Hello, there! I'm not dead! :D

Anyway, some of you might be wondering where I've been, huh? Well, I'll just explain it in the last part, hehe. For now, I'm sure you just want to go straight into reading!

So, to refresh your memories let's do a character and story recap!

Akiyoshi Mizuki, now sans_the_skeleton, was just a high school student. He had his issues and problems to deal with before, but it all changed when one day he and along with thousands of other people played a revolutionary game called Sword Art Online. A game that eventually turns into a death game, trapping all the players inside a game where you die in real life if you die in-game unless the players clear the game. Although Mizuki obtained an ability like no other, he is cursed with only 1 HP bar in this game – in a virtual world where one single hit would mean a death sentence for him.

It has been about 6 months now since everyone was trapped and since the first month, Mizuki or 'Sans', has convinced many against committing suicide, shared moral guidance to those in despair and even was invited to a guild called the Final Seekers for his kindness. And during that half a year, Sans has treated the guild as his own little 'family' of sort and even nearly died in the dungeon to save some of them.

However, now Sans' comrades faced a challenge like never before in their dungeon exploration — they are locked in a hidden treasure trap room. With monsters flooding in and no way out, how would the Final Seekers face this threat?

All players of SAO are lucky to have lived this far… but everybody knows that luck runs out eventually. Will this time be theirs?

"INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. INITIATING COUNTERMEASURES. DEPLOYING UNITS"

Bright blue lights enveloped the whole room. Golems, goblins, treants, dire boars, almost every monster they have encountered in this dungeon appeared one after another in a terrifying number.

Dread swam in the pit of their stomach.

Adrenaline kicked in and PoH was the first of the group whose fight or flight instinct shook him off of his stupor.

"BATTLE FORMATION!"

Snapping out of their fearful shock, the team took their stances in the face of their possible impending doom. It was clear at this point that, unless they wanted to die, they have to fight back.

"Tanya, Raul on our 12! Lily, Milly, our sides! And Z cover our 6 with me!" PoH swiftly commanded.

The group obeyed and the battle began with a wave of dire boars charging in following by the nimble goblins right behind them.

Tanya spun her warhammer and launched herself up before slamming it down into the ground. She timed the skill correctly that she stunned more than half of a dozen of those dire boars.

"Raul switch!"

"Understood!"

As the purple-haired tank jumped back to wait for her skill's cooldown to finish, the silver armoured warrior jumped in and went in with a whirlwind strike to finish them off.

On another side, PoH stopped an incoming goblin attack with his buckler and counterattacked with a chain of slashes from his short sword, before switching with his yellow armoured brother who followed through with his own attacks.

While the two were holding out relatively well, the same couldn't be said for the twin assassins of the group. While Milly and Lily made quick work for the surrounding goblins and dire boars with their quick combo attacks and switches, their backstabs and critical hits were nearly stopped dead on their tracks the moment the golems started to rush into the fray.

Lily did a somersault around an unsuspecting goblin while simultaneously killing it and went around one of the 2.5 meters tall stone golem to deliver her backstabs, but her daggers couldn't penetrate through its rocky exteriors.

A treant approached and whipped Lily away from the golem with its vines.

"K-Kuh!"

"LILY!"

Milly immediately covered for Lily who reached for her healing potion to recover and parried another incoming vines and branches that the treant use to attack. She jumped back and exclaimed, "G-Guh, Leader we can't get through the golems and the treants armour!"

Understanding the situation, PoH made his quick decision, "Milly switch with me and cover Z from the boars and goblin! Z and I can parry the golems and keep them busy, both of you cover us!"

"PoH, the golems and treants are weak to hard strikes and bludgeoning attacks! Tanya and my attacks are getting through them!" Raul exclaimed as he got attacked by another treant before countering its attack with his own, "G-Gah! B-But they're still too many of them!

PoH frowned as he tries to figure out a plan as he simultaneously tried to keep himself alive from fighting multiple towering enemies in front of him.

"A-ARGH!"

"Tanya!"

"I-I'm fine, Raul! But—" She swung her hammer to counter-attack, "Ugh! I'm very low!"

"B-Bro, I can't keep up! They're too many of them!" Z exclaimed.

Milly tried to cover for Z and attacked a dire boar that was charging at him. While she managed to pick the boar off, a golem swung its rocky fist and landed a blow on Milly, "U-Urk!"

"M-Milly!" Z rushed to her aid, "I-I got you, Milly! Heal up!"

"L-Leader, my attacks aren't getting through!" Lily called out.

Chaos and panic were overtaking the team's cohesion. Although they could fight back, the sheer number of the enemy quickly mowed through the team's HP potions reserves.

Running low on health and stamina with multiple enemies with high defence from all around. This is bad. This is really, really, bad.

PoH shook his head hard and tried to maintain his cool. He had to or else he'll get his team killed! Shivering with fear, he finally share the only plan he could think of under all of these pressures.

"T-Tanya, Raul, keep the golems and treants busy! Lily, Milly cover them and kill the other! Z let's open up a path!"

"A-A path?! To where?"

"To the door!"

Raul, who was desperately trying to parry two treants' whip-like movements, voiced his confusion, "B-But it's closed—!"

"JUST LISTEN TO ME, DAMN IT! GET TO THE DOOR!" PoH yelled back desperately.

The group was shocked at his sudden change of tone. PoH never shouts even when things get difficult — PoH would always find a way.

However, the tone of desperation in PoH's voice was a new revelation that brought chills down everybody's spine. Ah, we might actually die this time, everybody thought.

Despite those fears, they knew that if it wasn't for PoH, they wouldn't have made it as far as they were today. No matter how capable PoH was, he was still just one man trying his best to lead his friends.

If this is their last stand, then they're going down fighting.

With a series of acknowledgements, they heeded and trusted PoH's command and eventually they have fought their way with tooth and nails to the closed door.

"We'll defend ourselves here! We don't have to worry about getting backstabbed and keep their numbers in front of us," PoH revealed his plan, "Tanya, heal up and switch with Z. Raul, heal up and switch with me. Lily, Milly, kill the treants when we hold them off then get back immediately."

The team finally realized it. Although desperate, PoH — their leader — hadn't given up. For all of their sake, he was still fighting and thinking about everyone's safety.

A wave of determination brought everyone's fighting spirit back up despite their odds and, at the centre of it, PoH was there to lead them all to their survival.

"That's right!" PoH once again spoke with much resolve," WE'RE ALL GOING HOME TODAY!"

[Author's Note]

Wowee, would you look at that… a 4-year hiatus, huh. Well, college's been a bitch after all, haha! I used to write this during my free time in high school, but nowadays, I just write whenever I can cause, well, I tried to be an "active student" of sorts.

That meant I committed myself to a self-imposed peer-controlled voluntary community-servicing slavery, also known as, joining a social organization called AIESEC! Oh right, also did MUN and Debate competitions, but eventually got tired of those, lmao. So, shoutout if you guys are/were into these things too.

Oh boy, was it one heck of a journey… struggling with my finances, part-times, organizational activities, and catching up to my studies.

Anyway, I'll try to update at least once per two weeks, but it'll probably be shorter and more scene-oriented than I used to write and please bear with me if my creative writing is getting rusty — all writing I've done so far are academic assignments after all.

Also, just want to let you know that I have a discord channel if anyone is interested to join :) It's a free channel where I usually brainstorm for ideas and… more. The link is on my bio or just simply go to " /qeMaMMAVwb" in case you're too lazy.

Oh well, without further ado

See ya next chapt, Capt!

:v /