Chapter 7: The Night Crawler
Climbing Aincrad's floors were difficult. Each floor tested our abilities with new enemies and new bosses. Many of us struggled trying to beat these bosses whereas I didn't break a sweat. Neither did Izume, Kirito or Asuna. We were very high leveled for the game and our levels eclipsed everyone else's we were fighting with to beat the game. This bothered me, I didn't want to have to carry a burden if they die and I could have saved them. Asuna noticed this sudden change in me. She noticed that I wasn't acting like I usually was. So when we decided to take a break at floor 40 for a while so that everyone's energy could be recuperated, Asuna came over to talk to me. She knew something was up, she didn't know what be Asuna knew. Everyone else decided to just wander around floor 40's major town safe zone, however, Asuna didn't, she followed me out into the wilderness, until she found me sitting upon a rock, gazing at the sky.
"So, what's up?" Asuna asked looking concerned. I had no idea Asuna had followed me which made me jump when she spoke.
"Wha-?! Oh it's you, Asuna." I replied in shock.
"Of course, who else has my voice." She said.
"Fair point. So what bring you up here?" I asked.
"Don't you go changing the subject. I already asked you what's the matter?" She told me. I hadn't heard exactly what Asuna said the first time.
"Oh, I didn't catch what you said. Sorry. I'm fine." I replied.
"No, you aren't." Asuna said sitting next to me. "I could notice that you became less aware and started to get attacked a lot easier then you were before. And the level of the enemies wasn't the reason, your concerned abut something, aren't you?" Asuna questioned.
I sighed. "Yeah, I couldn't not think about escaping, and how in hindsight, we hold all these lives in our hands."
"I can understand why you feel like that. But wouldn't it be better to think of how many lives you will save when we do clear the game?" Asuna asked.
"I guess you're right. I shouldn't think on the negative side. I should be more positive. If I'm being positive, it'll encourage everyone else." I said. "Thanks Asuna, you're a great friend."
"I'm here to help" Asuna smiled. "Now let's get back to Kirito and Izume."
"Yeah, lets." I said smiling back.
We walked back down the mountain to the safe zone where we regrouped with Kirito and Izume. I held Izume close to me as she did the same. This caused Asuna and Kirito to smile. They didn't know that me and Izume had become a couple. That we were planning to get married inside SAO. Something that they were also planning.
"So, what's with the holding each other?" Asuna questioned.
"Do you want to tell them, or should I?" I asked Izume.
"You can." Izume smiled back, placing her head on my chest.
"Well, me and Izume decided to get together. We've known each other since around the beginning of when we became trapped in Aincrad. And we've been through a lot together." I explained smiling.
"Well, I'm happy for you two, you make a perfect couple." Asuna said smiling.
"As do you and Kirito." Izume said smiling back.
"Hehe, thank you Izume." Kirito said.
"So, when do we set back off to clear the next ten floors to reach floor 50?" I asked.
"We leave in around an hour. This is giving everyone's energy system time to recover because if you keep fighting without taking breaks, you body starts to feel the wear and you attacks become slower, you start getting dizzy, you deal less damage while taking more damage from enemies and you eventually pass out." Kirito explained.
"Wow. That's pretty scary." Izume said still cuddled up with me.
"Yeah, it is. But that's not the worst part, you could be an easy kill for anything or anyone." Kirito said.
"That's true, you wouldn't be able to anything to stop them. You'd be a sitting duck in that situation." Asuna said.
"A smart decision is to not push yourself." I said. "If you push yourself, this will happen."
"Yeah." Izume said.
"You said we leave in an hour, right Kirito?" I asked.
"Yes. We depart in one hour after gathering up in the center of town." Kirirto replied.
"Okay, that gives me time." I said.
"Time for what?" Asuna asked.
"Oh, don't worry, I'll be back in time." I said. "I'll stay in the party but don't worry about me." I said smiling as I began to depart. Izume wasn't letting me get away that easy.
"Akito? Where are you going?" She asked.
"Just shopping." I said.
"But you hate shopping?" Izume said.
"Yeah, that's true, when it's shopping for myself." I responded.
"Oh, who's it for?" She questioned.
"You'll find out." I said and left the group. I sent them a message stating "If you need me, message me and I'll be there ASAP".
I spent ages trying to find a gift for Izume, something she'd like. I'd never been shopping for someone else before so I didn't really know what I was looking for.
"Hey Akito!" A somewhat distant voice called. I couldn't really tell who it was.
"Uhh.. Hello?" I responded.
"Hey!" The voice said as I turned around and jumped out of my skin.
"Ahh! God, never do that again, I might have a heart attack." I said. The person who made me almost have a heart attack was Lisbeth.
"Hehe. Sorry, but I saw you and wanted to ask you something." Lisbeth said.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Well, you see, there's this item called 'Titan's Hold' and it allows the wearer to have better smithing abilities. But it costs a lot and I don't have much..." Lisbeth began saying.
"I'll buy it for you." I sighed.
"You will?" Lisbeth asked.
"Yes, on one condition." I said.
"Go on." She replied.
"You help me find a gift for Izume." I asked.
"Oooh~ Is somebody in love." Lisbeth teased.
"Yes, actually, we both are." I said stopping her teasing.
"Oh. Aww. Sure I'll help you." Lisbeth said.
"Thanks." I responded.
We walked around looking in every shop, but nothing seemed to captivate me. Until I entered a store that looked quite run down and about to be closed down. Inside the shop was an NPC selling a hair accessory which looked like a rose. I bought it straight away with Lisbeth's advice and then we bought what Lisbeth needed.
"Thanks Akito. I'll see you later." Lisbeth said departing to her store.
"See you later." I replied making my way back the Izume, Asuna and Kirito.
It turned out that I had taken too long and everyone had already gone ahead with clearing the floors up to floor 50. I rushed up trough dungeon after dungeon until I reached everyone else on floor 50. They were all clearing the duneon as I arrived and I got some unhappy looks. I walked up to Izume and she looked happy to see me, far from what I can say for others.
"Hey, sorry I took so long. I'm terrible at shopping." I said laughing, I was getting even worse looks as I laughed.
"No worries. But why did it take you so long." Izume asked.
"I wanted to get you something, but I'm not a people person you could say, so I had a hard time finding something, thanks to Lisbeth, she helped me find something out for you." I smiled.
"Aww, thank you." Izume smiled back.
"Should I give it to you now?" I asked.
"Not yet, let's clear this floor first, then you can." Izume said smiling.
We cleared all the enemies on the 50th floor and we approached the boss room door. Izume grabbed my hand. I held her hand tightly as she did the same to mine. I looked over to Kirito and Asuna and nodded. This would be our hardest fight yet. We were prepared, but I felt bad. I had left everyone to push on through nine floors and I had failed to help them. I had to make up for my mistakes. I opened up the boss room door as I got a chill that made me shiver.
"Everyone ready." Asuna asked. Everyone put their blades, axes and spears in the air shouting "Yeah!"
"Let's do this." Kirito said to everyone. "This will be the hardest fight we've had to deal with yet. Everyone have teleport crystals ready if the battle gets to tough."
I entered the boss room before everyone was ready and without anyone noticing. I don't know why I did, but for some reason I just had to.
"Where's Akito?" Izume asked worriedly.
"He was right next to you, wasn't he?" Asuna replied.
"Oh no." Kirito said.
"What Kirito?" Asuna and Izume said together.
"Look in the boss room." Kirito said pointing to me.
"Akito!" Izume shouted. I turned around realising what I'd done when the boss blocked everyone from me. The boss was a giant arachnid with long lances for its legs. It's name was 'The Night Crawler'. I pulled out 'Seraphin' and readied for battle. "Akito!" Izume shouted to me again.
"Lead it away from the entrance so we can help." Kirito and Asuna shouted.
I backed up leading The Night Crawler away from the entrance allowing everyone else to join the fight. I then knew I could attack so I started slicing at its legs but it's health remained unchanged. This shocked me, this led me to believe that its legs are immune to damage at this stage.
"The legs do not take damage yet, so we need a method to attack it from either underneath it or on top of it!" I shouted. I was understood and everyone started to attack the underneath of the Night Crawler. Its health started to drop and this filled me with hope. I used Lights Ruin to bring the Night Crawlers health down to its second bar of health. I then used Phantoms Call to weaken Night Crawler even more as everyone kept attacking. As we kept doing damage to the Night Crawler, it changed its attack pattern, it started trying to pierce and stab at players with it's giant lance like legs. The players began to stop attacking to dodge the oncoming attacks. I didn't. I kept attacking, I didn't have the bosses agro luckily, so I kept damaging the Night Crawler until it's agro was on me, I smirked, rolling out of the way of it's stabbing attacks. The Night Crawler began to fluster around swinging it's two front legs at everyone causing them damage and even killing a few players with its stabbing attacks. I noticed it's back legs were exposed so I sliced at them which caused them to shatter into shards. The Night Crawler fell back but kept swinging and stabbing at players. This caused some players to stutter back as I kept slicing away at it's underside. It's health kept dropping as players kept attacking. I would then use my sword skills to bring the Night Crawler to it's final bar of health where it grew plates of armor over its body, legs and head. The only exposed area was it's brain and I knew what to do.
"Izume! Asuna! Kirito! I need your help." I shouted to them.
"What is it?" Izume asked.
"I'm guessing you want to kill the boss." Kirito said with a hint of sarcasm to his voice.
"Yes. I do. But to do so, I will need your help." I said.
"What's the plan?" Asuna questioned.
"Its final weak spot is on the back of it's head. But to reach it, I'll need a boost up." I explained.
"We can do that." Asuna and Kirito said nodding at one another.
"Good, You'll also need to boost up Izume." I told them. They gave me a nod for confirmation. "Izume, Once we are on top of the Night Crawlers back, I will give you a boost up to the exposed area of it's head, then you don't stop attacking until it bursts into shards."
"Understood." nodded Izume.
We put plan into action, Kirito and Asuna got into position and I ran and as my feet hit their hands they thrusted me into the air and I propelled myself onto the back of the Night Crawler. The boss began getting furious and began to move it's body making it incredibly difficult to stay on, I had a great balance stat so I wasn't effected too much but when Izume was boosted up, she was, she was getting thrown from left to right on the Night Crawlers back, struggling for grip. I grabbed her hand and held her close, pushing forward on the back of the arachnid boss. We reached it's head and I lifted her up to it's head.
"Finish this battle Izume!" I called out to her.
"Got it!" She responded and she forced her short sword into the arachnids head sending it into shards. She gracefully landed on her feet and she smiled at me. "Did it."
"Nice job. Now we wave cleared fifty floors of Aincrad." Kirito said.
We headed home and tucked in for the night. For once I actually managed to fall asleep. I dreamed that I was back in reality and all the friends I had met in game were there. I dreamed that I was holding Izume in my arms and I was in hers, that we were pressed against each other, holding ourselves close to the other, getting to hold each other for the first time. I just hoped this would become a reality.