Note: So this chapter will mark a turning point in this fanfic. From this point on there will be certain events (such as the fight with titan's hand and the safezone murders) that are from the canon, but the main storyline will have barely anything to do with the canon from now on. The grammar and overall writing should be a lot cleaner than usual in this chapter as I had a good friend help me out with it. This chapter was loads of fun to write, so I hope you enjoy it!
Aincrad Floor 1 Labyrinth
There was a soft *chunk* as a sword appeared on my back. 'Come on, why did you have to make the durability system in this game so darn realistic, Kayaba.' Not for the first time, I cursed at the creator of this game. All around me 52 people were mirroring my action, unequipping their reserve weapon and equipping their main.
For the purpose of realism, all weapons damage decreased slightly as the item's durability decreased. Normally this wouldn't be an issue as any raid party would have a blacksmith to repair players weapons before the raid, but player blacksmiths and other production classes such as tailors or carpenters would only start appearing on floor three.
We had just fought through the 20 floors of the labyrinth and were resting in preparation to enter the boss room when I caught sight of Diavel and Kibaou happily chatting together with several other members of the raid. This sight made me recall the events of this morning.
FLASHBACK
I was woken up painfully early by a knock on the door of the room that Sinon and I were staying in. Sinon simply groaned sleepily and put her pillow over her head, leaving me to get the door. 'I swear that girl is impossible to wake up,' I thought with a sigh as I got out of bed and answered the door, trying to rub the sleep from my eyes as much as possible. 'The realism of this game is seriously incredible. It's just as hard to wake up in this game as it is in reality.' I stopped for a moment, wondering why exactly I found that incredible instead of annoying, but I was too tired to figure it out.
I was about to go back to bed, but the renewed knocking on the door made me recall why exactly I had gotten out of bed at the ungodly hour of 5:00 am. I opened the door and was met by a remarkably short blonde girl who was far too perky for this time of day. "Kii-bouu~ rise and shine my darling, you're letting valuable daylight go to waste~!" I glared at Argo balefully and flicked her forehead in response to her overly cheerful greeting delivered in a sickeningly singsong voice. "You better have a good reason for waking me up or else I'll tell everyone I come across that you're giving out free information all day today." Argo just pouted at my cold threat and assumed a facial expression as if I just kicked a puppy.
It probably would have worked on just about anyone else, but I would have kicked even the cutest puppy in the universe if it woke me up at 5 in the freaking morning. I rapped my knuckles on Argo's head, trying to get her to spit her information out as fast as she could so I could get an hour or two more sleep. Her pout deepened. I rapped my knuckles harder. This continued for about 5 seconds until the small girl finally backed out of attack range and got down to business.
"All right, all right. A certain player contacted me last night and asked to buy your ««Anneal Blade»». He said to name your price and he'll take it" My eyes narrowed in suspicion at this information. 'Could someone possibly be targeting me, or is it just someone wanting to increase their chances at surviving the boss raid?' I shook my head at that last thought. The attack bonus a stronger sword would provide would do nothing to aid in one's survival during the raid. Mystified, I asked Argo the obvious question.
"Who wanted to buy it?" Argo said nothing but gave me a smug smile and rubbed her thumb and forefinger together in the universal gesture for payment. I sighed and transferred 1,000 Col to her. She smiled happily as she accepted the payment and answered my question, "A certain player participating in the boss raid named Kibaou wanted to buy it." I sighed at the mention of the midget who's personality perfectly matched his spiky hair. "Of course I'm not selling, I thought you knew me well enough to tell him that."
Argo nodded. "I do, and I did tell him that. I figured I'd just let you know." I glared at her in response to her innocent tone. "So did you honestly wake me up expressly for the purpose of saying that you'd turned down a guy who wanted to buy my sword?" Argo thankfully shook her head, dispensing of the necessity of killing her for disrupting my sleep for no good reason. Argo glanced behind me at Sinon. I imitated her motion just in time to be hit clean in the face by a pillow that sleeping beauty threw at me. "You two go flirt somewhere else and let me sleep." A muffled voice came from the bed in the back of the room where Sinon had pulled her covers over her head and was hiding from either the sunlight, me, Argo, or humanity as a whole. Or some combination of the four.
Either way, Argo and I stepped out of the room before Sinon decided to attack us. We walked outside and sat on the lawn of the house. Argo progressively became more and more tense as we left the house, and by the time we sat down she was visibly uncomfortable. "Hey Argo, are you okay?" She nodded rather vehemently, but it was painfully obvious that she was not ok. I lightly stroked her head in a calming gesture that I'd previously used on both Sinon and Sugu with great success.
The small girl jumped slightly at my touch but relaxed slightly as I stroked her head a few times. She took a breath and began what she came here to say. "I don't know, but I may have made a mistake. The reason I'm here is to talk to you about my brother."
END FLASHBACK
I was abruptly torn from my recollection of this morning by the faint crashing noise of a scabbard striking the ground. Diavel was standing in front of the boss room door with both hands placed on the pommel of his sheathed greatsword that was planted pointfirst in the ground.
"Listen up! Soon we'll be entering the boss room. Today we will clear this boss without a single death and prove to all the others players stuck in this game that it can and WILL be beaten! This is far more than a raid to clear a single floor, this is a mission of hope! We will be the beacons of hope that shine for the players who've lost theirs! THIS IS THE FIRST FIGHT TO TAKE BACK OUR WORLD!"
As we finished resting, Diavel gave a rousing speech that seemed to pump everyone up. I must admit that even I got goosebumps as he spoke. The overly dramatic final line of his speech elicited laughs from some, but succeeded in creating the rousing finale any encouraging speech should give.
All around me I could feel the emotions of the people running high. Courage, purpose, resolve. All these feelings were filling the air around me, but there was a single emotion that scared me because of its enormous presence. Confidence.
Diavel had said certainly that we would clear this with no casualties, but I knew that wouldn't be the case. Confidence was good in certain quantities, but overconfidence had killed more than anything else in this game; and overconfidence seemed to be exactly what he just instilled in some of them.
Everyone got into a formation with their party as Diavel started to open the door. I stepped forward, taking the lead. Sinon and Asuna were slightly behind me, the former flanking my left and the latter on my right. Isuca brought up the rear and would stay there for the entire fight as she would provide ranged support with her bow.
A familiar dark room slowly came into sight. Sinon and I briefly made eye contact and I knew she was remembering the first time we entered the room. That the two of us killed this boss by ourselves before even the strongest raid team during the beta could. I reached out my left hand to her and she grasped it with her right. I squeezed her hand and looked her in the eye. 'Be careful, Sinon. We don't know what could happen.' She nodded, and I seriously began to wonder if we actually had some mental telepathy ability like Asuna thought we did.
We released each others' hands and lowered our bodies into combat stances as the lights suddenly came on with blinding brightness. "Assault squads forward! Squads G and H target the Sentinels! Squad I stay as backup, ready to support any squad that needs help!" ""Roger!"" Both I and the leader of squad H responded affirmatively as we lead our parties along either flank toward the masses of «Ruin Kobold Sentinels»
*fwishoch* an arrow flew across the gap between us and the ranks of Sentinels as Isuca began to carry out our plan. Asuna stopped about 5 meters in front of Isuca, ready to provide support to her while Sinon and I continued to charge at the Sentinels that Isuca had pulled.
Our general plan was this: Isuca would draw the aggro and slightly reduce the hp of the Sentinels while Asuna protected her and Sinon and I dealt with the incoming monsters. Normally a ranged dps drawing agro would be stupid, but Sinon and I were confident in our ability to take the agro from Isuca.
Surprisingly enough, this plan worked perfectly. "Squads H and I, what are you doing? Keep the Sentinels off the main raid party!" Diavel yelled as squad B was forced to withdraw due to dangerously low hp. My party had systematically decimated the Sentinels on our side, but the other side was obviously not faring so well despite having over twice as many players as we did.
"Squad G assisting!" My party of four ran over to assist the group that was having difficulties against the Sentinels. I heard a small cry of horror and a sharp intake of breath behind me, and even my own teeth clenched as there was a shattering noise. However, this wasn't a monster. There were cries of despair from squad I as the first casualty of the raid happened.
Diavel was too busy directing the main raid groups to notice what just happened. "Squad I minus one!" Seeing no one else about to do so, I yelled the customary update. When they died, most people in MMORPGs would speak or type in chat, saying minus one and what role they played, but in this game they obviously couldn't do that. Death was real. This isn't a game anymore.
Even though I knew that death in this game was real, I hadn't yet seen someone die with my own eyes, so it never truly registered. I felt something shift in my head, the same feeling I had when everyone was panicking when the reality of this world was announced.
No, not quite the same feeling. This time it clicked. The feeling of calmness I'd felt in those fights back in the real world came to me again, but greater this time. It felt like the entire world slowed down around me. The illusion of time stopping was quickly shattered, but the feeling of calm remained.
I felt my movements become smoother, more streamlined. I sliced through a sentinel, surprised by the fatal strike notification that popped up. It was nearly impossible for even Sinon, who specialized in landing critical and fatal blows to land fatal strikes on the first floor, yet I somehow just did it. I knew something in me had changed, but what it was and whether it changed for good or bad I couldn't tell you.
Sooner than I expected, we managed to eliminate all the Sentinels and join up with the main raid group just as the third hp bar dropped to zero and the fourth and final hp bar lit up green. "groups G, H, and I are regrouping with main party!" the backup raid leader called to Diavel.
"Group A disengage, groups G and H, fill for A!" We ran toward the boss, Squad H blocking the boss' attack while we attempted to deal enough damage to take the agro from the recuperating squad A.
Due to the additional dps from the last 3 squads, it barely took 3 minutes of fighting to drop the final hp bar into the red. As soon as it hit red, the boss's eyes started to glow and it let out a horrible roar that made even Diavel lose his concentration. He recovered in less than a second, issuing orders to the terrified squads.
"Squads C and G flank left, squads H and I flank right! All other squads on me!" I immediately ran to the left, instinctively following the order of the man who had commanded the raid so perfectly. Despite myself, I started to feel excited that the raid was almost complete, but was viciously torn from this happy idea by a terrified scream from my only friend.
"KIRITO!" time seemed to stop again as I half turned to face the girl who yelled to me. The world was frozen as I took in the scene in front of me. Sinon, calling me, just barely too far to help, and «Illfang The Kobold Lord» lunging directly at me, a sword in his claws. 'No! That's not a talwar, that's a nodachi! I dove out of the way, the nodachi only slightly grazing me instead of impaling me like it logically should have. "RUN! THE BOSS HAS A NODACHI, NOT A TALWAR!" I yelled at the squad near me, but my own squad was the only one that responded.
The boss landed mere inches away from me and swung it's nodachi in a massive circle. Grown men in squad C screamed in terror as they saw the grim reaper stare them in the eyes in the form of a nodachi. By some miracle I seemed to be in the eye of the storm. The boss let out a terrifying combo that shredded squad C, killing every single person. Most of the raid was in shock and some even ran directly out of the boss room in fear.
"Sinon! On me! We need to finish this!" But at that moment I noticed Diavel with an ugly look on his face. It'd be normal to have an ugly look of some sort on your face if an order of yours just got half a dozen people killed, but I couldn't help but feel that wasn't the reason. "Squad G regroup, we need to group up before we launch another attack." "the boss is between us, I can't make it back!" I tried to yell in response to Diavel but then almost swore at him because I was finally aware of what he wanted.
He wanted me dead, and if my squad died along with me, so much the better.
"Sinon. We do like as usual. I always knew parties and raid groups were just BS." She nodded with a cold look, having come to the same realization of Diavel's plan that I had.
During the beta, floor bosses respawned every day at midnight, but there was a fact known only to Sinon and I, the people who cleared every single boss for the first time during the beta.
The first floor bosses were far stronger than the ones that spawned after the boss was defeated for the first time, but they also followed the rule of "the brighter the light, the darker the shadow". In other words, the stronger the boss, the deadlier its weak point. I prayed that the boss's physique was the same as in the beta as we gambled everything on a single joint strike.
The boss charged at me, giving my partner just the opening she needed. She leapt at the boss's left shoulder, striking the midpoint between the shoulder and the neck with the sword skill 'Bloody Orbit', the downgraded version of 'Piercing Orbit'; a skill that increases damage dealt to weak points within the circle.
Sinon then struck it with the highest damage sword skill she had, drawing it's agro to her. I'd purposely dealt extremely low damage to the boss so that she could draw the agro, turning it's back to me. I paused for a second as I concentrated, knowing I'd have to hit a spot smaller than the head of a pin to pull this off. The nerve cluster in its shoulder; the only point that could deal fatal damage to the boss.
I mentally counted down the 5 seconds that the effect from 'Bloody Orbit' lasted.
5. Sinon took agro.
4. I concentrated, remembering the exact point of the nerve cluster.
3. In my mind, I moved through the motion of stabbing the nerve cluster a thousand times.
2. My sword glowed with a black light as I reversed my grip on it and leapt up toward the back of the boss.
1. My feet struck the back of the boss, giving me the foothold to thrust my sword down.
0. The instant before the bonus damage effect expired, I thrust perfectly into the nerve cluster, activating the assassin type sword skill: 'Fatal Burst'.
The chaotic scene halted instantly, the death of the boss turning the entire room quieter than a cemetery.
Classic oldschool RPG music filled the room as a massive CONGRATULATIONS appeared where I had killed the boss. A moment later, everyone in the room burst into cheering. Sinon and I collapsed into a sitting position a couple meters away from each other and looked at each other with a grin, a feeling of euphoria filling us at surviving a seemingly fatal situation.
Our relieved and happy mental state was suddenly shattered by a cry from the main group. "Why did you let them die! You obviously knew that the boss was different than listed in the manual. You even dealt far more damage than was possible! You darn beta testers, you're all the same! Letting people die or killing them off so you can hoard everything! "
During Kibaou's rant I attempted to look Diavel in the eye, but failed as he put his head in his hands. To some it would look like we was wallowing in despair, but I could see simple look of disappointment on his face. 'Disappointment because his plan failed.' As I saw this, Argo's warning and all of the events leading up to now clicked into place.
'Kibaou wanted to buy my sword, but the true buyer was Diavel trying to prevent me from dealing as much damage in this raid, probably specifically aiming to prevent me from gaining the LAB. When that plan failed, he attempted to use the boss to kill me, taking advantage of the fact he realized that the boss used a nodachi.' My teeth clenched as I realized his cruel brilliance. 'And if that failed in killing me, the death of the players around me would discredit and turn everyone present against me.'
'So in the end your goal is to get rid of the most dangerous beta testers so you can be your own god in this game? Screw that. And screw you, Diavel.'
I stood up and walked over to the man. The crowd split as I approached him, murmuring as they did so, debating the possibilities of Kibaou's claim. I stood close to Diavel, closer than politeness dictated, as I said, "It was my pleasure to raid with you, Diavel." There was a sharp iciness in my tone that seemed to ratify Kibaou's claims, but in reality was for the purpose of telling Diavel I'd play right along and beat him at his own devilish game.
At my words there was an uproar in the crowd, yelling for my blood. The cry died out as an unearthly noise filled the room. A maniacal and sinister laughter, far more terrifying than anything I ever thought myself capable of was emanating from my mouth. "Oh please, don't call me a beta tester, Kibaou-chan. That's simply an insult to my abilities." I turned my back to the crowd as I slowly began to walk toward the door that lead to the next floor. "Most beta testers were trash, nearly as bad as you are." A cold chuckle escaped my lips. "Honestly it amazes me that so few people died during this raid, your skill level is leagues below what mine was when I challenged it."
I couldn't help but glance at the three players I had partied up with for this raid. Asuna was visibly shocked and had a pained look on her face as she thought she'd been betrayed and used by a party member. Isuca slightly surprised me with the calculating look that was on her face, I guess she was far more perceptive than I had assumed. The person who truly shocked me was Sinon. Of all the looks that could be on her face at this moment, the expression she assumed was the farthest from what I would guess would cross her countenance at this moment.
If I had to describe her expression in a single word, that word would have to be affection. But my heart clenched as the girl's face morphed into an expression closely resembling the expression I assumed to be on my face. Before the crowd could register all that I said, Sinon approached me and leaned on me, wrapping her arms around me. "Hmm, I'm sure there are at least a few beta testers out there that would recognize us if you really thought about it."
'Sinon! What are you doing!? You can live normally here; you didn't have to join me! I was the only person that Diavel was targeting.' I winced as she drove her fingers into my side, showing that she got the gist of my nonverbal question and was mad at me for asking it.
I mentally shrugged, knowing that there was no stopping the girl. My mind worked overtime to readjust my hastily prepared speech to work with my partner. "Of course," I began, "There's no one in the beta who hasn't heard of the pair who got the first clear on every single floor boss: the Black Swordsman and the Phantom Blade." At this revelation, the Beta tester's reactions were indistinguishable from normal players. The Beta testers were shocked at the names revealed and the normal players were surprised by the fact that 32 bosses, each meant to be raided by 25 to 50 people, were cleared by two players even before a full raid party could defeat them.
Predictably, the one to take the bait I just laid out was Kibaou. "Wh-what on earth? You're not just a beta tester, you're just straight up a cheater! A beta tester and a cheater, a beater!" I gave the evilest smile I could and opened my menu. "Yeah, that's right. Don't confuse us with those scrubs." I equipped the coat I got as the LAB. the very same ««Coat of Midnight»» that I received in the beta.
"Please, wait!" an amber haired girl called after us pleadingly. Sinon turned around while I continued walking, albeit slowing down slightly. "Are you two really being honest? You aren't people who'd commit murder for personal gain!" I finally stopped and gave Asuna a sad look. "Asuna, this world isn't what it seems and is certainly not forgiving. Never take anyone at face value, not even yourself."
Isuca walked up behind Asuna, and I was shocked to see a kind smile on the face of the usually cold girl. "You truly are the light burning in the dead of the night. I look forward to working with you again, Midnight Sun." Due to the necessity of keeping up the bad guy act, Sinon and I were forced to turn back and ascend to the second floor, wondering about Isuca's cryptic wording.
Note: In the note at the beginning of this chapter, when I said that I'd be deviating from the canon, I REALLY meant it. So we now have Diavel as a villain, Isuca being enigmatic as usual, and a plot that is about to turn way more complicated than the original SAO!
The ideas I was trying to get across in this chapter were a little too complicated for my amateur writing skills, so below this note I'll give a quick rundown on the ideas I tried to tell in this chapter as well as some less clear parts of the game system.
If anyone has questions, suggestions, complaints, ideas, or any input of any sort, I'd be extremely grateful if you left me a review or shot me a pm!
Thanks for reading and hope to see you next chapter ;)
In a nutshell, Diavel's plan was to eliminate the beta testers that he knew the identity of. (I'll go more into detail of why he wanted to do that next chapter) Kirito claimed the title of beater to try to distract Diavel from killing all the other beta testers by making himself to be the greatest danger to Diavel so that he'd be targeted.
GAME SYSTEM: Keeping with the more realistic system of the game, critical strikes work differently. Certain areas of a body have a system known as the Critical Radius that, when hit, will result in a critical strike that deals bonus damage depending on how close to the center of the Critical Radius the attack is. The dexterity (DEX) stat increases the size of the critical radius, making it easier to land critical hits. Fatal blows are simply the stronger version of critical hits, dealing far more damage than normal critical hits (crits). Fatal blows are dealt by hitting the center of the Critical Radius. Increasing the DEX stat also increases the size of the fatal blow zone.