Sword Art Online: Desert Army
Mounted
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"Wait, wait, wait." Kirito exclaimed, hands waving rapidly in front of his face.
"Hmm?" Responded Vel.
"You're related to the person who owned this blade?" He continued, holding up his newly revealed sword as emphasis.
The girl tilted her head, pink hairs dangling loosely as she stared at him, "Yeppers."
That still doesn't explain how she knows all of the blade's lore. "O-okay." Sighing, Kirito rubbed the back of his neck and hauled his sheath over his shoulder; re-fitting it across his back.
"Right, so are you his only descendant?" He asked.
Vel paused before placing the tongs back onto the wall. Whether that be to think, or as some sort of reaction to Kirito's question, he wasn't sure.
"As far as I know." Vel gave him his answer, and after a few seconds returned to what she was doing. "I believe I gave you a job?"
As if delayed up until this point, the quest acceptance message popped up in front of Kirito and the rest of the party members.
«Quest: The Way of the Blacksmith»
Type: Gather Materials/Crafting/Rally Mounts
Help Vel restore her City.
«Accept - Decline»
Below the quest objectives was an extra line of text.
«Bonus Reward: Complete ALL objectives within an hour. Party Requirements: 10 maximum»
Within an hour? Not only do we have to hunt 25 of those Burrowing Maws, but all those other jobs as well? Smelting and rounding up the city's pets? Kirito accepted the message and left through the arch way.
…
"Sounds easy enough." He muttered as he gave a small wave over his shoulder, "We'll be back in an hour or less." Kirito called out before jogging down the spiraling stairs.
At the base, he met up with Sinon and Asuna. Asaki was leaning against the rounded wall by the door.
"We should hurry if we wanna get the bonus reward." He stated, brushing past the two girls and opening the door next to the third.
"Do you even know what it is?" Asked Sinon, following quickly behind the swordsman.
Kirito looked back over his shoulder and smirked, "Nope. But it sounds fun."
He led the two girls down the stairs and through the main street of the city, rapidly approaching the front gate leading out into the desert.
"Within an hour, eh?" Klein stared down at the message in front of him as he walked alongside Silica. "That's crazy!"
Silica looked up at him, Pina resting on her head, "If we hurry, we can make it. We just have to be efficient rounding up whatever these beasts are."
Klein sighed and pressed accept on the message. In the bottom right of his HUD he noticed a timer appear, 56:39.
"Four minutes have already gone by?!" He exclaimed in shock.
"Well, you were the last one to accept the message. I'm sure everyone else hit accept right away, so the timer probably started then and there." Silica informed, looking down in thought slightly.
Yeah, what if we waited though? Could we have extended the time a bit if we all accepted as late as possible? Klein wondered, running a hand through his hair.
He let out another sigh and turned to his temporary partner, giving her a toothy smile and a thumbs up, "Might as well give it our best."
Right as Klein took his next step, a blur of bright red dashed past an open alley behind Silica. His walk faltered and he continued staring down that alley.
A second black blur shot past, following the first.
"K-klein?"
"Let's split up!" Klein sputtered out as he sprinted into that alley and ran through it, taking a hastened turn to the left and skidding on the sandy stone at its end.
His eyes locked onto the long thick tail of some sort of large scaly lizard. Its hind legs were larger than its much smaller arms, and it seemed to be lunging forward on its two back legs. A white bone and cloth covered saddle was draped securely across its back.
Large claws scraped the stones as the beast bolted to the right, making an easy ninety degree turn and keeping up with its partner moving quickly in front of it.
"Damn it, how am I supposed to keep up with these things?!" Klein exclaimed, skidding on his boots and slamming into the wall at the turn. He pushed off without missing a beat and sprinted after his targets.
His brown eyes watched as the two ostrich-sized dinosaur-like lizards disappeared around the next bend.
"Oh come on!"
The salamander summoned his fairy wings and took off over the flat roofs topping the alleyway. He quickly re-acquired his targets and swopped in at a much faster speed, taking shorter diagonal routes over the roof tops.
Dodging a laundry line of draping clothes, he kept up with the Rapitarus below him. In the distance, by the edge of the inner city, he noticed the buildings were few and far between. There were crops growing corn, some bean crops, maybe melons too. He really couldn't tell, but they were all foods capable of growing in the warm climate of the desert.
Between two of the large stone farm-houses was a barren pen fenced off with tall stone walls. The metal front gate was wide open, and the bar latching it closed had large scratch marks on it. It was dangling off at the side of the gate.
"Smart too." Klein noted, gliding parallel to the pen and keeping a bead on where the cage was. "But not enough to fool me."
Diving down, Klein flew to the end of the alleyway and blocked the Rapitarus' path of escape.
Widening his stance slightly and extending his hand; palm pointed at the rapidly approaching beasts and fingers loosely extended. He hardened his gaze and hoped for the best.
"Sto-"
They leapt over Klein's body and continued running.
The second one looked back and roared, mocking the salamander they just blew by.
What is that?! Tortoises having sex? Klein ignored the fear inducing echoing noise, and the snickering coming afterward. Snickering? Can lizards snicker?
He shook his head and took flight again, taking off through the air like he did before. The samurai noticed three other Rapitarus dashing through an alley across to the right, heading the other way.
"This is going to be a while." Klein grumbled. His gaze followed the three running the other way, trying to make sense of the general area they were running to.
A lone pale blue Rapitaru stood on its hind legs, neck and head tilted upward as its snout was stuck in a woven basket. It snapped into the basket, trying to get whatever it was inside.
Its dark blue slit eyes opened to see a quickly approaching red samurai. The new target was flying straight for the curious lizard.
Giving up on its current task, the Rapitaru ducked and scampered off the roof, leaving the basket spinning in the air. Klein, distracted, unceremoniously slammed into the airborne basket and somehow managed to get the thing stuck on his head.
"Hey!" Klein's muffled voice was dwarfed by the following crash. His body disappeared into the tall building's window in front of his blind flying form. The sound of glass shattering and large objects tumbling around dully shot out of the open window, finishing with the sudden shriek of a cat.
The Rapitaru to blame landed gracefully on its clawed hind legs and joined the original two below. It synced up with them and sounded out its presence with another roar out of its sharp tooth ridden jaws.
The leader roared up into the air, accepting the third member and took the next turn.
43:28.
"That makes nine!" Asuna's voice called out over the noise of the shattering death animation.
"16 to go, we're making good progress." Said Kirito, his boots touching down next to Asuna.
The healer nodded and swiped her glistening blade through the air, tempted to sheath it. "It's only been 17 minutes. If we keep this up, we'll be done with 10 minutes to spare."
Kirito nodded and looked toward the ravine. Sinon was kiting back another burrowing maw, aggroing it with an arrow or two every once in a while to keep it tracking her.
"Here comes our next guest." Kirito noted, readying his Veldi's Eostryder. The sword gleamed with a stronger blue light than before, causing the ancient text to glow a bright blue as well.
Asuna took notice of their third teammate as well and smiled, "Shall we?"
Sinon skidded to a stop a few meters from the two of them and loosed a green binding arrow. "We're all set!"
"We shall." Kirito nodded his thanks and surged forward, kicking up the sand in his wake. His coat whipped behind him as he slid under the giant worm's first crushing slam. He cleaved his glowing sword through the beast's side and continued past it, continuing his consecutive slashes across its back.
Asuna followed up with a speedy plunge of her blade deep into the burrowing maw's front, driving it up in an upward slash before backing off. The giant worm thrashed around, swinging it's upper body in a wide circular motion in hopes of crushing the two fairies attacking it.
Kirito leapt over the attack and landed on the spinning worm's back, digging his blade in to keep him steady. The burrowing maw screeched in anger and slammed its back into the sand, trying to crush the spriggan on its back.
Kirito had kicked off moments before and let the beast crash into the ground, exposing its front again. Asuna was already up in the air when the mob hit the ground, so her falling form met it soon after in a confrontation of lightning fast lunges.
The swordsman slashed at its sides from his spot on the ground, noticing as the occasional blue arrow embedded itself into the beast.
In one final assault, Kirito's blade shrouded itself in a black mist as he slashed apart the rest of the burrowing maw's health with his dark 9-hit combo. Shadow Burn.
The black longsword streaked with shadowy trails as he spun in his spot. His blade dug into flesh then redirected for the next swing in a sequence of spins and flips. As he took his last swipe, Asuna and Sinon landed their own attacks and instantly plunged the last health bar into nothingness.
"And boom! Asuna you're up." Kirito turned back to catch a nod from Asuna before she took off for the ravine.
He stepped back and checked the loot message; scattered golden polygons dissipated beyond the info. 39 iron ore, 11 gold ore, and 27 silver ore. Alongside the Maw Meat and experience, this one was loaded. "Wow, nice catch Sinon." Kirito complimented, dismissing the message and stepping over to the archer.
"Thanks, I guess I got lucky." Sinon smiled, actually quite proud of the resources they got out of this one. "Hunting these things are easier than I thought it would be."
Kirito nodded, "Yeah, we may have over reacted a bit in our first encounter." He had to admit it, but Vel was right. A sharp stick would be enough to kill these things.
If used efficiently.
And as long as it's unbreakable.
Sinon laughed a bit and agreed with him, "Well, we did have a flock of murderous birds above us."
"True." Kirito sighed and let the tip of his blade sink into the sand, "Makes me wonder why they grouped up like that. It's not how aggro works."
In technical terms, they should've attacked one by one when someone entered each bird's range. Not wait for reinforcements and attack in a group. Granted, some mobs spawn in groups to even out weak levels with numbers. But still, that shouldn't have happened.
"Maybe this island just has different AI in the mobs." Sinon offered. "I mean, it already has more advanced NPCs. So who's to say the mobs are any less upgraded?"
I guess that makes sense, from what we can tell, this may be a world quest anyway. "Makes sense. But we won't know for sure until it's officially posted." Commented Kirito.
Once the Admins look into the system, they should be able to find the code for the newly generated land and post some update news to the public. Once that happens, the forums will explode and everyone in Alfheim Online will look to the island.
Looks like we might run out of time. Thoughts aside, Kirito noticed Asuna emerge from the mountains leading back two burrowing maws.
Wait.
Two?
"Well this should be interesting." Kirito commented, dropping into a low stance and activating his wings.
"No kidding." Sinon agreed.
The two giant worms were plunging in and out of the sand at a speed equal to Asuna's light sprint. The beasts were diving out of the ground in shallow arcs before plunging back in, only to give them the momentum to breach the surface again.
"And here…" Kirito leaned forward a bit, signaling Sinon to do the same. She summoned in her own light blue wings as well. "…we…" Positioning his black sword downward and to the right a bit, he opened and hopped through his menu with deft skill to quickly equip Excalibur.
"…go." The swordsman ended with a gust of wind and scattered sand. Small craters in the sand quickly filled as he kicked off, dashing through the air just above the surface of the desert. The sand beneath him dispersed as he shot through the air, dual wielding his two blades.
Sinon leapt into the air as well, surging much higher than the spriggan and notching another blue arrow from the quiver on her waist. The height advantage should definitely make her shots easier to land.
Kirito reversed the grip on his Eostryder and flew between the two mobs as they surfaced, spinning in his aerial spot. The reversed blade followed up the leading golden sword as he created a sharp cyclone, slashing into the two passing beings.
The burrowing maws quickly dove deep into the ground, burying them into the sand to become temporarily untouchable.
"Well, this is new." Asuna commented, flying over to Kirito.
"New attack?" Kirito offered.
"Not sure."
They hovered above the ground, gazing down and trying to locate the giant worms. The loud rumbling they do in the mountain is thanks to the crushing of stones in their maws. So traveling through sand creates a buffer of silence, making them unpredictable.
"Guys! Split, now!" Sinon called out, shattering the silence.
Sand beneath where Kirito and Asuna was stirring, vibrating into shifts and bouncing the loose sand crystals.
The two kicked off from one another just as one of the burrowing maws shot out of the ground. Its rotating teeth flooded with sand as it towered into the air at full length.
Rivers of sand poured from its mouth as it whirled around, slamming itself into Kirito as he tried to dodge. The simple size of the worm was too big an obstacle to glide out of the way of.
Blocking as best he could from the power attack, Kirito was slammed into a sand dune and disappeared into a cloud the impact kicked up.
Asuna saw the next attack coming, thanks to Kirito's excellent leading example, and dropped below the maw's rotating swing. She slashed at the passing body and dealt as much damage as she could.
Before long, Kirito blasted out of his personal sand cloud and drove his two swords into the base of the worm; just above the sandy ground.
The two of them made quick work of the mob's health bars.
As the two attacked, Sinon kept an eye out for the second burrowing maw. She payed attention for any more sand dispersions, but nothing seemed to be moving.
"Sinon!" Kirito called out, trying his best to redirect the lunging worm. His swords weren't enough, only slashing through the tough exterior of the beast.
Snapping to the voice, Sinon noticed two things. One: someone turned off the lights. Two: the plethora of sharp, rotating teeth slowly closing around her.
"Kirito?!" She exclaimed, wondering why he didn't warn her sooner. A muffled "sorry" slipped through the walls as Sinon jabbed an arrow into the mob's throat; behind the deadly teeth.
Anchoring herself with a second arrow, she looked over her shoulder at the bow strewn across her back and sighed in annoyance, "I really need a sword."
Kirito and Asuna slashed rapidly at the receding burrowing maw, working overtime on getting their friend out.
"Get me out of this thing!"
It was muffled, but the two heard it.
"Working on it!" Kirito yelled back. It didn't matter whether or not she heard him, because in the next few seconds the two fairies melted through the beast's remaining health bar and shattered it into pieces.
From the sudden drop, Sinon let out an uncharacteristic squeal as she fell toward the ground without so much as a warning. She suddenly felt a little envious toward cartoons. They always have the wonderful rule of gravity; you don't fall until you look down.
Fairies didn't have such luxuries.
In the dense animation of fluttering golden polygons, Kirito glimpsed a falling silhouette of dusty light blue.
Diving to meet Sinon's plumet, Kirito matched the Cait Sith's pace and caught her in his arms; bridal style.
"Hello, I don't recall calling for an airdrop." Kirito laughed as he slowed their decent, landing gracefully on the ground below. "Wow, that fall must've scared you."
Sinon looked up at the swordsman, not entirely sure what he meant by that. Sure she was a bit startled, but scared? No way. "F-falls like that don't scare me."
Kirito looked up in time to see the rest of the polygons fade, "You're face got red. So it was probably adrenaline then. More blood flow, I guess."
Sinon's eyes widened as she realized the blush quickly spreading across her cheeks. For some reason, her being in Kirito's arms again only reminded her of their encounter on the bridge in the Third Bullet of Bullets preliminaries.
When they dueled, and he beat her by slicing Hecate's bullet cleanly in half…at 10 meters.
The thought only heated up her face even more.
"Y-yeah, okay. Adrenaline…let's go with that." She took a shaky breath and tried to calm her nerves.
"So uh, are you two just going to stand there all day…or…?" Asuna trailed off, making her presence known just a few steps away.
The archer flinched and noticed Kirito was still holding her.
"S-sorry, got distracted." Kirito apologized, looking at something in the distance.
He let Sinon down. It was only then that Sinon realized she had her arms wrapped around Kirito's neck. She quickly reeled them in and stepped away, keeping her eyes drifting.
"Distracted?" She asked.
Kirito didn't answer. He was still distracted.
The two girls turned around and followed his gaze.
So that's where the second one went… The thought processed absently as Sinon's eyes widened. As did Asuna's.
"Yeah, these AI's are definitely more advanced." Sinon concluded, drawing her bow. "Remind me to buy even more arrows when we get back to the city." I guess that re-stock I did as we passed through town to start this mission wasn't enough.
"Sure. Since you're probably going to need all of them."
Someone said it. Sinon wasn't sure who. She was too distracted by the mass of burrowing maws surfing through the sand.
"Well, here's the bright side of things. We'll be getting back early." Said Kirito, readying his swords.
"Yeah, if we survive these twenty or so monsters." Asuna rebuked.
"Pfft." Kirito shrugged his shoulders, "I mean, it's just twenty of them."
"Asuna takes the ones on the right, you get middle, and I get left?" Sinon offered sarcastically.
To her surprise, the two actually shrugged and agreed to her plan. Great. This'll be interesting.
As the dramatic wall of burrowing maws closed in, things were looking a little less possible. If you were talking about a singular worm, sure. You could solo it. But this is something else entirely. One person would have to solo a minimum of six burrowing maws, each.
That's a whole lot of dodging.
Could they do it?
No.
But tell that to the unwilling reinforcement.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
A gruff scream followed by a crash of stones shattered the battle tension. The intruding noise got louder and seemed to be approaching the three of them.
"S-slow d-d-down you-u g-giant l-lizard!" Klein yelled. He was dangling helplessly from the neck of a Rapitaru. The lizard seemed to be enjoying the flailing samurai's screams as Klein hung on for dear life.
There were three more following closely behind the poor salamander, all enjoying the show.
"Hey, Klein! Glad you could join the party." Kirito looked back and took note of their friend.
The man was still being dragged around by the lunging Rapitaru, but he seemed to somehow give a thumbs up.
"If we can mount those Rapitarus, we should be able to move fast enough to dodge everything." Stated Sinon, she was already running over to the three lizards that were following their leader.
"G-good l-luck with t-that!" Klein stuttered, knowing just how stubborn these things can be. There is no way a Cait Sith can just hop on top of one of these things and ride it.
No freaking way!
Through the bumps and the jumps, he noticed the three Rapitarus following him were gone.
And worse, he noticed where they had disappeared to.
Sinon was already sitting atop a pale blue lizard. It seemed content on being the girl's mount. Asuna expertly swung herself onto the saddle of an albino Rapitaru. Its scales were white and its eyes were shiny red.
Kirito rested his palm gently on the pitch black Rapitaru's snout, quickly earning its trust.
What…the hell?! Klein had many thoughts going through his head. That was one of them.
The lizard's golden eyes looked into onyx ones, and shortly after the Rapitaru pressed into Kirito's hand and urged him to climb on. Kirito smiled and leapt up in one swift motion, mounting his own black Rapitaru and drawing his swords again.
The leader of the pack had his fun. Now though, it seemed danger was quickly approaching. Its instincts kicked in and realized he had to accept this scruffy man dangling from his strong neck. He wasn't ideal, not quite. But the leader saw some potential in the man.
Orange eyes met brown, and the two had an understanding. "Right, just…for right now. We'll…uh…work together." Klein spoke awkwardly, getting a disgruntled roar in return from his new fiery red mount. The scars across the lizard's eye, neck, and chest area were more than enough for intimidation factors. But, to Klein, it just proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that this fiery Rapitaru earned its rank as the leader of the pack.
The burrowing maws were upon them now.
"So, are we just going to watch?" Leafa asked, looking over at Liz.
"Of course we are!" Liz responded with a laugh, a blacksmith's hammer resting on her shoulder. "You can't find this kind of entertainment anywhere else."
The two girls were leaning against different support beams in one of the watch towers in the outer wall. Below them and to the right was a gaping hole, and around that a dozen workers were currently hoisting freshly made metal beams into place. Each one was to support the stone wall from the inside, doubling its defensive capabilities and creating a support for them to start laying bricks.
"Well, I guess we did finish early." Said the blonde, walking over and sitting on the edge of the tower; legs dangling over the edge.
Liz plopped herself down next to her friend and kicked her heals back against the stone tower, "Hey, we got the boring job. I can whip up metal beams in no time at all." She spoke proudly, resting her hammer at her side.
"Besides, we aren't needed for a while longer. We smelted up enough to keep those workers busy, and it's only been 30 minutes!" The blacksmith continued with a smile and a stretch of her arms.
Leafa leaned back and propped herself up on her hands, pressing her palms to the tower's floor behind her, "Hmm, I guess you're right."
In front of them, in the near distance, a battle raged. From what they could tell, four members of their party were fighting a mass of burrowing maws. The same mob they encountered in the ravine.
"Think we should help them?"
"Nah." Liz smirked, enjoying the free entertainment.
"Twenty is beginning to feel like a lot now!" Kirito yelled, passing by Sinon on his Rapitaru.
The mounts were unbelievably fast. They could easily cap out at 60 km/hour or 40 mph. That's fast! Not to mention these things are lizards.
"Yeah, well. Who's counting?!" Sinon responded, rounding around a giant worm and riding at Kirito's side.
"I am!" Klein's voice drifted past them as a bright streak of red passed them by.
Kirito smirked and yelled after the samurai, "I'm at three!"
"Damn it!" Came his muffled reply. Klein was only on his second.
Sinon giggled at the competition brewing between the two guys and split away from Kirito. "I'll see you when this is all over then."
She disappeared back into the fray on her pale blue Rapitaru.
"Well Blake, I guess it's just you and me." Kirito pat his lizard's smooth black neck and redirected himself to the nearest burrowing maw.
With a battle cry and a roar, Kirito and his newly named mount circled the beast. The swordsman stood on his saddle and sent a flurry of heavy swipes deep into the worm's body. Every time the beast made a move to crush him, Blake would dash the two of them out of the way so he could continue to tear the mob's health apart.
A few more circuits later, the worm shattered and the two moved on to the next one.
Sinon made archery on horseback look easy. Maybe it was because it was a lizard instead of a horse. No, it was because of her skills. She loosed arrows one after the other like it was nothing, each one soaring into the burrowing maws' mouths and lodging themselves into the sensitive roots of teeth.
From her up close look, she realized these things actually had weak spots.
It only took a few arrows to bring down one with critical hits. The critical hit multiplier was surprisingly large on creatures this big. However, Sinon just chalked it down to be because no one was crazy enough to jump into one of these thing's mouths and start swinging.
"Two down, more to go." She breathed and notched another arrow, homing in on her next target.
Asuna had a similar approach to what Kirito was doing. Although, instead of bearing down on a single target until it was down for the count. She'd dash between numerous ones and dwindle down their health bars. Dipping and diving between crushing attacks, she slashed at three different worms as her Rapitaru dashed from one target to the next.
After a few minutes, the three she was working on all shattered one after the other. "And that makes three."
Klein had a different approach to the other three. Instead of him doing all the work, he quickly noticed just what these Rapitarus were capable of. So, in a joined effort with his mount, he was able to make quick work of his enemies.
His red lizard would leap into the air and tear its claws deep into the tough skin of a burrowing maw. Klein would slash away at every inch of flesh within his reach before his Rapitaru lunged away to dodge an attack.
He and his comrade rinsed and repeated, quickly depleting the worm's health bars. Pretty soon, the burrowing maw shattered into pieces. "Yeah! Great job! That makes three." Klein steered toward another giant worm and went to work again.
The battle field was flowing chaos. Fairies on mounts dashed around, seamlessly hopping targets and passing each other by; two of which constantly shouting out numbers for some competitive reason. Massive dispersions of golden polygons were constantly drifting through the tense air. Not once was there a ten second window where something didn't die.
It was a 4 vs 25 situation.
The burrowing maws were dropping like flies. All under the constant siege of a ragtag team of fairies. Each one highly skilled, in their own ways, and each using speed oriented battle mounts.
Every once in a while, Asuna needed to do a 'drive by healing' in between targets to keep everyone's health in the green. Their strategies weren't flawless, most lead to some unforeseen full body slams, but they weren't bad strategies either.
19:53.
Roughly forty minutes have gone by since we started hunting. Kirito thought as he slashed apart his seventh target. It seemed Sinon had decided to start conserving arrows for now, and was being a speedy distraction to assist anyone who needed one.
By now, there shouldn't be too many left. Kirito looked around to confirm his thought. There were only 3 remaining burrowing maws now.
But they didn't attack anyone.
They were circling each other for some reason.
The three of them, just surfing in a circle, the flowing sand between them swirling, something was wrong.
"Guys? Get back. Get back now!" Kirito yelled out, taking the reins of his saddle and forcing a retreat.
Klein, Asuna, and Sinon heeded his warning and regrouped with the spriggan. The three worms were slowly sinking into the ground, more and more with each pass.
Klein rode up to Kirito's right and halted his mount there, "What's up with those three?"
Sinon took Kirito's left, and to her left was Asuna.
"No clue. But we can't damage them like this." Said Kirito, eyes still on the targets.
"The ground is vibrating."
Kirito looked over and noticed Sinon crouching on the ground; palm and fingers pressed into the sand.
"Something's coming." She noted.
"Not just something." A light voice filled the air. Yui's head and shoulders popped out of Kirito's chest pocket, arms extending with a small yawn. "All this battle, nothing to do. So I took a nap." She confessed.
"No, its fine." Kirito smiled and pat her head.
"What did you mean by 'not just something'?" Asked Asuna from her spot at the far left.
Yui scanned the ground, particularly focusing the swirling sand vortex, and hummed in thought. "Well, I'm starting to sense a forth signature. Something else, something big, is rising from deep beneath the desert."
Boss? Maybe? The swordsman looked over to the flowing pit and nodded his head. "Whatever it is, let's take it out. If we work together, we can kill it no problem."
"Good point, I'm in." Sinon agreed.
"I'm up for a boss fight." Asuna also agreed.
Klein rested his hands behind his head in a relaxed manor as he leaned back, "I'm sitting on a healthy seven kills. How much you got?" His brown eyes landed on Kirito, question lingering in the air.
"Seven."
"Damn, looks like I'm in. We'll see who gets the final kill." The samurai smirked, hand going down to rest at the handle of his blade.
Kirito sheathed his blades and extended his fist, "You're on."
Klein bumped his own fist against Kirito's, their competitive nature must've seeped into their mounts because the two Rapitarus butted heads in that moment as well.
"Heads up, I think it's here." Yui chirped up, gaining their attention.
Kirito tucked Yui back into his pocket and dropped his hands to rest on his saddle, "Thanks Yui."
The glaring sun in the once cloudless sky was soon quickly engulfed in a sea of black clouds. All of them coming out of nowhere and converging just above the moving sands below. The black clouds swirled above, becoming a vortex of their own.
Their sudden appearance basked the area below in darkness, the occasional flash of lightning illuminated the shadowed land below in a brief bleach of light. But other than that, it was as if the area the fairies found themselves in had been descended into the dim of night.
Not pitch black, no; but dark enough to make maneuvering difficult.
"Hang tight guys." Kirito's voice pierced the haze of black as he began chanting a few words with an extended hand. "Oss…Náða…Nótt…Lysa…Auga." As he read the words, golden words of power snapped around to his front and ended with a feint glow. From his incantation, wisps of grey energy spread out and engulfed his nearby party members. The Rapitarus already had capable vision in the dark.
As everyone's vision clarified and brightened to colorless levels, they noticed the ground caving in from where the three burrowing maws were circling. A sink hole the size of the world tree's trunk collapsed in on itself, and from the pit of darkness emerged a massive burrowing maw.
The ground around it rumbled like a continuous earthquake, causing sand to shift and dunes to disperse. The gigantic worm, already breaching the surface with a sea of rotating teeth, spanned an easy fifteen meters in diameter. Its length was unknown. Unlike the other burrowing maws, this thing had scales overlapping its length; forming a hard shell of armored plating.
They were still white, but it looked to be much harder to cut than the tough flesh covering the 'smaller' burrowing maws. If smaller was the right term for them; they were still pretty big.
"Okay, I know this is kinda late, any ideas?" Klein asked.
"That armor is tough. But there are weak spots in the mouth I can hit with my arrows. It's too dangerous to fly in there and try to use a sword." Sinon spoke up, filling the rest in on her discovery.
Kirito watched as the massive scaly worm pushed itself higher into the air, scales flexing along with it as it bent. "Maybe we can slice in between the clinks in the scales."
"That's a big 'if'. What about just working on one area until we chip the scales off?" Asuna countered.
Sinon flicked her eyes over to the timer still counting down for their quest, "Not enough time for that. We're already pushing it just by fighting this thing."
Then there's only one thing we can do. Kirito grit his teeth. It was the only way they were going to get that bonus reward. Everyone knows boss battles can last thirty minutes, easy. There is just too much health to chip away. No way could they kill a boss in ten to fifteen minutes.
Not unless…
It's risky. But I have to do it. No, not just me anymore. I need a third blade in there. "Klein." Kirito's voice was dulled by the thunderous roar shaking the sky.
Klein's eyes snapped to Kirito, his gaze previously taking in the towering height of this new enemy.
"I-I…I need your help." The spriggan began awkwardly, not really used to asking for help. He was more of a solo player. "And…I'll need you two as well." Kirito looked to Asuna and Sinon.
"Okay, that's the gist of the plan. But we need to go, now! We're out of time." Kirito yelled, charging in on his Rapitaru.
"Roger that. I'm right behind yah!" Klein called out, riding at Kirito's flank.
Sinon and Asuna split off from the two as they made their way around the boss; which had just finished its spawning animation.
Kirito leaned forward and rested his hand along his Rapitaru's neck, "Okay Blake, give it everything you've got."
His mount roared and lunged forward even faster.
«Brood Mother»
«Level 87»
Four health bars towered on top of each other. All of them wrapping around the maw of the Brood Mother; hovering in a relative position a meter from the beast.
Dashing to the side, Kirito and Klein evaded the burrowing maws crashing out of the ground. It seemed the last three were still ready to fight. They shot out of the ground one at a time, trying to slam down on the two fairies homing in on their Brood Mother.
The guys proved to be too quick.
Kirito slid beneath the first crashing maw, forcing Klein to dig in and scale the beast to keep up with his leader. The red samurai regrouped and matched Kirito's speed, both skidding beneath the next tumbling worm from their left this time. Finally, the third worm shot out of the ground just in front of them, making the two split up and cut around it.
"Alright, all we have to do is get rid of one health bar for now!" Kirito yelled back, drawing his swords.
Klein grunted and drew his own katana, riding up to Kirito's side and began the approach to the boss.
Just then, a bolt of yellow lighting shot from behind them from one of the sand dunes. Its arc struck the body of the enormous worm and impaled itself between two scales.
Sinon. Kirito watched as two more followed the first in quick succession, embedding themselves in a loose triangle on the belly of the beast. The three arrows glowed brighter from their incantation and chained lightning between each projectile, shocking and stunning the massive boss.
"That's our cue!"
Kirito and Klein surged in on their lizards and dug their blades into the base of the worm. They were able to slice through the hard exterior of scales, but their damage was halved.
"Oh man, what I'd give for an armor piercing potion right about now." Klein huffed, driving his katana through one of the scales; causing it to crack slightly. "Hey, it looks like we really can shatter some scales!"
Kirito heard the comment and drove his blades through the center of a large scale in front of him, causing a web of cracks to span outward from where he pierced. He repeated the action, and this time the cracks spread all the way to the scale's edge, sending chipped fragments to the sand.
Almost…there… Kirito took another swing, only for his blades to bounce back from the upturning scale.
They were opening?!
"Back away!" Kirito backtracked on his Rapitaru and circled around to Klein, "Get back, now!"
The two began a mad dash away from the Brood Mother. It's scales, starting at the base, fanned open like a fluid wave. Each one glistened with false light as every single one opened, revealing pink flesh beneath.
After the top scales opened, the boss seemed to throb slightly. Then from the hidden flesh beneath the scales shot countless thorn-like projectiles.
There were too many to dodge. Kirito and Klein didn't have enough time to outrun the hail of thorns. Each fairy getting struck with numerous projectiles each, armor stats reduced the damage, but the lingering poison was the greater threat.
Giving the signal, Kirito lifted his golden blade into the air; a signal for the medic.
A blur of white and green shot out from behind a dune, one of the smaller burrowing maws was already at half health thanks to her. She dashed gracefully on her albino Rapitaru's back and lunged past Kirito and Klein, already chanting an incantation.
The two were quickly engulfed in soothing green light, curing the poison effects and bringing their health bars back up to high yellow.
"Thanks!" Said Klein, alongside a nod from Kirito.
Asuna broke off and went to finish off the burrowing maw she was distracting. The other two were being lead around by Sinon.
"Quick, let's see if we can strike before those things close!"
Kirito took a sharp U-Turn and dashed back in, Klein close behind him. They swooped around just as the scales were beginning to close. The Brood Mother can attack alright, but with each attack it loses its armor for a short time.
They slashed at the visible flesh as quick as they could, dealing full damage instead of it being halved by the scale armor. Ten hits in, and the panels finally closed fully, leaving them with a strong scaly wall again.
But the cracks were still there.
That meant they could open up a small portion of flesh to deal full damage at all times.
Kirito rode over to where he originally impaled a scale and bashed the hilt of his Eostryder into it, causing the cracked plate to shatter completely. Up above, Kirito heard the Brood Mother howl, along with a second choked howl when Klein shattered his own scale.
Things were going to plan.
Slapping half of each blade into the flesh, Kirito cleaved outward and tore the adjacent scales open. With the added space, he reversed his grip on his black blade again and spun in his spot; slashing horizontally at the flesh.
A dozen swipes in, and he was almost past the first health bar; with Klein's help on the other side. Just as the bar entered the red, the sand beneath the Rapitaru's claws began to shift and sift inward. All of it loosely poured inward like a whirlpool, sucking downward and rushing along the worm below.
"Time's up." Kirito grunted, sheathing his blades and grabbing hold of his saddle. Blake clawed her way up the flowing sand, leaping upward and out of the quickly forming pit.
"Klein, we need to-"
Kirito looked over and saw his partner working overtime on running up the quickly receding hill, but to no avail. Step by step, his red lizard couldn't get enough footing for forward momentum.
He was quickly sliding backward into the vacuum-like vortex.
Kirito halted his mount and turned to find the archer, "Sinon! I need a rope!"
The girl looked up from her confrontation, dealing with one of the burrowing maws. Two were still alive.
She quickly spoke the incantation and shot Kirito an arrow; a neon blue string trailed behind it. Kirito reached his free hand up and snagged the arrow out of the air. He then rode up to the edge of the vortex and leapt into it.
Black boots met sand as he slid downward, quickly approaching Klein. The teen swept himself beneath the scampering Rapitaru and latched the arrow into a hook on the bony saddle. Without warning, Kirito kicked off the ground and had his wings extended in an instant. He took Klein beneath the shoulders and surged upward, prompting the samurai to do the same.
Sinon had her end tied to her own saddle and began clawing outward, pulling Klein's lizard up the drifting hill and over its ridge.
"Alright, we did everything we could. But…we're out of time." Said Kirito, releasing Klein to fly on his own.
The scales aligned with where the two hovered at opened up again, sending out a line of projectiles like sensory turrets. Klein soared upward, evading the sudden horizontal wall of thorns, "Doesn't matter. Let's do this thing."
Kirito followed his lead and dodged the thorns, working his way upward as well.
The two fairies took a wide arc, giving the final signal to execute the final part of the plan.
Sinon notched her next arrow and aimed for the sky, high above the Brood Mother. Steadying her breath, she countered the wind with a slight angle and drew the string back. She had already combined this one arrow with an item drop she bought form a local fletcher, shrouding it in green mist.
«Gargoyle Breath Elixir»
The arrow left her bow with a steady stream behind it, sending it whirling through the air in a high arc. It, and the two guys, dove into the Brood Mother's mouth one after the other, disappearing into an ocean of sharp teeth.
Kirito let the arrow pass him by, the trail of green smoke tailing behind it as it disappeared into the darkness of the worm's throat.
"30 seconds!" The spriggan informed before charging his Holy Execution sword skill on his Excalibur. The blinding white light lit up the surrounding teeth like a flood spotlight, revealing Klein's now gleaming bright red blade.
The two nodded and went to town, hacking away at any and all weak points just below the teeth. Driving sharp metal into tissue, the boss began sinking downward back into the sand, slowly closing its maw.
20 seconds. Kirito spun in the air and bounced passed Klein, who let the teen pass before flying to a new set of teeth. Combo after combo, brilliant displays of color lashed out in the encompassing darkness as the fairies unleashed everything they had.
10. "The maw's almost closed!" Kirito yelled.
"Just…" Klein drove his blade deep and began dragging it downward, "…one…more…" He swiped outward, leaving behind a deep glowing orange gash, "There, let's get out of here."
Klein charged his last sword skill and flew up behind Kirito.
Kirito looked over the collar of his coat, eyes roaming down into the throat of the beast, "Light it."
His words bounced off the walls, echoing around the beaten corridor and slipping out of the now small exit gap.
The samurai swiped his now fully charged flaming blade through the lingering trail of green mist, not looking back to see if it worked or not. The flame ignited the trail and quickly burned downward through the suspended smoke, sparking and smoking as it lit up the inner walls of the Brood Mother.
30 seconds of gas build-up in the belly of the monster. The only thing left to do, was get out.
The two swordsmen dashed through the air and aimed for the sliver of light at the end of the tunnel. Walls around them were dropping downward, fast, making their climb for the top seem much faster than it actually was.
With no seconds to spare, two figures broke out of the worm's maw and tumbled through the air. Everything went quiet as they hovered to a stop and watched the rest of the Brood Mother disappear into the sands of the desert.
Its pit settled down in moments, and the atmosphere became eerily silent. Lingering golden polygons fluttered through the air; the last of the burrowing maws disposed of.
"Did it-"
A dull, muffled explosion rocked the desert from beneath the ground. An implosion of sand was flexed outward in a gust of an expanding shock wave. The sudden whip of wind and sand threw the two figures out of the air and shot straight through the dark clouds above, slicing them to bits and revealing the orange sky.
As the implosion coursed outward, the ground at its epicenter sunk inward, caving in before quickly filling again. Through the sifting torrents of sand and small rocks, large flecks of gold fluttered out in flickering streams.
«Congratulations!»
High in the air, the congratulatory word for beating a boss appeared with victory music and a banner. They'd done it. Kirito and Klein read the words with smiles plastered on their faces, even though they were waist deep in a nearby sand dune.
Two shadows loomed over the two grounded fairies, blocking the sun and revealing two women on lizard-back.
"I can't believe that actually worked." Sinon's voice tickled the two men's ears as they looked upward.
"Yeah, well…crazier things have happened." Commented Asuna, extending a hand to the downed Klein.
Sinon quickly did the same for Kirito, and the two guys were pulled out of the clutches of the desert.
"I did more damage, so it should count as my kill." Said Kirito with a smile. He then nodded his thanks to Sinon for helping him up.
"Whoa whoa whoa, I was the one that lit the fuse." Klein rebuked, "So…I get the kill."
The two both had thirteen kills going in, and now they needed a tie breaker.
"Uh, if it's any consolation…" Sinon's voice cut through the air as she flicked a message in between the two. It wasn't a usual loot message, this one was different.
And extremely familiar.
«Last Hit Bonus»
"H-huh?!" Kirito exclaimed, staring down at the message in disbelief.
"I-it…it…" Klein stuttered, fingers twitching as he read the title of the message as well, "…it still only counts as one."
Beta: demonic1556
Editor: Allix Stowe
So, Velociraptors. No one messes with the Raptor Squad! Those of you who saw Jurassic World, good for you. Those who didn't, well you get the point, it was a good movie.
I tried, I really did. I wanted to go for casual, but ended up writing a boss scene instead. I guess my mind is a little hardwired for battles and fight scenes at the moment. We are on the final chapter of a tournament going on in my other fic, so I guess it makes sense.
Oh well, more action for you.
Did you know Velociraptor Roars are literally, no kidding, the sound a tortoise makes when it breeds with another. I looked it up, since I needed to somehow describe what their roars sound like in this chapter. In the end, I took a different approach but still…you get it.
I wonder if they'll make it back on time. What with the boss battle and the Rapitarus on the loose. Will Silica be enough to finish the task while that fight went on? Who knows! Let's find out later.
Also, if you caught them all, there were a few movie references in this chapter. Here's a few. The obvious one was Jurassic World. The Lord of the Rings fans would recognize the competition. It was always a fun aspect to see Gimli and Legolas fighting for kills. The Burrowing Maws were a play for the were-worms from The Hobbit.
On another note. Kirito's Rapitaru is similar to Blake the cat-faunus from the show RWBY.
Rapitaru = Raptor
Alright, next time I promise to cut back on the fighting.
Review! Always love it when you review. Favorite and Follow the story, more chapters to come.
Cya XP