Drifter should have listened to his inner voice telling him to stay in bed today. He should have agreed when Yuna told them to take the day off and relax. But he didn't.
"Arghhh!"
He didn't turn back when the screaming started. He didn't stop running when he heard the sound of glass shattering. He got to the entrance of the labyrinth.
And only then he broke down.
-------------------------
Earlier that day.
"Ugh... Are you sure we have to go in today?"
"There's not much else we can do, Yun'."
"I can think of plenty of things to do other than griding. Like singing. Or sleeping. Pretty much anything that isn't boring."
Drifter chuckled at Yuna's and Nautilus' antics. At least they were in a good mood. Drifter himself couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Later, he would learn that this kind of sixth sense was not to be ignored. But that was in the future. Now, he just shelved it in the back of his mind. That was a mistake.
The trio entered the tower with practiced ease. Following their maps, they made their way towards one of the areas marked as unexplored. Long before they got there, they found one of the many << Ruin Kobolds >> patrols. By now, they could deal with them with their eyes closed.
Okay, that was an exaggeration. But they could exterminate the mobs without breaking a sweat, and the only casualty was a few durability points off of Nautilus' shield.
With experienced and even slightly bored, but still cautious steps, the party made their way deeper into the labyrinth. Drifter looked at his map. To him, everywhere in the tower looked the same, but the map showed the dots representing themselves about to enter a foggy area.
"All right, we are here. Remember, we're just doing recon. Our aim is to find the boss room. Let's not bite off more than we can chew."
"Aye aye, captain."
"We've done that twenty times already, Drifter. We know."
"Still not a reason to be careless, Yuna."
The songstress pouted, but Drifter knew this was just banter. They knew what to expect of the labyrinth, and could even take on two kobold patrols, if not easily, then at least safely. But they still took all precautions. At this point in the game, no one still alive would be reckless inside the labyrinth. And yet, SAO claimed more lives every day.
Spear drawn, Drifter advanced into the labyrinth, keeping Yuna to his left, while Nautilus stood on her other side. Mobs could spawn anywhere, and as the one with the lowest defense stat in their party, the musician always found herself flanked by her two companions. Even if this unconscious action by the two of them annoyed her sometimes, that feeling was always overwhelmed by the warmth she felt.
Suddenly, Drifter stopped, his eyes glowing green. Recognizing the use of the << Searching >> skill, Nautilus and Yuna halted, hands gripping their weapons tight.
"Drifter?"
"Kobold patrol just around that bend."
"Just one?"
"Uhum. Should we?"
Nautilus and Yuna nodded. If they wanted to continue exploring, they had to follow this path. And you didn't leave mobs behind you. That would be asking to die.
They heard the growling and snarling before they turned the corner. One of the things every player both loved and greatly disliked about SAO was that mobs worked in an aggro range. Meaning, sometimes you could waltz right in front of their eyes and they would do nothing, but other times they had their backs turned to you, but you would still be found before being able to get within striking distance. Which was what happened now. But even that could work in their favor if they used it right.
The first << Ruin Kobold >> turned the corner running, one-handed axe ready to cleave someone in half. The mob was met with Nautilus' shining blade. << Horizontal Square >> tore into the monster, leaving four bright red gashes on it's chest. Drifter immediately followed up his friend's skill with one of his own, bringing the << Ruin Kobold >> down to a third of it's health.
Before they could finish it off, the other two mobs burst through the corner, mouths open and fangs showing.
"Nautilus!"
"On it!"
Their shield bearer and resident blade user stepped forward to intercept the kobolds. Bashing one of them in the face, he blocked the other with his weapon. Seeing that he had things under control for now, Drifter turned his full focus to the first mob. Better to cut off a finger than break ten, the saying went. Or something like that.
While he parried an axe strike, Yuna moved for the first time, her small frame allowing her to duck under the << Ruin Kobold's >> arm, her dagger bitting deeply into the creature's midriff with a << Canine >>. According to Argo, once her mastery of that skill got high enough, there would be a bonus bleeding effect. For now, it just did a ton of damage and left the mob howling in pain. Drifter quickly put an end to it's cries.
"Naut, switch!"
Without missing a beat, Drifter rushed to assist Nautilus. The blade user got another blow in before jumping back, and allowing Drifter to get a clean line of sight at the << Ruin Kobold >> he was facing. With a << Rage Spike >>, he launched the mob in the air.
Switch was a new technique the party had been working on lately. It was Argo who had told them about it, actually. And free of charge, to their shock and suspicion. Apparently it was something commonly used in other MMOs. To keep control of the rhythm of the battle, players would trade places, allowing the one who was just at the frontlines to catch their breath. This also allowed them to fill the gap after a skill had been used, both dishing out more damage and stopping the mobs from taking advantage of that opportunity.
Their switch was far from perfect. They learned that when they moved on from training against << Dire Wolves >> to << Ruin Kobolds >>. Turns out, every mob has it's own speed, stats, and attack patterns. That was painfully obvious, but it had somehow slipped their minds.
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To make the move work, you needed to take into account everything, from how much knockback the mob took, to how fast it recovered. Not to mention, you needed to be in sync with the one you were performing the switch. And that changed with every player. More than once they tripped into each other because Drifter tried to switch with Yuna the same way he did with Nautilus.
But this time the switch worked well. << Ruin Kobolds >> were just 1st floor mobs, after all. Their AI was predictable. That left some room for error even if they somehow messed up.
Unfortunately, even if Drifter's party did everything perfectly, fate had unavoidable troubles in store for them.
Just as he prepared to hit the mob again and bring it down to red, that very same bad premonition he had been having since early came back, and stronger. He just had to look around to find the source.
"Well, shit."
"Language, Naut!"
"I don't know, Yuna. I think he summed it up pretty good. Shit."
Three sources of light indicated the arrival of three more << Ruin Kobolds >>. And they couldn't have spawned in a worst position, right behind the party, surrounding them and cutting off their escape path. Drifter's mind briefly went to that survivor he saw the day he arrived in Tolbana. It was probably like this that his party was wiped out.
"No way in hell I'm allowing that to happen. Nautilus, Yuna, we're gonna have to fight our way out!"
Saying that was unnecessary. The moment they saw the << Ruin Kobolds >> spawn, Nautilus redoubled his efforts in killing the one he was facing against. Even one less mob would already increase their survival odds exponentially.
On the same wavelength as her childhood friend, Yuna stabbed the monster with her dagger. What she lacked in technique, she made up for in speed, which was exactly what they needed. Meanwhile, Drifter was abusing the longer reach of his spear to keep the newly spawned patrol at bay.
"Hah!"
With a shout, he cast << Horizontal Arc >>, knocking back two of the mobs. The third one managed to get through and struck with it's own spear, drawing a red line along his arm. Panicking ever so slightly, Drifter pulled back his arm and used his tried and tested specialty, and kicked the << Ruin Kobold >> in the groin. He had no idea if that did as much damage as it would to a human - probably not - but it worked well enough to push the mob back.
Quickly thrusting forward twice, he managed to poke two holes in the other mobs, and heard Yuna and Nautilus cheer as the second of the original << Ruin Kobolds >> shattered. Their joy was short-lived, however, and Drifter heard Yuna yell in fear.
Unable to stop himself, he turned his head and saw the songstress with a long red gash on her shoulder. The remaining kobold she and Nautilus were facing still had his axe glowing red from << Double Cleave >>.
"Yuna!"
"Yuuna!"
Both men shouted, and Nautilus turned his sword onto the offender with such ferocity even Drifter would be scared if he saw it. But in his moment of distraction, a << Ruin Kobold >> managed to slip through his guard, and buried it's axe in Drifter's side. His health fell into the yellow zone, and he was forced to forget Yuna's peril in favor of his own.
With a grunt, he smashed the butt of his << Kobold Spear >> against the mob's snout, then, while it was disoriented, he pierced it's eye and entire head. That triggered a critical hit, and the << Ruin Kobold >> was killed.
Drifter stumbled back until he was next to his party members again. A quick look at the HUD showed that they were all at about half health. But now it was three on three, and the mobs' health bars weren't that much fuller than theirs. Downing a health potion, he saw Nautilus and Yuna do the same.
"We are almost through it!"
His arms burning, Drifter stabbed at the closest kobold. At the same time, he heard Yuna starting to play a familiar melody, and saw a symbol light up on his HUD. They were going to make it.
"Help!"
As one, their heads snapped to the source of the voice shouting help. On the far end of the path they were on, running in their direction, were two players, being chased by no less than five << Ruin Kobolds >>. As they watched, one of the mobs lunged forward, his axe finding purchase in the back of the slowest man. His companion didn't even look back as he fell. Drifter, Yuna, and Nautilus didn't have time to feel outraged. They witnessed in shock as the unfortunate player was ganged upon by the << Ruin Kobolds >>, and killed.
Having seen a similar scene twice before, Drifter was the first to recover. He swept his spear to the left, knocking back a kobold, and shouted at his party.
"Hurry up! We have to kill them before they get here or we are finished!"
They were already in a bad state. Even with the health potions and Yuna's << Rest >>, their HP was still hanging precariously in the yellow zone. If they had to face eight << Ruin Kobolds >>, even with the help of the other player - who was in an even worse situation than them - there would be no way to survive.
His shout woke Nautilus and Yuna up from their stunned state. Trauma could come later. Now they had to survive.
"Auurghhh!"
Nautilus decapitated one of the kobolds. Now there were two left. The player and his pursuers were less than forty meters away.
"Ugh!"
Willingly taking a hit, Drifter buried his spearhead into a << Ruin Kobold's >> leg. That was enough to wipe out what little was left of it's HP. He turned to look at the incoming attackers, and his heart stopped.
The player who had been running towards them, shouting for help, had disappeared. But, it couldn't be! He hadn't heard him yell, nor the sound of glass shattering that accompanied a player's death. Regardless of what he thought, the five << Ruin Kobolds >> who had been hunting the player now turned their sights to Drifter's party.
He heard Nautilus curse and Yuna let out a choked sob. Some kind of instinct alerted Drifter that something was wrong. His eyes glowed green, and he stared at a certain spot just a few meters to the left of the group of mobs. His expression morphed into one of intense fury and disgust.
"Run!"
Yelling just this one word to his friends, Drifter used a << Horizontal >> to get rid of the last << Ruin Kobold >> that was harassing them. Then he brought his spear up above his shoulder, holding it awkwardly. His gaze fixed on the spot he had pinpointed before, he threw his << Kobold Spear >> with all his might.
Without waiting to see if he hit his target, he turned around and grabbed Yuna and Nautilus, who were still frozen, by their arms, and started running. From behind came a grunt of pain which definitely didn't belong to a kobold.
Yuna staggered, and tried to search for the person who yelled. What she saw were the five << Ruin Kobolds >> halt their pursuit, and change their target to the very same player she thought had died.
"Wait! He is still..."
"Run, Yuna! Before they aggro back onto us!"
Dragging his friend, Drifter stopped her from turning back. Low on health and exhausted as they were, even a single << Ruin Kobold >> could spell their doom, let alone five. And it wasn't worth it. Not for him.
"Arghhh!"
Drifter felt Yuna shiver in his grasp when she heard the scream. He didn't stop. He didn't look back. Not even when he heard the sound of glass shattering. He didn't let his party members stop either. Only when they left the labyrinth that they finally ended their mad sprint.
"Drifter!"
Gasping for air, Drifter collapsed. He refused to look up and meet Yuna's eyes, ashamed. It was only when she didn't say anything else that he raised his head. She wasn't looking at him. She was looking above him. Training his gaze upwards, Drifter saw it.
His cursor had turned orange.