The giant kobold seemed larger to Kirito when the door closed behind the group, sealing them in for the fight, no way out but to win. The group had a moment for last organization to start making their move on the monsters. If Kirito's group were heading directly to the boss, there were two smaller kobolds in the way. He already knew they would focus and evade check them down along the way to the boss and he would pull aggro.

The raid leader finally started making his role clear. He took lead of his group and started organizing how groups would handle the smaller mob groups and switch off to focus dps on the boss while his group had it occupied. He was only following what was already said by Kirito during the previous meetings the group had. They had a very good chance at winning this without losing a single person. As long as nobody tried to take on more than they were comfortable with. Kirito did a level check on the enemy monsters. The boss monster was level thirty. His group was just short of that at the moment. Asuna had reached level twenty six during the training, while Leafa and Sinon reached twenty nine. Kirito was at thirty, and rightfully so as the main tank. The rest of the group had a minimum level of twenty, while the maximum level shot up to twenty four. The raid leader was the only from the rest of the group at level twenty four, so it was relieving that everything fell so nicely into place.

"Okay, everyone's ready? Let's charge in...now!"

As soon as the word left his mouth, everyone charged off. Kirito's group were by far faster with their movement speed. Kirito used his sonic leap on each of the kobolds in the way, Sinon used a weapon bash skill to stun them, Leafa followed with her own use of sonic leap and Asuna finished them off with a close range rapier move called sweep. The group was already against the boss of the first floor. Kirito drew aggro using his stronger aggro generating move, vertical square. The move staggered and pulled the enemy's attention to Kirito and it let out a howl. It started launching its faster attacks at Kirito, but no matter ho fast the boss was even compared to the smaller kobolds, he picked up the exact moment to back step for bonus damage effect and when to parry or counter instead. Parrying gave him more ability to use skills, countering did five times the damage of a non-skill move, essentially using a skill without expending points.

For the first bar of health, the boss monster was a simple piece of work. Even though tanks aren't usually meant to do more damage than dps, Kirito was definitely the one securing the most damage. In the meantime, Asuna hadn't had the need to use a single item on him. Or anyone else for that matter. Other groups were handling their healing perfectly, and they were handling focusing down the additional monsters the best they could.

Kirito managed to dodge everything. Not a single attack from the giant kobold could reach him. It felt...exciting. Like he could move so much faster than he ever could have in real life. Of course the system helped with some movement, but it did require a base ability from a person to do well in the virtual environment.

Just as Kirito was about to dodge another heavy downward swing, another group was running in to put in some dps for a moment. The raid leader was part of the group and had went in as if to switch off with Kirito.

"No! Leap back now!"

It was too late. The raid leader had his arm removed in that single downward slash. His group healer managed to heal the initial damage, but he had a heavy bleeding effect that he would die from if the bleeding didn't get stopped in the next minute.

"Healer of that group, if you have a boar tusk in your inventory from the town of beginnings, pull him back and powder the tusk. Rub the powder against the wound area of raid leader and the bleeding effect will stop. Your group will pull out until his arm regenerates."

Kirito had learned so much in the down time between battles and rest time, that it was mind boggling how much weak and useless ingredients could be used. When he experimented with each item's uses, it would turn out that something as easy to get as a guaranteed drop boar tusk from those mobs right outside the first town's gate could stop bleeding and grant a one health per second regeneration bonus. Kirito tested it on a kobold slash he took on purpose earlier in the dungeon. He wanted to figure out if there was something to stop a bleeding effect. Thank goodness it came in such good use.

"Thank you, Kirito."

The raid leader seemed a little weak as he said those words. His hit points were back at full already and the only thing wrong with him was that his avatar was temporarily missing the right arm and his weapon. The bleeding effect was gone. In half a day, the system would restore his arm to his body and it would be like normal.

Kirito was feeling vengeant for the raid leader's injury, and decided he would use the final skill he unlocked for the one hand sword skills already. He already had it considered mastered in the system, meaning he could use two hand swords now, but he would only do so if he eventually needed to. The ultimate skill he unlocked for one hand swords, phantom rave partially stunned the giant kobold for a moment, and by the time the skill ended, the skill pulling Kirito's body along, the health bar for the boss monster dropped from a little short of two full bars remaining, to the final third bar. Kirito's skill points just regenerated enough to unleash that same skill again, but at that moment, the boss monster wound up for its own skill. It was in the red.

"Everyone get back!"

Kirito waited until he could feel it in the system, the exact moment to use the counter skill. Instead of doing as usual and unleashing something as strong as a player's regular skill, it was a counter to the strength of the attack of the boss monster. The remaining bit of the boss monster's health bar flashed to empty. A second after the health bar emptied, it burst into pixels and the music changed in the background to something signifying a victory.

Kirito checked his inventory just in case the item dropped. When he noticed it did, he smiled when he realized it was something he might wear. A black cloak that could help hide his hair.

The room was still silent as far as the people were concerned. Maybe it was still registering for them that the battle was won. Kirito donned the cloak over his hair and shoulders to show the item which dropped to the rest of the group. If not for his use of the counter skill, the ultimate attack from the boss monster might have wiped everyone in the room, even if unengaged with it.

"We did it everyone!"

Kirito said those words and the exhaustion of pushing himself so far got to him. He fell unconscious standing up, and fell to the floor. Sinon and Leafa rushed over to make sure he was okay. They didn't even look at the status or the hit points. When Asuna walked over and sighed in relief, they asked why. She responded.

"Well, why don't you just look at the condition in the status screen? Full health and no ailments. He's just exhausted from countering a boss' ultimate move. That was amazing..."

She was very excited from the aftermath of the battle. Everyone was giddy and felt accomplished. Now the only thing for the group to do, was move on to the town above the dungeon and unlock the teleport gate so that even those who didn't participate could move on to the next floor. Sinon and Leafa carried Kirito out of the dungeon and to the nearest inn when they exited the dungeon and gave him a shared room for the entire party to rest in. Asuna wasn't thrilled with the idea at first, but they all deserved a rest. Fourteen hours since waking up of nearly non-stop grinding and finishing with a boss battle...they really pushed themselves.

"Well...Kirito isn't a pervert, and he would probably just leave the room as soon as he wakes up if he does before us because of how he is. Let's get some rest."

Asuna seemed to be the voice of reason. They were all girls, and Kirito was a boy, no matter how feminine he was in appearance or personality.

Sinon pointed out the drop reward from the boss which covered him instead of the blanket on the bed. The black cloak which hid his hair.

"That's so like him, isn't it? Maybe he'll go from being called the black haired swordswoman to the black clothed swordsman later..."

Asuna and Leafa agreed. It definitely suited him. They all bid each other rest for the evening, and wouldn't awake until noon the next day. Kirito wouldn't wake for a little longer than that.