So... next chapter. I'll save what little I'd have to say for the A/N at the end, so let's jump right into it.
Last time, the battle against the field boss of the 95th floor, the Desert Demon, has begun. Despite a few initial difficulties, the Assault Team has managed to devise a working battle strategy under Asuna's leadership, so let's see how the battle continues!
The fierce battle between the Desert Demon, the field boss of the 95th floor, on one side and the Assault Team and the lizardmen on the other raged on. Compared to the tough start, however, the players and their allied NPCs could make progress much faster now that they'd figured out how to deal with the boss and its battle mechanics. Before they knew it, more than half of the Desert Demon's second HP bar was gone.
All things considered, this battle was going fairly well…
...and then, there came a certain moment when the sand around Silica, Leafa, Philia and Strea began to quake, announcing the Desert Demon's next attack. With all their experience during this battle so far, it didn't take any of the girls long to figure out that they – and not any of the nearby parties – were the boss' target.
Silica: Here it comes! Get ready to dodge and to counter as before!
Strea: Sure thing! You don't have to…
Strea swung her massive greatsword around with ease as she was getting ready for the upcoming attack, which, at this point, should've been a piece of cake… when something unexpected and very disturbing happened. Strea suddenly stopped from one second to the next. She was still holding her sword above her right shoulder when, instead of swinging it fully around, she completely froze.
That alone was just strange, but Strea's state immediately became worrying: Her face distorted as if she was in great pain, and when her body started to move again, all she did was to tremble and to twitch. At the same time, Strea began to grunt and groan erratically.
Silica: Strea-san?! What's happening? What's wrong, Strea-san?
Strea: Ugh… I… cannot… tempt failed; retry connecti… Why now… urgh… of all… Caught in such a state… frightened… synchronising Private Method Intern… in danger, but… so exhilarating…
Leafa: Hey, Strea-san, the boss is about to attack! Keep it together, or you won't be able to defend yourself! At least retreat if something is wrong!
Strea didn't react. Instead, she kept mumbling incoherent lines, shifting her tone every three or four words she could get out. She sounded as if she was trying to tell them three completely different things at once, but she jumbled her lines up so badly that they became completely incomprehensible.
Naturally, the other players noticed that something was off, and that the group of girls seemed to have some kind of problem.
Asuna: What's wrong over there? Strea-san? Silica?
Silica: I don't know! Strea-san is acting strange!
Leafa: Yeah, she mutters this weird stuff! And she won't move!
As if to confirm that, Strea took a step back, but in such a rigid manner that it looked more as if she was stumbling. However, since nobody had any idea what was going on, they were simply confused… with one exception. Watching Strea, Kirito remembered something she'd once told him… and which he'd seen two or three times already.
Kirito [mutters]: Dammit, could it be that…
In a state of extreme alert, Kirito took off and ran straight towards Strea as fast as he could without a second's thought, leaving behind a now even more confused Asuna, who called after him… which he didn't react to. Right now, there was only one thing on Kirito's mind.
Kirito: Could it be one of these mysterious headaches?
These "headaches" Kirito was referring to… For some reason, Strea seemed to experience that state at completely unpredictable times. It occurred without warning… and often at the most inconvenient of times. This wasn't the first time it had happened in the middle of a battle, but when fighting against a field boss of all things…
Since he was one of the selected few who knew that, Kirito couldn't help but curse himself for forgetting that. He thought to himself that he should've remembered this particular risk when Strea had asked to join the raid party. Why hadn't he insisted that she'd leave because of this very issue?
Kirito: Get Strea out of there! Quickly, before the boss attacks!
That notion came fairly late. The tremors around the group of girls had already reached remarkable intensity, so the Desert Demon was about to appear and lunge at one of them at any second. For a moment, they hoped that it would at least not target Strea… and then, Philia noticed a conspicuous movement in the sand. It was flowing straight towards a spot right in front of Strea.
Philia: Watch out!
Not that Strea could react to that… or that Philia expected her to. That warning had been shouted purely out of instinct while Philia had been rushing towards Strea, whom she pushed out of harm's way at the last second… literally. The Desert Demon shot out of the sand the moment Philia had reached Strea.
Philia had – in the physical sense – taken Strea's place, so the boss charged directly at her, and right after saving Strea, Philia had absolutely no chance to defend herself against that attack. The giant worm caught her between its fangs and swept her away like an avalanche.
Silica and Leafa: Philia!
Their shouting couldn't help… but luck did. The four girls happened to be positioned at the very edge of the battlefield, right next to a large rock formation. The Desert Demon had attacked them from such an angle that it crashed head-first into these rocks. The boss dragged its head across the stone surface as if it was trying to carve a furrow into it. While doing that, it lost its grip on Philia – fortunately before the boss monster could grind her to dust.
However, they had yet to reach the safe shore. The Desert Demon pulled the front of its body back and coiled it, preparing to descend upon its victim once more before it could burrow itself into the sand again. Philia, who'd fallen to the ground, had only about twenty percent of her HP remaining, and after what had just happened, she was too dazed to put up any defense against the next blow.
Therefore, Leafa rushed to her side and took a defensive stance right in front of Philia. She was fully intent on protecting her comrade, and she directed a stern look at the Desert Demon, whose gargantuan figure towered over them, as if to warn it that she'd answer its attack with everything she got… a futile attempt, given that no level of swordsmanship would've been enough to stop the frontal assault of the Desert Demon.
So, when the Desert Demon swooped down on them, Leafa and Philia were about to be buried there and then – that much was certain… or it would've been if the reinforcements hadn't arrive. There weren't plenty, but Kirito had to suffice. He'd barely come close enough to use Vorpal Strike just in time hit the boss before it could reach Leafa.
Well, to be fair, it wasn't only Kirito. From afar, another comrade lent a helping hand in form of an arrow shot with Milion Howling. The shot hit the Desert Demon pretty much at the same time as the tip of Kirito's sword, and the combined power of those two heavy blows pushed the Desert Demon's enormous body a bit to the side. Now, rather than aiming straight and Leafa's head, the boss would "only" hit her left shoulder.
Granted, that was still bad enough, but Leafa at least had realistic options to defend herself now. Seeing one of the Desert Demon's fangs closing in on her face, Leafa preemptively swung her katana at it and deflected it to the left. After that, she kept pressing her weapon against the boss' thick, strangely supple skin with all her might while adopting the most steady foot stance she could, desperately attempting to divert the worm monster's elongated body to the side.
It didn't really work out. As it scraped against Leafa's shoulder and the blade of her weapon, the Desert Demon swiftly overpowered her, and after only two or three measly seconds, its body knocked Leafa down. On the bright side, however, she did achieve her goal: The attack had missed Philia completely.
Instead, the Desert Demon had slammed its head into the sandy ground next to her. The impact had immediately kicked up a large cloud of sand, and it only got worse when it raised its head out of the sand again in a rage-like state, throwing even more of it into the air in the process.
That was the scene that greeted Philia now that she came fully back to her senses. That, and the figure of Kirito landing on the ground in front of her.
Philia [slightly confusedly]: K-kirito?
She looked around… even though there wasn't much to be seen through the thick sand veil around them. However, she did easily spot Leafa lying (and groaning) close by. Seeing that, Philia snapped out of her daze right away, and she was ready to get up and continue fighting in an instant.
Philia: Leafa! What hap…
A screeching howl from somewhere within the sand cloud (or so it seemed) cut Philia short. Hearing that, Kirito immediately turned towards Philia behind him, and the look on his face expressed nothing but the utmost urgency.
Kirito: No, keep your head down! All of you!
As soon as Kirito had uttered that warning, a huge shadow appeared inside the cloud of sand in front of them. That shadow, the massive body of the Desert Demon, broke through the cloud immediately, and it swept everything in its path away with ease.
Kirito could merely activate his Parry skill in time, and it was just enough to avoid the full brunt of the attack, and that was only thanks to the fact that the boss couldn't put all of its strength in it. Fortunately, nobody else got caught up in the Desert Demon's attack, but that marks the end of the good news. The Desert Demon shoved Kirito several metres across the ground before the player lost his footing in this contest of strength, and once that happened, the boss simply hurled Kirito away.
He didn't waste any time and got up immediately, though, which was certainly a good call given that – just as Kirito had guessed on instinct – the onslaught wasn't over. Even before he'd got on his feet again, Kirito could see the Desert Demon raising its head above the swirling sand and turning it towards him. Apparently, that last attack had been the Desert Demon swinging its body around sideways, and now it got ready for a frontal follow-up strike.
Kirito felt that he had to take countermeasures immediately, but that exact sense of urgency only made it even clearer that his options were somewhat limited given that he instinctively presumed he wouldn't be able to dodge since he was still kneeling on the ground. He resorted to using Cross Block, and sure enough, as soon as he had activated that defensive Sword Skill, the Desert Demon shot forward and crashed straight into Kirito's crossed swords.
Alas, as mentioned earlier, no level of swordsmanship was enough to fend off a frontal attack of the Desert Demon. Kirito's defense withstood for a mere second, and the boss' fangs got caught on his swords when it tried to crush him with its jaws. That way, Kirito could at the very least avoid that fate… or getting swallowed or anything like that. However, Kirito couldn't hold the boss back anymore once the system assistant stopped supporting this parry. The Desert Demon pushed these pesky obstacles back until Kirito's swords and arms were pressed tightly against his shoulders and his chest, and the boss' fangs dug into his throat.
At the same time, the Desert Demon dragged its head (and Kirito, of course) across the sandy floor vividly. The boss whirled more and more sand up wherever it moved around in this wild manner. Before long, it was as if a mini sandstorm was raging at this particular corner of the battlefield.
Caught in the middle of all of this, Kirito could only watch his HP bar plummet. He was effectively paralysed, and he couldn't come up with anything to counter the boss' attack – he probably could've wrecked his brain as much as he wanted and it wouldn't have yielded any results.
Fortunately, he wasn't entirely alone. Despite the… precarious environment, Leafa and Philia rushed to his aid. As soon as they reached him, they slashed at the Desert Demon's jaws in a desperate attempt to distract it, followed by an attempt to pry the boss' jaws off in order to free Kirito, but that had no chance of working given that the girls couldn't even insert their improvised "crowbars" – in other words: their weapons, although Philia had an actual crowbar at hand, which didn't work when they tried, either – between Kirito's body and the edge of the Desert Demon's mouth.
In this dire situation, another unforeseen helper arrived.
Lisbeth: Out of the way! Let's see if this works!
For a little bit of context, let's go back about a minute. When it had become apparent that Strea was struggling with some strange problems, Kirito hadn't been the only one to rush off with the intent to help. Lisbeth, who'd been put on the bench at the edge of the battlefield together with the other users of Blunt-type weapons, had also wasted no time to help.
Then, while Kirito, Leafa and Philia were dealing with the boss' attacks, Silica had figured that there wasn't much she could've done to help them, but she could deal with the original "issue", namely getting Strea to safety until she felt better again. Unfortunately, Strea had still been unable to move, so Silica had to grab one of her arms and essentially drag her away like a human-sized sack of potatoes – that was the extent of help her Strength allowed her to provide.
It was at that moment that Lisbeth had reached them, and she immediately assisted Silica in her rescue mission. Thankfully, Lisbeth was considerably stronger and could lift Strea almost by herself, so her help did make this indeed much easier…
...at least until Lisbeth grasped the current situation. Naturally, she had noticed the Desert Demon's rampage, and at first, she'd opted to stay out of it and simply help Strea, but then, she'd recognised Philia and Leafa's figures in this "sandstorm", and after seeing them, it didn't take a genius to figure out that the boss was attacking Kirito.
Upon that realisation, Lisbeth had lost her composure. She'd noticed that the boss was dragging and shoving someone across the ground furiously, and the thought that it was one of her teammates was bad enough, but Kirito… that was simply too much for her to leave it as it was, so she told Silica to take care of Strea before taking out her mace and entering the fray.
Now, she was circling around the Desert Demon's head, getting into position to use the Sword Skill Power Strike, which consisted of a single vertical downward strike that was so strong that it created a shock wave which would damage nearby targets. If Lisbeth's verbal warning hadn't been enough, her taking the starting stance of this Sword Skill would've still shown Philia and Leafa quite clearly that they should go out of the way.
That said, there was still the boss' high resistance to Blunt attacks. Lisbeth had by no means forgotten about that. It was just that she had something else in mind: When she attacked the boss with Power Strike, the rebound was so strong that Lisbeth was thrown backwards a metre or two, but at the same time, the blow had a knock-back effect on the Desert Demon. For a brief moment, it was forced to remove its fangs around Kirito and let go of him, but it wanted to tighten its grip again right away.
Once more, someone helped them from afar. Just as the Desert Demon was about to continue crushing Kirito between its jaws, it was hit by Sinon's Sword Skill Quintuple Shot. The five consecutive shots pushed it back ever-so-slightly, but that alone wouldn't have gotten them anywhere – it would've taken another Milion Howling to do that, but the cooldown of that Sword Skill wasn't over yet. Anyway, the much more important effect of Sinon's attack was that the Desert Demon flinched and hesitated for second, and that was exactly the time Philia and Leafa needed to spring into action.
First of all, Philia jammed her sword between Kirito's body and the Desert Demon's jaw as if it was supposed to be a doorstop, and she caught one of the giant worm's fangs between the jags of her blade. After that, she basically tried to use her weapon to pull the large, strong jaws of the boss off of Kirito.
Leafa tried her best to help. Now that the Desert Demon's mouth was opened slightly, she stabbed its inside with her katana and attempted to push it open even further afterwards. Frankly, it was a fairly awkward attempt since it didn't fit her kendo style at all.
What was worse, however, was the fact that their combined efforts weren't enough. The Desert Demon quickly began to overpower them. In a last-ditch effort, Philia shoved the crowbar that was mentioned earlier into the Desert Demon's mouth, and Lisbeth grabbed it to help. While using Kirito's shoulder as a leverage point (which added yet another layer to the awkwardness of this scene), Lisbeth tried to use the crowbar to pry the boss' mouth open.
With the three of them working together, they actually managed to keep up with the boss' strength… but it wasn't enough to free Kirito as planned. They may have managed to pry off the upper half of the Desert Demon's jaws, but the lower half was still pressing against Kirito's shins – and pinning him to the ground very effectively.
However, the way things were, Kirito could at least move his arms again. At this point, he didn't have much HP left – and they kept decreasing – so he hurriedly reached into his pockets to grab one of the items he'd prepared for quick access.
While all of this was going down, Asuna remained behind. She hadn't followed Kirito – at first because he'd taken her by surprise, and Asuna generally wasn't sure what was happening. Now, she couldn't make up her mind what was more important: Fighting alongside Kirito as his partner or maintaining her position as the raid commander.
The latter role required some work, that much was certain. The boss' current behaviour – attacking repeatedly in relatively quick succession instead of launching a swift sneak attack and retreating just as fast – was new to the players, which meant that it should be observed carefully. More importantly, however, many nearby players fled from the Desert Demon's rampage purely as a precaution. On the other end of the spectrum, there were those who did the exact opposite and came running towards the boss. Admittedly, this was a good opportunity to attack it since it remained on the surface and therefore within reach. Those "brave" players gathered around the spot where the Desert Demon was coming out of the ground and attacked it with their most powerful Sword Skills while they could.
The problem with either course of action was that it disrupted the formation Asuna had set up, and it required her full attention and a lot of effort to call the raid party to order and to get them to follow the actual strategy again.
Well, and even though this task kept Asuna occupied, she couldn't stop thinking about Kirito, Strea and the rest of the girls' party – and the trouble they were currently facing. The worst part was that she couldn't even tell if Kirito, her partner, needed help – because the sand cloud was obscuring the ongoing fight between him and the girls and the Desert Demon. The only things she noticed were Silica dragging Strea out of the danger zone, Lisbeth's arrival on the scene and her helping Silica until the former, for some reason, entering the miniature sandstorm the boss had caused. Well, that, and she could tell from a glance at the section of her HUD that displayed her party members' condition that Kirito was losing HP.
Then, the Desert Demon suddenly began digging into the sand, making its way back underground as if it had changed its mind. At that point, the cloud of whirling sand quickly dissipated, revealing – one after the other – Philia, Lisbeth and Leafa… and that was it.
Asuna: Are all of you okay? Wait… And where is Kirito-kun?
Something was definitely wrong, especially since the three girls over there seemed to argue frantically about something, although Asuna couldn't make out anything they said, at least until Leafa suddenly raised her voice to the level that Asuna could hear it.
Leafa: I don't know, either! He's just gone!
Philia: But where to?! You wouldn't think he…?
Lisbeth: Don't jinx it! I've told you that I only saw a blue flash of light, and then he just disappeared!
Philia: Yeah, b-but… doesn't that sound like that…
Lisbeth [upset]: We all know what that sounds like! I keep telling you not to jinx it, dammit! I… [meekly] I don't wanna believe it, but…
Philia: N-neither do I, but… but I caught a glimpse of that blue light effect, too, and…
Leafa: That can't be! Through all the sand and all the noise, none of us could see or hear anything clearly, so what if we saw a blue light?! It doesn't mean anything, ANYTHING AT ALL! It can't be that he… [sadly] It just can't be that, after everything, he'd… IT CAN'T!
While the girls' argument (if you could really call it that) kept going nowhere, its focus abruptly sunk in on Asuna's mind: All of a sudden, Kirito was nowhere within sight, and the last trace of him was a blue flash. Disappearing in blue light… Wasn't that… the death animation? That thought echoed in Asuna's mind, becoming more and more hollow and gloomy, and from the looks of it, it reduced her to a statue that was horribly misplaced on this battlefield…
...especially when the sandy ground began to shake, reminding the players that this battle was far from over. The Desert Demon wouldn't grant them any time to grasp the situation. It approached the surface once more… and appeared behind Asuna.
Up until the moment right before the Desert Demon breached the highest layer of sand, Asuna had been standing still, so when they saw the enormous field boss emerge behind her, it was a moment of shock during which no one believed that Asuna could've possibly defended herself. Many players instinctively opened their mouths to call out to her, but everything went down so fast that they couldn't even utter the first syllable of her name…
...before the events took a really unexpected turn. As mentioned, Asuna had been standing still only until the moment immediately before the boss' attack. In spite of how it may have looked, Asuna had certainly noticed the incoming charge, and she turned around to face it – not to dodge or anything like that, but to the even greater shock of everyone else, she got ready to use Linear. When the Desert Demon appeared, it swiftly swallowed her whole, but it had to realise that Asuna wasn't exactly a wholesome meal. Before it had any chance to really gobble her up, she unleashed Linear and rammed her rapier with great force into the "ceiling" of the inside of its mouth, piercing deeply into the most vulnerable section of the worm's body.
This took not only the other players by surprise – the same could be said about the AI that controlled this field boss. The Desert Demon stopped in its tracks, and rather than returning underground, it pulled the front section of its body back.
Meanwhile, Asuna was flying into a frenzy. Nobody had seen it, but when she'd turned towards the Desert Demon and got ready to use Linear, her expression had been like that of a madman. Fittingly, rather than climbing out of the throat of a giant worm that she'd dived into, she continued her onslaught with Crucifixion.
The Desert Demon roared in response… and began to fight back. The inside of its "throat" contracted, squeezing everything within – in other words: Asuna. With her body being crushed like this, she suffered massive damage, but at the same time, she was rendered completely unable to move.
That is, with one loophole that allowed her to escape: Asuna quickly noticed that her body had happened to end up in the right position to use Acrobatics in order to turn a somersault. When she did that, the system assistant moved her body around in spite of the restraints, and as she was turning, Asuna pushed back the mucosa the Desert Demon was pressing against her. The boss' AI hadn't predicted this turn, and in its confusion, it loosened the grip on Asuna completely rather than tightening it again.
Asuna used this reprieve (which would certainly be short-lived)… not to find a way to retreat, but to strike again, with Valkyrie Nights this time. It was a seven-hit Slash combo, not exactly Asuna's usual last resort, given that she generally focused on Thrust attacks, but her choice of Sword Skills was somewhat limited at the moment – limited by the fact that she couldn't move around freely inside the intestines of a huge worm. If nothing else, she managed just barely to keep standing on the monster's mucosa. She did manage to finish Valkyrie Nights, though, since the Sword Skill was fairly simple – it consisted of several slashes from different angles while standing on a fixed spot.
At that point, the Desert Demon seemed to have enough. It bent its enormous body backwards, almost as if to take a wide swing, before flinging it forward again. During said motion, the boss opened its mouth as wide as possible, and Asuna was hurled outside. She flew a few metres through the air, followed by a very rough landing and rolling across the sand several more metres.
And yet… When Asuna got up, she immediately started to charge at the Desert Demon again… or she would've if it hadn't been for Lisbeth catching (up to) her just in time before Asuna could take off and leave her (literally) in the dust. Thanks to the different builts for their characters, Lisbeth could overpower Asuna despite the latter's clear level advantage. Even so, Lisbeth had to wrap her arms tightly and with all her strength around Asuna's waist and neck in order to hold her back.
Lisbeth: Asuna, stop it! What… Just what are you trying to do?! You can't beat that thing on your own like that!
Asuna [angrily]: But this… this monster ki… [shakily] It… It took…
Lisbeth: I get it! [sadly] God, I get it… [upset] But that doesn't mean that you have to run to your death, Asuna!
With these words on her lips, Lisbeth tried her hardest to pull Asuna away from the field boss. Speaking of which, she also took a look at the Desert Demon to see what it was doing. To her shock, the boss had regained its composure in the meantime, and it was looking at her and Asuna… the same way it had stared down Kirito before its last attack on him.
This time, however, an ally helped them. Sinon fired a Triple Shot at the boss, using a rather simple Sword Skill to divert its attention. Sure enough, after suffering an attack from the flank, and given that other players were drawing closer in order to intervene, the Desert Demon opted to retreat and flee below the surface even before Sinon could fire another arrow.
Now that the imminent threat was gone, Lisbeth turned her attention to Asuna again, only to notice that the latter had turned her face towards the former. What Lisbeth saw shocked her much more than she had anticipated. Without a doubt, Asuna looked the worse for wear: After Asuna's previous violent fall when the boss had flung her away, her clothes were in utter disarray, and she was covered in sand. Well, and in mucus from the inside of the oversized worm they were fighting, but that was an entirely different issue. Honestly, with all due respect to Kayaba Akihiko's sense of realism, did he really have to include that?! Anyway, Lisbeth could handle all of that… but not the look of unprecedented pain and despair on Asuna's face right now. Oddly enough, it felt as if Asuna was pleading with Lisbeth to let her keep fighting the Desert Demon, which was somewhat ironic given that Asuna easily could've broken away from Lisbeth in that moment if she'd still had the strength/will to – after all, Lisbeth had inadvertently let go of her.
Meanwhile, the Desert Demon couldn't have cared less about their emotional turmoil. It continued the battle, and the next attack came after another ten seconds. The players it charged at scattered and escaped unscathed, but this time, the boss came rushing towards the rock Sinon was standing on, which simply happened to be in its way. The Desert Demon crashed into it head-first, but that wasn't enough to kill its momentum, so its enormous body ended up slipping over it. Sinon, who'd already got ready to shoot the next Sword Skill at the boss, had realised what was going to happen just in time to throw herself to the ground. She more or less managed to dodge, although the Desert Demon knocked her bow out of her hands while rushing past her.
More players charged at the boss… and hesitated seemingly for no reason. There certainly was a reason, though, and it lay in what all those players had laid their eyes on: The boss' HP gauge. Its second HP bar was almost empty – to the point that a single sufficiently powerful blow might've depleted it completely – and they all remembered the chaos the boss had caused once its first HP bar had been gone. No one wanted to get caught up in the Desert Demon's most fearsome attack…
...with one exception, that is. Yamata ran up the boss' body where it was emerging from the ground, pretty much as if it was a staircase. He was unperturbed by the Desert Demon's ability to summon a sandstorm – after all, he had survived the first one, and he knew that with his item Blessing of the Gods of Life and Death, he'd survive the second one, too.
What's more, he – just as basically everyone else – had caught what Lisbeth, Leafa and Philia had shouted when Kirito had disappeared. The only thing that this had left on Yamata's mind was a fairly simple thought: If it was true that the Black Swordsman had bitten the dust, slaying the field boss that had killed him would be a great achievement, even better than defeating the Goblin General would've been.
Therefore, while the boss was drawing back its head, preparing to go underground again, Yamata jumped up and used Acrobatics to performed the most elaborate trick this skill allowed: a double forward somersault with a twist to right, followed by a twist to the left that flowed into a backward somersault with another twist to the left – a downright superhuman chain of movements, made possible by the system assistant, and exactly the kind of attention-drawing feat that Yamata loved.
Furthermore, this manoeuvre left him in the perfect position to use one of his favourite Sword Skills: Treble Scythe. Executing this Sword Skill, Yamata descended upon the Desert Demon while spinning around, culminating in three swift slashes across its head when he landed on it. Granted, these sword strokes did no more harm than to cut into (but not completely through) the Desert Demon's tough skin, merely the protective layer for the vulnerable parts underneath, so the attack wasn't very effective… but still strong enough to achieve what Yamata had hoped for and everybody was fearing: It depleted the boss' second HP bar.
As soon as he could control his body again, Yamata slid down the Desert Demon's body as it was starting to erect said body in preparation of its special skill, and not only did he not show a care in the world, he even raised his arms and grinned proudly.
Yamata: There! If you guys will only run from it, I'll fight this thing alone if I have to! You think its stupid ability to create a sand tornado or whatever scares me?! Hah! See if I care!
Contrary to Yamata's wishes, there was no one who cheered for him, though. His "audience" was too busy running to safety while they still could – that is, as the Desert Demon rose towards the sky and began spinning around.
Needless to say, Sinon was among those who hastily tried to escape. She, however, had quite some trouble since she needed to climb down the rock she'd taken position on first. Her half-panicked state didn't help with that, and during her rather sloppy "descent", her feet slipped, and she plunged down the rest of the way. That cost her even more of the time she didn't have to begin with, so by the time she'd got up and continued running away, the Desert Demon's air vortex had grown so strong that it pulled Sinon in far too hard for her to be able to take even one more step away from it.
Hardly anyone even noticed that. Those who stood at a safe distance were too taken aback by Yamata, who let himself be hurled into the air by the tornado that formed around the Desert Demon, all while laughing haughtily as if he'd lost his mind.
There was only one person who focused entirely on Sinon. Asuna, intent on rushing to Sinon's aid, dashed off as soon as she'd grasped that Sinon wouldn't make it to safety in time. Well, or maybe it'd be more accurate to say that Asuna's feet were bringing her there without clearance from her head, which would've certainly determined that little could be done about Sinon's current predicament… and for that exact reason, Lisbeth threw herself onto Asuna before she could get away in order to stop her… again.
Lisbeth: God, Asuna! For the love of all that's holy…
Asuna: Let me go! We have to help Sinon! If we don't, she… she'll…
Lisbeth: I know! [dejectedly] Dammit, I know! It's not as if I wanna see my friends die like that, [seriously] but that's why I keep telling you: STOP RUNNING TO YOUR DEATH!
As she said that, Lisbeth started to drag Asuna further away from the Desert Demon – as far as possible if she could – and Asuna certainly didn't make that easy. She kept struggling against Lisbeth's grip… and against her reasoning. Had she thought about this calmly, Asuna would've undoubtedly agreed with her: Any attempt to help Sinon at this point would only add even more casualties. However, there was only one thought on Asuna's mind: She couldn't let this happen. She couldn't – she mustn't – let this abomination take another person away from her.
However, a simple numerical difference between Lisbeth's Strength and hers was all it took to leave Asuna without options. She could only watch as Sinon's figure disappeared behind the whirling sand, knowing that this may have very well been the last time she'd see her.
Asuna: SINONON!
The roaring sandstorm swallowed everything around the Desert Demon: Yamata, Sinon… and even Asuna's desperate shout.
Well, and that's where the middle part of the battle ends. On a cliffhanger, yes, but that's actually not the point. I actually wanted to wrap up the battle in this chapter, but due to the usual "got longer than expected" issue, I've changed that plan. This scene is close to the point where I initially wanted to end the first half of the battle, which gave rise to the idea to finish this chapter there.
That said, let me address the elephant in the room in regard to that cliffhanger: Is Kirito dead? HELL NO! I won't even pretend that I'd do something as stupid as killing off such a major character like this. The same could be said about Sinon, although in her case, I guess I could actually work with her death. However, I won't go with that choice, either. Whether they die or survive isn't really the point of these scenes, so I don't see a problem with already revealing that much.
As to what actually happened here... Well, for now, you may consider it a little riddle for you to solve. I suppose it is possible (maybe even fairly easy) to guess.
With that said, onto some other things...
Those who are familiar with the plot in Hollow Fragment might recognise the general scenario involving Strea. That's something to keep in mind for the next chapter.
Valkyrie Nights, one of the Sword Skills Asuna uses in this chapter, is yet another element taken from Hollow Fragment.