The Spider Queen

by Wanted For Deicide

Kirito the Black Swordsman is fighting in a secret dungeon on floor 57 of the Aincrad Castle inside the virtual game known as Sword Art Online. But on his way to the boss's room, he encounters another solo player who insists that the fight is impossible. Part 1 of a 2-part series. Constructive criticism appreciated. Rated T for fantasy violence and mild language.

This story takes place sometime between episodes 7 and 8 of the anime.

Also, as the anime never explained the game mechanics like stats and damage calculations, I took some liberties and assumed it was about the same as some of the MMORPGs and RPG videogames I've played. Constructive critisism appreciated.

The giant spider exploded in a shower of glowing blue fragments as its health bar dropped to zero. Kirito rolled sideways, blocked the last spider's attack by shoving its abdomen with a free hand as it leapt at him, and hacked his sword through it twice in quick succession, before finishing it off with a powerful thrust. He straightened and glanced about. It seemed like that was all of them in this area, but one couldn't be too careful. He made sure to look behind the stalagmites and stalactites, as well as peering up towards the ceiling. He had learned the hard way in this dungeon that the spiders loved to hide and then drop on you in swarms when you least expected it. He had lost nearly 1000 HP in a single fight earlier, so he needed to be more careful.

"Okay," he said, shifting his grip on his sword and moving forward. His high-level senses allowed him to detect that there was a series traps ahead. Pitfalls, it looked like. He stopped, crouching, and stared for a few moments. Once he determined where they were, he dashed forward, leaping over some, although the low-level ones he didn't even need to worry about, as he was moving so fast he could just run over them and be gone long before they actually collapsed.

He cleared the last one and stopped to catch his breath, but was immediately jumped by an arachnoid-a monster shaped mostly like a human, but covered with an exoskeleton and bearing a spider's head from which lashed a long tongue that could absorb your HP if it touched you. Along with six arms ending in deadly slashing blades. Kirito jumped back, but avoided going back too far, as that would land him in the pit trap he just cleared. Wonder how many people will fall for that. The Arachnoid screeched and attacked him with a frenzy of slashing blades. Seriously, Kirito didn't know what kind of people Kayaba Akihiko hired to design the monsters for SAO, but clearly they were demented, sadistic psychopaths. No normal person came up with this crap.

Kirito lunged forward with a thrust, then retreated, leaping back and forth to avoid attacks and then quickly counter before pulling out again. All the arachnid-type monsters in this dungeon had very flimsy defenses, so they were killed quite easily. But they had very high attack power, and Kirito had no shield, so if he took too many hits his HP disappeared before he knew it. It was best to take the extra time and avoid attacks, then strike when they left themselves open.

A few more hits and the Arachnoid was down. Kirito was ready when it split down the middle, releasing a small swarm of tarantula-sized spiders. He jumped on them, stomping like a mad dancer to smash as many as possible. They couldn't damage him now, but he knew that they would grow to full size monsters in less than and hour, and would automatically track down and assault the one who had killed the Arachnoid. Yep. SAO designers were insane.

He thought maybe three of them got away, but three extra spiders he could deal with. As long as he didn't get attacked by all 15 of the swarm while he was in the middle of a fight again, he'd be fine.

He felt a little guilty, all the way down here on floor 58, tearing up a newly discovered "secret dungeon" when he should be on the front lines, but some of the people who had done the same and taken a break from pushing the frontier to check out the cave that had eventually been nicknamed "Spider Hell" had claimed that the monsters dropped super-high amounts of Cor, and had a number of good item drops as well. Those Arachnoids dropped like 3,000 Cor each, and Kirito could definitely stand to make some easy cash. He had also stocked up a few good items, including 7 Sticky Orbs, a single-use item that could slow an NPC enemy's movement and attack speed somewhat for five seconds-something that he was sure would come in handy. So the daytrip was hardly a waste.

Plus there had to be a dungeon boss in here somewhere, though no one had mapped as far as he was now, so they hadn't found it yet. He probably wouldn't fight it on his own; even though this floor was 15 floors below where he had been solo fighting lately, the dungeon itself was pretty hard for the level-because that's always how it worked with secret dungeons. So even though it was a dungeon boss, not an actual floor boss or field boss, he would just... take a peek.

Two hours later he arrived a a long stretch of winding path, with a rock wall on one side, and on the other side a dropoff that was probably an automatic death if you fell, no matter what your level was. It didn't seem like there were traps around, but through the gloom Kirito spotted movment up ahead-two Arachnoids, he was fairly certain. He readied his sword and dashed forward, attacking the nearest one, then dodging back to avoid the Scissor Slash it frequently used to counter the first attack. The instant the monster's guard was open again, he darted in once more and drove it back with a 5-hit combo. He kept an eye open for the other Arachnoid, but it seemed to have disappeared. He finished off his current opponent, stomped out as many spiders as he could, and moved forward cautiously. Arachnoids never retreated or ambushed; they all attacked head-on, all assault with no regard for their own safety, so the other figure he saw couldn't have been an Arachnoid. He poked his head around the corner to make sure it was clear, then continued down the path.

"You might as well turn back," a girl's voice said. Kirito jumped, not expecting to hear another human in this place, his sword going up instantly out of reflex. There were other players near the beginning of the dungeon, but he had been sure he was the first to make it this far.

A girl about Kirito's age or a bit younger came into view. She was clearly accustomed to floors higher up, as she carrying some seriously powerful equipment. She held a longsword and a round shield, and was wearing leather armor, bracers, and several accessories. But it was her own appearance that struck Kirito as odd-all SAO players had reverted to their real-world appearances when Kayaba first appeared to them, but this girl had an unreal, too-perfect look to her, like someone had carefully designed her face with CGI. And besides that, she had brilliant crimson eyes that no human possessed. Kirito lowered his sword but didn't sheath it.

"The only thing left is the boss-I cleared all the monsters from the boss room to this point on my way out," she explained. "You won't beat the boss alone either."

Despite the fact that he knew most players would never solo a boss-even a dungeon boss-and she was just telling him without realizing who he was, the matter-of-fact way she said it irked him a bit. "I think I can take it," he said coldly, "This dungeon isn't a high level compared to where I normally fight."

"Whatever, bigshot," she said as she walked by him. "Its your funeral. Or funerals, maybe, if you get one here and one in the real world." Kirito turned to watch her as she walked away, glaring at her back. The casual way she spoke of death made him even more irritated with her.

"What's her problem?" he muttered before turning and continuing on his way. After five minutes he realized she hadn't been kidding when she said she had cleared all the monsters up ahead. If that was the case, maybe he should just call it a day, rather than trekking through the empty caverns just to get a glimpse of the dungeon boss. But then again, if there were no monsters around, he didn't have to move so cautiously. Kirito broke into an easy run, making his way rapidly down the path. It had been very straightforward since he met up with the solo girl-almost like a really long, winding hallway.

"Hey!" Kirito glanced back, hearing the shout. It was a girl's voice, and it didn't sound far off. Was the strange red-eyed girl coming back? He paused and waited, and sure enough she came running into view. She stopped few feet away from him, leaning over with her hands on her knees as she gasped for air.

"What is it?" Kirito asked, uncertain why she had come back.

"First you should know, I'm not helping you because I care about you. I hate you. But trying to fight the dungeon boss won't do any good. You'll just have to teleport out and then you've wasted a lot of your time. You're a front-liner, I know. But even you can't beat Arachne alone, Kirito-san," she said, straightening. Kirito lowered his sword, but didn't sheath it.

"Eto, do I know you?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck, uncomfortable at being caught off guard. He was sure he had never seen her before.

"No, but I've seen you a few times. A 'Beater' who solos the front lines and is rumored to be the strongest player in the game right after Heathcliff, the leader of KBO. Black clothes, one-handed sword with no shield. You're Kirito-san, right?" She held out her hand. "I'm Aiko."

"Hi," he said awkwardly as he shook her hand, "More importantly though..." you really think that boss is too powerful?" If it was bad enough to make her change her mind and come running the whole way back to him just to give him another warning not to fight it, even though she knew who he was, maybe it WAS a bad idea. But to his confusion, Aiko shook her head.

"It's really not that powerful. But it has a cheap trump card stunt that makes it completely impossible to fight alone."

"Oh... I get it," Kirito said, not understanding at all. Aiko sighed, crossing her arms in irritation.

"A monster, even a boss, shouldn't have a foolproof guard like this, but here's how it works. Arachne has minions, spiders that heal 100 of her HP every 10 seconds. There's TEN of them. That's 1,000 HP every 10 seconds, or 6,000 HP per minute. You can kill the spiders, but they're scattered around the room, and if you start killing them, the egg sacks on the ceiling spawn more, once every 10 seconds. Even if you kill them all, you'll only have 10 seconds to attack before the room starts spawning more. And you'll never bring her down in enough time before she's regenerating faster than you can inflict damage-no matter WHAT your stats are. And by the time you kill the spiders again, she'll have healed whatever damage you inflicted," the girl finished. Kirito sighed and leaned against the wall, staring glumly at the dropoff across the path.

"That's unfair," he complained.

"And while her defenses aren't anything amazing for a boss, they're good enough. Even if you had a weapon with 700 attack power and a Strength score of 75 she could still regenerate way faster than you could kill her," Aiko added. Kirito didn't mention that his sword Elucidator did actually have 700 attack, but Kirito's Strength score was 82. But from what she was saying, there was still no way he could fight this boss on his own. He could bash it for hours and get nowhere.

"You'd need a couple people focusing on keeping the spiders clear," he said thoughtfully, "Archers would be good because they wouldn't need to waste time running after them. And you'd need another team attacking the boss. Bet it would give a really great drop, too."

"Regretting being a solo player?" Kirito glanced at the girl, his eyes hardening. There was a reason he was a solo player, and it wasn't anyone else's business. There were some people who had an idea of what had happened with the Black Cats of the Full Moon guild, but nobody knew the whole story-or knew about the other people who had died because they partied with him.

He was about to give a curt reply, but as he looked her in the eye, he saw something of himself reflected back at him. She was a solo player too, obviously, and he could see that she had her reasons as well. Maybe she was a bit like him. Maybe she had lost people who counted on her.

"Sometimes... But it's better this way." He said quietly. A few moments later he grinned, trying to lighten the mood. "I don't like guilds, because then you have to follow orders."

"I see," Aiko said, but she wasn't looking at him anymore.

"Well, I guess if that's that, there's no way I can fight the boss," Kirito said, "Thanks for coming back to explain it. Guess I'll teleport out, leave the rest for the next guild." He reached for his teleport crystal, but Aiko held her hand up quickly, signaling him to stop.

"Wait!" she cried. Kirito paused, puzzled. Aiko didn't meet his eyes. "If you want... If you want we could fight it together."

"Well..."

"But just because I want the XP and item drops!" She said hastily. "I know about how powerful you are. If one of us just works on keeping the minions clear, and the other focuses on the boss, the two of us could do it."

"Well, maybe," Kirito said, rubbing the back of his neck again. "But... are you sure you can handle it?" Aiko's embarrasment vanished instantly as she turned her burning red eyes on the boy. Damn she looked scary when she was mad.

"I spent half an hour in that pen with the boss and her minions, running back and forth like an idiot trying to gradually wear her health down. Alone. I can handle myself just fine," she said, gritting her teeth. Kirito held his hands up in surrender, but couldn't hide a mischeivious grin. "This is my second time in this dungeon. I came back just for the item drops and Cor, but if I can get that Boss's item drop... Come on, it's just ten more minutes away. I'll tell you about the attack patterns and weaknesses on the way there."

As they walked, she kept to her promise. Arachne was a monster with a spider's body with a humanoid upper body and a mostly human head with spider mandibles. "Like a centaur, only a spider instead of a horse," she added casually. Kirito was astounded by how much she knew about the boss, telling him the approximate stats of Arachne and her minions and the exact attack patterns. She made basic attacks with blades on her legs and a spear that she held in her hands. Aiko also explained that while most bosses relied on basic attacks and used special attacks under the right conditions, this one just spammed special attacks almost nonstop. In addition to the basic attacks she made, she had a web-spitting attack that dealt damage and made it harder to move quickly, a poison-spitting attack, and a poison gas that came from her abdomen. If her spear attacks were blocked head-on, she would occasionally spin the weapon, knocking the player flying if he didn't release and evade quickly.

Also, Aiko informed him, she would occasionally run to the wall and crawl up before dropping from the ceiling and creating a shockwave that damaged everyone in the area unless they jumped at just the right time. But she would only use this move if she had free movement; you could keep her from using it if you were attacking her steadily. However, she led with this attack when players entered the room, giving them about 4 seconds after entering before she dropped, and another second before she landed. Also she had a diamond-shaped red marking on her abdomen, which was an espeically weak spot. But if attacked she would counter with another web attack that got you stuck, as well as her poison gas attack. If the attack succeeded in making the player adhered to the floor and unable to move, the spider minions would turn and attack the person who was stuck. You could also leap up on her back and attack her human part and be safe from the poison and webbing, but she would counter with spear spin that would send you flying. Unless she was already staggered.

Kirito took note that if this boss was so tricky to fight, and Aiko had taken it on herself, the girl he was about to party up with must be very powerful. Not to mention highly skilled, because if she had gotten stuck in webbing, she probably would have been finished. Which means she was blocking or dodging a lot of attacks. While being swarmed by spider minions.

They eventually reached the door of the boss room, and Kirito sent Aiko a party invite. Aiko paused before accepting. "Just a few conditions first," she said. "Any item drops that either of us gets, we keep, no matter who gets more. I won't let you die if possible, but if it's my life or yours, I'm not dying for you. Also, I'll toss you a potion if you're in a pinch, but only if you really need it. Fair?"

Kirito hesitated. He had been wondering why she was so hostile towards him. She had said she hated him, but he hadn't taken her seriously. Now he was wondering if she really did hate him for some reason, and was only partying up with him because she REALLY wanted that boss. Or... maybe it was a trap. Maybe she was actually trying to get him killed, waiting till his health was lowered and then pulling a sucker punch on him to finish him off. He shook his head. She didn't seem the type. And while she did seem to dislike him for some unknown reason, he didn't think she was trying to get him killed.

"All right, Aiko-chan, I-eh?! Um... why are you glaring at me again?" he asked nervously as the demonic red eyes bored into him.

"One more condition," she said in a deadly quite voice, "It's Aiko-san. Not 'chan'. Got it, Kirito-san?"

"Um, sure..."

"Good. I'll attack the boss while you clear the minions," she said as she accepted the party invite.

"H-hey, wait a minute," Kirito protested, "Shouldn't the one with higher attack fight the boss?" Aiko shot him a sulky look.

"You probably have higher Strength, but I know from seeing you move that you have higher Agility than I do, so you'll be able to get around faster and take out the minions more easily," she argued, "Plus I've built my stats with much better Vitality and Defense than you got, so I can handle the bitch's attacks better."

"Well I can see you have a shield, but you're just wearing leather armor," Kirito pointed out. Aiko smirked and tapped her leather vest.

"It's dragon hide," she informed him. "All together it gives me a defense score better than most plate armor you'd find, even the stuff you get on floor 70. And on top of that, I don't think that my attack power is much lower than yours."

Kirito said nothing.

"That's an Elucidator, which has an attack of around 700, so that's pretty good, but what's your Strength score?"

"Ah, normally I would never tell someone my level, never mind my stats," Kirito said, looking away.

"Me neither, but we should know if we're going to fight Arachne with just the two of us. I won't tell anyone else, and I'll tell you mine if it makes you feel better."

"Well, since it doesn't seem like your going to change your mind about fighting the boss unless I say... it's 82. What's yours?" Aiko scowled.

"My Strength is 76 with my accessory enhancements. My longsword is a White Fang, which has an Attack of 590."

"Whoa, so I'd do way more damage with each attack," Kirito said. "I still think it's smarter if I fight the boss." In reality he was mostly worried about her getting killed; even though she said she had fought it before, if she was the entire focus of boss's attacks, it was way too easy to make single slip up and have your health bar destroyed in mere moments. Just because she had pulled it off once didn't mean something couldn't go wrong the second time around.

"Fine then," Aiko said through her teeth. "You want to see Attack power? I'll show you some goddamn Attack power." She brought up her equipment menu and unequipped her sword and shield, then equipped an enormous curved blade and drew it in a flash. Kirito had never seen the weapon before. It was as long as she was tall, and had a ruby-red blade and a black hilt with engravings of bloody rose thorns and demons. He couldn't see its stats, obviously, but it looked powerful.

"I've never seen a nodachi that looked like that," he admitted, "What's its name?" Aiko slashed the air, leaving a trail of bloodred light.

"This a wodao, a sword of Chinese origin, like a nodachi but heavier. It's a player-made weapon forged out of a long list of A- and S-class materials. Her name is Ashura. Attack power of 1,200."

"S-seriously?!" Kirito gasped, stepping backward as if he feared the sword would attack him of its own volition. Twelve hundred?! The highest attack power he had ever seen, even for a two-handed sword, had been 1,050, a massive claymore that required a Strength prerequisite of 65, which was also the highest prerequisite he had ever heard of. How in the hell had this girl gotten a custom weapon so powerful? And she had said that her Strength was 76 "with her accessory enhancements". Plus there was the dragon's hide amor. Even though she's a lower level her equipment might make her more powerful than me, Kirito thought, With that kind of power, I'd have to be duel-wielding to deal damage faster than her. Why haven't I heard of this player before?

"Okay, I'll let you fight the boss. But if I clear the minions and have time to spare I'll help you out." Aiko grinned and shouldered the huge blade.

"Deal. But when we first go in, I'll help you take out a few minions, just so we can get ahead and keep her from healing while I'm attacking. Just remember, as soon as we set foot inside, we'll have four and half seconds to rush the minions. After exactly five seconds Arachne will hit the floor, so jump just before then."

"Stay safe," Kirito told her as they pushed the doors open.

The torches around the perimeter lit as the pair of fighters entered the room. They charged, blades up, at the closest minions, and each of them took one out instantly. Good! Kirito thought, They're weak, and I have enough power to kill them with a single blow! That would make the job much easier if he could move from target to target so quickly. Aiko let out a warning shout, but it was unnecessary; Kirito was already leaping into the air, aiming in the direction of the next spider. He took note that in addition to her other advantages, Aiko seemed to have a very high Acrobatics skill, as she sprang up and performed a somersault, flipping over the boss's body as the giant spider crashed down, and landing on the other side before swinging her sword and hacking through a minion. Why would anyone put so much time and effort into enhancing a leap to that extent?

Kirito landed just a short distance from his next target and pounced, dishing out two quick slashes rather than one heavy blow, and hopped nimbly to the side as Arachne spat a ball of hissing green poison at him. His instinct was to rush her and attack before she could aim again, but despite how his body balked at the idea, he left her alone and headed for the next minion. He knew how to stick to an attack plan, even if he didn't like it. After all, Aiko was doing her part, hacking at Arachne to get her attention away from Kirito.

When he dispatched his next target, he saw another one falling from the ceiling. So that would be the 10-second spawn. Kirito had taken out three minions in ten seconds, which meant that if he kept that up, it would take him almost a minute to get the area completely clear and be able to help Aiko. Maybe he could find some way to move faster? Or maybe draw their attention, so he could kill them in a group instead of dashing back and forth all over the room.

Aiko was definitely very skilled. Judging by her HP she had only taken a few basic attacks, and her armor must have countered most of it, because her HP was barely affected. She was flipping, rolling and dodging, putting her acrobatics to great use even while wielding her huge sword.

As the battle wore on, the thing that Kirito found frustrating was that the minions dropped randomly about the arena, forcing him to backtrack constantly as they respawned. He spent most of his time running back and forth across the area to fight the next minion, and barely a minute into the fight he was starting to get impatient. But according to Aiko, the only way to make the minions come after him would be to attack Arachne's weak spot. But since that would trigger a web snare and a cloud of poison gas, he wasn't eager to try that just yet. He finished off the last spider though, and charged for the boss, leaping up and slashing at her side just as she thrust her spear forward at Aiko.

"If you kill all the minions, you have 35 seconds to attack the boss!" Aiko shouted as she parried the spear, allowing Kirito to lung in and stab Arachne's thorax. With two of them attacking, they could switch off with each other between defending and attacking, and take her HP down much easier without risking their own. "After the fourth spawn she'll be healing 400 HP in ten seconds and it won't be worth attacking!"

"Got it!" Kirito replied, slashing through a string of web as the boss fired it at him, then blocking two basic attacks from the boss's legs and turning the spear aside so that Aiko could slam it upward, unbalancing the giant spider. Kirito lunged forward and slashed through her, then danced back as a purple cloud of poisonous gas billowed up, but didn't quite make it in time and still ended up poisoned. The third spider minion had dropped, so he rushed the nearest one and killed it before charging towards another.

"Remember," Aiko shouted after him, "After your Attack and Strength are factored, her Vitality and Defense deductible results in your hits dealing only-"

"Got it!"

"And don't forget that her poison deals a percentage of your HP over time, not a fixed amount!" she said as Kirito's HP gauge slowly dropped.

"Got it!"

"And you need to pace yourself! If you kill only two spiders every 10 seconds starting with 4 spiders, it will take almost a minute, but you won't wear yourself down as much. And attacking for 35 seconds after every 60 seconds is almost 30 percent, so you should be able to inflict approximately-"

"Aiko-san!" Kirito shouted in frustration, "I got it! Shut up and fight!" This had to be the only boss fight Kirito had been in that he got a math lesson spewed at him the whole time. No, make that the only fight ever that he had a math lesson spewed at him the whole time. He knew she was trying help, but it was seriously annoying. Kirito didn't rely on percentages and damage calculation and a whole bunch of probability and statistics. He focused his mind, honed his reflexes, and let his sword skills do the rest.

The last spider was on the other side of Arachne, so Kirito ran towards her and dove, sliding underneath her and slashing his sword upward, hacking directly through the marked portion of her abdomen. Sure enough, she fired a spray of web from her spinnarets, but Kirito had already rolled out of the way and ran towards the remaining minion. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Aiko leaping back to avoid the cloud of poison gas. Arachne pursued, thrusting with her spear, and Aiko backflipped twice, drawing the giant spider after her. Then she hopped forward, making the boss attack, jumped back so it missed, and slammed down her foot, catching herself and lunging forward with a powerful thrust at her wide-open opponent.

"All right!" Kirito shouted as the wodao drove into the monster's upper body and out the other side. With no minions in sight-for the moment-he dashed forward. The boss was screaming as it reared away from Aiko, the sword still impaled in its body, and Kirito intended to take advantage of the situation to dish out a heavy combo and get some real damage in for once.

With Arachne flailing backward, trying to fend off Aiko while the wodao was still impaled in her chest, Kirito figured that counted as "staggered" and leaped up on her back, planting his foot on the blunt side of the blade protruding from her back and unleashing a furious combo of sword strikes against her head, watching her HP drop even faster. If it weren't for her constant healing, Kirito could've taken this boss solo with ease. But he saw that Aiko was having difficulty evading Arachne's attacks while her weapon was stuck inside the monster.

"Aiko-san!" he shouted, "Get some distance!" She seemed to understand his intent and started moving away in a series of flips. Kirito hooked his sword underneath the protruding wodao and lifted with all his might, rotating it so that it cut through her and stopped with the hilt toward the floor, the blade now pointing upward. However, with Aiko now at a distance, Arachne targeted Kirito. He barely lunged off her back in time to avoid the sweep of her spear, then quickly rolled away from a hissing globule of poison that she spat at him. Aiko charged, and Kirito danced in front of Arachne, blocking and evading.

With flawless timing, Kirito attacked, baiting Arachne into a counter, then blocked that counter, making it safe for Aiko to slide under her at full speed, grabbing the hilt of her sword and rending the whole way through Arachne's abdomen, including her weak point. The remaining HP for that bar disappeared, leaving her in the yellow. The spider monster countered with web and gas again, but Aiko was long gone, and Kirito had already evaded.

They switched again, Aiko helping Kirito out by quickly murdering a spider on her way back to Arachne, and Kirito left off on the boss to chase down the remaining four minions. He kept an eye on Aiko's HP as he fought. His own gauge had suffered little, as he had spent the majority of his time so far fighting the minions, most of which never got the chance to attack him before he cut them down. This meant that while he was killing minions his Battle Healing regenerated most of the HP he lost whenever he fought Arachne. Aiko's was in the yellow, but he could see by the way it jumped back and forth that she had the Battle Healing too-though by the look of it, hers wasn't nearly as good as Kirito's. Understandably, since that skill was leveled up by fighting and gaining experience while your HP was in the red zone, and he doubted her HP saw "red zone" very often with the type of armor and equipment she was hauling around.

However, while she had been avoiding attacks with amazing skill up to this point, it seemed as though she was having more difficulty now, as though she could no longer move as quickly. Or else...

"Kuso! When her health goes yellow, she doesn't use a special attack!" Aiko informed him as she furiously tried to fend off incoming blows with her huge sword, "Her attacks gain speed!" Kirito parroted her swearing, though he did it under his breath, as he took out another minion and went running for the last one. Before, Aiko could easily keep up with Arachne, but now it seemed she was on defensive about half the time, blocking attacks just as much as giving them. Which was unfortunate, because then they were wasting the sheer destructive power of that sword. Kirito thought fast as he rushed back to Arachne. He needed to do something.

He ran up beside Aiko and blocked the incoming spear strike, shoved the weapon away, cut through a web shot, stabbed Arachne in the stomach, and blocked an attack from her bladed forelegs.

"You attack, I'll stand in front and defend!" he shouted.

"How's that going to work?!" Aiko practically shrieked at him, ducking a poison orb, "I'll hit you too!"

"Jōdan-no-kamae!" he replied, "It's a kendo stance! Keep your sword above your head and attack high with horizontal slashes and thrusts! I'll stay in front and block her attacks!"

"You know," Aiko said, her voice at such a normal volume Kirito almost didn't here her, "That's so crazy it might actually work." She raised her sword, and Kirito could tell by the way she took the stance that she had in fact learned kendo. Well, judging by the way she fought it hadn't been much-probably just the basics-and she had learned the majority of her fighting skills while in SAO. But at least she understood how to operate the stance.

They coordinated far more perfectly than he had expected, Aiko keeping her eyes open for attacks that Kirito wouldn't be able to block or deflect, but mostly concentrating on wielding the deadly wodao against the monster before them. Kirito stayed in front of her and at her sides, blocking the spear and leg blades, turning aside poison orbs constantly, and slashing through bursts of webbing, reaching around her attacks to block incoming threats, spinning and jumping, his sword everywhere at once. A few attacks still struck his partner. A few more struck him. But Arachne's health bar was dropping faster than ever, and Aiko's own HP slowly began to refill, as she was now healing just slightly faster than she was being damaged.

But then the third minion spawned, and Kirito had to break off to chase down the spiders. He warned Aiko to play it safe as he left, and she complied, putting her guard up and striking only when she had the chance.

They kept up this strategy for a time, until finally the boss was just a few swings away from the red zone. Aiko and Kirito both went full offensive, a mutual understanding passing between them that they didn't even need to communicate out loud. It was time to end this fast.

That was when everything went wrong.

The instant Arachne's health dropped into the red zone, she let out a scream, releasing a burst of webbing that struck both players, rooting them to the floor, and also sprayed them with poison gas. At the same time, a number of spiders spawned at once, instantly bringing the number back up to ten and maxing out Arachne's regeneration. Aiko and Kirito stood, helpless, while Arachne ran up the wall and dropped, damaging them with her shockwave. Then she stood out of reach, pelting them with web and poison, her own HP regenerating while theirs fell rapidly.

"How is this fair?" Aiko shouted, struggling to dodge or block the poison shots even while her feet were adhered to the stone floor, "All the minions respawn at once when she hits red?! That is so not fair!" Kirito was struggling to avoid taking damage as well, writhing in place and frantically batting away the monster's web and poison attacks.

"Actually, this fight would be really easy with ten or fifteen players," he told her, "We just picked a really bad boss to fight with just two people."

The instant they were freed they dove for the minions together, Arachne chasing after them, hissing and spitting poison and spiderwebs. They managed to clear the minions quickly, but Kirito's health was low and Aiko's was worse, just a shred above the red zone.

"Aiko-san!" Kirito called to her, "I'll hold her off! Drink your potion now!" He attacked, but it was a bluff, and he was ready for the counter. He shifted back and forth between defending and launching bluffing attacks, controlling Arachne's attack patterns to avoid taking damage at all costs. Aiko stood back, yanking out her potion and gulping it down before returning to the fray. Kirito left her with Arachne and drank a potion himself. He wanted to rejoin her, but by that point there were too many spider minions. Five of them already, and a sixth one just dropping from the ceiling.

Kirito had fought plenty of bosses that were tougher. Obviously, since he had recently helped out with the boss on floor 73. He had fought bosses that did more damage, bosses with more powerful special attacks, bosses that were faster and stronger and more deadly than Arachne. But he had never fought a boss that was so endlessly frustrating. He was exhausted from literally running back and forth to kill minions for almost an hour. He was sick of seeing the damn monster's HP climb back up. He was sick of being poisoned.

He charged Arachne from behind and dove underneath her, ramming his sword into the red diamond on his way by and fleeing at once, grabbing Aiko on his way and leaping, taking them both clear of the poison gas and webbing. Arachne and the spider minions all targeted them at once. Now that they were in a group, Kirito could simply massacre them. But Arachne got a few good hits in on Aiko, who was already poisoned, and her HP went yellow again. He took some damage as well, but not enough to worry about. They attacked again, coordinating their movments like before, Kirito defending and Aiko attacking, and Arachne's HP began dropping rapidly once again.

"Kirito-san! When her health gets low we need to kill her fast, in case she can spawn all ten spiders every time it hits red!" Kirito hadn't thought of that; he would have assumed that that only worked the first time it dropped into the red zone, but it was definitely something to consider.

"Okay!" He ran off to kill the three minions one last time, then rejoined her for the final assault a short time later.

"When I give the signal, just go offensive," Aiko told him, "You can defend yourself, but let her attacks hit me!"

"What?!" Kirito yelled, not sure he had heard right. LET the boss's attacks hit her? What on earth did she want to deliberately deplete her HP for?

"Let her attack me! I know what I'm doing!" Kirito hesitated. If her health was depleted... if she died...

He wanted to trust her. He wanted to believe she knew what she was doing. But putting anyone, especially a comrade-even if he had just met her-didn't just go against his nature, it scared the crap out of him. He couldn't be responsible for her death. He wouldn't.

"I'll go with it, but if your HP goes red I'm going to protect you no matter what you say!" he told her firmly.

"Fine!" she answered, her voice full of strain as she swung her huge sword again. A few moments later she called, "Now!" and Kirito broke off, dancing to the side and attacking. Arachne's HP was very close to being red. He would need to really step it up and break out his powerful combos the instant before it changed. Aiko was not guarding herself at all, but it clearly wasn't negilgence or suicide. Her eyes had such an intense, focused look in them that it almost convinced Kirito she knew what she was doing. She was watching her HP and Arachne's, obviously calculating something. He wasn't sure what she was up to, but she was clearly waiting for both their HP gauges to hit exactly the right spot.

"Now," she said, though she said it so quietly he didn't hear her so much as lip-read it. "Kirito-kun! Keep her on you!" Aiko jumped backward, Ashura taking on a dark red nimbus as she activated a sword skill. Kirito attacked, his strike bringing Arachne's HP down to the red, and sure enough, he saw ten spiders spawn at once. Aiko crouched down and shot toward the ceiling, her sword and trailing rippling ruby light and a cloud of black mist. It was definitely the highest Kirito had ever seen someone jump in SAO. He attacked furiously with a roar, his adrenaline surging as he activated the most powerful combos he had without duel-wielding, desperately trying to keep Arachne from regenerating too much.

Then Aiko struck, crashing down on their foe like a blood-red bolt of lightning. She somersaulted as she fell; the gyrating, luminescent sword cutting through the boss like a buzzsaw, the remaining fragment of health Arachne had retained simply torn away as Kirito and Aiko hacked at Arachne at the same time. The ten minions attacked, and Kirito saw with horror that somehow Aiko had lost almost all of her remaining health, having just a sliver left. He leaped in with a cry, but Aiko just shot him a smirk and dropped low, swinging her sword in a wide, mighty arc and cutting through the whole horde at once. They exploded in a huge cloud of blue shards.

The "Congratulations" signal popped up, but Kirito barely saw it. He ran to Aiko and gave her a potion. She pushed his hand away-somewhat roughly-and drank one of her own, holding her free hand up to stave off the question he had been about to ask.

"What was that?" he demanded when she finished, "That move... was that a-a unique skill?"

"Sort of, but no, not really. It wasn't a player skill, it was a sword skill that comes with the sword, unique to Ashura as far as I know. It's called Soul Taker, and even if you have the prerequisites to wield the sword normally, you need a very high jump capability to use its special move. It sacrifices 20% of your HP to deliver one of the strongest attacks I've seen in the game."

"But if you were going to use a move that took your own HP, why did you want a boss to attack you before you used it?" Kirito demanded angrily. Was she insane, putting herself that close to death?

"I tracked down and equipped a Berserker Ring that raises my strength by 10 if I drop below 25% HP," she boasted, "So if I let myself get down to twenty-four percent, I can use the Soul Taker with my strength at 86 instead of 76, and still have four percent of my HP left, so it won't kill me." She sheathed the blade and looked smug, clearly expecting awe, but Kirito was too angry to care.

"Baka," he practically growled.

"What?" Aiko asked, clearly surprised and confused at his response.

"That's a stupid, reckless way to fight," Kirito replied through clenched teeth, "You don't need to put yourself within one attack of being killed like that. SAO stopped being just a game a long time ago. Your HP drops to zero, you die. It's over." Now Aiko was angry as well.

"I know that! But sometimes you have to fight hard and put yourself at risk if you want to win. Besides, I'm not just being careless. I wouldn't have used it if it wasn't going to finish her off. And the minions wouldn't do enough damage to kill me even if they had hit me. My Vitality combined with my armor's Defense-"

"Enough!" Kirito snapped, slashing his sword through the air for emphasis, "You're well prepared, I get it, but you don't need to take unnecessary risks like that! What if you had actually died? If you had died I would've-" He stopped abruptly realizing that trying to explain was useless. He had thought she had lost people close to her too. He had thought she would understand, but it seemed that she didn't grasp how serious it was. But then she lowered her head and looked away, not meeting his gaze.

"Gomen'nasai," she said quietly. "I... I'm not used to people caring about me. I didn't think." Kirito felt his anger dissipate instantly.

"Gomen na," he said. "I shouldn't have... I'm sorry."

"Let's just get the hell out of here," Aiko replied wearily, turning and heading for the door. As she walked she unequipped her Ashura and equipped her White Fang and shield again. Kirito sheathed his sword and followed her.

They stopped outside the boss room and both of them slumped to the floor in exhaustion. Kirito brought up his menu and disbanded the party, but not before he saw Aiko's name listed. Akiko? He thought, puzzled. Why would she bother lying to me about her name if we were going to party up? Did she not know you can see a party member's name? He shrugged. She probably had a reason, and it might be rude to ask. And he wasn't really intent on making her ticked off again.

"Oh, right! I was so worried I forgot to check what drops I got!" He searched his inventory to see what was listed as "new" items and froze. "The hell...?"

"What is it?" Aiko asked, sounding somewhat tense.

"I know that respawning minions don't normally give experience and Cor to keep people from using boss rooms as an infinite source of XP, but those spiders give item drops?" he remarked incredulously, "Healing potions no less. I've got enough potions to last a week, plus some Spider Silk. Hmm, an ingredient for creating more durable clothes that provide a bit of extra protection. Plus a spear from the boss. Hmm. Guess I could sell that one," he decided.

"Not bad, eh?" Aiko commented with a grin as she checked her own inventory, obviously pleased with whatever items she got.

"What? I didn't get a Last attack bonus. Your strike did more damage, but... I was sure my attack dealt the final blow." He glanced at the girl in confusion, and was further perplexed by the fact that she looked away, an expression of guilt on her face. Weird. Maybe she feels bad because she got something better than me? But she made a point earlier that we both keep our items, no matter who got more. Was that because she knew the spider minions give drops... or does she have some trick for getting extra items? Or maybe she intended from the start to deliberately time her attack to get the last attack bonus?

"Well, guess that's that. I'd better get going," she commented, standing up and brushing imaginary dust off her clothes. Her attitude was just a bit suspicious, the too-casual way she was talking obviously forced. Kirito didn't think it was a big deal, though. If she wanted the last attack bonus and timed her attack to get it, it was nothing for either of them to be upset over. He had been trying to do exactly the same. "Hey, if we were in there that long, the Arachnoids around here would have come back; they have a really fast respawn time. Just so you know."

"Okay, thanks." He headed back down the tunnel after her. They had barely walked five minutes when they came to the first Arachnoid. They charged it together, the recently formed habit of coordinating their attacks not yet fully diminished, and took it down almost instantly, then worked together to stomp out all the miniature monsters that fled from the Arachnoid's body as it disintegrated. Kirito was suddenly reminded of the vastly inferior attack that Aiko's White Fang had in comparison to her Ashura, or even his Elucidator. After watching her hack and slash at the next few Arachnoids they encountered while his attacks dealt out over half again as much damage, he could no longer hold back his curiousity.

"Say, Aiko-san, why do you use that sword if you have one that's much better?" he queried. Aiko laughed and shot him a grin, and Kirito was struck by how pretty she was-despite her unnerving eye color-when she wasn't glaring.

"It's too recognizable. Some PK guilds would target a solo player with good equipment or lots of money just to take their stuff. But mostly it's because I like to have top-notch defense, and you can't equip a shield if you have a two-handed sword. I heard of one person who got a rare item-Titan's Arm, I think it was-that let him use a two-handed weapon in one hand, so he could still use a shield. I would kill for an item like that." Kirito shot her a disturbed glance, and she threw up her hands defensively. "Oh! I didn't mean that literally. It was just a figure of speech. Sorry."

Kirito believed her of course, she was a green player after all. But the intense envy in her voice as she spoke of the accessory had been very real. Suddenly they heard voices up ahead. Apparently someone had been not very far behind them. Aiko froze.

"Kirito-san!" she hissed, "Stand right there and guard me for a second." She ducked behind a large stalagmite.

"What?"

"Just stay there!" she called, "And don't you dare look over here!" He stood and waited, staring firmly in the other direction as he heard her menu blipping and the sound of equipment being changed. When she rejoined him, she was wearing full plate armor, including a helmet that concealed all of her face save her lower jaw. She had also equipped a spear. Her weapon and armor was still decent, but if Kirito had to guess, it looked like your average 60th floor equipment. Why on earth did this strange girl haul around so much below-average items in her inventory if she had armor and weapons as powerful as he had seen her using?

A group of players rounded a corner just then. They were from the Demon's Bane Guild, a group that was always scrambling to try and make it on the front lines, but could never quite keep up with the lead guilds. They were essentially the worst of the best, which would explain why they'd be eager to take on a dungeon that granted such generous amounts of money.

"Hey, it's Kirito-san!" the leader, a huge man named Nakamura greeted. "Wait, are you two teamed up? Haha, thought you were a solo!"

"N-no," Aiko said quickly, "I pushed up too far and was running out of health, but he happened to run into me and saved me," she said, her voice pitch and manner of speaking completely different. Even her body language and movements were different, as if the aggressive, belligerent fighter he had been temporarily partied up with had been replaced by a self-conscious, socially awkward girl.

"Ah..." Kirito felt he should add something, but wasn't sure what to say. The situation felt remarkably awkward. "Right."

"W-wait a minute. Kirito!?" she gasped, "I...I-I didn't realize who you were. I... forgive me, Kirito-sama!" she cried, bowing quickly. Kirito flinched. Kirito-Sama!? What is she doing? She had sounded almost hysterical, like a girl with a hero-worship crush that had just realized she had been speaking with the aformentioned hero. Nakamura laughed out loud, and Kirito noticed some of the Demon's Bane members grinning and shoving each other.

"Looks like you made an impression, you devil... again," Nakamura said, still laughing, as he and his guild moved past them. "Well, take care!" Aiko was blushing furiously, and stayed in a bow until they had moved past. Kirito turned to Aiko, his own face a little red.

"Eto, what was that about? Did you know them or something?" Aiko straightened and changed her spear for her White Fang again, though she left her plate armor on.

"Maybe," she muttered. "I'm going on ahead. I am not doing that again, so I don't want to be seen with you." Kirito was too perplexed to be offended. He watched her run ahead, not looking back, though she raised her hand in a quick wave. What a weird girl. He sighed and dug out a teleport crystal. If the Demon's Bane guild had just come from up ahead, they would have cleared all the monsters in the area, so he might as well call it a day.

"Teleport. Algade," he said, taking him back to his current home on floor 50.

When he reached his house he went inside and removed his gear. For some reason, that last item bonus that he had missed was bugging him. He was sure that he had landed the finishing hit almost half a second after his partner had struck with hers. Plus the suspicious way Aiko had acted, including the part about lying to him about her name. And now that he thought about it, he realized that the reason she had changed her equipment, put on a strange act, and lied about being with Kirito was probably not because she hadn't wanted to be seen with Kirito so much as hadn't wanted to be spotted by other players.

She was a green player, but there were underhanded ways to steal and kill and still get around the "crime" system-like tricking people during trading and engaging in "sleep duels". And she was obviously completely obsessed with powerful items and equipment, and clearly had gotten her hands on far more valuable items than any normal player was capable of.

Kirito had thought she seemed all right, but he remembered how easily she had changed her personality to fool the Demon's Bane guild. She could have just as easily fooled him into thinking he could trust her. The more he thought about it, the more he became certain that he should investigate. Kirito decided to ask around a bit, starting tomorrow morning. At the moment, he was too exhausted.

He collapsed on his bed and was asleep almost instantly.

He dreamed about spiders all night.

Hope you enjoyed it! And yes, there will probably be a sequel where I'll answer all your questions about what on earth is going on.