A/N: Rokel is a special little boy isn't he? He even manages to get Lightning to go soft on him after the way he ticked her off. Hey, maybe he's Hope's twin. But enough about him, we should really see how he and Lightning are going to rescue his guild.
DECEMBER 2ND, 2022. FLOOR 5, ROAD OF TERRORS
A part of me still can't believe I'm actually helping Rokel after the way he has treated back in the past twenty-four hours. But still, after everything he's done to annoy me he apologizes, and afterward he promises never to bother me again. He's different than the morons I've endured in this world.
We are walking on the road heading towards the elite dungeon. We're both in a party together. Rokel is a level 20 Wavemaster with 957 HP and 1332 MP. Rokel suddenly stops. "I want to ask you something." I stop and turn back to him. "After everything, I've done to you, why did you decide to help me?"
My eyes shot open hearing that. I do have a reason why I've decided to help him, all though I'm not sure if I really could say it. It sounds kind of embarrassing. "If you promise not to laugh, I'll tell you."
Rokel nods. "I won't laugh."
Even hearing that doesn't relax me. I look away, so he's only facing my side, covering my eyes with my hand. "It's because...you remind me of my little brother."
There was no answer, I certainly don't hear any laughing. I move my fingers out of the way looking out on the corner of my eye. Rokel looks surprised, standing there speechless. Just then, I can see him snickering. Eyes closed, mouth covered, trying to hold in his laugh.
I turn my back on him, trying to hide my embarrassment. "S-sorry. I'm sorry. I couldn't help it, that was so unexpected." Rokel says.
I don't say anything, so I just keep on walking.
We arrive at the Dungeon entrance. We just stand there looking at the entrance to the dungeon. I'm having doubts we'll survive this dungeon, just me and a Wavemaster.
"Don't we need a group of five to clear the Elite Dungeons?" I ask.
"Not really, just a healer, a DPS, and someone to hold off the enemies on the front lines," Rokel says.
"Yeah, well...last time I checked, Wavemasters aren't healers. I can handle the front lines, but I don't think I'll survive the whole blow." I say.
"It's true we're not healers, but that's why I took first-aid," Rokel says.
I look at him confused. "First-aid? Like...medicines and bandages and such?"
Rokel nods. "In this world, there are professions, they're kind of like jobs. First-aid is one of them. You make bandages to restore your HP, but they can only be used outside of combat. Using them, you'll heal just as good as a Dreamer." 'Just as good as a Dreamer' I suppose that makes sense. I wouldn't believe a healing profession would be any good as Clerics. "As for tanking the front lines...well, Swordsman's can tank but they do it with shields."
"Swordsman's can use shields?" I ask surprised.
"Yeah. I'm guessing you've never used a shield before." Rokel asks.
"I had one...in the real world," I say. "But that's personal."
During my rookie days in the Guardian Corps, we were required to use shields. However, I got so good with using my Gunblade that I did not need a shield. Amodar was a bit in shock to hear that.
"I can see that." Rokel pits his fingers on his chin thinking for a moment. "If you are going to hold off the mobs, you're going to need a good shield..." Rokel opens his menu, scrolling through his item lists. He stops at a certain equipment item. "This one should do."
Rokel opens a trade with me, a small window appears in front of me with a list of only one item: Great Wall. I hit accept, then a large silver shield appears in front of me. It lands on my hands, but I was caught by surprised how heavy it is. I have a hard time lifting the shield with both of my hands.
"Damn! This thing's heavy." I say.
"It is a heavy shield. They're very good with defenses, but hard to wield." Rokel says.
"Well, you sure know a lot about shields for a Wavemaster," I say.
"I've learned a few from my guild leader Hakomo," Rokel says.
Rokel and I walk right into the dungeon. It's a dark stone area with tainted black and white spots like on the first elite dungeon floor. The creatures inside are the purple-red creatures and mantids. This is going to be painful.
We fight the first few mobs, two Anxieties, and an Amber-Weaver. I hold them off in the front likes, constantly block their attacks and striking them. This shield works great. As I block their attacks, I either suffer 22 HP loss to 8. When I attack, I notice my attacks are slow, I'm guessing wielding a heavy shield probably slows my attacks cause all of my energy and strength is focusing on using the shield.
I can hear Rokel saying a chant as he channels his magic. I didn't look back, but I do see fire raining down on the mobs or icicles raising from underneath these creatures. The Anxieties are defeated, now it's just us and the Amber-Weaver. I forget blocking and just attack with my sword. The Amber-Weaver casts its shadow spells on me. I was too late to block the first two, but I blocked the last one.
Rokel uses some arcane magic to finish off the Amber-Weaver. I give a relieved sigh as he earned our results. "Well...that wasn't so bad," Rokel says.
"I wouldn't get too comfortable, kid. We still have a long ways to go." I point out.
Rokel knows that's true. We fight through the monsters on the first floor of this dungeon. The crawling creatures were no challenge, but the shadow skeletons start making things tough. After about seven fights, my remaining HP is 320, a low yellow zone. Great, it'll take a while for my health to regenerate.
"Your health's low," Rokel tells me. "Give me your arm." I look at Rokel offensively, retreating my arm from him. "Trust me, I'm not gonna bite."
That's true, but he does have an impulse to be crushing on girls. He said so himself. With little hesitation, I offer him my arm. He just grabs it with one hand. He uses his other hand to open his menu. Rokel scrolls through his item list then a rolled-up bandage appears in front of him.
I can see what he's doing. He starts wrapping the bandage on my arm. "This is first-aid?" I ask.
"That's right. Just do a simple wrapping and..." After about four wrappings, Rokel rips the bandage from the rolls. I just look down at my wrapped arm. The bandages shatter into light shards. On the corner of my vision, I see my health go up to 874.
"Huh...not bad," I say.
Rokel nods. Rokel looks past me then puts on a serious face. "Look out!" Rokel pulls me behind him. I turn to see two wisps rushing towards us. Rokel holds his staff in front of him, chanting an arcane spell. When his rings vanish leaving only the ancient words that are in front of him, Rokel blasts half a dozen of swift arcane bolts.
The arcane bolts hit one of the wisps, destroying it. The other one is still coming at us. Rokel moves his staff to his side. The top of the staff burns in flames. As he waves his staff a fireball is launched towards the wisp destroying it.
After a brief moment, Rokel turns to me. "You all right?"
"Uh...sure," I say, feeling a bit unease.
FLOOR 5, ELITE DUNGEON
Rokel and I travel around this dungeon. We've made it up to the third floor. The mobs are getting harder and harder, but we progress through them. Rokel has made two levels in this dungeon while I made one. The kid is just as excited to level up as Hope was back when we were partying together.
This is the final floor and there's still no sign of Rokel's guild. Rokel claims they're still alive. He even shows me they start by using Friend Location on his menu. They're on this floor all right, but the map is completely blank we can't tell where. There's nothing but a simple green dot in the darkness.
While we're walking, Rokel starts a conversation. "Hey, Lightning? Can I ask about your little brother?"
I look at Rokel curious. "Why all of the sudden?"
"You told me I remind you of him." That is true. "I know it's impolite to ask about the real world if you would mind..."
I wouldn't bother talking about my personality with anyone except for Hope and Serah. Rokel is okay I guess, despite all those harassments he's given me. I answer his question.
"He's like a little brother, but he's really just a friend," I say. "It was years ago while I was in training in the Guardian Corps, he got into a car accident and I was assigned to help him. His parents died, so he was the only one who survived."
"Oh...That's horrible." Rokel says.
"It certainly was. So I took him under my wing. He's such a good kid. Me and Serah really liked him." I say.
"S-Serah?" Rokel asks.
"My sister," I answered.
Rokel seems a bit excited. "Really? You have a sister?"
"Don't even think about it. She's already married...to Snow, unfortunately." I say.
Rokel looks at me curiously. "I take it you're not fond of this Snow person."
"I've met him. He's a complete idiot." I say. "Anyways, Hope was such a good kid. Very smart too. His grades were so good he graduated early from middle school. He's now a freshman in High School."
"That's amazing," Rokel says. "How could I remind you of him? I'm barely a straight B student at my school."
"Oh, I don't know. I guess it's 'cause you're roughly the same age, the shyness." I look down at Rokel. "The silver hair." Hearing that, Rokel looks nervous, then he grabs his hat and pulls it in further as if to hide his exposed hair.
"I'm surprised you would tell me this much about your life," Rokel says.
Now that he mentions it, I am surprised that I did. Hope is usually the one I talk to about anything personal I don't feel like talking. Now I'm doing it to Rokel. "I guess I just felt like it. Another reason you remind me of him. Usually, I build walls over other people, yet somehow he manages to break through them."
"Sounds like you really trust and care for him," Rokel says. He's probably right. "Do you...you know, like him?"
I look at Rokel surprised. He gives me a nervous look like he's expecting a slap in the face. "Hmm..." I know what he means by that. That I'm in love with Hope. I look forward as we keep walking. "Not really. If anything, he probably just see me as a mother figure."
"Oh...if he does, he must be really worried you're trapped in this game." Rokel says.
"Not really. He's in this game as well. In fact, he's the whole reason I joined Warlords Wrath Online." I say.
"What? What do you mean by that?" Rokel asks.
"I don't normally play video games. I was living my life while Hope was playing this game. But when I found out he got stuck, I decided to join." I say.
"You join Warlords Wrath just to save your friend?" Rokel asks surprised. "That's crazy! There's no way I can do a thing like that." Rokel looks down in disappointment. "I can't even get this bully to leave me alone."
I look at Rokel. He's being bullied? "Well, you need to stand up for yourself. Tell him he's not gonna put you down anymore."
"I did once. But then..." Rokel stops, looking down. I stop as well noticing the sorrow in his face.
"What happened?" I ask.
Rokel looks at me and shook his head. "No...it's nothing." Rokel continues on. "I don't want to talk about it." I just stand back watching Rokel walk. As he wonders, a large monster jumps out of nowhere. Rokel screams and falls back. The monster looks like a giant beetle or maybe a grasshopper with scythe claws.
Korov makes the strike on Rokel. The boy cowers by holding his staff in front of him like a shield. That's when I jump in and block the hit with my shield. That only took 39 of my HP, that thing's powerful all right, then I counterattack with a Ravager strike.
Taking out that Korov was difficult. We both survived with yellow HP for Rokel and red for me. Once we restore ourselves to full health we keep going with me taking the lead.
"Lightning. Look." I look ahead. What's in front of me is two large doors. Me and Rokel walk up to it. "Could this be?"
"It is...the boss room," I say.
Rokel stands next to me as he looks at his friend's location map. "My guild is in there according to the map tracker...Should we go in?"
I look at Rokel unsure, then straight at the door. "The two of us against a boss fight. We're nothing but easy prey against a pack of wolves."
"But my guild is in there. If anything, they're probably fighting it off. We're just joining the fight." Rokel says.
"You may have a point," I say. "Okay, we'll go in to take a look. Stay close to me."
I put my hand on the door, slowly opening it. As the door opens, only darkness appears from the room. Me and Rokel slowly walk in, armed ready to attack. We walk right in for only a few feet. The darkness lightens up a little on the ground as the door closes behind us.
"There's nothing here," I say.
"I don't get it." Rokel opens his menu, using the friend tracker again. "It says they're right here."
I'm not fully convinced. But something is up. Normally there's a boss in the middle, but there's nothing. I listen closely with my listening skill. The sound is very faint, but I hear...slobbering. I can't really make out where it's coming from.
"There's something strange going on." I turn. I notice Rokel is looking up frozen with an astonished expression. "Rokel?" I walk up to the boy. "Rokel! ...Rokel! What's wrong?"
Not even turning his attention to me, he moves his hand pointing up. I look up and I'm surprised at what I'm looking at. Right on the rooftop, there are five amber pods hanging. And in the center of that ceiling is some large creature. It's curled up like a ball so I can't make out what it is, but it is where the fainted noise is coming from.
The figure uncurls its form and looks down at us and roars a deafening screech. It's a large grasshopper mantid instead.
"Is...is that?" Rokel asks.
"The Nightmare Queen," I say shocked as well.
Its five health bars, one filled and one-half empty, appear along with its name and red cursor. Nightmare Queen drops from the ceiling and lands right in front of us, hissing.
I take out my sword and shield. "Why does it only have 30% of its health?" I ask.
"I'm guessing my guild might still be in combat with it," Rokel says. "Can we take it?"
I think for a moment. A Wavemaster and a protection Swordsman against the fifth-floor boss that only has a few of its health left. "Well. It's worth a shot."
"You! You-you-you puny inzzzectzzz think you can defeat me?" Nightmare Queen says. Nightmare Queen slashes me with her claws. I block them, I lost 75 HP for that hit. Damn it, she hits hard.
Me and Rokel have no other choice. We attack the Nightmare Queen. I block every attack the Nightmare Queen throws at us while throwing a few swings of my sword at it too. Blocking is not the best idea to do since I can't cover much damage taken and I'm without a Cleric, but dodge is pointless with this heavy shield. I can't even attack as fast as I use to.
Rokel stands behind at a distance channeling his magic. Nightmare Queen does an Insect Swarm ability. I can't really do anything to protect Rokel from that. Hundreds of insects swarms around us. We suffer damage from that until Rokel's down to 398 and I'm 520. We're in yellow zones.
Our attacks only got Nightmare Queen down to her last health bar. Nightmare Queen spreads her wings and flies few feet off the ground.
"Zzzo! You think I can be defeated Zzzo Eazzzily?" Nightmare Queen begins channeling her amber magic. That can't be good. "Time for you to drown in your Abyszzzal fearzzz!"
Nightmare Queen spits amber to the ceiling. Me and Rokel look up at the ceiling. We wondered what that was about, then that amber stretches down like tentacles. I dodge one of them, with only a millisecond to spare. But Rokel wasn't too lucky. The amber splats on Rokel and drags him up.
"Lightning!" Rokel screams as he's being taken away.
"Rokel!" The amber wraps around Rokel like a cocoon, turning into a pod. The other amber tries again to grab me, and it was successful.
As I'm being pulled up, I try to fight my way through the sticky goo. I can barely move my sword to cut myself free. Soon enough, I'm encased into an amber pod and my whole world went dark.
