My Laughing Coffin [SAO fan-fiction]

Chapter 5: Escape Spyde

"Unfortunately, you players are the first to make it to Floor 20." Kiyaba had prerecorded a small speech on a small diamond shaped recording device in order to help us survive, ironically.

"Obviously the situation you are in requires you to retreat. I'll only help you this once seeing as how this is the only floor with an unfair trap in the safezone. First of all, once the recording has finished, the monsters will be taken out of Peaceful Mode. They will proceed to attack you all."

I looked in disbelief at the projected image of Akihiko Kayaba. There he was... my captor.... our captor. The cause of thousands of deaths. Nomad and Lavender had looks of pure rage and hatred on their faces. My own mind grasped desperately for an emotion to feel. Fear, depression, worry, confusion, regret and anger. All of these feelings fought for a spot in my brain, my mood would swing from all these emotions as Kiyaba continued to explain his trap.

"Luckily for you all however, every single one of these buildings is accessible. Meaning you can use every single one of them, however they act as normal homes. If enough force is applied, they will topple. Somewhere, in the basement of one of these hundreds of homes, is an underground bunker. It is the one spot the Spydinites can't reach. All you must do is locate the bunker, reach there, and eradicate the Spydinites using a...." Kiyaba paused as if he were looking for a name to describe another one of his damn traps.

Kiyaba chuckled. "I'll just say it's a special device that you'll like to take full advantage of."

"Well that's all for the recording, Goodbye!" I remembered the warning Kiyaba gave us about the monsters in Peaceful Mode.

Once the hologram of Kiyaba disappeared, he kept his promise of an instant threat. The enemies surrounding our every escape route violently lashed their attention towards us. Hissing rang through the city, as if the walls of Spyde amplified the sound of death. "Run!" I shouted.

I'm not sure why, I guess it was reflexive at this point, the ability for me to run instead of fight. In movies they do the same thing, I can assure you however, this is no movie. I planned to survive. My hands began to shake as fear engulfed me all over again. However, it acted as the oil in my lantern of a body. I shot forward with my axe raise and lashed out at a Spydinite. Activating my sword skill Rend, I slashed upward at the first monster i cold. It shot left causing me to miss by a long shot. My eyes widened as its legs coiled before springing at me, logging thick fangs into my side.

"GAAHHH!" I wailed in agony as a burning discomfort great across the left side of my torso.

I howled as the Spydinite retreated a step. An icon appeared above my HP bar. A small purple box with darker purple bubbles inside. Poison. Of course it was poison. I took a sharp glance at my health bar to see that that single attack had taken 25% of my over all HP, with the poison slowly sapping away at the 75% I had left.

This was torture.... what had I done in my life that deserved this? Thinking back on everything I've destroyed in my life irl, I slowly began to recall the smallest of details. The times i spent with my sister, my first moment of true depression after my sisters death, I had finally found a sanctuary when gaming fell into my lap, and more vividly than all my other memories; the grin I had when I first found out about the release of Sword Art Online.

All this thinking in the second it took me to hit the ground. I knew that falling would put me to a stop, I'd be at a disadvantage, I would be handing my soul to death the moment my back hit the ground. As if it were second nature, I rolled backwards in a feeble yet successful attempt to cheat death.

"We can't fight," I mumbled quickly withdrawing from my current position.

I sprinted back to Nomad and Lavender who had both been preparing to defend me. Each of their bows glowed a different profile of oblivion ready to strike down whatever dared to step towards them.

"The hell were you doing!?" Nomad shouted as I returned with my Sypdonite bite still burning with a rippling pain.

Finally it happened. Simultaneously all of the Spydinites took a dramatic step forward before launching themselves at us in their creature of nightmare movements.

Everything following their assault was a blur. I remember darting left, my mind had accessed a new source of adrenaline. One that wasn't focused on battle efficiency. Instead, my new rush of super juice was aimed solely on self-preservation. I wanted to live, I didn't care about anything happening around me. Not about the safe zone, not about the monsters, not about Kiyaba, not about my new comrade Lavender, not even about Nomad.

The building was so close now. Full using the momentum of my sprint, and a well placed foot plant, I slammed my entire weight into the door of the house closest to me. I could hear footsteps behind me. They were heavy. Nomad....

I turned the corner into the retro styled kitchen then found myself scurrying to the steps leading to a second floor as the sound of Spydinites giving chase to use filled the small two story home.

My heart sank as I heard the high pitched scream of as girl. We'd just left her.... I had just left her.... to die....

I shook the thoughts of despair out of my mind and continued onward. A large hall formed in front of me as I slowed down to catch my breath. Nomad continued to run through the window spotted hall. A slight chuckle left my mouth as a Spydinite leaped through the window landing perfectly onto it's next meal. I watched, my bestfriend get mutilated by three inch fangs just before reaching out to me, then bursting into shards...

My stomach turned over in its grave as I continued to run while my body constantly seemed to threaten me with warnings of collapsing and vomiting. It's too bad none of that was possible in a virtual reality game. Otherwise I would've been on the floor right now, waiting for the demons that chased us to puncture my practically lifeless body until I bursted into thousands of pixilated shards.

After a solid 30 minutes of running from the monsters... I had finally eluded the Spydinites.

I was currently in a large bedroom of some sort.... I felt so tired, not from exhaustion. But from absolute guilt and regret.

My mind felt like a 300 lbs man walking across a centimeter of thread. Like an acrobat on a tight rope. What was going to break my fall I wondered... under my thin line of consciousness was insanity. It waited patiently, with a sinister grin on its ugly face. It took the form of Nomad. His insanity driven form pointed in front of my tightrope. Looking across to the point of interest I noticed Kiyaba smirking at me. "Welcome to Sword Art Online."

His face melted, leaving me with a scarring image of a bloodied chunk of flesh that was his face. A large pair of scissors formed out of his hand, slowly the horrifying monster that was Kiyaba brought his scissor hand down to the rope that I walked on.

And just before cutting the only support my weary mind held before plunging into utter insanity....