*Chapter 7*
Kirito remembered nothing other than a few muffled voices and the feeling of being moved around. Ever since he and his friends were rendered unconscious in the game and presumably being transported to god knows where by Herara and his team, Kirito has faded in and out of consciousness more times than he could count. Nevertheless, he knew he was being moved, however he wasn't sure as to where, or how. After what he assumed to be a day or two, the inconsistent feeling of motion stopped, and the Swordsman stood dormant within his pod, completely oblivious as to what was going on around him in the real world. It took a while, but eventually, his eyes began to blink open as he saw the familiar blue sky of floor one above him.
"Geez." Kirito mumbled and rubbed his eyes. "What the hell was that?"
"Hmm?" He heard a soft voice hum from next to him. He quickly turned. Asuna. She lied there on her side, both hands held up to her chest as if she was cuddling them. Heh... She was always cute when she slept. Her boyfriend brushed some of her hair from the side of her face and whispered her name quietly, urging her to wake up.
"Asuna… Asuna wake up."
"H-Huh? Kirito?" She asked before her eyes even opened.
The boy smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder, rubbing it gently. "You're always so confused when you first wake up. It's kinda funny."
She groaned and sat up, rubbing her face between both hands. "Were you watching me?"
"Ha... No. I just woke up, too."
"Creep." She groaned subtlety.
"W-What? I'm your boyfriend! How does that make me a creep? Besides, I said I wasn't watching you."
She let out a chuckle and playfully nudged her boyfriends shoulder. "Oh, relax. I'm only kidding." She took a pause to glance around at her other friends, all of whom were still unconscious. "Looks like we were right. We were defiantly moved, huh?"
"Yeah..." The Swordsman sighed in what he could only assume to be an emotion lying somewhere between mystified and disappointed. Nonetheless, it showed on his face. "Just like the original SAO."
Asuna rested her head against his shoulder and grabbed his hand, holding it in her lap. "I'm not worried, Kazuto."
"What? Y-You're not?"
"Of course not. Every time anything like this has happened, we've pulled through. I'm not saying that I'm not taking this threat seriously, but I know that as long as I'm with you and everyone else, we'll be okay."
"Oh god..." A familiar, yet obnoxious voice groaned before Kirito could respond to his girlfriend. The couple glanced over to see Love, his arms straight up in the air in what looked like some sort of weird stretch. "How long was I out?"
"I'm not sure. I think we were all out for a couple of days." Asuna answered with a scratch of her chin.
"A couple days?" Love echoed in disbelief. "What the hell even happened?"
"Our bodies in the real world were moved, just like the original SAO." Kirito confirmed.
Love's eyes hopped around in thought. "Oh yeah, I remember that..." The teen opened his inventory and began scrolling through his many items. Once he reached the bottom, his jaw dropped to the floor. "UGH!"
Once again, Asuna and Kirito gave Love a strange look at the sudden influx of disparity in his voice.. "What is it now?" Asuna said half heartily.
"All my food expired." The madman sighed. "Food items were corroding even though we weren't playing."
Kirito nodded as if to say 'duh'. "Well yeah. We weren't logged off, otherwise we'd be dead."
Regardless, Love threw his head back to the ground and moaned like a child. "God dammit. This game is just..."
Asuna nodded and her lips pursed. "I'll speak for all of us, Love... Screw this game."
"You know what I just realized?" Love pressed. "None of you guys ever swear or say any curse words. Why is that? I mean, you guys are adults, right?"
"Yes. But I can control my language unlike you." She smiled, knowing the madman would argue with her, thus making him hilariously angry. It's not like there's anything else to do, as everyone else was still asleep. "Besides, none of us other than you really swear. At least, not intentionally."
"You all act like old people." Love said vacantly as he began plucking blades of grass from the ground one by one, a hand propping up his chin.
After a few more minutes, Klein, Agil and Silica awoke, asking the same questions that bottled in their minds - How long has it been? What happen? - Again, nobody had answers.
It took time, but Lisbeth and Sinon finally came to, allowing the friends to recuperate and prepare to head out again. If everyone really was unconscious for the past few days, then that meant the raid party within the dungeon was as well.
During the trek, Love, who insisted upon leading, began humming and quietly singing a song under his breath - the same song he was humming too before they were moved.
"What song are you singing?" Silica asked from behind him.
"Again?" Sinon asked.
"It's a really good song and I can't listen to it in this game. I really miss my music."
"How about you sing it for everyone?" Asuna giggled.
Love scoffed. "I'd rather die."
"Me too." Sinon remarked sneakily.
Love calmly grumbled something under his breath and clenched his fist as if to keep himself from indulging into another argument with the blue haired girl - something the pair did fairly often. Kirito didn't want to be the mediator between the two. One of them was an explosive madman with no filter or any self awareness, while the other was a calm, collected girl who didn't take anything that she deemed as nonsense. Either of them could verbally dominate the swordsman whenever they wanted to, however they were always so caught up in arguing with each other. Kirito supposed that's a good thing since the pair didn't seemed to be fazed by what one another said, probably due to their shared levels of confidence.
The group appeared at the entrance to the cave, which was basically just a giant pitch black opening that that was dozens of meters tall and wide.
"It's so... Nerve racking. Are we sure we wanna just waltz right in there?" Agil asked. Despite his nervous tone, he stood with his dominate shoulder facing the cave, indicating he was ready to stand his ground if anything were to come racing toward him or his friends.
Kirito's lips curved downward as he began to continue forward, un-phased by whatever potential danger lied ahead.
"Hey uh..." Asuna said just loud enough for her boyfriend to hear.
Kirito spun around, noticing that no one was following him beside Love. "What? Usually there would be mobs out here around the mouth of the cave." The swordsman explained. "Since there clearly isn't any, that must mean the the raiding party has already been through here."
Asuna pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a subtle sigh at Kirito's compulsion. She knew he yearned for action, and she was growing impatient with his brash decision making.
Kirito still hadn't gotten used to the disappointed demeanor she gave off whenever he did something rambunctious. He couldn't say he blamed her in this particular instance. He knew that he could be childish and sometimes even a bit stupid at times, but the protection of his friends and assurance that they would escape this death game was a good enough reason for him to occasionally deviate from Asuna's wishes.
"Are we still sure that we want to just walk right in?" Lisbeth asked. "I'm with Agil. We should still take some precaution. We don't know how this game works, so anything could happen at any given moment."
Silica and Sinon murmured in agreement. Klein on the other hand just gave Kirito a nervous glare. The swordsman felt something at that moment, like a sting or a stab in his chest. It hadn't occurred to him that these people - his friends, were just blindly following everything he did. Why?
Why were they doing that? Was it because they thought he was still the strong, high-level player he once was during the original SAO? Surely not, the swordsman was the same level as them, after all. This whole time, their faces spoke of uncertainty and misdirection, yet their feet carried them alongside their friends where ever they went.
Kirito's brain told him that they only did it because they were afraid, and clung onto him because they wanted a leader in these desperate times. However, in his heart, there was the idea that they only followed because he was their friends. They didn't want to see him get hurt by something that they could have prevented.
As the swordsman stood before their frowning faces, he felt his stomach turn. 'I'm such a jerk.' He thought. 'I've forced them into this situation with consulting them once.'
Though Kirito knew that his words most likely meant nothing at this point, he hesitantly spoke up over the deafening silence. "O-Once this is over and we're on floor two. Let's find a nice big house to rent and take a few days for ourselves."
A few faces lit up, much to the boys relief, however Asuna and Klein did not look convinced. It seemed as though they were looking deeper into him, and scorning what they saw - whatever that was.
Just as Kirito thought this, a dastardly wail of horror emitted from the cave, sending a shiver down everyone's spine.
"God damn!" Agil began to stagger back in fear. "This is exactly what I was talking about, man!"
"That must be the raiding party! They need help!" Lisbeth declared with a hand on the hilt of her mace. Seeing this indicated that she was prepared to rush in and fight whatever lied within. It gave Kirito a wave of confidence to know that at least two people would be willing to charge in - that being her and Love.
"Let's go." The swordsman said firmly, beginning his march towards the dungeon. Asuna and Klein were the only reluctant followers. They stayed behind the group, weapons drawn nonetheless. Once the party entered, the cold dingy cave echoed the currents of wind that blew ominously throughout the rugged interior. Luckily, it was fairly wide open and room, giving everybody room to walk. It appeared as though all of the mobs had already been slain and hadn't yet respawned.
Most of the cave was just a compilation of tall, wide corridors that led to arena-like labyrinths where large scale battles would take place. Thankfully, Kirito and his party had nothing to worry about in that regard. Their mission was only to resupply the raiding party, nothing else. The air grew colder and a light began to shine deeper down the corridor we were currently in.
"H-Hey!" A desperate sounding woman's voice called. "You're the resupply team, correct?"
As the group of friends stepped into the aura of light, it was clear that they had arrived just after a small skirmish. In total, there were five people, three of which were on the ground breathing heavily and sported worried looks. They all seemed young, probably in their early twenties. One of them, who was the one that Kirito assumed to be the one who called out to him and his party, had dark purple hair and a defined jawline. Her height was also something to behold, standing nearly in equivalent to Agil - his party's tallest member. No doubt this woman was leading the raid group.
"That's us." Klein said uncertainly. "We brought potions and a few repair kits for your gear." He requested a trade with the woman and handed over all the potions and medical supplies provided to him by the donators back at the starting town.
The tall woman let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. My name's Harriet. I'm the leader of this expedition into the dungeon. Here's me thinking no one would show up to resupply us. I wasn't sure what to think once we woke up from... whatever that was..."
"Are you talking about everyone suddenly passing out?" Asuna asked softly.
"Yes. I was fearful that the mobs within the dungeon had respawned, thus forcing the lot of you to fight your way through hordes of enemies just to reach us. Had that have happened, we'd have less potions to go around."
Agil stepped forward and smiled. "Well there's no need to worry now. With this, you should be able to defeat the boss, right?"
Harriet glared intently at the ground beneath her. "Had you asked me that a few hours ago, I'd have said yes." She locked her gaze with Kirito's, her eyes saddened and weak. "We've lost people during this raid. Good people. Our numbers have dwindled from eight to five in a matter of hours. Our odds have certainly decreased."
The group friends shifted uncomfortably at her words. Kirito spoke against the deafening silence, "Well. How much further until we reach the boss room?"
The tall woman spun around and extended her torch-bearing arm forward, illuminating the wall behind her. Kirito hadn't noticed until now, but before them was a large, grand door made of a dark wood and lined with what appeared to be brass. It was nearly identical to the boss doors in the original SAO. Seeing it again instilled a sense of dread within the swordsman's heart, especially knowing that he was no longer as powerful as he once was. Whatever lied beyond this door had the potential to kill anyone of him or his friends. "This is it. We don't dare to set foot inside in our current condition. My party and I are leveled up to the appropriate threshold to take on the boss, however the fear of the unknown has chinked our armor." Harriet explained.
Love leaned forward from behind Kirito and whispered into his ear. "Kirito."
"Yeah?" The swordsman murmured.
"Does she mean metaphorical armor or like... their literal armor?"
"Metaphorical." Kirito confirmed quietly.
The madman nodded, "Oh okay."
Kirito lowered his head in thought, trying to come up with an efficient solution to the problem at hand. Clearly the most obvious choice was to volunteer his and his friends aid and help Harriet's party defeat the boss, however that would only reinforce his belief that he was consistently opting to throw his friends into harms way.
He decided to ask a broad, blanketed question, "What can we do to help?"
Harriet hummed and placed both hands on her hips. The metal she wore clanked against itself as she swayed back and forth on her heels. "I'm confident in my party's ability to clear this floor. All we need is the supplies you've brought us and a few minutes to recuperate."
The exhausted looking men behind her glared at the back of her head in disbelief. It was clear that they wanted to call it quits and come back another time. This was their life that was on the line. Despite this clear fact, Harriet had declared that they were to stay. Leaving now would be cowardly and would no doubt tarnish their names among the player base and their guild.
Harriet continued. "Before you arrived, we were attack by a group of trash mobs that seemed to appear out of nowhere. They killed one of our best fighters, Issac. I'll be damned if I return to the guild with nothing more than dead party members and some gold dropped by lesser mobs. No, we clear this floor. Right here, right now."
Behind her, the looks of her party members grew more and more worrisome. Regardless, they mechanically rose to their feet and drew their swords. At the very least, they seemed as though they wanted revenge - apparently the death of their friend effected them enough to deem vengeance a viable reason to push forward.
"For if we don't. Their death would be in vain." The woman placed her hand on the large brass door handle and pulled with all her might. It opened with a horrible grind as it dragged against the rocky ground. Much to Kirito's surprise, the boss room, from what he could see behind the other raiding party, was very well lit and looked much like the room from the first floor during the original SAO. Kirito took a step back next to Asuna.
"It's the same room." The boy said quietly.
Asuna nodded, a similarly surprised look on her face. "Yeah... I wonder if that means the boss is the same too."
"I hope not. Last time, that boss gave us a run for our money. We even had more people back then and we still just barely squeaked by."
Harriet and her raiding party stepped inside the labyrinth and carefully glanced around at their surroundings.
"Well the player base as a whole is better now. We've learned from past mistakes." Asuna remarked whilst nervously watching Harriet and her party inch their way further and further into the boss room. Kirito's mind urged him to draw his sword and follow the raiding party, ready to fight. However the presence of his friends held him in place.
From the vast emptiness of the boss room, a wrenched growl vibrated the air. Suddenly, it appeared. The first level boss.
Before he could analyze the bosses features, Kirito glanced over it's name. To his shock, instead of regular unique name like most bosses had, this one was simply a line of jumbled up code similar to the ones you would find in random game folders. Then... the swordsman saw the boss. As suspected, this was not the boss from the original SAO, as made evident by it's drastically different model. This creature was a tall, skinny humanoid that wore a black cloak and large black boots. It's arms reached nearly to it's knees, giving it an abnormal look. Most horrifying of all, however, was it's mask - or at least, what Kirito assumed was a mask. It looked like the face of a horse or an elongated rabbit head, yet it sported human teeth in what looked like a forced smile. Part of the mask was hued in a dark red, and it's ears stuck out high above the mask.
The appearance was... sickening to say the least. The creature slowly rose its head up and starred at Harriet's party with cold, green, dead eyes. Her party members staggered back in fear. A sense pf dread enveloped Kirito when he saw the anxiousness on Harriet's face. She was nervous - unsure.
"Kirito!" Love yelled. "We have to help them fight that thing, now! If we don't get in there before the fight begins, the door will close and we'll be locked out!"
The boss straightened its back and stretched its long arms behind its back, simultaneously letting out a horrible, pained moan.
"Kirito, what're we doing?!" Agil demanded.
Sinon growled and spoke up as well, "Come on! We need to make a decision!"
Kirito's head began to spin as the words of his friends circled around him, encasing him in a prison of indecisiveness. Surely he couldn't throw them into danger again, right? They've been through enough due to his premature decisions. Though he thought this, Kirito couldn't rip his eyes from the fearful raiding party just inside the boss room.
"Kirito!" Love screamed again. "Everyone's waiting for your word! Tell them to get in there, NOW!"
The swordsman's brain began to go numb and his feet went cold as he helplessly watched the boss make eye contact with Harriet. Before Kirito could mutter a single word, the doors slammed closed, sealing he and his friends off from the fight and trapping the raiding party inside with the boss.
There was a moment of silence before Love spoke up. "What the hell?!"
Kirito ignored his words, instead choosing to find solitude in glaring at the rocks beneath him. "I-I'm... I'm sorry."
Love grabbed the Kirito's collar from behind and spun him around so he would be face to face with him. "You just screwed those guys over! There's no way in hell they'll be able to kill that thing in their condition!"
"What was I suppose to do? There were five of them there!" Kirito remarked with a snarl. "All I've been doing over this past week is boss you all around and get you into trouble! I'm so stressed out that I can't even think! Especially when you're all shouting at me to make a decision that could lead to someone getting hurt! Besides, if you're so insistent on fighting the boss, why didn't you get in there instead of standing here and yelling at me?!"
As Kirtito said this, a scream echoed through the door to the boss room. It sounded painfully gruesome. Whatever that creature was, it was showing the raiding party no mercy.
"Oh, I feel so bad for you, Kirito!" Love spat in disgust. "God help you if need to make another choice! That is, if you even muster up the courage to speak up! And to answer your question, the reason I didn't follow those people is because I had the mental capacity to know that they were a lost cause - which is the exact reason I told you to make everyone fight with them! But no! You stood there like a deer in headlights hoping that the solution would fall right into your hands!"
Kirito delivered a firm shove into the madman's chest, sending him to the ground. Not one to be stood up, Love grappled at the swordsman's legs and forced him to the ground.
Before anything could escalate further, Asuna grabbed Kirito while Agil grabbed Love. Together, they managed to break up the scuffle.
"Calm down!" Asuna screamed. "You're only making things worse, Love!"
Love face spoke of disbelief. "I'm making things worse?! There's eight people in our party! Harriet's party had five! That's thirteen people! We so could've taken on that boss! But instead this idiot decided to freeze up when it mattered most! This floor could've been a cake walk!"
"Listen!" Agil's voice boomed throughout the cave. "We're all under a lot of stress here. Kirito decided to hang back and wait for some kind of indication to go in. If he had led us into that room, we could've been dead."
"You don't know that!" Love snarled.
Asuna hugged her boyfriend from behind as if to defend him from the madman that was Love. "Neither do you!" She declared with a growl.
"Uh... Guys." Klein said vacantly among the chatter. Everyone turned towards him, only to see him pointing at the boss room door, which was no longer locked, meaning that there was no other players currently inside. That could only mean... The raiding party had been wiped - Harriet and her party had perished.
Everyone was quiet for what felt like hours, though it was only a few minutes. The echoes of footsteps still pinged through the door. The creature was likely moving around mindlessly as it awaited for another challenging party to enter. It's face still sent shivers throughout Kirito's whole body.
Lisbeth sat against a wall, an arm draped around Silica's shoulder, the ladder of which looking traumatized. "Now what?" The pink haired girl asked softly.
"They're bodies are still there... They have to be." Sinon mumbled, causing everyone to turn their attention to her.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Klein asked as he rubbed the back of his neck.
The girl continued, "We could loot their bodies and take all their health potions and gear."
"If we do that, then we'll be trapped in that room with the boss." Kirito stated.
Sinon looked at him with sad eyes and nodded, "I know."
The swordsman's heart dropped as he gathered what she was conveying. "Y-You wanna try to fight that thing?"
"No no, we aren't doing that." Asuna exclaimed dismissively.
"Why not?" Sinon argued.
"Because. That boss was able to take out some of the best players in the game. What chance could we possibly have."
"That's my point. If we go back to the starting town and tell everyone that some of the highest ranked players in the game got killed by the first floor boss, the entire player base would grind to halt. Nobody would ever wanna step foot in this place out of fear of dying like those five did. Players in this game already have no hope, we wouldn't be helping by telling them that their beset chance of escaping is dead!"
"So you wanna risk your life, then? Is that is? Sinon, we're a lower level than Harriet and her party. What chance do we have?" Asuna contended.
"Trying is better than letting someone else do it. We're here, and we're ready, and we have more people. Why not try?"
"Because if trying fails, then we're all dead - Game over."
"So this is it then?" Sinon held out her arms and gestured to the cramming stone walls around her and her friends. "This is where everything ends? The culmination of all the time we've spent together and all the things we've done ends right here?"
Asuna lowered her shoulders passively and sighed. "That's not what I'm saying, Sinon. We can go back to the starting town and level up more. If we become more powerful, we'll be able to take down that boss easily."
Out of nowhere, Agil chimed in. "Right but... How long will that take? With as high of a level we are, grinding for experience on this floor would not be rewarding. We're becoming too high of a rank to continue grinding here. Leveling any further would take too long - or at least longer than I'm comfortable with. Every day we spend in here is another day off of our real life."
Sinon gave Agil a nod, as if to say 'thanks for having my back'. "Who here thinks we should leave and wait for someone else to fight the boss?"
Reluctantly, and albeit, surprisingly, only three people raised their hand - Klein, Asuna and Silica. Typically, majority would rule, but in a situation as major as this, there would need to be more consulting. The only reason Kirito didn't raise my hand is because he wanted to go with the popular vote seeing as his choice would be amplified in the eyes of his party members. If he had agreed that leaving was the better option, majority of his friends would have disagreed. The swordsman was still unsure if this was a good way to think. Part of him thought it is since he's making the most people happy, but what if he runs into a situation where it goes against his better judgement? How could go with the majority if was clearly the wrong thing to do?
Sinon glanced at Asuna triumphantly. "We have the numbers, and we have the willpower. We can do this, Asuna."
Asuna's eyes grew cold as she bowed her head in defeat. Kirito hated to see her like this, but in his heart, he truly believed that Sinon was right. Clearing the floor was possible, but it would take the combined efforts of fluent teamwork and coordination.
"So... Are we doing this?" Love upholstered his spear and gently let the blunt end stand on the uneven stone beneath him.
"Yeah. I guess we are." Sinon said confidently. Readily, yet somehow also reluctantly, all eight of the party members prepared themselves for the inevitable battle. It was only right to allow Sinon to open the door, which she did so slowly. "Remember, loot the bodies quickly. Take all the health potions and elixirs before we start actually trying to fight this thing.
A mummer of agreement was all her friends let out before the door wailed open. The boss had it's back towards them and it was a good sixty feet away. Tragically, yet expectantly, five blue orbs hovered in random places near the door, indicating that there was loot. That must've been where Harriet and her party died. They most likely turned back once they realized they were losing the fight. They perished while attempting to open the door and escape.
"Shh!" Klein whispered. "Loot the bodies quietly. The boss hasn't noticed us yet."
Carefully, the eight of them compiled into the room and rapidly stripped the deceased players of all their potions and buff items. With phase one of the plan completed with no issues, they turned our attention to the boss, who was still idly staring at a wall without a care in the world. The tall, skinny figure still gave Kirito chills even though he had no view of its horrific face.
"Who's gonna pull aggro?" Agil said in a hushed voice.
"I will." Lisbeth responded without hesitation. "I've put a few extra points into my health before we came here. I should be able to take a few hits from this thing assuming it's around our level."
The bosses level hadn't even come to Kirito's mind yet. For the sake of preparation, he focused his eyes on the creature until a nameplate popped up above its head. Like before, the name still displayed a line of random text, however now the swordsman could see its level. "Level fifteen." he read aloud. "Even still, it'll have extra stats since it's a floor boss."
"Don't underestimate it." Asuna nodded at her boyfriends previous statement. "If you guys really are insistent that we fight, then let's give it our all."
Everyone gave determined hum aside from one fragile looking girl who stood behind them all quivering as she held onto her bow. Silica.
"Wait." Kirito whispered loud enough for everyone to hear. All of them needed to be fully focused in order to advance in this undertaking. If one of them had cold feet, the whole party would suffer. "Silica, are you alright?"
The young girl tried her best to conceal the shakiness of her hands, but in doing so, her legs began quivering wildly as if they were too weak to hold her up. "I-I'm... I'm fine."
Asuna, the one who usually mediated Silica when she was under stress, approached the trembling girl and stood next to her, a hand on her shoulder. No words were exchanged, just a comforting smile coupled with a reassuring nod.
"Alright." Love's voice was full of life and energy, as if he was excited to be here - he was probably feeling ecstatic right about now. "Ready?"
Kirito stepped forward, sword in hand as he took a deep breath in. "Hey you!" He shouted as loud as humanly possible.
The floor boss twitched as it turned its nightmarish face towards the party. Kirito felt no fear as its cold dead eyes locked with his. Just as he was about to signal everyone to charge, Kirito noticed the creatures arm extending high into the air behind its head. The words struggled to escape the swordsman's lips as the floor boss hurled a handful of what looked to be large rocks in their direction.
W-What? There's no way. NPC's can't do this - they aren't programmed to.
The rocks flew towards them at blistering speeds, whizzing through the air like a whip. Impact was inevitable, the trajectory was clear. Kirito's legs couldn't move, nor could his voice sound off as the collusion was on a perfect course to collide into his party.
Crash!
It was a direct hit - Kirito fell, his vision going black immediately. Through his haze, the swordsman could still here the muffled noises. There were screams, rubble being moved and tossed aside, and the slow, dredging sound of the bosses footsteps getting closer and closer.
Kirito didn't remember the first thing he saw when he came to, he just remember feeling out of breath. The boy took a sharp inhale and quickly sat up.
"Kazuto!" Asuna, who was kneeling next to her boyfriend exclaimed. "You have to get up, now!"
The pain in the swordsman head made it difficult to analyze the situation, however he was able to deduce that he and his friends were in big trouble. The floor boss was marching towards them slowly, its hand tensed up, indicating that it was preparing to strike. Luckily, it was about thirty feet away, so the friends had some time before it would be able to harm any of them assuming that it wouldn't throw another handful of rocks. Asuna, Love, and Sinon were the only people who appeared unharmed after the barrage of rocks that the boss threw. Agil, Silica, and Lisbeth seemed to be in the same condition as Kirito - half conscious, and cut up from the shrapnel.
"Love!" Sinon yelled. "Help me distract the boss while the others heal!"
Love nodded, and the two rushed forward to pull aggro away from the rest of their party members. In a desperate attempt to tell them no, Kirito raised a hand up, hoping they would see him reaching out to them. This situation instilled fear in the boys heart after what happened to Sachi and the Black Cats all those years ago. Love was a spear user, and Sinon was a bow user. That combination wouldn't be able to take down the floor boss. Especially at their player level.
"Stop." Kirito tried to yell, but the coarse in his voice only allowed for his tone to barely reach above a whisper.
Asuna applied a healing potion on her boyfriends wounds, causing his health to slowly raise. "Stay here until you're fully healed. I have to help Silica, Agil, and Lisbeth." Without waiting for an answer, she rose to her feet and ran to tend to the others.
Kirito was glad that she felt so insistent on helping them rather than stay by his side. It showed that her vision wasn't clouded with desperation after seeing the one she loved nearly drop below twenty percent HP. She had grown to be very level headed - not to say that she wasn't before, but it Kirito, it was nice to see her become a true leader.
As the swordsman thought this, he glanced up to check on Love and Sinon. Sure enough, both of them were successfully luring the boss away from the injured, all whilst managing to get a couple good hits in which made a small dent into its health bar. Despite this, Kirito could see the struggle in their movements. They were becoming overwhelmed by the pure strength of the floor boss. The two wouldn't last long - eventually they'd succumb to exhaustion, thus making them fight sloppy.
Kirito slowly rose to his feet, his hands lightly gripped his sword.
This was all Herara's fault. Kirito thought. I could be home right with Asuna and all my friends. But instead I'm here - fighting in an alien world with all the expectations on my shoulders. I'll clear every last floor if I have to. I swear... one day I'll be able to grab Herara by the neck and tell him that whatever he tried to accomplished had failed. Because at some point, no matter what, we're going to win.
Kirito lunged towards the action, all sense of safety and precaution alleviated from his conscious
"Sinon, Get out of there!" Love screamed as he desperately tried to pull the boss' aggro.
Sinon was caught out - directly under the boss' fist as it came crashing down towards her. A hit like that would surely be near-fatal. The blue haired girl didn't have enough time to react, the strike would most definitely connect. Before it could, however, Kirito managed to thread his blade between Sinon and the incoming fist, stopping the ladder in its path and effectively saving his friend. Everything froze for a moment, the air running thin. Sinon glared at her savior with wide eyes, the cold feet from her impending doom not yet faded.
As he struggled against the strength of the floor boss, Kirito managed one word, "Fight!" His words echoed throughout the entire boss room, even pulling the attention of Asuna as she tended to her wounded friends.
In a bout of shock and anger, Sinon out a growl of determination and threw herself at the monster, using its elongated arm to boost herself towards its unguarded face. Noticing this, Love looped around the back of the boss and impaled the arm Kirito was struggling against, causing the creature to wail in pain.
"Good job, Kirito!" He yelled excitedly. The madman landed next to his friend and held out one of his arms. "Boost me up there."
Without thinking, Kirito grabbed Love's arm and used what little strength he had to throw the madman towards the monsters face. Since this was a game and not real life, Kirito's strength parameters allowed him to achieve nearly impossible actions. As Love glided through the air on a direct collision course, he aimed his spear head forward - the same technique he used on Kirito during their duel. Sinon and Love both connected their attacks to the boss' face at the same time, successfully draining nearly a fourth of the creatures remaining health bar. The two landed on either side of the enemy and carefully analyzed the situation for any kind of opening for another attack. Unluckily for the friends, however, the creature was quick to recuperate, and immediately thrashed an arm towards Love. The madman was able to easily avoid this, however, thanks to his speed.
While the boss was distracted by his two friends, Kirito took the opportunity to conjure up an idea to assist in the battle - Anything. The swordsman's body was still weak, but surely he could alleviate some sort of pressure as they fought. Most of the combat consisted of waiting for the boss to attack, then dodge, then sneak in a few hits. This way of fighting would not work for much longer. The boss had too much health, meaning it would surely outlast them. It had only about seventy-five percent health remaining, which in the grand scheme of things was not much for a level fifteen.
Suddenly, Kirito got an idea. "Sinon, Love! Get over here!" he demanded and began back pedaling away from the boss. The two joined the swordsman's side about thirty feet away from the hulking behemoth.
"What?" Sinon asked as she caught her breath.
"I know how we can get a good hit on it." Once Kirito concluded his synopsis, the two glanced at each other and shrugged in agreement.
"Go." Kirito told Sinon, who nodded and charged forward. As expected, the boss tried to time its attack to crush Sinon as she sprinted towards it. Before the blue haired girl was squashed by the creatures fist, she grinded to a halt - successfully faking out the boss and forcing it to attack early. The boss' fist hit the ground with a thud, and Sinon used that opportunity to use its arm as a boost. It was very similar to her previous attack, however this time, Sinon was merely a diversion. The teen didn't attempt to launch an arrow into the creatures face - instead opting to use her forward momentum to glide over its head. The boss turned around as it tried to decipher what Sinon was doing. Unbeknownst to it, however, Love and Kirito were executing their end of the plan.
Kirito cupped his hands in front of his waist, to which Love used as a boost and winded his spear back for a deadly throw.
Before he could let his spear fly, the boss suddenly moved with blurring speed. Love flinched at the sudden movement as he released his spear, causing it miss badly and hit the wall on the other side of the room. He landed on the ground ungracefully.
"You alright?" Kirito ran to the madman's side and helped him up.
He coughed and brushed himself off. "I'm fine." He said in frustration. The two boys looked back up at the boss, however once they did, their faces were splashed very faintly by some sort of liquid. Kirito rubbed his face in confusion, and to his horror, his hand was red with what he assumed to be blood. The swordsman's eyes quickly shot back to the boss.
The creature had Sinon in its grips, its large hand covering the girls torso. It took only a few seconds before Kirito saw where the blood came from. Sinon's mouth was spewing a red liquid as she coughed, her eyes going grey.
Before Kirito could even widen his eyes in shock, the boss squeezed its hand, crushing Sinon even harder within its grips.
Sinon's mouth opened as she made a futile attempt to scream, tears running down her face, all of which colliding with the blood that stained her cheeks. Her eyes connected with Kirito's, and for the first time in a while, he saw fear, and desperation within her. For some reason that the the swordsman can't explain, he didn't feed overtly frantic when he saw her like this. Instead, he felt angry. The emotion was suppressed by no fear, no weariness. It was pure, unrequited anger.
Sinon was typically the stoic, calm confidence that her friends needed in their group. Her presence was felt even when she didn't say anything. Even a few minutes ago she opted to distract the floor boss in order to protect the injured.
That being said, however, seeing her like this was just... infuriating. Kirito wanted to help her. He wanted to save her life because the swordsman knew she would do the same for him. He's saved her before, and he can most certainly do it again.
Kirito turned to Love, a growl in his voice. "Do it again!" he cupped his hands at his waist and boosted the madman up once more. This time, there was nothing that could surprise the two. The worst had already happened. Love's spear flew true, and it connected with the boss' temple. It let out a deafening screech as it released its grip on Sinon, sending the girl falling to the ground fast. As she fell, Kirito noticed that her body began to glow a bright white, indicating that she was very close to death.
The boy's heart sunk at that very moment. The fall was going to kill her.
Moving as fast as he could, Kirito reached out for her, however the boss stepped in front of him, blocking his path. Helplessly, Kirito let out one final act of desperation - the human body's last line of defense when something awful was about to happen. He yelled as loud as he could, knowing that it would have no effect on anything, "Sinon!"
Just before the girl hit the ground, essentially ending her life, there was a flash of red that looped around the far side of the boss. Kirito's vision of Sinon was blocked by the creatures unusually thick leg, however he heard no sound of impact - nothing to indicate that her health had dropped down to zero percent. The boss turned around, seemingly noticing this as well. It was then that Kirito had a good line of sight to see what had happened. There, kneeling on one leg with Sinon in his arms, was Klein.
To say that Kirito was relieved was an understatement. Klein's health was still low, however it was just under fifty percent, meaning he could run fairly painlessly. Sinon on the other hand was barely holding onto life. It was so bad that Kirito don't even think the GGO expert herself had comprehended what had just happened. In a sudden stroke of good luck, a thick blade of sharpened iron came crashing into the creatures ankle from behind.
"Klein's got Sinon! Let's finish this right now!" Agil insisted with a determined huff as he yanked his axe from the boss' flesh.
Before Kirito could let out a sigh of relief, a hail of swinging metal flew over his head, colliding with the creatures torso. Asuna and Lisbeth.
The two girls went for different parts of the boss' body. Asuna plunged her sword within the creatures thigh, while Lisbeth crushed its teeth in with her mace. Both of them landed next to Love, Agil, and Kirito. Their chances of winning have skyrocketed now that there was five of them, not including Klein as he was busy carrying Sinon as far away as possible.
Once Kirito recuperated his conscious and refocused on the battle, he noticed that the boss only had the health to withstand a few more good hits. "Come on, let's do this together!" He demanded.
His friends rallied at his sides, prepared to raise hell against this boss if it meant their victory. "We got your back!" Asuna smiled confidently at her boyfriend.
"I'll keep his eyes on me." Love nodded. "I can't do much damage, but I can dodge all of his attacks. Find an opening." The teen quickly dashed forward and drew the attention of the creature. He swerved around the boss' flailing punches and slow moving swipes with ease as the rest of his friends scanned for an opening to attack. Eventually, they saw it - the creature was limping thanks to the gash Asuna had left on it's leg, forcing it to hunch over slightly. This made it to where the creatures head and neck were lowered just enough to make it much easier to attack.
Without thinking, Kirito lunged forward, sword head pointed outward. The boss noticed this and quickly tried to straighten its back, thus making its neck out of reach. The Swordsman readjusted in midair and grabbed the boss' cloak, quickly pull himself up so he could jab his blade directly into its weak point. A more coordinated attack definitely would have been better, but the anger Kirito felt after he saw Sinon get injured still lingered within him. The boss squealed at the impact and swung its elongated arm at Kirito in self defense. Thankfully, he predicted this and was able to jump out of the way.
Twenty five percent health remaining. We could do this...
Just as Kirito thought this, the boss seemed to just... freeze. It stood there dormant as its eyes glanced to each on of the friends beneath it. Eventually, its shoulder slumped and its legs began to shake. Admittedly, this caught Kirito of guard. What was happening?
The creature fell to its knees, head hung low in shame.
"U-Uh..." Agil grumbled nervously. "What's it doing?"
Everyone took a step back, unsure of what was to come next. For all they knew, it may have been trying to lure them closer so it could land a more precise strike. After a few seconds though, a haunting sob emitted from the creatures mouth. It was deep and vibrated me to the party to their core as the sound waves pinged off of the walls around them.
The friends gave each other unnerved glares as they tried to silently agree on what to do. "We can finish this right here, right now!" Lisbeth smacked her mace against her shoddy shield and barred her teeth, ready to charge. "That thing hurt Sinon! It shouldn't be allowed to live anymore. It's an abomination."
As Lisbeth said this, the cries from the boss grew louder.
Kirito wasn't so prepared to finish this thing off like Lisbeth was. It wasn't because he felt any sympathy for it, but rather he was afraid of the danger. After all, this still could be a trap encrypted by a ruse of fake emotion - emotion that Kirito didn't even know an AI was capable of. This new form of SAO was proving to be far more equivalent to real life than previous VR games he has played.
"... Let's kill it." The words slipped out of Kirito's mouth before he could even think about it. He just felt the need to make a decision and sound confident in doing so. Sinon righteously led her friends into this battle, and here they were on the cusp of victory. Just one more push would send them to the second floor and one step closer to escaping this game.
Love held up his spear over his head with both hands and let out a half-scream, half-howl. "YEAAH! Kill it!" He roared like a maniac before running aimlessly into the boss' agro range.
"Dammit, Love!" Kirito yelled and chased after him, ready to follow up on whatever attack he decides to execute. The rest of the friends rallied behind the swordsman, weapons drawn.
The madman leaped into the air and hurled his spear at the boss' head. The likely hood of it doing any useful damage was slim to non since, after all, this was Love. He couldn't do much damage to things that have high health. Before his spear impaled the creature, a flash of silver sparked in mid air. An arrow glided directly into the boss' bicep and began to sprout some sort of purple, spiderweb-like pattern against its skin. A debuff popped up next to the floor boss' health bar.
Debuff: Hemorrhage. Afflicted target takes twenty percent more damage for ten seconds.
Kirito squinted in confusion. Sinon and Silica were the only bow users in their party. Sinon was currently injured so that meant...
The swordsman turned and saw the young girl with pig tails knocking another arrow onto its string.
Love's spear impacted right on target, and thanks to Silica's well timed debuff, it did a fair amount of damage.
Fifteen percent health remaining.
"Nice, Silica!" Love praised.
Asuna ran by Kirito's side and motioned for him to follow her for an attack. Judging by how the boss reacted to Love, any form of offense that the couple took to the creature will be met with little to no resistance. Since it had fell to its knees, getting a hit on its side wouldn't require one person boosting the other. Kirito and his girlfriend thrusted their blades forward in synchronization, watching flaky crystals emit from the creatures ribs. It was on the brink of death, yet still it cried, its face buried within its slender hands.
Agil brought his axe high above his head, a snarl in his lips. "Just die!" He shouted with vigor as he jumped up to impale the creatures head. Once the axe entered the boss' skin, it began to glow a beautiful whitish-blue color, illuminating the room in a majestic hue. With an ear piercing shatter and florescent glow, the boss vanished, leaving behind a settling ploom of crystals that danced around the arena.
It took a few moments of silence before anyone in that room could sort their minds enough to begin trying comprehend what had just happened.
In the center of the arena, a large blue crystal formed. That was the teleportation crystal to the next floor. The fight was over. Before Kirito could issue everyone their deserved praise, his eyes fell upon a spot on the floor where the boss had died. Something - no, someone was lied there face up. Once the crystals finally settled and disappeared, the swordsman stepped forward to get a better look at this mysterious figure. It was a woman, probably in her late twenties. She had no outstanding features, which was odd considering this game hosted a wide variety of character creation. Her brown hair was frizzled and her skin was already becoming wrinkly around her eyes. As Kirito glared at her, he noticed the tears falling from her cheeks. He gasped, knowing full well what that meant. This woman was the boss of the floor.
That didn't make any sense. Players weren't able to encapsulate any other form besides themselves. There is a few items in the game that allowed from some strange situations in terms of character model manipulation, but never anything this extreme.
The woman weakly shifted her head over to meet Kirito's gaze. Her lips moved, however no noise came out.
Kirito's friends were too busy rushing over to Sinon to notice him and the stranger, so he knelt down next to her, his face contorted in confusion.
"You shouldn't have... fallen for his tricks." The woman said, the pain in her voice evident.
"What?" Kirito asked, still stunned as to what was happening in front of him.
"He promised my friends freedom... and money. Said we were testing a software."
"Herara?" Kirito asked frantically. "Is that who you're talking about?"
The woman struggled to nod her head. "We didn't know what we were agreeing to. We were just kids." She began to cry, her body going more and more limp.
"P-Please!" Kirito grabbed the strangers shoulder and pulled his face closer to hers. "You have to tell us why we're here! Surely there's a reason, right?"
She gazed up at him, only her eyes seemed depressive and her mouth slightly ajar. Her head shook as her skin began to light up in a bright white color.
"NO!" Kirito yelled as the woman shattered into bright shards of glass. His hands fell through the space that her body once occupied and propped him up on the ground.
"Kirito?" Asuna called out from by the door. "Are you okay?" She didn't notice what had happened, and Kirito figured that might have been for the best. Telling his friends about this would not only be extremely difficult, but also crazy. Moreover, it would only serve to confuse them even more and make the question themselves and their place in the game once again. In a time that already had no answers, would pouring gasoline onto the fire help?
Surely not. With this in mind, Kirito hurried over to his friends, who gathered around Sinon. Asuna was hard at work bandaging and healing the blue haired girl. She was out cold from the pain and blood loss, but her health was rising, albeit mind-numbingly slow. Nonetheless, it was nothing but smiles and relieved laughs all around.
"See?" Love slapped Klein's shoulder with such force that the red head winced and slapped the Madman back jokingly before putting him in a headlock. Agil was knelt down next to Sinon as he seemed to just be content that his friend was going to okay, a warm, relieved smile gently curving his lips. Lisbeth used a small rag to wipe the blood and tears from Sinon's face. Lisbeth herself seemed as though she was holding back tears of her own as she gazed upon the multiple wounds that littered her friends body. Silica was the only one not smiling. Instead, the young girl looked traumatized even further than she did before. A small smear of of blood was still on her cheek from the battle, however it was impossible to judge whose it was.
Kirito felt a mixture of joy, confusion, and relief. He placed a hand on Sinon's shoulder as he watched her health tick upward with each passing second. Once she was at five percent health, Agil lifted her up piggyback style and carried her over to the teleportation crystal alongside everyone.
Everyone took turns using the crystal to teleport to floor two, thus continuing their journey onwards to the higher floors and answers as to why they were trapped in this death game - and how they could escape it. While letting the blue haze of the teleportation envelop him, Kirito glared at the spot on the ground where the mysterious woman had been laying. Who was she, and what did she know? The Swordsman shook his head at himself, wishing he had done something or said something that could've gotten her to speak. His head bowed in a combination of guilt of shame. 'Everyone's alive' he reminded himself. 'Sinon is going to be okay. There's nothing to worry about.'
His vision went black as the second floor loaded.
-Real World-
Suguha scratched at her brothers computer desk impatiently. "Did you figure anything out yet?" She asked Akira, who was sitting next to her. These last few days have been a total bust in terms of finding out where Kazuto went. Well... That's not entirely true. The authorities were notified about what was going on and they immediately raided the office building where 'David Herara' Supposedly ran his company that went by the name of 'Sapper Co.'. Unfortunately though, the entire building was empty aside from a few vacant pieces of equipment that the police described as 'pods'.
Once this report went public, a natural knee jerk reaction erupted inside of Suguha. Kazuto was in trouble, she knew it. The only silver lining that came out of this was that now the general public knew the situation that those thousands of players were in. The Japanese government has yet to make an official statement on the matter. Suguha wasn't waiting. She wanted answers now.
"Nothing yet." Akira leaned back in his chair and rocked back and forth. "Whoever that David Herara guy is, he knows how to cover his tracks."
"Hmm..." Suguha groaned, resting her chin on her arm as she impatiently rolled a pencil back and forth between her finger and the table. "At least now everyone knows... Maybe the police will be able to figure something out."
"They probably will. But..."
"But what?"
"What should we do in the mean time?" Akira asked. "Should we stop trying to investigate this on our own?"
Suguha bit the inside of her lip in thought. Her and Akria had been at this for weeks, and their success has been sub par. One side of the young girl claimed that this was all a big waste of time, and that she should trust the authorities to bring Kazuto back. The other side of her, however, was not willing to buy into the idea of quitting. "No." She said bluntly, "We don't stop looking until Kazuto comes home."
"So determined." Akira commented with an approving nod.
"Well yeah... This is my brother we're talking about here."
"Cousin." Akira corrected. "Right?"
Suguha shrugged and gave a conceding nod. "We're pretty much siblings."
"Fair enough. Say, we've been at this all day. I know it's the weekend but I kind of want a little time to do things that I want to do, you know? Not that I'm against staying here... all day... with y-"
"-I get it." Suguha interrupted. She knew where he was going with that previous sentence and she did not want to hear it... Not now. "It's getting kind of late. You can leave if you want to."
Akira pursed his lips and slowly rose from his seat. "It's not because you're annoying me." He said nervously.
"I know, Akira."
He carefully began to waltz his way towards the door that lead to the hallway. "Because I like doing this with you. It makes me feel like a secret agent."
Suguha squinted, not entirely sure what he was going on about. "Right... Like I said, thanks. I'll see you l-"
"Because I'm enjoying my time with you." His face began going red and breaths became quicker.
The girl sighed and shook her head, a slight smirk curling her lips. Suguha knew that Akira liked her, and she also knew that this was his own, nerdy style of trying to confess to her. "I get it, Akira. Seriously, you don't have to feel bad for leaving. We've been at this all week."
"Y-Yeah." Once one foot was out the door, he gave me a small wave and rounded the corner into the hallway. Suguha listened as his footsteps thumped through the hall, down the stairs, and out the door.
She chuckled once the echo from the closing door faded into nothingness. "Jeez... What a nerd." She swiftly exited Kazuto's room and into her own, shoulders slumped the whole time. Upon laying on her bed, Suguha's eyes fell onto the poster hanging on her wall. It was that of a warrior - Her white wings and green armor stood out among the clouds that she flew through, her sword at her side. That girl is strong... and brave.
Suguha held out a beckoning hand towards the poster as if to drain some of the fictional characters energy and place it within herself. After a few seconds of feeling nothing (As expected), her palm formed into a fist. A feeling of determination brewed within her. When she played ALO, Suguha was a warrior - someone brave who people looked up to. But here in the real world, she was just like everybody else.
The young girl spun around and laid on her stomach, her face buried in the softness of her pillow. She wasn't sad, nor did she feel like crying. She just felt helpless knowing that for now, and possibly for a while, all she can do is wait.
*END*