Torn Between Worlds

Chapter 3: Renegade Knight

Waking up in the morning, I sharpened my sword and fixed my armor before meeting up with Kirito and Asuna at the Amphitheater.

"You two ready?' I asked them.

"As I'll ever be," Asuna told us.

"Well, we got your backs," I smiled raising my fist to her.

"Oh yeah," she cracked a smile before bumping my fist with her own, same with Kirito.

*Time skip*

When the last of the player arrived, we were about to head out till Yuna ran back up to us. She looked as if she didn't get any sleep last night.

"Yuna, did you get any sleep?" I asked her.

"No, I was too busy trying to make the perfect song for this moment, and I finally did it," she smiled.

"Alright everyone let's sit down and listen to Yuna," Diabel instructed.

Sitting close to her, she didn't even make it through the first chord before falling asleep. Catching her, I picked her up bridal style and took her to my room in the tavern. Leaving a note, I met back up with the others as we were off.

Traversing through the cleared area of the dungeon, Kirito, Asuna, and I were in the very back as it was our job to handle the Ruin Cobalt Sentinels.

"Alright let's go over the plan one last time," Kirito stated.

"Kill me now," I groaned.

"Hey!" Kirito objected. "Anyways it's our job to handle the minions while the main groups handle the boss itself. Once we got the minions clear we'll join up with the others and take out the boss," Kirito explained.

"I understand that part, but what is a switch?" Asuna asked us.

"Okay level with us, is this your first ever video game?" I asked her.

"Yes," she admitted.

"Alright, a switch is exactly what it sounds like. Two fighters one starts off the attack, the other finishes, the term switch is used to notify the second player to move in and attack," I explained.

"Oh, I really should've figured that out," she laughed nervously.

"Don't beat yourself up, but try not to fall behind," I grinned.

"You just errr!" Asuna growled.

"He always does this," Kirito laughed.

"Damn right I do, so get used to it princess," I jested.

"Whatever," she groaned rolling her eyes.

Making it to the boss door, Diabel was standing in front of it, in his usual stoic pose as he called it back in the beta days.

"I just have one thing to say, and that's let's win this, so we can all go home!" he exclaimed.

Letting out a loud battle cry we opened the doors to the boss room. At first, it was fine, but when the lights turned on it was like we were all tripping on acid. Seeing the boss drop down, he equipped his battle ax and his sentinels came charging. Rushing forward, I thrust my blade in between a sentinels helmet killing it instantly then cut the next two sentinels head off.

"Nice!" Kirito exclaimed before he took out sentinels coming in from my blind side. "You're up Asuna!" he told her.

"Right," she told him before using her rapier to take down a sentinel.

Looking to the boss, I rushed in and slid under it to attack it from its backside, but it adapted and knocked me into the pillars. Damn, I'm down to half health. Falling back, I healed up before going back into the fray.