Chapter 66 - Colossus

Kikouka Seijirou was not having a good day. He had just received a call from the hospital saying that a patient was showing unusual levels of activity. That was code for 'the patient is fighting for their life'. Worse yet, this was a SAO player who usually didn't show such high levels of activity, and that combination of factors was, more often than not, followed by death.

By the time he reached the hospital, almost running past the reception after flashing his work pass to the woman in charge, it was too late. Not that it would have changed anything even if he was on time.

The room was silent when he entered, a doctor and two nurses standing next to a bed upon which a middle-aged man lay. Seijirou could see their pain, anger, sadness, and resignation, amidst a myriad other emotions, in the way the doctor and nurses clenched their fists and silently sobbed. They probably felt even more helplessness than him, considering their profession.

A quick glance at the monitors showed only flat lines, and the NerveGear had already been taken off, and was placed at the bedside table. Seijirou took off his glasses and rested his head in his hands.

They had almost made 24 hours without any deaths, which would have been a new record in the SAO case unit. The frequency of player deaths has been falling over the last few weeks, which Kikouka considered a huge victory - not that he had contributed anything to it. No one had, but the players themselves.

"Family?"

"Divorced, with two daughters, both already of age. We already contacted the last two. The ex-wife wasn't mentioned on any of our files nor ever stopped to visit, so we didn't call her."

Seijirou nodded slowly to show that he acknowledged their course of action. In his head, he started going over what he would say when the man's family arrived. He knew it wouldn't be enough. It never was.

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Drifter felt oddly calm when he stood in front of the huge doors leading to the boss room of the 5th floor. Considering what was at stake, he should have been even more anxious than normal, but that wasn't the case.

His guildmates didn't share his state of mind. They kept throwing cautious and not just a little anxious glances in the direction of the DKB and ALS, unconsciously trying to figure out who amongst them was the wannabe murderer.

Drifter, on the other hand, wasn't nearly as worried, mainly because they had a more pressing concern, which was to make sure Reaver's Requiem got the last-attack bonus. If they didn't, their plan would fall apart before it even took form.

His attention was drawn away from the square doors when a boisterous group arrived. Drifter felt a smile spreading through his lips. With a few large steps, he was in front of the Legend Braves, grinning widely.

"About time you came back, Orlando."

"It's good to be back, Drifter."

The two men laughed and hugged each other. Then, Drifter proceeded to greet the other Braves, while his own guild approached, those who knew Orlando and the others enthusiastically hugging them, those who didn't being introduced.

Drifter was genuinely happy the Legend Braves were back on the frontlines. He didn't see Nezha with them, but he was already aware that Argo was working the poor man haggard as her assistant. While the ranged help he could provide would be missed, just having Orlando, Chuchulainn, Enkidu, Gilgamesh, and Beowulf would bolster their strength by a not insignificant amount.

"Oi, Kirito? That's you, right?"

While they waited for the strategy meeting and subsequent raid to start, Drifter, Orlando, Beowulf, and Sinon were chatting. It was during one of the lulls in the conversation that the spearman heard someone calling Kirito, and looked over his shoulder to see a red-haired man hesitantly call the guild leader, who was engaged in a discussion about sword techniques with Ran, Yuuki, and Chuchulainn.

"Klein?"

There was a note of incredulity in Kirito's voice, but, more than that, Drifter detected an undertone of sorrow. He knew the swordsman far too well not to. And he wasn't the only one. From the corner of his eye, Drifter saw Asuna subtly going closer to Kirito.

"It's really you, man! I mean, I already knew that, with the broadcasts and all, but I just wanted to make sure. You are really impressive, you know that?!"

"Ah, thanks. But, what are you doing here?"

If they didn't want others to eavesdrop on them, Klein shouldn't have started this conversation here. Drifter nodded to his friends, not even trying to hide from Orlando and Beowulf that he was listening in on Kirito's conversation.

"Joining the Assault Team, what else?"

"Really?!"

"Yup! Argo the Rat gave us the all-clear too."

The red-headed player, Klein, grinned, and Drifter could already see he was one of those people with a happy-go-lucky attitude. Which was good, the frontliners could use more people like him, especially since Argo was the one who suggested them.

Ever since that party died on the 4th floor, fighting << Biceps Archelon >>, Argo had taken it upon herself to collect intel on potential clearers and frontliners, and evaluate them. Those she considered skilled enough to become clearers would get the go-ahead, those she didn't, were gently told they should train a little more on the lower floors. Argo couldn't control their decisions or whether they would listen to her advice or not, but this was pretty much all she could do to avoid needless deaths.

As for frontliners, the criteria were a lot more strict. You couldn't simply walk up and say you wanted to join the Assault Team. Each guild, each party in it had very specific roles doing boss raids, and if anyone failed, it could - and would - cause a catastrophic domino effect. They couldn't risk it. For now, there were only two ways of joining the frontliners: getting a recommendation from Argo or one of the guild leaders, or approaching the Assault Team for a test.

Well, if Argo vouched for them, Drifter wasn't going to question it. The info-broker had a far better eye for talent than he ever did. Besides, after the initial tension, Kirito seemed to be truly happy to see Klein, and that was enough for the spearman. His guild leader deserved all the friends he could get, especially after the whole beater bullshit.

"Drifter, Kibaou's calling. Looks like it's time for your briefing."

The spearman groaned, but Yuna just jabbed him in the ribs and fixed him with a stern glare. With no choice, Drifter walked to the front of the Assault Team, where Kibaou, who would lead the raid, was waiting.

Like it had been agreed back on the 3rd floor, the Reavers became responsible for completing the << Elf War >> campaign and uncovering as many clues about the floor boss as they possibly could. They had done just that, and bid farewell to Kizmel yesterday, after the dark elf helped them ask the leading NPC of the dark elf faction on this floor about the 'guardian'. Kirito, using the annoyingly logical argument that he was a vice-guild leader, had delegated the role of explaining everything to the rest of the Assault Team to Drifter.

After Kibaou called - more like shouted - for everyone's attention and made a little speech, he passed the metaphorical mic to Drifter. The spearman made a quick headcount - sixty-eight people, more than he was expecting. Luckily he wasn't as shy as Kirito.

"Let's get straight into it. The boss is called << Fuscus the Vacant Colossus >>. For those who care 'bout background, he is an ancient mechanical construct left behind by dwarves. The boss had two phases, the hard one, and the harder one."

The joke earned him a few dry chuckles, and Drifter smiled at his guildmates, who were shaking their heads in exasperation. If they didn't want him to make lame jests, they shouldn't have pushed the job onto him.

"You'll notice the boss room is slightly different than the others we came across. There will be a bunch of lines crisscrossing the floor, which you have to pay attention to. During the first phase, the Colossus will be just a giant floating head that can shoot lasers - yes, you heard me, it can fire lasers from its eyes. But the thing you really should focus on are those lines I mentioned. Whenever part of them starts to shine, it means one of the hidden limbs of the boss will strike. Fuscus' head has nearly impenetrable defense, so we have to concentrate our attack on the limbs."

He paused to see if everyone was following. They were.

"Second phase is simpler, but more dangerous. All the parts of the boss will merge to form a body. Mobile, high defense, obnoxiously high attack, and it can still shoot lasers. Based on the last four floor bosses, we should also be expecting some kind of AoE attack, but we don't have any idea of what form it will take, so keep your eyes open. That's about all we got, Kibaou. Floor's yours."

Kibaou nodded and explained their tactics. By now, the frontliners already knew the drill, but even so, many were still nervous. The new additions, like Klein and his guild - Fuurinkazan - were understandably on edge.

The red-headed player unsheathed his katana, licking his lips nervously. His guildmates, Dale, Harry One, Issin, Kunimittz, and Dynamm, were equally jumpy, their grip on their weapons leaving them white-knuckled.

Drifter saw Kirito pat Klein on the shoulder and say something which made the other guild leader laugh quietly. On his end, Drifter made the rounds around his friends, confirming Reaver's Requiem was ready. As if that was ever in doubt.

Lifting his spear, Drifter cautiously followed the tanks into the boss room. They had yet to be ambushed by a floor boss, but Drifter wouldn't put it past Kayaba, despite the man's flair for dramatic entrances.

He also let out a sigh of relief when he saw the seemingly random lines on the floor. Kizmel's intel was, once again, proved reliable. He didn't even jump when a gigantic stone head floated up from the ground, a horrendous expression carved in it.

With a booming sound, the entire room lit up and the head came to life. Shining eyes locked onto the players, who, having been forewarned, scurried to get out of the path of the incoming laser beams.

It was an impressive sight of destruction - pun intended. Drifter chuckled to himself, more to abate the sudden bout of nervousness that overcame him than anything. A little detail Kizmel had either left out or, more likely, didn't know, was that the lasers left a trail of molten ground on their wake, effectively dividing the room - and the Assault Team - in two. Drifter had no doubt that stepping on the burning ground would be painful, nor did he have any wish to test that theory.

Before he could go down that train of thought, a cluster of lines a few meters to his left started shining, right in the middle of one of the smaller guilds. The players, an agility-focused party, jumped out of the way just in time for an enormous stone leg to rise from the ground and stomp the area where they just were, creating a small shockwave. After missing its attack, the foot stood still. Drifter, never one to let an opportunity like that go by, launched a << Comet Break >> at the limb, sending shards flying.

That was the wrong move. Immediately after he hit it, the leg sunk back into the ground before anyone else could land a blow on it, the boss having lost only a single percent of the first of five HP bars. Drifter yelled.

"Time your attacks, it vanishes straight after it's hit!"

<< Fuscus the Vacant Colossus >> roared and fired another laser. This time, the raid-party was split into three groups. Drifter didn't like where this was going.

"Kirito, the attacks are too random! There's no pattern!"

"Yeah, I noticed! Kibaou, we need to change strategies!"

From the other side of the room, where the ALS was attacking an arm that had appeared, the cactus-haired player turned his head and glared at Kirito.

"What do you want, beater?!"

"If this goes on, we'll all be separated before long! We have to prepare! We need to switch party compositions, each one needs at least one tank!"

Kibaou growled and looked like he wanted to retort, but he knew Kirito was right. The frontliners had split their parties according to which 'class' they were playing. All tanks were more or less together, all pole, axe, and spear-users too, and dagger and sword-users by themselves. This way, each of them could play their roles better. This also worked because most bosses had a clear aggro list. But not Fuscus. The floor boss kept dividing them, and if this went on, each party would soon become stranded on their own little 'island'. And, without a more diverse composition, the light-armored players would be left defenseless when the limbs of the boss struck.

By the time Kibaou gave the orders, the Reavers had already evenly split into two groups. The first was Drifter, Yuna, Nautilus, Kirito, and Asuna. The second was Sinon, Yuuki, Ran, Merida, and Liz.

Watching as << Fuscus the Vacant Colossus >> fired another laser, this time mercifully in the other direction from where they were standing, Drifter tightened his grip on his spear. This wasn't going to be an easy battle.