A/N: Bet you guys are pretty surprised to see the eleventh floor, huh? A world of demons. The apocalypse. Hell on earth...or Aincrad I should really say. Is there anyway to stop this madness? Maybe we'll find out once our heroes reach the 20th floor. The question is: Will they make it there despite what just happened back at the Black Gate?
MARCH 4TH, 2023. FLOOR 11, PATH OF HONOR
The eleventh floor is not quite what we expected. The whole floor is a barren wasteland. Nothing like the desert land the tenth floor was. This one is different.
Fire geysers. Jagged lands. Black skies. Demons roaming all over the lands. Not a single blade of grass or a drop of water on land.
"This...this is horrible," Asuna says.
"I agree. It's like the apocalypse recently happened." Shinon says.
It's not a pretty sight, all right. But this nothing worth remorse over. We travel across the land, fighting any of the demons that stand in our way. The demons here are tough. One Infernal is like taking on a group of five elites from the last elite dungeon.
"Just what kind of world is this floor? It's nothing like the other ten." Leafa says.
"I don't know. It wasn't anything like this back in the Beta Testing." Kirito says.
"Just how far were you during the Beta Test?" Hope asks.
"Seventeen Floors. Most of the Beta Testers could only be gotten up to floor 32." Kirito says.
"Good to hear. So now the rest of the 18 floors are going to be a big mystery. How fun." I say with sarcasm.
"You can lay off the sarcasm. In case you haven't noticed, Kayaba made some big changes to the game since the Beta Testing. Even the highest of Information Brokers are powerless against the current system." Kirito says.
Well, he got me there. Just moments ago, he admits a creature like that Pit Commander wasn't even on the Beta Test.
We arrive at the destination point the Yrel NPC told us to come to. Most of us wish that she would have picked a different destination. This place is a building in crumbling ruins. There's barely a roof and any hiding spots. Everywhere, inside and out, there are corpses or injured people.
Many of the injured are suffering, either crying for help or moaning in agony. There are very few Cleric NPC's helping them out.
"This is horrible," Asuna says.
"Isn't there something we can do?" Leafa asks.
Why would she ask that? They're NPC's and we're players. There's probably nothing we can do. Our very survival is the only thing that matters. We wander around until we run into that Maraid guy. He looks at us, with a distrusting look.
"Just so you know, I'm on to you...outsiders. Your kind are nothing but trouble to our people." Maraid says, then shortly leaves.
"What is his deal?" Klein asks.
"Beats me." Hope answers.
We found Yrel helping the wounded. After a minute, she approaches us. "I apologize for Maraid's behavior. He's not very...fond of outsiders. Not ever since Chaos was found thirty-five years ago. Please, come with me."
Yrel walks and we follow her. She leads us to some bonfire that's happening on the back of the ruined building. "Please, have a seat."
"We shouldn't waste our time here," I tell everyone.
"We should at least hear her story," Kirito says.
"I agree. Might help us learn about the monsters on this floor." Shinon says.
I suppose that's true. So we all gather around the bonfire. Few of the Draenei servants serve us drinks while Yrel tells us her tale.
"I can't tell you how thankful I am you outsiders helped us out back there," Yrel says.
"I would be thankful if you stop calling us 'outsiders'," I say offended.
"My apologizes, miss," Yrel says. "Anyways, Draenor was not always like this. Once, it was a beautiful world and we lived peaceful lives. We the Draenei were rulers of the land. The light guided us, it protected us. And we trust and believe in the light."
"So, what happened?" Vanille asks.
"Chaos happened," Yrel says. Her tone sounds betrayal. "It was thirty-five years ago. A young Draenei named Chaos appeared out of nowhere. He was not like one of us, his color was red."
"So he's an outsider," Hope says.
"That's right. We took him in and helped him restore his strength. Only what we did is a grave mistake. Turns out, Chaos is a servant to the darkness. Not only that, but he is the one who brought those Demons, the Inflamed Legion, to our world. Because of that, it's become the dying barren wasteland you now see."
Everyone else is speechless. I just don't say anything, but the story was pretty dramatic, I'll admit. "Guess I don't blame Maraid for giving us the cold shoulder," Leafa says with a chuckle.
"He wasn't always like this. He use to be a kind person until Chaos killed our father on the night the Inflamed Legion invaded our home." Yrel says.
Everyone else is shocked. "'Our...father'? Does that make you two siblings?" Asuna asks.
"Of course. Before the Inflamed Legion came, Chaos seeks an army to stand against us." Yrel says.
"Let me guess, the orcs?" I ask.
"Yes." The Damned Lord was pretty much a dead giveaway. "He worked with the orcs cause they were expert wizards and witches, and powerful warriors with incredible strength. But even with the dark council at his side, he would still need an arsenal to stand against us. That's when the Battlesong Clan came."
The Battlesong Clan. We've heard of that clan back in the first ten floors. They appeared sometime on the third-floor fields and the tenth-floor elite dungeon. Garrosh Hailroar was their leader before he was Warchief of his 'Metal Horde'.
"Grommash Hailroar, the leader of the clan, was given an offering. The Blood of the pit commander, Mannoroth. Chaos and Gul'Damn, who is known as the Damned Lord, said it was a gift, but it's truly a curse. One day, they are conquerors, but the next day, they became reckless bloodthirsty savages."
I lean close to Kirito and whisper to him. "No different than the ones we faced back in the Metal Horde."
"On the night Chaos opened the Black Gate to bring the Inflaming Legion here, my father, brother and I went after them to stop the ritual. But our plan backfired. Our father sacrificed himself to save us." Yrel looks down in shame. "I'm sorry for telling you such a sorrow story."
"No worries. It's okay." Shinon says.
Yrel looks up with a brave face. "But now, even at our last legs, we seek to drive the legion out of our world."
"I hate to burst your bubble, but I don't think that's much of a choice given to how damaged your world is," Kirito says.
Leafa slaps Kirito in the back of his head. "Big brother! Don't say that!"
Hakomo looks at Yrel. "We will do what we can to help out."
Yrel smiles. "Thank you, champion. This may not be much to repay you, but it is all we have to spare."
Each of us earns our results, for something known as 'Bonus Objective: Tales of Draenor'. We only earn very little EXP and some Krystals. The word 'Bonus Objective' has me confused.
"A Bonus Objective?" I ask.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about these," Kirito says. "They are like a regular quest, only they are not given by NPC's, they are hidden through the zones."
"How can you tell you're doing one?" I ask.
"Sometimes you do, like when you slay an enemy or a monster, and sometimes you don't, much like the event we just did. Unless it's a multiphase objective then you'll receive notice when you finish step one." Kirito says.
"Do you actually have to do them?" Hope asks.
"Only if you want to level fast, cause slaughtering and escort bonuses offers double the EXP," Kirito explains.
As we're sitting, Maraid appears and then approaches Yrel. "The wounded are restored, but we mustn't delay here any longer. We must move on."
"You're right, brother. We must not let the Inflaming Legion find us." Yrel stands up. "Champions, we are moving to our next destination. But many of our warriors are still too weak to fight, and there are too many demons out there. Will you lend us your aid?"
A quest window opens. 'The runaway'. We are supposed to escort these Draenei people to Karador in the western field. We accept the quest. Maraid gives us a cold look then turns to Yrel.
"I don't trust these outsiders, Yrel. Bringing them to our hideout is one thing but to our secret base? For all we know, they could be spies for the Inflaming Legion." Maraid says.
"Maraid. Please! If you are so concern, then you watch over them while I take the lead." Yrel suggests.
Maraid groans. "Fine then."
FLOOR 11, GREAT FISSURE.
We start escorting these people through the broken world on this floor. Yrel takes the lead while Maraid covers the rear. Instead of keeping an eye out for the demons, he is watching all of us like a hawk. And he said we can't be trusted, he's not even being concerned about the real threat out there.
Luckily so far, we haven't encountered any enemies in this fissure, but we can't let our guard down. So far, we are halfway to our destination.
"This is ridiculous. We should try and get ready for the next floor boss." I say.
"I understand how you feel, Light. But we need to be careful." Hope says.
"I'm with Espeon on this. We need to be careful. The moment our HP's hit zero, our brains in the real world will be destroyed." Leafa says.
She doesn't have to remind me, I'm well aware of the dangers of Warlords Wrath Online. As we wander in this canyon field, I feel unease. It's quiet...a little too quiet. I listen deeply. My hearing skill should be pretty high in this death game. So far, I only hear footsteps from us.
Wait...I hear a soft rumbling. I stop, listening deeply. The rumbling starts to grow stronger. I look up. A large boulder is coming down. It's falling towards the group.
"LOOK OUT!" I shout.
Suddenly, everyone's on alert. They all look up to see the large boulder. With quick reflexes, they jump out of the way and the boulder crashes onto the ground. Someone tried to crush us. But who? It couldn't have been Laughing Coffin. Their assault tricks are usually an ambush after their crystal trap is triggered.
I look up, searching for any enemies. It's pretty far, but I see a figure of some grayish-black skin orc on top. He has long black hair, the ones on the top head in a topknot ponytail, spikes from his arms and shoulders, green fire eyes and he wields the same weapon, Gorecry, as Garrosh did.
I got a feeling this is Grommash Hailroar.
"The Battlesong clan!" Yrel says.
"You got lucky Draenei scum!" Grommash says. "But you're luck will run out! This world belongs to the Fel Horde!" 'The Fel Horde' Great. As if the Metal Horde was bad enough. "Battlesong! Attack!"
Dozens of those corrupted orcs come within sight. They all shout as they jump down. "Ambush! To arms!" Maraid shouts.
We all take out our weapons. The orcs land on the ground and start attacking us. I stay close to Hope while attacking the orcs. Those orcs fight hard, even Hakomo is having trouble keeping his guard up. Leafa, Vanille, and Shinon stay out of range as they attack the Battlesong orcs.
Hope keeps us all alive, all though he is having trouble keeping us up. Eventually, Vanille jumps in and helps out with the healing. We manage to take out the first phase.
"Bah! You are stronger than I thought! Maybe I understated you. Snipers! Position!" Grommash shouts.
More orcs jump down, but instead of landing on the grounds, they still on the hills, aiming their rifle guns at us. "Leafa! Twilight! Shinon! They're all yours!" Hakomo orders.
Leafa and Vanille chant their offensive magic against the orcs. The snipers start shooting at us. Kirito, Asuna, and I deflect the bullets, sending them back to the snipers. and Hakomo blocks with his shield. As I fight, I notice Shinon is doing nothing. Just staring into space at the orcs.
"Shinon!" She doesn't respond, just stands frozen. "Shinon!" I rush to her side. When I thought she's just standing there doing nothing, I can see terror and fear in the expression and in her eyes. Her legs are shaking and she's breathing heavily. "Shinon. What's wrong?"
I just get a scarce moan from her, then the girl drops her bow and collapses on her hands and knees. "That's all of them." I look around when I hear Kirito say that. All the Snipers are taken care of. I look up to see Grommash has vanished as well.
Hope walks up to me. "Is she okay?" He asks gesturing at Shinon.
"I don't know. Shinon." Shinon flinches a little then looks up at me. "You okay?"
She takes a deep breath. "Y-yeah...I'm fine." Shinon stands up.
"You look like you were gonna pass out," Hope says.
Shinon was about to deny it, but she looks down. "We don't have much time left. Let us get moving." Yrel says.
Everyone else starts moving, but the three of us stay behind. Shinon just gives us a look then continues ahead. We just stay back looking at her. "What was that all about?" Hope asks.
I think for a moment. I remember something Shinon told me back on the sixth-floor dungeon. Something about being terrified of guns. She was frozen in anxiety when we were facing Snipers, gun users. There's a connection, I know it.
FLOOR 11, KARADOR.
We made it out of the Fissure, only to arrive at some large wide pit with pillars of rocks surrounding a large boulder in the center. This is the destination, but it's...empty. There's no town, no sign of any life forms...or whatever NPC's are supposed to be. Suddenly, this escort quest is a big waste.
Yrel approaches the boulder. She puts her hand on it and the stone she touches seeps in. That surprises me. The ground shakes, and we're on alert. The ground in the shape of a rectangle seeps into the earth then slides open, revealing a hidden passage.
"This way, champions. But hurry." Yrel commands.
We all went into the hidden passage. It's a long circular downward stairway. As we run down the steps, we can hear the secret entrance closing behind us. We run about a hundred meters deep into the earth, I'm starting to believe we're back on floor ten or nine.
We finally made it to the bottom. We leave the tunnel to arrive at a large cavern with a massive temple-like city up ahead. The city seems like a construction mix of steel and crystal.
"Wow. It's amazing!" Asuna says.
It is quite a sight I'll say. "I've never seen a city like this before. I totally missed it." Kirito says.
We approach the city, which is crowded with the Draenei citizens. Many of them greeted and bow before Yrel. Guess she really is the leader of these people. We arrive at the center of the courtyard, Yrel, Maraid, and Sam turn to face us.
"Thank you for your aid. Please, make yourselves a home." Yrel says.
Yrel turns and walks into the temple. "You may have earned Yrel's trust, but rest assured, we will be watching you very closely, outsiders," Maraid says.
Maraid turns then leaves. "Don't mind Maraid, he's only like this when he's trying to protect his people. If you need anything, just let me know." Sam says.
She turns and leaves into the temple.
We completed our escorting quest. "Well, now that's done. What should we do now?" I ask.
"I'm gonna take a look around the city." Leafa grabs Kiritos wrist. "Come on, big brother."
Kirito gets dragged away. "Uh...sure." Kirito seems like he doesn't really want to go sightseeing.
Shinon says nothing but walks back to the outside. Everyone else talks about what they're going to do, but I don't pay attention to them. My mind is focused on Shinon. I don't know why I'm so concern about her...panic attack back there, but I want to know what's happening.
I walk out of the temple grounds to find Shinon just sitting on the front steps. "Hey." Shinon flinches and turns to see me. "Something on your mind?"
"No, it's nothing," Shinon says.
I approach Shinon until I'm sitting right next to her. "Tell me. The way you were acting back there...does it have something to do with your fear of guns?"
Shinon looks at me, surprised. Almost like I dug into her mind. She's quiet for the moment then speaks. "Yeah...it does." Shinon looks down in despair. "I...killed someone." Hearing that surprises me.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"It's kind of a long story. Not easy to explain." Shinon says.
I stand to walk. "Well, why don't we go for a walk. I know a place on the ninth floor that might a good place to talk."
Shinon seems confused, then agrees to go with me.
