3 days after the opening of the 23rd floor, desert half.
A large group of players trudged through the scalding sand. Having once been the bottom of an ocean, the land was quite flat, although not entirely. There were more than enough depressions, fissures, and small hills to hide enemies.
Not that it was really needed, since most of them just emerged from the ground and ambushed you.
The players braving the burning sun were none other than Reaver's Requiem. After Drifter and Argo found out that their next quest objective was deep within the floor, they had put it on hold for a few days. The info-broker went back to gathering intel on Laughing Coffin, while Drifter joined his guild in exploring the floor.
Still, after they had grown some, it wasn't often that all of Reaver's Requiem set out together like today. From the original party to Agil and the Black Cats, all of them were here.
The reason was simple. Yesterday, after following the dot in his map with Yuna, Nautilus, and a few others, Drifter had discovered that his quest objective was none other than a field-boss.
Drifter wasn't ashamed to say that he ordered his party to run then. Frontliners ran away all the time, except when it mattered.
But after a night of preparations, Reaver's Requiem had come out in force to face the field-boss.
Nautilus, Shigio, Vallerk, and Kizmel took the front, advancing cautiously step by step. Like every other mob on this half of the 23rd floor, the field-boss appeared from the ground. Being caught by surprise could be disastrous.
But it would be a cold day in hell when the Reavers allowed themselves to be ambushed by an enemy they were aware of.
"Here she comes! Shields, block the boss! Keita, take the left, Griselda the right! Follow the plan!"
Kirito spotted the shaking sand and yelled. By the time the field-boss emerged, the players were already in position and waiting.
Ashara's Light was the name of the field-boss. But there was nothing sacred about it.
A house-sized scorpion burst out from the sand, pale blue exoskeleton glinting under the sun.
The creature was oddly pretty, if terrifying. The many eyes were red like rubies and shone brightly, and the stinger at the end of the tail was of a much darker hue of blue than the rest of its carapace.
A bucket-sized drop of jet-black venom fell from the stinger's tip, melting a hole 50 centimeters deep into the ground, which quickly filled up with sand again. Suddenly the field-boss wasn't so pretty anymore.
"C'mon, big guy!"
Undaunted, Vallerk and the other 3 who were tasked with stopping the field-boss stepped forward. At the same time, most of the remaining players neatly split into two groups, one to their left and one to their right.
"Here come the puppets! Stick to the plan and finish them off quick!"
Ashara's Light screeched, and about a dozen Ashara Puppets burst out of the sand.
That was the one battle mechanic Drifter and his party had discovered when they ran away - err... valiantly retreated - yesterday. The field-boss summoned minions as soon as the fight started - also explaining why the one mob type they had encountered in this floor was named a puppet.
Drifter was one of the few who didn't go to either side, instead electing to stay behind the shield-bearers. Kirito and Asuna were with him.
They were confident that the others could handle the minions. Meanwhile, they would entertain the field-boss.
"Let's start then!"
Two giant pincers tried to crush Vallerk and Shigio, but the tanks heaved and pushed back.
Two shadows flitted past the players, a longsword and a spear striking the gaps in Ashara's Light's chitin armor. Asuna was even more straightforward, rushing underneath the field-boss and peppering its underside with attacks.
Ashara's Light shrieked and recoiled, but Vallerk and Shigio were tying it down, and Kizmel and Nautilus didn't hesitate at all to use Shield Bash to extend the stun duration.
With its pincers locked down, the field-boss resorted to its other main attack method: the stinger.
Drifter's eyes widened and he swept Nautilus aside with the shaft of his spear, just in time to push the ash-haired player out of the path of the car-sized appendage.
A crater was formed where the stinger struck the ground, the sand fizzing and bubbling around it where the black venom splashed. When Ashara's Light retracted its stinger, the center of the crater was a mess of cracked black glass, the venom somehow having melted the sand.
"Uff! Note to self: don't get hit."
From where he had rolled on the ground after being pushed away by Drifter, Nautilus gulped and nodded his thanks. To say that getting pierced by the stinger would be unpleasant would be an understatement.
A quick glance to the left and right told Drifter that the rest of the Reavers were doing okay in their respective roles. From the middle of the U-shaped formation they had assumed, Sinon was firing arrows non-stop, and the spearmaster felt Yuna's music empowering him.
A blur came to his side, Asuna's chestnut hair swinging wildly as she expertly dodged lance-like legs to rejoin her companions. Kirito was right behind her, and the trio watched for a moment while Vallerk once more Taunted the monster.
"Ideas?"
"We have to get close. Its pincers and stinger have a long reach, but they aren't very nimble. Well, the tail a little more, but they are still very cumbersome."
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"That's what I was going to say. Neither of them could reach me when I was underneath it, although you have to be fast to avoid all the legs."
Drifter decided there and then that he wasn't going to imitate her. If Lightning Flash Asuna, SAO's authority on speed and agility, said you had to be fast, he wouldn't even bother to try. While his spear was extremely nimble, the spearmaster wasn't nearly as quick on his feet.
Drifter twirled his spear out of habit. Despite the high-intensity first exchange, he was calm. Reaver's Requiem was formed of absolute elite, the best of the best in what they did.
"Alright. Since we have the beginnings of a plan... I'm going to assist in eliminating the puppets so we can all focus on the boss faster. That good, Kirito?"
The spearmaster looked at the Black Swordsman, who nodded without hesitation.
"Go to Keita's side first. They are doing well, but it doesn't hurt to be careful."
"Roger that."
With that, Drifter took off to the left. His spear arrived before him, a Serpentcoil Impale blowing a hole through the torso of the Ashara Puppet Sachi was engaging.
"Senior!"
With wide eyes, the young woman called out. Drifter chuckled as he retrieved his spear through his menu and exploded into a Comet Break.
Sachi and Sasamaru, the two other spear-users in Reaver's Requiem, had been constantly tutored by Drifter when they first joined the guild. Even now, he always found the time to teach them.
Due to that, Sasamaru had at first wanted to call him master. Drifter steadfastly refused, feeling all his hairs standing on end whenever the man did so.
It was better not to talk about the one time Sachi hesitantly called him that too. Yuna had not been very amused.
Anyway, they ended up settling with 'senior'. Drifter, 2 years older than them, was willing to accept that middle ground, but it still made him laugh sometimes.
An upwards slash of his spear knocked away the short-sword on the Ashara Puppet's hands, and Drifter seamlessly transitioned into a Horizontal, cutting off the mob's head and killing it.
Normally Drifter wouldn't so brazenly steal the opponent of one of his guildmates, but they had to deal with the minions fast so they could focus on the field-boss.
Keita's side of the battlefield was comprised of the staff-user, Sachi, Sasamaru, Tetsuo, Ducker, Liz, Silica, and Agil. A quick sidestep saw Drifter arriving next to the Merchant Warrior, his spear moving as if it had a life of its own and piercing through the neck of the mob Agil and Ducker were fighting.
Another swift turn of his upper body and a Horizontal Arc, and the mob was dead.
"Oi! I thought ya were tangoing with the boss?!"
"Quick change of plans. The others are keeping it entertained. Let's finish the minions off quickly so I can explain the new plan."
"Got it!"
Tidal Sequence, Tornado, Vertical Square, Earth Sunder, Tree Felling, Tremor... All those powerful AoE skills were liberally used by the players in order to quickly kill the Ashara Puppets.
The last mob on the left side was slain by Silica, her dagger biting deep in the soft flesh under its ribs, and carving a jagged wound up its torso.
"Well done, Silica."
Drifter praised the little girl, and turned to the right side of the battlefield. The rest of the Reavers, led by Griselda and Ran, were almost finished with their enemies too.
A quick glance towards the field-boss revealed that Nautilus, Vallerk, Shigio, Kizmel, Asuna, and Kirkto were still holding well. Ashara's Light still had well over three-fourths of her first HP bar, but that was okay. They weren't focused on killing the monster, just on holding it back.
"Alright, gather 'round for a second, everyone! We need to discuss strategy!"
The players obediently gathered in a semicircle around the vice-leader of Reaver's Requiem. Drifter wasted no time in putting forth the new plan.
"While you were fighting the minions, we already checked out the boss. You have to be exceedingly careful of the stinger, and the pincers are nothing to laugh at either. But it lacks versatility. Its attacks are mainly crush and sting. We haven't tried out the venom yet, and hopefully won't have to."
Just as he said that, Drifter winced when Kizmel narrowly dodged said stinger, jumping back just in time to avoid the droplets of venom splashing from the blackening sand.
"Like I said, you don't want to get that stuff on you."
"Any weaknesses?"
Like always, Ran was curt and straight to the point. Drifter appreciated it.
"One for now. Its claws and tail can't reach you when you are under it. You do have to avoid all the legs- and Asuna says they are quick - but it's an entry point."
"Okay. Okay."
"So how do we play it?"
Griselda's grip on her sword was firmer than usual, and her wider-than-normal eyes let Drifter know she wasn't a big fan of the giant scorpion.
Neither was Yuna, really, and she let her displeasure be known through her shifty glares at the field-boss for existing, and at Drifter for making her fight it.
But at least she wasn't screaming at them to set it on fire like she did with the spiders, so Drifter just smirked at his wife. Her returning glare promised pain, but it was worth it. Probably.
"We can't have too many people underneath it at once, or we'll just trip over each other and get impaled. We'll split roles. Agil, Wolv, Griselda, Sachi, Sasamaru, Keita."
"Yes?"
"You are with me. Our weapons are long enough that they might become cumbersome. We will attack it from outside."
Saying that the length of their weapons would be an issue was a stretch, but a logical one. Each of the players was more than skilled enough to use long weapons such as spears, axes, staffs, and long swords in enclosed spaces with ease, much less under Ashara's Light. But it was smarter to let those better suited, weapons wise, to go that close to the field-boss.
"Liz and Tetsuo, support Vallerk, Naut, Kiz, and Shigio. Trade in when necessary, but be on guard. Shield-bearers have the most dangerous job today."
"Heh. Don't we always?"
The spearmaster rolled his eyes, but allowed himself a grin.
"Sinon, Yun', you are doing a great job, keep it up."
The archer just nodded, and Yuna's eyes almost closed from her smile, but she didn't stop playing her flute.
"Silica, Ran, Yuuki, Ducker, coordinate with Kirito and Asuna, go under the boss, and wreak havoc. Switch often and don't get greedy. I don't want more than three people under it at once, or you'll get in each other's way and cause a disaster. Three people max, got it? Preferably two."
The spearmaster - no, the vice-leader of Reaver's Requiem in this instance - had a more serious expression when he spoke to the 4 than in the entire battle until now.
His gaze stopped momentarily on Yuuki and Ducker, the two most prone to get carried away, until they nodded gravely and he was satisfied. No one wanted an angry Drifter after them. There was little more scary than that.
"Good then. Let's kick some ass!"