DISCLAIMER : Sword Art Online does not belong to me, but to its respective writers, developers, publishers, etc. You know how it goes. I do, however, have the right to any and all OCs that can and will appear throughout the story.

Eyes of the Falcon : Chapter 6

50th Floor : Algade Floor Dungeon

"D-do you see that? It's like they're… looking at us." The hushed but unnerved whisper came from behind me.

"Great. And I just managed to stop thinking about it." Another whisper retorted.

I knew exactly what they meant.

The company continued moving through the haunted-looking hallways that slightly resembled a Chinese temple. The walls on either side of us depicted various human forms wearing ancient armor, varying from being locked in mortal combat, to passing judgement on criminals, to just standing guard looking ominously. A small group slowed their steps to examine the wall closer, only to recoil back comically when they noticed the eyes of the drawings following them.

Like many of the others around me, I tried to set my focus on the hues of silver and red armor that marched ahead of us; the partially visible fabric of Heathcliff's cloak rippled with confidence. But that didn't stop my nerves from being creeped the hell out. And now that it was brought to my attention, I couldn't help but feel the eyes on my back.

"Now, now, people. We know it's freaky." Klein's voice piped out from the back of the group. He grinned reassuringly as several people glanced back at him over their shoulders.

"I remember the first time Fuurinkazan came along here." Klein frowned, "Maybe it's kind of spooky when there're eyeballs following you and watching your every moment… but we weren't afraid. Nah, we braved it out, didn't we, men?" he turned proudly to his team. Two of them had their arms linked and were cheerily muttering "Hup, two, three, four" while the others trailed along uneasily.

Klein cleared his throat awkwardly and shepherded the front masses with hurried sweeps of his arms. "That's right, let's keep moving, people! No man left behind."

Any monsters that were unlucky enough to spawn in our path were quickly dispatched of by at least eight people jumping on it immediately. How long have we been walking, anyway? According to Fuurinkazan, it should've taken 15 minutes tops to get to the boss room but it felt like hours.

The wide entrance ahead was shielded by a set of solid red double-doors with brass knobs that dotted the surface; similar to those found in ancient Chinese architecture. A grand entrance, once possibly glimmering with gold, now weathered and eroded by time. Or at least textured to look that way. For the dramatic design of the dungeon, it was a surprisingly simplistic door waiting at the end.

I could feel the atmosphere becoming more ominous by the second. Heathcliff turned around and everyone stopped to look. He then beckoned me to come to the front. The assembly silently formed a passage for me to go through. As I got closer to the front, Asuna, who was standing beside Heathcliff, began to speak.

"This will be the hardest battle we've faced yet. I cannot guarantee that casualties will not happen. But we have the intel, and the plan, to ensure that this ends in success!"

"Er…" I bleated, desperately wanting to buy some time before facing certain death. "Just in case, Asuna… I mean, sub-leader Asuna, perhaps we should go through the plan again…?"

She gave me her signature scowl of disapproval, but relented after a few seconds.

"The KoB will be in charge of front line defense, soaking up the majority of the damage. Before we engage the boss, everyone will surround it outside the 100 meter range as we discussed. Itami-kun, partied with Godfree-san and the vanguard, will commence the first attack, bringing it to an aggressive state. After its initial AoE scream attack, all parties will collapse on the boss, with squads A to F attacking their designated arms, and everyone else focusing on the body. Switch out as you see necessary. Heal yourselves immediately if your health drops below 70%. Be prepared to change tactics, as the boss will likely do the same as its health drops. When the battle is over, we will announce to the other players that we are officially halfway out of this world, and to freedom!"

Cheers and roars erupted, morale skyrocketing from her speech. Someone clapped me on the shoulder from behind, making me jump, but it was just Godfree, smiling and winking in that overly-friendly-uncle way. He sent me a party invite, and I joined him and 8 other members of his vanguard. The chamber was filled with sounds of people discussing strategies, and the chiming of menus being opened, to confirm party members and last minute inspections of equipment. Heathcliff nodded to Asuna, who returned it. She reached to the door, and pushed it open.

A chill seemed to fill the air as we listened to the foreboding grind of the doors on stone.

Some people gripped their weapons tightly; as if to still the trembling of their hands.

We were about to face the wrath of an angry idol made in the image of a kindly celestial being. Like Buddha's evil twin.

The doors quaked, creaking open to reveal the shadowy lair of our giant pending foe.

"I don't see anything."

I couldn't tell who said that, because despite the boss door still being open behind us, the entire room was darker than a rat's ass. We moved as a group, proceeding extremely slowly due to the fact that we could barely see a thing.

"Oi, Klein, this wasn't what you showed us before!" Someone whispered angrily.

"I know, I know, just stick together will ya?" Came his reply, a mixture of annoyance and uncertainty.

Knowing this would probably lead to us walking face-first into the boss, I tried activating Focus, seeing if I could detect anything in the darkness, even though night-vision was part of a different skill. I scanned ahead, not seeing anything at first, until a white outline of a huge shape suddenly appeared ahead of me, causing me to freeze in my tracks. Godfree, who was behind me, didn't hear me stop, and walked right into me, knocking me over like a bowling pin.

I'm not ashamed, he's a big guy.

"Ah, I'm sorry, hahah!" He began, extending his arm to help me up. "It's just so hard to see anythi-"

"I see the boss!" I interrupted, sending the group into hushed murmurs.

"I-is that so, Itami-kun?" Godfree chuckled. "I don't see anything, maybe I hit you harder than I thought, wahahah!"

"It's there, up ahead, about two-hundred meters away." Two-hundred and four, actually. There was a little marker next to the outline of the boss, showing its exact distance from me.

Indeed, it was unmistakably the outline of a sitting Buddha-like thing. Godfree looked at me for confirmation, and I gave him a nod. His demeanor changed immediately, and he raised his voice so all of us could hear.

"We can confirm that the boss is two-hundred meters in front of us!" He boomed. "However, due to the poor visibility, I would advise against getting closer, and instead attack it from this range, and move in afterwards!"

There was a long pause, followed by Asuna's voice coming from somewhere behind us.

"Acknowledged. Itami-kun, you may proceed."

I gulped nervously, drawing my bow and nocking an arrow. I readjusted my grip, then cast Focus on the boss again, calculating the angle I needed to aim at to hit the target, as big as it was. I got distracted when a system notification popped up, giving me a congratulatory message on maxing out a skill.

Focus [Completed]

Focus now occasionally reveals weak spots, which deal critical damage. Stacks with Critical Strike.

As the window closed, a much smaller, red crosshair appeared around the middle of the boss' head. Deciding to just go for it, I tweaked my aim a bit, drew the bow back fully, and fired.

The hall was silent for a full two seconds, save for the whistling of the arrow as it hurtled towards its target.

*thuk*

Another second of silence followed, then…

Two red eyes snapped open, and the room flared. A mixture of red and gold exploded from the boss, filling the previously dark room with color. The boss itself was almost completely silver, except for its glowing red eyes. As it inhaled, preparing to unleash its scream, four health bars appeared next to its head, along with its name, «The Awakened One», and a red blip above it, indicating its hostility.

It unleashed the stunning attack, a deafening shriek which chilled me to the bone. However, despite the mental distress it was causing, everyone appeared to be unaffected physically, and we prepared to engage. As soon as it ended, Asuna drew her rapier, and brandished it outwards.

"All units, commence attack!"

Everyone charged, filling the room with battle cries of our own. As we drew closer, we split off in opposite directions, surrounding it in a circle. The boss extended each of its eight arms, and began to strike. Each squad had a member or two from the KoB, and they used their massive armor to block the boss' attacks, taking minimal damage, but switching out immediately to recover while their party members counterattacked.

The members of Fuurinkazan were working as a single unit, blocking with multiple people as opposed to just one, spreading the damage evenly to each other. On my left, Kirito parried a swipe from one of the arms, sending it crashing into the ground. He flipped back, and called for a switch. As his impromptu party members started hacking away, he jumped in again and unleashed a series of attacks on the vulnerable arm, backing off right before it recovered.

To my right, the main squad, led by Heathcliff and Asuna, held off against two arms simultaneously. I say that, but in truth, Heathcliff tanked blow after blow from a single arm on his own, switching it up with precise, angled strikes after each block. Asuna would jump in every few seconds, unleashing a flurry of strikes, her sword a blur.

Then there was me, standing just out of range of its arms, and taking pot-shots at the boss' face. It couldn't reach me, and it was depressingly hilarious. But it knew. It knew it couldn't hit me. And it would've been hilarious if it wasn't staring right at me. Which sort of made it hilariously terrifying instead.

"Arm C is almost down!" A spear-wielding player called out. Just then, a vulnerable mark appeared on the left eye of the boss. I immediately aimed at it, and fired directly into it. A satisfying *bink* sound played, notifying me that it critically hit for quad damage. Additionally, the boss reeled back for a couple seconds, and stopped its attacks as well.

That small window of free damage allowed the players in charge of taking down arm C to finish it off. The arm glimmered for a second, then ejected from the boss' metallic statue with a great deal of steam and hissing. It fell slowly downwards, then shattered into pixels before hitting the ground. Everyone gave an ecstatic cheer as the boss recovered from its staggered state. Then it inhaled.

"Wait, isn't that-?" I yelled.

"It's going to stun again, everyone back off!"

We were warned too late, and way too close to get out of range. It screamed, and we all froze in our tracks. A status notification popped up, a white spiral icon, indicating that I was stunned. Looking around, everyone appeared to be under the same effect. The scream continued for about ten seconds, then came to a stop. That was when we started to panic. The stun effect lasted for an additional two seconds. That was double the time of the first one when Klein and his guild got hit.

The boss swung at three different players. The spearman who called out before, and two KoB members. They were still stunned, and had no chance to block or evade the attack. Two of them were sent flying, their health dropping to zero rapidly, and their screams stopping abruptly as they shattered into pixels. The other one was crushed under a fist, not being able to make so much as a sound before shattering as well.

"Th- they're dead…" Someone cried. "Three people gone just like that!"

"Focus!" I heard Asuna yell. "Take the boss out, before it happens again!"

We resumed our assault, pressing harder now that it lacked an extra arm to pulverize us with. Before long, another arm was about to fall. Kirito jumped high up to pre-emptively block a swing, but was sent flying back and skidding backwards on the ground, still on his feet. He stopped beside me, and was about to dive back into the fray when his eyes widened and he spun towards me.

"Itami, jump back as far as you can, right now!" He shouted in panic.

"Why? I can hit it just fine from-"

"Just do it! Now!"

Without a legit reason to argue, I nodded, diving back as far as my Acrobatics skill allowed me to. As I landed, I heard another player exclaim.

"Arm F is down!" On cue, the lowest arm on the left fell, and shattered into light polygons. From a distance, I saw Kirito yelling something to the others, then backing up and bracing himself. A second later, I realized why. The boss inhaled again, its metallic chest expanding.

Again? That means…!

My thoughts were cut off by another ghastly scream, echoing throughout the room. Everyone froze again, unable to react to the sudden status effect. Everyone but me. As per Kirito's instructions, jumping back had put me probably just out of range from its attack. As it winded up its remaining arms to freely kill the players unfortunate enough to be close enough, a mark appeared on the boss, right between the eyes.

Without hesitation, I nocked an arrow, and fired, hitting the boss square in the center of the mark. Its head lashed backwards from the force, its health bar dropping a significantly noticeable amount. But most importantly, its attacks were cancelled. It provided the space we needed, allowing most of the players to recover, and dive out of the way of the follow-up attack.

"It stuns us whenever an arm gets taken out!" I shouted.

"Change your attack strategies," Heathcliff ordered without missing a beat. "Focus your sword skills only on the main body."

We suffered no additional casualties after figuring out the boss' patterns. Slowly but surely, its second health bar reached zero. The ground rumbled at our feet, and everyone instinctively retreated backwards. With a groan of moving metal, the boss stood to its full height of forty feet. For all the time spent nicking away at its knees while it sat, it had no problem towering over us now.

It raised one foot, then stomped on the ground, sending a shockwave that filled the room. We braced ourselves, but nothing happened. No damage was dealt, but something felt… different.

And different in this situation could only translate into "bad".

"Oi, Shuroka, your HP is too low in the yellow zone! Use a healing crystal!" I heard someone shout to a green-haired player.

"Ah, thanks!" He said, whipping out a pink-hued crystal. "Heal!" He yelled, raising the crystal into the air.

Nothing happened. He tried again. Nothing. Again. Still nothing.

He kept trying, repeatedly calling out for the crystal to activate, and in doing so, didn't pay attention to what was right in front of him. With one strike, he was sent flying by a vicious kick from the boss, the remaining 50% of his health dropping instantly to zero, hurtling over a hundred meters and shattering as he hit the wall.

Yells of panic erupted as the boss slammed its foot back on the ground.

"Run for it!" Some players within closer proximity of the boss turned and sped away as it surveyed the room slowly and angrily.

Heavy metallic creaks accompanied its calm movements; a striking difference from the distressed scattering below.

It turned its head to one side, facing a flustered girl in all-pink armor. Its eyes flashed red for a quick moment.

The girl raised her shield to repel any incoming attack, only to wail in horror when she found her entire body outlined in a dangerous shade of red. Unable to remove it in any way, she looked up from herself to see the boss start making its way to her, disregarding the aggro that the heavier armored players had been trying so hard to keep.

"Defend her!" Asuna suddenly cried out in alarm.

The boss continued its unhurried motions towards its outlined target.

I quickly fired an arrow at the boss; hoping to distract its attention away from her, hitting it square on the nose. Everyone else was trying in their own way to protect the girl – many of them went directly behind the boss and hacked at its heels and calves, but it paid its attackers no mind; giving its leg a gentle shake to break them up.

"Commander Heathcliff!" The girl desperately sprinted over to Heathcliff, who was holding onto the hem of the boss's curtain-like robe and supported himself on its calf where he was cleaving the blade of his broadsword in a seemingly vulnerable part of the boss, the back of the left knee.

He's been attacking the same spots since we started this fight.

"Commander Heathcliff! Over here! Help me! Please!" The targeted girl waved her raised arms making Heathcliff look down at her in surprise.

"Get back, girl!" He yelled with a frown.

Some of her companions echoed Heathcliff's order "Kikko, don't be silly! Stop running towards the boss! Get away!"

"But only Commander Heathcliff can save me! He's the strongest!" she cried as she turned to pout at them about two seconds before they screamed: "Watch ouuuut!"

Her eyes widened as she felt the blasting breeze prior to the heavy slam of a silver foot.

Things happened fast. Heathcliff shook his head. Asuna pressed her hand against her closed eye as Kirito and a whole lot of others stared dazedly at the sudden death.

"Just… stick to the plan. Resume attacking!" Asuna ordered.

As everyone else went back into the fray with renewed intensity, I studied Heathcliff's hits carefully, mentally marking certain places he consistently targeted. His game plan appeared to have evolved. He seemed bit more hurried; running up the boss' back and swinging his blade at certain points on its body. Heathcliff used his shield as cover as the boss took another swipe at him. Heathcliff was only one annoyance though. The boss had more to "worry" about at the foot below.

Every so often its eyes would flash red again, and another random player would be covered in the red outline from before. Whenever that happened, the boss would ignore all other players and go straight for the targeted player until it took a swing at them. At first we tried to exploit it by having the player lead the boss in circles while we hacked at it, but it was ready for that. When it noticed our plan, it broke into a full sprint and closed the distance in moments. The victim didn't even have time to blink. After that, we had to switch tactics to have the tanks shield the targeted player to absorb as much damage as they could.

A sense of dread overtook me for a second. I felt that the fight was somehow about to become a lot worse. And I noted the inclination through Heathcliff's attacks, as if he were quickly trying to bring this beast down before it drew an even more disastrous trick from its unmalleable robes.

Heathcliff caught me studying his attack movements. He swiftly jumped and ran from point to point at the Baddha while using his sword to literally mark X-es on what I assumed to be weak spots.

I nodded at his instructions and took aim. Before I fired, I was surprised to see that vulnerable crosshairs had appeared exactly where Heathcliff had designated. Whether he could tell where they would be, or if he somehow made the points vulnerable through attacking, it didn't matter.

The scene turned into a series of turmoiled chopping, yelling, running-away from deadly kicks and falling debris.

The boss' life eventually went down by a generous amount and the room was in ruins. Unfortunately, so was our warrior count.

Fortunately, we found out that while healing crystals didn't work at all, teleportation ones still did. A lucky discovery made by the frantic testing of a previously red-lined victim.

Many players copied the example and noped out ASAP.

I passed on the message of Heathcliff's X-marked spots to the KoB and Kirito and to whoever else I got to talk to during the fight. That's how we got the boss' life down even quicker than usual with all the hits being thrown at the weak spots; with my constant arrow firing, my hit count turned out to be the most. The boss' life looked low but it still managed to unhurriedly prance around like a healthy horse.

Arrgh, this boss is like a health sponge!

I took a heavy breath as I surveyed the players left in the room. Me, Heathcliff, Kirito, Klein and the gang… a few others who decided to brave this hellhole to the very end.

Some took in the battered scene around them disheartenedly while a few of them looked desperately at Asuna for further orders.

Her steely gaze rested on the boss; that just happened to kick away another hapless player straight into the wall. As the unlucky player screamed out his final moments, Asuna tightened her grip on her rapier.

"Asuna-kun. I believe it is time to change tactics," Heathcliff started, but then the boss went completely still.

"Everyone get back!" Asuna ordered. "Don't take any chances!"

The entire room faded to a pitch black before the boss started glowing a brilliant gold and began to rise into the air. Its missing arms were replaced by replicas made of the same gold light.

And if I thought that it looked angry before, I've never been more wrong.

The abrupt levitation stunt led to an outbreak of disquieted comments: "Owh Gaaawd!" "Well shit!" "Holy crap!" "Everyone be on guard!" "It's fucking flying!"

Its enormous form soared up to the ceiling. The boss looked like it was going up an invisible elevator, standing up tall. Most of us looked up in horror while Heathcliff's expression was grim.

I readied an arrow out of reflex.

The boss' evil red pupils peered down at us; raising all its arms into a strange, almost circular formation. One hand from its remaining four arms connected the tips of the thumb and forefinger while another hand creased into an angle which looked as if it were pushing against a flat wall.

It thrust its palm at Kirito and another player. Before they could react, they were thrown backwards into the wall. Kirito went from almost full HP to just in the red. The other player was already in the yellow, and the hit brought him to zero before he shattered. As this happened, I took the chance to fire several arrows at the boss. In doing so, I failed to notice the fatal red outline that had surrounded my body.

I felt a slight rush of wind heading towards me, before I saw the air almost literally warp in front of me. I dived to the side, just a bit too late. It caught my legs on the way out, spinning me like a ragdoll as I flew off to the side. I expected to hit a wall and shatter like the others, but someone caught me and we landed behind a large chunk of debris.

With my eyes still closed from the shock, I looked first to the top left of my HUD, seeing my health bar just a sliver away from zero.

"A fighter to the bitter end!" I heard the booming voice of Godfree. "A man after my own heart! Wahahah!"

"Clearly not the time, Godfree." I grumbled, rummaging through my inventory for a healing crystal before remembering that they didn't work. He looked at me, his signature smile dropping into a frown before he turned around with his guard up.

Another rush of air blew past us, but this time without the pain of a truck smashing into me.

I looked down at my hands to see the red outline on me again. Spinning around, Godfree tanked the blast, sliding backwards a good few meters before losing his footing and rolling two, three, four times as his health dropped dangerously low. He came to a stop near Heathcliff, who gave him a teleport crystal despite his determination to continue fighting, and they both clapped each other on the shoulders before Godfree teleported away with a salute.

I ran between cover towards Heathcliff, but the second I got to him I saw the now familiar red outline on myself once again. I hesitated, unsure of either letting him tank the blow like Godfree did at the risk of him getting too low, or jump away and try and teleport out before I got killed by a puff of air. Deciding for me, he stepped in front of me, raised his kite shield, and dropped to one knee for more balance. I ducked behind him, narrowly avoiding the fourth psychic blast. My worries of being sandwiched between Heathcliff and the wall were unneeded, as he barely moved a few inches from his perfect block, his health dropping by a few pixels.

"Itami, this is important." Heathcliff said seriously, "The Awakened One appears to be after you alone and will likely not yield until it has annihilated you."

We heard a screech from the Baddha and dodged. It flew straight at us, or at me to be precise, smashing into the ground where I stood, before soaring back into the air. We hid behind some debris that flew out from that crater.

"Yeah, I noticed." I replied bluntly, trying to rub off the red outline that had decided to just stay on me permanently after the second time.

"Your health is critical, you should retreat." He began, holding out another teleport crystal. Clearly being the strongest guild had its perks, he seemed to have an infinite amount.

"I can't leave." I countered. "With the boss in the air like that, I'm the only one that can land any clean hits on it."

Heathcliff nodded with a smirk before dematerializing the crystal. "Agreed. Which is why I am giving the impromptu order that both of us form a party."

A screen appeared in front of me with a "Form Party?" notification box. With Godfree leaving the fight, I was the last member of my previous party.

"So what's the plan?" I asked, having accepted the invitation to the 2-man party we now made. "You block the air punches while I shoot him down?"

"No," He replied. "It had four arms remaining from the previous phase, and had just fired its fourth and final blast. It will only attack you physically now."

"Huh?" I asked, puzzled at how he drew a connection between those two facts, albeit it making sense. "What makes you so sure?"

"I'm not," He smirked. "But this world has rules, and I believe they will not be so unfair. At any rate, you just focus on taking the boss down as fast as you can. I will keep you alive."

I looked at his kite shield, which had significant cracks in it from the attack earlier. I didn't want to judge, but with it being somewhat shabby right now, I couldn't help but picture it vaporizing in his hand before we both got flattened like pancakes. He noticed my gaze, and seemed only mildly surprised at the condition of his shield. Shrugging, he tossed the shield to the ground and opened his inventory, going through it with a painfully slow ease, like he was looking at a breakfast menu.

"I'm sure you have a spare shield or something, Commander Heathcliff, but we're in a bit of a hurry." I said, constantly looking over my shoulder for any incoming attacks.

The boss appeared to be just hovering high in the air, out of reach of the other six remaining players. Kirito and another player had partially trained their throwing weapon skill, but their dinky picks did about 1 damage each. However, it seemed that the boss had just stopped moving. I was still outlined, and it was still staring in my direction, but it just stayed there, hovering.

"Be ready, Itami." Heathcliff finally said, pressing a button on his inventory. His left arm flashed a bright white as his new shield materialized, a massive tower shield almost as tall as I was. Its white face was in rough shape of a cross, with the KoB logo painted in the middle. Visible behind the top of the shield was the hilt of a sword which he drew with finesse.

"The real fight starts now."

The boss snapped from its stupor as it flew straight at us.