Yo, are you still with me? Thanks for sticking around. Here's the next chapter. Enjoy if you can.

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"Up the tree! Climb! Climb!"

The four scrambled up the branches, several [Lesser Beowolves] clawing at their heels. Once they were high enough, the mobs began to disperse letting the four breath easy.

"Why is it that it's midnight and we are still in this forest?" Myrtenaster asked.

Rose leaned forward from her place on one of the lower branches, trying to get a better view to use her [Detection] skill. "It was an estimation, not a prediction," she gurmbled. "I can make close guesses but I can't see into the future." She squinted, taking note of the fog at the edge of her view. It was denser than the fog in every other direction. She smiled. "We're not that far from the exit. I say we make a break for it once all the Beowolves have left."

"There's one that isn't moving." Myrtenaster commented. "How do we deal with that thing?"

Rose laughed. "Easy. I drop down, stab it in the back, and while it's attention is on me, you all jump on it with a couple of sword techs. It'll be dead before it has a chance to attack!"

Milou and Myrtenaster glanced at each other worriedly, before looking expectantly at Crocea. The boy raised his hands in alarm. "Hey, it worked when it was just me and Rose, right? It's sure to work if there's four of us." They seemed convinced.

"Okay, by the time the mobs are gone, we kill the one below us and high tail it out of here." Rose stated. "Any objections, ladies?" There were none. "Okay then, now we just wait"

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Rose dropped down and turned on her [Steath] skill. While it was active, she'd be only be partially visible to people who've already noticed her and her presence wouldn't instantaneously trigger aggression if she entered a mob's detection radius. She was keenly aware of the [Lesser Beowolf]'s own awareness meter steadily growing higher. She had to act fast since [Back Stab] only worked if the enemy was facing away and was not aware of her presence.

With one fluid strike, she embedded her dagger into the mob's spine, its awareness meter becoming full and it's health bar decreasing by a significant fraction. It was a critical hit.

The Beowolf howled and turned to face Rose, who was still locked in her animation. Still she found it in her to smirk when the mob died. The other three jumped down and hacked at the mob, lowering its health to zero even as it raised a claw to strike. It shattered into a million pixels.

Rose looked around, activating her [Detection] skill once more. The red cursors of the other Beowolves were closing in again. They had time, but not a lot. They should have waited a few more minutes before they made their move. It didn't seem like all of the mobs had returned to their spawn points yet.

She looked at her team mates grimly before gesturing for them to follow her.

She jogged in the direction of the thick fog, pleased to find that the path along the way – the very same path they were following before the Grimm showed up. It led to a sort of archway that lead into a circular clearing. It was the boss door.

She looked behind her, and nodded to her team mates. Right as she was about to walk through the threshold, Crocea's voice rang.

"Wait," he said. "We're gonna fight the boss at night? Aren't the Grimm twice the level of the normal mobs in an area?"

"You noticed too, huh?" Rose smirked. "The boss in there is probably level 20. You and I are level 17. Myrtenaster and Milou are 14. We can handle this" She turned to the others. "Right girls?"

"I don't know with you but I'm more than confident in my abilities." Myrtenaster stated. "Yeah, we can take this one on" Milou agreed.

Rose titled her head at Crocea "There you have it" The boy turned to look at each of the girls before giving a reluctant nod. Rose nodded as well and stepped through the arch and fog.

The clearing was fairly large for an early game boss room. The trees the ringed the clearing were tall and tightly spaced, making for a sort of cage where the only exits lay behind them and directly in front of them on the other side of the clearing. Above them was the sky, but very little light filtered through the canopy of leaves.

Crocea passed through the archway and tried to extend his hand back outside. It pressed into something solid, with a notification popping up. You cannot exit this area right now.

Well, we're trapped. And we'll stay that way til the boss is dead, Rose thought. Speaking of which, the dark ground at the center of this clearing is a whole lot darker that every where else.

Smirking, Rose told everyone to get into position. Crocea and Milou were to flank the enemy at either side. Once the mob's attention was gained by one of the shield users, Myrtenaster and Rose would join in, dealing at much damage per second as possible without causing the mob to change targets.

They were at their places. Crocea opened by charging head long into the darkness.

From the darkness, a great black bear exploded into existence and slashed at Crocea, the boy barely managing to get his shield up in time to block the hit. Even still, he lost small portion of his health bar. Milou surged forward with a [Linear] sword tech, spear glowing in hand.

[Ursa Major] Level 20. Rose frowned at how much health it had – two health bars with 800 points each. That, added to how much damage it could do, made for a terrible combination. She turned to Myrtenaster, whose grip on her rapier seemed tighter than needed. "I think it's time to jump in. I go left, you go right?" She asked. Myrtenaster nodded and dashed over to Milou. Rose smiled before bounding to Crocea aid.

The bear raised its paw for a downward swing at Crocea. The boy anticipated it and met the attack with a [Shield Bash]. The [Ursa Major] recoiled, but so did Crocea. Before the mob had a time to recover and counter attack, Rose slipped past Crocea and began a simple sword tech combo with her knife. The bear, having recovered, tried to backhand Rose but was once again intercepted with another [Shield Bash] by Crocea, followed by [Slant].

"Switch!" Rose called. She and Crocea jumped back just as the [Ursa Major] slammed its paws to the ground, creating a shock wave on the ground with a small area of effect. They had taken out a quarter of its first health bar. So far so good.

Both Milou and Myrtenaster shot forward with a [Linear] tech and stabbed the mob in the back, with a spear and sword respectively.

The mob, changing targets, twisted its body for a back hand at the two. Anticipating the telegraphed attack, Milou readied for a [Shield Bash]. When the two attacks met, Myrtenaster jumped in for a twelve hit combo, twirling around and stabbing at the mob before finishing with an upward thrust. It wasn't even a sword technique.

Rose watched with amazement at how the [Ursa Major's] first health bar went from around 75 percent to a little under 30. I knew it. She's had training. Nothing will convince me that she hadn't.

"Switch" Milou called, both of them jumping back with a lot of fancy and unnecessary flips. That's just showing off, Rose thought, mildly amused.

Rose and Crocea leaped towards the mob. "We'll take out the first health bar. Get ready for some sort of super attack once it reaches red!" She cried.

Rose shot forward with a [Linear] stabbing the mob in the gut. The bear went for another over head swing, only to be deflected by a [Slant] by Crocea. Rose did another sword tech combo and once again the mob's attack was blocked by Crocea's shield. Rose backed up a bit and let Crocea get a combo in before jumping forward once more for another sword tech combo.

The [Ursa Major]'s first health bar was now in the red zone. Its eyes glowed a malevolent crimson and it let out a terrible roar. Both Crocea and Rose were blasted backwards, losing half their health bars from the combined damage of the attack and the impact to the ground.

Rose clutched her ears, feeling intense pain and hearing a high pitched ringing. Sitting up, she saw the mob was periodically roaring. The interval between every roar was too short to get an attack in, at least with the levels and sword techs they currently had.

Eventually, it did stop. In fact, it stopped moving entirely. It was asleep. Rose's eyes widened when she saw its health increasing. "Its using [Rest] to restore its health. Hurry and attack while it's not moving!" Rose yelled, even as she and Crocea charged at it.

The four began hacking and slashing at the mob, desperately trying to take out more health than the regeneration was restoring. It was slow going but eventually, they managed to get the first health bar down to zero. The [Ursa Major]'s blood red eyes opened the moment the bar was depleted, all four of them quickly jumping away in case it did another roar. It was fortunate that they backed up as the mob did roar.

The mob looked between the two groups and charged for whoever was closer – Milou and Myrtenaster. The two side stepped the charge and simultaneously peppered stabs on its back while it was still locked in its cool down animation. They jumped back a bit when the mob was free to move again. It was well made decision, as the bear let out another roar before turning around to face them.

Rose and Crocea circled the on-going battle until they were directly behind Milou and Myrtenaster. The mob charged, and once more the two girls side stepped it. It stopped, stunned, perhaps a few steps in front of Rose and Crocea who then began laying down as much damage as they could. Milou and Myrtenaster joined them.

The four jumped back once more, eying the [Ursa Major] cautiously as it did another roar attack.

It changed its attack pattern after one health bar… Rose noted, smirking. But the new attack pattern is a lot easier to deal with.

The bear charged for Crocea and Rose, and the four of them repeated what they did earlier.

Eventually the mob's health reached the red zone and the four had to back up once more. Another series of roars echoed through out the clearing. When the roaring stopped and the mob used [Rest] to regenerate its health, the four jumped in for another frenzied attack, only to be blasted backwards by another loud roar.

Rose smiled wryly at the familiar pain and ringing of her ears. She sat up and looked at her team mates. She and Crocea were at a quarter of their health, while Milou and Myrtenaster were at half. The damage for the roar is percentage based, Rose realized. It takes out 50 percent of your current health. She grinned. That means we can afford to get hit more.

She turned to the [Ursa Major]. It was roaring every five seconds but it was only regenerating health at half the rate compared to last time.

We take half a second to jump in and attack the mob. Another half second to jump out of the roar's range. If I take into account how long the attack animations lock us in place, that leaves a little over three seconds for us to do damage to it. She slapped her cheeks and grit her teeth. Okay, we can do this.

She turned to Milou who seemed to have reached the same conclusion Rose had. They nodded at each other before Rose turned to Crocea and Myrtenaster. "You two. We're gonna begin counting. At one, you jump in and attack. At four, you all jump back." With that Milou and Rose ran towards the sleeping bear.

There was a roar. One. The two of them reached the mob and began attacking. Two… Three… Four! With one final sword tech, they jumped away. Five. There was another roar. "One!" Rose yelled. Crocea and Myrtenaster shot forward and attacked. "Two! Three! Four!" They retreated. "Five!" There was a roar once more. "One!" All four of them charged.

They cycle repeated for a few minutes before the [Ursa Major] detonated in a flashy pixelized explosion. It dropped a large sum of money, as well as a good number of craft items.

They all collapsed onto the ground, panting in exhaustion.

"Who got last hit?" Rose breathed.

"I did" Milou answered tiredly. "And it's the perfect weapon for me, too. [Tribal Ritual Spear]." She chuckled. "Too bad it's got a stat requirement I don't quite meet yet"

"You'll get there eventually." Rose laughed. "See guys? We made it…"

Crocea laughed as well. "We made it…" He repeated, as if he couldn't believe it himself.

Milou joined in the laughter. Eventually, everyone was laughing like idiots – even Myrtenaster who smiled and chuckled quietly.

Pride welled up inside Rose. They did it. The cleared the forest. And they cleared it at night, too. It was an accomplishment worthy of celebration. It almost made her forget that they were trapped inside a video game as she nearly suggested that they all meet up in real life and have a small party about it. I guess we're just gonna have to settle for a party here in Remnant. Rose thought.

She sat up. "I don't know with you guys, but I'm sick of this forest already. Let's get out of here" She jumped to her feet, regretting the exertion immediately. She made a mental note to not act more energetic than she really felt and began walking to the exit arch. The rest of her team followed suit.

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As the party of four walked the forest path, they noted a faint light in the distance. Feeling excited, Rose broke into a run, finally feeling the wind on her skin.

She ran out of the forest, taking in the picturesque plains before her. The sky was clear and the shattered moon shined brightly above them. The wind blew waves all across the land, turning the grassy field into a veritable sea. The air was fresher and the light was brighter. With a million watt smile, she held out her arms and took in all the sights, sounds and smells.

She heard a whistle. "Well, I can see why you were so excited to see this," Crocea said from behind her. "It's beautiful" he breathed.

She turned back to face her team mates, still beaming. They too were similarly moved by what they were experiencing. She and the others stood there, watching as time passed them by. Eventually the sun began peeking from below the horizon.

"How long were we fighting that Ursa?" Rose muttered. "We must have been in there for hours."

"It was a little past midnight when we arrived at the boss door so I'd say over 5 hours." Myrtenaster said, watching the sun with a surprisingly warm smile. "Though this was more than worth it…"

Rose shook her head and smiled. With that, the four of them continued forward. North, towards the final town in the region.

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Well, that was a really long battle, wasn't it? If you feel like it was starting to drag, you weren't the only one. Unfortunately, expect future boss battles to be longer, though they'll have more going on if that's any consolation.

I've made another change to the SAO formula. SAO purists, please forgive me.
Anyway, the change is that certain sword techs can be used by different weapons. [Linear] is a basic rapier sword tech where the user is shot forward and stabs the enemy. That said, spears and knives should also be able to use them since technically they're also agility based weapons.

Well, that was this chapter. I hope you enjoyed. See you next chapter, then.