Mira was in a tizzy, ever since Pete had run off with Shiro she had been unable to settle down. It had gotten to the point where it was so bad that the group had had to rely on the large numbers of other users to survive. They hadn’t seen Pete’s transformation or his subsequent call to arms. The crowd had forced them down another path that wound through the city to a small square where a fountain still stood but with its basin dry and its statue weathered. By then Rynner had taken Mira aside, saying that they would try to whisper Shiro and see if they could find out where she was.

Wistal then assumed command of the remaining four. They pushed forward to the head of the crowd and began to assist clearing out the undead. The undead in this area seemed to be lesser undead such as zombies, or skeleton archers. By now the party had found out what had happened to the other waves of users. After that they had reasoned, based on what other users had said as they had been clearing out the roadway, that the city may have been set up in a spiral of increasingly difficult monsters.

Now that the users had reached this small square they fanned out and individual parties began hunting the more difficult monsters

that commonly appeared in the squares of the city. At this point, the four separated from the main body of users and began to

hunt a Death Knight! Their formation had Wistal in the back as support with Ju and Flynn farther ahead and spread out. Then, surprisingly Kurokami was their forward attacker. She wasn’t a tank but she had taken years of acrobatics, which left her with a

very nimble and flexible body. This allowed her to dodge the attacks of the Death Knight as she fired off fire spells. She then lured

it back towards Wistal who had been charging a much more powerful fire spell! With one last attack, Kurokami jumped out of the

way and Wistal launched his attack. It was strong enough to cause the Death Knight to pause slightly. This was enough time for Ju

and Flynn to fire off enough shots to agro the Death Knight. Then while it was being kept busy with the two archers, Kurokami

would head to the side of it opposite Wistal. They had formed a diamond around the Death Knight! In this formation all four of

them would have the Death Knight constantly trying to determine which one was the biggest threat, which in the end kept it from

attacking any of them too aggressively.

They followed this pattern as they slowly worked through the monsters in the area, stopping occasionally to rest and regain

stamina and health. During this time they would notice that they were still gaining a bit of EXP. The amount was not small by any

means either; they began to wonder just what kind of monsters Pete and Shiro were hunting.

It was during one of these rests that they heard a group of voices shouting up ahead. They seemed to be arguing over who got to

keep a sword and they all seemed to be male. Then with a sudden swiftness the voices all stopped as the men poured into the

street from the end opposite to the group of users that the four were with. There were still a few Death Knights that hadn’t been

killed at that end, but as the men passed by they turned grey in mere seconds. The continued to advance towards the group of

users, each one had an expression of disgust mixed with boredom on their face as they cut through the remaining Death Knights.

Ju and the others watched in awe as the small group of men annihilated the Death Knights. What made the whole scene even

more surreal is that they seemed to lack any kind of armor. Even Wistal had equipped a few pieces of crappy skeleton armor to

give him some form of protection. Yet these men who each could single handedly mow down a Death Knight had nothing, instead

they seemed to just barely dodge every attack the Death Knights made.

“I as the senior should have one of the swords.”

“Ah but Geomchi15, I was the one that killed the Death Knight that dropped it. I believe it is my prize.”

It was the Geomchis! The other users stared in awe as the legendary warriors from Royal Road walked towards them. After a

while, a few of the users seemed to collect themselves and call out to them, asking for specific Geomchis. It appeared a few of

the users in the group had been taught by the Geomchis. Ju’s group stayed to the sideline and listened to the Geomchis tell of their experience in the ruined Morata.

They had been part of the elite group in the first few waves that had traveled along the walls. They complained that the difficulty in monsters was lacking. Ju’s group was shocked! They thought that the difficulty of monsters was way too high for starters to face against. If it wasn’t for the advantage in numbers, they had no idea how they would’ve survived so long. Even more

surprisingly some of the regular users agreed as well. It seemed that they were the ones that had been taught to fight by the

Geomchis. It deflated the group’s sense of pride in their accomplishments thus far if everyone else thought that the monsters were too easy.

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The large group of users was on the move again as they continued to clear out the streets and the interior of the houses and shops that they came by along the way. The city was massive so it took much longer than anyone would’ve expected. Eventually waves of users stopped coming in as most people were already in the game or were dead and waiting for the reclamation war to finish.

Mira and Rynner had rejoined the group and they began to hunt even faster. A full day in the real world had past and many people were logging off to go to work or take care of necessities. However, as the entire group was still students, they didn’t log off for anything other than a dire need for the bathroom or food. It was during one of these food/bathroom runs that both Peter and Juliet bumped into each other and had a chance to talk.

“Yeah, sorry about separating from you guys and everything, it looked like Shiro got her ear talked off when she logged off for a bit. Anyways, we’re still working through the lake area around that old statue. The squares took foorreeevveerrr.”

“I know what you mean. It has been non-stop fighting in the streets, even with the insane amount of people we have it still takes

a while to clear everything out.”

“I KNOW! Oh, yeah have you seen Jack at all?”

“No, mom said that he hasn’t left his room except for a few minutes after we first logged in.”

They both looked towards their elder brother’s closed door.

“I wonder what he’s doing.”

“Who knows? But I have more stuff to kill, besides I promised Shiro I’d only be gone for a bit.”

“ooohhhhh, seems you and Shiro are getting along well then!”

Juliet grinned as she watched her twin squirm. His face got a little red as he made an embarrassed expression.

“W-whatever, it’s not like that. Anyways I need to get back.”

Pete stormed off into his room as Juliet casually sauntered into hers, although it was a quick saunter. She wanted to get back to

the game as quickly as possible as well.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

“Woof, jeez when is this gonna end!?”

“No idea, there seems no shortage of undead.”

Kurokami wiped the sweat from her brow as she took a breather with Juliet. By now everyone had gained so many levels that they

could fight in a less organized manner. With their current prowess lower class undead posed little threat to them. Though

compared to those users that had played Royal Road they were still unbelievably weak. Not only did those users have all the

experiences from the previous game to draw on, but the EXP boost they had allowed them to level faster. Most non-Royal Road

users had died off, it was a miracle that their small group had survived. Ju suspected that Flynn had been a Royal Road user since

he seemed to be getting more powerful way faster than the rest of them. But he didn’t say anything and she didn’t ask.

By now most of the city had been cleared, it had taken a total two days of real-world time to get this far. Shiro and Pete were set

to rendezvous with them as soon as they were finished with clearing up the rest of the southern section. The larger group that

Ju’s party was attached to was currently about to raid the citadel that had once been the seat of power for Weed’s empire in the

previous game.

They were standing out front as some people who seemed to think they were the leaders of the group were discussing an attack

plan. But it was apparent that everyone was getting impatient, some had begun to grumble, especially the Geomchis.

“Should we not just go in?”

“It’s unmanly to sneak into a dungeon!”

“Let’s just crush whatever is inside; we can’t fall behind our hyungs in the other cities!”

The small group of Geomchis that had been lazily eliminating the enemies in their path now stepped forward. Ignoring the pleas to

wait from the users at the head of the group they burst through the front entrance. Everyone followed cautiously behind.

The entranced opened onto a huge throne room. Weed of course had a hand in the building of the Citadel and wanted a huge

throne room. He believed that all true kings should have a massive throne room right through the front entrance. Everything else

that was needed to keep the Citadel running was in the upper floors. As a consequence, the first five floors of the ten floors

structure were taken up almost entirely by the vaulted ceiling of the throne room.

Normally one would think the throne room would be dark, after all it had spent a thousand years in abandonment. This, however,

was not the case. The weak light from the outside poured in through a gaping hole that had obliterated the top five floors to

almost nothing. As the users filtered in they began to fan out along the walls. The more experienced ones had already taken

fighting stances, they had a gut feeling that they were about to face something akin to the last boss in a dungeon.

In the center there appeared to be a large, dark mound. Through holes in whatever leathery material composed the outside, they

could see large bones that had yellowed with age. The entire mound gave off a foul stench and was an altogether unpleasant sight. A few of the braver or maybe more foolhardy users moved towards it. Eventually one worked up the courage to poke it. For a while nothing happened, the users closest to the mound let off a few nervous laughs; their fears that the mound was something dangerous now seeming meaningless.

-Who has disturbed my slumber!?

A deep and ancient voice filled the room and shook the few columns that were still standing. The faces of the users turned to ash.

“….Run!”

The users closest suddenly turned to gray dust as the mound sprung to life! The screams of hundreds on hundreds of users could be heard as those that already had entered the citadel desperately fought to flee. They crashed into the users behind them and a gridlock ensued at the entrance.

*BBRRRAAAAAWWWRRR!!!*

Everyone was paralyzed by fear as the mound fully revealed itself, it was a Bone Dragon! A top class undead! One of the most feared monsters in the game!

It seemed to suck in a breath and then released it! Dark poison and flames spewed from its maw and eliminated all users in its path as it surged through the entrance.

Ju’s group had been part of the people that had fanned out to the side and had been spared thus far. However, all of them

trembled in fear. Mira even collapsed to the ground.

“H-h-how are we supposed to face this! This quest is impossible. I just wanted to have fun with my s-s-sisters! I-I-I can’t take

this!”

She broke into a fit of sobs as Rynner tried to calm her down. Ju continued to tremble in fear, she felt for someone, anyone, and

found Kurokami’s hand. The both grasped each other’s hand and squeezed as if to confirm they weren’t alone. Then, they heard a shout.

“FINALLY!”

“This will be a real fight!”

“We have gotten good at slaying dragons! Let’s get this thing!”

“YATS, YATS, YATS!”

It was the Geomchis! They were the only ones that were seemingly unaffected by the fear inducing dragon. In fact they all had ecstatic looks on their faces as they spread out around the beast before charging in.

-Foolish mortals, your existence is fleeting whereas mine is eternal!

The Bone Dragon flared its wings out as it swiped with its front claws. The forward attacking Geomchis barely dodged before

jumping on its front leg and with a shout ran up to hack at its leathery wings!

“Eliminate the wings!”

“Ground this bastard!”

The Geomchis were fearless in the face of large opponents, they fought even harder! Their vigor began to rally some of the other users as they started a second wave of attacks. Wizards and archers alike fired off attacks at the monster’s head, hoping to keep it distracted from the melee users that began to attack its legs.

The Bone Dragon’s cold eyes burned with a hot flame of anger!

-Curse you insects! You will all die!

The Bone Dragon took to the sky! The Geomchis continued to ride atop it as they attempted to render its wings useless. The Bone Dragon sucked in its breath to prepare another one of its breath attacks! The users below begun to run out of the entrance,

desperately trying to escape death!

It was too late! The attack connected to the ground right at the entrance! More users lost their lives as the breath attack worked its way back inwards. The screams of the users as they died rung loudly in the ears of those that were about to face death; all they could do was watch as the attack made its way towards them.

Ju and Kurokami both collapsed now and huddled by Mira. Despite this only being a game, the three were completely new to it like so many others and were unable to cope with the horror they were facing. They truly believed they would die.

Through tear filled eyes, Ju watched as the torrent of darkness and death made its way towards them. Suddenly Flynn, Rynner, and Wistal stepped in front of them. It was a useless gesture, but something in them told them they had to try to protect their friends.

“One of the spells wizards got was a shield spell!”

“Let’s try to use it together!”

“Alright!”

Wistal and Rynner both began chanting the shield spell in an attempt to protect the group. Flynn stood behind them and continued to fire shots into the Bone Dragon until his quiver was empty. The breath attack was upon them!

It easily crushed through the barrier, and then it rushed through both Wistal and Rynner. As this happened, Flynn turned around and gave the three girls a wry smile.

“Sorry,”

Then he too was swallowed up by the darkness. With only Kurokami and Mira left, Ju felt nothing more than a deep pit of helplessness. Before entering the citadel she had felt that this was only a game and was enjoying it. However, after the first attack by the Bone Dragon, she felt that she was in a real world now and that she would die. She closed her eyes tight and cringed.

“Pete, help!”

The death was surprisingly painless. Except the Ju found it odd that she couldn’t sense her bed beneath her and something was stinking up her room. It wasn’t till she heard the booming sound of bone on stone that she opened her eyes in confusion.

First she looked down. There was a dark scar that stretched all the way from the entrance up until a mere foot away from where

she was. Then it veered off course and traced a jagged path across the floor and walls before stopping. Then she looked up, there

was now a large hole fifty feet above the entrance. Outside she could hear the sounds of something very large crushing the

buildings underfoot, along with the occasional, “YATS,” being shouted.

“I survived! We surv-!”

She bit off the last bit, looking around; it was only her, Mira, and Kurokami that had survived. The boys had sacrificed

themselves. Looking around it seemed they were the only ones left from the once enormous party of users that they had been

clearing the city with. She steeled herself, knowing that the fight wasn’t over. Now that she was finally over her shock of seeing

something so horrific, she knew that the quest to reclaim Morata wouldn’t end until the Bone Dragon was defeated.

Ju cringed as she heard the fearsome roars of the dragon as it rampaged about the city. Shaking off the momentary relapse into

fear, she dusted herself off before helping the other two to their feet.

“We need to go, the quest isn’t over yet.”

The other two nodded determination evident on their faces.

Pete stretched his back and let loose a yawn of exhaustion. The southern section was finally cleared. It had taken almost two days

to finish it, but it was done. Shiro and he were now relaxing against some rubble from a destroyed shop as the rest of the group

that had followed them through the city began to unwind as well for a bit, before meeting up with the group to the north. He eyed

Weed and Seoyoon, both of whom were still standing and seemed about ready to leave without the rest of them.

He frowned slightly as he continued to watch their movements. That was until Shiro pulled on his shirt. He looked down at her

quizzically. She shook her head, indicating that she wanted him to stop giving Weed dirty looks.

“But Sh-!”

*BOOM!*

Before he could finish his sentence, a massive boom resounded throughout the city. Pete’s eyes quickly followed the sound of the boom in time to see a portion of the Citadel to explode outwards. As it did so his body stiffened as it instinctively sensed danger.

He felt Shiro cling to him as their eyes sighted what caused the explosion. They witnessed it in what felt like slow motion, at first they saw something that looked like gigantic bull horns poke out of the dust cloud. Then they saw a skull that the horns were attached to, but it seemed that the skull was more reptilian than bovine. Portions of its neck bones began to escape from the dust, each of the ridges glinting dully in the sunlight.

The dust cloud cleared and a foul smelling gust hit the southern reclamation group. With its clearing the full form of the creature was revealed! The users gasped in horror at the sight of the Bone Dragon! Pete’s eyes were riveted to it as he watched it crash into a few buildings near the Citadel. Before it landed he had noticed one of its wings had been ripped to shreds and what looked like humans scurrying across its body.

He swallowed his own fear and patted Shiro on the head before standing up.

“Looks like we have one more bastard that’s still kicking; let’s crush him and get this over with!”

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Hey guys! long time right? I've been doing this [th_093.gif]