SAO (FanFictions)

Spider's Silk

Throughout his time trapped in the game Sword Art Online, Kirito had not come across a monster that fought quite like this. In the forests of the 35th floor, hidden deep in a grove near the centre of the forest, was a secret quest. It was a simple enough quest: fight and defeat the boss. No extra enemies, no strings attached. The reward was a super rare item, a weapon or equipment of some kind and he saw no reason not to try out this hidden quest, even if no one had defeated it before.

So Kirito had entered the woods, found the grove and accepted the quest, walking into the grove with his sword drawn and held in a ready stance. It was quiet, too quiet. There was no growling or rushing as a monster approached, no footfalls or wing beats or dragging tail. It was an unnerving silence.

He glanced around, his eyes shining green with his scan skill as he searched suspiciously for the monster that should have been there. A curser flashed, signalling the presence of the boss, but his eyes couldn't see it, he couldn't hear or smell it. He couldn't /find/ it.

Until the clicking started.

It echoed around, bouncing off the trees and masking the creature's position from the swordsman's sharp ears. Kirito narrowed his eyes, spinning around to try and catch a glimpse of the elusive beast. The hair on the back of his neck prickled and he glanced up, his eyed widening as he saw the huge black shape directly above his head, its many eyes glowing an intimidating bloody red.

Kirito scrambled back as the spider dropped, leaving the relative safety of its treetop web in favour of killing the human so bold as to enter its lair. It was a massive spider, covered in hair with a white mark on its back, fangs dripping poison and pincers snapping savagely. The player gripped his sword tighter, holding it in a ready position as he faced the arachnid.

Kirito charged forward, a battle cry ripping from his throat as he slashed at the boss, his blade shining with a sword skill. The spider dodged, lashing out with its front legs as the swordsman tried to recover. Kirito grunted as he was hit, his HP falling to 95 percent; a weak attack.

He jumped, leaping onto the spider's back to attack the back of its head, simultaneously trying not to get thrown by its attempts to knock him away. It spun around and around, jumping and shaking itself and clicking its fangs angrily in its attempts until it finally managed to knock the swordsman off.

Kirito gasped as he smashed into a tree, his sword falling from his grasp as he crumpled to the ground in a daze. He watched as his health fell, slowly creeping into the low green zone with the boss' health hovering just below 50 percent. He tried to get to his feet, starting as he felt resistance against the movement. He glanced around, unable to find the source of the resistance, and tried again to no avail.

He activated his scan skill, his eyes widening as he saw the multitude of wire-like threads snaking around the grove, holding him in place and all in the grasp of the spiders front legs.

The spider pulled the wires - no, the web - tight around his hands, arms and legs, yanking his arms unforgivingly above his head and spreading his legs apart before securing the threads. Kirito struggled desperately, trying to pull himself out of such a vulnerable position, but the silk-like threads proved to be stronger than he had thought.

It was true, spiders' silk was stronger than steel, at least in the game.

The spider's pincers opened wide, its long fangs dripping venom as it approached. Kirito closed his eyes, his head hanging limply as he accepted his defeat and oncoming death.

There was no fighting his way out of this one.

He waited, counting the seconds before those sharp fangs tore into his body, visualising the red light splashing from his wounds like blood and his body exploding into shining blue polygons, his name crossed out on the monument in the Black Iron Castle with the date and his cause of death inscribed on its dark surface.