Sword Art Online : Swordlands

Chapter 4

I breathed hard, beads of sweat pouring down my forehead. Glancing around me, I saw my friends heaving and puffing as hard as I am. I glanced at the dungeon boss infront of us. The colossal rock golem roared back at me. Name: Golem Guardian, lvl 28, health: 1600/1800. Its armour merely a pile of dirt, weldering a wooden club. Sounds really easy to defeat, doesn't it? But like all MMORPGs, theres always a catch. A trick. It has a passive called unbreakable. After a 20 second cooldown, the golem will automatically raise its armour by a milestone, rendering our normal attacks useless while he regenerates a generous amounts of hitpoints. Always back to square one.

Its amazing how the software <<Cardinal>> is able to create a monster like this. So realistic...merely a software, a program. This creature infront of me is nothing more than a rendering of a 3D virtual reality. Though it did not change the fact that I was risking my life, fighting it. Like all creatures in this realm, it would deal damage to my hitpoints. My hitpoints. Thats what keeps me alive in this realm. No sickness, no need for any substances to aid the bodily functions.

Just the hitpoints. It is all thats sustaining us in this realm.

When you think of it, it is pretty unfair, is it not? The golem infront of me, this creature, was not alive like me. Not human. It is a digital lump that <<Cardinal>> would replace no matter now many times it was slain. Unfair, isn't it? But there is something that would balance it out. Every time this golem was slain, all its adaptations to our attacks and skill would reset, and it would respawn a mindless now golem. But it still doesn't change the fact that it is software generated, doesn't it?

I look at the health gauge of my party members on the top left corner. Everyone is full health except Ben on half health, who has been tanking the golems damage. I glanced at the golem. Out of its 4 health bars, we had worn out 1, leaving it with 3. But the next time it uses that passive again...it would seem like we didn't do anything at all. Suddenly, an idea sparked in my mind.

"Ben and Ryan, charge up your shields with the new skill you learnt, <<Dauntless Roar>>! Release it when I tell you!" I turned around swiftly. "Sarah and Chong, charge your pikes with <<Skewering Strike>>, Chern charge your rapier with <<Slice and Dice>>!" The cave had started to illuminate a faint glow of flying colours, painting and splashing the walls.

"NOW!" I yelled.

A ferocious crackle of roar escaped Ben and Ryans shield, slamming into the golem with a tump. The golems health bar flashed purple, indicating that it has been stunned. We have 4 seconds of stun time. We have to make it fast, or he will just activate the passive again.

"Rest of us, CHARGE!" I screamed. The pulsing green light escaped from Sarah and Chong's pikes, intertwining and piercing the golem right through its dirt brown carapace.

3 seconds.

A swift beam of white light danced around the golem. But it isn't just an ordinary light. The light is actually Chern, slicing and dicing the golem, bit to bit, piece to piece. C'mon...faster...

2 seconds.

Then I saw it. A dent in its dirt suit. Just slightly above left chest. A flaw...

1 second.

With speed beyond lightning, I unsheathed my already charged sword, and spun to the creature. <<Bane of the Weak>>...I whispered as the tip of my blade touched its soft spot. A cloud of dust engulfed the golem as the sword ran smoothly through its soft spot, protruding from the other end of its gravel body. The golem released a chuckle, as if it was surprised that it would be outsmarted. The health bar visualised ontop of the golem, its health gradually declining and declining, finally depleting to 0. A soft beep sounded, followed by the fizzing sound of its dematerialization. The pixels swirled and danced before touching the floor, vanishing.