The Skull Reaper has been slain and the front lines have been restored. However, the peaceful lives the players have lived are going to be destroyed by a new discovery. All of the players very quickly learn the dangers of complacency as the discovery catches them all off-guard, and wreaks havoc across the relatively peaceful world of Aincrad.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from the words that I write and the characters that I create. Credit goes to the original creator of the SAO universe; credits also to the creators and contributors to the Code Lyoko series and related works.
I need to thank Evangelina Amaryllis for beta reading this chapter.
Aincrad Standard Time: [10:00] March 7th 2025
Location: [Floor 74 – Collinia]
Karen's team arrive in Collinia, where they find Kazuto, Asuna, Heathcliff, and the rest of the special Ops team that was mentioned back at Floria gathered in the town square, apparently waiting for Karen and her group to arrive.
"Excellent. Now that our last team has arrived, we shall begin the de-briefing for taking down this floor's boss: The Skull Reaper. Thanks to the ALF, we have gathered new information on this abomination. We have concluded that no regular raid group will be sufficient for this boss. Thus, I have summoned all sixty of you to provide me with your assistance." Heathcliff announces calmly. Even though Heathcliff has never been seen in battle, he is still pretty charismatic and remarkably powerful somehow.
"Kazuto, did the ALF actually get new info on the Skull Reaper?" Ulrich whispers to the black swordsman.
"If Heathcliff said so, then they must have." Kazuto replies calmly.
"If everyone's ready, let's depart. Corridor Crystal, open!" Heathcliff says in his usual, near empty tone, only raising his voice to shout. Even so, he still sounds serene.
Aincrad Standard Time: [10:10] March 7th 2025
Location: [Floor 74 – Boss Chamber Exterior]
The special Ops team formed by Heathcliff have assembled outside the boss chamber and are receiving a strategy update from Karen.
"Everyone, this will be the greatest challenge we have ever experienced in Aincrad. However, we are the best of the best. If we all work together, there is no challenge we cannot overcome!" Karen says, obviously showing that she's been practicing her speech skills and building on her charisma.
The clearers get very inspired by Karen's speech and, after Heathcliff opens the door, they all rush inside. Despite their eagerness, they sort themselves out and form a circle around the edges of the room with Ulrich and his friends: Masaru, Elena, Kazuto, and Asuna going toward the center with the Knights of the Blood Oath slowly, preparing their emotions to anticipate the location of the boss. A minute passes and the boss still hasn't appeared, which is quickly beginning to annoy the raid group.
"Where is the boss?"
"Was it defeated already?"
"Impossible, the door wouldn't have shut behind us if that was the case!" The various players in the group say at once.
"This is too suspicious... Wait... Above us!" Ulrich says in his usual serene tone, but shouts after looking up. He moves his head after hearing a suspicious clicking noise from somewhere, and suddenly sees a massive monster above them.
"The boss is above us! Knights! Scatter!" Katsuo shouts after moving his gaze to where Ulrich's went.
Ulrich, his friends, and the Knights quickly scatter as The Skull Reaper comes crashing down. When the Skull Reaper arrives, it quickly begins to glide toward Solars, who is paralyzed by both fear and her attempt at using Sleuth to analyze the monster.
"Solaris, get back! We can't afford losing you!" Karen's guards shout desperately.
Karen is able to regain some composure and Katsuo helps her get away, but she witnesses her entire royal guard of four being slain with one single hit, which makes her lose the little composure she was able to muster.
"How-How is that possible? They died in a single hit!" Karen cries in fear.
"Everyone, change of plans! The Knights will concentrate on preventing that monster from moving and attacking. Everyone else, attack it from the rear!" Heathcliff orders angrily. "Solaris, I saw you use Sleuth; what did you find out about this boss?" Heathcliff says in the same tone.
"Let me remember... It's called 'The Skull Reaper.' It's much faster than Blade Dancer. We need to make an impenetrable wall on all sides!" Karen replies in fear.
Heathcliff and his Knights of the Blood Oath then reorganize their formation and goal to buying time for the rest of the special OPs team to slay the Skull Reaper.
The real battle against the Skull Reaper begins at this point, with Heathcliff, Kazuto, Asuna, and the Knights of the Blood Oath guild that was assembled providing cover for the rest of the players to attack the Skull Reaper. Katsuo, Ulrich, and Sylvia are the ones taking the lead and inflicting the most damage to this boss, even though Ulrich is quickly taking damage against this boss because of the spike-like appendages of this centipede-like Skull Reaper, but thankfully not before executing his triplicate skill and receiving full healing using one of his crystals, healing all three clones since they all are technically him. With Ulrich now having three clones active, all three quickly begin working with the players to defeat the Skull Reaper. The fight is draining the energy of everyone in this special ops team however, and mistakes are being made, with every mistake resulting in at least one death.
When the Skull Reaper is down to a third of its max health, its second form activates, which causes all the spike appendages to grow much larger, resembling blades now; razor sharp blades all over its body which will make it difficult to attack, now the way the front-liners have been before now. Ulrich knows he won't be able to use Triplicate or Triangulate successfully on this boss now considering the size of the boss, so he tries to cooperate as much as possible with the other clearers while they are all still alive.
Aincrad Standard Time: [12:00] March 7th 2025
The Skull Reaper has been successfully slain but at the cost of nearly half of the special Ops team. Every member of the group is scattered around the room heavily exhausted from the battle. Ulrich is in a far corner of the room being treated by Karen and Sylvia after he took a few hits from the Skull Reaper which feels entirely real for him and he's just generally exhausted because of the drawn out battle.
With every player in the raid group badly exhausted, Heathcliff slowly walks toward the door to floor 76 and opens it then returns to his raid group and takes a short rest.
The raid group has finally recovered from their fatigue after a half hour passes floor 75 and proceeds to floor 76, with Ulrich and his friends still exhausted and taking a little more time to lick their wounds.
Aincrad Standard Time: [12:40] March 7th 2025
Location: [Floor 76 – Arksophia]
When Ulrich's group arrive at the main city: Arksophia, they find Heathcliff and the raid group from floor 75 in the main square with the other guilds assembled, apparently to attend a meeting. Asuna, Andrew, Tsuboi, Rika, Keiko, Sylvia, Keita and Sachi depart to other areas of the crowd, leaving Ulrich, Kazuto, Karen, and Kana in the main group.
"Kazuto, did Heathcliff mention that he was going to be holding a meeting?" Ulrich whispers in curiosity.
"Not really." Kazuto replies in the same tone.
"If Heathcliff himself called an assembly, it must be important." Karen says, trying to convince herself, while having her doubts.
"Karen, you were close to getting hit a few times against the Skull Reaper. Are you doing alright?" Ulrich asks in concern since, aside from Sylvia and Katsuo, Karen is Ulrich's closest friend in Aincrad.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just that I'm not as wholly confident that the game can be cleared easily than I was back in the beginning. Thanks for worrying about me though, Ulrich" Karen replies, finding it a little challenging to find her words.
"Attention everyone. I welcome you to Arksophia, I know that the frontlines have been paralyzed because of floor 75's boss, but that is no longer an issue because of the fact that the boss has been slain." Heathcliff announces proudly.
The clearers cheer in heavy response, except the ones who actually participated in that battle because of how terrifying it was and the large amount of casualties inflicted in that battle. Heathcliff knows that the clearers have been pushed to their absolute limits lately so he dismisses the meeting relatively quickly after he mentions that he is extending the vacation time for the clearers. The crowd begins breaking up and leaving in high spirits, when Heathcliff approaches Ulrich, Karen, Kazuto, and Kana.
"Ulrich, Kirito, Solaris, I was hoping to see you all here; I need to talk to you." Heathcliff says.
"What did you need to ask us Heathcliff?" Karen asks politely.
"I apologize for forcing this on you but Thinker has told me that they are investigating reports of something unusual happening all over the first fifteen floors, they will not be able to provide reconnaissance on this floor, so I am forming a team to handle that. Ulrich, Kirito, Solaris, I wish for you to recruit Asuna and Masaru and explore this floor." Heathcliff says calmly.
"You want us exploring this floor? Is that wise?" Karen asks in mild shock at her leader's orders.
"We have little other option; the ALF told us that they will not be able to help us with doing reconnaissance on this floor." Heathcliff says with relative sadness; as much as he could display anyway.
"Understood... We will proceed immediately." Karen murmurs sadly.
Ulrich, Kazuto, and Karen depart to find Katsuo and Asuna so they can begin the reconnaissance, with Kana, Sylvia, and the others returning to Grandum to prepare for the upcoming dungeon surveillance.
Aincrad Standard Time: [12:00] March 10th 2025
Location: [Floor 76 – Imozaka]
Karen's recon team has been exploring the 76th floor for a few days and found that this floor is very small, with most of the landmarks being reachable within a day's time from Arksophia. They may have already discovered where the dungeon is for this floor because of their extensive scouting near the village of Imozaka, near the northwestern edge of floor 76.
"If what I heard is true, then we can begin getting this floor out of the way." Kazuto says rather happily.
"Kirito-kun, it's only a rumor right now. Don't get so excited." Asuna says with an exasperated sigh.
"She has a point, Kazuto. Rumors are different from facts in many ways." Ulrich says in a proud tone, seemingly glad that he shot down some of 'The Black Swordsman's ego.
"Ulrich…Asuna...that hurts. Katsuo, back me up here." Kazuto says trying to keep what's left of his honour.
"I'm staying out of this, keep this affair between you three, right Karen?" Katsuo says, trying to keep himself out of the situation.
"Yeah, we're smart enough to keep ourselves out of these situations. Besides, you had it coming, Kazuto." Karen says with a smug grin plastered on her face.
Kazuto sighs in defeat, feeling betrayed by some of his closest friends.
"I wonder how the others are doing? Heathcliff assured us that we're the only players on this floor aside from merchants in Arksophia." Karen says while wondering about her fellow clearers.
"They're probably enjoying their vacation more while we're being forced to work. They're most likely in better spirits than us." Katsuo says with mild anger at Heathcliff for making them work so hard after that devastating battle against the Skull Reaper.
"Oh yeah, they're still relaxing and we're not." Asuna says sadly, remembering what Heathcliff said at the meeting.
"Come on, guys. We ought to chase down that rumor and see how useful it is to reach the dungeon. To be honest, now I know how the ALF feels while doing reconnaissance. Then again, they do have at least a thousand members doing this with their combat units close by for support." Ulrich says with a small sigh.
The group begin following the rumor which is that the nearby forest is the entrance to the hidden dungeon. They reach the edge of Imozaka after replenishing their supply of crystals and potions and begin their trek through the forest.
Surprisingly, the monsters in the forest appear to be rather docile, which make the journey more enjoyable and safer compared to their consistent treks through monster infested regions, though even those areas are a cakewalk compared to what they went through on lower floors.
"If this is the way to the dungeon, it'll be a total cakewalk for us clearers. None of the monsters here appear willing to fight us. In fact, very few monsters on this floor seem hostile." Karen says rather proudly.
"You have to admit that's a little bizarre, you would hardly expect monsters to be docile this high up in Aincrad." Ulrich says while looking at his feet.
"Now that you mention it, it is bizarre, but maybe it was designed this way. After all, after floors 25 and 50, the monsters were relatively weak, maybe the game was designed to have the toughest challenge at floors 25, 50, and 75 and have the next few after easy to recover from the shock." Asuna says logically.
"Come on guys, let's go find the dungeon and we can report it to Heathcliff and the others." Karen says seriously, as she wants to find the dungeon ASAP and get back to her vacation, which was interrupted by Heathcliff calling for them to join the battle against Skull Reaper.
If she and the others knew what was happening in Aincrad while they were isolated from the rest of the players in incommunicado, they would not be complaining about trivial matters like this and be glad that they're alive to fight the monsters that would be heavily infesting Aincrad within a matter of hours.
