December 3rd, 2022 (Floor 1: Forest Field)

The trip to the labyrinth was uneventful at best. On the way, we all tried our hand at schooling Asuna and Kirito in our different maneuvers that we'd set up- Kirio, being a solo player, had never worked with a group of people and Asuna had never been in a party before so we had clean slates on both accounts- but it was slow work. By the time we fought our way through the actual labyrinth and up to the boss's room, however, I think they were both doing pretty well. Blake had levelled again on the way, finally catching up to the rest of us at level eleven.

"Alright, everybody. I have just one thing left to say to you all: let's win!" Diavel cheered. As everyone cheered behind him, he pushed the door open with one hand and I forced my breathing to stay level.

I knew that this wasn't just a game and that there was a serious risk of death in each battle I entered, but nothing got my blood pumping like that honest-to-god adrenaline that floods my system before each fight. This boss fight, the first of a hundred boss fights, was no different. We were an auxilary party, meaning that our goal was to keep the boss's minions off of the real hitters, but there was still a good fight to be had there.

The door opened to reveal a very long, throne-room esque hall. At the very end, a large red creature sat atop a throne. The moment we all were within the confines of the room, however, the boss leapt from his throne and met us, roaring towards the ceiling.

And the boss battle began.

My group worked in switching pairs made up of Heidan and Blake, Maisie and Asuna, and Kirito and me. We worked in tandem to take down as many of the Kobold sentinels as we could, killing them almost as quickly as they appeared to give the assault force the best shot we could at taking the boss down with as few casualties as possible.

"Kirito, split! Protect squad b's flank!" I shouted, twisting my naginata and cleanly slicing off the head of one of the minions. Kirito darted away from me, following orders. He was a good fighter and, while we had run into a few issues about the chain of command on the way up here, he seemed to know better than to question me here. We might have both been betas, but I had experience telling people what to do and he didn't. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched him neatly take care of a sentinel that had crept up on an unsuspecting player's side. The armored player yelped when Kirito sliced through the sentinel, causing blue shards of light to rain down on them both.

"Heidan, Blake, fall back! Don't overextend yourselves!" I called out, taking advantage of the momentary calm I was experiencing. If they moved too far out, the sentinels would begin spawning behind them, which is a situation we had to avoid. This was life and death; we had to keep everything tight.

Everything was great until the boss was nearly dead. Our three pairs were working smoothly and, in the brief pauses on the battle, I dictated how we were proceeding. It was in one of those pauses that Kirito and I both got distracted by the main battle.

"That's not a Talwar," we both murmured, glancing at each other in horror. "It's not the same as the beta!"

"Hunters, fan out and cover! Kirito, rush! I've got your back!" I ordered. "Get Diavel out of there!"

"Jump back as far as you can!" Kirito yelled. It was too late, though. The boss was already moving, his sword swing directly at Diavel's unarmored side. Diavel was flung back towards the mass of players, his health bar steadily falling from the green, into yellow, and finally red as he skidded along the marble.

"Ranks, close around Diavel! Heal him! Kirito, secondary assault! Watch my six!" I barked. I spun my naginata, inverting it defensively as Kirito closed in behind me. The boss swung its sword at me, growling angrily all the way, but I leapt out of the way, redirecting his blow off of my staff and cringing when a sliver of wood leapt off of my weapon.

You better hold up! I prayed.

Kirito was already attacking as I switched out with him, taking the moment to toss my naginata down and draw my arguably more reasonable weapon, a straight sword that I kept at my waist. I kept it for fighting in close quarters or in situations where I might hurt my friends trying to fight, but it would function well enough in this situation.

"Kirito, switch!" I shouted as he finished his secondary assault. If the AI didn't quite catch on to our strategy, we might be able to finish him off.

I raced towards the beast as Kirito evaded one more attack, slamming my blade into the flat of his nodachi and forcing the boss to loosen his grip. I jumped up onto his arm, running along towards his neck as my sword skill activated and I went for his throat.

"Kirito!"

"I've got it!" a voice I was surprised to hear- Asuna's- called. I took one final slash at the boss's neck before leaping off to safety. I was able to watch from a safe distance as Asuna's rapier danced along the boss's body, striking him in quick succession so that I hardly saw her sword. When she was safely away, Kirito came in from nowhere to finish the beast with a final uppercut, slicing straight through his body and ripping the boss into dozens of pixels.

I forced myself to take a steadying breath as the congratulations banner rose up in the room and the room cheered. I glanced over to where I had left the Hunters, just in case, but they were all in one piece so I moved on to where Kirito had landed after delivering the final blow. He looked exhausted, and I couldn't blame him. He did much of the work in defeating the boss, especially after Diavel fell. Speaking of Diavel, I turned to the rest of the group.

"Wait..." I called out. "What... What about Diavel?"

The cheering immediately died and everyone in the crowd turned to face Kibaou, who was kneeling on the ground, shaking.

"He... He... Why'd you do it?!" he yelled at Kirito. "Why'd you let Diavel die?! You knew! You knew what the second attack was going to be. You should have told us! Then Diavel wouldn't have died!"

I glanced at Kirito, then back at Kibaou, angry.

"Be quiet," I ordered softly, but the words felt like they were echoing in the silence. "You know nothing. Being a beta tester doesn't mean you have all the information. That should have been obvious given the fact that the information in the guidebook that was wrong was given to everyone by beta testers. The game designers changed things around since the beta. That's what the beta is for: working out bugs, deciding what's too hard or too easy. I guess they didn't want this round to be too predictable."

"You keep preaching, but I want answers! Who else?! Who else knew and let Diavel die like this?!"

"I bet he knew!" A random player started pointing his finger at Kirito, who was still on the floor with his own congratulations banner up, probably telling him that he earned the last attack bonus item. "He said that it was different in front of everyone!"

Kirito was shaking in front of me, staring blankly at the floor, when his eyes found his bonus item again. He swallowed as if to steel his nerves and I immediately got a bad feeling.

"Don't do it," I counseled. "It's not worth it. He's not worth it."

"If this goes on, they'll hate all of the beta testers. I need to do something," he whispered. He sent me a weak smile before biting his lip. Then he started to laugh, drawing everyone's attention back to him.

"You actually think I was an ex-beta tester? It's not cool to lump me together with those noobs. Most of the 1,000 people who were picked for the beta test were beginnings at best. They were total rookies, people who didn't even know how to level up. Hell, you guys are better than them." Kirito got to his feet and walked through the crowd, talking and lying all the way.

"I am nothing like those guys. During the beta, I made it to floors that were higher than any of the other beta testers. I knew about the boss because I've fought tons of monsters with way more advanced sword skills. I know other things too, more than you can imagine."

"If that's true... If that's true, you're way worse than a beta tester!" Kibaou decided. "You're- you're a goddamn cheater!"

"He's a beta tester and a cheater! He's a beater!" someone yelled.

"Beater... Yeah... I like that. I'm a beater," Kirito almost purred. "You guys can call me a beater, but make sure you don't confuse me with those other players, alright?"

I watched as Kirito glanced through his inventory before selecting an item. A black coat appeared on him, whipping around by his ankles furiously.

With the other Hunters alongside me, I watched as Kirito left our party. He started up the stairs, where the teleport gate would be waiting for him. Before he could disappear, I opened up my menu, quickly swiping into Friends, and sent him a request. The ping made him pause and he glanced back, his eyes unreadable. After a moment, though, he accepted the request and continued walking.

"I don't care what kind of martyr he thinks he is," I murmured to the Hunters. "We'll see him again."

Updated 22:01, 1.27.2022