The four of us stood, waiting, by the teleport gate of the city of Yurinia, a city which had been created in the style of ancient Rome. Around us we were surrounded with white marble buildings, practically all held up by the iconic stone columns found in Greek and Roman architecture. In the distance behind us was a huge circular arena, a replica of the Coliseum, yet it seemed to stand taller and grander than in any way the former Coliseum had been portrayed throughout history. That arena had recently held a duel between two of the strongest players in the game, Heathcliffe, the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath, and Kirito, the Black Swordsman. In this battle it was revealed publicly that Kirito had the ability to dual wield swords with extreme precision, speed and power. However he was unable to get past Heatcliffe's famed Holy shield and so the duel was won by Heatcliffe.
However today we stood, waiting, on the 75th floor for a completely different reason than the recent events that this town had paid witness to. The night before a group of players reported back that they had found the boss room for this floor's labyrinth. Today, every front line player had been called up to the 75th floor to fight in the battle against this unknown boss. Every 25th floor hosted a boss of terrific power and weaponry which on both the 25th and 50th floors had managed to kill a good number of the players who fought in those bloody and drawn out battles. This time nobody wanted to go into the boss room with the risk of dying so easily and quickly. So unlike the normal number of 30-50 players for a boss fight there was just over 100 of the strongest players known in the game, all standing in this plaza, waiting for the last of our legion to arrive.
There was little conversation or movement, leaving the plaza eerily quiet. So when the rushing sound of air came from the centre of the plaza everyone turned their heads to see two figures walk out of the dissipating blue sphere of light. Kirito and Asuna walked out into view and ignored the many stares and disapproving grumbles from the gathered players, mainly coming from the players of the Holy Dragon Alliance. As they were walking two players came up behind them and started talking to them, seemingly without the intention of keeping the silence which had held for the past 20 minutes around the plaza. The four of them spoke for a while, but I didn't care much for their conversation as my attention was focused on the teleport gate, waiting for the last of our ranks and our leader to appear.
Not long after the four had started talking the rush of air returned, this time louder and more sustained, as 5 separate spheres of glowing blue light appeared upon the stone gateway. As the spheres began to dissipate, 5 figures walked forward with a constant clinking of armour. At their lead was Heathcliffe clad in his usual red plate armour and behind him marched four of his knights, in pure white armour. All eyes moved and stayed upon Heathcliffe as he calmly walked past everyone and towards a large masonry arch, which bore inscriptions and engravings of war and victory.
He stopped in front of the arch and drew out a huge blue crystal, which had orbs of red sealed inside of it, and raised it in the air, high above his head. "Corridor open." He had held a Corridor Crystal, an extremely rare item which opened a portal to any chosen location and allowed any number of people to pass through it within a 3 minute period. The air which the crystal had been facing seemed to crack and had a ripple like distortion to it and at the same time the crystal in Heathcliffe's hand shattered and disappeared. He looked back over his shoulder and said, "Now, let's go." Before turning back and walking through the portal.
His knights quickly followed him into the unknown. After a few moments of caution and hesitation more and more people started to walk towards the portal and disappearing through its liquid like matter. I looked to my side to see Sky fixedly looking at the portal with sharp and unemotional eyes, she was worried to what we may find on the other side of the portal. I looked to my other side to see that Andrew and Aurora were standing and looking at the portal in a similar way, not wanting to go through but knowing that it was their duty to fight whatever was on the other side until the end. I shook my head slightly and started to walk towards the portal, similarly not wanting to fight for the fear of death this early, but knowing that it was unlikely considering the number of people we had for this fight.
The portal felt ice cold as I walked through it, it obscured my vision and cut off my other senses for a split second before it placed me on the other side of the portal, a large underground hall, lit only by two large torches which were mounted on either side of a huge stone door. Those who had came through were stood in random groups and places just outside the door, all with panels open to equip their best gear in preparation for what could be a gruelling battle. I walked over to a pillar, similar to the ones back in town, leant against it and opened up my own equipment panels.
I equipped my usual sword, Shadow Beam, and started to put on my light armour pieces, at the cost of defence it let me move much more freely and allowed me to move much faster than if I wore heavy, cumbersome armour. As I began to fill up my side pouch with health crystals Sky walked up to my side and looked over what I had equipped. "Are you sure you want light armour, this isn't going to be a normal boss raid and we're going to need all the defence we can get," she said in a concerned voice. She herself was wearing full plate armour and likely had a chain shirt below that, to her side was her trusted longsword, sitting quietly in its leather sheath.
"I should be fine with just this, I'd rather be able to move out of the way of attacks than have a higher defence stat. And anyway I'm not the only one in light armour, so I can't be taking too much of an unneeded risk," I reply slowly due to my concentration still being on my item panel, one hand scrolling through what I may need and my other hand feeling the items drop into the pouch on the left of my belt. Suddenly I feel my left hand being held tightly. I looked down to see Sky's hand grabbing hold of my hand while she looked onwards to the door of the boss room with fear very clear on her face. I returned the tight grip, closed down my inventory and looked towards the doorway, which Heathcliffe stood in front of.
"Are you ready?" He asked the crowd of players, signalling for people to finish up their equipment sorting. "The Knights of the Blood Oath will take the majority of the damage on the front line. While we do, I'd like the rest of you to discern its attack patterns, and prepare to change tactics as necessary. It will be a difficult battle, but I have faith that we can prevail. For our day of liberation!" His last words were greeted with a huge roar from the players. The fighters were ready and waiting, the battle plan had been set and weapons were drawn.
Heathcliffe turned to the grand door and pushed it open with a gentle push from one of his hands. The doors responded by slowly splitting apart and moving back with a grinding sound across the ground. The doors stopped against the wall of the boss room with a thud which shook the room slightly. Everyone looked into the dark and seemingly empty room for a few seconds, waiting for the first move or order.
"Attack!" Came the simple order from Heathcliffe. At the order everyone ran into the dark room with a battle cry, towards the 75th boss of this game, a boss that would herald the completion of 3 quarters of this death game.