Chapter 110 - The Unreasonable Field-boss

Myconid Queen of Embers.

Drifter, Kirito, Asuna, Yuna, Nautilus, Sinon, Ran, Yuuki, Merida, Kizmel. Ten of the frontliners' finest, the elites of Reaver's Requiem, stared at the field-boss that appeared all of a sudden in front of them. A field-boss on the first day of the 15th floor. Kirito screamed.

"Run!"

The players didn't hesitate. Challenging a field-boss with just ten people was suicide. What frontliners' finest? What elites? They were all dead men and women walking if they dared to delay their escape for even a second.

They had to run. There was no other option. Drifter stumbled back, almost knocking into Nautilus. He grabbed the blade-user with one hand and pushed him. There was clear desperation in all of their faces.

"Go, go, go! Faster!"

One shouldn't neglect field-bosses just because they seemed lesser than floor bosses. They were weaker, that was true, but it didn't mean they were any less deadly. A field-boss was generally half as strong as the floor boss from the floor below. Considering over a hundred frontliners were needed to 'safely' - in many quotation marks - take down a floor boss, it could be imagined that just ten players wouldn't even make a scratch on the Myconid Queen of Embers, but instead would suffer tremendously, and most likely die.

"Break left!"

Even while they ran away, the players didn't dare to turn their backs to the field-boss. That would be like begging for death. Instead, they backpedaled as quickly as they could. That was how they saw a flaming root piercing the air towards them. Kirito yelled, and Drifter, Yuna, Sinon, Nautilus, and Ran threw themselves to the side, barely dodging the attack.

The five players rolled and got up in one smooth movement, then kept retreating. Yuna and Nautilus were slower than the rest, so Drifter and Ran were forced to slow their pace to cover their friends.

"It isn't moving! We should be almost out of range..."

"Shut up and run, Yuuki! Ugh!"

Even as he shouted, Kirito spun his sword in a wide arc to deflect another root. Still, a wound was left on his shoulder, and, to make matters worse, it ignited with a green, sickly fire.

"DoT debuff! Don't stop!"

Now wasn't the time to be stingy. A quick glance at his HUD showed his HP decreasing at a scary pace, and Kirito made the quick decision to use one of the valuable Health Crystals the guild had. Instantly, he seemed to recover his life, and his health gauge went back up to the lower end of green.

Drifter let out a short sigh of relief when he saw that Kirito was safe. He didn't feel at all pained by the use of one of the very expensive crystals. After all, items were meant to be used, and if it saved someone's life, then they were more than worth their price.

"Urrgggghhhhh!"

The grotesque mouth of Myconid Queen of Embers opened in a hellish scream as the players got away. The field-boss was coming after them, but it barely moved more than a few meters by the time they were nearly out of its aggro range.

But there was a very crucial distinction between almost getting away and truly escaping. One last blazing root shot towards the Reavers, and Drifter's eyes widened when he saw it coming straight for him.

In one single movement, Drifter bent his body back as far as he could, and slashed at the incoming attack. The spearhead struck the tip of the flaming root, which changed course and punctured through a few trees, shattering them completely before losing strength.

"Ack!"

Drifter, on the other hand, fell on his back after parrying the attack. His spear was almost knocked out of his hand, but he held on to it and rolled away while groaning. There was a large red spot on his lower back where he had hit a rock. The damage he suffered was actually very little, but the whole situation was nerve-wracking.

"Everyone okay?"

"Yeah. Scared outta my mind, but yeah."

While Drifter defended against the last root, the other Reavers had managed to get out of the Myconid Queen of Embers' aggro range. Yuna and Nautilus helped him to his feet while everyone else stared at the field-boss. Without any immediate threats, the creature was now returning to its camouflaged state - although the destruction it left behind was hard to hide.

"A field-boss! A gods be damned field-boss! What the hell was Kayaba thinking?!"

"I don't believe Kayaba ever had our well-being in mind, Yuna."

"That's not the point, Merida!"

"Yes, what was the point? No, what even was anything that happened today? An entire map with fake mobs that don't give experience or drop items, and then a hidden field-boss? I always thought Kayaba made SAO to be beatable. Or, at least, plausible. This was completely out of the norm."

Drifter didn't join in the discussion. He agreed with what everyone was saying, but his heart was still racing too much to pay attention. That last attack had been almost as fast as one of Sinon's arrows. And he had never tried to parry one of the archer's attacks.

Drifter's reaction speed wasn't as fast as Kirito's or Yuuki's. Which only made his actions all the more impressive. Especially because it hadn't been just his body acting on instinct. He had seen the attack coming and, in those brief fractions of a second, chosen the best course of action - to parry, and use the force of the impact to push his body out of the way of the root.

He had no idea he was capable of that.

"No, there has to be a catch. As much as I hate Kayaba, he has always been fair. We are missing something."

The ten Reavers had been highly freaked out by the sudden appearance of the field-boss, but they weren't frontliners for nothing. After a few minutes of venting their heightened emotions, Sinon's words pulled them back.

"Right. Nothing we came across has been unbeatable. It doesn't make sense for it to be different now."

"Ugh... I hate that I agree with you on this, Sinon."

"Let's brainstorm then. But let's do it with everyone back in Firestarter."

Drifter ended the conversation with that and a nod to Kirito. There was nothing to be gained by wasting time here, and they also wouldn't want to go to other hunting grounds after meeting the Myconid Queen of Embers. In SAO, the only way to get stronger was to take risks, and a field-boss, despite how dangerous it may be, was too enticing a prey to pass up. They needed to rejoin with the others and come up with a plan before someone else discovered the boss.

"Humm. We might need to bring the Braves and Fuurinkazan in on this."

"We'll see. Let's talk first."

The trek back to the town was quiet. All the Reavers were thinking of possible weaknesses the field-boss could have, but they had only confronted it for less than three minutes, and most of it was spent running for their lives.

The others were already waiting when the ten players arrived back at the inn. The guild-wide order to return Kirito had sent had clearly set them on edge, if the worried frowns were anything to go by.

"Kirito, what happened?"

"Inside, Liz. My room, I think. It's going to be a little crowded, but we'll have to make do."

The blacksmith gulped and nodded. She was a veteran too, so she recognized the expression on the faces of the Reavers who had gone out to hunt. Whatever they experienced, it had been a close one.

With a heavy heart, Liz, Agil, Shigio, Wolv, Silica, and Vallerk followed their guildmates to Kirito's room. Like he said, it was a tight fit, but eventually they managed to get everyone inside. This was important because inn doors, once closed, boasted a high level of privacy, which only a high mastery in Eavesdropping could overcome.

"Can you say what's got y'all in a bind now, Kirito?"

Agil asked while leaning against the wall, his big frame allowing him to see over the heads of those in front. Kirito's answer almost had him falling over.

"We found a field-boss."

"You what?! Already?! How?!"

Pandemonium was an exaggeration, but there was certainly a little bit of chaos when Kirito told them what happened in such a direct and abbreviated manner. Drifter rolled his eyes.

"Do you want to tell the whole story or are you going to leave it at that, Kirito?"

The swordsman smirked, at least until Asuna smacked him upside the head. Nautilus and a few others facepalmed, and all the tension left the room.

"Alright, alright, don't hit me, Asuna! It's like this, everyone. We were..."

In short order, Kirito had everyone brought up to speed. It wasn't a long story anyway. But Liz, Agil, and the others understood why the Reavers who met the field-boss had such serious expressions. It was never not terrifying meeting an enemy you knew you couldn't defeat.

"Hah... Thank god you guys are okay."

Silica held a hand to her chest. Just by listening to what happened, her heart was beating faster. Yuuki and Merida put their arms over the younger girl's shoulders to reassure her everything was alright.

"What's the plan then, Kirito?"

"We don't have one yet. We need to think of any weaknesses the Myconid Queen may have, and how to exploit them. If we think we can't do it alone, we'll call Orlando and Klein, but I want to try taking it down on our own."

It wasn't greed or selfishness that moved Kirito. It wasn't even pride. It was conviction. The belief that they were the best of the best, and that they could do it. Because they could. Kirito's desire was reflected on Drifter, Agil, Asuna, Ran, and all the others.

"You got it, boss."

Agil punched his palm with a savage smile. Even Sinon and Vallerk were grinning. They were the best. They were Reaver's Requiem.

"Let's see, weaknesses of the Myconid Queen of Embers... The movement speed is close to zero. The few attacks we saw were also very telegraphed."

Drifter started ticking off his fingers. Asuna cut in.

"Yeah, but it doesn't mean they are easy to defend against. The attack speed is no joke. Comparable to Sinon's, at least. And since it's a plant-like monster, we can expect it to have a 360 attack range, so no chance of sneak attacks."

"There's also the damage-over-time effect. I didn't grasp exactly how much or how long it was, but I think 30% HP over 15 seconds is a safe bet."

Kirito rubbed his shoulder where he had been hit. Yuna took over.

"It only launched one root at a time, but that was probably just the first phase. I think we can expect the frequency of attacks to rise later on. The power is also no joke considering how banged up it left Kirito."

"Piercing attacks at a distance, and swipes when we were closer. That was what I saw. So we'll have to dodge when we are far and block when we are near."

"We should focus damage. Maybe try to trap and cut off roots when they attack?"

"Hm, maybe it has a limited number of roots. It might result in nothing, but I think it's worth a try."

Questions, ideas, solutions, and counterarguments were being thrown around at mach speed. This lasted until Kizmel brought forth another point.

"My friends, I believe we might be focusing on the wrong thing. Missing the forest for the trees, I believe is the expression humans use? Quite literally, in this case."

"What do you mean, Kizmel?"

"What stood out the most for you about the Myconid Queen of Embers and the map as a whole when compared to the rest of the floor, Drifter?"

The spearman frowned. Kizmel wasn't one to make useless remarks, so he thought deeply about what she said. The answer struck him like lightning a mere few seconds later.

"Myconid. The fungus. It covers the entire map, just a few centimeters below the topsoil and the bark of the trees. Furthermore, both the Ashen Myconids and the field-boss looked like they were being controlled by it, like some kind of parasite."

"And that's important why?"

Liz didn't see it, but a few others were nodding along. Drifter counted on his fingers.

"The Myconid Queen of Embers can be split into three parts. It's right there in the name. The roots are from the trees that form the body, straightforward physical attacks most plant-type mobs have. The DoT effect is from the fire that's around the entire floor. Then what is the fungi's method of attack?"

Liz, Silica, Yuuki, Merida, Shigio, and a few others opened and closed their mouths repeatedly, no sound coming out. They realized they had overlooked a massive - and potentially life-threatening - detail. Not that they could be blamed. Even for those who actually faced the field-boss, the few minutes their escape lasted was barely enough to notice anything.

"Debuffs? Poison? Those are usually the most common abilities related to fungi, right?"

"Maybe some kind of stun? Or something that incapacitates us?"

The Reavers brainstormed for the next several hours, coming up with multiple scenarios and plans to adapt to every possible situation they could think of. Finally, Kirito clapped his hands.

"Alright, everyone, that's enough for today. Repair your equipment, check and restock on consumables, and get a good rest. We are raiding the field-boss first thing tomorrow."