Heyo! Welcome back to BOA. and my very first chapter of the year! I hope y'all had a good holiday break. I'm back into the old grind of things again, and will be starting the next chapter to TWR soon. But enough about that, let's get into some of the reviews.
Dracohalo117: Thank you, my dood. I'm glad you like it
Ashley: First off, ouch. Like damn, that's awful. Second, as for ships and stuff. Like Topaz and I stated, we haven't really decided what the ships are gonna be like in the story. This goes for both Whiterose/bumblee. Are we gonna kill off a main character… well…. You'll just have to read on.
1Fanfanatick: sshh.. Don't ruin the plo- I mean, maaaybe… Penny does, maybe she doesn't… no spoilers. The beginning kinda explains how these two wound up together too, in case you were wondering.
Alright. Also, one more thing. Topaz's computer's been kinda fucking up on him lately, so I've been kinda taking control for now, so you probably won't see an A/N from him until later when he gets back to me. But without further ado, enjoy.
Nov, 6. 11 a.m. At the game store
"Ruby? Is that you?"
Ruby turned around at the sound of her name called, finding none other than Penny in the line to the cash register. The redhead's eyes widened in shock as the ginger walked over to her, giving the girl a hug along with a quick kiss.
"P-Penny! Not with everyone around!" Ruby scolded softly, a hint of embarrassment evident on her dusted pink cheeks.
"Oh, sorry Ruby." Penny apologized, looking down in guilt.
"What're you doing here? I thought you said you had some robotics club thing to attend to?" Ruby asked, skipping to the next subject.
"Oh! I asked my tech teacher if it'd be alright if I could miss it to get Sword Art Online! See, he's a really big game nerd like you, so the minute I told him about SAO he instantly agreed," Penny explained, "What about you? I-I mean. I don't mean to bring this up, but yesterday was the day of, uhm. The accident. I thought you'd have lost your spot in line.."
"What? Oh that. Well, I came prepared. My sister's here as well to get the game too, so we took turns going over to the graveyard to grieve." Ruby answered, pointing behind her with her thumb to show the blonde awaiting in line as said blonde turned around upon hearing herself brought up.
"Yo Rubes, we're almost there," Yang spoke, looking over in the ginger's direction. "Who's this Ruby? I don't think I remember seeing you before."
"Yang, this is Penny," Ruby introduced, grabbing the girl's hand as she wrapped herself around it, "my girlfriend, we met at the tech club at school. Penny, this is Yang, my older sister."
"Girlfriend, eh?" Yang quipped, inspecting the other redheaded girl before her like she was fine art.
"Yaaaang!" Ruby whined as a tinge of red stained her pale face.
The brute simply laughed as she patted the younger siblings head. "It's okay Ruby, I'm only screwing with you. I'm not gonna be a dick to you right in front of your girlfriend," She spoke, extending out her hand to the ginger soon after. "It's a pleasure to meet you Penny."
"Salutations!" Penny greeted sporadically, jumping up as she squeezed the older woman.
"Woah! Jesus, for someone so thin, you're fucking packed!" Yang said, letting out a few wheezes from the amount of force in the surprise hug as she smiled. "I gotta admit, I'm impressed!"
"O-oh! I'm sorry, ms. Rose. I just acted off of instinct." Penny apologized. Doing a bow to emphasize.
"It's alright Penny, just a little unexpected," Yang leveled. "And by the way, my last name's actually Xiao Long. Ruby's the only Rose in our family, both literally and metaphorically."
"It's a long story." Ruby interjected.
"Oh, okay," Penny said. "I think I understand a bit."
"So you're getting SAO too I see." Yang changed topic.
"Affirmative, I'm here with my father," Penny replied, pointing over to an older man with black and white hair, along with a stubble and a bandage above his right eyebrow. He wore a white suit along with a red tie and dark grey vest and only one white glove on his right hand. He stood with his hands behind his back as he looked around the shop. "He's back from the military for a couple months. He got home about a week ago and said he wanted to go shopping with me sometime this week, wherever I wanted to go. So lo-and-behold, here we are."
"OOoohh, I love military guys," Ruby said in glee. "They're soo coool!"
"Oh, Ruby. That reminds me, I want to introduce you to him," Penny said with a smirk on her face as she grabbed her hand. "Come on!"
"Well, I don't know.." The redhead spoke, turning over to her older sister for a sign.
"Go," Yang confirmed, "I'll wait in line. It was nice meeting you Penny."
"It was nice meeting you too! We should totally party up sometime!"
"Oh thank you Yang!" Ruby exclaimed with a smile, turning around as the two walked over to the man.
The blonde turned around as the line moved up again. 'I hope I'll see Penny again,
She seems like a nice girl.'
An hour of walking in the forest later, Nov, 24.
The party had split into groups of two while battling the beasts that lurked within the forest: Yang and Weiss were the main party, fighting the tougher monsters with elegance and cunning. Ruby and Penny were in charge of the larger crowds of enemies, fighting groups of 3 to 7 with their AoE sword skills. And Winter was the leader, shooting out commands all while helping out when one of the party's struggled. The small force was doing splendid, using minimal potions and resources, and levelling up rather quickly in the process.
"So what is the quest again?" Yang asked, making Winter sigh as she smacked her forehead.
"Yang, I've explained this to everyone 3 times already. We have to defeat the mid-boss here in order to gain intel on the whereabouts of the floor boss." The older Schnee scolded.
"Riiight," Yang replied smoothly, pointing her fingers at the woman. "Thanks snow queen."
"Guys, there it is."
Winter opened her mouth to speak, but was interjected by her sister's before she could utter a word. The party all looked in the direction the younger Schnee was pointing. Winter gave a smirk as she patted her younger sister on the head. "Good finding, sister," She praised, motioning the group to follow. "Let's go!"
The party entered a large ruin that seemed to never end, looking around the place for clues and/or anything that could be useful.
"So what exactly is this monster?" Yang asked as the group proceeded to venture forth. "I mean, it'll be bigger than the other monsters, certainly, but what're we looking for exactly? A skeleton? Kobalt?"
"Lizard, actually," Winter answered. "One that walks on all fours, and is covered in scale plates for armour."
"Ah, great. So stabbing the thing won't do much." Ruby spoke in a sarcastic tone. "Might as well be equipped with butter knives, our blades will be useless against it."
"That's where you two come in," Winter replied. "Yang relies on blunt force to attack her foes, and you, little rose, have a giant scythe, perfect for delimbing."
"...U-uhmm… Come again?" Yang asked in a confused tone.
"I saw a 2v2 duel once. On the 1st team, one person was equipped with a hammer-looking mace, The other a giant buster sword. After the first opponent was eliminated the two started working on the last one, only they found that their weapons weren't doing enough damage and was risking them too much HP loss. So the two focused on switching techniques instead. The mace-wielder would attack first, dishing out mighty blows all around and weakening both his armour and stamina. The other would focus solely on opening up his weaknesses and creating slashes. Finally, the mace wielder broke the chestplate of the guy, and the sword wielder cleaned up the house with a swift thrust. To summarize, both compensated for each other: While one was focusing on opening his opponent's armour and weakening, the other focused on inflicting wounds and cutting through."
Winter turned around, pointing at the two siblings. "And that's what you're here for. One will break it's defenses, while the other will cut off the limbs. I think you know which role is which."
"Wait, what am I here for?" Penny asked with curiosity.
"Support, cheering, whatever you feel inclined to do," Winter replied. "To be honest, I didn't anticipate another person to be accompanying us today, just the siblings."
"Oh, I see." Penny replied.
"And what about me?" Weiss asked.
"You and I will be support. We'll keep potion's at our disposal, assist in damaging the beast and provide any other sort of backup to assist in taking it down whilst keeping our team intact."
Weiss nodded in compliance as the team continued down through the dungeon.
The group finally came up to the first batch of enemies to eliminate. The party's all got into formation as the older Schnee analyzed them. The monsters were different than those in the forest. They were lizards, but their levels were way higher than expected. The groups, though, ignored the odd difference as they all charged at the enemy's before them. The older Schnee didn't understand why they were so strong, until a small sign atop hers and her party's health bar's came to vision, one she ignored until now as it made her gasp in shock.
They were in a high-risk zone.
"Guy's, wait!" Winter shouted to deaf ears. "These aren't like the other one's!"
The announcement wasn't picked up as the fight continued. Penny slashed at one of the lizardmen, turning around just as another smacked her backwards with a mighty blow, pushing her back to the approaching older Schnee.
"Penny!" Ruby shouted, looking up at the party's health bars to see Penny's in the yellow zone.
"I got her Ruby," Winter shouted back to the redhead. "Just keep me covered!"
"Okay!" Ruby complied, activating her sword skill as she spun vertically in the air and ploughed through the oncoming enemies on Penny's tail.
Winter pulled out a HP potion from her pouch, giving it to Penny as her health increased back to a faint green. She noticed though that it was still declining at a slow rate, looking at her status bar to find both bleeding and paralysis debuffs on her.
"Damn, just hold on," Winter consoled the ginger. "The ailments will end eventually, just hold up until then."
"Is she alright?" Weiss asked her older sibling, to which she nodded hastily.
"She's alright, but she's got a bleeding and paralysis debuff on her." The oldest described.
Weiss held up her hand as she spoke to Yang for a moment, stepping back as the brawler took the lead. She ran up to the kneeling Schnee, handing her an odd looking potion. "Here, this should cure any and all status ailments on her. I only have one though."
"T..thank you." Penny stuttered, laying in Winter's arms. The older sibling took the potion as the younger stepped back into battle, giving it to Penny as the battle continued forth. A series of green lines rose from the ginger, as the stats disappeared from her health bar.
"There, now let's be a little more strategic this time, alright?" Winter suggested, bringing the younger girl back on her feet as the two nodded.
Yang smacked the last of the lizard foes into the air, as Weiss finished with a thrusting movement as the beast was sent backwards, evaporating into pixels. "*phew* That was a lot more exhausting than I thought it'd be." Yang stated, wiping her forehead, though she knew she didn't perspire in the game.
"They did seem a lot tougher than usual." Weiss remarked, giving a slight pant as well.
"That's because they aren't like the other monsters we came across outside of this dungeon," Winter spoke, "Look beside your health gauges, you see the sign beside it?"
"What's this," Ruby squinted. "High-Risk Area. What the heck does that mean?"
"It means this is no longer a walk in the forest," The older Schnee replied. "This will test our true skills and strategies in battle. The enemies here are a lot stronger and better equipped than the ones outside, on the fields, in the forests, even surpassing our local markets in the game."
Winter walked in front of the pathway forward, looking to all her party members. "Which is why we need to be more careful from here on out. We cannot just rush into combat like we did just now. We need to plan, work together as a team, and most importantly, aid one-another.
Now, let's go."
The party finally stumbled upon the next area. One that would most certainly lead to the mid-boss they were all hunting. They were doing okay, but they weren't doing well. The whole party was all starting to dip down into the yellowish area, with Penny being the worst of them all. To make matters worse they were just rationing the last of their potions they had in their inventory. Winter hadn't expected so much resistance, so many problems, to happen all in one outing. She thought she had prepared for everything, for the worst.
She thought wrong.
"Okay guys," The older Schnee spoke, standing in front of the gate to the next area. "I'm gonna be honest, We aren't doing as hot as I thought we would've. If you guys want to abort, we should do so now before the option is no longer present."
"No," Penny answered first, walking up to Winter. There were a few scratches and scrapes on the ginger girl's body, along with two massive gashes on her hands, emitting a bright crimson red glow. "We've come this far in our journey, it would be rather disappointing to just go home now."
"Penny…"
"I agree," Yang too answered, stopping Winter's sentence. "We can't just turn around with our tails tucked between our asses and return to the safe zone knowing we almost made it, then this would've been all for nothing."
"I'm with Yang," Weiss spoke next. "We all know the dangers, but this is something we all knew could happen even before we came here. We wouldn't be here if we didn't accept that possibility."
Winter turned her gaze to Ruby, whom was looking through her stash that even Winter could see was low as her face showed worry and slight fear. "Ruby, what do you think?"
Ruby's menu closed, as did her eyes as she let out a sigh. Silence prevailed in the dungeon as the redhead weighed the consequences of either answer.
"...Penny's right," She finally spoke, looking back up at the group with determination. "We ventured into this quest knowing it wouldn't be easy. Coming back here the next day or-so will give us the same outcome, it's not like we have all the time in this virtual world to level up. More and more people are dying because they've given up hope, we need to do this now, and show the players that it is possible to beat this game. A beacon of hope."
Ruby walked forth, through the group to Winter where she placed her hand on the Schnee's shoulder. "Lead the way miss, we're all right behind you."
Winter smirked as she gave the redhead a nod. "Alright, let's go!"
The large door creaked open as the group walked inside the next area. It was surprisingly brighter than the rest of the dungeon, even with the room being twice as wide and half as long as the corridor they fought hard to get through. There, at the end of the room sat a large, swamp-green lizard, dressed fully in what looked to be like it's own hardened skin atop i's body. It's back was turned towards the group, allowing them all to slowly creep up on the giant lizard. It was going smoothly, until the monster turned it's head, looking straight at Weiss and Yang as it let out a deafening roar and lunged from it's spot. The group all dispersed as the beast landed in the middle of the arena, half on each side of the monster. A few health bars appeared at the head of the mid-boss monster as well as its name; 'Lariath the Lizard Commander'.
"Here we go guys," Winter said, "One last fight.
Let's do this!"
30 minutes into the fight.
The battle was nearly finished, but not over yet as the party fought to their hardest. They were all out of health and other potions though, and so the group knew it was a cautious last battle. Yang would break the lizard's scale armour as her sister would switch in and slice through with thick gashes. Weiss would pierce through the grounded limb, pinning the limb in place as Penny would dish out the blows that cut the limb off cleanly. It happened less than a dozen times as the part would disintegrate into small digital pieces, leaving the beast exposed as it tried to defend it's torn off body part. But after a few minutes the limb would regrow, as would its armour, and the group would have to repeat the same process. Every now and again, the beast would still attack with it's badly injured limb, making Winter jump in to protect the person about to receive the blow. But the group was making good progress. Soon the beast was nearing the reddish-orange area, as both the monster and players panted in exhaustion.
"*Wheeze* It's almost, *Pant* dead," Weiss stated to the group as they tried to regain their stamina. "ONE MORE TIME!"
The party all let out a war cry as they raised their weapons in the air, charging with every last bit of energy left. The mid-level monster sat still, panting as it watched the players all rush up towards it. Winter took note of that instantly, confused as to why it remained unmoved by the advancement. That was until she recalled a similar moment back during the month when she and a couple party members were scouting for the boss. She remembered a similar situation when the party was defeating another mid-level boss, that same boss killed her party, in one fell swoop, a blink of an eye would be an understatement. It made her freeze up in fear as she knew exactly what it was doing.
The beast was flipping the tables, in one last attempt for survival.
Exactly as Winter had thought in her fear-gripped stance, the beast let out a deafening cry that shook the walls of the room like an earthquake. Suddenly, it's scale armour started to vibrate as it soon began cracking into pieces. Soon the bits shot out in a thousand directions, leaving the skinny, unprotected monster's flesh exposed. It let out another shriek as it's claws started to grow 3 times in size. The group froze in place as they all watched it transform, until Penny rushed past the group with her weapons glowing bright as she sliced through the beast with a sword skill that no one saw yet until now.
The attack didn't go unnoticed. Sure, everyone saw, the monster's health was now at red. but nobody expected what happened next, as the beast unleashed a fury of swipes and slashes, leaving the ginger with a vibrant red glow as it finished up with a low punch to the gut and sent only her body and head flying past the group. Everyone watched in horror as Penny's arms and legs evaporated into little crystals. Ruby turned her head over to the delimbed ginger, looking in terror at the unconscious lifeform that laid in WInter's arms. The older Schnee looked up to the redhead, fear and panic clear in her face as little streams began to make it's way down both girls' faces. The redhead looked down at her scythe, as the droplets fell upon the battle-worn weapon before she tightened her hold on it.
"YAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Ruby cried out in fury, as she ran through the group members to the awaiting lizard. Her sword skill kicked on as her blade bent upward, and the angered redhead started to spin as her weapon unleashed a fury of attacks that made the girl look like a giant red drill piercing the exposed lizard monster. The beast wailed as it quivered at the massive blow it received. As the attack ended, the silver eyed warrior stood back on her two feet as her weapon started to glow once again.
"WILTING ROSE!" Ruby shouted once again as she rushed past the beast in a flurry of rose petals, leaving a gigantic slash upon the monster. The attack did not end there, though as the young girl rushed past the enemy again, before a flurry of slices and petals danced all around the lizard, forming into another big, red tornado. The little rose appeared above the boss' head. The girl spun vertical to the beast as her weapon bent straight once again and blew right through the monster, all the way down to it's legs as she finished up with a small series of horizontal spinning attacks. She landed right in front of the monster as Ruby did her signature pose, and the beast exploded into blue triangles behind her. The scythe wielder panted as she looked up to the group, finding them all awestruck at the show just presented. The redhead looked beyond the group, coming to vision the other two in the background.
"PENNY!" Ruby screamed, sprinting up to the two as the rest clued in. The redhead crouched down to the unmoving ginger as she gazed on her slowly ending red health bar. Penny had multiple status ailments, all of them in full effect as the girl slowly lost health every second.
"I don't have any potions left." Ruby spoke, tears in her eyes as she watched the girl's health deplete slowly.
"Does anybody have any potions?! We need it A$AP!" Winter shouted amongst the group, whom all looked down at the dying ginger in sorrow.
"I don't have any left," Yang spoke, now too with tears running down her face. "I'm so sorry."
"I'm out too." Weiss answered as well, with a defeated look on her face.
"Damn it! We don't have any teleport crystals either. We can't make it back!" Winter stated in frustration.
"W-well, we got to book it then, w-we'll get to the town and her effects will go away." Ruby instructed, trying her best to pick up her girlfriend. Winter grabbed the young girl's arm, looking into her tear-soaked eyes in sadness.
"We won't make it in time Ruby," Winter said as her crying started to pick up. "I-it's too late.."
"B-but… W-what can we do then?!" Ruby shouted, as her crying too harshened.
"...S..say,.. your goodbyes," Winter answered, as she handed the weak ginger to Ruby before walking over to the group.
Penny let out a couple coughs as she regained consciousness one last time. She looked up to the weeping redhead, giving the girl a smile. "I..it's okay, Ruby," The ginger teen spoke in a weakened tone. "There's no pain. I feel no pain."
"P-P-Penn-y-y…" Ruby sobbed, clutching onto the girl as her last resort of effort. She embraced the delimbed girl as she cried onto the fabric of her shirt.
"Don't cry, it's okay," Penny consoled, kissing the crying girl on the cheek. "I saw what you did to the monster, I am so proud of how strong you've gotten."
"Penny, don't die on me! You'll live.. A-a-and we'll go back to Tolbana.. A-a-a-and..-"
Penny silenced the girl with one last kiss, doing her best while disabled. She finally ended the kiss, giving the girl one last smirk. "Keep smiling Ruby, I know you'll make it out of this game. Promise me you will try."
"..I will," Ruby spoke. "For you."
"Okay," Penny spoke. "Thank you. That puts me at peace."
Ruby gently pressed her forehead with Penny's as the two closed their eyes. She watched the last couple drops of HP deplete. Soon, the bar disappeared as a 'You Are Dead' message showed up atop the ginger's head. The redhead started to panic, but Penny sat still. "Shhh-ssshhh… It's okay," Penny spoke softly.
"Smile.. Ruby…"
The ginger gave her girlfriend one last smirk as she started to glow. Soon her face became fragmented as she broke into a thousand small, digital pieces. The remnants of her body now floated around Ruby as she sat still, as if still holding her. Soon the redhead pulled her arms in as if hugging the once living being in her arms. The motion soon broke as she grasped at her arms tightly,
and reality sunk inside her aching heart.
Log Date: November 24th, 2022. Day 18.
Today has been the hardest and worst day of my life,
Today I did a quest that would grant us information on the whereabouts of the floor boss. What I hadn't expected was a strange girl would be coming with my sister's friends on this quest, nor did I expect the dungeon at which it lived would be a high-risk area. High-risk areas were area's built for the stronger players that had grown too strong for the floor, a place for the big Koi in the small pond. It was a place not I, nor my team, was ready for. But my thickheaded arrogance told me to press on and hope that nothing terrible happened. Because of me, I watched as Ruby, my sister's friend's sibling, broke. Not physically, she didn't disintegrate. But she did mentally as she watched her once friend and what I've now found out also her girlfriend, die before her. All because I didn't say no and waited a little longer to level up. It is all my fault that Penny died, and because of it I feel guilty, even more, disgusted. I am a Schnee for fuck sakes, Schnee's are NOT supposed to fucking let the weak fall as the strong march forth in the world. My grandfather didn't just inherit the money to make the family business boom. He built it from the ground up, aided and respected by his peers and the employees. That was something I tried to follow, even in a virtual reality death game. But I failed. And because of that, 5 people are dead because of me.
It is all my fault.
After we got back to Tolbana, I told Weiss to watch over Ruby and Yang, in an effort to at least keep those two alive after such a tragic day. She and Yang agreed to watch over Ruby 24/7 to ensure she doesn't try to commit suicide. The look in those sad little eyes killed me, they weren't the same silver eyes I saw when we were fighting, they were now dark grey orbs of sorrow. I completed the quest and the information was given to me, along with a pass for everyone in the party for a free room in one of the inn's in Tolbana, a permanent housing for them all. That little bit alleviated the stress and the worry, because I knew at least they all had rooms that were close to mine where I could see them all and know how they were doing. I gave them all their passes and they checked into their rooms soon after. We were able to even sell a couple of the rooms, because we lost one in our party, and Yang decided to bunk up with her younger sibling. I gave Yang majority of the earnings, and the reward from the quest. And then I went into my new room, though I didn't feel privileged to have one after all that has happened.
Tomorrow I'll share the whereabouts of the boss to a player I know who's in-town for a meeting. They're forming what they are calling the 'assault team' to kill the floor boss, but I won't be going to the meeting. They will most likely get into groups, and I don't think I can bear to after watching party members die because of me. I don't want to give up though, so I will continue to grow in every way I can. I only hope that I will be able to lead again. While I have screwed up so much, I have also learned. Valuable virtual-life experience for those willing to make guilds and even parties with one another. It is the least I can do after what has happened, to try and prevent what has happened is crucial now to survive this death game.
After sharing my newfound knowledge I will go and talk with some other beta testers, most likely kick their asses soon after for telling me to go on that quest in the first place without warning me of the dangers. I won't be a beta tester anymore, I won't stand to be named a beta after all they've done to the others.
I will be a regular player, like everyone else.
~Winter Schnee~
Heyo, just one last thing. Just wanted to say sorry. I had an evil idea to kill off Penny, but I didn't think it'd be that dark man. But anywho, Stay tuned, pce.