Me and the Golden-Oak Rangers, stood around a grey stone, engraved table, with the rest of the front line players and their guilds. The largest of the guilds were the Knights of the Blood Oath in their heavy white and red armour and the Divine Dragon Alliance in their Blue and grey iron armour. We were here to discuss the upcoming strategy for defeating the 32nd floor's boss, a fully grown Fire Drake. At the head of the table with hands pressed flat upon the table was the second in command of the Knights of the Blood Oath. She had long chestnut brown hair and fiery hazel eyes, she had the nickname of the lightning flash Asuna for the absolute mad speed at which she wielded her white steel rapier which rested, sheathed in her belt. She had become known by the front liners as one of the most determined players to clear the floors and return to the real world, not for glory or fame but because she believed this world to be nothing more than a fake world of danger and sorrow.
"Come on people, think! We need to have an agreed plan before we go into that room! Does anyone know anything about this boss?" She demands of the assembled players with an authoritative and determined voice.
"All we know is that it's a large fully grown Fire Drake." I say calmly to the players, un-fazed by her demanding shouts.
"Really, is that all we know. Do we know any of it's attacks or weapons that it might use against us?" She asks, looking me right in the eyes with determination.
"Well we can guess that it is like most of the Drakes on the floor. Claws, breath attack and tail. Claws are used as a base attack against enemies but can do a good deal of damage. A breath attack can vary but considering it is a Fire Drake we can assume that it will have fire powers, it will probably use them if it sees a large group together in one place to do splash damage or begin to randomly attack with it when it feels in danger or when enraged. It's tail attack could hit people trying to flank the beast or for a large AOE sweep of it's attackers." I tell the assembled players with a loud voice returning Asuna's stare with equal determination to win.
"Okay, that's better than what we had 5 minutes ago, thank you Woods. Now lets get down to planning the attack." She says happily moving back from the table and folding her arms, inviting people to voice their suggestions. This is when Heathcliff steps forward, he was the leader and founder of the Knights of the Blood Oath. He was a tall and muscular man with light brown hair, he wore a blood red set of armour and had a long one handed steel sword sheathed and a large white shield embossed with a red cross of the Knights Templar.
"I would suggest having approximately three decoy teams and three attack teams. Have the decoy teams distract and aggravate the beast into attacking them and then the attack teams switch in from the flanks and do damage before backing out and waiting for the decoy teams to re distract the Drake." He lays out his simple plan with a deep authoritative yet calm voice.
"Well that wasn't too hard was it" I hear Oliver say quietly behind me. He along with the rest of the Rangers didn't like the Knights of the Blood Oath and their authoritative ways. "And who would you have being the distraction, as obviously you and your guild must have the last hit don't they?" He continued in a raised irritated voice so that every one could hear him.
Heathcliff sent a cold glare over to Oliver who he disliked as much as Oliver hated him. But with a level headed voice and calm composure he answered. "Okay then, my Knights and the Dragons should be big enough for a sufficient decoy team and your Rangers and the other guilds can act as strike force, happy now." He started by looking at the sea of red and red, white and grey armour to the mob of different colours from the solo players and non-uniformed guilds and finishing upon the small band of gold and brown armour of the Rangers.
"We all finished up then, any questions?" Asuna steps in signalling the end of the strategy meeting.
"When are we going to do it?" I ask without hesitation after realising that was the one thing we hadn't truly discussed.
"We'll do it at noon tomorrow." Asuna answered after a pause to think. "Any more questions." She continued but after she saw no more questions she ended the meeting with a curt "Meeting adjourned." At that the room began to empty of the smaller guilds and solo players and then quickly followed out by the bigger and main clearing guilds with the last to leave being the Knights of the Blood Oath. I followed the Rangers as they walked out of the conference room and towards the floor portal.
"I bet you that they intended to be the strike teams, the Knights and Dragons, and making the rest of us do decoy, just so that they could get the last hit for the boss item." Oliver commented angrily when out of earshot of the other front liners. I looked at him and saw fire in his eyes. He was against most power playing and playing other people down just for their own gain, exactly what the Knights and Dragons usually did during boss battles.
"Trust me, they still intend to get that last hit as it's going to be a pretty rare or at least powerful item from this boss, considering it's practically a dragon." Andrew B added bitterly knowing that even if they weren't the attack teams that they would still attempt for the last hit.
"Bloody Hell people. Calm down, it's just an item really and one that will be pretty average in the later floors. We all get the same money and exp from the boss so its not as if it's going to get us killed not hitting the last hit on the Drake." I say evenly trying to calm the two down before they go and hit a member one of the two power guilds, however I know it wont work and they just look at me as if I'm speaking nonsense. "Okay then, don't take my advice. Just don't get into too big of a fight with them later." I say with a shake of my head and then turning to the other two who had been silent this whole time. "Soooo, what do you think about the plan?"
"It's okay I suppose, but there isn't much organisation for the strike teams at the moment. So it could go either way." Andrew says slowly as he realises how even if the Knights and the Dragons aren't fighting the main battle, the strike teams will have a definite problem with organisation during the battle itself. "Why don't we just hold a meeting with the rest of the soloers, wouldn't that just make things easier."
"Bit late for that Terra. Everyone is going home to go to bed and we meet up at the boss room at 12 tomorrow, not much time to sort things out. Just gonna have to wing it and hope for the best." Aurora commented with humour and determination in her voice. We all look at her knowing that it wasn't exactly easy to go into a full scale boss raid without much of a plan with the ones you are working with. "So optimistic you lot are." She remarked under her breath.
We all stood in front of a large thick stone door intricately engraved with dragons breathing great balls of fire among a group of armoured soldiers holding shields in the middle of the door. I looked at this carving wondering whether this same fate would come upon us once we had crossed into the boss room. "Bit grim, isn't it." I say to no one in particular.
"Fear is the first step to defeat." Says a voice behind me. I turn my head to see a boy around my age with black hair and dark grey eyes, he wore a flowing black cloak and wore sturdy black boots and a long black blade was visible on his back. Kirito, one of the highest level players in the game and one of the most respected solo player by the front line players who had put aside his reputation as a beta cheater. "I've seen doors like this before, it means a single powerful enemy lies before these doors." He explains.
"Well at least that means he has no minions."I say in relief now that the enemy count had dropped to one. "Are we all ready then, as I want to get on with this." I continue while looking over the small temporary camp that held the participating players, where the solo players were talking merrily with each other and with the smaller guilds and where the bigger guild sat together keeping themselves to themselves.
"As ready as it's going to get I think." He says with a sigh and a shake of his head. "OKAY, EVERYONE! listen up! You have 3 minutes to prepare or we go in without your help." He shouts in a authoritative voice which everyone turned their heads towards and gave a shake of the head or got up and moved towards the door.
"Well that was simple." I say with surprise at how quick the reaction was and how willingly people joined Kirito's side in battle. I look to the Rangers and see that they had already got up and were now waiting in front of the door with me. Soon came the rest of the soloers and smaller guilds and lastly the larger clearing guilds. When I see everyone ready I give a nod towards Kirito who moves forward with his sword unsheathed and pushed open the door.