Lucy POV:
Ever since the incident with Yui, Kiko never leaves my side. She clings to me when ever I sit down and when I go out on raids I have to spend fifteen minutes calming her down before I can leave with the assault team, and even when we're at home she's taken to sleeping in the same bed as me so she can be close to me. Right now I'm sitting at the bar looking over the guilds stats, we've maintained our status which is always a plus because the game pays guilds who are high ranked to help them maintain their members with things like food and items. And with Fairy Tail I need all the money I can get, I think the name Fairy Tail is like a jinx making all the members destructive. At least these guild members haven't destroyed towns, but we did once come close to destroying a dungeon. I don't know how it happened but it happened, and Heathcliff mocked me for ages after it happened. And he still does.
"Kiko can you come on a job with me?" Silica asks walking over with Pina resting on her shoulder.
"I'm with mommy right now, maybe next time?" Kiko says wrapping her arms a little tighter around me.
"Sweetie, why don't I ask Uncle Loke to go with you? You need to get out some more, you've been inside way too long." I say stroking her blue hair.
"But I want to stay with you mommy." Kiko says, and then she goes silent.
I sigh and then shake my head to Silica, she looks disappointed and goes off to ask another member if they want to go with her. I notice a message appear in my mail box so I open it and read the note, it's from Heathcliff so I guess it's about guild business or something. But no such luck.
Master Lucy,
We've discovered the Boss dungeon and I would like to invite you and your guild to come and help us take down this boss, help us get one step closer to beating the game. I understand that this is last minute but I wouldn't ask if I didn't think it was necessary. Please respond once you have a team together, I recommend a team of about twelve players.
Regards, Heathcliff K.O.B
Reading the message again I look and see who's in the guild today, we have a lot of our high level players here today which is good because we need all the skills we can get to defeat the floor bosses. The game is getting more and more difficult and the floor bosses are getting harder, the problem is less and less people are coming on the raids. It seems like people are giving up, I mean I can understand where they are coming from. It's been one two years since we've been trapped in this game, and if I didn't have my friends and the guild by my side then I know I would have given up a long time ago. Kirito helped me get started, learning the basics of the game and then helping me to get my guild started, Kiko became the light in my life that I didn't know was missing. She's more than just my daughter, she's one of my best friends.
I have so many people to thank for helping me to stay alive this long, and I know I will never be able to say thank you to all of them. Not even if I live for 100 years.
"Kiko, mommy has to leave for a boss raid soon ok?" I say as Kiko's eyes fill with tears.
"Why mommy! Why can't you stay with me!" She wails burying her head into my chest.
"Don't you want to get out of this game sweetie? Don't you want to see all your friends again?" I ask stroking her hair.
"I don't have any friends, and I don't want you to get hurt mommy..." Kiko says wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Baby you have lots of friends, look around you." I say gesturing to the guild. "Everyone here is your friend, everyone loves you very much. And everyone is trying hard to get out of this game, so they can find each other in real life. And that's why I fight too, so that I can find you and give you the biggest hug you've ever had."
"You'll find me mommy?" Kiko asks, a light I haven't seen since Yui vanished showing in her eyes.
"Of course I will, I will fight as many people that I need to in order to bring you home." I say kissing her forehead. "I promise that I'll find you no matter what."
With a small nod Kiko slides off my lap, she wipes her eyes and then smiles.
"I believe in you mommy, beat the game." She says giving me a thumbs up.
Rising to my feet I give her a hug and then clap my hands. "Everyone! We're going on a boss raid!"
People cheer and then begin to shout questions, holding my hand up I smile and everyone falls silent.
"We're going to form a team of twelve players, first twelve people will get to participate and get their share of whatever items or Col are dropped. Everyone will be able to earn EXP and with this we'll be able to move up to the next floor, I don't know anything about the boss but I know that KOB have asked us to join them. Now who's with me?" I ask and instantly twelve players put their hands up, Agil is with the twelve who've asked to come and there are all our strong members too.
We prepare to leave by changing into our armor and preparing our best weapons, Agil's new favourite weapon is a large hammer and he's desperate to use it on a boss. Loke's dressed in his usual armor and he's making sure his sword is sharp enough, I think he's having too much fun here. But I always worry about him, I wonder how his magic level is since he's been here for so long.
"Everyone ready to leave?" I ask.
"Yeah!" The team yells.
"Kiko!" I call to her. "I'll be home real soon!"
With a wave we leave the guild hall, our team all ready to enter the dungeon and fight for yet another floor to be completed. I give my sword the once over and smile, this sword has helped me to save a lot of people and help us get closer to being freed from this game. The sooner we all get out, the sooner we can begin recovery. I was speaking with Kirito who explained to me that our bodies might not have much longer left if we're stuck here for another two years, since we've been immobile since then our joints will have locked and we might not be able to speak or communicate well until we go through some intense physiotherapy. I didn't tell anyone else about this though because it would only cause more panic, people could become reckless instead of being safe to ensure they get out alive.
We make our way to the meeting point for the assault team, I notice Klein and his guild waiting along with Kirito and Asuna. I haven't seen them much since Yui but we've kept in contact, Asuna's been getting better and hanging around her neck is the blue gem that Kirito managed to change Yui into.
"Hey there." I say smiling as we walk over, the guild members disperse to speak to the different people here for the raid.
"Hey Lucy!" Asuna yells rushing to hug me. "How's Kiko?" She asks me.
"She's been better, she clings to me now. Almost like she can't bare anything happening to me, which is understandable. How have you been Asuna?" I ask.
"Not too bad, every day get's a little easier." She says smiling. "Ready to take on this boss?"
"We haven't even started yet and already I want to get home." I say laughing.
Soon Heathcliff and some more members of KOB appear and we make our way to the dungeon, each of us attacking the boss room's guardians. We fight until we come to the door, Heathcliff then stands in front of everyone and gets our attention.
"Right everyone, we're at the boss room." He begins. "Everyone needs to be prepared for what we might find within this room, if anyone want's to leave now they have my blessing."
No one moves, each of us understands that to get out of this game we need to fight with everything inside us. Heathcliff then nods his head and pushes the door open, and with a battle cry we all charge in fanning out to give us a wide attack range. The doors close behind us and the room falls quiet, the only sound is the panicked breathing of everyone here. Asuna then cocks her head up and cries.
"Up there!" She yells and we all look up.
The sight that greats us is truly terrifying, it resembles a large centipede with a long spine with many legs. The head is a large skull with piercing crimson eyes, it roars at us and then begins to move.
"Everyone fan out!" I yell as it begins to descend down.
It lands on the ground with a large bang causing some people to fall over from the shock wave produced, I take a quick glance at the name of the Boss and feel my heart stop. It's called the Skull Reaper and it has five health bars.
"Everyone prepare your selves!" I yell and everyone readies their shield and weapons. "Fairy Tail! Attack formation!"
The members of Fairy Tail with shields stand in the front with the sword welders behind them, I stand behind the sword welders as we wait for the right time to attack. The Skull Reaper roars loudly and takes out three assault team members with one swipe.
"One!" I call out and the first round of guild members leap forward to attack the Skull Reaper, each of them getting a few good hits before swapping shields with the front row. "Two!" I then call and the second round of attacks hit the Skull Reaper. We continue like this until it rises up, we then run under it to attack it there. And before it lowers it's self we run out just fairly missing the attack.
"Lucy you good?!" Someone yells to me, in the confusion I can't tell who it is.
"Yeah I'm good!" I call back. "Fairy Tail attack with everything you have!" I yell holding my sword tightly.
Running forward I jump up and swing down at the head of the boss, we keep attacking with everything we have inside us but soon everyone is getting tired. I find my self getting exhausted too and know I have to try using my sword skill, holding onto Lumen Histoire tightly I call to Agil.
"Agil! Boost me up!" I yell running towards him just as the Skull Reaper's fourth health bar goes down, Agil holds his hammer down and I jump onto it. He then swings his hammer so I end up flying into the sky, pointing my sword down I call out. "Fairy LAW!" And in a flurry of gold I land on the head of the boss. It cries out in pain and then vanishes into blue crystals, people cheer and then sit down to rest. I walk over to the guild members and notice three of them are missing, sighing I flop down and lie on my back with one arm over my eye.
"I'm sorry I couldn't protect them guy's." I say feeling tears sting my eyes, I hate when we lose members because I always feel like I failed them.
"It's ok master, they died protecting other people." Agil says wiping some sweat from the back of his neck.
"I know, I just wish I could get everyone out." I say sitting up.
I look over and notice Kirito is looking really angry, I don't understand why though. I watch him carefully as he puts his hand on his sword, doing a quick scan of the room I make sure that there aren't any more monsters. When my eyes go back to Kirito I notice him charge directly at Heathcliff.
"Kirito!" I yell and then notice a purple symbol blocking Kirito's blade.
Immortal Object...