Chapter 105 - Broken Spear

AUTHOR'S NOTE

And we are back! I'm still on vacation, so updates will be sporadic, but I already have another chapter ready and lined to go. See ya!

//////////////////

START OF THE CHAPTER

It took the scouting party 75 minutes to drag the Storm Griffin King down to 80% health. The Assault Team only needed a fifth of that time to accomplish the same.

Reaver's Requiem was in the thick of it, but that didn't mean the other frontliners were just standing back and watching. One of the main characteristics of bosses was that many of their attacks were random, and didn't follow the aggro system.

Case in point, as soon as its HP dipped below 80%, the boss cleared its aggro, and flew straight towards Fuurinkazan. Klein and most of the others jumped away in time to avoid the deadly spinning move, but Issin and Harry One were just a tad too slow, and got cut.

The damage was mind-blowing, but what was even more terrifying was the way the Storm Griffin King focused on Harry One, carving three red gashes along his chest while the player was still recovering from the first blow.

Drifter had a horrible flashback to the previous boss raid, when he watched one of the players being ganged upon by multiple shadows and dying before anyone could help.

It didn't happen this time. Everyone was on edge from the last floor boss raid, and as soon as they noticed Harry One was in danger, players swarmed forward to help him. Klein, being the closest, was the first to get there, hacking at the boss with his katana.

Someone else Shield Bashed the griffin, and several weapons cut it from the sides and back. The Storm Griffin King shrieked and lowered its center of gravity, flexing its wings.

"Back! It's gonna spin again!"

Whenever it was surrounded, the Storm Griffin King resorted to a spin attack, as the players already knew. They quickly backpedaled, narrowly avoiding the sharp feathers, and the Reavers ran to regain control of the boss again.

Jumping up, Kirito used an airborne Slant to restrict the boss' movement before it could take flight again. Empowered by Yuna's Firemare, Ran and Yuuki's Sonic Leaps caused the griffin to stumble. It was Merida's Execution that did the trick, knocking down the boss fully.

Drifter looked at the downed boss and grinned. He whipped out his spear in a Horizontal Arc, followed by two normal attacks, all targeting the eyes of the Storm Griffin King. He failed to blind it, unfortunately, but the critical hits were good damage. Drifter managed to sneak in a last Double Tap just as the creature was getting up.

What followed in the next thirty minutes was a tense and violent battle. The Storm Griffin King was brutal, its wild attacks leaving any player it targeted in fear for their life. Especially when it managed to grab someone or strike them with lightning, leaving them on the brink of death.

Still, Drifter couldn't help but feel that the battle was a little easier than the raid against Kagachi had been. This lent credence to his theory that the round number floors were checkpoints, and hence harder. Maybe, even if they knew everything there was to know about the 10th floor boss beforehand, it still would have been impossible to avoid casualties.

"Half health! Watch out for pattern changes! Vallerk, grab the aggro! Nautilus, Shivata, and Liten, secondaries!"

By that, Drifter meant that the three players should be ready to intervene if Vallerk failed to hold the attention of the boss.

"Here it comes! Brace! Counterforce!"

The boss had been aiming for some random player, but Vallerk dashed and interposed himself between them. With a loud bang, the sharp beak struck Vallerk's shield, strands of pure lightning flying off from the impact. However, contrary to everybody's expectations, the one who stumbled back was the boss, not Vallerk. Counterforce returned the power of the attack two-fold.

The Storm Griffin King cried in pain and got up to attack Vallerk again. Drifter, Asuna, Kizmel, and the other Reavers moved to support their friend. Yuna was buffing all of them with her sings, while Sinon kept losing arrows into the boss from afar. Kibaou and Lind led their guilds to target the boss' flanks, rotating with Fuurinkazan, the Legend Braves, and other guilds.

Overall, the Assault Team was chipping away at the Storm Griffin King's HP at a respectable pace. And with how cautious they were being, there had yet to be any player who was really in dan...

'No!'

Suddenly, Drifter jerked back and crushed that line of thought. It was being complacent and arrogant that led to so many deaths on the 10th floor.

"Drifter? What's wrong?"

Yuna stopped playing for a moment, and stared at him worriedly. Drifter shook his head.

"Nothing, Yun'. Just centering myself."

His girlfriend still looked concerned, but this was neither the place nor the time to show their affection.

Throughout the rest of the battle, Drifter constantly reminded himself not to get sloppy. Each frontliner was extremely valuable - and he knew it was cold to think that way, but that was the reality.

Unfortunately, no matter how careful Drifter was, there were things no one could be prepared for. The berserker phase of the boss after its HP fell below 10% wasn't one such thing. What it did, however, was another matter entirely.

No one saw it coming. When the boss flew down again, with its claws stretched forward, everyone thought it was going to try to grab a player and slam them into the ground, like it was doing before.

The Storm Griffin King targeted a party of DKB players, who made to retreat. But the boss was faster than before after being enraged, and it gripped a spear-user tightly, sinking its talons into their armor. Then, instead of smacking them down like everyone was expecting, the boss flew up again. The desperate player was still in its claws.

"Sinon, shot it down!"

"I'm trying, but it doesn't care!"

Indeed, there were several arrows sticking out of the boss' wings, but it was still flying. Drifter made to use Serpentcoil Impale when the Storm Griffin King suddenly changed its trajectory, flying straight towards the ground. Just when it looked like it was going to crash, the boss spread its wings, and let go of the player.

The impact of the player hitting the ground at nearly terminal velocity raised a dust cloud. When it cleared, there was nothing left in the crater but a few flickering polygons.

"No... Not again..."

Several players simply stopped and stared. It felt like a nightmare starting all over again. Even Kirito and Drifter faltered for a few moments. Agil didn't.

"Stop standing around and fight! Kill that bastard before it gets anyone else!"

The angry roar of the man shook everyone awake from their listless stupor. Suddenly, the Storm Griffin King found itself the target of a hundred-plus murderous glares.

Drifter himself tangled with the boss when it next flew down, ready to grab another victim. He waited until the very last moment to use Edge Vaulting to jump over the sweeping claw, and stabbed the griffin through the neck.

The durability of his Caldea Fana dropped to dangerously low levels when the boss snapped its beak at it. Drifter didn't even notice. He was focused trying not to get bitten in half.

He leaned back, dodging another attack and swiping up with his spear, catching the underside of the boss' neck. Silica slipped underneath his arm to stab the griffin nearly on the same spot, and Liz came from his other side with a Crushing Impact to the side of its head.

"Shriiikk!"

Badly wounded, the Storm Griffin King spun, smacking all three Reavers and half a dozen other players away. Then it reared on its back legs and snatched Liten, the only one still standing, thanks to her abnormally high defense and heavy equipment.

"No!"

Laboriously, the boss beat its wings and went up with Liten. Drifter saw it all happen in a daze, still trying to make up from down and right from left. He had been knocked down pretty hard. He also heard the pure desperation in Shivata's voice as his lover was carried away. It might not mean death to Liten thanks to her stats, but there was no way of knowing until it happened. And frontliners were pessimistic to the last.

Shaking his head, Drifter jumped up. The world spun, but he bit the inside of his mouth and focused. His hand naturally slid down the shaft of his Caldea Fana, and he narrowed his eyes. He had to aim where the boss would be, not where it was now.

"Hah!"

With a shout, he let a Serpentcoil Impale fly. It looked like it was going to go over the boss' head, but the Storm Griffin King flew right into the skills path at the very last moment. The spear pierced a hole right through its chest and shattered, the last of its durability spent. The shards of the weapon were mixed with those of the boss.

"Catch her!"

For once, nobody was looking at the floor boss when it died. Led by Shivata, two dozen players rushed to get beneath Liten and break her fall. The sight of all of them falling like dominos when the heavily armored ALS tank crashed on them was almost comical. Drifter barked a short laugh that was half relief and half stress when he saw Liten had survived.

Then he looked at the empty spot on his character page where his weapon should have been. A sense of loss flooded him. His Caldea Fana had been a trusty companion for almost nine entire floors. He knew he had to change it soon, but it still felt bad to see it suddenly vanish in this way, even if it was for a good reason.

"That was amazing, Drif. I was sure Liten was a goner when the boss grabbed her."

Drifter felt a pair of arms wrapping around him, and turned around to reciprocate Yuna's hug. The songstress pecked him on the lips, the only thing preventing her from giving him a thorough kiss being that a lot of people were around or watching the broadcast.

"I'm glad it worked. Liz, it seems like I'm gonna have to ask you to hurry up on that new spear you promised me. My Caldea Fana broke. Sorry, Kizmel."

Drifter didn't dwell on useless thoughts of how he could have saved the DKB player if he had used Serpentcoil Impale earlier. He had done his best. It wasn't enough, it probably never would be, not in SAO, but he had been in no position to help earlier.

Instead, Drifter dragged Nautilus and those nearby in a group hug while apologizing to Kizmel. The dark elf simply shook her head.

"I couldn't think of a better end to a weapon than slaying a mighty enemy and saving a friend's life."

Drifter smiled. Then he saw Liten coming over, and pulled her into a hug before she could start to thank him.

The 11th floor of Aincrad... Cleared.

-----------------------

The outside world was in an uproar after the successful conclusion of the 11th floor boss raid. Another life had been lost, but since it came right after the disaster on the 10th floor, it was considered a mostly positive outcome.

Drifter's last blow was replayed countless times around the world. It couldn't be helped. Watching Sword Art Online was like having an action movie come to life. Even if it was inside a video game, knowing that the fighters weren't just actors, but actual people risking life and limb, impacted many deeply.

Yuuki Shouzou was one such person. As calm and even cold as he was, his heart leaped to his throat every time he saw his daughter fighting - which, now that he left her feed open 24/7 in his office, was every day, all day.

At the moment, Shouzou was studying an interesting joint proposition by the public relations and marketing teams of RECT Inc. Considering they were now the owners of Sword Art Online, an idea had come to life to create official merchandise of the frontliners. Shirts, mugs, figurines, posters, pins, and hundreds of other items.

His first reaction was to deny it immediately and fire however was involved in creating this proposition. His daughter would be one of the main characters after all. He already wanted to send his legal team after everyone selling illegal merch containing Asuna's image

But once Shouzou stopped and thought better, he realized it wasn't such a bad idea. In fact, it only had positive points. The money they would earn aside - he already had truckloads of it - creating official SAO merchandise would allow him to control what was put out there. Not only that, the profits could be used to fund the maintenance of the SAO servers, which were a huge drain on RECT Inc.'s funds.

Of course, they would need permission from the families and guardians of all the players who would be portrayed, and also to send them a portion of the profits. But Shouzou didn't think many would refuse, especially after he added a clause saying that 50% of the earnings left after liquidating the costs would be set aside and become a fund for the families of the deceased SAO players. Another 30% would be split and sent monthly to the loved ones of the living but still trapped victims.

Shouzou knew the board would fight him on that, but he wouldn't budge an inch. He personally knew the pain and loss the families of SAO players were feeling. The board could accept, or they could accept. The only difference was how much resistance they would put up, and how hard he would have to knock them down.

After signing the proposition, Shouzou started thinking about which players to include. Many were obvious. And he would use the same nicknames and titles that were already starting to spread inside Sword Art Online and outside of it. He knew it was only a matter of time before the news picked up on them. Snatching a pen, Shouzou started writing.

Dragon Knight Lind and Kibaou the Challenger were no-brainers, as leaders of the two largest frontliner guilds. So was Argo the Rat, the brain behind the Assault Team.

Liten the Fortress and Shivata, who had yet to be granted a title but was no less notable than any of the others. Hero Orlando and all of the Legend Braves. The katana-user Klein and his guild. Several other players from ALS, DKB, and other frontliner guilds.

And Reaver's Requiem, of course. Shouzou was biased, but all the Reavers deserved it. Even the NPC Kizmel - in fact, she seemed to be one of the most famous members of the guild, for her origin and appearance. Her canine partner, the wolf Locke, was already somewhat notorious, despite his sparse appearances.

Black Swordsman Kirito, one of the greatest SAO warriors. Lightning Flash Asuna, his own daughter. The blacksmith Lisbeth and the twins Yuuki and Ran. Merida, Vallerk, and the much younger Silica. The recent addition to Reaver's Requiem, Warrior Merchant Agil and his friends, Shigio and Wolv. Indeed, even the deceased Namate.

Aero Huntress Sinon, the owner of Sword Art Online's sole ranged weapon. The inseparable duo of Songstress Yuna and Indomitable Knight Nautilus. And last but not least, the one who had just been crowned with his new title: Broken Spear Drifter.