Okay, here's the next chapter... which doesn't conclude the current part of the story as I planned. I seriously underestimated how long the battle scene would be, so there was no space for the events after that. Well, since the nature of those other events differs considerably from the battle here, it might be better this way.
With that out of the way, it's time for the final part of Akinym and Sinon's quest to get the Fleece of the Ancestral Ram.
Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online Re:Hollow Fragment or Sword Art Online in general.
Silica looked at the two Oxen of Fire with a slightly troubled expression. She stood about twenty metres away from her "target", and she wasn't sure how much closer she could get before the two monsters would react to her presence. It was time for her to start, so she took a deep breath and prepared herself mentally.
While still holding the anti-fire potion tightly in her left hand, Silica opened the Taming menu with her right hand. She took another look at the ox monsters, making sure that one of them was marked by her cursor, and turned back to the window in front of her. The button for starting a Taming attempt was at the bottom of the window, and just as Silica had hoped, it lit up.
Silica looked over her shoulder and at the others with a bright smile.
Silica: It works! These monsters are tamable!
She turned to the monsters once again… just in time to observe an odd change. It took her so much by surprise that she stopped moving completely. Seeing that hesitation, more and more of the others took a scrutinising look at the Oxen of Fire, wondering what might've happened that would make Silica freeze in place.
They all saw the same unprecedented phenomenon. There were cursors above both oxen at the same time. At the same time, there was only one HP bar hovering in between them.
Klein: Huh? What's broken now?! Is anyone else seeing two cursors at once?
Sinon: W-well, yes. I take it that something like that has never happened before?
Dynamm: Like hell it did! What's going on? Some sort of bug?
Akinym [slightly contemplatively]: It's not impossible, but unlikely. At the very least, the system should take care of it quickly. [thinks, worriedly] Unless it's a new kind of major error that the system can't fix, but let's hope that this isn't the case… [says aloud, seriously] It raises the question why this would be supposed to happen, though.
Tsukuyomi [slightly insecurely]: Um, maybe it's just my perspective as someone who doesn't have the experience of an Assault Team member, but aren't there new situations coming up regularly on new floors? Maybe this is actually part of the quest and perfectly normal?
Silica: I don't know if it's related to that, but I could still start a Taming attempt.
While most of the others were at a loss, Akinym brooded over this issue. Well, Tsukuyomi might be right, but what would the purpose behind this new feature be? While Akinym was still collecting his thoughts, Sinon brought up an idea.
Sinon: Yes, I think that's it. The quest NPC stated clearly that we have to tame both oxen, so… Silica, tell me if I'm wrong, but you can only tame the selected target, right?
Silica: Y-yes, that's correct, Sinon-san! Using Taming only affects the monster I've selected as the target.
Sinon: In that case, the two monsters were kinda fused together so that the beast tamer can bring both of them under their control. At least that's what I think.
ODE: Hm, probably. But isn't that pretty convoluted? I mean, first, there are two monsters, and now they kinda become one. For what reason? Just to make taming them easier?
Akinym: It's not just that. I've had the same idea as Sinon-san, and I think there's one major argument that confirms this: Not only can players tame only one monster at a time, they can only equip one familiar at a time, too. Furthermore, you need Familiar Communication to interact with them. If we need both Oxen of Fire, we'd normally need two beast tamers, and having two people with such an uncommon skill would be difficult to arrange.
Klein: Huh, sounds plausible. Alright then, go for it, Silica-chan!
Silica: Um, y-yes! I… I will!
While Silica was drinking the anti-fire potion to finish her preparations, there was still one thing on Akinym's mind. Sure, he came up with a reason why the Oxen of Fire should be a single monster, but that didn't explain why they had been two separate monsters in the first place.
Why hadn't they been one monster from the very beginning? Could it be an attempt to mislead players? Or was it a strange design flaw, albeit a minor one? Well, maybe. Akinym couldn't rule out these possibilities, but he had a hard time imagining that something so… unnecessary would be included in a quest. Alas, what else could this be about? Was this "transformation" hinting at something, perhaps?
Meanwhile, the empty vial in Silica's hand shattered after she had drunk the potion. Silica looked at her status display in her HUD. For this quest, she had joined Akinym and Sinon's party, so they appeared in the list of characters, too, but right now, Silica focused on her own HP bar. Well, or to be more precise, she looked intently at a new buff icon beneath it. The symbol on it was a flame, and it was labelled as "Increased Fire Resistance".
With that out of the way, Silica began walking towards the monsters at a calm but steady pace. While she was doing that, she also took an item out of her inventory. It was a fruit… a rather odd fruit, to be honest. It looked like a roughly fist-sized papaya in the shape of a deformed gourd.
Silica [soothingly]: Hello, Gozu, Ushi! Don't worry, I won't harm you! If possible, I'd like to be your friend. You might not believe me so easily, [holds out the fruit to the monsters] so how about a little peace offering as a sign of good intentions?
The Oxen of Fire didn't seem to be on board with the idea… or – as some members of Fuurinkazan would joke later – they just weren't impressed by Silica's "offering". They cried out furiously and spat fire at Silica while slowly trudging towards her.
Silica [slightly panicking]: WAAAH! No need to be so on edge!
The situation looked fairly dangerous, and quite a few of the other players were very concerned. In fact, Akinym expected some of the members of Ascending Moon, who he had observed for a relatively long time, to lose their heads. Thus, he wasn't surprised when Susanoo and Kaito were about to rush over, and he blocked their path with his spear.
Akinym: Stop it! You'll only cause trouble if you intervene now!
Kaito: Point taken, but isn't this kinda insane?!
Susanoo: Yeah, that girl is literally on fire! VRMMO or not, that's dangerous! How can you be so calm?!
Akinym: Because I can see that her HP are decreasing extremely slowly. Don't forget that she has a buff to boost her Defense against fire attacks.
Sure enough, Silica's HP bar may have shrunk steadily, but the Oxen of Fire's DPS was so low that she wouldn't be in danger for at least another thirty seconds. If it hadn't been for the anti-fire buff, she would've been in mortal danger by now, though. In fact, the Durability of the fruit in her hand had already been reduced to the point that it would take only a few more seconds for it to be destroyed.
Alas, Akinym figured that she would have to start the Taming attempt now. He also took another look at the Oxen of Fire, and when he saw their HP gauge, he panicked a little.
Akinym: Silica-san, start taming them! Quickly! Their HP are decreasing rapidly.
For a moment, Silica was dumbfounded. Why would the Oxen of Fire take damage? She wasn't hitting them – nobody did. However, when she checked it herself, she saw that Akinym was right. Repressing her own disbelief, Silica hurriedly stopped "persuading" the Oxen of Fire and pressed the button to start the Taming attempt.
From her experience with Pina, she knew that the process would take about five seconds. Silica also figured that she might need two or three attempts. When she had got Pina, she had needed to try taming the feathered dragon twice.
This being the case, Silica was deeply surprised when the Oxen of Fire stopped breathing fire after the first attempt. The cursors above them had also changed from red monster cursors to yellow familiar cursors.
While Silica was still busy taking in the fact that she had succeeded on the first try, the Oxen of Fire already began to… display "typical familiar behaviour". In other words: They spotted the fruit Silica was holding, which hadn't been destroyed yet, and wanted to snatch it.
In fact, the ox to Silica's left lunged forward and swallowed the fruit in one bite before the other one could get a chance to take it. Well, that is… Rather than gobbling up only the fruit, Silica's new familiar brashly put her entire lower arm into its muzzle.
Silica [shrieks]: GOZU! That's gross! Stop it!
The second ox didn't take kindly to this impudent theft of food. In an ill-advised attempt not to miss out on the feeding time, it began to nudge Silica's other arm with its head, looking as if it was sniffing at her. Since the ox couldn't find any food, it proceeded to search Silica's body for anything to eat. In an extremely peculiar turn of events, the ox familiar seemed to think that there might be food beneath Silica's breast plate, so it grabbed it with its teeth and tried to pull it off.
Silica: Ushi, not you, too! What are you doing?! STOP!
Oddly enough, the familiars were unperturbed, although Gozu apparently tried to get in Ushi's way, but in the end, they only knocked Silica over and continued to search her body together like a duo of truffle pigs.
Silica: Someone… Anyone! PLEASE HELP ME!
In light of the bizarre scene that had been unfolding in front of their eyes, the other players had been dumbfounded, and they were watching with confused or exasperated expressions.
Nevertheless, Sinon and ODE reacted almost instantaneously to Silica's plea for help. The rest of Ascending Moon followed suit after another second or two, even though some of them tried to make their assistance look overly heroic. Fuurinkazan also joined the "rescue mission" once they came back to their senses.
The lizardmen, on the other hand, didn't know what to do about this, at least that's what it looked like. Well, and Akinym… By the time he had recovered from the shock (and the subsequent state of confusion) enough to help, he figured that Silica already had a… sufficient amount of rescuers.
A mere minute later, Silica had been freed, and she was panting heavily while trying to regain her composure. Sinon stood next to her, rubbing her shoulders in an attempt to soothe the other girl. Silica had also received a towel-like piece of cloth, which was a special item to remove slimy or sticky substances, from a member of Fuurinkazan, and she was wiping off Gozu's saliva.
Silica [groans wailingly]: Why does this keep happening to me?
Sinon could only smile wryly. Being unable to find any words of comfort for Silica, she looked over at the rest of their group. They were currently attaching the plough to the oxen.
In order to do that, the oxen had to move in front of the plough, and after that, the players had to put the respective yokes on the oxen's necks. Once they had done that, a system window popped up, asking the players to confirm that they wanted to attach the plough to the oxen.
Akinym watched the process with a pensive look on his face. The Oxen of Fire acted strangely obediently. Sure, Silica had told them to cooperate, and the members of Fuurinkazan and Ascending Moon, each taking care of one ox, had no trouble guiding them to the right position. However, given what had happened to Silica moments ago, Akinym was a bit surprised. Silica had told him and the others that it had taken her a few tries to tame Pina, and she had also mentioned that Pina had been a bit disobedient at first.
Judging from all that, Akinym had figured that Silica's higher skill levels, especially her Familiar Communication, were the reason behind that difference. It might've increased the success rate of Taming. Initially, Akinym had also thought that it would make her familiars friendlier and less unruly. However, the latter didn't seem to be the case, so Akinym had a hunch that Pina's devoted behaviour stemmed from a specific parameter of the familiar itself, one that had been risen like a skill level by "using" the feathered dragon.
As interesting as this might've been, Akinym just decided to keep it in mind in case it would ever turn out to be of use, and he moved on. Now that the Oxen of Fire had been harnessed, they began ploughing the field, so it would be his turn soon. Thus, he had to get ready, which also meant putting aside all potential distractions.
The plough left a single deep furrow in the hard, dry soil. Considering that this was all they had needed the Oxen of Fire for, it was a downright underwhelming sight.
While Silica went over to the oxen in order to remove the yolks and to substitute them with Pina, Akinym walked up to the furrow, knelt down and put the teeth of a goblin and a lizardman into the soil. After covering them again, he swiftly returned to the others, who stood a few metres away.
They didn't have to wait long. The soil covering the sown teeth was suddenly hurled up. It almost looked as if the ground had erupted like a volcano, only that it spat dirt instead of lava. When the resulting dust cloud settled, the players could see two skeletons crawling out of holes in the ground.
One of them was the skeleton of a goblin while the other one belonged to a lizardman. That was about what Akinym, Sinon and the others had expected. The fact that the skeletons didn't wear any kind of equipment was odd, though. In the Argonautica, skeleton warriors sprout from the "dragon's teeth" Jason has to sow, and as far as Sinon could remember, these warriors wore at least light armour and weapons.
As it turned out, this contradiction was anything but a mere coincidence. These monsters used… different weapons. Each of them broke off one of their ribs, and they held them like knives or shortswords… or whatever you might call them.
Something about this was still strange. They had anticipated a relatively large-scale battle, but there were only two foes. In fact, on closer inspection, it turned out to be only one enemy. They encountered the same phenomenon they had seen before when taming the Oxen of Fire. When a player selected one of the skeleton monsters as a target, a cursor appeared above both of them, and the HP gauge was displayed above the ground where the monsters had spawned. Incidentally, this monster had three HP bars.
Nobody knew what to make of this unexpected turn of events, but they didn't have time to ponder over this. The skeleton monsters charged at them, so the battle was about to begin.
Kem'Pal drew its longsword and dashed at the lizardman skeleton in order to intercept it. The lizardman general swiftly fended off the first attack of the skeleton with its sword before pushing the undead monster back with its free hand. Kem'Pal followed up with a vertical sword stroke, and its target narrowly managed to regain its balance and to parry the attack with the rib it used as a makeshift weapon.
Kem'Pal [seriously, slightly contemplatively]: Hm, this is strange. When Sinon-kun told me that warriors would sprout from the teeth, I wasn't sure what to think about it. It didn't seem likely that a single tooth could give birth to a warrior. [slightly upset] Just what kind of necromancy is this?!
The lizardman skeleton pushed Kem'Pal away. Kem'Pal could easily deflect the following attack, and he answered with a horizontal blow, which the skeleton parried again.
Kem'Pal: I was foolish to doubt her words, though. Alas, at least I know now what our enemy is truly capable of. To you, my fallen comrade, I can only apologise for letting this happen. I shall see to it that you are put to your well-deserved rest again!
Meanwhile, Fuurinkazan dealt with the goblin skeleton. The two different skeletons fit the overall theme of the type of monster they represented in terms of fighting style: The lizardman skeleton was physically stronger, the goblin skeleton was more nimble. Thus, the goblin skeleton jumped around, striking at the players, who tried to encircle it.
The movements of the goblin skeleton were hard to follow… let alone to defend against, but Dynamm managed to draw its aggro and to parry the attacks with his shield. This gave the other members enough time to complete the encirclement. Fuurinkazan had a few players with long-reached weapons, so – despite their enemy's fast movements – they could cut off its retreat and fight it with only a handful of people. Whenever the goblin skeleton tried to escape through a gap in the encirclement, one of the players stepped in to stop it, following a well-established pattern regarding who protected what area so as not to accidentally get in each other's way.
In the meantime, Kem'Pal's soldiers joined their general in the battle against the lizardman skeleton. Some of them struck "their fallen comrade" with their battleaxes. As it turned out, this easily drew the skeleton's aggro. Fuurinkazan could observe the same mechanic. Every hit drew the respective skeleton's aggro, which created the impression that they had Critical Defense Aggro, and that their whole bodies were weak spots.
Akinym, who was still waiting for his turn, watched the battle intently. The two skeletons sustained quite a lot of hits. He wondered how much damage they had suffered, so he looked over at their shared HP bars… only to be utterly dumbfounded. More than a dozen attacks had barely left a scratch on them, which made Akinym wonder just how high their Defense had to be…
The battle continued, and while Fuurinkazan could fend off all counterattacks, one of the lizardman soldiers eventually sustained a scratch. It didn't seem severe, but that only made it all the more shocking when that NPC died mere moments thereafter. Kem'Pal, in particular, got completely off its stride for a moment.
Kem'Pal: What was that? [angrily] What did you do to him?!
Klein: Oi, Kem! Keep calm and focus on the battle! Hey, Akinym, don't you think you should start trying that tactic we've talked about? We're ready, and I think Kem and his men could need some help.
Akinym looked over at Silica and Sinon, who seemed to be ready, too. He turned back towards Klein and nodded to him.
And then… he and the two girls began to throw pebbles they had gathered around the area at the skeletons. The members of Ascending Moon, who had no idea what this was about, had expected some impressive battle tactic, so they were completely deflated. For a moment, they could only watch in disbelief.
Kaito: WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!
ODE: Well, yeah… I don't mean to rain on your parade, but how is that supposed to help?
Sinon: It's a long story, but we got this idea from the story we believe this quest to be based upon. There, the counterparts of these monsters are defeated indirectly. The hero throws small rocks at them, and the skeleton warriors become confused because they think that it's their comrades who throw these rocks. In the end, they started attacking each other.
Akinym: Yeah, this is why we're trying to do the same thing here!
This explained the bizarre scene, but it only created new worries. As a matter of fact, this tactic didn't work. The two skeletons remained completely unfazed.
Sinon: It's not working… Could it be that we've waited too long?
Silica: That would be pretty bad, wouldn't it? What if that strategy would've been our only way to beat them?
Akinym: I doubt it. For starters, there were no hints in the actual quest that we would have to resort to… this method of fighting. At the very least, it should be possible to clear this quest without knowing the background story, and throwing rocks at monsters to play them off against each other is a too unorthodox tactic. Keeping that aside, they attacked right away after spawning, so there wasn't even enough time to do this before the battle began.
Sinon: So, we have to beat them normally? Not that I mind, but we have to make a decision as to what to do next.
Akinym had to agree, but with another look at the still almost completely unharmed HP bars of the skeletons, he wondered what they were supposed to do.
Akinym: Alright, we don't have a choice! Tsukuyomi-san, you're usually relying on ODE-san as your tank, and he wouldn't be able to keep up with the goblin, so go and help the lizardmen!
Tsukuyomi: Understood! You heard him, ODE, so I'm counting on you! The rest of us will encircle the target like the Fuurinkazan party did. After that, we'll figure out how to attack, so wait for your signal to switch in!
With that, Ascending Moon rushed over to the lizardman skeleton. ODE assisted Kem'Pal in defending against the skeleton's forceful, but also rather slow blows, and the others took position around the monster.
Klein: Kem, I think you should withdraw your soldiers for now! Not that another one bites the dust like the one earlier, you know? Let these guys handle the defense!
Kem'Pal [slightly hesitantly]: Very well, if that's your advice, Klein-dono… [determinedly] Men, stand back! Until I give you other orders, you'll leave this battle to our scaleless allies! All of you, don't dare to die on me, too, you hear?
Lizardman Elite Soldiers: Fight for survival!
Well, contrary to their battle cry, the other lizardman soldiers did as Kem'Pal had told them, so they retreated to a relatively safe distance and waited. Kem'Pal itself, on the other hand, turned back to the lizardman skeleton. With a malicious glint in its eyes, the lizardman general charged at the undead monster.
Kem'Pal: But after laying your hands on my subordinate, I can't sit idly by! I have a duty to at least assist in your slaying!
The battle continued, but they were essentially at a stalemate. The players (and Kem'Pal) could keep the skeleton monsters in check, but their ridiculously high Defense made it downright impossible to deal considerable damage. They tried anything they could think of. For instance, they used Akinym's Armor-Breaking Lance and other attacks to weaken the monsters' defense, but even with those debuffs, they dealt hardly any damage.
To make things worse, that wasn't the only problem their group faced. These skeleton monsters had another trump card, which was even more troublesome… and dangerous.
It all started when Kaito decided to use a Sword Skill against the lizardman skeleton, which was currently kept in check by ODE and Kem'Pal. The two groups the players had split into had taken position relatively close to each other to make keeping an eye on both battles simultaneously easier. Right now, Kaito was standing pretty much right in the middle between both groups. This turned out to be a problem when Kaito used the Sword Skill Rapid Bite on the lizardman skeleton…
...or rather on the goblin skeleton. Kaito didn't understand it at all, but when he unleashed the Sword Skill and the system took control over his virtual body, he suddenly spun around and dashed at the goblin skeleton, which Issin was fighting behind Kaito.
This obviously took everyone by surprise. At first, the group came to the conclusion that this might've been a strange bug. However, when they (and other players such as Kirito and Argo, who heard about the incident) would think about it later, they would eventually figure out that this was an unforeseen shortcoming of the system's automatic aim when it was used against such a dual monster: The system aimed at the marked target almost perfectly, but this time, the target was split into, and the system had to pick one of the two parts. As it turned out, the aiming assistant chose the target that was closest to the user of the Sword Skill, and Kaito stood just a little bit closer to the goblin skeleton, so that's why he attacked this part of the monster.
That was indeed a problem. As mentioned before, Issin was currently fighting the goblin skeleton, and he happened to stand in the way of the attack. Kaito could barely shout a warning, and Issin managed to move to the side just enough to dodge the dagger thrust. Nevertheless, Kaito still crashed into him, knocking the man over while he was instinctively clinging to him. The two of them tumbled over, and given the way their bodies ended up strangely entangled, they would need a moment to get up and ready to fight again.
At the same time, Kaito's dagger had hit the goblin skeleton, and due to the way this monster operated, that was enough to draw its aggro. The goblin skeleton recovered from the minor thrust in no time, and while towering over Kaito and Issin's collapsed figures, it got ready to slash Kaito with its rib dagger.
Akinym prevented that in the nick of time. All the others were either too confused to react in time or too busy with keeping the other skeleton in check. Akinym stopped the goblin skeleton with a thrust of his spear. However, the spear actually went straight through the skeleton's rib cage without causing any damage whatsoever, but the shaft got wedged between the monster's ribs, and that kept it from lunging forward.
Instead of Kaito, the goblin skeleton ended up hitting Akinym at the arm. Akinym immediately countered by pushing the skeleton monster away with a kick in the pelvis, and he managed to pull his spear out of its rib cage while he was at it. Dynamm jumped in to draw the goblin skeleton's aggro while Kaito and Issin got ready to continue the battle, so everything seemed perfectly fine for a second.
The attack of the goblin skeleton had left nothing but a mere scratch on Akinym, so that didn't seem to be a problem. However, Akinym had clearly heard the warning sound of suffering a debuff, and when he looked at his HP gauge in the upper left corner of his vision, he could clearly see the corresponding icon. There were a skull and crossbones depicted on the icon, so Akinym's first thought was that this debuff was Poison.
He reached for the Antidote Crystal in his pouch. Fortunately, he and Sinon had restocked carefully the day before after they had finished clearing the dungeon with Fuurinkazan and the lizardmen, so Akinym was prepared.
While he was grabbing the crystal just in case he'd need it, the thought how dangerous this poison might be crossed his mind. That question was answered right away when the DoT effect began to work. It instantly reduced Akinym's HP by around fifty per cent. Seeing half of his maximal HP gone in an instant, Akinym panicked a little and gripped the Antidote Crystal tightly.
Akinym: Purify!
Thus, the crystal removed the debuff, so everything was alright… for now.
This serious incident didn't go unnoticed, of course. Silica and Sinon, who were in the same party as Akinym, had obviously seen it, and they both gasped in shock. Even though they were relieved to see that the Antidote Crystal had saved Akinym, seeing how easily these monsters could bring any of them to the brink of death obviously concerned them deeply.
It took only a mere moment for some of the other players to catch on to the situation. Some of them like Klein and Tsukuyomi had even watched Akinym after that DoT effect had been inflicted on him, and they had seen his HP bar plummet, so they knew what was going on. The other players could at least deduce that something serious was going on from the look on Silica and Sinon's faces.
Klein [worriedly, slightly sternly]: Oi, Akinym, what was that?! You're okay?!
Tsukuyomi [shocked]: Akinym-san, what kind of debuff was that?!
Harry One [confusedly, slightly upset]: Hey, what's going on? Anything serious? If there's something we have to know, tell us!
Kaito [at a loss]: H-hey, what… What am I supposed to do now? If that had happened to me… or if it does now… [to Tsukuyomi] Hey, what are we going to do?!
Tsukuyomi: I-I… Akinym-san, what do you think we should do about this?
Silica [slightly scared]: M-maybe it's better to retreat?
Kem'Pal: What kind of attitude towards battle is that?!
ODE [sternly]: That's not helping! Whatever you decide, you better do it swiftly, though!
With all these people around him demanding some sort of guidance, Akinym wasn't even sure where to start. He looked over at the goblin skeleton, which was now kept in check by Issin again. After that, he took a look at the lizardman skeleton, which Kem'Pal was engaging in some sort of fencing match. ODE was helping the NPC to the best of his ability.
So far, so good… Oh, wait! There was another sound from the left. Akinym checked it, and he saw that the goblin skeleton had circled around Issin when he had left an opening, and the player had let out a small, surprised, somewhat scared yelp. Thankfully, Dale stopped the goblin skeleton from attacking Issin's exposed side.
With that distraction out of the way, Akinym turned around and searched for the slope that led away from the Fields of War and to the teleport stone. There didn't seem to be any kind of barrier, so they probably could run away, just as Silica had suggested. Well, that was good to know.
Before Akinym could even think about whether they should do that at this point, however, he was once again distracted by hectic noises. This time, it was frantic quarrelling between the members of Ascending Moon. Since Akinym wasn't saying anything, they had started to… "discuss" what they should do.
Akinym figured that the best way to keep them in line was to come up with a strategy, but where should he even start? What was that debuff? What might be the weakness of these skeleton monsters? And – most importantly – why did everyone have to BLABBER AROUND ALL AT ONCE?! Honestly, Akinym had no idea what to do or to think with all the commotion. Even the members of Fuurinkazan were joining in...
That was the situation when Klein stepped forth.
Klein [sternly, determinedly]: OI, YOU LOT! Get your act together, will you?! [to Fuurinkazan] You guys know what to do, right? We've had such messy situations, so for now, focus on the task at hand! Keep that monster in check with polearms like before! Dynamm, I'm trusting your skill with that shield of yours! That monster won't attack as long as you don't do anything, so stay as close as possible in order to jump in when one of us leaves an opening! [to Tsukuyomi] And you… Weren't you trying to prove your ability to join the Assault Team?! Don't get so worked up just because things don't go as planned! Keeping a cool head is the top responsibility of a leader, you hear?! I don't know about your team's strengths and weaknesses, so I'll leave it to you to coordinate them! Kem, don't act recklessly, either! I want you to get out of here alive, so keep your guard up and work together with the guys around you, got it?
With Klein taking charge, everyone calmed down a little. The Fuurinkazan party went straight to work, following their leader's orders. As far as Ascending Moon was concerned, they stopped arguing. Meanwhile, Kem'Pal left fending off the lizardman skeleton to ODE for a second and just gave Klein a nod before turning to Tsukuyomi to see what he might think of.
Tsukuyomi [slightly insecurely]: R-right… Alright… [slightly determinedly] Listen, we…
For a brief moment, Tsukuyomi looked as if he was about to come up with something, but in the end, he put on an expression of resignation and slumped his shoulders. He still didn't know what exactly was happening or what he should focus on for now. Klein realised that, so he gave them directions.
Klein: Everyone, listen! No clue what it is, but these monsters have some seriously bad DoT attack! I guess that's what killed Kem's soldier earlier! Whatever you do, DON'T get hit! Focus on defense, we can't even leave a scratch on them as is, anyway! Furthermore, have an Antidote Crystal ready! Anything like a potion won't do. Any of you who don't have such a crystal for easy access: Prepare it now! If you don't have anything like that, you have to be hella cautious!
Tsukuyomi: O-okay… [to his guild, determinedly] Now then, everyone! ODE, I'm counting on you to keep up the defense as usual, and work together with… Kem! [mutters] Yeah, that was the name… [says aloud] Susanoo, you have the longest reach out of all of us, and I want you to do what Fuurinkazan does: If ODE or Kem get in trouble, you jump in to defend them from any attack! Kaito, I know you and Susanoo tend to bicker and try to outdo one another, but I can't have this here! However, I also know that the two of you aren't that reckless! For now, I want you to work together with Susanoo. We've seen how easy it is to draw aggro, so if Susanoo has to take over defense, he might get in trouble really soon. If the situation gets too dicey, I'm counting on you to take over and keep the enemy busy until ODE or Kem take the aggro again! You're the most agile out of all of us, so as long as you focus on dodging, you'll be fine!
The members of Ascending Moon acknowledged Tsukuyomi's commands with a firm nod or a short cry. After that, they went straight to work, so they could keep the lizardman skeleton under control.
Tsukuyomi: Juni, you and I are on stand-by for now. We'll wait for our turn! And make sure you have your Antidote Crystal ready just as Klein-san has said! That said, [to Klein] we're waiting for your signal, so tell us when there's something else we'll have to do! I'll make sure to pay attention to your commands!
Junimenta was a bit more reluctant to follow the order she had received, and she muttered something under her breath… and so did Susanoo and Kaito, but all of that was a different story.
Anyway, Ascending Moon was set now, and they did their part, too.
Klein: Alright, everything seems to go smoothly. Now, to the hardest part… Akinym! And you, too, Sinon! We have to find a way to deal with these monsters, and I'll be frank: I have no clue what to do here! You two know more about this quest than anyone else here… or at all! Furthermore, you've been our brains yesterday, so I think you're the most suited for this task anyway! I need you to think of an effective strategy, so stay put and focus on that! Silica, you… Um, could you stay on stand-by for now? You could also help Akinym and Sinon if you have an idea, but don't meddle in the battle! Not that I don't trust you, but you'd probably only get in the way of everyone's teamwork! Kem is good at adapting, so I don't think he'll mess up, but don't try anything funny, okay?
Silica: W-well, if you think that's the right call, I'll stay put, too!
Now that they had decided on their current tasks, the group of players continued fighting, taking a strictly defensive stance for the time being. Akinym and Sinon, in particular, distanced themselves from the battle for now, so they could discuss the situation just as Klein had asked them to.
Sinon: I'll come out right away and say it: This is not at all like the battle in the Argonautica, so I have no idea what's going on. [slightly exasperatedly] I mean… Really, what was that debuff you've got, anyway? Didn't it deal way too much damage?
Akinym: It surprises me, too. I've never seen poison that was that effective.
Sinon: Well, it has to be unusual. I think it even had a slightly different icon.
Akinym [confusedly]: A slightly different icon? What do you mean?
Akinym had paid only a basic level of attention to the status icon which had indicated the DoT effect. He had seen that a skull and crossbones had been depicted on it, so he had made the connection to the well-known status ailment Poison.
Unlike him, Sinon hadn't stopped there, though, and she had noticed something else because of that.
Sinon: Well, I might just remember it wrong, but the Poison icon was just the skull and the bones, right? At first, I thought it was just that, but it struck me as odd that there were other lines in the image on it. They looked a bit like fume.
Silica: Um…
Akinym and Sinon turned their faces towards Silica, who had walked up to them. She had raised a hand hesitantly, and she looked at them with a somewhat concerned, nervous expression.
Silica: If this helps, I took a very close look at that icon, and I can attest to what Sinon-san has said. Furthermore, I've seen the tooltip of that icon, and it clearly said "Rot", not "Poison".
Rot… So that brutal DoT was indeed something completely new. Frankly, Akinym didn't have any trouble believing it.
Akinym: Well, I guess that's good to know, but unfortunately, it doesn't make this attack any less dangerous, so that information doesn't really help. If we could somehow figure out a better countermeasure than using an antidote, that would be a different story.
Sinon: I don't know about that. We should still make sure to have the best possible defense against it, shouldn't we? [looks over at the others] They're doing fine right now, [slightly worriedly] but do you really think they can avoid hits for as long as this battle will drag on? Given how little damage we can do, this might take forever.
Akinym: I'm not saying that you're wrong, but I think you don't get the point. With just the name, there's nothing we can do to defend against this new DoT attack. Or what do you intend to do?
Sinon: We could still work with the obvious things. I mean, given how strong this effect is, shouldn't we at least make sure that the ones with the highest Defense are up against these monsters? To minimise the danger?
Akinym [shakes his head]: Have you forgotten? Defense only influences the damage dealt by Bleeding, but not other kinds of DoT attacks.
Right… Now that Akinym mentioned it, Sinon remembered that piece of information. During her time under Akinym's tutelage, Sinon had learnt about the different kinds of DoT effects in SAO. Keeping aside special ailments, which only occurred when fighting certain monsters and required specific countermeasures, there were two different types of DoT effects: Bleeding and Poison. Sinon had wondered why anyone would bother to come up with two different effects that basically did the exact same thing.
Well, in SAO, there were no magic attacks – or "elemental" ones or however you might call it. Thus, the defensive system was incredibly plain. Normally, there were no special "resistances" against certain "types" of attacks. Special countermeasures such as the anti-fire potion Silica had used earlier only worked for a very short period of time, and they were a clear exception to begin with.
Accordingly, there was no special defense against poison. Well, there was a parameter called Poison Resistance, but that attribute only influenced the probability to get poisoned when an attack that could cause that status ailment hit. In the end, the DoT Poison completely ignored the target's stats and dealt a constant amount of damage, which was determined by the potency of the toxin.
This was also what set Bleeding apart from Poison. The target's Defense had an influence on the amount of damage Bleeding caused. Moreover, Bleeding was the only DoT with that property which the Assault Team had ever come across.
Akinym: If we wanted someone to tank these monsters' attacks, that player would only have to have extremely high HP. Admittedly, that might help a bit, but I don't think that even Schmitt-san could survive more than three rounds of that DoT attack. No, the only way for us to help is to figure out a way how we can bring these monsters down.
Sinon: Point taken, but where shall we even start? Even with Defense debuffs, they're almost invulnerable. I guess we could focus our attacks on either of these two skeletons since they're treated as the same monster, but that won't help unless we can figure out an effective way of attacking in the first place.
Akinym: True that. I still don't get what's the big idea with this "two monsters work as one" business. Right now, it only seems as if this "double monster" got enough Defense for two different bosses rather than one, and if that's how it's supposed to work, this mechanic is seriously broken.
Sinon [contemplatively]: Well, their Defense is high, there's no mistaking it… but… We just discussed that Defense doesn't impact some DoT attacks, didn't we? Isn't that something we could use to our advantage? If we poison one of the skeletons…
Akinym raised a hand to stop Sinon. Reluctantly, that is.
Akinym: I get your point, and frankly, I agree. The problem is that we'd need a large quantity of really strong poison in order to take down a boss monster, even if it's just a quest boss with only three HP bars, at least if we have to do it by only using poison. Keep in mind that the use of poison is still banned among the Assault Team!
The thought was quite unpleasant to Akinym. As a member of the Council, he had tried to work towards the approval of poison as a means of fighting monsters. It still bothered him that the Assault Team would pass on a potentially helpful means of fighting.
Alas, the vast majority of front-line players still considered poison of any kind to be a weapon of orange guilds and PKers, and they had absolutely resented the very idea of using it themselves when Akinym had begun advocating the idea. Not too long ago, Akinym had found a way to change that point of view, steadily improving his chances of getting the smaller clearing guilds to approve his proposal, but that is a story for another time. Right now, nobody in their group had any poison they could've used in that battle.
Sinon: Right, I forgot about that. Ugh, at this rate, we'll end up dealing more damage to these oxen earlier than to these skeletons, even though we only came here to fight the latter, not the former. [chuckles self-mockingly, slightly worriedly] Although the oxen themselves were who dealt all that damage to them.
Well, it was true. Come to think of it, it had been quite the surprise when the two oxen had ended up dealing a lot of damage to each other, especially since they had been classified as a single monster. Normally, when a monster used attacks like the oxen's fire breath, that monster was also immune to such an attack. To be fair, monsters accidentally dealing damage to other monsters or even themselves wasn't unheard of. However, the monster AI had been designed to avoid harming other monsters directly, so pitting different monsters against each other was difficult, and it was such a roundabout and inefficient way of hunting that nobody had ever used that method seriously.
Anyway, Akinym wanted to agree with Sinon, but then, he suddenly froze. Sinon's last line – together with everything else they had spoken about or seen so far – had made him realise something they had completely overlooked: a possibility to fight that was so unusual and generally way too complicated, which was why they'd normally never think of it.
While he was putting the pieces together in his mind, Akinym looked over at the two monsters. Two monsters that were one, so they only had to fight one of them; a high Defense that couldn't be penetrated by ordinary attacks, although something like poison might work; an insanely powerful DoT attack they had to deal with; the two ox monsters that had harmed each other; the way the skeleton warriors are defeated in the Argonautica.
Sinon [slightly worriedly]: Hey, what's wrong? You suddenly look a bit out of it. [seriously, slightly curiously] Wait, is there something on your mind?
Silica: Akinym-san, do you have an idea?
Akinym: Yeah… [slightly exasperatedly] but honestly, if that's going to work, this will be a battle unlike anything we've ever seen in this game.
Klein: Okay, everyone, listen up! We'll try another tactic, and I need all of you to cooperate!
Akinym had just walked up to Klein to explain his idea. When he had stated what he wanted to do, Klein had been puzzled by it, but once Akinym had made clear how he had got that idea, Klein was just impressed.
Thus, Klein had signalled the others to listen, and now that he had their attention, he'd give them new orders.
Klein: Actually, I need almost all of you to stand down. You heard that?! Stay away from the fight for now! Dynamm, Issin, you two still keep an eye on your target! Um… [mutters, insecurely] ODP… Was it ODP? No idea… [says aloud] Ascending Moon, you let your tank handle your monster!
The fighting players and Kem'Pal gave short, firm nods before following the command. Except for the few who had been told to keep fighting, they all stepped back.
Klein: Okay, now I need you to let Akinym take the aggro of the goblin skeleton! He'll try to get it to attack the other skeleton! [to ODE] You might get in the way, so if Akinym gives you the signal, you have to get some distance between yourself and that thing, got that? If possible, just push that skeleton towards him!
ODE: Alright, I'll do that!
With that out of the way, Akinym rushed over to the goblin skeleton. When it leapt at Issin, Akinym stepped in and attacked it from the side while it was in the air. The thrust of his spear hit the monster at the shoulder, and the impact pushed it to the side. The skeleton had a rough landing and tumbled over, but it jumped to its feet again after a second.
Now, Akinym slowly backed away from it, luring it closer to the lizardman skeleton while taking utmost care not to get hit. He had only got his hands on a single Antidote Crystal, so if he got hit and that DoT effect was inflicted on him again… Well, Akinym was an expert on defense-based fighting, so even though the goblin skeleton was quite fast and nimble, as long as it was the only opponent, Akinym managed to fend off all attacks.
Manoeuvring into the right position was the hard part. In order to execute his plan, Akinym needed to stand right between the two skeletons when the goblin skeleton attacked. Furthermore, he had to stand close enough to the lizardman skeleton, and the goblin skeleton had to attack head-on.
As mentioned earlier, monsters generally avoided attacks that bore the risk of hitting another monster. Therefore, if Akinym moved too close to the lizardman skeleton, the goblin skeleton wouldn't attack from the front anymore, so Akinym had to assess carefully how much distance should between him and his actual target… while also keeping his guard up against the attacks of the goblin skeleton. Thankfully, Klein helped him with that by keeping an eye on their distance and telling him whether he could move closer to the lizardman skeleton.
Once Akinym was in position, he only had to wait for an attack coming from the right angle. However, the goblin skeleton kept attacking diagonally, jumping back and forth while swiping at Akinym with its rib dagger. Akinym had to deflect a blow and swing his spear around to shove the goblin skeleton into the right direction in order to break that cycle. The goblin skeleton was quite the lightweight, so even Akinym could push it several metres away.
When the goblin skeleton had recovered from that, it came straight at Akinym, exactly from the angle he wanted it to. It dashed forward taking big steps while raising its right arm to swing it – and the rib in its hand – down at Akinym.
Akinym: Now, ODE!
When Akinym said that, he suddenly dove headlong towards the approaching skeleton. He thrust the shaft of his spear forward and hit the skeleton monster's legs. Furthermore, he had timed that attack so that the goblin skeleton was just taking the next step, and it had already pushed itself off the ground, so the momentum carried it forward. The goblin skeleton's movements were vigorous, and it usually had a quite unsteady stance, so with Akinym tripping it on top of that, the skeleton was unable to catch its fall and kept stumbling forward.
At the same time, ODE knocked the lizardman skeleton's right hand, in which it held its rib dagger, to the side, and he slammed the hilt of his large, heavy two-handed sword into its body with all his strength. Unlike the goblin skeleton, the lizardman skeleton was relatively heavy, and it kept a steady stance, so pushing it back wasn't easy, but even such an opponent stumbled backwards after such a blow.
That way, the two skeleton monsters crashed into each other, and the rib dagger of the goblin skeleton accidentally hit the lizardman skeleton's spine. It was a mere scratch, but that didn't matter. Klein kept a close eye on their enemy's HP gauge, so he didn't miss the Rot icon when it appeared beneath it.
Seeing that, Klein raised his fist as a triumphant gesture.
Klein: YEAH! It worked! [sternly] Okay, everyone, make sure to get these two under control again! Hopefully, that's enough to deal with them, but we gotta keep our guard up!
ODE and Issin made sure to draw the aggro of the two skeletons. Meanwhile, Akinym retreated to a save distance and watched what effect the Rot DoT had on their foe.
The skeletons' HP dropped six times, and each time, the DoT effect took away one quarter of an HP bar, so by the time the skeleton monsters recovered from it, they had only a little bit less than half of their full HP left.
Klein [mutters, contemplatively]: Hmph, it would've been too easy, huh? [says aloud, determinedly] Alright, everyone, that worked well, so we only gotta do that one more time to win!
Klein's motivational speech was cut short by a sound that came from the furrow they had dug with the Oxen of Fire. The ground broke open, and two more skeletons – one goblin and one lizardman – crawled out of it. For a second, everyone had a really bad premonition. Would they have to fight another one of these annoying monsters? And what if this kept happening over and over again?
However, they all relaxed a bit when they saw a single HP bar above each of these two monsters. Klein even breathed a sigh of relief after seeing that they were just adds. He still had to figure out what to do about them, though, so he looked around the group… and his eyes rested on their "reserves".
Klein: Okay, everyone, don't get caught off-guard by these two monsters! Kem, can you keep them away from us with your soldiers? You don't have to defeat them, so just focus on defense! We'll help you with them when we're finished with these two here! [mutters] That is, if we have to.
Kem'Pal: Understood! Now, men, let's make short work of these undead abominations over there!
With that, Kem'Pal and the remaining Lizardman Elite Soldiers rushed over to the newly spawned skeleton monsters and intercepted them.
Now, Akinym had to wait until the rest of the group had brought the original two skeleton monsters under control again, and after that, he would have to do the same thing as before again. While he was thinking about that, he took a deep breath. Sinon noticed that he looked a bit troubled, and it worried her, so she walked over to him.
Sinon: Hey, is everything okay?
Akinym: I'm fine, but… I've underestimated how much this DoT effect startled me earlier. Or rather, it really scared me. That's not an ordinary quest boss, and it's certainly nothing like that harpy monster on the ship yesterday. Without an antidote, it only takes a single hit – no matter how minor – and that DoT effect will kill me for sure! That's a floor boss level threat, if not more!
After hearing that, Sinon had the feeling that she could somewhat imagine what was on Akinym's mind. When he had fought the goblin skeleton just now, he had probably been thinking how one misstep would've led to his death. If it hadn't been for his mental discipline and his defensive skills, which gave rise to the necessary confidence, he wouldn't have been able to fight as he had. Nonetheless, it had certainly taken a bit of a toll on him, and doing the same thing once more… Yeah, Sinon didn't want to switch places with him.
Sinon: Should someone else take your place? You don't have another crystal, and I don't have one, either. Wouldn't it be safer if…
Akinym stopped Sinon by shaking his head decisively.
Akinym: This requires someone who can control a monster's movements, and that player should be able to fight without relying on their weapon or any other equipment. I don't mean to brag, but do you think anyone else here is as good at that as me? Or even remotely close?
Sinon couldn't say anything in response to that.
Akinym: I can do that. It's not the first time I fight a dangerous battle, and it absolutely won't be the last time, either. I just have to focus…
Sinon [slightly determinedly]: In that case, I'll give you covering fire! If it comes to it, I should be able to knock that lightweight of a skeleton down with Milion Howling, so if that thing is about to hit you, I'll stop it!
Akinym thought about Sinon's plan for a brief moment before approving it with a nod.
Klein: Hey, you two! Don't get too cozy over there! Akinym, it's time for you to do your thing, so get going!
Akinym: Got it!
Akinym walked over to the goblin skeleton, which was kept in check by Issin as before. He drew its aggro and started to lure it towards the lizardman skeleton, and for now, everything was going just as smoothly as last time.
Meanwhile, Sinon prepared an arrow, getting ready to take the starting stance of Milion Howling while keeping a close eye on the battle. In that moment, she was the picture of focus and determination that Silica had praised earlier.
The situation suddenly went south when Akinym tried to push the goblin skeleton back with his spear after dodging a blow. He had aimed for one of the shoulder blades, and while he had managed to thrust his spear through the open space between the ribs, he had aimed a bit too high, and the spearhead got caught between the shoulder blade and the collarbone.
It took Akinym some effort to pull his weapon out again, and in the process, the goblin skeleton got a hold of the spear shaft with its free hand. While this skeleton monster wasn't strong enough to overpower Akinym, it was still able to yank the spear to the side, and before Akinym could regain his composure enough to react, it used the newly created opening and lunged forward, aiming a swing of its rib dagger at Akinym's exposed side.
When the goblin skeleton had grabbed Akinym's spear, Sinon had had a bad feeling about this, so she had taken the starting stance of Milion Howling. By the time the skeleton monster broke through his defense, Sinon was ready to fire her arrow.
This wasn't different from that one moment during their battle against the goblin harpy boss, Stymphalia, yesterday. Sinon even made that connection herself. Sure, there was a lot of pressure, but as she had told Silica less than half an hour ago, that was just how it was. As odd as it may sound, it was just another life-or-death situation in SAO.
Alas, despite herself, Sinon also thought that Akinym needed this safety net she had come up with after all, even though he had initially wanted to do this job without that safety precaution. That thought led to the next one: Why did he have to insist on such ideas all the time? Her mind swiftly drifted towards their argument when they had cleared that dungeon together with Fuurinkazan the day before, and Akinym's words came to her mind again… "It's not like you don't have something you won't tell others, do you?!"
When these words came to her mind again, Sinon winced. She became extremely irritated, and her entire body tensed up. It took her a moment – no matter what a short amount of time it cost – to realise that she didn't have time for this. When she looked at Akinym and the goblin skeleton again, the monster was already taking a swing. Sinon panicked and shot her arrow without a second thought.
It was too late, though. The goblin skeleton rammed its dislodged rib into Akinym's stomach. Sinon's arrow hit it right after that, and the strong impact of Milion Howling blew the skeleton monster away. Regardless, the attack had already inflicted the Rot effect on Akinym.
When Sinon saw that, the sight of that DoT icon took her breath away – in the most unpleasant way possible. A wave of sheer dread came over her, and her entire body became numb. Akinym's HP bar dropped the first time, straight into the yellow zone, as the image of the inevitable manifested in her mind. This was her fault, wasn't it? That's what she thought while she could only wait helplessly for said image to manifest in front of her wide open eyes, too.
Or so she believed.
Silica [determinedly]: Akinym-san, here!
Akinym had reacted similarly to Sinon when the goblin skeleton had hit him, and just as it did with Sinon, Silica's sudden outcry now snapped him out of this panic-induced daze – just in time to see that she had rushed to his side… and to catch an object she was throwing to him.
Silica [points at Akinym]: Pina, Heal on him!
On Silica's command, Pina hovered next to Akinym for a brief moment and used its ability Heal, its healing breath, on him, even though – unbeknownst to any of the players – the feathered dragon wore a somewhat disgruntled expression while doing that.
Pina's healing ability restored just enough HP to bring Akinym's HP back to the green zone. When the DoT effect reduced his HP again a mere second later, it didn't reduce them to zero, but there was only a tiny shred of them left. Anyway, it gave Akinym enough time to take a look at the item Silica had given him and to notice that it was an Antidote Crystal.
Neither he nor Sinon had thought of it, but Silica was a member of their party, too, and therefore, she could share one item with them by using the temporary shared inventory slot every party in SAO had. They also hadn't realised that Silica, who had encountered her fair share of life-threatening situations by now, be it before or after forming a party with Lisbeth, Leafa and Philia, had also noticed Akinym's concerned state, and she had realised the meaning behind it. Due to her wish to contribute her share to this battle, she had come up with her own plan to back Akinym up independently, and the result was plain to see for everyone.
Akinym [hastily]: Purify!
While Akinym was getting rid of the DoT effect thanks to Silica's crystal, Silica also made sure to distract the goblin skeleton. She slashed it with her dagger to draw its aggro while slipping past the monster. The goblin skeleton needed a second to react and to turn its full attention to Silica, and she used that time to put some distance between herself and the monster.
Silica was as quick on her feet as the goblin skeleton, so she had no major trouble keeping up with the monster and avoiding any hits. It was a surreal sight, though. Silica and the goblin skeleton had roughly the same size and body shape, and given the way they kind of danced around each other while mirroring each other's movements at times, one might've thought that the system had created an almost perfect afterimage of Silica, only to forget to render her flesh and her clothes.
This bizarre picture only made it harder for Klein to come back to his senses. He, too, had panicked a bit when the goblin skeleton had hit Akinym, and he had been completely blindsided when Silica had shown up to save the day before he could've even started to think of something to do. Now, he shook his head to clear his thoughts.
Klein: Okay, everyone, get back to your senses! The battle isn't over yet! Silica, good job, but now I need you to let Dynamm take over! We need to get this situation back under control again!
Silica [slightly insecurely]: Huh? Are you… [dodges another blow] sure about that?
Klein: Yeah, let my guys handle that, but you need to stop running around like right now, or they won't be able to take over! You can trust them to do that!
Silica was still a bit hesitant, but she knew that Fuurinkazan had been among the clearing guilds for a long time, and they knew how to hold their ground, so she decided to believe Klein when he said that they would jump in. Thus, she led the goblin skeleton closer to Dynamm and stopped there.
Needless to say, the goblin skeleton kept attacking, and it was quite impressive that Silica awaited the next blow without flinching or any reaction like that. In the end, she didn't have to, since – true to Klein's words – Dynamm stepped in between Silica and the monster to parry the attack with his shield before counterattacking with his sword. He drew the goblin skeleton's aggro and fended off a few swipes until he could switch with Issin.
In the meantime, Akinym had recovered from the shock.
Akinym: Okay… Klein-san, I'd be ready for another try! Just say when!
Klein: Nope, we'll find a different way!
Akinym [confusedly]: Huh? Why?!
Klein: Are you kidding me?! Isn't one near-death experience per day enough for you!? Seriously, I don't mind a guy acting tough, but there's a limit to it, so take it easy for now! [reassuringly] You've already given us the right idea, so let us do our part, too!
As it turned out, Klein had come to realise how nerve-wracking this fight had to be for Akinym, but only after Akinym had been in such a pickle that Silica had had to save him. As the one in charge, he felt a bit ashamed that it had taken him so long to realise, but that was all the more reason to find a safe alternative to Akinym's method.
Akinym, by the way, complied, albeit slightly reluctantly, and he stepped back for the time being.
Klein: Okay, everyone, we only have to get one of these two to attack the other one more time! Of course we can do that, right?! Kunimittz, I want you to swap places with Issin! You still have an Antidote Crystal, don't you? I wanna do this the rough way, but things could get ugly, so better safe than sorry, you know?
Kunimittz nodded and switched with Issin, just as Klein had told him to.
Klein: Alright, get that thing as close to the other one as possible! If these skeletons won't do that themselves, we'll force them, even if it has to be the hard way! Push them into each other and overpower them! If necessary, we'll pry their damn weapons out of their hands to stab them with those bones ourselves!
Incidentally, the skeletons held their rib daggers so tightly that Klein's last proposal seemed utterly unrealistic, but nobody even bothered to think about that. Instead, they went straight to business and executed Klein's plan. ODE exchanged blows with the lizardman skeleton while doing everything in his power to keep it from moving away, and Kunimittz pushed the goblin skeleton back, forcing it to edge closer to its lizardman counterpart.
However, the closer the goblin skeleton moved towards the lizardman skeleton, the harder it became to keep it from running away to either side. Dale and Issin had to cut off its retreat, but the goblin skeleton would flee through any gap in the encirclement, so Klein had the feeling that it was only a question of time until it would escape. In that situation, the next proposal came at the right moment.
Junimenta: Klein-san, let us help! Tsuku and I can take care of the final push!
Tsukuyomi [slightly shocked]: Juni?! What are you saying all of a sudden?
Junimenta [sternly]: Why not?! That's what we're here for! I can keep that monster in check with my fencing skills, and your warhammer and your Sword Skills carry a lot of power, so you should have no problem shoving that skeleton away!
Tsukuyomi didn't like the idea. Not because he wanted to stay out of this, but because he didn't want Junimenta to get involved in something overly dangerous. Alas, the closer they had been getting to joining the Assault Team, the clearer it had become that he couldn't avoid dangerous situations anyway, and Junimenta would be by his side during them. Well, some explicit hints from Akinym had helped him to come to this conclusion, too.
In the end, he looked over at Klein and nodded.
Klein: Okay, if that's what you want… I guess you have a point: If this is your entrance exam for the Assault Team, it wouldn't do for us to do all the work! [to Kunimittz] You heard them, so let them do the final push!
Kunimittz: Alright! [to Tsukuyomi and Junimenta] You two, I'm going to let it escape on my left side, so you better get ready now!
Just as he had said, Kunimittz backed away to the right, and the goblin skeleton slipped through the gap that had been created. However, it was immediately intercepted by Junimenta, so it lunged at her with a mighty leap and swung its rib dagger vertically at her. Junimenta parried that attack with her scimitar.
Junimenta [slightly strained]: Tsuku, get ready!
Tsukuyomi took the starting stance of Thrice Blow. While Junimenta had confidence in Tsukuyomi's physical strength and the power of his warhammer, he doubted that he could've sent the goblin skeleton flying far enough with a single blow, so he settled on this 3-hit combo. The first two blows were upward diagonal swings, which should be perfect for pushing the target back. The third one, however, was a downward vertical strike, which would probably knock the skeleton monster down onto the floor…
Regardless, he had to try it that way. It was his best shot.
Tsukuyomi: Ready when you are!
With that, Junimenta pushed the goblin skeleton away, deflected its next attack and pushed it right in front of Tsukuyomi afterwards. At that point, he unleashed his Sword Skill, and the first two strikes of his Thrice Blow had the intended effect.
In addition, when Tsukuyomi activated his Sword Skill, ODE forced the lizardman skeleton onto the defensive with a powerful strike, and after that, he began to shove the skeleton towards Tsukuyomi and the other skeleton monster they were facing. In that moment, he resembled a snowplough rather than a tank in an MMORPG.
It worked in their favour, though. The goblin skeleton crashed into the lizardman skeleton, and the third attack of Tsukuyomi's Thrice Blow knocked both of them down. In that moment, Kaito took action.
Kaito: I won't let you do all the work and get all the glory! I have to get one to cut the other, right? That's hardly a challenge!
Kaito threw himself onto the goblin skeleton and grabbed its right wrist. He tried to yank the hand in which the skeleton held its rib dagger towards the lizardman skeleton.
While the goblin skeleton struggled against that, the lizardman skeleton was about to swipe at ODE's legs. Fortunately, Susanoo was also there, and he noticed that, so he pinned the lizardman skeleton's right arm to the ground with his pike.
Susanoo: I can't stay out of this, either! If you want to impress anyone, wannabe phantom thief, you better follow these words up with actions!
Fired up by Susanoo's words, Kaito managed to wrench the goblin skeleton's arm until its rib dagger pierced the lizardman skeleton's left shoulder blade… and the Rot DoT effect was inflicted on their opponent again.
Klein: YEAH! Great job! [sternly] Now you have to keep these two from causing any more trouble until they die! You can do that much, right?
This time, it was Klein's words that urged Ascending Moon to take action. Tsukuyomi grabbed the goblin skeleton's legs, and ODE put the lizardman skeleton in a chokehold. Together with Susanoo and Kaito, they tried their hardest to hold the two skeletons in place while the Rot effect ate away at this boss monster's HP.
On the outside, it looked like a brawl between the guys from Ascending Moon and the two skeletons. Some of the members of Fuurinkazan even cheered them on. The girls (and Akinym), on the other hand, were just exasperated, though. Well, Silica was actually just taken aback. And Junimenta simply shook her head when she saw the bunch of guys she was stuck with like that.
Regardless, they did a good job, and nothing else happened until the two skeleton's HP fell to zero. At that point, both skeletons burst into polygons. At the same time, the two skeletons the lizardmen NPCs had been keeping in check vanished. Thus, they had won this battle.
...and finished this chapter.
Silica's part at the beginning includes some ideas of mine about the taming system, so that's that. Well, and if you think that the part about the oxen searching Silica's body for food is cringy... you're right. But let's be honest: It's an unshakable rule of the SAO games that Silica can't get close to animals without anything bad happening to her, so it was a matter of staying true to the source material to write the scene this way. ;)
By the way, the Oxen of Fire will appear one more time. In fact, it should happen in the chapter after the next one.
So... The "Akinautica Arc" is almost finished. All that's left to do is to get Akinym and Sinon's new outfits... and their heart-to-heart talk. I'll see you for that in the next chapter.