"Haaaaaaaaaa!" I screamed, my throat itching in complaint as I roared towards the attacking mobs. We'd paused for a little D & M right on a mob spawn, and our time to chat was over. Fenyx and Curtis were struck from behind by the Lizardmen, using a long-distance Sword-Skill I wasn't sure of.
Shooting Star was my offence and my speed was my defence. The attack allowed for the user to charge across at least ten-metres into a light but fast attack. Little option but to streamline to the closest enemy from the attack's limiting movement, I sped across the gap between us in no time. The hit connected as the yellow emission crawled its way off my weapon and into the foe. Dead, without a doubt.
A moment later, he burst into those nostalgically terrifying shards. I shivered, and could only wait the two second cooldown before I could move again, instantly turning on my heels when I had the opportunity. As the target I hit was far from the others, when I turned around I had the whole battlefield laid out before me. Fenyx and Curtis were on their feet, hacking and slashing at the enemy. Regret and Kuma were running their way back to us after leaving from the scene. Takita held an offence against two Lizardmen while Griffith and Zephyr paced forward and backward defensively against the enemy's assaults. Everyone was paired up except-
"Takita, watch your left!" I yelled, activating my Shooting Star attack once more to close the distance. I didn't aim for any NPC in particular; I was just simply making an attempt to cross ground faster. The tactic worked, and with a stroke of luck, I parried one of the opponents during his swing. The blow intended for Takita had gone way off target and hit his friend next to him, a sure HP drainer, but far from a killshot.
While I was on cooldown from the hit, she'd pulled out a Sword-Skill of her own - Cyclone, an offensive single-strike two-handed attack in which the user makes a full 360 for added power. Slow, powerful, effective. The two stunned Lizardmen didn't stand a chance, being obliterated into shards barely an instant after the attack connected.
In front of us, Fenyx had opened up on the enemy, going all out to finish the two attacking them off. His health was pushing the yellow, but his fight was as good as over when I saw his blade glow a cyan blue. Vertical Arc - a guaranteed show stopped. Slashing down once diagonally, then pouring all your energy into a reverse slash of the previous, ripping the enemy from top to bottom. Good job. I thought to myself, as Curtis finished off the other one with relative ease.
The last group at the back was a hectic fight; Griffith and Zephyr were trying to avoid the enemy's blows while dealing their own, to no avail. The opponents they were facing were three levels higher than the rest – leaders of the pack. They were definitely persistent, those two.
As the fight was drawing ever closer to a stalemate, the unmistakable sound of a Sword-Skill came from Kuma and Regret, the Katana-Wielder and the Axe-Fighter. A blue glow could be seen coming from Kuma's blade as he prepared it at the left of his waist, before ripping through the ground and into the first of the NPC's, narrowly missing Griffith with his Tsujikaze in the process.
"Hey!" He yelled out, stumbling to his left to avoid the friendly fire. At the same moment, Regret had activated his own assault, engaging with a long overhead swing of the battle-axe while running forwards. He let out a battle cry as the pure strike crushed the enemy into a pulp before exploding them into shreds.
And with that, the battle was over. We all paused, crouching or breathing, taking a HP potion or just sitting down. It was an unexpected assault, and we came out miraculously unscathed. I started to walk over to check Griffith and Zephyr when Curtis called my name.
"Hey, Tera, hold up a minute." He yelled, getting up to jog over to me.
"What's up?" I asked, turning to face him.
"Why do you call Foyoki, 'Takita'?" He questioned, a legitimately curious look on his face. I glanced around to see all the others staring at me, probably wondering the exact same thing. Answering this will be tricky.
"Must be a nick name, how cute." Muttered Fenyx with a muttered with a smug look on his face.
"Don't be stupid." I told him, shifting my weight from foot to foot uneasily. "It's nothing important, we should go." I said, starting to walk past the others. Each gave me a concerning look as I passed by, except for Kuma.
"Funny, most guys don't nickname the girl who rejects them." He said with a laugh. Not a nice laugh, the kind of laugh that makes you want to punch someone in the face.
And that's exactly what I did.
He fellow over backwards with blood dripping from his nose. I didn't think myself to be so spontaneous as to do such a thing, but even I couldn't predict my own actions at this point. My mind was still racing from the scene with Takita, and what Kuma had just said pushed me a bit further than I was willing to go.
"Tera!" A few voices screams from behind me. Feminine, Takita. Quiet, Griffith. Deep, Fenyx. I looked down at my fist, clenched, the epitome of intensity. And I'd used it to harm a friend. Not a foe, a friend.
Kuma spat blood out his mouth to the right. "What's gotten into you, man?" He asked, finding his footing. I could ask myself the same question. The others rushed to his side, Griffith to mine, taking me by the wrist and pulling me back a bit.
"Terallian." He said in a firm voice, using my full name as a rarity. "You need to keep it together, don't let something like this happen during the boss battle, got it?"
"Got it." I said, before walking back over to apologize to Kuma. He had a look on his face that screamed 'no mercy', 'no forgiveness' but his words were sugar coated like a wolf in sheep's clothing.
"It's alright, that was an unnecessary comment from me." He said, as I apologized for hitting him. He said it's alright but behind that façade I could tell he was well and truly angry. I'd have to watch my back for now.
The whole event felt like it flashed by, like I was watching a slideshow of my own surroundings. It was a weird feeling, one I'd love to shake off as soon as possible. We'd dusted ourselves off and started our way back towards the floor boss, but there was uncertainty within the ranks. Everyone had their eye on me, and it cut me deep, not being trusted by your own friends… Friends I thought to myself, watching Kuma watch me. After a while, he smirked with a quick 'hmph' and walked a bit ahead of me. Once I'd repressed the temptation for a round two fist-fight, I carried on, keeping my distance from the others.
After a 5-10 minute walk that felt like an eternity, a curious occurrence that seems to repeat itself to me, we were at what had to be the boss room. 16 foot door, towering above us? Flaming torches lining the eerie columns? I this wasn't the boss room, someone in the development team had some serious explaining to do.
Then again, the whole team did.
A nod from Takita, the self-proclaimed team-leader much to the disgust of Fenyx, signalled it was time to get the show on the road. I took one last glance at Kuma, before stepping past the others to stand next to her, a sign of my reassurance to fulfil duty before emotions. Kuma purposefully winced, clutching his nose the moment he saw me take the front, perhaps trying to gain the appreciation of the others.
"Everyone! " Takita began to speak. "We've come a long way to make it this far, there were a lot of hardships along the way, but for this to go smoothly, we need to set our emotions and problems aside. Today, we don't fight as individuals, we fight as a team! A Brotherhood!"
Her attitude, her personality feels like it's shifted a huge amount since I first met her, and even more so since earlier…
There were cheers from the others, a few 'woo's' here and there. And with that, we began the walk towards the towering hulk of a door, pushing it open all at once. It made an incredibly loud creaking sound as it started to swing itself open.
A feeling of déjà vu hit me as the familiar roar of 'Kobold the Fang Lord' echoed throughout the room. We marched our way in one after the other, forming a line in the centre of the room. A silhouette in the distance stood up from its seating position and leap straight towards us, crossing the gap in no time. The large figure landed with a thud, and the room slowly came to light itself up. The rainbow textured walls lit up bit by bit until the whole room could be seen, and one hulk of a red creature stood before us. By his side were three smaller creatures. 'Sentinels'. It was going to be just like the boss battle from the anime, I was certain.
That was, until it drew a large chain and sickle from its back.
"It's different!" Curtis yelled, tensing up and drawing his two-handed sword from its waist sheathe. "Watch yourselves, he'll attack unpredictably, but as long as we hold the line, we'll figure out its attack patterns soon enough.
"Don't go rushing in for a hit until we're certain of what he's planning!" Regret added, taking his Axe into his hands.
I gave a sharp look to Griffith, who nodded in return. However he planned to fight with that I may never know.
"Attack… Commence!" Zephyr yelled over the top of the others discussing. We all dropped whatever our concerns were, and made our way towards the opponent, him doing the same.
I made my way towards his legs to get a few shots in, while Regret, Kuma, Griffith and Fenyx took to the sentinels. Four versus three would be an easy win for us, so all I had to do was concentrate on the boss. Takita came up next to me as Zephyr and Curtis tailed behind to flank his backside.
Dodging left and right to avoid the bosses swings, I activated my basic Linear attack I'd grown so accustomed to in order to get a good, fast hit in on his legs. While the other three went left, I swung around the right side, the Sword-Skill glowing as my boots hit the ground one after the other. When I was in position, I let the attack commence, and the auto-guidance system took over my body to allow for maximum speed.
Not a moment before I reached him, Kobold's eyes glowed a detective red - he'd obviously spotted me.
"I gotcha, Asuna." Zephyr said with a predictable wink, as he came in with a swift but effective Horizontal Square to counter the enemy.
If it wasn't for the fact I'd almost become mincemeat, I might've laughed. Déjà vu hit me once more as the enemy barely scraped over my head with his sickle, before toppling off to the side from my comrade's blow.
Before the red giant could even rise back to his feet, Takita and Curtis were already closing in with their own attack. Both having the same two-handed sword, they hit a synchronized Cyclone attack like I'd seen her Takita use earlier. The outcome appeared like it was going to do some stunning damage, but it quickly took a turn for the worse. The two, swinging for the same target, collided before collapsing in a heap on the ground as they yelled out in the confusion.
They were completely exposed to the enemy's next attack.
His sickle glowed a deathly red, the kind of Sword-Skill you didn't want to get hit by – a high-level one. He threw it into the air, caught it by the chain, and slammed down immediately. The speed of the attack itself was staggering, less than half a second for the whole occurrence.
Curtis took the blow full on, eradicating his HP, turning it red within a moment's notice. He was in serious danger of being killed.
"Haaaaa!" I cried at the top of my lungs, activating a long-distance Sword-Skill known as Flashing Penetrator. It felt like the world was dropping into slow motion despite the speed I was going at. I lost sight of my surroundings as I was enveloped in a green light. The full energy of the attack formed a comet-like structure of pure power around me as I sped along the ground towards the foe. I didn't know when, but my rapier made contact with him, the impact shot its way up my arm and into my shoulder. It hurt a lot, but the damage it did was incredible. As I regained sight of the battlefield, I saw Kobold lying a solid ten metres across from me; a huge crater dug itself along the ground from where he'd slid. I checked behind me to see Curtis, pulling a HP potion from my belt pouch as I wiped my eyes from the dust produced by the attack.
When I could finally see, there was only Takita crouched, alone, surrounded by light blue shards drifting through her fingers. She looked up at me with a face of dread mixed with fear. Curtis had been killed, with a single hit.
"Griffith, Kuma, Fenyx- dammit."I screamed, before quickly realising that Regret was missing. "Finish them off and get over here, this is serious!"
"Shut up!" Kuma yelled in place of the other two.
Griffith and Fenyx nodded in reaction, and started using as many Sword-Skills as they could to swiftly eliminate the sentinels. I ran full pelt over to Takita, grabbed her hand, and pulled her back out of the way from the boss, who was finally getting up. Zephyr was standing next to us, having recovered from his Sword-Skill's cooldown.
"Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it!" He shouted, stabbing the ground with his blade. "It should have been me. It should have been me!"
"Zephyr! Snap out of it, we don't have time. Here he comes again, stay frosty!" I yelled at him, hoping it'd get through.
The boss was coming for a second round, and the others had finally caught up. There were only six of us left in the room, and the boss had only lost one of his four health bars from the high-level Sword-Skill I'd used, and it took a lot out of me. I was panting heavily. Sweating.
I considered using another high-level rapier Sword-Skill, but it wasn't something I'd used in combat before, let alone a boss battle. It'd appeared under my skills list after defeating the PKer, Fogresh back outside the Town of Beginnings – it felt more like a curse than an ability, a constant reminder of my actions that day.
"DAMN IT!" Zephyr roared suddenly, voice cracking as he ripped his blade out of the ground and immediately activated Sonic Leap, truly leaping across like a madman towards the foe. The others were yelling at him to stop but it was far too late. He'd cut the distance between the boss and himself by two thirds and his glowing blue blade was about to connect. In the same interval, Kobold the Fang Lord swung the sickle, a perfect hit into Zephyr's blade. Mid-air, he was spun out of control, losing his weapon in the process and making him a sure target for a finishing blow. I cringed, before something impossible happened.
He drew his other blade, activated a Slant Sword-Skill, and slashed the boss from left to right – waist to shoulder, taking out an entire health bar in one fit of rage. The heroic moment was cut short by Kobold as he threw the chain part of the weapon and caught the sickle. The metal death tool caught Zephyr by the throat, and in one sharp snap, it was over.
His body fell slump to the ground before bursting into shards.
That's enough, that's enough, that's enough! I screamed inside my head.
"No… More!" I roared, letting the emotions of pain, sadness, rage and fury surge through me like a tidal wave. I brought my rapier to my side, ran at the boss, and activated my last technique I was yet to use. Star Splash. Dashing left, right, left I made my way across to the boss in no time, who was still recovering from his assault-during-injury. I let loose with the three initial thrusts, as fragments of yellow burst their way out of the blade I wielded, each stab piercing the enemy with pure anger. They did minimal damage, but the cooldown for both the bosses attacks tallied up to three seconds, and my attack would take two. I dropped to the floor, skidding sideways as I slashed his legs right to left, then jumped backward and into the air. Activating the last attack with all the strength I could muster, I caught sight of the others launching their own attacks from the sides and behind. With all the assaults launching as one, I charged my final attack with all the power I had, and unleashed it straight into his snout with one last hit.
I dropped to the ground, and everyone jumped back. The boss roared, swinging his weapon around furiously before collapsing and exploding into blue shards. He'd never even had the opportunity to draw his secondary stage weapon, which would've made the fight near impossible.
It was over.
The word Congratulations spread itself across the roof, as the room's colour slowly faded into darkness once more.
We entered as eight and stood as five. Was it really worth the loss?
No one spoke, no one moved an inch. The final hit pop-up appeared before me, an Item I stored but never bothered to check. I simply turned and walked towards the exit.
"…Fault…" Kuma muttered, shivering with anger.
"THIS WAS YOUR FAULT!" He screamed, lashing out at me with his fists as he ran in my direction. I stepped to the side and socked him in the side of the head, forcing him to collapse onto the ground.
"Stop it! Just stop it, both of you!" Takita screamed, tears in her eyes. Griffith fell to his knees, sobbing. Fenyx was busy scratching away at the ground trying to find whatever shards of his friends he could. The group was a mess, the sight… Horrific.
And I just continued walking… And walking… And walking… 'Till none of it even mattered anymore.