It was a battered and tired group of players who walked back into the town just minutes before nightfall.
They had explored the ocean half of the 23rd floor, but hadn't gotten very far. The constant ambushes by Amihenta Decoys forced them to progress slowly.
Anyway, by the time they went back to the safe zone, the town was flourishing with activity. It seemed quite a few people had discovered that they had opened the other portion of the floor.
Most of the players they crossed paths with were familiar faces. Drifter saw Lind, Shivata, Heathcliff, Orlando and his Braves, Klein and his guild, and a great many frontliners and clearers he knew.
'What's his deal?'
The spearmaster frowned when they passed by Kibaou and the ALS, and the player threw the Reavers a dirty glare. There seemed to be a lot more resentment in it than usual, but Drifter couldn't figure out why.
Sure, Reaver's Requiem had unlocked the rest of the floor and kept quiet about it, but that was just finder's rights.
It was the same with field-bosses and new dungeons and quests. The first to get it had the right to explore it before sharing with the others. If that was what was bothering Kibaou, then he was being more petty than normal.
The spearmaster spent exactly 7 seconds thinking about the spiky-haired guild leader before forgetting about him. He was too tired to care about Kibaou's feelings.
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On the other hand, while Kibaou may not have felt Drifter's unconscious dismissal, his dark expression remained unchanged even after Reaver's Requiem disappeared.
His displeasure wasn't about the other guild monopolizing the first few hours of the ocean half of the 23rd floor. Well, not entirely at least.
His bad mood wasn't even due to only Reaver's Requiem, although they definitely played a larger-than-most part in it.
No, there were definitely more reasons why Kibaou was pissed. Lind and his damned guild, the Beater and his damned guild, that annoying samurai wannabe and his damned guild, Orlando and his damned guild, that upstart Heathcliff and his damned guild...
Actually, it might be more accurate to say that there were a lot of people why Kibaou was pissed.
In the end, everything could be reduced to one particular feeling: frustration. Kibaou felt that his ALS was being left behind.
At the start, his Aincrad Liberation Squad had been THE frontliner guild. Everyone knew them and looked up to them and wanted to join them.
Now, they were just another guild. One of the leading ones, true - and it would be a cold day in hell before he let them drop further - but not the foremost guild in the Assault Team anymore.
Lind and his cursed Diavel-worshipers locked horns with him whenever they could - not that Kibaou was any less confrontational when it happened, but he wasn't coming out on top nearly as often as he used to. Even his greatest tank, Liten, was cavorting with them.
Then there was one of his greatest headaches, Reaver's Requiem. The damn Beater guild.
Kibaou might not complain about the beta-testers so much anymore - mainly because even his subordinates were getting tired of it - but that didn't mean he trusted or - shivers - liked them.
He was still convinced the beta-testers, especially the Black Swordsman, had kept some secrets and hoarded items in the early floors so they could selfishly get stronger, while basically pushing thousands of players to their deaths - nevermind that a good portion of those were beta-testers and that the guides Argo the Rat made were all written with information provided by them.
After all, that was the only possible explanation as to why a bunch of kids like the Reaver's Requiem could get this far in SAO. And really, things like a musician, an archer, and even an NPC? They had to be cheating.
"Excuse me. You are blocking the street."
While Kibaou was glaring at no one in particular, someone coughed behind him, to catch his attention. He swirled around with a glower.
Cold and indifferent eyes met his angry glare, and Kibaou found himself face-to-face with another of the sources of his irritations.
The grey-haired Heathcliff spoke without any of the awe and worship lower-level players usually had towards frontliners. Although, from the equipment he was wearing, the KoB guild leader might not be that much behind in levels.
"Hmph!"
Kibaou scowled, but stepped aside so the Knights of the Blood Oath could pass. Contrary to what many expected, Kibaou wasn't that much of a hot-head that he would make a scene for such a small reason. That would only mark him as petty in front of the surrounding players.
That didn't mean he was happy about it, though, and he glared at Heathcliff's back. The older player didn't turn around or give any indication that he noticed, other than a slight inclination of his head when he passed by Kibaou, and that angered the ALS guild leader even more.
Heathcliff was a no-name who came out of nowhere, but now his guild had already grown in size and power to almost rival Kibaou's own. They even had delusions of joining the Assault Team, which was, to the sour guild leader, an insult.
Each and every frontliner guild had fought and climbed their way from the first floors of Aincrad. They bled and died to get where they were, and now some upstart wanted to budge in as if it were nothing? Unacceptable.
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Again, much to Kibaou's frustration, he couldn't say any of what was in his mind, so as to not destroy his already frail public image. Turns out that, after getting over the outrage of Diavel's death and seeing the efforts Black Swordsman Kirito and his bunch put into clearing SAO, not that many people still agreed with Kibaou's take on beaters.
The handful of ALS players accompanying hom wisely chose to keep their mouths shut. They followed Kibaou out of trust, loyalty, and respect for his skills - he was, after all, Kibaou the Challenger, one of Aincrad's titled players - but they also knew his temper better than anyone.
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If a poll was held to choose the MVP of the 23rd floor, all the Reavers would vote for Aero Huntress Sinon without hesitation. Her archery made the ocean half of the floor so much easier to traverse that it was hard to quantify.
Without her precise arrows, progressing through the floor would have been much harder. Whether it was through system skills or just pure skill, Sinon's arrows never failed to strike the target, even if they had to curve around her guildmates in impossible trajectories.
Incidentally, archery ranges around Japan saw a rise in enrollment over the next weeks.
But that was a story for another time. Right now, Reaver's Requiem was focused on what was in front of them. Namely, the 10-meters tall, blue-scaled, worryingly seductive field-boss.
While the Amihenta Decoys looked like abyss-born monstrosities with their melting body and exposed innards, the field-boss, Queen of Amihenta, was the perfect picture of a siren, magnified.
How harmless and human-looking - other than the fish tail - the field-boss looked only served to put the players more on edge. It would be a cold day in hell before they actually came across a peaceful boss.
The spearmaster especially disliked the weapon in the Queen of Amihenta's hands. An exquisite trident, prongs tipped in silver. It was as beautiful as it looked deadly.
"That will look much better once it's in my hands."
Several of the Reavers snorted in amusement, and Nautilus raised an eyebrow.
"Jealous much?"
"Hey, I've never used a trident! I'm just curious."
"I offered to forge one for you. You were the one who said you preferred the twisted bident."
Liz rolled her eyes, and Drifter shrugged. It was true. He had used almost every weapon that fell into the 'spear' category, from lances to staffs to halberds to polearms. From them all, he was still the most partial to honest-to-god spears. And the spiral head consisting of two twisting prongs was his favorite.
The one in his hands right now was another of Liz's creations. While its stats might not be as high as some of the top-notch mob drops, it had the advantage of being crafted specifically for him.
Everything about the weapon was made to fit his specifications. It was longer than a normal two-handed spear, but still shorter than a lance. The shaft was on the lighter side, and flexible - but not soft.
The spearhead was heavier than the norm, which pushed the balance point of the weapon closer to the tip than it was usual, but Drifter liked it that way. The two prongs twisted around each other, sharp edges jutting out in a way that the spear could be used not only to pierce and stab, but also slice and cut.
All in all, it was the perfect weapon for him, and he had driven Liz almost insane during its creation with all his requirements.
"How about we worry about the field-boss in front of us instead of Drifter's craze for pointy sticks?"
Ran snarked out without any bite, and Drifter did the mature thing and stuck his tongue out at her. Before the swordswoman could respond in kind, Kirito rolled his eyes and waved his hand.
"Let's kill the boss, I'm getting tired of this floor. Drifter, if the trident drops you can have it."
"Thanks, boss! Ow!"
Yuna smacked him upside the head, and Drifter would admit he kind of deserved it. But there was no better way to relax their tense nerves before a battle than to put on a little comedic show. Nautilus, Liz, Ran, and Kirito surely understood this, which was why they willingly played along.
"Oh oh. I think the boss got tired of waiting."
Asuna's warning was unnecessary, as none of the Reavers had turned their eyes away from the field-boss during the entire conversation.
The Queen of Amihenta had raised her trident in one hand, curling the other in front of her chest, and closing her eyes with a pleased smile on her angelic face. Then she started to sing.
It was a beautiful melody, and, for a moment, the players were entranced by it. Yuna's gaze was particularly unfocused, her fingers twitching over her instruments as if she was playing an accompanying tune.
"Aackk!"
The peace was broken by the sudden emergence of 6 Amihenta Decoys. Drifter scowled.
"What's with bosses on this floor and summoning minions?!"
"Don't know, don't matter! Keita, Gris, Agil, get your people and deal with the mobs quickly! Drifter, you wanted first crack at the boss, it's all yours!"
One moment the Reavers were standing around joking, and the other they were moving. Kirito's orders were barely out when the players burst into motion, Drifter at the forefront.
The spearmaster let loose his signature Serpentcoil Impale, nailing the field-boss in the gut. The giant siren shrieked, her voice still oddly melodic for a cry of pain, and returned the blow with a straightforward jab of her trident.
The weapon was almost twice Drifter's height, and the three prongs now took on a decidedly more dangerous glint.
The spearmaster didn't flinch. Still bare handed, he ducked under the trident, then punched it aside with a Martial Arts: Senda.
Opting not to retrieve his spear through his menu, Drifter took the chance while the Queen of Amihenta was still stuck on the ending pose of her failed attack, and rushed in close.
His hands found the shaft of his weapon, the tip still embedded deep in the field-boss' guts, and he ruthlessly pulled and tore it sideways in a vicious Horizontal.
The cry of anger that the attack earned him only wasn't sweeter than watching a good 5% of the Queen of Amihenta's first HP bar disappear.
The spearmaster grinned savagely, and ducked under a slap sent his way. He winked at Kirito when the swordsman switched with him.
"I feel like I should say something along the lines of 'let's grill this fish'. Or is that too cliché?"
Several Reavers groaned, while Agil, Wolv, and Shigio barked out a laugh, and not because it was funny. Yuna slapped him upside the head again.
"Shut up and kill it."
"Yes, ma'am."