Floor 13 - Chapter 1 - Hot and Bothered

For the group, the past three floors had been an interesting set of experiences. The Eleventh Floor had taught them how not to be killed in multiple sandstorms and how to live an almost Bedouin style life for the time being , whilst the Twelfth had certainly looked far more peaceful... until the Piscine Pirates turned up, and then it had been far from peaceful. As a result, they'd all been hoping that the Thirteenth Floor would be a little less chaotic.

As it turned out, the universe, and more particularly, their wannabe god had other ideas... cue them walking straight into an active volcano.

Sometimes, Jet wondered exactly how Kayaba decided what should be on a floor, and which floors were in which order, because the entire floor being the core of an active volcano certainly wasn't what he'd have considered a logical progression from a seafront on the last floor. That lack of thought on the actual surroundings had lead to him and Rain becoming lost inside one of the endless channels leading to the core, whilst racing to escape from what felt like it could've been the start of an eruption...

It hadn't, but the two of them were now very lost, and wandering aimlessly around the tunnels. That wasn't the only problem... the smell was diabolical! Both Jet and Rain had wrapped their winter scarves around their noses and mouths, a vain attempt to mitigate the smell.

It really wasn't working, and whilst they couldn't vomit... the constant gagging from the smell was getting infuriating, and another problem was starting to become obvious to them, as the heat and very low light reduced their visibility to practically none, with the visual distortions caused by the heat making that situation even worse.

''Rain, you still with me?'' Jet called back, as he held out a hand to signal to her where he was.

''Yeah, we could do with getting out of here though...'' Rain called out, her arm reaching out, and finding Jet's shoulder amongst the smog.

''Agreed, it's starting to smell-cough, splutter- worse than a gym changing room in here...'' Jet muttered, holding a hand up in front of his face, and not being able to see it was a pretty big indicator of just how thick the smog was. Had the smog been any thicker, he'd have expected it to be on Love Island...

''I can't even see my own messages...'' Rain muttered, trying not to let go of her only real way out of this cavern. The last thing she wanted was to be wandering around, alone, blind and constantly gagging on the smell of sulphur every time she had to take a deep breath, and it didn't take a genius to work out that Jet had a similar train of thought going on...

/-/

Almost an hour had passed, and the pair had at least escaped the blistering heat, the smog was dissipating quickly as they did so. For the first time in nearly an hour and a half, they took their scarves off, and breathed a sigh of relief. The smell was still poor, but no longer overwhelmingly so, and the heat was still immense, but had reduced to a manageable level the further they'd moved out of what they were sure was the core. Jet had, however, learnt that going to sit down was a very bad idea, as even with the pain limiter, scorching hot rock was still, well... scorching hot.

''I've messaged them, but no reply yet.'' Rain, evidently taking note of the situation her friend was now in, nursing his burnt backside whilst muttering about the point of the pain limiter if it would do that, decided not to lean on anything nor sit down, and turned to the singed knight. ''Still sore?''

''I feel like a kid who sat on the hob. Just a bit, yeah.'' He replied, sarcastically.

''It is a bit weird though.'' Rain ignored the sarcasm, and got straight to the point. ''The pain limiter, why would it have an upper threshold? Surely that would be the point you'd want to, you know, limit pain? I mean, imagine if you broke a leg during a fight, and tried to carry on... there's only so much adrenaline can do, right?''

Jet blinked repeatedly, before opening and closing his mouth. She had a really good point there actually, why was that the case? ''Huh, didn't think of that... yeah, you're-''

''Wall.'' She interrupted, noticing where Jet's arm was about to go...

''Wall?'' He asked, his arm brushing against the molten rock... ''YEOWWW!'' He leapt back, resembling a cat leaping from a hot tin roof in that moment.

''I did warn you.'' Rain shrugged. ''Ah! Koharu's answered, they're not far from the exit, but it's... oh.'' Rain's look of optimism faded rapidly. ''It's back the way we came.''

''Urgh, this day gets better and better...'' Jet grumbled, now nursing his arm instead, whilst the pair set off back through the worst smog and smells that they'd ever experienced...

Walking back through the tunnels, Rain looked around and noticed something - the smog wasn't anywhere near as dense as it had been when they came through. The visual distortions were still irritating, and the heat was just as unpleasant as before, but both of them could at least see a further distance than before. With little to no warning, the rock around them began to shake violently, almost throwing the pair to the floor...

''Oh not again...'' Jet muttered, looking at the floor below him and feeling the pit in his stomach get increasingly larger. As did the crack beneath them, for that matter...

A few gingerly footsteps later, and the pair were praying to anything they could find that the rock would hold just long enough.. a prayer that wouldn't be answered as it turned out, the ground beneath them giving way, as rocks plummeted from above.

''Shit.'' Jet said, a sense of exasperation in his infliction, before disappearing below the rocks and being almost buried by them...

/-/

Further down the passage, two younger players were walking through, a boy and a girl. The boy, taking point in the tight cave, told the girl, ''I'm just saying, I think we should've asked for help, Yuna!''

''You're such a worry wart Naut, we'll be-'' GRUMBLE ''-fine?''

''I think we should head back, Yuna. I really don't like the sound of that...''

''It's probably just a monster up ahead... besides, Sanya said we'd be able to handle ourselves, right?'' Yuna asked, hoping that would allay the ever cautious Nautilus. She knew he was just wanting her to be safe, but they'd have to take some risks if they wanted to go higher and higher in the floating castle, and perhaps there was such a thing as being too cautious...

''Yuna...'' Nautilus trailed off, noticing the lack of light and the screams from up ahead. ''I don't think that's a monster...''

For the first time so far, Yuna felt herself agreeing with his cautious approach, and backing up slightly. ''Err, yeah, I think we should-AHHHHH!'' Unfortunately, she'd backed up onto a crack that had gone unnoticed in the darkened passageway, and much like the other pair, the ground below them gave way...

/-/

A few moments later, Jet awoke to a head that felt as if someone was tap dancing on it whilst wearing steel toe capped boots, and a complete lack of vision around him. Not only was he blind, and with a splitting headache, but now, he felt a crushing sensation on his chest, which was just a bit unsettling. Freeing one arm from a boulder that had landed on top of it, he felt a certain amount of relief that broken bones were not a thing in Aincrad before using the freed arm to push the rock off his ribcage. ''Well, this is definitely not how I planned to be spending today...'' he muttered, pulling his leg from under a different boulder, before a realisation set across him... ''Rain!''

Looking at his HUD, her health bar was still there and in the orange, so she was alive, if not in the best of states. That helped settle his fears a little, but that didn't tell him whether she was still up top, or had been pulled down with him, and if it was the latter, how buried she was either. Quickly checking his messages, he noticed one from Koharu, asking whether they'd just felt that too. A short response telling her they were buried on the lowest level of the volcano was sent off, and he began digging through whatever rubble there was. Standing up, he felt a twinge in his foot, and almost toppled back over, before steadying himself, and applying some pressure to his ankle to check. ''Argh! Yep, definitely sprained...'' He hissed in pain, climbing back onto his injured foot, and accepting that he could rest later... what mattered now was finding his friend!

Ten minutes passed by, and the constant movement on what felt like a sprained wrist and ankle were starting to take their toll on Jet, and despite the dull sensation of pain that was apparently now present in Aincrad, ten minutes of it - repeatedly, and often in awkward ways - were enough to bring tears to his eyes, and despite the rapid hissing, and gasping for breath, it wasn't getting any better any time soon...

As he began to hobble to a different position to search, he noticed a hand popping out of a pile nearby and without thinking, began to dig frantically, an unfamiliar voice soon becoming audible as he did so. ''Some-someone's there?'' The voice was that of a slightly younger boy, clearly uncomfortable in his position, but not obviously in pain, per se.

''Yeah, give me a few, and you'll be out. Can you move?'' Jet asked, continuing to rubble rocks off the boy.

''I'm fine, where's Yuna? She was right behind me!'' His tone of discomfort soon became one of panic, as the rocks began to move without Jet moving them. The boy was pushing them away himself, and he was doing a surprisingly quick job of it for someone buried...

''Yuna? Let me get you out of here, and we can look for her. I, uhh, I didn't catch your name?''

''Nautilus, you?''

''Jet.'' He hated small talk, but it was an oddly effective way to get people on your side, in his experience.

''Oh, you're the one Sanya despises then?'' Jet's face dropped. It may have been true, but surely she didn't hate him to that degree? He hadn't actually done anything to her, other than one sarcastic comment during the pantomime...

''At least she doesn't call me the Knight of the Wind, I suppose.'' He muttered, looking for the brighter side of things in that discovery.

''It's usually something in Russian, and I'm pretty sure it's not a very pleasant name.'' Nautilus shrugged, as Jet rolled his eyes. Somehow, that one sentence gave him a clue on this kid - not detached as such, but certainly not the most animated character either. Before too long, the rocks had been removed from Nautilus, who seemed hell bent on pulling the rocks away everywhere he looked. On more than one occasion, a flying rock or two had smacked into Jet during his search for Rain, and by extension, this girl Yuna... not that he had a clue on who he was looking for, Nautilus barely providing more than a grunt when asked for even a vague description.

''Ghhh...'' Jet stopped in his tracks, and signalled to Nautilus to stop too. That was definitely a person, not a creaking rock formation... though he couldn't tell if it was Rain or not.

''Rain, you there?!'' Jet yelled down, through a very small gap in the debris.

''Yeah, I'm not the only one though...'' Her voice sounded smaller than usual, and it sounded especially pained.

''Naut, she's over here I think!'' Jet shouted over.

''I'm still looking for Yuna... and don't ever call me that again.'' Nautilus shouted back from his digging position.

''I meant Yuna, and noted.'' Jet rolled his eyes, as the younger boy raced over and started pulling debris off the pile. Between the two of them, and Rain pushing the rocks pinning them down out of the way, the two girls were freed in a surprisingly short time. None of the group were in a particularly good shape after the impromptu drop, and whilst Nautilus and Yuna seemed to be in the best shape out of them, they were also the least experienced, even by their own admission. Jet could still only barely stand upright, and using his shield was completely out of the question with his wrist, his health having dropped into the orange just after the fall, whilst Rain was physically unscathed, but seemed dazed by the impact.

Needless to say, the group took the time to sit still for a while, hopefully to allow the worst of their injuries to ''heal''.

''So, what bought you two up here?'' Rain asked, looking them over. She recognised at least some of the gear that Yuna used, the dagger especially, which was one of the ones she'd bought from Lisbeth, for the older children at the orphanage to have some form of quality gear.

''There's a quest on this floor to get the materials to make a musical instrument, I wanted to have something to, you know, entertain people.''

''I did say we were underleveled for this floor, but we came anyway...''

Rain gave a soft smile towards Yuna, whilst Jet finished up replying to messages, and returned to the conversation. ''Even if you are, we'll help you get that instrument. Call it a favour for the help in pulling Rain out.''

''We wouldn't want to intrude... especially not if it slows down progress.'' Nautilus stated, looking at Jet in particular. Jet just shrugged, and smiled towards the younger pair.

''Eh, we're already slowing ourselves down as is. No bother.''

/-/

Nearly an hour had passed, and the group continued to dig their way through the collapsed tunnel, and as they headed deeper and deeper into the tunnels, the sensation of blindness had passed, and been replaced by a different one... ''It's not just me, is it? It is getting really hot in here...'' Yuna asked, wiping her sweat from her forehead.

''Nope, I feel like a prince on the Falklands...'' Jet muttered, wiping the sweat back into his hair.

''Aren't the Falklands really cold?'' Nautilus asked, slightly confused why anyone would be sweating in the South Atlantic...

''They are, but-'' Jet stopped, a weight now pulling on his right ankle as he tried to move his foot. It almost felt as if whatever it was had wrapped itself around his ankle, despite how unlikely that theory was, with everything around him, bar his allies being made of... ''Oh no.'' He looked down at his ankle, and placed a hand on the object around it... stone, with pulsating orange veins through it.

''Jet?'' Rain had stopped in her tracks, and looked back to see one very uncomfortable looking Jet, who was now realising just how far down the river he was, and just how far away the paddle was - in a metaphorical sense, anyway.

''I think... we may have found the field boss.'' He whispered, only barely audible over the roar of the lava running through the veins beside and underneath him.

''Where?'' Rain asked, reaching for her swords as she looked around...

''It's around my foot.'' Jet gulped, realising just how Asuna felt on the third floor, with a treant wrapped around her. Whatever happened next, Jet knew one thing... it wasn't going to be much fun for him!

{Author's Comments}

Lucky thirteen for our heroes? Probably not, no.

Apologies for being a week late with this, and I did hope to have a double chapter for this update, but I at least have a proper plan going forward now, and there will be an intermission chapter, after this floor, to set up the next story arc.

Anyway, if you've enjoyed this, leave a follow and/or favourite, or you have any feedback to leave, leave a review!

Signing off,

Midland 2541