Chapter 8: Raging Fire
[Sorry this chapter took a bit longer than normal, I'm back in school and am having to readjust to my new schedule. But never fear! For the chapters will continue to come out, maybe a bit slower at times but still. Remember if you like the story then you should favorite and follow the story, Link start!]
Eric opened his eyes. Skagger was on the ground with an arrow in his arm. Eric looked at Sinon. "Thanks for saving me again Sinon." Eric said flashing a smile, Skagger got back up.
"Watch out!" Sinon yelled as Skagger went after Eric again.
"Not this time beastie." Eric said as he ducked and Skagger went over his head. Eric started running towards Sinon. "Hey! I have this thing well I don't like people touching my swords, but here!" Eric yelled as he chucked his sword as Sinon. Sinon caught it. "Slam it into the ground!" Eric yelled as Skagger got behind him. Skagger went to go claw Eric, but Leafa and Asuna came and blocked his claw with their swords. "Whew, I'm in need for saving a lot lately." Eric said. Kirito opened his menu and started running through it.
"Eric here!" Kirito yelled as he pulled out a backup sword and slide it under Skagger and right to Eric.
"Hurry! His claws are getting heavy!" Asuna yelled as her and Leafa struggled to keep the claw up. Eric equipped his orange sword and the sword Kirito gave him. Eric stood up holding them both. Eric placed the blades against Asuna's and Leafa's blades.
"Quadruple Blade!" Eric yelled as the three of them pushed up really hard and sent Skagger lost his balance and fell on his back. Skagger tried to get up but Sinon stabbed Demon blood into the ground and the blood chains kept Skagger from moving.
"Whoa this is cool!" Sinon yelled as Everyone else pounded on Skagger. Eric and Kirito jumped into the air above Skagger.
"Lightning skills now!" Eric yelled out. Eric activated a lightning skill on his orange sword, Kirito activated a lightning skill on Excalibur, Lisbeth activated a lightning skill on her mace. The three of them struck Skagger with lightning bolts.
"Fire skills now!" Kirito yelled as he started free falling very fast towards Skagger. Kirito activated a fire skill on his other sword, Klein activated a fire skill on his katana, Hunter activated a fire skill on his katana as well. Hunter and Klein ran and slashed both of Skagger's legs with their fire katana attacks. Kirito slashed Skagger right down the middle.
"Asuna, Leafa, and Silica attack him quick!" Eric shouted as he started to fall towards Skagger.
"Hurry guys! My MP is running out!" Sinon yelled. Asuna and Silica used Water skills and hit Skagger as hard as they could, Leafa followed up with a wind skill attack. After they finished and got out the way they gave Eric a thumbs up. Eric smirked.
"I needed my friends a safe distance away for this skill." Eric said as he started humming. Eric was only a few feet away from Skagger. Eric's Orange sword started glowing. "Death Skill activate!" Eric yelled.
"No way he has that! Death and Life skills were just added in the last update, he already has one!" Kirito yelled.
'Whoa!' Sinon thought.
"Punch it Eric!" Hunter yelled out. Eric's sword turned pure black and had a purple glow around it.
"Fear the skull, for the bones symbolize Death! The Reaper's Slash!" Eric yelled out as loud as he could. Eric started to swing his sword down at Skagger as Eric neared him. Sinon's MP hit zero and the chains instantly broke.
'NO!' Everyone thought.
"Eric!" Sinon shouted.
'I'm to close and he is really fast, I can't hope to dodge. My best bet is to carry out the attack.' Eric thought as he started to get faster with his swing. Skagger started to stand. Kirito noticed something very bad.
"ERIC! Look at his health!" Kirito yelled out. Everyone looked at Skaggers health, it instantly regenerated and was now full, his attack pattern stayed the same as when it was low though, but now his speed and power was increased. Skagger stopped Eric's blade with his finger. Eric just hovered there in the air, unmoving.
'He s-stopped my sword with a mere finger….' Eric thought. Skagger raised his other claw and stabbed all 5 claws into Eric's chest. Eric let go of his sword, the skill was canceled. Suddenly Eric's health took a sharp dive.
"Skagger didn't even hit him again, why did his hp drop?" Klein asked.
"Because According to the forums, Death skills when used, and even canceled delete some of the users hp." Leafa said. Skagger pulled his claws out of Eric and Eric's body started falling. Eric suddenly reached out and grabbed his orange sword. Eric growled as he hit the ground and started running circles around Skagger.
"You haven't killed me yet!" Eric yelled as Skagger kept trying to hit him. Kirito joined in and both him and Eric ran circles around Skagger, avoiding all attacks. Eric unequipped his armor, he got twice as quick. "I have speed reducing armor, lower speed, but higher defense. But when my hp is low I think I need speed." Eric said as he started slashing Skagger as he ran circles. Kirito just smirked and started running faster and faster. Eric and Kirito was running so fast that they became like a blur of orange and black. "Fear the skulls, for the bones symbolize death! The Reaper's Slash!" Eric called out. His orange sword changed back to black with a purple glow. Eric stopped running and stood in front of Skagger. Kirito jumped onto Skagger's back and started stabbing him rapidly. Skagger jumped and rolled over and slammed Kirito into the ground, Skagger stood up and got right in Eric's face.
"Kirito!" Asuna yelled out. Kirito rolled on the ground and gave a thumbs up.
"I'm alright, Eric watch out!" Kirito shouted. Skagger lifted his claw into the air and started to slam it down on Eric.
'I can see it now.' Eric thought with a smirk. Eric's eyes could now see Skagger's claw moving towards him. 'My speed stat is back up to its normal spot, I can now see his speed, including the slight after images.' Eric thought. Eric stepped to the side and dodged the claw. Everyone else just saw Eric suddenly change spots without moving. "In real life I train my speed and power, I'm used to fast fights." Eric said as he swung his sword upwards. Eric's blade connected with Skagger's jaw and sliced his whole head in half. The death skill wore out, Eric's HP dropped into the red. Eric lifted up the sword Kirito had tossed him earlier. "Fear the skull, for bones symbolize Death! The Reaper's Slash!" Eric yelled as he activated the same skill on Kirito's sword.
"Eric no!" Klein yelled.
"Your HP!" Sinon shouted.
"Dang it Eric, you always go way to far in fights!" Hunter yelled as he started running towards Eric. Everyone started running towards the fight. Kirito blocked them.
"Don't, we would just get in the way." Kirito said. 'I have faith in you Eric.' Kirito thought. Eric slammed the sword into Skagger's side, cutting his chest all the way across. The skill wore off and Eric dropped to a sliver of health. Skagger started to attack Eric when suddenly it stopped.
"The real power of the skill takes a second to activate after I slash something." Eric said smiling. Two Grim Reapers came out of nowhere and started slashing Skagger up using their Scythes. After a few seconds they both disappeared. Skagger was on the same amount of hp as Eric. Eric dropped Kirito's sword and gripped his orange sword with both hands. Eric ran and stabbed at Skagger as Skagger went to claw Eric. Eric wouldn't be fast enough to end Skagger before he himself was taken out. 'Crap!' Eric thought. Whoosh. Eric instinctively smiled as the sound as an arrow flew past him. Sinon's arrow pieced Skagger's head, dropping his hp to zero, Skagger burst into triangles. The doors opened and the boss was defeated. Eric unequipped his orange sword and kept it in his backpack, Kirito took his sword back.
"Here." Sinon said as she handed Eric his Demon Blood sword.
"Thank you." Eric said with a smile.
"For saving you or giving your sword back?" Sinon asked.
"For my sword." Eric said. "This is for saving me." Eric said as he hugged Sinon.
"I-It was nothing, the team needs all the help it can get." Sinon said as Eric stopped the hug.
"Well either way I was not in the mood to die so." Eric said smiling.
"We should get moving." Hunter said.
"Agreed." Eric said.
"Alright follow me." Kirito said as he brought up the map and started running, everyone followed him. Along the way two other attack groups joined up with Kirito's group. Eric kept checking the real-world clock in his game menu.
"Guys, we should log out, it's getting really late." Eric said. Kirito's group stopped and found a place to hide and log out while the other teams went a bit further before logging out. After the next day of school, Eric was the first one to get back online in ALO. Eric woke up and stood inside the tiny cave they hid in, there was a S.O.S message for all attack teams on the public message board. Eric recognized the name of the person who posted it. "The two attacker teams from last night need help with the next boss." Eric said to himself. Eric typed a message and sent it to Kirito to see when he got online. Eric left the cave and started running through the caves. The other attacks were getting trashed by the second boss, he was a giant minotaur with a huge battle axe, he was standing on a bridge going across a lava mote. Eric ran onto the bridge and drew his Demon Blood sword. Eric jumped in front of a random guy and blocked the Battle Axe with his blade.
"Thanks man." The guy said.
"No problem, Info quick." Eric said as the minotaur pulled back his battle axe.
"Well his name is Caw, his attack pattern is really hard since he is in the red of his final health bar, but the problem is his power." The guy explained.
"Power?" Eric asked.
"He can shoot giant lasers out his mouth." The guy answered.
"Get your people off the bridge, I got this." Eric said grinning. Eric ran towards Caw. "I hope your ready to die!" Eric yelled as he dodged Caw's battle axe. Eric started running up Caw's body. Eric jumped from Caw's leg to his right arm. Eric jumped at Caw's head. Caw opened his mouth and red light started to shine. 'Oh so it's basically a Cero attack from that other anime I watched, I forgot the name of it though.' Eric thought. Caw fired the laser beam at Eric. Eric raised Demon Blood into the air. "HAAAAA!" Eric yelled as he slashed downwards. Eric's sword had so much power in the swing that when the laser neared him it started to split in half and broke before it reached Eric. "Easy- Wait what?!" Eric yelled as another laser shot at him. Eric couldn't react fast enough for this one, it hit Eric and he came crashing onto the ground. Eric stood up. "Ok, I'm gonna stop him from attacking and I want all of you to attack at once." Eric said.
"How you gonna keep him from moving?" A random guy asked.
"How do we know that you won't really use us for a distraction and steal the kill?" A random girl asked.
"We trust you Eric." Kirito said as him and the other stepped next to him. Eric smiled as he stabbed Demon blood into the ground. The Blood chains shot out of the ground and wrapped around Caw making him unable to move. The other teams sat there with their jaws dropped.
"Go!" Eric shouted. Kirito's group pulse the other two teams moved in and started attacking with everything they had. Eric smirked as he pulled his sword out the ground and ran at Caw. "Everyone attack at the same time!" Eric yelled. Caw went to go move but everyone was already starting to attack. Hundreds of attacks happened all at once, Caw's HP dropped to zero. Everyone cheered at the bosses downfall.
"Sorry about doubting you." The random dude from earlier said.
"It's no big deal." Eric said. Everyone walked inside the huge castle.
"According to the map, the roof is where the final boss is, we should wait here until all the attacker teams show up, that way we have better odds of winning." Kirito said. Everyone agreed.
"Well we will all message each other when everyone is here." Eric said. Most of the people logged off. Eric took off his Amusphere and picked up his phone. Eric dialed a number. "Been awhile huh?" Eric asked.
"Yeah." A man's voice answered.
"Anyway I can get you two to get on a plane and come visit me in Japan?" Eric asked.
"Hey, Eric wants us to fly to Japan." The man said. There was a voice in the background. "He wants to know why." The man said.
"I need help with a problem, Laughing coffin." Eric said.
"Laughing coffin…" the man said. The voice in the background got louder then went back to quiet. "He says you are playing and we can't wait to see you again." The man said.
"Same here Uncle." Eric said. Eric hung up. "Now all I need is for Kirito to set up a meeting between me and that laughing coffin member, then I might can teach them guys a lesson, with some help of course." Eric said with a laugh. Eric got into his firebird and drove over to Kirito's house. Eric knocked on Kirito's door. Kirito answered the door.
"Hey Eric." Kirito said.
"Hey man, since it will be a bit before all the teams get to the castle and there is really nothing to do at the castle while waiting, what do you say we do a bit of real-life sword sparring?" Eric asked.
"Sounds fun." Kirito said as he welcomed Eric inside. Eric and Kirito went inside the dojo and both grabbed a training sword.
"No gear needed." Eric said.
"Right, let's go." Kirito said. Kirito and Eric lunged at each other as they swung the swords. The two swords clashed over and over again. Eric ducked and stabbed at Kirito's chest. Kirito dodged and swung at Eric. Eric blocked and ran along side Kirito's blade, keeping Kirito's sword from slamming down on him he got right in front of Kirito. Eric pulled his sword down and spun around and his sword lighting tapped Kirito's side.
"Got Ya." Eric said with a smirk.
"Nice, wanna have some drinks and snacks after a little more sparring?" Kirito asked.
"Sure." Eric said. Eric and Kirito went back to sparring for a while.