Yo, time for the next chapter.

Anyway Please Enjoy

December 6, 2025
East Gate Tier three

Arriving at the large plaza in front of the third tier's ‹‹East Gate›› Kirito found hundreds of players engaged in close quarters combat with around 100 goblins. Scanning the scene quickly Kirito deduced that these players were of a decent level probably around ten for most of them. They were fighting in groups using numbers to ensure no casualties against the goblins.

The goblins he saw were named ‹‹Goblin Scout››. Amidst the confusion of so many bodies packed together fighting Kirito heard one voice yelling orders. Following the voice to its source he saw a heavily armored player with a sword and shield. The player stood tall near the front of the melee his blue hair hung down to shoulder length.

'Huh... I guess some players organized themselves for today.'

Kirito had expected mostly solo and small group efforts from those brave enough to confront the ‹‹First Event›› one player leading hundreds of others in one massive raid was not what he had expected at all. He listened to what the player was yelling.

"STAY FOCUSED EVERYONE! WE ARE DOING GREAT!"

And other such encouragements were what he was currently yelling since the player had already maneuvered everyone into a decent fighting shape within the plaza.

Taking another look Kirito analyzed the enemy. At level eight the goblins had around 1,000 hp. they were wearing some kind of medium leather chest armor and were each dual wielding daggers. They didn't seem to possess any sword skills. They had leather caps on as well to protect their head with leather greaves and vambraces for their limbs.

All in all they presented a danger to almost any player still in the game. To Kirito however he could dispatch them with a single ‹‹Horizontal›› if he were to swing full strength on a critical area. In a fight such as this one he couldn't imagine why he would give anything less than 100% though.

The echoing clashes from metal on metal spurred him to action. Since he had arrived nearly half the goblins had died, from what he could tell no player had yet to die, they would safely retreat behind their comrades if their health fell to low.

Drawing his blade Kirito calmly walked towards the front line. As he walked he saw a group of five battling with three goblins. Three of the players had shields out and had they held up in a line forming a shield wall, these three wielded an assortment of one handed weapons. Behind them stood the other two, both had long wood shafted pikes. They were stabbing at the goblins over the shield wall their friends presented.

'A very defensive, but effective strategy.'

Kirito thought. He reached this group as one of the shield bearers broke rank to finish of the last goblin with a smash of his mace onto the goblin's skull. While the five celebrated their success Kirito walked past.

He had spotted a goblin that was different. After scanning it he had discovered it was labeled ‹‹Scout Captain››. This goblin stood at least a foot taller than his smaller counterparts. Instead of the dual daggers, this goblin had an iron short sword and a medium sized oval oak shield as well. On the shield was a symbol Kirito wasn't familiar with.

It was a large black mace smashing down onto several stick figures who clearly represented humans. On the ground the humans lay defenseless and covered in blood. All in all it was a very descriptive drawing of stick figures. This goblin stood with the other remaining six goblins near the gate. Kirito approached alone. A shout rang out from behind him.

"YOU THERE IN BLACK, WHAT ARE YOU DOING GET BACK IN FORMATION!"

Ignoring the voice he recognized as the blue haired leader's Kirito decided to finish this quick. He dashed forward towards the two right most goblins. Initiating a ‹‹Horizontal›› he swung his blade through both goblin's necks. Their health depleted before they realized what happened Kirito turned to the other three in between him and the captain. He dodged a stab from the closest goblin and hit it with an ‹‹Uppercut›› from his left hand. Knocking that goblin into a short daze Kirito rained down a small combo he had invented. His two slash, one stab combo easily dispatched the goblin.

Over the last month, once Kirito had grown strong enough to start playing around with the goblins he encountered, he began practicing some of the combo's he had witnessed Suguha use before. His high ‹‹STR›› stat powered his strikes enough along with the slight amount of muscle his frame carried. Along with placing his strikes in critical areas, Kirito was good enough to fight within the game not using sword skills. A very valuable skill, especially in a pvp situation. If a player activated a sword skill, you could recognize it and know the pattern, meaning you could be easily countered.

As the goblin fell down to splatter into pixels, Kirito spun left and stabbed the approaching goblin through the collarbone. As the goblin shattered, He managed to whip his sword up in time to parry an incoming dagger. Kirito stepped forward and punched the goblin in the face with a ‹‹Left Straight››. The goblin's nose broke and staggered the creature, Kirito used this to stab the goblin through the heart with a one hit sword skill ‹‹Skewer››. The third goblin downed, he looked at the remaining two.

The leader of the two barked out an order in a harsh language, one Kirito had heard plenty of goblin's use over the last month. Which led him to believe is was some goblin language. The subordinate charged forward at Kirito, intent on killing him. Quickly Kirito met the goblin's leading dagger and parried it hard away, this left the goblin wide open, and Kirito did a ‹‹Roundhouse Kick››, while rather flashy he enjoyed the satisfaction of his foot slamming into the goblin. This blow knocked the small creature to the ground, where Kirito preformed an over exaggerated killing stab.

The goblin captain had stood his ground and watched as Kirito finished the last of his force. The goblin hefted his shield and braced himself for their fight. Kirito's sword glowed green as he prepared his newest sword skill, ‹‹Sonic Leap››. With a flash he leaped forward and rained a heavy hit onto the shield. The goblin weathered the hit and tried to sneak a stab in around his shield.

Kirito had recovered from the sword skill delay, and managed to back away evading the sword. Kirito charged the goblin and over powered it with his body weight. Kirito was on top of the creature and his sword had fallen from his grip. He drew his dagger and stabbed into the goblins eye. Again he gored out the second eye. The goblin did nothing but mimic being in extreme pain. So Kirito finished it with a stab up into his chin.

Kirito stood up and grabbed his sword, then brushed himself off.

"Just what do you think you were doing?"

Came a slightly upset sounding voice from behind him. Kirito glanced over his shoulder. Arrayed before him in the plaza were near 250 players if one were to count. In front stood the blue haired player Kirito assumed to be the leader.

"What did it look like I was doing?"

Kirito shot back in a neutral tone. He had turned around and was now facing the crowd.

"You broke formation and could have been killed. You must have only put points into ‹‹STR›› since you were killing them so quickly. That is a dangerous build to go for."

No longer listening to this player's lecture Kirito was now scanning the crowd. After another couple minutes of pointless droning Kirito interrupted the player.

"Hey so those goblins,"

He now had everyone's attention even though he wasn't talking very loud.

"Was that all the ‹‹First Event›› was? Or do you think those goblins really were just scouts for some larger force?"

The crowd broke out into dozens or conversations. All the groups were talking amongst themselves. Ignoring the sound they made Kirito focused on the blue haired player and made eye contact.

"You."

He said,

"Were you leading all these players?"

"Well of course I, ‹‹The Great Diavel›› led these players in the defense of Aincrad."

Kirito focused above the players head. If someone or something had a title it would display itself above their head.

"The Great huh?"

He replied. Instead of embarrassing the player by asking him more about his nonexistent title. Kirito realized he could still hear the city's alarm blaring on its interval. Kirito decided to speak up again. He gained everyone's attention quickly.

"Considering the alarm is still going off, I would bet the event isn't over. Either there are more on the way or a goblin snuck past you guys somewhere into the city."

Haughtily Diavel responded.

"No goblin could have gotten past the defense we put up. My plan was perfect we defeated them without a single casualty to the raid."

"When you say to the raid did some people die who were not in the raid?"

Kirito asked curiously.

A sad look played across Diavel's face but Kirito noticed a strange glint in his eye.

"Sadly before my group arrived I was told the goblins rushed in through the gate and managed to kill at least thirty players who have decided on a course of no combat. So they had no gear besides the starter gear, in fact most only had cosmetics on. And being only level one they died quickly. But from the ‹‹Plaza of Beginnings›› in the first tier we were able to respond quickly to the threat.

The NPC gate guards never closed the gate and were quickly wiped out by the goblins. When we arrived on the scene I took charge and set up the battle line. The goblins were busy killing off the last couple NPC guards still around and there were no more players still in the plaza, besides one who was screaming how thirty people had just died."

Now up to speed Kirito felt a mixture of pity and rage for the players who died because they didn't take Kayaba's threat seriously.

"Well I guess the city is no longer a safe zone."

Kirito said. The talking over with Kirito decided the event still had more to come. It had been ten minutes since the scouts had been killed.

"I am going to go scout outside the city in case there are more coming. Don't close the gate on me."

Spinning on his heels, his cloak swished out in the air, he strode determinedly out of the city.

'Oh yeah I bet I looked totally bad ass...'

Half way out on the plain surrounding the city Kirito spotted what was coming. He activated his ‹‹Hiding›› and ‹‹Searching›› skills and scanned over what he saw. Arranged in four horizontal lines of eleven blocks each followed by what looked like another block, was 4,500 goblins. This army looked like a major threat to Aincrad.

Each block was 100 goblins strong, 99 of them were named ‹‹Goblin Warrior›› they were level ten and had 1,200 health. Each warrior carried an iron short sword and an oval oak shield. They had an iron cap covering their skulls, and crude looking iron armor across their chest. Their legs and arms were un-armored.

The 100th goblin in each block was named ‹‹Goblin Captain›› they were level fourteen and had 1,800 health. Each one had similar armor but they carried large two-handed maces or axes.

The block at the back is what surprised Kirito though. These mobs stood on average two feet taller than their goblin counterparts. They wore leather armor and left their heads bare. They had pale white unhealthy looking skin with black splotches mixed all over. Their eyes gleamed a dangerous yellow sunk into their lumpy heads. These mobs were named ‹‹Orc Looter››.

They duel wielded vicious looking axes and daggers. Some had two of the same, while others mixed it up. What surprised Kirito was that he had yet to encounter an orc even during the beta. But just looking at them he could tell they were far more dangerous than the goblins they accompanied. He scanned them and saw they were level fifteen and had 2,000 health each. The 100th mob of their group drew Kirito's eye when he noticed him in the middle.

Standing seven feet tall was a monstrous sized creature. This creature was an orc. His name ‹‹Kaznak Orc Scum››. Kirito identified him as the leader of the army by his size and unique name. Scanning him Kirito revealed that Kaznak was level eighteen and had 4,000 health. What was really surprising was that Kaznak carried a cruel looking black longbow. Kirito had never encountered a bow in SAO. On Kaznak's back he could see what looked like a giant war hammer.

Having scouted what was coming Kirito quickly turned around and rushed back to the gate as quickly as he could. Finally he arrived back at the ‹‹East Gate››, panting he ran through the gate and called out for Diavel.

"DIAVEL! WHERE IS DIAVEL?"

His entrance shocked the players that stood around the gate. A quick response halted any further yelling.

"Oh well look here Blacky has returned. And I am right here."

Turning around Kirito saw Diavel and immediately explained what he had seen several minutes ago. A look of terror crossed Diavel's face. Kirito decided to try to help Diavel out with what to do next.

"Look I know you don't seem to like me much but we need to act fast that army will be here very soon. We need to prepare a proper defense and get any able bodied players down here to fight."

Hearing Kirito, Diavel snapped out of his temporary terror.

"Right, LISTEN UP EVERYONE."

He roared gathering the 250 player's attention.

"Ok now that you know what's coming listen to what we need to do. Close and bar the gate with anything you can find. I need players to run to the other gates on the outer tier and make sure they are closed and have someone stay and watch them in case the goblins attack from multiple directions. Also I need anyone who has invested into the ‹‹Throwing›› skill to get up on the wall or gate house. You will provide what little ranged damage you can. I realize most of you probably only have a couple daggers or knives or picks, but every little bit will help."

Diavel instructed and several players wandered off to the wall.

"Everyone who would call themselves a ‹‹Tank›› I want you to form a shield wall just before the gate. We will hold them there if they break the gate. Also I need people to run through the other tiers and find anyone who could throw or fight we need more than 250 players to fight nearly four and a half thousand mobs. It's time the people of Aincrad were roused from their misery and participated to help us all get through these five years."

His rousing speech done Diavel delegated out the tasks he needed completed.

With everything in motion Kirito found himself in the gate house looking down a murder hole above the gate. Currently the remaining 240 player were setting up along the wall or behind the gate preparing to fight the incoming army. Kirito had to admit he had expected people to freak out when they heard what was coming. Every goblin in the attack force was on par level wise with these players or above. If it came to a battle of numbers Kirito realized the players fell far too short. He didn't expect the runners to find many players capable of fighting the force they had to face.

These 250 players had obviously taken Kayaba's threat seriously. And for that Kirito could respect them. He had seen thousands of players in the last two day, and most were still level one in their starter gear or some cosmetic. They seemed to be in denial or were too afraid of dying to try leveling. There were the players who started leveling late or didn't grind very much. They were about levels two to ten. Kirito estimated there were several thousand players in this level range. Then there were the players who just killed boars all day, they all would be way to inexperienced and low leveled to participate.

Preparations as complete as they could be everyone began waiting in silence. Everyone was on edge and nervous. Several player near Kirito tried to lighten the mood with jokes but quickly stopped trying when no one laughed. Suddenly someone on the wall yelled out.

"I see them, it looks like five of those blocks are heading right for the gate."

'500 goblins are heading right for the gate. I hope we make it through this...'

Kirito thought to himself. Before the first goblins made it within throwing range the NPCs from the gate re-spawned. All along the walls NPC archers appeared. Only several appeared near the gate. They were the same as the ones Kirito had seen earlier.

'Why can't these NPC's be as geared as the ones farther into the city.'

He thought slightly angry. The NPC archers gave out cries of distress realizing that the city was under attack. There was around 100 archers now mixed in with the thirty odd players who had the ‹‹Throwing›› skill. Kirito had realized it wasn't a very popular skill. The rest of the goblins could be seen standing in formation outside arrow range waiting their turn to get at the gate.

Twang

With near 100 repetitions of that noise the NPC archers released their first volley. Their arrows rained down on the goblin warriors. The shields and armor helped deflect and block the storm that rained down on them. And with the heavy downpour still going on the archer's aim was worse than usual. Kirito had watched as they fired and realized the archers had only managed to kill about twelve goblins. A direct critical hit from one of the arrows only dealt about 50% damage, and besides with most of the arrows not finding their mark the goblins had to be hit several times to be killed.

'I only have four daggers and several dozen throwing picks.'

Kirito knew he had four guaranteed kills with his daggers but he didn't want to throw them down through the murder hole or he would probably never see those daggers again. He planned to use them later if the goblins broke in and he still needed to throw something.

'I hope I can kill them in one hit with these picks.'

With that last thought the goblins entered into the small tunnel that housed the gate. Only three could stand at the gate and have enough room to swing at it at the same time. The players around Kirito began unleashing their hail of knives and picks. Kirito even saw a player throwing rocks.

'Smart but we didn't have time to gather a bunch of rocks beforehand. If we survive through this I will have to remember to recommend that players gather rocks for the next event.'

With the archers still firing down into the mass of goblins that stood shields raised around the gatehouse tunnel and the players raining down bits of metal on them the goblins had taken near 100 casualties so far with minimum damage to the gate. Out of its 5,000 hp the gate was still at 4,830. With the way things had gone so far though he knew the goblins would eventually break through.

Kirito and most of the surrounding players had exhausted their throwing arsenal. Only the rock thrower and three others who it seemed had stocked up on throwing picks to go grind the skill later were still throwing. Beside them now shooting down through the murder holes and out on the walls the archers still stood shooting what seems to be an infinite supply of arrows. Kirito and the others walked out the gate house and about ten feet away to the stair case and went to join the others at the gate. Other players had started to come streaming down to the gate. There now stood about 600 players the front 250 being with Diavel's raid, and the others an assortment of lower levels. All were there to try to help out.

Diavel was busy trying to organize all the new players into concentric rings behind the front line out from the gate. These rings were his plan to hold the goblins at bay so their large numbers couldn't be used to surround or overwhelm the players all at once. The tunnel the gate was in naturally helped with this. His plan was if anyone's health got too low they were to switch out with someone a ring behind them and heal up. Or if the worst happened and a player died the next ring would be there to stop them from running amok.

Their battle formation mostly set, with three rings set up and Diavel working on organizing more, the players could only wait. The gate had fallen to 1,250 now and wouldn't last another fifteen minutes. By now the goblins had lost 430 of their number. The remaining 70 goblins had yet to be reinforced.

'Since these are just NPCs they will fight till the last man. Morale has no effect on them... If those were players attacking the gate no 70 odd men would still be fighting just as hard after watching 430 of their comrades get mown down.'

Kirito thought. He currently found himself within the third ring. The core 250 were farther ahead of him. He had been put in a section of the ring that had no shield users. Next to him stood a player who was taller than him, Kirito could tell he was older as well. He had red hair and a slight beard on his chin. He was very scruffy looking. He wore a red headband and red dyed armor. Next to him stood several guys all colored similarly gear wise.

'A guild I wonder? Back in the beta no one could figure out how to create a guild. I wonder if someone has figured it out since the game launched.'

Broken from his thoughts the bandit looking man next to him said.

"Hey there Blacky that is quite a nice looking sword you have."

Kirito realized the man must just be trying to make small talk and ease the tension a bit. So he responded,

"Yes it was a quest reward... I have... upgraded it quite a bit."

Kirito looked down and saw the man had a katana at his waist.

"Your katana looks to be in good condition."

Chuckling good naturedly the man introduced himself.

"Yes she is a real beauty isn't she? My name is Klein."

He stuck his hand out. Reaching out and grabbing it Kirito felt like he could just talk with this guy. His normal awkwardness and stuttering forgotten he started enjoying this conversation.

"I am Kirito, pleasure to meet you Klein. If you don't mind me asking, are you in a guild with these guys?"

Kirito gestured to the people next to Klein.

"A-hah! Yes! Err well we will be a guild... Once someone figures out how to make one that is."

He replied his normal cheery mood faltering slightly.

CRACK!

The resounding noise instantly cut off all conversation amongst the defenders. The gate had broken. Through the dust that had flown up Kirito could make out the shapes of the goblins. Apparently once the first wave had fallen to 50 goblins the second wave which consisted of the remaining six blocks from the first goblin battle line had rushed forward to assist. Right now coming through that tunnel was near 600 goblins. With guttural roars the goblin warriors came streaming in and crashed hard into the front shield wall. Packed in tight in the beginning of the tunnel stood the front line of players.

The front row was kneeling down shields out and swords or daggers ready to be stabbed forward. Directly behind them stood a second line with their shield held up creating a solid defense of shields. These players all held spears in their main hand and were going to stab through the gaps. Behind them stood a line of players ready to switch out with either of the first two rows.

After those three lines, the players were arranged in their concentric circles as there was no more room in the tunnel so the players were out in the plaza.

The first goblins through slammed right into the kneeling line's shields, goblins began to die as they were stabbed. The front line had managed to hold through the weight of the initial charge. Kirito hoped they wouldn't buckle or break from the strain of 600 goblins pressing against them. However, with that said the few that so far had trickled through the gate hole had now become a flood. The goblins pressed their attack trying to overwhelm the players but for the time being they held.

For close to thirty minutes all was going well. The archers had shifted and were now shooting down onto the goblin's backs. The first reinforcement wave had been ground down to a measly 150 goblins. Amazingly no players had died yet and the first three rows had successfully been switching in and out. Kirito imagined some of those players level's must be nearing his now. But that's when everything went wrong.

Another 500 goblins had just thrown themselves from the goblins second battle line. The new weight had thrown off one player during a switch and he had tripped. The player he was supposed to be replacing got caught on him and a goblin dealt a critical blow to the back of the retreating player. His health dived from just above red straight to zero. With the sound of shattering pixels everyone was shocked to witness someone die just like that.

Practically dog piling themselves through the gap, the goblins wrecked the front three lines. The players themselves were exhausted and couldn't adapt to the sudden break in formation. The front line broke and all the players turned and ran the distance of ten feet to the first concentric ring. The ring allowed anyone through that they could.

This ring was a double line of players made up of the original 250 so they were still hardened warriors ready to do what they came here to do. Not frightened recruits called out because their help was needed. Kirito was thankful for that or the entire mass of players might have lost the will to fight right there and ended up with hundreds of players being massacred when the defense broke.

The fleeing players ran through all the concentric rings and Diavel intercepted them. He calmed them down and ushered them over to several of the houses nearby and told them to rest up and recover they were probably be needed soon. Kirito watched as the first ring buckled under the weight of the goblins. But the line held and soon the meat grinder of goblin flesh was underway.

In the first line of defense had been nearly 80 players. Twenty-five had died. The first ring was made up of the other 170 players. The second ring was made up of about 200 recruits and was similarly organized. After that, the third ring had about 220 players. Kirito was near the middle of the third ring. He was near the center of the plaza.

For a good hour the players grinded out the remaining assault and received the next one and were halfway through it. This next wave had been the rest of the second goblin battle line. Around 350 goblins remained attacking. When suddenly the entire third battle line came pouring into the tunnel. Their combined weight staggered the first ring and several players fell to the pressure. Diavel had resumed command from talking to the players who had retreated earlier. He saw what was happening and began ordering players from the second ring forward to fill the gaps. Above the din of the fighting his voice could be heard.

"SECOND RING FILL THOSE GAPS. BUT DON"T COMPLETELY ABANDON THE SECOND RING! THIRD RING FILL SECOND RING'S GAPS! KEEP IT UP BOYS!"

And boys they really were Kirito had realized earlier there wasn't a single girl present among the core 250. Then following them with the odd 400-ish reinforcements there still wasn't a single girl present as far as he could tell. With Diavel's encouragement and planning the first ring managed to hold but they took casualties through it.

Another twenty players had been reduced to death by the fierce fighting the goblins brought upon the first ring. Kirito now found himself at the front of the far left side of the second ring. He was waiting for a chance to switch into the first ring. He had been on the side line to long and he could feel his blood boil at the thought of a great but terrible fight.

He had experienced this before. Whenever he faced an immense battle or a hard challenge his blood would burn through his veins in anticipation. He longed for great battles. When his blood flowed hot like this he found he could think more clearly than he ever could normally and his reaction speed was better. He could anticipate everything as it was happening. This euphoria that was brought onto him led him to fiercely enjoy fighting and he relished it whenever he could. Now he had been held back from the greatest battle within SAO yet for too long.

But he had no such luck yet. His side of the first ring wasn't as hard pressed as the middle or right side. With constant rotations and some luck no one else died while the third goblin battle line was reduced to pixels. Instead of the fourth battle line of goblins rushing through, Kirito saw the group of 99 orc's rush into the tunnel towards them. The players in the first ring were surprised by the speed the orc's ran at and their sudden appearance. They were much faster than the goblins.

Their twisted swords and axes gleamed wet with rain from the torchlight as the sky had continued to pour feverishly during the whole battle. The orcs hit the first ring like a bullet through paper. With agility and strength far superior to that of their inferior goblin comrades the orcs caused near three dozen casualties first ring was completely run through in the middle and luckily for Kirito on the left.

With a great bellow Kirito rushed forward to meet the orc charge. Unnoticed to him he inspired the players surrounding him in the second line and they followed his example battle cries of their own matching the orc's harsh yells. Kirito tore into the lightly armored orcs and started executed medium level sword combo's chaining them together Kirito cut down at least thirty orcs on his own.

The remaining players on his side gave him a wide berth to let him continue his frenzy. On the right side the players had managed to repel the orc charge and were slowly grinding them down. In the middle was chaos. The second ring had managed to close down the orc charge and keep it from spreading down the first ring. However the damage had been done and the first ring had taken heavy damage.

The orc's didn't last long as they were much more about offense then defense and as such the solid defense put off by the players managed to thwart them after their charge had been reigned in. Now formed back up, the first ring was solid once again. Kirito was in the front on the left side. His initial excitement at finally being able to participate in the battle had now turned to determination as there were still plenty mobs to defeat. He wanted to save as many player's lives as he could and he knew that throwing himself completely into the fight would accomplish that.

The second ring was formed up behind the first while the remnants of the third ring just kind of stood around. As they were the reserves there were only around forty of them left. The players from the initial first part of the defense that had been resting had rejoined the fight during the orc's attack and were mixed in with the first and second ring.

There however, wasn't time to rest as hundreds of goblins came rushing down the tunnel and into the plaza to fight the defenders. Several players died during this fight, none were on Kirito's side. Kirito had managed to draw the goblins ire and was the center of many of the goblin's agro. By the time this wave of goblins had been dealt with Kirito found himself to be level twenty two from having slain so many goblins. And the orc's xp helped as well. There was a lull in the assault and Kirito quickly spent the points he had earned for leveling. All among the concentric rings, players could be seen doing something similar.

Before they could do anything else an arrow wizzed down the tunnel and hit a player in the face. The large black painted arrow was still stuck in the players head as he was reduced to zero hp. He died without even knowing why. This sudden appearance had surprised the remaining defenders if the many startled cries of shock were anything to judge by.

"The boss has a longbow! Watch out!"

Kirito yelled remembering what he saw from scouting. Another arrow wizzed down the tunnel, this time it met a player's shield and safely ricocheted off to the ground. Kirito was glad the tunnel didn't point his way as the left side of the first ring, and didn't line up with the tunnel. With a roar 100 goblins ran down the tunnel. Followed by the large black shafted arrows.

Several players in the middle were unable to fight and protect themselves from arrows at the same time so they fell to the menacing shots. But otherwise the 100 goblins were easily dealt with. Everyone still on the defense had figured out their attack patterns and tells for what they were about to do making them easy to predict.

With another glass shattering roar the boss came thundering down the tunnel. His bow had been discarded and he now wielded his war hammer. He crashed into the shields of the middle and rent the defenders apart. Kaznak sped right into the second ring and kept going. He effectively made a path right through the defenders. And through that path came the remaining 200 goblins. 50 of the goblins had torches in their hand instead of swords. How those torches were still lit was beyond Kirito as the rain was still relentlessly pouring. It was late evening at this point and the rain added an awful chill.

Seeing Kaznak tear through at least fifteen player like wet tissue paper caused several players to start running. The goblins had either engaged the first and second rings or if they had a torch they had ran through and were now in the plaza. They ran to different sides of the plaza and started lighting the houses on fire by throwing their torches through windows. At least thirty five houses and two inns sprang up in a giant blaze. The plaza was now illuminated in the dancing light of the fires.

No one had yet to engage Kaznak and he continued to wipe through the right side of the second ring. Kirito knew what he had to do. He quickly dispatched the goblins in his path. When he was fifteen feet away from Kaznak he threw his first dagger. It stuck high into Kaznak's left shoulder, Kirito repeated the process and hit high on the right shoulder. Being the only one to deal even an insignificant amount of damage to the boss Kirito drew agro.

Kaznak let loose a deafening roar of pain. He turned and his eyes alighted on Kirito. War hammer held high above his head Kaznak leaped the distance between them, intent on smashing Kirito through the ground. Kirito quickly rolled out of the way. Coming up on Kaznak's right Kirito initiated a quick four hit combo. Landing each hit freely Kirito jumped back a bit for space after his last strike. Kaznak had been frozen slightly for using such a high level hammer skill and missing.

Kaznak now had about 3,800 health. After recovering he attempted to play whack a mole with Kirito but each time Kirito managed to slip away and then deal some damage to Kaznak. Kirito had single handedly managed to reduce Kaznak to 2,800 health when other players joined him.

They had managed to finish off the last of the goblins. To Kirito it seemed only players with spears or pikes were willing to attack the boss. They each would run in and stab the boss while he was frozen from trying to smash Kirito then they would run out. This continued till the boss had 100 health left. He somehow faked a frozen moment then when players rushed in he spun his hammer like a helicopter and killed the four players that had rushed him and knocked Kirito back. Kirito had taken a glancing blow from the war hammer but his health had fallen into the red.

'Holy shit!'

He mentally exclaimed.

'The boss hits like a truck!'

The boss continued his spinning and no one was able to get close to him. But the boss was moving around so players were fleeing from his seemingly unstoppable attack. Kirito took out his upgraded dagger and activated a throw. The dagger span circles on itself as it aimed for the boss's head. With the sound of metal striking bone and flesh, Kirito's dagger sunk into the boss's skull.

Congratulations you got the last attack bonus!

A window appeared in front of Kirito informing him of his achievement. Another window appeared showing him all the loot he had received over the course of the long fight. And a third window appeared showing him what he received from killing the boss and what the last attack bonus actually was.

Quickly standing up Kirito walked over to the dagger which had fallen to the ground with his other two and he knelt and picked them up. Spinning on his heels he strode from the plaza. All the other players were in shock or too busy celebrating to notice his departure. Kirito had just immediately minimized the windows. He felt the need to leave the plaza. Then walking to an inn located in an adjacent district, Kirito checked himself to bed and passed out, his exhaustion from fighting finally catching up.

Well, that is the conclusion to the first event. Each event will be considered its own "Arc". So that's the end of Arc One.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.

Please feel free to leave a review or write me a PM with any questions, comments, or ideas. I enjoy receiving them. I try my best to always reply.