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.
The meeting for preparing the raid for the Eighth Floor Boss was much larger than any of the previous meetings. It was three weeks since the almost disastrous Seventh Floor Boss Fight and there had been a lot of grinding going on by both the Clearers who had been in that fight and other Players who had gotten good enough since to join the Clearers, so the group preparing for the Eighth Floor Boss was three times the size of the Seventh Floor Boss.
There were some larger groups within the congregation of Players, where the Players involved were more and more often working together, not just as Parties but a larger grouping. Forming of Guilds was not available yet, it was supposed to become available on Floor Ten, but these were Proto-Guilds and most were made up of Players with diverse skills to cover most of the roles needed for a fight. Unfortunately, in most Player's minds, one of the Proto-Guilds was formed around Kibaou, but that was by no means the only Proto-Guild, with another forming around Kiki and Thomas.
Along with the influx of new Players to the Clearing Group, there was also an increased diversity in the range of weapons being demonstrated. There were now a number of Players, besides Atalanta and the Aiel, who were carrying Bows, but for the majority of those Players it was a Secondary Weapon alongside a Melee Weapon, though there appeared to be a few in Proto-Guilds that had Bows as their Primary Weapon.
Before the Seventh, most of the Clearers had Swords, with a smattering of Spears or Axes. Now there were a lot more Axes, Spears, a number of Siswai among Players other than the Aiel, Maces, Daggers, a few Quarterstaffs, and other Polearms. There were even a few Exotic Weapons that Players had found as rare drops from Mobs. Under normal circumstances, well normal for SAO, most Players would not have bothered with the Exotics given the risk of trying to learn a new weapon in the field, but the School Training Ground meant that the Players finding different weapons embraced them if they liked them. A few of the prominent Clearers had even decided to change weapons during the last three weeks.
"We can keep the Heavy and Tank mixes, but we need to balance out the DPS Parties and need some protection for the Archers." Atalanta said. "We should also considered mixing experienced Clearers with new Clearers, where appropriate. It will help steady the newbies in the stress of a Boss Battle."
There were eight of them in the leadership huddle. Atalanta; Kirito; Thomas; Asuna; Kibaou; Kiki; Hakima, a Tank who was armed with a Siawai and a Heavy Shield; and Korma, a sword wielder who was also a leader of one of the Proto-Guilds.
"The Aiel should be a Party by themselves." Asuna said. "Make them flanking. Maybe have the Ninja form two Parties and give them the same job, make them compete against the Aiel."
"That will keep the Ninja motivated." Hakima agreed. "Some of the light shield users should be scattered among the DPS Parties."
"Priority should be having them protect the Archers." Atalanta countered. "Three Archers and three light shield users in a party, so the Archers don't have to switch weapons if Adds get close. That would give us four groups of ranged. Plus the Aiel if they choose to use their bows."
"The Archers in Proto-Guilds should be in the same Party where possible, along with shielders from their Proto-Guild." Korma insisted, and Atalanta simply nodded in acknowledgement.
"What about those three with the Exotics?" Kibaou asked. "I don't want them messing with Party Dynamics."
So far there were only four Exotic Weapons Players known in the Game.
"I'll take them." Kirito said. "Give me Kine'Iende and that Naginata Wielder who had been working with him… Jay."
Jay was a stockily built man who was surprisingly quick with the bladed staff, but his Avatar had originally been female and was called Jane, but out of curtesy, and because he had an intimidating glare, they all just called him Jay.
The four Exotic Wielders were surprisingly, given the gender imbalance in the game, all Female players. Three were here and the fourth was Argo, who had acquired a pair of Claw Gloves, which were counted as one 'paired' weapon by the system, that used Unarmed Skills. While Argo had the level to be part of the Clearing Raid, she chose not to, in order to concentrate on her role of Info Broker.
The three Exotic Weapons Wielders in the raid were Reaper, who had her sickle and chain Kusarigama; Tomika, who had a metallic barbed whip; and Lina, who had a tri-bladed Katar, a Punch Dagger from India which, like Argo's Claw Gloves, used Unarmed Skills, and a small Round Shield.
The meeting went on for a few more minutes before it broke up and Hakima went to give the raid team the briefing and the Party Breakdown requirements, as the Raid had been told not to Party until after the briefing. Kirito moved off to collect his Party and Asuna went off to find some of the Players she usually played with. Rigu was the first one Asuna found and soon another six players were around the two female Players.
"Rigu, you going one or two handed?" Asuna asked.
"One." Rigu replied.
"Right." Asuna replied, "Rigu, Soman, Treel, Naris, you are with me doing DPS. Godfree, Harkoon, Sarth, you will be our Tank/Heavy group. See if you can find a few more to fill out the Party. Agil, if he is available, and at least one more Tank."
Soman and Treel were both light shielders, with Soman using an Axe and Treel a Mace. Naris was a very nimble Player who used a dagger. Godfree was a Two Handed Axe Wielder while Harkoon and Sarth were Tanks, Harkoon using a One Handed Spear and Sarth a Long Sword.
"I'll go find Agil." Rigu said. "See if he knows any other available Tanks or Heavies."
"I know another DPS we can ask." Naris said. "They're not a shielder though."
"Go find them and we will see." Asuna replied.
Naris nodded and took off. Asuna looked over and saw Rigu talking with Agil who seemed to have brought Tor into the conversation. After a moment of conversation Agil waved over a Tank.
Asuna nodded to herself. It looks like her two Parties were ready for the Boss raid. That thought made her pause for a second. Since when had she thought of them as her parties, her people? They were not quite to the level where people considered them a Proto-Guild but they were known to work together quite often, though they also worked with others when the mood or circumstances suited. Time to get her head into the game.
One last look around saw Kirito with his party. Some of the other Players did not like the kind of Player that Kirito seemed to have gravitate towards him. Players that did their own thing or had exotic weapons and did not conform with the architypes that many of the Players seemed to like so much. Well, many of those players did not like female Players either, so she figured they could just go off and fume in silence or some of the female Players, like Rigu, Kiki or herself would show them the error of their ways.
TBC….