(Aincrad-First Floor-Tolbana-2 and a half Weeks Later)
Harry, Tekuya, Neville, Draco, Fred, George, Yusei, Jaden and Yuya all walked into the coliseum like structure and saw Kirito sitting there on his own, they quickly walked over and sat by him, three on each row, he turned to them and grinned "I see you are all in one piece, congrats, most groups of nine wouldn't make it this far without losing someone when they had just started gaming".
Harry grinned "We're resilient Bastards, we survive everything" Kirito nodded and looked at their armour, he tilted his head "isn't that crafted custom armour? That shit is expensive" they chuckled "Not if one of our group is the blacksmith" they all turned to Tekuya who was looking over the area with a calculating look, he felt the eyes on him and turned to see his friends and Kirito looking at him, he titled his head "What?" they chuckled "Nothing".
Tekuya went back to analysing everyone and Kirito chuckled "Is he always like this?" Harry shook his head "Nah, just sometimes but given that I expect this to be about the boss room, he is analysing everyone's possible capabilities" Kirito nodded "That makes sense, it's nice to see you again Myrddin" Harry nodded "You too Kirito, shall I introduce you to the rest of my little group?" Kirito raised an eyebrow "Not so little but sure".
Harry pointed at Tekuya "That is Salazar, our Blacksmith/Analyst" he pointed at Neville "That is Godric, our Tank/Heavy Hitter" he pointed ta Draco "That is Draconis, our Strategist/Spy" he pointed at Fred and George "They are Mordred and Arthur, our Trap Experts and Scouts" he pointed at Yusei "That is Cosmic, our speed based hitter with a bit of power behind him" he pointed at Jaden "That is Judai, our other Scout and Analyst and" he pointed at Yuya "That is Zarc, our Back-up Tank and Heavy Hitter, he may not seem like it but he packs a wallop".
Kirito waved to them all "So you have everything you need for a guild, just not a building for it?" Harry nodded "We try to branch out our skill sets, for instance Salazar is a Martial Artist so we got him to do the martial Arts quest and make himself a Weapon that works for his fighting style" Kirito looked over Tekuya and finally saw what looked like bladed Knuckle Dusters "Holy shit" Harry grinned at him "I know right".
They all quietened down as a man with Blue Hair stood in front of them all "Hello everyone thank you all for coming, my name is Diabel and my role in this game is Knight" that got several laughs from the players "There is no role system in this game" Tekuya spoke up "That's not true". Everyone turned to him "There is a role system, otherwise classes like Tanks and Blacksmiths wouldn't exist, he might have filled the right expectations and been given the choice to become the role of Knight".
The others in the arena sat back down and looked thoughtful at Tekuya's words, Diabel nodded his thanks "Now as we know, we have been in here month and the last known player death total was over 2000" a lot of players looked depressed at that "But we have finally found the boss room" everyone looked at Diabel in shock. He grinned "Now we all need to get into teams of at least two to three" a voice interrupted him "I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY" everyone turned to watch a guy with ginger hair and a scowl walk up to Diabel.
Diabel sighed "What is it Kibaou? we are in the middle of a Boss meeting" "I have something to get off my chest, I lot of people in this room are part of the reason we are so unprepared for this Boss Fight" Tek's eyes narrowed as he muttered "He is gonna be a problem". Diabel turned to Kibaou "You are talking about the Beta Testers right?" Kibaou nodded with a sneer "They took all of best loot farming areas and missions as soon as the game started, they didn't help us at all, they should just cough up their loot to us now".
A booming voice was heard "If I might intercept?" they all turned to see a giant of a man, he was black wearing green armour and had a massive black Battle axe on his back, Kibaou actually took a step back from him. The larger man looked at him "Kibaou is it? If I get what you're saying, you are saying that the Beta Testers didn't help us and that they should hand over their loot, right?" Kibaou nodded, the black man then pulled a book out of his inventory.
"Did you get this book for the beginners? Like most others in here did" Kibaou nodded "Yea, what about it?" the black man turned to everyone else "This book was handed out to everyone that would take one, it was written by the Beta Testers, everyone read it and still some people died, the Beta Testers did the best they could in the Situation they were in" everyone started nodding and Kibaou sat down with a huff.
Diabel shot the black man a smile "Thank you, now the next part I was about to say is that the book has information on the Boss, his name is Illfang the Kobold Lord, he wields an Axe and a Buckler and has Kobold Sentinels as his guards, when he enters the red zone, he will switch from his Axe and Buckler to a Talwar and his attack patterns will completely change, though it does say that this may not be completely accurate as Kayaba may have changed things".
He clapped the book shut "So I want you all to get into teams of 3 to 5 and then we'll meet at the boss room tomorrow at 12:30" and with that he and his party left the arena. Harry and Tek nodded at each other before turning back to the others "Here is how we will do this, we'll be in teams of three, the first will be Myself, Salazar and Godric, the second will be Arthur, Mordred and Draconis, then it will be Cosmic, Judai and Zarc, we good?" they nodded and left the arena noticing that Kirito was talking to someone in a cloak.
(Boss Room-The Next Day)
The doors swung open after Diabel gave a speech, Harry turned Kirito and his companion "We'll watch your back mate, you'll have three of us with you" Kirito nodded and turned to his companion "Let's do this" the girl nodded as they all entered the dark room. Everyone stopped as the lights came on, in the centre was a large red kobold, he was snarling at them, he stood and howled as 3 health bars, appeared above his head along with his name.
Illfang the Kobold Lord, roared again causing 12 little Kobolds in armour to appear, names appeared above them, the Kobold Sentinels rushed forwards with heavy blunt weapons. Diabel raised his sword "Attack" the players rushed into the fray. After several Minutes of fighting, the girl started to so true promise in team fighting "Well done, We'll get you through this, I promise" and with that Jaden spun around and launched a sword skill, causing one of the Sentinels that was about to attack Kirito from behind, to shatter.
Kirito looked at the shattered remains before turning to Jaden "Thanks Judai" Jaden nodded "Eyes on the battle, Cosmic, to your left" Yusei spun to the left causing his sword to tear through the Sentinel "Thanks Judai" and with that the group began to fight properly again. After another half hour the Boss's health finally hit the Red Zone, he began to growl and he dropped his Axe and Buckler, Diabel rushed forward activating a sword skill, when Illfang pulled a blade off of his back.
Kirito froze "Shit, Diabel, that's not a Talwar, it's a ōdachi" Diabel stopped and Illfang began to jump around, Tekuya and Harry nodded to each other and rushed over there. Diabel saw his life flash before his eyes as the boss jumped at him, only for him to be pulled to the ground, as he was pulled he watched another of the players, shoulder barge Illfang sending him off course, he looked to see one of that players partners glaring at him "Stop being an idiot, now get up and fight".
Tekuya looked at the boss "I have its aggro, Cosmic, help the other teams, Arthur, being distraction plan alpha, I'll keep its attention, keep the little shits, if any spawn, off me, Myrddin, Godric, I'm gonna need some backup" Kirito and the girl raced over "We have your back as well" Tekuya and Harry nodded.
Tekuya started jumping, dodging and weaving through Illfang's attacks, the other players just watched on dumbfounded "How is he?" "THAT DOESN'T MATTER" they all turned to Harry who had raised his sword "WHAT MATTERS IS THAT HE IS OUT THERE FIGHTING IN ON HIS OWN, NOW IF YOU ALL WANT TO COWER, GO AHEAD, BUT I'M GOING OUT THERE TO SUPPORT MY FRIEND AND DEFEAT THIS GAME, TO THE END OF AINCRAD" the players felt their spirits lifting and they all raised their weapons "TO THE END OF AINCRAD" and with that they rushed in again.
They all rushed in, Tekuya jumped back "Hey big guy" Agil turned to him "You talking to me?" Tekuya nodded "Toss me up, would ya?" Agil blinked "Sure" Agil picked up Tekuya and tossed him with all of his strength, Tekuya angled himself as he began to fall "METEOR FIST" the sword skill coated his body and he crashed into Illfang sending him flying, they all looked to see Illfang lose half of his remaining health, the players cheered.
Tekuya rose panting, before falling to one knee, Kirito and the girl flew past him and continued to fight as Harry helped Tekuya up, Agil rushed over "You alright?" Tekuya grinned "Sorry, the attack I used, has a downside, it causes me to lose 75% of my over all PP and *Gasps* I take 25% of the damage that I inflict" everyone there looked at his health bar and winced when they saw it in the red "Why would you do that?" Tekuya smiled "To give them all hope, to show them that they can win" Agil nodded "I'm Agil" "Salazar, nice to meet ya".
After another 5 Minutes of attacking the boss shattered, The nine all grinned at Kirito who got the last attack bonus, the players all began to cheer as they realised that they had won "STOP CHEERING" everyone fell silent and all eyes ended up on Kibaou. He glared at Kirito and Tekuya "How? How did you know about that weapon? And how did you do all that stuff you did? Tell me? are you beta testers?" A dark chuckled escaped Tekuya's lips.
Everyone turned to Tekuya who was just laughing "Beta Testers, more like greenhorns, most of them couldn't even activate a sword skill for the first couple of days, but no, I wasn't in the Beta Tests, Kirito knowing about that swords simply means that he knows about ancient Japanese weapons but for me to do the things I do" another dark chuckle escaped him as he turned around to face them, his face became stoic "I can do that stuff because I helped design the game".
Everyone stared at him in shock "I didn't know that it would become a Death Game, that wasn't in the briefing but I did help design the Custom Blacksmith levelling system, the Weapons System so there are close to 50 different weapon types in the game, the small amount of Magic System which is only on enchanted items and I helped design some of the levels, this game is partial of my design" he smirked at them all.
"So your not a Beta Tester or a Cheater, you are a God Damned Devil" Tekuya chuckled "A devil *Scoffs* hardly, I'm much, much worse, tell me, you have all put your skill points into your slots, have you not?" they all nodded, Tekuya and the other eight opened their menus and made them public, everyone saw that they hadn't used a single point and that they were almost ten levels higher than everyone else.
"So you see, we didn't need the skills, we are so much more than you could dream of being, come on guys, lets leave the sheep to follow the loudest bleat" and with that the Nine walked through the doorway, Kirito and Asuna following at a rapid pace.