Chapter 4 - First Siege

4th December 2022

Path to the Labyrinth, 1st Floor

The moment I found out that Diavel had only gathered 44 players to raid the 1st Floor's boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord, I felt a bit skeptical that even an addition to the party like me wouldn't change anything in terms of boss-beating capability.

In SAO, the maximum number of players allowed in a party was 7. In other words, a full 49-player raid party would consist of 7 full parties of 7 players each.

Apparently, one of the parties in Diavel's raid party wasn't full, and had only 2 players in it.

"We need all the manpower we can possibly get to defeat the floor boss." Diavel had told me. " So thanks for joining!"

I was almost sure I could sense desperation and relief mixed in his words.

The trek to the Labyrinth was not that long, considering I'd trekked through it before, but long enough to notice the jungle environment the trekking path belonged to.

The players I partied with were a swordsman with black hair (judging by the sword strapped on his back), and a girl whose red hooded cloak she was wearing made her look like a really shy Little Red Riding Hood, due to the hood covering the upper half of her face.

This definitely wasn't the first time I partied with another player. All I had to do was to send a party invite to another player for the purpose of fighting enemies that were hard to solo fight. Through my countless party invites, I've learnt to show respect to my party members, in order to defeat monsters more efficiently and quickly.

The black haired swordsman accepted the party invites, allowing me to look at their HP bar gauges. Under each HP bar gauge were the names,"Kirito" and "Asuna" respectively.

"So you're Zenalyth?" The swordsman, whose name I assumed was Kirito, commented after looking at my HP bar gauge.

"Yea..." I replied simply.

Attempting to change the subject, I subsequently asked, " So what made you want to join the boss raid?"

"It's simple : I just want to clear the 1st Floor."

Kirito then turned to the hooded girl, which I assumed was called Asuna, and asked, "Asuna, do you know how to battle, like Switching and stuff?"

Asuna showed a puzzled face," Huh? What's Switching?"

Kirito's dumbfounded expression grew on his face a second later.

"Um," I interjected, hoping that I did it it the most polite way possible."When did you two meet each other?"

"Yesterday." Kirito answered. "Why?"

Ah, well, I thought, Diavel must have made this raid party in a hurry, after all.

Looking briefly at the players walking in front of me, Kirito and Asuna (we were at the back of the party), I was reminded that not all the players in this boss raid party may have enough experience in taking down a boss, let alone a floor boss. In fact, I doubted my experience with fighting sub-bosses could help me as much in dealing with such a formidable foe.

Not wanting to demoralize Kirito again due to Asuna's lack of competency in battle, I assured him, "I do know how to Switch though." (Seriously, I did know. Wanting to learn how to Switch was one of the reasons I partied frequently with many players.)

"By the way," I added, "Can you tell me more about the floor boss? I think Diavel forgot to fill me in on that."

"Sure, I don't mind." Kirito replied nonchalantly.

"The 1st Floor boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord, wields a huge talwar as its weapon, and spawns 12 Kobold Sentinels when engaged in battle."

"I see....." I mumbled. It wasn't just Illfang itself fighting in the boss room, but I knew its Kobold Sentinels would be stationed there too, to create unnecessary diversions that had the potential to cause boss raids to fail.

The rest of the time on the way to the 1st Floor boss room was spent fighting enemy mobs in the Labyrinth and occasionally talking to Kirito about battle strategies against the sub-bosses on the 1st Floor.

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4 December 2022

Labyrinth, 1st Floor

The way up the 1st Floor Labyrinth to the boss room wasn't that difficult to conquer.

The Kobold Sentinels there had attack patterns and skills that were easy to read and dodge from, and thus were easy to defeat.

Of course, it doesn't hurt to take them on with party members, to reduce their numbers quickly and with less risk. Even a single hit from any enemy monster that decreases your HP gauge pushes you one step closer to the edge of death, both in this world and the real one.

When I visited the Labyrinth solo yesterday, defeating the Kobold Henchmen took a few hours before I reached the area just before the boss room. I could never throw caution in the wind taking them on on my own, even if each of them only took 3 hits to defeat.

The players in front of the boss-raiding party took care of the enemies efficiently. Me, Kirito and Asuna cleaned up the enemies that either weren't found by the players in front or respawned near us.

As expected, the boss-raiding party took only 15 minutes to conquer the Labyrinth.

Diavel stood in front of the 44 players, just before the door to the boss room, and started his speech.

"I have only one thing to say : let's win!"

The player crowd in front of me roared in agreement. I could see Kibaou's face showing pure excitement. I could see Agil raising his axe up high. And I could see Kirito beside me not really doing anything to raise his own spirits up and only looking at Diavel with a laid-back attitude. Asuna, whose hood still covered her face, also never joined in the cheers made by the other players.

I held up my right hand, and clenched it into a fist, feeling apprehensive for the upcoming major battle. If SAO wasn't just a game but a physical, literal world where monsters and fantasy existed, the 1st Floor boss battle would have been very famous throughout history.

It would have been known as the first significant fight between man and monster ever in the world of Sword Art Online.

Diavel pushed open the giant doors of the boss room. The players in front charged in. The three of us followed suit behind.

The boss room was very colourful on the inside at first glance. The floor and walls of the room were designed as if to display all kinds of colours in one place, the segments of the seemingly artistic masterpieces being different shapes and sizes.

The colours used to decorate this boss room apparently made it easier to spot the boss on the other end of the boss room, from the giant doors.

The boss had been sitting on what seemed like a throne made of stone. It stood up, grabbed its weapon, which was leaning next to the throne, and roared, obviously ready for battle.

Four HP gauges appeared diagonally above it, the text on top of the top most HP gauge read, ' Illfang the Kobold Lord '. Smaller kobolds spawned by his side shortly after, each bearing the name, ' Kobold Sentinel '.

The first 2 parties to rush towards the boss were Groups A and B, who were filled with tank players, capable of taking damage for other players during boss battles.

The next 2 parties, Groups C and D focused on dealing damage to the boss. Diavel, the leader of Group C was skillfully guiding his group carefully around the Kobold Lord, in search of an opening to strike direct hits at it.

The last 3 parties, Groups E, F and G were in charge of taking down the Kobold Sentinels. They immediately rushed to engage them, so as to draw attention away from the groups assaulting the boss.

Me, Kirito and Asuna were automatically assigned with the minion-clearing group as well.

Honestly, I don't mind not fighting the boss. Being in the boss room already made me feel privileged to be one of the first players to experience a Floor boss battle (Excluding the beta players, of course).

Kirito crossed blades with a Kobold Sentinel and managed to land a hit on the enemy.

"Switch!" He shouted, jumping backward from the Kobold Sentinel.

I immediately dashed in after his back leap and unleashed Twin Thrust on the hammer-wielding monster.

It staggered back, probably trying to recover from the sudden burst of damage it had taken. By then its HP gauge had decreased to about 10%.

With one last thrust of my Steel Javelin +1, the Kobold Sentinel shattered into many diamond-like fragments. I looked around, and saw Kirito engaging another Kobold Sentinel, but this time with Asuna.

He should have taught her how to Switch by now, I thought.

In SAO, Switching was a combat technique used by many players, and only needs a minimum of 2 players to activate it. It was a skill already available to players from the very beginning of the game. Taking on an enemy alone was increasingly hard the more you fought with it, because each of them possessed a weak artificial intelligence (AI) which could learn your attack patterns gradually from the moment you picked a fight with it, thus eventually allowing the enemy to block your attacks easily if you aimlessly swung at the enemy without caring to change your fighting style.

The easiest way to bypass this problem was to Switch, where a second player switches places with the player initially fighting the enemy, with the already-in-combat player performing a fast back step, giving the second player an opportunity to unleash a sword skill on the enemy.

This resets the AI in the enemy, which has to relearn the fighting style of its new opponent, while being in a semi-stunned state due to the damage it took from the sword skill that, from its perspective, 'came out of nowhere'.

It was a combat technique that was already popular with the beta testers, and a really reliable sub-boss fighting method during the month of the 1st Floor exploration.

Noticing that Groups E,F and G were still taking down the other Kobold Sentinels, I ran over to Kirito and Asuna, who just defeat theirs.

It was then that I also noticed that I could see Asuna's face, her hood being taken off. Her long, chestnut brown hair was the first distinct feature that I saw from her.

There were not many female players roaming in SAO, and only one of them opted to help clear the 1st Floor.

For a moment, I wondered what made Asuna so determined to fight the 1st Floor boss, that she became the only female player in the entire boss-raiding party in the 1st Floor.

We then helped in finishing off the other Kobold Sentinels along with the minion-clearing groups. It seems that dealing with 10 of these enemy monster's was apparently no joke, as their attack patterns were independent from each other, resulting in enemy attacks occurring seconds apart from each other, even concurrently.

The minion-clearing groups knew all too well that they shouldn't take risks in these kind of combat situations.

With our threesome help, defeating the Kobold Sentinels became much easier and faster.

But Kibaou, who was the leader of Group E, still directed his glance at Kirito with a skeptical and suspicious look.

It was then that the boss let out an ear-splitting roar.

3 of its 4 HP gauges became empty, leaving the last one still coloured fully.

Illfang threw its talwar away, and was beginning to pull out another weapon from its sheathe.

These kind of actions bosses make were not surprising. They always change their attack patterns when their HP decrease to a certain level.

"Stand back! It's getting more dangerous! I'll handle it!"

Diavel rushed though the players, and had seemed to be intending to defeat Illfang himself.

But it was still impossible to kill the boss solo, when it has 25% of its HP remaining.

"Stop! It's not safe to charge like that!"

It was the first time I heard Kirito ever shouted like that.

As I was starting to get confused about the situation, Illfang had just brandished out its second weapon. It looked like a katana, but its blade was nothing to joke at, as if it was cut in a curve from its blade end, leaving a longer pointed end on it.

The boss suddenly jumped, and zipped through the walls and ceiling of the boss room with incredible speed, directing its last landing at.... Diavel.

All of us were watching and probably cowering a little at Illfang's

might, never considering the fact that a fellow player was in danger of taking dangerously huge damage from a boss's special attack.

And indeed, Diavel received a direct hit from Illfang's new weapon, the impact sending him flying, crashing onto the ground seconds later.

Kirito ran to Diavel, desperately wanting to heal him from seemingly imminent death.

I turned to look at the now enraged Illfang, and held my Steel Javelin +1 ever harder.

How did they even clear the 1st Floor during the beta test? Unless the official release of SAO was modified so it had stronger bosses?

I tried to steal a glance at Kirito and Diavel, hoping that the boss won't direct its next attack on me. What I saw was unbelievable.

Diavel, lying beside Kirito, had just glowed light blue and turned into tiny bright blue fragments, in front of the eyes of not just mine, but most likely the rest of the boss-raiding party.

A death during the 1st Floor boss battle should have been impossible, considering all 45 of us worked together a strategy to defeat Illfang.

But Diavel took on the boss with no help at all. And he most likely didn't want any player helping him at all, seeing that he never called his group members to aid his assault.

It was an obvious mistake done by Diavel, though I never decided whether to feel angry or sad at that point in time. Defeating the boss should be the party's utmost priority.

Kirito stood up, and declared," We're going to defeat the boss! Asuna, follow me!"

He brandished his one-handed sword and sprinted towards the boss, with Asuna pulling out her rapier behind him.

Whether it was obligation or just pure courage, I decided to join Kirito's assualt as well.

Kirito effectively parried against the boss, shouting "Switch!".

As he stepped back, Asuna landed a sword skill behind, decreasing the boss's last HP gauge by 30%.

I recognized that sword skill, which was the 1-hit rapier skill, Linear, done by many other rapier users during my journey through the 1st Floor. It was probably the first sword skill unlocked in the rapier skill tree.

Illfang staggered back a few steps. Asuna landed a few more rapier hits on the boss before shouting at me, who was behind her, ready to strike.

"Switch!"

I never thought much as I landed the 2-hit spear skill Twin Thrust onto Illfang's belly.

But at that moment Illfang had already recovered from Asuna's attack.

The boss wielded its weird looking katana, and started to land a hit on top of my head.

Subconsciously, I held my Steel Javelin+1 in front of me to guard, hoping that I wouldn't receive too much damage.

Instead, when the giant blade connected with the body of my spear, the impact sent me flying through the boss room much like what happened to Diavel.

"Wa lao..." I complained, when I finally landed on the unfortunately concrete hard ground.

I looked at my HP gauge. Almost 50% of it was gone, but the gauge never turned from green to yellow, which indicated HP percentage of below 50% to about 20%.

A HP percentage of below 20% would colour a player's HP gauge red, meaning that one would have to back off or retreat temporarily from the fight if they don't want to die taking another hit.

Still holding my Sharp Javelin+1 while sitting on the ground, I panted furiously, trying to recover from the impact Illfang gave me. I had never taken damage in the boss room before I received that tremendous force that shot me like a cannonball, and experiencing that was shocking, even though I knew that I couldn't feel pain in virtual reality.

Seconds later, Illfang was still targeting me, attempting to hit me using the same swing it used when I defended it with my spear.

"Shit....!" I tried to get back up and run, but I wasn't fast enough. I couldn't afford to defend myself with my spear again, taking into account the huge damage Illfang could deal to me once more.

But in the next split-second, Illfang's attack got intercepted by three players wielding axes.

Among them was an axe user whom I recognized was called Agil, the muscular player who counter-argued at Spiky during the boss-raid meeting (I got to know his name during the journey to the boss room) . He shouted, "Fall back and heal up! We'll hold it up for the time being!"

I took a step back and sprinted to a safe corner in the boss room.

Tank players really were lifesavers in a boss battle.

I looked at Illfang's last HP gauge, which had only 40% left. Feeling satisfied of the damage I dealt to the boss, I quickly swiped my right hand downwards to materialize my menu, and searched the items section for a healing potion.

Everything that happened next was unbelievable. I stood back up on my feet just to see Kirito and Asuna launching an assualt on the boss again.

As Kirito Switched out in front of Illfang, Asuna charged in and struck the boss with Linear. As the HP gauge of the Kobold Lord began decreasing, Asuna shouted and leapt back at the same time.

"Switch!"

It was the Switch that Kirito was all too ready for.

Kirito rushed past Asuna, with his sword raised up high, jumping at a height that allowed him to look down at Illfang.

With a determined war-cry, Kirito slashed down on his opponent, leaving the Kobold Lord with a bright red damage effect mark on the front of its body.

It was the reason Illfang the Kobold Lord shattered into a million tiny bright blue fragments seconds later.

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4 December 2022

Boss room, 1st Floor (Cleared)

The words "Congratulations!" that appeared on top of Kirito were still there even after Illfang the Kobold Lord was defeated a minute ago.

I didn't even check the digital time shown in my game menu. It was just a vague assumption how time would have past while everyone else were celebrating their grand victory in the 1st Floor.

I looked at Kirito from afar. He was with Agil and Asuna, and they must have been talking about the fact that he got the LA (Last Attack) on the boss.

"....Why?!"

The whole boss room suddenly plunged into silence.

I was in the midde of joining the crowd when I heard it.

"Why did you leave Diavel to die?!!"

It came from a group whose players I recognized were from Group C.

The group that Diavel had led into combat during the boss battle.

The 5 of them looked like they were almost going break down in tears.

I sneaked quietly to where Agil and Asuna were, not following completely how the sudden commotion would turn out, as the players blocked my sight from the Group C members the moment I made a beeline to them.

When I finally stood beside Agil, amid all the shouting, I saw the scene clearly, where a Group C member was pointing a finger at Kirito in accusation.

"I...I know!! This guy is a beta tester!! That's why he knows all of the boss's attack patterns! He hid them despite knowing about them!"

Kirito, being a beta tester? That got me thinking about it. He seemed so confidant in SAO, never showing any obvious fear in being trapped in this game. There was definitely a possibility Kirito could have been one.

Because he was now the owner of the item granted to the player who dealt the LA on the Kobold Lord.

But, would Kirito have deliberately made sure that he got the LA on the boss? Highly unlikely. Kirito and Asuna were in the heat of the boss battle, caring only to defeat the boss. There was almost no way Kirito could have tricked Asuna into Switching him back to strike at Illfang at that time. She should know it was just a coincidence. If Asuna never Switched with Kirito, the boss battle would have become a whole different situation. Their assualt was that crucial in securing the fast defeat of the floor boss.

The argument went on, bringing up ideas such as the strategy guides given by Argo, who I had just found out was The Rat, were fake information, and Argo was also a beta tester as well, who also had hid the truth from the normal players.

As a normal player myself, I stood watching the scene with conflicting views. If Kirito really was a beta tester, I wouldn't hold that big of a grudge against him, but then again if he was a beta tester, he shouldn't be that selfish in keeping his knowledge about SAO all by himself.

Asuna and Agil tried to open their mouths to form a counter-arguement, but Kirito stopped them with a delicate motion of his hand.

He turned to the Group E members. "An original beta tester, you say?.... Don't lump me together with those amateurs."

"Wha...What was that?" One of the Group E members responded.

Kirito's voice was unusually monotone."Listen here and remember well. SAO's CBT (Closed Beta Test) had an outrageously low acceptance rate in the lottery draw. Out of the one thousand people chosen, how many real MMO gamers do you think got selected? Most of them were just newbies who didn't even know how to level up properly. You guys here are much better than that lot."

I crossed my arms, knowing for some reason that Kirito's speech was going to be interesting, and the other 40 players who fell silent would have agreed with me too.

"But, I'm not like those guys."

Sneering, Kirito continued.

"During the beta test, I reached floors no one else could reach. I knew of the katana skills the boss used because I fought and killed enemy mobs that used katanas on much higher floors. I know a lot more too, far more than someone like Argo."

"What the, that's..."

The Group E member who had accused Kirito of being a beta tester tried to retort back.

"That's... no longer on the level of a beta tester... that's totally cheating, you're just a cheater!"

I heard many voices agreeing with him, saying stuff like "yeah" or "cheating beta tester". The words were soon mixed up in the commotion, which for some reason prompted Kirito to respond with a laugh and a grin.

"....Beater...., that has a good ring to it."

"Beater...." I muttered, still observing the scene calmly. So Kirito had given a title for himself, to amplify his pride of being a better beta testers than the others.

"Exactly, I am a Beater. From now on, please do not lump me together with the other former beta testers."

Kirito then brought down his game menu, and replaced the dark grey leather coat he was wearing the whole time since I first met him, to a longer coat with shiny jet black leather.

He faced the small door, which was at the back of the boss room.

"I'm going to activate the second floor's transfer gate. From the exit here it will be a short walk to the district town, so if you want to come along, you should be prepared to kill any enemy mob along the way."

As Kirito made his way to the door, he looked back at Agil, Asuna and me, giving us a small smile. He knew that we understood what he was saying, and that we were on his side during the commotion.

Being the first person to step into the 2nd Floor, Kirito disappeared behind the giant throne, which was unoccupied.

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4 December 2022

Boss room, 1st Floor (Cleared)

Not everyone could stand still and be dumbfounded by Kirito's grand speech forever.

The players of the boss-raiding party started to decide for themselves what to do next, apart from the Group E members, who needed more time to be snapped back into reality (not that the world they were in was really reality anyway).

Some of them decided to form guilds on their own. Others decided to go back to the Town of Beginnings to give those still living there the good news.

As long as the 1st floor is cleared, players can now go to the 2nd Floor through the teleport gate found in the main town of the floor, which in this case is the Town of Beginnings.

But the 2nd Floor cannot be accessed through the teleport gate yet unless a player activates the teleport gate in the main town of the 2nd Floor first. And I hoped Kirito was doing just that.

Agil turned to me and placed his hand on my shoulder, and said," That was fine teamwork just now."

"Thanks..." I replied. "Your team of tanks really did your role in the boss fight well too."

Agil chuckled," We're just doing what tank players would normally do."

He then changed the topic, "Me and my group are forming a guild. Would you like to join us?"

I hadn't visited that thought since SAO first launched. Being part of a guild generally had its benefits, though I'm not sure what those benefits were.

But I didn't feel like I should join any guild. Being attached to a guild, especially a potentially famous one, would put pressure on me. I didn't like the idea that I had to follow where guild members would go when exploring the 2nd Floor and beyond. It wasn't my idea of getting stronger in SAO.

Nevertheless, I still wanted have Agil as a friend.

I replied back to Agil," I don't want to join any guilds, but can we add each other on our friends lists? I'm happy to accompany your guild through the 2nd Floor though."

Agil wasn't that disappointed in my decision, " It's cool, I respect your choice not to join my guild. We can still do well with a guild this small anyway." He pointed at 2 axe users and a mace user, " 3 of us in our group wanted to go their separate ways too. It can't be helped. These guys are all who agreed to my request to form a guild."

Oh yeah, I thought. Agil's group had 7 players in it at first, including himself.

" And I would love to make friends with a strong player like you too. But promise me one thing : you have to help us sometimes in our hunting quests, alright?"

"Deal." I brought out my right hand to initiate a handshake. Agil gladfully shook on it.

I guess my friend list was not empty anymore.

As Agil and I brought out our friend lists, I introduced myself to him, not wanting him to pronounce my name incorrectly too.

"Zenalyth...Is that how I should call you?" Agil was looking at my name in his friends list.

"Yup." I said. " So what are your plans now?"

"We're planning to just go to the main town of the 2nd Floor first and check it out. It'll probably be crowded with players by now, assuming the player who called himself a Beater had reached there early. Hmm? Where's the girl that was with us just now?"

I looked around. Asuna wasn't beside Agil anymore. We never noticed her when we were chatting away.

I replied," She must have taken the path to the 2nd Floor already. We should get going too."

"Agreed." Agil went to gather his guildmates.

As I looked at the mighty throne that seemed to be made of some kind of shiny stone material, sparkling a bit in my eyes, I stood wondering about what kind of place the 2nd Floor was like.

I took a deep breath, ready to enter the next part of the 100-floor castle of Aincrad.

I turned behind, only to see Agil's smiling face, with his guildmates behind him.

I smiled back, and declared a fact that any player wouldn't have doubted of.

"Another Floor, another adventure."

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