Boss Raid

Discord Link ~ https://discord.gg/smAesXp

***

"My name is Diavel, how can I help your group of four?" asked Diavel as his eyes scanned the four people right before him.

"We came here to participate in the boss raid and fight against the floor boss of this labyrinth tower," said Asuna seriously as she looked at Diavel with a serious look on her pretty face.

"Hm..." Diavel's eyes closely looked at Asuna's party members before looking at their equipment with a rather disappointing look on his face.

Although looking really pleasing to the eyes and amazing, Diavel believed that they looked very ordinary compared to the light glow and amazingly detailed weapons and armors they had.

"Aren't you two too young for this?" Diavel looked at both Princess and Silica with raised eyebrows. He couldn't stop himself from asking a similar question like Agil's.

"No."

This time, Princess took the initiative to answer by responding coldly to the man before her. Unlike the usual childish personality she shows in front of Sora and at the Dojo, whenever Princess exits the dojo and is out of Sora's sights, her personality turns back to being cold and emotionless.

It was like being cold and emotionless was connected to her survival as she switched her survival button on.

Since she had been surrounded by bad people since young, Princess could easily tell when someone is a bad person. Just like Diavel before her, Princess had seen right through him.

"Alright..." Diavel shrinked back a bit at the unexpected cold voice of the little girl, He scratched his cheek and continued, "We will go after the three groups in front of us go first."

"What are the names of the three groups?" asked Kirito as he looked at the three groups in front of their group.

"The ones at the beginning, and the first to enter the fight against the floor boss, is the Murim Alliance. They are primarily made up of Koreans and other small groups with various names..."

The Murim Alliance wore a lot of traditional clothing usually worn by many Murim warriors. They resembled the clothing of cultivation worlds, but they were also different and set up more differently.

The group after the Murim Alliance is the Black Knights. Like their name, they wore black armor all the time and they usually carried two-handed swords, spears, and greatswords to resemble knights. There were some knights that even carried big shields and lances that were reduced in size after taking into account that they currently did not have horses.

After the Black Knights, the group after were the Mystic Dragon Sect. They wore clothes similar to the Murim Alliance and they all mostly had swords. Hardly any carries any spears, staffs, bows, or any other weapon.

After them and the temp. group of Diavel's, every other group waiting behind them was similar to the first three groups.

Many different groups were lined up behind them…

Wise Dragon Gang…

Golden Dragon Faction…

Obsidian Sword Clan…

Black Death Soldiers…

…

"That's a lot of people," muttered Silica with a dumbfounded look on her face.

Diavel nodded and said, "They ARE a lot, but sooner or later, they will all be swallowed up by other guilds if they can't raise their strength and people."

"What do you mean?"

"Well..." Diavel shrugged his shoulders and said, "I heard that when we cross the 20th floor, to reduce the amount of guilds and let the game flow smoother and faster, there will be a function unlocked."

"I think I've heard of this," Kirito muttered absentmindedly, pulling Diavel's attention over to him. "I heard that this new function will be called [Guild Wars]. You will have to get a rolled up paper that will be named [Declaration of War]. Once used on another guild, the losing side will be swallowed up by the winning side.

It doesn't matter who declared war on who, it was said that this will be how it happens."

Asuna, and Agil who hadn't left yet, eyes widened in shock from what Kirito and Diavel had mentioned. Silica wasn't that interested in other guilds and only wondered if an Aincradian can make one so that Sora could make one and she could join.

Princess also wasn't interested in what they were saying, after all, she will be following Sora wherever he goes, and she was quite happy with just that.

"But won't there be a lot of deaths?" asked Agil with a frown on his face.

"Not at all!"

Diavel shook his head with a wide smile and continued, "According to the information I have in hand, if you die in the [Guild War], you will just respawn in your Guild Base, or your last place of rest.

This was something implemented to not drastically drop the amount of players to raid through all 100 floors of Aincrad in an instant."

Everyone nodded and just as they were going to continue talking, they heard the large iron doors to the boss room creak open loudly.

Boom-creeaaa~

Once the iron doors were open, the Murim Alliance had stepped in with proud looks on their faces. They straightened their backs, drew their swords, and marched to the boss room.

"There goes the first team," muttered Diavel with a light smile on his face.

…

Two hours passed in the blink of an eye as the boss room door swung open, revealing not a single player beyond the door.

"Are they dead?" asked Asuna with a quivering voice.

"No… the group leader must have hit the Emergency Exit button that every boss room has, preventing the deaths of over 70-90 percent of his teammates," mumbled Kirito in a voice only Asuna could hear.

Since Kirito was one of the beta testers of Sword Art Online, so he would receive a lot of hate from other players if he said things carelessly. Each country only had 1,000 beta testers each, so compared to the 50 million players, some measly, nearly 200 thousand, beta testers would be able to do nothing to the 50 mil. of players.

"Oh..." Asuna sighed in relief after hearing Kirito say that the Murim Alliance had mostly escaped.

Just as Asuna was about to keep quiet, she remembered something and decided to ask about it as the Black Knights went in next into the boss room.

"Wait, then why do we need the Escape Crystals?" asked Asuna with a wary look.

Kirito nodded at her question, understanding what she was asking about, "Because they can be used inside the labyrinths, when stuck in traps, out in the wild, and even in battles with bosses.

The Escape Crystals can also be used for when the Emergency Exit button isn't present for some boss rooms. I heard that in some floors, the boss rooms are set up that way because they don't want the players to become too dependent on the Emergency Exit."

Kirito revealed a serious look on his face as he continued with a tone of gravitas in his voice. "Sometimes even the normal boss floors have it happen, but if you are able to defeat the boss, you will receive double the reward and an item you will need in the future."

"..."

Under the hood of her cloak, Asuna's pupils had dilated in fear. Her hand reached for the escape crystal in her pocket, clutching it with a trembling hand.

'Thank you Master...'

…

Shua!

Finally, after three consecutive losses, it was finally brought down to Diavel's group. In all of Aincrad, only 7 labyrinths were cleared out of the needed ten from the 10,000 labyrinths. It wasn't that the first floor was that difficult, but that the majority of the groups and team leaders were all scared at the possibility of dying.

So before they could actually deal more damage and reveal their actual strength, the groups and teams were just scared. And when someone is scared, they wish to run, which is what the majority of leaders had decided on when clicking on the [Emergency Exit].

"So… now it's our turn," muttered Asuna with a trembling hand.

Pat-

"Huh?"

Asuna turned around and saw Princess patting her back in reassurance and a very light smile on her face. Asuna smiled wryly at how such a young girl had more confidence and a stronger will than her. She sighed and took a deep breath before the air around her had changed.

With a serious face, Asuna held tightly onto the hilt of her Rapier and revealed a confident smile. She turned to face Princess and nodded to her before patting Princess' head kindly and in gratitude.

"Thank you, you helped me calm down," said Asuna.

…

"Come on group! Let us head in and fight against the First Floor Boss," yelled Diavel as he took out his sword and raised it in the air with an overly confident look on his face.

YEAAHH!

All the players in Diavel's group ran into the boss room with their spirits high and their weapons out and ready.

"Stay close everyone," said Asuna as she moved into the boss room behind Agil and Diavel.

"Asuna!" called out Kirito quietly. "Do you know what switch is?"

"Yes!"

Of course Asuna would know something like that, it was one of the pieces of information he taught everyone in the first lesson he taught them in knowing the basics.

"Great! Then we can safely use it against the kobolds," said Kirito as he ran alongside Asuna and the two lolis.

"No."

Asuna shook her head as they ran deeper into the boss room. Many small parties already split from the main group, quickly going ahead to fight against the many kobolds approaching them.

."What do you mean no?!" Kirito's eyes widened in shock and some fear as he looked at Asuna's back. To fight against a Kobold without implementing <Switch> will lead to them dying!

Kirito didn't believe that Asuna, or the two lolis, had the ability to go toe to toe against Kobolds. In fact, he didn't believe anyone had any chance at all, unless they are solo players like him with some sort of experience in fighting solo against monsters.

"We have the skill and ability to fight alone, but we just need to support and help Princess and Silica get some hands-on experience," said Asuna as she brought Silica along with her. "Take Princess and help her get more experience fighting monsters."

"Ugh..."

Kirito gave a light groan, fearing for his impending death inside the boss room. Yet despite that fear, Kirito listened to Asuna and took Princess with him over to fight a Kobold left all alone.

"We will begin attacking this one, alright Princess?" said Kirito as he continued moving his feet, fearing that a moment of standing still will kill him.

"Mh," nodded Princess before unsheathing her short sword, which just looked like a normal sword in her hands.

"Ready?"

Kirito and Princess were just 5 meters away from the Kobold when Kirito began to activate his skill <Parry>. Once they got within range of the Kobold, Kirito smirked as he quickly deflected the strike of the kobold, disrupting his attacks and having him try to rebalance himself.

"<Switch>!"

"HAH!"

Princess jumped forward quickly without wasting her time, her sword quickly drew an arc in the air, leaving a blue light behind and slashing her short sword down on the Kobold's body.

<Sonic Leap>!

TSHHH!

Right after Princess made her move, the kobold fell down onto the floor in two. Regaining her momentum, Princess stood up with her back straight. She turned to look at Kirito who looked at her with a shocked look on his face.

'What the-... how did she kill the kobold in one attack?'

Kirito had trouble comprehending what had happened just now, not capable of believing as he massaged his temple, clearly forgetting where he currently was. He turned to look at Princess with a look on his face that clearly read, 'How the hell did you do that?'

Not being slow on reading someone's facial expression and their meaning, Princess said, "The game portrays real life."

Only then did Kirito finally understand how he had been going along this game the wrong way. He had always believed that this was a game, so he had to pay close attention to the hp bar of the enemies. However, after his enlightenment under Princess' words, Kirito finally understood that the monsters, and any other being within Aincrad, should be taken as if they are real.

Meaning, that if you cut right through an arm of a being, then they lose that arm completely, unless they have some broken regeneration ability or healing item.

Fatal strikes in real life are fatal inside the game too! He shouldn't be too fixated on the HP bar all the time!