A/N: Ok, I know this chapter is long overdue. I apologize for the lateness and hope you can all forgive me. I promise to update this on a more frequent basis.

*Remembers SAO vs Accel World comes out in less than a week*

... FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCC-

Just kidding, I'll do my best to keep my gaming in moderation. Hope to get the next chapter of this out within two weeks or so.

Enjoy the chapter.

Ordinal Scale: Chapter 3

Sheeptar the Sheep King. A monster notorious as Sword Art Online's most annoying boss fight, as well as the dumbest boss idea in the death game. Clair had heard her brother and friends mention it every now and then, but she had never been in SAO to experience it. She had always wondered just what kind of boss it was.

But now all she could think about was how much she wanted this boss fight to end.

"This is such a stupid boss fight!" Clair cried out as she ran from the rampaging monstrous sheep that was chasing her.

"I know right?!" Mai said as she ran at her side. "It took us a full raid party of fifty people to take it down in SAO."

"And how exactly are we supposed to beat it with only seven of us?!" Clair asked.

"Like this!" Helios yelled out as he went in by Sheeptar's legs and delivered a powerful slash with his axe. The attack got Sheeptar's attention as it looked down at Helios and glared at him. The large beast roared as it stomped one of its legs down at him, which Helios barely managed to escape from. Helios wasn't out of the woods yet however as Sheeptar began chasing after him.

"That seems a lot different than normal aggro." Ren commented. "It's like that thing has a grudge against Helios."

"Well… he was the one that dealt the finishing blow last time, wasn't he?" Alice pointed out. "You think it has some memory of SAO?"

"Just shut up and help me!" Helios yelled out as he ran with all of his might.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Riku asked. "I could have sworn the mighty Helios just asked for-"

"SHUT UP AND GET YOUR ASSES OVER HERE!"

Ren and the others sighed and ran in to help their friend. Ren took the lead as they ran. "Attack from all sides! Keep its aggro constantly changing! We might be able to win by confusing it that way!"

The first to attack was Ren as he sped past Sheeptar, cutting at its legs. Without the physical boosts they had in the virtual world, there was no way for them to jump high enough to land a hit on its main body. As Sheeptar turned towards the tactician, Alice sliced at it next. Each of the guild members took turns attacking the large beast from behind, keeping the focus of its attention changing over and over again.

"Take this you asshole!" Helios roared out as he swung his axe at Sheeptar's leg while avoiding a bite from its maw.

Ren took notice of the large beast losing balance for a quick moment as Helios slashed at its leg. He quickly called out a plan. "Attack its legs all at once, but leave one untouched. We may be able to get it to fall over if we do that."

The group nodded and went along with Ren's plan. They all simultaneously moved in and slashed at three of Sheeptar's legs. The beast cried out in pain as the repeated cuts to its legs made its legs grow weak. It began to lean over and fall.

As Sheeptar began to fall, Clair gasped as it came down towards her. Ren quickly moved and tackled his sister out of the way, holding onto her tightly as they skidded across the ground. Ren got up and looked at his sister. "Are you alright, Clair?"

Clair nodded as she stood up. "Yeah. I'm fine. But why did you have to tackle me out of the way like that?"

"Why? You would have been crushed."

"No I wouldn't. This is AR, remember? I'd only lose HP."

Ren blinked in surprise, realizing his sister was right. "Sorry about that. Guess all these SAO bosses are bringing back some bad memories for me."

Clair nodded understandingly. "It's alright, I get it. But you don't have to look out for me all the time. I can take care of myself, alright."

Ren let out a sigh and nodded. "Yeah. I guess you're right."

"Umm Ren? We've got a problem." Alice said.

Ren and Clair both turned their heads towards Sheeptar, who was beginning to inhale. Ren's eyes widened when he realized what it meant.

"Acid spit attack! Run!" Ren ordered. The group quickly took off running away from Sheeptar. Ren quickly searched for a way out of their situation. The acid would spread across the ground and take them all out if they didn't do something.

Suddenly, Dagger's eyes caught sight of something. "Look! A bridge!"

Ren instantly read Dagger's mind. "Run for it! We can get to higher ground and evade the acid!"

The group quickly ran for the bridge. As they did, Sheeptar spat out its acid attack. The acid flooded the area, moving closer and closer towards Ren and the others. They made it to the stairs just as the acid reached them, barely escaping. They climbed to the top, but they were now completely trapped on the bridge. Going down from either side would lead to them stepping into the acid. Sheeptar seemed to be unfazed as it began making its way over to the group.

"Ren, if you've got a plan now would be a great time to use it." Alice said nervously.

The tactician quickly racked his brain for an idea. If this were VR, he'd consider leaping off the bridge and onto Sheeptar, then proceeding to stab and slash it repeatedly. But this was AR, and despite how real Sheeptar looked it was nothing more than a hologram with no real solid mass for them to stand on. Ordinal Scale could replicate force but not to an extent such as that.

As Ren thought, Sheeptar closed in and glared at the group of players. It opened its maw and prepared to chomp down at them.

"Move!" Ren quickly yelled as he and his friends all leaped to the side, barely avoiding the bite. As Sheeptar missed and moved its head back, an idea snapped in Ren's mind. "I've got it!"

"Well don't keep us in suspense, tell us before we all become sheep chow!" Helios yelled impatiently.

"Wait for it to bite again. Lure it in." Ren explained. "Once you dodge its bite, everyone but Clair and Mai grab onto it and hold the head down."

"I get it." Alice grinned. "While we keep it still, those two go to town on it and take out its HP."

"Exactly." Ren nodded.

Riku widened his eyes and pointed towards Sheeptar. "Well we better do it fast! Look out!"

The group quickly jumped to the side, avoiding another bite from Sheeptar. Before it could move its head back, Ren, Alice, Helios, Dagger, and Riku all lunged at it, trying to hold it down like it was a raging bull. Sheeptar thrashed around violently, but their grip was holding for the moment.

"Hurry up you two!" Dagger yelled. "We can't hold this thing forever!"

"Ordinal Scale really replicates force well, doesn't it?" Alice said.

Mai and Clair both looked at each other and nodded. The two girls went in and attacked Sheeptar with a barrage of slashes. The beast roared violently as its HP dropped further and further.

"It's almost there!" Ren said. "Just a little more!"

Mai thrusted her rapier forward while Clair sliced at it with her katana. The combined attacks from both girls were taking a large toll on Sheeptar. Finally, the boss's rage couldn't be held in any more as it broke out of the hold with a furious roar. The sudden movement threw Mai and Clair off balance and they hit the rail of the bridge, beginning to tumble over.

"Mai!"

"Clair!"

Before they could fall, both girls were grabbed by their older siblings and pulled back to safety. The two groups of siblings all breathed a sigh of relief that everyone was safe.

"The acid's disappearing." Dagger pointed out. "Let's finish this bastard off."

With a collective nod, the group of players all ran down the stairs and off the bridge, charging at Sheeptar.

"One more collective attack at its legs!" Ren said. "We'll finish it off once it falls over!"

Everyone all charged in with a collective war cry as they slashed three of Sheeptar's legs. As the best fell down with a mighty roar, Helios went in for the killing blow.

"I said it before and I'll say it again, Sheeptar." Helios said with a scowl. "You are a REALLY! STUPID! BOSS!"

Helios's axe ripped through Sheeptar's body and the boss let out a cry of pain before shattering into polygons.

With the battle over, Ren and the others all collapsed onto the ground, exhausted from the tiring battle against an enemy none of them had wanted to ever see again. All of their rankings shot up as they looked at their menus after logging out of Ordinal Scale, the only good thing to come out of the experience.

Several minutes passed as they all rested from their fatigue. Eventually, a shout was heard in the distance. "Guys! Where have you been?!" All heads turned to see Asuna running over to them with a smile on her face.

"Hey Asuna." Alicia said. "I take it the boss raid went well for you guys."

Asuna nodded her head. "Mhm. Klein and his group were waiting for a member, but he never showed. I didn't see any of them come to the boss fight in the end. But forget them, what happened to you guys? You never showed up and you look exhausted."

"Oh us? We're fine." Hyde remarked in a sarcastic tone. "We were walking, everything was fine and dandy and- WE WERE FIGHTING GODDAMNED SHEEPTAR!"

Asuna blinked in surprise, taking a moment to let all of the information Helios had said settle in. She looked over at Dan "He's kidding, right?"

"I really wish he was." Dan sighed. "I have no idea why or how, but as we were heading towards the location, we were suddenly ambushed by Sheeptar the Sheep King. And it was just as annoying as last time."

Asuna was in disbelief. She could understand why the group all seemed exhausted. She knew for a fact she would never have wanted to run into SAO's most notorious boss ever again.

Dan got back to his feet. "Well I'm gonna walk home with Clair and try to sleep this off like a bad dream. I'll see you guys later."

The others all decided to follow suit and split up for the night, each of them going home after an exhausting time.

Once they were home, Dan collapsed onto his bed. As he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, he couldn't help but wonder something. Why had they been ambushed by a boss that was never even announced? It could have been a surprise event, but for it to appear right where they were as they were passing through it. It seemed too much to be a coincidence. No matter how much Dan thought about it though, he couldn't find an answer.

Alicia scrolled through channels on the television in her house. She was officially bored with nothing to do today, until the next OS boss raid, which would be tonight. However, no one had any way of knowing ahead of time where the raid would take place.

The black haired girl considered calling Dan and asking if he was free today, but when she texted him, he had responded saying that he wouldn't be able to make it to the boss raid tonight since he had to help his mother with some chores, though he would be able to log onto ALO for a bit during the day.

'It's going to be weird going to a boss raid without Dan there.' Alicia thought to herself. In all of the times she had gone to raids in SAO, it had always been as a full guild. But without anyone's life on the line this time she could go out and enjoy herself. Hopefully some of her friends would be able to come too.

Suddenly, Alicia heard her phone receive a text message. She looked at it and was surprised to see a message from Asuna, telling her to log onto ALO and that Yui had something important to inform everyone of.

Alicia fit her Amu Sphere over her head and laid onto her bed. She closed her eyes and entered the virtual world.

"Link Start!"

Slowly opening her eyes, Alice sat up from her bed in her in-game house. She got off the bed and stretched her arms out. As she was about to leave, Ren also logged in, his avatar manifesting on the bed. The couple smiled at each other before heading out towards the town of Coral where Kirito and Asuna's house sat.

Ren and Alice were some of the first to arrive at the house. Soon after they arrived however, many of the others began to show up. The remaining members of Wyvern's Inferno, Sinon and Riku, as well as Liz, Silica, and Agil. Once everyone was there, Yui began explaining the information she had gathered.

"First allow me to bring up a map of the city, and the locations bosses have spawned so far." Yui said, showing the group an image of the city map with red dots and each of the raid locations. "Now I'll overlap it with a bird's-eye view of Aincrad." As the two maps overlapped, the group all widened their eyes at what they were seeing.

"No way."

"Is this even possible?"

"What the heck is going on?"

Looking at the overlapped maps, each of the boss spawn points in the city had overlapped exactly with the locations of their rooms in Aincrad. It was far too big to be some simple coincidence. But that only raised an even bigger question. Why was this happening?

"From this information, I believe it's possible to predict the locations of the next boss locations before they are announced." Yui continued. "The next one happening tonight should be at Yebisu Garden Palace."

"Hmm… I think Mai and I can make it to that." Alice said. "Who else is in?"

Asuna, Silica, and Liz all raised their hands to join in. Asuna looked over at her boyfriend. "What about you Kirito."

The raven haired Spriggan replied with a shake of his head. "I'm not really interested in the OS raids."

Liz showed a grin towards the Black Swordsman. "Fine then. More points for us girls."

"Assuming you don't mess up, blacksmith." Helios quipped from the side.

"You wanna go, jackass?!" Liz yelled back.

After getting the bickering between Liz and Helios to calm down, the five girls made a plan to get together for the boss raid that night. Once they all agreed on a time and location, they logged out to get ready.

Alicia and Emi walked through the city streets as night was beginning to show its darkness in the sky. The two sisters were on their way to meet up with Asuna and the others for the raid.

"It's been awhile since we've fought a boss without the others." Emi noted as they walked. "This should be interesting."

"Think of it as a girl's night out." Alicia replied with a grin. "With all of us together, we've got this raid in the bag. I wonder how many points we'll get."

Emi grinned to herself. "I'm gonna get some delicious sweets with my points. What about you sis? Gonna buy something nice for yourself… or maybe Dan?" The younger girl noticed a blush on her sister's face, making her giggle. "I knew it."

In the distance, Alicia caught sight of Asuna, Liz, and Silica standing together. The two sisters waved to them as they ran over.

"Hey girls!" Alicia called out as they ran up to them. "Hope we didn't keep you waiting too long."

Silica shook her head. "No, we just got here."

Asuna looked at the group of players standing around the area. "There sure are a lot of players here. We'll have to work hard to get the most points."

"No need to worry." Alicia grinned. "We've got our own Vice Commander right here with us."

A blush came to Asuna's face. "Come on. You know I hate being called that." The girls all shared a giggle at their friend's expense. As they did, Asuna's eyes caught sight of a certain player in the distance. "Huh? That guy…"

"Hm?" Alicia turned her head towards where Asuna was looking, taking notice of the player too. "Hey, isn't that the guy that showed up to the boss raid against Kagachi the Samurai Lord?"

Asuna nodded her head. "Yeah. I had thought I had seen him somewhere before, and remembered that he was in SAO."

"Seriously?" Emi gasped. "He's an SAO Survivor?!" She glanced over at him. "Well he's certainly got the skills of someone who was in SAO, considering what a badass he was at the other raid."

"That's the thing. He was nothing like this back in Aincrad." Asuna explained. "He was a member of the Knights of the Blood Oath named Nautilus. Even though he was in the guild, he was a bit of a coward. He never participated in any of the boss raids."

"Can't say I blame him." Liz said. "SAO's floor bosses were terrifying."

"Yeah…" Silica nodded in agreement.

Alicia took a look at the time on her phone. "Hey, the raid's about to start. We should get ready."

The girls all nodded together. Asuna looked at her friends. "Alright, let's kick this boss's ass!"

"Heh, leave it to me." Liz grinned. "I'll show that asshole Hyde that he's not the only one that can hold his own on the front lines of a raid."

-Ten minutes later-

"This isn't what I had in mind!" Liz yelled as she held her shield up to defend herself while the boss attacked her with a furious barrage of punches. Silica was hiding herself behind her friend as the boss showed no signs of letting up.

The raid boss was a giant hermit crab monster with a thick blue shell on its back. Its claws were like boxing gloves and it showed impressive speed with them whenever it unleashed a flurry of relentless punches. Alice, Mai, and Asuna all remembered the heavy amount of tank players they had needed for the raid back in Aincrad.

Watching Liz at the boss's mercy, Alice could tell that she was extremely grateful that Helios wasn't there right now to laugh and mock her. The fight had been going on for a few minutes, and thanks to Liz and the other front liners, they were beginning to get a good feel for the boss's attack patterns.

"I'm going to go help them out." Alice said as she ran into the fray as well. She twirled her scythe skillfully as she slashed at the boss's rear, but the thick shell on its back made the damage very small. 'Damnit. Looks like we have to attack it head on from the front.'

"Hang on Liz! Help's on the way!" Mai called out, running towards the boss. She delivered a series of thrusts with her rapier at the boss's face. The boss cried out in rage as it turned its attention to Mai, who quickly turned around and ran away. "Anybody?! A little help here?!"

While players surrounded the boss and attacked, Asuna caught sight of Yunna appearing on a ledge above them all. "Hello everyone. Keep doing your best. To help you all out, here's a little boost. Music start."

With that, Yunna began singing into her mic, giving a boost to all of the players in the raid. As the fight went on, Asuna glanced over to one of the pillars, where Eiji, or Nautilus as she remembered him, was leaning against casually. The chestnut haired girl walked over to him. "Hey. You're Nautilus right? From the Knights of the Blood Oath?"

"I'd prefer it if you didn't call me by that name anymore." Eiji responded, showing the girl his cursor. "This is the name I go by now."

Asuna nodded her head understandingly. "Well in any case, I'm glad to see you're doing well."

Eiji looked up at the timer, seeing it near the three minute mark. "It's almost time…"

Before Asuna could ask what he meant by that, she heard a chirp from the battlefield. She looked over and saw Pina appear out of nowhere near Silica.

Silica blinked her eyes in surprise before running over to her tamed pet. "Pina! How did you get-" She was cut off as the small dragon glared and growled at her, something the Pina she knew had never done. "Pina?"

All of a sudden, the small dragon resembling Pina became enveloped in a pitch black fog, which expanded as it transformed into a massive black dragon. Silica backed away in fear of the massive beast.

"Silica, hang on! We're coming!" Alice called out as she, Liz, and Mai all began running towards their friend.

As Silica backed up, she felt her back hit someone. Turning around, she saw it was Eiji. "O-Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

Silica was cut off as she was forcefully shoved back towards the dragon by Eiji and fell over. Before she could wonder why, the roar of the dragon behind her grabbed her attention as she screamed in fear.

"Hey, what the hell asshole!" Liz yelled as she ran towards Eiji with several other agitated players. "Ever heard of gamer etiquette?!"

Eiji paid them all no mind, as everyone's attention was soon taken up by the new boss attacking everyone in sight, splitting the raid force in half with the fact that the first boss had yet to be taken down.

Asuna caught sight of the dragon boss diving towards Silica, who was still on the ground. She took off running towards her friend. "Silica!" The chestnut haired girl threw herself over her friend and felt the dragon slash her, ripping her HP apart and taking it all out in one go.

"ASUNA!" the sudden shout came from Kirito, who seemed to have just arrived.

Alice watched as Asuna laid unconscious on the ground. She and Kirito both took off running towards her. Kirito held his girlfriend in his arms. "Asuna?! Asuna, are you okay?!" He quickly looked up towards Eiji, who looked at them with no remorse. Kirito glared at him as he walked up to the rank 2 player. "What the hell is your problem you-"

Kirito fell silent as Eiji sped at him with surprising speed and pointed a sword at his neck. Silence overtook the two before the dragon boss landed near them and interrupted the conflict.

And with that, the timer hit zero. The raid had failed.

Both bosses vanished in an instant. Yunna looked at the raid party. "Sorry everyone. Better luck next time." The AI pop idol ascended into the air and disappeared, much like the bosses had just done.

Players began to leave the area with the raid over. At the same time, Eiji lowered his sword and began to walk away. "If you want to stand on my level Black Swordsman, you need to get stronger."

"Hold it, you piece of shit!" Alice yelled as she ran at him with her fist reeled back. "What did you do to Asu-" the rest of the statement died on Alice's tongue as Eiji grabbed her from behind and knocked her to the ground with ease, pinning her with an armlock.

"You also need to improve, Berserker Lotus." Eiji added as he let Alice go and walked off into the distance.

As Alice laid on the ground, she felt pure rage. Rage at how easily Eiji seemed to be able to take her down. But at the back of her mind, she couldn't help but wonder where those superhuman abilities came from.

'Just who is he?'

A/N: I know there aren't many surprises for all of who that have seen the movie. I'll be doing what I can to change up the story a bit from here on, but all the major events will still happen. Look forward to it readers. And I hope you're all looking forward to SAO vs Accel World as much as I am.