Sword Art Online
After The Incident
Chapter 46 – Releasing Your Rage
~The boss room, Klein's POV~
I instinctively raised my sword in preparation as the first rotten zombie pixie went directly for me, since I was in front. I growled and tightened the hold on the hilt, but just as I was about to feel the corpse's blow on my sword, the world around me suddenly grew dark, and I could see nothing but eerie shadows. I growled and looked around me in confusion, until I suddenly felt a sharp sting in my side.
"Argh, what the hell is happening!?" I growled and instinctively slashed at the shadow that had attacked me "HA! Down you go!"
"Klein is that you?!" I suddenly heard Liz's voice and the soft pling of the message "Team kill not activated." "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you, but you didn't have to bonk me on the head with your handle!"
"Shit, sorry Liz!" I mumbled in surprise as I drew back "I can't see a damned thing! What the hell is happening to me!?"
"HAHAHAHA" I heard Kirito's matured and dark laughter from the other end of the throne room "This is the power of my dark corruption magic! Anyone weak will surely perish!"
The darkness slowly began to disappear around me and I could finally see again. I rubbed my eyes just to make sure, and looked down at the message that had appeared in front of me and the others.
"Only warriors with strong wills and great power can resist the corrupt emperors shadow magic. Depending on your level, the blindness status effect will linger for longer whenever it's triggered by the emperor."
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" I screamed in annoyance and glared up at Kirito, the original creator of this debuff "This is way overpowered!"
He merely chuckled and smirked at me before raising his hand in command.
"Go, my dearest undead!" He yelled with a laugh "Turn them all to dust in your wake!"
At the exact moment Kirito had landed his command, an undead had quickly stridden up to me and heaved his blade in attack. I blocked and kicked him back, before sending my sharp sword across his abdomen and finishing him off quickly. I had only little time to celebrate though, as I was suddenly surprise attacked from behind by yet another undead. When had it gotten there!?
I was about to be struck down when Kyouji dashed over and delivered a swift kick to the kneecap of the undead, sending him off balance before ending him with a few quick stabs to the face and torso, and he looked over at me as our opponent quickly disappeared.
"There's no way around it" He said with a frown "We need to hold it together for now, and figure out these two's attack patterns!"
"Got it. What do you say we hold each other's backs for now?" I proposed.
He simply nodded at this before looking around him. Liz and the others were fighting a bit to my left, so we quickly hurried over to help them with the small horde that had been approaching them rapidly.
We quickly rid of the undead that had surrounded our friends, but the more we got rid of, the more there seemed to spawn. When we finally managed to break through and get a bite of fresh air, there had already spawned a new wave around Ares' and Mercuria's thrones.
"You are far too weak for my undead army!" Ares laughed in mockery as he looked over at his empress "Wouldn't you say so, my dear?"
"Maybe you could hold back a little bit" Mercuria said with a venomous smile "I want to take part in the slaughter as well"
"Well, with our profession, it would only be natural" Said Ares with another laugh "Alright then dear, go get them"
Mercuria giggled excitedly before drawing her rapier, and giddily jumping down from her throne, making a work out of seeming overly excited about killing us all in cold blood.
"Hurray! I get to play!" She laughed and smirked at us as she grew a vicious expression as she went into position "It'll be so much fun to drink your tears!"
I got shudders from her viciousness. I didn't know if it was the Asuna or Kirito's coding that were talking, but either way they had gotten way too into it.
"I told you this would be creepy as hell!" I whimpered as I tried to shake off the fear Mercuria was setting.
"Whatever Klein, we've dealt with worse before!" Agil said with a smirk as he raised his axe "Would you prefer a giant scythe-wielding skeleton scorpion over this?"
I gulped a bit as I reminisced about The Skull Reaper, and how it had killed several players with a single hit back in SAO's 74th floor.
"Uhh, you got a point" I mumbled silently.
"Enough with the chitchatting, already!" Sinon was a bit impatient and sent a barrage of arrows Mercuria's way "Let's end this quickly!"
I frowned quietly and nodded, before following the other's example and rushing forward towards Mercuria. She smirked and rushed forward as well, meeting me as we blocked weapons and stared into each other's eyes defiantly, mine full of determination, hers of murderous excitement.
Since her avatar was physically bigger than my own, she slowly began to overpower me and push me backwards. I growled a little but smiled as I felt the wind of my comrades rushing past me, about to deliver hell on earth.
Mercuria screamed as Lizbeth's mace connected to her ribs and send her stumbling backwards, trying to regain her footing. Agil rushed up and followed with an upwards slash with his axe, one that was drawn from way behind him, sending Mercuria stumbling back even further.
"Damn you! Take this you little shit!" Mercuria's calm psychopathy from earlier was gone and replaced with a blind rage.
She raised her hands and black and dark purple flames of energy appeared in her palms, before she pressed them to the ground, a wall of fire mounting in front of her! It rushed towards us in waves of fast heat, barely allowing us to dodge her attack. My left leg was caught in the blast and I yelled as I was blasted across the floor with immense strength.
I crashed against the ground hard, but groaned as I rolled backwards and swept back onto my feet using the momentum, panting a bit from having had the air knocked out of me. My hp quickly reduced down to about 60 percent.
"Holy mother of OP attacks!" I growled annoyed before getting back in action and charging once again "Stay the hell away from that fire!"
I growled angrily and in frustration. How the hell did she take off so much of my hp? I mean, I've seen worse things, but at the level she was at she should barely even have done a fourth of that with a single attack.
"This is insane!"
~Kyouji's POV~
"Sinon!"
I growled and tackled Shino out of the way of the incoming flame attack, just in time to avoid any real damage to be inflicted upon any of us. We fell to the ground with a heavy thud, before Shino growled at me.
"Dammit Kyouji…"
"Sorry, I freaked out" I mumbled apologetically as I looked down at her "Just… Please be careful okay?"
She nodded silently and brushed some of the hair in her face away and got back onto her feet, pulling me up by the arm as I chuckled embarrassed from how close we had been.
I couldn't believe I had panicked like that. I've always hated seeing Sinon put herself in danger, as fake and virtual as that danger might be. Whenever I saw Sinon about to be hit with something, I could feel every nerve in my body scream at my brain to jump in front of the attack and protect her instead.
But as much as I wanted to, I always tried to stay back from being that white knight in shining armor, riding in to protect her. I knew she wanted to become stronger. She hated when people babied her, and she would get really grumpy. She always wanted to do things alone, not that she was willing to learn from others, but when it came down to the wire, she would do things on her own.
I sighed silently as I watched her jump backwards and landed in the back of the room, readying a few arrows on her bow. I smiled quietly and sprinted up to Ares, stabbing her along the temples and hips a few times.
"Yo, you big corpse hoarder! Over here!" I smirked as she turned my way, and retreated backwards as several arrows exploded against Ares' back, sending her sprawled on the floor as her sword slid across the slippery tiles, far away from her.
"Damn you, you little…" Mercuria growled angrily, a red glow growing in her eyes, but before she could manage retaliation, Agil and Silica crowded her with barrages of heavy bladed attacks, followed with several magical debuffs from Pina. Loud screams followed as Mercuria stumbled backwards, growling as Agil raised his axe in attack.
A smirk suddenly appeared on Mercuria's lips as a staff began to materialize in her hand, and she swung upwards, quickly and easily parrying his heavy attack.
He widened his eyes and let out something that sounded like a surprised grunt.
"H-How…"
Before he could finish his sentence, Mercuria raised her hand and blasted him in the face with a fire spell, sending him flying. I ran past him and stabbed against her, but every time I stabbed she somehow managed to block or parry with the blade of her sword, which had magically appeared in her free hand.
"Damn, you're fast!" I said with an angry growl, instead activating a sword skill "Take this then! Illusory Stabs!"
I smirked as my blade glowed a dark purple, my form beginning to grow transparent. My smirk widened as my body began dividing into fives, four silhouettes of myself forming around Mercuria. She widened her eyes, not knowing what direction to turn to. Before she could think of a counter attack all five of my entities attacked at the same time.
Despite having both a rapier and a staff to parry with, she couldn't keep up with me for long, and eventually her defense began breaking down. Once I saw an opening I stabbed her between the rips, and let the other "Me's" attack as well, stabbing over and over and over again from all directions at the same time, hitting her neck, her sides, her stomach and back, causing her to scream in agony and pain.
We all jumped beside each other and attacked at the same time, before sending her flying in one direction, sending her sprawled against the floor tiles once again. We had taken off about 7 percent of her hp altogether.
I panted quietly and let my silhouettes before letting the others take over for a while. Agil ran over and smirked at me.
"Nice attack! But look out getting too close to her" he said as we turned our attention to the others as they fought back Mercuria. "She's gotta have incredible strength if she can parry my great axe like that"
"Yeah, I noticed that too" The two of us began running in the direction of the battle, but suddenly…
"THAT'S ENOUGH!"
The sudden shout was from the top of the throne, Ares was standing with a furious expression in his features, his dark staff glowing menacingly as he slowly stepped down along the steps to his throne.
"You dare hurt my wife… my empress…" He said, his eyes glowing a menacing red "You dare come here and make a mockery of our powers!?"
I looked up at Mercuria's hp, realizing we had damaged her down to about 60 percent. Maybe this wasn't impossible after all! But as most rpg bosses, they changed attack patterns now that their hp was in danger. Now, Ares was joining the battle as well, and he was pissed off.
"Let me see how you like dealing with the most powerful dark magic emperor in the world!" He said, a pair of dark wings folding out from behind him "NOW YOU FACE ARES, THE CORRUPTED EMPEROR!"
I frowned silently as the darkness from before returned, and I could no longer see a thing. I groaned as a blade pierced my abdomen and I was sent flying backwards.
"W-What is this damage!?" I groaned as I hit the ground hard and slowly got back to my feet, the darkness around me fading away and revealing I had only 20 percent left, having had 75 percent before the attack.
"Klein has already suffered great hp loss" Silica mumbled as she came over and helped me up as she had Pina heal me a little, including a defense buff .
"You need to be extremely careful." I mumbled "He doesn't have much damage, but his attacks have an insane range and damage output. As long as you can stay away from his attacks and be nimble enough to get within striking range, this shouldn't be too difficult"
She nodded a little and frowned in worry as she turned to the boss monster.
"This is terrifying. Klein was right"
"SEE!? I TOLD YOU-! WOAH!"
Before Klein could boast anymore than that, he only just dodged another incredible fire attack from Mercuria, followed with a few magic bolts from Ares, one of them gracing his left.
"Damn it, would you piss off already!?" He yelled in annoyance as he raised his sword and parried it against Mercuria's blade, but still got caught by an incoming fire blast from Ares, his hp quickly approaching 0.
Mercuria raised her blade, but got caught in a new arrow barrage from Sinon, letting Klein escape their brutal attacks and retreat to heal up.
I sided with Agil and we attacked together, him pushing her off balance with his axe, allowing me to rush forward and stabbing her sides and chest, jumping out of the way of another attack from Ares.
Ares growled and screamed in anger as he flew forward, approaching rapidly. Sinon covered us with barrages of arrows, hitting him square in the face and chest, sending him crashing to the ground, stones and debris flying everywhere around him. In the meantime we continued our relentless assault on Mercuria, quickly bringing her hp downwards.
"Pina! Firebreath!"
Sinon and Scilica kept covering for us from afar, but suddenly the blindness effect returned, and their attacks completely missed, giving Ares an opportunity to attack us.
Since the effect hit everyone at the same time, the rest of the group couldn't cover for us either, so both Agil and I were quickly send backwards from the boss duo's viscious attacks, the debris under us cracking as we landed way behind our group, and our hp quickly depleting to the last 10 percent.
"Dammit… I'll need to heal before I can continue" Agil mumbled as he opened his menu.
I growled angrily as I gazed up at Ares, who just smirked at me mockingly. I could almost hear Kirito behind the mask of Ares, taunting me to keep attacking. Attack and die.
"Dammit all… No way I'm losing to that spoiled brat again!"
My anger was taking over my judgement and I growled as I burst forward again, towards Ares and completely ignoring Mercuria.
"Guys! Keep that bitch off me!"
Before they could even answer to my command I had raised my blade and raised right past her, dodging her magic attacks in a mix of purple flames and silver swings of my blade. I didn't know how, but I somehow managed to escape Mercuria's wrath with the most of my remaining hp intact, leaving me at about 7 percent.
That didn't matter to me though. I was gonna show that bastard. He was not as strong as he thought he was!
"Illusory Stabs!"
As I got into attack distance of Ares, or Kirito, I immediately activated my sword ability and began another ruthless assault, completely forgetting everything about defenses and keeping up my speed. He just smirked and easily parried with his staff or blocked with some sort of magic forcefield, and my attacks barely even did any damage.
"JUST DIE, DAMN YOU!"
My rage consumed me and I activated sword skill after sword skill, quickly draining my mp bar and most of my stamina.
"Kyouji! What the hell are you doing!?"
I could hear Sinon call out somewhere behind me, but I didn't care. I just wanted to take this smug bastard down!
"Shut up Sinon!" I growled as I was pushed off guard by his forcefield "This asshole is not stronger than me! I'll prove it to you!"
"But Kyouji, I-!"
Before she could manage to answer me, my last sword skill ran out of juice and I collapsed onto my knees. All of my mana was gone, and it would take a while for it to come back. I was down to last percento of hp, and I could barely even stand anymore.
Ares just stood over me and huffed arrogantly, before raising his staff to prepare his last attack.
"Game over, my friend"
A quick jab over my neck and my avatar collapsed and disappeared. I was dead.
~In the standby lobby, Kyouji's POV~
I sighed softly as I slowly opened up my eyes. I was in the standby lobby, made to look like Agil's bar. To my surprise, Asuna and Kirito was sitting up by the bar, waving at me with a smile.
"Guys? What are you doing here?" I asked in surprise as I walked up to them "Aren't you supposed to be battling the others right around now?"
"You mean the bosses?" Kirito asked with a smirk "You think I could ever hurt my comrades?"
My jaw hit the floor as I heard his words.
"T-Then… W-What was…"
"Simple AI programs" He said with a smirk "I could never be vicious enough to fill the shoes of an undead emperor"
"You see Kyouji, the moment we began to transform, we teleported out of there to give space to the actual bosses" Asuna explained "It's hard for us to actually hurt you guys, virtually or not, after what we've been through"
"So, we teleported here and decided to watch the battle from afar" Kirito said as he gestured up towards a monitor hanging behind the bar, showing a recording of the entire boss room, and the battle that was still ongoing.
"Oh… Yeah that makes sense" I mumbled softly, scratching my ear in embarrassment "So… You heard that last bit too?"
"Yeah, of course" Kirito said with a nod "Hey, I don't blame you. You've been through a lot too, I understand"
"Okay, good" I released the breath I had subconsciously held in.
"Come here and watch the last of the battle with us" Asuna suggested as she patted the seat to her left, Kirito sitting on her right "It seems they're pushed into a corner right now"
I frowned silently and nodded softly as I took my seat, gluing my gaze to the monitor.
"Come on Sinon…"