It had been a month since Kirito had met Rain and during that month he had slowly opened up to her. And by slowly opening up it meant he could actually tell her to act as his cannon fodder without care now. During that month he had learned that when Rain wanted something she got it and that was how he had gotten used to her accompanying him when he went out to grind. On the bright side he also got a ton of upgraded weapons so he really couldn't be complaining.
He had also learned that while he had thought that the solo experience bonus for fighting was huge the bonus for fighting with a party was even higher which confused him. He reasoned it had to be a change and that the main point of it was to try and get the few players to work together to make it easier for them to survive. He probably assumed that if someone was dumb enough to fight alone they would die so this bonus would help entice them to join the other players.
Due to this bonus Kirito's level was now around twenty-five which meant the only place he could really grind in anymore was the dungeon. And this was what to the idea that he should have a mock boss fight. It would be the same as an actual floor boss fight except for the objective. Normally the objective would be to kill it but Kirito only wanted to memorize the attack patterns of the boss. But that didn't mean that he wasn't going to not try to kill it. He theorized even with the enemies doubled stats that his health bar was high enough to be able to take at least a few hits and allow him to escaped it needed.
"Have I mentioned you're an idiot today?" Rain asked him as she leaned against the boss door. Ever since Kirito had proposed the idea to her she had been trying to talk him out of it but so far she had made zero progress. She thought it was just plain suicide to fight the boss with the two of them but when asked if she had any better idea she had remained silent. She enjoyed working with Kirito even if the feeling wasn't mutual but that didn't mean she would be happy to work with the other players. She did not like groups of people and Kirito was a loner like her so it made it even easier for her to hang out with him.
"If you don't wanna join you can just leave." Kirito replied without a care in the world. He was currently organizing his inventory so he would be able to switch weapons when needed in the fight. He was planning to just check the bosses attack patterns and gear but if the opportunity presented itself he wouldn't hesitate to go for the kill.
"But if I do you will get yourself killed." Rain replied with a pout as she fiddled with the sword on her hip. The sword was of course made by her and it was he pride and joy as it's parameters were equal to a weapon on the fifth floor.
"Like I would allow myself to die to a weakling like this." Kirito said as as he closed his inventory. "So you coming or what?" He only asked because if she was going he could plan accordingly. If she came she could distract the minions or be cannon fodder if she didn't come he would just kill them first.
"I have to or you will die." She pulled out her sword as she steeled her nerves. She unlike Kirito was not in the beta so she had no idea what could be behind these doors. Of course he had explained Illfang the Kobold Lord to her there was only so much words could prepare you for.
A smile crossed Kirito's face as he opened the massive door. One of his favorite things to do was to fight a boss and he loved the sensation of the fight so he couldn't wait to enter the room. As they entered the room was lit up into a prism of colors that were constantly shifting. At the end of the room sitting upon a bronze throne was their opponent and at seeing their arrival the large red Kobold stood up from his throne.
"That's him?" Rain asked in shock.
"Should be, I mean he didn't have the throne in the beta but it doesn't matter really." Rain nodded at his words. He had told her how he was in the beta test and personally she was glad as this gave them an edge. What she didn't know however was that the only reason he had told her this was to try and get her to drift away from him.
"Where are his minions?" She asked as she looked around. Only themselves and the boss were in the room.
"They may come later so watch out for a surprise attack. Until then just watch for any irregular things." And with those words Kirito pulled out two daggers and rushed towards the enemy. Within the first five seconds he had nearly lost his head as the Kobold swung his weapon over his head but Kirito knew this would happen and ducked beneath. As the boss pulled back his arm Kirito took the dagger in his right hand and slammed it under the armpit burying the dagger deep into the boss. He quickly retreated as he did this and went into his inventory quickly equipping a third dagger.
"You said you weren't going to fight him right off the bat!" Kirito heard Rain's voice call out form behind him.
"Force of habit." He replied. He watched with satisfaction as his first dagger was still stuck where he had left it. He had embedded the small blade to cause a bleed effect and while it did very little damage it was doing some which was just what the wanted. Illfang rushed forward at speeds Kirito had not expected which made him unable to block until the very last second. Due to this he was thrown backwards with great force and just as he was about to crash into a pillar he felt himself being caught by something.
"Rain?" He asked wondering how she was holding him.
"Blacksmiths do need a bit of strength." She replied with a small laugh. She then bonked him on the head. "See I told you that you would get hurt. You might have possibly died if I wasn't here." He sighed as he knew she could have been right. He had not expected such speed and he was caught off guard. If he had crashed into the pillar he might not have been able to move after that and Illfang could have easily closed the distance between the two.
"Any minions yet?" He asked as he drunk a health potion.
"Not yet." She replied as she rushed towards the boss surprising Kirito. This made Kirito wonder what was going on as usually they would be swarming the attacking party. He then realized maybe they were removed so their only threat would be the boss.
"What are you doing!?" He called out wondering what was going through her head.
"You need to heal and besides you if we don't kill him today we both need to get used to his fighting style." Once again he was forced to admit her words held truth. He finished the potion and got his daggers ready as he went to go join the girl.
"Keep him busy I got an idea." He told her.
"But your ideas are idiotic!" She shouted back from the other side of the boss. During the month she had learned how Kirito fought and had especially learned he always did the dumbest things in combat that somehow worked to his advantage.
"Name one idiotic idea." He told her as he used a sword skill on the boss to get the attention off Rain.
"This boss fight." He gave a inside laugh at her response as he looked up at his foe. So far with the random slashes of damage they had inflicted along with the bleeding effect from the still embedded dagger they had removed only a tiny bit of health. Looking at the health bar for the first time Kirito's eyes widened as he saw that the boss only had one health bar. He assumed that while the other stats of the boss were amplified the health might have been lowered to balance the boss out.
Like before the boss swung his axe at Kirito and he dodged once again. What he didn't expect was the follow up shield bash but luckily his reflexes kicked in at the last second making him jump over the shield entirely. And just like last time he slammed his dagger into the bosses weapon arm but this time it was from the shoulder. The eyes of the boss flashed with rage as it leaned its head back and released a demonic war cry.
"Rain I think it's enraged so watch out." He called out as he got away.
"Isn't that suppose to happen when he's almost dead though?" She asked.
"Welcome to video games where everything just seems unfair." He replied as he equipped his last extra dagger. While they had been talking Illfang had thrown away his axe and shield and now pulled out a long elegant blade. It wasn't the same blade he had used in the beta as that had been a Talwar and he now had a Nodachi.
"Careful Rain his enrage weapon has changed. He has a Nodachi which probably means he has katana skills so stay out of his range." The girl gave him a nod as once again she went to go grab his attention. Looking down at his last two daggers Kirito gave a nod. He rushed forward and was pleasantly surprised to see that Rain was avoiding all off the attacks thrown at her while putting some in on her own. While he hated working with people he wasn't gonna complain about her combat skills.
Focusing on the threat in front of him Kirito jumped up into the air and slammed both of his daggers into the sides of the arm that already had his other daggers in it. Letting go and jumping back Kirito watched as the enraged boss turned around to face him. This was the part where he would either get injured and possibly horribly die or he would get to reap the rewards of his labor. The boss took a step towards him and began to use a skill and just as it released it the noise of flesh tearing filled the room. Kirito smiled as his plan had worked as he saw the bosses arm get torn off and burst into polygons.
His plan had been to embed his daggers from four directions into the boss. Every time the boss had moved that arm they would slowly tear away and cause damage and that had been slowly draining its health since the first dagger. The damage had only multiplied with the second dagger and once all four daggers had been put in place the plan went into action. Due to the positioning of the daggers when the boss would try and use a skill it would cause all four daggers to twist in such a way that the arm would be severed.
What he didn't plan on happening however was the boss continuing the skill with one arm. It was as if it hadn't registered the lost limb and as he released the skill the most incredible thing Kirito had ever saw happen. Due to a katana being a two-handed weapon and due to the sheer size of it the skill completely missed him. The loss of the arm had also thrown off the center of balance of the boss so badly that the katana came back and hit the Kobold in the head. Both Kirito and Rain watch as the health bar of the boss began to drain rapidly and both of them were surprised as the last pixel of health dissipated along with the boss as it burst into polygons.
"You have got to be kidding me." Kirito said as he watched the spot where the boss died completely ignoring the reward screen.
"Did that really just happen?" Rain asked not believing what she just saw. A minute of silence passed as they both finally looked at their reward screens. Both of them were happy with their rewards as each had gained two levels.
"Hey Rain?" Kirito asked noticing something was missing.
"Yes?" She responded.
"Did you get the last attack bonus?" He hadn't gotten it so he knew she had to have gotten it.
"No I didn't." She replied.
"Then if neither of us got it then that means...DID THAT REALLY JUST HAPPEN!?" He shouted out realizing what happened. His outburst had made Rain jump as she was not expecting him to shout.
"What happened?" She asked a little afraid of the answer.
"Since the boss hit itself and killed itself that means it got it." He deadpanned trying to control his rage. Rain could only stare at him until she started laughing uncontrollably. And that was how the first boss of one-hundred was killed.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Now I know I said to certain people that the rest of the characters were going to be introduced in this chapter but I had to change that after realizing how freaking boring the chapter I had written was. But I can say one character will be introduce in the next one! Anyways make sure to leave a review and until next time!
