A/N thanks to Draco38 for the beta again. one of my longest chapters.
January 16th Floor forty-four:
The forty-fourth floor, some called it hell in Aincrad. It was meant as an easter egg for certain gamers. A floor comprised of the undead. Not tough or nasty, just mindless weak zombies, when they say weak they mean weak most were only levels 15-20 at most . And there were thousands of them, with the fastest respawn rate in the game.
If you were bitten you tuned into a zombie for twenty-four hours. The floor was meant as a laugh something to enjoy. However once the death game started it quickly turned into the worst nightmare of the game.
No one enjoyed it; it was cold and dark, raining, cloudy, and depressing. The worst part was there were only two towns and one quest on the entire floor. The second worst part was the field boss that guarded the floor; he was a giant skeleton riding a skeleton horse that commanded 40 lesser zombies, ghouls and other undead things. It had some unique skills, and had devastated the first two raid groups to try and attack it by Poisoning, Paralyzing, or simply turning them to stone.
Heathcliff and the KoB had done better, he was able to make sure no one else died, but no one seemed to know what the trick was, well almost no one…
Beast walked up over a small hill of human skulls and saw the field boss and all his minions. At Beast's heels was a dog, which looked like a cross between a pit-bull and a rottweiler, but the biggest shock was that it had three heads. The Cerberus was known to be a rare beast that could be tamed here on the floor, it's just no one could figure out how.
Beast also carried a large two-handed hammer and a black bottle. He took the bottle and spread the contents on the face of the hammer and then looked at his new dog,
"Ready to roll?
'Grrr'
"Remember the plan."
He stepped forward in a rush, as he entered the Bosses range Beast stopped and lifted the hammer and activated the 'earth shaker skill' the earth quake shook the entire area. Everyone of the dead minions was paralyzed and over half were poisoned, even the boss was effected. The poison was draining its HP slowly and it could barely move.
"Hit it!" Beast shouted as he waited for the cool-down. The Cerberus ran forward and took a great breath, then at the same time all three heads released three blasts of molten fire that went a crossed the field.
After the dog finished it gave a snort as if saying 'fuck yeah'. What was forty were now two and those two died quickly from the poison.
As the cool-down ended Beast quickly changed weapons back to his spiked gloves, just in time for the field boss to break free of his paralysis.
"I figured it wouldn't hold forever. Alright pup, stay clear this one is mine"
Beast charged. Running at full speed as the Boss raised his great sword above his head and slashed out, sending a rainbow colored wave of energy. This was his status ailment attack, and it engulfed Beast.
The man didn't even slow. Coming out of the energy wave, the field boss looked stunned for a second before Beast leaped into the air and brings down a hard punch to the skeleton's face almost knocking him off the horse. The second the human's feet hit the ground he was jumping and landing a back heel kick to the monsters chest, this time finishing what he started by knocking the boss from his mount.
Moving with his momentum Beast continued the spin till his back foot hit the ground where he re-chambered his arm and sent a hard strike straight into the hoses flank. The boss and his mount had very high defense but it seems separate the two, the defense just vanishes, the horse derezzed quickly and three of the boss's six life bars vanished.
Quickly looking at the Boss, Beast crouched low and his whole body body started to glow green.
'one'
Beast moved lightning fast as he went on the attack, fists and feet struck every inch of the Boss, The skeleton looked to be on the defensive from the start.
'five'
There was almost no chance to defend, Beast hit his opponent five times for every one hit he received.
'twelve'
Beast started to pick the boss up and slamming him to the ground hard. Its life points were dropping very, very fast.
'sixteen'
The boss was back to its feet and it was able to dodge one of Beasts attacks, it shifted to stand right behind the human.
Beast just smiled as he leaned backwards and wrapped his arms around the field boss's neck, then he kicked his own feet out from under him and pulled the skeleton down face first by the neck with so much force that by the time Beast hit the ground, the creatures face was almost flush with the ground and his feet were sticking straight up in the air.
There was a loud crack, and the field boss's life points hit zero.
Beast rolled to his knees and was breathing very, very hard. His own life points were nothing but a tiny blip of red, he only had 15HP left.
He took a deep, labored breath and his hit points went from all most none to fully restored.
'twenty'
He sat like that for almost a full minute before he raised his hand to call his dog, who trotted up with a happy puppy grin on all three of its faces.
Scrolling through his reward menu he stopped, and smiled. He removed his spiked gloves and started switching things around fingers working seamlessly. When he was done he put the gloves back on and then added a set of wrist and fore-arm guards, he flexed his fingers a second the closed his fists. Four identical blades, two on each wrist, sprang out of the guards.
They were serrated and very wicked looking, the blade stuck out about five inches from his knuckles or about half an inch past his fingers. When he retracted them the tips were set just behind his knuckles. His gloves had been changed so the blade were seated just right so unless you were looking right at them one could not tell they were there.
"Argo?" Kirito whispered as he watched Beast walk calmly into the floor dungeon.
"Yes," she replied as she stood up and started walking towards the door Beast just went through.
"That fight just took about five minutes" Kirito said as he followed her.
"I have a feeling Beast knew more about this floor, then anyone before this game started, and I have learned to stop questioning him." she spoke as she started to move faster.
"How did you know he was coming here today, and why did you bring me?" Kirito asked as he to sped up his walking.
"He told me, and he told me to bring you." was all she said as they reached the door and went in.
Beast stood just inside and smiled. Unlike all other dungeons, there was no need to map this one, no need to search and scout and hunt, the door to the boss's room was about 100 yards from the dungeon entrance.
Beast walked forward straight to the other door, there were no random pop up monsters, no traps, no anything. He just smiled.
As Beast stepped through the door he saw the boss.
It was an Angel.
Dressed in rich regal attire you would see on most tenth or twelfth century noblemen, he stood with his arm out holding a very fine fencing blade, the tip was pointed down barely touching the ground. The angel's eyes were closed a serene look on his extremely handsome face as he waited.
Beast stepped onto the raised platform the boss was on and waited.
"Last chance Mortal," The angel spoke as he lifted his blade and prepared to attack.
"Let's dance pretty boy," was Beast's reply.
The boss leaned back and as the wind picked up as he lunged. The skill called 'Divine Thrust' was a very powerful Fencing skill. The boss flew towards Beast at incredible speed, and Beast knew he could not block it, all he could do was dodge…or
Beast lifted his hands and quickly let the new claws out, thrusting both fists forward as the point of the angel's sword got into range, sparks of black molten steel shot out as he caught the swords blade.
It was wedged in the blades of his claws, the tip of the sword was an inch from piercing Beasts heart.
The momentum of the angel's attack was draining away as he started to drop from the air his feet were about an inch from the ground when Beast smiled again.
He kicked up into the boss's wrist activating his 'steal weapon skill' causing Beast to lose a large chunk of his hit points. The blade flew out of his hand and Beast caught it, flipped it and thrust it straight into the angel's Adam's Apple.
Kirito watched as the boss derezzed, shock clearly on his face.
"That…that was thirty seconds," he whispered not fully believing his eyes.
"Thirty-eight seconds to be exact," Argo answered. "Come on he is waiting to speak to us."
She decided to run ahead and as Kirito looked, Beast pulled out a camping chair and was sitting going through his menu.
As the pair reached the PK hunter as a few in SAO called him, he did not indicate that he noticed them. The dog that had stayed back during the fight was now sitting as Beasts side, only raised its heads but otherwise did not move.
"Questions will be asked one at a time," Beast spoke as the other two just stopped and stood behind him.
"Ladies first."
Argo paused and thought, "How did you beat the field boss?" she asked calmly.
"This whole floor was supposed to be easy, a gift. All of you allowed the gloominess to cloud you judgment and let fear blind you, you saw that it had six life bars, the most bars any boss had ever had," he spoke simply. "You kept getting bogged down with the minions, the trick was to get to him, get close, and get him off the horse. Separate the two and his defense vanished."
Kirito took his turn.,"How did you counter his attack, it had wiped out the first two raids and severely damaged all the others."
Beast typed on his menu screen and a window popped up in front of the swordsman.
Immunity- Special skill a player gains when maxing out there Battle Healing, Meditation, and Emergency Recovery. Player becomes immune to all status ailments and changes.
"This floor is the best place to level those three skills, and Laughing Coffin prefers to paralyze their victims." Beast told them.
Kirito was starting to see this floor in a new light. It was easy and with the different ailments a skilled player with a few partners could easily run it.
"What was that skill you used to make your body glow?" Argo asked next.
Beast just typed again and another screen popped up.
Berserker's Dance- Unique Skill Power, Agility, Movement speed and Max health point increased five times. (Lasts twenty seconds) after twenty seconds all health points restored. Cool down lasts forty seconds and starts after dance ends. Damage received increased ten times (lasts one minute)
"That is definitely your type of skill," Argo replied thinking about just how dangerous that skill could be.
"Why do you keep the double Xp. trick active during a boss fight?" Kirito asked. "Yeah the double points are nice, but for a boss fight…"
"Scroll down," Beast interrupted.
Doing so they saw the last note at the bottom of the skill page.
All pain dampeners must be turned OFF to use this skill.
"If I have to do the first half of the trick in order to use the skill, might as well get a good pay check out of it," Beast replied as he chuckled.
"Are you insane?" Argo asked, she knew it was a stupid question, but still.
"Maybe," was all Beast replied.
"What were those claws you got?" Kirito asked quickly.
Again all Beast did was open a window for the pair to see:
Yautja Dragon Claws: Void Blade( one of only five in game), negates all special bonuses from Demonic and Angelic Blades. Will combine with all fist weapons and claws. +50 damage +50 defense. Durability 10,000 enhancement 0/20.
"I have never heard of a Void blade," Kirito commented. "There are only five in SAO?"
"Correct, though I don't know where the others are." Beast told him closing the windows.
"That answers my question of how you beat that boss so easily," Argo gave a weak chuckle.
"This floor," Beast started. "Is the reason I came to this game, I had missed the beta launch, but I had been in contact with one of the minor developers of the company. I asked him if there were any zombies to farm." Beast smiled.
"He told me about this floor, the bosses, and because he and I shared a love of zombie hunting, told me about this one void weapon. I had planned from the start to get to this floor and get these claws; it's why I worked so hard to train my wild dance skill instead of the more common weapon skills."
"How did you lose so much health when you fought the Boss?" was the next question Kirito asked.
"Steal weapon, is a hard skill, but harder when using it on a boss. Unlike on a player or a non-boss monster it will cost you thirty-five percent of you max health to use it. And I am sure you know what happens if you fail to get an instant kill using the skill…right?"
"Umm… not really," both Argo and Kirito replied.
"You lose fifty percent of your max health," Beast just shook his head. He was a little shocked that nether the 'Beater' nor the best information broker knew that.
"That is a hell of a risk," Argo whispered.
"The stronger the attack the more dangerous the penalty."
Kirito stood thinking, this guy seemed to know more than him and he seemed to be stronger then he was before he went to prison.
"How many levels have you gained since you got here? And what is your secret?" he asked finally.
"Counting what I got from this last boss…twenty-five." Beast replied.
"In fourteen days?" Argo almost shouted.
"Yes," Beast gave a very evil smile. "And because you asked two questions at once, we are done."
As Beast stood up to head, not to the stairs that led to floor forty-five, but back to the forty-fourth floor. Argo knew there was no arguing with Beast so she just tugged on her friends sleeve making him follow.
"Oh and Kirito?" Beast called stopping the pair. "Do the quest in Ghost Town, consecutively, for seven days."
Yes some questions left hanging, Kirito is about to get in trouble...hehehe.
reveiw praise, burn in hatred all reveiws welcome.