"Kibaou! Get a party to focus on the boss! Everyone else, close ranks around them! Keep the shadows off their backs!"

There was a second of hesitation from the entire Assault Team, then they obeyed. Because they were not prepared for this, and any plan sounded better than no plan.

Drifter followed the rest of the Reavers as they closed in on the party attacking the boss. He speared one of the shadows through the chest, and decapitated another with a flick of his wrist. For now, he and his guildmates had yet to be harmed, but the Assault Team was struggling.

All the copies died in one or two hits max, but if they managed to strike you, the damage was astounding. And terrifying. Drifter spotted more than one player in the red, and countless down to half health. The raid had barely started.

"Behind!"

When he heard Kirito yelling, Drifter didn't even turn around. He knew the position of his guildmates, so he simply thrust his spear behind him without even looking, and felt it hit something. When he tore it to the side and spun, the first shadow was already dead. A second one managed to hack into his shoulder before Sinon put an arrow through its head and Ran and Kizmel diced the last one to pieces.

From the corner of his eye, Drifter saw another copy rising, this one right behind Liz. His spear was already flying before it was even fully formed. Not with << Serpentcoil Impale >>, that would be overkill for a shadow.

More and more copies of << Kagachi the Samurai Lord >> were rising now. Drifter dodged under a swinging katana before kicking it with a << Martial Arts: Low Blow >>, right into Asuna's rapier. He recovered his spear and finished off the shadow.

"How's Kibaou doing?!"

When he didn't receive an answer immediately, Drifter knew something was wrong. Kizmel, Liz, Vallerk, Yuuki, and most of the others were occupied with their own enemies, but Yuna and Nautilus were staring at the center of the room with mouths agape and obvious horror. The spearman was almost afraid to look.

Kibaou had switched with another of his guild members, most likely to heal considering his health, but he seemed to have forgotten that. The ALS leader was frozen, as were many others not in immediate combat.

"Rockal is dead."

Kirito breathed out the fact as if still struggling to believe it. Drifter understood. Rockal was one of Aincrad Liberation Squad's tanks. He wasn't in the main party, but he was a frontliner.

"D-Did you see how?"

"Two shadows got him from behind. Kagachi's sword glowed. It was so fast. And they were all critical hits. Rockal didn't even..."

The young swordsman shook himself awake from his stunned stupor when another copy spawned near the. Kirito's strike was instinctive, and his sword almost a blur, when it slashed through the shadow's head. Drifter didn't take his eyes off the boss and the players around it.

"They are faltering. Kirito, we need to do something."

"The DKB..."

"They got their hands full. Everyone does. Kirito. It's us or nobody."

The boy started, then nodded gravely.

"Reavers, we are relieving ALS! Drifter, Asuna, Nautilus, Vallerk, we are taking on the boss first! Kizmel, Liz, Merida, Yuuki, and Ran, second line. Hit and switch tactics. Klein, Orlando, we need Fuurinkazan and the Legend Braves to cover our backs! Agil, please protect Sinon and Yuna!"

Kirito shouted over the cacophony of noises, and those he named looked over before acknowledging his orders.

"You got it, Kirito!"

"Take that thing down, leave the copies to us!"

The three guilds and Agil's party pushed past the mass of players, cutting down any shadows they came across. It still took them three minutes to get to the center of the room. Drifter didn't see anyone else die during that time, but it was hard to tell. Everything was a mess.

"Kibaou! Trade with us for now!"

It was a sign of how shaken the ALS leader was that he just nodded, barely glancing at Drifter as he whistled for his subordinates to retreat. The Reavers took their places seamlessly.

For how short and chaotic the raid was until now, Drifter couldn't deny that the ALS had done a good job by bringing down the boss to only 80% HP in less than 10 minutes. It was also the first time in the battle that the spearman found himself face-to-face with << Kagachi the Samurai Lord >>, and he quickly understood why the others were struggling.

No sooner than he came in front of the boss, Drifter thrust his spear forward in a quick jab, hoping to catch it by surprise and then use a << Horizontal >> to score a few more points of damage. Instead, the one who was surprised was him, when Kagachi bent its body and parried his spear. Drifter stumbled forward and only saw the katana after he had been hit.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Drifter!"

Nautilus came to his rescue with a << Shield Bash >>, knocking aside the second sword strike from Kagachi. Drifter took the chance to switch with Ran and pop a potion. That one shallow slash had taken out a fifth of his health.

"I'm okay, Naut. Thanks. You said it was fast, Kirito, but I didn't think it was that much. My bad."

Drifter switched in with Asuna, and this time his spear found purchase in the boss' flank. It was just one blow, and then he had to retreat, lest he got his arm chopped off in a riposte. But they were hurting << Kagachi the Samurai Lord >>, however slowly.

Too slow. Drifter heard another scream, high-pitched. Horror. His head followed the sound involuntarily, just in time to watch a blade-user from an independent party burst into shards.

Two. Two dead already. At least. Two, when they had gone 8 floor boss raids without any deaths. Two too many.

"Faster, Kirito! We need to be faster!"

The swordsman had seen the same thing as him, and his expression was grim as he nodded forcefully. In a move most would consider reckless, but Drifter knew was calculated, Kirito launched a << Vertical Square >>, willingly taking a cut to the chest so the skill could hit.

Asuna flashed from the side with a skill, leaving puncture wounds all over Kagachi's body. Drifter felt his own strikes empowered by Yuna's songs as he lashed out with a Snake Bite, and then a << Snake Bite >>.

<< Kagachi the Samurai Lord >> was absurdly fast and strong, but lacked defense. Each blow the boss took resulted in a visible dip of its HP. Drifter ducked under a swing, the katana still cutting a gash across his forehead, but he ignored it, stabbing up at what would be Kagachi's chin if it had a face.

For what seemed a lifetime, Drifter and the Reavers worked together to bring down Kagachi. They threw themselves ruthlessly at the boss, trusting in Sinon, Vallerk, and Nautilus to interrupt or intercept the boss' skills.

It was reckless. It was stupid. They didn't care. For every second the fight was prolonged, more copies spawned, and more people died. Drifter counted four now.

When the battle ended, it was as abrupt as when it started. Drifter hadn't had time to spare to look at the boss' health, being focused on staying alive and attacking. His spear pierced through << Kagachi the Samurai Lord's >> head, and the floor boss shrieked. The first noise it made the whole raid, and it scared him so much he ripped his spear away and launched into another offensive, only to discover that Kagachi was already falling apart. The shadows all vanished.

Suddenly losing his strength, Drifter flopped down. This was, by far, the most intense battle he had ever been through. Were it anyone but him, Kirito, Yuuki, and Asuna the main attackers, casualties would have been tremendous. Not many, if any at all, could keep up with the boss' speed but the four of them.

As it was, Drifter collapsed, panting. He was afraid to look around. Of how many he wouldn't see. But he had to look.

Reaver's Requiem was alive. Not intact, but alive. Merida was kneeling, her broadsword stabbed into the floor as she held onto it for support with one hand. The other, her left hand, was gone. Vallerk was also sporting a missing limb, his right arm. But they were alive.

The same couldn't be said of all in the Assault Team. 96 players had joined the boss raid. Less than that were left.

Drifter ran his eyes over the Assault Team, searching for Reaver's Requiem's close allies. The Legend Braves were all there. Chuchulainn and Orlando had lost limbs too, which would make for a gruesome sight and a traumatic experience if the blood wasn't simply red particles and the limbs didn't regrow painlessly.

Fuurinkazan... Drifter experienced a brief moment of panic when he failed to spot their red-headed leader, but he let out the breath he was holding when he saw Klein laying on the floor behind Kunimittz.

Agil's party... The giant of a man was there, one of the few who was still standing. Agil looked serious, even perplexed, but so were all of them. This battle had been harder than all the floor boss fights combined. Wolv was sitting down, his head between his legs. Shigio was just staring at the ceiling. And Namate...

Drifter stirred. He wasn't seeing Namate. Shooting up to get a better view, he spun in place, searching for the warrior merchant who was always following Agil. He didn't find him.

With unsteady steps, Drifter started walking towards Agil. Suddenly, the downcast expression on his friend's face took on a much darker meaning.

"Agil?"

The other man looked up and met his eyes. He wasn't crying. Drifter didn't know if his eyes were red from sadness or anger. Agil spat out an answer to the unspoken question.

"Namate's gone."

Drifter heard the gasps from the other Reavers, Yuna's choked sobs. He should have gone to comfort her. To comfort Agil. He didn't. Instead, Drifter turned away and asked nobody in particular.

"How many did we lose?"

The question echoed in the silent courtyard. They had won, but it was a pyrrhic victory. None of them could feel happy with the results.

"Six. We lost six."

It was Shivata who spoke. Drifter could hear him fighting to keep his voice steady. This wasn't the first time they had seen people die. It definitely felt like the most brutal.

"Why? What happened? Everything was going so well!"

Lind's whisper carried through the room. Drifter knew the answer. He hated that he knew. Because he only realized it now, and not before, when it actually mattered. He still spoke.

"We got arrogant. Overconfident. We got through nine floors with just one casualty, so we assumed this one would be the same. We were wrong."

Drifter saw some visibly recoil from his words. It didn't make them any less true.

"Even so... Even so, it shouldn't have been this hard."

That was Silica. Drifter shook his head.

"We should have seen it coming. This is the 10th floor. Kayaba would never make an easy game."

"W-What do you mean?"

He didn't know who spoke this time. His mind was somewhere else. He was still staring at Agil.

"I don't know. But this is a tenth of the way up. A checkpoint. We should have thought of that. We didn't. Everything before... 1st floor aside, it has been too easy. It was a tutorial. I thought Kayaba had given us the first month to adapt to SAO. But it was the first ten floors. All bets are off now. This is when it gets serious."

No one contested him. In hindsight, it was obvious. Other than the 2.000 at the start, less than 600 people had died. Most on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Less than 10 on the 7th, 8th, and 9th floors each. Kayaba had been treating them with kid gloves. No more.

"What do we do now?"

Drifter didn't know who asked the question, but it echoed the thoughts of all the frontliners. And for once, it wasn't him who answered. Agil lifted his head, his voice hoarse with steel-like determination.

"We climb. I'm beating Aincrad even if I die."