Sword Art Online: A New Beginning

[Zarkon90]

The black cloaked teen tilted his head as he continued his approach.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean." As he done his voice was calm, even as his body tensed in anticipation of an attack.

"What do you mean, bad luck?"  

[Mega90]

The young girl turned around to look at him. Her eyes gave no intent of attack, but Hiroku still felt slightly on edge.

“You need to ask? Every time you step outside the Town of Beginnings, bad things seem to follow you.” Her tone was matter of fact and her gaze, though partly obscured by the dark room, seemed unconcerned with his tense body language.  

[Zarkon90]

I'm afraid I don't catch your meaning. I usually travel alone so if that were the case, I would only be impacting myself. It seems you have me mistaken for someone else.

Hiroku remained still, his tone calm as arms remained positioned casually at his side.  

[Mega90]

The girl turned away from him again, apparently not believing what he said. She took a few steps forward, and her slight frame began to disappear into the darkness of the room.

“It looks like this is an old church of some sort.” Her voice echoed back through the chamber, bouncing off the stone work that pervaded the interior. Her footsteps clicked in the distance before they were drowned out by the sound of rustling cloth. Suddenly, green light covered every inch of the monastery. Squinting through the light, Hiroku could see a large altar like structure at the end of the hall. It was covered completely in vivid green crystals, the light from which danced across every wall, ceiling, and floor in the entire building. He could now see that there were various access holes cut into the walls and ceilings, allowing this light to move to the various floors of the structure.

There was a moment of silence before Hiroku heard the distant sound of stone scraping across stone. Turning around, he saw an old man hobble into the room. He had unkempt white hair, a large beard, and pale skin. More unique, however, was that the left side of his body was almost completely composed of the same kind of crystal. Around his neck there was a large chain which led back to a thick iron ball, and he dragged it begrudgingly behind him as he moved. With each step, he chocked and gagged under the pressure of the chain, and when he had finally come within a reasonable distance to Hiroku, he collapsed to the ground, falling face first into the dirt.  

[Zarkon90]

Hiroku hesitated before walking over to the strange man, being sure to stay just out of arms reach.

"Hey, are you alright? What happened to you?"

As he spoke, the teen traced the strange being up and down, looking for a pop up to inform him he had initiated a new quest.  

[Mega90]

As Hiroku waited for the quest indicator to appear, he heard a strange grinding noise behind him. It was once again the sound of stone grinding upon stone. He had originally thought it was the old man moving that had caused the noise, but he now realized that he had been mistaken. He knew something wasn’t right, but before he could do anything about it, he heard the voice of the young girl from behind him.

“Look out!” She cried out as she herself jumped to the side, feet sliding across the cold stone as massive serpent like creature tore through the earth below their feet. Its size was immense, easily able to reach from the floor to the high ceiling above if fully extended.

It was covered entirely in stone, though from where he was standing, Hiroku could see that this was merely a shell. The true form of the creature lay underneath. He had encountered one of these creatures once before, though this had bene the second to last boss on a high leveled floor. The idea that it was a simple MOB in an area like this was not only extremely unlikely, but extremely unsettling. It crashed out of the ground mere inches behind him, and only his lighting quick reflexes were able to save him from getting caught up in the blast.

As soon as the beast had emerged, the rocks on it spread back, like scales that it was able to fan out at will. It opened its gaping mouth and let out a massive roar. The walls of the building shook and small stones began to rain down from the various cracks in the ancient building.

As Hiroku righted himself again, the strange girl’s words ran through his mind. “Bad luck seems to follow you.”

In another moment, the best struck, dashing down at him with incredible speed and attempting to swallow him in one bite.  

[Zarkon90]

Hiroku leapt back, his hand flying back and drawing the black blade that was hanging from his back. His eyes narrowed as he braced himself. As the creatures head slammed into the ground where he had been mere moments before, the teen seemed to vanish, dashing forward with such blinding speed that to most his form seemed to disappear entirely. Hiroku brought the blade down on the monsters head, leaving a deep gash from the top of it's head to roughly the center of the creatures skull. As his blade finished it's arc through the monster he kicked out, dealing a minimal amount of damage and hurling himself back, safely out of range of the snakes inevitable counter.

"These things are fast and hit hard but if you can lure them into striking the floor or wall it buys you about a second and a half window to attack!" He called out, not bothering to try and find his young companion, instead keeping his attention focused on the beast as he awaited it's next strike.  

[Mega90]

The girl came out of nowhere, jabbing at the creature with her rapier while dancing around the creature, making sure to stay in its blind spot.

From his previous encounters with these monsters, Hiroku could see that something was wrong. The serpent was acting lethargic; slow and uncoordinated. The damage on the ground from where it had impacted also suggested that it was severely underpowered compared to the other monsters of its kind that he had faced. Unlike the dragon, this monster had a health bar and the strikes from Hiroku and the strange girl were quickly depleting it. Even when there was occasionally an opening for it to attack, it seemed like there was a delay between when it saw something and could actually act. It was almost as though there was little to no AI programming in the creatures system.

The creature suddenly flailed wildly, thrashing against the solid stone walls and breaking several of the crystals, causing them to rain down in a glowing shower of stone. The throat of the serpent was exposed perfectly to Hiroku, and as the three segments of its jaw separated as it cried out in pain.  

[Zarkon90]

Hiroku leapt into the air, nothing more then a black blur as his sword began to glow a bright blue with the sword skills activation. The skill increased his speed, propelling him forward at incredible speed, straight into the creatures exposed throat and out the other side.

As the skill ended, Hiroku began falling back toward the ground, glancing back to the creature, expecting to see it shatter into shards of light.  

[Mega90]

To his surprise, the creature did not shatter as the other monsters did. Instead, it collapsed to the ground as a corpse. The young girl walked over to it and gave a gentle kick to the side of its head. She looked perplexed by the fact that its body was still there, but other than that, Hiroku could read little on her neutral expression.

“It maintained its form even in death?” She asked out loud, speaking in a soft voice.  

[Zarkon90]

Hiroku's brow furrowed.

"Something is very wrong here. I would get away from that thing if I were you."

As he spoke, he activated his night vision skill, causing his eyes to glow a bright gold. The teen slowly glanced around the room, scanning for any remaining enemies and squinting slightly from the light that the remaining crystals gave.

"I don't know what this place is but I never heard of anything like it in Aincrad before."  

[Mega90]

In an action that startled him, Hiroku felt something scratch against his leg. A moment later, he heard a quick shriek from the strange girl that stood near him. The scream had been short and interrupted. Apparently, she had caught the emotion coming, but not before a slight outburst of fear.

As Hiroku looked down to where he had felt the scratch, he saw a mange covered rat scurry across the ground. It moved quickly towards the dead creature, causing the young girl to move away from it quickly, coming to stand next to the silver haired teen.

With no small effort, the rat made its way up the creature’s massive frame and crawled into the hole in its threat. A moment of silence fell over the entire area, and only the sound of distant water could be heard. Then, the room exploded in a cacophony of scratching and rustling. The serpents flesh began to bubble violently, as though there was something moving just below the surface waiting to burst. Then, it did burst. Thousands of rats poured out of the serpent, moving towards Hiroku and the strange girl.

Her eyes lit up with fear and she cursed, waving her hand in front of them. Fire exploded, blasting hundreds of rats back. They seemed unphased, however, and continued to come with renewed vigor.

“Hiroku, run!” She shouted as she took off towards the stairs that they had previously come down. He knew that going up would trap them, but going out wasn’t an option. The room was nearly black at this point, and they had no idea what was in the water outside. They had already seen one monster that came out of its glassy depths. There was no way to know what else lurked just below the surface.  

[Zarkon90]

Hiroku took a cautious step back, waiting until the girl turned and ran before he extended his hand and began reciting a strange spell. Moments later a black fireball materialized, arcing forward and up, slamming into the ceiling. As the odd attack struck the ceiling, a loud explosion resounded through the empty room, causing stones from the roof to fall, crashing into the chambers floor between Hiroku and the advancing hoard of rats. As the ancient looking stones landed a thick cloud of dust was sent high into the sky, trailing up the newly created wall that now stood between the two players and the rats.

"That should slow you down." Hiroku muttered, turning and making his way quickly back up the stairs after his new companion.