November 7th, 2022
1548 JST
At the age of fourteen, Kirigaya Kazuto was more desperate than any time he could ever remember in his short life. He had been trapped in this death game for less than a day, yet he could already feel panic clawing at his sanity.
If he failed here, he would never be able to apologize to Suguha for pushing her away for so long, making it seem as if he didn't care about her. This determination, along with the anxiety of being faced with death at almost all times, drove Kirito to take some desperate measures.
The boy had spent the entire night leveling, not even stopping to eat or sleep. He knew that the mental fatigue could be ignored, and it wouldn't really have too much of an effect until later on. It was a strategy Kirito had employed during the Beta, in order to become that much stronger than his fellow testers. Now though, with his life on the line, Kirito didn't even entertain the thought of resting. Too much was at risk.
The teen had gotten to level 8 during his Nepenthes killing spree, then gained another three levels during his night session, now sitting at level 11. His strength was now 31, and his agility was a whopping 46. Kirito's high stats showed in the way he sliced through Dire Wolves like a hot knife through butter.
At level 8, the wolves were the strongest mobs on the first floor, just below the Ruin Kobold Sentinels and the Floor Boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord. The Sentinels were level 10 while the Boss was a monstrous 25. Luckily, Kirito knew Illfang's attack pattern like the back of his hand.
Before the Beta players had gotten the hang of the game controls and combat system, they died many times to the 1st Floor Boss, Kirito being among them. As a result, they were exposed to his dense shield, broad axe, and serrated Talwar more times than necessary.
Even if Kirito was unable to take down the boss, he could still farm the Sentinels- they respawned every 30 seconds, once all of the others died. At level 10, they made for much more rewarding opponents than the wolves.
Now, the only issue was to find the Boss Room...
It had taken another day to find the Boss, which sat on top of the labyrinth dungeon which connected the 1st and 2nd floors. In hindsight, Kirito should've known that from the start, but he figured it out eventually.
The reason it took another day was because Kirito made sure to completely clear out the dungeon, gaining another level in the process due to the sheer amount of mobs, and returned to the Town of Beginnings to quickly stock up on healing potions. He would save armor and weapon upgrades for later, once he felt like acquiring all the materials. For now, he had improved his stats enough that the current weakness of the Anneal Blade didn't matter, and he was too fast for most of the monsters to even touch, let alone hit.
Kirito wasn't particularly worried about attempting to solo the first Boss, despite the fact that he could die in real life if he got too cocky. The plan was simple; get in, farm the Sentinels, avoid the Boss, and leave.
Which is why Kirito was completely unprepared for the massive Boss Room doors to close, locking him in the chamber.
Since he was not within the currently sleeping Boss' aggro-range yet, Kirito ran back to the doors and tried pulling as hard as he could, to no avail.
"Shit!" The teen muttered. He had few choices now; either fight the Boss, and probably die, or wait for the rest of the players to gather the courage to hunt the Boss, freeing him from the room. Unfortunately, Kirito remembered the haunted, terrified looks of the rest of the SAO community back in the Town of Beginnings- they wouldn't be here for a while.
Kirito could not afford to wait days, weeks, possibly months for the rest of the playerbase to overcome their fear of death and catch up. Resolving himself to focus on dodging and parrying over offense, Kirito ran at the Boss.
At about 20 meters away, Illfang opened his ruby red eyes, and placed his penetrating glare on Kirito.
The teen quickly closed the 20 meters within moments, and began slashing away, without the use of sword skills. Illfang always had a little less than 30 seconds of charge up time, in which he performed his battle-initiating roar and summoned his two Ruin Kobold Sentinels.
By the time said ritual was complete, Kirito had already demolished one of the Boss' four health bars, and then leapt back to avoid being backstabbed by the Sentinels. Illfang roared once more, then charged the player.
Kirito parried the first strike from the glowing axe, but could not capitalize on it as the Sentinels jumped in to interfere. Growling in irritation, Kirito quickly slashed off the arm of one Sentinel, and blocked a blow from another. By this time, Illfang recovered, and jumped over the Sentinels to deliver devastating damage. Kirito, who was caught in a bladelock with the Sentinel, had no choice but to take the hit. The teen was sent flying backwards, both to his relief and anxiety.
Quickly ingesting a healing potion, Kirito continued to backpedal as he waited for his health to regenerate. One Sentinel had it's arm sliced off, and could therefore no longer attack due to the two-handed requirements of the poleax. The second Sentinel had lost nothing more than a few points of HP. Both were still advancing towards the player, just barely keeping ahead of the Boss.
Kirito had to play his cards carefully. If he killed the current two Sentinels, three more would spawn- a consequence of lowering the Boss' HP by a quarter. With every health bar that vanished, an extra Sentinel would spawn, which normally wouldn't be an issue if there was a battalion of assailants. Unfortunately, this wasn't a normal battle.
If Kirito wanted to survive, he would need to incapacitate the Sentinels without killing them, all while avoiding the Kobold Lord's crushing blows. Just one had brought his health down by half- he didn't want to see if he could tank them. A daunting task, but something the gamer felt confident he could do.
Kirito regretted his arrogance greatly. Everything had gone fine, until the Boss only had 10% health left. Then, the battle went to Hell.
Illfang tossed aside his shield and axe, pulled out his nodachi- "Where the fuck is his Talwar!?"- then began leaping about the Boss Room with unmatched agility. It was impressive, as well as downright terrifying. Kirito had to block and parry attacks from all angles, all while keeping the Sentinels from knocking him over.
The Sentinels now numbered at 6. They had automatically respawned once Illfang entered the second phase, which greatly concerned Kirito. He had yet to be able to pull another disarming maneuver, busy as he was blocking all the attacks. It seemed he wouldn't be getting a chance soon, either, since the Kobold Lord had stopped bouncing around, and instead simply focused on running Kirito down.
The player had to sprint to the edge of the Boss Room, outside the Boss' aggro-range, and began to block the flurry of attacks from the Sentinels, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
The chance came when the final Sentinel attacked was parried, and the other mobs were still recovering from stun/skill cooldown. Kirito took the opening, running his Anneal Blade through the Kobold's throat, making it shatter into polygons instantly. With a sigh of relief, Kirito dove back into battle, performing the same act until the Sentinels were all dead, noting how much easier it became everytime another monster died.
Now, with all the Ruin Kobold Sentinels dead, Kirito could finally focus on the Kobold Lord. Breathing a lot heavier than before, the teen quickly downed a healing potion to bring his health up to max. From there, he simply observed the Boss, waiting for the mental fatigue to lessen a bit.
Illfang was staring at the gamer with palpable hatred, red eyes glowing eerily despite the well-lit room. Fortunately, the Boss did not act, due to Kirito's position outside the aggro-range. The teen thanked Kami for small blessings.
Finally feeling slightly less tired, Kirito began to move in, slowly, to determine where the edge of the Boss's aggro-range was. Once he was level with the pillar closest to the door, Illfang roared once more. Taking note of the location, Kirito quickly stepped back, causing the Boss to freeze in his tracks before shuffling back to the center of the room.
Heaving another sigh of relief, Kirito tensed every virtual muscle in his leg, prepared to explode towards the Boss. With an intense amount of effort, and squeezing everything he could out of his agility stat, Kirito reached Illfang within seconds. Unfortunately, the Boss was no slouch, and was ready for their first clash.
The first swing of the Anneal Blade was blocked, and Illfang overpowered Kirito after a few seconds, sending the gamer backwards. The Boss leapt forward, bringing his Nodachi overhead to prepare for a heavy downward strike. The massive weapon glowed red, signifying the build-up of a sword skill, which Kirito wasn't going to allow. Rushing forward, he placed his sword on his shoulder, activating a Sonic Leap. Charging it for a second, he waited as the Kobold Lord swung down.
Timing it perfectly, Kirito sidestepped, and launched right up into Illfang's face, sword first. Said sword dug into the Boss's eye, taking down the remaining 10% of health to 5%.
"Dammit!" Kirito shouted, sure that such a critical hit would have ended it. Unfortunately, the Boss's extremely high natural defense said otherwise.
The Anneal Blade was still stuck in Illfang's eye, and Kirito still in midair, when the Kobold Lord recovered from his failed sword skill cooldown time, and batted the gamer away. The combination of powerful blow and the skidding landing resulted in the teen's health falling into the red immediately.
Slightly panicking at being weaponless- the sword was wrenched out his grasp- and so close to death, Kirito had his inventory open in milliseconds.
One issue, though. He was out of health potions.
"Fuck…" Kirito muttered. His health bar looked about equal with Illfang's remaining one, but he knew a percentage was much different from a concrete number.
'I got cocky! What the fuck was I thinking, trying to solo a Boss!?'
Hoisting himself to his feet, Kirito quickly turned away from Illfang, and began stumbling towards the edge of the room. The Kobold Lord had to waste a few precious seconds pulling his sword out the floor, but then immediately leapt high into the air.
Kirito, hearing the monster's roar, poured on more speed in a desperate bid to live. He saw the one of the pillars which made up the ring that signified the edge of the aggro-range, and prayed to Kami that he would make it. A mere meter away from the pillars, he tripped. On his own foot.
"SHIT!"
Kirito immediately began scrambling on hands and knees, his heart beating so fast he was sure it would have exploded had this been the real world.
He heard the raging, garbled breaths behind him, and against his better sense, turned around- a decision he immediately regretted.
Illfang was looming over him, the monster's huge loincloth sitting basically in front of the teen's face. Kirito almost gagged, and thanked Kami that Kayaba Akihiko at least had the mercy to not include an advanced sense of smell, or Kirito would surely have been throwing up.
His gaze traveling up past Illfang's gargantuan gut, the gamer looked the monster right in those ruby red eyes, and shivered at the killing intent hidden behind them.
The monster slowly lifted his Nodachi up, the action causing Kirito to spur himself into action, scooting backwards on his rear end. The Nodachi glowed a bright purple, then glimmered as the sword skill finished charging- at which point, Illfang struck.
Full of adrenaline as he was, Kirito could hear the massive blade whistling through the air. He kept scooting, but stopped to throw his hands over his head in an attempt to block the blow which was now barely a meter from him.
A blow which never came.
The gamer slowly opened his eyes, only to see the Nodachi suspended in the air above him. Then, it moved once more.
Luckily, the blade didn't continue it's previous path, it actually moved away from him. Confused, Kirito watched as the blade was withdrawn, and the Kobold Lord turned around to lumber back towards the room center. Glancing around, Kirito noted with immense relief that he had managed to exit the aggro-range, just barely. It was a lot closer than he would've liked.
The teen exhaled quite loudly, and simpy sat there for a few minutes, before working up the energy to drag himself a bit further from the pillars- just in case.
Now, with less than 5% health, no healing potions, and no weapon, Kirito was as good as dead. He had unfortunately sold the Beginning Sword when he restocked on health potions. The only thing that remained was to take the final hit.
Despite the futility of the situation, Kirito didn't want to die. He still had to apologize to Suguha, his mom and dad, his few friends at school- the boy had yet to even get a girlfriend, for crying out loud! He had spent far too much of his time pushing away the people close to him, when he should have been grateful for what he had.
With nothing left to lose-except his life, obviously- Kirito decided to try something risky, something he did in the Beta, but was unsure if it had been patched.
Gathering up his courage, and steadying his heartbeat, Kirito took a hesitant step forward, keeping his eyes trained on Illfang the Kobold Lord.
Another step, this time shakier. His nerves were starting to get the better of him.
Another step. He was at the edge of the ring of pillars, centimeters away from stepping into the aggro-range.
Steeling his will, Kirito broke into an all-out sprint. He vaguely heard the Kobold Lord's roar, but he ignored in favor of keeping up his speed.
In the corner of his peripheral, the gamer saw Illfang leap into the air, as the Boss tended to do,the massive gut betraying the insane agility.
But Kirito ignored it. His sights were currently on the Anneal Blade, laying on the ground after it was dislodged at some point. Focusing every bit of his mind, Kirito lowered his torso while he ran, fingers nearly grazing the ground, until he finally was close enough to snatch up the sword. Wasting no time on theatrics, Kirito sheathed the sword without breaking stride.
His new target; the massive spiral staircase, opposite the Boss Room door.
It took precious seconds to cross the remaining distance, leaving the seemingly simple task of climbing.
That notion was destroyed as Illfang landed right behind Kirito, Nodachi flashing blue, and nearly took the teen's head off. Luckily, Kirito ducked just in time, only receiving an impromptu haircut for his troubles. The Nodachi got stuck in the pillar, giving the boy a few moments to get away.
Taking the steps two at a time, an impressive feat for such tall and long stairs, the gamer ascended at an incredible rate, scarcely paying attention to anything other than the rhythm of his feet. If he tripped now, he would likely tumble off the steps, and the fall would kill him. And if it didn't, the Kobold Lord would.
Pushing away the thoughts, Kirito noticed the massive doors at the top of the stairs coming into view. Pouring on more speed, the gamer rammed into the doors with the force of a speeding car. Said doors flung wide open, and Kirito continued running, not stopping until he nearly collided with a human figure. An NPC. Kirito observed his new surroundings.
Immediately, he noted the intense difference in lighting. Here, in this apparent NPC village, the sun shone brightly, a welcome sight, whereas the Boss Room was lit by dull torches.
The houses were rather small, made of wood and straw, only 1 story tall. These houses couldn't have been large enough to have more than 3 or 4 rooms. There was one 2 story building, which also happened to be the only building with a wooden roof, indicating that it was important somehow.
NPCs were milling about, but no words were exchanged. It was eerie, but Kirito knew that all NPCs required player interaction to start speaking, regardless of how unlikely that was for some.
A few merchant carts were set up around the area, indicating that this was the town square that the gamer had stumbled upon.
Kirito flopped down on the ground, taking a moment to simply go over the previous events in his head. He had survived.
He had successfully skipped the Boss fight.
Stats:
Level-12
Strength-32
Agility-47
Stat Points-5
Weapon-Anneal Blade +0