Title: Misfits of Aincrad.

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Asuna or Liz or Silica or Sachi or... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: After the First Floor Boss Fight, Kirito deals with Kibaou in a different way. This leads to him meeting a number of Players who play SAO in their own unique ways. AU which diverges significantly from Canon.

Atalanta drew her bow and released methodically at the Third Floor Boss, Atlas the Marauder King. Atlas, who was almost eight feet tall, was armed with a Warhammer in one hand and a shield in his other, but there was a hilt of a sword coming over his shoulder to indicate a second weapon for when he did a phase change on the last of his four health bars. There were two kinds of Add for Atlas. One was called Raiders, and they were armed with two handed spears and the other were called Buccaneers and they were armed with a one handed Cutlass.

Tomas and Agil's squad were engaging Atlas directly, with the three tanks taking his blows and the three two-handed weapon Players striking through the breaks in Atlas' attacks and keeping his attention. Another two groups were dealing with the eight Adds, four Raiders and four Buccaneers. Sovin Nai was standing next to Atalanta also methodically working his bow. Kine, Asuna and Kirito were darting in and making strikes at Atlas' flanks and back as opportunity presented itself.

Drawing her bowstring back, Atalanta paused slightly for a Bow Sword Skills and released the high powered shot. The arrow hit Atlas and the Marauder King bellowed and did a gesture with his Warhammer, resulting in two new Buccaneers spawning and heading directly for Atalanta.

"I got these." Sovin Nai said, returning his bow to the case on his back.

Sovin Nai moved towards the two new Buccaneers but did not draw his spear immediately. As the first Buccaneer reached him, he slid past the slash made with the Cutlass, used a palm strike to drive the Buccaneer's sword arm to the side, followed by a stiff hand to hit the NPC in the throat and then drove his knee into its gut.

Atalanta smiled as she turned her attention back to Atlas. Sovin Nai was so getting into his persona as an Aiel. Still, she kept half an eye on him as he beat up the two Buccaneers with unarmed combat before finishing them off with his spear.

"Second rotation, prepare to move in." Kiki ordered. "First, prepare to disengage."

Kirito, Asuna and Kine backed off, as did the two groups dealing with the Adds, with their replacements moving up smoothly, but the Heavy Group was still engaged.

"Push on three." Tomas ordered to the other Tanks in his group. "One… Two… Three!"

Tomas timed it perfectly. Atlas' Warhammer was large enough, just, that it impacted the shields of all three Tanks, and when it did, they all did 'The Spartan Push'. The two second stun was enough time for Agil and the rest of the group to get in one attack as the three Tanks from their group fell back and the three Tanks from the new Heavy Group to move into position. Tomas and Agil's Group fell back to rest and recover.

Atalanta moved over to where Kiki was directing the battle, and found Kirito standing with the other Beta Tester.

"He's not fast, but has a little stamp attack that can trip up DPS Players, but seems to have no effect on Tanks." Kirito was saying. "That was not in the Beta.

"Hits harder than Beta too." Kiki replied. "Not much but it is noticeable."

"He seems to ignore normal arrows, but any Ranged Sword Skills gets him to summon two extra Buccaneers who go directly after the Archer." Atalanta added.

"The Spartan Push seems to be a good way for the Tanks to disengage." Kiki observed. "But Arcturus is not as good at timing it as Tomas."

"I'm not surprised." Atalanta said. "Tomas was one of the three who developed it."

"I got a good look at the backup sword." Kirito added. "It's a two-hander. Probably going to be long, sweeping attacks. Maybe with stun or knock back effects."

"Yeah, he did not have anything like that in the Beta." Kiki replied. "We may have to throw two or three Heavy Groups in when the change happens, just to absorb the damage."

A few minutes later Kiki called third rotation to go in, which included Kiki's own Group, so she left Atalanta and Kirito to call the changes in the battle. The Raid Group fought through another full set of rotations before Atlas got down to yellow on his last health bar and the animation for his phase change began.

First Rotation had been in when the phase change happened, because Atalanta and Sovin Nai had both done a Bow Sword Skill at the same time, which they had learnt only got a single response of extra Adds if the two Skills hit within five seconds of each other. The phase change also over-rode the response to the Bow Sword Skills.

"All Tanks, shield wall." Kiki Ordered as the cut scene played. "Rotation two backups on the Adds, everyone else attack as you can."

The Tanks has just gotten the shield wall into place when Atlas slashed with his Two Handed Sword, and almost all of the Tanks had to take a half step back at the impact. Even going down the entire length of Tanks, Atlas' sword looked like it was still going to impact on a group of DPS Players until Kine'Iende and Agil both hit the flat underside of the sword with their Quarterstaff and Two Handed Axe, that deflected the blade up and over the DPS group.

Sovin Nai and Asuna looked at each other and then grinned as they both ran at the back of the shield wall and launched themselves off the back of two of the Tanks in the shield wall and did a series of rapid strikes with spear and rapier against Atlas' chest while they were in the air. Kiki and Kirito were carving up Atlas' calves, and the other Players were darting in and out causing damage. Atalanta kept back a bit and aimed her arrows at Atlas' head, well away from any other Player.

Some of the Tanks were dropping out of the shield wall as their Shield's durability plummeted, and other Players were dropping back as they got hit, but the Marauder King's health steadily dropped. Then suddenly Atlas reared back and shattered.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Kiki sighed as the message floated in the air and checked the Health Bars of the entire raid. No dead, but there were a few Tanks and Two-Handers who were down in the red but with the healing effect from health potions acting on them, with a fair few of the DPS in the yellow.

Tomas walked over to one of the Players with his health in red who was sitting on the ground at the back, his Two-Handed Sword having lost all durability and shattered near the end of the fight and only throwing himself to the side prevented the Player from dying. Tomas opened his menu and sent a trade request.

"Seriously?" the other Player said. "You're giving me the Last Attack Bonus Reward?"

That got a lot of Player's attention. Tomas just shrugged.

"I got no skill in Two Handed Swords and you lost your weapon." Tomas said as if it was obvious.

The other player looked around to see if anyone objected. He tried to give Tomas some Col, but the Tank waved it away, so the other player accepted the trade, and then equipped the sword.

"It's called Sky Cleaver." The player said. "Thanks."

Tomas simply nodded and walked away from the other player. A gap opened up in front of Tomas as he walked, a show of respect from the other members of the Raid.

TBC….