Another day had passed since I had met Toru. She's a really confident girl that has skills that normally people wouldn’t see in a girl. I see her as a good party companion as it would make my life easier to have someone to be by.

Well… Besides Sato of course, I invited her out to a dungeon as I was waiting beside the entrance, sending her my coordinates to where the dungeon was. “Oh you are here!” A voice said as she fell out from behind a bush. I looked at her and held back a chuckle, saying to her “Can you not trip as much, it's a bit funny..” as I turned my attention away from her. I heard her snicker a bit before getting up and fixing her waist holster, I looked at her waist holster and looked at mine, seeing that my sword was also holstered at the waist.

“Is there a way to change the strap..?”

I thought as she tapped my shoulder, saying “I’ll be going first” as she smiled and walked down into the dungeon depths, I took some time to process what she said and I quickly hurried in.

“Hey don’t do that! I was supposed to go in first!!”

I shouted a bit as Toru said “Boys, they always think they go first” as my face turned a little red stuttering for the first time “W-well! Uh…” I said as my brain had completely shut down for a couple of seconds. “See, Told you!” She said with a smile and kept walking ahead, I gritted my teeth a bit in annoyance shouting “Alright Smartypants! List-” as she quickly turned around and stared up at me, right into my eyes as I quickly stopped in my words and in my sentence.

“What were you saying?”

Toru said with a bit of a break between her words as she noticed what she was doing and backed up a bit, clearing her throat. “C’mon let's go” she said with a smile again as we both began walking. The silence in the room began to grow as we’re both in an awkward position for small talk. As we kept walking and hearing the sounds of our footsteps, I mustered up courage to start a conversation “Hey I-” as our sentence was cut off with a pinging sound and a Servant showing up from the ground. “Goddamn it!” I thought to myself as we both wielded our weapons as Toru’s weapon of choice was rather unique, she carried a small knife with her but she also wore gloves that looked rather heavy for a person to wear, yet she wears it so casually.

Toru then raised up her arms in a kickboxer stance as It was the first time I’ve seen someone use a melee as their main weapon. She rushed in as the Servant swung down their sword, she was able to maneuver around the swing, using its second delay to pull up as to her advantage and threw a punch right at the side of the metallic armor it wore.

She smirked as the servant raised its sword again and prepared a heavy attack, I rushed in to block the attack with my sword, keeping the heavy attack at bay but struggling to keep it up for long. “If you’re gonna hit it Toru… Do it now..!” I said as the weight of the attack began to weigh down, Toru took no time to hesitate as she went right for its leg joint and roundhouse kicked it, dropping the Servant to a knee. I managed to slip the heavy blade onto one side, slamming beside me as I swung at it’s arm joint, dropping its health to yellow, Toru then ran around and began throwing punches the head of the Servant for a short while, getting some quick punches in and dropping it’s health to red.

The Servant roared out as it did a wide swing horizontally, I jumped in Toru’s way and blocked the swing but flinging both of us to a nearby pillar as Toru crashed in between me and the pillar, significantly dropping her health down and causing a concussion effect on her.

I stood up and looked at Toru as she didn’t seem to be in fighting shape at the moment, I rushed in gripping my sword hard as I swung at the Servant in a bit of a rage, Gritting my teeth and using every skill except the Shrinestone Rune I have to get the upper hand on the servant. I took several swings at the servant dropping its health down to lower red as my health was also dropping near, but suddenly out of nowhere, Toru jumped in the way and sucker punched the Servant’s jaw, killing it in the process but also falling to a knee. I then quickly walked over to catch her from falling down as she was huffing and puffing extremely heavily.

“Hey are you-”

I was saying as she slipped out of my hands and landed onto the floor, trying to grab her upper chest near her heart as she began to hyperventilate. “Toru! Toru!!” I shouted as I tried to calm her down as her eyes began to fill with tears and her voice became scared and shaky, “It…It Hurts…M-Make it stop…” she said as she was kicking her legs a bit as I held her hand trying to keep her calm. “Hey Hey, Look at me Toru!” I said as I tried to get her attention towards me. Toru looked at me with her tearful eyes, seeing that she was in immense pain not from the game but from outside of it, I then told her “Stay with me alright, keep your eyes on me and nothing else!” I then pulled out a teleport crystal as we teleported over to Tolbana.

I picked up Toru and carried her towards the Inn as I was significantly heavier now as I could barely move just enough to have a quick walking speed. I then set Toru onto the bed as I stayed in the inn as she had stopped frantically kicking her feet and hyperventilating after 3 minutes in the Inn. I sat in a chair waiting for Toru to wake up, My heart and my mind were racing to conclusions as to what’s happening to Toru, I felt the same scared feeling I had back at the Town of Beginnings, I looked at my hands and thought back to what I told myself in my mind, “We are the same person at the core, but we act like two completely different people…” I kept rereading that same thought over and over trying to make out what I meant by that.

Not long after thinking that quote over and over, I then heard some groans coming from Toru as I looked up at her as she was moving a bit. “Five more minutes mom…” she said in Japanese, I didn’t understand a single word she said but I sighed in relief that she was now doing better, I swiped my hand down to open my menu and clicked my communications tab, clicking over to the party section and looking at the party, I click disband as the game gives me a warning saying “Do you want to disband this party?”.

My hand goes over to the blue button (Yes) but stops seconds away from pushing it fully, I took a bit more thought into if I should disband it, ultimately I clicked the Red button (No) and left the party as it is. I got up and quietly walked over towards the door and closed it behind me, walking out of the inn before receiving a wind chime sound effect from my communications tab.

I opened it to see Diavel had messaged me not too long ago. The message then said “The scouts have come back with information, we are heading out now” as I looked at it and looked up the stairs to where Toru’s room was. I then looked back at the message and typed to Diavel “I’m on my way” before closing it and heading over to the entrance of the labyrinth, The Labyrinth is a special dungeon that is a big pillar and how we are supposed to reach the second floor, there isn’t a way to get around the labyrinth besides heading into it and dealing with what it has in store for the players.

I then arrived at the front of the labyrinth, seeing multiple other players also here and seeing Diavel at the front. I was genuinely surprised at the amount of people that had come to the labyrinth. “This was a lot more than I expected..” I thought to myself as I scanned around to spot anyone I knew. As I looked around, I spotted Sato and immediately walked over towards him.

“I wasn’t expecting you to be early Sato”

I said to him as he turned and smiled replying, “Wow, I wasn’t expecting you to show up either!” as I was confused at what he said. “What do you mean?” I said confusedly as he explained to me “Most of the original people that had been at the coliseum had left at the last minute, I thought you were one of them Kirin”.

“Oh.. I don’t leave at the last minute though..”

I told him with a little bit of a monotone as he chuckled and patted my back, “That's good to know!” as a windchime sound had pinged up. Diavel then began his speech as I walked out of the crowd and checked my messages not too far from them. There was a message from Toru saying “I’m Coming! Don’t leave me out!!” as I looked back, seeing that Diavel was just about wrapping his speech up.

“Well you better hurry then, Diavel is almost done talking”

I messaged her as I closed it and heard the doors open by Diavel and the first group. I walked shortly behind them and was left in the second group. The First group and second group tried to travel at the same pace as the labyrinth monsters were swarming from all sides, all the tank players were in the first group so the second had to improvise and use their main attack players as their defense.

“Haah!!”

I shouted as I slashed a monster and watched it shatter, I looked at the group saying “My side’s clear, keep heading onward!” as I stayed in the far back in-case of anyone falling behind. More monsters kept coming in as some people began to slightly fall behind, a guy tripped as I was backing up, I looked down and brought him back up to his feet saying to him “catch up to the second group now!” as he nodded and began running towards the group.

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I ran into a crowd of monsters and began using AOE skills, using a horizontal slash in a full 360 degree angle. I then heard a voice shouting “Coming through!!” as I saw a monster get thrown. I was barely able to react and move out of the way just in time, seeing that it was Toru, swinging these monsters around like they’re ragdolls. “Did you miss me?” She said in a somewhat better English than earlier, I chuckled saying “Well you’re still alive and kicking, so I guess so” as we began running towards the second group.

My mind was somewhat put at ease as I was glad to know that Toru was okay after the incident. The secondary group met up with the first group as Diavel and the first group had begun a head count. While they were doing their headcount, I thought to myself about the boss that was just behind that door.

“If I’m correct, Illfang the Kobold Lord should be behind those doors like in the beta… But I haven’t been seeing Kobold guards throughout the labyrinths… mostly just Demonic servants and Blood Wolves… There should have been Kobold mobs in this labyrinth…”

My train of thought was cut off by Diavel’s shouting of another “Inspirational” talk in my ears. I didn’t listen to the talk Diavel gave as I noticed Kirito and Asuna at the other side, I then turned my attention away to my sword as I pulled it out and looked at the shining damascus steel, looking at myself in the sword as I then think to myself “Is this really what I want to do…” as I began to really grip my sword, contemplating about what I should do when we reach the second floor.

I sheath my sword in the sheath on my waist, I then looked at it as the same question in my mind came up, I then tapped the strap and saw two options. “Waist” and “Chest” were the two options, I then tapped the chest option as the strap switched to my chest, wrapped around my right shoulder and under my left abdomen. Meanwhile, my sword and its sheath was placed on my back as I looked down at the strap.

“I… might have to get used to this now..”

I thought with a bit of regret as Toru looked at me and gave a thumbs up. “I like the new look!” She said with a smile as I awkwardly rubbed the back of my head, a little flustered. We then heard the doors open after Diavels speech as we all ran into the room and took up our stances. I reached down to grab my sword from my waist but felt nothing. I looked down and remembered just seconds ago that I switched the strap and looked over my right shoulder, seeing the handle of my sword. A grim chuckle was then heard throughout the room as a red half circle showed up, I saw it and shouted at the people near it “GET OUT OF THE CIRCLE!!” as They looked at me and a crash came down from the ceiling, hitting most of the people nearby.

The dust settled as I saw at least Six players near death, I ran over to try and help them out as the dust settled, I then saw in-front of me, a giant scythe stuck into the ground. “Holy…Shit…” I thought as fear began to overtake me, I then heard a maniacal laughter as I looked directly up above me, seeing two red eyes at the ceiling.

I felt like I couldn’t move a muscle, My body refused to move as I was too scared to move an inch. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to pick up a nearby injured player and ran towards the group. I then heard a hissing sound drop down and pick up the scythe, I tripped running as the injured player and I fell down and I looked back at what picked up the scythe. A health bar of Three separate bars appeared around the entity, as the name then showed itself.

“Fatal Scythe”

Was the name that the boss was called, three whole health bars and a quarter of our groups were taken out by its first move already. I felt terrified, the same scared feeling from the Kayaba Incident at the Town of Beginnings. I got up onto my feet as I had no choice but to fight, I looked at my hands as my hands were trembling a bit, I then heard Diavel’s voice from behind me shout “Group One! Charge in!!” as the first group charged in, getting Fatal Scythes attention.

“T-This isn’t supposed to be here…”

I thought to myself as I thought more “I-Illfang was supposed to be here… Not fatal…” as I felt a hand touch my shoulder and saw it was Sato. “Hey man.., Take a backseat will ya…” as Sato then ran in right behind the first group. “Sato! Wait!!” I shouted as Sato ignored me and began fighting Fatal Scythe, the first group did their job and dodged most of Fatal Scythe's attacks and dropped him down One and One Half of health.

I then grabbed the handle of my sword, feeling my hand still trembling as I tried to keep my thoughts off of my fear of death itself. “You can do this… You can do this..!!” I thought to myself with my eyes closed as I heard Agil shout from the battlefield, “Hey! Group 2 be ready to switch!!” as I opened my eyes. I exhaled out heavily and took a deep breath, exhaling once more and reassuring my mental state. I pulled out my sword as I shouted “GROUP TWO IS READY TO SWITCH!!” as some of group two were more scared than group one.

Agil shouted back “Get ready then!! SWITCH!!” as I ran forward, along with me were three others that ran into the danger zone. “Hey Give me a boost!” I shouted as one of the tanks then set up one of their shields as an extender. I jumped off the shield and swung at full force at Fatal Scythe, slashing diagonally onto his cloak, landing a bit harshly though. Toru ran up to me to help me up as Fatal Scythe let out a bellowing roar throughout the boss room.

Group one headed back as some of group two came forward, Sato stayed back as he was a bit exhausted from his fight. “We got this!” I shouted at the group as I stood back up and Fatal Scythe readied his scythe for a wide swing. I jumped out of the way seeing the red icon on the floor as Toru did as well, we then noticed a player jump out but not in time, getting cut in half by the wide swing. The players top half fell to the floor and shattered as their bottom half shattered where it stood.

“Shit…” I muttered as I looked up at Fatal, I heard footsteps as it was Kirito and the hooded figure running up to us. “Kirito, it’s gonna take a while before we kill fatal..” I told him as he replied “Illfang was supposed to be here, Why isn’t he here” confused. “I don’t know, but for now we have to finish this fight..” I said as he nodded, replying “Right, we can do a four way combo with our group” as I nodded.

Both of our groups then ran towards Fatal scythe as I said “Toru you’re with me!” as Kirito did the same, saying “Asuna! You’re with me!” as they both nodded and understood. Our group dodged multiple fatal scythe swings as Kirito and I caught off a Fatal Scythe swing and parried it. Asuna and Toru then ran in as Asuna pulled out her rapier and threw a flurry of rapier thrusts as Toru threw a barrage of punches to match Asuna’s flurry. They both then threw a single hard hit as it knocked Fatal scythe a bit, stunning him and dropping his health down to yellow.

“Switch in!!”

Both Asuna and Toru shouted as Kirito ran around Asuna and I jumped over Toru, both of us rushing at Fatal scythe, swinging like our life depended on it.

“HAAAAH!!!!”

We both shouted out as Kirito and I both swung a Vertical Strike, Fatal roared out as it lived on a sliver of health, “ONE MORE!!” I shouted as Kirito and I threw a sword thrust, along with Toru and Asuna throwing a piercing thrust and a hard punch. We all landed our hits at the same time as Fatal Scythe let out a bellowing roar once more, turning cyan and shattered into pieces. All four of us were tired as a giant text box showed up saying “Congratulations!” to everyone who participated in the bossfight. Everyone there got a large amount of COL and EXP, as for both Kirito and I, we got an extra boss drop item.

“Good…Good job Kirito..”

I said exhausted as I put a fist up to him, he smiled a bit and fist bumped me as we both stood up. We looked back at the two groups behind us as we heard a bit of complaining from them as Kibaou came forward saying “Hey! Don’t we get what you guys got!”. I looked at Kibaou saying “The drop rates are random, I don’t know if you did get any” as he seemed a bit angrier than he did a few seconds ago. “Argo’s Information was off! How would she know about the boss! She said it was supposed to be Illfang, not this Fatal Scythe!” he shouted as people began debating and somewhat agreeing with Kibaou.

“Hey now-”

I tried to say as Kibaou shouted again “Are you all beta testers?! It would make sense that yer guys would know to get the last hit!!” as I tried to calm the angry crowd down. “It’s true that-” I tried to say again as this time Kirito cut me off by a somewhat maniacal laughter, as everyone turned their attention to Kirito. “It’s true that Argo’s Information given to Diavel is off, but it doesn’t mean that we all didn’t know about it.”

“Kirito what are you going on about?”

I told him as Kirito looked at me with a glare before having a smug snicker face and then saying to the crowd of hostile players.

“Sure Argo’s Information is off, but it doesn’t mean all beta testers should be blamed for her information being off in the first place. But unlike the newbie beta players that I had to deal with, I am a significant difference between them and me. I have information that goes beyond this level. I know what is on the first 10 floors, What you call beta testers I call newbies that got lucky in the raffle. So if you think about it all beta testers are cheaters in a way… Beta Testers… Cheaters… Beaters… I like the sound of that, Beaters… Now unlike you newbies, I have another floor to clear…”

I stood there in shock as Kirito equipped his boss with the dropped item Cloak of Midnight, I gritted my teeth and grabbed his shoulder saying “You’re not the only Beater who’s reached Floor 10 you bastard!” as Kirito’s smug face showed again as he said “Oh, then not all beaters are as new as I thought then” as he laughed again and tried to shrug my hand off his shoulder. As he pulled his shoulder in, I let go and threw a punch at his face, knocking him down as My rage had boiled past its eruption point.

“Don’t act so fucking cocky you bitch..”

I said as Kirito began to get up as I then said to him,

“We may be beta testers but there are some of us that put as much time into the beta as you did! Unlike you, some of us take it slow and try to wrap our heads around the situation. You sly piece of shit!”

I threw another punch but it was stopped as Toru had to hold me back and Kirito patted himself off with Asuna standing nearby Kirito. “Now here’s the thing between us Kirin” Kirito said as he walked up and said to my face “The difference between you and I is that I can remain calm in times like this, I don’t throw a tantrum in-front of a full raid group.” as he then marched on.

I shouted on the top of my lungs “THERE WILL BE A DAY WHERE I MAKE YOU EAT YOUR FUCKING WORDS YOU SON OF A BITCH!!” as Toru told me “Calm down, take some deep breaths!” After that tantrum, The second floor was now open for those to proceed on. A teleport spawn point was then opened for players to travel between the first and second floor.