The Survival Logs || Sword Art Online Fanfic

Clashing Guilds Arc: Chapter 48 - Terror Frontier

31 October 2023

Amneslia Weald, 39th Floor

It had always been an unspoken rule not to start a raid on any kind of boss alone. Even the solo players themselves had to follow this rule sometimes.

And yet there I was, staring up at the towering, disfigured creature that had just risen from the ground, blaring out noises that I wished I hadn't heard at full blast. My ears felt like they were bursting, as the mashed up sounds drove my eardrums to their limit.

The only thought that kept me standing in front of the terror were the 3 HP gauges materializing at its side. No matter how much fear I had just from looking at the boss, it was still a monster that could be killed. It should be just like any other field boss that I had encountered before, having its attack patterns and weaknesses.

If only I hadn't broken that unspoken rule.

Sure, there were other players nearby. Fangras and the 2 dagger users from Lycan Mark were with me, but I can't expect them to help out, especially since they saw me as their enemy. Even if they did, casualties would still be inevitable.

From head to toe, the boss never held back on how messed up it was, enough to give most people nightmares just by catching sight of it just once. Body parts from monsters such as werewolves, vampires and gargoyles made up its body, chimera-style, as it stood up despite its uneven body weight. Its head was the real nightmare, stitched up from parts of the heads of those monsters, and as it turned around, the skin where the stitches were stretched along, making crisp ripping sounds that made me cringe in a mix of disgust and fear, down to the very core.

It was as if its creator could never make up their mind on whatever they wanted to create, eventually deciding on combining all their ideas together in a very haphazard way. Frankenstein's monster seemed tame compared to that atrocious abomination, which flailed its limbs and screeched out incomprehensible noises at the same time.

Its title tag shone brightly, amid the darkness around it:

<<The Terror Joker>>

No one would ever want to die to such a monstrosity. It was definitely an indisputable fact.

At the foot of the boss, Igore gave me a wide smile, his head cocking in an unnatural way as his mouth moved. I shouldn't have heard what he said, due to the boss's terrorizing cry, but my ears caught Igore's voice, as if I was wearing headphones at full volume.

"Enjoy."

I spun my doubled bladed spear, Binarium Edge in a windmill out of habit, charging towards the boss despite my conscience telling me not to. My eyes focused up front, straight at its body, never wavering off from the sight of whatever they had locked on.

The monster rushed forth, swinging its limbs at me. I dodged the first one, violently turning my body sideways as it came down from above. As the second limb followed up on the attack, I assumed a stance with my spear as quickly as I could, holding my spear with both hands such that I was ready to spin it, just like I did before.

With my spear aimed at the boss, still metres away, my arms rotated the spear in a windmill, as its blades glowed in a yellow light effect. In a complete clockwise spin, my body shot forward abruptly, now guided by the skill-assist system, the spear becoming a yellow blur as it went.

my arms spun the spear again, and the same thing happened, bursting through the air in short distance below striking at the boss at the fourth spin. As my spear dug into the boss's body, it shrieked furiously.

I had just used a weapon skill categorized under the Double-bladed Spear skill tree, a skill mod that is under the Spear skill itself. It was unlocked when I had equipped Binarium Edge for the very first time, since the weapon's sub-weapon type was Double-bladed Spear.