DISCLAIMER: I do not own Sword Art Online or any of its characters. I do, however, own the fanart used as the cover; as I drew that myself.
() = Skills.
EXAMPLE: (Blacksmith).
[] = Stats and status effects.
EXAMPLE: [Strength] and [Invisible].
{} = Item names.
EXAMPLE: {Anneal Blade}.
«» = Monster and location names.
EXAMPLE: «Dire Wolf» and «The Town of Beginnings».
Chapter 4: Dungeon.
The doors to the boss room swung open on heavy hinges, the creak of rusted metal echoing through the dungeon. A hundred players gathered in front of the open doors, a paltry number compared to when they first entered the deepened caverns, their company whittled down from the monsters, traps, and other horrors that had lain in wait for foolhardy adventurers.
Now they stood assembled; warriors, brutes, soldiers, archers, rogues; a wide variety of players that had gathered for a single purpose. All of them wanted to bear witness to the moment the last boss of Sword Art Online's Closed Beta died.
The light of a hundred torches lit up the darkened boss room, sand scattering as a hundred pairs of feet stepped into the vast, empty building. Dark nothing stretches on for an infinity beyond their sights, only void existing beyond the light of their torches.
"Everyone stick close!" One of the raid leader calls, his voice echoing through the empty sands. "We don't know what the boss looks like, what it's capable of, or even its moveset—"
"You opened my door." A deep voice calls out from everywhere, followed by the sound of shattering pixels.
"Guys!" An archer calls. "JeyJey just died—!"
Another sound of shattering pixels, another dead player.
"Where the hell is—?!"
This time three more players had their health bars drop to nothing, as ceremonial wrappings shoot out of the visionless darkness and, before anyone can react, drags two more players kicking and screaming into the nothingness past the torchlight.
Two more shatters echo afterwards, two more players sent to «The Town of Beginnings».
Shouts and orders, defensive positions as scared players fasten a shieldwall—
A scream rips itself out of a female player—rips itself free from Argo's throat as a pair of hands fly out of the sands under her, elongated and horrible claws that wrap around her neck and drag her under the sands in an instant.
"Dear God—it's under the fucking sand!"
Those same hands fly out of the darkness, stretching from the shadows and slamming into another pair of players, their heads ripping and tearing off their bodies as their severed corpses shatter into rainbow dust.
"You opened my door." The monster says, stepping into the torchlight. "And I came."
A humanoid of gray skin, his elongated arms slowly retracting into vaguely proportional sizes. Its dress is of classic Egyptian style, but with ceremonial wrappings all across its body, flowing from its wrists like ribbons. Its jackal head topped off its inhuman stature, with cold and calculating ruby red eyes.
And then its name shone in the light over its head; «Set, the God of Violence».
"Defensive positions—!"
As soon as the words left the captain's mouth, «Set, the God of Violence» drops to all fours and kicks off the ground, covering the distance of several dozen meters in only a couple seconds.
It's violent red eyes and horrific claws were all Kirito could see before its hands wrapped around his neck, depleting his health bar in an instant.
When Kirito and Argo—who had decided to join the raid as a last hurrah—finally respawned, the two of them joined the other players in stunned silence; backs pressed together on the floor of the town's church.
"What, th'fuck?" The rat says, leaning back and resting her head on Kirito's shoulder. "What th'actual fuck?"
The stunned swordsman could only nod in response, even as other players offered some form of agreement on what had just occurred. Every passing second quickly would find itself followed by another respawning player, who would promptly collapse onto the ground and simply stare into the distance.
"Well." Kirito eventually says. "What a way to end beta, right?"
AN: Not as in-depth as I wanted, but hopefully not completely lackluster either. Pretty short, but I wanted to focus more on horror and overwhelming power.
The Prompts for KiriArgo Week 2021
Prompt 1: First Meeting
Prompt 2: Food
Prompt 3: Secrets
Prompt 4: Dungeon
Prompt 5: Rest
Prompt 6: Weather
Prompt 7: Family