Chapter 4
February 5th, 2023
23rd floor, Boss room
Approximately 16:45 AST (Aincrad Standard Time)
Party stats
Will: Level 28 spearman
Emily: Level 28 shieldmaiden
Grace: Level 28 Katana swordswoman
Xander: Level 28 War Hammer tank
The massive metal doors parted, revealing the boss room: a large, circular room with dozens of holes in the walls. Will knew from his scouting run that the boss was in one of those tunnels, and he angled his spear in front of himself as he walked into the room.
"Remember what the scouts said, everyone. The boss is going to try and surprise us, so stay sharp," Asuna called out from the front.
As they walked into the room, the doors closed shut behind them, but the boss, a massive serpent, was nowhere to be seen. "What's taking it so long..." Will thought out loud. "It tried to attack us almost immediately after the gates closed when we were scouting the boss." And that wasn't the only strange thing. The room hadn't lit up yet like it did when they scouted the boss.
It was then that Emily saw something move out of the corner of her eye. "I saw something," she said, looking over to her left. However, there was nothing there.
"Over there!" Grace called out as she saw a bladed tail slither past one of the tunnel entrances on the opposite side of the room.
Everyone was on edge now. It seemed like the boss was all around them, but that was impossible. There was no way it could've gone from one side of the room to the other that quickly; not without going right in front of them in plain sight.
"It's underneath us..." Will realized, and then he gasped. "Everyone! Spread out now! It's trying to attack us from underground!" he exclaimed, running forward. The raiding party spread out a bit, confused, but they weren't fast enough. A single, white scaled snake broke through the ground underneath where the group was a moment ago, and in the blink of an eye, swallowed four of the players whole, before darting back underground.
"Asuna, I think something's wrong," Will said to the raid leader.
"No kidding, that thing came out of nowhere!" she replied, her eyes darting every which way.
"No, that's not what I mean," Will replied, shaking his head. "That snake was much smaller than the one we saw when I led that scouting run on this boss." Suddenly, he felt something moving under his feet.
"Wait a minute... did you feel that? That tremor just now?" he said. Asuna nodded. "It felt like it was coming from two different sides of the room, didn't it?" They both closed their eyes and focused, feeling another tremor.
"Yeah... I think I feel what you mean... Wait, you don't think it-" Asuna said, but she was cut off as three serpents erupted from the ground and the walls, devouring players whole before diving back underground, the terrain filling in behind them. Suddenly, a single, massive snake emerged from underground in the center of the room and let out a screech.
Hundreds of glowing crystals sprouted out of the walls, with a larger one protruding from the ceiling, and three healthbars appeared next to the beast's head, along with a name: "Jewelcrusher, the Fragmented Serpent". Now that Will looked at it again, he could see that the large serpent was indeed actually three snakes moving together in perfect unison, to appear as though they were a single being.
"Did it do that during your scouting run?" Asuna gasped.
"Did I forget to mention that? No, of course it didn't do that!" Will snappily replied, leaping away and pulling Asuna with him as Jewelcrusher lunged at them, boring into the ground where they stood mere seconds earlier. Will hurriedly threw his spear at the beast as it burrowed into the ground, grazing it and catching the spear as it returned to his hand.
"Everyone! Fight defensively! Don't go closer to the walls than you have to! This thing can easily flank us!" Asuna ordered, standing up and assuming a defensive stance with her rapier.
The worm surfaced again, this time from one of the walls up high, burrowing into the opposite wall in mid-air. Will didn't understand what it was doing until Xander called out "Heads up! It's dropping rocks on us!"
The party all dodged the rocks, but then the boss charged out of the ground again, this time heading straight for Emily. She dodged its attempt to swallow her, and as she did so, she caught a glance at its head.
"That thing doesn't have eyes!" she realized. "Asuna! It doesn't have eyes! It must be locating us by feeling the vibrations when we take a step!" She shouted, but the assault team's leader still seemed confused. Will's eyes flew open as he understood what Emily meant.
"If we walk erratically, it won't be able to predict where we're going!" He explained, and Asuna's eyes lit up.
"Like in that old book, Dune?" she asked.
"Yeah, that's the one!"
Asuna nodded. "Everyone! Walk without rhythm! It'll confuse it! Hammer and Mace users, give the ground some hard smacks while you're at it! Let's give that thing a headache!"
The raid party did as she said, and moments later, the serpent shot out of the ground and let out a bellow as it flailed its head around in confusion.
"Now's our chance! Let 'em have it!" Asuna ordered, charging forward with her rapier. The blade glowed a bright green, and she jabbed it forward, releasing a barrage of small green lights that left painful wounds on the snake. Agil ran forward and delivered a jarring blow with his axe, and Xander followed up with a strike from his hammer. Will went in next with Emily and Grace at his sides. The three of them leaped at the boss, striking it with their bladed weapons higher than the others had. Emily and Grace impaled the beast on the sides of its body and slid down its length, leaving long cuts down its flanks.
Will meanwhile, stabbed the beast with one end of his blade, but then flipped over it to run up towards the underside of its mouth. His spear glowed red, and he let out a battle cry as he activated his Setsudan sword skill. The blade ripped itself out of the belly of the serpent, leaving a jagged hole where it had just been, and Will swung it in an overhead slash, cutting into the snake's chin and causing it to let out an earsplitting screech. As he fell, Will kicked off of the serpent's belly and rolled as he hit the ground, timing the movements right so he took minimal fall damage.
A quick glance showed that the creature's health bars had taken a massive hit from the raiding party's attack, with its first health bar completely empty and it's second just under 50%. The beast roared once again and dived back into the ground, and Asuna saw three mounds move away from each other. "Stay sharp! It's split itself!" she warned.
As if on cue, three snakes shot out of the walls simultaneously, and the players scrambled to evade their gaping maws. They tunneled underground, and once again, reformed into a single massive snake, which sprouted out of the center of the ground. Bone-like spines grew out from between its scales, and Xander realized what it was about to do a second before everyone else. "Crap, Shields up now! Everyone else, take cover!" he exclaimed as the serpent contracted its muscles. A few seconds later, its muscles stretched and pulsed outward, shooting the spines like bullets.
A few players unlucky enough to not be able to find cover fast enough shattered into glistening polygons as the spines skewered them, but the majority of the party was unscathed by the attack, and Jewelcrusher tunneled back underground. The group repeated the process from before, bashing on the ground and running erratically, and fortunately, the boss emerged from the ground, but this time, it was split into three smaller snakes that were all flailing around dangerous, sword-like tails along with their heads.
"Don't charge in recklessly, but if you have an opening, take it!" Asuna called out, jumping over a tail and jabbing her rapier in between the scales of the snake. She noticed that when the serpents were acting individually of each other, they also only had one health bar each, and their names changed to "Fragment of Jewelcrusher". "God I wish Kirito was here..." she thought as another tail slashed at her, barely missing her as she ducked out of the way.
Xander hung back, knowing his bulky armor would make only him an easier target. He exchanged a quick nod with Grace, and dropped to the ground, pushing off when he felt Grace land on his back and launching her toward the serpents like a springboard. The girl flew through the air gracefully, throwing small shuriken out as she went, which emitted a shadowy aura. Normally they wouldn't do much, but because of the sword skill she had used as she threw them, the little stars split into hundreds of tiny, bladed disks which embedded into the snakes.
She spun in the air like an acrobat, her katana glowing a brilliant white color, and with a shout of ferocity, she swung it in a large arc at the snake with the lowest health bar. The Saikuron sword skill cut through the snake's neck, cleanly decapitating it in one fell swoop. The snake's head fell to the ground with a thud, and Grace jumped off of its still flailing neck. Agil caught the girl and set her down safely, and after she got back to her feet, she swung her blade in the air, cleaning off the blood of the serpent.
The two remaining snakes screeched as they sensed the demise of their kin, and hastily burrowed underground, reemerging as a single serpent. Its massive jaw opened to let out a bloodcurdling shriek, and even though it had no eyes to see with, its head focused directly on Grace. Glowing blue lines moved up towards its mouth, and then suddenly, a bright flash engulfed the room, followed by a deafening thunderclap, and then an explosion.
When the light faded, Will saw that Grace and Agil had been knocked to the ground, and laid there, clearly immobilized by a more powerful version of the same paralysis effect that everyone else had. Agil's axe was next to them, a large open circle in the center of its blades, and long cracks running down the handle and throughout the rest of the blades. Jewelcrusher flicked out a tongue, and now, Will could see two pairs of dagger-like eyes on its head, which had previously been hidden by eyelids that he realized looked no different from the rest of its body.
The serpent inched closer to its vulnerable prey, and Will realized that if something wasn't done, Agil and Grace were finished. He groaned, fighting against the crippling paralysis and willing his body to move. Miraculously, it answered, the paralysis effect icon disappearing from next to his health bar. The serpent's eyes flicked towards him, and it lunged, its powerful muscles rippling. Will leaped and rolled to the side, raking his spear across one of the boss's left eyes.
His spear glowed purple, and he ran towards Jewelcrusher's tail, jumping and spinning as he went, leaving slash marks all along its flank. The serpent stared at him, and the bright blue lines moved up its body and towards its mouth. The jaws emanated a menacing blue hue, and Will knew that if he didn't think of something soon, he was toast. That was when he saw the beast's tail, and he had an idea.
Will lengthened his stride, running as fast as he could, and jumped over the tail right before the lightning bolt shot out of the snake's mouth. There was a bright flash of light, then an earsplitting thunderclap that was followed almost instantly by Jewelcrusher's shriek of agony.
Will grinned as he realized his plan had worked. The boss had hit itself with the blast, paralyzing most of its body as a result. He sprung up onto the body of the serpent, running back towards its head and feeling the static electricity discharging from the beast arcing to his feet, creating a strange tingling sensation. As he neared the serpent's head, Will screamed with fury, jumping into the air and bringing the spear down on Jewelcrusher's conjoined skulls, driving the polearm all the way through its upper and lower jaws.
He yanked the weapon free and proceeded to tear into the serpent's flesh, shredding away chunks of scales and spines, until the snake finally let out one last roar, and shattered into polygons. The paralysis effect faded away from the other players, and one by one they pushed themselves to their feet.
It took a moment for everything that had just happened to sink in, but then the word "Congratulations!" appeared in the air in massive, bold text, and everyone in the room cheered. Windows opened up in front of each player that had taken part in the fight, and a second window appeared in front of Will which read "Bonus item: Thunderclap".
Will tapped on the window, and in his hand materialized a new polearm. The hilt was platinum, with Cobalt braces on it, and the handle was of a brown leather that felt smooth and polished but also gripped to his hands very well. The blades meanwhile, were made of a strange metal that he couldn't recognize, and they had a distinct curve to them. The metal seemed to radiate a soft, electric blue glow as he gave it a few test swings, and for a split second, he could've sworn he saw tiny arcs of electricity spark through the air where he had just cut.
"Nice work Will. I thought we were toast after that last attack," Agil said.
"Yeah, thanks, Will. We own you one, big time," Grace added, sliding her katana back into its sheath on her back, but Will shook his head.
"Either of you would've done the same thing for me."
Grace rolled her eyes at that. "You really do enjoy being unbearably humble and modest, don't you?" she asked.
Will was about to answer her when Asuna called out from the steps leading to the doorway into the 24th floor. "Once again, we have fought valiantly, but this hole is no place to celebrate. Will, as the one who dealt the final blow, would you like the honor of being the first one to see the next floor?"
He attached his new weapon to the clip on his back and then stored the spear he'd used in the fight in his inventory. "Assault leader?" he replied. "It'd be my genuine pleasure."
A/N: Oh man that ending. Just those seven words. Let me know if they gave you chills, cuz when I wrote this, they definitely gave me chills.
At any rate, I've just surpassed 10 views on this story! I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but it is to me! Remember, this is the first time I've published any of my stories on the internet!
Well, thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope this fight really excited you, and I'll see you in chapter 5!
