1st Floor Boss

It's been the first month of the game already, there's also been 1800 people who've died, 300 of them being beta testers. The beta testers did what what me an Kirito did, they hurried out too far and got surprised by things that had changed from the beta to the real release.

Kirito noticed these differences as well in some of the stuff we encountered, but he had help, most of the others thought they could take everything on their own and get ahead. That doesn't matter now though, now we are both at a meeting to get a group to take on the 1st floor boss. Diabel is currently giving his speech.

After all the drama with Kibaou, and then Agil defending the beta testers we made our way to where they've found the first boss. We partied up with Asuna just like Kirito did in the show.

"So we're going to be a party, might as well learn a little about each other." I suggest to Asuna and Kirito.

"Well you know who I am, the only new face is her." Kirito

"So cold Kirito. Don't you know you should introduce yourself first? Especially to a girl who's currently in a raid group with nothing but other guys." Me

"Hello miss, this is my friend Kirito, and my name is Hachiko. It's nice to have you aboard." Me

"Thanks." Asuna

"Okaay. Next time I'll go with your approach Kirito. Strong silent type seems to be the move." Me

"You're just tooo.. eh I don't really know how to say it, but you're just a lot." Kirito

"You wound me! After all this time we've lived in this place together. All those cold nights, with only our bodies for warmth." I said being overly dramatic and sarcastic. This still seemed to make Asuna let out a quiet "eep" and Kirito blushed.

"You idiot you can't say things like that. People will get the wrong idea." Kirito said quietly.

"Oh what does it matter, only little Asuna can hear us. Don't worry Kirito your masculinity is intact." Me

Asuna stopped and turned toward me with her rapier drawn, I quickly held up my hand in defense.

"Problem sword mistress?" Me

"How?.. How do you know my name?" Asuna

"Hmm you must be new. Look at the top left of your screen, since you joined our party all our names appear up there. I just introduced myself to be nice, Kirito here I imagine might have had nefarious reasons however." I say cheekily

"Why you! I'd kill you if it wouldn't take so long with that damnable sword style you use." Kirito fumed

"Ahh I see i was correct, young love sure is beautiful." Me with a wide shit eating grin.

"Gah! You're impossible Hachi, I can't believe I haven't gone insane yet." Kirito said while ruffling his hair.

"Don't worry about him miss, he's usually not this crazy. Women just have that effect on him, you should see how he acts around Argo the Rat." Me

Kirito has given up at this point, and hanging his head down as he continues walking. Leaning closer to Asuna I whisper.

"Though between you and me, I think it's Argo that has the crush on Kirito. You didn't hear that from me, that little rat is annoying enough as it is." I whispered to her and she seemed to nod her head at my words.

"Why does he not like your sword style?" Asuna asks in her becoming familiar low voice.

"Haha, Kirito is what we would call a brute when it comes to swordsmanship. No elegance or dance to it, just hack slash and sword skills. Though he does do it better than most." I say while looking over at him. Back to Asuna I whisper.

"He just doesn't like my sword style because so far he hasn't been able to get a hit on me in our duels." Me

"You can hardly call them duels with the way you flip around everywhere!" Kirito grumbles out frustratedly.

"Don't mind him, he's lost plenty of bets through our duels that he no longer bets with me anymore." Me

"Duel? Why would you duel each other, what if you accidentally killed each other?" Asuna

"Worried about us already are you?" Asuna huffs and begins to speak again before I cut her off. "Duels can be done in multiple ways, me and Kirito usually do first strike, though we have done to half health sometimes. There is a 3rd option, but lets just say that wouldn't be wise in this game." Me

"Why is that?" She asks innocently.

"Because the last one is to the death. Their was actually a couple friends who thought duel deaths didn't count, so they had a duel to see who was stronger. It didn't go the way they thought sadly." I trail off.

"I heard about that, that's why I asked you earlier." Asuna

"No need to worry, I promised a friend of mine and Kirito that I would look out for him." Me

"Hey! We look after each other." Kirito grumbled once again.

"Yes yes, Kirito." Me

"Why does he not like your sword style?" Asuna

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Me

"He said earlier that use a damnable sword style, or something like that." Asuna

"Ahhh that. Yes like I said earlier Kirito is rather brutish and unrefined in his swordsmanship. Preferring to hack and slash until its dead." Me

"Is their something wrong with it? He killed them didn't he?" Asuna tilts her head to side eye me.

"No there is not anything wrong with it, and like I said earlier he does it the best everyone I've seen. That doesn't make it any less dangerous." Me

"Then why doesn't he like your sword style?" Asuna

"Persistent are we? Haha, my sword style is a little... unorthodox. Meaning i doubt anyone else could fight the way I do." Me

"And how is to exactly do you fight?" Asuna is started sound a little annoyed at this point.

"Lets just say that Kirito was not exaggerating about the flips. Plus we are about to go into battle, I'm sure you'll see since we are partied up together." Me

"He just wants to surprise you when we get in the battle. Just try not to get distracted, and help him finish his kills. Don't worry about hitting him, he has some kind of freak ability to dodge everything in the strangest ways. I've only seen him take damages because of how parrying chips your hp a little." Kirito says while eyeing me.

"What he didn't say is that those times I had to parry, was to save him from getting hit." I say with another cheeky grin.

"Oh c'mon I told you I had that one!" Kirito

"Yes, indeed you would have. And then you'd have had a potion in your hand next." Me

"Anyways, I'll pull most of the monsters agro in here getting in the cuts where I can. You hit them with your sword skill when you have an opening. Like he said earlier don't worry about hitting me. You two keep track of each other and I'll set you both up for the kills. Got it? Good." I say seriously, and gained nods of agreement from Asuna and Kirito.

Now it's time for the boss fight, and we have to take down the minions. Me, Asuna and Kirito headed to the left side of the room and 2 kobold sentinels came toward us.

"Here we go get ready!" I yelled back to them.

With grunts of approval I pulled out my sword and started to dance. The same feeling I got from free running and parkour, I got here. The slight tingle of anxiety, but also a form of joy bubbled up in my chest. This was fun. As crazy as it sounds everything about this was fun.

I could run as long as my stamina allowed, my legs didn't get jump fatigue as quick as real life, and because of acrobatics I would have to jump non stop for 10 minutes before I wouldn't be able to do another.

The first kobold closed in and I sidestepped its vertical swing, and when it tried to swing to the side and up to try to hit me, I slid under its guard on my knees. I'm not sure how much the game was programmed to expect, but so far this always threw off my opponents.

With free range of its lower body, I let loose a flurry of quick but shallow slashes to its legs, stomach and wrists. This caused the kobold to stumble, and the other one took a swing at me as well. I leaped up out of my knee slide and over the second kobold's head, slashing it 8 times across the face and then down its back as I came back to the floor.

Asuna had managed some hits on the first kobold but it was starting to get back up meaning I needed to get back over there, while Kirito took advantage of the 2nd one. A quick sprint and another slide I hit the same marks as I first afflicted to the kobold, then making new ones as I popped up across its chest and upper arms.

I wasn't hitting these spots for no reason, a function of this game is that computer operated enemies can also be disarmed. For lighter weapons it's not as likely to happen, while heavier weapons is more likely. But all weapons can disarm opponents if you know where to hit. Wrists and arms are the best, while they can stumble from anything to their legs and head can stun them for a second if you do a certain amount of damage.

Coincidentally 8 seems to be my magic number. The 1st kobold was now at half health after another series of 8 slashes to the joints. One for each ankle, one for each knee, one for each wrist and lastly one for each elbow. With the accumulation of hits from my last assault the kobold dropped its mace looking thing and dropped to its knees.

I immediately made my way back to the second to trade out with Kirito, while Asuna dealt the finishing blows to the 1st. Kirito had done enough damage to his that I'll probably finish it off.

I dashed forward as Kirito dodged a swing, and started my attack on the kobold back switching the agro to me. It spun to hit me with its mace and I slid between its legs landing my signature 8 slashes to its ankles and knees, 2 for each of those joints this time. Causing the kobold to stumble and drop to a knee, I capitalized by using another 8 slashes across its back and neck before leaping in front of it and with a spin I decapitated it.

Decapitation usually can't be done, it can only be done for a finishing blow and awards you a slight xp boost to you and whoever fought the monster with you. Other weapons had different types of finishing kill animation, but most people were too busy fighting for their lives to worry about the 10% xp boost you get. I however want every last drop.

That's when the boss takes out its second weapon, an odachi, it sends Diavel flying where Kirito tries to heal him, but he wouldn't let him. Kirito stands up and I feel like I'm hearing music playing in the background. Surely just my imagination.

We step beside Kirito and get ready.

"This is a boss, not those kobolds, he'll hit hard so let me take lead and you 2 get your hits in when you can. I'll focus on his weakpoints and try to disarm him, though I'm not sure it will work on a boss. They might have a resistance or skill against disarming. You 2 ready?" Me

"Ready." They both say resolutely.

With that we charged forward. Illfang charged up a sword skill and I slid underneath his horizontal slash. I immediately began my assault on his legs because surely even if it's immune to disarming it can still be brought to its knees.

Right ankle, spin to left ankle, follow the spin through back up to the right knee, and finish at the left knee before popping up repeating the same to his wrists and elbows. This won't slow him down much, or really take much hp, but it will have him keep targeting me and I'll keep accumulating damage with the weak points.

He's starting to reset, so I jump up over his head and he tries to slash at me in the air, faster than I expected. I contorted and twisted my body in the air to be able to roll just over his blade and as soon as I hit the ground I charged forward back insides his guard.

This gave Kirito and Asuna his back wide open, and I started again on his joints. This time it was 16 slashes before he could swing again. 2 to each ankle and knee, which still wasn't enough to make him fall. That was 8 the next 8 was a flurry of alternating slashes mixed with spins. 1 to right wrist spin to left, now to right elbow and then left elbow, the last four were slashes to Illfang's face and neck before he finally started to swing his fist at me in rage.

I leaped up and used his arm as a platform to jump up higher, he once again slashed at me in the air, this time up diagonally. I started my spin and slashed my sword at his garnering me some separation, I continued my spin as I fell scoring slashes to his neck, shoulder, elbows, and wrists before landing in a crouch. I immediately slid back through his legs focusing solely on his knees for my eight slashes, finally staggering him to his knees.

That's when I get out of the way as Asuna and Kirito attack with Kirito landing the finishing blow.

"Phew." I huff out as my heart rate starts to come down, and my exhilaration comes down. That's when everything starts to go to shit.

"He's a beta tester! He knew Illfang had a different sword than the guide book!" Random guy

"And that guy, he dodged the boss like he'd done it a million times." Random guy 2 points at me.

That's when Kirito stands up and begins to laugh.

"Haha! So you guys think I used to be a beta tester? It's not cool to put me in the same class as those noobs." Kirito

"Guhh! What'd you say?!" Kibaou growled out.

"You heard me. Most of the thousand people who scored a slot in SAO's beta were rookies. They were so green they didn't even know how to level up. Hell, even you guys are better than they were. But me? I'm nothing like those guys man, during the beta I made it to floors higher than any of the other testers, that's a fact. I knew about the boss because I fought tons of monsters with way more sword skills on higher floors. I know a bunch of other things too, more than you can imagine, more than any info broker." He says ominously while walking into the middle of the group.

"Wha- what the hell?! Well if that's true, then you're worst than a beta tester. You're a goddamn cheater, that's why you are!" Kibaou spits out. Everyone rallies behind him in agreement.

"A beater? Ya that's good, I like it. You can call me a beater, just make sure you don't confuse me with those beta tester anymore." Kirito ends while equipping the Coat of Midnight, and then walking toward the exit. I fall in behind him and lean over to whisper.

"That was a little edgy don't you think?" When I say this Kirito slightly stumbles.

"Come on man. I was tr-" Kirito began but I cut him off with a pat on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, I know." Me

With that we make our way up the stairs up to the next floor, to do it all again.

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Chapter end

Pretty much copied the last section after the boss because I really didn't know what would change anyways. I hope you all enjoyed anyways.

I also hope I'm doing the interactions justice between Kirito, Asuna and Hachiko.

As well as the fight scene. I really wanted to capture how cool I find Hachiko's fighting style. He may sound OP but if you think about the main reason people in SAO got hit is because they use sword skills which have cool down times. While MC doesn't use any sword skills at all. Also Illfang was already really low on health, other wise his debilitating attacks would have taken way longer.

I hope everyone can get behind his attacks in eights meaning he'll go up to 16, 32, 64 and so on like the Hyuga fighting style. I'll try to write the fighting more clearly next time and easier to imagine, because while I can picture what he's doing it's harder for me to write it.

I've also decided to not follow Progressive and just follow the anime. I really don't want the fic to fall into a "level up, get good weapon, slay dungeon boss" pattern hope you understand

-Hachiko (Mr. Eight)