On Today's Episode: The players have reached floor 75, but things are beginning to get tougher, and apparently Asuna's got a new bodyguard? But even that's small potatoes compared to the bigger problem on the horizon, as the Clearers have found the floor boss, and it's a sorta-familiar face. Having dealt with the Lord of Light on floor 50, are the players ready to face off with the second of Aincrad's brother gods?
EDIT 8/25/21: Thanks to Lonnie Lonster's review, I edited a few parts of the Dharkon battle. I didn't mean to be so harsh against Corvatz, even though his stubbornness is what got him and a few of his men killed in canon as well...
Episode 11: The Demon of Darkness
October 17th, 2024
3:17 P.M. Aincrad Time
Floor 50, Algade
Agil's Shop
"H-Holy crapbaskets," Agil gasped as Aiko showed him what she'd caught in the floor 74 labyrinth. "Is... is that a freakin' Ragout Rabbit?!"
"Yes, Agil, it's a Ragout Rabbit," Aiko groaned. "It's like I didn't just finish explaining this to you."
"How the hell did you get your hands on an S-class ingredient like this?!" Agil exclaimed. "That thing's incredibly rare, you know!"
"Oh, Agil, let me tell you a tale of epic heroics and masterful planning," Aiko proclaimed, only to trail off, much to Nick and Yuuki's amusement. "...okay, I don't have anything for this. I just saw it hopping around the labyrinth, so I threw a knife at it, and... it died and gave me the meat."
"...you disappoint me, Aiko," Agil teased.
"I disappoint myself," Aiko replied.
"Besides all of that, are you sure you wanna sell this thing?" Agil wondered. "I mean, I know money is nice, but I'm sure you guys have more than enough to get by! Besides, this is an S-Class ingredient! Wouldn't you rather eat it yourselves?"
"I'd love to, but I haven't bothered to bump up my Cooking skill," Aiko answered. "And I'm not sure I'd want to know what Fortune's Market would do with it. So, we're kinda up the creek."
Almost as if on cue, the door to the shop opened and in strolled Asuna herself, though this time she was being followed by a man with pony-tailed, long, black hair who looked to be in his mid-twenties, but looked much older due to the wrinkles on his face.
"Oh, there you guys are," Asuna proclaimed. "I just wanted to let you know that it shouldn't be much longer before we can challenge the floor 75 boss."
"I seriously can't believe we've already made it to floor 75," Nick admitted. "If we keep going at the pace we're going, we'll be done with this game in no time flat."
"Let's just hope the game agrees with that sentiment," Yuuki quipped.
Footsteps suddenly resounded from outside, and Asuna stepped aside to allow Lux to fling herself straight into Yuuki's arms.
"Hey, hey, what's with the flying hug attack, silly?" Yuuki giggled.
"I missed you, Yuuki," Lux admitted. "You didn't come back right away from the labyrinth, so..."
"Let me guess, Lis told you to come after us?" Nick teased.
"...maybe," Lux answered.
"NICK NEEDS A HUG!" Strea shouted as she leaped into the room to crush Nick in one of her famous super-hugs. "It was actually me that told her, to be fair."
Lux had rather quickly grown accustomed to being with the Sleeping Knights, much less being with people she could actually trust. Despite some people's worries that she had been a member of Laughing Coffin, those fears had quickly been dispelled when Lux herself had explained they'd only been using her as a patsy.
One thing the Sleeping Knights had noticed ever since Lux had joined them was that Lux was a very huggy person. They weren't sure if she'd been like that before SAO, but she hugged everyone in the Sleeping Knights multiple times per day, to the point where even Strea, the guild's resident hug-giver, had been surprised. Nick and friends theorized that it was most likely due to a combination of Laughing Coffin's treatment of her and learning to trust people again.
It was then that Asuna noticed the ingredient that had been the topic of discussion before she'd arrived.
"H-Holy crapbaskets, is that a Ragout Rabbit?!" Asuna gasped.
"Why does everyone keep harping on that?!" Aiko proclaimed.
"Say, Asuna, question for ya," Yuuki wondered. "How far along is your Cooking skill? Be honest."
"Oh, that? I actually maxed it out last week," Asuna replied, only to get a little nervous at the mischievous look Yuuki was now giving her. "What are you getting at, Yuuki?"
"Down, Yuu," Aiko quipped, pulling Yuuki away by the shoulder. "Long story short, Asuna, I found this rare ingredient in the floor 74 labyrinth, and I was going to sell it since my Cooking skill's... not all up there, but hey, if your Cooking Skill's maxed out, maybe we could do something about that."
Asuna thought for a few seconds before responding. "On one condition," Asuna proclaimed. "We split the meat between the four of us."
"DEAL!" Yuuki immediately exclaimed.
With that settled, Asuna turned to her bodyguard to address him. "I won't need to be guarded anymore today, Kuradeel," Asuna proclaimed. "You can head back to headquarters now."
Kuradeel, however, didn't immediately depart, instead giving Nick a rather intense glare.
"H-Hey, dude, stop it, you're creeping me out," Nick quipped.
Kuradeel simply scoffed before leaving the item shop.
"...all right, I feel like I've gotta ask," Yuuki stated. "Who was that jerk?"
"Oh, that's just my bodyguard," Asuna answered. "He tends to judge a lot of people too harshly. I'm trying to get him to ease up just a little, but he tends not to listen."
"I can tell," Aiko replied.
October 17th, 2024
6:34 P.M. Aincrad Time
Floor 61, Selmburg
Asuna's House
"Man, you've got quite a slick pad here, Asuna," Yuuki giggled.
"I'm willing to bet it cost a lot of money, though," Aiko proclaimed as she, Yuuki, and Nick stepped into Asuna's house in the city of Selmburg, capital city of floor 61. "I mean, hello, this is Selmburg we're talking about. It's practically the most posh and hoity-toity city in all of Sword Art Online at this point."
"Well, let's not waste any more time, shall we?" Nick quipped. "Asuna, let's cook that rabbit and see how the master does things!"
"All right, all right, you don't have to hurry me, Nick," Asuna laughed as she made sure to grab the Ragout Rabbit Meat from Aiko so she could place it in her oven. "What do you guys want?"
"Chef's choice," Yuuki responded. "Surprise us, Asuna."
Asuna nodded, turning to her oven so she could begin the cooking process.
"Honestly, the cooking system in this game is too simple," Asuna admitted. "It'd be nice if we could find ways to up the flash just a little bit."
"Guess that's why it's so easy for the guys at Fortune's Market to make their delicacies," Aiko quipped. "If it's simple, players find it easier to want to do. There's a lot of players who don't want things to be too complicated."
After about five minutes of the cooking process, the oven let out a loud ding to signify that the dish was complete.
"All right, looks like we're ready!" Asuna proclaimed. "Let's dig in, shall we?"
As Asuna and the Sleeping Knights sat down for their meal (gourmet rabbit stew according to the info window), their conversation turned to something that they'd been seeing a lot of lately.
"Say, have any of you noticed just how people lately seem to be used to living here in the game?" Asuna asked.
"Yeah, it's kinda weird," Yuuki replied. "Kinda seems like some people have just accepted that this is their new reality now."
"It's been that way for nearly two years now," Nick quipped. "That would be long enough for anyone to accept that this game is our world right now."
"We seriously have to reach the end of this game as fast as we can," Aiko stated matter-of-factly. "I'm pretty sure that every single player still remaining has someone that's waiting for them IRL, after all."
"I can't imagine what my sister's been up to," Nick replied. "I really hope she and mom are doing all right while I've been gone..."
"Hey, from what you told me about Melissa, she's a tough cookie," Yuuki giggled, leaning over to kiss Nick on the cheek. "I'm sure she's pulling for you."
"Thanks, Yuuki," Nick chuckled.
"Anytime!" Yuuki laughed.
Once the meal had been finished, and Yuuki had indeed confirmed that Asuna was a cooking goddess on par with those guys from Food Wars (whatever that was; Asuna didn't watch much anime, after all)...
"So, tomorrow in Collinia, right?" Asuna asked.
"Yup," Yuuki quipped. "We're gonna finish mapping out the labyrinth and take on that dastardly boss!"
As Aiko and Yuuki discussed their plans for fighting whatever the boss of floor 75 was going to be, they didn't notice someone familiar staring at them from the nearby window.
October 18th, 2024
10:00 A.M. Aincrad Time
Floor 75, Collinia
"Any of you know where Asuna is?" Yuuki asked as she continued to pace around Collinia's Teleport Gate waiting for Asuna to arrive. "She's usually early, right?"
"Key word being 'usually', Yuu," Aiko giggled.
Almost as if fate had been waiting for someone to mention that, the Teleport Gate shined brightly, meaning someone was coming through it.
And Asuna came through, all right, yelping in shock like she'd either tripped into the gate or been tossed through it, stumbling across the ground until she fell head-first on top of Nick.
Thankfully, Nick's first instinct was to throw up his arms so they weren't anywhere near Asuna when he fell. He'd seen enough anime to know what would happen if he made any sudden movements, especially towards the chest area.
I can't help but think Asuna probably thumped someone for doing that to her in another timeline, even if it was just an accident, Nick thought.
Asuna quickly composed herself, hiding behind Nick as someone else came through the Teleport Gate. And it was Asuna's bodyguard, Kuradeel, looking thoroughly displeased.
"That will be enough of these childish shenanigans, Asuna," Kuradeel proclaimed. "Come back to headquarters immediately."
"You're supposed to be my bodyguard, not someone who breaks into my house and watches me sleep!" Asuna shot back.
"Wait, WHAT?!" Yuuki and Aiko shouted at the same time.
"Well, if you're going to be careless enough to let a bunch of cretins like them into your house, then you clearly can't be trusted to be let out of my sight," Kuradeel responded.
"Hey, Skeletor?" Nick quipped, gripping the handle of Star Cluster if he needed to. "Bit of career advice. Maybe don't treat your boss like she's a toddler playing in traffic? Asuna can take care of herself just fine, y'know."
"What was that?" Kuradeel growled. "You really think you're more qualified to protect her than I am?! Well, how about we prove that, shall we?"
An information window popped up in front of Nick, and he noticed that it was a duel request from Kuradeel.
"Yes, that's right, I challenge you to a duel," Kuradeel growled. "Let's see if your bark is as vicious as your bite, little brat."
Nick quickly hit the [ACCEPT] button for a First-Strike Duel, where the first combatant to land a solid hit would be the winner. "Are you sure you wanna do this, man?" Nick stated. "I didn't think you'd be so petty as to mess with Asuna's friends, honestly."
"Oh, don't think you can back out now, brat!" Kuradeel shouted, drawing his own sword in response. "That mouth of yours has already dug your grave, and it's too deep to claw your way out now."
"Okay, but just remember this," Nick quipped. "...I gave you an out."
Finally, the duel countdown ended, and Nick and Kuradeel charged towards each other.
Kuradeel quickly swung his weapon, noting that he was slightly faster than Nick in their strikes.
I've got the speed advantage! Kuradeel thought. This is in the bag!
However, Nick wasn't so easily dissuaded, aiming Star Cluster towards a specific point on Kuradeel's sword. Despite Kuradeel having the speed advantage, Nick was able to land a solid hit on Kuradeel's sword with a Sonic Leap, striking the weapon's weak point and actually cracking the blade right off of the handle.
Kuradeel could only stare in shock as the rest of his sword disintegrated into glowing polygons.
"Okay, so are we done here?" Nick chuckled as another info window popped up to declare him the winner of their duel.
In response, Kuradeel drew a dagger and charged at Nick, only for Asuna to swing her rapier to disarm Kuradeel effortlessly.
"That's enough, Kuradeel," Asuna proclaimed as the dagger fell back to the ground. "Just get out of here before you embarrass yourself or the knights any further."
For a split second, it looked like Kuradeel was going to disobey Asuna's command and attack Nick anyways, but after a short but intense staredown, Kuradeel relented, moving to retrieve his dagger and head to the Teleport Gate, but not without shooting a hateful glare in Nick's direction.
"Okay, so that was... a thing," Yuuki quipped. "Seriously, what crawled up his keester and died?"
"I wish I knew," Asuna admitted.
"I told him that he needs to treat his boss better," Nick stated, sheathing Star Cluster. "Sometimes it just feels like people don't like to listen to me."
"Well, at least he's out of our hair for now," Aiko proclaimed. "Why don't we head towards the labyrinth and see if we can actually get this thing done?"
With that, Asuna and the three Sleeping Knights headed out of Collinia towards the floor 75 labyrinth, not noticing the hooded figure watching the duel from the crowd.
He couldn't help but smile again. Now, he had another compatriot to recruit. This was gonna be fun.
October 18th, 2024
2:15 P.M. Aincrad Time
Floor 75 Labyrinth
"Suck on this!" Nick exclaimed as he rushed down another Armored Knight that had juked around Yuuki and was coming for him, landing a few clean jumping slashes before eviscerating the Armored Knight with a Drop Dash.
Meanwhile, Asuna was darting back and forth, once again showing off the speed that had earned her the "Lightning Flash" moniker, spearing a bunch of less-armored knights with Lambent Light while Aiko used her own rapier to take down a couple more that were trying to get Yuuki from behind.
A pop-up window informed both Nick and Aiko that they'd gained enough experience to reach level 105, same as Yuuki and Asuna's current levels.
"Thanks, you two! Now watch me clean house on the rest of these armor boys!" Yuuki laughed, brandishing both Elucidator and Dark Repulser and going to town on the remaining knights. Yuuki had no real reason to keep her dual-wielding a secret anymore, as many of the Clearers had seen her dual-wield during the Laughing Coffin assault, and, well, word spread fast in Aincrad.
Once the last of the nearby knights had been defeated, a nearby door opened that led into a large safe room. Double-checking their health pools, the four players stepped into the safe room.
At the opposite end of the room was a gigantic double door with intricate designs embedded on it, no doubt the door to the boss room.
"Yeah, that's not ominous at all," Nick quipped.
"Should we head back and see if we can get the Clearers for this one?" Yuuki asked. "If this is another 'quarterly boss' like that two-headed giant and Galeem were, it's probably not gonna be a picnic."
"We shall take care of that!"
Aiko was the first to spot the source of the new voice, which appeared to be a commander from the Aincrad Liberation Front, marching towards the safe room with a battalion of at least thirty players marching in lockstep behind him.
"Okay, what's the ALF doing here?" Aiko wondered. "I didn't know they were out on patrol..."
The commander halted right in front of Aiko and Yuuki, with his very exhausted men gladly doing the same.
"Excuse me, my ladies, but I am general Corvatz of the Aincrad Liberation Front," Corvatz proclaimed. "Tell me, has the road ahead been cleared?"
"If by cleared, you mean have we mapped out this place, the answer is everything except the boss room, which is just up ahead," Nick answered.
"Very good," Corvatz stated. "Then, I will be taking the map data for this floor."
"H-Hey, wait a minute, you can't just do that!" Yuuki sputtered. "We worked hard to map out this place, you know! You really think we're just going to give it up that easily?!"
"Yuuki, it's okay," Nick responded, handing the requested data over to Corvatz. "I was gonna make it public knowledge anyway, considering we're right in front of the floor 75 boss."
"Then, we shall take on this boss," Corvatz proclaimed, turning towards the boss gate in heroic-looking fashion. "After all, we are the Aincrad Liberation Front, determined to make a name for ourselves and inspire the players still trapped!"
"Um, that's fine and all, but look at you!" Aiko exclaimed, gesturing to Corvatz's battalion, who were all very much exhausted and groaning in pain. No doubt they had been on a harsh journey to get here. "Your men can barely even stand, much less fight, and you're seriously going to take on the boss in your condition?! That's a prime way to get yourselves murdered, you know!"
"Oh, so you doubt me, little lady?" Corvatz taunted. "Then how about you stand back and I show you how strong we truly are?"
Corvatz and his men began marching forward once again, opening the boss gate by touching the hieroglyphics embedded on the gateway.
"I've got a really, really bad feeling about this," Nick quipped.
"How do you figure, Nick?" Yuuki asked.
"For one thing, that gateway looks very familiar," Nick stated. "And if the vibes I'm getting are correct, then we might have a serious fight on our hands. Let's follow them into the boss room and see if we can, at the very least, help these guys stay alive."
"Yeah, we don't want them to turn into sheep that Corvatz unknowingly herds off a cliff," Aiko replied.
With that said, Asuna and the three Sleeping Knights readied their weapons, made sure they had a full inventory of crystals and other items they'd need, and followed Corvatz and his men into the boss chamber.
The chamber in question was, once again, much larger than was typical for a floor boss, with oddly-shaped torches dotting the circumference of the room, each one lit with a black flame that gave the entire room an eerie, almost hell-ish look.
"Um... where's the boss?" one of the knights asked.
"It's not going to ambush us, is it?!" another knight gasped.
Just out of curiosity, Nick looked upwards and saw another batch of ancient text lining the opposite wall of the arena.
"What does it say, Nick?" Asuna wondered.
Nick took a couple steps forward, still consumed by an intense feeling of déjà vu, and read the ancient text as his HUD translated it for him.
"The brother gods' great war raged on, with seemingly no end in sight," Nick proclaimed. "After a thousand years of unceasing battle, the god of darkness concocted a devilish plan to usurp his brother's power and control everything. However, the god of light was too clever, and imprisoned the god of darkness within an ancient, time-worn castle, never to be seen again. Though the god of light was forced to imprison himself as well, in order to keep both seals safe, this marked the end of the brother gods' feud, and the world was left to heal."
"So, dark boy tried to overthrow his brother, but Galeem wasn't having it?" Yuuki quipped. "Sounds about accurate..."
Suddenly, Yuuki gasped in shock as the realization hit her like a ton of flying bricks.
"Y-Yuuki, what is it?" Asuna asked.
Nick looked up to the ceiling of the chamber and saw that, just like in floor 50's boss chamber, there was an ancient drawing of two sphere-like entities, resembling the brother gods, clashing with each other. One had two angelic wings sprouting from it, and the other had bat-like wings sprouting from it.
Unlike floor 50, however, in this inscription, the bat-winged sphere was glowing as if it was winning.
"That thing said that the god of darkness was supposed to be imprisoned in a castle like this place, right?" Yuuki proclaimed. "And the god of light was forced to seal himself to keep this one sealed, right?"
"Well, yeah, but what does any of that fluff have to do with the battle ahead?" Corvatz taunted.
Yuuki turned towards Corvatz, a serious expression highlighting her face.
"...who did we fight on floor 50?" Yuuki asked.
Fear and horror began to sink in for Corvatz's battalion when they made the same realization. A loud crack drew all of the players' attention to the very roof of the chamber, where something could be seen attempting to break out of the statue that hung from the ceiling.
"Get ready, everyone!" Asuna shouted, drawing Lambent Light and preparing herself.
The statue on the ceiling exploded violently, causing a large eyeball to fall to the floor. It opened its slitted eyeball, gazing at the players surrounding it before it started floating into the air.
"W-wait, that's the boss?!" a knight laughed.
He would quickly stop laughing when the ceiling exploded again, causing a mass of organic-looking tentacles to burst through the ceiling and wind their way around the eyeball much like Galeem's feathery wings had.
"I figured as much," Nick quipped. "It's the second of the brother gods."
"His Shadowy Majesty..." Yuuki gasped.
"The Demon of Darkness..." Aiko stated.
"Dharkon," Nick, Yuuki and Aiko proclaimed.
In response, Dharkon, the Demon of Darkness, squealed an unholy sound before slowly approaching the players, almost as if it was expecting them to just bum-rush it.
One of the knights shouted in rage and attempted to charge Dharkon and attack its eye with his spear, only for Dharkon to simply whip one of its tentacles out and backhand the player into a nearby wall, taking out a fourth of his health in the process.
"Not a good start, honestly," Aiko stated as she began to slowly circle Dharkon, just waiting for it to make a move.
One of Dharkon's tentacles detached from the main "body" and began to fly around the arena, with its eye attached to the end of it. A couple knights attempted to attack the tentacle while it was flying around, only to be bashed aside when said tentacle sped up. A few other knights did the smart thing and moved to attack the rest of the tentacle mass while the eye was moving around, but sadly, it barely did any damage to the first of Dharkon's four health bars.
"Aw, man, I really thought that would work," one of the knights groaned.
"That probably means that the eyeball itself is the weak point," Nick quipped, dashing after the loose tentacle and striking the prone eyeball with a Sonic Leap, stopping the tentacle and allowing Nick to deliver a few clean hits before the eyeball returned to Dharkon.
While Dharkon floated there, preparing for its next attack, three knights all moved in and started hacking away at the eyeball, happy to see that they were making actual dents in Dharkon's health bar.
While this was happening, Dharkon unfurled one of its tentacles and slashed through the three attackers, not doing much actual damage but causing a long red line of energy to linger that slowed the players down as they attempted to escape.
Sadly, only one of those three was able to get away when Dharkon unfurled two more of its tentacles and stabbed two of the players in the chest, rapidly dropping their health to zero. The third player just barely got away as the slowing effect wore off, only to watch his comrades explode into a cloud of glowing polygons.
"All right, now I'm mad," Yuuki growled, charging forward to attack Dharkon herself, since she'd noticed that Dharkon had to re-furl its tentacles after that attack, which left its eyeball wide open. This gave Yuuki all the time she needed to start blitzing the eyeball with both of her swords, landing strike after strike as quickly as she could.
"Man, look at her go!" one of the knights exclaimed as Yuuki continued to go to town on Dharkon's eyeball.
By the time Yuuki had to stop her attack and jump away to avoid another tentacle stab attack, Dharkon had lost about half of its first health bar.
"All right, progress," Yuuki quipped as she prepared for whatever Dharkon would do next.
Dharkon then planted two of its tentacles into the ground, its tips glowing with dark energy. A few seconds later, pillars of darkness began to erupt from random points on the floor of the arena, forcing everyone to stay on the move for a few seconds.
When the pillars stopped, both Nick and Yuuki took the advantage and started wailing on the eyeball with everything they had, eventually doing enough damage to deplete the first health bar.
Dharkon's tentacles curled around the eyeball before repositioning themselves, followed by Dharkon vanishing and creating a shroud of darkness around Corvatz that eventually left him and formed into a darkness-based clone of himself.
"Hmph," Corvatz proclaimed as Dharkon reappeared. "This is all you send to challenge me, mister eyeball? I am disappointed!"
"GET AWAY FROM THAT THING, CORVATZ!" Nick shouted, knowing exactly how this had gone down against Galeem.
Sadly, just like the battle with Galeem, Nick's warning came too late.
Corvatz slashed his sword forward in a Horizontal Square to actually push his clone back, only for it to leap straight at Corvatz and explode violently into a cloud of darkness, the explosion sending Corvatz flying head-first into the opposite wall of the boss arena.
Asuna moved to catch Corvatz before he could hit the ground, only for Corvatz's avatar to disintegrate into glowing polygons.
"Okay, now you're asking for it, eyeball boy!" Aiko growled as she lunged forward with a Shooting Star, a powerful full-body thrust attack that did four heavy hits on Dharkon's eyeball. "Corvatz may have been stubborn and cocky, but he was one of us! You're gonna pay for that!"
Asuna performed a Shooting Star as well while Dharkon was distracted with Aiko, and this attack caused Dharkon's tentacles to all fly away temporarily, causing the eyeball to fall to the ground, very obviously stunned.
"It's not... gonna fake us out, is it?" a knight asked.
"I think we're gonna have to take this chance while we can!" Nick exclaimed, switching out with Asuna to unleash an Ars Arcanum on Dharkon's eyeball while it was stunned, and Nick was happy to see each strike do visible damage to Dharkon's second health bar.
Thankfully, Dharkon's eyeball didn't pull any tricks when the tentacles came back and wrapped around it. Dharkon flew back slightly before unfurling many of its tentacles and wildly flailing them around, which prevented anybody from getting close enough.
The barrage of tentacles ceased after about five seconds, and Nick moved in to strike while he could, hitting Dharkon's eyeball with a Brave Rondo followed by a Drop Dash.
After this, Dharkon used its Centipede attack from the beginning of the fight, but this time, Aiko followed a knight to protect him as the tentacle tried to slap them away, parrying the strike and retaliating with a Quadruple Pain that immobilized Dharkon's eyeball, allowing all of the nearby players to go to town on the eyeball and eventually drain Dharkon's second health bar.
Dharkon's tentacles all shuddered before forming a cocoon around the eyeball, while two shrouds of darkness surrounded Nick and Yuuki, forming dark clones of themselves.
Knowing how this song and dance went, Nick and Yuuki swung their weapons to push their dark clones away, then dove to the sides when the clones jumped them so that when the clones exploded, they were safely out of range.
"It seems like most of Dharkon's attacks are similar to Galeem's," Asuna noted as Nick, Yuuki and Aiko all regrouped.
"Yeah, but I think the big difference is that Dharkon's a lot slower, but a lot stronger," Nick quipped as he avoided another Tear Apart from Dharkon, slipping under the red slowing field to land three clean slashes on the eyeball.
"Not to mention there's more delay time in between each of its attacks," Aiko stated. "Honestly, it kinda fits the brother gods."
After about five more minutes, the players had gotten Dharkon down to about three-fifths of its third health bar. Then, Dharkon moved its tentacles and eyeball to resemble a gatling gun.
"Move, MOVE!" Yuuki shouted, and just in time, too, as Dharkon's eyeball began to fire a barrage of blood-red energy bullets around the arena. Thanks to Yuuki's warning, only a few players suffered damage from this attack, and that damage was thankfully minimal.
"Eat this, eye boy!" one of the braver knights shouted as he attacked Dharkon's eyeball with a Horizontal Square. "You'll pay for slaughtering our leader!"
Thankfully, the knight was able to put up his shield to defend himself when Dharkon stabbed at him with one of its tentacles.
Dharkon continued to stab at the player with its tentacles at least five different times, but he was thankfully able to deflect each stab with his shield, leaving Dharkon's eyeball exposed.
"Say, Nick, I was wondering why you never use a shield," Asuna asked as she moved in to stab Dharkon's eyeball a few times.
"Well, honestly, even after two years in SAO, I'm not actually sure," Nick quipped. "I am considering trying one out, just in case, considering I'm sure things are only gonna get tougher from here on out."
"What about you, Asuna?" Yuuki asked as she sliced Dharkon's eyeball with rapid swings from both Elucidator and Dark Repulser. "I mean, I don't normally use a shield because of my dual-wielding, obviously."
"A shield only slows down my rapier attacks," Asuna replied.
"Oh, you, too?" Aiko giggled. "Yeah, I learned that lesson the hard way on floor 62..."
It didn't take too much longer to deplete Dharkon's third health bar, which caused its tentacles to stretch out in an unnatural fashion before snapping back around the eyeball.
"Everyone, if you need to use a crystal to heal, DO IT NOW!" Yuuki shouted, knowing what was most likely about to happen.
The few wounded players thankfully obliged, quickly using a Healing Crystal to get themselves back to full health before Dharkon dropped a small sphere of darkness from its eyeball. That sphere quickly expanded to cover the whole room, turning the boss chamber into an Anti-Crystal Zone much like what had happened with Galeem's final phase. Along with this, a wave of darkness began circling the circumference of the arena.
"We're almost through, everyone! We can do this!" Asuna proclaimed. "Don't give up now!"
"Yeah! Never give up, never surrender!" a couple knights shouted as they moved to attack Dharkon even as shrouds of darkness surrounded them to create dark clones of them. The players just stayed away from their dark clones as they exploded this time around.
In response to this, Dharkon whipped some of its tentacles around and planted six small spherical objects that quickly exploded into X-shaped blasts of darkness. This attacked covered enough of a radius to keep the players away for a short time.
When the attack ceased, Nick rushed in to strike, slicing at the eyeball with a Brave Rondo before jumping away so as not to get stabbed by the tentacles.
After a few more minutes of battle, Dharkon opened four portals around itself, sending four of its tentacles into them. More portals opened around the arena from which the tentacles came rocketing through, scattering the remaining knights and leaving one of them open for another tentacle to stab him through the chest, killing him instantly.
"We need to finish this thing off before we lose any more people!" Asuna shouted, dodging away from Dharkon's pillars of darkness. At this point of the battle, Dharkon only had a little over half of its final health bar left.
"Hey, Nick? Can you see if you can inflict Heavy Paralysis on mister eyeball?" Yuuki asked. "If you can do that, I should be able to end this madness with a new Sword Skill I just learned recently."
"I'm all over that," Nick proclaimed, moving closer to Dharkon's eyeball while it was recovering from its dark pillar attack and striking it with a Vertical Square, thankfully inflicting Heavy Paralysis and locking Dharkon's eyeball in place.
"FINISH THAT THING OFF, YUUKI!" many of the knights proclaimed.
"Well, if I must," Yuuki giggled as she charged Dharkon's eyeball, intent on ending this thing once and for all.
Yuuki started with a left-to-right horizontal slash with Dark Repulser, then an uppercut with Elucidator. Yuuki then jumped up and slashed Dharkon's eyeball with both swords from left to right while spinning twice, then landing and slashing in an X formation from top to bottom, before doing it again from bottom to top. Yuuki then leaped at Dharkon and made two diagonal slashes from the starting point, with the left sword heading from top to bottom to the left and the right sword heading from bottom to top toward the right.
Nick, Asuna, and Aiko were already impressed, as were many of the other players in the party, but Yuuki wasn't done yet, as she flipped her swords to reverse-grip them and slash another X from top to bottom in Dharkon's eyeball. After this, Yuuki did some kind of barrel roll attack, slashing at the eyeball like a corkscrew. This done, Yuuki once again slashed two X's into Dharkon's eyeball, once from top to bottom, then bottom to top.
The attack continued as Yuuki made a diagonal slash with Dark Repulser, top-right to bottom-left, then spun left and used her momentum to deal a horizontal, right-to-left slash with Elucidator. The next few attacks were a blur to most of the players, but Yuuki made an uppercut with Dark Repulser, then another with Elucidator, a downward slash with Dark Repulser, then a downward diagonal slash towards the right with Elucidator, spun and repeated the previous attack, and thrust Dark Repulser outwards. Finally, Yuuki did a powerful downward lunge with Elucidator, then finished the attack with an outward flourish with Dark Repulser.
Once the final blow had been dealt and Dharkon's health dropped to zero, its tentacles began wildly convulsing around the eyeball before aiming themselves at Yuuki like it was trying to take her down with it, since she was still stuck in the post-motion delay from using Starburst Stream. Thankfully, Dharkon's eyeball exploded into great torrents of darkness and the tentacles all collapsed to the ground, shriveled up and exploded into a massive cloud of glowing polygons that rained down across the boss chamber.
The massive "CONGRATULATIONS!" banner that appeared over the arena to celebrate the boss' defeat was a massive relief to everyone that was still standing once Dharkon had vanished and the arena brightened considerably.
In particular, Yuuki fell backwards to the ground, exhausted from the long battle, but happy that it was finally over.
"You okay there, Yuuki?" Nick asked, as he'd rushed to Yuuki's side the instant he saw her fall over.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Yuuki gasped. "Exhausted as heck, but a-okay otherwise."
Naturally, Asuna was already taking stock of how many players were remaining now that the battle was concluded. In total, the entire group had lost four players to Dharkon, including Corvatz himself.
"Man, that's the first time we've had casualties against a boss since floor 67," Aiko sighed. "You think that's a sign that things are going to get even tougher from here on out?"
"It seems like it," Nick quipped. "But we're not gonna give up now. We're so close, after all. If we can keep up the speed at which we've been clearing the floors lately, it hopefully won't be much longer before we can actually finish this game and get home."
"YUUKI!"
Yuuki looked up just in time to see Lux fling herself towards her and tackle her to the ground in a worried bear hug. The other Sleeping Knights were also in the boss chamber now that the boss in question was defeated and the room unlocked, and even Heathcliff and a few Clearers from the KoB were not far behind.
"I-I'm okay, Lux," Yuuki gasped as she picked herself up to hug Lux back. "Sorry if I scared you guys, we kinda got dragged into the boss fight by accident..."
"Yeah, that's what Commander Heathcliff was saying!" Lisbeth exclaimed. "He said he saw a battalion from the ALF marching through the labyrinth, and, well..."
"They're the whole reason we all got dragged into the boss fight," Aiko stated, answering Heathcliff's unasked question. "The battalion's commander thought he and his exhausted me could beat the boss, so we had to follow them to keep 'em out of trouble, and just like that, we all got roped into fighting Dharkon."
"Wait, wait, so the boss was the second brother god?!" Strea gasped, running over to hug Nick tightly like she always did. "Man, we must have missed an epic showdown!"
"Yeah, you missed a throwdown, Strea," Yuuki chuckled. "But we'll tell you all about it when we get to the next floor."
"I really wish we could have helped you," Silica stated. "Now that we're a lot higher level, it might have made a difference..."
When it came to the current levels of the other Sleeping Knights, Silica was currently level 86, Lisbeth was level 87, Sachi was level 85, Strea was level 92, and Lux was only level 72, having not done too much fighting during her time with Laughing Coffin, but she was improving rapidly.
"Hey, don't worry about a thing, Silica," Nick quipped, walking over and patting Silica on the shoulder. "This was just an unfortunate accident. Next time, I promise you'll get to show off your skills."
"Okay, I'll hold you to that," Silica giggled, leaning in to hug Nick.
"I wonder what the next floor's going to be like," Sachi wondered. "Considering how the past few have been..."
"Guess the only thing we can do is head there and find out," Aiko proclaimed as Yuuki dashed to the opposite side of the boss chamber, where a wall had just moved away to reveal a short walkway to the Teleport Gate.
"Here we go," Yuuki quipped, reaching out to touch the Teleport Gate and activate it so they could all move on to floor 76.
"Teleport: Arc Sophia!"
October 18th, 2024
5:07 P.M. Aincrad Time
Floor 76
Arc Sophia
"Wow, this place is beautiful," Asuna gasped as she and all the nearby players beheld the capital settlement of floor 76, Arc Sophia, a bustling market town with many winding streets full of shops of many different kinds.
"I've got a feeling that this is gonna be many players' home base for the final quarter of this game," Aiko stated.
"Well, why don't we start exploring, everyone?" Yuuki proclaimed. "I'm sure we could all use a breather after that literal demon of a boss fight."
And as the Sleeping Knights began to explore Arc Sophia and everything that it had to offer, Nick couldn't help but think, as he tended to do with every floor boss that fell to the combined might of all the over 6,000 or so remaining players.
Were they really any closer to defeating Sword Art Online?
Or were the truest terrors this game had yet to offer not far away?
Nick looked over at Yuuki, who was currently pointing out different possible hangouts for the Sleeping Knights, and recalled his promise that he'd made way back on the first floor.
No. We're not going to back down, Nick thought. We owe it to everyone who's still trapped in this game. We will defeat Sword Art Online, no matter what it takes.
And when Yuuki walked up to him and kissed him, that was enough to calm his mind down.
To be continued...
On the next episode...
Yuuki: UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Nick: ...is everything okay, Yuuki?
Yuuki: Why are we being forced to undergo mandatory training with mister creepy-face, especially after what he tried to do to Asuna?!
Aiko: He looks regretful. Maybe he realized he overstepped his boundaries or something?
Yuuki: My biggest complaint is, look at our levels! The three of us are at least twenty levels higher than that guy!
Nick: My question is, who the heck is that?
Aiko: Wait, she disappeared. Could she be a... a ghost?
Nick: Well, alongside a possible training arc, it seems like we've got a ghost story of sorts to solve next time on Sword Art Online: Twin Memory, "The Girl of Morning Dew"!
Nick, Yuuki and Aiko: This may be a game, but it's not something you play!