Skeleton no Beta

*Footstep*

Kirito (Kazuya) hid behind the trees as he casually watched the group of players gather around a spot and were getting ready to start their group meeting.

Some of the other players had already entered the dungeon, each one wanting to defeat the boss on the first floor and claim the item.

And no one could blame them, the news of if there were any beta testers for the game was still a mystery.

Only a few of the players stayed behind for a talk so they could plan on how they would survive in the game.

Kirito was still feeling anxious about showing his face to anybody, he knew If they noticed how he looks a lot like the main character from Sao, it was going to go either very good, or bad real quick.

'This is ridiculous, why am I hiding? I doubt they would be able to tell I'm his son just with that,' He sighed, Kirito was about to step outside when he suddenly heard one of the players shout.

"Holy, guys look" The player yelled, "She looks exactly like Asuna" He pointed at her.

"Ayo, he's right, you think that's how she looks in real life?" Another player spoke.

Asuna(Aiko) ignored the mummering that was echoing around her and walked down the stairs to take a seat.

"I'm going to go talk to her"

The guy standing in front of them gave a slight cough, "Let's focus here, My name is Luke Ignite, I understand most of us here have either never seen the anime before, or we are just playing it safe" Luke uttered.

"Non of us has any experience with this, and those who do are unwilling to help up out, we can't stay on the first floor forever... we have to come up with a plan incase we meet anything we can't handle" Luke uttered, reaching for his pocket to pull out a mall guide book.

Kirito walked into the meeting, wearing a hood, he sat down beside a guy who had a giant axe with him.

'I'll try not to stick out as much, there shouldn't be any problem,' Kirito thought to himself before taking a sit.

"Hey, what's with the hood? You don't have to be shy" The boy sitting beside Kirito said with a smile.

"No, I'm cool," Kirito uttered.

"If we stick to this book guide we should be able to fare just fine," Luke said.

"The first boss we are going to face is what is known as a Skeleton controller, it says it wields a long pirate sword and once its health bar turns red he changes his weapon to a double coubalt" Luke read aloud.

"That's nothing like in the anime, wasn't it some gaint ass monster... Damm Seka!" One of the player yelled.

Luke tapped his front with his finger so his menu would appear, "Let's all form a party of two, is everyone alright with this?" He uttered, "Once we get there we need a party to take care of the boss's minions while the other defeats the boss".

"Who gets to keep the item?" A player asked.

"We'll keep it old school, who ever has the last strike keeps the item drops, is that good?"

'Now I really wished I watched the anime,' Kirito sighed.

The boy sitting beside Kirito uttered, "I would have offered to join a party with you, but my friend is waiting for me" He smiled before storming off.

Kirito sighed again, he looked to his left to see a bunch of guys circling around Asuna, begging her to join their party.

"Asuna uhn? She's pretty lucky" Kirito sighed again.

After they all had joined a party, except Kirito who had no one to party with. They headed straight for the dungeon to take on the boss and advance to the next floor.

Kirito was walking behind the team with his hood still on, when they entered the dungeon they met three players running for their lives.

"Hey, wow, why are you running?" Luke stopped one of the players, who's health bar had already dropped to red.

The rest didn't bother waiting, they all just kept running, more players came running out of the boss room, showing no sign of stopping.

"Tell us, why are you all running like that" Luke asked the player he had held on to.

"There's no hope, you've been tricked, that .. that's a monster" The player pushed Luke to the side before running off.

'What? What did he mean by that?' Kirito thought to himself.

"Let's keep going" Luke uttered, standing to his feet and moving.

"Are you nuts, didn't you just see those guys run out of there, what if it's something way beyond our capacity? '' One male player panicked.

"We have no choice, we have to clear the game if we are going to survive" Luke uttered.

"Look, I think we are handling something way beyond our reach here, this isn't an anime, even in the anime they had beta testers, I don't think Seka ever had any beta testers for his game" Another player uttered.

"No, he did have beta testers"

They all turned to him as soon as Kirito spoke. Asuna immediately looked up when she heard Kirito speak.

"What do you mean?" Luke asked, "How would you know if he had one or not?".

"That doesn't matter, the point is there might be some beta players still fighting the boss, if we go now and help them, we'll be able to get the information we need from them".

Everyone just stared at Kirito, they didn't say anything until Luke sighed, "He's right, come on let's go" Luke uttered.

They all followed behind Luka, heading straight for the boss's room with their weapons out and ready to fight.

'Thank goddess, they didn't get suspicious,' Kirito sighed, 'But, those dead bodies in dad's workshop must have been the beta testers, I didn't hear any news about him inviting people to test the game, what if he did? does that mean there are people who already know how the game is, if that's true then why didn't they say anything?,' Kirito thought.

Asuna, who was following the group, stopped and turned before walking to Kirito, "Hey!" She muttered.

Kirito left his thoughts behind and looked at Asuna, "Do you need something?" He asked, using his hood to cover his face even more.

"I just want to ask you something, and don't take it the wrong way but… are you perhaps… Kazuya?" She asked.

. . . . .

The team entered the boss's room and they all drew out their weapons as soon as the boss jumped down.

It was a skeleton holding a pirate sword and it had minions behind him, tiny skeletons holding a wooden clubs.

They saw no players in the room, Luke clicked his tongue, "Damn it, there are no beta players here or any players".

He held his shield in front of him, "As we discussed, those in Asuna's party should take care of the minions".

"On it" Asuna uttered, "Be careful okay" She whispered to Kirito before charging toward the minions with two guys following her.

Luka and other parties were fighting the boss, taking turns to attack and block, although it was slow it was proving effective.

Kirito removed his hood, "Here goes nothing" He drew out his sword and charged toward one of the minions.

His sword lit up as he sliced the side of skeleton which dropped it to its back, another showed up from his side and he did the same.

He rotated his body, using his sword to slice the skeleton which led to its disappearance.

Kirito noticed a few more minions coming from the shadows, "If we don't take care of the boss, the minions will keep spawning" Kirito thought out loud.

Asuna showed up, "Then, how about we take on the monster, together, like we did back home" Asuna uttered.

Kirito smiled, "Sure I would love to" He stretched his body and his eyes glanced past the ceiling.

"No way!" He uttered, looking at the ceiling with shock in his eyes.

"What's wrong" Asuna also looked up to see multiple players tied to the ceiling with a black chain.

Kirito immediately looked down as he yelled, "Stop attacking!".

. . . .. . . . .. . . .

Author's note

I would really appreciate your comment and support of this novel with your power stones.

Your active comments would motivate me to write more chapters.