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.
Asuna looked around at her two parties and the Floor Eight Boss. It was almost time for them to rotate back in to the front lines of the fight.
"It looks like the Boss is almost at a blocking point again." Asuna said to her parties. "Rigu, Soman, Godfree, Agil, Tor, when it hits that point, go for the mini-arms."
The named players nodded. The additional member of the DPS team that Naris found was a one handed mace wielder who did not use a shield but instead used rapid spins to increase the power of the strike, so he was not suited to going after the mini-arms. The Tank that Agil had invited in was a tall grey haired man who used a tower shield and a long sword like Sarth, but the Tanks were there for defence.
This Boss was, all things considered, not that tough except for the single twist that was the blocking points. The main Boss was a large monster with a snake like lower body that led up to a humanoid torso and head, though the neck had a flared hood like a cobra. It had two main arms which each held a sabre and six smaller 'mini-arms' that ended in a sharp two-foot long claw. There were also Adds that were much smaller version of the Boss, with no mini-arms, but armed with a two handed spear.
The trouble came with what Asuna had dubbed the blocking points. She was sure there was some gamer term for the mechanic but she had no idea what it was. The Boss had four health bars and the issue had come when half of the first health bar had been chipped away. The Boss simply stopped taking any damage. Attacks that were previously effective now did nothing.
The solution had come five frustrating minutes later when Reaper, in Kirito's party, had thrown the sickle end of her Kusarigama into the Boss's flank. As she had been retrieving the sickle, it had passed through and sliced off one of the mini-arms. Up until that point the mini-arms had been a mild annoyance to the flanking teams but once that mini-arm was gone, the Boss's health bar began going down again, only to stop once more when the first health bar was empty. At that point Agil had attacked just as the Boss moved to one side and sliced off a second of the mini-arms. His upwards attack would have sliced off a third but when it reached another mini-arm the attack simply stopped. When the Boss was vulnerable to attacks, the mini-arms were impregnable and when the Boss was impregnable the mini-arms were vulnerable.
The order came for Asuna's parties to rotate in and they charged into the front lines, moving semi-smoothly past the parties that were retreating to the back to recover. A wave of arrows from the ranged parties covered the change over.
Kirito had his party in a looser formation than the other parties used due to the nature of the weapons used. Kine'Iende and Jay were the 'front line', but they were about a meter apart so they had the space to properly use their weapons. As Kine had trained Jay, Jay used his Naginata like Kine used his quarterstaff but was adept at incorporating the blade into the fighting style. Reaper and Tomika were the 'back line' behind Kine and Jay, using the longer reach of their Kusarigama and barbed metallic whip to attack from behind the defence provided by Kine and Jay. Lina and Kirito were on the flanks of the party, both to protect the flanks and to attack.
The Aiel were currently, technically, rotated out. Which naturally meant they had moved back and were using their bows. One of the Ninja parties were on the other flank to Kirito's party, while the other Ninja Party were rotated out, and were resting in the rear.
Kirito could not help but keep half an eye on Asuna and Rigu. Asuna was not only pulling her weight in doing damage, but was also doing very well in commanding her two parties, using the Tank/Heavy party as protection at times for the DPS party. Rigu was also doing well, seeming to take the lead in some of the co-ordinated attacks made by the DPS Party while Asuna was looking after making sure the DPS party and the Tank/Heavy Party were working in unison.
"Final phase change!" Hakima called out, just after the last of the mini-arm was destroyed.
Up until now, the Boss had been attacking with one of its sabres at a time, but was able to quickly switch between its hands so it could rapidly respond to attacks from various directions. Now it started co-ordinating attacks from both hands against targets.
Harkoon and Sarth, along with the new Tank in Asuna's party, were front and centre of the shieldwall the formed to gain the attention of the Boss and weather the Boss's attack. The Boss slithered back and made to charge the shield wall, so in a quick move, Reaper threw the sickle section of her Kusarigama into the tail of the Boss, where the blade of the sickle sunk deep into the Boss's flesh, and began to pull on the chain, in the vain hope of restraining the Boss. Tomika and Lina both grabbed Reaper's chain to help Reaper in restraining the boss. As the chain began to slide through their fingers, Kirito tied the chain to his sword and drove his sword's blade into the ground, before adding his own strength to the pull on the chain.
The Aiel sprinted past Kirito's party and jumped on the Boss's tail, driving their Siswai deep into the tail. One of the parties of Ninja joined the attack on the Boss's tail, attacking it from the side alongside Kine and Jay, while the other party of Ninja were dealing with some of the Adds. With the chain and the attacks on the tail, they were able to keep the Boss from fully charging and were keeping the Boss at a range where it was able to attack the Tanks but hit them with full points.
As was often the way, the Boss was defeated suddenly as far as the Players were concerned. A cheer went up from most of the Players when they realised that the Boss was defeated. Kirito made his way over towards Asuna and some of the others like Rigu and Agil. Several of the tanks were panting on the ground but others were standing mostly through pride.
"Nice idea with the chain." Agil said. "That saved us a lot of trouble."
"It was Reaper's idea." Kirito replied. "I simply anchored the Kusarigama."
"Still saved a few of us." the grey haired Longsword and Tower Shield Tank that was working with Asuna's Tank/Heavy Party that Kirito did not know.
"I don't think we have met." Kirito said. "I'm Kirito."
"Everyone knows you." The man said, extending his hand. "I'm called Heathcliff."
TBC….