Chapter 20

A week passed as we went at the break of dawn, the labyrinth raid of floor 75 was going to start. Multiple groups of players were waiting, including Fuurinkazan, Aincrad Liberation Force, KoB, and other smaller groups.

As much as there were the guild groups, there were multiple four-partied players and solo players. I looked around as I was with Toru, Asuna, Kirito, Sato and Neo. "Heathcliff should be here soon" Asuna said as we then heard footsteps coming from behind us, We turned around to see Heathcliff in his red and white armor.

We split up to create a way for him to walk to the front as he walked through the crowd. The crowd eventually forms back to normal as Heathcliff sets his hands on the double door. "Are you going to give your inspirational speech Heathcliff?" A KoB guild member said as he looked at him and said "No.. I'll save it for when we get to the boss.".

He took a deep breath in and out before opening the doors with two others, when the doors opened the labyrinth was like a maze. It shifted constantly, making it impossible for larger groups to go in without being splitted apart. Heathcliff saw this as he shouted "Split into threes or fours!!" as he unsheathed his sword and rushed in.

"Everyone!! Split into three or four groups!!!"

One of the louder KoB members shouted as more people shouted it to notify the entire raid group. We all splitted up as Kirito and Asuna splitted up with Klein and Agil, meanwhile I splitted up with Toru, Sato and Neo. We rushed towards the maze-like labyrinth as my group ran into the shifting walls. All of a sudden, the walls stopped shifting after the first half of the raid group ran in.

We noticed this as I said "Be on guard guys!" as we unsheathed our weapons. We heard battling from outside of the walls as we looked up and saw gigantic spiders come out of holes in the walls. I swung my sword as I slashed one of them as Toru and Neo took care of the other. Sato slammed his sword into the spider's abdomen as we saw it shatter, he pulled his sword up as one part of the wall would open up.

We ran through the opening as we heard people falling and shattering, it gave us a little scare as we weren't considering traps to be in this labyrinth. As we ran through, we ran into a bigger room than normal, Sato and I stepped through as we heard rumbling throughout that room.

The opening behind us then began closing as Sato was quick to think on his feet as he turned around and pushed me out of the opening we ran through. "Sato!!" I shouted as I got up and saw his smile and a thumbs up from him before the wall collapsed.

"No!! Sato!!"

I shouted trying to push the wall open as I slammed my fist on the wall. Neo also tried to break the wall open as she slammed her dagger into the wall damaging her dagger's durability. "Kirin we need to keep moving.." Toru said as another wall opened for us, I got up as I kept running and thought to myself "You won't be forgotten Sato..." as we made it to the other side of the labyrinth.

Kirito, Asuna, Klein and Agil looked at us as Kirito said "Where's Sato?", I looked at him as I looked away a bit, gripping my handle. Kirito sighed before patting my back trying to comfort me, saying "You and Sato were almost inseparable...I'm sorry...". I took a deep breath with my voice shaking a bit saying "T-thanks..." with a little voice crack to go along with it.

We looked back at the labyrinth as we saw no other players coming through from the other side, We turned away from it as Heathcliff said "Can I get your attention!". Heathcliff started his inspirational speech as this kind of attitude reminded me of Diavel, it only gave me more doubt as I felt a hand touch my shoulder. It broke me out of my self-conscious doubt as Toru was the one who touched my shoulder, "Kirin...We'll finish this game together.." she said in a light tone as I nodded.

"Yeah, we'll finish this together"

I said lightly as I held her hand, I didn't pay any attention to Heathcliff's speech as I looked ahead and saw the doors open. We all rushed in as the bosses arena was a circular shape standing above a pit.

We all spreaded out as we noticed that the boss wasn't around. "Where are you..." I thought to myself cautiously looking around as Someone then fell backwards onto their bottom as I looked over. He was looking up as his expression was almost scared, I looked up as My expression also changed into a fearful-like state.

"Holy...Shit..."

I said underneath my breath as I saw two red eyes open up, and then another pair, and then another and smaller pair of eyes. As quick as our scared banter were, the Entity slammed down into the middle of the arena. With dust coming up from the ground and most of us thrown close to the edges.

It stuck its knife-like arms into the ground as it helped up its gigantic head and looked around, its jaw splitting open and letting out a clicking-like sound while looking around. It was nightmare fuel on steroids, as it let out an eerie roar, seeing its name and 6 health bars show up.

We all got up as it began looking around, but before it could even attack it let out a painful scream. We covered our ears as the Skull reaper suddenly just shattered. We all looked at it confused as the Congratulations didn't show up. "What...What just happened...?" I thought as I wasn't sure what happened.

I looked around at the other confused players as I looked at Heathcliff, also confused at the situation as one of the players asked "Did...Did we beat it..?". Another player responded to his question "No, none of us hit it once, and the congratulations thing didn't show up..". The situation got even more confusing from there as one of us then realized what just happened.

"We...Were soft blocked..."