Aincrad was determined not to give the Reavers a break. Exhausted from fighting from dawn till daybreak, it was not even two hours later that Argo messaged Kirito, saying the clearers had found the boss room. Clearly, Reaver's Requiem wasn't the only one who worked right through Christmas.
"That has to be a new record, no?"
Yuna whistled in amazement, and Drifter nodded from where he was sitting across from her. They had found the tower entrance on the 24th, and now it was morning of the 26th. The clearers had taken less than two days to sweep through the labyrinth.
"I'm not complaining. This floor is beautiful and all, but it makes me uncomfortable."
Kirito shuddered. The swordsman had been on edge their entire stay on the 4th floor. According to him, it was too different from the beta to his liking.
"Well, you'll just have to endure it for another half a day, Kirito."
"It may be so, but I'm not looking forward to having Kibaou lead."
"Ugh... Don't remind me."
There were several groans around the table, mainly from the original party. Yuuki, Ran, and Merida hadn't yet had the displeasure of meeting the ALS leader.
"It could be worse, Kirito, just think about it. What if we had Kibaou as the raid leader, and we were going in blind on top of that? At least we know what we are facing. Or some of it."
"Yeah... By the way, thanks again for all the information on the floor boss, Kizmel. It really helps a lot."
"You are welcome, Kirito. And I am sorry I can't follow you into battle against the guardian."
The swordsman waved off the apology.
"You didn't have a choice, Kizmel. You can't not answer a royal summon."
"Kirito's right. But don't sweat over it, Kiz. We'll take care of the overgrown seahorse in a jiffy, you'll see."
The players were under no illusion that the so-called royal summon was a plot device to stop the NPC from helping them. It didn't come as a surprise, as they were already expecting it after what happened on the 3rd floor.
Kizmel tilted her head at Yuna, and Drifter at first thought she was going to question the nickname the songstress used, but instead the elf showed a confused expression.
"But... I'm not sweating?"
The genuine confusion in the dark elf's voice sent all the players into a giggling fit.
----------------------------
Kikouka Seijirou rubbed his temples and watched the vanguard players, as the news had been calling them lately, enter yet another boss room. This was the fourth live stream, but it wasn't getting any easier to watch them. This one in particular. He had no idea what kinds of challenges the players faced on the 4th floor, but sixty-seven people had died in the less than two weeks since it was opened.
Sighing, the leader of the SAO task force reclined back in his chair, his eyes never leaving the screen in front of him. He wished there was some way to know more about what was happening inside Sword Art Online. Until now, all his analysts, programmers, and technicians managed to tell him was a whole load of nothing at all.
---------------------------
If he was being honest, Drifter wasn't looking forward to this boss raid. Kizmel, bless her heart, had gotten them a lot of intel about the floor boss, but most of it only served to worry the spearman more. His main concern being, of course, how the boss, << Wythege the Hippocampus >> would flood the room during the final phase of the battle.
(A/N: Normally I don't like to interrupt in the middle of the chapter since it breaks the flow, but I few like this is important, at least to some people. I am aware that, in canon, the boss room was flooded and the door closed, until Kirito and Asuna opened it and saved everyone. I'll be changing that, since SAO didn't have closed boss rooms until the 75th floor. This is actually a major plot point of the anime, because the entire scout party gets annihilated when they get trapped in the boss room, and the frontliners then realize that, from that point onward, every boss battle is do or die. I don't know if having the 4th floor have closed doors was a mistake or not, but in this fic, doors will be opened the entire time. Just thought I would explain that before someone pointed it out.)
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Sure, the players wouldn't be in danger of drowning, since the water would only reach up to their chest, but it would still make the battle much harder, and much more dangerous.
"Aight, ya flea bags, let's go!"
It was at this moment that Kibaou finished his little speech, which Drufter wasn't really paying attention to. With a small frown, he followed the rest of the raid-party into the boss room.
The room looked like some kind of enclosed beach, the floor covered in loose sand the frontliners had long learned how to fight on. In the center, very conspicuously, was a deep pond, from which, to no one's surprise, the boss dramatically surfaced.
<< Wythege the Hippocampus >> had to be one of the weirdest monsters Drifter had ever seen, and that was saying something. It looked like a huge seahorse, of a pale yellow color. That is, until you looked at its front half, from where horse legs and a horse head emerged. Only, the equestrian parts of the boss were also covered in the same yellowish scales, making it look like someone had mashed a fish and a horse together.
As if that wasn't enough, the boss also neighed, a high-pitched noise that caused their eardrums to hurt. Drifter grimaced, holding his spear high.
When the boss charged, it was accompanied by splashes of water, wetting the tanks. They mostly ignored it, focusing on the giant seahorse. Drifter himself was at the vanguard, his spear reaching over the heads of the players in front of him to stab << Wythege the Hippocampus >> in the face.
As several attacks landed on its body from different directions, the boss screeched in pain, and spun, its tail slapping away most of the nearby players. It didn't do much damage, but it knocked them back a good distance. Drifter was one of the few exceptions, as he was behind the only tank able to hold their ground, an ALS player by the name of Liten. He was covered from head to toe in heavy metal armor, such that even his face couldn't be seen, and only his muffled voice heard. He didn't even carry a weapon, only a heavy tower shield Drifter idly recognized as the one << Biceps Archelon >> dropped, and he handed over for Agil to sell.
Taking full advantage of that, Drifter pressed on the offensive, knowing he would aggro the boss. He was counting on Liten to defend him, and his gamble paid off. Though the ALS player had zero attack power, his defensive stats were outstanding. After the seahorse trashed around and hit him three or four times, Liten still had over half of his health remaining.
"Switch!"
Without even needing to look back, Drifter ducked to the right, knowing that whoever was trading places with him - Kirito, by the voice - would come up on his left. This was the system all frontliners used, in case they needed to improvise.
While the young swordsman went to town on << Wythege the Hippocampus >>, and the tanks took back their positions, Drifter stepped back to catch his breath. He hadn't taken any damage, but his furious barrage of sword skills, martial arts skills, and normal attacks had tired him somewhat.
"How are you holding up, Drifter?"
"I'm all good for now, Yun'. The boss has many AoEs, though. You should keep up with << Rest >>."
"Got it. Be safe."
Smiling, Drifter laid a hand on Yuna's shoulder and gently squeezed it twice. Then, he prepared to switch in, this time with Nautilus, who had just taken a pretty heavy tail hit. But, before he could do so, Yuuki had already called out and advanced.
Not for the first time, Drifter realized how fast the younger twin was. It wasn't exactly a matter of speed or agility - in SAO, those were just numbers, and there were many players, Kirito included, who had the exact same amount as her. No, it was her reaction speed that left him speechless every time he saw Yuuki fighting seriously.
Whenever the boss attacked, Yuuki would dodge, block, or parry with just centimeters to spare. The way she moved out of the way of attacks without even looking, was like she had eyes on the back of her head. And when she struck, every move was optimized to the extreme. Drifter knew he could never hope to be as fast as her. The only one who could compare to Yuuki amongst the frontliners, and probably the entire player base, was Kirito.
Next in line would be Asuna and Ran. While their reactions weren't as perfect, they more than made it up for it with their speed - in Asuna's case - and with the surgical precision of their strikes.
Of course, the rest of the Reavers were no slouches either. It was unnecessary to comment about Drifter, Yuna, Nautilus, and Sinon, as they were each masters in their specific fields - at least when compared to other players. Drifter was sure there was still much to learn - that they needed to learn - to survive SAO.
But Liz and Merida were providing themselves to be worthy additions to the guild. While the blacksmith was somewhat lacking in levels, she was still a fearsome fighter, though more diverse in abilities than the rest of her guildmates - whenever it was needed, Liz doubled as a secondary tank.
Merida, on the other hand, compensated for her lack of levels - she was falling a little behind due to her recent focus on << Tailoring >>, but nothing worrisome - with sheer brute strength. In the blue-haired girl's own words, she didn't need techniques, only to hit hard as hell.
Overall, the damage output of Reaver's Requiem had grown so much with the addition of the four girls that << Wythege the Hippocampus >> even threatened to aggro on them a few times over the course of the battle, much to the dismay of the DKB and ALS players who composed the main tank party. They had to scramble with << Taunts >> and << Enrages >> to grab back the boss' attention.
Whenever that happened, however, Kirito, Drifter, or Asuna would always warn their guild members with time to spare, telling them to slow down their barrage and step back to rest, allowing the tanks to reaffirm their grasp on the floor boss' aggro gauge. Like that, the Reavers managed to strike a delicate balance between damage and control, not once stealing the aggro.
"Last red, everyone! On your toes, people!"
No sooner than Kibaou yelled, << Wythege the Hippocampus >> neighed, and went back to the pond in the middle of the room. The boss started swimming in circles and flapping his tail against the water - with Sinon still insisting on pelting it with arrows even mid-cut scene, if for no reason other than to vent the collective players' anger at being soaking wet.
With little surprise, as << Wythege the Hippocampus >> smashed its tail into the water, waves started to form, quickly flooding the room. The water level was, at first, just at their shins, but it quickly surpassed their knees and reached their waist height. Though the boss stopped flooding the room and swam, now much faster, to attack the players, the water was still slowly rising.
"That's it, lads! Rain hell on it!"
Tuning out Kibaou, Drifter just focused on attacking, but the boss had become more slippery than a lamprey. It swam between players, diving at times and resurfacing at others, slapping people down with its tail or biting them with its horse head. It was like it didn't have an aggro list anymore.
Drifter himself soon became a victim of the seemingly random attacks. << Wythege the Hippocampus >> emerged out of the water behind him, and the spearman, slowed down by the near chest-height water level, wasn't quick enough when turning around.
First a hoof smashed into his hastily raised right arm, the giant appendage thoroughly tearing off his limb. Drifter groaned in shock, but that was all he managed before << Wythege the Hippocampus >> slapped him with its tail, and he slipped and sunk.
By the time he resurfaced, the boss had already moved on to another target, leaving behind a very pissed off and not just a little terrified Drifter, tightly grabbing his spear with his left hand. He alternated his glance from the rampaging boss and the stump of his right arm.
Many thoughts crossed his head at the moment, but while he watched Agil chop off << Wythege the Hippocampus' >> tail with a mighty blow of his axe, killing the boss in the process, he mainly thought of how useless he became once he lost the limb.