CHAPTER 16- BOSS BATTLE BEGINS

*rustle rustle*

The group marched through the forest on their way to the labyrinth disturbing the quiet ambience of nature and bringing unrest to the environment.

Michael looks at miku engaging the blue haired lad named Yuki in a heated conversation about his gender as she refuses to believe that he was a guy.

 Looking at yuki one wouldn't be able to tell but he has so much potential to unearth, Michael could just see it now, the kind of monster this kid could become when he is fully done with him.

The ways he moves subconsciously is just remarkable, as silent and deadly as a viper waiting to pounce on it's victim.

'haah' Letting out a sigh, he focused his mind in the mission ahead of them.

They have hashed out the plans for the boss battle already and they already met asuna and kirito's party before doing it as they decided that they will handle the minions while the main group attacks the boss.

It wasn't too complicated and it is really straightforward but michael knows that not all plans are set to pan out perfectly so he will make sure to not let his guard down and watch over miku closely and maybe this new kid as he might be useful in the future.

"No really, are you sure you are not a girl. I refuse to believe that" Miku protests vehemently.

 She just couldn't accept the fact that someone this adorable is a guy, the aesthetic is just not to her taste and her demanding side was slowly coming to light.

 She could already imagine dressing him up in all sorts of dresses... Oh what fun it would be.

"I'm telling you for the 7th time, I'm a guy so please stop asking me about it" yuki said letting go of his shy persona as he was already getting annoyed by miku's questioning.

"michael san please tell her that I'm a boy so she can stop asking" He looked to michael and begs for his assistance.

Having his fill of amusement from the poor lad's suffering,

michael says to miku

"Let the squirt be miku, if he says he's a boy then he's a boy".

"But look at him and tell me he doesn't look like a cute little sister" Miku shoots back and squishing yuki's cheeks much to his chagrin, he resigns himself to his fate and lets her do what she wants.

"Yes I get where you are coming from but just let it be for no and trust in him okay, at least i don't see a reason why he would lie about his gender" Michael states.

"Besides we have other things to worry about right now, wouldn't you say?"

"yea, you are right as always but this isn't over, you hear me yuki" Miku replies to michael and states strongly to yuki who just laughs nervously and nods his head.

Yuki is already used to being treated in such a way with people often mistaking him for the opposite gender frequently and there's nothing he can do about such an outcome so he has accepted it long ago but then assertive girls like miku come along and throw him out of his zone.

Miku approached yuki in the arena to form a party because she looks cute and innocent, the perfect role for a little sister.

 She suddenly had this urge to protect her so she approached her/him and invited to their party as she was alone and here we are.

Discussing the strategies that their team will play on their way to the boss room, Michael made it known that he will leave the minions to miku and yuki and he will only step in when their lives are in danger but they should try their best to avoid that.

 Yuki was initially surprised by this but miku managed to convince him to go along with it.

In front of a huge eerie black door all the players were gathered just outside the boss room, Diavel turns around and addresses the crowd.

"This is it guys, the moment we  have all been waiting for.The last few weeks spent in this game has been leading up to this very moment"

He adds " Lets beat the boss and clear this game so e can all go home" he roars at the end receiving similar response from the players except for a select few that were solemn. (A/N :Shinsou o sasageyou *HAHAHAHAHHAAH* just kidding)

Bursting into the room, what awaited us was silent darkness, it was very nerve racking and fear inducing in this tense juncture not knowing what to expect next.

*fwoosh voom voom voom*

Reaching a certain distance into the room, the torches at the end of the room began to be lit automatically probably a setup to make the engagement of the boss more thrilling.

At the end of the room, the players could see a huge red kobold wearing some kind of head gear like a crown of some sort, loin cloth like lower armour with exposed upper body sitting on a throne and it's minions at its side.

 The minions looked goblin- sized and they wore full body armor and helmets with a mace like blunt weapon by their sides.

 Michael sharply took account of every opponent in the room and subsequently made an appropriate gameplan to account for any faults that may be committed by his team mates.... mostly miku.

Noticing the presence of the players, the boss naturally became enraged.

"Roooooaaaar"

alerting it's minions of their presence, the boss immediately sprung into action followed closely by his minions, the players quickly shuffled into formation and prepared for the boss's onslaught, and so it begins.

"Get in formation, tanks in front ready to receive the boss" Diavel quickly took charge of the situation and began issuing orders.

"Squads 1, 2, 3, 4  keep the minions off of us just as we planned. Everyone move out" Diavel thundered out.

Raising their shields, the tanks received the boss's attack from it's double sided axe and negated it's attack switching seamlessly with the attack squads having high dps.

 They kept the boss at bay quickly as they followed their plan to a tee.

*ROOAAR*

Attacking with an overhead slash, the tanks received it's attack this time receiving some damage, the attackers took their shot.

Over slashes from swords, stabs from spears, swings from axes and so on. The kobold lord defended with it's buckler and countered back.

 This pattern continued for a while and as the fight with the boss carried on it's attack speed seemed to increase as it's attacks began to become more frenzied and random.

Many tanks were injured and had to fall back to recuperate by drinking potions with others quickly taking their place.

The raid party came fully prepared this time, if not for the detailed info from the guidebook this would have become a real disaster as the players wouldn't know what to expect and be wiped out by an enraged boss before they even knew what hit them.

These were michael's thoughts at this moment as he watched the boss raid from afar.

"Illfang the kobold lord huh, not a bad opponent for me but something is making me feel uneasy" Michael says low enough that no one could hear him, looking at miku nearly soloing one of the minions alone with the occassional stance from yuki.

Miku's performance at this time amazed everyone having the luxury to watch. She was a very well rounded player with high agility, high defense and oppressive offense at least at this stage of the game.

Her high level made it easy for her to match up to the ruin kobold sentinel quite easily.

 She's above the average player level being about levels 5 to 7 and she being level 10.

 Her moves were so fast and critical that the minion couldn't recover and her attacks almost invisible to the average player with the only indication of her attack being the flashing of lights from her skills release.

She vanished from her spot and blocked the minions strike.

*clang*

Yuki quickly switched in and stab it's midsection with his shortsword getting a crit hit in.

He seems to have a natural sense for this and he doesn't seem to realise it.

Turning to Asuna and kirito's side of things, mIchael saw that they could handle things as kirito blocks the minion's attack and asuna switches in and deals multiple thrusts in quick succession before switching to defense and back to kirito, rinse repeat.

 Seeing that the process was stable, michael focused on giving assistance to the other players fighting the minions while keeping an eye on asuna and miku's teams.

The battle continued in this rhythm for a good long time and players occasionally getting their hp to the red bar having to retreat and recuperate.

 At this time michael has already saved 2 players from dying by making foolish mistakes as he wouldn't lose anything doing so.

Then it happens

"ROOOOOOAAAAR"

the boss lets out a loud roar as it's hp reaches 20%.

miku has already finished with her opponent and began observing the other players fights, helping out whenever she could, same for kirito and asuna as well.

The boss tossed it's current weapon and shield to the ground violently as he went into it's final stage.

grabbing a weapon from behind it's back he got into an attacking stance ready to attack these insolent challengers.

Kirito noticed diavel at this point breaking formation, discarding the plan to attack the boss solo so as to get the last hit bonus, as a beta player himself diavel knew about this key piece of info and seeing kirito's look, he lightly smiled at him then charged at the boss without another word confusing the other players as this wasn't part of the plan.

Michael also noticed diavel's move but paid no attention to him but immediately after, his recently awakened sixth sense began flaring up, alerting him to an approaching crisis.

Quickly checking on miku, asuna and kirito seeing they were okay he quickly looked to the only enemy that could be a threat to miku here, the kobold lord.

Failing to realize that he didn't account for one more person and such a mistake would lead to some dire consequences that he didn't account for.

____________________________

okay guys the boss battle has started.

For the sao fans, what's the outcome of diavel's move. would he survive this.

find out at the next episode of DRAGO.....

ehmm sorry MATTER IMMERSION.

CIAO.

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