The first thing I had to do was to calm everyone down from their panicked state. However, in this situation, the noise would drown out any half-hearted instructions given. I needed some short yet strong words, but being inexperienced in leading, I couldn’t just suddenly figure out what words I should shout to them—…
At that moment. Asuna, running by my side, forcefully grasped her hooded cape that was likely to get in her way, and suddenly flung it from her body.
It was as if the lights from the countless torches along both walls were condensed into a single point of radiance. Her glossy chestnut long hair now radiated a deep golden shine, scattering the gloomy ambience of the boss's room.
With her long hair fluttering as she dashed, Asuna was like a shooting star that had suddenly appeared at the bottoms of darkness. Even the panicking players were taken aback by her fierce beauty and became silent. Not letting this miraculous moment of silence go to waste, I shouted so loudly that my throat was tearing,
"Everyone, take ten steps back towards the exit! As long as the boss is not surrounded, it won’t use its ranged attacks!!"
At the same time as the echo of my voice disappeared, time started to flow again. Za!! With this sound, the front line players moved backwards all at once on either side of me and Asuna.
Chasing them, the Kobold king turned around and faced us as we ran side by side.
"Asuna, we’ll use the same tactics that we used against the Sentinels! …Here we go!!"
The moment her name was called, the rapier user glanced at me, but then faced the front again almost immediately and responded back.
"Understood!"
In front of us, the Kobold king took away his left hand from the nodachi that both hands previously held, and lowered it next to his left hip. If I remember right, that motion is for— "……!!"
I held my breath, and started to activate my own sword skill. I similarly positioned to my left hip in preparation, and leaned forward just on the verge of falling over. At this angle, it wasn’t enough for the system to recognize the motion.
From this low position so close to the floor, I then used my right leg to take off at full power. As my body became wrapped in a pale blue light, I ran through the ten meters separating the boss from me in an instant. Basic one-handed sword rush technique, «Rage Spike».
At the same time, the boss was poised with his Nodachi shining with a green glow, and slashed at a speed which could not be seen.
Straight long ranged move, «Tsujikaze»20. Because it was an Iai21
type move, it would be impossible to keep up with it after seeing it launched.
"U…oooh!!"
With a roar, the trajectory of my sword moving upwards from the left intersected with the trajectory of Illfang's Nodachi. As a flash of sparks burst out along with a shrill metallic sound, the boss and I were knocked apart more than two meters from the recoil of our respective sword skills.
With the opportunity that was produced—Asuna seized it splendidly, driving forward at a speed equal to my charging technique.
"Yaaaaa!!"
Released with a short and sharp vigor, her «Linear» stabbed deep into the Kobold king's right flank. The fourth HP gauge, marginally, but definitely was reduced in width as a result.
While conscious of the intense feedback that still remained in my right hand, I reflected upon our prospects of success and my misgivings in equal measure.
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20 Tsujikaze: The original kanji for this is 辻風, which means “whirlwind”
21 Iaido is Japanese martial art associated with the smooth, controlled movements of drawing the sword from its scabbard, striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard.
The Illfang from the beta period had been equipped with the «Talwar» sword skills, which I hadn’t been able to fully parry using my own sword skills back then. However, perhaps because the Katana was lighter than the Talwar, my HP gauge did not decrease from the previous clash. But in exchange, the speed of the techniques was outrageous. Was it really possible to keep dodging them with no mistakes?
Another one. The Troopers had been taken out by three strikes of Asuna’s «Linear» while the Sentinels had required four strikes, but as expected of a boss monster, its HP was at an amount that couldn't be compared with that of those small fry. I had no clue how many strikes it would take if she were to try depleting the fourth gauge by herself. A big advantage for the player side was that the boss could be attacked simultaneously by several people due to its massive bulk, so if it were possible I’d want at least one player on either side of her as attackers, but all the other groups from A to G had drawn back as their HP had been greatly reduced.
I couldn't ask them for help until they had recovered with their potions.
—Asuna and I could only do what we could do with the two of us.
In the first place, hadn’t I been thinking of doing it just by myself somehow earlier? Now that it became two people, what else could I ask for?
"…The next one is coming!"
I cried that out after recovering from my post-motion22, and then concentrated all my will on the long and large blade brandished by the boss.
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20 ”Post-motion” is the English term the author uses in furigana, while the kanji beneath would best describe it as “after technique stiffness”. Basically, it means the temporary delay in movement after using a sword skill.
In August of this year, within the «Sword Art Online Closed Beta Test» that one thousand testers had been recruited to play, I reached the tenth floor last, but I didn't managed to meet that floor's boss.
I had been unable to break through the spawning zone there filled with the samurai-type monsters «Orochi Elite Guards» that guarded that floor’s dungeon, which was called «Thousand Snake Castle». Since the katana skills they used were unavailable to players and were mercurial, I had had to desperately memorize the skill names and their trajectories by using each time I was hit by them as a reference. And then finally, I managed to grasp the «pre-motions» of all the skills they used…but by then it was already the thirty-first of August.
Orochi and Illfang, although their shapes and sizes were very different, were both humanoid-type monsters, and had used the same techniques so far. Therefore, I used my memories of four months ago to somehow continue to counter its various attacks, including the Iai-type.
Of course, I was walking on a tightrope. The boss's slashes had very high base damage value, and the basic skills «Slant» and «Horizontal» left only to the Assist would be repelled back by them. If I didn’t fully use these skills by intentionally moving my body23 in order to boost the speed and power of the skill, it wouldn’t work at all. However, this amplified outside the system skill was also very risky because of its power if I relied on it too much. Even a small mistake in movement would hinder the system assist, and in the worst case the sword skill would abort in the middle of it.
I, with a total of two months playing SAO if you included the beta period, had trained this technique which requires maximum concentration over the longest period of time.
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23 By intentionally moving my body, it means that the user he has to move his body without the use of the system assist.
And, every fifteenth or sixteenth time, it was disrupted.24
"Cra…!!"
Cursing, I tried to cancel the «Vertical» slash I had initiated. I had read the opening moves of Illfang's blade, as it drew half a circle while Illfang turned beneath it. It was the motion for the technique that launched strikes up and down in random order, «Gengetsu»25.
I desperately pulled back the Anneal Blade in my right hand, but an unpleasant shock hit my whole body with a jerk, and my movements
stop.
"Ah…!!"
By the time Asuna gave out a small shout next to me, the nodachi had already jumped up from below and caught the front of my body.
I felt a sharp shock that was as cold as ice. My body was paralyzed, and my HP gauge was reduced by thirty percent.
As I was thrown across the room and barely managed to stay on my knees, Asuna rushed towards the Kobold king in my place. I tried to scream "Don't!". «Gengetsu» had a very short post-motion delay. While raised up high from the previous slash, the blade glowed the color of blood. Not good, this was the three hit skill that killed Diabel, Scarlet Fan «Hiōgi»……
"Nu…oooo!!"
A deep war cry was let out just as its blade was on the verge of hitting Asuna.
As the blade grazed just the top her head, a huge weapon launched a skill while releasing a green light. The two-handed axe sword skill «Whirlwind»— ____________________________________________________________________________
24 Meaning that the chance of failure was 1 in 15 or 16.
25 Gengetsu: The original kanji for this is 幻月, which means “phantom moon”
The nodachi had discharged first, but the two handed axe that spun like a whirlwind intercepted it. It created an impact so great that the entire boss room trembled, and Illfang was knocked back quite a distance. However, the attacker had braced both his feet wrapped in leather sandals, so he only slid back a meter or so.
The one who had entered the fray was Group B’s brown skinned and gigantic leader, Agil. As I knelt on the floor exploring my coat pockets, he looked over his shoulders at me, grinning.
"We'll support you until you finish drinking your POT. There has to be Tanks along with damage dealers, that will not change."
"……Sorry, I leave it to you."
I gave that short answer, and I forcibly swallowed down something that tried to well up inside my chest with a recovery potion.
Agil was not the only person who had come to the front. Many people composed mainly of his B Group comrades and those with light wounds had finished recovering and were rejoining the battle.
With a look at Asuna I conveyed "I'm fine" to her, and then I shouted in my loudest voice at the swordsmen.
"If the boss is surrounded, it will attack back with an omnidirectional attack! I will be calling out the trajectory of the attacks, so the guys in front, deal with them! Even if you can’t repel it by force with a sword skill, you can avoid a large amount of damage just by blocking it properly with a shield or a weapon!"
"Ou!!"
A savage bellow from the men reverberated, and it may have been my imagination, but it blended with the roar that the Kobold king gave in irritation.
I retreated to stand beside the wall, and while waiting for the recovery potions to slowly take effect, I checked the situation on the rear lines.
The boss's weapon had changed, and sure enough, along with it, it seemed that the number of «Ruin Kobold Sentinels» that were spawned had also increased. Kibaou's Group E and the lightly injured polearm equipped Group G were taking on all four of the heavily armored guards at the same time. Although they had not taken much damage so far, as long as Illfang remained alive, four Sentinels would probably keep jumping out of the wall alcoves on a regular basis. They would eventually reach their limits with just two parties.
Also, between the front and rear lines, the injured raid members, including the survivors of Group C, were trying to recover their HP
like me. However, recovery potions in this game were really frustrating items, having only a «Heal Over Time» effect…in other words, drinking the bottle would not instantly recover the gauge, but instead make it gradually increase in small increments, and moreover, after drinking the potion there was a cool-down period indicated by a «Cooling» icon displayed at the bottom of the vision, which rendered drinking the next bottle useless until it disappeared. On top of that, the inferior-quality potions sold at the first floor NPC shops had a sorrowfully terrible flavor.
Putting the taste aside, because of the set cool-down period, healing from heavy injuries took up a lot of time. Therefore, the normal theory was that, when someone received damage worthy of a potion, they would switch with their partner and fall back to the rear (that was, in other words, POT rotation), but as the number of those who received unexpectedly heavy wounds multiplied, it became easy for the rotation to break down. On higher floors, the dreamlike item which could instantly recover the gauge, «Healing Crystal», could be obtained, so such recovery is possible if one is not bothered with the cost, but it would be asking too much to have one on hand now.
Therefore, how long Agil and the six people under him who were currently replacing me were able to maintain their HP gauges against the boss's fierce attacks would decide the flow of the battle. For that reason, I would have to predict Illfang's skills the moment its preparatory motions started.
In my kneeling posture, I of course kept my eyes carefully peeled while focusing my senses to capture every movement the Kobold Boss made, and after determining the sword skill that was being activated, I shouted things like "Horizontal slash, right!" and "Downward slash, left!".
Agil's team of six was not pressured into desperately countering from following my instructions, but instead they used their shields and large weapons to guard themselves. Since they were players with «tank builds», they had high defense and HP, but even so receiving zero damage from the sword skills the boss launched was impossible. A loud sound effect would occur, and each time, their gauges would gradually reduce.
Among that group was a single fencer who lightly danced. Asuna.
Without turning her back in front of the boss, she never wasted any chance to pierce its body with «Linear» whenever Illfang was in a delay period, even for a moment. Of course, after repeated strikes the «Hate» value would become focused on Asuna, but the six tanks used appropriate skills such as «Howl» to redirect the target's Hate to themselves.
This dangerous battle, which could collapse in an instant if even one of the elements here failed, actually managed to continue for close to five minutes.
Soon enough, the boss's HP finally went below thirty percent, and the final gauge became suffused red.
At that instant, perhaps letting down his guard for a moment, one of the players acting as a tank tripped over. Stumbling, the player came to a halt directly behind Illfang.
"…Get out of there quickly!"
I called out reflexively, but it was a moment too late. As the boss felt that it was «In a surrounded state», it gave out an exceptionally ferocious roar.
With a jerk, its large body sank into a crouch. Then its entire bulk was flung high up into a vertical jump. While on its course, its body along with the Nodachi, contorted and revolved during the jump. It was the omnidirectional attack «Tsumujiguruma»—…
"U…ooaah!!"
Giving off a short howl and forgetting that my own HP had not fully recovered, I jumped forward from along the wall.
Positioning my sword on my right shoulder, my left foot kicked off from the floor at full force. The acceleration that shouldn't have been possible with my actual Agility assaulted my spine, while my body flew up diagonally into the sky like a shot from a gun. The one-handed sword rush technique «Sonic Leap». Its range was shorter than «Rage Spike», but its trajectory could be aimed towards the sky.
The sword in my right hand was engulfed in a bright yellow-green light. In its path was Illfang's katana, which had reached the apex of its jump, while producing a deep crimson glow.
"Reach…it——!!"
Shouting that, I stretched my right arm to its limit, and swung my sword.
The point of my beloved Anneal Blade +6 drew a long crescent as it raced through the air, and hit the left side of Illfang’s waist, as it was on the verge of using «Tsumujiguruma».
Zashuu! A sharp and heavy slashing sound rang out. The intense light effects showing that it was a critical hit flashed before my eyes.
In the next moment, the Kobold king's huge body was sent angling sideways in the sky, and then it crashed into the ground before the tornado of its special attack could even form.
"Guruu!"
Yelling, it tried to stand up, but both its feet and arms quivered. It was a bad status that affected humanoid type monsters, the «Tumble» state—.
Barely managed to land successfully with falling, I turned to face Illfang, and then I forced out the air in my lungs to shout.
"Everyone—do a Full Attack!! Surround it!!"
"O…oooooh!!"
Agil's six men cried out as if releasing the anger that had accumulated, while they had only been able to concentrate on guarding until now. Surrounding the fallen Kobold king, they activated all their vertical slashing sword skills simultaneously.
Axes, maces and hammers wrapped in lights of various colors, and rained down incessantly on its huge body. Bright lights and loud sound effects exploded, and Illfang's HP gauge which was shown at the top of our field of vision was shaved down bit by bit.
This was a gamble. If all Kobold king's HP was reduced to nothing before it got up, it would be our victory. If it got out of the «Tumble» status first, in that instant we would be met with «Tsumujiguruma» again, and this time everyone would be cut down. My «Sonic Leap» was in the middle of the «Cooling» period, so I was unable to deal attacks while in the air.
Agil's group, who had recovered from the post-motion delay of their techniques, began the pre-motions for their next skills. The Kobold king stopped struggling at the same time, and its body started to rise.
"……We’re not going to make it!!"
Sword Art Online Progressive - Volume 01 Page 11
