chapter 37

The next day soon arrived, and all the players had gathered at the warp gate in the center of the town, where a group of Knights of the Blood Oath members was currently waiting for all of them to arrive while maintaining a stoic facial expression on their face, all of them are shieldbearer.

Of course- like always, when their guild arrived it always attracted much attention from the players of the other guilds- most of their attention was focused on Leonard he was infamous for defeating the Heathcliff himself in a one on one duel a few days previously.

"It seems like Heathcliff pretty prepared for this one…" Diavel whispered to Leonard.

"I can see that...I guess he could see the bigger picture after all…" Leonard said that while maintaining is all serious expression while starting another inner monologue.

"Ahh god, can't expect less from Akihiko - fucking- Kayaba himself...just wonder how many of them will survive this…"

It was then that Klein and Fuurinkazan found them and called out.

"Oh! Ballsy! You're coming along as well?" Leonard pretends to be surprised to see the red tomato samurai and his guild.

"Please...stop calling me that! That name is the stain of my life!" Klein when forward to Leonard and begged him while having tears flowing out of his face and looking really miserable.

"Alright alright- I'll stop ok? Geez, you're staining my new dyed coat with your wretched fluid!" Leonard tried to push the samurai away from him.

It was then that the shieldbearer of the Knight of the Blood Oath showed some movement in their rank, they moved away and formed an opening- revealing their leader.

Heathcliff upon seeing that all the players had arrived at the warp gate plaza.

He then walked toward the large stone monument that was in the center of the plaza while holding up a large teleporting crystal.

"Open corridor!" he shouted as the crystal began to shined brightly before shattering since it was a one-time use item.

It was then that a large space ripple opened up- acting as a doorway for the players.

"Now, let us go." Heathcliff turned back to inform the rest of the players that were waiting nervously.

"Alright, let us go too...you're all prepared for a tough fight right?" Leonard then turned to Klein before returning to his own guild.

"Uhmm...yeah, we stocked up on everything like what you told us, you were saying that this one is going to be a very tough fight as the boss has a ridiculous attack power- so we all had our armor reinforced as well as weapon sharpened," Klein responded.

"Yeh- we also stocked up on healing potion and emergency healing crystal as well!" Dale- the large man then added to Klein words.

"Good...alright teams...let us walk forward! As we have a boss to kill!" Leonard declared loudly while exaggeratedly pointing his finger toward the space ripple.

When Sachi saw Leonard pose, she couldn't help but let out a small laugh- which then spread to all the other members of the two guilds as well.

It was then that Leonard turned back and showed a sadistic smile to the men.

"I don't mind Sachi laughing at me- but...you seem to miss the feeling of having your balls crushed huh?" he said in an ice-cold tone.

Of course, Asuna jumped in front of Kirito trying to form a barrier in order to protect him, while Klein just hid behind the giant man that is Dale.

"Just kidding!" Leonard personality instantly turned a 180-degree turn and back into his cheerful self once more- which scared the group even further.

It was then that Sachi hand chopped him on the head.

"Ouch...what was that for?" Leonard rubbed his hand with feeling that he has been wronged somehow.

"Stop scaring everyone," she told him in a stern voice.

"....yes ma'am…alright everyone...let us get a move on as well..." Leonard lamented while leading on listlessly and passed through the space ripple, into an extremely spacious hallway supported by spiraling stone pillars.

It was then that the mood got tense once again.

"It's sort of unsettling, isn't it?" Asuna spoke up as she looked around the spacious hallway with her eyes.

"Yeah…" Kirito replied quietly while standing next to her.

"What so unsettling? It's just going to be another giant monster like before- whose in here going to bet that we're going to face a giant skeleton?" Leonard jokingly asked them.

However, no one answered him.

"...bad time for a joke I guess…." Leonard let out a sigh before continued on walking toward the giant stone door that was in front of him.

When all the players got close to the door- Heathcliff asked them if they were ready- it was then that Heathcliff was about to go into one of his lengthy speech.

"Broadly speak-"

"Oh shut it already, we know the drills- you guys going to be the front line team that kept the boss in check-blah blah blah! I want to kill something so get a move on!" Leonard interrupted Heathcliff- who suddenly had a feeling of deja vu.

"...ok…for freedom…." he replied meekly before "heroically" turned his back and pushed the stone door that leads to the boss chamber open.

"...uhh...yeah...cheer….hooray…." Leonard tried to make some background noise to "encourage" Heathcliff- but the man seems to be quite dejected about the turn of the event since Leonard interrupted one of his "great" speech.

As the stone door was pushed open, Leonard was of course- the first one to charges recklessly into the room- which scared everyone else shitless since they read the report on how strong and crazy this boss was from the information released by the Knight of the Blood Oath.

"Wait up you idiot!!" a random player boldly shouted at Leonard and took off after him- which then followed by dozens of other as well.

"...what am I going to do with our dumbass of a leader...It's a miracle that we all survived this far up into Aincrad…" Kirito facepalmed himself while lamenting and somewhat felt quite relieved deep inside. All the other guild members also nodded in agreement while letting out a deep sigh.

"Alright, let us go as well." Kirito ran after Leonard- along with all the other remaining players.

Of course- the players had their very own battle cry- such as "FOR MONEY!" and "FOR LOOT" ...nothing too special...

When they all got inside the stone door slammed shut with a loud bang and trapped all the intruder inside of the stone chamber, all the players got into their combat stances and readying their skills- ready to bombard anything that dared to show up.

However, they saw...literally...nothing, no shadow of the boss or whatsoever.

The tension was high as they kept a lookout on all 360 degrees, not letting anything escape their sight- however, it was then that Asuna got a bad feeling and looked up into the ceiling.

"Above us!" she shouted- which immediately caused all the players to look up toward the ceiling- where they saw a skeletal centipede-like monster hanging above, watching them- until Asuna noticed it which caused it to drop down onto the group of now terrified players.

*BOoom!!! The monster landing caused a small earthquake- before it quickly swung it scythe-like arms which sliced two unfortunate players that were caught in it warpath, killing them immediately.

"Zzzassssshhhhhhh!!!!!" the creature let out it battle cry as the room began to light up, and the creature name was revealed.

[The Skull Reaper] was its name.

"SHIT!!! TANKS GET INTO YOUR POSITION!!!" Diavel shouted as he notices how strong the creature really is.

"So this is why he told us to focus more on defense! If we don't then we're fuck!!!" Diavel mind was racing as he remembered Leonard words from the previous night.