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Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online. Reki Kawahara does!
Asuna tapped her foot impatiently before glancing towards the setting sun again. Their late, this is not a good sign. Sighing she scanned the road leading back to the nearest village hoping to spot the ones she was supposed to meet. The front lines had always been sparsely manned and since the huge losses clearing the twenty fifth floor it had only gotten worse. So, when a small unknown guildhad asked to join in on the upcoming thirtieth floor boss fight they had been reluctant to turn them away. In the end Asuna had been asked to give them a test before determining if they could or could not join the boss fight.
Glancing back down the road she spotted two approaching figures, one she easily recognized as the guild leader. A giant man able to match even Agil in size he had been an impressive figure at their last meeting even wearing his plain unadorned heavy plate. The other person though was easily a match for them in sizewearing heavy plate also and as the two came to a stop right before her she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit intimidated by them despite their friendly smiles.
Feeling angry at herself for that very reason she pointed her finger at the towering guild leader before he could speak "You're late!"
Blinking the two glanced at one another their smiles disappearing into a frown before glancing towards the setting sun. "Sorry about that, he forgot to repair before we headed out and had to turn around." He gestured to his companion before continuing. "Were only late by a minute or two. Besides he told you we were going to be a little late didn't he?"
Frowning "He who?" She questioned.
Groaning he covered his face with one hand and mumbled something that Asuna thought sounded like "Anti-social sonfa…." Before he glanced around them and yelled out "Alright quit lurking around and get out here."
Asuna gave a tiny jump as someone appeared from practically her own shadow. "You don't have to yell, I'm right here." The newest arrival was another giant matching the other two in size. Geez is there a height requirement for this guild.
"I told you to let them know we were going to be a few minutes late." He pointed an accusing finger at the stealthier member of their group.
Shrugging he replied "I was just about to tell them when you came into sight. Figured it was pointless by then."
While the two argued she took the opportunity to look the three over. The guild leader, a man named Rolandox, was wearing the same unadorned heavy plate as before but now a massive tower shield was strapped to his back while a one handed axe hung from his belt. The other plate wearer's armor was as easily identifiable as the former was plain. Sinister black plate with numerous jagged spikes protruding from his right shoulder marked his armor as the twenty fourth floors dungeon set dropped by the mini bosses there. While it was a few levels out dated if it had been enhanced regularly with its set bonus it would be alright for the front lines. Across his back was strapped a massive two handed hammer, the hammer's head was wide and flat on one side while the other half tapered off into a curved spike. One of the surprising things she noticed was neither of them appeared to be Asian, though they spoke Japanese well it held a distinctive American last one who had apparently been here for a considerable time was wearing a heavy black cloak with the hood pulled low hiding his equipment from view, though they shared the same accent.
The argument between them had degenerated into tossing insults back and forth something that she would normally take as a sign that the two men were actually good friends but only seemed to irritate her more at this time. "Alright, enough male bonding. How much longer until the rest of your guild shows up so we can get started?"
Rolandox stopped insulting his guildie and turned to give her a sheepish grin "This is everyone actually. Sorry, let me introduce them." He pointed to the other plate wearer "This is Slevin." Off to the side the cloaked guildmember said "Slacker" while pretending to cough. Ignoring his comment Rolandox pointed to the cloaked member "And this is Eleraan." Slevin in turned said "Broken" while faking his own cough. "And I'm Rolandox the guild leader of the Nephilim." Both Slevin and Eleraan faked another cough while saying "Baldy" in sync. Rolandox reached up to adjust his helmet slightly before continuing. "We appreciate the chance to join the boss fight; it was getting kinda boring just fighting regular monsters."
Just three? That's not even enough for a full group! Let'sjust get this over with. She gave another mental sigh before turning to point further down the path to the small clearing where the forestterrain merged into the rocky terrain of the mountain ahead. There moving around were small packs of Undermen a humanoid monster that appeared to be a cross between a man and a mole. Thick leathery gray skin bunched up around their joints as they shuffled around sniffing the air. At the end of their thick arms were massive hands equipped with long black curved claws perfect for digging or dismembering enemies. Despite their appearance they were surprisingly fast and should prove a good starter test for the group. Though if they passed the real test waited.
"First we will need to clear out all the monsters in that area." She motioned to the dozen or so Undermen wandering around in packs of three or four. The three just nodded readying their weapons and Asuna swallowed down the groan that tried to escape her mouth. A one handed curved blade? Eleraan had drawn a one handed curved blade from within his cloak. While they were common in the lower levels since the skill was required for the Katana weapon skill. Everyone dropped it as soon as they picked up the Katana skill. Each weapon type in the game had its unique strengths and weaknesses, for the one handed curved blade its strength was that the sword skill delay was reduced as the skill increased until it was basically removed. While that was an incredible up side the down side was two fold, first it was the only weapon type in the game with only single strike attacks. With out the delay timer it was possible to chain together the single strike attacks to be as effective as the multi strike attacks used by other weapon types but this resulted in the second draw back, mental fatigue. While those trapped within SAO didn't have to worry about the normal physical fatigue that would be associated with the extreme fighting a type of mental fatigue would build up, especially when using a lot of sword skills. Because of this once the requirements were met for the Katana skill most players switch to the higher damage multi strike weapon instead.
Asuna watched as Rolandox and Slevin took off towards the clearing leaving Eleraan standing there. Rolandox called out over his shoulder "You can have the ones on the left…After you gather the ones on the right for us."
Eleraan stood watching them charge forward yelled out "Lazy!" The two plate wearers had covered about a quarter of the distance and their last member still hadn't moved. Asuna was about to ask him what he was doing out of annoyance when he leaned forward into a crouch she recognized as the starting pose for one of the most basic single slash charge attacks. He kicked off as the charge activated rocketing forward at a speed the exceeded the games maximum run speed. But instead of coming to a stop when the max distance was covered there was a fraction of a second pause before he kicked off with the same charge attack. As she watched he repeated chaining the charge attacks together to streak forward faster than would normally be possible. As he passed the other two in a blur Slevin yelled out "Broken!"
As he skidded to a stop near the first pack of Undermen his left arm shot out and Asuna recognized the three green streaks of light that short from his hand as throwing spikes. One streak of light struck each of the gathered three mobs causing them to turn towards him only to find him streaking towards another pack. Repeating the same process with the second pack he was soon streaking back towards the other two with six Undermen in tow. As he charged passed Rolandox who had gained a sizeable lead on Slevin the shield user activated his own charge. He slammed into the leading mob pushing it back into the others to end up with them in a half circle around him. Before they could respond he twisted his body to the right and then launched a massive backhand with his shield trailing crimson light.
Shockwave was the name of the shield attack he used, it was a one eighty degree attack that chipped out a sizeable chuck of the mobs health and staggered all six back. Asuna winced at the newbie mistake, while the attack was powerful and did cause all the monsters effected to stagger back preventing attacks for a short time it also came with an incredibly long delay that lasted longer than the stagger. Just as she figured he froze with his shield out wide to the left leaving him completely open as the monsters recovered. Claws raised they were mid attack when Slevin leaped over the frozen Rolandox and landed directly infront of him before swinging his massive hammer in a wide arc knocking the enemies back with a Crescent Smash. The Undermen's health bars took another sudden drop as they staggered back a second time. Just as they recovered Rolandox stepped forward with a perfectly timed Shockwave.
As the two repeated the pattern with their perfectly timed teamwork she watched them steadily work all six mobs health down at the same time with out ever taking a single attack themselves. As the mobs health dropped into the red she remembered the third member of their guild. Glancing around she spotted them standing on the now empty other half of the clearing within a giant cloud of sparkling polygon fragments. Blinking Asuna looked around for the missing mobs refusing to believe a single person could slaughter so many already, considering the other two using their Area of Effect or AOE attack in unison were just now finishing their half off. She looked to the others in time to see Slevin finish off their group in one final Crescent Smash. Looking back over she found the other half of the clearing completely empty.
She was frowning in confusion when Slevin and Rolandox walked up to her. Slevin looked in the same direction as she was before say "Ugh that broken, over powered bastard killed his half first!"
"Actually, there were seven in my pack. So you didn't even do half this time." The voice came from her own shadow making her jump a little.
Rolandox scolded her shadow while Slevin mumbled something that sounded like an insult directed to a certain guild member "Will you stop scaring her. I will remind you that you're the one that wants to join the boss fights the most."
"I wasn't trying to scare her, I was just getting some Hiding skill points while I waited for you two slow pokes to finish." Was his reply as he appeared from within her shadow. Geez, how high is his Hiding skill. I really need to work on my Searching skill.
"Whatever. So how did we do? Did we pass the test?" Rolandox grinned down at her looking confident. In truth, Asuna was ready to give them the ok right there but didn't want to over inflate their ego. Ones too full of them selves were more likely to make mistakes.
"You three did alright on them, but that wasn't the test." As the sun fully set and darkness washed over the land Asuna's eyes flashed green in hue as her Night Vision passive activated. She was glad to see all three of the others eyes taking on the same green shimmer. In response to the change from day to night the empty field respawned. But instead of the Undermen two monsters named Dark Dwarf spawned. True to its name it looked like a dwarf, full blackened plate incased them from the neck down leaving their ashy gray faces with their pitch black beards exposed. Each of them wielded a giant two handed sword. They fit the name sake perfectly, except for the fact both were at least three meters tall and would tower over everyone their.
"Hmm aren't dwarves supposed to be short?" asked Eleraan in an amused voice while eyeing the two monsters.
"Yeah well Asians are supposed to be short too." Came Rolandox's smart remark to which Eleraan replied with a "Stuff it baldy."
"Check it out guys, two health bars their elites! Finally, some place new to farm." Slevin grinned as he pointed out the monsters double health bars.
Rolandox looked over at Asuna with a grin "I take it our test is to kill these?" When she nodded his grin just grew bigger "Perfect."
"Dib's on the ugly one." Was all Eleraan said while turning to face one of the identical monsters on the same half of the clearing he had soloed earlier.
"Tsk, Fine. Losers pay for repair costs." Was Rolandox's response with a grin before nodding to Slevin. "Come on, were going all out this time."
As the two man team charged their target the solo member rocketed towards his with his unique chaining of charge skills. He started peppering his target with throwing spikes as soon as it was in range and Asuna noticed a number of icons appear beneath the monsters health bars. She recognized the icon for bleed effect as well as poison but most of the others were unknown to her. Still the monsters health was dropping before he even reached it. He dashed passed it with a slashing charge before spinning to a stop launching another barrage of spikes even as he started his first attack.
Broken, she understood now why they keep saying that. Though she knew the one handed curved blades could attack with out delay at higher skill she had never actually seen it herself. A flurry of attacks was the best way she could describes it, his blade flashing different colors as it cycled through various sword skills faster than she could follow. With a spin he dodged the monsters first attack and even then launched off a barrage of spikes before flowing right into another furious assault. Watching him she found herself comparing him to Kirito but quickly realized their styles were nothing alike. Kirito's style was precise and conservative. No wasted movement or energy, only the most minimum effort was put forth whether it be the slightest shift in stance to avoid a blow or striking only when the perfect opening appeared. Considering he had to worry about sword skill delays it made sense. In an almost opposite style Eleraan never seemed to stop moving, each attack and dodge flowed endlessly into the next. Where Kirito's fighting style was structured and disciplined, even if he isn't she thought, Eleraan's was more like wild deadly dance.
She glanced away from him and the monsters rapidly plummetinghealth bar to the other to just in time to see Rolandox take half a step back and twist his body allowing the Dark Dwarf's sword thrust to skid off his shield past him. To her surprise he lashed out with his one handed axe for the first time but instead of striking the monster he used it like a hook to latch onto the swords vanguard. Pinning its large sword against his shield he twisted his entire body pulling the monster forward and even further off balance than before. At that moment Slevin charged in from the side in a full body shoulder slam managing to knock the already off balance monster over to slam hard onto its back. With out hesitating Rolandox leaped forward and slammed the bottom edge of his tower shield down on the wrist of the hand the dwarf used to hold its sword.
"Now!" His loud shout was answered by Slevin's almost primal roar as he leaped straight up his two handed hammer gripped in both hands and drawn all the way back over his head. The head of his hammer glowed crimson as it roared through the night sky to slam into the top edge of the tower shield with a resounding crash. Cracks spread through the stony ground beneath his shield and even spread through the shield itself from the thunderous strike. But more important the shield worked like a giant blade and sliced through the monsters wrist. A huge chunk of the monsters health dropped off and the red icon symbolizing loss of limb appeared beneath its diminished health bars. Staggering to its feet it took a wild swing at Rolandox with its stub of an arm; he almost casually blocked it before launching a powerful downward chop with his axe into the monsters chest. At almost the same moment Slevin recovered from his attacks delay swung his hammer down hard into the back of the monsters knee staggering it.
On its knees it now looked up into Rolandox's focused gaze as he brought his axe down into its face steadily dropping its health. Turning back to Eleraan she found his target flailing around wildly trying to catch its speedy attacker. If his earlier attacks had been awe inspiring but now with the others having closed the gap he seemed to take it to another level. Most players once they activated a skill allowed the system to carry them through the motion. Asuna achieved a higher attack speed than most by pushing her attacks through instead of waiting for the system to do it on its own. It seemed Eleraan used a similar method as it looked more like he was forcing the attacks through. Glancing between the two fights she bore witness to Eleraan's solo battle ending as his target shattered mere moments before the other two.
"I win!" Came his cry as he exploded through the cloud of polygon shards towards the others with a grin.
"Tsk, No way we won that one." Came Slevin's declaration of victory. "You better have been pinching your Col cause were going to need tons of repairs."
"Don't even try to lie, my target died first. I will admit it was surprisingly close this time though." He nodded.
"I'm telling you we won. Didn't we Rolandox?" Slevin turned towards his partner for confirmation.
"Eh, I don't know. El probably won again, broken bastard." Rolandox shrugged while Slevin remembering they weren't alone turned to Asuna.
"Ha tell him we won, don't let him lie!" Though he gave his guild mate a dirty look it was ruined by the half smile he wore.
"Um… Well I guess in truth he did kill his first." At Slevin's hurt and betrayed look she quickly added "but only by a little."
"It was two vs. one though." Eleraan pointed out sounding serious while within the shadows of his hood she could make out a wide grin.
"Tsk, just cause you're Asian. Everyone knows Asians are over powered in video games." Was Slevin's reply. Asuna gave a small cough as if to remind them she was Asian too. "Not that there is anything wrong with being Asian or overpowered." He was quick to add.
Looking them over she was about to ask how three non-Japanese had ended up in SAO when Slevin yelled out "Rematch!" Pointing to the freshly spawned monsters. Eleraan and Slevin seemed to share a look before turning to charge, one literally, towards the enemies.
Rolandox groaned "Hey my shields durability is almost shot!" Despite his complaint he followed after at full speed. The three engaged their respective targets with laughs leaving Asuna standing their alone. They do remember why they were out here right? Sigh. Oh well it looks like they pass either way. With a grin she found herself drawing her rapier and charging in to assist the two man team.
"Since your shield is low on durability let me see if I can't help even the odds!" Still grinning she launched into the first of many lightning speed Linier attacks.
Both sides fought bravely and in the end the results were…
AN: This is something I had just been playing around with but told one of the guys I'd actually write down. So it got tossed up here for now. Since it was actually made with someone specific's request in mind and being a OC cast it might not actually enjoy it as much as a cannon one. But, If you did read this I hope you enjoyed.