Ultimate Black Ace – I won't make any definite decision yet but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Kirito or Asuna.
"We need to get into groups of six." Diabel said before stopping clearly waiting for us to do that.
Looking around at all the people here I saw people that knew each other well getting into groups. Within a few moments everyone was in a group par me. As I was scanning the area for a group of 4 or 5 that I could join, I heard a voice behind me.
"Need a group?" turning around I saw a man. He was tall – at least 6 foot, bald, had brown eyes, brown skin and a battle axe across his back that was almost as tall as him. I nodded – yes. He went to manipulate his menu and a message appeared telling me Agil had invited me into a group and asking me if I wanted to accept or not. I accepted. Looking towards my health bar I saw that there were four others in the group including Agil.
"The boss is level 10 and called Illfang the kobold lord whilst the adds are level 8 and called Ruin kobold sentinels. The boss strategy is simple, when the fight starts wait for the tank group to get aggro before attacking then the group switch periodically to use potions. When the boss's health drops below 25% it switches weapons to a talwar, and its attack patterns change as well but the tactics are the same." Diabel paused here to let that information sink in.
Leaning over to Agil I asked;
"What's an add?"
"A mob summoned or called by a Boss." He explained.
"Why not just say mobs?"
"You can avoid pulling a mob and mobs don't randomly appear in the middle of a boss fight."
"Is this your first boss fight?" I nodded. "Is this your first party?" I nodded again.
"Don't worry I'll teach you all the terminology." He said whilst smiling, turning back to Diabel we waited for him to continue.
"Any questions?" Diabel asked loudly encouraging people to get queries out of the way now not during the boss fight.
There was a long moment of silence then, "I've got something to say!" clambering down from the surrounding seats of the ruined amphitheatre we were sitting in, a short man with hair that spiked in all directions and a slight beard pointed out towards the crowd, "Some of you need to apologize, to those who have died so far! I am of course talking to you beta tester. You who abandoned us from the very first day of this stupid game, you who took the best farming spots and the best quests, you should apologize and give up all your items and money!" he spoke with disgust and was clearly angered as though the beta testers were in cahoots with Kayaba.
Beside me Agil shifted before standing, "you say the beta testers abandoned us, have you got this guide book." Agil materialized a guide book in his hands showing to everyone. I remember that guide book it was a lot of help in figuring out the game and the best way to level. "This guide book was made available in every NPC vendor for free." Agil paused waiting for the man to answer.
"Of course who hasn't?" the man replied.
"This guide book was written by beta testers, everyone knew the same the only difference between you and a beta tester is a beta tester would know how to use that sword on your back." Agil looked amused with the reaction he had evoked in the Man whilst the man looked like he was about to reply when Diabel interrupted him.
"That's enough we aren't here to bicker about beta testers when there's a boss to kill, since there's no question I'll move on." Both men went to sit back down.
"Now can each group leader come here?"
Although phrased as a question is was anything but. Agil stood up and joined the five or six leader that huddled around Diabel, whilst they talked quietly. Within five minutes Agil returned.
"We're group C; we're on DPS for the boss." The other group members cheered in joy. Seeing my confusion Agil explained.
"We were sorting out which groups were going to be taken groups and which would take on the boss or adds, it's easier with just the group leaders And these guys . . ." he pointed over his shoulder at our group "are happy because being in one of the boss DPS groups gives you a good chance of getting a Last Attack." My mind reminded that last attack was in the guide book and was that whoever dealt the killing blow on a boss (field or dungeon) got a boost in experience and col gained and got some loot just to themselves.
Everyone started leaving the area slowly signifying the end of the meeting. Agil turned towards the rest of the group.
"Diabel said we are to meet outside the boss room tomorrow at 9AM. He also gave me the map data to find it. Come on we'll go rent an inn for the night, that is unless any of you want to go level before the boss." He said to us all then waited for each person to answer.
I spent the rest of the day learning about a boss fight, parties and the jargon people used in a raid. Two of the guys left to go and try to level once more before the boss fight and the rest went to try to get some better gear from vendors before the fight.
The next day I awoke to find everyone already awake and jittery with nervous energy, I was calm but I suppose that comes with being in life or death battles many times. The trek to the boss room was silent and short. When we arrived I saw giant double doors big enough for an oozaru to fit through, they were grey and were decorated with carvings of a beast killing people. There was absolute silence except for the occasional hushed muttering; the silence sent a chill down my spine it's like these people expect to die. There was a distinct smell of rotting meat coming from the boss's chambers?
As we appeared at the door Diabel detached from the small crowd of players and came over to greet us.
"You're just in time, we were waiting for you and another group but if they don't get here in another 10 minutes we'll start without them." Diabel was the only one who seemed in a good mood like he'd been through this before.
Five minutes passed before the last group came into sight, with the last group here Diabel stepped up to the front of the assembled players and went through the tactics and what each player was to do one last time. He finished his speech with; "we have to do this to show to all those still in the starting city that it can be done and that we can escape this hell." His was quiet but seemed to travel across the players easily.
He opened the doors and the players streamed across drawing blades, axes, maces, war hammers and even some bows whilst screaming war cries. As we entered the room I realized why the door was so big – to be usable by the boss. I looked to my left seeing Agil, a big grin on his face, spotting me looking at him he smirked; "Lets kick ass." He said before charging forward. Glancing forward I spotted the boss, a giant beast with a dog like face with red glowing eyes and spittle flying from its chops whenever it moved, it was covered in a helmet and a purple rag across it legs. It had a tail and had red skin except for its underbelly which was grey with a blue tattoo of a diamond.
As we reached the boss, we waited letting the tank group get aggro before charging so that we didn't get killed by the boss. Half a minute passed before we got the call to attack, and we did slamming into the boss unleashing multiple combos and sword skills not having to worry about dodging or the cool down. Realizing the opportunity I flowed into some of the katas that I knew that involved my sword causing massive damage. Within a minute we were bordering on getting the boss's attention and were called to ease off.
We dropped back and waited.
"It seems that whilst they can take its hits they can't hold its attention." Agil said amusement colouring his voice. He seemed completely at ease and his calm demeanour strengthened the nerves of those around him. Glancing at the boss's health bar I saw that we'd done less than 10%. Glancing around I saw several groups tangling with ruin kobold sentinels, leaning over to Agil I said.
"Shouldn't we help them? We could get more DPS on the boss."
"No. We stick to the plan, it might be slow but it will work, if you start changing things something's bound to go wrong." I nodded, whilst we could help them now without anything going wrong what if someone followed our lead in doing what they wanted.
The shout for more DPS echoed across the room, I reacted instantly my group a second behind me. Collide with the side of the boss I unleashed complex combos twisting, trying to pack in as many strikes as possible. The fight was very different to every other fight I had taken part in so far, there was no dodging or defending myself just hacking and slashing it was almost too easy as long as the tanks survived there was nothing that would go wrong. From then the fight became very mundane. Attack for a minute. Drop back. Wait for a minute or so. Rinse and repeat.
This all changed as the boss's health reached 25%. The boss dropped both weapons it held, a long sword and a buckler, reaching around its back a drawing a new weapon, a straight weapon that look like a giant's butcher knife except it had two separate points, cloth wrapped around the hilt making it look bandaged as though it was damaged. After drawing its weapon it paused for a moment almost daring anyone to attack, before shooting off, bouncing of different walls shooting around the room with surprising agility.
When it finally stopped the display of aerobatics it came to rest in the centre of the room, waiting for us to make the next move. Everyone stared almost in a trance at the boss's tactics shift; fortunately all the Ruin kobold sentinels had been eliminated.
"Stand back, I'll go." Diabel's voice cut through the silence like a knife breaking everyone from their respective trances.
That wasn't the plan what's he doing? . . . Does he want the Last Attack bonus?
Waiting to see what would happen, I quickly became shocked as the boss repeated its aerobatic manoeuvres this time managing to shoot forward rocketing past Diabel and slicing through him. Diabel dropped to the floor his health plummeting with him before he shattered into a cloud of polygons. The shock of the death of the leader wore off soon and most players panicked scattering, or trying to in the enclosed space.
The AI of the boss took advantage of this jumping around the room picking off one person at a time, something had to be done and now. Closing my eyes I focused my mind, considering all my options from simple to insanely complex and unlikely to happen, all these thoughts ran through my mind at high speed. Finally deciding upon my course of action my eyes shot open. Where's the boss? That question was soon answered as I span around to see the boss heading straight towards me.
Shifting my stance my sword began to glow changing in colour from yellow through orange to red, leaping forward and high into the air practically flying towards my target.
"Hell's fury!" I roared as loudly as I could garnering all attention, hell's fury was the highest damaging single strike technique I'd unlocked from basic sword skills so far. Pushing my Ki into my sword to strengthen the weapon and massively increase the damage done to the target, I watched as my Health dropped going past yellow and well into red and the glow around my sword increased in intensity and size.
As I drew close to the boss, it raised it weapon in an attempt to slice me into two – it was a futile attempt. I adjusted the arc of my sword slightly before it struck home slicing deeply into the boss's head going through the eye and skull causing a guaranteed critical hit. As the blade hit a thunderous boom echoed through the room less than a second later I landed, my sword still out stretched and a message appearing congratulating everyone on killing the boss. I would've have closed the message however having only just unlocked hell's fury and the massive damage it did the cool down on it was almost a minute – the only reason I hardly ever used it.
Why? Why didn't I do that sooner, I could have saved several people's lives. It's my fault they've died. . . . I could've prevented it. If anything this boss fight taught me that even when I thought I was ready there was always more training I could do and that even a little could make a big difference. This fight steeled my determination to finish this game and make sure as few people died as possible. All these thoughts passed through my head during the time I was stuck in the same pose because of the cool down.
When the cool down had ended I closed the initial message only for another to pop up congratulating me on the last attack and giving my some high grade leather armour, col and experience. The leather armour was pretty useless to me considering I wasn't a leather armour wearer but I could always sell it for a lot.
"You're a beta tester aren't you?" Looking to my left where the voice came from I saw that it was the man who'd blamed beta testers before, what's his name Kibaou?
"No actually this is one of the first games I've played." I replied already annoyed at him.
"Really? Then why are you able to do some damage? More than anyone else here." His tone suggested he thought he already knew how I could do so much damage.
"Because I'm a warrior in reality, I've fought for my life many times and the skills I learnt in real life transferred to this game well." I replied knowing that he probably wouldn't believe me even though it was the truth.
"Liar. Beta tester. Cheater." He practically spat the four words; I decided that if he wasn't going to listen to reason it was pointless to try to make him see sense.
Walking over to the group of people surrounding the boss I joined the many people checking the loot, the boss had dropped ten items four weapons, a shield, two pieces of plate armour and a piece each of mail, leather and cloth armour. The system had a loot sharing ability built in, you manipulated you menu to "roll" for items you want. Rolling is a computer generated random number from 1 to 100; the highest number got the gear. As someone called out each item several voices shouted out their computer generate numbers in a very robotic voice. I waited as my weapon was better than anything that had dropped, when the cloth item's turn came around there was only I and another rolling, I rolled a 53 whilst the other player rolled a 67. The Item went to them which was fair so I had no complaints.
As the loot had been handed out people began to leave either out towards the second floor or back to the first, watching as Kibaou left still glaring at me presumably thinking I was a beta tester, I heard a voice behind me;
"You've got to show me how you hit so high on the last attack." I turned around to so Agil smirking since he'd gotten a new Battle axe that shined unnaturally in the darkness.
"I would . . . but I don't think I can, what I told Kibaou was true I learnt that in the real world and I don't know how to teach someone it in this virtual reality, and it doesn't come without a price." I spoke softly, quietly.
"What price?" he asked confused.
"Health, using it drains your health. To kill the boss back there I went from full health to red from using it." I said solemnly. The shock was visible on Agil's face. \walking past him towards the second floor I opened my menu scrolling through it quickly and leaving the party I stopped standing next to him.
"It was nice partying with you maybe I'll see you at the next boss fight." I spoke quietly almost a whispered, trying to avoid attention realizing from Agil's reaction that everyone would want to know how to hit that high and if I stayed too long I'd be bombarded with questions.
As I was about to close my menu I noticed something new, there was now a scroll bar at the side of my skills. That meant there was a new skill I'd unlocked during the boss fight. Opening my skill menu I scrolled to the bottom and sure enough there was a new one. Battle Healing. Pressing it and looking through the description it said: Battle healing increases the amount of health regenerated during and outside of combat, increasing the skill level increases this. To level this skill you must enter the red zone of your health bar during combat – the longer you stay in the red zone the more experience for this skill you get. This skill was unlocked by recovering health from the red zone to full health through out of combat regeneration only. Glancing at my health almost unconsciously I realized it was back at full from when I used most of my health to strengthen my attack, huh I guess the loot sharing took abit longer than I thought. Whilst out of combat health was supposed to regenerate at 5% every minute (excluding Battle healing) which meant that it just less than 20 minutes since the end of the boss fight. At the minute Battle healing was at 1/1000 with an in combat regen of 1 health every 10 seconds. If that skill increases by one health for every skill level with max battle healing someone could have 1000 health every second.
Shaking of those thoughts, I needed to get on with levelling in the second floor; I opened the slightly smaller doors that lead to the second floor. The sight was truly breath-taking compared to the dark dull boss room. There was a valley with trees and a footpath that lead out from the boss room, mountains on either side, birds flew past and animals grazed on the green grass, the sun had just risen and bathed everything in a golden glow. That's weird it should be afternoon on the first floor. Players moved through the valley slowly, the sense of achievement from defeating the boss faded as I am reminded that there are 99 more floors.