Firestarter, the beginning town of the 15th floor, was heavily populated by players at the moment. It was only the second day since this floor was opened, so many of the low-level players came to visit. Humans' capacity to adapt was truly amazing. The players acted like tourists even in this situation.

The fact that Firestarter was so crowded also meant a lot of people saw Reaver's Requiem's dark expressions as they dragged their feet towards their inn. Many would even refer to it as 'sulking'. Not that anyone dared to say it to their faces right now. That seemed to be the perfect way to get beaten up.

Defeat. Utter and complete defeat. That was the result of Reaver's Requiem battle against the << Myconid Queen of Embers >>. Drifter shuddered just remembering.

The battle had started well enough. With the awareness of the field-boss' hidden presence, the Reavers hadn't been caught by surprise when it appeared.

The ground collapsed and then imploded, and Drifter jumped back to avoid the debris. He spun his spear in a circle in front of him, stabbing the << Myconid Queen of Embers >> before it even had a chance to fully emerge.

Like it or not, they had to get close to the field-boss to engage it. That meant they had a lot less time to react, so Drifter only saw the root when it was practically on top of him.

Yet, the spearman didn't panic. He ducked under the madly waving appendage, and cut up again with a << Vertical >>. Drifter saw Ran and Yuuki attacking the same root in conjunction out of the corner of his eye. He linked the skill directly into a normal slash, leaving another gash in the root.

"Shriiikk!!!"

"I think we succeeded in angering it! Vallerk, Naut, all yours!"

The plan they had come up with wasn't all that different from any other raid tactic they had used before. Drifter, Ran, and Yuuki were a little ahead of the others to bait out the field-boss, while Nautilus and Vallerk were just a few steps behind, ready to switch in and take on the aggro of the << Myconid Queen of Embers >>.

Everything was going well until then. The two shield-bearers flawlessly caught the field-boss' attention. Each time a giant root smashed into them, they would be pushed back several steps, but they held strong and didn't fall, pushing back in immediately.

The fact they were so close locked the boss to one of its attack patterns, where it could only knock them with the roots as if they were giant clubs, but not pierce the players. And, without piercing them, the DoT effect wasn't applied.

Pausing for a brief moment to replenish his stamina, Drifter soon jumped back into the fray. His spear blurred as he repeatedly jabbed at the << Myconid Queen of Embers >>, targeting the exposed areas of the field-boss' main body.

His efforts were rewarded with a sequence of critical hits. Drifter knew it was just luck, but a smile spread across his face nonetheless.

Of course, that was when everything had to go wrong. His speartip, jabbed deeply into a mass of amorphous fungus growing on the side of the boss, got stuck. He narrowed his eyes and tried to pull back his weapon, only for white tendrils to suddenly grow out of the field-boss' body and crawl along his spear. His pupils constricted and he tried to let go, but it was too late. The fungus had already touched his hand.

"Ack!"

As soon as it entered in contact with his skin, the fungus spread like a web, growing at a furious pace to envelop his whole arm. Then, to his horror, Drifter felt his body moving on its own.

The spear was pulled out of the << Myconid Queen of Embers >> with a disgusting wet sound, and Drifter turned his back to the field-boss. The creature ignored his defenseless stance. For now and the next minute and a half, Drifter was just another of its limbs.

"Shit! Yuuki, get away! The boss is controlling me! Ninety seconds!"

His expression contorted when he realized the boss was controlling him to walk towards Yuuki. Luckily, it seemed like the control wasn't absolute. He felt like a wooden puppet, his limbs rigid and movement awkward as he shuffled towards the younger twin.

"Huh?"

Yet, despite his warning, the truth was nobody was prepared for Drifter to suddenly turn around and betray them. They had seen a lot of things in SAO, but there had never been a case of a monster taking control of a player.

Yuuki reacted too slowly, swirling her head to look at Drifter with a frown and open mouth. His arm jerked forward and stabbed the spear deep into her gut.

"Argh! What are you doing, Drifter?!"

Yuuki's eyes widened in shock and confusion, but her reactions weren't slow. She brought up her sword and smacked the spear away before putting some distance between them. Drifter's body was controlled to follow and tried to attack her again, but she ducked and avoided it. He was shouting the entire time.

"I already said it isn't me! It's the boss, it has a controlling skill! Root!"

Whatever else, it had to be said that the Reavers' ability to adapt was top-notch. While the << Myconid Queen of Embers >> was using his body as a puppet, Drifter's voice was still his own. He saw a root coming for Yuuki, who was distracted with him, and shouted. The purple-haired girl didn't think twice before dropping down to narrowly avoid the sneak attack.

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"At least you can still talk... Huh? Why am I...?! Oh no!"

Surprise aside, Yuuki hadn't been too fazed by Drifter's sudden and unwilling betrayal. It seemed the << Myconid Queen of Embers >> couldn't force him to use skills, so he had stabbed her with just a normal attack. An elite like Yuuki was more than capable of enduring it and dodging Drifter until the 90 seconds ran out.

That was what she thought, at least. But when Yuuki wanted to step back and kite Drifter around until the time ran out, she found her body moving in the opposite direction, her sword chopping down at Drifter. She completely ignored his spear piercing her body.

Both of their eyes widened in panic. The white fungus had spread from Drifter's arm and spear to Yuuki's body and taken over her. Now, it was forcing them to fight each other.

A fifth of Drifter's health disappeared when Yuuki's sword bit down on his shoulder. On the other side, after two attacks, Yuuki was already down to half of her HP.

"This isn't good. Someone?!"

Drifter shouted, alarmed. Despite how long it seemed, it had only been less than 20 seconds since he was controlled. Still 70 more to go.

To a frontliner, 20 seconds were a lifetime. At first, the others had noticed what was happening but trusted Yuuki to deal with it and occupy Drifter until his status condition was over. But when Yuuki was also controlled and they hurt each other, the rest of the Reavers reacted immediately.

Just as Drifter and Yuuki were about to stab each other again, Nautilus appeared in the middle of them. He deflected Drifter's spear with his shield and smacked Yuuki's sword away with his blade. Then he kicked Drifter in the stomach, just a normal blow. Silica was also there in a mere moment, nicking Yuuki's arm with her dagger.

Drifter and Yuuki were treated like normal mobs now that they were being controlled. And the remaining Reavers were truly elite. The best of the best. In the brief moments after the two started attacking each other, they had already analyzed the whole situation and came up with a plan. It involved lots of unproven conjectures, but the only way to discover what was right and what was wrong was by trying it.

Drifter was controlled after his attack hit a mass of white fungus on the << Myconid Queen of Embers' >> main body. Asuna called it a spore scan in the back of her mind. Then, when Drifter attacked Yuuki, he wounded her with his sword still covered by the fungus, and she was controlled too. Ergo, the fungus was the cause, and it could pass from one player to another.

Now came the first conjecture: the fungus only controlled another host if it touched them directly. Or, in other words, if they were injured by someone controlled. Hence why Nautilus felt safe enough to get in between Drifter and Yuuki, trusting he wouldn't fall prey to the field-boss' puppet skill. And he was right.

And seeing that Nautilus was still with them, Silica, who was on stand-by, also intervened. Her chosen course of action was directly tied to the second conjecture: Drifter and Yuuki were behaving like mobs, so they also must have aggro mechanics, like mobs. Again, that was proven right. Drifter's body, still not obeying his command, changed targets for Nautilus, while Yuuki chased after Silica.

All of that in 30 seconds or less. Most of the spectators around the world - and there were tens of thousands of them at any given moment, that was how famous Reaver's Requiem was - hadn't even fully understood what was happening and why Drifter had seemingly turned on his friends, and the Reavers had already come up with countermeasures and executed them.

Kirito made the call.

"This is a mess, we are pulling back! Nautilus, Silica, get Drifter and Yuuki far away from each other and the boss! And don't get hit no matter what!"

Two controlled guild members was already really bad. If they added a third and a fourth, this could very quickly escalate and get out of control.

Instantly, after hearing Kirito's orders, the mood took a turn for the worse. They had barely started the raid. The << Myconid Queen of Embers >> still had 95% of its HP left. But they all understood the seriousness of the situation, so they withdrew obediently despite their surly expressions.

At least it was easy to retreat. The field-boss stood rooted on the spot, and Drifter and Yuuki were lured outside of the boss' aggro range long before the 90 seconds were over for either of them. Without having to worry about the Myconid Queen's attacks, it was a simple matter for Nautilus and Silica to dodge and drag them around until the duration of the control was over.

Drifter was the first to recover, and he stabbed his spear into the ground and scowled. Not angry, just frustrated.

"That did not go according to plan."

Agil spoke the obvious to break the silence, and there was scoffing and rolled eyes and suppressed laughter. There had never been a bigger understatement.

"What now?"

"Now we go back and rethink our tactics."

Kirito spoke and the Reavers nodded. Drifter drank a potion and unstuck his spear. Needless to say, any << Ashen Myconid >> they came across on the way back did not have a good ending. Their annoyance needed an outlet, and it was the mobs' fault for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

...

It wasn't in Reaver's Requiem's DNA to sulk for a long time. You had a problem, you thought up ways to solve it, that's how they worked. So after a token few grumbles, they got thinking again.

"We are not bringing Orlando and Klein into it."

"Agreed. The more people, the more likely for everything to go sideways. We already had a few too many, in my opinion. No way to focus on the fight when we have to keep an eye out on our own allies."

"First things first, let's figure out how not to get controlled. If we can do that, then everything else is a moot point."

Everyone nodded and turned to Drifter. He blushed a little, very aware and not just a little embarrassed that he had been the first to get caught by the field-boss' parasitic abilities, and that it was in large part his own fault. Yuna rubbed circles on the back of his hand to reassure him, and he started talking.

"I hit one of the big blobs of white fungus on the trunk. It looked like a weak point. I thought I was being clever. Evidently not."

"Don't beat yourself over it, Drif. Everyone who saw it thought the same. Sinon even aimed a few arrows at it, but thankfully it seems like it only could control someone through a direct connection. The downside is the boss was basically covered in the fungus, so we'll have to be very careful during the raid not to hit it. Which means it's gonna be slow."

Asuna put her hands on the table and leaned on it. Drifter grabbed Yuna's hand and rested his head on her shoulder. There was one obvious solution to the whole debacle.

"We can't just aim to hit the uncovered portions of the field-boss, not unless we want to spend the next 2 days non-stop on it. We are going to have to rotate, maybe 2 parties worth at a time. The others will have to be out of range, but still close enough that when one of us gets controlled, they can aggro the person and kite them around."

It was a solution, but it wasn't a perfect one, nor particularly appealing. Fewer people fighting the boss meant they would spend more time on it. A longer fight meant more tension and fatigue. And the more tired they were, the more likely to make mistakes or simply for bad luck to play its hand.

More chances for someone else to discover the field-boss too.

In the end, Kirito shook his head and got up. He was anxious. They all were. But just one look was enough for all of them to calm down.

"One more try. Let's go."