The assault teams had been making amazing gains. They had finally reached floor 20 and after a couple of days Kirito's scouts found the Boss Room. Unfortunately, long gone were the days where his guild could take down a boss single handedly. They still probably could but he was no longer the only guild severing the front lines and he wasn't the biggest or best equipped either so Kirito decided to call a meeting of the clearers.
Hwin was the capital town of the 20th floor and looked very medieval. It had a castle in the center with a huge wall forming a ring around the town. Within the castle was a massive room designed for meeting and was commonly used for such. Another feature of the town that made it so important was it had guild houses. These building were close to both the market district and castle. Many guilds had a presence here in either an outpost, recruiting center, or a full fledged fortress and Kirito's was no exception.
The meeting room looked like a consul room. Rows of chairs lined the circular walls. A single large table sat in the middle of the room with four chairs surrounding it. One for each of the major guilds while the solos, smaller guilds, and non important members of the bigger guilds would sit around the outside and give their contribution if need and if not at least collect some good info.
The Clears started to file in and take their seats. It wasn't long before the leader of the big four ,or so the people on lower floors called them, had taken their appointed seats. Each top guilds leader was flanked by two subordinates, usually their second and third in command. Kirito brought Asuna and Diavel with him as they were the real planners of the group even if he was the strongest fighter. As Asuna started to explain what their scouts had found out about the boss Kirito examined those around the table.
To his left sat the leader of The Knights of the Blood oath Heathcliff. The KoB weren't as good soldier for soldier as Kirito's but they had some of the best tanks and Heathcliff was by far the best on the frontlines. Heathcliff was the only person sporting a unique skill this coupled with his already impressive armor, shield, and skills earned him the tilte The Untouchable. The man was generally friendly but something just made Kirito avoid him. Maybe it was the fact that Heathcliff's armor was the same color scheme and looked very similar to the armor used for the Ruby king and his men or Heathcliff second in command Kuradeel was just plain creepy with a face that just screamed traitor but for whatever reason Heathcliff made Kirito uneasy so he tended to avoid him.
To Kirito's right sat Lind and leader of the divine dragon alliance. His armor was flashy just like his weapon. He also made Kirito uneasy for a completely different reason than Heathcliff. The DDA had made a name for themselves by obtaining a lot of rare and valuable equipment unfortunately there were a lot of rumors floating around about their methods of obtaining the equipment and not many of them were showing the DDA in the best of light but regardless they were the biggest guild frontline guild with some of the best equipment. There men were not the best trained or the highest level but they weren't the worst either. That position was reserved for the the Army.
Across the table sat Thinker, leader of The Aincrad Liberation Army, and his second and third Kibaou and Yuiler. Thinker and Kibaou had an interesting partnership. Kibaou lead the frontliners and Thinker with Yuilers help ran floors one through eight and they seemed to agree on nothing. The Army had actually done some great things for the less fortunate and saved many lives with their patrols of common leveling areas on lower floors. To bad their frontliners were not only the lowest in number but also had the lowest level, experience and had some of the worst equipment relative to other cleaners. They were routinely put on mob clearing duty to allow other frontliners to fight the boss without worrying about being flanked or attacked in the rear. Though it seems that Kibaou never really got over his hatred of Kirito and the other betas.
Yup. thought Kirito with a sigh I have to try and get along with these people.
Kirito looked up to see Kibaou glaring at Asuna.
"For the last time Kibaou, no your men can't fight the boss. Thier equipment is subpar and they lack the levels" said Asuna
"We are fighting for the people! It's just you and your beater friends who want the XP, col, and items. You're just trying to hold us back." shouted Kibaou while sending a glare at Diavel and Kirito.
Great not this argument again thought Kirito, Every time Kibaou wants more money and fame and we want his men to make it out alive. If this continues he's going to do something stupid and his men will pay the price.
"I agree with Asuna Kibaou. Our men aren't ready to fight a floor boss and if keeping the mobs off the others helps us escape faster who are we to argue." said Thinker in an even voice trying to be a voice of reason.
Kibaou just grunted and seemed to dropped the subject.
Lind decided to speak up at this point. "While on the subject of equipment I think we should talk about the Last Attack Bonus. Your guild has gotten it for the last ten floors in a row."
"True, but why bring that up?" asked Diavel skeptically
"Isn't it obvious! You should let us get the Last Hit this time. The DDA is the biggest guild so we need to arm up more people than yours and this will save a lot of col." said Lind
"What! If anyone should get it it should be the army! You guys said it your selves our equipment is subpar!" shouted Kibaou slamming his fist onto the table.
"The rule has always been who ever gets it gets it. It's not our fought that are men are better then yours." shout Asuna while glaring at Lind and Kibaou "How about you train your better!"
"Not our fought you guys have The Rat helping you plus all those other beaters! You guys steal the best leveling areas" said Kibaou seeming to almost spit out the word beater.
Heathcliff cleared throat and decided to stop the argument. "How about we table this and just try and come up with a plan of attack."
"I second that." said Kirito
"Fine/ok" was the response from Lind and Kibaou even if they looked none to happy with the decision. Kirito just sighed again. It was going to one of those meetings.
After another three hours of different degrees of arguing they finally made a plan they all agree on at least some what and planned to attack the boss in a week's time to give the Army time to earn some more levels and get some better equipment.
As Kirito made to leave he noticed that Diavel and Agil were moving toward him.
"Hey, man we can cover your jobs for today. You should just take a break and relax if anyone could use it it's you. I hope you have fun" said Agil earning a nod from Diavel.
Kirito looked past them to see Argo and Asuna conversing before Argo left the meeting room and Asuna headed over his direction as Diavel and Agil also left.
"Hey Kirito." said Asuna
"What's up Asuna?" asked Kirito wondering why Diavel and Agil suddenly volunteered to take his duties for the day.
"Well I was sort of kind of wondering if you know wanted to get something for dinner together." asked Asuna as her face grew a little red
"Ummm sure sounds like fun." replied Kirito growing equally red in the face.
"Awesome I know a great place on floor 19." said Asuna grabbing his hand and making for the exit while smiling like crazy.
On the way out Kirito saw Heathcliff waiting outside. Probably waiting for him again. Ever since floor five where he joined the front lines with his guild he had been trying to get Kirito to party with him or to work together in some way. The weirdest thing he did was ask Kirito what his name was one time to which Kirito replied with "My name is Kirito" before finding an excuse to leave the conversation.
What was with Heathcliff's fascination with me? Thought Kirito
That night Heathcliff sat in his guild hall staring at the long list of players in the game and drumming his fingers on the table in annoyance. Yes, unknown to the player the man they hated most, Kayaba Akihiko The Ruby King, was also one of their greatest champions. He sat up there with names like Kirito The Black Swordsman, Asuna The Lightning Flash, and Agil The mountain Slayer. It annoyed him that such a powerful player not only escaped his notice but formed a stronger and more famous guild before him. Collect such powerful players to back him up and currently shadowed him with their fame. He was suppose to be the one who united Aincrad and this player was stealing that glory from him piece by piece. Kirito even lead the boss raids so Heathcliff couldn't see his character handle that way. He checked again for what seemed like the hundredth time. There was no player with the name Kirito registered.
"Does he know my secret? Is that why he avoids me like the plague? Just who are you Kirito? What's your real name?"
Asuna was probably even more annoy at this point then Heathcliff. First the stupid boss battle meeting was almost a huge waste of time between Kibaous pride and Linds greed mucking things up. At least she had finally worked up the courage to ask Kirito out on a date, well she didn't call it that but still, she even went so far as to have Diavel and Agil take Kirito's duties for the day and had Argo research the best restaurants. Unfortunately just as they were sitting down they heard a scream outside and went to investigate. That of course lead to a murder mystery that was actually a huge rouse created by the murder victims, Caynz and Yolko, to find the murder of their friend. But if that wasn't enough the whole thing ended with them and Schmitt, their "suspect", getting jumped and paralysed by some laughing coffin members and Asuna and Kirito coming to save them. Yes today was definitely not one of Asuna's favorite days.
'Ready to die!" shouted Johnny Black while trying to impale her heart with one of his knives.
Then there was this clown! Just like how Xaxa always seemed to try and kill Kirito above all other her relationship with Johnny was about the same. Every time they fought she would win he would escape. He would get better knives and poison she would get a better rapier and they would both get better armor train harder and then have a rematch at which point Asuna would win and the cycle would repeat. The only reason he currently had all his limbs was because Kirito and Asuna were waiting for reinforcements and if they took one member down the others would probably make a run for it.
"Finally black swordsmen your life is Mine!" shouted Xaxa while laughing like a maniac.
"Not today." replied Kirito blocking the attack while dodging a downward swing from other member he was fighting.
The third coffin member introduced himself as PoH before the battle started and carried a large serrated butcher knife with him. If their info was correct he was laughing coffins leader so they really didn't want him escaping. Though today was just full of surprises and PoH was nothing special. His first swing he almost removed Kirito's head when his weapon passed right through Kirito's parry.
"You're holding back Black Swordsmen." said PoH in an even voice, "you must be trying to hold us off till reinforcements come. Either way we're leaving now."
Johnny black swung his knife at Asuna before suddenly pulling back and surprised Asuna with a swift kick to the chest before pulling out a teleport crystal and disappearing. Asuna looked over to see PoH do the same.
"Till next time Black Swordsmen! You will fall to my sword" shouted XaXa reaching for a crystal as well.
To bad for XaXa the couple of seconds he spent taunting Kirito allowed him to recover from PoH's kick and he wasted no time separating XaXa from his crystal, hands, and weapon.
"Bastard! I will gut you!" shouted Xaxa as the other clears arrived to take him away.
Well at least today wasn't a total waste. They had both captured a leader of laughing coffin and a dangerous red player plus Asuna learned Kirito wasn't completely opposed to go out with her.
It's been a while an and I don't really have much to say so as always I hope you guys enjoyed yourselves and I will try and get another chapter out at some point but my schedule is pretty busy so I kind of just write when I can. Till next time.