Chapter 57 - Boat-Eating Turtle

<< Caldera Lake >>, 4th floor of Aincrad.

A most unusual battle was taking place. About a dozen ships of different sizes encircled a massive figure which had slowly risen in the middle of the lake. Shell the size of a small house, covered in moss, barnacles, algae, hydroids, and many other 'lodgers'. Four fins easily as big as the ships the players were sailing. And, of course, the two massive heads with beady black eyes full of anger, hunger, and greed.

The << Biceps Archelon >> was the biggest monster any of the players had ever confronted, no doubt. And, add to that the fact they were fighting in unfamiliar terrain - the middle of a freaking lake - this was sure to be a hard battle.

"Attack!"

Surprising no one, the person who yelled was Kibaou. At his command, the ALS players started hacking at the nearest head of the field-boss - those who could reach it anyway.

At the rear left fin, together with Agil's party's boat, the Reaver's Requiem, or just Reavers for short, focused on attacking their designated appendage. Each time the fin struck their ship, sending splinters flying and rocking the entire boat, they would counterattack by landing their strongest skills on it.

It quickly became clear to everyone involved that this wasn't a battle of finesse or tactics, but of time and numbers. The players could only hit the field-boss when it attack them, so they had to deal as much damage as possible in as short of a time span as possible. This was a race of who would cave in first. Would it be << Biceps Archelon >>, or their ships?

Once more glad for the extra range his spear granted him, Drifter prepared to launch another << Comet Break >> as soon as the field-boss attacked again. After all, even if it was just one more hit, it would add up to something in the end.

The spearman could see that Kirito, Asuna, Nautilus, Yuuki, Liz, and Ran were all getting frustrated with their inability to fight properly and get their combos in. Merida, like Drifter, was simply relying on her already incredibly high attack power to heavily wound the fin whenever she had the chance. Yuna was standing at the back of the ship, as out of range from the field-boss as possible, boasting their damage with << Firemare >>. And Sinon... Sinon was having a field day. She was shooting arrow after arrow at << Biceps Archelon >>, already having emptied one quiver barely ten minutes into the battle. Unhindered by the obstacle called distance, the archer was in fact dealing so much damage that Drifter had to warn her to be careful not to steal the aggro from the DKB and ALS. Their boat wasn't nearly large enough to tank the heads of the turtle, after all.

It was five more minutes later, when the HP of << Biceps Archelon >> had fallen to 85%, that the giant turtle started flapping its fins, and smashing them into the already turbulent surface of the lake, causing huge waves to form.

A few of said waves crashed against the Reavers' sailboat, making it sway violently back and forth. Caught by surprise - even though he really shouldn't have - Drifter stumbled and fell, hitting his head on the deck. A good third of his health vanished - much more than a simple fall should have caused, meaning this was considered part of the 'damage' of the field-boss' attack.

Scowling and affected by a 'dizziness' debuff, Drifter scrambled to get up before he was thrown about the ship again. The rest of his guild, as well as Ran's trio, and, in fact, every player surrounding the fins of << Biceps Archelon >> had suffered a similar fate as his. Only the vessels near the field-boss' heads hadn't been affected by the waves, but they had something much worse to deal with. Namely, two mouths big enough to swallow a person whole snapping at them.

Quickly drinking a health potion, Drifter wobbled his way towards the helm, where Yuna was previously standing. Once there, he helped the songstress to her feet.

"You okay, Yun'?"

"Yeah, just a tad rattled. I know Argo said to watch out for the waves, but gods above, we didn't take that warning seriously enough."

"More like we couldn't even if we wanted to. Everyone got a whole minute of 'dizzy' too?"

There were several grunts of confirmation. The players didn't even bother attacking the field-boss for the next sixty seconds, which seemed to last an eternity. Not only there was a 50% chance of missing due to their 'dizziness' status, but they might even end up stunning themselves.

Thankfully, a minute was, in the end, just a minute, no matter how unbearably long it took to pass. Soon enough, Drifter and his guild were back on the offensive.

And so the battle went. It was a weird one. Other than the occasional wave attack << Biceps Archelon >> unleashed every time its HP fell for another 15%, the field-boss barely caused any injury to the players. Their boats, on the other hand, were quickly becoming more and more damaged. Even now, the Reavers' own ship was starting to fall apart, cracks spreading throughout it, chips and splinters flying every time the boat rocked, and, if the way it was tilting to the left was anything to go by, there was a hole in the hull.

Seeing the health of the field-boss drop by another percent, and getting close to the red zone, Drifter struck once again, this time opting for << Tidal Sequence >> - it seemed appropriate for the occasion. Poetic justice and all.

Another party must've hit << Biceps Archelon >> with a heavy combo at the same time, because as his 3-hit skill landed on it, the field-boss screeched in pain. Its HP fell to the 40% mark, but Drifter couldn't celebrate. He watched as the large fin in front of him once more smashed into the water, giving rise to several large waves. He was too close to the edge of the boat.

'Shit!'

The spearman tried to pull back, but it was too late. The first wave hit the ship, and he was afflicted with the debuff he knew was coming. Seemingly tripping on his own legs, Drifter stumbled forward, and right over a destroyed portion of the railing. Without so much as a scream, he fell into the water.

The drop wasn't that high, but it was so abrupt that the spearman only reacted when he had already sunk a few feet. And the damn turtle was still flapping its fins, creating strong currents that made it impossible for him to swim up. Drifter was helplessly dragged around underwater.

On the top left of his vision, he saw a bubble symbol appear in his HUD, and next to it a small countdown of two minutes. That was how long it would take before he started drowning, and Drifter didn't want to know what the icon for that was.

He tried to drink a health potion to stabilize the rapid decline in his health - thanks to all the debris smashing into him - and failed miserably. Watching the potion get ripped out of his hands by the torrent, a string of bubbles left his mouth as Drifter cursed. He also had an idle and unwelcome thought back to a conversation he had with Kirito, where the beta-tester commented that on the 10th floor things called health crystals appeared and replaced the potions. That would have surely come in handy right about now.

It was only an entire minute later that the field-boss stopped waving its fins, and another thirty seconds before Drifter managed to breach the surface of the lake. He had come dangerously close to drowning, and that knowledge scared him more than he would ever admit. While it might not be painful - nothing in SAO was - such a way of dying was much more terrifying than falling in battle.

Gasping for air, more on instinct than need, Drifter swiveled his head around, trying to find his ship. He spotted them more than fifty meters away - the underwater currents had dragged him much farther than he imagined. Worse still, the gigantic fin of << Biceps Archelon >> was currently between him and his guild.

Agil's ship was way closer, however. Without wasting time, Drifter started swimming toward it. His spear had been lost at some moment during his wild ride under the surface, and by now it was probably resting at the bottom of the lake. Thankfully, with it being more than ten meters away from him - and that it certainly was - he could recall it to his inventory.

Strenuously climbing the hull of the ship, Drifter was thankful for its size. It was a boat meant for four players, and as such much smaller than the Reavers' own vessel.

He did give Namate one heck of a surprise when he rolled over the railing and laid on the deck, panting. The merchant party clearly hadn't seen what happened to him, and neither were they expecting another player to suddenly appear on their ship.

"What the... Drifter?! What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Aff... Aff... Went out for a swim, can't you tell? The big fucker threw me to the water, obviously."

In his defense, Drifter wasn't having a good time. Namate could tell that much, and ignored the spearman's rudeness. In fact, a hint of a smile appeared on his face, and he turned to Agil.

"Hey, boss! We got a stowaway!"

"Huh?"

Suppressing a groan, Drifter rolled over and forced himself to stand up. He didn't forget to direct a glare at Namate, who was completely unrepentant. Quickly navigating through his menu while Agil turned to look at him with wide eyes, Drifter re-equipped his spear. Before the merchant could ask anything, he gave a brief summary of what happened.

"The turtle threw me overboard. You were closer, so I swam here. End of the story, and we never talk 'bout it again, got it, Agil?"

The axe-wielding warrior blinked rapidly, then nodded, a grin hanging on his lips despite the situation.

"'Kay. Gotcha."

Ignoring Agil, Drifter turned to look at his ship, and waved. While he couldn't hear them over the cacophony of battle, it was apparent that his guild had been frantically searching for him. A quick headcount showed he had been the only one to be thrown off the boat. He didn't know if he should be grateful or ashamed about that.

With Merida spotting him and quickly spreading the word, Drifter saw everyone on the Reavers' sailboat turn to look at him, before visibly sagging in relief. He thought he heard a few 'are you okay' and 'how are you' yelled over to him, and raised a thumbs-up in response. Then, he turned to << Biceps Archelon >> with murder in his eyes.

Drifter liked to think that it was his renewed efforts in utterly and completely slaughtering the turtle that caused its HP to drop so precipitously in the next few minutes. He was also very careful to always be holding something whenever the wave attack came, so as to not repeat what happened and would never be mentioned again.

Of course, as a field-boss who had already taken a few lives, << Biceps Archelon >> wouldn't go down so easily. When nine-tenths of its HP was gone, entering what was commonly known as the berserk phase, the turtle suddenly retracted its heads and fins, and stopped moving. Drifter had a bad premonition when he looked at what was now basically a floating island. And he wasn't the only one.

"Whatever it is doing, don't let it! Hit it hard, everyone!"

He couldn't quite identify who yelled that, but Drifter agreed with the sentiment. Especially so when the field-boss started slowly rotating counterclockwise. His eyes widening in realization, Drifter started launching skill after skill at the turtle. Next to him, Agil, Namate, Wolv, and Shigio were doing the same, completely forgoing defense.

With << Biceps Archelon >> as the center, a whirlpool was slowly forming, and all the player ships were being dragged towards it, no matter how hard they tried to steer away.

Already, Drifter could see boats colliding, the horrible creaking of the hulls a premonition of what would soon happen. Shuddering, the spearman watched as one player was thrown overboard by a particularly violent collision.

"Ahhh!"

"Help!"

"Attack! Don't stop attacking!"

"Ugh!"

Tuning out the voices, screams, and panic, Drifter focused on striking at the field-boss, again, and again, and again. Whenever the spinning << Biceps Archelon >> was out of his range, he even resorted to throwing his spear at it, hoping to deal just a few more points of damage.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably just two or three minutes, the players finally heard the long-awaited sound of glass shattering. With one last roar, << Biceps Archelon >> was fallen. Drifter stared surprised at the last-attack bonus in his inventory. A turtle-shell shield, obviously.

Looking around, he took in the haggard state of the frontliner fleet. There was not a single ship intact, and most looked just a single larger wave away from sinking. Agil's and the Reavers' included.

As much as they wanted to simply collapse on the spot, the players forced themselves to sail towards the other end of << Caldera Lake >>. There would be time for crashing of exhaustion after they were all safely on dry land.