A bell chiming echoed through complete darkness, each echo lasted about 2 or 3 seconds yet they felt like they went on forever. A flash of an image of what looked like a darkened corridor in some kind of labyrinth with eerie red mist pouring out of it would appear for about half a second in between each chime from the bell. The Images kept flashing, some showed corridors, others pictured stairwells. The main similarity between each image was the darkness and the red mist. The bell chimes got louder, and louder, and louder then suddenly, Jyenka sat bolt up right clutching the left side of his face. A splitting headache made him grit his teethe and grip that part of his face more. Fortunately for Jyenka, the headache didn't last more than 5 seconds before disappearing like it was never there. "Was that a dream?" thought Jyenka "I didn't know you could even have dreams in SAO."
Jyenka and Taijou headed out to the theatre in the Town of Beginnings for the next assault team meeting picking up breakfast on the way there. When they stepped in they began to look around for familiar faces.
"Wow, you two are actually on time today." Jyenka and Taijou looked to there left to see Silvia standing there with her arms folded
"Morning Silvia" said Taijou.
"Morning Silvy" said Jyenka immediately after. Silvia gave Jyenka an angry look before closing her eyes and letting out a sigh.
"Good to see you all doing well." The 3 of them turned to look at ThirtySix who now stood next to them.
"Likewise ThirtySix." Said Jyenka.
"You can Talk!?" shouted a surprised Taijou.
The commander of the assault team, Kirito, stood up on the main stage and everyone quietened down to hear what he had to say.
"Good work with your quests yesterday, with this we've been able to gather enough exp so that the average player level of the assault team is 20." Jyenka hadn't checked his level in a while so he opened his stat menu to see what it was, It read 17. "Great" thought Jyenka. Just then he'd hear a quiet condescending chuckle next to him, it was Silvia with her stat menu open displaying her player level of 24. "She just has to keep proving she's better than me, doesn't she?" Jyenka angrily thought.
"Now that we have this many players at this level, we'll begin making preparations to take on the boss." The other players in the seating areas looked at each other as a concerned murmuring filled the crowd. Everyone did have the right to think this way, after all it took the players 2 months to beat this boss last time and Kirito planned to get it done in just over a week. "I know this sounds reckless and that we should prepare more, but I'm confident we have the skills to do this." Kirito sounded like he wasn't lying although this wasn't enough to sway the opinion of the crowd. Before the people got too restless a man with brow hair and a red bandana tied around his head stood up.
"Listen everyone!" He said. "No matter what opinion you have, no matter how you see the situation, this is something we must do!" The crowd went quiet again. "I get it, your scared. Well guess what? I'm scared as well and this is my second time here. One of the things I learnt from spending time in this death game though was the strength of trusting in others. Also I want you to know that I have full confidence in my pal Kirito that we can pull this off so please, give him a chance!" The crowd was moved by the mans speech enough to calm down and listen to what Kirito had to say.
"Thanks for the backup Klein" said Kirito. Klein gave Kirito a thumbs-up and sat back down. "we'll be organising the raid party by combining the groups of 4 we made yesterday into 3 large units. the first unit will be the defence, the second unit will be the offensive switchers (They'll be utilising the 'switch' skill to gain more damage and give the other unit a chance to recover.) Finally we'll have the standby unit, these people will hang back and be ready to switch with anyone who needs to. This battle strategy has been made with the survival of every player in mind. It was also built around Ill Fang the Kobold Lord's attack patterns, for the first two thirds of the fight he'll be using a one handed axe, but in that last third he'll switch to his Odachi. In this final phase his attacks will become more erratic and obviously, he'll start to hit harder. During this phase it is key to prioritize well timed switches in order to avoid as much damage as possible while having a high DPS. The best thing that you can do during this fight is remain calm and stick to the process, this is at the end of the day a video game and good battle strategy will be rewarded. I'll send an email to all of you now outlining which roles you'll be playing during this fight." As Kirito finished saying this a notification appeared in everyone's message menu's. Jyenka opened his, it told him his party as well as 3 other parties would be playing the 'support' role.
"It makes sense." said Taijou who also read his message. "We're still rookies when it comes to this stuff, Kirito did say that this strategy was built with the survival of every player in mind." Kirito continued speaking.
"This battle will be taking place tomorrow" the crowd began to stir. "We will meet at the labyrinth entrance at 10am game time, from there we will move as one pack through the dungeon before splitting of into the 3 units to tackle the boss. Be sure to make any final upgrades you can today and rest up, dismissed!" Kirito walked off the stage and people began to leave the theatre.
The giant pillar that stood in the north-east forest of floor 1 cast a giant shadow over the raid party. It was the next day, 9:58am game time and the assault team was making final preparations for the raid on the first floor labyrinth.
"Silvia" Kirito called out over the crowd of players.
"Yes commander?" She replied.
"As one of the vice commanders of the assault team I'm giving you the task of leading the support group." Silvia stood a little taller.
"You can count on me commander." Jyenka, Taijou and ThirtySix all navigated there way through the crowd to get to there assigned positions, or well, ThirtySix did all the navigating, Jyenka and Taijou just sort of followed him.
"You really think we can do this?" Asked a slightly nervous Taijou.
"We have to" said Jyenka clenching his fists. He remembered back to what he said on the day everyone was trapped in SAO "Jyenka is the name of the hero who will conquer this world!"
"I won't die here, I can't." Said Jyenka confidently.
"We'll be ok, despite our situation SAO is still a VRMMORPG. If the first boss was ridiculously difficult it would through off the game balance." Said ThirtySix in a relaxed voice.
"Good point" said Taijou. "Thanks for the little confidence boost."
"Everyone! Can I please have your attention!" Kirito stood on an elevated part of the land the raid party had gathered in. "In just a few moments we will be taking on the first floor boss. I know on the grand scheme of things that doesn't sound like much considering there are 119 other floors, but this fight might just be one of the most important ones. People in this world are scared, filled with dread and hopelessness, but beating this boss will prove that this game is beatable. Today, we restore faith in every person trapped in this game, we look this challenge in the eye and let it know we are willing to win and we tell that bastard in the green cloak that we're coming for him. No let's go beat this boss." A loud battle cry rang out from the crowd of players. The large stone doors on the labyrinth entrance slowly opened and the raid party charged in slaying any monsters that got in there way. Jyenka, Taijou and ThirtySix were at the back of the pack following the trail of drops and blue polygons left by the players at the front. The raid party continued advancing through the labyrinth taking breaks every now and then to recover HP and stamina as well as have there weapons repaired by the teams blacksmith's.
"This one should be good to go" said one of the blacksmiths as he handed Jyenka his double-bladed sword.
"Thanks" replied Jyenka before going to sit down with Silvia, Taijou and ThirtySix. Jyenka stared at the blades on his weapon, he couldn't quite put his finger on it but this weapon type felt extra comfortable in his hands, especially if you compared it to other weapon types.
"Everything ok with it?" asked Taijou who noticed Jyenka checking out his blades.
"Y-yeah" stammered Jyenka as he put his weapon away.
"And what about you Silvia?" Taijou said looking at Silvia who had her face buried in her menu. "Anytime we've had breaks you haven't taken your eyes off that thing."
"Well unlike you people, I have a important roll to play" said Silvia condescendingly. Jyenka scoffed.
"Ok Mrs Leader of the Support Unit" Jyenka said while rolling his eyes.
"Nobody asked you Jyenka!" Said Silvia angrily.
"Alright, the boss room shouldn't be to far now. Be sure to keep your guards up, we want to enter this fight in our best conditions possible." Shouted Kirito to the group. Everyone stood up and began navigating the last few areas before arriving at another large set of doors similar to the ones that opened the way into the dungeon.
"This is it" said Taijou.
"Let's do this" replied Jyenka drawing his double-bladed sword.
"Everyone form your units!" Kirito commanded and the players began shuffling there ways into formation. "Remember it may only be floor 1 but stay sharp, a boss fight is a boss fight and I don't intend on losing a single player." Everyone nodded and readied there weapons. The doors to the boss room swung open and Kirito stuck his sword out while shouting "Charge!" The assault team let out a battle cry as the ran out into the boss arena. Standing there waiting for them was a orange coloured creature with an axe in it's right hand and a shield in it's left. It wore a helmet and had glowing red eyes. The beast let out a deafening roar and swung it's axe violently. "Unit 1 take position!" Yelled Kirito. As he did the front row of all the unit 1 players raised there shields and blocked the attack. "Now unit 2, switch!" Kirito commanded the people behind the shields. at least 12 players jumped out from behind the shields and struck at the boss taking a good chunk out of it's health before returning behind the shield users. "Unit 1! Retake your defensive stances!" The front row raised there shields and braced for the next attack. The boss raised it's axe into the air and it began to glow green. "He's using a sword skill! Unit 1 dodge, Unit 2 flank him while he's on cool down after the attack!" The front line jumped backwards and dodged the strike, as they did this the front row of unit 2 ran around the boss and struck it from behind taking another chunk out of it's health.
"This is working!" Yelled Taijou excitedly from unit 3 who were standing back from the main fight.
"Stay sharp! we could be called to switch at any moment!" commanded Silvia. While it annoyed Jyenka to admit, her leadership skills were impressive. The boss took more swings at the party but they kept dodging, defending and countering in the same style until it's health dropped below 1 third of it's max. Illfang jumped backwards and drew it's Odachi from it's scabbard.
"It's entering it's phase 2! Everyone! Take your new positions and switch out if you need to!" Kirito yelled to the raid party. The main force of Unit's 1 and 2 split off to 2 different sides of the boss arena, some players dropped back to recover HP and Stamina.
"This is our time! Support team members, switch in for unit 2 members while they recover!" yelled Silvia while running into the fight.
"What should we do Jyenka?" asked Taijou looking to his left, but when he did Jyenka was already running to join Silvia on the battlefield. "Hey wait for me!" called out Taijou running after them. Jyenka got behind one of the shield users and readied his weapon, as he did he looked up at Illfang. Up until this point Jyenka had only seen pictures of the beast, now that he was fighting it the boss seemed much taller and more intimidating.
"Brace yourself!" yelled the shield bearer that Jyenka was standing behind. As he did the boss struck the ground with his Odachi shaking the arena.
"Switch!" Jyenka yelled as he and other members of unit 2 jumped out to attack the boss. He struck the boss with all his might then looked up to check his HP bar, no health had been lost, perfect. The boss' health dropped below an eighth of it remaining.
"This is it! Man you positions!" Yelled Kirito. The shield bearers took there defensive stances and Jyenka readied his weapon when suddenly the boss began to twitch violently. It let out a roar slightly different to the ones he's done throughout the fight. Just then Jyenka noticed a red mist begin to form around the boss, a splitting headache came over him once again just like the one from his dream. He clutched the left side of his face again, his ears ringing.
"Jyenka! Move!" Yelled Taijou, Jyenka looked up and saw Illfang swing his sword down at the unit he was in. He dived out of the way in the nick of time.
"Jyenka what's up? It's not like you to zone out like that." said Taijou with a concerned voice.
"We need to beat this boss, now." Said Jyenka with a serious tone. Taijou gave Jyenka a slightly confused look but as he did screams echoed out from the assault team. The boss' attacks had become more erratic and powerful.
"Everyone it's not safe! Fall back!" Jyenka began to move back with the others when he saw the boss swing at the group behind him. Jyenka froze, but then noticed one of the people in that group. It was Silvia. Before Jyenka could even think he felt his body lunge forward and begin running towards them.
"Silvy!" Jyenka yelled as he jumped in front of the boss and tried to block the attack with his blade. he got nocked back by the attack and lost a large chunk of his HP.
"Jyenka!? Why!?" shouted Silvia looking down at him. Jyenka began to get back up.
"As if I was just gonna run... when my friends need help..." grunted Jyenka as he clumsily raised his weapon again, locking on to the boss.
"That's a admirable thing to say but you could have died ya know?"
"Everyone get back!" yelled Kirito as he ran out onto the battlefield. The boss turned his attention to him and swung his Odachi, Kirito managed to almost catch the blade on his sword and slide it out of the way, from there he swung his sword striking the boss talking a small chunk out of his health. "The boss can still take damage! That means we can still win!" Kirito yelled as he looked behind him. "We've come this far, we can't back down now!"
"Kirito's right!" said Klein to the remaining members of the assault team. "This guy won't beat us, we're getting to the 120th floor no matter what bullshit this game has in stoor for us!"
"If we chain a switch we should be able to defeat it, unit 2 get ready!" Jyenka and the gang as well as everyone else readied there weapons. "Switch!" Kirito yelled. As he did a girl with brown hair, almond shaped eyes and a rapier jumped in and stabbed the boss, her name was Asuna.
"Switch!" she yelled and and then Klein Jumped in to deal another blow to the boss with his samurai sword, only about a tenth of it's health remained.
"One more blow should do the trick!" Jyenka jumped in with all his remaining strength.
"Haaaaaaaagh!" he yelled and struck at the boss' chest. Illfang let out a cry of pain and stumbled back. Jyenka watched the boss' health bar drop, it dropped and dropped before...
about one pixel of health remained.
"It wasn't enough!" thought Jyenka. Just then he heard one more battle cry.
"Taaaaayah!" Taijou shouted and stabbed the boss through the chest. Illfang let out one more cry before toppling back and shattering into blue polygons. A message appeared at the back end of the boss arena:
"Congratulations!"
The players let out a triumphant cry of victory and Taijou stood up in disbelief. Jyenka chugged a healing potion and ran up to Taijou wrapping his left arm around his neck.
"Way to go buddy! You did it!" Jyenka yelled. A large amount of players also came running over, picking up Taijou and carrying him on his shoulders. Kirito Got everyone's attention again.
"Well done everyone! The first floor has been cleared!" Another triumphant cry rang out from the crowd. "people who need to recover please do so, otherwise feel free to join us on the 2nd floor. Some parties began reforming exchanging high-fives and hugs, Taijou checked his inventory and equipped the item he got from landing the final blow, it was a black cloak.
"Looking good Taijou" said Jyenka. Taijou looked back at Jyenka with a big smile on his face.
"Alright you 2" Silvia said walking up to them. "ThirtySix said he's heading up to the 2nd floor, we should join him."
"Yes Silvia" said Jyenka walking off. Silvia paused for a second.
"H-Hey, Jyenka?" Silvia called out to him as he left.
"What's up?" He asked.
"I don't mind... if you call me Silvy... ok?" said Silvia her face going slightly red. Jyenka thought for a second then laughed.
"What?" asked Silvia with an annoyed tone.
"It's just a little unexpected is all, I kinda like this side of you." Silvia's face went more red.
"W-well don't get use to it! I'm still this party's leade- hey are you listening?" Jyenka was already walking off to catch up to Taijou. Silvia started running to catch up. This, at the end of the day, was a death game. Moments like these however, made you forget. Although, it's these moments that also make people let there guard down.
The next floors await...