Illfang the Koblod lord was a large beast of red flesh and glowing red eyes, he had large rabbit like ears and a long and fat tail, he wielded a huge one bladed wooden handled axe which looked sharp enough to cleave through bone, flesh and armor alike. Without fear we walked into the room with Diabel a the point, this was the time we would fight and win for the first but not the last time.
When we had all entered the room the walls lit up with an iridescent glow which lit the whole hallway and seemingly awoke the kobold lord as he leapt from his throne with great power and landed in the middle of the hall where we could truly see what we were up against.
At this distance we could see that he wielded the imposing axe in one hand with a large shield in the other and on his lower back hung a large black sword like weapon that looked like an elongated butchers knife. As he landed with a tremendous thud he gave out a huge intimidating roar, at this his 4 health bars appeared along side his head and his nameplate and red crystal atop his head. Suddenly plumes of light started to appear round the room bringing small heavily armoured red lizard men carrying large maces of solid stone, the Ruin Sentinels.
They then all of a sudden charged head long at us with all their force.
"Commence Attack!" Ordered Diabel who sensed that this was the time to begin the fighting.
At his command we all charged into the oncoming enemies and all of us clashed against our foes at the same time. Me and Andrew were assigned to keep the sentinels busy which is exactly what we did. I attacked the sentinels weapons with all my strength to knock back or stun the enemy which was quickly followed by me moving back to face the next one while Andrew delivered the final blows the the stunned Kobold. Another strategy we both used was just to use pure strength and precision aiming to hit the sentinels in their armor's weak spot just below the chest area which would normally take them out within one to two hits. This was unlike anything we had faced before on the first floor, the monsters were much harder to hit due to their improved AI as a boss minion allowing them to successfully evade, block and parry a good number of our strikes. However even with them being as hard as they were the guard parties were making short work with the continually spawning sentinels allowing the main squad of 14 players to strike at Illfang all at the same time without suffering any casualties.
Throughout the fight Diabel was barking orders to everyone to get them to help other groups, disengage the monsters or to charge back in for the attack. However much I hated being ordered around I could see that his tactics were truly working in this fight and decided to follow his few orders to the guard groups. However much I may not like Diabel for what he was doing I had to admire his skill on the field and his cool head which seemed to be saving a lot of lives which an unorganised mindless attack would have taken.
The battle was in our favour and it was coming to a close as after I dispatched another of the sentinels with a now practiced ease I saw that Illfang's health was all but gone except for a small red section that still remained on the last bar. This is where, if the guide book was right, he should be changing weapons and his fighting style in an aggressive and dangerous way. He did this by just flinging his held weapons into the air and away from him, they fell loudly at each side of the hallway abandoned. No more Kobold sentinels were spawning into the room now that the final phase had begun.
When Diabel saw this happen he stopped the rest of us from attacking the now dangerous boss and boldly charged in himself, shield raised and glowing sword behind him. He stopped just in front of Illfang and raised his sword up further to let the sword skill truly charge up completely.
Illfang then drew the sword like weapon on his back and wielded it in one hand. I looked at it closely. That wasn't the Talwar that the book described. That was a Nodachi! Something had changed and now Diabel was running straight into a fight he was totally unprepared for.
"Jump back as fast a you can!" Shouted the black haired player from the other pair I saw the day before, he to had realised what was going on and was trying to warn Diabel of the danger he was in. However Diabel didn't hear the warning soon enough. When he was about to engage his enemy it Jumped up onto one of the pillars and began jumping between them before coming slamming his powered sword down onto the confused and unsuspecting Diabel. Diabel was thrown into the air by the powerful hit where he was again hit by the Boss' sword with great force and was thrown across the room where he landed with great force on the floor.
After his first victim was down he Jumped up and landed down in the centre of all the watching players who quickly either move away or prepare to block it's strong attacks. As both me and Andrew prepared for the fight I saw the Black haired person run Over to Diabel and begin to hurriedly talk to him but what happened afterwards I didn't see as I was now locked in brutal combat with the rest of the players against the boss that had indubitably just killed our brave leader. As it gave out a great roar and a powerful couple of sweeps the players fighting it including myself and Andrew were defeated and had to retreat back to avoid death.
However a few moments after this I saw the black haired player and his party member, the hooded and cloaked girl charge through the opening straight at the boss. Alone. The guy blocked Illfang's charged shot with one of his own while his partner who wielded a rapier went in for the attack. However Illfang shot out a quick attack which she was able to avoid but her cloak was completely destroyed, this revealed her as a young faced fighter with long flowing orange hair wearing a red jacket over a white shirt. She quickly followed up with a powerful stab which knocked Illfang back long enough for the guy to begin another attack against the boss. They performed the same block and switch tactic to perfection until Illfang changed his sweep halfway through which hit the guy right in the chest and threw him back into the girl and both of them onto the floor. The Kobold was over them within a few seconds and was swinging his weapon down at the two without mercy. The girl raised her rapier to try and block the attack and to protect her party friend who was still on the ground. However before the two swords hit each other Egil had charged in and had parried Illfang's blow with a massive sweep of his green glowing battle axe. This pushed him back a lot and far from the wounded player. At this the rest of the players rallied together and charged at their aggressor to allow the pair time to recover. The support attack we put up however, didn't last too long as we were all smashed down by a powerful sweep which evaded all of our blocks. Illfang then sprang into the air above us with the intention of falling back down and crushing us all below it's heavy body or deadly blade. However while it was in mid air the black haired player appeared above us and struck his sword at Illfang with enough strength to knock it off course and away from the players below it. He then charged down after it with the girl at his side. The resulting battle was quick. After a few powerful block and strikes the guy let out a huge battle cry and cut his sword through Illfang's whole body and cutting his head in half. This blow knocked him into the air where he exploded into a million particles with a large flash of blinding blue light.
We all stood there, staring wondering if it had ended or if it was just another trick. But after a few moments we all realised that we had done it. We had defeated the first boss, at long last we had done it. A large "Congratulations" appeared in the sky and everyone began to cheer in joy and excitement at our victory and looking at all the exp and money we had gained from the battle on little panels that had appeared in front of everyone. It took a few moments to quiet down but once we had we all looked to the player who had killed the boss which was Illfang the Kobold Lord and started applauding him. Egil and the girl he fought with were over by him talking to him. But not everyone was pleased at our first real victory.
"Why?" shouted Kibaou from the back of the crowd with anger in his voice. "Why did you let Diabel die?"
"Let him die?" The victor replied with confusion in his voice.
"Of course! You knew that technique the boss used! If you'd told us about that up front, he wouldn't have died!" He responded with pure anger mixed with some grief. People began to whisper between themselves at what was said and some agreeing with it.
"He must be a Beta Tester!" One of the players shouted his accusation at the victor. "That's how he knew all the Boss' attack patterns. He knew, but he didn't tell us! Other beta testers are here, too, right? Come out!" He demanded of the crowd. But if there was any beta testers no body came forward and only quietly talked with each other. This is when Egil went up to Kibaou and began talking angrily to him before a high pitched laughing of a man stopped him. It was the victor, all attention was on him again now.
"A Beta tester? I wish you wouldn't compare me to those newbies." he said to Kibaou cockily.
"W-What?!" Responded Kibaou who was extremely confused at this.
The victor began walking through the players towards Kibaou as he spoke. "Most of the thousand Beta testers were beginners who didn't even know how to level up. You guys are better than what they are." He stated indifferently. "But I'm not like them. I made it higher than anyone else during the beta test. The reason I know the Boss's skills is because I fought monsters with Katana skills on floors far above us. I know a lot more. Way more than any information broker." He continued with a tone of being above us all.
"W-What?" Kibaou repeated, still unsure about who he was facing. "That... That's way worse than a beta tester! You're cheating! A cheater!" he said irritated finally grasping what the victor was saying.
"A Beta tester and a cheater... A Beater!" one of the outraged players shouted at the victor.
"A Beater. I like it." The victor said in a smug voice "That's right... I am a Beater. From now on, don't confuse me with the other testers." He finished as he equipped a long flowing black coat and walked off towards the next floor staircase. All of the players stood there watching him, except for the girl who ran after him and held a small conversation before he walked off in victory to the next floor.
"Well we did it. We actually did it. We cleared the first floor. But we lost Diabel in that fight, the only one to fall." I say solemnly as I realise how much of a loss his death was.
"He did just run at the boss on his own, against his own plans as well. But yes he will be missed. But what about that Beater guy he didn't seem to bad till the end with Kibaou." Andrew replied seriously but with the undeniable tone of being happy at the battle.
"The Beater? Well to be honest from what I saw he was surprised at seeing a Nodachi in that battle and was luckily able to adapt and anyway I don't think there's actually much point going against him as the more knowledge or at least good players we have the quicker we get through the game." I say with certainty that what I am saying is right. "Now lets advance to the next floor. This one has become quite tedious don't you think." I say to Andrew in a posh British accent before calmly walking to the stairs which a large number of players were climbing now.
"Well with a new floor there's a whole new set of dungeons, monsters and a new boss at the end, and it's like that for the next 99 floors." he comments with an annoyance at how the world was created.
"Yes, but think about the new towns, terrains, items, buildings and adventures each new floor will bring. It's worth the constant battle." I say with curiosity about the next floor. We walk up the gray and smooth granite steps towards a small polished oak door which had a brass door knob. I held the cold and solid door knob turned it and pulled the door open. Behind the door was a shifting luminous nothingness of which I guessed to be a floor portal. So I walked through it without fear of the other side and was engulfed by the shifting lights of the portal until I stood upon a cliff which overlooked a vast expanse of hills grassy and a number of rocky mountains cutting through the many clouds that covered the sky.