Chapter 7 - Beater

[-Back to Shima-]

A loud sigh escapes my mouth as I walk ahead of the group D, or the party of weirdos. Today, on the real calendar, is the 4th of December, the day the raid group made out of 44 people will enter the boss room situated at the very top of the dungeon. We had a meeting yesterday regarding the upcoming battle, yet again using the guide made by Argo and her fellow beta testers entitled: 'Argo's Strategy Guide: First Floor Boss edition'. The price was 0 col from the start. The boss was a huge Kobold, 2 meters in height having a total of 4 health bars. Its name was «Illfang the Kobold Lord», and its weapon was of the scimitar category. Once engaged in combat, three metal-armored, halberd-wielding «Ruin Kobold Sentinels» would appear— Even so, after the boss's health has been reduced to the red zone, it will discard the shield and axe and use its hidden weapon, a huge Talwar. This was a low level boss and we could probably kill it with only players of level 5 or less. I glanced at my health bar, focusing my vision on it. "Shima; HP: 2217/2217; LV: 10". Underneath it were 5 more bars, though I could not see their actual hit-points, each one of them was strong. The first two bars had the names written as «Karima» and «Elise» and I was over-familiar with them, while the rest of them were unknown to me. I took a quick glance behind me. First off was «Yuki» a player with a small stature, about 2 thirds of my height and he doesn't talk, at all. He has a black night cloak covering his face, but I could see his main weapon being a silver dagger, which was sitting on the side of his chest. Second was «Gak» and I do not know why, but all the time he was with this party he carryed a tree branch resembling a spear of some sorts. He used it to defend against the monsters on our way to the dungeon and I must admit that he was pretty good. His armour was light, but heavier than mine and it was of a gold-like shineiness. He moved swiftly and killed, with his stick, all the heavy targets in our way in one single strike. He is older than me by at least 5 years and his face shows it immediately. His black hair makes him remarked amongst the other players by the simple fact that it contrasts well with his armor. From his face he seems rough, adding his short, unkept beard. Lastly we have «Lasco» who has the best poker face you have ever saw, almost like the game made it so he can't feel anything. Or at least not to show it… His hair is cut short and he is quite the charm amongst the raid group, only if he could change expressions from time to time… To be honest, it freaks me out to talk to him, this 14-year-old kid. And to wrap it all up, I am the leader of this group. We often get strange looks as we walk in between groups C and E, but it is nothing much, at least not for me. Elise has been fidgeting around me for quite some time and Karima is in a great mood as he leisurely walks besides Yuki while holding his sword on his shoulder.

"Yo, it is nice to be on-screen all the time, right shortie?" He says laughing as he hits Yuki's back making him stagger a little. "Those guys with the cactus head are throwing some really nasty looks this way, eh?" He affirms as he shoots a sharp glance at two of the members of group E that automatically turn their heads around in the direction of the road. The leaders of the groups are in order from group A to group H as follows: « Kharta», «Agil», «Diabel», «Shima», «Kibaou», «Asphe», «Yuu», «Kirito». Groups A and B are the main tank group meant to take all the attention of the boss, while groups C and D are to shrink the HP bar as much as possible before switching. The rest will kill off the sentinels that spawn around us.

"On the right! Blade users, don't let them get to the back of the group!" Diabel shouts as he advances and takes down a Kobold that ambushed from a sharp corner. "He really knows how to deal with this…" I mumble for myself with a grain of worry in my voice, but then continuing towards my group. "Don't mind it… of course we would get attention." I add towards Karima as he shot another sharp glance at group C this time.

"Yeah, you're right… but I don't want our group to be the main attraction here!" he ended is a shout, making everyone look away from us and on the road. "Be careful at monsters is what I meant, you fucking twat!" he shouted while he cut down a Kobold that attacked just now a spear user from group E. Returning to his place near Yuki he let out a long sigh and whispered something to him. I could see his face turning red underneath the cloak as he kept walking. Next to him, Karima smiled while he gently patted his head for a moment. It was quite a rare sight… Karima to get close to someone he just met. Usually people tend to ignore him and yet he seems to get along pretty well… with the mute guy…

I chuckle a little as I glance at Elise who got next to me in the meantime. With the cloak covering her face, I could fully relax, more so since there are no other female players around. She did not talk much since it would expose her identity so we communicated trough PM's but only when she had something important to say. As I though about this the whole group came to a halt. In front of us layed the doors leading to the boss room. Diabel took his sword out from its sheath and came in front of us all and placed it in front of him as his voice made itself heard, reaching the back of the raid group, but in utter silence.

"Good work everyone." He said in a low voice since loud shouts could attract humanoid monsters around the area. "Until now everything was O.K. but the real hurdle begins now. I will check the groups one more time and assign their positions." As he finished he took its time to arrange every one of us in the right positions as we would all jump right into battle as we enter the room. Finishing this, he walked in front of us once again.

Diabel lifted his silver long-sword up high, and gave a large nod. The forty-three raid members also raised their weapons and nodded in reply.

His long green hair fluttered as he turned around; the knight placed his left hand in the center of the large doors――

"――――Let's go!"

With a short cry, he pushed the doors open with all his might.


The room was vast. The rectangular room had a width from the left to the right wall of about twenty meters, and there was a distance of about one hundred meters from the entrance to the back. The size of the floor was roughly the same as the other 20 floors, and this room was the last one to be mapped. Therefore, its area could be estimated from the blank area on the map. However, seeing it with our eyes made it feel a lot larger than it actually was.

This room was spacious in order to contain the gigantic monsters here.

In Aincrad's boss room, the doors would not close even during battle against the boss. Therefore, even if the events took a turn for the worse and we were in danger of being annihilated, we had the option to retreat. However, if we turned and fled and the enemy's long ranged sword skill hit us, it might slow us down, «delay», or prevent us from moving, «stun». So, we would have to retreat while facing the boss. In that situation, the hundred meters needed to escape would feel infinitely long and could lead to a critical situation. Instantaneous teleportation was possible using a «Teleport Crystal»; however, it was expensive and obtainable only from the higher floors, which would make retreating from bosses on higher floors easier, but because it was so expensive, the player could be left with a near-empty wallet after such a retreat.

While I was contemplating such thoughts, the boss room sank into almost complete darkness. On the walls to the left and right of the room, *ping* *ping*, from the front of the room towards the back, «torches» were lit one by one. The crude torches noisily blazing to life.

As the sources of light were generated, the internal brightness «Gamma» also increased. The stone floor and walls were filled with cracks. Adorning the area, large and small skulls were scattered around. In the deepest part of the room stood a huge throne, upon which a rough silhouette of something large was seated.

The knight, Diabel, raised his long sword, and swung it down in front of him...

At his signal, the forty-four members of the boss monster hunting forces raised a battle cry as they rushed into the room like an avalanche.

The first ones who came into contact with the boss were the guys in group A. The heavy armour they wore made it so they could withstand the full potential of the bosses swings, Diabel made sure of that. They were followed by group B diagonally to their left, led by the Axe warrior Agil, and to their right, Diabel and his five friends made up group C. Our group initiating next to them while the others were to fight off the sentinels and assist us with «Stuns» or other crowd control effects. I moved forward with much grater speed than the rest of my group, but still, they were just about one meter behind. I used a sword skill «3rd Strike» and made a huge cut into the boss's red skin followed by two other swipes. This was followed by a 5-hit combo made by Yuki who gained on me very fast compared to the rest. I could see his silver hair fly out of the hood as I focused on the Kobold Lord in front of me. I did another 3-hit combo and backed off making it possible for Elise to pass me and reaching the boss with a linear strike that cut it on the whole lower half of the body. She jumped away as fast as she arrived when the boss decided to flip his tail around at her, making it out without any of her HP missing. With an infernally loud sound Karima and Gak passed me as they charged into the fight, both of them dealing massive damage with 5-hit combos. I followed them in team with Lasco. Both of us did a 3-hit combo twice and changed positions with group C. From the distance I could hear numerous clashes of swords as the other parties fought the second group of Sentinels, meaning that we got two health bars to go.

"Lasco, go in with Yuki from the side while Elise and Gak stay right here!" I shout as we pass group B on the way to the other side of the boss. "I will go with Karima! We will meet on the other side in 5 minutes!" I finish, printing to the location I assigned myself to and dealt a single strike blow to the boss, making it so that Karima could deal his 3-hit combo while moving, not waiting for me to switch over. In exactly 5 minutes we regrouped on the other side and struck the beast with all we've got, dogging additional hits from the boss while he swung its axe at the tanking groups. We all backed off for a moment just to hear it.

"Uguruooooooooooooo――――!"

«Illfang the Kobold Lord» gave out a loud roar. At the same time, the final wave of three «Ruin Kobold Sentinel» jumped out of their holes in the walls.

At that moment―

The Kobold king, with the bone axe in its right hand and the leather shield in its left, threw both down onto the ground simultaneously, gave another roar, brought its hand to the back of its waist, grasped the rag bound handle and pulled out the «Talwar».

From here on, it would only use the sword skills from the curved blade category, going into a berserk rampage, becoming terribly wild, but dealing with it is now easier than before. It used a long-ranged longitudinal cut. As long as you grasped the timing of the skill when it was launched, even if you're near the boss you could avoid the edge of the weapon.

Under Diabel's command, the six people that formed Group C surrounded the boss. This was a formation that was not used while the boss still wielded the bone axe. Really, I didn't expect that reading the book beforehand allowed them to come up with such a precise and amazing formation. This was really a good decision. As long as the six could avoid the wild swings of the talwar until the final blow this boss fight should be a huge success. Since, form what I could see, no players have died.

Illfang roared and howled, then it slowly moved the blade in its right hand up high...

The Kobold king's huge body shook the floor, as it jumped up high. It turned its body in mid-air, while accumulating power to its weapon. As it fell down, it used the accumulated power, releasing a crimson beam of light.

Plane of attack――horizontal. Angle of attack――three hundred and sixty degrees.

I have never seen such skill, but something was certain. This was unexpected. I glanced at the weapon of the boss and froze in place.

"Th-that is no talwar…" I said with an empty voice. "It's a nodachi…"

Six vivid red light effects appeared, looking like pillars of blood.

The HP gauge that was displayed to the left in our field of vision showing Group C's average HP immediately dropped below fifty percent and into the yellow zone. Although you could expand the gauge with your fingertips in order to see the six individual HP gauges of each player, at the moment there was no point in doing it. Everyone in Group C obviously received equal amounts of damage.

It was a ranged attack with tremendous power and enough to take out more than half of the full HP, but that was not all. Yellow lights rotated around the heads of the six people who had collapsed on the floor, indicating that they were unable to move for a period time ―― this was the stun effect.

Not a single person moved to help. Despite carefully planning for the fight during the meeting, followed by the march forward in a mood under the impression of an easy victory, the person everyone relied on, their leader Diabel, had been struck down in a single blow. For these reasons, aside from Group C, everyone was bound to the spot rigidly. After the strained silence, the Kobold Lord recovered from the long delay caused by using its skill.

"Change!"

A loud shout came from behind me as Agil and his group moved forward to support the others.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

"Uguruo!"

The demi-human roared, and the nodachi in both its hands was lifted off the cut floor and raised up high. It was aimed for the Knight that had fallen right in front of it, Diabel. As if pulled by a red arc of light, the knight in silver armor was sent flying high up into the air. The damage wasn't much. However, the Kobold Lord's movement didn't stop there.

Using its large wolf-like mouth, it grinned and laughed ferociously.

The nodachi was once again wrapped in a red light effect.

While in the sky, Diabel brandished his sword, trying to pull off a sword skill to counterattack. However, because he was unstable, the system could not determine the starting motion for the skill. The nodachi directly hit the front of the knight who waved his sword uselessly.

At a speed which could not be seen the combination attack continued with a further strike followed by a thrust.

The knight's body was covered in three continuous damage effect, the bright colours and intense sounds showed that all the attacks were critical hits. His virtual body «Avatar» was blasted twenty meters away, over the heads of the raid members, and ended up near the Sentinel that was fighting the leader of group H. He fell almost as if piercing the ground. His HP gauge, which was already red, began to reduce further. Then… he shattered.

Uwaaaaa, this kind of cry ―― this scream filled the Boss room.

Nearly all the raid members clutched and hung on to their weapons, with their wide eyes open. But no one moved. The leader being first to fall, to die, was an unpleasant situation no one had prepared for, so no one knew the next course of action.

Of course, this was also true for me.

In my mind, two options alternately blinked. To flee, or to fight.

In normal circumstances, «Boss uses weapons and skills different to information previously given» and «Loss of leader», suffering from two disasters, everyone should immediately retreat out of the boss's room. But from what I saw earlier this was impossible since he could gain enough speed to finish us off before we could get out. I gulped loudly and gasped my sword, but no one besides me moved, or didn't even got to my conclusions.

―No. I was wrong.

Two players began running towards the boss, group H, made out of only two members. As they charged in the boss engaged them with another charge type skill, only this time, it was countered by the leader of the said group, Kirito. From behind him the other player started attacking the boss with what appeared to be a super-human «Linear», a basic rapier skill, but done so perfectly I almost couldn't see the blade move. Even with the system assist this was something… but out of nowhere the boss managed to land another strike which the second player managed to dodge, in exchange getting its cloak ripped to pieces by the skill. To my surprise, it was a female player with long chestnut hair. All of a sudden I felt my stomach revolting, even though it was a misconception of my brain. If she was any closer to me I might have even puked. I hate myself for this. I hate myself for being so weak as to be so afraid of physical contact with a woman. I tried my best to be normal around Elise since she wasn't too… feminine, but that is my limit. Even as I avert my eyes from the beautiful chestnut-haired player I could see that they are keeping the boss at bay, for the moment at least.

"Agil!" I shout loud enough for him to hear me from the other side of the room. "Help them when you can!" I add as he and his team moves to aid them.

"Why aren't you helping?" I hear Karima say in a low voice only for me to hear. "You have the highest AGI stat from here right now. You even leveled up «Acrobatics» like crazy for the last days." He finishes as he keeps looking at me weird.

"I can't." I respond to him. "I simply can't."

A loud clashing sound echoes around the walls around us. Agil just parried a swing that focused on the leader of group H rendering the monster immobile for a second or more.

"If the boss is surrounded it will attack back with an omni-directional attack! I will be calling out the trajectory of the attacks, so the guys in front, deal with them! You don't have to use sword skills to cancel the attack, you can avoid a large amount of damage just by blocking it with a weapon and a shield properly!" the voice of Kirito rang in the room. The whole group B started to attack the boss.

"If you guys want to help, feel free to go." I said making everyone around me and Karima snap out of the fear an amazement that was just moments ago. With loud shouts two of the players that I did not know from my party charged to attack the boss but stopped halfway through. With a red flash the group made out of tanks was on the ground beneath the gigantic Kobold.

With a jerk, the large body sank into a crouch. Then its entire bulk was flung high up into a vertical jump. While on its course, its body along with the Nodachi, contorted and revolved during the jump.

Then I hear a loud shout, perhaps one of the loudest I would ever hear coming from a player, but I seriously doubt it.

"U...ooaa!"

Kirito shouted as he jumped in the way of Ilfang moving his sword in an attempt to intercept it as it threatened to kill all group B.

"Reach... it――――!"

*Zashuu!* A loud slashing sound rang out. The intense light effects showing that it was a critical hit flashed before my eyes. In the next moment, the Kobold king's mass was sent angling sidewards, crashing into the ground before the tornado of its special attack could even form.

"Guruu!"

It yelled, as it tried to stand up as both its feet and arms quivered. It was a bad status that affected humanoid type monsters, the «Tumble» state ――.

Kirito landed to the side, taking less damage from the fall than the boss did.

"Everyone ――! «Full Attack»! Surround it!"

"O...oooooh!"

Agil's six men cried out releasing the anger that had accumulated while they had only been able to concentrate on guarding all this while. Surrounding the fallen Kobold king, they activated all their vertical slashing sword skills simultaneously. Axes, maces and hammers wrapped in lights of various colours, roared as they rained down on its body. Bright lights and loud sound effects exploded, and Illfang's HP gauge which was shown at the top of the field of vision was shaved down bit by bit.

Agil's group who had recovered from the delay of their techniques, began the preliminary motions for their next skills. The Kobold king stopped struggling at the same time, and its body started to rise.

"Get away!" Kirito called out as group B conformed with this instruction. He and the other female player started running again slashing the boss to pieces as they constantly switched places one with another. With a long double-cut the boss finally fallen, its body shattering to pieces. Right in front of everyone the huge words appeared with a loud chime.

"Congratiulations…" I read the text with amazement. We have finally finished this floor. We are beginning to advance. This is great news for the players in the Starting City and yet―

"―――― Why!"

Suddenly, that loud shout howled out behind me. I half-turned, in response to that wailing, and the cheering from the entire room calmed in an instant.

I had turned to see a man in light armor, a scimitar user, whose name I could not recall. However, as soon as his mouth parted and further disjointed words flowed from his lips, I understood.

"―――― Why, did you leave Diabel-san to die!"

This man, was a member of Group C... in other words he had been one of the deceased knight Diabel's comrades from the start. As I looked past him, to the remaining four members behind him, they stood looking dishevelled. Some of them were crying.

"Let him die...?"

"That's right! Because... Because you knew the skills the boss used, didn't you! If you had given us that information from the start, Diabel wouldn't have died!"

His cries came as if vomiting blood, and the remaining raid members began to rumble. "Now that you mention it..." "Why...? It wasn't even written in the strategy guide..." giving rise to speculation, which gradually spread.

"I... I know! This guy: he's a beta tester! That's why, the boss's attack patterns, good hunting spots and quests, he knows all of them! He hid them despite knowing about them!"

Even upon hearing those words, the scimitar user and the other members from Group C did not show any surprise. Much like myself, to be honest. The way he moved… he was an obvious beta tester, but that is no reason to hate someone…

Instead, the scimitar user's eyes seemed to seethe in hatred, as he again tried to shout out something.

It was interrupted by the mace user who had served as a tank with Agil until the end. He raised his hand dutifully, and said in a calm tone.

"Even so, the guide that was handed out yesterday, it was written that it was information on the boss's attack pattern only from the beta period, right? If he was really a beta tester, wouldn't his knowledge be the same as in the guide?"

"Tha, That is..."

Replacing the Group E member who became silent, the scimitar user spoke in a voice venomous with animosity.

"That strategy guide was a lie. Argo's information shop was selling lies. That person was a beta tester after all, there's no way she would have given us the truth for free."

――This is bad. This is becoming very bad.

A short period of silence then a loud laugh engulfed the room.

"An original beta tester, right? ... Don't lump me together with those amateurs." Kirito stated as he made his way to the center of the room.

"Wha... What was that...?"

"Listen here and remember well. SAO's CBT «Closed Beta Test» had an outrageously low acceptance for the lottery draw. Out of the one thousand people, how many real MMO gamers do you think got selected? Most of them were just «Newbie» players who didn't even know methods of leveling properly. You guys here are much better than that lot."

The whole room became silent in under a second.

"――But, I'm not like those guys. During the beta testing, I reached floors no one else could reach. And there I learned of the Katana Skills the boss used, as I fought and killed mobs that used katanas on way higher floors. I know a lot more too, there's no way even someone like Argo could match me."

"...What's that, that's..."

"That's... no longer on the level of a beta tester... that's totally cheating, you're just a cheater!"

From all around us, yeah, cheater, cheating beta tester, a multitude voices sprang up. The words were soon muddled together, and in the end a strange-sounding word, «Beater», reached my ears.

"...«Beater», that has a good ring to it."

He laughed and grinned while equipping an item from his inventory.

"Exactly, I am a «Beater». From now on, please do not lump me together with those former testers."

He said while a black coat covered his leather chest-piece. With that he steadily moved to the stairs that reached the upper floor.

"Come on." I say in silence as I take both Karima and Elise with me to the end of the boss room and into the dungeon. Once I get there I opened my menu and disbanded the group made for the raid and created a new one, wile inviting both of them. The window appeared in front of their «Avatars» and both of them clicked the blue round button.

"Now what?" Karima asked as slid his back on a nearby wall. "That guy..." he said while covering his eyes with the sleeve of his coat "... that guy took all the blame for the beta testers, right?" I didn't need to answer his question because he already knew the answer.

"First of all we should all get to the «Starting City»" I said in a low voice, getting weird looks from both of them. "Oh, come on..." I exasperated sigh as I open the map menu to see the safest route out of the dungeon. "... when a new floor is reached after two hours there is a celebration called «Town Opening». The teleportation gate in the «Starting City» will get us there."

"But why in two hours?" Elise asked while getting closer to me.

"Because that is the maximum time allowed by the system for a town to begin the automatic procedure. Normally the persons who got in the city first should open the gate, but..." I trailed off, making it obvious what I wanted to say.

"Well then..." Karima said while getting up. "...Time to get up there, huh?" he said while looking at the ceiling of the dark dungeon.