Chapter 5

Error: Multiple Champions

We entered the giant double doors to the boss room, and were surprised to see that the boss had been enlarged since the beta. As its form started to move into the light in the center of the room, we saw something that almost certainly spelled our doom.

[[Phibbius the Frog King]], was at level thirty.

As the doors shut and locked behind us, we knew that our fates were sealed.

We were going to die.

Originally three and a half meters tall, [[Phibbius the Frog King]] now towered above us at five meters tall, earning the title of scariest frog-ish mob in SAO by far.

The boss had the body of a frog, but the head of a salamander atop the upper body of a muscular man with outrageously bulky arms. The toes of the frog half were claws, and its right hand held a giant sword, all equal in proportion.

"I don't see any minions, though. Wait, Kirito, there's someone over there! She's almost dead!" Cirdan exclaimed, pointing thirty degrees to our left. My blood nearly froze in my veins when I identified Asuna sprawled out on the ground, a measly sliver of her HP left.

Then it clicked perfectly. [[Phibbius the Frog King's]] minions had a secret ability once defeated. When they were destroyed, they did not go back to the recesses of the [[Cardinal System]]. Instead, their essence merged with Phibbius, making it gain levels, power, stamina, and size. However, this immense set of power-ups did have a trade-off: its speed drastically fell once all of the minions were absorbed.

"The boss attacks the enemy with the most HP! Since you probably have the highest CON stat, it'll go after you. You were able to use perfect blocks well in the beta, so you should defend, while I heal her!" I commanded.

"Got it!"

"BAKA! Why in KAYABA'S NAME would you try to solo this quest boss?!" I inquired frantically, rushing over to her collapsed form. From my inventory, I quickly materialized the most expensive potion money could buy on floor two, and poured all of its contents into her mouth, jarring her back into consciousness.

She sat up groggily, holding her left hand to her head. "What happened? Huh? Kirito-kun! You kept your promise!" She exclaimed happily, hugging me tighter than I thought the system could allow.

"Uh, guys? I'm kinda on my own here. Can I get some help?" Cirdan inquired nervously, looking in our direction. His attention was forcibly returned to the fight when Phibbius' sword cleaved around, attempting to behead him.

"Kirito, my rapier is broken, I can't fight," Asuna said worriedly, watching Cirdan deflect another attack.

"We can't run away, the doors are locked. Right now, I'm going to protect you," I said comfortingly. "Hey, Cirdan! You never got to this part of the quest, so I'll tell you something. Right now, it's at its maximum speed it can achieve, so it should be easier to figure out its attack patterns! When you do, signal me, and I'll take over! Until then, just keep its blind spot near me! I trust you've already figured out the blind spot's location."

"Roger!"

As he kept the boss's attention while analyzing its attack patterns, I struck a couple of times from its blind spot: his human part's back. This opened a window for him to attack from the front and judge its reaction to both places being struck.

"All right, I've got it! You make a weak spot in its back! Then, if we both attack at the same time, from the back and the left side, it'll topple over, giving us a chance to— WHOA!" Cirdan didn't get to finish, as the boss, used the sword in its right hand to slash through his shield and into his chest, blasting him back into a wall and bringing his health into the red. Luckily, that's where it stopped.

"CIRDAN!" I yelled, about to run over to him when a familiar voice stopped me.

"I'll help him, you go defeat that thing with your unique skill!"

That's-! "Got it!" I said, following my old frienemie's orders. I charged at the beast, at the same time manipulating my in-game menu to materialize my [[Wolf King Einshander]].

I wasn't sure if I had made right move, but I needed to beat this boss at all costs.

I charged up an extra skill, known as [[Frenzy]], and my sword gleamed green, getting brighter and stronger in the time I charged it up. When I finally released it, my newly acquired three-hit combo made its first execution—something definitely worth noting.

My speed increased with each strike. Just before the negative effects would have occurred, I used one of my last-resort skills, the [[Skill Chain]], to execute [[Gemini Force]], another Dual Blade skill.

This skill is unique to dual blades and is one that I never knew existed, considering its benefits. It is unique because it can only be obtained on a lower floor with the user having a relatively low level. It deals the combined damage of both the weapons as standalone, with ten percent additional damage on top of that, no cooldown time, or any other negative status effect.

The downside to all this, however, was that I couldn't think of another skill to use that would have a profound effect on the boss in time for the chain to continue. Thus I found all of the negative status effects were coming over me. Frenzy in particular gave me a ten second [[Vulnerability]] - during which I take thirty percent more damage from most attacks.

Vulnerable and exhausted, I knew I would get seriously hurt if I didn't move. I just couldn't find the strength to do so.

Suddenly, the familiar player stepped in front of me to block an oncoming attack with her katana just in time to save me from a powerful Sword Skill. Her STR stat must have been very high for her level, because even with a lightweight sword like the [[Crimson Katana]] she used, she seemed to be blocking the oncoming strike with relative ease.

"All right, we'll fight him together using that guy's strategy!" she said, pointing to Cirdan. "Ready, GO!" she promptly switched to the offensive. Our eyes met for only a moment, but I knew she understood what my next move would be.

I used a [[Blink Cut x3]], leaving gashes on the frog half and stabbing through the beast's back legs to flip myself onto the creature's back. I turned around and then blurred through the human half's back. I flew towards the wall, kicked off of it, and blurred through to the back side, while the other player kept its attention so I could get my mini-plan executed perfectly.

Blink Cut x3 is a more advanced variation of Blink Cut, but, as the name describes, it cuts through the target three times. When used in certain areas, it makes a weak spot. The drawback is that the attack damage is reduced by thirty five percent, and it leaves me with the [[Vulnerable]] status condition for three seconds.

My plan to create a weak spot in both the front of the frog half and the back of the human half had to succeed. That way, if I ever ended up having to attack its front, I could use an uppercut to slash through both weak spots.

Once the three seconds were over, I turned around and said, "All right, I created a weak spot, let's go! I'll go from the back!"

She dashed towards Phibbius' left side, its giant sword following her the entire time. While running, I charged up a [[Twin Pierce]], while she charged up her own skill. We hit the boss at the same time, sending it back into the right side of the boss doors and toppling it over, with a great crater forming where the boss met with the wall.

We seized this opportunity to attack the quest boss's underbelly relentlessly, until I remembered what the [[Last Attack Bonus]] had been in the beta.

"Cirdan! Throw me your Cleaver!" I exclaimed. If this worked out like I thought it would, then he would be one lucky guy.

"What?!" he inquired wildly, uncertain as to what I meant. When he caught on, he threw the axe in my direction, saying, "Got it! Good luck, man!"

I caught it, starting to hack away at Phibbius' remaining HP, finally destroying it with his axe, and earning Cirdan the Last Attack Bonus. The LA Bonus for this particular quest boss happened to be a Cleaver type weapon, [[Parting Rapids]], which converted half the damage done into the Water element, but reduced the user's Fire resistance.

"Well, that wasn't what I expected at all. I thought your Crimson Skill was your Unique Skill," the player said, surprised.

"You mean to tell me that you didn't know about my dual wield skill? You seriously thought that my [[Crimson Momentum]] was a unique skill?" I said, incredulous.

"If I say yes, will you get mad at me?" the girl said timidly.

"Wait, wait. This isn't like you at all. You weren't like this in the beta," I said, wondering what kind of trick she seemed to be playing on me.

This girl, Aria, happened to be the girl that envied my Crimson Skills. She had white hair, red eyes, and never wore any armor. Instead, she wore skimpy clothing too big for her, the straps of her shirt often falling off. She had a delicate figure, was three centimeters shorter than I was, and had a moderately large bust. In the beta, she held the title of third strongest, me and Kamiko being first and second, respectively. In short, yet another beautiful girl making an appearance in my game life.

I felt an inexplicable chill go down my spine at that thought.

"What do you mean? I wasn't in the beta. Oh, you're talking about my sister. She said she designed her avatar after my appearance," she said, computing something. "OH! You must be Kirito! My sister told me a lot about you! My name is Rita."

"In game, or out of game?" I asked, the name feeling a little too strange to be just an in-game name. It fit her appearance too much.

"Both!" she said happily. I fought the urge to face palm.

She's an idiot. Who in Kayaba's name would use their real name in a game like this?

"So, to get this straight, you don't hate me like your sister did in the beta, right?" I inquired, not wanting to have an enemy this strong so early on.

"Why would I hate you? I don't have a reason to. Just because she hated you doesn't mean I do."

"Just because THEY don't like you doesn't mean I don't!"

That sounded almost exactly like Asuna. Wait a second, "Asuna!"

"Hold on a second, please," I said quickly, running over to the girl in question. "Asuna, are you okay? You're not hurt are you?"

"You already gave me a potion, remember? I'm fine, don't worry," she said drowsily.

"Oh, right," I said, relieved. Wow, what a crazy day.

"Though I'm finding it very hard to stand up," she said. Her wobbling legs only emphasizing the point.

I guess she's still physically exhausted. What a bother.

After we all left the boss room together, I asked a question that had been gnawing at my mind since Rita mysteriously got to the boss room and defended me. "Rita, how exactly did you get into the boss room?"

"Oh, that. I came through another entrance on the other end of the boss room," she said nonchalantly. I just stood there, shocked. Then I turned towards the direction indicated to see that - yes, there was another door.

How could I have missed that?

"Don't worry though. They only open from the outside, so you don't need to regret not noticing it, 'cause we wouldn't have been able to evacuate anyway," she said, noticing the expression on my face.

This time, I gave in to the urge and introduced my palm to my face.

She really is an idiot. Kudos to her for noticing how I felt about it, though.

Asuna spoke up from her position on my shoulder. "You guys seem like old friends. Do you know each other from outside the game?"

"No, but I knew her sister from the beta, and she modeled her avatar after Rita here." That's right, she didn't hear us talking about that earlier.

"Oh, okay," Asuna said, sounding relieved. I on the other hand found it difficult to keep my rising panic down as realizations dawned.

This is really bad. I made too much of an impression on her. At this point, I can't do anything, because she probably won't want to leave me regardless of what happens! Wait a second, EVERY SINGLE PERSON HERE saw my dual wield! What am I gonna do?

"Guys, I have a request," I said, the ground suddenly seeming very interesting. I couldn't deny my nervousness, as none of them had any reason to listen to me.

"Okay," they all said in unison.

"I want you to keep my dual wield a secret. I don't want it to become public news that I have that kind of [[Unique Skill]]. People would be envious of me, and it's not like they don't hate me enough already."

And now several people were staring at me oddly.

"None of the people I've met so far have said anything negative about you. All they've done is tell me to give their gratitude to you for taking the first step in clearing the so-called game when I told them I was looking for you. Then again, I've never met up with Kibaou's posse, so I don't know if he's corrupted the clearing party," Rita said.

"Yeah, once the people you saved told the people of your efforts when we got back to the [[Starting City]], everyone started cheering," Asuna added, "You're not hated. In fact, a lot of the people look up to you."

"You haven't been out of your house much, have you, Kirito? Then again, I sure as heck can't blame you, you do have an amazing house, with its two beds and a bath," Cirdan said matter-of-factly.

Thanks for trying to comfort me, guys.

"WHAT?!" both girls yelled in unison.

Kami-sama, please save me now.

"Well, yeah, but I already have Miko-chan in one of the beds, and I'm not sure the house would fit four people. Well, five if Cirdan wants to stay. Even if it could, I'm not sure if I'd let all of you stay."

Then, of course, things went to hell.

"Hey, check it out, it's the [[Black Beater]]!"

You can't possibly be serious! I snarled internally, Why him of all people right now?

"Who are your friends there? It's hard to believe you even have any friends. After all, you've been doing nothing but mapping the boss dungeon since you got here, and you haven't shared it with anyone. I'm sure that you finished at least a few days ago, and no one's ever even heard from you since the boss fight."

Kibaou, you jerk. You're trying to alienate my friends!

"Are you headed to the quest boss's room with your posse, Kibaou? If so, I recommend against it," I said with a calm exterior, though inwardly I seethed.

"Why? Does a beater like you even care?" one of Kibaou's men scoffed.

"You must have forgotten what he said during his speech after the boss fight, huh? He obviously cares a lot," Asuna said angrily.

"Look, I don't want to fight you, I just want to stop you from committing suicide," I said firmly.

"Why? Shouldn't all players get an equal opportunity to get ahead in this game, even if their method of choice is a fools' move?"

That inquiry drew disbelieving stares from my friends and Kibaou's posse alike. The speaker; a man with red-tinted leather armor, silvery hair and a muscular figure, seemed to have come out of nowhere.

"Why YOU?! Don't call me a fool!" Kibaou shouted in rage.

I stayed silent, all of my body movements coming to a stop, as if all of my energy was flowing into my racing mind. Who is this man? I know him! I don't know how, but I know him! Something's off about him, as if he's angry at me for some reason.

When I came to, I found myself retorting angrily, "We barely got out alive! We're probably some of the strongest players in the game, and look at us!" I half-shouted, pointing to my allies and their tattered clothes.

"And, despite your claims, you don't have so much as a scratch. Ah, I see. You must be the [[Black Beater]]. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Heathcliff," the man said.

His statement reminded me that I was the only one who didn't lose any HP or have any scratches on my armor. Even Rita had suffered minor damage at the hands of the boss while defending me and Cirdan.

"Kirito," I said flatly, "I normally fight solo, but I partied up with Cirdan to take on that quest boss. We only got out alive because this girl, Rita, jumped in and saved us. Then we used a strategy that Cirdan came up with, and barely defeated the boss. Don't try it; you wouldn't be able to do it alone. And you, Kibaou, wouldn't be able to do it with an entire raid group," I said firmly.

"Why you?!"

"Well, since we seem to be at an impasse, I propose this. Defeat me in a duel, and I will personally guard this place in attempt to stop players from fighting this quest boss. If I win, however, you will join me as second-in-command at the time when I form a guild. Until then, you will leave the clearing party."

"Kirito-kun—" Asuna protested.

This is so familiar! But this pretentious prick attacked my pride. I won't - no - I can't back down.

"That's fine. I'm better with swords than words. Let's settle this with a duel."

CLIFFHANGER!

Awesome! My first new chapter since the rewrite! I'm finally back on the plot express and I'm ecstatic to be back.

I'm thinking of making this an AsunaxKiritoxSachi fic, since Sachi is just awesome like that. (Seriously, if you look up Kirito's relationships in the wiki, it says that an interview with the creator revealed Sachi to be Kirito's first love.) Review to let me know your feedback.

Starting today, I now have a new (Plothole) beta! With our combined efforts, I think this story will be a lot better from now on.

Will Kirito be able to beat Heathcliff? Find out in the next exciting chapter!

May happiness be with you,

OMG