The Geocrawler was the 56th boss in Aincrad, a boss that took the entire frontline a week to get past, taking down a number of players along with it. However the Geocrawler was defeated, I was even there when it was killed in the large dusty valley. Yet the Huge snake like beast was here in a completely different game, a completely different world. The Geocrawler charged towards the three of us with surprising speed considering its weight and the simple fact that it slithered like a snake due to its lack of legs. I quickly side stepped so that I was between the Geocrawler and Aurora, who was nocking a second arrow onto her bowstring. I then raised my sword slightly above my head and my body shifted into a defensive stance.
From the left of me I saw a brilliant flash of orange and red light before a huge fireball flew past me, directed straight at the visor covered eye of the snakelike monster. The ball of fire moved at such a speed that it had reached the Geocrawler within a second of it being fired. I expected to both hear and see a large explosion as the flames exploded against the glass like visor of the monster, however the speeding fireball simply went straight through the Geocrawler's visor, eye and body without making any real contact.
However the Geocrawler seemed to turn translucent for a second and its features became slightly distorted for the split second that the fireball had passed through its body. After the fireball had passed through the field boss, a small health bar appeared next to the Geocrawler, floating mid air and showing 4 bars of health. But none of the bars had any hint of green, orange or even red pixels to represent its actual health, they were simply borders which you could see through.
In this short period of time the Geocrawler had managed to make its way over to me and, without a moment's hesitation, it slashed both of its scythes down towards my head. The metal scythes struck down heavily against my sword and I was pushed downwards under the sheer force of the attack and the shock wave that ran down through my body nearly forced me to drop my sword completely. However a moment after the blow the monster released some of the pressure that it was exerting on me and I managed pushed back against the metal scythes, gaining me a slight bit of ground.
From behind me I heard the twang of a bowstring and I saw a glistening white arrow soar past my head and towards the Geocrawler. But, much like with the fireball, the arrow simply went straight through the Geocrawler's body, causing it to distort slightly and cause it once more to go translucent. In the split second in which the Geocrawler had become translucent I saw a line of red light pulsating slightly from the other side of the Geocrawler.
A moment later I heard a resounding crashing sound, accompanied by a flash of red light emanate from the tail end of the Geocrawler. The Monster let out its guttural cry in response to the attack on its tail and it quickly spun around to face the new, seemingly more powerful, opponent. As the Geocrawler span around I saw a figure kneeling on top of the metallic scales of the Geocrawler's back, with a sword rammed deep into the monster which they held tightly to keep in place.
From the dimming light that was produced by one of Aurora's arrows, I was able to see the figure on the Geocrawler's back in more detail. They had long, straight, light blue hair which fell over the top of a midnight blue cloak. The sword that was stuck in the Geocrawler's back looked like a simple rapier made out of a steel which seemed to be shimmering as if in the presence of sunlight.
However as I squinted my eyes to see this new assailant in better detail I could see some of the faint white light, given off by the rapier, coming through the person's body. Through the person I could also see the grey metallic sheen which the scales of the Geocrawler gave off, but they were partially blocked from view and the few scales I could see through the new attacker were slightly different to the surrounding ones.
At the point when the Geocrawler was now facing the complete opposite direction from us, it was wildly sweeping its claws at the air in front of it in a vain attempt to find its enemies. The second that its tail had stopped moving the cloaked attacker pulled the rapier, which they had been holding tightly for support, out of the Geocrawler's back and jumped backwards, with a strong push off.
The cloaked fighter landed lightly down to the right of me with their rapier held in their right hand to their side. They gave out a long breath before moving into an aggressive stance with their blade held right back, exposing their entire left hand side.
"What the hell are you lot doing?" A rough, feminine voice, which sounded somewhat unnatural, came from the cloaked figure. I faintly recognised the voice from the past and along with the appearance of this fighter memories of Aincrad began to slowly creep back into my mind, however I couldn't pinpoint who she was. "Woods, Sky get right up in its face and take the aggro. Adrin, Torinn keep on top of its tail, stop it from swinging around too much. Aurora, Terra kill off those extra creeps. And Ruby stay to the other side of the snake as me."
She gave out these orders with a very clear irritation behind her tone. But the quickened manner in which she spoke put her as a fighter with a great deal of experience in leading small groups. However as she spoke to us she never looked around at us, her eyes completely focused on the movement of the Geocrawler, and she mentioned the names of people who definitely weren't there.
At hearing these names my body froze slightly and my hold on my sword lessened slightly. The mere mention of those names flooded my mind with memories. Bringing back the memories of Andrew B and Oliver dying in the crusade against the Laughing Coffin guild, the simple terror that the Skull Reaper had instilled within me as it killed Steven. But the image that stuck foremost in my mind was that of the fight with the Geocrawler and specifically how Celestia, a teenage girl with blue hair and good experience and skill with a rapier, was impaled through the chest and then beheaded by the Geocrawler.
I looked over at the blue haired rapier user who had just given out the orders and stared in disbelief at what I was seeing. From where I was stood it looked exactly like Celestia had on the day that she was killed. The girl that I recalled from memory held the exact rapier as the one now in front of me and the cloak that both Celestia and this other girl wore looked identical. Even the voice that she had spoken with sounded the same as the calm and somewhat arrogant one that I remembered from the past.
The only thing that was stopping me from believing in that Celestia had somehow survived the Geocrawler in Aincrad was the translucency of her body. She seemed almost like an image which had lost some of its colour or had been placed somewhere in which it didn't belong.
However my thoughts were cut abruptly short by the Geocrawler giving out a long guttural scream, followed by it swiftly spinning itself around back to face us all. The second that it had caught sight of us it swung straight down with its two massive scythe claws, using the momentum it had gained from spinning to strengthen its attack. There was little chance of me blocking such an attack so I was forced to jump back out of its reach.
Directly to my side now, Aurora began to frantically shoot arrows towards the Geocrawler in an attempt to find any spot where her arrows might actually make physical contact with the boss monster. In front of me however both Sky and the blue haired fighter had managed to dodge the scythe attack and were currently attacking the monster head on. Sky was more pronounced and blunt in her fighting, going for heavy hits on the front scales of the beast, whilst blocking or parrying any attack sent her way. Whilst the other woman was dodging and weaving in and out of the Geocrawler's attacks and finding very precise and small weak spots to thrust her sword into.
The clash of metal from the swords on the scales brought me out of the slight daze that the arrival of a possible friend had caused. I went back to holding my sword in two hands, my grip on the sword tightening to a familiar pressure, before I ran straight ahead towards the swinging scythes to aid the two already fighting. But before I was in striking distance the tail of the Geocrawler smashed down hard against the ground, causing it to shake violently for a second.
Both me and Sky had our feet firmly on the ground, making sure to keep our balance in the fight, and so the shaking ground only put us slightly off balance for that second. However as the blue haired fighter was jumping around to avoid being hit, they were completely knocked off balance and they crashed to the ground due to misjudging a landing.
The Geocrawler took this opportunity to attack almost instantly, switching its full focus onto the person now pushing their selves up from the ground. The Geocrawler stabbed down with one of its scythes, stabbing it straight through the back of the downed fighter and out through the front of her chest. The Geocrawler then drew its scythe out from the ground and up towards the level of its singular eye. It looked at its catch for a second before raising its other scythe high above its head to go in for the kill.
The impaled fighter, however, wasn't dead, nor was she broken in her resolve. She raised her rapier above her head and viscously stabbed it down towards the Geocrawler's mouth. The blade easily cut through the flesh that was exposed between its many teeth and the blade went deep into its mouth and got itself wedged there. The monster reeled back in pain, giving out another of its recognisable guttural cries before swinging its free scythe straight for the neck of the impaled fighter.
The scythe whistled through the air and made a quick and simple cut through the neck of its captured enemy, leaving a large glowing red line. However the second that the scythe finished its swing the Geocrawler froze. The now frozen Geocrawler and dead body of the player that was still attached to the scythe began to give off a gentle bright glow. The glow slowly began to intensify and cover the entirety of their bodies and creating a blinding body of white light.
Then it simply vanished with a whoosh of rushing air. The area around us became extremely quiet and the daze left by the white light made it hard for my eyes to adjust to the sudden return of the forest's darkness. But for some reason the Geocrawler was gone along with the blue haired fighter, leaving us as survivors of its attacks once again. However this time around all that was left was a hollow and confused feeling rather than feelings of victory.
Before any of us could say anything or get past the confusion of our own thoughts a man's voice came out from the darkness from behind the trees in the distance. "What in God's name was that and how are you three still alive?"