I kept Neo at swordpoint, holding her basically hostage as we wandered around the fog aimlessly, I was growing more and more anxious about Toru and her safety. “Can’t you be more gentle with that sword?!?” Neo shouted a bit as I gripped the sword and pressed it up at the back of her neck, “Just keep walking..” I said as we kept walking and looking around. We then heard a couple of metallic clanging sounds as I bolted over, Seeing through the treelines that Toru was defending herself rather than fighting her way out.

“Why isn’t she fighting back?”

I thought to myself as I saw the movement of an anonymous person flash around Toru, chuckling. “I recognize that voice!” I thought to myself as I rushed in and was immediately kicked back by the fast moving mob. Toru took up a guarding stance, covering her head as she blocked sword swing after sword swings. “Toru!!!” I shouted as Toru looked around saying “Kirin-kun?” as she felt a swing on her back as she turned around and felt another hit. I ran as I stopped to see a rapidly twitching mob standing between me and Toru.

“What the fuck is that!”

I thought to myself as I kept silent and striked at the twitching mob, suddenly the mob zipped past me, I turned around as it zipped towards my face and swung its fist across my face. I swung my sword hastefully as my swing missed the mob, Neo stood there watching us struggle against them, she began to slowly back up as she backed up into someone. Neo turned around to see Kirito and Asuna had arrived at the scene, “A little help here??” I asked them as Kirito sighed and said “Alright just duck” as Kirito and Asuna ran towards us, unsheathing their weapons. My health had dropped to yellow for constantly missing and unable to hit the mob as Kirito swung and also missed his swing.

“Damn thing is fast..”

Kirito said as we had our backs to each other, the mob zipped around us as Asuna threw multiple rapier thrusts. The afterimage of the mob around Toru had slipped past her attempt as Asuna landed as Toru fell to her knees. Kirito and I began swinging our swords trying to hit the mob as it fought back, Kirito began to take some damage as I also took more damage from this mob.

I noticed a small pebble on the ground slowly moved more to the right each time as I swung at the same way as the pebble was going, suddenly the mob jumped out of the way and crash landed nearby. “Hey what did you do?” Kirito asked as I replied “I saw a pebble slowly moving right so I swung right” as both of us then found out. We quickly rushed over to the mob as it swiftly zipped past our swings again This time Kirito ran right as I ran left.

I swung on its left as Kirito swung on its right, The mob jumped back but was impaled by a dagger. “I’ll help out this one time.” Neo said as she pulled the dagger out of the mob and saw it shatter. Kirito and I turned and ran over to help them as I swung right and Kirito swung left this time. A Shriek was let out as we did that as it crashed into a tree nearby, Kirito, Neo and I were affected with a deafness debuff as I looked at Toru and Asuna.

I saw their lips moving as I couldn’t understand what they were trying to say, everything was silent as I looked at Kirito. Kirito was trying to say something as I tried saying “What?” as we both looked at each other confused. I saw something fly towards us as I pointed at it and raised my sword up and ready, Kirito turned to look and did the same.

Within a split second, Kirito and I were knocked to the floor as we both crashed into the ground and skipped on it, with Kirito crashing into a tree and I skipping a bit before rolling. “Kirito! Kirin!!” Toru shouted as she got up and ran over but was interrupted by the mob. She stepped back a bit before ducking under wide arm swings and jumping back to Asuna.

Asuna readied up as she heard a knife drop as she looked over and saw Neo, terrified from her deafness debuff as she dropped to the floor scared. Asuna began looking at the mob and back at neo, becoming undeciding to help one person. Toru threw a punch at the mob as its health slowly went down a bit, she then began throwing more punches as the mob barely budged but slowly dropped down in health. Toru then activated a Martial arts skill and slammed her fist straight into the mobs abdomen, hearing it screech out in pain. Asuna ultimately chose to help out Neo to get her to safety, sheathing her wind fleuret and running towards Neo. She grabbed Neo by the arm and ran her to a rock she could hide by.

Asuna then said “Just stay here” as Neo didn’t understand a single word she said as Asuna ran back towards Toru. Toru was then smacked back and rolled a bit, coughing a bit before getting back up. Asuna jumped in and threw a flurry of thrusts at the mob, knocking it off balance and catching itself. Toru got up as Asuna and Toru rushed in to deliver multiple attacks, chipping it’s health down to yellow. Kirito and I got up after shaking off a concussion debuff and cleansing our deafness debuff.

We both looked at Toru and Asuna as they were getting closer to killing off the mob, “should we help them?” I asked Kirito as he replied “No, I think they got this.”. We both sat back down and watched them fight the mob, Meanwhile Toru and Asuna both threw a punch and a rapier thrust as they killed the mob in one powerful hit, knocking it away as it disappeared into polygons.

Asuna and Toru were tired to the brim, Asuna sat down as she exhaled and inhaled pretty heavily and Toru jumped a bit happy about her victory. “I did it!!” Toru shouted as Asuna chuckled and watched her jump quite girly, Toru landed on her feet as Asuna said to her “Well aren’t you the jumpy one, I didn’t expect someone like you to have a girly side” as Toru looked at her confused. “What do you mean? I can act all cutesy like you sometimes” Toru replied to Asuna’s comment as Asuna tried to point out something as she said in a little bit of an annoyed tone “Now listen here Toru.. Just because I act girly doesn’t mean it’s a flaw..” Toru looked at her and put her hand out saying “Well that’s something we agree on”, Asuna grabbed her hand as she pulled Asuna back up to her feet.

“Are you two done talking?”

I shouted as both Asuna and Toru turned their attention to us as Kirito and I were just watching them. After a while Toru and I parted ways with Kirito and Asuna, walking our separate ways and taking Neo over to Frieven. “Hey Toru..” I said to her as she looked at me, I cleared my throat before stopping in our tracks. I held her hand before telling her “I’m..I’m sorry okay” as she just looked at me, I then continued pulling more courage out of my reserve, saying “I fucked up alot of the times we’ve been together.. Even though we haven’t been together that long I feel like I should do better…So… I’m sorry for almost everything…”.

Toru then said “What are you talking about? That should be my line” as I looked at her confused, replying “What? What do you mean by your line?”. Toru then said “I got you into my mess right? So I should be apologizing”, I was genuinely surprised at her reaction towards it as she held my hand and gently squeezed it, going in for a kiss on my cheek.

“Listen Kirin…-”

Toru said as we were interrupted by a message from Diabel, We both checked the message as it said,

“Toru, please tell Kirin that we have found the labyrinth for this floor. Please head out to the frontlines immediately.”

We looked at each other before we both began heading towards the labyrinth location. Within the text Diabel had also left us the coordinates to the Labyrinth location. We were running as fast as we could as I was significantly faster than Toru, I kept my pace with hers to not lose her in the back. Toru and I arrived at the location as there was a camp set up nearby the Labyrinth, Diabel looked up and saw us “Kirin! Toru!” he said as we walked over and he greeted us with a handshake.

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“Did you ask Argo for the location?”

I asked Diabel as he nodded saying, “One of our guys had given her the information to us via Argo, he paid Argo in advance so when we got the information it was in his debt” as we were surprised by it. “Argo usually never takes prepaid col, I guess it was necessary..” I thought to myself as Diabel opened his menu and handed us a copy of his map and the labyrinth map. We both took it as we added it to our own map, seeing the vast world.

“Do you know when the raid will start, Diabel?”

I asked him about the raid, Diabel replied “Almost, Kirito and Asuna are on their way as we need them for the raid..” I sighed as I asked him another question “Are you sure about this?, you almost died in fatal scythe’s fight.”. Diabel nodded saying “When I die, it’ll be for us to press on and finish the game..” I chuckled a bit before patting him on the back saying “You’ve been a good commanding officer y’know” as we laughed it off a bit.

A player comes running to us saying “Kirito and Asuna have arrived!” panting when he reaches us to catch his breath. Diabel opens his map and hands me two map scrolls saying “Hand these to Kirito and Asuna, They’ll need it” as Diabel hurried over to the front. I ran over to Kirito and Asuna who were in the back saying “Here have these, it’s from Diabel” as Kirito and Asuna saw the maps, “Thanks Kirin” Kirito said as both of them took the maps and added it to their own maps. We all ran over to the doors as they began to open, Toru followed behind me as Kirito, Asuna and I were running behind them.

We slipped through the door as it closed right behind Toru, we all looked at each other saying “Alright, let’s get this done!” as everyone charged in. We all let out a battle cry as the front fought off the stronger and incoming mobs that were there. “HAAH!!” I shouted, slashing a Galliant Haymaker and seeing it shatter, I looked behind me to check if the group was still intact as I heard screaming from my left. I turned to see three players had drifted off from the groups, surrounded. “I got it!!” Kirito and I said in sync as we looked at each other and became competitive for a bit, running in and slashing around the small group using our own sword skills.

Kirito had a wider variety of Sword skill than I did but I had stronger hits and faster deploy time, Kirito and I both spun around and slammed our swords straight through the same Galliant Haymaker, clashing swords in the middle of it as it dispersed into particles. Kirito and I stared each other down for a second before I told him “let’s get these guys back to the group” as he nodded, we then guarded the group back towards the main group.

Toru and I checked around the group at the boss door, doing a headcount of everyone to check if we lost any. After the headcount, we counted out six players as possibly dead from our groups. “Alright people!” Diabel shouted as he stood up and caught their attention, including mine, Toru, Kirito and Asuna. “Listen up! What we have here is the only thing standing in our way of Floor 8 and Floor 9! If we can reach up to floor 9, we can be able to reach up to floor 10 and then on! We need to have our heads high and have our swords ready! Raise your swords for our freedom!!” Diabel shouted with motivation spilling out of his motivational speech.

A bunch of people cried out as Diabel got down from the side and opened the door, sliding down a steep hill and onto a floor. Some players fell down and rolled down the steep decline as I slid down along with Toru sliding down. I helped out some of the players that had fallen down and handed them potions to keep them at max health. Diabel then shouted out “Remember! Two groups!” as they took the formation. We all stayed on guard as we waited for the boss to appear, as we all waited we then heard a crackling laughter, a slithering sound was heard all around us.

“Guys! Look over the edge!!”

One person pointed out as I looked over the edge, seeing a slithering body spiral upwards towards the platform. I turned my attention away from the edge as I saw a red circle, “OH SHIT GET AWAY!!” I shouted as a tail slammed down on the side, knocking those away and towards the middle. From the middle side of the edge, a serpent is then right in-front of us. “OH SHIITTT!!” I shouted as we had to jump out of the way, another tail slam was heard and caused a shockwave. Four health bars showed up for the boss as the name was revealed, saying Wadjet the Flaming Serpent.

Flames came out of its mouth as it hit the platform and all the players began hurrying back to one side, some of the players running were engulfed by it’s flames. “Alright! Flank it’s blind spots!” Diabel shouted as we all let out another battle cry, rushing towards Wadjet. A screeching roar was heard as Wadjet slithered around some players and whipped its tail at us, we all took cover as more players were flung off the side of the platform and into the pit below. Diabel saw this as he shouted “Fall back! Split into smaller groups of two or three!” as players began splitting up into small groups.

Kirito and Asuna rushed in as Kirito used Horizontal Square to increase his aggro onto himself, “Asuna you’re up!” he shouted as he began dodging backwards to avoid erupting flames from below. “HAAH!!” Asuna shouted as she jumped and threw a skill called Flashing Penetrator hitting the side of Wadjet’s scales and severely damaging Wadjet. A cry was let out by Wadjet as it angered it, turning its attention to Asuna. “ASUNA!!” Kirito shouted before seeing Toru run past him, Toru pulled out a throwing knife and Threw it at Wadjet’s face. The knife did minimal damage as Wadjet swung blindly in rage, I jumped in-front of Toru as I parried the attack saying “Kirito switch in!!” as Kirito looked at us.

Kirito then got up and ran in as he shouted “AGIL BOOST ME!!”, Agil nodded and ran into place, replacing his axe for a giant shield as Kirito jumped and landed onto Agil’s shield. “HRRAAHH!!” Agil cried out as Agil used the momentum to push Kirito high up into the air. Meanwhile, Asuna, Toru and I were dealing damage to Wadjet, It roared out once again as Kirito used a skill called Lightning Fall. His sword turned yellow and crackled with blue electricity as Kirito slammed his sword straight down from the head down to the bottom as it sounded like thunder had struck down in the room.

Wadjet still had two health bars left as they were paralyzed for two minutes. “EVERYONE NOW!!” I shouted as Diabel shouted in return “CHARRGGGEE!!”. Everyone charged in and circled around Wadjet swinging their weapons and using every skill they had in their arsenal. Wadjet’s health significantly dropped down as The two minutes of paralysis had faded. Wadjet roared out as flames exploded out of the ground and knocked many players around it and on the platform all over the arena. Some fell off as the platform became unstable and began crumbling. “Everyone back to the stairs!!” Agil shouted as everyone began running back to the stairs, except Diabel. I turned around to see Diabel getting up, I stopped and ran towards Diabel hearing the voices behind me shouting “DON’T GO!” and “COME BACK OVER HERE!!.

I got to Diabel as I helped him back up and saw that Wadjet started to head straight for us, “Diabel we have to go now!” I shouted as he grabbed my jacket and said “No, you need to go..”. “Diabel what-” I said as he shook me a bit saying “Just go.. I don’t need to take you down with me..” as I looked concerned a bit, “You’re a better leader than I ever was Kirin..” as he patted my back and I began to run back to the stairs. Diabel picked up his sword and activated a sword skill, turning his sword turned purple as he shouted “I’m sending you straight to hell! HAAH!!” as he slammed his sword skill straight into the ground.

This caused the platform to burst open and break apart, I began running and jumping on broken pieces as I jumped one last time at the Stairway, Three hands caught me as I dangled above the pit. We all heard Wajet fall and heard someone shout “DIABEL!!!” As we saw Diabel fall down into the pit and vanish within the depths, I was pulled up by Kirito, Asuna and Toru as Toru hugged me.

“I thought you weren’t gonna make it..”

Toru said to me as I hugged back saying “sorry to worry you so much..” as we saw the Congratulations text appear above the pit, then a bridge appeared for us to walk across. We got up as we walked across the bridge, looking down the pit and walking to the stairway up to the next floor… Floor 9. I stayed back a bit, looking down the pit and opening my palm to see a small note from Diabel. I opened it as It read “Don’t be sorry that I may be gone this time, I planned out that you were gonna lead us out of this place. Sacrifices that are made willingly are never in vain.” I smiled a bit before folding it back into its folded state and dropping it into the pit.

“Thanks for believing in me Diabel… Your act of self sacrifice will never be in vain…”