"My son convinced me to get him Sword Art Online for his birthday. I gathered up all my savings to buy the game and the system. I even bought him a new computer. I'll never forgive whoever's idea it was to take him away from me. To trap all these people in this death game. Please, somebody. Save my son!"
(Momoka Hikutasu, Mother of a Victim NHK World)
Chapter 4:
Kirito in the meeting room with his council. It took less than an hour for the other advisors to assemble upon hearing the news. None of them could quite believe it. It was astounding enough that someone found the boss room, but that those people came to them for help was a bit much to take in. IceQueen had asked to bring in her two most trusted advisors. Her sister IcePrincess, and her second in command, Tafkar. Each visitor was given a chair at the table with the rest of the council.
"If everyone is ready," Kirito said aloud, "We might as well get things started. Now, do all of you know why I called the emergency meeting?"
"Yeah," Kazehi grumbled, "Night told us."
"Oh, right," said Kirito, grumpily. "Well, I guess IceQueen can explain it in further detail, if you would like to." He turned to give her the signal to begin explaining, but she had already stood up to speak.
"As you have heard," she began, "my name is IceQueen, I'm leader of a smaller guild of about seventeen people known as Iron Wall."
"Yeah, yeah, we've heard," Kibaou complained, "Get on with the important details."
"Okay, sorry," IceQueen said, looking a little hurt, "Just yesterday, a party of five of our members lead by Tafkar here, was exploring the dungeon when they discovered the location of the boss room. As shown on the map, it's hidden on floor sixteen of the dungeon, after a long series of hallways."
"Um," Agil interrupted, "I might suggest using a different term for floors inside a dungeon, so that we don't confuse them with the floors of Aincrad."
"Fine," IceQueen said, with a tone of annoyance, "The sixteenth level of the dungeon. Anyways, as soon as they discovered the boss room, Tafkar immediately reported back to me about the discovery. I, of course had them show me the boss room, and I can confirm the boss is there."
"No offense," Kazehi said, "But could you explain why we're involved here?"
"Yes," IceQueen said, "Of course. I brought the whole guild in the fight the boss, but unfortunately, it was too strong. Everyone was able to retreat via the door and by use of teleport crystals, but it was just too powerful for us. And because you guys were the people who fought the previous boss, I figured that your experience could help us in fighting this one."
After a momentary pause, Kirito finally spoke up to break the silence. "I guess that's reasonable. We can bring a large group to join your guild for a raid."
"Wait just a moment!" Kibaou yelled, "How do we know we can trust this girl? She came out of nowhere, with nothing but a map to prove her point! And we're just going to blindly march into battle with her?"
"Hey! My sister wouldn't lie to you!" IcePrincess yelled back at him.
"Kibaou has a point," Agil agreed, "Sorry miss Queen, but we should have some proof that you actually found the boss room before we send a whole army to join you."
"I could show one of your guys where the boss room is," Tafkar suggested, "I'd be willing to just to get him to shut up." He sent a nasty glare at Kibaou.
"I think that's a fair compromise," Kirito agreed, "Kazehi, Kibaou. You two go with Tafkar into the dungeon. And Agil and Night can be in charge of organizing everyone to prepare for the boss raid. I assume Queen will prepare the Iron Wall members."
"What will you be doing?" Kazehi grumbled.
"I have somebody I need to talk to," he said, "I want to gather some information on the boss."
"Can't we just use the guide book? That's what we used before we attacked," IceQueen asked. All of the members of Legacy looked at her as if she was mad.
"I want to get some more information just in case," Kirito said. "There can be changes to the boss from the beta. Better safe than sorry." He stood up from his chair. "If we have no more objections," he paused to see if anyone had something more to say, "Then I believed this meeting is adjourned."
Kirito left the guild house quickly, leaving Agil in charge of the organization of the military and finishing discussions of strategy with the others. He opened up his menu and tapped his friends list. There, plain as day,, he found Argo's profile. He quickly sent her a message to meet in same tavern as before.
"I got your message," Argo sprinted up to Kirito's table nearly an hour later, "I came as quickly as I could. What's wrong?" Kirito took a bite of his sandwich before answering. Argo watched impatiently as she slid into the chair across from him.
"I want all the information you have on Baran the Tauros General," Kirito asked her. Argo looked slightly stunned.
"You found it?" She shrieked, only barely able to keep it quiet enough not to disturb the others in the room. "You found the boss room?"
"I didn't," Kirito explained, "But the people who did are working with the Legacy members to raid the boss, so I figured I might as well go out and pick up what you left out of the guide."
"What do you mean what I 'left out of the guide'?" She shuddered.
"Argo," Kirito smirked, "You made it pretty obvious that you're the author. There's no use trying to hide it. All I'm asking is what do you know that could help us against the boss." Argo stared at him with a hint of anger.
"You're lucky," she finally spoke, "Most everything I know is in the book. Baran the Tauros General and Tauros Colonel Nato. Both of them have similar attack patterns, one has Numbing Impact while the other has Numbing Detonation. Both of them are weak in the horns, and Baran is stronger. It should all be there." She paused for a breath. "But I did find a few new quests that could reveal something about the changes to the fight. I haven't finished though."
"Anything you know so far?"
"All I can say is something will be different," she sighed, "Have you sent any scouts in at least?"
"The guild who found the boss room tried attacking once," Kirito explained, "But I don't know what they saw."
"Try and find out for me, will you?" Argo begged, "I don't want something like Diavel to happen again."
"Listen, that wasn't your fault," Kirito reassured her, "There was nothing anyone could've done."
"I know," she said, almost on the brink of tears. "But I still feel awful." She turned away from Kirito and looked out the window. He tried to think of something more to say, but he lacked a good response. "What's the name of the guild you're working with?" she asked without turning back to address him in any way. "I might as well look them up while I'm at it."
"Iron Wall," Kirito answered, "Two words. Lead by a player named IceQueen. Capital I and Q. One word, no underscores." Argo took a piece of paper and wrote down the information.
"Capital I and Q, one word. Got it. I'll look them up," she stood up from the table, "I need to get back to the quest. It's timed. Good luck on the raid. I'll message you if I find anything new." Before Kirito could even say goodbye, she was gone. He decided to finish his food before travelling back home to the guild.
By the time he had returned to the guild, much of day had gone by. Kibaou and Kazehi had already returned from their expedition with reports of success. Grudgingly, they both admitted Iron Wall had indeed beaten Legacy to the boss room. Meanwhile, Agil had finally gathered a majority of the members of the two guilds.
"Kirito," he said as the leader entered into the property, "I see you've returned. Was your mission successful?"
"I didn't learn much," he shrugged, "But I think it could lead to some useful info later. How is everyone here?"
"We divided up the players into squadrons again," Agil explained, "Although there was some debate on whether we should mix guilds or not."
"Did you?" Kirito inquired.
"No, Queen said it was too risky," Agil continued, "It would be easier to make more divisions if each guild operated separately in their parties. She's smart, for being a new guild leader."
"You say that like you were in the beta!" Kirito laughed, "Everyone is new, practically."
"I mean she's never lead a guild in any MMO before," Agil clarified, "Iron Wall is her first time in any form of leadership position." Kirito's mouth gaped open.
"You're kidding."
"No, it's true," IceQueen walked up to them from inside the building. "I founded Iron Wall only so my friends and I could share a house easily. We just happen to find some more players who wanted to join, and here we are. Anyways, welcome back Kirito. Did you find who you were wanting to talk to?"
"Yeah," said Kirito, "But they don't have the info I want yet. Agil says you guys got everyone grouped up."
"Indeed we did," IceQueen grinned with delight, "We decided on keeping squads entirely of one guild to limit the confusion. Well, except for archers. We didn't have enough from Iron Wall to form a full party, so we just grouped them all together."
"Yeah, he mentioned that as well," Kirito told her.
"I'll reassemble the council for strategizing," Agil offered, "If we're lucky, we can take down the boss by tomorrow."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Kirito agreed. Agil walked off to round up the other heads of the guild. Kirito was about to follow him, when IceQueen stopped him.
"One more thing I want to talk to you about," she said.
"Yeah?" Kirito curiously asked.
"We should have a way to retreat from the boss in case any of the players are too low on health," IceQueen proposed, "Just in case."
"What do you mean?" Kirito was slightly confused, "You mean a retreat call to exit the boss room if something goes wrong?"
"No, I mean if a player is low on health they can get out on their own last second," IceQueen said. "Maybe give a teleport crystal to everyone as backup."
"Like a failsafe?" Kirito was slightly suspicious of her idea. It seemed sound, but teleport crystals were not cheap. Especially that early into the game. "Propose it to the others. If they're for it, then we can try it."
"Okay," IceQueen smiled. "I'll suggest it to them."
"Absolutely not!" Night practically yelled when he heard the proposal. The advisors of both guilds had assembled together. As soon as the strategy meeting began, IceQueen explained her idea for teleport crystals. Night was not for the idea. "Between the two guilds we have nearly thirty-five people going in to fight the boss! A teleport crystal for every single person would cost us 63,000 cor! We can't just throw away half the guild's vaults on a single boss!"
"You won't need to use them all on a single boss if everyone lives," IceQueen reminded him.
"That's still a lot money," Night growled.
"If I remember from the beta, we did have some trouble on Baran," recalled Kazehi. "But that was in small parties of seven. Not two guilds working together."
"Everything seemed to be the same as the guidebook suggested," Tafkar noted, "They seemed to be a bit stronger, but that was to be expected."
"It may be ideal to have some form of backup plan," Kibaou argued, "I don't want to end up like Diavel if I can help it. Or anyone else for the matter."
"We have nearly a hundred thousand cor stored up," Night reminded them, "I don't think we should spend it on such a simple concept."
"Oh shut up, you aren't even raiding!" Kibaou accused.
"Actually, you can take off the price for Iron Wall," IceQueen said, "I already have my players supplied with them. We're good."
"That saves us fourteen crystals," Agil nodded. "How much would the other twenty-one cost?"
"37,500 cor," Night already had the answer in his head, "Good job. You brought us down to only a third of our money."
"I propose we take a vote on the matter," Kirito said, "All for the teleport crystals?" He, Kibaou, and Agil all raised their hands. "All against?" Kazehi and Night raised their hands, but they knew they already had lost the vote. "I think that's settled. Night?"
"I'll buy them after the meeting," Night mumbled in response.
The rest of the strategy meeting went smoothly. Kirito and Kazehi used some of their knowledge of the boss to give an outline, while the others proposed new ideas and plans of attack. Within half an hour, the raid was carefully designed and precisely detailed. Kazehi was appointed to be commander during the fight and was placed in charge of squadron A. Kibaou and Agil agreed to lead the other two parties from Legacy, squadrons B and C respectively. IceQueen and Tafkar took D and E, the two Iron Wall squads, and IcePrincess took the archers, who weren't given any name for their squad other than the very creative title "the archers". Kirito chose to fight under Kazehi. He didn't trust himself enough to properly order other players around on the field, but understood that if he was fighting on his own it could make others question him as a good leader.
After the meeting, Kirito sent Argo a quick PM about the plans to raid the next day, and told her that there wasn't much of a change from the beta in the boss other than a small power boost. Nevertheless, she still replied that she was going to continue the quests, and would let him know if she found something.
The following day, the two guilds set off at 9:00 in the morning to enter the dungeon. Kirito checked with Argo if she had finished her quest, but he received no reply. With no choice, he entered the dungeon with the rest of the guild on the long march to the boss room. At 11:26, they finally arrived outside the large door. With one final heal, Kazehi made sure everyone was prepared before leading them in.
The door creaked open to a large, circular room. There was no decoration of pillars or furniture, except for a ring of torches at the end. The players walked towards the center of the room, eyes open for when the bosses would spawn. When everyone was in the center of the room, a large crash echoed through the room. It came from two large bulls landing on either side of the room. To the left was the lesser boss, Nato the Colonel Tauros. The large humanoid bull-like creature was proud, muscular, and had two horns on his head. He was twice as tall as any of the players, and carried a large two handed hammer. He stood bare chested, with only a cloth covering his lower body.
To the right stood his superior, Baran the General Tauros. Two times as tall as his minion, he too carried a large hammer and wore a silk cloth, both coloured in gold. He let off a large roar leading both bosses to attack.
"Everyone ready?" Kazehi yelled, "Now go! A, B, and C, attack Baran! D and E take on Nato! Archers, stay in the middle and give ranged support! Charge!" The players listened to the orders without any hesitation. Quickly, everyone began carefully using sword skills and other attack to fend off the boss.
Kirito fought with the rest of squad A. Just like the rest of the players in his group, he ran at Baran with full power. Slashing and dodging, everyone slowly whittled down the first of his five HP gauges. Baran raised his hammer to strike his special skill, Numbing Impact. Kirito jumped briskly to the left to evade, but other players weren't as quick. Several members of squads A and B took major damage, and were left stunned for three seconds.
"Arg," Kazehi grumbled, "A and B, move back! C attack!" The unstunned players make their retreat backwards as fast as they could. Unfortunately, those who were stuck weren't ready for the command stumbled over and were hit by several other hits.
"Sorry commander!" one yelled, "I need to retreat. I'm out of healing crystals." He raised up a teleport crystal and warped out. Quickly following, many others did the same. Squad A and B were each decreased to four players a party.
Across the room, things were doing better for Iron Wall. They had taken out one of the three health bars of the Taurus Colonel already. However, not without casualties. A few of their players had retreated out after reaching low health. It was obvious the battle wasn't going well. Player after player used a crystal to make a haste escape, leaving less and less to fight the boss.
By the time Baran was down his first health bar, squad C was also low on players, and by the second, all of squad B, with the exception Kibaou, had retreated. Although the force fighting Nato had brought him to his last guage, they were down to a mere collective of 6 players from both groups. However, there was nobody extra to send in to support them, and progress slowed. The archers were dealing more damage to each of the bosses than the foot soldiers, but that wasn't saying much.
"Guys," Agil boomed, "I think we should retreat. We can't win this."
"No!" Kazehi practically begged, as she jumped out of the way of another hammer swing from the bull. "We can't."
"He's right!" Kirito agreed, "We can't win." He desperately blocked a combo of attacks from the boss. "Even I'm reaching yellow." Kazehi looked around the room, and dismay filled her. Saddened, she jumped back and called to the whole team.
"Everyone," she yelled, "We can't win. I call an all retreat now!" As soon as it began to register in the minds of the players what she was saying, they began to each teleport out. One by one, Iron Wall and Diavel's Legacy made an escape from the boss room. Kirito waited to make sure everyone was out. He tried to fend off the boss just long enough so that they were all safe. Finally, the last player disappeared into small diamonds. Kirito grabbed the teleport crystal from his belt and clenched it in his hand. After a brief pause of regret, he tapped the trigger and left, with a hint of disappointment in his eyes. And a stronger feeling than ever, to keep up the push.
