Ogawa Kana was just finishing her daily shopping. Genji would be working overtime today, so she wanted to prepare a surprise dish for him. But all those thoughts ran out of her mind when she was on her way home. She almost let go of the plastic bags she was carrying, one hand covering her mouth in shock.
On the other side of the road, a street vendor had set shop. They were very common around these parts, and sold all kinds of souvenirs and counterfeit goods to tourists. Kana was used to them, and had even brought a few things herself now and then. But this vendor's wares caused her to pause.
Amongst the many miniatures of landmarks, pins, handkerchiefs, small toys, and whatnot, were some t-shirts. And, on those shirts, along with some designs, three very familiar words were stamped: Sword Art Online.
"Good evening, miss! Would you like to take a closer look? I have all kinds of designs, I'm sure there's one to your satisfaction!"
When he noticed Kana, the peddler thought she was interested in what he was selling, so he treated her as a potential buyer.
"This here is one of the most famous frontliner guilds, the Aincrad Liberation Squad! See how they are all using the same equipment, and lined up like an army? Of course, I also have one of the DKB, riding dragons as it is their namesake!"
The vendor started his sales pitch, pulling out shirts and hoodies to show Kana. She was too shocked to say anything, and he just took her silence as her not being satisfied.
"A tough client, I see. But I'm sure you will love these ones! Look, what do you think? I have Reaver's Requiem's Asuna, or this one with the Songstress Yuna. Or how about their guild leader, Kirito, standing over Illfang's body? Maybe this one of Drifter posing with his spear? Which one do you like, miss?"
Kana stared at the array of goods displayed in front of her, her expression growing paler by the second. She blanched completely when her eyes found a shirt stamped with her son's face, and another of Diavel fighting the 1st floor boss of SAO, Illfang.
"Y-You..."
The vendor's enthusiasm cooled down when he saw her expression. When Kana finally spoke, almost screeching at him, he flinched.
"Y-You! How could you try to sell this while people are fighting for their lives inside that death game?! Don't you have any respect?!"
Hearing Kana's outburst, the vendor's face scrunched up, and he muttered under his breath while putting away his wares.
"Great, another one of those. Look here, miss, if ya don't like it, you don't need to buy anything. Just don't cause a scandal, all right? I'm trying to make a living here."
That was the wrong thing to say, and Kana almost swung the bag holding her purchases at him.
"People are dying in that horrible place, and you are trying to make money by mocking them?! My son is trapped there, you... You heartless bastard!"
"Oh, shit! Err... I am very sorry to hear that, miss. My condolences. I-I need to go!"
The vendor still looked like he wanted to argue at first, but when he heard Kana say she had family imprisoned in SAO, all the fight left him. He cursed, his eyes carrying some actual compassion, his words not entirely perfunctory. To avoid Kana's furious glare, he wrapped up his stuff with the practiced ease of a man used to running from the police with his illegal goods, and left without looking back.
Kana just stood there for several more minutes, the people who had watched the commotion looking at her with pity. Then, she left.
-----------------------------
Of course, Drifter and the other SAO players knew nothing of what was going on outside, though it is likely they would be enraged beyond description if they did. Each of the frontliners fought dozens of life-or-death battles every day, and to have someone, even if illegally, try to make money on top of that, made everything they had done seem like a mockery.
But they wouldn't know about it for a long time, if at all. At this moment, Drifter and Reaver's Requiem were conveying with Fuurinkazan, planning a strategy for the battle against the field-boss.
"There's just sixteen of us, do you think it's enough? Maybe we could get Agil and the Braves to help."
Drifter put forth this idea, but Kirito shook his head.
"No. For this boss, having less people might actually be better."
"Oh? Why?"
Curious, Drifter and the others glanced at the monster in the distance. From where they were standing, it looked like some giant rotten tree, but if you squinted, you would notice that said tree was swaying slightly and moving. If you looked even more carefully, you would discover that the tree wasn't growing on a moss-covered rock, as it first appeared, but actually on a giant frog's back. The reason you didn't notice at first was because the frog was so still it blended in with the scenery.
"In the beta, this << Rotten Fog >> was famous for two reasons: its crowd-control and area-of-effect skills. To win against it, we need to be able to spread out and move fast. We would only get in each other's way if we have too many players."
Kirito quickly explained. Though it was Fuurinkazan who found the boss, Klein had deferred command to the younger swordsman. He knew his shortcomings, and Kirito was much more knowledgeable, and simply better at leading than him.
Of course, the only reason this change of command went so smoothly was because of the two guilds involved. Through the relationship between their respective leaders, Reaver's Requiem and Fuurinkazan were on very good terms. Also, their personalities matched well. Fuurinkazan were all real-life friends, while the Reavers were the misfits of the frontlines. If it had been the ALS or DKB, who were extremely overbearing, this cooperation wouldn't have worked. It might not have even started, really.
"Right, so we have to watch out for AoE attacks. Talk positioning now."
"We need to spread out and surround it. The tanks should << Taunt >> it, but they can't be bunched up otherwise they might all be incapacitated with one attack. The same goes for everyone else. Keep a distance of at least three or four meters between each other, this way you can support one another if needed, but also dodge without tripping each other. The boss is deceptively nimble, so pay attention to that. Nautilus, can you stay near Sinon and Yuna? You might need to jump in the boss' path if it attacks them."
Stolen story; please report.
"No problem."
The ash-haired player nodded. Meanwhile, Klein glanced at Silica and Vallerk, who were standing on the outskirts of their circle.
"Did the pair join your guild, Kirito?"
"No, we are just bringing 'em around. They are friends."
The red-haired guild leader raised an eyebrow, and nodded. His gaze still wandered to Silica from time to time, clearly thinking she was too young, but Kirito was vouching for them, so it wasn't like he could say anything.
"Everyone ready? Great, then we are starting!"
The two guilds plus the unaffiliated duo ran towards the positions they had discussed before. However, when they were still more than twenty meters away from the boss, the << Rotten Fog >> started to stir. The dead tree on its back shook as the giant frog got up and... Croaked.
"Agh!"
"Ur..."
"Ack! What the hell was that?!"
The noise was like a small bomb being set off, and even the murky water trembled, creating waves in a circle, with the << Rotten Fog >> as the epicenter. Drifter grabbed his head with one hand and blinked furiously. His HP had decreased by 10% seemingly out of nowhere.
"Told you it has lots of AoE attacks! Though, this one's new. Attack!"
Kirito needn't have said that. They were - mostly - elites, so although the sonic attack caught them by surprise, the players were stunned for only a moment before pressing on.
Still, in the time it took for them to cross the twenty meters between them and the field-boss, the << Rotten Fog >> let out another attack, some kind of red mist jet which engulfed Issin, Kunimittz, and Liz, who were directly in front of the field-boss, and didn't manage to dodge in time.
"A poison and speed debuff!"
"Drink the antidotes, don't let it tick too many times!"
Drifter quickly shouted orders, but never stopped moving. Tilting his body forward impossibly close to the ground, he aimed his spear at the field-boss and charged. The << Comet Break >> tore a long gash along the left rear leg of the << Rotten Fog >>.
Seeing that the monster was still focused on the tanks, Drifter immediately followed up with a couple of normal attacks. The boss was so huge it didn't really matter where he stabbed it.
"Ribbit!"
Croaking again, the << Rotten Fog >> slammed its webbed feet on the ground, causing a wave in a half-moon shape to spread around it. This time, Kirito, Merida, Klein, and half a dozen others were caught by it. That was how big the AoE was.
Witnessing that, Drifter raised a hand and gestured to Kizmel, before redoubling his efforts. The dark elf nodded, and sheathed her curved blade again. Then, fingers hovering over the hilt, she closed her eyes and waited.
Stabbing his spear on the ground and leaving it there, Drifter crouched, his hands closed in fists and glowing silver. After a few seconds of accumulation, he suddenly sprung up, hitting the << Rotten Fog >> with an earth-shattering uppercut.
<< Martial Arts: Senda >>. Not only did the skill deal an unreasonable amount of damage to a field-boss, emptying its health bar by a visible percentage, it actually managed to send the giant frog, which surely weighed at least a ton, stumbling back, and eventually falling on its side. The dead tree on the boss' back creaked and shook, as if it would break in half at any moment.
Of course, the drawbacks of << Senda >> were as noticeable as its damage. The << Rotten Fog >> immediately turned its beady red eyes onto Drifter, transferring its aggro completely. Meanwhile, the spearman was rooted in place. Even with his high proficiency points on the skill, he was still stuck in a 3 seconds cooldown, during which he was basically defenseless.
"Hah!"
Right before the field-boss crushed Drifter, Kizmel's eyes snapped open, and she drew out her shining green sword. The weapon - and the dark elf wielding it - blurred, and the << Rotten Fog >> screeched before falling back, one of its eyes split open by a cut.
"Perfect timing, Kizmel. Like always."
"Heh, you are welcome, Drifter."
The spearman slowly got back up and grabbed his weapon again, smiling at the dark elf. That was a combo they had practiced many times before, after he discovered Kizmel also had a powerful skill, but with a long charging time.
The dark elf was already an honorary Reaver by now, and, if everything went according to plan, she would be a formal one once the << Elf War >> campaign was over. That had caused no small amount of unhappiness by Kibaou, Lind, and a few others when they discovered it, accusing Kirito of using his 'beater knowledge' to 'steal' NPCs. Needless to say, none of the Reavers cared.
Under the continued efforts of the Reavers and Fuurinkazan, it took them a little more than fifteen minutes to whittle the field-boss down to half health. Along the way, they had to withstand all sorts of widespread attacks, from shockwaves causing small tsunamis, sonic attacks, and the venomous belch from the field-boss.
When the HP of the << Rotten Fog >> reached 50%, however, things got more... Interesting. Instead of getting even more aggressive, the boss actually slowed down, and so did the players. Nothing good would come from rushing the boss when they didn't know what it was doing. A quick glance at Kirito's frown told Drifter that the swordsman also didn't know what was going on.
Just as they were debating whether to press on the attack or wait, the dead tree of the << Rotten Fog's >> back shook. The bare branches elongated and pierced the ground, almost forming a cage around the field-boss.
"A defensive move?"
Their doubt was understandable, as it was rare to find any monster with defensive skills. Most just tried to kill the players as quickly as possible.
But they soon learned that they were wrong. With a rumble, the same branches that had pierced the ground shot out from right under their feet. It was so unexpected that no one, not even Kirito and Yuuki, managed to avoid it.
"Ahh!"
"Damn it!"
"What the...!"
A branch - or was it a root? - pierced Drifter's chest, and he hissed. A clean 50% of his HP was shaved off instantly, and the same went for everyone else, no matter if they were lightly armored players like Sinon and Yuna, or tanks like Vallerk and Harry One.
"It's fixed damage! Heal, heal up!"
Klein shouted loudly while downing a potion himself. If they didn't keep their health above the halfway mark, they wouldn't even know how they died.
The Reavers were in a better position, since they had Yuna to heal them with << Rest >>, but Fuurinkazan, as well as Silica and Vallerk, directly stepped back. This wasn't a game where you could resurrect and try again if you died. They couldn't risk it.
"Liz and Nautilus, aggro the boss again! Yuuki, Ran, and Asuna, on the left! Merida, Kizmel, and Drifter, with me on the right! That attack should be triggered by its HP, so just contain it for now, don't overdo it. Sinon, you can take a break for now. Yuna, all out on << Rest >>."
"You got it, Kirito!"
"Klein and the others, drink your potions as soon as they come off cooldown. I want everyone on the green before we attack again!"
No sooner than he said that, the swordsman ran off to intercept the field-boss again. With just their guild taking it on, controlling the << Rotten Fog >> ought to be much harder.