AN: I get that it was a milestone and everything, but the 25th floor was harsh. I'm not joking, the setting of the floor described in the first paragraph is actually the canon setting of the floor. I was half tempted to call this chapter 'When Hanna Flips Her Shit' but decided not to.

Semi-Important: An error is occurring with reviews on the site. I can see the review count going up, but the reviews aren't showing when I clicked the tab. So I looked it up, apparently this happens occasionally, it's a desynchronization of some sort. Thankfully, since the I can see the counter going up, it means they should show up eventually since they've been logged, but its definitely frustrating to have posted a chapter, see you guys review, and be unable to read them. It's aggravating my anxiety too, especially since I always automatically assume the worst. From what I've read on the forums, most people can still see the reviews in their emails as long as they aren't too long, but I have a bad tendency to manually check the reviews myself, so I turned this option off in my settings. Which means I have no idea what the first two reviews on the last chapter said, because I only changed my settings back after I found out about the problem. Which is why your getting this chapter as now. After I posted chapter 11 I got struck by inspiration and wrote up some more chapters (I just started 15) so I figured since I had a bit of a head start, I'd see if I could stay on top of it and do weekly updates. But my anxiety is getting to me with the review issue, so your getting this chapter now. Since I've changed my settings back I'll be able to read your guys reviews in my email as long as they aren't too long, and from my understanding the issue should be fixed soon.

Review responses:

Tempestae Night- You asked for this in response to chapter 11, I did my best. I even gave you two scenes though, their slightly similar, and the second one is a bit weird to me. Well, you'll see for yourself. Hope you like them anyway.

July 7th 2023- 244 days since SAO launch:

Kirito sighed as Hanna finished of the last mob. They'd finally made it to the 25th floor, a quarter of the way to their goal, but it came with a drawback. Apparently Kayaba decided that the way to respond to the players reaching such a milestone was to up the difficulty. The 25th floors mobs were much stronger than those of the previous floors, and if that wasn't bad enough, the topography of the floor was as complex as a maze, and it was filled with traps. The most common trap was a pitfall that led to poisonous swamps. All in all, it was a complete pain. Normally he liked fighting, but this floor had robbed him of his usual enjoyment. It was so difficult to navigate, that despite the fact they'd been on the floor for three days they still hadn't even reached the labyrinth and defeated the field boss guarding it.

He eyed the labyrinth, which at this point was so close it took up a large portion of his field of view when he looked up, 'At this rate, we should reach it within two hours. Hopefully the mini-boss hasn't been made so strong that Hanna and I can't defeat it on our own. If it comes to it, we may have to teleport out.'

Thankfully, they'd already spoken of this. If the mini-boss made them teleport out, they'd gather Asuna, Diabel, and Fuurinkazan to help them beat it. They'd activated a feature that all players had on the map tab of their menus, the feature tracked the route a player took. So it'd be much quicker to get back to the field boss since they'd already have a safe, trap free route planned out.

Kirito had been slightly off, it was roughly two and a half hours later that they reached the labyrinth and the field boss guarding it. The field boss turned out to be a massive snake with strange needle like spikes jutting out from between its scales. It had three health bars with its name above them, «Nagashree». Hanna took point as she was faster. She immediately opened with twelve hits before the mini-boss had a chance to retaliate, then switched with him when Nagashree lunged for her. He was quick to hit it with a three hit skill «Sharp Nail», then switched with Hanna before the skill cool down kicked in. Hanna slashed at it five times, hit it with Ember Song, then switched again. He hit it with seven regular attacks, then let Hanna take over again.

Hanna slashed at Nagashree three times, sidestep an attack, then land five more followed by the claw skill, Lions Fury. Switching with her for a moment he hit it with the heavy damage Horizontal Square, and skill chained it with a Martial Arts uppercut punch, then finished his chain with Vertical Square. He jumped back when the boss's spikes began moving. A quick glance at its health bars showed that their heavy combo had reduced it into the yellow of its second bar. A tactic change then.

He didn't get any further down that line of thought as at that moment Hanna tackled him. He briefly saw the boss launch spikes everywhere before they landed behind a rock, and less than a second later a bunch of loud 'thunk's rung out. Lifting himself enough to see over the rock, he paled as he saw that the snake's spikes were now embedded in everything around it.

Still studying the destruction to see if there were any blank spots in the attack, he didn't look back even as he spoke to Hanna, "Thanks. I have no idea how much damage one of those spikes does, but considering how many it launches we'd probably get hit by a lot more than just one if we're in the open when it attacks."

He could hear Hanna open her menu as she calmly replied, "They don't do much damage, but they're poisonous."

He blinked in confusion for a brief moment, wondering how she could know that, then whirled around as understanding washed over him. Sure enough, Hanna had three needles going straight through her legs, two in her right which had been closer to the boss, and one in her left. He immediately felt guilty. He knew without any doubt that Hanna could've taken cover quick enough to not get hit at all if she hadn't been busy saving him. She didn't seem the slightest bit concerned about it even as she pulled health and antidote potions from her inventory, pulled the spikes out of her legs, then downed the potions.

At that point she turned to him. He wondered what she saw in his expression. Whatever it was it made her go wide eyed for a second, then smile reassuringly at him, "Don't worry so much. They don't do much damage, and while the poison is rather bad, our high levels give us enough health that we have plenty of time to take an antidote potion and let it kick in. Plus, we can't feel pain remember? It doesn't hurt." He wasn't really reassured, and it must have shown because she sighed, "Anyway, we should pull some antidote and health potions out of our inventories and put them in our pockets for quick access just to be safe."

He hesitated, still a bit hung up on her getting poisoned because of him, but she gave him a stern look so he dropped it. After putting some potions in their pockets they quickly went back to the boss. Hanna didn't hesitate to hit it with the falcata skill «Primal Dance», then skill chained it with the heavy damage claw skill «Dragons Wrath». He switched with her before her cool down kicked in, hitting it with nine quick slashes, then jumping back. Before Hanna had a chance to attack the mini-boss's spikes moved again in preparation to launch. Hanna scowled, then slashed at hit six times, shifted her weight, then attacked it with four more hits. From the way the boss froze up, he knew she'd done a manual skill switch.

He switched with her and chained five skills together, three heavy damage sword skills with two Martial Arts skills in between to buy him enough time to charge the next skill with his sword. He changed places with Hanna just as the snake unfroze. It immediately focused on Hanna and lunged for her. Hanna jumped over the attack. Landing on the snakes head she started wildly attacking. The snake began to thrash around trying to dislodge her. For a moment it didn't work as Hanna had grabbed onto it, but then it reared its head back throwing her straight up. Hanna twisted in midair, throwing her falcata at its head, where half the sword sunk in. Turning so she was feet first, Hanna landed straight on her swords hilt driving it all the way in. The boss froze for a moment then shattered. Hanna flipped around as she fell scooping her sword up in the process and landed on her feet easily.

Kirito stared at Hanna. He loved fighting, and he was definitely the type of person who enjoyed seeing displays of skill from other people. Hanna displayed amazing skill almost constantly. While it may not always be flashy, the fact that he rarely saw her HP drop into the yellow spoke volumes in and of itself. He'd also realized he had a crush on her a couple months ago, but he never acted on it. He knew Hanna didn't reciprocate his feelings. Even though occasionally they had what others might consider a moment, like on New Year's, most of the time when they found themselves in that type of situation, Hanna would scowl fiercely. It hurt. It hurt like hell to know she disliked the prospect of a relationship of that nature with him so much, but he'd respect her boundaries. He would never try and force a relationship with someone, especially when they clearly didn't want it.

Still even with all that said, he couldn't help but admire the image she made in that moment. Sword in hand with the millions of polygons from the field boss drifting around her, he thought she looked more beautiful than ever before. A by now familiar longing filled him, but he quickly pushed it aside when she sheathed her sword and turned to him. He didn't trust himself to be able to keep it from showing on his face, and the last thing he wanted was to make her uncomfortable.

He grinned at her, "Just had to try and outdo my punching a dragon huh?"

She grinned back, "But of course. I can't let you show me up. It's simply not allowed."

He laughed, then they turned their attention to the widows congratulating them on beating Nagashree and telling them what was dropped. It was mostly stranded stuff, though there was a some pretty high leveled poison. Since neither of them used poison it was quickly decided that they'd just have Argo find a good buyer for it or sell it to Agil.

As they finally entered the labyrinth Kirito shifted to slightly more serious matters, "Do you want to send the map data with the safe route to Asuna or should I?"

Hanna shrugged, "I will I suppose. Hold up a minute, I want to do that now. The sooner we have agility parties mapping the dungeon the sooner we can move onto the next floor."

He nodded then kept watch for any mobs while she sent the data to Asuna and informed her of the mini-boss's defeat. Asuna responded before Hanna even had a chance to close her menu, thanking them for the data and telling them that she'd spread it around immediately.

Hanna shared a grin with Kirito, "Always so prompt isn't she?"

Kirito nodded, then glanced around as though looking for people who might over hear, then stage whispered in a conspiratorial manner, "Don't tell anyone I said this since it's a major secret, but I think she might be a workaholic."

Hanna laughed wildly at that, when she finally had herself under control she gasped out, "If that's a secret it's the worst kept secret ever!"

He gave her a mock grave look, "Shush you. It's a secret to everyone."

She collapsed into laughter again, which Kirito soon joined. He smiled at her as they finally calmed down. Again that feeling of longing began to well up, but he pushed it away again. He was content to just be Hanna's friend. He'd have to be, seeing as that's all he'd ever be to her.

Hanna frowned. They'd been in the labyrinth for six hours, and she didn't like what she was seeing so far. Something about this labyrinth was different. It had a far more intricate appearance than any of the other labyrinths so far, and something about it made it seem more dangerous to her. Sure the labyrinths had been slowly becoming more... elegant she supposed she could say even though it wasn't quite accurate, but it had been a gradual change. This one however, was noticeably more elaborate.

Currently Hanna and Kirito were resting in the safe zone, as the brutality of the dungeon was quickly eating through their HP, and therefore their health potions. Kirito must have noticed something in her expression, because he reached over and squeezed her shoulder, "Hey, I don't know what you're worrying about now, but it'll be alright."

She shook her head, "There's something off about this labyrinth. Haven't you noticed? Its design is more... sophisticated than the ones we've been to before. Not to mention the mobs are far more brutal than even the ones in previous dungeons were. I just- I don't like it. There's something wrong this time."

Kirito frowned, then hesitantly asked, "Do you want to sit this one out? If it's really bothering you that much we can."

Hanna hesitated for a moment contemplating it then shook her head, "No, its fine just... we need to be more careful in this one, and let's not grind here at night."

Kirito searched her expression for a minute, then slowly nodded, "Alright, if you're sure. And considering how badly this dungeons is during the day, I was going to suggest we stay out of this one at night anyway." He leaned his head back against the wall with a sigh, "This floor is going to suck, isn't it?"

Hanna snorted, "It already does, and we're still on the first floor of the labyrinth. It's only gonna get worse from here."

Kirito huffs, "Don't remind me."

Hanna chuckled, but didn't mention any more of her worries about this labyrinth. Kirito worried enough without her adding to it. Besides, since he worried so much he'd probably already thought of all of her worries.

July 13th 2023- 250 days since SAO launch:

Hanna and Kirito were eating dinner after a day in the labyrinth when Diabel burst into the inn. As soon as he spot them he hurried over with a grave expression. Hanna shared a glance with Kirito, "Diabel? What's wrong?"

Diabel sat down next to her with a scowl, "Kibaou." Hanna scowled and Kirito looked like he was expecting the worse, she motioned for Diabel to continue, "That idiot found the boss room today. Guess what he did."

Kirito sounded pained, "Pease tell me he did not try to take on the boss with just his guild."

Diabel scowled, "Sorry, but he took on the boss with just his guild."

Hanna sighed heavily, "How bad was it?"

Diabel growled in frustration, "As you know he has 53 people in his guild. There are now only 16 people in his guild including himself. He didn't even beat the boss. They were forced to retreat."

Thirty seven. 37 people dead because Kibaou was a stupid idiot who wouldn't listen. How many times had he been warned that his actions would lead to death? How many times had they warned him to be more cautious? He wouldn't listen though, and now 37 people were dead.

She had no doubt that Kikuoka would be collecting Mike to speak with her soon. So with a sigh she pushed her food away, "Well, I've lost my appetite. I'm gonna go up to our room and try to get some sleep."

Kirito nodded tiredly, "Alright. I'll be up soon, I wanna talk to Diabel."

She nodded, and Diabel moved so she could get out of the booth, "Goodnight Hanna-chan."

She nodded at him, "Night Diabel."

She had just barely made it to her room when she felt Mike enter her mind. Quickly requipping into her casual clothes, she climbed into bed and entered her mind. She immediately found herself face to face with Mike. Neither of them had a chance to say anything before Kikuoka's voice came through the little black diamond, "What happened?"

She sighed heavily looking away, "Do you remember what I said about that guy called Kibaou? How he was always going on about the guild who finds the boss beating it on their own? His guild was the one to find the boss room today. He only took his own guild in, which has- which had 53 people in it. The boss forced them to retreat after 37 people died. I don't know anything more about it, as I found out less than ten minutes ago."

She figured Kikuoka had contacted her parents and had them retrieve Mike for him, and it was understandable that someone would accompany Mike to see what was going on. As such she wasn't surprised when she heard Uncle Vergil speak up, "37 people dead because of one person's stupidity. I guess it's true. It's easier to lead people to their deaths than it is to save them."

Marzanna sighed, "The casualties may not have been so bad if it had been any other floor, but it just had to be this floor that he reached the boss room first."

Kikuoka sounded keenly interested, "What do you mean? What's so special about this floor? What floor are you on anyway?"

She sighed again, "We're on the 25th floor. Being the quarter milestone, Kayaba made it much harder than the previous floors. Though we won't know whether or not the difficulty spike is limited to this floor or whether the difficulty will drop until we make it to the next floor. The problem is that this floor is so difficult that process is slow."

Nero chose that moment to speak up, though there was something off about his voice, "How much have you guys slowed down?"

Marzanna glanced away, "We've already been on this floor for nine days, but the boss room was only found today. Hell, it took us three days just to reach the labyrinth and defeat the field boss guarding it."

Kikuoka sounded incredulous, "Three days just to reach the labyrinth? Surely it isn't that difficult."

She glared at the diamond, "You try navigating a massive area with a radius of roughly 2 kilometers that has typography that's so convoluted that it's practically a maze, that's full of traps the most common of which is a pitfall that dumps you in a poisonous swamp, and to top it all off is filled to the brim with various monsters that try very hard to rip your head off. And that's even before we get to the labyrinth itself, which is even worse! The mobs of the 25th floor are as strong as the mobs were in the previous labyrinth, and the monsters that are actually in the labyrinth itself are as strong as monsters from the previous labyrinth at night. That's during the day! Even Kirito and I aren't crazy enough to fight in this labyrinth at night. Even before Kibaou's disaster nine people died just trying to find a safe path to the labyrinth, and an additional sixteen have died mapping it since then. So fuck you, and fuck your god damn disbelief, neither I nor the other floor clearers answer to you jackass."

There was a heavy silence for a minute then her dad's voice gently cut in, "Kiddo, I won't try and tell you that I understand your frustration or your anger, as I've never been in a situation like yours, but getting angry at Kikuoka isn't going to help anything. He's only doing his job."

She looked away with a scowl, "I know that, but he's not here. He doesn't know a damn thing, so he has no right whatsoever to question the floor clearers."

When Kikuoka spoke it was with delicacy, obviously not wanting to provoke her temper again, "In case you've forgotten, that's why I've been meeting with you in the first place, so that I can understand what's going on in there."

Marzanna growled, "I could tell you all about it. We could sit here for days on end as I described it, but you'll never understand. Not really. You can't understand what it's like to be playing a video game one minute and in the next be told that you're trapped in a death game. You can't understand what it's like to be unable to do a god damn thing while someone's hit points, their life literally drains before your eyes, or the expression of terror that appears on their faces at the last second as they realize their dead. You can't understand anything Kikuoka. You're incapable of it, because you're not here."

The following silence was deafening. Eventually though Kyrie, whose voice was off like Nero's, hesitantly spoke up, "What- What do you mean unable to do anything? I mean, I don't play games, but I've seen you and Nero play them plenty of times. Aren't their usually health items? Can't you use those to save other people? Or was Kayaba really so cruel as to make it so that health items only work on the player they belong to?"

Marzanna sighed tiredly, incapable of being mad at Kyrie, "There are health items, and you can use them on other players. There are two types of health items. Potions and Crystals. Health potions restore a specific amount of health. Health crystals on the other hand, fully restore health, no matter how low you are. In either case, you can mildly cheat the system if you administer them before the system finishes draining a player's health even if they're at zero. Though in the case of potions it has to be enough to bring them above zero to save them. The system only shows a players health going to zero, but it calculates exactly how much damage every hit does, even if it technically puts the player in the negative. The problem is that crystals are rare at this point in the game. They'll likely become far more common on later levels, but at this point they're so rare that the general rule is to save them for absolute emergencies in your own party or yourself. Even worse while crystals may restore health instantly, potions take a few seconds to kick in and restore health over a period of ten seconds. Which means if you give someone whose health is rapidly draining in front of you a potion, you won't know if it's enough to save then till it's too late to use a crystal. As if that wasn't bad enough, there's a particular type of trap called the Anti-Crystal Area, as its name implies, you literally can't use crystals in those areas. 95% of the time it doesn't matter, as using a large health potion is enough, but sometimes- sometimes it isn't."

Vergil sounded tense, "So it's either a guessing game, or a calculation if you know enough about what you're facing. Do you use a health potion and risk it not being enough? Or do you use a crystal and risk either yourself or your party member dying later because you didn't have anymore crystals?"

Marzanna nodded in a depressed manner. If she had the resources, she'd use crystals anytime someone was dying on front of her, but she only had one of the two crystals from New Year's, having used the other on Klein during the last boss fight. Kirito still had both of his, but with only three between them, they couldn't afford to be generous with them. So she could do nothing but use potions and hope they were enough.

Not liking the dark serious nature of both the conversation and her thoughts, she quickly tried to distract herself, "Hey, is there something wrong with the device you guys have been speaking to me with? Nero and Kyrie's voices sounded strange."

From his tone Uncle Vergil knew exactly what she was doing, but he answered her anyway, "It has nothing to do with the device. I was the only one who actually came with Mike, everyone else is actually on speakerphone. More importantly, you look exhausted. Are you alright?"

Marzanna shrugged, "I guess it's too be expected. You're seeing into my mind with that device. This floor is mentally exhausting, seeing as the me you're seeing is a mental representation of me, it makes sense that the exhaustion shows."

Dante hummed, "Well, I can't see you since I'm on the other side of the call, but if it's that exhausting you should go and get some sleep. You've gotten the answers you were looking for, didn't you Kikuoka?" He made an agreeing sound, so Dante continued, "Well then, there's nothing else to it. Go get some rest kiddo, we'll talk to you later."

Marzanna snorted, "Gladly. I love you guys. Talk to you later."

With that said, Marzanna faded straight from her mindscape into sleep.

July 16th 2023- 253 days since SAO launch:

Hanna tensely walked with Kirito towards the boss room. Today was the raid. As disastrous as Kibaou's attempt to beat the boss had been, at least one good thing had come of it. They didn't just have a vague idea of what it did, they knew its attack patterns, at least until it got into the red on the first of its left health bars. It had five health bars in total, and changed tactics at least once, though they all had a suspicion that it changed five times considering how this floor had been going so far. The boss was a two headed giant, the right head had three of its health bars and was called «Nangir». Whereas the left head had the other two health bars and was named «Bluzkos». The system decided which head you did damage to by where you hit it. Hitting the right side of its body hurt «Nangir», hitting the left damaged «Bluzkos».

Apparently Kibaou's guild had been struggling even before they knocked Bluzkos into the red of his first bar, they were forced to retreat less than five minutes later.

Even with more information than usual, Hanna was nervous about this boss fight. As the raid party reached the boss doors, Heathcliff, the commander of the Knights of the Blood, called for a half hour break, telling everyone to thoroughly check their equipment for this particular fight. She didn't bother, and neither did Kirito. With how much of a worrier he was, Kirito did it every night before they faced a boss, and he made sure she did as well. As such, they both knew the exact status of their equipment.

For a while she stood with Kirito as the clicks of players slowly navigating their menus filed the tense silence. Then Kirito gently put a hand on her shoulder, murmuring quietly enough that no one else would hear despite the silence, "Hey, relax. I can't promise you it won't be bad, but being tense isn't going to help."

She turned to him, "That's- I can't-" She shook her head and stared at him for a minute before stepping forward and wrapping her arms around him, then buried her face in his neck, "I'm scared, but not for myself. I'm scared for everyone else. I'm scared for Klein and Fuurinkazan. I'm scared for Asuna and the Knights of the Blood. I'm scared for the Divine Dragon Alliance. But most of all, I'm scared for you. I honestly don't know what I'd do if something happened to you. If you left me alone I- I-"

She cut off as her eyes teared up, unable to continue. It was selfish she knew, but it was the possibility of losing Kirito that scared her the most. Normally she wasn't one to worry so much, but this floor had been mentally draining, and it was definitely affecting her.

Kirito stiffened in shock momentarily, then gently wrapped one arm around her waist. He started carding the fingers of his other hand through her hair soothingly, "Nothing's going to happen to me. I won't leave you alone, I promise." Hanna shook her head. So he stopped running his fingers through her hair, and gently cupped her cheek then tilted her head up. Upon seeing her teary eyes, he jolted then his own eyes softened, "I mean it. I won't leave, ever, I swear."

Even though she logically knew there was no way he could guarantee being able to keep that promise, something in his eyes made her believe him. So she nodded slowly. He smiled reassuringly, then gently wiped the unshed tears from her eyes.

Kirito opened his mouth to say something else, but he was cut off by Heathcliff, "Alright. Half hour is up. You all know the plan and your individual parts in it. Let's go."

Kirito gave her one last reassuring look, then let her go and stepped away. Taking a shuddering breath, Hanna turned towards the boss room and forced herself to focus on the task at hand. Drawing her sword in preparation, she saw Kirito do the same out of the corner of her eye. They were one of the parties focused on damage dealing this time. They were to wait until the tanks got the boss' attention, then circle around to its left and focus on Bluzkos' health. The Fuurinkazan were taking its right side, and Asuna was leading one of the parties circling around to its back.

When Heathcliff opened the door, she and Kirito rushed in, then over to the left side of the boss room to wait for the tanks to do their job. The boss was sitting on the ground, but got up as the torches around the room lit. It was exactly what you'd expect from a giant in video games, a massive ugly humanoid. Though unlike giants in other games, the boss was wearing armor, plate mail from the looks of it. There were also two swords on its back, the hilts jutting over its shoulders. Along with that, there were also Flails(1) on its belt with their handles in holsters, and the ball and chains allowed to dangle.

The boss' health bars and names soon appeared, and the tanks were quick to move forward. Once they had its attention, she and Kirito approached the boss' left side, and immediately began attacking together. For now, the boss was just attacking with its bare hands, they knew that when Bluzkos, and likely Nangir's from the look of it, first bar when into the red, it would draw one of the swords from its back, but though they didn't know anything of its tactics after. Hanna guessed that once their second bar went red, they'd discard the sword and grab the Flail.

Half an hour later, Hanna's assumption proved true. With Nangir's second bar in the red, it threw its sword away and pulled one of the Flails from its waist. Its first swing sent three players flying. Hanna rushed to the one of them as one of Klein's guildmates and Kirito went to the other. As she ran she sheathed her sword, and pulled a large health potion from her pocket, then pulled the lid off. As soon as she reached the player she handed him the potion, which he drank without hesitation. He looked up at his health, and a moment later a look of terror took over his face. He turned to her frantically, but didn't get a chance to say anything before exploding into polygons. She stared at the spot he'd been in horror.

For a few moments she stayed frozen there, then Kirito's voice cut through the horror clouding get mind, "Hanna! Move!"

She jolted and turned just to see the spiked ball of the Flail coming for her. Diving out of the way, the ball crashed into the pillar she'd been crouching in front of. She watched the fight for a few moments. Despite all of their preparation they were still losing, and badly. Clutching her fists tightly in fury she looked away, then blinked rapidly when her eyes landed on Nangir's sword a few feet away. It was strange, usually when a boss discarded a weapon to change tactics the weapon disappeared within moments. Her eyes narrowed then she glanced between the boss and the weapon.

'Fuck it.' With that thought Hanna moved over to the sword and attempted to pick it up. Though still heavy, it wasn't nearly as heavy as she'd thought it be. The hilt of the sword alone was the same height as her from the waist up, and the blade was three times the length of its hilt. She wasn't that far from the fighting so she only took five steps forward, then swung her acquired weapon at the boss, only pausing to aim it high enough so as to not hit the other players.

The boss staggered back, and an sixteenth of one of its bars from each head drained with the one blow, then it turned its attention to her. With a roar it jumped over the other players towards her, but she was already swinging again, the attack hit the boss the moment it landed, "Enough! I've had enough of you and this floors fucking bullshit! Fuck you! Fuck your god damn floor with its god forsaken poisonous swaps. Fuck your stronger mobs! Fuck your stupid labyrinth with its upped difficulty! Fuck all of it!"

The boss tried to retaliate, but while it took her a bit to fully swing the massive sword, the blows were heavy enough that every single one of them staggered the boss, and by the time it recovered she was already swinging again. With her last exclamation she swung at its legs, cutting them both off just below the knees. The boss dropped its weapons and fell to its hands and knees, but she continued her relentless assault. Then with a final scream of fury, she brought the blade down right between its heads, cleaving it in two. The boss froze what little moment it had been doing then shattered into millions of polygons. With the boss out of the way it revealed the other players to her, and every single one of them except Kirito were gaping at her in shock.

Kirito crossed his arms then nodded as he gave his sage opinion, "Owned."

Hanna turned to Kirito. Upon realizing what she'd done, she opened her mouth to apologize for losing her temper when she was cut off by the fanfare ringing out as the 'Congratulations!' banner appeared above where the boss had been, and the other front liners cheering in victory. Simultaneously, the window with her drops appeared in front of her as the sword disappeared.

Seeing Kirito turn his attention to his own window, she followed suit. The first was a widow she'd never seen before, it read: 'Congratulations! For meeting the requirements of the hidden challenge, you get:

Blade of Giants.'

She stared at the window for a moment. The sword had been a straight sword, and the giant had wielded it one handed. So, since the blade in her inventory would certainly be smaller than when she'd picked it up, it would definitely go to Kirito. Closing that window she moved onto the last attack bonus window, but it turned out to be plate mail chest piece. It was useless to her and Kirito, since they both preferred light armor, but it would probably fetch a nice price. Closing that window she came to the standard window listing the drops she got for fighting the boss. The xp and col were much higher than usual, and the drops seemed better, but since drops were random and xp and col were distributed evenly between everyone who participated in the boss raid, she figured it was due to the increased difficulty.

Closing that window, she quickly navigated her menu to the sword she just got. Its stats were incredible, but it also had a high strength requirement. Considering she just barely made the strength requirement, she figured the requirement was the same for the swords massive form. Pulling it out momentarily, she found it was almost the perfect length that Kirito preferred. Putting it back, she opened a trade window with Kirito, then added the sword to it. He glanced at the window, then turned to her. She motioned to her falcata with a shake of her head, quietly informing him that it was a straight sword. He nodded his understanding, then accepted the trade without adding anything.

He tilted his head at her, then nodded towards the stairs up to the next floor with a questioning look. Knowing that he was silently asking if she had anything she needed to do here, she shook her head then started making her way towards the stairs.

Kirito rushed to one of the players while Hanna and a member of Fuurinkazan took the other two. Shoving a potion at the woman, he didn't even wait to see if it was enough before turning back to the battle. A few moments later he saw the Flail head towards Hanna who wasn't paying attention to the fight, "Hanna! Move!"

She jerked then turned, upon seeing the weapon heading straight for her, she dodged out of the way. Immediately anxiety filled him when he lost sight of her behind another pillar. He started to make his way over while keeping his eyes on the fight to dodge the Flail should it come his direction. He'd barely made it halfway before a large sword sliced into the boss' stomach. He turned towards Hanna, only to see her already shifting to swing the sword again, an expression of slightly unhinged wrath on her face. Seeing her holding a sword a bit more than twice her size would've been comical if it wasn't for that expression on her face. The boss roared and jumped over the other players, only to be met with another blow from its own sword as soon as it landed.

Hanna then proceeded to curse the boss and this floor, raining blows on the giant the entire time. At the end of her tirade she brutally took out its legs, then continued attacking it ferociously. As Hanna continued to attack the downed boss, Kirito sheathed his sword and glanced around, then chuckled at the gobsmacked expressions the other front liners were sporting. He shifted his gaze back to the fight turned beat down, just in time to see Hanna scream in pure fury as she cut the giant in half.

As the boss burst into polygons Hanna was fully revealed, having been partially behind the giant before that. She was breathing heavily in fury, her hair had gotten frizzy at some point, and there was a look of wild rage in her eyes which made her seem deadly, accentuated by the large sword in her hands and the blue polygons dancing around her. She looked mildly similar to when she defeated Nagashree, but unlike then she was clearly effected by this boss fight. She was probably a terrifying image to the other front liners, but to him there was something breathtakingly beautiful about her in that single moment. Even more so than when she beat the field boss.

He was embarrassed to realize that along with the usual feeling of longing, the ferocity she was displaying was also kinda turning him on. Quickly pushing the feelings aside before they could show in his expression, he crossed his arms and nodded sagely, before uttering a single word, "Owned."

Hanna turned to him, clearly about to say something, but the usual fanfare that accompanied the 'Congratulations!' banner rang out, and windows with their drops appeared in front of them as the sword in Hanna's hands disappeared.

He started going over his drops, then after a bit was startled when a trade window from Hanna popped up. A second later she added a sword, «Blade of Giants». He turned to her in question, but she gestured to her falcata with a shake of her head. A straight sword then. Nodding to show he understood, he accepted the trade as is. Tilting his head in question, he nodded towards the stairs. She shook her head, and started to make her way towards them, and he quickly joined her. This floor had obviously been harshly fraying her nerves for her to snap as she had. She needed to relax, and he wouldn't let anything interrupt it. As such, they could face evening else later. The casualty count, the reactions at her outburst, as far as he was concerned it could all wait until she wasn't so tense.

(1): For those of you that don't know, this a short staff with a chain attached to the end. Attached to the other end of the chain is a ball, usually metal with spikes.