Episode 9 - One Too Many
Floor 2
December 14 – Time: 2pm
Two bosses. Bladescape was still dealing with the idea while they made their way to the boss chamber. She had been placed in Group H, led by Agil, along with Backbreaker, the Beater called Kirito, a ‘fencer’ named Asuna, and another Tank, Gendril.
Everything was different than when they hit the Field Boss, Bullbous Bow. Several other informal guilds had definitely been organized, and they had all their members for the boss battle there. This wasn’t disorganized like it had been with the field boss.
Groups A-C were all members of the Dragon Knights Brigade, led by Lind. Lind was leading this raid because he beat Kibaou in a coin flip. Juvenile in Bladescape’s mind. Groups D-F were all members of the Aincrad Liberation Squad, led by Kibaou. Group G was 6 members of Legend Braves. And H was Agil’s little force.
After a lot of arguing and a little compromising, the strategy was broken down to Groups A-G fighting the main boss, Baran the General Taurus. It had been determined that only Group H was needed to deal with the boss’ only supporter, Nato the Colonel Taurus. Group G fought hard to go after the main boss rather than be delegated to stay with Group H.
Bladescape hated that the Wondercolts only secured two slots for the boss battle. Agil helped get Backbreaker and Bladescape into his group, because he saw how well they worked against the Field Boss. But one day, the Wondercolts would be one of the groups of 6, together as themselves. They would be as powerful as these other guilds were, even if their numbers were smaller.
Their ragtag group was the last through the giant doors that separated the boss chamber from the rest of the Labyrinth. The Bosses never left their chambers, and thankfully, the doors also stayed open. They could retreat if they needed too.
Bladescape stood confidently in front of Backbreaker. She was going to take the initiative and soon as the boss appeared. They were in the center, with Agil and Gendril on their left, and Kirito and Asuna on their right. Kirito was without a shield, which was odd for a straight, one-handed sword. Asuna was using a rapier, meaning no shield made sense. They would have to be fast and careful on that flank. They were also the closest to the main boss.
The towering taurus began to form in front of them and then roared into the ceiling with his bull head. Sitting atop it like a crown was it’s weak point and pride, the shining black horns. As promised in Argo’s guide, a two-handed hammer appeared in it’s right hand, to start. It was only about 8 feet tall, half the size of the other boss. Three green health bars appeared.
Bladescape charged in, unleashing an upward strike across it’s chest from left to right. It barely nicked Nato’s health bar. The beater was right behind Bladescape. With a high leap, he landed his sword on the horns for a stagger bonus. Right behind him was Asuna, rapier glowing bright blue. She unleashed the sword skill, driving home several quick blows. They knocked off four times the health that Bladescape had dealt.
Bladescape wasn’t going to waist the off balanced boss. Her sword glowed as she activated Cascade, an overhead slash. Agil also landed a strong blow with his two handed axe.
With Nato firm on his feet, Bladescape leaped back. Kirito and Asuna were clearly going to be the biggest damage dealers, just like Agil had said. Bladescape would strike when she could, without hesitation, but it was wisest to let them switch in for the heavy stuff. She was best left drawing aggro with Agil and then letting the Tanks do their job.
More hits landed. Kirito knew the attack patterns well. He had obviously beaten Nato in the beta. They could avoid or minimize the damage when Nato activated Numbing Impact. An overhead strike into the ground that also shot sparks. If you were too close, you took a lot of damage. If you got hit with the sparks, it was a stun effect for a few seconds. He could put several of them together as well before he got the movement penalty for activating his sword skills, and taking two sparks meant you were paralyzed, not stunned. A much harsher and longer penalty.
Kirito and Asuna went in and struck once again. As they moved back, Bladescape switched in and drew Nato’s attention with a slash at his right ankle. Since it wasn’t a sword skill, Bladescape was able to scramble out of the way and switch with Backbreaker who took the hammer directly on her shield. She slid a few feet back, resisting the strength of the taurus. The beast won, and Backbreaker was off balance as she stumbled backward. Bladescape caught her friend and got her back on her feet.
“Agil!” Kirito yelled. “They are getting crushed against Baran. He has them scattered. I’m going to get them to reorganized. In case we need to retreat!”
“Got it, man, we can handle it. Bladescape, you need to replace Kirito as damage dealer. You need to go in first and Asuna will follow you. Protect her.”
“Right!” Bladescape yelled back. “Here comes another overhead ground strike!”
It was a three swing chain strike. Gendril couldn’t avoid the showers of the second and third sparks. Backbreaker was hit with a third strike’s spark, stunning her for three seconds. But Nato the Colonel Taurus had the movement penalty.
Bladescape charged and activated Split, a two combo sword skill. Her blade glowed a soft purple and it swept from right to left in a horizontal strike. The blade then cut from the left shoulder across the chest.
Asuna landed several quick strikes on Nato with better speed than either Dash or Astro. Bladescape couldn’t see her blade tip move. It was clearly faster than Dash could strike. Agil got in on the action with a powerful cleave upward, snapping the boss’ head up to the ceiling. With the two tanks unable to respond, it was all they could do.
Nato’s HP bar slid down almost to the end of the second bar.
Not all of them got clear of their full on assault. Nato stomped and glowed before he raised his hammer and drove it into the floor. Asuna was caught in the blast trying to not be split up from the group. Her agility was amazing as she slipped out of the path of the sparks. But the hammer was coming down again.
Backbreaker didn’t give it a second thought as she leaped forward. She moved past Asuna, but not to block her directly. Backbreaker slid to right under the hammer’s path and raised her shield, bracing it with her other hand. It’s yellow charged head came straight down on Backbreaker’s shield, flat. Backbreaker was forced to a knee, but that was all Nato forced her to do. The attack was nullified, but Bladescape saw Backbreaker’s HP slip deep into the red. It was below her health bar on the left of her vision. The same with the others because they were in a party.
Bladescape reacted immediately, charging her own sword skill combination, Battering Ram. A two combo strike that was two powerful stabs. It landed, in the center of Nato’s chest.
It was a nasty hail of attacks they unleashed on Nato the Colonel Taurus. It removed the last of his HP on his second HP gauge and drove him a solid chunk into his third. That meant he was going to burst into a frenzy and charge. His skin was already turning purple.
Agil and Bladescape dragged Backbreaker out of the way. Healing crystals were expensive and rare on Floor 2. Healing potions were still the standard, but they took time to refill your HP bar. The Wondercolts had gotten a crystal in a random drop. Bladescape grabbed it from her pouch.
“Heal!” Bladescape ordered as she aimed it at Backbreaker.
Backbreaker’s HP immediately leapt all the way full.
“You are lucky you have one of those,” Agil said, drinking his own health potion since he was in the rear.
“We got it in a random drop the other day,” Bladescape replied. “We knew we needed to save it.”
Bladescape drank her own health potion as Backbreaker got to her feet.
“Come on y’all,” Backbreaker smiled. “Let’s go finish this Boss and unlock Floor 3.”
As they ran back into the fray, the Beater rejoined them with a leap that struck right on the horns. Bladescape looked to the main Boss, Baran the General Taurus. He was also on his last bar, dipping towards the yellow. Their superior numbers were handling him nearly as fast as they were dealing with Nato.
They rejoined the fight, landing several hard strikes and forcing Nato into the yellow.
He was still in a frenzy and the chargers were his fastest attack. None of them were ready for it as they split. Nato targeted Asuna and was immediately on her.
“NOT THIS TIME!” Backbreaker yelled, charging in. She knocked Asuna out of the way just in time and she took the charge head on. Backbreaker’s yell was even stronger than Nato’s. “I’M NOT MOVING THIS TIME!”
Unable to do anything against Backbreaker, the boss was stunned. It’s horns were digging into the shield Backbreaker was using.
Bladescape went in with her own combination of attacks. The beater’s sword still beat hers. He was faster than she was. It was impressive and Bladescape finally understood how he could play solo like he was. Agil, Asuna, and Gendril drove home their own strikes, Gendril had just come out of his paralyses.
Backbreaker broke contact with a shove of her shield, moving Nato back. He didn’t have the time to move as her hammer glowed fuchsia and drove upward into his chin.
“Take that you stupid cow!” Backbreaker declared.
“I’ve never seen shield skills like that,” Agil said. “Not in any game or in here. That was unbelievable, man!”
“I grew up on a farm,” Backbreaker shrugged.
Cries of terror from the other groups caused them to turn their heads. Baran the General Taurus had dropped solidly into the yellow, but in between their group in the back of the room and Group H toward the front of the room was a glowing mass. A third boss was spawning. The information they had only said two. The beta only had the two bosses. Nothing in any quests, NPCs, or dug up from anywhere else said three bosses.
Bladescape turned back to Nato as Kirito ordered an all out attack on him. The Black Swordsman was already in mid jump and struck the horns on Nato’s crown. Delayed from the hit to his precious horns, the others charged in.
Backbreaker jumped in with Bladescape. She struck first, switching out with Bladescape. They all were around the boss and he raised his hammer to take advantage of their proximity. The Beater sliced a wicked Horizontal sword skill across him, causing Nato to arch in pain and accidentally cancel the attack.
They all got another round of strikes in. Bladescape saw the HP go down to the last few pixels and raised her sword to finish him off for the Last Attack Bonus, but the Beater changed directions right before his Horizontal caused him to freeze from the movement penalty. His glowing fist slammed into the boss with a yell. A martial arts sword skill. He probably was the one Argo had mentioned that had beaten them to the quest. The Beater was frozen after his attack.
But that didn’t matter because Nato the Colonel Taurus was defeated. The new boss was almost done materializing. Group H rushed to the aid of the others in an attempt to knock the last of the HP down so they could all face the boss as one.
Group H switched in as a whole and pounded Baran with multiple attacks. They were switched out and Baran’s HP dropped to the red zone. The Crimson Taurus raged, abandoning his golden hammer for a berserker charge.
The Beater unleashed Sonic Leap, a jumping one handed Sword Skill Bladescape had never liked. But now she saw the value of it. Baran the General Taurus was twice the height Nato had been. The Beater staggered Baran when the leap caught his horns.
They charged together, taking advantage of the stagger, weapons glowing. They struck down the last of his HP. The final kill was uncertain, but Bladescape saw the Beater through the floating polygons, head down after finishing a powerful uppercut. A slight grin creased the corner of his lip.
It didn’t matter. The other boss was fully spawned. Asterius the Taurus King popped up above his head, along with 6 HP bars. He had a platinum crown atop his 6 horns, and sported a long, twisted beard. His black body was massive, the legs alone were as thick as tree trunks. His hammer too was much larger than Baran’s and it made Nato’s look pathetic.
Before they could do anything, it finished its arrival by leaning back and blew a lightning breath attack. Backbreaker instantly raised her shield and Bladescape slipped behind her. She shrunk up as much as possible and avoided touching Backbreaker. The screams and grunts were terrible as most of the group was struck with it’s area wide attack.
Backbreaker’s suffering was like a chalkboard being scratched in Bladescape’s head, but she survived it. Bladescape took the opportunity to leap out. The boss would need distracting. Lind and Kibaou were near each other and paralyzed. Bladescape ran to try and knock them out of the way as the King rose his hammer to destroy them.
Before he could unleash it he staggered back. Bladescape looked over and saw a chakram flying through the air. Another soldier had escaped the attack and had hit him with the thrown weapon. Bladescape still ducked her shoulder and rammed into Kibaou and Lind, throwing both of them out of the way to safety so they could recover from their paralysis.
Footsteps from the boss’s entry door sounded across the hall as another chakram went whipping through the air with a ‘sling.’ Bladescape dashed towards the obvious newcomer. It was Argo, the information dealer. If she was here, something was wrong, and one something was obvious. Bladescape kept herself in between Argo and Asterius to shield her from any mishaps.
Most of the raid party was recovered from the stunning lightning and Argo told them the attack patterns. Apparently she located the information after the raid party was out of message range, blocked by the Labyrinth. She had come to personally deliver the life saving news. It had obviously been too late to warn them of the third boss.
It was very similar to the other two. But what mattered was the actions that keyed up the special attacks. The much wider Numbing Detonation was started by the boss stomping three times before it raised his hammer. His near death berserker stage was identifiable by his black body burning like it was coal.
His weakness, as they already discovered, was the crown atop his head. But even with attacks like Sonic Leap, they were too short to hit it. Only thrown weapons like the chakram did the trick.
The party had all recovered, and boosted their HP as much as possible with healing potions. The chakram throwing knight was obviously worn down. Lind organized groups A and D to attack. The chakram knight had worked alone for a few minutes, keeping them safe as they organized. A valiant effort that he probably would not be rewarded for. His reward would be split like the rest of them. Then again, Bladescape would have done the same if she could’ve, and she wouldn’t care for an extra award. It was what they all agreed upon when joining this raid party.
The King was named such for a reason. Even with the full raid party attacking, chipping away his HP wasn’t easy, and his attacks were not easy to avoid in the space provided. Bladescape and Backbreaker worked as hard as everyone else to knock off every last bit of HP Asterius had.
The boss finally dropped into the red and charged. The charging allowed for them to strike after he passed. Bladescape dove out of the way and immediately had a sword skill keyed up and striking at his leg. It did it’s job.
Surrounded, he stomped and then rose his hammer. They backed up out of his reach, but ready to dive right back in. Group G didn’t back down. The Boss was almost finished. The Beater and Asuna didn’t either.
Bladescape watched, inspired, as the two of them dodged the lightning and immediately retaliated. The strike brought the King’s head low enough for both of them to strike his crown. In a flash of light the Beater clearly struck the last blow.
Three for three.
Now Bladescape was getting jealous. He was definitely a great player, at the very top. She could be that too, she just needed the opportunity. It obviously wasn’t going to just be handed to her. He was getting the rarest equipment from the last attack bonuses. Skill was important, but so was gear. Only the best was going to count when it came to clearing this game.
Bladescape could do it as well as he was, she just needed to take control better than she had been. The third floor would have other field bosses. Bladescape would finish one with her sword.
“I’m glad that’s over,” Agil said. He was huffing right beside Bladescape.
Bladescape realized she was breathing heavily too. “Yeah. And Floor 3 is rumored to have the quest to form guilds.”
“Yeah, I recall you and your friends wanted to form a guild. You look like a hardy bunch.”
An argument quickly heated up in another part of the chamber. But it wasn’t what Bladescape immediately thought it was. The blade throwing guy, Nezha, had apparently joined the battle late, and worse, a scam had been outed. All of the Legend Braves were involved. It almost turned ugly. Bladescape was thankful that the Wondercolts had not fallen prey to the scam.
As soon as the Teleport Gate in the 3rd Floor’s main town, Zumefut, was unlocked, the rest of the WonderColts came charging through to meet Backbreaker.
“Now, what was this important thing you wanted to discuss?” Diemond immediately asked.
“This way,” Backbreaker said. “To our room. Bladescape is waiting in there.”
Once inside, all 11 of them huddled around the small table. Bladescape leaned onto the table from the chair she was using. It was the only one at the table in their inn room.
“We got two of us to be able to join the raid,” Bladescape explained. “But the others were basically from two guilds. If we want to be a guild that can help clear this game, we are going to need to push harder than we are. And we will need to seriously fight to get better equipment. Those guys are sucking things up quickly. BB and I both leveled up from the boss-”
“We can’t let ourselves fall too far behind,” Knightstar interrupted. “I still want to be at the head to clear this game. I’m missing school.”
Everyone laughed at Knightstar. Only Twilight would worry about missing school. Even their four new friends could understand that.
“I’m in,” Diemond said. “This won’t be easy, but we are the Wondercolts! Our record stands for itself. And our four friends are more than welcome to stand by our side.”
“We will,” Kiefer nodded. “Gladly. We will need to work hard to get ourselves up to higher levels, but we will.”
“How will we make sure we catch up?” Thunderborne asked. “We already put in a ton of work on the second floor. All day long we were grinding.”
“All day,” Backbreaker said. “We still have hours in the day we were relaxing. Cooking and crafting are important, but I agree with Blade, we need to push harder on the fighting skills for a bit longer. Then we can put some of our efforts into other things.”
“I don’t believe we necessarily need to put our new skill slots straight to combat,” Bladescape added. “But we do need to make sure we max our combat skills as fast as possible.”
“For the animals!” Doombunny exclaimed in her soft voice. “Oh, sorry. Did I interrupt you?”
They all laughed. Astro, Kiefer, Lessa, and Joltron had figured out Fluttershy’s meek side under the warrior she was becoming. Doombunny had done amazingly, but outside of combat she still was her usual self. And her quiet voice wasn’t something she could change.
Bladescape (SS): Lvl 12– Two-Handed Sword – Search – Weapon Defense – Leather Armor
Knightstar (TS): Lvl 11 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Equipment Appraisal
Thunderborne (RBD): Lvl 11 – Rapier – Sprint – Agility
Backbreaker (AJ): Lvl 12 – Shield – One-Handed War Hammer – Extended Weight Carry – Heavy Armor Armor
AFCK (PP): Lvl 11 – One-Handed Axe – Parry – Cooking – Weapon Defense – Martial Arts
Diemond (R): Lvl 11 – Shield – Mace – Tailoring
Doombunny (FS): Lvl 11 – One-Handed Dagger – First Aid – Hide
Astro (PS): Lvl 11 – Two-Handed Spear - Purchase Negotiation – Armor Pierce
Kiefer: Lvl 9 – One-Handed Curved Blade – Parry – One-Handed Weapon Creation
Lessa: Lvl 9 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Light Metal Armor
Joltron: Lvl 9 – One handed Axe – Shield – Light Metal Armor
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You know, I'mma give this a chance. Was never the biggest SAO fan, but I can appreciate a good crossover.
Though I find it hard to believe that any of the main cast are going to die, with there not even being a dark tag on the story.
Why isn't there a violence tag?
That was a really great boss battle! I wonder if Sunset will ever get the Last Attack Bonus though?
Welp, I think I'll give this a try! Don't see many SAO fics out here that make it far (other than GS) and this one seems to be going steady!
9886251
Because this falls more under light violence (it's all happening within a game after all) so the violence tag isn't appropriate.
9886409
I have over 40 episodes written and over 30 of them are edited and ready. I am releasing on this schedule to allow me make sure the ending is perfect. I want, and value, the serial novel release style. So there is plenty to come and it won't drop off. Glad to have you on board!
9886251
From my determination of the Violence Tag's description, knowing what is written and coming, it was not needed. Drama was added, but the actual act of violence is light. I don't linger. In a game or not, it is really about adventure and the journey. With some fun life drama as well as they learn to live captive in SAO.
Hey, last chapter Sunset got to lvl 12 and in this chapter she said that she leveled up from the boss. So wouldn't that mean that she should be at lvl 13 right now or did she just not tell everyone that she got to lvl 12 right before the boss fight.
9906598
I'm on my phone and at Wings Over Dallas Airshow, so I can't crosslisted with my PC 5 hours away. But I believe that I failed to clarify things properly.
If I recall correctly, Bladescape is using the Boss Battle to cover up her advancement to Level 12.
If I am wrong, thank you for pointing that out!
as might work better there.
reorganize might be better there. I would also remove the period and extend this sentence into the next.
charges might be what you meant to say there.
waist—>waste
Not good!!!
Good thinking.
Aaaand it just got worse!
Damn!
What an odd name.
Not surprised there.