It had been a week since they last ventured out to the dungeon with Kirito. He had been spending time working on his crafts. Already, alongside Lisbeth's smithing, the two were able to provide the best gear possible with their current level. The group finally had a few other guilds ready to start working alongside them for floor clearing. One, named the Holy Dragon Alliance. They were people who were determined to do their best in escaping the game, with skills from other games. Another guild, a smaller guild with a familiar face at the lead. The leader Klein of Fuurinkazan. There was another guild which was led by a character who rang bells in Kirito's head from the time they met Asuna. A man in white and red with one hand sword and large shield.
There were a couple of other small groups, but in all, it was Kirito's group named the Beta guild, the Holy Dragon Alliance, Fuurinkazan and Knights of the Blood Oath who were holding up the majority of the floor boss strategy meeting before making their move on the boss of floor ten.
"It's so good to see Kirito again. And with a bunch of other girls~! And you said you weren't-"
He was cut off with what almost seemed a trademark, as Leafa stomped down on his foot.
"It's good to see you are safe as well, Klein. You and your guild are doing surprisingly well."
Klein rubbed the back of his head in a bashful expression.
"It wouldn't have been so without the guidance of Kirito and Sinon on day one. We all had to do a lot of practice before getting our levels up. It felt as if it would take until you reached floor fifty before we would catch up in the beginning, but you kept prolonging the clear of floor ten in being careful."
Kirito nodded his head and sighed. There was a little bit of respite before the heat of the meeting would begin. It seemed the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath was becoming very impatient. Kirito was glad to see that not one person in the gathering was below level forty.
"Are we not getting started yet, leader of Beta?"
Kirito nodded his head and moved to the middle of the camp which he had set up outside of the dungeon.
"I was only getting a bit of needed rest, leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath. Plus, there are people who have come we haven't seen since the day of the announcement. A little catching up won't hurt, and we'll be more calm than nervous in the face of the boss monster."
The others in the gathering nodded their heads in confirmation.
"Since you are so eager, let's begin then. This floor, we face a wyvern class boss monster. The boss does not have minions this time around. Originally this floor had a minotaur class, but that might have been more difficult as wyvern have fewer mechanics to deal with. Our aim is to get through the dungeon without expending ourselves too much and gaining fatigue. When we reach there, we will decide on experience who will hold the boss' aggro-"
"Would it not be wise just to leave Beta in charge of holding aggro?"
It seemed there was a lot of agreement there. Everyone was comfortable leaving the head of the charge to Kirito's group. It wasn't a bad thing. In fact, it was reassuring that they were eager to let Beta lead the raid. Especially seeing as Kirito's group was the only which had their levels hanging around fifty. They had gear suited for handling whatever mechanics were thrown at them, and they had the most healing item potency out of anyone with the expansion of alchemy to Kirito's crafts over the last week. The high quality elixirs were something that could only be obtained by an alchemist, and only Kirito was a decent level alchemist so far.
"We can do so, however I believe examining how each guild handles fighting the wyvern monsters in the dungeon until we reach the boss room will give us a little insight on which guild is better organized against them. The greatest strength of the wyvern, is that they have high defence and hit points. A long fight is what we're going into, no matter how we look at it. Myself as a tank role, I am used to shorter fights. I might not be suited for this boss as lead tank if this draws out. Now I ask, are there any who play tank role in their guilds who are used to holding aggro for long periods of time?"
Kirito checked around the entire gathering, and not one person volunteered for such, but those in the Knights of the Blood Oath looked to their leader.
"Heathcliff-san, why aren't you speaking up? You're very experienced in long battles."
Heathcliff, the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath sighed in response to the words of one of the subordinates, a high ranking member of the guild.
"I simply don't believe that we'll be facing such a challenge it will take long with such a large and powerful raid party. Up until this floor, Beta handled nearly everything aside the first floor. Who is to say that this floor will be that much more difficult?"
Kirito felt as if he were acting, though the acting was of a quality enough to easily mistake it as real. Sinon retorted Heathcliff's words.
"It's obvious you just want to push Kirito to do the lead tank role even though you have your special skill where you can hold a tower shield. You're more built as a tank than anyone else here. Regardless how skilled Kirito is, it's best to be prepared with someone who is good at off-tanking with drawn out fights. I vote that Heathcliff join this fight as off-tank."
Everyone agreed with her that it was better to have an intended tank role leading the aggro.
It was decided rather quickly that he would off-tank for the boss fight. He sighed and looked more and more disappointed in his expression as it seemed that he wasn't giving the kind of impression he wanted to.
After a little more calming down and assuring everyone of their roles, the raid group entered the dungeon. A group of twenty skilled fighters in the game, the most skilled, would have intimidated most outside players. That included a few people. There were some in the dungeon along the way who stared in surprise at the people in the group. Beta in the lead with Kirito, Sinon, Leafa, Asuna, Lisbeth and Silica looked to be the only female members of the raid. The rest were men of various appearances. Many sported a variety of known health conditions for otaku, while a select few were built decently well, reflecting what kind of person they were outside of the game a little. Truly though, the gear they wore outshone their body types, and other players knew to respect what they were about to do. Finally, after much time had passed since the last floor had been cleared, a large and powerful group were heading over to the boss room to restart the progression through the game.
Kirito noticed someone familiar along the way to the boss room in the first area of the dungeon. Actually, it was the entire guild, the Moonlight Black Cats. Sachi still wielded buckler and one handed sword and played as a tank. The levels were up a bit, but they definitely weren't ready to be fighting in the dungeon with her still showing how terrified she was of providing the tank role.
Kirito stopped the advance through the dungeon as he walked over to the guild.
"What? Any reason to stop heading over to your fight against the floor boss?"
The leader of the guild continued his attitude from before.
"You should really regroup as a guild and think about the kind of positioning you have. I hadn't mentioned it before since you left so quickly, but you really need to pay attention to your friend here playing your tank role. She is trembling even though there are no monsters around. That nervous of a person is not suited to being a tank. Either smarten up and one of you boys take her place, or you will never make it to the front lines. You're risking her life. Think about that long and hard. Get out of the dungeon now. You're free to use our tent outside and talk it out, but don't treat her so recklessly."
Kirito returned to the rest of Beta, and the whole raid group stared down the boys of the Moonlight Black Cats. The girl, Sachi had tears in her eyes. She was thankful in her expression, but she had something different to say.
"Miss black swordswoman, I'm willing to risk myself for my friends-"
"Friends don't risk each other though. Sachi, take better care of yourself. Oh, and sword and buckler definitely doesn't suit you. I suggest you try spear. Although a tank-type weapon here, it's also good for else wise. Better tank option would be the blond boy with the battleaxe."
Others from the raid party nodded their heads in agreement. Seconds later, the Moonlight Black Cats started making their way out of the dungeon. Sachi held back a little as she stared at Kirito. She mouthed something toward him which his advanced hearing level managed to catch as a whisper.
"Thank you, Kirito-san."
After that, she followed after the rest of the guild. Finally the raid party continued on through the dungeon. They had no issue with the monsters of the dungeon along the way. Through the only challenge of wyvern they quickly dispatched, it took less than twenty minutes to reach the large imposing door which separated them from the floor ten boss.
"Last minute check."
Kirito turned back to the rest of the raid group after saying those words.
"Everyone, ensure those performing as sub-healers are holding as many healing items required as possible. Ensure you have especially for this boss monster that bleed healing and paralysis healing potions are in their care. Keep track of how many are shared with the sub healer if you intend to take a portion back after. Be careful, but ensure that the careful way you participate ensures the safety of the rest of your guild. Let's make it through this without a single loss."
The people of the group silently nodded their heads in confirmation. It almost seemed as if a band of professional soldiers were going in for one of their most dangerous firefights from the atmosphere around them. It wouldn't be entirely inaccurate. It was dangerous enough that if someone made a single mistake and missed dodging a mechanic, they could die. They were video gamers, people who usually sat and enjoyed their games through a screen instead of experiencing it like the reality it had become for them. Every bit of what they were about to do was dangerous in every sense outside of the knowledge those who had played the genre they were facing. Those experienced in massively multiplayer gaming were those who knew how to handle the fighting within the game. The mechanics, organization and the roles which everyone had to fill were the same. If they didn't have the usual excuse of a magician healing, they would have an item sub-healer ensuring those taking damage would survive.
Another thing dangerous about what they were doing, was that normally in MMO gaming, there would be large alert areas for area of effect attacks, and in Sword Art Online, that wasn't the case. They had to watch and understand physical tells and react to them appropriately. Against massive monsters which if in reality were rampaging around would frighten nearly anyone.
Kirito and the rest of Beta pushed the door open, and immediately took off for the boss as soon as the door closed behind the full raid.
Kirito started off with his normal routine, ensuring that he was calculating with his mind and movements how to react to and direct the attacks of the wyvern in front of them. He went to the other side of the wyvern to draw its attention away from everyone else, ensuring he had the highest percent of aggro. Nobody would take it from him until Heathcliff would have to take over for a short time in giving Kirito a breather.
The beginning of the battle went well. The magic breath attacks from the wyvern were easy to predict and dodge in time, and Kirito was easily able to parry all of the basic attacks, ensuring his skill points were as full as possible at all times. Minutes for the beginning of the battle with the wyvern wasn't bad. What was daunting, was that after a timer he set counted up to five minutes elapsed, even with all of the counter attacks, high level skills and the input from the rest of the raid party, the health had only diminished by about a third of the first of the three. They hadn't even reached the first added mechanic. Five minutes was a long time in a melee fight. It was enough that a person going at full throttle like he was to ensure everyone else' safety would definitely be tired beyond belief. He was gasping to keep up, and ensured that Heathcliff was close to take over with the aggro so that Kirito could take a minute to recover. Heathcliff wasn't anywhere near Kirito's position.
Kirito grit his teeth at the disgust he was feeling his off-tank wasn't there to support properly when he needed it most, and he shouted.
"Heathcliff! You'd better be ready in three seconds to switch!"
On Kirito's words, the stream of the red and white uniforms from the Knights of the Blood Oath circled around the side right of Kirito from the wyvern, and Heathcliff nodded when their eyes met. Kirito felt a massive sense of relief as he performed his stun attack, a low level weapon bash and Heathcliff immediately started building aggro. The perks of the special skill Heathcliff had, the tower shield, was that while it was heavy and was big enough to negate many attacks, he didn't need to worry about his defence breaking. He could limitlessly draw aggro to himself without worry of being hit unless his opponent was faster than he could react.
Heathcliff didn't seem to keep that in mind however, as he only kept the aggro barely above Kirito's level of aggro. He let enough time pass that his immediate boost of aggro fell, and Kirito was under pressure again after mere seconds of recovery.
"At least warn me of a switch!"
Kirito said those words in a disgusted tone. Heathcliff smiled and shrugged. Kirito angrily unleashed all of his skill points and parried the next attack sending his skill point back to full. He kept unleashing the strongest one hand sword skill repeatedly and parrying to keep the skill points up for a single minute, that the hit points of the wyvern seemed to start draining. Everyone almost seemed to back off when they realized why that was. Kirito had given the wyvern a dozen stacks of bleeding in that minute, one dozen uses of the ultimate one hand sword skill gave a dozen stacks of bleeding damage. The damage continued to tick quickly, draining the wyvern quickly down to half.
"Switch now! Give me thirty seconds this time!"
Kirito gave a bash with one of his stronger stunning attacks, which sent the wyvern to the ground momentarily. Heathcliff took the aggro for precisely the thirty seconds Kirito mentioned. It was enough that the bleeding was half run out, and he would have enough energy to unleash his flurry of skills again.
"Switch, miss swordswoman."
Heathcliff actually participated in the call outs. Kirito gladly took the aggro and immediately countered one of the more powerful mechanics he had seen yet, striking a deep bleeding gash along the under belly of the wyvern. The wyvern screeched in the pain sensation it felt and turned back to Kirito.
"Everyone hurry to the other side! Raid switch! Inflict any bleeding type skills immediately!"
Kirito finished shouting those words and immediately got to work at unleashing his skills again. The multiple deep bleeding cuts he carved into the wyvern along with the now forty stacks of bleeding added on from everyone else ticked until the bleeding was negated at a quarter of the last bar left. The wyvern flipped over and hovered above the reach of their blades, preparing a powerful burst of magical energy. Kirito had to do something, make his best call yet in order to stop that full wipe attack from unleashing.
"Klein, Heathcliff! Charge over to me! Heathcliff, support me on your shield, and both of you get ready to activate your thrust skills against the shield! You're launching me and we're ending this before that attack kills us all!"
Klein was grinning from ear to ear and the both of them followed orders as they readied to launch Kirito at the wyvern. On his mark, Kirito was launched with what felt like a cannon worth of force. He had added to it with the bounding of his own legs, and activated the sonic leap ability, which was awkward but done easily enough in mid-air. The powerful slash of the sonic leap carved deep into the jaw line of the wyvern, along the neck and into the belly yet again, flashing the rest of the health bar to empty. Kirito barely managed to turn himself mid-air enough to land feet first against the wall on the other side, and lessen the weight of the impact both against the wall, and against the floor. The victory music started playing, but everyone was silent. Everyone stared at Kirito who for the first time since the first floor was completely exhausted from a fight. All eyes shifted between Kirito and Heathcliff, and Asuna as well as Sinon approached Heathcliff with stern expressions while Leafa, Lisbeth and Silica ran over to make sure Kirito was okay. The only damage taken during the entire fight from someone of the raid, was when Kirito left the tanking to Heathcliff, or when Kirito made the landing at the end.
"Heathcliff-san, just how do you feel about how this went?"
Asuna was asking in a literal sense as she looked back to Kirito in worry that there might have been more to the exhaustion he felt.
"I think it went remarkably well. Kirito-san is a wonderful leader, and managed to save us all with that quick thinking of hers."
"Yet you seem to know nothing of off-tanking, Heathcliff-san!"
Sinon was furious with his lack of care for Kirito's current state.
"I have limited experience on MMO gaming, so you'll have to forgive me-"
"News flash. An off tank waits until a call from the main tank that they're ready before letting their aggro drop. Kirito has been exhausted this entire time. It was because you pushed her by letting your aggro slide so easily that she could have died from this. If she did, we all would have died to that last attack. You're the leader of a guild. Start informing yourself before you put one of your guild mates or the rest of us at risk of dying."
She and Asuna turned and headed over to Kirito's side. Kirito had passed out from the fatigue. It ended up being a full ten minutes without break on Kirito's end. That much physical exertion in real life, non stop in fighting with life on the line. Nobody in that room could have done it in real life. Kirito pushed above and beyond, so that he could save everyone.
"We'll activate the teleport gate. You all go tell your friends of our progress. Heathcliff-san, I sincerely hope you start properly considering our position stuck in this world. Most of us have families to go back to. If you can so carelessly risk our strongest and most skilled person here, then you should dismiss yourself as a guild leader. For everyone's sake."
With those words from Asuna, she helped Leafa and Lisbeth lift Kirito up and carry her out of the boss room and up the stairs to the next floor. All eyes remaining in the room glared Heathcliff down.
