Chapter 104 - Scouting Party

The players cautiously pushed open the doors to the boss room. They were made of baked clay, and looked every bit as plain and old as the rest of the floor. Slowly, very slowly, they stepped inside.

Their gaze immediately found the formation in the opposite corner of the room. A giant rock wall, on top of which the floor boss was resting. A king on his throne.

Almost lazily, the Storm Griffin King got up and stretched, showcasing its wings. The feathers sparked with lightning, and more than one player gulped in apprehension. Electricity normally meant paralysis, which was a player's nightmare.

Then the boss jumped off the wall and dove straight towards them, and the 18 players scattered.

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'Dodge!'

Drifter yelled internally. The curved beak and sharp claws sparking with lightning did not look friendly.

As if they heard him, the players split up, jumping to the left and right. The boss' dive was so telegraphed everyone managed to avoid it. The spin with open wings that came after, not so much. Three frontliners cried out and retreated, nursing large cuts across their chests and with 20% of their HP gone.

Three tanks immediately advanced, smashing their shields onto the boss. The Storm Griffin King shrieked loudly, swiping a few claws and snapping at the players. There were too few of them, so they were struggling to damage the boss.

Drifter watched all rationale through his menu, from the safety of the inn he and the Reavers were staying at. The scouting party was doing a good job.

Scout party. Liten from the ALS had been the one to come up with the idea, surprisingly. She had suggested it during the strategy meeting, which caused the battle to be postponed for two days, but for good reasons. She had every other frontliner plus Argo repeatedly smacking their heads on any solid surface they could find at the moment, and loudly calling themselves idiots.

The proposal was simple. Really simple, actually. Since all the floor boss raids were broadcasted to the SAO players, why not use it to their advantage? They would send a small group of players to scout out the boss, while everyone else watched the broadcast and figured out the moves, skills, and attack patterns of the boss. Then they could create a strategy based on actual information, instead of the vague rumors they got from the quests on the floor.

Another reason all the frontlines were beating themselves over - sometimes literally - was not thinking of it earlier. If they had, the 10th floor would have been different. Maybe no one would have died. Or maybe the entire scout party would have perished, surrounded by the boss' shadows. Either way, it would have gone down differently.

"Dodge and evade, mostly, then counterattack. What do y'all think?"

Ran was pointing out the details of the battle and her ideas as they watched. Only the Reavers were around, each guild having preferred to watch this on their own first, before meeting for the actual raid.

"Agreed. We need to watch out for those dives. Did you notice? When it comes down claws first, it's followed by a grab. When the claws are back, it's a spin."

Drifter had noticed. He had also spotted the way the Storm Griffin King's tail feathers sparked whenever it went for a supercharge - in both senses of the word - attack. He thought it quite looked like a character from a certain anime.

But Drifter was staying silent while the others commented. So was Kirito. The young swordsman had the Corridor Crystal they got on the 9th floor clenched in his hand, the coordinates already set for the boss room.

This was the first time a scouting party had been created and sent forth to challenge a floor boss. For that reason, they had joined three parties in an 18-man team, half of which were tanks. Safety was the priority. If anything happened and the scout party looked like they were in danger, Kirito would use the Corridor Crystal and Reaver's Requiem would jump in to rescue them.

Thankfully, it didn't look like that would be needed. The scouting party was doing a good job, chipping away at the boss' HP while doing their utmost to drag out all the possible patterns and skills the creature employed.

Of course, it would be impossible for 18 players, most of whom had low offensive power, to discover everything about the Storm Griffin King. While the basic attacks stayed the same, new skills would be added once the floor boss was down to the yellow portion of its health. And when it went berserk, at the end of the battle, then everything changed.

"80%. They are coming out."

It took the scouting party over an hour to deplete a mere fifth of the Storm Griffin King's HP. Once they felt they wouldn't be able to get anything more without putting themselves in danger, they retreated. As soon as the last player stepped out of the room, the boss returned to its perch and the doors closed.

"That went well."

"Thankfully. My heart was in my throat the entire time."

"Everyone, compile what you saw and your ideas for tactics, then we'll brainstorm on it before Kirito, Asuna, and I head to the strategy meeting 2.0."

As Kirito stowed away the Corridor Crystal, Drifter clapped his hands to get everybody's attention, and told them what to do.

Many of the SAO players were confused when they saw just three parties worth of frontliners start the broadcast, and even more befuddled when they left. Through word-of-mouth, they discovered the objective of the group, and soon there were hundreds of people forwarding suggestions to the Assault Team. Argo and her conscripts - mid-level players from ALS and DKB - were responsible for sorting through the messages for actual useful insight.

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The real world was little better in terms of confusion. At least several thousand people had been watching the live feeds of the players involved in the creation of the scouting party, and news had spread somewhat, but many were still caught by surprise. And like before, they were helpless to interfere, not even able to communicate with the players, only watch.

Seijirou was one such person. He was sitting in his office, elbows on the table and rubbing his temple with his fingers, like he was prone to do since Sword Art Online was launched. His inability to do anything at all to aid the poor souls trapped inside Kayaba's death game ate him from the inside.

Drifter's confession two days prior also didn't help ease his mood. No one was claiming that he be trialed for killing Morte - at least that he knew about. The voices inside the country were almost unanimous that the red player deserved it. And, as Seijirou had already told a desperate Ogawa Kana earlier, the entire case was full of extenuating circumstances. The biggest was self-defense. It could also be argued that Drifter was lying and hadn't killed anybody. Or that he wasn't mentally well because of his extended imprisonment in SAO. Basically, anything anyone could have used to take Morte out of death row, could also be used by Drifter and with much better results.

All of that was hypothetical, of course. There would never be a trial for Drifter. No one would push for it, because they would lose - and also find themselves on the wrong side of public opinion. And if push came to shove, Seijirou had little doubt he could get a full pardon for Drifter.

Drifter and the recently deceased Morte were low on his list of worries, however. Argo's revelation that there were other red players at large had his entire team combing through 7.000 live feeds trying to find who. As of yet, they had found one, but the player was always masked, so there was no way of discovering who he or she was. All they knew was that they used a large cleaver as their weapon - which didn't help in any way.

As of yet, there were still several hundred unidentified SAO players. Some were because they never left their private quarters, and hence couldn't be watched. Others because they used items that covered their faces - and that didn't automatically mean they were bad people, many simply did for privacy or the stats.

The main problem Seijirou faced was manpower. After the 24/7 broadcasts started, he had already been assigned 30 new subordinates, just to keep an eye on the key players. And yet, that was barely a drop in the bucket with how many victims there were to monitor. He needed three times as many people as there were players, so they could take turns watching each and every one of them. Somehow, he doubted he had the budget to hire twenty-one thousand underlings.

Again and again and again, all Seijirou could do was pray the frontliners would survive just another battle without losses.

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The very next day, the Assault Team found themselves in front of the now-familiar doors to the Storm Griffin King's room. This time they were in full force, all one hundred and fourteen of them.

They were less than they were before. No one left, even after six people died on the 10th floor. All the frontliners were fully committed by now, and they would fight to the death, like Namate and the others had. But no one had joined them either. There were a few clearers who could, and planned to, at least when they were winning every raid easily. They got cold feet after the last floor, however, and Drifter couldn't blame them. It was one thing to be willing to fight, and another entirely to be willing to die. Drifter knew that he wasn't ready to die yet, willingly or not.

"Al-Alright! We are starting, everyone! Stick to the strategy, fulfill your roles, and work together with the groups near you to avoid positioning issues! We want every party with enough room between each other to avoid the spinning attack after the dive."

Unknowingly, Reaver's Requiem had already grown to be one of the largest frontliner guilds in size. With Agil's party, they were now fourteen strong. And, while there were other guilds with larger numbers, all the Reavers were on the frontlines. That made them the third largest guild in size amongst the Assault Team, and in contention for first in sheer strength.

They didn't care much for the rankings. At the moment, Drifter, Yuna, Nautilus, Asuna, Kizmel, and everyone else were far too entertained by their guild leader. Becoming such a huge power amongst the Assault Team meant they had the qualifications to take charge of boss raids just like the DKB and ALS, and it pushed Kirito directly into the spotlight, something the shy boy was deathly afraid of.

Even so, he was doing a good job, Drifter thought. Other than the visible nervousness and the stuttering at the start, Kirito was delivering his planned speech well enough. And the more he talked, the more his confidence grew, and the steadier his voice became.

"That's about it. Remember what we discussed during the strategy meeting and we'll be alright. Help each other when needed, don't be heroes. Reaver's Requiem is taking center, with the Dragon Knights Brigade and Aincrad Liberation Squad as support. Let's go!"

Kibaou and Lind's scowling expressions showed their dislike at being called 'support'. They couldn't complain, however, having already agreed to the plan beforehand. More so, the two kept pushing off the responsibility to the other after the disaster on the 10th floor, so they had no right to complain when Drifter cut in with a proposition for Reaver's Requiem to take the lead - which Kirito begrudgingly agreed to.

"What do you think?"

With only a brief pause in his steps to allow the others to catch up to him, Kirito walked towards the doors to the boss room and put a closed fist against one of them. Drifter mimicked him, and, with a nod, they pushed the doors open, even as Kirito questioned the spearman.

"Couldn't have done better myself, Kirito."

"Liar. I still think you should have been guild leader."

"Nah, too much work. It doesn't really matter who is the leader normally. And when the going gets rough, it's you everyone listens to."

They bantered as they walked slowly into the boss room. The Storm Griffin King was still perched on top of the rock wall, staring down at them like they were defenseless rabbits. The Assault Team was going to show it that this prey had teeth, and they were sharp.

"Talk later, fight now. Here it comes."

Yuna nudged them, and pointed at the boss, who was again going through the routine of getting up and stretching. Drifter held his spear close to his body and waited for it to attack.

"Wait! Wait... Wait... It's a grab! Dodge and counter!"

The value of the scouting was proved immediately, as they saw the Storm Griffin King diving towards them with its claws open and stretched forward. They knew that, if the attack hit, the boss would grab a player and smash them into the ground, dealing a massive amount of damage. Thankfully, spotting the telltale positioning of the claws allowed them to not only know they had to dodge, but also prepare a counterattack.

Drifter neatly sidestepped the griffin, and many spectators couldn't help but wonder how he could be so calm in front of a two-ton heavy creature trying to kill him. Drifter didn't even think about that. He simply spun and stabbed.

His speartip searched for the weak point they had identified during the scouting session, a small spot underneath each wing where the feathers of the Storm Griffin King were arrayed backward.

It was barely five centimeters wide, a mere dot compared to the wingspan of over four meters of the boss. Drifter felt he was going to miss, and jerked his spear to the left, creating a waving motion. He hit the weakness head-on.

"Arrckkkriik!"

"I think you pissed it off, Drifter!"

"You don't say!"

Ignoring Vallerk's Taunt, as bosses were wont to do, the Storm Griffin King turned and shrieked at Drifter. The spearman answered by jabbing his spear in its open beak.

The boss didn't like that. Rearing on its back legs, the griffin clawed at Drifter. He dodged the first set of sharp claws, but was forced to block the second. Deep scratch marks were left on the shaft of his spear, and Drifter was treated to the second most important discovery of the scouting party: the Storm Griffin King's claws destroyed a weapon's durability.

"Well, this is gonna be hellish."