I do not own Sword Art Online or any of the characters. Got the boss designs from Lost Song.
Dungeon Diving
Michael pushed the door open, stepping into the dungeon, Eugene standing beside him, Gram resting on his shoulder. Michael spun his Elucidator slowly in his hand, looking around. The dungeon was an old cave system. They slowly walked into the dungeon, eyes roving. Laughing Coffin had been pestering the Knights of the Blood Oath constantly since it had been reformed, making it hard for them to level. Fortunatly, they had been leveling for the most part. Eugene, Kirito, and most players had built their stats back up quite effectively. Michael's stats had actually falllen behind as he had been spending so much time in GGO.
As Michael rounded a corner, a pair of fat, green, human-pig hybrids leapt at him, slashing with axes. Michael blocked both with his Elucidator and shoved them back. Eugene stepped around, bisecting one and Michael split the other up the front. Both shattered and Michael continued forward. As they walked, Eugene kept an eye to the rear, watching for Laughing Coffin. Just as they reached a locked door, a pair of laughing coffin members stepped out of the shadows, one of them holding a key.
"Hello Michael, Eugene," the one with the key smirked. "Pleasure to see you."
"You're here for the rare treasure too huh?" Eugene growled. "Figures. But, at least you won't be able to attack us after the boss battle."
He spun, slashing at them and they ducked under it. One stabbed at him with a rapier and Michael slashed it aside, kicking at him. The Laughing Coffin caught his foot. The other stepped forward but had to block a slash from Eugene. The blade passed through his sword and he leapt back, barely avoiding it. As Eugene attacked him, Michael slashed his opponent across the chest then stabbed at him. The player deflected it and then stabbed Michael. Before he could do anything more, Eugene split him in half. Then he spun and split the other player as well.
"Thanks," Michael sighed. "I'm bringing my GGO avatar's stats back over."
"I bet," Eugene laughed. "Come on. It shouldn't be much further."
They continued walking, and after a bit, they came to a massive blood red iron door set into the wall with carvings of corpses everywhere and a single silhouette standing amid them. Just as Michael reached out to the door, he recieved a message. He stopped, opening it and reading it. It was from Sinon. She believed she had found the dungeon containing the monster she had been searching for. She was going later that day and was offering him the chance to go with her. He replied that he would be there later then closed the chat window, smiling slightly at the thought of fighting something that wasn't a person in GGO. Eugene gave him a questioning look and he shrugged. Then, he reached out and pushed the door open.
"Let's make this quick," Michael suggested. "I've got somewhere to be."
Eugene nodded, raising Gram as Michael readied his Elucidator. There was no boss or even an enemy in the room. In fact, the room was deserted, save for a single torch in the center. They walked toward the torch and it began to lower itself. It stopped when it was about level with their chests. Michael felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end and turned around, looking at their shadows on the wall. The shadows were roughly equal in size as they were and as Eugene turned to look, the shadows stepped off the wall, separating from them and becoming three dimensional silhouettes.
"What are...those?" Eugene asked as their five life bars appeared along with the word vardoger.
"Doppelganger," Michael grumbled. "They're doppelgangers."
Eugene sprinted at his silhouette, slashing at it and it deflected his sword with its own. Then, it stabbed at him and he moved to block it. Before he could, however, the sword passed through his, slicing a gash in his shoulder. He leapt back and landed beside Michael, holding a hand over the injury, although it faded.
"That sword has mine's ability, and is immune to mine," Eugene snarled.
"Just a minute," Michael said as he and his own doppelganger both charged.
When they met, Michael slashed and it easily deflected his sword then slashed at him overhead. He raised his sword, blocking it and falling to one knee.
"Damn," Michael growled. "That's some STR stat. Figures. They've got higher stats than us."
Michael leapt sideways, the sword crashing down where he was. Michael rolled to his feet, raising his sword to block a slash and was sent flying. He flipped, landing on his feet and driving his sword into the ground. He skidded to a stop, standing and looking at Eugene. Eugene shrugged and sprinted forward, qctivatjng his OSS, sword flashing around, sparking against the doppelganger's repeatedly before the ability ended and the doppelganger removed Eugene's legs.
Before the doppelganger could finish him, Michael appeared, slashing diagonally, downward to the left. Then, he slashed hirizontally right at the abdomen. Next, he slashed diagonally up to the left then flipped the sword around and slashed back downward. Next, he brought his sword up and slashed diagonally downward to the left again. He spun, slashing in a circle then again, ending by transferring the slash into an overhead arc, ending at his side. Then, he stepped forward, stabbing at the doppelganger. The doppelganger, having successfully blocked every attack so far, blocked the stab but jumped backward.
Michael accessed his menu, turning off recording. A moment later an alert appeared and he laughed, typing something and pressing enter. Then, he leapt backward as his doppelganger slashed at him. He pulled out a healing crystal and hurled it at Eugene, the crystal shattering on him and healing him, allowing him to escape. Eugene landed beside Michael and glanced at him as Michael adjusted a collor wheel.
"Tell me you didn't just do what I think you did," Eugene growled.
Michael settled on a forest green and selected it, flashing Eugene a grin.
"Ten hits," Michael stated. "Don't worry. It's for Archon."
Eugene groaned then looked back at the Doppelgangers.
"What do we do about them?" Eugene asked.
"Not sure," Michael admitted.
Just then, Eugene's doppelganger sprinted forward, sword glowing and began to slash at Michael. After three strikes, Michael swore and activated his new one. His sword crashed into the doppelganger's and both were nearly thrown backward. Both barely managed to hang onto it but before either could recover, Eugene stepped forward, slashing his doppelganger up the front then beheaded it. It shattered and Michael turned to his doppelganger.
"They can copy our moves," Michael stated. "Which means he might have copied..."
"That would be exceedingly unfortunate," Eugene stated. "So, how do we go about this?"
"We'll have to be careful," Michael stated. "You go first and I'll try and hit him with my OSS.
Eugene nodded, sprinting forward and stabbing at him. The doppelganger slashed the sword aside and stabbed at Eugene. Eugene blocked it thenshoved it aside and began his OSS. The Doppelganger began to easily deflect each attack. The moment Eugene's skill ended, Michael attacked with his own OSS. The doppelganger spun, blocking the blade and launching it skyward. Michael instantly drew his knives, darting forward, both blades glowing blue. He slashed, the trail from the blades forming an "X" across the doppelganger's chest before he slipped past the doppelganger. The doppelganger staggered backward and Michael spun, catching his swords as his knives sailed into the air and stabbed the doppelganger through the base of the skull. It shattered and Michael sighed, stabbing his sword into the ground and catching his knives, putting them away.
"I recognize that style," Eugene stated.
"My options were limited," Michael stated.
Eugene nodded just as firest lit all around the room.
"Oh God no," Michael groaned.
There was a shadow in the center of the room where the light couldn't quite reach and it began to darken as they watched it. Michael picked his sword up, swallowing hard. Eugene held his own sword at the ready as a massive black hand rose out of the darkness and slammed down off to one side. Then, another rose out, slamming down on the other side and pushing a massive creature out of the shadow. It had a humanoid torso but with excessively large muscles. Its head, however, was reptillian with glowing red eyes.
"That thing's...enormous," Michael breathed.
"Yep, let's go," Eugene nodded, sprinting forward.
He leapt into the air and slashed upward along the creature, splitting it up the front. Michael followed, slashing it across the stomach. It roared and swiped at Eugene, launching him across the room despite missing. Michael leapt at the thing again but it swung its hand down, smashing it down on top of Michael.
Michael groaned as the creature left its hand. He looked up at it, seeing a red flash against the creature's back. Then, the creature spun, arm crashing into Eugene and launching him. Michael pushed himself up, his health slowly regenerating but not nearly as fast as he would like. He had barely more than a sliver, but thankfully, Eugene was still able to get up. Because the creature had four full health bars. Michael pulled out a healing crystal and it shattered. He glowed for a moment as his life climbed to yellow.
"Guess that'll have to do," Michael growled charging at the creature as it attacked Eugene.
Michael lunged forward, stabbing the creature then ripped his sword upward before spinning and slashing it again. The creature roared then fell forward, nearly crushing Michael. Michael rolled out of the way then spun, sprinting to the head and activating his OSS. The creature was unable to move so Michael's blade carved into it ten times. Michael's body froze after the skill ended and the creature began to sit up. Finally, the lag ended and Michael wrenched his sword out, slashing again. The creature roared, realing back, two full health bars gone from Michael's ability thanks to the head being the weak point.
The creature swung at Michael and he leapt over it. As soon as he cleared it, a wall of tailwind blasted into him, hurling him across the room, leaving him with barely a sliver again. Eugene leapt at the creature, slashing it and beginning his OSS. Just as he moved to use the last strike to end the fight, the creature's hand crashed into him, blasting him into the floor as Michael pushed himself up, barely able to stand. As the dust settled, it revealed a ball kf red fire where Eugene had landed. Michael sighed, limping toward the creature as it turned on him.
"Well come on then," Michael growled.
He leaned forward until he began to fall, using it to sprint forward. The creature raised a hand swiping down at him. Just before it hit, Michael activated a skill, blurring forward with his sword glowing blue. He blasted through the creature, the skill ending just after it and allowing him to collapse to the ground as the creature remained motionless behind him. Finally, it began to glow, then shattered and the word "CONGRADULATIONS" appeared over them. Michael used an item to revive Eugene then another to heal himself and stood, an alert appearing in front of him. He took the three items it granted him and equipped them. One was a black cuiraiss and pauldrons, another was a forest green kite shield with a Sylph symbol on the face, and the last was a tattered black cloak. With them on, his stats were boosted considerably, but were still inferior to Eugene's.
"That's all you got?" Eugene asked. "There was supposed to be a rare item."
"Sorry," Michael shrugged.
"Whatever," Eugene sighed. "I still got a fair amount of EXP for it. Didn't you have somewhere to be?"
"Oh yeah," Michael remembered. "Thanks. See you around."
"Tell your girlfriend I said hi," Eugene called after him, laughing when Michael flipped him off.
"Not my girlfriend!" Michael shouted as he left the room, sprinting out of the dungeon then teleporting to Alrun, going to an inn to save and sign out.
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