Chapter 26

We marched onwards, following the map as I tried taking my eyes off her as I tried focusing my mind on the map itself. I saw a glimpse of the map as she stopped, looking up and seeing why she stopped. We arrived at a stairway as it went down towards the first sublevel. "L-Let's get going..." I stuttered, she nodded as we began heading downstairs.

When we arrived at the first sublevel, it was flooded with Cave Goblins. That explains why they weren't spawning up top... I took out my sword as Toru lets go of my wrist to pop her knuckles, smiling at the horde of Cave Goblins. "Let's do this Kirin-Kun." She said to me, I nodded as I felt like I had her back rather than the other way around. Toru charged in as she lowered her arms towards her abdomen.

I rushed in after as Toru lands the first punch, socking a Cave Goblin in the face and sent them flying back, dodging another one slashing from the right. Meanwhile, I was slashing these Cave Goblins, parrying and slashing twice to kill one. I scanned around as I prepared a Horizontal Slash as I swung my sword in all directions horizontally, killing a good amount of Cave Goblins.

I jumped back as well as Toru did as well, our backs hitting each other as we looked at each other and pivoted I stabbed a jumping goblin as Toru Ax kicked a Cave Goblin straight into the ground. Both goblins died as we were surrounded by possibly hundreds of them, our health being nearly max.

"Got an idea Toru?"

"Not yet, you?"

"I do, follow me!"

I had began continuously using Horizontal slash to kill parts of the horde to make a pathway for us, eating away at my stamina as it dropped to a low amount. "Switch now Toru!" I shouted as A goblin lunged at me, Toru came in time however as she punched it square in the face and launched it flying down the hall. Cave Goblins don't weigh a whole lot, so they're easily able to jump to high places and also be sent flying easily.

It was now Toru's turn to clear the way as she was weaving and dodging hits, returning counter punches and avoiding as much damage as possible. She cleared a way as we saw a metallic chest at the end of the hall, also seeing a stairway down to the second and final sublevel. "Almost there!" she shouted as her energy ran out, "Switch Kirin-Kun!" she shouted as I spun around and stabbed a goblin going to stab her.

It shattered as we kept it up for two more rotations, eventually stopping saying Switch as we began to do it rhythmically. We reached the chest as we had cleared most of the horde by then. I tapped the chest as a text popped up, saying "You must kill 14 more <> to access.". So killing all of them will give us a reward. I looked at the remaining Cave goblins as there was exactly 14 left.

"Let's kill these goblins first."

"Ok!"

We then began hunting down the Cave goblins as Toru and I gained 2 levels from the sublevel alone. Afterwards, We walked back to the chest as I tapped it once again, seeing a new Text prompt this time, saying "Would you like to open this chest?". Tap! chhing! a wind chime sound went off as the chest opened for the both of us, I looked inside as I pulled out a new but broken sword.

<<Fragmented Sword>>

This sword seems to be broken cleanly, The other half must be around here somewhere...

I put the fragmented sword in my inventory as Toru had gotten a new pair of gloves. Their defining features were the diamond-like shapes on the knuckles as she equipped them, clearly being better than her old gloves. The gloves overall were fingerless, giving her more freedom on her finger joints. "Let's continue down." She said as I nodded, this time we walked side by side as we entered Sublevel two.

Once we entered Sublevel two, we were greeted by three red drunk Apes, One of them slammed down their gourd as we jumped out of the way countering the one that strike at us with a slash and a punch respectively. we chunked it's health as it dropped to high yellow and we dodged the other two's crude clubs. I charged up my sword as I rushed in, dodging another crude club slam as I hit the drunk ape with a Vertical Strike. It drastically dropped it's health as I was caught off guard, getting smacked away and landing on my back.

My health bar dropped as it went from high green to high yellow, I got up as Toru jumped back, seeing them all drink out of their gourd. they roared out as their health regenerated slightly but more importantly they had a <> Icon near their health bar. "They're going to be hitting harder Toru, be careful." I told her as she nodded, we both ran in as I parried a Crude Club slam and unleashed a powerful combo on it, killing it within the combo.

Although it was a strong combo, it ate up most of my stamina as I was barley able to block the second crude club swinging from the side. I was flung a bit as I hit my back on a pillar, I ducked out of the way of another club swing and quickly took the initiative. I slashed it's knee as it dropped to one knee, running around it to grip my sword with both hands, spinning a bit and using the momentum to slice off it's forearm, disarming it.

It cried out in pain as I let out a battle cry once again, jumping up to slice it's head off, hearing a loud THUD! when I landed. I saw it turn blue before shattering into polygons and looked over at Toru. She was struggling a bit but she weaved under it's crude club swing and charged up an attack. she punched its stomach as she caused it to lean in as she slams a right uppercut to it's head, punching straight through it's jaw and out its skull.

it also began glowing blue before it shattered, a large "CONGRATULATIONS!" banner showed up as a large diamond chest showed up at the end of the hall. We looked over as we both walked over, I sheathed my sword as we opened it. I pulled out coin pouches as I added the Col to my inventory, the both of us getting half and half. But what really caught my eye was a item called, <>. As the name suggests, it's the edge of a broken sword, but I didn't have the levels to smith it back together.

Just as we got our reward, I got a text from none other than Kirito, I opened up the text log as his message was... "We found the 2nd floor labyrinth."