The Hidden Player

Chapter 23: Hell's Gate

Floor 75: Collinia

No POV:

We see the large group of players in the square waiting for the arrival of Heathcliff and the Knights of the Blood Oath. All the players are talking to each other forming parties. In the distance we see Kirito and Asuna with Y/N Miko their talking to both Agil and Klein. Even with the heavy tension the group manages to make jokes. Agil claims that he had to close down his shop to come here. Y/N mentions that he was probably here for his own reasons. Kirito also jokes that if he was doing this to help others he wouldn't mind letting him and Y/N keep the gear.

The group continues to laugh and hold until Heathcliff shows up. Heathcliff pulls out a corridor crystal and opens a portal to the 75th floor boss room. Heathcliff gave strong words of encouragement to all of the players. His words work and all the players cheer before the enter the room.

Floor 75: Boss Room

Y/N POV:

I was nervous at first but thanks to us joking I eased up. We all promised to protect each other no matter. I pulled out a picture of Lis and Nilo "I promise I'll be back" I said to myself. After Heathcliff's speech we all charged into the room. After all of us entered the room the door closed behind us now we had to wait for the boss to appear. However the boss was nowhere to be found. It was quiet but then I heard a snake-like rattling above all of us. Asuna also heard the sound as well I looked up and saw the boss. "EVERYONE CLEAR THE AREA NOW!!!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Everyone jumped back as the boss fell from the ceiling down to the area. Sadly the boss killed two players with it's scythes in one hit. The boss's name was the Skull Reaper it was a giant skeleton-like centipede with giant arms with scythes. We were horrified and shocked at what we had just seen. The Skull Reaper went to attack another player but thankfully Heathcliff used his shield to protect the player. However the boss re-attacked the player using it's other scythe killing the player.

The Skull Reaper went on to attack another player this time Kirito blocked the attack. The Skull Reaper began to dangerously push Kirito towards the player. The boss went to attack Kirito with it's other scythe luckily Heathcliff blocked it. I took this opportunity to shoot a bomb arrow at the boss's face. The attack didn't do much to the boss it only angered it more. Everyone was still frozen "everyone attack it's sides" Heathcliff commanded. The only ones to attack were Agil, Klein and two others "well why the hell is everyone standing around with their hands in their pants let's do this" I said as I charged at the boss.

The boss hit the three of them with it's tail killing two of them and injuring Agil. Everyone now began to attack the boss at it's sides. Heathcliff, Miko, Asuna and Kirito kept the boss busy at the front. I stayed to the back firing arrows at the boss distracting it so the others could attack.

Time Skip

We continued to fight sadly the Skull Reaper destroyed my bow almost killing me. Thankfully Miko was there to save me from dying. "Come on big brother get your head into the game" she said to me. "Fine then" I thought to myself I I took out my tomahawk and readied my rope darts. I began to run around swing between the bones of the Skull Reaper and cutting it down with my tomahawk. As I swung around I felt like a certain character who swung around and crashed into trees. As I swung in the air the Skull Reaper cut my rope I was in mid-air as the boss went to skewer me. Thankfully the attacked missed and I threw my tomahawk at the Skull Reaper's head.

I did a superhero landing in front of the Skull Reaper as my tomahawk fell into my hand. I decided to switch things up a bit I took out my sword and used my Sword of Eden skill. My golden blade did some damage to the boss luckily Kirito was using his dual blade skill. I copied it and duel wielded my dagger and my sword.

Miko almost died good thing I saved her "keep your head in the game" I told her. Miko got up and dusted herself off "you don't need to remind me big bro" she said. The both of us did the combo attacks we learned on the boss and then we would also save players from dying. I was getting exhausted now I don't know how much more I could take. "When will this end?" I asked aloud "as soon as it's dead" Kirito answered "ha ha very funny" I replied.

Time Skip

The fight continued on it seemed like we weren't getting anywhere. We still fought as hard as we could until we managed to lower it's health bars down. The boss's life bar was nearing completion that's when Heathcliff told us to push harder. We all attacked at full force as best as we could. I wasn't going to lose to this thing not now. It took awhile but finally after a few more hits we finally defeated the boss.

Unlike when we defeated the first boss we didn't cheer we were all to exhausted. I healed myself up along with the others using my potions. I then checked my weapons durability it was very low. Thankfully Lis sent me a sharpening stone. While I was sharpening my blade Klein wanted to know how many players had died. Kirito spoke up saying that in total out of all of us 15 had died.

I stopped sharpening my sword when I heard that number. "We haven't lost that many players in a boss raid before" Klein said. "The floors are only going to get harder" I said "I don't want to think about how many more we'll lose" Miko said. Doubt began to spread amongst every one in the room and it was not good. The idea we had 25 more floors to clear got to everyone now. Could we do it was it possible I wanted to leave this world with everyone I cared about.

While we continued to rest something kept eating at me. I could tell that it was also bothering Kirito. He and I looked over at Heathcliff is health bar still in the green. Heathcliff wasn't exhausted either I wondered why because we all were why wasn't he. No one was that super human so what was he. I remembered what Berus had told me before. I had messaged Kirito everything I had found out because he too was suspicious.

At that moment I remembered the duel in Collinia. What had happened to both Kirito and I. How we lost so easily after the plan we had was foolproof. It was then Kirito and I noticed that the commander was busy. We both looked at each other and nodded. I grabbed my Silent Blade as Kirito grabbed his Elucidator. We slowly approached the commander the only ones to notice were Miko and Asuna. In that moment I vanished as Kirito went to hit Heathcliff with a Rage Spike.

It went down with Heathcliff going to quickly block the attack. However his attention turned to me appearing behind him. He moved his shield to block me but was to late my knife was going to hit his back while Kirito's sword was going to hit his chest. Before contact could be made our attacks were stopped by a purple Immortal Object shield.

A/N: Shit just got real everyone the final fight is about to begin. I wonder how the fight will go down and who will win. Still decided on what fairy race Y/N should be so far I've got 1 for Salamander, 1 for Imp and 1 for custom race. I am taking in consideration everyone's opinion. This is not a vote so it doesn't really matter how many people want a certain race. But however if enough people want that race I will choose it. Now what you can vote on is if you want the last chapter today or tomorrow. I am still waiting for questions about this story and the next one I am doing. When I've gathered enough questions I will announce when the story arc will be released. As always thank you for reading and I will see you all later