..." Asuna said just loud enough for me to hear.
I spun around, noticing that no one was behind me beside Love. "What? Usually there would be mobs out here." I explained. "Since there clearly ins't any, that must mean the the raiding party has already been through here."
Asuna pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a subtle sigh at my compulsion. She knew I yearned for action, and perhaps she was growing impatient with my brash decision making. I can't say I blame her. I know that I can be childish and sometimes even a bit stupid at times, but I'm only doing because I want to protect her and all of our friends.
"Are we still sure that we want to just walk right in?" Lisbeth asked. "I'm with Agil. We should still take some precaution. We don't know how this game works, so anything could happen at any given moment."
Silica and Sinon murmured in agreement. Klein on the other hand just gave me a nervous glare. I felt something at that moment, like a sting or a stab in my chest. It hadn't occurred to me that these people, my friends, were just blindly following everything I did. Why? Why were they doing that? Was it because they thought I was still the strong, high-level player I once was during the original SAO? Surely not, I was the same level as them after all. This whole time, their faces spoke uncertainty and misdirection, yet their feet carried them along with me where ever I went. My brain told me that they only did it because they were afraid, and clung onto me because they wanted a leader ion these desperate times. However, in my heart, there was the idea that they only followed because I was their friends. They didn't want to see me get hurt by something that they could have prevented. As I stood before their frowning faces, I felt my stomach turn. I'm such a jerk. I've forced them into this situation with consulting them once.
Though I knew that my words most likely meant nothing at this point, I hesitantly spoke up over the deafening silence. "O-Once this is over and we're on floor two. Let's find a nice big house to rent and take a few days for ourselves."
A few faces lit up, much to my relief, however Asuna and Klein did not look convinced. I meant what I said - if things went okay during this mission, we could rest for a while. It seemed as though they were looking deeper into me, and scorning what they say - whatever that was.
Just as I thought this, a dastardly wail of horror emitted from the cave, sending a shiver down my spine.
"God da-" Agil began to stagger back in fear. "This is exactly what I was talking about, man!"
"That must be the raiding party! They need help!" Lisbeth declared with a hand on the hilt of her sword. Seeing this indicated to me that she was prepared to rush in and fight whatever lie within. It gave be a wave of confidence to know that at least two people would be willing to charge in - that being her and Love.
"Let's go." I said firmly, beginning my march towards the dungeon. Asuna and Klein were the only reluctant followers. They stayed behind the group, weapons drawn nonetheless. Once we entered, the cold dingy cave echoed the currents of wind that blew ominously throughout the rugged interior. Luckily, it was fairly wide open and room, giving everybody room to walk. It appeared as though all of the mobs had already been slain and hadn't yet respawned - that is, if they were even going to respawn in the first place. Most of the cave was just a compilation of tall, wide corridors that led to arena like labyrinths were large scale battles would take place. Thankfully, we had nothing to worry about in that regard. Our mission was only to resupply the raiding party, nothing else. The air grew colder and a light began to shine deeper down the corridor we were currently in.
"H-Hey!" A desperate sounding woman's voice called. "You're the resupply team, correct?"
As we stepped into the aura of light, it was clear that we arrived just after a small skirmish. In total, there were five people, three of which were on the ground breathing heavily and sported worried looks. They all seemed young, probably in their early twenties. One of them, who was the one I assumed to be the one who called out to us, had dark purple hair and a defined jawline. Her height was also something to behold, standing nearly in equivalent to Agil - our tallest party member. No doubt this woman was leading the raid party.
"That's us." Klein said proudly. "We brought potions and a few repair kits for your gear." He requested a trade with the woman and handed over all the items we received from the players back at the starting town.
The tall woman let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. My name's Harriet. I'm the leader of this expedition into the dungeon. Here's me thinking no one would show up to resupply us. I wasn't sure what to think once we woke up from... whatever that was..."
"Are you talking everyone suddenly passing out?" Asuna asked softly.
"Yes. I was fearful that the mobs within the dungeon had respawned, thus forcing the lot of you to fight your way through hordes of mobs just to reach us. Had that have happened, we'd have less potions to go around."
Agil stepped forward and smiled. "Well there's no need to worry now. With this, you should be able to defeat the boss, right?"
Harriet glared intently at the ground beneath her. "Had you asked me that a few hours ago, I'd have said yes." She locked her gaze with mine, her eyes saddened and weak. "We've lost people during this raid. Good people. Our numbers have dwindled from eight to five in the matter hours. Our odds have certainly decreased."
My friends and I shifted uncomfortably at her words. I spoke against the deafening silence, "Well. How much further until we reach the boss room?"
The tall woman spun around and extended her torch bearing arm forward, illuminating the wall behind her. I hadn't noticed until now, but before us was a large, grand door made of a dark wood and lined with what appeared to be brass. It was nearly identical to the boss doors in the original SAO. Seeing it again instilled a sense of dread within my heart, especially knowing that I was no longer as powerful as I once was. Whatever lied beyond this door had the potential to kill anyone of us. "This is it. We don't dare to set foot inside in our current condition. My party and I are leveled up to the appropriate threshold to take on the boss, however the fear of the unknown has chinked our armor."
Love leaned forward from behind me and whispered into my ear. "Kirito."
"Yeah?" I murmured.
"Does she mean metaphorical armor or like... their literal armor?"
"Metaphorical." I confirmed quietly.
The madman nodded, "Oh okay."
I lowered my head in thought, trying to come up with an efficient solution to our problem. Clearly the most obvious choice was to volunteer our aid and help them defeat the boss, however that would only reinforce my belief that I was consistently opting to throw my friends and I into harms way. "What can we do to help?" The question I asked was broad, however my subconscious saw this as a good thing. Perhaps Harriet wouldn't immediately jump to the idea that I would be willing to partake in the upcoming battle with the floor boss. At the end of the day, if it was my choice, I'd have already declared my participation in fighting, however I had the opinions and thoughts of my friends to take into account as well.
The purple haired woman hummed and placed both hands on her hips. The metal she wore clanked against itself as she swayed back and forth on her heels. "I'm confident in my party's ability to clear this floor. All we need is a few minutes to recuperate."
The exhausted looking men behind her glared at the back of her head in disbelief. It was clear that they wanted to call it quits and come back another time. This was their life that was on the line. Despite this clear fact, Harriet had declared that they were to stay. Leaving now would be cowardly and would no doubt grant them a permanent leave from the guild, their name tarnished by a brand of shame.
Harriet continued. "Before you arrived, we were attack by a group of trash mobs that seemed to appear out of nowhere. They killed one of our best fighters, Issac. I'll be damned if I return to the guild with nothing more than dead party members and some gold dropped by lesser mobs. No, we clear this floor. Right here, right now."
Behind her, the looks of her party members grew more and more worrisome. Regardless, they mechanically rose to their feet and drew their swords. At the very least, they seemed as though they wanted revenge - apparently the death of their friend effected them enough to deem vengeance a viable reason to push forward, as I'm sure anyone would.
"For if we don't. Their death would be in vain." The woman placed her hand on the large brass door handle and pulled with all her might. It opened with a horrible grind as it dragged against the rocky ground. Much to my surprise, the boss room, from what I could see behind the other raiding party, was very well lit and looked much like the room from the first floor during the original SAO. I took a step back next to Asuna.
"It's the same room." I said quietly.
She nodded, a similarly surprised look on her face. "Yeah... I wonder if that means the boss is the same too."
"I hope not. Last time, that boss gave us a run for our money. We even had more people back then and we still just barely squeaked by."
Harriet and her raiding party stepped inside the labyrinth and carefully glanced around at their surroundings.
"Well the player base as a whole is better now. We've learned from past mistakes." Asuna remarked whilst nervously watching Harriet and her party inch their way further and further into the boss room. My mind urged me to draw my sword and follow the raiding party, ready to fight. However the presence of my friends held me in place.
From the vast emptiness of the boss room, a wrenched growl vibrated the air. Suddenly, it appeared. The first level boss. Before I even began to analyze its features, I glanced over it's name. To my shock, instead of regular unique name like most bosses had, this one was simply a line of jumbled up code similar to the ones you would find in random game folders. Then... I saw the boss. As suspected, this was not the boss from the original SAO, as made evident by it's drastically different model. This creature was a tall, skinny humanoid that wore a black cloak and large black boots. It's arms reached nearly to it's knees, giving it an abnormal look. Most horrifying of all, however, was it's mask - or at least, what I assumed was a mask. It looked like the face of a horse or an elongated rabbit head, yet it sported human teeth in what looked like a forced smile. Part of the mask was hued in a dark red, and it;s ear stuck out high above the mask.
The appearance was... sickening to say the least. The creature slowly rose its head up and starred at Harriet's party with cold, green, dead eyes. Her party members staggered back in fear. I don't blame them. If I was faced with that thing, I'd be on edge as well. I felt my fight or flight kick in once I saw the anxiousness on Harriet's face. She was nervous - unsure.
"Kirito!" Love yelled. "We have to help them fight that thing, now! If we don't get in there before the fight begins, the door will close and we'll be locked out!"
The boss straightened its back and stretched its long arms behind its back, simultaneously letting out a horrible, pained moan.
"Kirito, what're we doing?!" Agil demanded.
Sinon growled and spoke up as well, "Come on! We need to make a decision!"
My head began to spin as the words of my friends circled around me, encasing me in a prison of indecisiveness. Surely I couldn't throw them into danger again, right? They've been through enough due to my premature decisions. Though I thought this, I couldn't rip my eyes from the fearful raiding party just inside the boss room.
"Kirito!" Love screamed again. "Everyone's waiting for your word! Tell them to get in there, NOW!"
My brain began to go numb and my feet went cold as I helplessly watched the boss make eye contact with Harriet. Before I could mutter a single word, the doors slammed closed, sealing us off from the fight and trapping the raiding party inside with the boss.
There was a moment of silence before Love spoke up. "What the hell?!"
I ignored his words, instead choosing to find solitude in glaring at the rocks beneath me. "I-I'm... I'm sorry."
Love grabbed my collar from behind and spun me around so I would be face to face with him. "You just fucked those guys over! There's no way in hell they'll be able to kill that thing in their condition!"
"What was I suppose to do? There were five of them there!" I remarked with a snarl. "All I've been doing over this past week is boss you all around and get you into trouble! I'm so stressed out that I can't even think! Especially when you're all shouting at me to make a decision that could lead to someone getting hurt! Besides, if you're so insistant on fighting the boss, why didn't you get in there instead of standing here and yelling at me?!"
As I said this, a scream echoed through the door to the boss room. It sounded painfully gruesome. Whatever that creature was, it was showing the raiding party no mercy.
"Oh, I feel so bad for you, Kirito!" Love spat in disgust. "God fucking help you if need to make another choice! That is, if you even muster up the courage to speak up! And to answer your question, the reason I didn't follow those people is because I had the mental capacity to know that they were a lost cause - which is the exact reason I told you to make everyone fight with them! But no! You stood there like a deer in headlights hoping that the solution would fall right into your hands!"
I delivered a firm shove into the madman's chest, sending him to the ground. Not one to be stood up, Love grappled at my legs and forced me to the ground, trying his hardest to get a good punch to my face in before we were split up by the rest of our friends. Asuna grabbed me while Agil grabbed Love. Together, they managed to break up the scuffle.
"Calm down!" Asuna screamed. "You're only making things worse, Love!"
Love face spoke of disbelief. "I'm making things worse?! There's eight people in our party! Harriet's party had five! That's thirteen people! We so could've taken on that fucking boss! But instead this idiot decided to freeze up when it mattered most! This floor could've been a cake walk!"
"Listen!" Agil's voice boomed throughout the cave. "We're all under a lot of stress here. Kirito decided to hang back and wait for some kind of indication to go in. If he had led us into that room, we could've been dead."
"You don't know that!" Love snarled.
Asuna hugged me from behind as if to defend me from the teenage boy in front of me. "Neither do you!" She declared with a growl.
"Uh... Guys." Klein said vacantly among the chatter. We all turned towards him, only to see that the aura that usually surrounded a locked door had dissipated, meaning that there was no other players currently in the boss room. That could only mean... The raiding party had been wiped.
Everyone was quiet for what felt like hours, though it was only a few minutes. The echos of footsteps still pinged through the door. The creature was likely moving around mindlessly as it awaited for another challenging party to enter. It's face still sent shivers throughout my whole body.
Lisbeth sat against a wall, an arm draped around Silica's shoulder, the ladder of which looking traumatized. "Now what?" The pink haired girl asked softly.
"They're bodies are still there... They have to be." Sinon mumbled, causing everyone to turn their attention to her.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Klein asked as he rubbed the back of his neck.
The girl continued, "We could loot their bodies and take all their health potions and gear."
"If we do that, then we'll be trapped in that room with the boss." I stated.
Sinon looked at me with sad eyes and nodded, "I know."
My heart dropped as I gathered what she was conveying. "Y-You wanna try to fight that thing?"
"No no, we aren't doing that." Asuna exclaimed dismissively.
"Why not?" Sinon argued.
"Because. That boss was able to take out some of the best players in the game right now. What chance could we possibly have."
'That's my point. If we go back to the starting town and tell everyone that some of the highest ranked players in the game got killed by the boss, the entire player base would grind to halt. Nobody would ever wanna step foot in this place out of fear of dying like those five did."
"So you wanna risk your life, then? Is that is? Sinon, we're low level than Harriet and her party. What chance do we have?" My girlfriend contended.
"Trying is better than letting someone else do it. We're here, and we're ready, why not try?"
"Because if 'trying' fails, then we're all dead - Game over."
"So this is it then?" Sinon held out her arms and gestured to the cramming stone walls around us. "This is where everything ends? The culmination of all the time we've spent together and all the things we've done ends right here?"
Asuna lowered her shoulders passively and sighed. "That's not what I'm saying, Sinon. We can go back to the starting town and level up more. If we become more powerful, we'll be able to take down that boss easily."
Out of nowhere, Agil chimed in. "Right but... How long will that take? With as high of a level we are, grinding for exp on this floor would not be rewarding. We're becoming too high of a rank to continue grinding here. Leveling any further would take too long - or at least longer than I'm comfortable with. Every day we spend in here is another day off of our real life."
Sinon gave Agil a nod, as if to say 'thanks for having my back'. "Who here thinks we should leave and wait for someone else to fight the boss?"
Reluctantly, and albeit, surprisingly, only three people raised their hand - Klein, Asuna and Silica. Typically, majority would rule, but in a situation as major as this, there would need to be more consulting. The only reason I didn't raise my hand is because I wanted to go with the popular vote seeing as my choice would be amplified in the eyes of my party members. If I had agreed that leaving was the better option, majority of my friends would have disagreed. I'm still not sure if this was a good way to think. Part of me thinks it is since I'm making the most people happy, but what if I run into a situation where it goes against my better judgement?
Sinon glanced at Asuna triumphantly. "We have the numbers, and we have the willpower. We can do this, Asuna."
My girlfriend's eyes grew cold as she bowed her head in defeat. I hated to see her like this, but in my heart, I truly believed that Sinon was right. Clearing the floor was possible, but it would take the combined efforts of fluent teamwork and coordination.
"So... Are we doing this?" Love upholstered his spear and gently let the blunt end stand on the uneven stone beneath him.
"Yeah. I guess we are." Sinon said confidently. Readily, yet somehow also reluctantly, all eight of us prepared ourselves for the inevitable battle. It was only right to allow Sinon to open the door, which she did so slowly. "Remember, loot the bodies quickly. Take all the health potions and elixirs before we start actually trying to fight this thing.
A rummer of agreement was all we let out before the door wailed open. The boss had it's back towards us and was a good forty feet away. Tragically, yet expectantly, five blue orbs hovered in random places near the door, indicating that there was loot. That must've been where Harriet and her party died. They most likely turned back once they realized they were losing the fight. They perished while attempting to open the door and escape.
"Shh!" Klein whispered. "Loot the bodies quietly. The boss hasn't noticed us yet."
Carefully, the eight of us compiled into the room and rapidly stripped the deceased players of all their potions and buff items. With phase one of the plan completed with no issues, we turned our attention to the boss, who was still idly staring at a wall without a care in the world. The tall, skinny figure still gave me chills even though I had no view of its horrific face.
"Who's gonna pull aggro?" Agil said in a hushed voice.
"I will." Lisbeth responded without hesitation. "My I've put a few extra points into my health before we came here. I should be able to take a few hits from this thing assuming it's around our level."
The bosses level hadn't even come to my mind yet. For the sake of preparation, I focused my eyes on the creature until a nameplate popped up above its head. Like before, the name still displayed a line of random text, however now I could see its level. "Level fifteen." I read aloud. "Even still, it'll have extra stats since it's a floor boss."
"Don't underestimate it." Asuna nodded at my previous statement. "If you guys really are insistent that we fight, then let's give it our all."
Everyone gave determined hum aside from one fragile looking girl who stood behind us all quivering as she held onto her bow. Silica.
"Wait." I whispered loud enough for everyone to hear. All of us needed to be fully focused in order to advance in this undertaking. If one of us had cold feet, the whole party would suffer. "Silica, are you alright?"
The young girl tried her best to conceal the shakiness of her hands, but in doing so, her legs began quivering wildly as if they were too weak to hold her up. "I-I'm... I'm fine."
Asuna, the one who usually mediated Silica when she was under stress, approached the trembling girl and stood next to her, a hand on her shoulder. No words were exchanged, just a comforting smile coupled with a reassuring nod.
"Alright." Love's voice was full of life and energy, as if he was excited to be here. Knowing the madman, he was probably feeling ecstatic right about now. "Ready?"
I stepped forward, sword in hand as I took a deep breath in. "Hey you!" I shouted as loud as humanly possible.
The floor boss twitched as it turned its nightmarish face towards us. I felt no fear as its cold dead eyes locked with mine. Just as I was about to signal everyone to charge, I noticed the creatures arm extending high into the air behind its head. The words struggled to escape my lips as the floor boss hurled a handful of what looked to be large rocks in our direction.
W-What? There's no way. NPC's can't do this - they aren't programmed to.
The rocks flew towards us at blistering speeds, whizzing through the air like a whip. Impact was inevitable, the trajectory was clear. My legs couldn't move, nor could my voice sound off.
Why... Why did I allow my friends to come here?
Crash!
-?-
Asuna fixed the collar of my suit just before we entered through the lavish double doors of the restaurant. "Asuna." I groaned. "It's gonna get messed up anyways. What's the point of fixing it?"
"We haven't seen our friends in months. At least try to make yourself presentable." She quipped back. I couldn't say much in rebuttal. She looked great in her long red dress and black scarf. She didn't need me telling her that, though - I already had nearly a dozen times today. Then again, she makes almost everything she wears look good. Once she was sure my collar was pristine, she gave me a warm smile.
"You look great."
I chuckled and rubbed the back of my neck nervously. "Heh... You do too... Really."
Asuna grabbed my hand as she pushed open the doors. Immediately, the aroma of smooth jazz and wine hit our senses. I told the head of house that we were looking for our six friends, and she kindly pointed over to a table tucked away in the corner. Sure enough, everyone was there. Love was stood in front of the table waving his arms around dramatically, a huge smile on his face. Agil sat at the end of the booth, his wife by his side as he sipped a dark red liquid. Sinon, Silica, and Lisbeth were glancing over the menu which was lacquered and bordered by a light colored leather. Last but not least, Klein sat next to a girl who I presumed to be his girlfriend he he told us so much about.
I grinned ear to ear at the sight of everyone together again. They were all dressed for the occasion, and suddenly I felt grateful that Asuna clean me off before entering. "Hey guys." I said cheerfully.
All their eyes fell upon us at that very moment, a collective, joyous gasp filled the air as our six friends scrambled to exchange formalities. The mood was upbeat, the food was good, and the company of my best friends instilled a sense of nostalgia that I hadn't felt for months. We talked for hours about anything we could think of, however it mostly revolved around the current events of our lives and how we were all doing after escaping that game. Everything was simply perfect. Nothing could ruin this moment.
"So... Kazuto." Lisbeth suddenly said, taking a sip from her wine glass. Now that I think about it, was Lisbeth old enough to drink?
"What's up?" I responded, a content smile on my face. As I glanced around, I noticed that no one else was smiling anymore, not even Asuna. They all glared at the table in what looked to be disappointment. "G-Guys?" I said nervously.
Lisbeth held up her wine glass as if she was proposing a toast. "Here we all are." She said in condescending tone.
Was she angry? She was just fine a few minutes ago. "Uh.. Lis. What's wrong? As matter of fact, what's wrong with all of you? You all seem really down. Did I say something embarrassing?"
Lisbeth kept a slight smirk on her face as she continued, "I think it's great that you're able to conjure up such peaceful thoughts in that brain of yours. I wish I had the confidence to totally give up on everything just because I felt sorry for myself."
My heart sunk at the sudden passive aggressiveness that Lisbeth flaunted. "W-What? What's going on here?"
"Kazuto." Asuna suddenly grabbed my sleeve and tugged on it gently.
"Yeah, Asuna?"
My girlfriends eyes were vacant, yet somehow also frantic. "Kazuto!" She nearly yelled.
Taken aback, I grabbed both of her shoulders in attempts to calm her down. "Asuna, calm down!"
She shook her head and took a deep inhale before screaming at the top of her lungs, "Wake up!"
-Floor One, Boss Room-
-Kazuto's POV-
I don't remember the first thing I saw when I came to, I just remember feeling out of breath. I took a sharp inhale as I quickly sat up.
"Kazuto!" Asuna, who was kneeling next to me exclaimed. "You have to get up, now!"
The pain in my head made it difficult to analyze the situation, however I was able to deduce that my friends and I were in big trouble. The floor boss was marching towards us slowly, its hand tensed up, indicating that it was preparing to strike. Luckily, it was about thirty feet away, so we had some time before it would be able to harm any of us. Asuna, Love, and Sinon were the only people who appeared unharmed after the barrage of rocks that the boss threw. Agil, Silica, and Lisbeth seemed to be in the same condition as me - half conscious, and cut up from the shrapnel.
"Love!" I heard Sinon yell. "Help me distract the boss while the others heal!"
Love nodded, and the two rushed forward to pull aggro away from the rest of us. In a desperate attempt to tell them no, I raised a hand up, hoping they would see me reaching out to them. This situation instilled fear in my heart after what happened to Sachi and the Black Cats all those years ago. Love was a spear user, and Sinon was a bow user. That combination wouldn't be able to take down the floor boss. Especially at our player level.
"Stop." I tried to yell, but the coarse in my voice only allowed for my tone to barely reach above a whisper.
Asuna applied a healing potion on my wounds, causing my health to slowly raise. "Stay here until you're fully healed. I have to help Silica, Agil, and Lisbeth." Without waiting for an answer, she rose to her feet and ran to tend to the others. I was glad that she felt so insistent on helping them rather than stay by my side. It showed that her vision was clouded with desperation after seeing me nearly drop below twenty percent HP. She had grown to be very level headed - not to say that she wasn't before, but it's nice to see her growing into more of a leader.
As I thought this, I glanced up to check on Love and Sinon. Sure enough, both of them were successfully luring the boss away from the injured, all whilst managing to get a couple good hits in which made a small dent into its health bar. Despite this, I could see the struggle in their movements. They were becoming overwhelmed by the pure strength of the floor boss.
Come on Kazuto. Get up. Since when did you become so weak? Why are you letting your friends fight your battles?
I slowly rose to my feet, my hands lightly gripped my sword.
Is this really how you want to go out? Watching your friends get attacked while you lay here and do nothing?
My grip tightened and my teeth bared. This was all Herara's fault.
I could be home right with Asuna and all my friends. But instead I'm here - fighting in an alien world with all the expectations on my shoulders. I'll clear every last floor if I have to. I swear... one day I'll be able to grab Herara by the neck and tell him that whatever he tried to accomplished had failed. Because at some point, no matter what, we're going to win.
I lunged towards the action, all sense of safety and precaution alleviated from my conscious
"Sinon, Get out of there!" Love screamed as he desperately tried to pull the boss' aggro.
Sinon was caught out - directly under the boss' fist as it came crashing down towards her. A hit like that would surely be near-fatal. The blue haired girl didn't have enough time to react, the strike would most definitely connect. Before it could, however, I managed to thread my blade between Sinon and the incoming fist, stopping the ladder in its path and effectively saving my friend. Everything froze for a moment, the air running thin. Sinon glared at me with wide eyes, the cold feet from her impending doom not yet faded.
As I struggled against the strength of the floor boss, I uttered out one word, "Fight!"
In a bout of shock and anger, Sinon let out a hyped up growl and threw herself at the monster, using its elongated arm to boost herself towards its unguarded face. Love, in his signature faced paced style of battle, looped around the back of the boss and impaled the arm I was struggling against, causing the creature to wail in pain.
"That's what I'm talking about, Kirito!" He yelled with a wicked smile. The madman landed next to me and held out one of his arms. "Boost me up there."
Without thinking, I grabbed his arm and used what little strength I had to throw him as hard as I could towards the monsters face. Since this was a game and not real life, my strength parameters allowed me to achieve nearly impossible actions. As Love glided through the air on a direct collision course, he aimed his spear head forward - the same technique he used on me during our duel. Sinon and Love both connected their attacks to the boss' face at the same time, successfully draining nearly a fourth of the creatures remaining health bar. The two landed on either side of the enemy and carefully analyzed the situation for any kind of opening for another attack. Unluckily for us, the creature was quick to recuperate, and immediately thrashed an arm towards Love. The madman was able to easily avoid this, however, thanks to his unmatched speeds.
While the boss was distracted by my two friends, I took the opportunity to conjure up an idea to assist in the battle - Anything. My body was still weak, but surely I could alleviate some sort of pressure as they fought. Most of the combat consisted of waiting for the boss to attack, then dodge, then sneak in a few hits. This way of fighting would not work. The boss had too much health, meaning it would surely outlast us. It had only about seventy-five percent health remaining, which in the grand scheme of things was not much for a level fifteen.
Suddenly, I got an idea. "Sinon, Love! Get over here!" I demanded and began back pedaling away from the boss. The two joined my side about thirty feet away from the hulking behemoth.
"What?" Sinon asked as she caught her breath.
"I know how we can get a good hit on it." I leaned in and whispered my plan. I'm not sure why I chose to be secretive about it. It's not like the boss would even hear us- it is an AI after all. Once I concluded my synopsis, the two glanced at each other and nodded in agreement.
"Go." I told Sinon, who nodded and charged forward. As expected, the boss tried to time its attack to crush Sinon as she sprinted towards it. Before the blue haired girl was squashed by the creatures fist, she grinded to a halt - successfully pump faking the attack. The boss' fist hit the ground with a thud, and Sinon used that opportunity to use its arm as a boost. It was very similar to our previous attack, however this time, Sinon was merely a diversion. The teen didn't attempt to launch an arrow into the creatures face - instead opting to use her forward momentum to glide over its head. The boss turned around as it tried to decipher what Sinon was doing. Unbeknownst to it, however, Love and I were executing our end of the plan. I cupped my hands in front of my waist, to which he boosted off of and winded his spear back for a deadly throw.
Before he could let his spear fly, the boss suddenly moved with blurring speed. Love flinched, causing his spear to whiff and hit the wall on the other side of the room. He landed on the ground ungracefully.
"You alright?" I ran to his side and helped him up.
He coughed and brushed himself off. "I'm fine." He said in frustration. We looked back up at the boss, however once we did, our face was splashed very faintly by some sort of liquid, kind of like when you walk while it's misting outside. I rubbed my face in confusion, and to my horror, my hand was red with what I assumed to be blood. My eyes quickly shot back to the boss.
The creature had Sinon in its grips, its large hand covering the girls torso. It took only a few seconds before I saw where the blood came from. Sinon's mouth was spewing a red liquid as he cough, her eyes going grey. Before I could even widen my eyes in shock, the boss squeezed its hand, crushing Sinon even harder within its grips.
Sinon's mouth opened as she made a futile attempt to scream, tears running down her face, all of which colliding with the blood that stained her face. Her eyes connected with mine, and for the first time in a while, I saw fear, and desperation within her. For some reason that I can't explain, I didn't feed overtly frantic when I saw her like this. Instead, I felt angry. The emotion was suppressed by no fear, no weariness. It was pure, unrequited anger. Sinon was typically the stoic, calm confidence that we needed in our group. Her presence was felt even when she didn't say anything. Even a few minutes ago she opted to distract the floor boss in order to protect the injured.
That being said, however, seeing her like this was just... infuriating. I wanted to help her. I wanted to save her life because I knew she would do the same for me. I've done it before, and I can most certainly do it again.
I turned to Love, a growl in my voice. "Do it again!" I cupped my hands at my waist and boosted the madman up once more. This time, there was nothing that could surprise us. The worst had already happened. Love's spear flew true, and it connected with the boss' temple. It let out a deafening screech as it released its grip on Sinon, sending the girl falling to the ground fast. As she fell, I noticed that her body began to glow a bright white, indicating that she was very close to death. My heart sunk at that very moment. The fall was going to kill her.
Moving as fast as I could, I reached out for her, however the boss stepped in front of me, blocking my path. Helplessly, I let out one final act of desperation - the human body's last line of defense when something awful was about to happen. I yelled as loud as I could, knowing that it would have no effect on anything, "Sinon!"
Just before the girl hit the ground, essentially ending her life, there was a flash of red that looped around the far side of the boss. My vision of Sinon was blocked by the creatures unusually thick leg, however I heard no sound of impact - nothing to indicate that her health had dropped down to zero percent. The boss turned around, seemingly noticing this as well. It was then that I had a good vision of what had just happened. There, kneeling on one leg with Sinon in his arms, was Klein.
To say that I was relieved was an understatement. Klein's health was still low, however it was just under fifty percent, meaning he could run fairly painlessly. Sinon on the other hand was barely holding onto life. It was so bad that I don't even think the GGO expert herself had comprehended what had just happened. In a sudden stroke of good luck, a thick blade of sharpened iron came crashing into the creatures ankle from behind.
"Klein's got Sinon! Let's finish this right now!" Agil insisted with a determined huff as he yanked his axe from the boss' flesh.
Before I could let out a sigh of relief, a hail of swinging metal flew over my head, colliding with the creatures torso. Asuna and Lisbeth. The two girls went for different parts of the boss' body. Asuna plunged her sword within the creatures thigh, while Lisbeth crushed its teeth in with her mace. Both of them landed next to Love, Agil, and I. Our chances of winning have skyrocketed now that there was five of us, not including Klein as he was busy carrying Sinon as far away as possible.
Once I recuperated my conscious and refocused on the battle, I noticed that the boss only had the health to withstand a few more good hits. "Come on, let's do this together!" I demanded.
My friends rallied at my sides, prepared to raise hell against this boss if it meant our victory. "We got your back!" Asuna smiled confidently at me.
"I'll keep his eyes on me." Love nodded. "I can't do much damage, but I can dodge all of his attacks. Find an opening." The teen quickly dashed forward and drew the attention of the creature in front of us. Love swerved around the boss' flailing punches and slow moving swipes with ease as the rest of us scanned for an opening to attack. Eventually, we saw it - the back of its neck was left unguarded.
Without thinking, I lunged forward, sword head pointed outward. Its nape was too high, forcing me to grabbed the boss' cloak and quickly pull myself up so I could jab my blade directly onto its weak point. A more coordinated attack definitely would have been better, but the anger I felt after I saw Sinon get injured still lingered within me. The boss squealed at the impact and swung its elongated arm at me in self defense. Thankfully, I predicted this and was able to jump out of the way.
Twenty five percent health remaining. We could do this...
Just as I thought this, the boss seemed to just... freeze. It stood there dormant as its eyes glanced to each on of my friends and I. Eventually, its shoulder slumped and its legs began to shake. Admittedly, this caught me of guard. What was happening?
The creature fell to its knees, head hung low in shame.
"U-Uh..." Agil grumbled nervously. "What's it doing?"
We all took a step back, unsure of what was to come next. For all we knew, it may have been trying to lure us closer so it could land a more precise strike. After a few seconds though, a haunting sob emitted from the creatures mouth. It was deep and vibrated me to my core as the sound waves pinged off of the walls around us.
My friends and I gave each other unnerved glares as we tried to silently agree on what to do. "We can finish this right here, right now!" Lisbeth smacked her mace against her shoddy shield and barred her teeth, ready to charge. "That thing hurt Sinon! It shouldn't be allowed to live anymore. It's an abomination."
As Lisbeth said this, the cries from the boss grew louder.
I wasn't so prepared to finish this thing off like Lisbeth was. It wasn't because I felt any sympathy for it, but rather I was afraid of the danger. After all, this still could very well be a trap encrypted by a ruse of fake emotion - emotion that I didn't even know an AI was capable of. This new form of SAO was proving to be far more equivalent to real life than previous VR games I have played. "... Let's kill it." The words slipped out of my mouth before I could even think about it. I just felt the need to make a decision and sound confident in doing so. Sinon righteously led us into this battle, and here we were on the cusp of victory. Just one more push would send us to the second floor and one step closer to escaping this game.
Love held up his spear over his head with both hands and let out a half-scream, half-howl. "YEAAHH! Kill it!" He roared like a maniac before running aimlessly into the boss' aggro range.
"Dammit, Love!" I yelled and chased after him, ready to follow up on whatever attack he decides to execute. The rest of my friends rallied behind me, weapons drawn.
The madman leaped into the air and hurled his spear at the boss' head. The likely hood of it doing any useful damage was slim to non since, after all, this was Love we were talking about here. He doesn't do much damage to things that have high health. Before his spear impaled the creature, a flash of silver sparked from the corner of my eye. An arrow glided directly into the boss' bicep and began to sprout some sort of purple, spiderweb-like pattern against its skin. A debuff popped up next to the floor boss' health bar.
Debuff: Hemorrhage. Afflicted target takes twenty percent more damage for ten seconds.
I squinted in confusion. Sinon and Silica were the only bow users in our party. Sinon was currently injured so that meant... I turned and saw the young girl with pig tails knocking another arrow onto its string.
Love's spear impacted right on target, and thanks to Silica's well timed debuff, it did a fair amount of damage.
Fifteen percent health remaining.
"Nice, Silica!" Love praise hysterically.
Asuna ran by my side and motioned for me to follow her for an attack. Judging by how the boss reacted to Love, any form of offense we take to the creature will be met with little to no resistance. Since it had fell to its knees, getting a hit in on its side wouldn't require one person boosting the other. My girlfriend and I thrust our blades forward in synchronization, watching flaky crystals emit from the creatures ribs. It was on the brink of death, yet still it cried, its face buried within its slender hands.
Agil brought his axe high above his head, a snarl in his lips. "You're done!" He shouted with vigor as he jumped up to impale the creatures head. Once the axe entered the boss' skin, it began to glow a beautiful whitish-blue color, illuminating the room in a majestic hue. With an ear piercing shatter and florescent glow, the boss vanished, leaving behind a settling ploom of crystals that danced around my friends and I as we all began to mentally recuperate.
In the center of the arena, a large blue crystal formed. That was the teleportation crystal to the next floor. The fight was over, we had won. Before I could issue everyone their deserved praise, my eyes fell upon a spot on the floor where the boss had died. Something - no, someone was lied there face up. Once the crystals finally settled and disappeared, I stepped forward to get a better look at this mysterious figure. It was a woman, probably in her late twenties. She had no outstanding features, which was odd considering this game hosted a wide variety of character creation. Her brown hair was frizzled and her skin was already becoming wrinkly around her eyes. As I glared at her, I noticed the tears falling from her cheeks. I gasped, knowing full well what that meant. This woman was the boss of the floor.
That didn't make any sense. Players weren't able to encapsulate any other form besides themselves. There is a few items in the game that allowed from some strange situations in terms of character model manipulation, but never anything this extreme.
The woman weakly shifted her head over to meet my gaze. Her lips moved, however I couldn't hear anything as her voice was so weak. My friends were too busy exchanging sighs and laughs of relief to notice the stranger. I cautiously approached the woman and knelt down next to her, my lips curled into a look that spoke of dismay. The woman smiled at me and straightened her head so she could look up at the ceiling. "He told me he'd free me if I was able stop at least ten players." She said with a chuckle.
My head shot back in confusion. "What? What are you talking about? Who's 'he'?"
"Herara." The woman continued. "Being trapped here for so long... I thought it was my only option. When Herara came to me and said that he had a fresh batch of players that would be trapped in the game, I thought of it as my opportunity to finally... escape this hell hole."
"You... You killed innocent people. You were fully aware of what you were doing." I said, frustration laced within my words.
She nodded. "Heh... I was so close too. I needed five more... I never took pleasure in what I did. I've been trapped in this room for years... I lost my sense of morality long ago."
"Years?"
The woman chuckled once again, as if to say 'I know, right?'. "Herara promised me a fortune if I worked for him. He never told me what he did, but regardless, I was wooed over by the promise of money. I was twenty five at the time and had student loans to..." The woman coughed viciously, blood spouting out onto her chin. "pay." She finished.
I hadn't noticed until now, but her health bar was rapidly surging towards zero. Knowing that her death was approaching fast, I asked the one question that had been on my mind since day one. "Why are we trapped in this game? Surely there's a reason, right?"
She looked at me and nodded. "There is... but..."
"...But what? Come on tell me! Please!"
"He's probably watching us as we speak. If I tell you now, he'll deactivate the mechanism that'll fry my brain in the real world once I die here in the game."
I shrugged. "Isn't that a good thing? You'll still be alive, right?"
"No... He'll just force me to take control of another floor boss... At least, that's what I'm thinking. I don't wanna go through that again." Tears began streaming from her eyes once again as she sobbed. "I just want everything to be over with."
She seemed so weak, so frail. Glancing over my shoulder, I noticed that all my friends had ran off to check on Sinon, leaving me and this woman alone in the center of the room, the hum from the teleportation crystal being the only noise we heard. I sat down next to her, giving her a nod of support. "It's okay. I'm here for you... What's your name?"
She began to cry even harder as if this was the first time in years that anyone had asked her that question. "I-It's... Gina."
"You aren't a monster, Gina, you aren't Herara's slave either... You're you, and nothing will ever change that."
Her eyes widened and her lips quivered. "T-Thank you!" She cried, the skin on her body beginning to glow. Within no less than five seconds, she burst into a mass of shining crystals. I rose to my feet with a sigh. I couldn't get the answers I wanted out of her, but given the situation she was in, I understood. I brushed myself off as I began waltzing my way over to my group of friends, all of which were surrounding Sinon. The blue haired girls eyes were opened weakly, and her lips formed a semi-smile. She was okay, that was all that mattered. I think it'd best if we all took a break for a few days while we recovered. Killing this boss gave us a few levels, so there wouldn't be any risk of us falling behind. Not to mention the amount of gold garnered from this fight was very large. I promised my friends a few days of lavish relaxation if we all came out of this okay, so it appears as though I must uphold my end of the bargain just as they did.
-Real World-
-Suguha's POV-
I scratched at my brothers computer desk impatiently. "Did you figure anything out yet?" I asked Akira, who was sitting next to me. These last few days have been a total bust in terms of finding out where Kazuto went. Well... That's not entirely true. The authorities were notified about what was going on and they immediately raided the office building where 'David Herara' Supposedly ran his company that went by the name of 'Sapper Co.'. Unfortunately though, the entire building was empty aside from a few vacant pieces of equipment that the police described as 'pods'. Once this report went public, a natural knee jerk reaction erupted inside of me. Kazuto was in trouble, I knew it. The only silver lining that came out of this was that now the general public knew the situation those thousands of players were in. The Japanese government has yet to make an official statement on the matter. Akira and I aren't waiting. I need answers now.
"Nothing yet." Akira leaned back in his chair and rocked back and forth. "Whoever that David Herara guy is, he knows how to cover his tracks."
"Hmm..." I groaned, resting my chin on my arm as I impatiently rolled a pencil back and forth between my finger and the table. "At least now everyone knows... Maybe the police will be able to figure something out."
"They probably will. But..."
"But what?"
"What should we do in the mean time?" Akira asked. "Should we stop trying to investigate this on our own?"
I bit the inside of my lip in thought. Akira and I had been at this for weeks, and our success has been sub par. One side of me claimed that this was all a big waste of time, and that I should trust the authorities to bring Kazuto back. The other side of me, however, was not willing to buy into the idea of quitting. "No." I said bluntly, "We don't stop looking until Kazuto comes home."
"So determined." Akira said, impressed by my strong will.
"Well yeah... This is my brother we're talking about here."
"Fair enough. Say, we've been at this all day. I know it's the weekend but I kind of want a little time to do things that I want to do, you know? Not that I'm against staying here... all day... with y-"
"-I get it." I interrupted. I knew where he was going with that previous sentence and I did not want to hear it... Not now. "It's getting kind of late. You can leave if you want to."
Akira pursed his lips and slowly rose from his seat. "It's not because you're annoying me." He said nervously.
"I know, Akira."
He carefully began to waltz his way towards the door that lead to the hallway. "Because I like doing this with you. It makes me feel like a secret agent."
I nodded, not entirely sure what he was going on about. "Right... Like I said, thanks. I'll see you l-"
"Because I'm enjoying my time with you." His face began going red and breaths became quicker.
I sighed and shook my head, a slight smirk curling my lips. I knew he liked me, and I also knew that this was his own, nerdy style of trying to confess to me - which I might add, he had done many, many times before. "I get it, Akira. Seriously, you don't have to feel bad for leaving. We've been at this all week."
"Y-Yeah." Once one foot was out the door, he gave me a small wave and rounded the corner into the hallway. I listened as his footsteps thumped through the hall, down the stairs, and out the door.
I chuckled once the echo from the closing door faded into nothingness. "Jeez... He's a weird guy." I swiftly exited Kazuto's room and into my own, my shoulder slumped the whole time. Upon laying on my bed, my eyes fell onto the poster hanging on my wall. It was that of a warrior - Her white wings and green armor stood out among the clouds that she flew through, her sword at her side. That girl is strong... and brave. I held out a beckoning hand towards the poster as if to drain some of the fictional characters energy and place it within myself. After a few seconds of feeling nothing (what was I expecting?) My palm formed into a fist. A feeling of determination brewed within me. When I played ALO, I was a warrior - someone brave who people looked up to. Now look at me... laying around waiting for someone else to accomplished the goals that I had set out to achieve.
I spun around and laid on my stomach, my face buried in the softness of my pillow. I wasn't sad, nor did I feel like crying. I just felt helpless knowing that for now, and possibly for a while, all I can do is wait... Just wait.
*END*
Authors Notes:
Is anyone confused right now? It'll all explain itself soon. Let me know what you think of the story so far. And also thank you for the kind words and support.
P.S. - I'd like to know some of your predictions as to what is going to happen within the story. I respond to all reviews.