It would take him several hours before he managed to land another trap on the Reaper because of their interference and he was more than a little irritated about it because he'd only managed to tangle up four or five legs on one side and it did nothing to slow the beast. Panting, Harry wiped the sweat from his face as he hung his shield on his back and moved away to prep another section of wire; this time preparing a lasso trap. He was on the move again two minutes later as he sought to loop the end of his lasso around one of the rib sections of the Monster's torso.
Another hour passed before he managed to snag a rib and the moment the loop settled snugly against the bone protrusion he was darting back towards the tail. Halfway between the front of the Reaper and the first section of legs he'd tied up, Harry looped the length of wire around a single leg that had been striking out at another Player and pulled it taut (a move that also saved a fellow Player from a fatal wound); hoping to cut its mobility in half if he could pull the wire tight enough before he tied it off.
The wire slipped through Harry's glove clad fingers as the powerful Boss skittered sideways and he would have lost his grip completely if not for a familiar pair of arms wrapping around him and clamping down on the wire just inches above his. Harry felt a surge of warmth as he looked up and flashed a tight smile at Agil that the man returned. The two of them then hauled on the wire to draw the captured leg towards the front of the Monster; a task that took a good forty minutes and the help of another three men that had partied up with Agil.
The instant the Reaper's long body began curving due to their efforts, Agil helped Harry to tie off the trap before he clapped Harry on the back of the shoulder as he and the other adults returned to the fight.
Harry then used Sprint to slip beneath the Reaper to the other side where he hoped to repeat the same trick to further impair the Boss's maneuverability. He had only managed to turn halfway around to face the Monster once more when he got stabbed through the back of his right shoulder (one of the few areas that his dragon scale armor didn't cover and his stowed shield didn't protect) by the Reaper's stinger-like tail and he screamed in pain as he was yanked off his feet and thrown through the air. He thought he heard Agil call his name but Harry didn't get a chance to check before he slammed down hard on the platform and rolled right off the edge.
He barely managed to grab hold of the edge with his left hand as his shield dropped off his back and tumbled to the Dungeon floor far below.
Up on the platform, the others battled on without Harry; most of the adults assuming that Harry had been killed since a number of them had seen him take a direct hit and they could no longer see him on the platform. Those individuals that knew he couldn't be killed knew he was still alive but were unable to lend him a hand at the moment due to the ongoing fight. About thirty minutes later, the Skull Reaper shattered in death and the word congratulations flashed into being on top of a huge blue rectangle in a burst of white light that Harry could just barely see from where he dangled precariously by one hand.
The sound of people collapsing in exhaustion and a few cries of relief rang through the room for a moment before silence descended upon the platform as someone asked how many people had been lost. Harry felt his heart rising up in the back of his throat as another Player answered; the eleven year old hoping and praying that all of his friends had survived. He also hoped that one of them would come give him a hand sometime soon since he didn't know how much longer he could hold on to the edge with just one hand. After another couple of minutes had passed, he began to suspect that they hadn't seen him slide over the edge during the heat of the battle.
He was just about to call out to them in order to get someone to give him a hand up (his right arm currently useless because of his injury) when he heard a commotion up on the platform as Kirito attacked Heathcliff. Harry nearly lost his grip on the platform's edge in shock when it was revealed that Heathcliff was an Immortal Object, like Harry. Things up top were quickly getting out of hand as Harry listened with dawning horror as Kirito unmasked the leader of the KoB as Kayaba Akihiko; the man that had trapped them inside of a game for two years.
The other adults began muttering when Heathcliff confirmed Kirito's accusations before he revealed that he was to be the final Boss Monster they faced upon reaching the one hundredth floor. Harry felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he heard the sound of several people falling to the ground and more than one confused and frightened cry ring out. He knew something was happening up top but he couldn't see what was going on and it was making him angry.
His anger turned to horror an instant later when he heard Kirito ask Kayaba if he was going to kill everyone in order to prevent those Players present from spreading the word about Heathcliff being Kayaba. Their captor (for truly, that was what he was to them) denied the accusation and instead told them that he would be waiting for them at the top of the castle. Relief flooded through the eleven year old right up until Kayaba offered Kirito the chance to end the game right then by dueling Kayaba a second time; as a reward for figuring out who he was.
Harry wondered when his friend had first faced the man for a moment before he felt his earlier terror return tenfold as he heard Kirito accept the challenge. Needing to protect his friend (since it sounded like everyone else had been disabled), Harry struggled to pull himself back up onto the platform but found himself unable to do so because of his injured arm. Tears began pouring from his eyes as he heard Kirito addressing Agil, Klein, and Asuna with what sounded like his final words before he asked Kayaba to make certain that Asuna didn't kill herself if he died during the duel.
The fight started not long after Kayaba agreed to Kirito's request.
With each clash of Kirito's swords against Kayaba's shields, Harry felt his anger, frustration, and fear growing. Forcing himself to push through the pain he felt, Harry lifted his right arm and dragged himself up onto the platform inch by inch with sheer determination and more than a little desperation. He'd just pulled his head up above the platform in time to witness Asuna take a fatal blow as she used her body to shield Kirito from a fatal attack. Harry stopped breathing and felt his heart break as he watched the girl who had mothered him for the past year shatter in death as she was cradled in Kirito's arms.
He then witnessed Kirito break due to Asuna's death before Kayaba stabbed him through the chest. Harry let out a whispered protest and pulled his chest up onto the platform as he struggled to reach Kirito before he too vanished in a shower of crystal shards. He thought maybe Kirito would live when he saw the teen thrust Asuna's sword into Kayaba's chest but just two seconds later, both teen and man exploded in death together. Harry froze in disbelief as he stared at the scattering shards that had once been Kirito.
"No," Harry whispered again in protest as he began shaking his head even as the system announced that the game had been cleared. He then closed his eyes, pressed his face to the floor, and screamed out in denial, "NO! Kirito! Asuna! COME BACK!"
"James!"
Harry opened his eyes to see Agil hurrying across the platform to where he was still half hanging off the side. The eleven year old could see that the older man was crying as well and that sent another lance of pain through his heart because in all the time that he'd known the man, he'd never seen Agil ever cry; not even when he learned that a Player he'd known and helped had died in a Dungeon. Harry didn't want to believe that two of his only friends were dead but if Agil was grieving, then he knew that there was nothing that could be done to bring the two teens back.
It was at that moment that the unthinkable happened.
Agil had just knelt down in front of Harry and reached out to help him the rest of the way up onto the platform when the room lit up with dozens of system warnings as the Players inside the room began vanishing in a wave of white light that swept out from the center of the platform. Harry fumbled for Agil's hand as he saw several other Players vanish only to gasp in horror as Agil vanished right in front of his eyes. It was too much for the eleven year old wizard and he threw his head back and let out an anguished scream of sheer rage and grief over the unexpected loss of the man that had been his first ever friend before he'd become the father of his heart.
The entire room began shaking apart that that point and Harry didn't even bother trying to save himself as he slid back off the platform. He crashed down hard on top of his shield several seconds later before the floor of the Dungeon room shattered beneath him but Harry didn't even register the physical pain he felt because his heart was still shattering into millions of pieces. As the world around him broke apart, Harry screamed a second time and this time his magic exploded outwards to sweep through the world that had been his home for two years.
.
.
.
.
.
👀The novel is available in PDF, visit my Patreon store👀
🚬Patreon.com/BlackGoku222🚬