Chapter 88 - Devouring the Fallen

Inside the elves' Sacred Tree, a ground-shaking battle was taking place. Twelve players and one dark elf against the leader of all fallen elves in Aincrad.

At the moment, Drifter had just given Aater, Lord of the Fallen the slip, and was rushing towards the center of the room, where six of the seven Secret Keys were still floating in circles. As for the last key, he had unknowingly destroyed it when he first used Comet Break to attack the boss.

Now, he had no idea why Aater was so enraged he seemed to have lost all rationale. But Drifter was willing to bet it had something to do with the Secret Key. So, he did the logical thing, and swung his spear to destroy a second key.

"Drifter, watch out!"

The spearman was not ready for the dark bolt that flew towards him as he attacked the key. He had his back turned to Aater, so he never saw the boss produce another branch of the Sacred Tree out of thin air, envelope it in dark smoke, and throw it towards him like a javelin. But he trusted his teammates with his life - and rightfully so. As soon as Yuna's shout reached his ears, Drifter canceled his attack and dropped down, before immediately rolling to the left.

His quick reflexes saved his life. Drifter saw the branch fly over his head, then through two of the kneeling fallen elves in the perimeter, who screamed miserably, before embedding itself on the trunk of the Sacred Tree.

"Sinon, those things are important to the boss somehow! Destroy them!"

Seeing that Aater wouldn't let him get closer to the keys, Drifter called Sinon. The archer hesitated for a moment, startled, but then turned and shot an arrow at the hovering Sacred Keys without questioning. She managed to hit one of them, and was aiming at the next, when Aater shrieked, and Drifter realized way too late that if the boss could launch branches at him, it could do the same to Sinon.

"Sinon!"

In panic, all Drifter managed to do was yell her name - which was probably the most useless action he could have taken, but he didn't have a long time to think.

The archer closed her eyes reflexively as the corrupted branch closed in on her. She couldn't help it. She had blinked once, and it was already in front of her face. It was too fast for her to dodge.

"Wha--?!"

But someone was faster. When Sinon didn't feel the expected hit in the next two seconds, she gingerly opened her eyes to see Kirito in front of her. The boy had his sword raised in front of him, as if preparing to chop the branch out of the air, but he was staring wide-eyed at a third figure, who didn't have just the intention to block the branch, but had actually done so.

Yuuki's chest was rising and falling rapidly, and she was almost hyperventilating. Her health, already low from taking two punches from Aater earlier, had fallen to the red zone. But her sword was steady as she kept it in the ending stance of Sonic Leap. The two halves of the Sacred Tree branch were somewhere far behind her, having carried their momentum even after Yuuki cut it out of the air.

"What... What the actual hell?!"

"Did you two teleport? What was that?!"

Drifter gasped, along with every other Reaver. While they were all frozen, Kirito and Yuuki had both somehow managed to react and use Sonic Leap to interpose themselves between Sinon and Aater's attack. Kirito had been a heartbeat slower than Yuuki, which didn't make it any less impressive.

Drifter knew right away that this feat was something he would never be able to accomplish, no matter how much or how hard he trained. This kind of reaction speed simply wasn't something you could practice. It was something you had to be born with. And somehow, Reaver's Requiem had two people with that kind of otherworldly talent. Kibaou would go green with envy when he realized that.

"You can be shocked later, guys! Kill the boss first!"

At this moment, the most clear-headed was still Asuna - even including the two who performed the incredible feat. The fencer's shout woke the players up, and Drifter turned his head to see that Aater didn't, in fact, care one bit that Yuuki had stopped his attack. But thankfully he seemed to only be able to launch two branches in succession, so now he was just charging at Sinon - which was still terrifying, but a lot less scary than the sniper shot-like branches.

"Insufferable lower beings! How dare you interfere with the ritual and delay my lord's descent! I will kill all of you and sacrifice your blood to the lord!"

"Hum?"

Even as he downed a health potion and charged the boss with a Rage Spike to stop him from getting to Sinon, Drifter noticed the strange wording of Aater's threat. It was almost as if he was giving the players a clue.

When they were planning for the battle, Kirito and Argo had told them that Aater, Lord of the Fallen's fight had two phases. The normal one, which they were in right now, and the second, exponentially more dangerous one, which Aater entered after his HP dropped below 50%. According to the info-broker, Aater would try to summon his evil god, gaining a lot more power.

Now, seeing how enraged the boss became when someone destroyed the Secret Keys, to the point where he ignored the aggro mechanic, Drifter started to wonder if it was connected to the boss' second phase. The exact verb he had used had been 'delay'. Maybe...

"Kirito, we have to try to destroy more of the keys. I think each key less makes it so that he enters the next phase later."

Meaning, at a lower health. Instead of 50%, it could be 40 or maybe 30 or even less. And the less health Aater had, the less time they would spend to deplete it, and the less danger they would be in.

It was just a deduction without any basis, but Aater clearly hated it when they destroyed a Secret Key, which automatically made Drifter love the idea. The spearman stopped trying to block the boss and turned back to the keys.

"We'll juggle it. Vallerk, you be Sinon's shield. Yuuki and, hum, Ran, you are on defense too, especially against the branches. Liz and Naut, I'm gonna need you two to save my ass when Aater turns back to me."

"Got it!"

"Everyone else, split as you see fit."

Without wasting time, the guild separated as Drifter said, and the spearman found himself shoulder-to-shoulder with Kizmel as he marched towards the floating items. Aater had also noticed him, as he gave up on murdering Sinon. Nautilus, Liz, and Kirito intercepted him, so Drifter ignored the boss and lifted his spear.

"Sorry about the Secret Keys, Kizmel, but I think destroying them is the better option."

The dark elf shook her head.

"The keys had caused centuries of bloodshed between my people and the forest elves, Drifter. They should have been disposed of years ago."

Drifter nodded and hacked down, cutting another key in half, and leaving only four of them hovering in the air. He would have gone for a fourth one, but Aater roared again, each time more animalistic, and threw another branch at Drifter. Like the spearman had thought, it seemed that this ultimate skill recharged whenever a key was destroyed.

But the Reavers wouldn't be frontliners if they were still caught by surprise by the same attack four times in a row, much less when Drifter had already warned them.

Liz was the first line of defense, and, following Yuuki's example, she tried to swing her hammer at the branch with a Crushing Impact. It didn't quite work, and her body was still pierced by the branch, wiping out almost half of her health, but it slowed down the attack enough for Nautilus to get behind her and raise his shield.

The branch also went through him, but it stopped on the third person - and Kizmel angrily snapped the piece of wood embedded on her shoulder.

"Sinon, you are up!"

Instead of trying to take a swing at another key, Drifter called out for the archer. Liz, Nautilus, and Kizmel needed time to recover, or they might die if they were forced to tank another of the piercing attacks. That ability to ignore defense was no joke.

Like that, the players juggle Aater, Lord of the Fallen between the two groups, one Secret Key induced anger burst at a time. It would have been funny, if that specific throwing attack wasn't terrifying. After all, mobs could also score a critical hit, and if one of those happened against the people with the lowest health status, like Yuna or Silica, it could potentially one-shot them. Luckily, neither the singer nor the dagger-user were ever the target of Aater's fury - that honor was reserved for Drifter and Sinon.

When Aater, Lord of the Fallen's health closed in to the halfway mark, about ten minutes later, all the keys were gone. Following the beta, it was at this point that Aater was supposed to enter the second phase. The players slowed down their attacks, getting ready for it, just in case Drifter's deduction was wrong.

But Aater's HP dropped to 50% and then dipped below that mark, and nothing changed. They all heaved a collective sigh of relief.

"Alright. That just means it's going to enter second phase later. Let's bring him down and go celebrate."

There were several eye rolls at Kirito's dry resume of the situation, but no one complained.

Gripping his spear, Drifter advanced on Aater. He started with a simple jab, which the boss easily deflected with his palm, but the spearman used the momentum to spin his body in a Horizontal Arc, cutting a long gash across Aater's chest.

Drifter deflected a punch with the shaft of his spear, and was forced two steps back, losing a tenth of his health even though he blocked the attack - Aater, Lord of the Fallen was unreasonably strong.

"I will destroy you, weaklings!"

"Switch!"

Instead of attacking again, the spearman yelled and retreated to the left. He didn't know who he was trading places with, but he trusted someone would be there. And he wasn't disappointed.

"Hah! Die, monster!"

Kizmel cleaved at Aater's head with an overhead slash, which the boss hastily blocked by raising an arm. Still, the elf's curved blade bit deep into his forearm.

"Argh!"

His own arm blocked his line of sight, so Aater never saw the rapier coming towards his face from underneath. At some point, Asuna had crouched and closed in on the boss, and she aimed her Glass Shard straight up, covering his face in red lines. Two of the attacks pierced his mouth from underneath, while another nicked his ear, and the last one got him right in the eye.

Aater screamed in pain and swung his fists blindly, hitting Asuna across the face and Kizmel in the stomach. Then he stumbled back, one hand covering his wounded eye. The symbol for the 'blindness' debuff appeared above his head, reducing his accuracy by 50% for the next thirty seconds - Asuna had only gotten one eye.

It already showed, as the punch he landed on Asuna had only pushed the fencer away, but not caused any actual damage.

"Enough!"

Suddenly - or not so much, considering how much they had hurt and pestered the boss until now - Aater bellowed, so loudly the entire Sacred Tree shook. He glared daggers at the players with his one good eye, daring them to disobey.

Sinon shot an arrow at his face.

"How dare you?! You are mere ants! Insects!"

There was no way the players were stopping just because Aater told them so. But the boss didn't even try to avoid the incoming arrow, and it hit him right in the nose. But instead of sinking into his flesh, the metal tip bent, and the wood shaft snapped. Sinon, Drifter, and everyone else stared at the purple message that appeared in front of Aater, Lord of the Fallen.

[ Immortal Object ]

"Cutscene."

Asuna breathed the word. Kizmel glanced at her, but it wasn't the first time her friends had said weird things, and she could tell Aater was currently in an invincible state.The Reavers all took the moment to steady themselves. They had been going at it like crazy, and the boss was covered in wounds. His health had fallen to 15%.

"5% for each key. You were right, Drifter."

"Thankfully. But now comes the hard part."

Aater was screaming himself hoarse. While the players watched, drinking potions to replenish their lost health and taking stock of their supplies, Aater, Lord of the Fallen, dropped to his knees, grabbed the pieces of the Secret Keys, and started stuffing them into his mouth.

"What's he doing?"

"We disrupted the ritual. Originally, Aater wanted to use the keys to summon the evil god, but since we destroyed them, he is using his own body as a medium for his descent."

Kizmel spoke seriously, releasing her battered shield and gripping the hilt of her blade with both hands. Drifter frowned.

"I'm guessing that's bad?"

"Not as much as if the evil god was summoned with its real body. But it's not good news either. Prepare yourselves, my friends. This will be a harsh battle."

Drifter nodded grimly in agreement. Aater had stopped screaming now, although his huffing could still be heard. He was sprawled on the ground, and, as the players watched, the exposed parts of his skin started to turn blood-red. He also started to shake, as if he was having a seizure. It was unnerving, to say the least.

"Here it comes..."

Suddenly, black smoke shot out of Aater's body, like several tendrils of death. Drifter and the others raised their weapons to defend themselves, but the smoke flew past them, and pierced the bodies of the worshiping fallen elves.

"Ugh!"

"Arghh!"

"Ah! L-Lord Aater, w-why?!"

Under the horrified gazes of the players, the dozens of fallen elves screamed in pain, their bodies shriveling up. The tendrils were draining their life force, until all the fallen elves shattered in a shower of shards.

"Haa... Haa... It is your honor to repay our lord's grace with your life. As for you, despicable humans and traitorous dark elf... Die!"

"Uff!"

Spinning around, Drifter raised his spear just in time to parry a giant swirling fist. Grunting, the spearman stabbed his spear into the ground to prevent his fall. Then, he looked up at Aater, Lord of the Fallen. And up, and up.