24th of October, 2023
It's funny how confident I was that day. I've got to admit, Heathcliff is the best player in the game. He is someone I could follow and someone whom I could absolutely trust. It's not much comfort in the aftermath but it's something.
Ah, fuck. Even I can tell I'm just beating around the bush, but I don't want to face up to the fact that Takuma's dead. In a way, apart from the unlikely event that all of us survived it's the best outcome. If Masaki died, Tarako'd fall apart and Takuma'd tear himself up because he couldn't do anything. Same goes for Tarako. Of course I suppose the best result for them would be if I died, but that's definitely not the best result for me.
I still don't know who I am, but I know exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to leave KoB, and kill every single one of the so-called clearers who killed Takuma and a dozen more.
It started off fine, but everything went to hell when the boss attacked.
It looked like some six armed buddha made of steel, with spears, an axe, swords, and a knife. It could cover mid-range and short range amazingly. It rushed at this random soloist and it killed him in one combo. That made all the cowards falter, but Heathcliff rallied all of us. He yelled and charged, along with Asuna and the other general from KoB. They held back the boss to give the rest of KoB enough time to get the rest organized. I could see Klein and his bunch rushing in as well as the Black Swordsman. As for the rest, I didn't pay attention. It's hard to when you've got swords and spears stabbing at you so quickly you can't even think of attacking. That thing was fast, and we couldn't rely on the normal pin-it-down-and-hack-at-it method that normally works for bosses. Even Heathcliff couldn't block its charges, and he had to scramble along with the rest of us.
It was going fine until we'd hacked at around half of his life. Then shit really hit the fan. It jumped up, and suddenly started throwing all of its weapons from above. That killed off one whole guild straight away. It jumped to the middle of our formation, picked up its weapons, and started killing off clearers in an instant. That was too much for everyone else and they started running. I knew it was almost certainly going to happen, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. I hadn't trusted them, but I was pissed that Heathcliff had.
There was this one guild that ended up back to back against us. It was one of the only ones that hadn't run off. We exchanged a couple of tense words, and I found out their names were the Golden Companions. I looked around quickly, making sure the four of us were still alive. Masaki was on two-thirds health, but Takuma and Tarako had both drank health potions. I took a glance at my HP bar and realized I was on 50%, but before I could drink it the boss came whirling at us again. It wasn't stronger than normal, but after killing off more than 10 people in less than 10 seconds, everyone stepped back involuntarily.
But I did my job, and Masaki and I rushed at the boss along with two others from the Golden Companions. We dodged the weapons fine and soon, Heathcliff came rushing in along with the Black Swordsman. We were doing fine until the boss jumped up again and started throwing its weapons. I spun around as one of the Golden Companions got impaled by a huge sword, then kicked Takuma out of the way of a spear. The boss landed, but instead of picking up its weapons it ran and kicked Masaki before punching another one of the Golden Companions. That did it for them, and the rest of them ran. Takuma turned and yelled at them to come back, and then his mouth kept on hanging open. I didn't realized what had happened until I saw the sword behind Takuma after he disappeared into a million shards of light.
I didn't remember anything afterwards; well, that's a lie. I remember a lot of screaming, although I can't remember if it was me, Masaki or Tarako. I remember slashing out, using all my skills. After that, it just seemed like I went berserk, and I the next thing I remember the Black Swordsman's forcing a health potion down my throat. I looked at my HP bar, and saw it at 20% and rising. I really must have come close to dying. Then I looked over and saw Tarako sobbing in Masaki's arms. I staggered up, brushing past the Black Swordsman's arms. I walked over to them and just looked down, not knowing what to say. I turned to the Black Swordsman and asked him what happened. First, he asked me to call him Kirito, then he said that we'd lasted until reinforcements had arrived and together we'd defeated the boss.
Yeah, great consolation. I asked about the Golden Companions, and Kirito just gave me a blank stare. Heathcliff knew though; his HP was at around 60%, and he looked weary and saddened. He told me that they had been one of the last ones to flee.
Kirito looked at me sadly, and walked away. Maybe this was why he was a soloist. Because he didn't want to experience losses like these. The expression on his face belonged to someone who had suffered losses before and never wanted to experience them again.
In the inn, listening to Tarako and Masaki cry, that doesn't seem like such a bad way of life. It's not as rewarding, but not as much risk either. I haven't cried. Like my tears were gone those first few days. Takuma would understand, though. He'd understand that just because I didn't cry, it didn't mean I didn't care. He always knew that beneath the outer layer was so many intricacies hidden within. He taught me tolerance; how to view people and not only see their faults. And a fat lot of good that did him.