Chapter 6

June 30th, 2023

31st floor, dead Forest

Approximately 01:00 AST (Aincrad Standard Time)

Party stats

Will: Level 52 spearman

Emily: Level 52 shieldmaiden

Grace: Level 52 Katana swordswoman

Xander: Level 52 War Hammer tank

Grace shuffled through the grass, silently hoping she'd get the drop on the beast. She, Emily, Will, and Xander had all accepted a quest from the town, Graveton, to track down and kill a creature that had been attacking their livestock at night. The catch was that it only appeared at night, but they'd managed to figure out when and where it appeared.

They'd also managed to discover what it looked like, although only not in detail. Based on what they saw, a silhouette, the creature had a centaur-like body, but with spider legs instead of horse legs, and its chest was skeletal in appearance. It walked with a very uneven gait, but when it ran, it moved extremely fast. Strangely, it seemed almost starved, with bone-thin arms, but also with tendons held taut by some invisible force. And to top it all off, its claws looked almost a foot long, curled like fingers but sharper than most swords they'd seen in the game.

"Xander, are you in position? Once we get the drop on this thing, it's going to run for its den. You have to drop down on it before it can get inside," Will whispered to his friend, his voice traveling to Xander through a special item he'd picked up the previous day, which acted like a phone.

"Yeah, I'm ready. Just tell me when it's headed my way."

"Copy that. We've got eyes on it, and we're about to surprise it."

Grace looked at Will through the undergrowth. She knew that a short distance away from him was Emily, with her new Dragonscale claw shields ready to fight. Although smaller than her preferred bladed shields, they were much more dangerous and easier to manipulate, a gamble she decided was worthwhile. Slowly, they inched forward, watching the beast in the moonlight from the cliff above it. The light gave them a clear idea of what it looked like. Its claws were red with blood, its skin (If it could be called that) was pulled tight like a bedsheet, and it was almost as white as their cloaks. It made her want to gag.

"We're in position, the beast doesn't know we're here," Will said quietly. Grace slowly pulled her katana out of its sheath, the blade noiselessly sliding out of the oiled leather.

"I'm ready," Grace whispered as an owl hooted overhead.

"As am I," Emily added, nodding slightly.

Will held up a hand. It was hard to see, but even in the darkness, it was clear that he was counting down. He showed three fingers, then two, and then one.

"Take it!" He called out. The beast whirled around, and its milky white eyes startled them. Despite this, they regained their composure, and Grace leaped into the clearing, sword drawn as she sliced through one of its arms.

"Remember, we need it alive!" Will reminded her. A red arrow and three healthbars appeared, along with a name: "Lich, the desecrated". Emily jumped into the clearing after Will, clawing at its eyes with her blades. The Lich let out a bloodcurdling howl and ran off towards its den.

"Xander!" Will said into the conch-like communications item. "It's headed your way quick-like!" the three of them ran after the beast, which was easy to track with its frequent whines and howls.

"Don't worry, I'm ready," Xander replied. Will nodded and looked to his two companions. "Grace, break off and head left. Emily, go right! I don't want to risk this thing going to another den if it has any! Track it from the trees, you two are more agile than I am, so I'll pursue from the ground!"

Grace nodded and ran off to the left, her sword in hand. She vaulted over a decaying tree that had fallen over, and then slid under another one, all the while keeping an eye on the beast with her tracking skill. She saw it try to break off and threw a shuriken at it. The throwing blade embedded itself in the Lich's skin, and it shrieked, tearing the star from its body as it continued running in the direction they were guiding it,

"It's almost to the Den! I'd say about twenty seconds out Xander!" She warned.

The hammer user grinned from his perch as he put the conch back in his inventory. "That's it… Come to daddy…" he said. The beast howled again as it tore through the forest, uncaring of the vines and thorns that raked its flesh, and soon the cave came into view.

Xander dropped out of the tree and crushed the beast's hand with his hammer, and it cried out with a scream that would make even the most courageous explorers tremble. Xander had to drop his hammer to cover his ears. "AGH! IT'S SO LOUD!" He exclaimed when suddenly the Lich grabbed him and ran into the cave. He screamed as the beast carried him into the cavern, leaving his hammer behind.

"Xander!" Emily shouted as she arrived outside of the cave entrance first, just in time to see Xander get carried away by the Lich. Moments later, Grace and Will arrived. "It's got Xander!" Emily told them, fear streaked across her face.

Grace couldn't believe it. Although Will was the oldest of the four of them, Xander was easily the largest and heaviest, a trait he'd both maintained and emphasized since picking the war hammer. The idea that such a scrawny creature like the Lich could not only pick up Xander, but carry him into its den so quick that Emily couldn't catch it was both shocking, and worrying.

She shook her head, casting out the thoughts of what it might need Xander for, and opened her menu. Opening her friends list, the first thing she did was tap on Xander's name. To her relief, it wasn't greyed out. He was still alive, and moreover, they could still see his icon on the map, albeit in the portion of the dungeon that they hadn't been able to chart. As long as they could still see that icon, they would eventually find him.

Besides, this field boss had to be defeated if the Clearers wanted to progress to the next floor. Not only was the entrance to the labyrinth was at the back of its den and wouldn't open unless the boss was nearby, but they had mapped it out, and the labyrinth gates wouldn't open unless the creature had been defeated. Even if it hadn't taken Xander, they'd still need to go into its den and hunt it down.

Now that she knew Xander was still alive, she tapped on Asuna's friend bar and selected the messages button.

"Asuna,

The field boss took Xander into its den. We're going in after him, but please come soon, and bring some backup too. This might be our best chance to finally capture this sucker. Make sure to pack some torches, we'll leave some kind of trail to let you know where we've been.

-Grace"

After that, she reopened Xander's window and pulled a torch out of her inventory. Will picked up Xander's hammer, put it in his inventory, and the three of them walked into the cave.


Time: Approximately 02:00 AST

It had been a little under an hour since they had delved into the cave, and they'd found no sign of the beast. Grace sighed as she carved another cross onto the wall.

"Come on, we've got to keep searching. Xander's icon is still on the map. This way," Emily told her, placing a hand on Grace's shoulder, while Will held the torch behind them. They kept following the tunnel, leaving cross symbols on the walls every few feet, until eventually, they came to the edge of the area that had been charted. From then on, they would be walking in the unknown.

They walked into the uncharted area, their maps lighting up as new portions of the dungeon were cataloged when suddenly, they heard shrieks. Out of the darkness emerged a dozen skeletal warriors and a swarm of bloody bats with long fangs.

"Torches down, weapons up y'all!" Will called out, stabbing his torch into the ground. Stuck in the ground, it stayed up, and he held his spear out in front of him with one hand, pointing the blade at the oncoming horde. Grace and Emily pulled torches out and stuck them in the ground in the same way, and also readied their blades for battle.

With a shout, Will shot forward with a Komettoburēdo sword skill, striking many of the enemies in a single hit, finishing the attack behind the creatures. Meanwhile, Emily somersaulted forward and hooked her claws on a bat, and began swinging from one bat to the next, pulling them down to propel herself around. Many of the bats she clawed with this attack had just been hit by Will's sword skill, and with their relatively low HP, most of them fell to the ground and shattered.

Grace was up next, and she ran around the side of the creatures, throwing shadowy shuriken at the swarm of creatures, which split in mid-air to hit more of them. After regrouping with Will and Emily, She leaped off of Will's back to cut the wave in half with a Saikuron skill, swiftly cutting the rest of them in half. But they didn't have much time to celebrate, as they heard Xander call out for help down the tunnel behind them.

Without a second thought, they charged down the tunnel, unafraid of what awaited them, and paying no heed to the calls from behind them that asked their names, and where they were.

They hurriedly ran through the tunnel, with Will's eyes flicking rapidly between the map with Xander's icon and the tunnel in front of them. Grace's eyes darted to the left as she thought she heard something that sounded like rattling bones, but pushed the thought out of her mind.

They encountered another group of skeletons a few seconds later. Like before though, they easily dispatched them and kept running, until they reached a massive stone door.

"Something tells me the Lich and Xander are behind this door. You two ready?" Will asked.

"Like you even need to ask. Let's get our friend back!" Grace replied quickly, and Emily nodded in agreement. Together, the three of them pushed the door open and charged into the room. Inside, they saw that the room was a spherical hollow made of stone walls, which were permeated with many small holes coated with webs, bones, and other necromantic decorum.

In the center of the room, Xander hung from a long line of spider-silk trapped inside of a web-like cocoon. The Lich, however, was crawling around on the walls, and it dropped down in front of Will, Grace, and Emily. It shrieked right into their faces, and they covered their ears and closed their eyes to block out the sound. But then the noise abruptly changed to one of pain, and they opened their eyes.

Asuna had her Rapier embedded in the lich's flesh, a look of determination on her face. Meanwhile, Uzala and Godfree had flanked the creature and were attacking it.

Will, Emily, and Grace all quickly acted on the opening and rushed forward to cut Xander free. "Hang on Xander, we're getting you down!" Will called out, and Xander laughed.

"Haha, very funny pun Will."

Will shook his head as he ran. Only Xander would have the guts to be able to laugh at a bad, unintentional pun while hanging from the ceiling as a spider-lich's next lunch. Grace's sword glowed a bright white, and she cut through the line of webbing keeping Xander in the air, as Will slid underneath him and caught him, using a small dagger to cut the cocoon open.

"Ah, feels good to be able to move again. Did one of you grab my hammer?" Xander asked, standing up and stretching his muscles. Will nodded, pulling the hammer out of his inventory and handing it to Xander, who accepted it with a grin. "Thanks. Time for some payback," he said, charging towards the lich. His hammer glowed orange as he leaped into the air and crashed down on the lich, crushing it underneath his hammer.

The beast shrieked, only to be cut off again as Uzala's mace slammed into its gut, and Godfree's axe left a nasty cut on its back right on top of the large bruise created by Xander. It screeched again, and suddenly, skeletons began digging themselves out of the walls and ground, armed with all manner of steel weapons.

"Well, I suppose it was going to do that at some point. It's called the lich after all," Will mused, impaling one of the undead, only to have to pull his spear out to block two swords from behind. He intercepted the blades with the handle of his spear, and as the two skeletons were able to force his blade down slightly, he kicked out with one foot, hitting one of them in the ribcage. This sent the skeleton stumbling back, allowing Will to decapitate the other skeleton before bringing one end of his spear down into the second one.

Grace took out one skeleton by cutting it down from the left shoulder to the right hip with her katana, only to then have to roll away as a skeleton swung at her with a massive scimitar. It swung again, and forced to block it, she brought her sword up, only for it to be knocked out of her hands and to the side. The skeleton swung again, and she rolled away, picking up the longsword of a fallen skeleton and parrying a powerful thrust with it. She hastily stabbed the skeleton through its skull, giving her a chance to run around and pick up her katana, which she used to cut the skeleton down vertically. Its two sides fell in opposite directions, and she saw Xander grabbing onto the Lich, holding the hilt of his hammer against its neck, choking it so that it couldn't let out another cry and summon more skeletons. Even though he was being flailed around wildly, he refused to let go, even using his helmet to headbutt the back of the creature's head over and over.

Asuna cartwheeled over Emily, jumping into the air and angling her body parallel with the ground. She jabbed out with her rapier as the older girl ducked to avoid the same horizontal slash that Asuna had jumped into the air to dodge, and impaled the skeleton through its throat, while Emily spun around on the ground to claw at its knees. Their foe fell to the ground, and they shared a quick nod before splitting away to help their friends.

It was then that the creature threw Xander off of its back, and made a mad dash for the entrance of the hollow, trampling its own skeleton minions in the process, and nearly running over Godfree and Uzala as it escaped. Moments later, the skeletons fell to the ground, inanimate, as the one who had summoned them was no longer nearby.

Asuna pulled out her own conch and held it up to her face. "Team B! The boss got past us, and it might be trying to escape the cave! Get ready, we're in pursuit!" she told them, only to then have a look of confusion flash across her face. "What do you mean you just saw it run deeper into the caves?"

Suddenly, Will thought of something. "Asuna, maybe it's trying to run for the labyrinth?" He suggested, and she nodded.

"Yeah. The gates didn't open unless it was nearby. Maybe the AI thinks it can escape that way? Team B, did you copy that?" she asked as they rounded a corner, using their torches to track the Lich.

"We hear you loud and clear!" Nautilus replied in person, charging to meet them as they approached the entrance of the cave. "The bastard went that way, come on!" he said, leading them in the direction the beast had gone. They ran for what felt like miles, able to see the Lich in front of them just enough to know they were right behind it, but not close enough for even Grace's shuriken to catch it.

Eventually, they reached the gate leading to the Labyrinth, and the Beast began to glow with a white aura, as it tore past the raw iron fencing, scrambling into the dungeon. "Damnit!" Asuna swore as the hunting party skidded to a stop outside of the gates. To their surprise, however, the gates didn't close back up like they did previously when the beast ran past and then away from the gates.

"Well, the gates are still open, but who knows how long that'll last. What's the plan boss?" Will asked Asuna. "Are we going in after it, or what?"


A/N: Yay, a little cameo for Eiji, one of my favorite antagonists in the canon series, maybe my top favorite out of them all. I promise I'm not just saying that cuz he has a little redemption arc and comes back to try and save everyone in War of Underworld, and I'm a sucker for redemption arcs. You can thank Lord Zuko for that, just saying.

Anyway, that's the latest chapter I've got finished, so it seems like for now, I'm going to have to make like a certain company that can't count to three, and leave y'all on a cliffhanger. I promise it won't be 13 years before chapter 7 is up!