Chapter 8
June 1st, 2024
55th floor, Granzam
Approximately 09:00 AST (Aincrad Standard Time)
Party stats
Will: Level 74 spearman
Emily: Level 74 shieldmaiden
Grace: level 74 swordswoman
Xander: Level 74 War hammer tank
Kirito: Level 81 swordsman
Asuna: Level 79 fencer
The sun was rising over the headquarters of the Knights of the Blood Oath, the steel city of Granzam when Emily stretched her arms. With a great yawn, she folded over the blankets and slid out of the bed. She donned her casual clothing, a white, sleeveless tunic with red trim, and small, foam-like pads over her chest as a sort of cushion between her skin and the light, but still at times uncomfortable armor she wore.
With another yawn, she stretched again, still waking up her muscles from their long sleep. "It's been ages since I slept like that," she thought to herself, resisting the urge to crawl back into the surprisingly comfortable bed that the Knights of the Blood Oath had set up in each member's individual room. The quarters weren't large by any means, but that didn't mean they were small either. The rooms were about as large as a small bedroom, with enough space for a twin-sized bed, a pair of windows, a closet, a nightstand with a lamp, and a small table and chair for relaxing away their free time when they just wanted some silence.
Add to that the quaint aesthetic of a stone brick castle, illuminated by intricate windows and torches, with embroidered rugs and polished wooden furniture and doors, and the headquarters really was quite a beautiful home to live in, even when surrounded on all sides by the stone-cold walls of the iron city.
That was the one thing Emily didn't like about where the guild had set up its main base of operations. While having the headquarters this high up in Castle Aincrad certainly supported the guild's imposing, but also courageous image, she still preferred the lower floors which were filled with vibrant, life-like colors. Fortunately, she wouldn't have to deal with that lack of color boring her to tears today.
With another yawn, she pushed open the door to her room and walked down the spiraling central staircase, which stretched from the very bottom of the castle all the way up to the top, where the council's war chambers were situated. At regular intervals, there were identical landings that branched off of the grand staircase to reach out towards other areas of the guild's headquarters, like the member quarters, the lobbies, barracks, training halls, dining rooms, and more. Her hand sliding on the banister, she reached the first floor, where the notice board was, containing reports of all of the various new areas that had been unlocked, requests for aid from other players, and what the most recently defeated boss was, as well as where they were defeated.
Emily walked up to the notice board, a smooth and artfully created sheet of wooden planks, polished to a beautiful shine that glistened with reflected light like a mirror. For today and the rest of that week, she, Will, Xander, and Grace had been assigned to simply taking a job from the notice board and completing it, a system that the vice-commander had proposed, to much agreement and cheers from the other members of the guild.
In the past, most larger clearing guilds, such as the Divine Dragon Alliance, the early Knights of the Blood Oath, and before being wiped out on the 25th floor, the Aincrad Liberation Force, had simply sent their members up to the front lines for as long as they could manage. After wearing themselves out, they'd fall back, and while this plan was efficient at first, it quickly became clear that in the long run, it would only make the players more likely to make mistakes out of fatigue and get themselves killed. And as more and more players joined the clearing guilds, people began looking for more streamlined and healthy ways of clearing the game.
Six weeks prior, Asuna had suggested that they split the members of the guilds into smaller parties. In the case of the Knights of the Blood Oath, they had eight of these groups. Each party would eat together, work together, train together, and bond with each other more, allowing for greater cohesion between the groups. And each week, one of those eight parties would take a week off from advancing the front lines for a chance to relax, go exploring the lower floors, hang out with other friends in and outside of the guild, and just have some downtime for themselves.
The results spoke for themselves. Every member of the Knights of the Blood Oath was in much higher spirits, they all appeared to be much less stressed, and the speed and efficiency with which they were clearing floors had noticeably increased.
Emily gazed at the board, trying to decide on which job to take. There was one asking for help with a murder on a lower floor that was suspected to have been done with the aid of at least one red player, a request for backup from a group of friends who wished to take on a dungeon, and a search and rescue plea. Suddenly, she was startled by someone tapping her on the shoulder.
"Woah!" she exclaimed, turning around to see Will grinning at her with a silly expression. "Will! Don't scare me like that!" she said, and Will smiled.
"Sorry, I couldn't help myself. How'd you sleep?" he asked, and Emily smiled at her friend. If she'd learned one thing from spending time in this game with him, it was that he was very good at making it difficult for people to stay mad at him.
"Better than I have in a long time. You?" she asked in return. The boy nodded.
"Same. By the way, Xander, Grace, and I were going to head out with the Vice Commander to explore a recently unlocked Dungeon on floor forty-five, would you like to come with us?" Will told her, and after a moment of thought, she nodded.
"Sure, why not?"
Approximately 09:30 AST (Aincrad Standard Time)
Asuna led her four friends up to the mouth of the cavern on the forty-fifth floor, their weapons at the ready. "You guys ready for this?" she asked, and all four of them nodded.
"Definitely, who knows what we'll find in there," replied Will excitedly. "Hey, maybe I'll find a new spear!"
Emily laughed. "Maybe, or maybe we'll find a new pair of shields for me instead," she pointed out, and Will laughed back at her.
"Let's make a bet then. Whichever of us doesn't find a weapon first buys the other a drink when we get back to Granzam, sound good?" Will suggested, and both Xander and Grace burst into laughter at that.
"Oh, I like that idea. Count me in!" Xander exclaimed, hefting up his hammer., and Grace's eyes sparkled with excitement.
Will grinned. "All right then, you're on. Want in on this bet Asuna?" he asked, but the Vice-commander politely shook her head.
"No, but thank you. My Lambent Light is more than enough for me. Personally, I'm just looking to have fun exploring a new dungeon," Asuna replied with a smile.
Will shrugged. "Suit yourself," he said, and the five of them entered the mouth of the cave. Almost instantly, rocks fell from the ceiling in front of them. They raised their weapons as the rocks were pulled together to form a human-sized golem of stone and earth. Red dots lit up at the top of its body like glowing eyes, and after a tense few seconds, the creature took a few steps towards them and swung one of its arms at Will.
The spear wielder ducked under the attack, and his blades glowed red as he jabbed his polearm straight through the golem's skull. To Will's surprise, however, the attack didn't do as much damage as he expected, despite the significantly greater level Will had over the golem, and the beast pushed forward to swing at him again. Fortunately, Emily shifted over to his side and blocked the attack with her shields, which then glowed a vibrant yellow as the retaliated the strike, inflicting twice as much damage onto the golem as the amount of damage she would've taken.
The creature fell backward with a groan, and as it hit the ground, its body fell apart, becoming nothing more than the cracked stones and debris that it had been formed from. "Well, that was a surprise. Thanks for the assist Em," Will said, closing the reward window. His friend nodded, and they ventured deeper into the cavern, where another surprise awaited them.
"Kirito? What are you doing here?" Asuna called out as they entered a large room with massive crystals jutting out of the walls, illuminating the opening with a bright white light. In the middle of the room was Kirito, circling a strange, stone rune with his Elucidator in hand as he cleaved a golem's head off of its shoulders. Will frowned as another pair of golems dropped down behind the black swordsman, and he threw his spear like a frisbee, slicing through the air like a giant, bladed disc. The double-sided pike cut the arms off of the golems, and they charged at Will, enraged. But the spearman didn't flinch, as moments before they would've run him over, the spear cut through them from behind as it returned to his hand.
With the room devoid of monsters, the Knights of the Blood Oath walked over to Kirito, who waved hello to them as he sheathed his sword on his back. "I didn't realize you all knew that this dungeon had opened up recently," he told them, and Asuna shook her head.
"We actually found out just last night, and since Will's group gets their week off from the frontline this week, we figured we'd go tackle this new dungeon," the Vice commander explained, before narrowing her eyes. "Don't tell me you've been in here all night…"
Kirito leaned to the side and looked out the tunnel they'd come through. "Is it morning already?" he joked in response. This far down into the dungeon, the tunnel had curved around tremendously, so he couldn't actually see the sunlight. Asuna sighed as she rolled her eyes, while Will, Emily, Grace, and Xander just laughed.
"Honestly… I shouldn't even be surprised anymore…" she muttered, before looking over at the rune. "So, what's this thing? You looked like you were defending it from those stone golems just now," Asuna asked, and Kirito nodded.
"Took me some time to figure it out, but these things are the puzzle of this dungeon. Each open room you come to has one, and you have to protect them from waves of enemies until you get the right sigils to unlock the next door," he explained. Xander frowned in confusion.
"Huh… I don't recall seeing any runes like these in the previous rooms. But then we didn't have to fend off waves of stone golems either," he pointed out, and Kirito shrugged.
"Dunno, maybe they disappeared behind me since I had progressed," he replied, kneeling down to insert small stones into the device, before standing up and walking forward as the stone walls parted, revealing yet another tunnel illuminated by more crystal prisms.
"Hang on Kirito. Since we're all taking this dungeon on, why don't you join our group? The others have a bet going to see who'll find a new weapon in here first if you want in," Asuna offered, and after a moment, Kirito nodded.
"Sure, why not?" he answered, and Asuna sent him a party invitation which was quickly accepted.
After fighting through another group of golems, the six players reached the next room of the dungeon. As Kirito had explained, all they had to do was place a hand on the totem in the center and the challenge would begin. When they had all healed themselves back up to full health with some healing potions, Asuna pressed her palm on the rune, and the clearing flared up with bright light from the crystals. Stone golems dropped down from the ceiling, but this time, so did boulders with crystals protruding from their sides. The crystallized rocks floated into the air, and the golems charged at the party.
Will attempted to behead two of the golems to no avail. "Damn, these golems are much stronger than the ones we fought before!" he exclaimed, before switching targets and throwing his spear at one of the floating rocks. To his frustration though, the rock hovered to the side, avoiding his attack with ease. "Playing hard to get, I see. Well, two can play at that game," he warned, jumping onto the head of another golem and kicking off of it in the direction of the floating rock.
He impaled the end of his spear into it, but the monster was still alive as his weapon barely did any damage. The rock struggled against the spear, but Will's weapon was lodged into its crystals very tightly. With a grin, Will turned to Xander as he thought of an idea. "Hey Xander! Up for some baseball?" he shouted, and the tank nodded with an excited laugh.
"Chuck it!" he exclaimed, and they both laughed as Will hefted his now much heavier spear up into the air.
"Batter up!" he called out as he swung the spear, sending the rock flying towards Xander, who activated his Shatter sword skill. With a shout to the others to hit the deck, Xander smashed the end of his warhammer into the stone boulder. Bits and pieces of crystals and rocks shot around the room like bullets, shredding through the other monsters like shrapnel fragments, killing them instantly.
"Home run!" Grace whooped as they collected the sigils from the defeated golems and crystal formations, before inserting them into the rune-covered totem and continuing on into the dungeon. Along the way, Xander noticed that it was starting to get much warmer, and as if on cue, the next room they entered featured flowing rivers of molten rock, but even more surprising was that the room was much larger and featured no totem in the middle. Instead, there was a large warhammer floating in the center of a cage of lava streams.
"Woohoo! Looks like I win!" Xander exclaimed with a wide grin as Will sighed.
"I guess you do. Question is, how do we get it?" he wondered, and as Xander approached the weapon, a translucent red shield suddenly appeared in front of him, causing him to take a few steps back in surprise. A window opened in front of them with a quest.
"Meteorite clawhammer quest, Wave zero out of fifteen… Looks like we've got one last fight in front of us," Kirito mused as he read the quest details. "Well, we've come this far, and given the lack of a rune totem, I'd say this is the bottom of the dungeon. May as well finish it off and call it a day, don't you think?"
Xander nodded excitedly, and Will chuckled under his breath. Of the four of them, While Xander's warhammers lasted much longer and were still viable weapons as much as twenty or even thirty floors after he found them, he still got new weapons much less often than they did, so his excitement was quite understandable. After a quick glance around to make sure they were all ready, Asuna accepted the quest as the party leader. Immediately, they heard the sounds of numerous stone golems crashing to the ground along with crystalized boulders behind them. Large, red ruby prisms extended from the golems' arms like blades, and the floating boulders spun around violently.
"Stay on guard everyone! These fellas look much more angry than the other golems," Asuna warned, before sliding forward and piercing a golem through its large crystal eye. Kirito followed up the attack with his jet black sword, and sliced the rock formation in two. Its body crumbled to pieces, but then moments later, they just barely dropped to the ground in time to avoid a floating boulder that spun through the air at them and continued onward towards the hammer in the center of the room.
Will narrowed his eyes. "Oi! That's my move!" he said, furiously focusing down the floating boulder and slashing it in two with Horizontal, before doing the same to two more that he saw trying to attack him from behind out of the corner of his vision. Not even a second after dispatching those two boulders, a golem raised a crystal arm and attempted to pummel him into the ground, but the over-telegraphed swing was easily dodged by Will, who counterattacked with a Snake Bite sword skill.
The wave number went from wave one to wave two, and another row of golems and boulders dropped to the ground and began moving towards them.
Grace sliced three of the golems in half with Saikuron and then rolled out of the way of another punch from a Golem as Xander stepped in and shattered it with his warhammer. "I know we're on a lower floor, but for a final challenge in a dungeon, the AI doesn't seem too interested in us!" Grace called out as two stone golems lumbered past her, only to be felled by her Tsumujiguruma skill.
Asuna watched out of the corner of her eye as two golems stopped in front of the hammer in the middle of the room, and then began viscously attacking it. When she impaled one through the back of its head with her Rapier, the other didn't even respond and instead kept trying to destroy the hammer. Confused, she lowered her guard for a split second, and suddenly a golem pulled her back and began attacking the hammer. She hit the ground on her back, and then she saw the healthbar above the hammer.
"That's it! It's not just an endurance challenge!" she exclaimed as the wave number ticked up from wave seven to wave eight. "It's objective defense! They're trying to attack the hammer in the middle, and if they destroy it, we'll fail the quest!"
Xander grunted as a golem charged past him, and he narrowed his eyes before jumping into the air and crashing down on the rock monster moments before it reached the center. But as increasing numbers of golems, boulders, and new enemies that looked like crystalized wolves, shambling blobs of lava, and skittering stone spiders advanced with each wave they defeated, they could tell that their foes, though much weaker than them individually, made up for that with their weight of numbers.
With a roar, he held his hammer out and spun around like a tornado, shattering rock golems left and right, sending a hailstorm of shrapnel at the other monsters as they tried to get closer to the hammer in the middle.
But even though they were all very skilled fighters, they were still beginning to get fatigued. Grace misstepped and was punished by a jarring punch to her midsection that left her winded as a golem moved past her, and she was barely able to roll out of the way as a crystal wolf nearly ran her over.
Kirito slashed a golem in two only to be forced to backpedal as another one charged at him, running over the remains of the golem that the swordsman had just cut down, and he tripped on the severed and half-melted arm of another golem, and nearly fell into the fiery streams of lave surrounding the hammer, saved only by Asuna skewering his jacket to pull him forward as he thrust the Elucidator through the chest of the charging rock formation.
The wave counter hit fifteen, and they all looked around, breathless and exhausted for the final wave of golems. They'd been fighting for almost a half-hour, and as soon as the next wave failed to spawn, they all became very worried. "What the… where are they?" Will muttered, his eyes flicking from one side of the room to the other.
"I think we're about to find out, look!" Kirito replied as the remains of the monsters they'd defeated in the previous fourteen waves all began to be pulled into one massive pile at the far end of the room. The roof shook, and pieces of debris fell as it rose upward. Suddenly, the pile of remains exploded, and from it emerged a massive beast made of crystals, stone, and molten rock.
The creature roared as three healthbars appeared next to its head, along with the name "Geode, Earthquakes incarnate", and it thrust out two hands. The crystals at the ends of its arms glowed red, and Kirito leaped out of the way of a massive beam of energy, only to be trampled by the boss, sustaining considerable damage to his healthbar, which dipped into the yellow.
"Watch yourselves, that thing hits like a ten-ton weight!" he shouted, and Will grunted as the boss collided with his spear and pushed him back. Will planted his stance and shifted to the side in an attempt to use the boss's strength against it. The trick worked, and Geode fell forward, and straight into Xander's hammer. Chunks of earth flew off of its body, and the boss roared with pain as it sent another laser at Xander. He dropped to the ground to avoid getting vaporized, but then the boss charged at him just like it had Kirito.
Fortunately, Emily was able to run to his aid and bashed her shields against the boss, staggering it as Asuna darted in like a snake and slipped her rapier through its midsection. "Come on guys! We can do this!" she shouted, thrusting three more times with the Lambent light before backflipping away as Grace moved in with a powerful Zekku skill. Xander pushed himself to his feet and struck Geode's face with the pommel of his hammer, and then spun in a circle as he activated his Shatter sword skill. The impact floored the boss, and Kirito charged in with another sword skill called Slant.
Geode's body fell still and then crumbled to pieces as the streams of lava around the hammer dried up. Will looked at Xander.
"Go on buddy, take it. It's all yours," he said, gesturing to the hammer in the center of the room. With a grin, Xander grabbed the hammer and pulled it out of its shrine as a window opened up with a name: The Meteorite Clawhammer.
A/N: Here we go fellas! I hope you enjoyed chapter eight, as well as my second attempt at switching up a boss fight in SAO by turning it into an objective defense challenge!
Not much else to say here, so I'll see you next time!
