A/N: Chapter Six is out. Please, leave a review! Apart from a few people, I have absolutely no feedback on whether I'm doing a good job or not! If I suck, please let me know so I can improve! (just do so politely please). Also, still need a Beta Reader if anyone is interested.
Ch 6: Illfang
Kirito, Aincrad: Floor 1, Boss Dungeon. D+36
The march towards the Boss Room was stupidly easy in Kirito's eyes. The moment an unfortunate mob happened to set its artificial eyes on anyone within the raid party, it was systematically picked apart by the 37 other players in the raid. As yet another Kobold fell under his Anneal Blade +5, Kirito glanced at his map.
Within fifteen minutes of entering the dungeon, they had already cleared everything except the Boss Room. However, while the other members of the raid seemed to be in high spirits due to their progress, Kirito could only feel worry. Up to that point, the resistance from the Kobold mobs had been very scattered, with groups of four or five attacking at once. The Boss Room would concentrate a much greater amount of firepower over a much shorter period of time.
Turning his attention back to the present, Kirito realized that Diabel had already given a short speech before pushing the door open to the Boss Room. With a deafening roar from 36 throats, the raid party charged into the darkness.
Stupid. Very stupid. Kirito reached out just in time to stop Asuna from joining the mad rush.
"Don't rush into a room without taking stock of the situation!" He called, trying to stop the raid members from throwing their lives away in an amateur rush.
Indeed, his caution seemed to have paid off. Running at full speed into the pitch black room, none of the raid members could see anything for a few critical seconds. In those critical seconds, several things happened at once.
A massive roar deafened everyone as twelve were swept up in a single massive swing. Two died outright, disappearing in sparkling clouds of polygons. The rest landed heavily, their health bars deep in the red. At the same time, bright lights flared into existence, blinding the rest of the group as their eyes tried to readjust yet again to the change in light level.
Cries of confusion and dismay filled the air, and four members threw down their weapons, turning tail and running for the exit. They were systematically stopped and executed by the four Ruin Kobold Sentinels dropping from the ceiling.
Bodies flew into the air as the boss pounded the ground with his AOE attack, catching all but one in its radial stun attack. Another player burst into pieces.
Cursing to himself, Kirito leapt into the room, blade already sinking into the flesh between one of the sentinels' shoulder blades. Ducking under a polearm, he struck the pommel of his blade into the second minion's gut. Kicking it back to give himself more room, he palmed the sheath on his right shoulder, drawing a second short dagger into his left hand.
Almost casually, it deflected a third sentinel's sword. Not encountering the expected resistance, the sentinel stumbled forward, suffering a slash across its throat, bringing it down to a quarter of its original health. However, Kirito's aim was no longer at the minions. With the plan falling apart the moment they entered the room, he did what he always did best. He improvised.
Sprinting forwards, he slashed Illfang across the knee just as the Boss was finishing its next attack. With a roar of simulated pain the attack dissipated, thus saving the lives of the remaining clearers. Ducking to the side, the axe cleaved the air centimeters away from his face, but Kirito was already long gone.
As he guided the next strike into Illfang's Achilles' tendon, Kirito felt the world slowing down. Illfang's mouth opened in a near eternal roar, as he turned to strike at Kirito in slow motion. The roar of pain sounded odd to Kirito's ears as the hissing of the blade alerted him to the incoming danger several hours in advance.
Jumping up and to the right, Kirito practically touched the polished axe blade as he slashed at the hand wielding it. Tucking his feet under him in a roll, Kirito ducked between Illfang's feet. Another slash brought the towering boss to its knees as both feet lost their ability to move.
However, Kirito realized that he'd neglected one critical aspect as he found himself thrown against the wall by a buckler the size of a pelican dropship.
"Kirito-kun!"
Gasping for breath, Kirito pulled himself to his feet just as he felt Asuna's arm on his shoulder. Giving a glance at his health, he was alarmed to find it dangerously close to the red. A single swing had taken out 60% of his HP.
Kirito regained his senses just in time to find a shadow looming over him. Reacting instinctively, he pushed Asuna to the right, using the momentum to drive himself left in an attempt to escape the giant axe dropping down from above. However, he knew that it wouldn't be enough. His push had been enough to send Asuna tumbling to the right, but barely managed to budge him from his starting position. As the blade descended, Kirito could clearly tell that it would skim the bottom of his feet. Had he been in the real world, he'd probably recover from such a wound within a week. However, SAO modeled life as a number. Judging from the first strike, that number would not be enough of a buffer for him to survive.
Just as the blade was about to come into contact, A second axe buried itself into Illfang's gut, pushing the boss two critical millimeters further. Kirito's shoes burst into polygons as their durability sank to 0.
Landing heavily on his stomach, he heard Asuna call his name out in worry for the second time in a minute. A moment later, her arm was around him as she tried to pull him to his feet.
Pulling himself together, Kirito quickly thanked his partner while re-equipping another set of boots. In a game where one point of damage could mean the difference between life and death, Kirito always made sure to bring backups with him, as well as backups for the backups.
Just as he picked up his sword, another hand stopped him from leaping back into the fight.
Diabel's eyes glowed with respect as he held Kirito back. "You've done enough for today by saving the entire raid group. Fall back and recover your strength for now. If you could, stopping the last three minions would be nice."
Panting, Kirito nodded his head. In all honesty, being smashed by a giant wood disk had shaken him more than it appeared.
Asuna, Aincrad: Floor 1, Boss Room. D+36
Asuna released a sigh of relief as Kirito was stopped by Diabel. Honestly, it's like he doesn't even want to live anymore! And he has the nerve to lecture me about it!
She didn't notice her relief among the myriad of other emotions running through her.
Initially, she'd been confused when Kirito had stopped her. That confusion quickly turned into horror as six of the original 38 had been systematically executed before her eyes. That could've been me. She'd thought.
Then, when she was frozen in horror, Kirito had rushed into the room, casually killing a Ruin Kobold Sentinel on his way to the boss. After reaching the boss, Kirito became a blur of motion, before suddenly; the boss was on his knees.
Then her heart had leapt into her mouth as Kirito was flung across the room by one of the Boss' flailing arms. Subconsciously, her feet carried her towards him as he struggled to his feet.
She'd been about to yell at him, scream, punch him for his foolishness. Anything to stop him from doing the same thing twice.
Kirito beat her to it as she found herself pushed backwards by an unbelievably strong force. Her mouth opened to scream as her brain struggled to keep up. She'd seen enough movies to know what happened next.
The relief at the raid group's recovery almost overwhelmed her as she ran towards the fallen Kirito. The relief had turned into panic as Kirito promptly started to head back into the fray. Did this boy have a death wish?
Asuna wanted to hug Diabel when he intervened and stopped Kirito's madness. However, she could've screamed at Kirito when he simply turned his attention to the Kobold Sentinels that had been harassing the main party.
That would simply not do. Kirito should be at the back drinking the game's entire stock of HP potions right now! He shouldn't be fighting on the front lines!
Asuna felt herself take a step forward, halting Kirito as she purposefully strode towards the three Kobolds. Fortunately for her, the three mobs were entirely focused on a single unfortunate player, who was cowering behind a shield, trying desperately to stay alive.
Perfect.
Her first Piercing Hit struck the center Kobold straight in the back, stunning it temporarily. Her second strike was moving towards the Kobold's unprotected back before the first animation had even completed.
By itself, Piercing Hit did very little damage. However, it held a 30% chance to stun the target for 5 seconds with every hit. For most people, such a system was considered too weak, resulting in the distinct lack of rapier users in the game. However, for Asuna, she could push the game to the point where she would be able to land over five hits per second. By doing so, she could easily keep a single, or even two targets stunned permanently. With her insane rate of attack, the Kobolds were soon floating away as polygons scattered in the air.
Turning back to glare at an awestruck Kirito, she spoke in a quiet voice. "Don't even think about jumping into another fight. Nervously, Kirito nodded.
Kirito, Aincrad: Floor 1, Boss Room. D+36
Nervously, Kirito gripped his Anneal Blade +5 in his slightly sweaty palm. Despite what Asuna had threatened, it went against every fiber of his being to sit back and let others do the work. Especially since the raid was very obviously in serious trouble.
While the raid had regained much of its original cohesion, Kirito's trained eye could see the despair within every one's eyes. After a flawless dungeon run, they had been expecting a relatively easy boss. The surprise attack had thrown everyone off balance.
Diabel had managed to form up several temporary squads, directing them to rotate whenever the lead group was low on HP. However, the rotations were happening too quickly. Old members barely had a few seconds respite before they had to be pressed back into the lead.
At long last, the third bar of HP was finally depleted from Illfang's health pool. With a roar of anger, Illfang tossed the axe at the one who had connected the final hit. With a cry of surprise, the unfortunate player vanished as well. The eighth casualty of the raid.
The buckler swiftly followed, shattering against the wall in a shower of splinters and twisted iron. Kirito's eyes widened as he leapt for the broken shield, quickly storing the iron strips into his inventory before the rest of the shield dissolved as well.
Decades of experience on far deadlier battlefields forced Kirito to jump back just in time to avoid the shower of masonry as the section of wall hit by the buckler collapsed. Kirito cursed as he saw six Kobold Retainers walk out of the new entrance, hissing in anger.
The first Retainer fell to his sword before it even finished its spawn animation. The second toppled back moments later, completely cut into two.
Lunging for the third, a dagger seemed to materialize in his free hand, redirecting a strike from a fourth Retainer. Just as he finished beheading his original target, a rhythmic thud thud thud similar to machine gun fire caused him to throw himself to the ground. Glancing around wildly, Kirito relaxed slightly when he saw two Retainers paralyzed under Asuna's relentless barrage.
Climbing to his feet, Kirito turned to face the last Retainer who was circling around him warily after seeing its friends cut down so easily.
"Guess it's just me and ugly now."
For a few nanoseconds, both sides glared each other down, before Kirito leaned over to the right, allowing the Retainer's blade to pass by his cheek harmlessly. Taking advantage of the Retainer's unbalanced stance, he kicked out at the Retainer, sending the mob stumbling back a few steps. With a ringing crash, Kirito's dagger flew out of his hands as the Retainer miraculously managed to block. Its respite was short-lived as it was forced to stumble back to avoid a murderous overhead cut aimed at bisecting the mob into two. Kirito's follow-up strike went unneeded as gravity killed the last Retainer, directing the dagger down between its eyes.
Nobody had time to be surprised, as Illfang was still rampaging across the room with a massive nodachi. With everyone expecting a talwar, the raid had been woefully unprepared as the boss unleashed a plethora of status effects with a weapon not normally seen until floor 15.
Kirito grimaced as yet another unfortunate victim was kicked up by Illfang, only to be slashed to pieces before hitting the ground. Glancing at Illfang's remaining health; Kirito felt a flash of concern as he realized that it was still at 80%.
Barely hesitating for a second, he rushed forwards to help. He'd already disregarded Asuna's order anyway, might as well go all out. Reaching the boss, Kirito leapt up as high as he could, plunging his blade into Illfang's leg at the apex of his jump. Grabbing a fistful of Illfang's fur, he retracted his blade, reaching up and stabbing it into the boss' flesh slightly further up. Repeating the process, Kirito soon found what he was looking for. Leaving his Anneal Blade in Illfang's body, he grabbed a handful of fur with his right hand. With his left, he flashed through the menu, producing a handful of the Swamp Chippings he'd farmed with Asuna in the first few days of SAO. Jamming it into a small pocket where the chippings wouldn't fall out, he pushed back as hard as he could. The moment he was far enough, Kirito brought his blade up and held his position in midair. With it, Kirito preformed his first use of a sword skill under combat situations.
The smell of ozone was distinct for a fraction of a second as Kirito's Electrical Charge pulled him forwards. Sparks flew as his weak sword skill deflected off Illfang's armor. Landing heavily, Kirito rolled out of the way, straight into his fellow raid members as they stood by in shock at his stupidity. Calmly, Kirito sheathed his sword and walked away.
"W-What are you doing?! Are you stupid?! Coward!" Outraged shouts followed him as he headed towards the end of the room.
They got their answer as the boss promptly erupted into a ball of fire. Unknown to everyone else, the Swamp Bark found in the Nitric Swamp was not there by coincidence. With SAO's game engine simulating organic wood bark under constant exposure to gases in the Nitric swamp, the Swamp Bark had become very similar in nature to a more modern material: Nitrocellulose, also known as guncotton.
The sparks from his Electrical Charge had provided the initial energy needed for the unstable Swamp Chippings to begin its work. For a few seconds, the chippings shouldered where the sparks had landed. With increasing frequency, the flames spread until all the chippings were burning merrily.
Normally, the fire from the burning Swamp Chippings would do little more than annoy the mob. However, Illfang had a specific weakness in the form of its fur. Going for decades, or even centuries without a bath, Illfang's fur was covered in oil from countless years of simulated exertion. Combined with fur's high contact area to air and oxygen, Illfang was a walking fireball waiting to happen.
Kirito smiled grimly to himself as the boss transformed into a pillar of flame. Illfang's roars of anger quickly turned into shrieks of fear as the boss tried desperately to put out the flames around its waist. Doing so only spread the inferno to its arms, and its HP began dropping even faster.
Within half a minute, Illfang's charred remains collapsed onto the floor, still shouldering. With the sound of breaking glass, the corpse dissipated into polygons, slowly being deleted from the game's coding.
Congratulations!
To the members of the raid group, the message seemed like both a blessing and an insult. Of the 38 members who'd entered the Boss Room, only 21 remained. 17 players had lost their lives in the first boss battle of the entire game.
As the one to score the killing "blow" on Illfang, Kirito had an extra window. The text box floated at eye level, stating the unique item he'd received as a reward: Cloak of Darkness
By using fire to defeat Illfang, Kirito couldn't hold back a grim chuckle at the irony of the drop's name.
