Chapter 6

Last time

"This is gonna be awesome, guys. I know it." I smirk as I talk to my group.

This time

After a night of resting and a good long while to talk with my group, minus Asuna because she barely speaks, we were ready for the boss fight today. We got up early morn, rushing to the meet up because we wanted to be the first to be there and get the fighting started; it was a bit strange how much our group thinks alike. On the way to the meet up, we started going over our battle plan as well.

Once at the meet up, we soon realize that maybe we came a bit early, for not even Diavel was there; in fact, we came exactly four hours before the time it was scheduled to meet up and very few people were even awake. We chuckle nervously, "Maybe we came a bit early, guys. But, that's okay! That just gives us more time to relax and talk about our plan, and maybe we can even upgrade our stuff." I smile.

"Good plan. Izalea and I could really use a weapon upgrade." Fiena says.

"Yeah, and I need to go stock up health potions." Kirito says.

"I need to get some better armor." Asuna says, still not comfortable with showing her face, but somehow comfortable with speaking with us now.

"Sean and I will just walk around town, I suppose. We'll meet back here when it is thirty minutes until the boss fight." Erin says putting her hands behind her back and putting on a serious face.

We all nod and go our separate ways until it is time to meet up back here.

4 hours later

We all come back to the meet up and notice that some parties are already there, all of the parties actually, including Agil's, Kibaou's, Diavel's, and the few others. "Looks like we weren't the first ones. That's okay, though. At least they haven't left yet." I say looking around at everyone.

"Alright, everyone. Who's ready to take the hike to the boss room!?" Diavel yells out the question as he pumps his fist into the air. Everyone cheers in response. "Alright! Here we go! Also, I recommend that you go over battle strategies on the way there." He says and turns around and starts leading everyone to the boss room.

People talk amongst their groups about their battle plan as they walk, everyone else does the same, including my team.

Several hours later, now right outside the door of the boss room. Many monsters had to be slain before even getting to this point.

"Holy. Fucking. Shit! Who knew that a boss dungeon could be crawling with this many monsters!" I yell, a little out of breath. My party chuckles a little, except Asuna.

"Alright, everyone! Rest up a couple minutes. You need to be prepared for this battle." Diavel says, putting his sword into the ground. Everyone does exactly that and sits down on the ground, pulling out food they packed and eating.

We sit down on the floor and cross our legs. "So, while you all were going off and doing your separate things, Sean and I went and bought lunch for everyone." Erin says and grabs the food from her inventory and gives one to each of us.

"You're my savior, you two! I'm starving!" Fiena says and Kirito says something similar.

"Thank you, you two." Izalea says with a formal bow.

Asuna just nods and they all start eating their food, which was just the sandwiches from the inn. We also go over our battle plans one last time before we have to enter the boss room, none of us seeming too confident, but still showing faith in our skill.

After about half an hour, Diavel speaks again. "Alright, everyone. I hope you've rested up. Let's defeat this boss and show everyone that it is possible to beat this game!" Everyone cheers in excitement to that and pump their weapons in the air. Diavel then turns around and pushes open the large doors to the boss room.

Inside was dark, but at the very end we could faintly see the silhouette of a large monster. Once we walk a bit further in, the room suddenly lights up and the beast stands up and roars, picking up its axe in the process. Its name appears and four health bars are shown under it. People somehow keep straight faces even though deep down inside they were afraid.

As if this boss didn't seem threatening enough, its sentinels come to its aid. About four of them come out and they are about half the height of the boss, which is still substantially larger than any normal human, and they are each wielding the same club-type weapon. They all start sprinting at everyone.

"CHARGE!" Diavel yells and everyone starts sprinting forwards towards the sentinels except for Diavel's group, which go up and start hitting the boss. My group picks one sentinel and we take turns attacking it, barely giving it a chance to make one hit on us.

I can now see the skills of Fiena, Izalea, Kirito, and Asuna. Fiena is swift and very agile, hopping side to side as she slices at the sentinel. Izalea has a unique way of fighting as she pierces and slices at mainly the weak points on the beast, even though she is using a rapier, she can even use it as a slashing weapon. Kirito is very fast, with almost the same exact fighting style as me but a little looser, and his smaller sword allows him to utilize his speed even better. As for Asuna, even though she doesn't talk much she sure does make up for in skill as she quickly pierces at the sentinel's head, moving so fast that you can't even see the point of her rapier.

After a couple minutes of doing this, and having help from Agil's group, we defeat the sentinel. I give my group and Agil's a little thumbs up.

"SWITCH WITH US, QUADRANT B!" Diavel says as his group takes out the first health bar of the boss and runs back to fight the sentinels. Kibaou's group now rushes forward and starts fighting the boss.

My group then moves on to the next sentinel and Erin and I take our turn to get some action. We charge up our sword skills and then rush at one sentinel, taking turns in quick succession to slice at the beast, going so fast that its health bar quickly reaches 0 in under a minute and it bursts into blue crystals. Our group looks in awe, but quickly has to stop as we all move onto the next sentinel and help Agil's party.

Once the Illfang's health bar gets to its second, Diavel yells out: "QUADRANT C! SWITCH IN!" and Kibaou's group rushes back to the remaining sentinels to fight. Agil's group then breaks away from battle and rushes at the boss. Agil uses his large, double bladed axe so smoothly; it really suits him.

We then fight alongside Kibaou, and somehow, if I dare say it, we work pretty well together in a team. Diavel's, Kibaou's, and my group fight excellently as we take out the last two sentinels. At the same time, Agil gets a perfectly placed sword skill on the boss and manages to bring it to its last health bar and in the red region.

"COME BACK, QUADRANT C! I GOT THIS!" Diavel yells as he rushes forward in front of everyone with a sword skill charged up. The boss tosses aside its buckler and axe and pulls out its last weapon. He smirks as he charges at the boss.

Kirito gasps, "WAIT, DIAVEL! GET OUT OF THERE! THAT'S NOT A TALWAR! THAT'S AN ODACHI!" but it was too late when he said that. The boss swings the odachi at Diavel before he can even reach him, leaving a large red gash across his body and making him tumble on the ground. Kirito runs to his aid and I notice them talking.

The boss then starts charging at Diavel and Kirito, but, out of nowhere, Asuna jumps in and attacks the boss with a sword skill, making it switch its target to her. It then swings its weapon down, but right before it hits Asuna, Agil jumps in and parries the blow back with his axe.

I then see Diavel burst into white crystals and a mortified look on Kirito's face, as if he had just heard the most unbearable thing. He stands up angrily with his sword drawn and rushes at the beast with Asuna. I take this as a sign to help, since they are technically now my friends in a way, and I rush at the boss too and start attacking it with a series of sword skills. The rest of my group soon does the same and the rest of the people there just watch in amazement as we fight.

We go back to our original battle plan and switch in and out with quick succession as we take our turns getting as much hits as we can into the boss. Its health slowly goes down.

As it gets down to almost 0, Fiena, Izalea, Erin, Kirito and I jump back, as it is Asuna's turn. Asuna does not notice though as the boss changes its attack pattern.

"WATCH OUT, ASUNA!" I hear Kirito say and she does exactly that, not being able to dodge fully though as the boss manages to land a hit on her cloak, making its durability hit 0 and disappearing. We all are amazed for half a second at how amazing she looks, blown away that someone with those looks would own the skills she has.

Kirito then rushes forward in attempt to help her and they kind of take on the rest themselves. Together, they rush at the boss and plunge their swords into it and drag their blades along it as they sprint to the other side, yelling as loud as they can, and bring its health down to 0. They then sheathe their swords and Illfang bursts into glitter like crystals.

The room then goes dim again and a huge congratulations boss appears where the boss was. Everyone starts cheering as loud as they can and smiling. Kirito even got the last attacking item.

"That was amazing swordsmanship, Kirito. You did it." Agil says.

"No..." Kirito just says back in kind of a sad way, clearly thinking about the one person that died, but I guess no one else notices.

"Yeah, man. You did it! You were awesome!" Fiena says and pumps her fist, triggering the crowd to cheer in agreement and clap for kirito. But, of course, someone had to ruin the good mood.

"Stop cheering!" Kibaou yells at everyone. They all look at him with a very confused face. "Why'd you do it, huh? Why'd you let Diavel die?"

Kirito looks back at him confused, "Let him die?"

"That's what I said! Admit it, you knew the technique the boss was gonna use. You could've told us, then Diavel would've stood a chance. He wouldn't have had to die!" Kibaou yells back at Kirito. Everyone, except my group and Asuna, murmured and looked towards Kirito.

"I know why he knew! He used to be a beta tester! Think about it, he knew the boss's attack patterns. He knew, but he kept it from us!" a random guy yells this and that slowly causes us to turn heads towards Kirito as well. "And I bet he's not the only beta tester here! Come on, show yourselves."

People start turning their heads, looking for another beta tester.

Kirito looks back down and gulps. Agil and I try to defend him, speaking for him. But, we are quickly interrupted by the sound of Kirito chuckling, as if he had lost it.

Hehehehehehehehe

He stands up as he speaks, "So, you guys think I used to be a beta tester?" Kirito then looks towards everyone there. I am actually a bit confused at this.

"It's not cool to put me in the same class with those noobs." Kirito says with an almost emotionless face, but I could tell something was up.

"W-what'd you say!?" Kibaou asks loudly, almost in a threatening tone.

Kirito starts walking towards the exit, "You heard me. Most of the thousand people that scored a slot in SAO's beta were rookies. They were so green, they didn't even know how to level up. Hell, even you guys were better than they were."

Kibaou gasps and stares at Kirito as he stops right in front of him.

"But, me. I'm nothing like those guys, man. During the beta, I made it to floors that were higher than any of the other testers. That's a fact. I knew about the boss, because I fought tons of monsters with way more sword skills on higher floors. I know a bunch of other things too. More than you can imagine, more than any info-broker." He says with a smirk as he looks at Kibaou in the eyes.

"W-what the hell? If that's true then you're worse than a beta tester. You're a goddam cheater! That's what you are!" Kibaou says angrily and other people start yelling in agreement, calling him a cheater as well. The rest of my group looks around, not understanding why they would be treating him like this.

"He's a beta tester and a cheater… he's a beater!" Some random guy yells out.

"A beater. Yeah, that's good. I like that." Kirito says and everyone looks in shock. Kirito slides open his inventory and continues talking, "Okay, you can call me a beater. Just make sure you don't confuse me with those beta testers anymore." He equips the last attacking bonus, the Cloak of Midnight. He then smirks and starts to exit the boss room and enter floor 2.

Asuna rushes after him though once he is out of ear shot and starts to speak with him for a brief moment, nothing we can hear though. He then turns his attention away from Asuna and enters the second floor.

Asuna comes back sad and looks at us, shaking her head. We look down a bit upset. How could they say those things? He killed the boss and saved everyone else there.

Everyone starts murmuring and I look to my group and nod, notifying that we should continue on to the next floor and try our best not to let this beat us down. And that is exactly what we do.

A/N: #Badass #WhyIsEveryoneInSAOaDick? lol. I'll post again tomorrow! :D