A/N: I apologize for the last two day-late delays, my work can get really hectic, that's what I get for working in a restaurant I suppose. Moving on, Review Time.
To Isshion: After failing the Moonlit Black Cats, no way would they or Sachi let history repeat itself. And Nautilus got to change his own fate too.
[Artorias]: ...you know, if you're expecting me to cave from this party trick of yours, fun fact, I work with Numbnuts 24/7
[Yuuki]: It's getting a little tricky too see though, but I like it, like we have our own ambience to follow us around!
[Artorias]: Don't encourage her...
Enjoy.
|Sword Art Online, Floor 40, Labyrinth Boss Chamber|
|Oct. 16th, 08:45|
It had only been a few minutes since the team was quickly reorganized, as they walked towards the ominous black doors at the end of a damp hallway pulled straight from a castle dungeon, Yuuki made a look of concern and guilt as they approached. Artorias noticed her brooding a mile away. "What's with the look?"
"Artorias... did we... make the right choice, coming here, I mean?" Yuuki stepped forward with the most downtrodden expression possible. "Everyone else is out rescuing those players, and we're out here for ourselves, I dunno..."
He smiled a bit, "If there's one thing we've learned, Boss and the others can handle their own fight - that's why we're here, why any of us are risking the flak from the likes of 'Heathcliff' and 'Sir Knight Wannabe'," Artorias explained, gesturing to everyone who was now watching them, knowing the other Sleeping Knights shared in their co-leader's doubts. "Given that, let's make sure to win this, prove to them their efforts were worth something - they put their trust in us, so vice versa."
"But..." Yuuki murmured. "We've been getting so much help from everyone to have our names engraved..." He nodded along with Yuuki's concerns, then did the only thing he could think of.
He reached out and grabbed her right hand in his, holding them up tightly to her surprise. "Those guys would go to the ends of the earth for each other, and... I don't deserve that from them, not after what I did to all of you," Artorias stifled his feelings on the issue, giving her hand a squeeze. "Sometimes, you have to fight to get your point across, right, Ran?"
The elder Konno twin looked surprised by what he said, but smiled and nodded. Yuuki's red eyes lifted slightly, and her friends chuckled under their breaths at the reoccurring words. Giving her hand a final squeeze, Artorias marched forward. "Come on, Cupcake, let's blow this boss away, then, when those doors crash down, let's show 'em just who we are, and promptly mock them for their tardiness,"
"We've gotten this far, we can't put Nagi's work to waste," Ran encouraged, standing up front with the two of them.
"Whatever it takes," Tecchi stomped his foot, moving to their left.
"Yuuki, you can't tell me this doesn't feel exciting? We're here, we're finally a step away from our long-term goal," Siune added softly, clutching her rapier tightly. "We'll follow you to the very end,"
"All the way to the top o-of Aincrad if w-we have to," Talken smiled timidly, adjusting his glasses.
"They're right; the strength you've shown is what's taken you this far," Kirito chimed in beside Artorias, staring at the doors. "It wasn't the sword skills, the system or gear; your innate abilities are what's driving your guild forward, this whole time, can't think of anyone that doesn't want to do the same standing here,"
Just then, Artorias watched Yuuki slap her own cheeks, psyching herself up. "Alright... Alright! One more battle to go!" But she then whispered something else under her breath. "...just watch, Mom, Dad..."
The Red Warrior didn't question it in time, their hands pressed to the doors as they let out a chilling rattle of cages and chains from beyond, grinding against the slate floor to the boss chamber.
Inside the large, circular room, four large cells were at the intercardinal directions behind a row of archways carved into the tall walls, goblets of fire and candle giving the main prison a gloomy texture. Chains swayed in the air above. Ominous, pinkish-crimson light filtered through four open archways high above on the walls, and at the far back was a cathedral-like mural, the sinister lighting pouring through the maiden's portrait. The outer ring of the arena was white stone, while the massive circle sank downward into a darker stone, right where the boss stood to greet them, the final boss of the main questline for Floor 40.
"You fools dare to insist on interfering with my true path of justice!? No more, today, your sentences will be dealt with personally, prepare yourselves, criminals!" The Warden bellowed deeply.
His skin was a dirty grey, mouth and nose obscured by a black mask, he wore a dignified prison warden's suit and hat, all navy with a faded brass hem and buttons, a matching belt buckle too and high collar. A pair of thick, black gloves, blood red pants tucked into work boots. Last, a weather black cape, buttoned to his shoulders and chained at the front. His eyes were a stone-cold blue, and in his right hand was a unique weapon. It was shaped to be a greatsword, but the whole blade had be replaced with a guillotine, the blade rising and snapping against the base of the guard.
He slammed it down by the longest end, making the ground shake slightly, all while a dark miasma of black and purple resonated in his left fist, casting down, it burned a rune at his feet, likely as an AOE.
/-\Bracken the Prison Warden - Lv. 73/-\
"You're in our way!" Yuuki stepped forward with a proud grin, raising her obsidian sword one more time. She'd need to replace it after this floor, and what better way to end its journey than right here? "It's you who should prepare himself!"
That seemed to really piss the warden off, so much so he stomped toward Yuuki first, four health bars appearing during his charge, greatsword execution weapon grinding on the floor behind him. He stood three times taller than even Tecchi. Meaning they were in for another giant battle with a corrupted officer of the law, literally corrupted.
"Spread out, Tecchi and Artorias, work with Yuuki to draw his Hate!" Ran instructed instantly, everyone spreading out to the edge to avoid Bracken's wide swings with his unique greatsword guillotine hybrid. Tecchi tanked the first two vertical slashes, the warden's blade cast deep blue for the arc. Artorias and Yuuki struck then after, a combination of their own Sharp Nails, the two diagonal slants with a twin horizontal midway to push Bracken backward where the face of Tecchi's tower shield struck the boss head-on with Shield Bash.
Bracken caught his foot, lunging in two horizontal strokes next, his left fist channelling a dark aura simultaneously. They evaded the skill but from around his form manifested four guillotine blades encircling his form, all of them doing true damage, slashing all three regardless with Bleed Lv. 3. Artorias kept on top of it, once the blades rotated twice, they vanished and he Kick-Stepped off the boss, tossing two light pink potions to remove the Bleed, as well as on himself, drawing Red Death into four heavy strokes of Savage Fulcrum, the '4' digging deep into his back.
The warden spun to strike Artorias with a Horizontal Arc only to have an obsidian and onyx pair of swords catch the inside of his greatsword, striking upward as one with their own Verticals, Yuuki and Kirito flowing into Vertical Arc, the scarring blow then met with an Upper Swing from Tecchi to the shoulder, followed into a horizontal cleave that made the boss stumble straight into the combined forced of Talken's Fatal Thrust and Siune's Oblique, the short-ranged thrust knocking the boss down to a knee, but it summoned another dark aura to his fist. The warden struck the ground.
"Dodge it!" Ran instructed, pulling back from her switch with Siune and Talken, the others doing the same, rolling out from the edges of the miasma in time. "Kirito and Artorias, now!" Moving just as the circle vanished, Artorias grinded his shield against the slamming greatsword, charging closer to the boss's feet while Kirito tore past Bracken's hip with a tremendous amount of force behind his sword's gleaming blade.
"Swiiiitch!" Artorias growled, throwing the large blade off his shield in time to roll back from a rotating circuit of guillotine blades. "Leap Frog, Cupcake!" Two boots dug into his back, seeing the purple beauty fly over the blades and drawing her dark blade down the length of the warden's, soon, sparks of violet covering its edge as she let out a wordless yell, brandishing a flurry of elegant slashes, cleaving arcs of magenta through the boss's chest and out its back, leaving behind one devastating overhead diving slam, releasing a burst of untold power that tore down the first HP gauge, the blast of starlight shoving the warden back toward the middle of the arena.
Bracken stood back, then held up his sword, having it inverted to face the ground, sparks of crackling red lightning beginning to siphon from the sky and down the middle of his body like a current or lightning rod. "Big attack, quickly, land some hits while he's unable to move, then prepare evasion skills!" Again, Ran, being the lowest level here, sought to keep to tactical for their party.
"All together now!" Kirito declared, twirling his sword around to have the blade rest over his shoulder, winding up with several other magnified pigments brightening the decrepit prison.
Tecchi, launch me!" Artorias requested, seeing the others move with their sword skills. The big guy knelt, holding his shield out for Artorias to run and jump over them. Seeing the blinding flourish of swings and thrusts strip down the boss's HP gauge below 50%. Tossing Red Death high, Artorias soon caught it and pulled down the full wrath of a celestial body, roaring pink flames cast onto its bloodied edge. "Meteor Fall!"
Yuuki spun around, completing Seven Sins in time to dodge back in time, feeling the hairs on her body stand on end when Artorias brought down a massive strike that roared in the air, causing the ground to tremble in fright. He threw himself back, suffering some damage due to the recoil, but then her red eyes widened when the lightning was channelled straight into the earth by the warden, having not even flinched from their combined assault.
From the ceiling above, over two dozen large guillotines attached to rusty chains jutted toward the ground, everyone quickly evaded or took cover behind Tecchi in time, but even he couldn't handle the large angled blades, thrown onto his backside, stunned. Artorias, on the other hand, didn't seem to flinch, sliding backward with Bleed Lv. 3 and the icon of... amputation. His shield clattered to the ground, having lost his forearm attempting to deflect one of the guillotines.
"A-Artorias!" They yelled, Ran gasping in horror, while Yuuki looked pale in the face, a cold bead of sweat rolling down her cheek.
"Heh... thanks for that, dumbass..." Strangely, if almost unnervingly, Artorias gave the big bad warden a toothy grin, Red Death covered in a thin mist of red, like blood turned to gas. "When I take critical damage above a certain threshold, this little ability of Red Death triggers - Blood Cull!" With a howling roar, Artorias swung around his longsword despite the gradual loss of HP, then, with one arm, the blade burst with a sinister pinkish-crimson radiance like it were bleeding. "Vorpal... Strike!"
Burning a trail of dark miasma behind him, Artorias slid next to Kirito in a flash, tearing through the boss, inflicting Bleed Lv. 4 in return, stripping a solid 9% in a single thrust. The brunette stumbled out of the post-motion, clutching a small, rectangular green crystal. "Alright, you can all stop worrying your pretty little heads - Heal," The crystal shattered, and his arm and HP soared back to full. "I'm not so stupid as to not carry a back-up plan if I lost an arm, triggering that skill's a pain!"
Everyone sighed in relief, then Tecchi grunted, having been slashed by the rotating guillotines while warding off another two-hit skill from Bracken. "Okay... focus on rotation, watch for that large AOE with the mist!" Ran cleared her throat, keeping everyone at their steady pace.
"Pretty risky move there," Kirito noted while Artorias flexed his healed arm.
"Not the first time I've tested out the skill doing that, still don't like it," It didn't hurt like hell, but the stinging and feeling of being impaired was jarring for him to experience. Making a grand gesture with his hand, Artorias smirked. "You make the stage, Blackie,"
"You got it," Kirito took off, evading the boss's wide horizontal crescents.
From the side, Artorias caught his shield thrown at him, Yuuki moving to his side, eyes glaring ahead. "...idiot," She jabbed his side, making him chuckle.
"Yeah-yeah, I'll make it up to ya," Facing forward, they waited for another miasma field to disperse, its attention drawn to Tecchi; Talken and Siune waiting behind his tower shield to attack. "Ready for a prison break?"
He saw the tip of her sword bounce off Red Death, nodding quickly. "Let's go!" She declared, and they kicked off the ground into a burst of speed at their backs.
The battle persisted vigorously for nearly seven minutes straight, evading the sweeping guillotines and slowing AOE, the boss compared to previous floors didn't have the biggest health pool but the damage and debuffs, including the True Damage on almost every special attack was frightening. With the combined ferocity of their party, the second health bar was torn to pieces.
Bracken swung down from the shoulder, striking Siune's rapier, both parrying, it held its ground, twisting the last arc of its sword skill wide to cleave Kirito's guarding blade, moving back when Yuuki swept twice in a parallel streak, pushing the guillotine greatsword high, "Switch!" Artorias struck the hilt of the greatsword with a smash of his shield, a backswing knocking the warden's posture off center long enough to complete his rosy skill with a heavy uppercut, leaping from his knee into a crushing slam, the shield releasing a light red burst at their feet.
From behind, two polearms struck the boss, making it stumble straight into Kirito's burning edge, carving out the boss's third gauge to around 10%, Yuuki twirling over an omnidirectional sweep, Cross Arc crackling against the warden's forehead, knocking him backward, forcing a haze at his feet, slowing and inflicting Defence Down to Ran and Talken, both grunting from a solid slant of Bracken's blade, halving their health. Then it released another halo of guillotine blades, all while inverting its larger one, crackling streams of lightning roaring across his form.
Everyone moved back, the falling guillotines striking with an awful clang towards the floor, all of them narrowly evading the tight spaces between the angled blades. Ran took this chance to relay her order. "That's it...! Artorias and Tecchi, draw its aggro, once close, attack him with your best skills available!" She threw her hand wide. "Kirito and Yuuki follow, then Talken and Siune, keep laying in as much pressure as possible - his attacks all deal true damage but he can be staggered before his big moves!"
"We're up, big guy!" Artorias dove backward with Kick-Step over Bracken's own Cross Arc, avoiding the miasma pooling below. Landing into a roll, Artorias and Tecchi held out their shields, a burning resonance of bronze and rose across their respective shields, aggroing the warden to turned its gaze to them, this time, using the four-hit skill Horizontal Square now that it was on its final HP gauge, launching far longer sword skills. Each deafening strike scraping sparks with the wind kicking at their backs. "Hoold!"
On the final blue slash, Artorias stomped forward with Tecchi. "Now!" The big blonde declared, and they swung out their shields, smashing them into the boss's guillotine blade, hearing it let out a grunt of surprise. Shifting his shield to the side, Tecchi swung down his mace, striking the boss's knee, then swept it side to side, pivoting on a heel counter clockwise for another wind-up strike, he rolled forward, slamming the ground once more, keeping the boss stunned by Diastrophism.
Artorias dove off the large guy's shoulder, blade burning pink, slicing downwards, then twirled his blade high like a golf club across Bracken's chest, landing, he threw his shoulder into the warden's stomach, quickly followed by a vertical slant, another shoulder tackle straight into a wide, far-reaching horizontal crescent, each blow creating a shockwave behind it. "Composite Skill - Meteor Break!" "Switch out!"
From the back left and right of Bracken, Kirito struck with five straight thrusts that almost compared to Asuna's rapier reflexes, leaving several holes in the boss's back before it swung, sweeping Kirito's hair, it stared down, Kirito leaping to draw his sword through the warden's shoulder, then did the same in a downward stroke on the opposite shoulder. He did a quick flip forward, spiking the boss on the head, causing it to stumble in a blinding flow of violet energy.
Yuuki let out a wordless cry, the arcs of her chipped blade cleaving straight through the boss, even as it summoned the rotating blades, her attacks tore through, leaving behind a jumping slash toward the ground, casting a haze of slashes from above, Phantom Rave leaving the purplette frozen in place, seeing the boss slowly force its weapon to rise, crackling blue energy whipped in the air. "Switch!" She managed, forcing herself into a tumble at the millisecond her body could move again.
Bracken's Vertical Square missed, leaving himself wide open to Talken, who had vaulted from his spear for a high kick to the jaw. The timid brass-coloured brunette kept his composure, landing to sweep wide from his left, turning into a sweeping kick, followed closely by another horizontal swat of his spear. He saw the boss raise its blade to cleave down, so he used the last hit of Dancing Spear to parry the guillotine blade high, catching the moving blade between the two rods with a terrifying 'crunch'.
Siune was fast to react, thrusting her baby-blue tinted rapier in four deadly slashes at the boss's sides, blowing it backward to free Talken. This made sparks appear on its frame, paralyzing it for a few precious seconds, riddled with a multicoloured laceration of invisible strokes of blades, Infinity Moment having triggered, the health plunging into the dark orange within seconds, it had roughly less than a quarter of its HP remaining.
"It still wasn't enough..." Siune winced, biting her lip.
Bracken then raised its inverted sword, Kirito's eyes widened a bit. "Prepare to evade, we'll get it on the next rotation!"
Ran, however, wasn't going to let that be the case, monitoring everyone's HP, even with the high-level healing potions from Artorias, the true damage left them all balancing around the yellow often. She moved between Siune and Kirito, keeping her posture low as she ran straight at the boss, and its deadly signature move. "I can do this, wait for the tells...!" The mass of guillotines rained from above, starting from the boss outwards.
All of them made a sickening scrape when they struck the ground, a rattle of chains in the process. Using this, Ran ebbed and flowed between the striking, angular blades like the wind, her shrine maiden outfit billowing with her movements that were fluid like a current, like she was dancing. Yuuki spotted this, grinning brightly in seeing how her sister was moving.
"Ran always liked to dance, hehe," The younger sibling chuckled a bit.
"She's using that skill to precisely evade the attacks before they happen," Kirito was quite impressed someone could interpret literal dancing into a combat art. The whole idea of 'two warriors in battle are dancing' really did apply here.
Ran held her breath, weaving between two more guillotines, using the chains to scale high just as both were cut at their links by Bracken's Horizontal Arc. Leaping over a follow-up swing, she felt the boss follow her front flip, her ponytail whipped behind her, blade now cast in bright red when she tore down like a speeding bullet, seeing several buffs meet her vision. Behind her, Artorias, who had avoided the guillotines also, threw all the buffs he could spend.
"I'll tax ya later, your welcome~!" He sang, evading between the warden's heavy slam attacks.
Keeping her skill channelled, Ran grinned much like Yuuki, slashing with a vertical high, then a horizontal left to right, rolling under the sweeping guillotines that appeared for a horizontal across both shins. Using it's legs, she ran and carved a deep wound through its side, vaulting backward over another vicious sword skill, her form elegant yet ruthless, amidst her somersault, she twisted her posture into a spinning horizontal that cleaved right to left all around her.
Slapping her palm into the cold ground, she twirled back upright, sweeping through Bracken's chest, then down against across the collarbone. A blast of scarlet slashes expunged from its large build before Ran's steely gaze. "Deadly Sins," Came her sharp huff, however, her gaze sharpened quickly, frozen in place by post-motion when seeing the guillotine inches from running through her scalp.
*Tiiing!*
Thrown like a frisbee, Artorias's shield bounced off Bracken's wrist, disrupting his motion long enough for Ran to move her right arm at the very least, burning red. When she swung high, Snake Bite stripped through the middle of its body, clasping her sword in both hands, she screamed loudly, striking down with the force of a hammer. Cutting a cleave, heavy red arc through the whole boss, splitting it in two with the final pixels of HP to boot.
Bracken shivered in place, one side becoming unaligned when it suddenly turned blue, spewing polygons all over the ground, Ran, and the air. The breath she had been holding eventually exhaled, falling to her knees in a sigh, seeing that her own health was close to the red too without realizing it, had Artorias not provided those potions, she might not be so relieved.
/CONGRATULATIONS!\
The red and magenta tints of the chamber quickly turned grey say for the sky through the windows, but it was over, and the stairway towards the next floor slowly rose from the center of the boss chamber up. Seconds later, a small window appeared with various items and drops. Thereby solidifying what they couldn't find the words to say.
They won.
"We did it..." Artorias fell to his knees, having no strength to move as he turned slightly only to spot a purple blur sprinting toward him.
"Artorias~!" Without much warning left, his back met the ground as Yuuki dogpiled him, hugging him so tight he might pass out. She sat up a little, her face inches from Artorias's with an ecstatic face that made him feel all warm and fuzzy. Is that weird? Don't answer, he thought. "Hahaha! We did it! We won! We won, Artorias!" He could hear it in her voice, she was more grateful than any person he had met.
"Yeah... crap I'm so exhausted!" He laughed, laying out on the ground as Yuuki flopped atop him, her head against his chest. "I can't even feel my legs anymore and my mouth tastes like I swallowed a candle and pennies,"
"It's done, our names are all on the Monument," Ran breathed, smiling happily at them all. Siune, Talken, and Tecchi all high-fiving with her. "You guys... we could never repay this, thank you from the bottom of our hearts," The co-leader bowed her head.
"All in a day's work, Short-Stack, relish in the glory!" Artorias waved his hand upward.
"It was a good thing the boss wasn't difficult, mechanic-wise, the Rat put a lot into looking into each Floor Boss until then," Kirito explained a bit with a shrug, feeling a little good about himself for pitching in at the last second. Besides, no casualties so it was no bother to him.
As the others sat down to rest, Artorias sat upright with Yuuki in his lap, now inches from his face. She was bizzare and was hyper about combat, even more than he was, yet, seeing the look of elation on her face, the sheer amount of happiness pouring from that smile and the gratitude in her eyes, he couldn't look away, even if he wanted to. "..." He felt himself tense when she looked at him with a curious giggle.
"Thanks to you guys, our guild's accomplished our goal, maybe not as a whole team, but our names are engraved in this world forever," She had her hands on his shoulders, "Now... we have no more regrets!"
That drew Artorias's mind back a little, staring at her. "'no more regrets'? Why did that sound so sad?" He opened his mouth to speak, but then heard the loud groan of gears and grinding of stone on stone. Forcing the subject aside for now, Artorias put on a smug grin when a crowd marched into the chamber, the distinct figures of Asuna, Heathcliff, and Lind stationed at the vanguard, all with faces warped by bewilderment, even Heathcliff raised a brow at the sight.
"No way..." Lind gaped, blinking several times.
"What took you guys? We were just about to roll out the red carpet!" Artorias sneered, holding up a peace sign with Yuuki who giggled beside him, hugging him from the side.
The others followed suit, even Kirito gave a nervous grin at the clear looks of hatred from the rest of the two guilds behind the lot. Slowly, however, Lind's face began to turn redder than Heathcliff's armour. "Dam... Dammit... NOT AGAIN!"
From that point forward, any attempts to solo a Floor Boss by a single guild without explicit reasoning behind it would be met with a ban from several raid parties for the future.
|Floor 25, Town of Senja Castle, Misfits Guild|
|Oct. 16th, 11:08|
"-and from that point on, we proceeded to be verbally abused by almost everybody - silver lining - the ban wasn't place on us given how integral we are to their useless parties, ta-da~!" Artorias gave jazz hands to conclude their side of today's events. "Seems we all had fun today. Near-death experiences, yelling, cursing, and a whole lot of chaos,"
Having returned home for a while, both sides recounted their mornings in detail, while there were hiccups, all parties and players walked away unscathed. Nagi smiled, gesturing across the table to two new players sat among their large group in the common area of the building. "Are you want to join us? You'd be instrumental to KoB's guild, and I know they'd definitely want you to join,"
Shaking her head, Yuna smiled while she sipped her tea beside Nautilus, the KoB member not leaving her side, now wearing some gear that didn't make him stand out as said member of that guild, basic leathers and a cloak. "I appreciate the concern, but after everything you've done to help Nau-kun with his FNC condition - with everything, I realize, having convictions can't lead to me being ready for the Clearers... yet," She offered them a grateful smile. "It's why, while I can, I want to join your guild until I'm ready, while maintaining that flexibility I have to share my music with everyone, not just one group or another, if that's okay?"
The young shinobi didn't see any issues with this, smiling with a quick nod, "Your skills are your own, how you use them to help is your choice. But singing... that's something only Yuna the Songstress has any right controlling," Extending a hand to her, he saw her face light up a little, and while a little bittersweet, Nautilus was more than okay with this decision, "Welcome aboard, Yuna,"
"Sweet, now we can have a background track for us," Artorias chuckled while the two shook on it.
"I want one too!" Daora waved his hand high.
"It's great to have you with us, Yuna," Mito gave a polite wave, smiling a little bashfully. "I'm... kinda a big fan of your music,"
Everyone, including Klein and his guild, celebrated Yuna's recruitment, Nautilus clapping too when his childhood friend offered him a hand with a warm smile. "Nau-kun, mind helping me with this one?" He stared at her open palm, extremely nervous as his face started to grow red. But her inviting, gentle smile forced his hand to comply, the two standing as Yuna slowly strummed her lute, thinking it's only best to give her new guild a thank you gift for everything they've done for her, and for the silly boy she couldn't be without.
Nautilus, awkward as he was, helped her sing a bit, the two doing a quickly cobbled together duet of a familiar song that all of them sat to silently appreciate together. Nagi smiled, the scent in the air around the two was a comforting notion that even if Yuna stuck to herself, she'd always have someone who was a capable person to protect her. Nautilus wasn't bound by the limitations of his Nervegear, not so long as he held onto that iron-will to always be there for the woman he loved.
Meanwhile, Artorias sat back on his cushion, his smile faltering for a moment to a neutral frown. Yuuki and her guild weren't here, having gone to see about their place on the Monument of Swordsmen connected to that harrowing chamber with every player's name written on it, some scored out by a hidden blade. What Yuuki said to him, whether she realized it or not, wouldn't leave his mind. In that moment, a tiny hole began to form in his stomach the more he lingered on her words.
"What are you hiding, Yuuki?"
To Be Continued...
Nearly at the end of this absolute jump in time of an arc. I swear, we go from June to December so quickly but it is how it is. Bet you can't guess what's next? This chapter really sets up a future arc focused around Artorias and Yuuki, when and where I will not say. Yuna also joins up with Misfits, but she'll still do her own thing, more so to have a group she can aid and level up faster with, sorta like with Sachi. I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate the support as always; seeya in the next chapter, Misfits!
057 - Blood Upon The Snow
Christmas is right around the corner, however, Argo senses turmoil is brooding in Kirito, and it may just send him over an edge he can't come back from...