A/N: Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry for the delay! I really didn't want it to stretch out this long...but I didn't have any ideas and started an SYOC and then couldn't come up with anything for my SYOC and came back to this...so I hope to update a bit on here! (It's not important. I didn't really expect you to understand that if you didn't :). Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter, to those of you who were still waiting! :D The battle does start at the end, and I got super hyped~
~Chikage
*Disclaimer: All written before...don't really want to write it again...but also, some of the descriptions that I used for bosses are from Wikia. Just tweaked some. Thanks!
Chapter 11: The Two Bulls
Misaka stepped back and pulled «Amano Maihime» back with her, adjusting her stance briefly before taking off in a blur of speed, brushing through a hoard of monsters coming towards her. She briefly glanced over her shoulder, moving her ponytail out of the way when it rose upwards.
"Don't you dare get in my way, okay?" She said bluntly to the boy behind her in a certain form of sarcasm.
"That's what I should be saying to you!" Tsubasa declared, swinging his sword straight down and clearing out another nearby group of monsters. He extended his swing smartly by pushing off the pillar behind him at an angle.
She smiled to herself. Shouldn't have bothered.
"Oi, wait a second!"
Behind them, Kibaou gave a loud, sudden bark, and they both turned to face them with an innocent 'what do you want?' expression.
"This quest is supposed to be for the party to level up, not for you two to show off!" The party leader insisted.
"So what?" Misaka tipped her head.
"What do you mean, 'so what'?" Kibaou pointed at her accusingly. "What do you think you're doing, going and clearing the quest so easily?"
"Why not?" Tsubasa shrugged. "It's an easy quest."
"And we're part of the party too," Misaka agreed.
"But if you two do all the work, then this quest has no meaning to it!" Kibaou yelled.
Misaka thought this over. "That's true, actually."
"And what do you mean by 'actually…'?"
"I mean, I'm surprised you actually said something sensible for once."
"You—!"
I wasn't supposed to say that, was I? Misaka thought irritably to herself as her murderous aura increased.
"Anyway, you two don't need to be here, so hurry up and scram!"
"Tch, whatever."
SAO: Phantom Blade
"Misaka…right?"
Misaka turned her head at a familiar voice, and then paused.
"Oh! Uhh, sorry, I forgot your name."
The familiar ax-wielding player chuckled. "You haven't changed I see. It's Agil."
"It's nice to see you again, Agil-san," Misaka greeted as she shook his hand. Since Tsubasa seemed to look annoyed with her, she reluctantly motioned for him to go first. "Shouldn't you be in the quest right now?"
"Nah, it's fine, I don't need it."
"That's true, I don't even know who does," Misaka sighed with a shrug, turning and heading towards a small refreshment stand nearby. Her heels clicked against the stone floor. "Well, should we get something to eat while we're here?"
"Sure, that sounds good."
"Okay, I'll pay—" She stopped. "Actually I just remembered that I have no money."
Agil laughed. "Don't worry about it, I'll buy you something."
"Thanks."
After the two had settled down on a nearby bench, Misaka took a sip of the cold drink in her hand and sighed. "So, Agil-san, what are you doing here? I didn't think I'd find you back here after…" She paused, thinking. "Oh, wait, of course you would. Never mind. Is Kirito coming?"
"Kirito?" Agil blinked. "Not sure…I haven't been in contact with him since the last raid."
Misaka shrugged. "Can't be helped, then. To be honest, though, neither have I."
"Have you heard the information for this boss raid yet?" Agil asked her.
"I don't know if I want to…" Misaka sighed. "So not yet. But then, I already know quite a bit from beta testing anyway, so…"
"Oh?" Agil smiled slightly.
I mean, a certain battle-maniac would just tell me off again if I did something stupid, and I don't want that, She thought to herself. She would have said it out loud, had she not been too busy blowing bubbles into her drink as she thought.
It occurred to her right then that she probably should've been keeping an eye on that aforementioned battle-maniac.
Misaka stood up and tossed her empty drink into the trash can. "I should go find Tsubasa. I'll see you at the battle, Agil-san."
"Yeah!"
She headed off.
SAO: Phantom Blade
"Are we all set?"
The one speaking to the raid party as a whole was a player named Lind, who had won the right as leader from a coin toss. He looked somewhat like Diavel, and he spoke with authority.
The raid group had been split again into separate parties of around 4 or 5, and since no one else wanted to party with them, Misaka was left with Tsubasa (but she had expected that). The raid boss alone seemed to be friends with Kibaou and, unsurprisingly, hated them with a baseless passion, so they had been left on a damage-dealing party for the sub-boss, which Agil was in charge of.
"Let's win!"
"Yeah!"
With a battle cry, the doors were swung open. Immediately, two large boss rose to its feet at the center of a circular room. Both were also similar bull-based monsters, one being half the size of the other. The smaller bull had a total of three HP bars, and the other a total of five.
The first, presumably the sub-boss and the monster the two had been tasked to help defeat, was «Nato the Colonel Taurus». It had blue skin and shining black horns. Its large hooves made the ground tremble every time it moved, and its bare upper body had a large two-handed hammer held in front of it. Misaka could already tell that one hit from that thing would hurt like hell, if not kill her.
The second was twice its height—five meters tall—and was titled «Baran the General Taurus». It was a dazzling bull (if the word bull didn't put you off), with shining colors of crimson and gold. It had buff muscles covered in a coat of crimson and a golden cloth around its waist but a similar bare upper body, save a golden chain running on the shoulder. It held a similar golden battle hammer the same gigantic size.
Misaka lightly tapped her foot against the ground to charge forward in a burst of speed. "I'll go left, you go right. We don't have to work together or anything."
"Duh," Tsubasa agreed, and leaped over the rest of raid party to reach the other side and attack from a different angle. "Let's just get this over with!"
"Agil-san! We're going in!" She called as she breezed by.
"Right! We'll cover!"
Misaka swung «Amano Maihime» in a diagonal upwards slash before bringing it straight back down in another sharp vertical slash. She disliked stabbing because she was always afraid her short blade would get stuck as the monster vanished. Her ponytails swished against her shoulder as she gently let gravity take over so that she could tumble on the floor before leaning forward to go in again—
Her eyes stopped on its cursor suddenly.
«Baran the General Taurus»…and «Nato the Colonel Taurus»? Wait a sec…something's not right about that. Why wouldn't it be? It just feels…wrong—
She didn't allow herself to think about it too much and went with her gut feeling, taking off in a blur across the room to reach Tsubasa. She grabbed his hand.
"Tsubasa! Run!"
"What?"
"Sorry, Agil-san! Cover for me for a bit!"
Despite Tsubasa's annoyed expression, she clamped her hand around his arm firmly and redirected to behind a pillar, a ways from where the battle was taking place.
"Hey, what are you—"
"I'm not entirely sure," Misaka answered vaguely, peering out from behind the pillar cautiously. "But something bugs me about those names. I don't know what it is—"
"What about it—" Tsubasa broke off suddenly. "General and Colonel?"
"What—"
"You were a beta tester, right?"
"Right."
"Then which one was it in the testing?"
Misaka thought and then pointed towards «Baran the General Taurus». "That one."
"Was it titled 'General'?" Tsubasa asked slowly.
"I don't remember, but why—" Misaka came to the conclusion by herself. "The first floor boss…wasn't it a Lord?"
"Right. General is lower than a Lord. Experience from other VRMMORPGs can tell me that much," Tsubasa nodded.
"So that means…they're both sub-bosses?" Misaka summed up.
"Pretty much. Is that all? Then we'd better get started—"
"No! Wait!" Misaka grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him back down when he moved to leave. "It hasn't gone away. That bad feeling. But this one's coming from that one…" She pointed at «Nato the Colonel Taurus», who had its hammer raised high in the air.
She wasn't a moment too late. The bull sub-boss let out a giant roar that caused all of the raid members to flinch and cover their faces instinctively. Then it plunged the hammer straight down into the ground.
Misaka closed her eyes at a sudden burst of light that came from a Sword Skill, and then she opened them again, she frowned.
"Nothing happened…?"
"No, that was a Sword Skill," Tsubasa answered with narrowed purple eyes. "Something had to have happened—"
"Hey," Misaka interrupted, her blue eyes never leaving the raid group. "Why aren't they attacking?"
They seemed to be saying something, but Misaka and Tsubasa were both too far away to hear clearly.
Misaka looked frightened. "If they don't start moving soon…then…"
The sub-boss's two-handed hammer suddenly came forward, aiming to clear them all out with one strike.
"Hey!"
Before Misaka even realized what she herself was doing, she had grabbed «Amano Maihime» tightly in her hand and had swooped forward in one giant leap. She weaved in and out of the party, and as she passed, she realized that the players' faces were all filled with horror and fear, and the only part of their bodies that moved to watch her was their heads.
Her blue eyes went wide in realization. They can't move…! A Numbing Effect? No wonder they—no wait, I better—
She stopped her train of thoughts and planted her left forward at a ninety degree angle in front of her, stabilizing her balance as she brought her kodachi forward with a bright flare of blue light as she activated the Sword Skill. The sword pierced straight through the hammer, but as the hammer had a higher durability, it was unable to deal much damage and the two weapons were left at an impasse. Misaka bit her lip and dug her back heel deeper into the ground.
A second golden battle hammer came from «Baran the General Taurus» on her left, and her eyes widened in surprise. She moved to dodge—
Clang!
Tsubasa's «Black Obsidian» held the hammer at a standstill, only a few centimeters from her. Despite his overwhelming strength, he still held the sword with both hands, positioned over his head. His gaze never left his enemy, but he spoke to Misaka over his shoulder.
"If you're going to do something, don't you think you should do it right?"
"Gee, thanks," Misaka said sarcastically as she lifted her front leg to kick off the large, flat surface of the battle hammer she was fighting and shoving herself backwards, out of the range of impact of the dropping hammer. "Then I'll leave that one to you?"
"Yeah, sure," Tsubasa answered carelessly. "I bet I could take both of them on at once if I wanted to."
"Good to know," Misaka stated before charging in on the second floor sub-boss, «Nato the Colonel Taurus».
Tsubasa forcefully brought his sword tip to the ground using both hands, using the ground as leverage to allow himself to pry the hammer apart from his own weapon with the large black prong. He slid to the left, taking his left hand off of the hilt and touching his fingers to the ground to steady his balance.
He narrowed his eyes, letting out a short breath. His dark purple eyes examined the situation in front of him critically. Right, left, straight down—well, there's only so many moves you can do with a hammer in the first place. That wasn't nearly enough time, but if I'm right I'm right, and if I'm wrong I'm wrong! It's all or nothing!
He leaped forward to attack. Knowing he wouldn't be able to parry the heavy blow of the giant battle hammer, he ducked down to dodge and was hit by the giant gust of wind following the swing. He reached down while twisting his body in midair to stab forward and catch his sword on the monster's body, depleting some HP, but his main goal was to regain his balance and take off in another high leap.
Tsubasa's gaze flashed to the bottom left briefly. If my attack pattern is right, it should be a Sword Skill from—
There was a flash of movement from his right, and he froze. —The right? That's different than usual…!
He came to a sudden conclusion.
Damn that Kayaba Akihiko. Is he accommodating the game system to our actions even as we play? What a pain…!
His lips turned upwards slightly.
But well…
He instinctively moved his sword to help lighten the effect (and it did help that he was right handed). The two weapons made contact, and even though he was sent flying, he quickly regained his balanced and wiped his mouth with a grin.
"It wouldn't be interesting otherwise, would it?!"
A/N: So yeah, I hope you enjoyed that after the long wait~ I'm kind of excited for this battle scene. I'm sorry if I lost some of you, but I hope to hear from those who are still reading! Thanks! :)
~Chikage
PS. If you are waiting for my SYOC, I'm sorry, but please don't even talk to me about that. I'm really frustrated with how it's not progressing. So I think I'll stick with this for a little bit before I go back to that. Sorry!
