Ex-Laughing Coffin

Battle and Thought

I walked down the stone path, feet moving silently. People stared as I passed holding a bouquet of roses that were bright red and at my black trailing dress. I decided to visit Sheila's grave. When I reached her grave I kneeled and placed the roses in front of the grave. Clasping my hands in my lap I looked at the engravegement on the stone. All it read was her game name, the name of her guild, and her role in the guild. I hope she had a more proper burial in the real world.
I spoke to her grave quietly. "Been a while hasn't it? I have been doing good the last couple weeks. Kirito, Asuna, Lizbeth, Silica, Klein, and I all had dinner a couple days ago. We had the rare ragouh rabbit. Wish you were there with us..." I sighed. "I miss you. When you first died I kinda lost it... but... I am better now. I know who I am and that is how I am going to stay. I promise I will visit you again. I will find your resting place in the real world. I will get to that place. Till then..." I stood up and walked away from the grave leaving the roses to be a burst of color between the many, many gravestones. Scenes like this make you realize how many of us have died. It makes you wonder if we will ever escape this hell.

"Akane!" Someone called. I turned my head to see Kirito and Asuna running towards me.
"Hey." I smiled thinly.
"Where have you been?" Kirito asked. "We need to go!"
"I was visiting Sheila. What do you mean? Where are we going?" I asked.
They gave me a funny look. "You don't know?"
"No. Explain."
"We are preparing the battle plan for the boss battle later today!" Asuna exclaimed. "We need to go!"
"Shoot! I thought it was next week!" I shouted taking off down the path to The Knights headquarters. When we reached the building I ducked into a vacant room and changed into my usual black top and skirt. I looked at the gloves my finger hovering over the equip button then decided better of it and did not wear them. No need to be afraid anymore. I ran down the hall and walked into the preparation room slamming the doors open. All noise in the room ceased and everyone stared.
"Don't mind me!" I called. "Continue on, no problems here!" Noise once again started up. I sighed and went up to the front of the room were Asuna and Heathcliff were explaining the battle strategy for this current floor, floor 70. I stared off into the distance not paying attention to much. It was one of our past strategies that involved groups and such. Nothing too exciting. Plus, nothing ever went according to plan. By the end of the meeting we were given a couple hours of rest before the battle. I walked home and glanced back at the graveyard soon to be filled with more stones. I sighed and continued to walk. No use dwelling on the ever filling graveyard. It will continue to grow till we get out of this game. The best thing to do is to keep fighting and protecting people. That's the most we can do.

The doors of the boss room opened slowly as I fingered my blade edge. I looked around at the others, all had serious and nervous faces.
"Lighten up." I whispered under my breath. Being tense affected your ability to fight. That was basic knowledge but people can't help human nature. When the doors finally crashed open we advanced into the room the doors closing behind us. The room slowly lightened to reveal a snake like creature curled up in the middle of the room. As the last torch sputtered to life the snake raised its head. Wait, no... heads! The snake had a head on both ends. My eyes widened in surprise. That was in-expected. The front row of soldiers raised their shields as the second row pushed in front of them. I stepped forward and leapt over both rows. Kirito and Asuna did likewise. As planned all the other rows slowly circled around the snake in an instant. Kirito, Asuna, and I charged at the monster from three sides. It turned to each of us allowing the soldiers on the ground to run in and attack. But as I slept back to the ground leaving one snake head with a deep gash on its forehead it spun around and spat some kind of liquid at everyone. The shields that were lifted melted as the liquid came in contact with it. Oh shoot, this is interesting. Everyone took action and brought out more shields. I smirked at that. That would do nothing but cause the ruin of more shields.
"Asuna, do you have any long chains?" I shouted at her. She gave me the oddest look and shook her head.
"As if anyone has any!" I shouted to her once more before running back towards the snake head I attacked earlier. About halfway up to the snake I had to dive to the side to avoid a rain of acid. I looked to the side to see the other head rapidly spitting Acid at the nearby soldiers. They quickly confronted the head and started to distract it from me. So much for our plan... This was nothing like what we expected. As I continued on my way forward towards the snake head Kirito and a couple other joined me. As I brought my sword down on it's nose Kirito slashed at the spot where I previously cut it. The rest of the soldiers hacked at the snake's neck trying to separate them. The other snake head responded by thrashing violently shaking off everyone that was attacking it. It turned to us with red eyes.
"I think we made it mad..." I said to Kirito.
"No kidding." He responded. Everyone scattered as the other snake head snapped down taking a solider with it. He cried out as his health reached zero and he burst into shards. As this was happening Asuna ran forward handing me an end of a chain.
"C'mon!" She shouted running up the snake's body towards one head. I followed close behind wrapping the chain around my head. As we reached the head I jumped up and slid across it jumping off the other side. The chain tensed as Asuna yanked on the chain keeping me from falling to the floor. I swung around the jaw of the one snake and came back up behind Asuna who instantly ran towards me dropping behind me as I also ran forward once again dropping to the floor the chain pulled taught as we fell hovering in the air be for we slowly started to fall. The snake head's crashed to the ground as our weight brought it down. Asuna ran towards one wall and I the other fastening the chain ends to a wall. The snake's jaw was wrapped shut. I cheered as the snake thrashed as soldiers slashed and stabbed at it. The other snake head surged forward but was quickly overtaken by others. The snaked shuttered one last time as it burst into shards. Everyone shouted and laughed as 'Congratulations' flashed above our heads. Just smiled and leaned against the wall as Asuna collapsed next to me.
"Good thinking." She said to me as she breathed heavily.
"Thanks." I responded. "Good job picking up on my plan." She nodded. I brought up my map of the room.
"We lost 5." I sighed. Asuna frowned next to me.
"C'mon, let's go set up the teleporter and check out the new floor." She finally said trying to lighten the mood.
"Sure." I smiled and we ran up the steps towards the now opened floor 71. Everyone else slowly followed suit as Asuna and I raced up the steps.

I burst into the sunlight as I reached to top of the stairs. Asuna stood next to me staring up at the sky. Heathcliff was next stand next to us. Soldiers filed past to take a look around.
"I sent out a message to the other floors that floor 71 is open. We probably should go set up the teleporter so people can come through." Heathcliff told us. Asuna nodded and ran to find the teleporting hub and set it up. I stayed behind and glanced up a Heathcliff.
"Did you expect us to get this far with so many people?" I asked him.
He smiled. "Yes and no."
"Father, why did you decide to do a this? You said you were going to make a perfect world. This seems far from perfect..." I told him.
Kayaba looked at me. "I wanted this world to be more like reality I guess but also fantastical. Truth is I forgot why I did this. It has almost been two years and I guess I got caught up in this world."
"Thousands of people have died and you forgot why you did this." I scowled. "Kinda cruel don't you think?"
He sighed. "I suppose so..." We were interrupted by one of the soldiers reporting all teleporting hubs were set up and ready and that people were already coming through. Kayaba, no, once again Heathcliff, nodded and thanked the soldier for the report and dismissed him.
"I hope your toy in this game beats you..." I said as I walked away.
"I do to..." My father whispered. My father Kayaba is hoping to die by the hands of his favorite player and die in his favorite world. He truly is an interesting character...

(A/N: Hello! How is everyone doing? Here is a new chapter! I will be wrapping this book up soon as you can tell by the floor 70 thing... I probably will post 2-4 more chapters. I don't know maybe more than that, I don't know. Anyway, stay tuned! Till next time, Thilia_Jackson)