It was 4:15 pm when the makeshift raid party led by Kirito entered the labyrinth tower of the fifth floor of Aincrad. Under normal circumstances, a raid would be made up from carefully selected parties with each one having a designated role. Unfortunately, this was not one of those normal cases.
Rather than the 48 player maximum, the hastily put together raid party was only a measly 19 players. Three of them were the main ones that had put the raid group together, Kirito, Asuna, and Argo. Another four were made up from Shivata from DKB and Litten from ALS, who each had managed to recruit another member from their guilds for the raid. The player from DKB was Hafner, the second-in-command of the guild and a greatsword user. From ALS, Litten had brought a male halberd user who appeared to be in his thirties and went by the name Okotan. Members eight through eleven were Agil and his guild known as the Bro Squad.
Member twelve was, to the surprise of a few people, Nezha. He had formerly been the blacksmith that had scammed several players out of their rare upgraded weapons back on Floor 2. Although he and the Legend Braves had caused the upgrade scam, they had already been reprimanded by the assault team and were now working to catch back up to them. Plus, Nezha had the unique long range chakram weapon, which had already shown its usefulness in the second floor boss fight.
The next five were the members of Wyvern's Inferno. And the final two members of the team were ones that Ren's team had thankfully been able to reach in time, Ion and Angel. Cyrus and his party would have made for some good support, but it seemed they were currently off in a dungeon and as such could not be contacted.
Once the group of nineteen had assembled and everyone had been briefed on the situation, Asuna had jotted down a quick list of the players and their levels. She and Kirito were the two highest leveled players there, sitting at levels 17 and 18 respectively. The rest averaged around levels 16 and 15, with a couple of players around level 13.
While their numbers and levels were a slight concern, there was a far bigger concern. Out of the nineteen players they had, a majority were DPS. Out of their few tanks, the only ones with shields were Litten and Shivata. That meant a heavy burden would be placed on them, especially Litten who was the second lowest in level next to Nezha. But beggars couldn't be choosers, so they would have to hope for the best through a vigorous amount of scouting before going in for the real battle.
"Hah!" Alice shouted as she slashed through a golem monster with a sword skill. She watched the monster's HP go down, expecting it to hit 0. But it had stopped short, at just about 5%.
As the golem prepared to counterattack, Alice managed to bring her sword up just in time to block. The blow pushed her back a few feet. Before the golem could follow up, Ren moved in and finished it off with a slash from his sword.
"Thanks for the save, Ren." Alice told her leader.
"Don't worry about it."
With the latest mob dealt with, the group continued making their way further through the labyrinth. Thankfully it was a very simple layout, and Argo already had the map data leading to the boss room, so they weren't wasting any time trying to navigate their way there.
As she walked, Alice looked down at her sword. Cruel Cutlass. Although it was average for a weapon at this current stage of the game, she was still having trouble with it. She had gotten so used to making quick heat of the moment estimations in damage based on her Sparrow's Light sword. In comparison, her Cruel Cutlass was a downgrade so she had already experienced a few times where she had forgotten the lessened damage output and overestimated the amount of damage her sword skills would deal.
And perhaps worst of all, her job as a DPS player had diminished slightly since then.
"So, Litten was it?" Ren asked, talking to the female tank from ALS. "I don't mean to pry, but how did you get a full set of steel armor? That kind of equipment is pretty rare for monster drops, and I don't know of any shops that sell them yet."
"About that…" Litten said. "The truth is I mined all the ore for it myself."
"You're kidding!" Mai exclaimed. "You found a steel ore deposit?!"
Litten shook her head. "No. The ore I mined was iron."
"That… that's nuts though." Ren commented. "You need four iron ingots to create a single steel ingot. And to make a full set of armor from it…"
Armor in SAO could be broken up into five areas on the body. Torso, gauntlets, legs, boots, and helmet. Ren didn't have any real experience mining for ores and he had very little metal armor equipped, so he wasn't sure exactly how much was needed to forge each piece of armor, but it had to be a lot.
But to his surprise, Litten cast her head down. "It's not really something to be proud of. I got almost all of it from a single deposit."
"Wait, how is that possible?" Ren asked. After a few seconds, he finally got what Litten was trying to say. "Oh I see… it was an infinite supply bug."
Litten confirmed Ren's assumption with a nod of her head. "Yes, that's right."
"Infinite supply bug?" Mai questioned, unfamiliar with the term.
"Basically it's a bug where monsters or items spawn past the usual normal limit." Ren explained. "In this case, it was an ore deposit not running out of ore."
"That's insane!" the young girl said. "That's like winning the lottery!"
"It's not as simple as that, I'm afraid." Ren explained to her. "In a regular MMO, taking advantage of a bug like that to get ahead tends to be looked down upon. In some cases, the devs will reprimand or even ban a player for it." He looked back to Litten. "That said, SAO is anything but a normal MMO so I can't really blame you for taking advantage of it. A player's survival should always come first and foremost. I probably would have done the same thing if I were in your shoes."
"But you know where it is right?" Helios asked, leaning in close towards Litten with interest. "Come on, you have to tell me where it is."
"Hey back off!" Shivata said, moving in between Helios and Litten. "There's no need to strongarm her."
"I-I'm sure he wasn't doing that, Shiba." Litten told him. She frowned as she looked at the tank of Wyvern's Inferno. "I'm sorry, but the deposit vanished while I was mining it. I don't know whose doing it was, but the bug was fixed."
"Seriously? Damn, that sucks." Helios said with a disappointed sigh.
Litten continued with her explanation. "Anyway, a friend of mine helped me carry it back to town. We turned all the iron ingots into steel ones and then she made all five pieces of my armor."
"So your friend is a blacksmith then?" Ren asked.
"That's right." Litten nodded. "We both got along, being girls and all. But thanks to this armor, I was scouted into the ALS."
"Female player blacksmiths are pretty rare." Helios noted. "Though I guess the same is true for female tanks to an extent."
"I had a bit of a late start compared to everyone else. And no one seemed to want me in their party either. They said they couldn't trust a girl to play the role of tank."
Alice narrowed her eyes upon hearing this. "But that's such BS. Gender has nothing to do with fighting skills."
"I wish I had the courage to tell them that." Litten frowned. "To be honest, Alice, people like you are one of the ones that inspired me to try and help beat the game."
"M-Me? Really?"
Litten nodded her head. "Yes. People like you, Asuna, and Angel have all shown that girls can go just as far in this game as boys. If it wasn't for that, I probably would have given in to what those other players said about me being a tank."
Overhearing this as she walked nearby, Angel spoke up. "We weren't really trying to inspire girls in particular, or at the very least I wasn't. But I'm glad to hear we were able to be a source of strength for you."
"Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me."
Hearing Litten's complement, Alice couldn't help but smile a little. If she was inspiring people like Litten to do their best, then she couldn't let herself get down about losing her main weapon. She simply had to do the best she could for now as she tried to make up for this.
There was another thing that was at the back of Alice's mind though that she couldn't help but notice. Shivata had been quick to come to Litten's defense when Helios had gotten close, an odd reaction for someone from a rival guild. She could only count the number of interactions she had with Shivata with one hand, but he didn't seem the type to come to just anyone's defense at the drop of a hat. And on top of that, Litten had referred to Shivata by "Shiba", likely a nickname of some kind.
The pieces were slowly coming together for Alice. She hid a tiny smirk when she realized what Shivata and Litten were to each other, and was planning to have some fun interrogating Litten later girl-to-girl.
After fighting their way through the labyrinth tower, the raid party of nineteen players finally stood before the boss chamber. But everything up until now had been the easy part. The real challenge was just ahead.
By now, it was safe to assume that the ALS was on their way to the labyrinth. They still likely had a roughly three hour lead on them, but they couldn't be lax in this. Optimistically, they would have two attempts at the boss. One to scout it out and get a feel for its attack patterns, and another for the real attempt.
According to Kirito, the beta version of the boss had been a giant golem, and its attacks were fairly straightforward brute force punches and hits. While there was a lack of AoE attacks, meaning it was possible to tackle the boss even with only two dedicated tanks, every floor boss had been changed in some way or another so far. That meant they couldn't assume anything in this fight, especially with their small number.
One thing had already changed from the beta apparently. Instead of a pair of giant doors standing before them for the boss chamber, there was instead a long stone stairway. The stairs led up to an opening in the ceiling that was pitch black and impossible to see further inside.
Any rpg veteran could tell what the set up in front of them implied. Once they stepped on the stairs, or perhaps when they entered the boss room, the stairs would rise up and trap them inside. That did not bode well for their initial strategy of a trial run at the boss.
Kirito stepped forward at the front of the group. "I'll go scout it out alone first."
Before Kirito could go on, Argo spoke up. "Hang on. Leave this to me."
"Huh?"
"If this staircase is a trap to seal the exit, I'm quick enough to slip away in time."
Kirito was silent for a few seconds before uttering a rebuttal. "Let's go together then. I'm not backing down on this." he said. "I may not be as fast as you, but I'm still pretty confident in my speed."
"Geez. Fine, you win. We'll go together then."
"Be careful you two." Ren warned them. "If something happens, give us a shout."
"Right."
With that, Kirito and Argo cautiously made their way up the stairs while the others waited below. While they were two ex-beta testers with plenty of skill, there was no such thing right now as being too careful.
Ren and the others watched as Kirito and Argo finally went up through the opening at the top of the stairs. A tense silence followed, with nothing seeming to happen. Thankfully, the stairs didn't seem to be moving so that was a good sign.
"They're going to be ok… right?" Nezha asked nervously.
Asuna answered with a nod, though it was clear she was partially trying to convince herself. "Yeah. Those two know what they're doing. They'll be fine."
The seventeen players waited patiently with nothing happening. Just as Shivata seemed to be about to shout up to them to ask if everything was going alright, Argo's voice sounded.
"Stay back, Kii-bou!"
Almost immediately after, a strange sound was heard above. Everyone below glanced at each other and shared a collective nod before rushing up the stairs. There was no time to wait for Kirito or Argo to call out to them. Something was going on up there and they weren't about to stay back and let them brace the danger alone.
As they ran, a couple of loud thuds were heard, likely some kind of slamming attack from the boss. They picked up the pace, afraid to let Kirito and Argo stay alone up there. Finally they arrived at the top of the stairs and at the opening.
But there was no boss to be found.
They were in a wide open cylindrical room. Blue lines of light covered the floor in a complex random pattern. Kirito and Argo were standing near each other a short distance away, neither of them moving a muscle.
"What the? Where's the boss?" Helios questioned.
Just then, Kirito shouted out to them at the top of his lungs. "Evade! Evade!"
"Huh?" Ren suddenly noticed four circles form at their feet and felt a sense of dread wash over him. "Ah crap."
Showcasing the impressive reaction speed that they had each gained throughout their time fighting on the front lines, all seventeen of them moved immediately to dodge. But unfortunately they had been too cluttered together to move away effectively at the drop of a hat. Shivata and a member of Agil's guild collided with each other, as did Helios and Angel. As the others managed to dash away, they gasped as two stone feet came crashing down on two of the circles, which thankfully none of them had been on. But as for the other two circles, stone slabs began to rise up and formed what appeared to be a fist around each of the two circles, one around Shivata and Agil's friend and another around Helios and Angel. It closed around them and began to raise them up into the air.
"Woah!"
"Crap!"
Ion gasped as he saw his friend trapped. "Angel!"
As the group prepared to attack the arms, a shout was heard from Kirito. "Asuna, Parallel on the arm with Shivata!"
"Got it!" Asuna confirmed.
Asuna wasted no time in leaping up and unleashing the two hit rapier skill Parallel Sting on the stone hand holding the two. Meanwhile, Kirito was already leaping up and unleashed a Horizontal Arc on the other arm holding Helios and Angel, just barely managing to avoid slashing the limbs of the two that were sticking out. The two fists opened up and the four players fell from a height of nearly thirty feet.
Litten and Hafner did their best to catch Shivata and Lowbacca, while Agil and Ion caught Helios and Angel. All of them lost a bit of HP, but they were thankfully still green.
"Ok what the hell was that?" Helios groaned.
"Everyone, run towards the closest wall!" Kirito shouted. "Once you're there, make sure you aren't stepping on any lines!"
Nobody questioned Kirito's advice and did as they were told. As they ran, the feet rose back up into the ceiling while the arms sank into the ground.
Once everyone had made it to the walls, Kirito let out a sigh of relief. "Alright, everyone who suffered damage drink a potion while you listen. Those arms and legs belong to the floor boss."
The group all took in the news, a bit surprised by this. When they had first entered the room, they hadn't seen the boss at all. Now it made sense. The attacks they heard were coming from the arms and legs that seemed to be a part of the room.
Kirito continued with his explanation. "If you step on the blue lines on the floor, the lines around the floor and ceiling will move randomly and create target circles above or below the player that stepped on them. If the circle is below, an arm will raise up and grab you, doing simultaneous damage to your HP and armor durability. The fists seem to open up though if hit by a sword skill equivalent to around a two-hit skill for one-handed swords. If the circle is above, a foot will slam down from above and create a small shockwave. I'm not sure how much damage the feet do yet, but it's likely more than the arms."
"Ok so we just avoid stepping on the lines and we're good, right?" Mai asked.
"I doubt it's that simple." Ren noted. "I'm guessing the only way to hurt the boss is attacking the arms and legs?"
"At the moment, that's my theory." Kirito confirmed with a nod.
The group was now left with a question. Continue fighting, or try and make their way back to the stairs and come up with a strategy down below. In theory, the latter was the smarter option since this fight seemed entirely different from the beta based on how even Kirito was shocked by this series of events. But the lines were closer together towards the stairs, meaning it would be rather difficult for everyone to make it there without stepping on the lines.
"Well on the bright side, it seems having a smaller raid group is paying off for us." Ren said. "There's no way a full group of 48 players could avoid stepping on the lines together."
It was a small silver lining, but a silver lining nonetheless. But as they were questioning the options of fight or flee, a sound came from above.
All nineteen players looked up and watched as a part of the ceiling began to jut down in a complex shape. As it continued, the pattern being created slowly formed into what appeared to be a stone face. Twelve eyes of pale light shined while a strange pattern appeared on the forehead. Six HP bars formed near the head as the name of the boss was finally revealed.
[Fuscus the Vacant Colossus]
"This is gonna be a tough one to beat." Ren quietly muttered to himself.
The top health bar of the boss had diminished from the damage dealt to the two hands already, but not by much. The players still had a long road ahead of them in order to beat it.
As if to further dampen the spirits of the players, Fuscus let out a deafening roar that echoed throughout the room. As Ren recovered from his ears ringing, he noticed a defense lowering debuff icon appear next to his HP bar. The same seemed to be true of everyone else.
As if we needed another reason to avoid getting grabbed or stomped on.
Their troubles didn't stop there. After the roar from the golem subsided, the once stationary lines in the room began to move around randomly.
"Oh come on!" Riku complained as he and everyone began doing everything they could to avoid stepping on the now moving lines.
Kirito called out to the group. "I'm going to trigger a line on purpose! Asuna and Argo, you hit the limb that appears when I do! Everyone else, avoid stepping on the lines and keep an eye on the boss's HP!"
Following Kirito's direction, everyone followed along with the plan. Kirito stepped on one of the blue lines, causing a target circle to appear on the ceiling. He quickly leaped away as a foot came crashing down where he had been standing seconds ago while Asuna and Argo unleashed a pair of sword skills on the limb before it rose back up.
The top HP bar near the boss's face dipped slightly, something Ren took notice of. "It looks like it took a bit of damage. Guess our theory about the limbs was right."
"Alright then. Everyone try triggering the lines and attacking when the arms and legs appear. Be careful not to get caught though."
"Right!"
Ren glanced at Alice and Helios, who were the closest to him. "I'll trigger it and you guys attack."
The two of them nodded in agreement. Ren took a deep breath as he stepped on one of the moving lines. A circle began forming at his feet, meaning the fist would be coming. Once the circle was fixed, Ren dashed away before the fist could close up on him. A second later, Helios and Alice rained hell on the stone limb with sword skills.
Throughout the room, other teams were following the same pattern of attack. Mai was working with Ion and Angel, with the male rapier user being the one to trigger the lines with his impressive speed. Ren could tell that he needed to keep working hard if he wanted to avoid Ion getting a commanding lead ahead of him in his AGI stat. But now wasn't the time for petty competitiveness. Right now, beating the boss without any of them dying came first.
Alice couldn't help but be worried for her sister's safety with her not being right by her side. But she trusted Ion and Angel enough to know that they wouldn't let her die. And Mai knew what she was doing. Alice had to ignore her instincts as an older sister for the time being, as hard as that was for her.
Suddenly, Riku glanced up and noticed the boss's head beginning to do something. "Guys, I think it's about to do that roar again!"
"I'm on it!" Nezha shouted, standing near the edge of the room. His chakram lit up with a color effect as he chucked it up towards the head on the ceiling. The projectile hit the mark on its forehead with a sharp clang before turning back and coming back to its owner. The hit seemed to cancel out the roar the boss had been planning, making everyone glad that Kirito had brought the member of the Legend Braves along.
Ren gave Nezha a thumbs up. "Nice job."
"Ren! Below you!"
The warning shout from Alice caused Ren to look down and realize a target circle had formed around him. The fingers of the boss's right hand were already starting to rise up around him. Acting quickly, Ren attempted to dash away. Just as he thought he was home free however, he felt his right leg get caught in between the fingers of the fist. It began to rise up, with Ren dangling upside down.
Shit!
Ren was in no position to use a sword skill, but he tried to do what damage he could as he stabbed his sword into one of the two fingers his ankle was caught between. The damage was nowhere near enough to cause it to let go, but at least he was able to do something besides flail around helplessly.
"Let him go, you bastard!" Helios shouted as he leaped up and unleashed a one-hit axe skill on the hand. Thankfully, it seemed to do sufficient damage to cause the hand to open up.
Ren began to fall head first down towards the floor of the room. Alice moved to catch him, as the guild leader crashed down onto her, causing both of them to fall down.
"Ngh… Thanks for that, Alice." Ren moaned as his vision straightened out. As feeling came back to his body, he noticed his head seemed to be resting on something slightly bouncy, like a cushion. He lifted his head and turned, widening his eyes when he realized his head had fallen right on the black-haired girl's chest. He quickly got off from her with his cheeks blushing red. "A-Ah, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"
"I-It's fine…" Alice stuttered, her own cheeks blushing as well. "I'm just glad… you didn't get too hurt."
"Hm? What's wrong, you two?" Helios asked. "You're not still stunned, are you?"
"N-Nothing's wrong! Nothing at all!" Alice exclaimed as she and Ren got to their feet with blinding speed. "A-Anyway, let's keep going! We still have to beat this boss!"
Just as they were about to continue, a shout was heard from Nezha. "Guys! The wall!"
Oh what now? Ren thought as he turned to see what Nezha was talking about. A feeling of dread overtook him from what he saw.
Before, the lines in the room were only present on the floor and ceiling. But now they were beginning to move onto the wall. And the shape they were forming were similar to bars of a cell.
Kirito realized it a second sooner and called out to the group. "Retreat! Everyone get to the stairs!"
There was no time to argue so everyone did as they were told. Too much had already happened in this boss fight. Leaving the room and losing the boss's aggro would cause Fuscus The Vacant Colossus to go back to full health, but it was clearly about to try something. Kirito would see what that was, escape immediately after, and then they could formulate a strategy for the fight based on everything they had learned so far.
However, just then, they found their plan brought to a screeching halt.
Shivata was closest to the stairs. But just as he was about to go down them, the opening for the stairs changed. Out of nowhere, the face of Fuscus came up right where the stairs had been. Its mouth opened around Shivata and the tank player began to sink in. A second later, the face attempted to close its jaw and bite Shivata in half.
"Shiba!" Litten exclaimed.
To everyone's great relief, the teeth of Fuscus didn't rip Shivata in half instantly. Instead, the iron mail armor he was wearing stopped them short. But it was clear that the armor's durability was dropping fast and wouldn't last much longer.
Ren glanced up at the ceiling, seeing that the boss's face was indeed gone from there and removing the scary possibility of there being more than one face to worry about. But the health bars of the boss were still visible up at the ceiling rather than following where the face was.
And that was when it hit him. The boss's name was Fuscus, The Vacant Colossus. The keyword was Vacant, or in other words, empty.
This isn't just a boss room. Ren realized. The boss IS the room.
Appropriate naming aside, the priority right now needed to be getting Shivata out of the boss's mouth in one piece. Because the second his armor's durability hit zero, the teeth would close in on Shivata and likely wipe out his HP in an instant.
If the boss's head was on the floor, then it stood to reason that the pattern on its forehead would be there too. If they could strike that, perhaps the boss would let Shivata go. But just as Ren skidded to a halt near the head, he was proven wrong.
The pattern was missing.
"Where'd the pattern go?!" Ren exclaimed.
"No time to wonder about that! Just hit the damn thing!" Helios shouted. He activated his strongest one-hit skill, Grand Destroyer, and slammed his axe down onto the boss's forehead. But unlike the arms and legs that had been cut through so easily before, Helios's axe bounced right off.
Attacking the head wasn't going to work. They had to find the pattern that acted as the boss's weak point. If it wasn't on the head, then it had to be somewhere else. It had to. Otherwise, Shivata was a goner.
"Look for the sigil that was on the head! It has to be somewhere in the room!" Ren called out.
The quicker and less strength focused players quickly scanned the room as carefully as they could in search of the weak point. Meanwhile, the strength oriented players like Helios and Agil's group gave up on trying to damage the head and were now working to try and pry the boss's mouth open with brute force. Even if it wouldn't work, it had to at least slow down the rate at which Shivata's armor was deteriorating.
Ren felt a bead of sweat go down his forehead as he searched. Time was not on their side. Come on! Where is it?! Where is the damn thing?!
"Damnit… this thing isn't going to hold much longer!" Agil shouted.
Shivata looked at his armor. It was only going to keep him safe for another few seconds at best. "It's no use… my armor's going to break." He looked to Litten, who was trying harder than anyone to keep the mouth open. "Litten, let go of the mouth!"
The orange-haired girl shook her head feverishly in response. "No… I'm going to save you, Shiba!"
Shivata's armor began to look even more deteriorated. He was likely seconds from death, but his expression didn't show any concern for himself. Words couldn't describe just how much courage it was taking for him not to freak out right now.
But just then, Litten did something nobody expected.
"I won't… I won't let you kill Shiba!"
Abandoning trying to pry the mouth open, Litten instead jumped directly into the mouth. Everyone gasped in disbelief as Shivata's iron mail shattered a second later and the teeth were now being held at bay by Litten's steel armor.
"Litten!" Alice exclaimed.
Shivata stared at the girl next to him with a dumbfounded expression. "Litten?! Why would you do that you idiot?!"
"I'm a tank! It's my job to protect others!" Litten told him.
Bravery didn't even begin to describe what Litten had just done right now. Ren abandoned his worrying and continued searching the room. They had to find the sigil, or Litten's sacrifice would be in vain and they would lose two players.
"It's no use! I don't see it anywhere!" Mai said.
Ren racked his brain for a plan. Was he perhaps completely off base and the sigil wasn't what they needed to attack at all? But what else was there? The head seemed to take next to no damage when attacked, and the only other parts where the boss could be damaged were…
"The limbs!" Ren shouted in realization. "The sigil is on one of the limbs!"
The others caught onto Ren's train of thought. The arms and legs of the boss came out from the floor and ceiling. If they couldn't find it anywhere right now, then it only made sense it would be hidden on one of those four areas.
Ren wasted no time in calling out to the others. "Kirito! Ion! Mai! Trigger the lines and get the limbs to appear! Everyone else, look for the sigil and call out if you find it!"
"Got it!"
"Understood!"
"Leave it to me!"
Time was of the essence, so the four of them quickly dashed and stepped on a line. Right on cue, four target circles appeared throughout the room. The second they were fixed in position, the four players moved away and the four limbs of the boss appeared.
Alice looked around the arm that had appeared where Ren was. "I don't see it!"
"Me neither!" Angel called out.
"Same here!" Asuna shouted.
Just as despair began to settle in and Ren wondered if his guess had been wrong, a call from Nezha was heard.
"I found it!"
Nezha was near the leg that had fallen near Mai, pointing directly to the sigil that was present on its knee. But just as everyone began to run towards it, the leg began to rise back up towards the ceiling.
"No!" Mai exclaimed.
"You're not going anywhere!"
The shout from Angel caught everyone's attention as the blonde girl held her spear like a javelin and reeled her arm back. Her weapon took on a red glow as she activated the spear skill Storm Throw. The spear flew through the air at incredible speed before striking the sigil dead center.
"Nice shot!" Argo called out.
Much like Nezha's chakram when he had struck the sigil when it had been on the boss's forehead before, Angel's weapon began to come back as soon as it hit its mark. Angel ran to where her spear was falling towards and caught it with surprising skill.
Meanwhile, Fuscus opened its mouth wide. Rather than falling into the mouth entirely however, both Shivata and Litten were blown out by the force of the roar that followed. Everyone sighed in relief that they had survived, none more so than Shivata and Litten who were currently holding each other in a tight hug. Litten's armor had suffered heavy damage, but it wasn't gone entirely. Once this fight was over, she was bound to end up paying a hefty amount of col to get it repaired.
The face of Fuscus sank back into the floor. Seconds later, it appeared once again back on the ceiling like before. The sigil this time was back on its forehead. And with the head no longer covering the stairs, the opening was back.
"Don't let your guard down now everyone! It's too early to celebrate!" Kirito called out. "Shivata, get back down the stairs and heal up!"
"Sorry, but I'm ignoring that order!" Shivata shouted back. "I'm not going down those stairs until the boss is dead!"
"But your armor-"
"I've got a replacement set! Don't worry!" True to his word, Shivata opened his menu and quickly managed to swap out into a new set of heavy armor. It was no doubt weaker than what he had been wearing before, but at least it was something.
Kirito gave in. "Alright, just be careful!"
Time continued to pass as the fight went on. Bait out the limbs, dodge, and attack. Rinse and repeat. The boss's head continued to sink in and pop out every now and then, leading to another few roars that resulted in debuffs, but there were no more instances of anyone nearly becoming a bite guard for the golem.
After nearly a full hour since the fight had started, the fifth health bar of Fuscus was finally depleted. Only one remained. They were in the home stretch.
For a raid group put together on the fly with next to no advanced planning, they had done quite well so far. Their teamwork was solid and they had avoided a single death so far despite having less than half the players of what a normal raid group would be. Though in this case, their lacking in numbers had likely played more to their advantage rather than act as a liability.
All of them were here because they had a common goal. Prevent the collapse of the coexistence between the ALS and DKB. Members from both guilds were here for this fight, acting in betrayal of their leaders, because they believed this to be the right decision. If either the ALS or DKB got ownership of the Flag of Valor, it would destroy the balance of the front lines. They had to prevent that at all costs. That camaraderie was what was allowing them to work together.
Everyone had expected something to happen when the boss hit its last HP bar. And their fears were proven true. First, the blue lines that had been both a pain and a help vanished from the room. Next, the head of Fuscus began to emerge further from the ceiling. But it soon went past that. More of its body began to emerge from the ceiling.
"Oh crap, run!" Kirito warned. "Retreat!"
Nobody needed to be told twice as they took off running towards the other end of the room. The rest of the golem's body emerged from the ceiling and the giant humanoid golem fell down to the floor with a loud thud. Everyone had thankfully managed to get far enough away to avoid the shockwave that resulted from the impact as they now stared down the boss. Staring at the boss now, it was covered with the blue lines that had been all over the room before, but they soon changed color to an ominous bloody red.
"Well look who finally decided to stop playing hide and seek." Helios smirked.
"Alright, now that it's full body is out, we'll go back to our original plan!" Kirito called out. "Tanks, block its attacks! DPS team, hit it when there's an opening! Be careful not to draw too much aggro!"
"You got it!"
"Leave it to us!"
With the collective shout, the group sprang into action. The tanks took the lead, blocking the incoming punch that came from the boss. As both Shivata and Litten were pushed back, the minor tanks like Helios and Agil surrounded the boss and performed hate-increasing skills like Howl. This allowed the remaining players to go in and unleash on the boss with sword skills. Once they had each gotten a hit in, they backed off and let the tanks take the lead again to avoid risking the boss turning its attention on those that couldn't fully block its hits.
With the full body of the boss exposed and unable to hide within the exterior of the room, the final health bar of the boss diminished quickly compared to the previous five bars. Fuscus unleashed various attacks on the group, including a surprise heat ray from its eyes, but everyone had managed to work efficiently together.
Finally, the boss's last HP bar hit red. Shivata, Litten, and the other tanks were busy holding back the rampaging golem when Shivata called out to the one that had brought them all together. "Kirito, we'll let you have the last attack bonus! Just be sure to put on a good show!"
"You got it!" the raven haired swordsman replied with a thumbs up.
The group watched as Kirito took off running. He sprang up and ran along the side of the wall before leaping off and going straight for the boss's head.
"This is the end!"
Unleashing the four-hit sword skill Horizontal Square, likely the strongest skill any one-handed sword player had at this point in the game, Kirito shredded through the last sliver of HP for Fuscus and landed on the stony ground. The giant golem let out a low moan before shattering into fragments a second later.
A long moment of silence passed among the group. Although it seemed unlikely, they were all waiting with baited breath to see if yet another boss would appear like what had happened on Floor 2. But soon, they got their answer as the room rumbled for a brief moment before a spiral staircase began to descend from above. A sign reading [Congratulations] appeared overhead.
Mai was the first to let out a cheer. "We did it! We actually won!"
Several cheers followed after the little girl. It had been a tough and stressful fight with a few close calls, but they had won without a single death. They had succeeded in their mission.
Though nobody seemed happier than Shivata and Litten. The former was currently holding the latter in his arms and spinning her around in the air despite the heavy armor Litten was wearing.
Several knowing smirks came from the others as they watched them. Alice couldn't help but giggle to herself when she saw the bright smiling faces of Litten and Shivata that went far beyond simple friends. I knew it.
Among those watching however, Asuna seemed to be viewing the couple with starry eyes. It was to be expected after all. With what they had just gone through, who wouldn't be happy to see a pair of lovebirds celebrating without a care in the world.
As appropriate as celebrating was right now, Kirito knew there was another matter that needed to be taken care of for the moment. "First of all, congratulations everyone, and thank you. It's because of all of you that the front lines avoided a major catastrophe. Everyone here performed admirably against the toughest boss yet, despite not everything going according to plan." he said, earning a few chuckles from some of the others. "However there is still another matter at hand. The reason we all came together to pull off this grand undertaking. The Flag of Valor. If it dropped for anyone, please speak up now."
For a moment, everyone was silent. Eyes glanced around at those present. While a player's window could be set to visible mode for everyone to see, it would be a problem if someone had gotten the item and already tucked it away in their storage. A player's inventory was a rather private thing and asking to see it was crossing a certain line of etiquette.
Thankfully, it didn't come to that as one player raised their hand. "I got it."
All eyes fell on Ren, leader of Wyvern's Inferno. He manifested the item and a long silver pole with a white triangular banner tied to the end appeared in his hands.
"Well, you're not the ALS or DKB, so if you want to hang onto it now for safekeeping, I'm fine with that." Kirito told him. "Does anyone have any objections?"
"Actually… I do." Ren spoke again. "I know an item like this should be used to its fullest potential, and that means it should go to a large guild. I know the agreement right now is to wait and see if an equally strong item drops and have the ALS keep one and DKB keep the other. I fully support that idea." The guild leader looked down at the flag again. "But if I'm being honest… I can't trust myself to keep it. I can't say for certain that if we were in a tight spot that I wouldn't use it then and there. If that happened, and it couldn't be registered for another guild, it would waste so much potential and ultimately hurt the front lines." Ren walked forward and held out the flag before Kirito. "So, if you'd be ok with it, I'd like for you to hang onto it. I think it's safest in your hands."
"Ren…" Kirito stared at the friend he had made on the opening day of SAO for a long moment before finally giving in with a nod. "Alright then. If that's what you wish, then I'll respect it."
Accepting the Flag of Valor from Ren, Kirito took the weapon and put it into his inventory. With that, everything had been settled.
"Thank you, everyone." Litten said with a grateful bow. "I know you must not think too highly of ALS right now, but please believe me when I say our leader did not want this. The attempted raid for the Flag of Valor was due to the result of a few radical members, but their opinions could not be dissuaded. So, as a member of the ALS, I thank you for preventing a confrontation between us and DKB."
"Come on, no need to bow your head like that Litten. No one here blames you." Asuna said. "After all, it's you and Shivata who worked so hard to set up the New Year's party to promote a sense of camaraderie between your two guilds."
"That's right." Ion nodded in agreement. "Speaking of which, I wouldn't mind heading back to Mananarena for said party. I'm starving."
Ion's comment earned a collective heartfelt laugh from the group. After everything they had been through, a night of fun was exactly what they all needed. They had accomplished a great feat that night, one that they'd be looking back fondly on in the future.
There were still 95 floors left to go in Aincrad. But they could wait. Tonight was a night for celebration.
A/N: Well that's all for Floor 5 everyone. Hope you're all looking forward to seeing Kirito and Asuna's adventures in Floor 5 in the next Progressive movie coming out later this year like I am. Fuscus is one of my favorite boss fight designs so far in Progressive so I'm excited to see the fight animated on the big screen.
Next chapter is the start of Floor 6. For those of you puzzling over what will happen in it, you'll just have to wait and see.
