Aura Kingdom

Sword Art Online

An Envoy's Journey

Sacrificial Shield

As the corpse of the final beast hit the ground, the Lancer exhaled in relief. His vibrant green eyes narrowed at his health bar as he walked over to a nearby rock and sat down on it, producing a potion from his inventory, and placing his red hat next to him. He had changed his subclass to solo this dungeon but at a cost of his own sustainability, having no way of replenishing health apart from one skill which had a very lengthy cooldown.

He bowed his head slightly after the empty vial shattered into tiny little light particles, closing his eyes as the ominous breeze of this dungeon flowed through his brown and red hair. His vibrant green eyes opened as something popped up on his HUD, he looked over at his party list. Appart from him, there was two other people in his party. He lifted his gloved hand and tapped their names, causing a little box to appear near their status, which showed their locations. The Bard was positioned right outside of the dungeon as previously discussed. However the Guardian was... He narrowed his eyes again, bringing up a different box, writing a message to the Guardian. Once the Message was sent, he stood up and placed his hat back on his head. He adjusted his long red jacket, picking up his lance in one fluid motion and spunt it above his head and held it at the ready, turning to where he needed to be next, the final boss. He glanced at his buffs, only five more minutes left on the three party buffs. He closed his eyes, inhaling calmly and then opened his eyes, he took a step forward and broke out into a run.

As soon as he was in the boss area, the overturned dirt floor glowed with demonic rules, the glow was purple in colour. The runes started climbing up the rocky walls. He stepped back as the boss came out of the griund, shaking the dirt off. His eyes widened at the realisation of this being a different boss to normal. He looked at the runes and something came to mind, something she had said.

"There runes appeared and climbed the wall. As we started to fight, it was almost as if a timer had begun... When the timer ended, the runes glowed red and... They all died... I couldn't save them..."

He sighed, closing his eyes in defeat for a moment, then opened them once more, pointing his spear at the giant boss. He yelled out and ran towards it, hitting it with everything he had. He kept an eye on the health bar of the boss as he fight, gritting his teeth when he realised that he had barely done nay damage. He landed infront of the boss, panting slightly as he looked at his cooldowns. His eyes widened as the floor beneath his feelt began to glow red, before he could move again, he was hit with the full force of the Boss' AOE. He fell to kneeling, looking at his health bar, he exhaled, his health was already in the red. Bowing his head, he stood up, holding his spear at the ready once more.

The sound of a large ominous bell chimed, echoing around the boss area. The sound seemed to anger the boss, causing him to become much more agressive. He thrashed about, narrowly missing the Lancer.

The runes started to move and wrap around the boss, impeding all movement as it tightened around him like chains. The purple glow changed to red.

His eyes widened as he watched this, bowing his head and closing his eyes, "This is it. Sorry. I won't be making it home."

The boss seemed to scream in agony and exploded, causing a massive AOE which covered the whole area.

"No, you will be making it home."

His eyes widened when he saw the long wavey hair infront of him, a shield being held up, "No!"

Once the dust had settled, he opened is eyes once more, a large chunk of the silver shield hit the floor next to his feet, "No..." He looked up just as he saw the figure infront of him started to fall. He stumbled forward and caught the falling Guardian, hitting the ground with his knees, "No... You idiot! What were you thinking? Why repeat history!?" Tears filled his eyes.

She smiled up at him, dropping her sword and placing his hand on his cheek, "I couldn't save her, I couldn't save them... But knowing I could save you again, I was going to do it. I can't lose you as well..." She closed her eyes, her hand fell from his cheek.

He took hold of her falling hand, his tears falling onto her cheeks, "You can't leave me again!"