A/N: I hope you will like this chapter. I am not sure if I will keep the story going or end it in a few chapters. Since I am not sure when I find the time again to write, I will think about it. But thank you for all the support and I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 16

I was one of the first to arrive and walked towards a corner so I wouldn't stand out much. The first ones to spot me there were Agil and Klein. We had a small talk about the boss, strategies and finding information from each other's. I didn't know much about this floor since this is only the second time I am on this floor. The first time was for the dual between Heathcliff and Kirito.

Just after I said that Asuna and Kirito arrived at the gate. Klein and Agil walked to them to say hello, but I didn't. I was busy thinking about the upcoming battle. The 5 out of 10 players from the recon team that had entered the boss room were killed in 5 minutes. Since the recon team has a lot of strong players, it means this boss is really strong and would be difficult to beat.

That part left me with a dilemma. If I were to use defense, I needed the Sentinel Repulsor as my primary because that sword works the best with the shield Zero Raiser. But if I needed for attacking, I needed the Sentinel Repulsor as my secondary to be able to use the higher hit-combo sword skills.

It wasn't that hard to switch swords for me thanks to my extra skill Sword Birth but it would take me a little time. Time that I maybe don't have. Maybe it was better so stop thinking about that now and see what the fight will be like.

I decided to start with defense since it was not as weird as only a sword during a boss fight. To make sure I had enough healing poisons I opened the system window and looked in my inventory. As I was doing that, a message popped up. As I look at who it was from, a little burst of anger burnt inside of me.

"If you had joined the recon group, they maybe survived. I hope you will keep this in mind. Heathcliff."

I replied right away at this messages.

"I will keep in mind that messages like this will keep me from coming to this raid from now on. I hope you will too."

I tried to control my anger to not let anyone notice it. I needed to focus on the upcoming battle instead of my anger towards him. But he didn't gave me a change since a new message popped up.

"Do as you like. It won't matter since after this raid everyone will know you are a cheater."

"Make sure you also say that it was your company's fault that I am able to use this power. Since I am using this power to survive this game and save a lot of people in the process, I think they will understand."

After I had hit the send button I readied up my equipment. I decided to start with defense since I didn't see a lot of defensive players around me. I notice a lot of people looking over to me the moment I selected the shield.

Shortly after the teleport gate lighted up and Heathcliff appeared. He didn't look happy, almost angry and it didn't improve the moment he looked over at me.

It was a quick second that our eyes made contact but a burning hate was seen in his eyes. But I couldn't understand why. It couldn't be only because I hadn't joined the KoB I thought. Or didn't he liked the fact that I did know about his secret and was afraid I tell people?

I decided that it was best to ignore that for now. The fight would be happening soon and it wouldn't be good if I carried anger towards him into that fight. Since he had covert me a few time during boss raids, it would be shameful to not return that favor if it was him who needed it, even with the things that had happened just now.

After he had opened a corridor towards the boss room, we all checked our equipment to make sure we were all ready for this fight. I couldn't help it, but I felt a little chill going over my back. Almost as if I knew that something bad was about to happen. I ignored it as Heathcliff was about to open the door.

The moment it was open, we all ran inside ready to attack the boss. We looked around inside the dark room but no one could see were the boss was. I closed my eyes to see if it was hiding somewhere and used the Stealth Skill to see my surroundings.

First I didn't notice it but the moment I felt it I heard Asuna scream.

"Above us!"

As we looked up a skeleton was hanging on the ceiling and roared at us. Then it jumped down towards where most of the players where trembling with fear. In a reflex I grabbed the 2 closest players next to me as I dashed backwards.

The moment the Skull Reaper hit the floor, a bright red light filled the room. 2 players tried to ran away from it in fear, but the boss ran after them and hit them with his sharp scythe.

The 2 went flying after such a strong hit towards Asuna and Kirito. From there movements I could see them trying to catch the players but just before that, they burst out into polygons. They had died after just one hit.

A big fear ran through my body. How can we defeat a monster that strong?

"No, we have to defeat it no matter what it takes." I softly said.

I saw Heathcliff, together with Kirito and Asuna trying to block the scythes to let the rest attack. As I moved in to do that, the tail of the boss attacked taking out a couple more players.

I quickly dashed towards its next target and blocked the tail with my shield. The power of the attack was unbelievable and I had to put a lot of strength to block it.

The moment I countered and hit with a high level Sword Skill I looked to see how many damaged I had done. A new shock went through my body the moment I noticed the boss had almost none HP lost at all!

The shock hit my body and made it feel as if it was made of stone. I slowly took a few steps back while I kept my eyes on the HP bar. From everywhere came attacks in and still its HP wouldn't drop.

"N-no way…. T-this can't be…" I stuttered.

I noticed too late that the boss had turned to me and was attacking with his scythe.

I quickly raised my shield in front it, but because I was still frozen from shock, the attack send me flying. The impact was so powerful that my shield got loose from my arm and flew away from me.

I landed hard on the stone floor and my sword fell out of my hand. The sharp pain that came with it, fueled my brain and started to work again. In this game there is not a choice that was giving up. We had to keep going to survive!

I quickly stood up as the boss was running towards me to finish me off. But because my mind was working again, I felt no fear.

"This isn't the time of my death, but the time to proof what I am worth off" I whispered.

I saw in my field of vision that my sword and shield where too far to reach in time to block the incoming boss. Quickly I took a throwing knifes from each leg. In the bottom of my vision I saw the switching of the skills and the disappearing of my shield. A small icon told me it has returned to my inventory because the Skill Holy Sword was no longer active.

Since the Extra Skill Knife Assault was now active, my aim would be almost perfect as well as the speed of the knifes will be too fast to counter. But my comeback wasn't completed yet. I switched the scabbard of the Sentinel Repulsor to the left side. I didn't materialized the Exidator since that would activate Dual Wield instead of Knife Assault.

I dashed forward and activated the strongest knife throwing skill available and threw them at the incoming boss. I entered his attack range during that move but since he got hit with the knifes he would be feeling a little knockback effect, stopping him from attacking.

I jumped toward my sword while I grabbed the handle of the Exidator that appeared on my back and activated the strongest sword skill I knew, the Dragon' Sentinel.

As I aimed the 29-hit combo onto the face of the boss, Kirito and Heathcliff who catched up had blocked it's scythed to cover my back so I could finish the combo completely.

After the last hit, I jumped back between Kirito and Heathcliff and looked at the damage I had done. The full combo had done almost 75% of the first HP bar and was nearly completely empty.

"We need to do that again, over and over again until we reach the half-way point and counter the next waves of attacks and continue from there." Heathcliff said.

"We can't. This combo is so powerful, the system only let me do it once every 2 hours. So that plan won't work." I replied.

"How about the other combo?" Kirito asked as I returned the Sentinel Repulsor back to its scabbard.

"I need the Sentinel Repulsor for that but because of the high powerful sword skill, it won't be able to perform any high hit combo's for the next hour. That is the big disadvantage of that sword skill." I replied.

"And how about Starburst Stream? Can you still use that one?"

"I can use my Dark Repulsor for that so it will work. What are you thinking off?"

"Using switch, we can together create a 32-hit combo if we match our timing. Heathcliff, can you cover us while we are doing this?"

Heathcliff gave a nod as agreement while I voice came from behind.

"We will help with that too and counter at the same time."

I looked over towards the voice and noticed Asuna, Agil and Klein with his guild ready to help us.

"But you have to tell me how you are able to copy Kirito's Dual Wield." Whispered Agil in my ear.

"Let's first survive this and then that will be explained." I responded and a smile appeared on my face.

We took our positions and began our attack before the boss could kill other players. Heathcliff covered the right with Asuna and Agil to counter and Klein took the left with his guild.

On the moment Kirito's combo was at its last hit, I moved in to attack with mine. The moment I dashed forward, Heathcliff shield appeared in my path and I knew what he was trying to do and I responded to it.

Because there was not a lot of room, the risk that I would hit Kirito was high. But Heathcliff had solve that problem now. I jumped and kicked my foot off the shield and attacked the boss while still in the air.

I knew I wouldn't stay in the air during the combo but this gave Kirito enough time to get away without the risk of me hitting him. The moment I jumped back I noticed a smile on his face while he looked over to me. Maybe Heathcliff wasn't as bad as I thought he was.

Together with the rest of the players we countered this way and stopped the boss from attacking us since it couldn't get away. The moment the HP of the boss was nearly completely gone we stopped with it and attacked all out on Heathcliff's command.

It took us nearly one and a half hours, but now finally the boss was defeated and exploded into polygons and a loud cheers ran through the room.

Not soon after that, almost all players dropped to the floor. We all had fought so hard, that we all had to rest before going up to the stairs and activate the transport gate. The only one that wasn't sitting or lay down on the floor was Heathcliff. Was he trying to look strong to stay like that?

I didn't gave it more attension and started to drink a healing poison and stopped thinking of it. Now is not the time to think.