Afterlife Dream

"DUCK!" I shouted at my petrified squad mates. The ten players looked at me as if I had gone mad. I grabbed as many arms as I could reach and pulled them to the ground. Then, I spread my Angel Wings and covered them underneath.

My heart was racing like crazy. It was a huge gamble. I half expected the knives to rain down on me, stabbing me and going through the wings to stab the players underneath. I waited one second, two seconds, three seconds, but it never happened.

After a while, I looked up and saw that the AoE attack was over. I stood up and so did the players who I protected. We were able to move again.

"Phew."

"I thought I was gonna die."

"Thanks, Antares."

"No problem," I replied.

"Oh Lord, look!" Livina screamed while pointing to a far-off spot across the map.

The floor across the map was littered with bodies of players who did not make it. Some had managed to climb up the wall by stabbing their weapons into the wall. The Bow Masters all used Winged Steps to avoid the attack. All but Cecilia who, like me, realized too late that we were supposed to fly into the air to avoid the AoE.

After Cecilia died, the squad leader position was handed down to Aeros, a Bow Master who was the vice squad leader. She made it thanks to Winged Steps.

"Aeros, put me in the same party as Cecilia! I will resurrect her!" I shouted from across the map.

Aeros looked shaken. Her fingers shook as she tried her best to evade the Dark Fairy's attack while remaking the squad formation. We had no time for that.

"Pass me the squad leader position!" I shouted again.

That was easier to achieve. In one click, I became the squad leader. Thankfully the Angel Wings protection extended beyond parties so I was able to move around to reach the dead squad members. Luckily the dead players were close to each other so I could resurrect five of them just fine.

The first ones I resurrected were Cecilia and the High Priests. Then I arranged myself and Cecilia to move around with the High Priests to resurrect the players. Priority was naturally given to the strongest ones. In the end, we were left with 22 players including Cecilia and me.

Slowly, we recovered from the crisis and went back to our initial position. As the HP went down more and more, I could not help but wonder what to do when then HP hit 20%.

Sea of blood, wasn't it?

45%...

40%...

All around me and Cecilia, everyone was getting more and more excited. After knowing that the Angel Wings were the key to godmode raiding at least in the Dark Fairy raid, everyone became bolder and the attacks became faster and faster.

30%...

25%...

If the Dark Fairy had a mind of her own, she must be quite frustrated.

"EVERYONE PAY ATTENTION TO THE SEA OF BLOOD!!!" Cecilia shouted from across the map.

"Excuse me, what are we supposed to do when the sea of blood happens?" I asked my squad mates who were busy hurling one attack after another at the screeching Dark Fairy.

"Endure," one of them said, shrugging. "Just try not to drown. Can you swim, Antares?"

...

Well, that was not what I expected to hear but it seemed that swimming was an obligatory skill for anyone who wanted to participate in the Dark Fairy raid!

I played with the thought of flying into the air the moment the boss' HP hit 20%, but that was unfortunately not feasible because I could not do that fast enough without endangering my squad mates.

20%!!!

The Dark Fairy landed on the ground again gracefully. A sharp cry emanated from her throat, echoing through the room. We all had to press our palms against our ears to prevent our eardrums from shattering. And then the ground beneath us collapsed.

No, wait.

Melted.

The ground turned into a sea of blood, and we all quickly drowned. I closed my eyes as I slowly sunk to the bottom of the sea.

"Help... help..."

I opened my eyes abruptly.

I was no longer surrounded by blood but bright burning lava!

I thought that I was about to be burned into ash, but it was as if I was inside a protective bubble. The lava rushed around me but it could not touch me.

In front of me, three silhouettes were smashed around by the waves of lava. They were miraculously not burned to death or melting inside the sea of lava.

"Help... help me..."

I instinctively reached out to grab one of them, hoping to pull the person into my protective bubble, but I could not reach out beyond the bubble. In fact, I could not even touch the bubble. I was suspended mid-air. Flailing did not help.

I could only hopelessly watch the three people slowly drift away. And then suddenly one of them drew close. It was a girl. Her head tilted backward, and I got to see her face. It was Suzuran!

"SUZURAN!!!" I shouted.

I was not sure if she could hear me or not. She had her eyes closed. Just now it was her voice! She was the one who asked for help.

"SUZURAN! WAKE UP! ANSWER ME!"

It was of no use. The sea of lava suddenly flowed faster and faster past me. Everything started to swirl into a vortex as if someone just opened a plug at the bottom of the sea and let the lava flow through the sinkhole.

My view faded into black and I passed out.

"ANTARES! HEY! ANTARES!!!"

Someone tapped at my cheek hard or better said slapped me around until I regained my consciousness.

"What? Why..."

I was lying on the ground, surrounded by ten players. I remembered that we were all drowning in the sea of blood, so how come we were back in the luxurious hall? Dry and without a trace of blood?

I absent-mindedly cast Divine Guard, Mana Guard, and Heal. I barely registered what was happening around me. The sound of arrows, swords, spears, and throwing stars hitting the Dark Fairy seemed almost surreal. I could not forget what I saw inside the sea of blood.

It was not until Cecilia called my name that I realized I was called upon to loot the Dark Fairy gloves after Lazarus and Livina.

"What, for real?" I asked dumbly.

"Of course!" Cecilia shouted. "Loot before it disappears!"

I was all numb when I went over to loot my Dark Fairy gloves. Everyone cheered.

"Congratulations, Antares!"

"Finally Dark Fairy Gloves!"

I smiled. I now had three pieces of end-game equipment in my possession. But I could not just rejoice about it.

We exited the map and soon landed back on the highest floor of the Cursed Tower. The fight between Twelve and Dominion had been reduced to a verbal one after our squad entered.

HinoKun sneered when he saw me emerging with a set of brand new Dark Fairy gloves on my hands.

"Wow. Congratulations, Antares. How do you feel?"

"Shut up, Hino. Antares, don't mind him. Let's just go."

Ingenious nudged at my back, telling me to move. But I did not move. I had to say something.

"I saw Suzuran," I said.

As expected, my words caused several jaws to drop open.

"What???"

"Where???"

"Antares, stop spouting bullshit!" One Dominion player who I did not know lost his temper.

"I really saw her and two other people inside the sea of blood," I insisted. "Just now when the Dark Fairy went down to 20% HP."

"Erm..."

All I could see were hesitant faces around me. They exchanged glances. Looks that could be translated into "Is this guy crazy or what?"

"What, why don't you guys believe me?" I asked.

I did not go crazy inside the sea of blood!

"Erm, Antares... When the 20% HP skill happened, we were all swept into a sea of blood that then spun around the center of a huge vortex. We were busy holding our breath and resisting being pulled into the center of the vortex. When exactly did you see, uhm, Suzuran and the others?"

"There was a vortex, but by then the blood already turned into lava," I tried to explain. "It was no longer a sea of blood but a sea of lava. Just like in Lava County."

Not only the Twelve members but also the Dominion members gave me strange looks. I wish I could have printed some pictures from my head to tell them what I meant. Also, how could I explain that I was watching the three players drift inside a sea of lava while I myself was unscathed, protected snugly inside a bubble? Unfortunately, I could not. If only there was someone else who could inform everyone that I was not crazy...

Or was I?

DragonTalon.

Where was he?

I started looking around frantically. He should have been kicked out of the dungeon by the time we finished the raid.

"Where... where is DragonTalon?" I asked.