A/N: I'm back readers! Just in time for the new year, here's the next chapter.
The Floor 50 town of Algade was wide, crowded, and VERY difficult to navigate through. When the front lines first reached it, people got lost quite easily. It must have been designed that way intentionally because there were even NPCs stationed around the city to direct people to certain parts of town. A week passed by before players were able to navigate through the city on their own.
Ren and Alice walked through the crowded city together. The couple had just finished eating dinner and were trying to find something to do in order to kill some time.
"What should we do?" Alice wondered.
"We could go see Agil and sell him some of the drops we got" Ren suggested.
Alice thought about it for a moment before finally shrugging. "Why not? I can't think of anything better to do right now"
It took a bit of navigating, but Ren and Alice managed to find their way to Agil's new shop in Algade. Ren walked through the door and waved. "Hey Agil."
"Hey, what's up" Agil said with a wave. "Got stuff you need to sell?"
"Yep" Ren nodded. He opened his menu and brought up a list of random drop items he had gotten from the fields today that he didn't need. Most players Agil would rip-off, but Ren and his guild were one of the few exceptions as they had known him since the early days of SAO.
Agil browsed the items Ren was selling. They weren't anything special, but he could probably sell them to a few suckers. After agreeing on a price, Ren sold his items over to Agil. Alice walked up next and showed her excess items off. Ren didn't know if it was because Alice had a pretty face, but he always seemed to give her a better price for her items.
"By the way, I heard the boss room for Floor 50 was recently discovered. Is that true?" Agil asked.
Ren nodded his head. "Yeah. A recon team was sent out not too long ago. They should be returning pretty soon."
"So you're killing time before the meeting" Agil guessed. "Must be tough being the head tactician in the game"
"Yeah, it's a bit of a pain. But it's not like I had much choice in it. Heathcliff chose me personally"
It was around Floor 40 that Heathcliff had brought together a group of the top strategists SAO had to offer and put together a specialized tactical group for planning boss fights. Out of that group, Heathcliff had chosen Ren to be the head tactician. It made sense, considering that Ren had helped plan several boss fight strategies already during the course of the death game.
Out of nowhere, a message window suddenly appeared in front of Ren. "That must be Heathcliff" Ren said as he tapped his finger on the window and opened it.
"What does it say?" Alice asked.
"The recon team's back" Ren said. "We're meeting at the usual spot"
Alice nodded and quickly finished her trade with Agil before leaving the shop with Ren. The two of them walked over to the town's teleport gate and called out the name for the town on Floor 45.
The Knights of the Blood Oath still had yet to find an appropriate building for their guild HQ. As a result, the open area that was the town square for Floor 45 was often used for raid meetings. When Ren and Alice arrived, there were already a few major guild leaders present, as well as the other tacticians.
"Glad you could make it Ren" Heathcliff greeted. "It's good to have our head tactician with us"
"I'd never miss a strategy meeting for a floor boss" Ren said.
"Look, the big brainiac brought his girlfriend along" one player snickered.
"Well duh. He brings her everywhere" another player added.
"You think they're gonna play kissy face while the meeting's going on?"
Usually Ren would put a stop to anyone mocking him and Alice, but he knew just how intimidating Alice could be when she got angry. That intimidation was shown as Alice reached for the handle of her scythe. "I'm sorry, does someone have a problem with me being here?"
"N-N-No! Of course not!"
"Yeah, w-why wouldn't we w-w-want you?!"
"Good" Alice said with a grin as she released the grip on her scythe. Ren smirked at the players cowering in fear of Alice. She was known for not being the type of person you wanted to have angry at you. The only one even scarier than her was Asuna, and she had already made sure that people knew not to mess with her.
A few minutes passed by as the last few people showed up. Once everyone was present, Heathcliff stepped forward. "Now that everyone's here, I'd like to start the raid meeting. Our recon team reported back to us that the boss seems incredibly strong. It's apparently a powerful monster that focuses almost entirely on physical attacks."
"Any specific attack patterns?" Ren asked.
Heathcliff shook his head. "I'm afraid the boss was too strong for the recon team to stay for very long. They were only able to fight for about five minutes before they were forced to fall back."
"I knew it" Ren quietly muttered. "Floor 50 is a special boss fight"
"You're correct" Heathcliff nodded. He looked to the rest of the players gathered. "I'm sure you all remember the terror that was the boss for Floor 25. It was far stronger than both the floor bosses for Floor 24 and Floor 26."
Everyone nodded. The massacre that the Aincrad Liberation Force suffered from the Hydra Orochi still lingered in the heads of many players that had fought in the raid as well as those that had heard about it.
Heathcliff continued with his speech. "Based on this information, I believe we can assume that every quarter boss fight, in other words Floors 25, 50, 75, and 100, will have a much higher difficulty than usual floor boss fights. We should keep this in mind going forward"
"At least the boss seems to be mostly a powerhouse this time. That gives us something to go on" Ren said. "The Hydra Orochi focused more on inflicting status ailments. Based on this boss's description, I doubt that will be the case this time"
"We should put a row of tanks in the front row to hold back the boss's attack. Then everyone else can flank when there's an opening" someone said
"That's probably our best bet going in" Ren nodded in agreement. "But we should also be careful of AoE smash attacks. Power heavy bosses tend to use those and inflict a stun effect on players caught in it."
"Ren raises a fair point" Asuna said. "We'll have to keep a close eye on the boss and be prepared to switch out quickly."
"So is everyone alright with our strategy?" Heathcliff asked the group. Nobody raised any arguments. "Good. We'll move out tomorrow at noon. You are dismissed"
The players gathered dispersed into the streets to prepare for tomorrow's raid. As Ren walked home with Alice, he couldn't help but question whether he could keep her safe or not tomorrow. The upcoming boss fight would undoubtedly be the most dangerous one yet. He quickly shook the thoughts out of his head. He needed a clear mind for the boss raid. No matter what happened, he would protect Alice with his life. That was something he promised himself a long time ago.
Fighting up to the boss room hadn't been very difficult for the raid party. A full group of 49 players had been formed for the battle and each of them were plenty skilled enough for a boss fight. Even Agil had been called out for the boss fight. It only seemed fitting since he was usually asked to participate in the big battles and this one definitely qualified as big.
Kirito and Agil had been assigned to Ren's party to fill in the two empty slots for the guild of five. It was something Ren was used to, since he was one of the few people on the assault team that actually liked the Black Swordsman.
The raid group now stood in front of the doors to the boss room. The intense pressure that was in the air put everyone on edge. Heathcliff stepped forward to provide a few words of encouragement.
"This will without a doubt be our toughest battle yet. But I know we can prevail. We will defeat this boss and further our goal to freedom!"
A resounding cheer of agreement came from the raid party. Heathcliff turned to face the door to the boss room and pushed it open.
"Attack!"
At Heathcliff's command, the horde of players charged into the room. The entire place was pitch black. Nobody could see a thing. Then in an instant, all that changed. The room was lit up and the courageous faces on everyone disappeared.
The recon team had said the boss was a powerful monster. They clearly didn't go into enough detail.
The boss was at least 15 meters tall. It was a humanoid giant-type monster. In its right hand was a massive looking hammer. The left hand was holding an equally massive battle axe. The look in its eyes was that of a predator. As it let out a terrifying roar, the entire room seemed to shake. Four health bars appeared next to it with its name reading above them. Even from the high distance, players could read it easily.
The Gigas Titan
One look at the boss was enough to make a majority of the raid party tremble with fear. It was the most intimidating thing any of them had ever seen. Even the front row of tanks were falling out of formation.
"Wh-What is that thing?!"
"I didn't sign up for this!"
"That thing's too powerful! Run for your lives!
Asuna barked at the trembling players. "Idiots! Get back in formation! We can win this if we stick to the plan!" She was soundly ignored though as many players quickly grabbed teleport crystals and left.
"Damnit!" Ren cursed under his breath. Over half of the raid party had ran away already. He quickly scanned at who they had left to work with. His guild was still present, along with the parties from the Knights of the Blood Oath and the Holy Dragon Alliance.
'What do we do?!' Ren thought. 'We don't have anywhere near enough players to pull this off now! I need to think of something fast or we're screwed!'
Suddenly Ren watched Heathcliff walk past him. He looked at Ren, seeming to be unfazed by the situation they were in. "I'll hold it at bay. Come up with a plan in the meantime."
"Are you nuts?!" Ren exclaimed. "You can't fight that thing all by yourself!"
"He's right Commander. Let me help too" Asuna suggested.
Heathcliff shook his head. "No. I should be able to keep it busy myself." Before anyone else could object, Heathcliff charged at the boss.
The Gigas Titan gripped its axe firmly as it swung it sideways. Heathcliff quickly got into a defensive stance and used his shield to block the powerful swing, though it pushed him to the side. Heathcliff now had the boss's full attention as he engaged with it in a one-on-one battle. Offense against defense. It was all a matter of whether Heathcliff could hold back the Gigas Titan's assault long enough for Ren to come up with something.
The battle went on for a full 30 minutes without Heathcliff even breaking a sweat. Everyone stared at him in awe.
"How is he doing that?" Alice gasped. "He's able to keep up with all of the boss's attacks and he doesn't even seem tired."
"Either way, he can't keep it up forever" Asuna pointed out. "Have you figured out a way to beat it yet Ren?"
Ren thought about what he had figured out so far. During Heathcliff's fight with the boss, they had seen pretty much every attack the boss was capable of. Dodging them would be simple. Additionally, Ren had figured out that the most likely weak point of the boss was its neck. There was only one problem. It was way too high to reach and if they didn't aim for that they wouldn't last long enough to defeat the boss.
Heathcliff finally gave in as a strike from the Gigas Titan's hammer smashed the ground, sending out a shockwave around it and forcing Heathcliff to lose his balance slightly. The boss used this opportunity to swing its axe at him, sending him flying back and knocking his health down by a bit.
"Commander!" Asuna exclaimed as she rushed over to his side. "Are you alright?!"
"Don't worry yourself. I'm fine" Heathcliff assured her. "But I'm not entirely sure how much longer I can keep this up."
Asuna turned back to Ren. "Ren do you have a-" She stopped as she saw the look in Ren's eyes. It was the one he had whenever he had gotten an idea.
"I think I figured out a way to win this" Ren said. "Heathcliff, can you get the boss to swing it's hammer down once more?"
"Leave it to me" he nodded as he once again charged at the Gigas Titan.
Ren quickly looked to the rest of the group. "Kirito and Asuna, I need you to follow my lead once that hammer swings down. We're going to run up the boss's arm and go for an attack on the neck. Once we hit that, it should stop its attacks momentarily, which will give everyone else the chance to attack it while its stunned."
Everyone nodded in agreement and got into position. The second Ren saw the Gigas Titan prepare to swing down its hammer, he gave the order. "Now!"
Kirito, Asuna, and Ren all took off running towards the boss. The three of them leaped over the shockwave as it ran past them and landed one by one on the arm of the boss. The massive size of the muscular limb made it easy to run across. The three players ran up the arm in a straight line and each prepared their sword skills. The attacks came one after another as they each slashed at the boss's neck and jumped off as they ran past it.
"Perfect! It worked like a charm Ren!" Asuna grinned as they all landed on the ground. "Now let's finish this sucker off and-"
Asuna was cut off as the Gigas Titan let out a furious roar. Ren watched as it began to rampage around instead of being stunned like he had thought. The second wave of attackers were already dangerously close to the boss.
"Everyone run!" Ren shouted. "Get out of there!"
The group quickly tried to disperse and get away from the rampaging boss. It was just Ren's luck though that the boss decided to set its sights on the direction Alice was running. It swung its hammer down and trapped Alice in the stun effect.
"Alice!" Ren cried out as he took off running. The boss was looming over Alice, ready to finish her off with its axe. 'Come on! Let me make it in time!'
The axe swung down at Alice while her eyes watched in horror. Just before the blade of the axe could hit her though, Ren appeared in front of her and blocked it with his sword. The impact sent him flying back and skidding across the ground.
The second Alice felt her body regain the ability to move, she took off running towards Ren. She came to a stop once she was at his side as he tried to get up. "Ren! Ren, are you alright?! Answer me!"
"I'm *huff* fine" Ren grunted as he got up. He felt Alice wrap her arms around him tightly. "A-Alice?"
"You reckless idiot! I was so worried!" Alice sobbed, not letting Ren out of her arms. "What were you thinking?!"
"I was thinking about you" Ren told her. "There's no way I'm letting you die, no matter what"
"If you two are done over there!" Helios barked as he jumped back from the Gigas Titan's axe. "We really need some help over here!"
Ren and Alice got up and looked at the boss. From all the damage they had dealt it so far, they had managed to get it down to its last two health bars. They had to end this quickly before any casualties occurred. There had been too many close calls already with the boss's rampage just now. Luckily it seemed to have calmed down somewhat. That still didn't take away the fact that Ren and the others were in a tight spot right now with their low numbers.
"Hey guys! Sorry we're late!"
Everyone looked over to see Klein leading a large group of players as they charged into the boss room. Kirito blinked in surprise. "Klein?! What are you doing here?!"
"We saw the huge group of people that turned tail and ran teleport back to the town. Once they filled us in, I got as many people as I could together and we came here as fast as we could."
"Thanks Klein. We really need the help" Agil said appreciatively as he blocked another hit from the boss.
Klein showed a prideful grin. "Heh, well the hero does tend to show up at the darkest hour after all"
Helios rolled his eyes. "Alright Batman, I wouldn't take it that far"
With the numbers Klein had brought, things were starting to look better for the raid group. Finally, there was a chance. Alice looked over to Ren. "You ready?"
"Yeah" Ren said with a nod of his head. "Let's end this."
The two of them ran towards the boss at full speed. Flashes of light from sword skills hit the boss one after another from Helios and the other players. The Gigas Titan raised its hammer once again for its shockwave attack.
"Not this time!" Mai yelled as she jumped up and stabbed the boss in its knee joint. The boss roared in pain as it stopped its attack and kneeled down. "Now guys! Go for it!"
Nobody needed to be told twice as they charged in and assaulted the Gigas Titan, bringing it down to its last bar of health. Kirito jumped on the boss's now lowered arm and used it to jump towards the neck. His sword lit up with a bright light as he slashed at the boss's neck. "Finish it off!"
Ren and Alice did just that as they approached the Gigas Titan. Ren charged in and slashed both of the boss's legs. While the boss flinched in pain for a brief moment, Alice leaped into the air and held her scythe with a firm grip. She swung her scythe down and ripped a gash through the chest of the boss. Its health fell down to its last sliver, but it wasn't enough to end it. She watched helplessly as the boss prepared to strike at her.
Ren widened his eyes in fear as he watched the boss go in to attack. "Alice!"
Alice shut her eyes, not wanting to see the incoming attack. For some reason though, she didn't feel the hit. Instead she felt herself fall into someone's arms. Alice opened her eyes to see Ren holding her.
"Ren?!" Alice exclaimed. "But what about the boss?"
Her question was answered as she looked over to see Heathcliff standing in front of the boss as it shattered into fragments. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief as the Congratulations sign appeared in front of everyone.
"Phew" Helios said as he fell over to catch his breath. "We're gonna have one hell of a story to tell everyone when we get back"
"That's if Asuna doesn't kill them all first" Klein pointed out, causing everyone to laugh at the Vice Commander's expense.
Asuna's cheeks blushed red. "Come on guys! You make it sound like I'm some berserk general or something!"
"Well you are, aren't you?" Kirito asked. In response, he earned himself a bash to the head from Asuna. "Ow!"
Now it was Kirito's turn to have everyone laugh at him. Once the group had caught their breath, they got back up again and began making their way to the next floor. After the teleport gate was activated, the raid party went back to Floor 50.
Once they got back, Asuna had some very harsh words for the players that had deserted them in the middle of the raid. After laying into them for a full ten minutes, she let them leave with a warning to never do something like that again.
The day after the boss raid was a day for relaxation, and a much needed one at that. Ren and Alice sat together in Ren's secret spot enjoying their time together.
Alice leaned her head on Ren's shoulder. "You really do the most reckless things sometimes, you know that?"
Ren chuckled in response. "Yeah. You've mentioned that once or twice"
"And yet you keep doing it"
"In my defense, it's bailed us out of some tough spots in the past"
"Not before scaring me half to death" Alice pointed out.
Ren sighed, knowing that Alice wasn't wrong. He had been in some very close calls in difficult boss fights. He knew that it always made Alice terrified when he pulled off some of his reckless stunts, but if it saved lives then he would do it.
"Tell you what" Ren said as he pulled Alice in close. "How about I make it up to you?"
"Really? What exactly did my prince charming have in mind?"
"A special dinner at a fancy restaurant, just the two of us. My treat."
"How fancy?"
Ren gulped a little as he felt his bank account get a lot lighter. "A-Anything you want. Pick whatever you like best."
Alice grinned at this. "Well there's this one place in Algade that has some really good food. But it's pretty pricy"
"No problem. I can afford it"
"Alright then! Let's get going!" Alice said with an excited cheer as she got up. Ren got to his feet as well and walked off with Alice, knowing that he would need to sell a lot of drops to Agil before his wallet would ever recover.
A/N: So what did you guys think of the boss fight? I hope I was able to recreate the fight from the original version and improve it well enough. Next chapter will be out as soon as possible.