Sword Art Online

After The Incident

Chapter 47 – When Darkness Falls

~Sinon's POV~

I widened my eyes. Kyouji's avatar slowly collapsed and disappeared out of sight, having fallen to Kirito's homemade boss avatar. I growled silently, a rage building inside me.

"Dammit Kyouji…" I mumbled silently, putting another arrow on my bow "I told you to wait!"

I ran forward and cast a few support spells on myself for agility and reload speed, before going ham on the Ares boss, sending a new coverage barrage his way so he couldn't approach the main player group too early.

"Guys, I have a plan" I ran up to the others, who had all assembled somewhere in the back of the boss room "We should get rid of Ares first"

"And why the hell should we do that!?" Klein said with a growl, gazing over at Ares and suddenly shouting "Look out!"

We responded immediately and only just managed to dodge out of the way of a fireball sent with a friendly reminder that the Ares boss was actually not dead yet.

"Damn, they don't give up on us at all" Agil mumbled in spite "Klein has a point though. Why shouldn't we get rid of Mercuria first? She obviously has the biggest attack value with her flame wall."

"Don't you mean firewall?"

Everyone glared over at Liz' smug smirk at her own lame joke, and I just rubbed the bridge of my nose in annoyance.

"Not exactly the best time to make jokes, Rika" I said annoyed "Stay moving and listen to what I say"

They nodded and dispersed in each their own direction, confusing the bosses' targeting systems by swooping in and out of their range.

"Ares will keep covering Mercuria with his magic unless we take him down first. If we manage to kill him first, we shouldn't have much trouble overrunning Mercuria"

"It's true. We won't be able to get too close to Mercuria when Ares is dealing covering fire" Silica yelled, Pina covering her with buff magic "Mercuria might have flame wall magic, but it's range is small. If we can manage to keep our battle with Ares far enough away from Mercuria, we should be able to have some space to put him down."

"Alright, sounds like a plan" Klein yelled "And since Kazuto isn't around, I think I have the privilege of taking control as team leader!"

"You couldn't lead a team if your life depended on it, Klein!" Liz retorted sarcastically.

I could have sworn I saw Klein almost trip over his own legs from that insult.

"Agil, what do we do?" Liz yelled, ignoring Klein's pathetic whimpering behind her as he just barely dodged another magic attack from Ares "You showed some impressive leader skills back in ALO. Can you have control over the troops?"

"Sure" He nodded with a cool smile "Sinon, Scilica, use your weapon and dragon to cover Liz as she covers Ares! Klein and I will focus on Mercuria, and keep her off your back!"

"Sounds like a plan at least" Klein mumbled spitefully, still a bit annoyed by Liz's retort "Alright, come on Agil! Let's show this bitch what we're made off!"

He smirked and jumped out of the way of another barrage of fireballs, before beginning to sprint for Mercuria.

"Please be careful with their special condition as well!" Liz said as she began running in the opposite direction towards Ares "We can't let Ares' darkness get to us!"

"Let's do this!"

Everyone charged for the two bosses, and Lizbeth was the first to reach Ares. He raised his staff and sent a few fireballs her way, which she either dodged or deflected with her hammer or shield. She screamed as she buried her hammer in his side, sending him off balance. He growled and swung at her with his staff, but was caught off guard by my barrage of arrows.

I charged up to him and just as he raised his staff in preparation, I went into a ground slide and slid between his legs, activating my bow skill.

"Arrow Regen!"

I growled and retaliated as glowing arrow after glowing arrow shot off my bow after each other in quick succession, hitting him in the chest and eventually his back as I slid behind him and continued my attack from there. All the while Liz was attacking him from the front, dealing massive loads of damage, while Scilica and Pina was standing from afar and healing and buffing us with her magic.

"You damned pests!"

Ares used a magical wind blow to push Liz and I off him, before casting one of his own spells.

"So be it then!" He growled "If you're going to use arrows, I will too! Heavy Iron Storm!"

I gasped and looked up as I suddenly noticed several dark clouds form overhead, and I widened my eyes as hundreds of weapons, spears, daggers, swords, halberds, and especially arrows, were raining out of them, some of them as big as small cars!

"Everyone, take cover!"

I screamed and jumped out of the way , just managing to hide behind one of the pillars in the room, spears and other weapons lunging into it with loud crunches and crashes, pebble and dust raining everywhere, and all over me. Not everyone was as lucky though, and I growled as I watched an arrow pierced Scilica's shoulder. Luckily for her, the pain system wasn't on in present time.

"Urgh, somebody help!"

She yelped out and Pina was immediately there to rescue her, forming a barrier around herself and Scilica, protecting them both from some of the lighter weapons. The barrier wouldn't last long though, and just as a huge sword was about to land on her, Agil jumped up and slashed it out of course, managing to push it far enough for Scilica and Pina to escape the massive assault from Ares.

"HAHAHAHA!" Ares evil laugh rang through the roar of the weapons falling all around him "See them all cower in fear!"

"You bastard!" I growled and reached for my bow to shoot another barrage in his direction.

My bow was laying a few feet away from her, but just as I reached out to grab it, I felt the swish of a weapon rush through the air right by my cheek, almost gracing it, before ramming straight into my bow, snapping it in half.

"What the hell!?" I growled and turned to the boss "That was one of my favorite weapons, you dick!"

He just howled with laughter and taunted me to come and get him, and I really wanted to. But it was way too obvious that that was what he wanted me to do. He definitely had a plan in his sleeve if I actually took his bait, which I of course wasn't dumb enough to fall for.

"Nah, I don't feel like falling into your trap, Ares" I frowned and drew a spare dagger "Not used to get all close and personal, but I guess this'll do"

"Sinon!"

Scilica quickly ran over and helped me up by the arm.

"Are you gonna be okay?"

I ruffled her hair and nodded softly "Definitely."

I gazed up at Ares. He seemed overly confident. If only I could sneak up on him somehow.

"Hey, Scilica…" I mumbled "Could you distract him for a couple of minutes?"

"I-I think so, but…" She gazed up at Ares as well "What are you gonna do?"

"Well, what do people with knives normally do?" I say with a smirk "We make surprise attacks!"

I casted a quick illusion spell and disappeared out of everyone's sight, leaving a confused and surprised Scilica behind and as I sprinted between pillars as fast and silently as I could.

I watched Scilica, Pina and Lizbeth fight Ares to the best of their abilities, though they couldn't break through his defenses. He was way too quick, even despite his heavy armor covering his body. Despite that though, Ares' HP seemed to have depleted quite a way, around the 25-30 % mark. If I could just sneak up behind him and land an effective rogue ability…

I frowned silently and hid behind a pillar just as the timer on my invisibility ability had vanished. Good thing I decided to put some points into sneak abilities.

I waited for the ability to charge back up before activating it again and slowly sneaking up on Ares from behind. He was busy boasting towards Lizbeth as he pushed against her in a clash of weapons.

"Hahaha, where's your power now, little macer!?" He laughed "When I'm done with you, I'll collect your dust and feed it to my undead army!"

I growled as my illusion spell wore off and I yelled as I sprung forward and plunged my dager deep in-between his ribs in his side, resulting in him staggering and screaming in agony as he tried to keep himself from collapsing.

"AAAAARGH!"

He swung his arm backwards and I had no time to react as he backhanded my cheek and sent me flying into a nearby pillar.

"Argh…" I groaned and collapsed. I could have sworn I felt something snap in my back "Hehehe… Feed them that, you bastard…"

I collapsed onto my back and gazed up at my health bar on my HUD. It seemed I had gotten what is called "Broken" status. It basically impairs your ability to move and renders you unable to activate any abilities. It normally slows you down, but it can get so severe that it works the same way that if you had broken a bone. You just can't move that part of your body at all.

And in my case, it was my spine. I was paralyzed.

"Damn… This wasn't a part of the plan…" I mumbled.

"Sinon!"

Lizbeth quickly ran over and gave me a few healing potions.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't stock on any potions to cure this" She said silently "You'll just have to wait it out"

I tried nodding but I couldn't even do that.

"Did I at least make some sort of difference?"

"You sure did" She smiled and nodded "you've inflicted such an impairing bleeding effect on him that he can barely move. Scilica can cover him on her own now."

"Good. Go get him then"

She nodded and left me alone before running off to confront Ares one last time. Whelp. This is a boring way to end my boss fight with Ares. But at least I was able to impact the battle in our favor. Now the rest of that battle was up to the girls.

After about ten minutes, Ares was down to his last 1 % of his HP, and my Broken status had finally worn off. I was finally able to move a little bit, despite still being weak, and I eventually got back to my feet and began walking towards Lizbeth, Scilica and Pina, who all had grouped up on Ares and managed to force him into a corner.

"Damn you, you little pesticide bitches…" He groaned, his staff broken and splintered by his side "I… I will return. As long as undeath exists in the world… I will return… Even stronger than before"

"And by then, we'll be prepared, Ares" Lizbeth raised her hammer and swung downwards "Now let us be in peace!"

Scilica yelped and looked away as Lizbeth's hammer crashed against Ares' skull, sending his glass body spread all over the battlefield.

I panted a bit as I watched Ares' glass spread through the air, a weirdly beautiful canopy of glass and light, making a rainbow of coloured lights flash everywhere. The beauty was soon cut short though.

A horrible scream rang through the air, the force of the soundwaves waving through the air and vaporizing the glass in midair, quickly making the light and the pleasantness disappear far away from existence.

The scream had originated from Mercuria, who's scream had so much force behind it that it had forced the players around her, namely Agil and Klein, far away from her and given her enough space to let her rage run rampant.

"You… You killed my ARES!" She screamed again, towering over us menacingly and her angry aura almost pulsating off of her "Damn you all to hell… DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"

She screamed again and tossed her sword away, the sword crunching inside the wall and getting stuck in the crack it created, before she reached down to both her hips and pulled out two one handed swords, both of them burning red with a powerful aura. We could barely even withstand her scream's power on us, much less get close to her.

"Damn it… What the hell even is this!?" Klein growled and stood his ground "How do we get closer to her!?"

"She can't keep this up forever!" Agil yelled back "We just have to wait it up, and keep our guard up!"

Barely had he said that before Mercuria burst forward, clashing both her swords against his great axe, which he almost never managed to rise in defense of her attack. He was pushed backwards by her enormous strength, the ground cracking under the both of their feet as they clashed against one another, lights of blue and red flashing off their weapons each time they struck against one another.

Liz, Scilica, Klein and I quickly ran in to cover for Agil and give him support, but Mercuria jumped out of her lock with him and slashed towards the player who was closest, forcing us to back off.

I growled silently as I was blocked off by her for the third time, and stepped back in recoil. I wasn't much use with only a dagger, and since this was Kazuto's world, we had made prebuild equipment before coming here. I only had that one bow, and it was now in pieces all over the battlefield in the form of glass dust.

"Dammit all…" I mumbled silently.

I had already tried to use the same tactic with Mercuria as I did to incapacitate Ares, but whenever I would try, she just howled with laughter and burst me away with her power. It seemed she could sense anyone who had disguised themselves with illusion spells. Even the tactic that had killed Ares seemed to be for naught this time around.

"Hey, Sinon" Klein came over to my side "I have a plan. It might be risky, but it's the only thing I can come up with right now. And if we don't do something soon, we might just all die"

"As little as I believe in your ability to act as leader, I will listen to you this once" I mumbled as I looked at Mercuria "And hurry, or she might just kill Agil"

He was once again in a clash lock with her, but he seemed to be struggling now. If we didn't do something soon, he would lose the remains of his stamina, and he wouldn't be able to keep up with her anymore.

"We need to surround her before she manages to get out of Agil's lock" He said as we began sprinting towards them "If Agil can distract her long enough, we might be able to surround and slaughter her"

I nodded silently. That was better than any plan I could come up with. We called Scilica and over to us, before quickly explaining the plan to them, and hurriedly executing it.

We each sprinted in approach from each our own side, and I managed to catch Mercuria off her guard by stabbing her quickly in the rips. She staggered out of stance which allowed Agil to land his attack, sending her even more off her balance. And that gave us the opening we needed!

We each attacked her with loud battlecries, going all out from all sides. We each activated almost every sword skill we had in succession, our attacks getting more and more desperate as she staggered between each of us with each powerful attack.

Finally she hit the last 5% of her life points, and we each attacked at the same time, our weapons glowing brightly as they connected with her sides, her head, her legs, and her torso, leaving bright slash marks all over her body.

We panted and almost collapsed in exhaustion, as Mercuria collapsed to her knees, her body trembling as she reached towards the nearest player, being Klein. She grabbed his shirt and growled weakly as she glared daggers up at him.

"Darkness… will… return…"

She finally let go of him and collapsed, her body spreading across the entire battlefield in a beautiful array of rainbow colors and light. We each collapsed to the ground in exhaustion and panted. We had won.

"Fuck… Fuck this damn dungeon" Klein mumbled in exhaustion, his breath deep and ragged.

~In the standby lobby, Kazuto's POV~

"Wow. They actually managed to beat them" I said with a little laugh "That was unexpected"

"What, you don't believe in them?" Kyouji jabbed at me.

"Nah, I just made my bosses epically overpowered" I said with a smirk as I showed him a tab window with the bosses' stats.

"WHAT!? These stats are for bosses that are at least 10 levels higher than we are!" Kyouji raged, looking just about ready to kill me.

Asuna quickly jumped in between us as Kyouji tried jumping at me, Yui giggling and holding a hand over her mouth as she landed on my head in pixie form and watched as the shenanigans played out, just as the rest of the group spawned in the lobby.

"Kirito, we did it!" Scilica yelled excitedly as she ran up to the bar "We actually beat them!"

"Yeah, and with only a single casualty" Sinon commented as she sent a look over at her boyfriend "Next time I tell you something, listen"

He blushed embarrassed and nodded.

"Okay…"

Agil just laughed his usual laugh and walked behind the bar.

"Better get my drinks out!" He said with a smirk as he began mixing several different alcoholic beverages "Let's do a celebratory toast!"

"I second that!" Klein laughed and grabbed his own glass "To us! And our badassery!"

"Kanpai!"