November 20th, 2022. Aincrad Standard Time: 0900. Current Highest Floor: 1

I had bet it all. This was a matter of life or death, and it all rested in this one moment. I started trembling. I couldn't speak, let alone let out a faint squeal for mercy. Was this it for me? Was this the path I was destined to follow? Did all my decisions really lead to this one moment?

I stared my best friend in the eyes, as he had a smug look on his face. Then it happened. He'd thrown his cards onto the bed, following it with a chuckle. "Looks like I got the best of you. Full house baby!" He jumped off the bed, celebrating his victory with one of his classics, the Cossack dance.

I figured since growing up together, and losing almost every time to me in anything, he deserved this short-lived victory, so I had let him taunt me for another solid twenty seconds before standing up from the bed. Clearing my throat, he stopped kicking to look up at me. I dropped my hand of cards in front of him, which had landed face-up, for both his eyes to lower on.

"A royal flush?! What?!"

Kenji "Ken" Hirabayashi. My brother from another mother. We've done everything together for as long as I remember. Wouldn't trade it for anything else, except maybe for him to grow up.

I chuckled as I walked my way towards the window, sighing at the sight of the town. It felt like only yesterday, but almost two weeks ago had we gotten a bombshell dropped on all of us. I remembered the merciless monotone that bastard had.

A new gaming technology called the NerveGear. It enabled Sword Art Online to function like no other game had. At its heart was the brainchild of Kayaba Akihiko, the game's creator. The NerveGear, unlike a VR headset, actually placed you into the virtual experience created. By stimulating the five senses of the human brain, players could control their in-game avatar with their minds. It felt like you were actually in that world. But that wasn't all. Normally, you'd be able to log out of the game freely by just accessing your in-game menu, and in this scenario, the NerveGear would turn off as you return to the actual world. Kayaba removed the ability to log out. To make matters worse, if your avatar perished in-game, the NerveGear would send electrical shocks directly to your brain, frying it out of existence. In order to escape this death game he created, we had to clear all of Aincrad's 100 floors. We were all fighting for our survival, not knowing when or even if we'll be able to leave.

Kenji stood up slowly after his tantrum, his posture admitting defeat. "What is that, 12-71?"

I turned around, shaking my head. "I've lost track after my fiftieth win. Don't beat yourself up, I'm sure you'll catch up, eventually." Patting my friend on the shoulder, I used my right hand to open the menu, recalling the deck of cards back into my inventory.

Kenji turned to me, clenching his right fist and punching his other hand. "Anyway, you ready for the raid?"

"You sure seem thrilled about potentially dying."
"Well, it's only the first boss. It can't be that difficult. Besides, look at it like 99 more to go, not the other way around. See, optimism!" He laughed but later frowned.

We both made our way out of the inn, and towards the raid's meeting spot, but not before wiping a shopkeeper NPC's inventory of potions out clean, polishing our newly obtained Anneal Blades, stocking up on teleportation crystals, and of course, purchasing a batch of sandwiches to enjoy after the raid. Obviously, if we were still to be alive.

The walk towards the labyrinth was nothing if not a chore. By the time we arrived at the entrance of the boss room, on the labyrinth's twentieth floor, everyone collapsed from exhaustion. Diavel, the raid leader, turned around to face us, and opened his right palm, facing it towards himself. "Remember the plan! Groups A and B, you're our front-line! Group C, you're the main damage dealing group attacking from the frontal position! Group D, you're our flanking group! Group E, you're the group designated towards supporting injured members, and dispatching of the kobold minions! Now, let's move people!" He closed his palm, swinging it to his right to signify the moment the door opened.

It didn't. He didn't account for his men being too exhausted. Diavel sighed and turned around to ram himself into the door. Two of the tanks, after having their short-lived rest, followed suit, and the giant door eventually swung open. I only chuckled to myself from the back. After all, he had the guts to put me in the support group. I had already deduced his reasoning; he was only a cruel man who wanted the last attack item bonus for himself and removed any other able fighters from the front lines. It was a reasonable assumption, as we did the beta test together and saw my skills. But, alas, I couldn't do anything about it. He found the labyrinth, so he had the right to organise the parties. After the doors swung open, the entire raid party dispersed in, spreading out into their designated positions, including me. The tanks in front in a long line, followed by groups C, and last, E at the back. Group D was on standby mode, onto the sides. While he threw me into Group E, I wasn't the only one. I was alongside a duo of a male and a female, Hiro and Kei were their names. Or, well, usernames. Kenji, however, was given the duties of being one of the front-line tanks.

The ground rumbled. Some tanks even almost lost balance. And then, the roof of the labyrinth had burst open, where a 20 feet giant appeared, the mist from the debris clearing away. Illfang the Kobold Lord was its name. 4 health bars appeared next to its disturbing face, equipping an axe and shield from its back. Following that, dozens of its minions, dubbed Ruin Kobold Sentinel spawned in front of us, drawing aggression. One stood in front of me, while three others stood beside it. I only drew out my blade halfway out of its sheath, having the game recognise my action and embedding my sword in a light-blue aura, activating the sword skill Sonic Leap. Letting the game system take over, I leapt over the Kobold Sentinel that was in front of me, drawing out my blade above its head and slashing its head in half, shattering it. Landing back on the ground, I took my post-motion delay period of about a half-second; seeing the sentinels hold weapons similar to a club tagged them with slow attack speed, at least from my experience. And I was correct. As the sentinels reacted to my landing with a swing of their own, I threw my entire body into one, dodging a swing from another. After this, I swept the one I bashed into from down under with a kick, staggering it. With its weak point, the throat exposed because of the angle at which it tripped; I slashed at it, killing it with one blow. The familiar sound of a glass object shattering followed suit, as one who died had that sound effect accompanying it.

Now, three left, the one injured from my leap earlier, and two fresh ones. Being in front of them and awaiting their already prepared swings, as I was busy dealing with their murdered brethren, didn't help either. In these types of games, it was all about the numbers advantage. The quicker you wiped out their numbers, the weaker they were, as weaker mobs rely on surrounding an unsuspecting player. Noticing, however, that the injured one was in the back, I formulated a plan. As the one in front swung its club from above, I held my sword out to clash with it, using my strength to push the sentinel away and into the other one. Once they moved out of the way, without hesitation I rammed my head into the minion, staggering it. With a quick slice into its throat, I wiped it out of existence. I turned around to face the last two, which had just shattered in front of me. It was Hiro and Kei, who'd come up from behind and finished them.

"Nice moves." Hiro accompanied with a smile and thumbs-up, reminding me of the smug Kenji for a second. They both turned around as the three of us watched the boss just go down to its last two health bars, dropping its axe and buckler in favour of a Nodachi it had kept behind its waist. Instantly, I noticed this was a boss fight that had changed from beta test. He was supposed to just equip a two-handed axe that allowed it to use axe skills. We prepared for that. But a Nodachi was a katana, which gave him the ability to use katana sword skills, was an attack pattern we weren't prepared for.

Taking a few steps past Hiro and Kei, I cupped my hands around my mouth. "Retreat! That's not a Talwar, that's a Nodachi!"
They heard me, it seemed, with Diavel turning around, and responding, "So?!"

The boss, without further hesitation, jumped in the air, spinning in a full circle to charge the katana crimson-purple.

"Run! Get out of there!"

I was too late. Once Illfang reached the ground, he completed the skill. The katana sword skill Tsumujiguruma was successfully used to stun the entire raid party which was surrounding it earlier, along with bringing their health to a critical level.

Kenji. He was a tank up there, and he'd just taken the full brunt of it. I turned back to my party, with a plan already formulated at the moment. It seemed the party being in danger angered Kei. As she tightened her grip on her sword, taking a step forward with an expression known only to death. While my best friend was in danger, what she had in mind was pure suicide. Video game bosses, especially ones in MMORPGs, typically weren't designed for one-man parties in mind, and I don't think she realised that. I stopped her by drawing my sword up and leaving it as a sort of gate in front of her. She looked at me and raised her sword so that the tip punctured my throat.

"What do you think you're doing?"
"Going to save everyone, the fuck you think?!"
"Kei, lower your blade. I want to save them too, but rushing in is only suicide. I'm on your side too."
"Doesn't matter! Standing around isn't doing anything!"

Hiro became aware of the situation as he looked at Kei. "Kaede, please, think this rationally. I'm sure he has a plan." As the name he mentioned wasn't her username, I assumed they were close back in the real world. My assumption was correct. As she grunted, deflated by her friend's words, she lowered her sword as I did mine.

A glance at the boss followed my sigh of relief. It was only a matter of time before it recovered from the skill, so I had to be quick. "Alright. Hiro, I want you to stay back. When the stun wears off, get everyone as far back as possible. Kei, you're tag-teaming with me. I'll take an attack, and on my signal, you come in. Repeat."

Despite Hiro's nod, Kei remained silent. As Illfang recovered from its still posture, the post-motion delay was wearing off. Then, sprinting past the tanks, I sliced vertically into its chest, knocking it back to give the party an opportunity to retreat. As it regained balance, it released itself from its post-motion delay, lowering its katana to its left hip, intending to use Tsujikaze, a skill that was rather slow to activate but impossible to respond to once it'd gone through.

My only chance was now, as running would not close the distance in time. As if preparing to run on a track, I bent forward with my upper half lowered. Holding my sword parallel to my right leg, the sword turned bright-pale blue as the game took over, activating Rage Spike.

The only skill able to close upwards of ten meters in the blink of an eye. I parried Illfang's Tsujikaze as we were both knocked off our feet. "Switch!"

"Ayah!" I heard Kei scream as she lunged past me, cutting into the boss' chest twice with Horizontal Arc. The boss screeched but immediately recovered to get a counterattack in.

While Kei stood there holding her sword out defensively, I dashed to her side, blocking Illfang's hits as it slashed at me three different times. After the third strike, we both jumped back a bit as we activated sword skills of our own. My sword glowed blue, Illfang's purple.

My intention was to block his sword skill with a downward slash. I was unfamiliar with fighting into katanas, but I figured Vertical would block most of the angles. I was wrong, as when I struck, I did not parry his attack. Instead, his katana went straight under mine. When I realised what happened, I had a full slash drawn onto my chest, launching me away and straight into Kei, both of us dropping to the ground. I fell face-first to the ground, losing my grip on my sword. I watched as my health bar dropped to yellow, the halfway mark. While Kei was trying to pull herself out of my weight, Illfang loomed over the both of us. As its katana charged red, it slashed at a diagonal angle.

This attack would've spelled the end for the both of us, but I had heard two metal blades clashing, with the boss forced to jump away from the impact. When I blinked again, it was Hiro and Kenji, standing in front of us.

"Hide, you okay?"

With my sword in hand, I lifted my body while giving Kenji a thumbs up.

"Recover, we'll hold it off!" shouted Hiro as the both of them, along with about five other players, charged at the boss.

My attention turned to Kei, who was already recovered. I took out a potion from my menu, drinking it before it had shattered in my hands. I turned to the boss in the air, who was activating Tsumujiguruma.

"Get back!" I rested my sword against my back and activated Sonic Leap to leap into Illfang, slashing down his back and cancelling his skill. The boss lost control and pummeled straight into the ground. As I fell, I rolled for support, landing near Kei.

"Kei! One last attack!"

We both hurriedly approached the boss, who was recovering from the fall. In an instant, the boss slashed at us from above, but Kaede parried his attack from below, knocking both fighters off their balance. Through this small window, my Vertical Arc impaled his chest from top-left to bottom-middle, before my hand redirected toward his upper-right, creating the letter V into Illfang.

After launching into the air, the boss shrieked in agony as it broke into tiny polygonal pieces.

"We-We did it!"

And everyone erupted in celebration, as I received the last attack item bonus.