The Hunter Chapter 5
The Regret
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Sword Art Online and Naruto belong to their respective creators and I am just using that, illegally, without explicit permission. Sue me. The only things that are mine are the ideas that I introduce in this fic.
Merry Christmas guys~
First off though, I want to say that I've been having a lot of trouble with this one, mostly because of how much I like canon, I find myself falling into rehashing it, which was totally unacceptable and so I had to redo it quite a few times (Thank Kishi, he basically knocked me up the head and told me to that if I wanted to do this, I was going to do it properly). That a lot of people seem to be unhappy with how I characterize Asuna and Naruto didn't really help, especially when I ALREADY said that he is going to be someone completely unrelated to the Knuckle Head shinobi we all know and love/hate.
But yeah….. this might not be that good a chapter. Sorry.
****Soundtrack List****
Immediate Music – Catch the Falling Sky
doa – Eiyuu
****The Hunter****
11th Floor Taft
She was starting to see a pattern she didn't like at all. It was almost always like this whenever a Boss Room was found. The rounds would be made and everybody who could fight would be encouraged to attend the first strategy meeting.
"I'm telling you, we'll be fine, if we go with your stupid plan, we're going to be spending all night in that tower!" A large bulky man that looked like he was on steroids loomed over a thin, wiry man dressed in simple leather armour. The thin man growled back, "And I'm telling you that if we listen to you, we won't GET to spend the night there because we'll all be dead if we charge into that room in one go! We don't have enough information, so we should be more cautious!"
"There's no need to be SO cautious, all we need to do is watch out for any tricks that the Boss might have." The large beefy man snorted, a member of the recently made Divine Dragon Alliance if she wasn't mistaken, "If anyone dies, it's because they weren't good enough."
"You're just saying that because you want your stupid clan to get the most EXP!"
Well... strategy meeting was a rather generous compliment. As far as it went, the level of confidence currently on display was a far cry from the sombre and gloomy Strategy Meetings that the brown haired girl had seen during the earlier floors. But right now, the experience that the front line clearers had obtained over the past ten floors enabled them to voice their opinions or ideas with gusto... and with that confidence, they would either start arguing or flat out start brawling.
She idly began counting down on her fingers.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
[Smack!]
"If you have strength to wail on each other then save it for when we meet the boss!"
Asuna hummed to herself from her seat at the very back of the cramped hall, whoever had intervened had done so by grabbing the two opposing sides' leaders and smashing their faces together.
That meant it was either Naruto or Lightning, but the voice was male, therefore it was the former.
Egil would have used his intimidating size and steely calm to persuade the others whereas Kirito's first move would have been to soothe egos and try to compromise.
She stole a glance over the heads of the gathered players and watched the blonde man pinch the bridge of his nose as he considered the map of the 11th floor, Taft, in front of him, looking decidedly worn out, "There's no helping it... I get that there's no need to be overly cautious but charging in full strength like that is simply asking for an early death." He muttered to the room in general.
When the two men set about trying to argue again, their words were shoved back down their throat by an icy glare from the annoyed blonde who was at least ten years younger than both of them, "The boss will probably have four HP gauges, that hasn't changed since the first floor and I see no reason for it to now, so I want everyone in this room to be divided into four groups with at least 8 tanks and 4 reserve tanks per group to mitigate damage and focus on helping them survive. The first group will enter first and try to determine the Boss's patterns and possible techniques. Dealing damage isn't a priority right now, survival and information is."
As the room in general murmured in assent and began shuffling around, Asuna smiled slightly. For some reason, no one saw fit to question his authority. It was probably the self assured, confident way he held himself with. He didn't ask for it, he didn't expect it and more often then not, he simply took charge because the bickering annoyed him.
Humming quietly, she meandered into a small party that looked relatively inexperienced, pulling down the hood to ensure that she wasn't mobbed.
"Can I join?" she asked quietly.
The leader, a youthful young boy that looked like the typical Japanese gamer swallowed nervously, Asuna figured that this was probably the first time they joined in on a Boss Clearing, "Ye-yeah, sure, we already have enough tanks, but I'm not sure if it's enough."
Asuna smiled kindly as she took a seat next to the smallest player in the group, a small girl who was nearly trembling in her seat, "It'll be alright." She gestured at the other 6 members of the party that were a part of the second group, "Are all of you together?"
"Yeah, we all stay at the Church in the City of Beginnings." The boy smiled gratefully at the small talk, "Oh, I haven't introduced myself have I? I'm Tanaka. Primary Tank." He pointed out the eldest looking boy in the group next to him, "This is Hideyoshi, our Spear wielding Secondary Tank." He pointed at a cheerful, bouncy girl with green hair, "Ueda-san, a thief type Sweeper and," He glanced at the trembling girl, "Rika-san. She's also one of our Tanks."
The boy whose brown hair hung limply over one eye simply grunted, "We're not supposed to be using our real names, Tanaka."
The black haired boy shrugged with a helpless smile, "I don't really see why not, it's kinda stupid to want to role play when everything is going to hell in a hand basket isn't it?"
"Tsk, airhead."
Asuna giggled at their antics, "It's alright. I'm Yuuki." She held out a hand to Tanaka with a bright smile.
Tanaka blushed slightly and shook the offered hand before kneeling in front of the smallest member of their group, the short freckled girl who was trembling beside Asuna, "Rika?" He chewed his lips a little worriedly, "Are you sure you can handle this?" Tanaka asked the freckled girl, "No one can blame you if you went back to the CoB-"
She cut him off with an angry growl and snapped upwards with a heavy war hammer in hand. In real life, a war hammer of this size would have probably crushed Rika under its weight, but in the game, a player's stats governed his strength, allowing the dark haired girl to jab the hammer at Tanaka with a growl, "I can do this Tanaka. Stop patronizing me just because I'm younger than you!"
As she stormed off, Tanaka gave the hooded girl an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry you had to see that. We just recently managed to level up enough to join the clearers, so this is the first time we participated in a Boss Fight."
She shrugged, "its ok, I understand. No one can blame any of you for being on edge."
"I know right..." He sighed, "But Rika doesn't see it that way. She just doesn't want to be a burden to us, so she pushes herself incessantly."
The aloof Hideyoshi grunted again and gestured for the two of them to be quiet, "Joker-sama is speaking again. We'll deal with Rika later."
Hearing Naruto being addressed by –sama was a rather amusing experience, especially since she knew that he was doing this because he was annoyed about missing lunch.
At the front of the hall, Naruto leaned back into his chair, unable to afford showing any doubt. Unlike the first ten floors where they had somewhat reliable information on Floor Bosses, they had none whatsoever on those above the tenth floor. Had he encountered this situation in any other MMORPG, the obvious solution would have been to just attack the boss in droves in order to figure out everything in one go or check the forums. Death only meant an empty HP bar and he and his team would have been free to keep trying as many times as they liked.
Unfortunately, they were in Sword Art Online. The Death Game. He couldn't afford to be easy going, not after being reluctantly shoved into a leadership role once more.
The first group on their own would only be able to push the first health bar or so at best and obtain some general information on boss' methods and techniques; they would have to formulate the rest based on that and slowly push the limits bit by bit. He could not justify sending in more and then count on everyone surviving blind until they managed to obtain more comprehensive information. Fear gripped his heart at the thought of sending more people to their deaths, but his shoulders remained unbowed.
Looking back up, he began elaborating on his orders, "There's no point in trying to plan for what we don't know. So our first aim is to take out the first health bar, more if possible, switching groups as necessary. With that information, we'll send in more teams until the next change comes. Once that happens, we retreat again, adapt to his strengths and weaknesses, and go back in with more teams." His palms landed softly on the table and he slowly stood up, "I understand that this might not be the best idea, so I'm willing to take any other opinion into consideration."
He allowed the hall to fill with a few moments of silence before nodding jerkily, "Then it's decided. We'll keep doing this in progressively with more and more teams each time until we're completely sure it has nothing left up his sleeve, then and only then will we launch a decisive full scale assault and massacre his ass!"
He smiled briefly as the room's occupants roared in agreement, allowing them to settle down a little before continuing in a loud, confident voice, "It'll be slow, but it's the safest way I can think off. At the end of the day, I want everyone to go home! Alright?! I'll even lead one team myself!"
"Uwwwoh!"
The blonde sitting at the head of the table grinned faintly, fully aware that the first three teams were the ones that would face the most danger.
He bowed his head and thanked them in his mind. Sitting back down, he glanced aside to where the pink haired woman who stood waiting in an aloof manner apart from everyone else, "Lightning, could you please get everything else organized while I get something to eat before we leave?"
The strict woman stared at him for a moment before nodding and immediately began barking orders to the raucous group while the blonde man got up and entered a separate chamber off the main hall.
"Yo. Good work." The blonde deftly caught an orange coloured fruit that had been thrown towards him from the other side of the room.
Snorting, he hungrily bit into it, savouring the sour and sweet taste of the fruit. It didn't taste good by any stretch of the word but by this point, he couldn't have cared less if it looked and tasted like shit, "I should have called in sick. Not eating for 6 hours qualifies right?" he had been training by himself when the call had come, in his excitement, he had forgotten to bring even a sufficient supply of peanuts for himself.
"Probably. I don't know how everybody else would have chosen to deal with this, but as far as I can tell, this is a good strategy. If this was a First person Shooter game with limited resources and a Death Match type scenario in unknown territory, I would have done the same." The black haired boy slapped Naruto on the back, "Don't worry, it'll be fine."
Uzumaki collapsed into a chair, feeling extremely weary, as the boy left the chamber and slapped a cold compress that he had been keeping just for this occasion on to his forehead, "I hope so."
The door creaked open and Lightning stepped in cautiously. He had noted that the pink haired woman avoided being alone in dark places whenever possible, probably a reminder of her time spent hiding in a crack in the wall.
"Joker. We're ready when you are." The pink haired woman dressed in a white jacket and beige skirt said shortly.
He stood up and slung his bow onto his back, quiver of spears by his side and shot the woman leaning on the doorframe a mirthless smile, "If we survive this, wanna go on a date with me?"
"There's another eighty nine floors to go. Talk to me again when we reach the 101th floor." His assistant of sorts shot back with a wry quirk of the lips at the banter.
This time his smile was actually sincere as the mood lightened somewhat, "Well, at least it wasn't a definite No. When I asked Argo, she actually tried to stab me with a fork."
"I'll have to keep that option in mind, unless you're into that kind of thing. If so, please stay away from me." Lightning replied in a completely deadpan tone.
Naruto chuckled, and then crinkled his nose in confusion, "Hey wait. 101?"
****The Hunter****
Play Immediate Music – Catch the Falling Sky
The doors slowly swung open with an ominous creak of rusty hinges, allowing a dank and musty smelling air to blow out right into the faces of the entire squad of clearers.
"Tighten up your belt buckle boys." Naruto called out with a grin, "Anyone who wants to die has to get my permission first."
They laughed, they cheered, and they stomped into the darkly lit room in a tight formation, full of confidence.
"Where's the boss?" a heavily armoured Kline murmured quietly as he tried to peer into the darkness, looking for any signs of movement with his Pursuit skill activated.
Naruto suddenly stopped and held up one hand while readying his spear, "Hold, something's ahead of us."
Kline, squinted at the writhing mass of shadows, "That... can't be the boss can it?"
Three individuals slowly stepped out of the darkness. A man that was almost as tall as Egil and equipped with a full set of plate armour hefted two large shields. An extremely large axe was strapped to his back while his companions, a slightly shorter and leaner bald man with beady eyes grinned widely, fingering the hilt of the two swords strapped to his waist. The third person was a woman dressed in a skimpy leather armour, armed with two daggers strapped to her exposed thigh.
Kline waved at the woman with a wide grin, "Yo, Nee-chan... how did you guys get in here?"
Naruto suppressed the urge to face palm, then again, it was not like he could blame them. Being cooped up in a sausage fest where 80% of the population were males usually had that sort of effect on a person's psyche. The man in the knight like armour stepped forward and bellowed a challenge.
"I don't think those are players..." Crystal blue eyes narrowed as Naruto eyed the cursors that floated above the three strangers.
The Bandits.
Naruto lunged forward and pulled Kline back from being decapitated by a dagger, "Those ARE the BOSSES! SCATTER!"
At the blonde's roared command, the entirety of Group 1 broke formation and moved back out of range. The tanks moved forward with kite shields held high while the Sweepers hung back. Naruto and three other men who knew how to use a bow stepped well back and readied their weapons.
"Groups two to Four hang back and watch for anything out of the ordinary! Be ready to switch in when the First Group is in danger!" Naruto called out with a swift cut of his hand, "Tanks, test their damage and skills! That Big guy has an axe, watch out if he tries to use it..."
"Osu!"
"...KLINE STOP TRYING TO PEAK UP HER SKIRT!"
The red haired man whose hands were making some rather disgusting grasping motions stopped and laughed nervously as he unsheathed a katana, "Hahaha... gomen... gomen."
He rolled his eyes, "Alright! We ready?!"
When he got answering calls, Naruto lifted his bow and fired the first shot at the largest of the three, "GO!"
It felt a little dirty as the wall of steel shields crashed into the three Bosses like a tidal wave with a gut wrenching clash of metal on metal, but the largest of the three held strong, pushing the tanks back with his dual shields while the Swordsman countered the Sweepers with his blades.
His eyebrows wrinkled further as the three strangers retreated with their backs to each other as if in response to his call.
"Damnit, we need to adjust our tactics." Naruto cursed under his breath as he struggled to find a good target, with all the bodies on the field, he couldn't attack at all in fear of hitting a friendly target. Not to mention the three Bosses were huddled up together, every shot that got through failed to barely dent their HP gauges thanks to the heavily armoured Boss, "Tanks, if your weapons aren't working, try to use your body to push them apart from each other then spread out a little! Tackle the bastard if you have to, the large one is protecting his team mates from our attacks!"
The attack pattern so far was simple, but the problem here was that all three of them are Human sized, limiting the Clearers to a max of two parties per Boss to avoid confusion and friendly fire, and the three of them work flawlessly as a team to cover each other. The first and the largest seemed to take on the role of Leader and had the best defence of all three, covering them while the slightly shorter Swordsman with the best damage output of the three fought on even ground with their Sweepers from behind the Leader's shield. The last of the three, the female NPC was fastest of all three of them, darting through rank and file to pinpoint weak points and taking them out with critical hits.
But the Clearers adapted.
"Switch!" Naruto called out commandingly the moment his sharp eyes caught sight of his group's overall HP bar hit the yellow zone, "Group Two and Three take the field. Group Four get ready Group One, rest and heal up.!"
"Uwooh!" As one, the shield bearers charged, slamming the metal disks and dazing the Bosses before leaping backwards, allowing fresh players to take their places.
Kline who was trudging back to the doors stopped beside Naruto with furrowed brows, "Naruto? What are you doing? You said we should rest didn't you?"
The blonde who was still firing spears tirelessly every time he found an exposed spot glanced at the red haired man, "It's alright. I can still go on. You guys go ahead."
Slowly but surely, the Bosses' HP gauges began dropping as his group began getting used to their attack patterns and took advantage of it, switching in groups in turns every time the current group's members hit the yellow zone.
"Joker! We just broke through the Second HP gauge; we're working on the third now!"
"We can do this! We can wi-!" Naruto smiled breathlessly and just as he was about to notch another spear to his Yew bow, there was a commotion on the front lines.
"Commander! Watch out! Their patterns are changing!" A voice called out urgently.
Blue eyes widened as the Female NPC darted out, sprinting towards him, body angled low to the ground, making her even harder to hit. Gritting his teeth, he let the notched spear fly. The NPC simply smiled, contrasting with the cold gleam in her eyes as she flipped to the side, allowing the spear to whistle past her harmlessly before executing a spin kick, her heel crashing into Naruto's jaw with extreme force; sending him into the air.
"GAH!"
Before anyone could react, she finished the manoeuvre by leaping into the air, above the blonde and landing on his abdomen feet first, driving the blonde into the ground hard enough to crack the stone tiles before ending the combo by plunging two daggers into his chest. His vision swam, but he was still alert enough to see his Hp bar instantly disappear down to a fleck of red. Dazed, the blonde could hear a few snippets of tinny voices reaching his ears, but his brain failed to make any sense from them as he felt someone grab him roughly and pull him back out of the Boss Chamber.
"Get her away... Commander!"
"The bastard is... POTIONS! How... mobs use ITEMS!?"
"Stop him... heal fully!"
Something cold was pressed into his hands and he opened his eyes uncomprehendingly at the potion bottle. Someone sighed before the person grabbed the potion and force fed the blonde. Slowly his vision solidified, "You feeling better?"
Chuckling wearily, the blonde grabbed the offered bottle of water and groaned in satisfaction as he downed the cool liquid.
"You got careless." Kirito muttered critically at his friend who was sprawled out on the floor.
"Am fine, why in the world did I choose today to forget my peanuts..." Naruto brushed the words off carelessly with a bleary grunt as he forced himself to stand up again but Kirito pushed him back down with a growl, "Enough, you fool. You were supposed to be leading the first group but you insisted on going in with every single group! You've been fighting continuously for the past EIGHT HOURS! You can barely even see straight anymore, or that Boss wouldn't have got you with that simple kick!"
The leader of the first group simply sighed in resignation as he poured the cool liquid all over himself, "What's going on now?"
Kirito huffed; at least the blonde didn't look like he was going to push himself anymore, "They individually seem to have less HP and defence than most of the Bosses we've met so far. In that manner, they are no different from Normal Players, only with tonnes of HP, so that's good... The problem began when we hit the third HP gauge on any one of them; the big guy with the Axe began spamming an AOE by using it to pound the ground to push our group away whenever more than five people surrounds him. The Swordsman is no better, he just starts spinning around like a tornado, so we're effectively limited to at most ten men slowly whittling away at their last HP bar unless we want to risk dog piling him and trying to kill them before they start spamming AOEs again."
Kirito squatted down beside Naruto and continued his assessment of the situation, "That's not all... Just like Normal Players, The Swordsman also began using healing potions on the other two. We managed to keep him busy enough to stop him from fully healing his partners but that's about the limit of what we can do right now. The woman... she doesn't have any AOE's but we don't have many people fast enough to keep up with her when she starts taking riskier manoeuvres instead of staying within shield range. The archers we have simply can't deal with her." He gave the blonde a pointed look, "You are proof of that. The rest were already taken out"
Naruto pulled himself up with a groan, "So we need two of our best tanks to corner him while two or three Sweepers duke it out with the two guys..." He looked up at Kirito with weary eyes, "Can I ask you to take or two other Sweepers and two tanks to deal with him? Keeping him busy is the most important thing. The female has the worst defence of the three, so we just need to get in a few good hits on her."
Kirito looked at him sharply as he began standing up again, "What are you doing?"
"We're so close, I can't stop now." Naruto gritted his teeth and pulled out his last bow before his knees gave way, slumping forwards onto a worried Kirito, "I have an idea, I just... need time."
A new voice joined the conversation, "Don't try to do everything alone-saa, Baka-Ruto." The two boys looked up to see a grinning Argo. Tamamo gently knelt down beside the blonde with wet eyes her eyes as she silently touched the red glowing scar that ran from the blonde's shoulder to hip in a large X.
From behind Naruto and Kirito, Lightning bashed a fist onto both their heads, "Who said that the two of you have to handle everything alone?"
Argo grinned at their dumbfounded looks, "That's right-saa, I can match my speed with hers and distract her. I'll have to leave the rest to you though; my stats are primarily focused for long term speed so I'm not that good with damage dealing."
Kline joined the group, "I may not look it, but I'm pretty fast too, hehehe..." He glanced at the panting blonde with unusual seriousness, "How long do you need?"
"I just need one clear shot." The blonde answered dryly, automatically petting Tamamo's hair without even realizing that he was doing it himself.
Lightning grabbed Kirito by the collar and began dragging him away, "Wai-Where are you taking me?!"
"You and I are going to find Egil or Heathcliff." She answered curtly while Argo and Tamamo followed them, "You have one shot Joker. Don't let us down."
Naruto's lips quirked upwards in a tiny smile, "After hearing you say that, how can I?" He whispered to himself as he opened his menu and materialized a special spear that he saved for this sort of occasion.
The double ended spear's sleek black metal shaft glinted ominously.
****The Hunter****
Play doa – Eiyuu
"You ready?" Kirito muttered to the man in red armour.
Heathcliff smiled serenely, "Of course. I'm very happy that I finally get the chance to work with you Kirito-san."
"Save it." Kirito cut him off curtly, there was something about the man that always set him on edge, be it his ridiculously calm facade or almost condescending attitude towards those that fell short of some sort of invisible standard. Shortly after recruiting him for Naruto's wild plan, the man with the greying hair had refused the additional help, citing that only he and Kirito were necessary. According to the older man, "Adding others would simply be a waste of synergy."
As a result, they were fighting the Swordsman without any backup whatsoever, "It's time."
He smiled as he smoothly deflected the first sword blow with his shield and lock the second between his shield and his blade, "I look forward to working together with you."
Kirito hated to say it, but as they worked together; Heathcliff's impenetrable defence complimented his reckless full frontal assault almost perfectly. Usually, whenever he fought, part of his mind was dedicated to keeping himself and those around him safe, but with Heathcliff's shield almost magnetically being attracted to wherever the Boss' sword was going to strike, Kirito found himself euphorically free to fight the way he wanted.
Nothing the Boss tried managed to get through the formidable shield and sword combination that almost seemed to work together independently. The raven haired boy felt himself justified in comparing his partner's stupidly calm and solid defence to that of a mountain, taking the oncoming steam of attacks without even flinching, allowing Kirito to dance around panicked flailing attacks with barely a glance and mow the man in black leather armour down from the sides freely. which brought up the question of exactly why Heathcliff failed to show off his skills before they were reduced to doing this in a two man team. Kirito had to abandon that line of thought as he dodged another scissor cut from the Swordsman.
The moment the Swordsman tried to pull out a potion, a shield or a blade was already there waiting for it, his only options were to attack or die. And at the rate things were going, dying was inevitable. Something that the Boss apparently realized as he started trying to get some distance from the two of them. Again, the two styles complemented each other perfectly. Heathcliff stood calm as Kirito's agility allowed him to bank around the Swordsman and push him towards the waiting wall of steel that was Heathcliff.
Stuck between a sharp rock and a hard place indeed.
"Kirito! Behind you!"
The Black Swordsman whirled around to see the last Boss bearing down on him with her two daggers.
She swung the daggers that were glowed with a bloody crimson aura.
****The Hunter****
Argo growled as her claws blocked the daggers from disembowelling Kirito from behind, the metal claws sparking against the daggers, "Pay attention Kiri-bou!"
Kirito gave a relieved chuckle as the two of them stood back to back, "I owe you one."
"Deal." Argo pushed the woman back with a surge of strength, "The next time you get some juicy information, you come straight to me-saa. Don't die before then!"
Kirito only smirked dryly as he went back to his own fight, even in the midst of a boss battle, Argo was Argo.
Hissing like a pair of angry felines, the two females raced around the Chamber, Argo poured all of her focus and determination to stop her from backstabbing any more of her friends into the rapid flurry of strikes they exchanged. The air around of them was filled with the sound of clashing blades and flashing metal even as they ran laps around everybody else until the NPC swept her feet out from under her with a low kick, "Ngh!" The Boss smiled down at her coldly and was about to finish her off when a blue blur dashed between them, catching the dagger with her own when the usually shy Tamamo actually managed to muster enough anger to growl at the Boss, "You tried to take Naruto-dono away from me! I won't forgive you!"
"Tamamo! Good job! Don't let her go!" the kimono clad girl nodded silently and pushed the Boss away from Argo. Argo herself was suppressing her anger with a cold grin as she picked herself up and rejoined the battle, "Don't think you won just because your legs are longer!"
The two of them raced towards the fleeing NPC, Tamamo keeping up with Argo with ease as they circled around the NPC like two vultures around a carcass. Which was actually exactly what Argo had in mind. Only a little bit less polite.
The two of them lunged forwards, their daggers flashing in the darkly lit chamber but she somehow managed to hold off the two sided flurry of attacks with ease before leaping upwards and kicking both of them away with a roundhouse kick.
"Kyah!"
"Ooof! How is she so fast? That's not possible," Argo muttered to herself through clenched teeth, "Nothing should be faster than me for at least another ten levels."
"Leave this to Kline-sama!"
Everyone froze.
"No, just... No." Argo shook her head as she slowly breathed out, trying and failing to avert her from the... tragedy that was mauling her eyes.
"What are you talking about? I can't run fast if I'm wearing armour right?" Kline smiled brightly; he was either completely unaware of the fact that everyone was staring at his bright red body suit or utterly shameless enough to not let it bother his sensibilities.
Quite suddenly, everyone was thankful that he always wore armour.
"Speed Moooode, Activate! Wahahaha!"
"PERVERT!" The female Boss quite literally screeched and ran away from the salivating man whose hands were moving in a very disturbing pattern, all thoughts of killing the two downed girls fled her thoughts as fast as she was fleeing from the insane pervert.
Argo face palmed, "Baka-Ruto... If you don't take them out now, I'm going to kill Kline before you do."
****The Hunter****
Baby blue eyes that were as hard as chips of ice focused on the massive Boss in knight's armour, memorizing each and every variation of its attack pattern until Egil's deep rumbling voice penetrated the hazy veil of her concentration, "Are you ready Lightning? Siegel?"
"I'm always ready."
The quiet man in blue light armour only grinned in response.
A heavy palm landed on her shoulder reassuringly, "It'll be fine."
She took a deep breath and smiled faintly at the incredibly calm man, "Thanks. On the count of three?"
He returned the smile with a large toothy grin, "Three!" and charged forth with a mighty roar. The party that was attending to the largest bandit split into two sides as a dark brown blur rasped through their midst, the edge of Egil's axe making a whistling sound before edge met edge in a massive crack that left both Egil and the Boss jarred and completely open. Lightning and Siegel dashed under Egil's guard from behind, sword already glowing with a blue light, "Vertical Square!"
Lightning's blade traced a glowing blue square on the Boss' chest before finishing the combo off with three rapid rapier strikes from Siegel. The two of them instantly danced backwards again, allowing Egil to retake the front, swinging his massive axe like a berserker. Lightning shook her head with a wry smile; Egil was the calmest and gentlest person Lightning had ever met.
Whenever he didn't have an axe in his hand anyway. When it was his turn to fight, the gentle giant invariably transformed into a roaring mad man with a massive hunk of sharpened steel in his hand. And still manage to use it with a grace that surpassed most rapier users. Even now, roaring and salivating under a red haze, Egil's wild blows somehow managed to deflect the Boss' own axe and rend armour plating with no wasted moves, either ignoring or completely unaware of his rapidly dropping health bar.
She snapped up again, "Siegel! Round behind him and attack from there!"
The man nodded and obeyed silently, somersaulted over the Boss, somehow managing to land a few debilitating blows on his eyes with the rapier. Together the three ofthem slowly pushed the Boss into a corner with three pronged attacks. Siegel attacking weak points like the back of the knees while Lightning darted in and out of Egil's crazy swings to slice away at the Boss.
"Eruption!" the Boss' eyes had a crazy gleam in them as he lifted his axe high into the air.
"Oh no you don't, you crazy son of a bitch!" Egil roared in English as he reversed his axe and swung it like a golf club. The sound of the two heavy class weapons meeting with an incredible wrench of steel that caused Lightning to shiver in her boots. Egil's axe shattered but instead of retreating and letting the backup tank take over, the brown skinned man simply threw the pieces of his axe away without a second look and wrapped his arms around the Boss' middle before bending over backwards, furiously slamming the Boss into the ground headfirst.
"A suplex? Really?" Siegel gently murmured with a half smile, "Why didn't we think of that?"
"Bother the suplex, get him while he's down!" Lightning countered as she tried to hack at the growling boss inelegantly, "Egil, get back and calm down!" however her efforts were impeded by the currently unthinking Egil as he pounded the Boss into the ground with his bare hands until a meaty fist slammed into his face with vengeance, throwing him onto the backup tank. The two of them crumpled onto the ground, an unconscious Egil pinning the Divine Dragon Alliance member helplessly to the ground.
"Naruto... whatever you're planning, you better do it quick." Lightning muttered under her breath as she backed away from the Boss that was slowly looming up on her and the lightly armoured Siegel.
"Got it." A weak voice answered from behind her, "Original Skill: Furious Regret."
A black blur torpedoed past her head, and slammed straight into the First Boss' head. The spear ripped straight through his head but it didn't stop there. Dragging the Boss behind it, the black blur rocketed forwards until it pierced the Second Boss' head like a watermelon. Exceeding all odds, the spear raged onwards in a straight line and finished off by drilling through the Third Boss' head and digging into the stone wall with a loud 'Chink!'
The three squirming bosses skewered to the wall like a grotesque decoration, trying and failing to pull themselves off the spear.
With every silent second that passed, their HP slowly drained away until nothing was left.
They died, screaming with their faces destroyed.
[You got the Last Hit.]
Lightning rounded on the man who was slumped down on the wall behind her, too weak to even stand anymore, "What... was That?!"
"A special... spear." He glanced at where Argo was reaching forward to inspect the twanging Spear embedded into the wall, "Argo, you might not want to touch that." A sheepish Argo instantly pulled back her finger and whistled innocently.
Lightning glanced over at the spear and noted it had two points. Actually, rather than a point, it was probably more accurate to call it a barbed anchor.
"It was a demonic level weapon, the Lance of Regret. I got it from a Boss Drop on the seventh floor's Secret Dungeon," Naruto admitted tiredly, "Its base damage was really low but it had a special onetime only ability. If it pierced something, it can't be pulled out until whatever it's piercing is dead."
"Why didn't you use something like that sooner?" She demanded from the blonde. In response, he simply gestured at the lance. She whirled around just in time to see the Lance of Regret slowly dissolving, "Like I said, it was one time use. Quite literally." The blonde shrugged.
****The Hunter****
"Good job." Asuna smiled as she passed around bottles of water to her utterly wasted party.
Tanaka smiled weakly at the most experienced member of his little group, "Is it always like this?"
"Not always." Asuna conceded, "Usually it's just one very large Main Boss and a few flunkies along for the ride. But then again, this is only the eleventh floor; I can't say that there won't be any more even more complex encounters like this one."
Tanaka slowly nodded, "It... It was really hard, but I wanted to thank you."
"Hum?" Asuna cocked her head with some confusion, "What for?"
"Half way through the boss, I realized that you were holding back, leading us, protecting us instead of fighting the Boss or we would have died a few times over already." Tanaka murmured, "So... thanks."
"It's alright." She was about to say more when she heard sobbing from behind her, "Rika? What's wrong?!"
The freckled girl pushed Asuna way from her and ran off into the maze without a word.
"Oh no..." Tanaka and Hideyoshi groaned as they tried to force themselves to their feet, "We have to help her. She doesn't know her way around here."
Asuna laid a calming hand on their shoulders before grinning widely, "It's alright, and you're both wiped out. I still have enough energy to go look for her. Just leave it to me."
****True Hunter****
The brown haired girl smiled sweetly as she peered into the small crack in the wall, "Found you."
Wet brown eyes looked up before Rika buried her face into her knees again, "How did you find me?"
Asuna smiled gently as she swung herself into the small hole in the wall and took a seat the crying girl, "It's easy if you have the Pursuit skill and you know the person's in game name."
The two of them sat silently, Asuna allowing the girl to cry everything out and take the initiative herself when she calmed down again, "I can't do it..." She sniffed again, "I just can't. I really want to help, I don't want to feel useless, but every time I think of fighting, my hands shake and I can't breathe no matter how hard I push myself."
"You're trying too hard." Asuna commented with a small smile, "You're so focused on what you think people expect of you that you sort of blocked yourself from doing what you CAN do."
Rika glared at the slightly older girl, "What would you know?! You're beautiful and capable, what would someone like you know about what a low level newbie like me can do?"
"I DO know." Asuna stated firmly.
"Eh?"
Asuna laid her chin on her knees with a thoughtful expression, "I think it was around the Fifth floor. I wanted to leave this game so badly that all I thought, all I did was train. I forced myself to sleep only two or three hours a day. Every other was used to train, but a... friend of mine sort of uh..." Asuna hesitated. How was she supposed to phrase the fact that Naruto basically knocked her out with a wooden log and dragged her back to the cabin, "Uh... basically he didn't like what I was doing. When I woke up, I was SO angry that I said something that I will never forgive myself for. I said; what would someone like you know? A gamer nerd like you wouldn't have any friends or tests, or expectations to go back to in the real world, of course you would want to stay here where it's heaven for you. No work, no responsibilities, no bills, no tests, you get to do what you love all day! How can you understand what I want?!"
Rika gaped at the sadly smiling woman.
"Do you know what he said then?"
She shook her head.
"He didn't say anything, he just smiled. Then he made a bet with me. He said he could find a faster way for me to get out of this game if I listened to him for a week. So for the first three days, I was allowed to train and level as much as I liked the way I had been doing. Then for the next three days, I was forced to sleep, rest and eat properly before devoting the rest of the time to training. At the end of the week, we would compare how many levels I had gained during the first three days and the second three days."
"Did you win?"
Asuna smiled gently, "Is that what you think? If there's one other thing I learned, it's to never bet against him. He always wins. Especially since his dice are usually loaded from the get go." She finished dryly.
Rika sort of shrugged until Asuna pulled the girl into a gentle hug, "Sometimes, if you are too focused on one goal, you lose sight of everything else. All it takes is to stand back once in a while. Grinding yourself into the ground, forcing yourself to meet expectations won't do anyone any good if you're left broken and hollow at the end."
Tanaka's face appeared at the other end of the hole, from where they were sitting, the two girls could see the stoic Hideyoshi was standing a little ways away with a small smile, "She's right." He hefted the shield that he had been using for the entire battle, "You might not be able to fight that well, but you see this shield? It kept me safe countless times. No matter how many times I was hit, it kept me safe, and you were the one that crafted it for me."
Asuna smiled, gently dusting off her trousers by instinct as she watched the three friends make up. Together all three of them made to walk back to the Chambers when Rika asked something that she had been thinking about the entire walk, "Neh, Yuuki-san?"
"Hmmm?"
"You said your friend helped you learn something, who is he? Was he fighting with us?"
The motherly brown haired girl chuckled lightly, "Yeah he was."
****The Hunter****
Author's Note
Do note that neither I nor Kishi have any extensive experience in gaming or strategies. . Please don't scold me too badly if the so called strategies displayed in this work of fiction is about as effective as horse shit in real games.
White knighting; standard internet slang for someone who appears like the term implies, a white knight, to protect someone else from online attacks, usually from a troll. For some reason, people think that they do that to get women. Not entirely sure why trying to be a decent person amounts to something like that.
Also, the final results are out and Kishi failed two of his last subjects so he can't graduate. On one hand, that means his still in university and fully available to write. On the other hand, he has to get another part time job because his sponsors refused to pay for an extension. Either way, I doubt he can write as often as we'd like.
My apologies.