AN: I get that it was a milestone and everything, but the 25th floor was harsh. I'm not joking, the setting of the floor described in the first paragraph is actually the canon setting of the floor. I was half tempted to call this chapter 'When Hanna Flips Her Shit' but decided not to.

Review responses:

Tempestae Night- You asked for this in response to chapter 11, I did my best. I even gave you two scenes though, their slightly similar, and the second one is a bit weird to me. Well, you'll see for yourself. Hope you like them anyway.

July 7th 2023- 244 days since SAO launch:
Kirito sighs as Hanna finishes off the last mob. They'd finally made it to the 25th floor, a quarter of the way to their goal, but it came with a drawback. Apparently Kayaba decided that the way to respond to the players reaching such a milestone was to up the difficulty. The 25th floor's mobs were much stronger than those of the previous floors, and if that wasn't bad enough, the topography of the floor was as complex as a maze, and it was filled with traps. The most common trap was a pitfall that led to poisonous swamps. All in all, it was a complete pain. Normally he liked fighting, but this floor had robbed him of his usual enjoyment. It was so difficult to navigate, that despite the fact they'd been on the floor for three days they still hadn't even reached the labyrinth and defeated the field boss guarding it.

He eyes the labyrinth, which at this point was so close that it took up a large portion of his field of view when he looks up, 'At this rate, we should reach it within two hours. Hopefully the mini-boss hasn't been made so strong that Hanna and I can't defeat it on our own. If it comes to it, we may have to teleport out.'

Thankfully, they'd already spoken of this. If the mini-boss made them teleport out, they'd gather Asuna, Diabel, and Fuurinkazan to help them beat it. They'd activated a feature that all players had on the map tab of their menus, the feature tracked the route a player took. So it'd be much quicker to get back to the field boss since they'd already have a safe, trap free route planned out.

Kirito ends up being slightly off, it was roughly two and a half hours later that they reach the labyrinth and the field boss guarding it. The field boss turns out to be a massive snake with strange needle-like spikes jutting out from between its scales. It has three health bars with its name above them as usual, «Nagashree». Hanna takes point as she was faster. She immediately opens with twelve hits before the mini-boss has a chance to retaliate, then switches with him when Nagashree lunges for her. He's quick to hit it with a three hit skill «Sharp Nail», then switches back out with Hanna before the skill cooldown kicks in. Hanna slashes at it five times, hits it with Ember Song, then switches again He hits it with seven regular attacks, then lets Hanna take over once more.

Hanna slashs at Nagashree three times, sidesteps an attack, then lands five more followed by the claw skill, Lions Fury. Switching with her for a moment he hits it with the heavy damage Horizontal Square, and skill chained it with a Martial Arts uppercut punch, then finishes his chain with Vertical Square. He jumps back when the boss's spikes begin moving. A quick glance at its health bars shows that their heavy combo had reduced it into the yellow of its second bar. A tactic change then.

He doesn't get any further down that line of thought as at that moment Hanna tackles him. He briefly sees the boss launch spikes everywhere before they land behind a rock, and less than a second later a bunch of loud 'THUNK's rung out. Lifting himself enough to see over the rock, he pales as he sees that the snake's spikes were now embedded in everything around it.

Still studying the destruction to see if there were any blank spots in the attack, he doesn't look back even as he speaks to Hanna, "Thanks. I have no idea how much damage one of those spikes does, but considering how many it launches we'd probably get hit by a lot more than just one if we're in the open when it attacks."

He can hear Hanna open her menu as she calmly replies, "They don't do much damage, but they're poisonous."

He blinks and his brow furrows in confusion for a brief moment, wondering how she can know that, then whirls around as understanding washes over him at the implementation behind those words sinks in. Sure enough, Hanna has three needles going straight through her legs, two in her right which had been closer to the boss, and one in her left. He immediately feels guilty. He knew without any doubt that Hanna could've taken cover quick enough to not get hit at all if she hadn't been busy saving him from the fact he hadn't realized the danger. She doesn't seem the slightest bit concerned about it even as she pulls health and antidote potions from her inventory, pulls the spikes out of her legs, then downs the potions.

At that point she turns to him. He wonders what she sees in his expression. Whatever it was, it makes her go wide-eyed for a second before smiling reassuringly at him, "Don't worry so much. They don't do much damage, and while the poison is rather bad, our high levels give us enough health that we have plenty of time to take an antidote potion and let it kick in. Plus, we can't feel pain, remember? It doesn't hurt." He wasn't really reassured, and it must have shown because she sighs, "Anyway, we should pull some antidote and health potions out of our inventories and put them in our pockets for quick access just to be safe."

He hesitates, still a bit hung up on her getting poisoned because of him, but she gives him a stern look so he drops it. After putting some potions in their pockets they quickly go back to the boss. Hanna doesn't hesitate to hit it with the falcata skill «Primal Dance», then skill chain it with the heavy damage claw skill «Dragons Wrath». He switches with her before her cooldown kicks in, hitting it with nine quick slashes, then jumping back. Before Hanna has a chance to attack, the mini-boss's spikes move again in preparation to launch. Hanna scowls, then slashes at it six times, shifts her weight, then attacks it with four more hits. From the way the boss freezes up, he knows she'd done a manual skill switch.

He switches with her and chains five skills together, three heavy damage sword skills with two Martial Arts skills in between to buy him enough time to charge the next skill with his sword. He changes places with Hanna just as the snake unfreezes. It immediately focuses on Hanna and lunges for her. She jumps over the attack, landing on the snake's head before she starts wildly attacking. The snake begins to thrash around trying to dislodge her. For a moment it doesn't work as Hanna has grabbed onto it, but then it rears its head back throwing her straight up. Hanna twists in midair, throwing her falcata at its head, where half the sword sunk in. Turning so she was feet first, Hanna lands straight on her sword's hilt driving it all the way in. The boss freezes for a moment then shatters. Hanna flips around as she falls, scooping her sword up in the process and landing on her feet easily.

Kirito stares at Hanna. He loves fighting, and he was definitely the type of person who enjoyed seeing displays of skill from other people. Hanna displays amazing skill almost constantly. While it may not always be flashy, the fact that he rarely saw her HP drop into the yellow spoke volumes in and of itself. He'd also realized he had a crush on her a couple months ago, but he never acted on it. He knew Hanna didn't reciprocate his feelings. Even though occasionally they had what others might consider a moment, like on New Year's, most of the time when they found themselves in that type of situation, Hanna would scowl fiercely. It hurt. It hurt like hell to know she disliked the prospect of a relationship of that nature with him so much, but he'd respect her boundaries. He would never try and force a relationship with someone, especially when they clearly didn't want it.

Still even with all that said, he can't help but admire the image she makes in that moment. Sword in hand with the millions of polygons from the field boss drifting around her, he thinks she looks more beautiful than ever before. A by now familiar longing fills him, but he quickly pushes it aside when she sheaths her sword and turns to him. He doesn't trust himself to be able to keep it from showing on his face, even without taking into account how good she was at reading him, and the last thing he wants is to make her uncomfortable.

He grins at her, "Just had to try and outdo my punching a dragon huh?"

She grins right back, "But of course. I can't let you show me up. It's simply not allowed."

He laughs, then they turn their attention to the widows congratulating them on beating Nagashree and telling them what was dropped. It was mostly stranded stuff, though there was some pretty high leveled poison. Since neither of them uses poison it's quickly decided that they'd just have Argo find a good buyer for it or sell it to Agil.

As they finally enter the labyrinth he shifts to slightly more serious matters, "Do you want to send the map data with the safe route to Asuna or should I?"

Hanna shrugs, "I will I suppose. Hold up a minute, I want to do that now. The sooner we have agility parties mapping the dungeon the sooner we can move onto the next floor."

He nods then keeps watch for any mobs while she sends the data to Asuna and informs her of the mini-boss's defeat. Asuna responds before Hanna even has a chance to close her menu, thanking them for the data and telling them that she'll spread it around immediately.

Hanna shares a grin with him, "Always so prompt isn't she?"

He nods, then glances around as though looking for people who might overhear, then stage whispers in a conspiratorial manner, "Don't tell anyone I said this since it's a major secret, but I think she might be a workaholic."

Hanna laughs wildly at that, when she finally has herself under control she gasps out, "If that's a secret it's the worst kept secret ever!"

He gives her a mock grave look, "Shush you. It's a secret to everyone."

She collapses into laughter again, which he soon joins. He smiles at her as they finally calm down. Again that feeling of longing begins to well up, but he pushes it away before it can cause him trouble. He was content to just be Hanna's friend. He'd have to be, seeing as that's all he'd ever be to her.

Hanna frowns. They've been in the labyrinth for six hours, and she does not like what she's been seeing so far. Something about this labyrinth was different. It had a far more intricate appearance than any of the other labyrinths so far, and something about it made it seem more dangerous to her. Sure the labyrinths had been slowly becoming more... elegant she supposed she could say even though it wasn't quite accurate, but it had been a gradual change. This one however, is noticeably more elaborate.

Currently Hanna and Kirito are resting in the safe zone, as the brutality of the dungeon was quickly eating through their HP, and therefore their health potions. Kirito must have noticed something in her expression, because he reaches over and squeezes her shoulder, "Hey, I don't know what you're worrying about now, but it'll be alright."

She shakes her head, "There's something off about this labyrinth. Haven't you noticed? Its design is more... sophisticated than the ones we've been to before. Not to mention the mobs are far more brutal than even the ones in previous dungeons were. I just- I don't like it. There's something wrong this time."

Kirito frowns, then hesitantly asks, "Do you want to sit this one out? If it's really bothering you that much we can."

She hesitates for a moment contemplating it then shakes her head, "No, it's fine just... we need to be more careful in this one, and let's not grind here at night."

Kirito searches her expression for a minute, then nods slowly, "Alright, if you're sure. And considering how bad this dungeon is during the day, I was going to suggest we stay out of this one at night anyway." He leans his head back against the wall with a sigh, "This floor is going to suck, isn't it?"

She snorts, "It already does, and we're still on the first floor of the labyrinth. It's only gonna get worse from here."

Kirito huffs, "Don't remind me."

Hanna chuckles, but doesn't mention any more of her worries about this labyrinth. Kirito worried enough without her adding to it. Besides, since he worries so much he's probably already thought of all of her own worries himself.

July 13th 2023- 250 days since SAO launch:
Hanna and Kirito are eating dinner after a day in the labyrinth when Diabel bursts into the inn. As soon as he spots them he hurries over with a grave expression. She shares a glance with Kirito, "Diabel? What's wrong?"

Diabel sits down next to her with a scowl, "Kibaou." She scowls and Kirito looks like he was expecting the worst, she motions for Diabel to continue, "That idiot found the boss room today. Guess what he did."

Kirito sounds pained, "Please tell me he did not try to take on the boss with just his guild."

Diabel scowls, "Sorry, but he took on the boss with just his guild."

She sighs heavily, "How bad was it?"

Diabel growls in frustration, "As you know he has 53 people in his guild. There are now only 16 people in his guild including himself. He didn't even beat the boss. They were forced to retreat."

Thirty seven. 37 people dead because Kibaou is a stupid idiot who won't listen. How many times has he been warned that his actions would lead to nothing but death? How many times have they warned him to be more cautious? He wouldn't listen though, and now 37 people are dead. Their blood is entirely on his hands, regardless of whether he wants to admit it or not.

She has no doubt that Kikuoka would be collecting Mike to speak with her soon. So with a sigh she pushes her food away, "Well, I've lost my appetite. I'm gonna go up to our room and try to get some sleep."

Kirito nods tiredly, "Alright. I'll be up soon, I wanna talk to Diabel."

She nods, and Diabel moves so she can get out of the booth, "Goodnight Hanna-chan."

She nods at him, "Night Diabel."

She has just barely made it to her room when she feels Mike enter her mind. Quickly requipping into her casual clothes, she climbs into bed and enters her mind. She immediately finds herself face to face with Mike. Neither of them have a chance to say anything before Kikuoka's voice comes through the little black diamond, "What happened?"

She sighs heavily looking away, "Do you remember what I said about that guy called Kibaou? How he was always going on about the guild who finds the boss beating it on their own? His guild was the one to find the boss room today. He only took his own guild in, which has- which had 53 people in it. The boss forced them to retreat after 37 people died. I don't know anything more about it, as I found out less than ten minutes ago myself."

She figures Kikuoka had contacted her parents and had them retrieve Mike for him, and it was understandable that someone would accompany Mike to see what was going on. As such she isn't surprised when she hears Uncle Vergil speak up, "37 people dead because of one person's stupidity. I guess it's true. It's easier to lead people to their deaths than it is to save them."

Marzanna sighs, "The casualties may not have been so bad if it had been any other floor, but it just had to be this floor that he reached the boss room first."

Kikuoka sounds keenly interested, "What do you mean? What's so special about this floor? What floor are you on anyway?"

She sighs again, "We're on the 25th floor. Being the quarter milestone, Kayaba made it much harder than the previous floors. Though we won't know whether or not the difficulty spike is limited to this floor or whether the difficulty will drop back to the steady climb it had been until we make it to the next floor. The problem is that this floor is so difficult that the process is going slower than usual."

Nero chooses that moment to speak up, though there's something off about his voice, "How much have you guys slowed down?"

She glances away, "We've already been on this floor for nine days, but the boss room was only found today. Hell, it took us three days just to reach the labyrinth and defeat the field boss guarding it. Given the difficulty of this floor, players will undoubtedly need some time to level up before a proper raid of the boss can be attempted."

Kikuoka sounds incredulous, "Three days just to reach the labyrinth? Surely it isn't that difficult."

She glares at the diamond, "You try navigating a massive area with a radius of roughly 2 kilometers that has typography that's so convoluted that it's practically a maze, which by the way is full of traps, the most common of which is a pitfall that dumps you in a poisonous swamp, and to top it all off is filled to the brim with various monsters that try very hard to rip your head off. And that's even before we get to the labyrinth itself, which is even worse!"

"The mobs of the 25th floor are as strong as the mobs were in the previous labyrinth, and the monsters that are actually in the labyrinth itself are as strong as monsters from the previous labyrinth at night. That's during the day! Even Kirito and I aren't crazy enough to fight in this labyrinth at night. Even before Kibaou's disaster nine people died just trying to find a safe path to the labyrinth, and an additional sixteen have died just mapping it since then. So fuck you, and fuck your god damn disbelief, neither I nor the other floor clearers answer to you jackass."

There is a heavy silence for a solid minute then her dad's voice gently cuts in, "Kiddo, I won't try and tell you that I understand your frustration or your anger, as I've never been in a situation like yours, but getting angry at Kikuoka isn't going to help anything. He's only doing his job."

She looks away with a scowl, "I know that, but he's not here. He doesn't know a damn thing, so he has no right whatsoever to question the floor clearers."

When Kikuoka speaks it was with delicacy, obviously not wanting to provoke her temper again, "In case you've forgotten, that's why I've been meeting with you in the first place, so that I can understand what's going on in there."

Marzanna growls, "I could tell you all about it. We could sit here for days on end as I described it, but you'll never understand. Not really. You can't understand what it's like to be playing a video game one minute and in the next be told that you're trapped in a death game. You can't understand what it's like to be unable to do a goddamn thing while someone's hit points, their life literally drains before your eyes, or the expression of terror that appears on their faces at the last second as they realize they're dead. You can't understand anything Kikuoka. You're incapable of it, because you're not here."

The following silence is deafening. Eventually though Kyrie, whose voice was off like Nero's, hesitantly speaks up, "What- What do you mean unable to do anything? I mean, I don't play games, but I've seen you and Nero play them plenty of times. Aren't there usually some sort of health items? Can't you use those to save other people? Or was Kayaba really so cruel as to make it so that health items only work on the player they belong to?"

She sighs tiredly, incapable of being mad at Kyrie, "There are health items, and you can use them on other players. There are two types of health items. Potions and Crystals. Health potions restore a specific amount of health. Health crystals on the other hand, fully restore health, no matter how low you are. In either case, I don't know if it's an intended feature or if you're mildly cheating the system, but if you administer them before the system finishes draining the player's health bar even if they're at zero by the system's calculations then they'll live."

"It's the visible health bar that matters. As long as they have even a single hit point left, they'll be fine. Fragile as fucking glass, since players actually can take a couple hit points of damage from things like tripping, but otherwise they're fine."

"Anyway, a crystal is a full heal, though some players have pointed out that it might just be a case of no one having enough health to see its limit, but in the case of potions it has to be enough to bring them above zero to save them. The system only shows a player's health going to zero obviously, but it calculates exactly how much damage every hit does, even if it technically puts the player in the negative."

"The problem is that crystals are rare at this point in the game. They'll likely become far more common on later levels, but at this point they're so rare that the general rule is to save them for absolute emergencies in your own party or yourself. Even worse, while crystals may restore health instantly, potions take a few seconds to kick in and restore health over a period of ten seconds. Which means if you give someone whose health is rapidly draining in front of you a potion, you won't know if it's enough to save them til it's too late to use a crystal. As if that wasn't bad enough, there's a particular type of trap called the Anti-Crystal Area, as its name implies, you literally can't use crystals in those areas. 95% of the time it doesn't matter, as using a large health potion is enough, but sometimes- sometimes it isn't."

Vergil sounded tense, "So it's either a guessing game, or a calculation if you know enough about what you're facing. Do you use a health potion and risk it not being enough? Or do you use a crystal and risk either yourself or your party member dying later because you didn't have any more crystals?"

Marzanna nods in a depressed manner. If she had the resources, she'd use crystals anytime someone was dying in front of her, but she only had one of the two crystals from New Year's, having used the other on Klein during the last boss fight. Kirito still had both of his, but with only three between them, they couldn't afford to be generous with them. So she could do nothing but use potions and hope they were enough.

Not liking the dark serious nature of both the conversation and her thoughts, she quickly tries to distract herself, "Hey, is there something wrong with the device you guys have been speaking to me with? Nero and Kyrie's voices sounded strange."

From his tone Uncle Vergil knows exactly what she's doing, but he answers her anyway, "It has nothing to do with the device. I was the only one who actually came with Mike, everyone else is actually on speakerphone. More importantly, you look exhausted. Are you alright?"

She shrugs, "I guess it's to be expected. You're seeing into my mind with that device. This floor is mentally exhausting, seeing as the me you're seeing is a mental representation of me, it makes sense that the exhaustion shows."

Her dad hums, "Well, I can't see you since I'm on the other side of the call, but if it's that exhausting you should go and get some sleep. You've gotten the answers you were looking for, didn't you Kikuoka?" He makes an agreeing sound, so Dante continues, "Well then, there's nothing else to it. Go get some rest kiddo, we'll talk to you later."

She snorts, "Gladly. I love you guys. Talk to you later."

With that said, Marzanna fades straight from her mindscape into sleep.

July 16th 2023- 253 days since SAO launch:
Hanna tensely walks with Kirito towards the boss room. Today was the raid. As disastrous as Kibaou's attempt to beat the boss had been, at least one good thing had come of it. They don't just have a vague idea of what it did, they know its attack patterns, at least until it got into the red on the first of its left health bars. It had five health bars in total, and changed tactics at least once, though they all had a suspicion that it went through a phase related to each bar considering how this floor had been going so far.

I The boss was a two headed giant, the right head had three of its health bars and was called «Nangir». Whereas the left head had the other two health bars and was named «Bluzkos». The system decided which head you did damage to by where you hit it. Hitting the right side of its body hurt «Nangir», hitting the left damaged «Bluzkos».

Apparently, Kibaou's guild had been struggling even before they knocked Bluzkos into the red of his first bar, they were forced to retreat less than five minutes later.

Even with more information than usual, Hanna was nervous about this boss fight. As the raid party reached the boss doors, Heathcliff, the commander of the Knights of the Blood, called for a half hour break, telling everyone to thoroughly check their equipment for this particular fight. She didn't bother, and neither did Kirito. With how much of a worrier he was, Kirito did it every night before they faced a boss, and he made sure she did as well. As such, they both knew the exact status of their equipment.

For a while she stands with Kirito as the clicks of players slowly navigating their menus fills the tense silence. Then Kirito gently puts a hand on her shoulder, murmuring quietly enough that no one else would hear despite the silence, "Hey, relax. I can't promise you it won't be bad, but being tense isn't going to help."

She turns to him, "That's- I can't-" She shakes her head and stares at him for a minute before stepping forward and wrapping her arms around him, then buries her face in his neck, "I'm scared, but not for myself. I'm scared for everyone else. I'm scared for Klein and Fuurinkazan. I'm scared for Asuna and the Knights of the Blood. I'm scared for the Divine Dragon Alliance. But most of all, I'm scared for you. I honestly don't know what I'd do if something happened to you. If you left me alone I- I-"

She cuts off as her eyes tear up, unable to continue. It was selfish she knew, but it was the possibility of losing Kirito that scared her the most. Normally she wasn't one to worry so much, but this floor had been mentally draining, and it was definitely affecting her.

Kirito stiffens in shock momentarily, then gently wraps one arm around her waist. He starts carding the fingers of his other hand through her hair soothingly, "Nothing's going to happen to me. I won't leave you alone, I promise." She shakes her head. So he stops running his fingers through her hair, and gently cups her cheek then tilts her head up. Upon seeing her teary eyes, he jolts then his own eyes soften, "I mean it. I won't leave, ever, I swear."

Even though she logically knows there is no way he can guarantee being able to keep that promise, something in his eyes makes her believe him. So she nods slowly. He smiles reassuringly, then gently wipes the unshed tears from her eyes.

Kirito opens his mouth to say something else, but he gets cut off by Heathcliff, "Alright. Half hour is up. You all know the plan and your individual parts in it. Let's go."

Kirito gives her one last reassuring look, then lets her go and steps away. Taking a shuddering breath, she turns towards the boss room and forces herself to focus on the task at hand. Drawing her sword in preparation, she sees Kirito do the same out of the corner of her eye. They were one of the parties focused on damage dealing this time. They were to wait until the tanks got the boss' attention, then circle around to its left and focus on Bluzkos' health. The Fuurinkazan were taking its right side, and Asuna was leading one of the parties circling around to its back.

When Heathcliff opens the door, she and Kirito rush in, then over to the left side of the boss room to wait for the tanks to do their job. The boss was sitting on the ground, but got up as the torches around the room lit. It was exactly what you'd expect from a giant in video games, a massive ugly humanoid. Though unlike giants in other games, the boss was wearing armor, plate mail from the looks of it. There were also two swords on its back, the hilts jutting over its shoulders. Along with that, there were also Flails(1) on its belt with their handles in holsters, and the ball and chains allowed to dangle.

The boss' health bars and names soon appear, and the tanks are quick to move forward. Once they have its attention, she and Kirito approach the boss' left side, and immediately begin attacking together. For now, the boss was just attacking with its bare hands, but they know that when Bluzkos, and likely Nangir's from the look of it, first bar went into the red, it would draw one of the swords from its back, though they don't know anything of its tactics after. Hanna guesses that once their second bar went red, they'd discard the sword and grab the Flail.

Half an hour later, her assumption proves true. With Nangir's second bar in the red, it threw its sword away and pulled one of the Flails from its waist. Its first swing sends three players flying. She rushes to one of them as one of Klein's guildmates and Kirito go to the others. As she runs, she sheaths her sword and pulls a large health potion from her pocket, then pulls the lid off. As soon as she reaches the player she hands him the potion, which he drinks without hesitation. He looks up at his health, and a moment later a look of terror takes over his face. He turns to her frantically, but doesn't get a chance to say anything before exploding into polygons. She stares at the spot he'd been in horror.

For a few moments she stays frozen there, then Kirito's voice cuts through the horror clouding her mind, "Hanna! Move!"

She jolts and turns just to see the spiked ball of the Flail coming for her. Diving out of the way, the ball crashes into the pillar she'd been crouching in front of. She watches the fight for a few moments. Despite all of their preparation they were still losing, and badly. Clutching her fists tightly in fury she looks away, then blinks rapidly when her eyes land on Nangir's sword a few feet away. It was strange, usually when a boss discarded a weapon to change tactics the weapon disappeared within moments. Her eyes narrow then she glances between the boss and the weapon.

'Fuck it. It's worth a shot.'

With that thought she moves over to the sword and attempts to pick it up. Though still heavy, it wasn't nearly as heavy as she'd thought it would be. The hilt of the sword alone is the same height as her from the waist up at a rough estimate, and the blade was three times the length of its hilt. She isn't that far from the fighting so she only takes five steps forward, then swings her acquired weapon at the boss, only pausing to aim it high enough so as to not hit the other players.

The boss staggers back, and a sixteenth of one of its bars from each head drains with the one blow, then it turns its attention to her. With a roar it jumps over the other players towards her, but she was already swinging again, the attack hit the boss the moment it lands, "Enough! I've had enough of you and this floors fucking bullshit! Fuck you! Fuck your god damn floor with its god forsaken poisonous swaps. Fuck your stronger mobs! Fuck your stupid labyrinth with its upped difficulty! Fuck all of it!"

The boss tries to retaliate, but while it takes her a bit to fully swing the massive sword, the blows are heavy enough that every single one of them staggers the boss, and by the time it recovers she is already swinging again. With her last exclamation she swung at its legs, cutting them both off just below the knees. The boss drops its weapons and falls to its hands and knees, but she continues her relentless assault. Then with a final scream of fury, she brings the blade down right between its heads, cleaving it in two. The boss freezes what little moment it had been doing then shatters into millions of polygons. With the boss out of the way it reveals the other players to her, and every single one of them except Kirito were gaping at her in shock.

Kirito crosses his arms then nods as he gives his sage opinion, "Owned."

She turns to Kirito. Upon realizing what she'd done, she opens her mouth to apologize for losing her temper when she gets cut off by the fanfare ringing out as the 'Congratulations!' banner appears above where the boss had been, and the other front liners cheer in victory. Simultaneously, the window with her drops appears in front of her as the sword disappears.

Seeing Kirito turn his attention to his own window, she follows suit. The first was a widow she's never seen before, it reads: 'Congratulations! For meeting the requirements of the hidden challenge, you get:

Blade of Giants.'

She stares at the window for a moment. The sword had been a straight sword, and the giant had wielded it one handed. So, since the blade in her inventory would certainly be smaller than when she'd picked it up, it would definitely go to Kirito. Closing that window she moves onto the last attack bonus window, but it turns out to be a plate mail chest piece. Which is useless to her and Kirito, since they both prefer light armor, but it would probably fetch a nice price. Closing that window she comes to the standard window listing the drops she got for fighting the boss. The xp and col were much higher than usual, and the drops seemed better, but since drops were random and xp and col were distributed evenly between everyone who participated in the boss raid, she figured it was due to the increased difficulty.

Closing that window, she quickly navigates her menu to the sword she just got. Its stats were incredible, but it also had a high strength requirement. Considering she just barely made the strength requirement listed, she figures the requirement was the same for the sword's massive form. Pulling it out momentarily, she finds it is almost the perfect length that Kirito prefers. Putting it back, she opens a trade window with Kirito, then adds the sword to it. He glances at the window, then turns to her. She motioned to her falcata with a shake of her head, quietly informing him that it was a straight sword. He nods his understanding, then accepts the trade without adding anything.

He tilts his head at her, then nods towards the stairs up to the next floor with a questioning look. Knowing that he was silently asking if she had anything she needs to do here, she shakes her head then starts making her way towards the stairs. Hopefully, the next floor won't be as bad. And the first town in it is close, she very much wants to just go back to their inn and sleep.

Kirito rushes to one of the players while Hanna and a member of Fuurinkazan take the other two. Shoving a potion at the woman, he doesn't even wait to see if it was enough before turning back to the battle. A few moments later he sees the Flail head towards Hanna who isn't paying attention to the fight, "Hanna! Move!"

She jerks then turns, upon seeing the weapon heading straight for her, she dodges out of the way. Immediately, anxiety fills him when he loses sight of her behind another pillar. He starts to make his way over while keeping his eyes on the fight to dodge the Flail should it come his direction. He's barely made it halfway however, before a large sword slices into the boss' stomach. He turns towards its source, finding Hanna holding it and already shifting to swing the sword again, an expression of slightly unhinged wrath on her face. Seeing her holding a sword a bit more than twice her size would've been comical if it wasn't for that expression on her face. The boss roars and jumps over the other players, only to be met with another blow from its own sword as soon as it lands.

Hanna then proceeds to curse the boss and this floor, raining blows on the giant the entire time. At the end of her tirade she brutally takes out its legs, then continues attacking it ferociously. As Hanna continues to attack the downed boss, Kirito sheathed his sword and glances around, then chuckles at the gobsmacked expressions the other front liners were sporting. He shifts his gaze back to the fight turned beat down, just in time to see Hanna scream in pure fury as she cuts the giant in half.

As the boss bursts into polygons Hanna is fully revealed, having been partially behind the giant before that. She was breathing heavily in her fury, her hair had gotten frizzy at some point, and there was a look of wild rage in her eyes which made her seem deadly, accentuated by the large sword in her hands and the blue polygons dancing around her. She looks mildly similar to when she defeated Nagashree, but unlike then she was clearly affected by this boss fight. She was probably a terrifying image to the other front liners, but to him there was something breathtakingly beautiful about her in that single moment. Even more so than when she beat the field boss.

He was embarrassed to realize that along with the usual feeling of longing, the ferocity she was displaying was also kinda turning him on. Quickly pushing the feelings aside before they can show in his expression, he crosses his arms and nods sagely, before uttering a single word, "Owned."

Hanna turns to him, clearly about to say something, but the usual fanfare that accompanies the 'Congratulations!' banner rings out, and windows with their drops appear in front of them as the sword in Hanna's hands disappears.

He starts going over his drops, then after a bit is startled when a trade window from Hanna pops up. A second later she adds a sword, «Blade of Giants». He turns to her in question, but she gestures to her falcata with a shake of her head. A straight sword then. Nodding to show he understands, he accepts the trade as is. Tilting his head in question, he nods towards the stairs. She shakes her head, and starts to make her way towards them, and he quickly joins her. This floor had obviously been harshly fraying her nerves for her to snap as she had. She needed to relax, and he wouldn't let anything interrupt it. As such, they could face everything else later. The casualty count, the reactions at her outburst, all of it, as far as he was concerned it could wait until she wasn't so tense.

(1): For those of you that don't know, this is a short staff with a chain attached to the end. Attached to the other end of the chain is a ball, usually metal with spikes.