A/N: Poor Rokel. Looks like he just can't get away from his troubles. Tyler's quite a jerk wouldn't you say? Even murdered his own brother just to bully Rokel within the game. Some people are just insane wouldn't you agree? Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go destroy the chocolate milk factory on the seventh moon of mars using feathers and paper while running away from the Danes of Japan.


DECEMBER 7TH, 2022. FLOOR 6, TAVERN AERIE.

As soon as we returned to town, I took Rokel into an inn. At least he'll be safe there. It took a while but the rest of the Lunar Twilight members returns. Aerith does her healing spells to restore his health and dispel the paralysis effect. Rokel is still in shock, even though he never landed in a red zone, so we let him rest for the moment.

I explained the situation to Hakomo and the others. About this guy, Tyler. The only thing I left out was how he's Rokel's real-life bully. I described every possible detail on how he looks and what he is, including that he's a Murder Player, even though that would only be temporary unless he further harms another player. Hakomo isn't too pleased with this character of Tyler's.

The Assault Team is beginning to form. We all agreed that it's best for Rokel to sit this out. While the guild is getting gears ready, I head back into the Inn. Rokel is sitting up on the bed in his room.

"You doing okay?" I ask.

"Y-yeah. Just a little shaken." Rokel says.

I walk up and sit on the side of the bed, sighing. "I guess Tyler really is in Warlords Wrath Online," I say.

"Why wouldn't he just leave me alone?" Rokel's tone sounds sad.

"Well that's what bullies do: They just want to make people miserable." I look at Rokel, head turned over my shoulder. "I'll admit, I'm actually surprised he killed a member in his family, let alone come to this death game. That just proves how insane he is."

Rokel looks directly at me. "Didn't you do the same thing?"

"That's different. I didn't come to this world to torture someone. I came here to protect a friend, to help him and everyone else escape." I say.

"Maybe so, but it's still suicide all the same," Rokel says.

I face forward hearing that. "You may have a point there."

"I don't know what I'm gonna do now. I'm good as dead in this world now." Rokel says.

"Don't say that. If Tyler's gonna have to mess with you, he'll have to go through me." I look at Rokel with a small smile. "I have messed hundreds of insane criminals in the real world. Compared to that, he's child's play on an easy training center."

Rokel seems a bit confused to hear that. I'm guessing he doesn't understand what I mean. I received a message. I push the button and the window opens. It's Hakomo telling me the Assault Team has begun. I send him a message telling him I'll be on the way, then I get back on my feet.

"We're going with the Assault Team to clear the elite dungeon," I tell Rokel. "Everyone thinks you should stay here."

Rokel nods. "Yeah. That would be best. I don't want to face Tyler in a middle of a boss fight."

I give a small chuckle, then I walk up to give him a pat on the head. He's a bit astonished for that pat. "Just hang tight."

I make my way to the door. My hand was on the knob when Rokel calls out. "Lightning." I look at him, he's just sitting there, a little nervous. He's nothing but silent, but after a while, he finally speaks. "Thanks...for saving me."

I smile a little. "It's what I do."

I leave the Inn, wandering around the small town. I arrive at the rendezvous point for the Assault Team. Me and Hamoko are the only ones who showed up. Over time, more and more begin to arrive.

"Hey, Lightning!" I jumped a little. I turn to see it's Leafa. She's different, now wearing white and green clothes with yellow bracelets. She also has a white and green collar on her neck.

"Leafa? You're joining the Assault Team?" I ask.

"That's right." Leafa looks right past me. "Where's Espeon? I thought you two are together?"

I cross my arms. "I could say the same thing with you and Kirito." Leafa gives an embarrassed look hearing that. "Well, we departed ways cause of joining guilds. He wanted to join a guild filled with childish idiots while...well, I didn't."

"That's gotta be rough," Leafa says. "Well, I'm not sure what big brother's doing. He's always being mysterious as a solo player. Cruising like a ship without a compass."

"Kirito's going to be a solo player?" Leafa nods. "How surprising. Then again...he is pretty skilled for an Assassin."

"Well, big brother was a beta tester for this game." I'm shocked to hear that, eyes widen and my expression surprised. "He didn't tell you he was a beta tester? ...Well, I'm not surprised. He does have a habit of making everything a secret."

More people start to show up. "Lightning." Hope approaches me.

I'll admit, I'm surprised to see him here. "Espeon? I wasn't expecting to see you here." I do notice he's alone. "So where's team idiots?"

"I get you don't get along well with the NORA crew, but you still shouldn't make fun of them," Hope says. "They're going out hunting today. So it's just me. But guess who I ran into?"

Just then, another girl jumps on him, just crashes into him with her arms wrapped, causes Hope to stumble forward a bit.

"Were you just talking about me, weren't you sugar?" The girl asks.

I recognize this girl. Red hair in short ponytails. The accent. The enthusiasm personality. It's Hope's girlfriend, Vanille. I do see that she has chosen Dreamer as a class. Vanille sets her eyes on me. "Lightning!? Oh boy, you really weren't kidding when you said she's in this game."

When she put it that way...it kind of hurts. "Nice to see you...uh." I wonder what her avatar name is, cause I'm certain she didn't use her real name.

"Twilight." Vanille answers.

'Twilight. Of course.' I thought as I roll my eyes. I turn to Leafa. "What about your guild?" I ask.

"My guild is coming, just preparing their equipment." Just then, a small group arrives. "Oh, here they are now."

Leaf's guild is only a group of six. A Swordsman: Bladelance, a Wavemaster: Etro, two Shadow Snipers: Sinon (Sinon looks like who she is in the real world, front ponytails black hair and glasses) and Silica, the one with some feathery dragon for a pet, and Crusader Lisbeth. Bladelance and Etro look familiar for some reason, and I'm guessing Bladelance agrees. Cause the first thing he does is approach me then he whispers.

"Hey, are you, by any chance, Lightning Farron?" I'm on alert hearing that. I don't answer, just give an expression that says 'Don't bother me.' "We've met in the real world, remember? I'm friends with your sister in High School."

That's right. It's coming back. Bladelance and Etro are Noel Kriss and Paddra Nsu Yeul. They only visited my place once a couple of months ago for my birthday. Noel was an okay guy, makes me wish he was Serah's boyfriend instead of that idiot Snow, but that idea died since I found out he and Yeul are dating.

"Yes...I remember. Nice to see you again." I say.

Once all of the Assault Team members have gathered, we all head-on to the elite dungeon.


FLOOR 6, ELITE DUNGEON.

The Elite Dungeon is some spring land. And I'm not talking about the season, I'm talking about rivers, puddles, and lakes spring. Something is known as 'The Terrance of Endless Spring'. This area is crawling with those negative creatures again, the purple ones with red spikes. Not only that, but they are also some humanoid fish that attacks us with water magic.

We fight in a group of twenty. Leafa's guild, the Dancing Fairies, are quite a powerful and social guild. I'm starting to wish I had known this guild back when I was struggling to find one.

Hope and Vanille are standing in the back healing us. Sinon and Leafa are staying close to protect them from any assaults. I stand side by side with the other melee fighters, mostly with Noel. He does make an excellent partner.

When we reach the third floor, things have gotten tough. From the start, two players have died. Apparently, these negative spirits are now possessing dragons with their terror. We fight at a tougher scale. I stand by with Sinon and Leafa to help them protect Hope and Vanille.

"Hey." I turn to look at Sinon. "Are you the Lightning swordsman I've heard about?"

This is actually the first time this young lady has spoken to me. "Uh...yeah."

Sinon looks excited. "I heard from Leafa you broke the commanders' weapon from the first-floor dungeon. That's amazing. You must be very strong to pull off something like that."

"Thanks," I say.

"I wish I could be that strong. I can't even look at a gun without entering a panic attack." I'm a bit surprised to hear that. Is she really that weak? There are people who have their fears.

"Were you always terrified of them?" I ask.

"Not really...you see-" Sinon was interrupted by something, a shocked expression. Instantly, she has her bow aimed for my head, charging up. "Duck!"

At once, my eyes shot open and I duck as the arrow fires. It impales on the Serpent Dragon's head that was charging at me. As soon as I realize it's there, I give a sweeping strike, destroying the beast.

"We could probably talk about this later," I say.

"Agreed," Sinon says.

After all of that fighting, we made it to the doors that lead to the boss room. We all stand in front of it, wondering who could be inside. But I have a theory...

Leafa and Lisbeth open the door slowly. The moment the door is open, we charge right in shouting. As soon as we're in the center, we stop and the door closes on us. There's nothing but darkness.

"Stay close. This could be a trap." I say.

We all huddled, back to back on each other, then the darkness dissolves as the ground starts to get replaced with a blinding light, starting at the center and dramatically expanding. The darkness completely vanishes and the light dies down.

We all look around, we're in the middle of some springs, in an area with beautiful trees and yellow grass. The whole area we can only stand is the springs. We are amazed at the beauty, but that suddenly ends when Silica screams. "Look!"

We all look ahead. At the end of the field is that giant negative spirit I encountered during the Nightmare Queen boss. Its five health bars, cursor, and name: Shadow of Terror appears before it.

Shadow of Terror snarls at us then speaks. "You! ...All of you! Will drown! In...TERROR!" The boss roars at the last word, which causes a powerful force of the wind to blow against us.

Shadow of Terror rushes towards us, stops right in front of Silica. It draws his claw back to strike. The moment Silica realizes it, she's paralyzed in terror and screams. Shadow of Terror strikes, but Hakomo and Lisbeth appear at the very second to block the attack together.

"Everyone!" I draw my sword out and aim it at the beast. "Fight!"

All of the melee attackers charges and strikes, the spell casters and Shadow Snipes stay back, casting their spells or shooting their bows. Shadow of Terror fights us, mostly swiping its claws at us. The beast constantly summons Dreaded Fear, the skeleton form of the negative spirits.

Me and Raphael focus on downing the minions while the others attack the boss. Shadow of Terror inhales deeply, we are all on alert seeing the beasts move, then it exhales a massive purple breath of smoke on us. The monster roars as it hurts us with Breath of Fear.

We all stand out ground to resist the attack. When that ends, we appear to be fine, but we did lose most of our HP. I hear shouting and we all turn, to see Sinon and Elementalist are reacting in searing pain. We're all worried for them as they turn black and white, their hands turning into negative spirit claws and their cursors turns red. Sinon looks at us. "No! ...Stay back!" Her tone sounds like she's afraid as she aims her bow at us. "Get away from me!"

Her bow charges and she shoots at us. I did the third three arrows in the chest. My HP goes down to 389 from the hits. "That hurt," I say looking at my chest as I remove the arrows.

"What's going on? Why are they attacking us?" Silica asks.

Elementalist is channeling fire magic, in the end, his hands are molten and he shoots lava bolts at us. We nearly dodged them. "They're being controlled by the terror," I say.

"Mind control? Is that even possible?" Hope asks, surprised.

Elementalist repeatedly casts fire spells at all of us. "Burn you ugly insects!"

'Insects'? Elementalist did once say he was afraid of bugs. "No. It's different." I say, avoiding the lava bolts. "They must be overwhelmed by their fears, they're probably seeing them anywhere." Maybe something like that.

Shadow of Terror chuckles evilly. "Is there a way to break it?" Lisbeth asks.

"No time to think. I'll handle them." Yeul says as she steps forward. I was about to stop her when she holds her staff in front of her and starts chanting arcane energy. By the end, Sinon and Elementalist are covered in a puff of smoke. When the smoke clears, there's nothing but sheep.

'What?' I thought. "I didn't know a Wavemaster could do that."

Yeul looks at me. "Polymorph spell. A simple spell for deadly minion fights."

Well, that's good to know.

We continue on fighting Shadow of Terror. Sinon and Elementalist aren't free from the terror spell, but Yeul constantly refreshes the duration of her Polymorph spell. Once the minions are down, me, Noel and Raphael return attacking the boss. Raphael does crazy swinging from behind the boss. Shadow of Terror turns to attack Raphael, only the moment he swings his attack, Raphael dodges, that's when me and Noel attack its sides with powerful charged strikes.

Shadow of Terror staggers back from the powerful blows, even large cuts in the form of an X right on its body as it loses its third health bar.

It's a standstill for a while. Shadow of Terror looks down at us, chuckling. "You think it's so easy to vanquish your fears?"

The negative energy leaves Sinon and Elementalist. Aerith was able to dispel Yeul's Polymorph spell from them. Just then, Shadow of Terrors channels dark magic the whole room starts to shake. The center of the springs turns purple and magic beams impale on us like harpoons and pull us all right in.

We were all unconscious. How long? From the corner of my vision, it is now about 4 PM. Roughly about half an hour. The area we now in is really nothing but skies in the middle of some ocean. We can walk on water like it's nothing more than a mere inch.

"What...what is this place?" Leafa asks.

"I don't know...but I don't like it," I say.

Water bursts in the air in front of us. Shadow of Terror crawls right out of it. We're all startled by all of this. Shadow of Terrors is still in its remaining two health bars.

"You cannot flee from your terrors. It is everywhere!" Shadow of Terrors roars fiercely at us.

Doesn't matter, cause we're not running. We continue fighting against Shadow of Terrors. His abilities seem to be different in this realm. His abilities are being based on the very water we stand on. Nothing major, just causing water spouts, raves of water whenever he swings its fist.

Of course, I could be wrong about there being no major ones. Cause the next thing he does is it dives into the waters. "Dread rises! It seeks the light!" We look all around for Shadows of Terror. But when I look down, I can see it in the water, emerging to the surface.

"Everyone run!" I shout.

We run as fast as we can to get away from this spot. "It hungers!" Shadow of Terrors shouts as it bursts out of the waters. Two players were too late, and they get knocked in the air suffering damage. They died mid-air.

His emerging from the waters causes all of us to stagger, half of us alls from our feet. Shadow of Terrors rushes towards Hope. He's one of the players knocked down. Shadow of Terrors makes the strike.

"Espeon!" I shout.

Hope cowers in fear from the attack, at the last minute, Lisbeth zooms in and blocks the attack. She does get pulled back a little and suffer 100 HP, bringing her health to a yellow zone.

Hope was astonished by the rescue but then snaps out of it to heal her. After a moment of recovering, we all continue attacking Shadow of Terror. Shadow of Terror doesn't summon any minions or try to fear to control anyone. That's a good thing.

In the end, Shadow of Terrors is down to 2% of its HP, and we all attacked it, even the healers. Shadow of Terrors shouts in agony then shatters.

The boss fight against Shadow of Terrors was pretty terrifying. No pun intended since it is a fear-based fight. I did earn a powerful weapon: Jaws of Terror. A long one-handed thin sword. Not very strong but it is pretty light. I needed a new weapon anyways, but I think I'll stick with heavy swords.

In the center of this place, an orb of light appears. As soon as we touched it, we are transported.

Arriving on the seventh floor.