Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Second-floor Boss Raid III.

-Last Minute-

Kicking the air using Sonic Leap. Sharia got as close as under its chin, then using Martial Art Extra Skill—

Shaira had used Crescent Upper.

Crescent Upper. A skill that applied force to the leg, making it an extension, like when one uses Sword Skill.

The upper from the Crescent Upper can be guessed. An uppercut in for a kick.

Wham!

The kick was so strong it sent the head of Asterios backwards.

"I'm not done yet!"

Along with that momentum. Sharia held both swords in a stance.

His longsword was positioned upwards, while the Diabel's anneal blade was positioned horizontally beside that.

The stance was a "+" sign shape.

"There's more from where that came."

Adding Skill Connect to the mix, Sharia's longsword first glowed green; he had initiated Sonic Leap Skill again.

The sword skill pushed him closer to the head of the unbalanced Asterios; as it did, the light of the skill faded.

Just as he did, the second blade glowed to life.

"Skill Connect: End Action."

End Action.

Using his knowledge of Kirito's Skill Connect, he had taken the skill to an extra level.

It became so precise that as soon as a skill on one sword had finished execution, Sharia could force the second skill to activate even as the skill was about to end.

That way, Sharia can alternate between different one-handed sword skills with a delay of only one second.

And. As long as Sharia isn't interrupted, he can continue a long chain of attacks that wouldn't stop until he himself ends it.

"Raghhhhh!"

Asterios howled as it was being hit simultaneously with a lot of sword skills while it was unbalanced.

Seeing as it couldn't balance itself in time. It swung its tail towards Sharia, but once again, the boy had blocked the tail in time with the flat side of the swords.

"Kirito, Asuna. Before you two head off to your world, a little help here is needed."

"Hey!"

Their voice briefly came from the other end, but Sharia, who was blocking Asterios's blade with the flat side of his sword, suddenly turned the face of the flat side to the edge.

And with a forceful push, Sharia had chopped off its tail.

"Uwoogh!"

"Did that hurt? Because we aren't done! Kirito! Asuna!"

"Roger."

Sharia, who was now dropping down to the floor, called for the duo who had begun their run up to the fallen Asterios.

For some reason, he seemed to have heard the players jeering: "Oooooh, that's what we have been waiting for!!!!"

Once more, Sharia used Sonic Leap to descend down, and once he had done so, both Kirito and Asuna simultaneously leaped up using Sonic Leap.

—Positioning.

Kirito and Asuna were positioned behind Asterios, who was at the other half of the boss room.

Sharia is facing Asterios's body directly, and behind him, a few meters from him, are the players.

[ASTERIOS THE TAURUS KING.]

○ [56%] [Third HP Bar]

—Sequence.

As Kirito and Asuna had leaped up, leveraging the falling figure of Asterios.

Sharia, who had landed, grinned as he picked himself up, dashing towards the body.

"Rrrrrwoggggghhhhhhh!"

Asterios let out a roar, as it seemed to be adjusting itself to break its fall; however—

"Nezha!"

Sharia looked back at the player now wielding a chakram. Hoisting the weapon in the air, the player had thrown it with all his strength towards the leg of the Taurus King.

Asterios, who was beginning to break its fall, suddenly staggered as it crashed on the ground with a heavy WHAM!

[ASTERIOS THE TAURUS KING.]

○ [95%] [Fourth HP Bar]

—It took heavy Fall damage. Plus the damage from Nezha's attack.

But then, that didn't save it from the merciless players who had not begun dealing a shit tonne of damage to it.

Kirito and Asuna had started with its head, unleashing every sword skill or move they could pull out while Sharia had begun from its legs.

The trio, like that, both went in opposite directions, passing each other with a grin on each of their faces, before Sharia jumped up once more.

[ASTERIOS THE TAURUS KING.]

○ [87%] [Fifth HP Bar]

"Let's see if your two HP bars can withstand this attack!"

Sharia poised his two weapons in a throwing motion. The two blades glowed with crimson light.

SHINE!

«Sword Skill: Crimson Meteor Fall»

A new sword skill that was just birthed and exclusive to Sharia. In other words, an ultimate type of move.

He had used this before, when he had finished Baran; however, this was the second time he was going to use this.

But unlike before, he was using dual blades.

The system had recognised this motion as it was being used for a second time and used its data to create an appropriate sword skill.

This was the last move Sharia could probably execute before being drained of stamina.

Hence. He kept his all in this move.

Like Asterios. The skill execution seemed to shine bright at this moment and then.

A resounding, deafening BANG.

That was what everyone heard. And with that, all the damages that had been stacked up upon Asterios were multiplied like that.

And…

[CONGRATULATIONS!]

Asterios had even gotten the chance to enter its last phase.

In other words, Sharia one-shotted its remaining two HP bars.

"He—he did it!"

"We did it!"

Cheers like that erupted amongst the players who happily celebrated.

It hadn't been long since they had cleared the first floor without any casualties. This was the second time.

They had two successful win streaks with Sharia around, without losing a single player.

Sharia, in question, was lying on the ground. He was done. Heck, he didn't even have the stamina to stand.

All he could do was let out a laugh.

As expected, minus the possibility of death, this was truly fun.

Maybe this was what Kayaba was trying to achieve. And yet, it was in such a twisted way.

If SAO was normal, then it's highly likely most—heck, even he himself—wouldn't put the dedication he has into the game.

"....."

But there was no need to think about it.

Additionally, every player had seemed to learn something from this battle.

One: Sharia is the strongest (Diabel's note).

Two: Fulfill every quest around the last town and the labyrinth, because they might impart info on the boss.

And lastly, they would have to assume that every boss from this point on had been changed in some way from the beta test.

Not only did gathering info through quests become important, but so would scouting out the boss first.

The latter would not be easy, however. Most boss monsters didn't appear until you reached the back of the chamber and destroyed some key object, so there was no guarantee that a reconnaissance party would escape safely.

From this point on, Argo's information would become even more necessary for scouting and reconnaissance.

Anyways, the rest had already approached him, helping Sharia get up, but the teenager was darn too lazy to get his ass up.

Somewhere at the back, players were shaking each other's hands. They wouldn't have known what to do if they didn't have Sharia, Kirito, or Asuna.

It would have likely been devastating for them, but they didn't want to think about it.

But then—

"You… You were the blacksmith a little while ago, right?"

Everybody heard the voice of a player who stood in front of Nezha.

"That's right."

Nezha answered without backing down.

Ahh, there's still that to fix, Sharia thought.

Lind, Kibaou, and the rest—or most of those who weren't aware of the scams—had been watching.

"Why did you switch to fighting, and with that rare weapon, no less?"

Slowly, some other players began to gather, to which Kirito, Asuna, and Sharia could have sworn they'd seen them before.

'Ahh. Aren't they the people he scammed?' The three thought so in unison with widened eyes.

"I bet you have no idea how much trouble we've been through since the swords we paid you to upgrade broke to pieces."

Sharia looked towards Diabel as the air seemed to turn hostile, but Diabel motioned for him not to interfere yet.

"Your suspicions are correct," Nezha said as he got into a dogeza, bowing his head extremely low.

"Indeed. I switched out all of your weapons for spent replicas and stole them for myself."

Naturally, one of the players that had been scammed scowled, glaring at Nezha, who still had his head low.

"And then… you sold them for Cor?"

"Yes. All of them."

Regardless, as if the player had known it was coming, he grunted as he continued.

"Can you pay me back the value?"

The player asked once more, to which this time, Nezha had no immediate answer.

Only ten days had passed since Nezha and the Legend Braves had started their fraud.

The market prices for those items couldn't have changed that much, so if they sold off the assets they'd bought with the money they received, it would turn back into roughly the same amount.

However—

"No... I cannot repay you now. I used all of the money on all-you-can-eat meals at expensive restaurants and high-priced inns."

It's a different case if the person behind the fraud doesn't have any means of repaying them back the market price of the equipment he had sold.

But then, Nezha wasn't trying to weasel his way out of anything.

He was going to take responsibility for all of the crimes and force the other players to focus their anger and hatred solely on him.

He was covering for his companions—the ones who treated him like a nuisance and egged him into committing those acts.

The large member of Lind's team finally snapped, as they were the ones who got hit the hardest.

"You...why, you filthy—!!"

One raised a clenched fist and stomped their right foot on the ground multiple times.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to see your favorite, beloved sword smashed to pieces?! And you sold it off… to have yourself a feast?!"

And to top it all off, one of Kibaou's companions on the left shrieked:

"When I lost my sword, I thought I'd never fight on the front line again!"

"But my friends donated some funds to me and helped me gather materials... You didn't just betray us; you stabbed everyone fighting to complete this game in the back!"

And like a lit fuse, those shouts caused all the other players who'd been silently watching this scene to explode.

"Traitor!"

"Do you have any idea what you've done?!"

"You caused our pace to slow down!"

"Apologizing isn't going to fix anything!"

Dozens of voices overlapped into one mass of angry noise. Nezha's lonely back shrank, as though succumbing to the pressure of all that rage.

Then, just as that was happening…

The five friends in the same party as Nezha came forward, stopping the already raging masses.

Like Nezha, they too got on their knees, bowing to the masses.

"There is no need to soil your hands. He's innocent. The ones who pushed him to do all that are us." 

The entire mass seemed to go silent, as though unsure how they'd react at first. But then, as if intentional— 

"I...I know the truth! There are plenty more players he stole weapons from! One of them had to use a cheap store-bought weapon and ended up getting killed by mobs he'd handled just fine before!!" 

Somebody had said that aloud, pointing towards the Legend Braves.

Just like that, the already silent mass slowly let the words sink in. 

If someone had died because of that, then that would mean… "...An indirect… PK?" 

This was the first time such a word had flown since the beginning of SAO. 

It was one of the most well-known terms among all the many MMOs out there. 

It wasn't short for "penalty kick," "psychokinesis," or anything like that. 

It stood for "player kill" or "player killer"—the act of killing another player, rather than a monster. 

And more in SAO, those words couldn't be graver than anything. 

"Hey, hey… Better don't go down that path. That is even worse than PK-ing itself." 

They assumed Nezha had done that knowingly while the blacksmith—true or not— 

Did not change the fact. He couldn't refuse it. Nor could the rest of the Legend Braves. 

"Pay with your lives… you frauds." 

"That's right!" 

"Go and apologize to those who died." 

"The filthy scam artists must die." 

"Yes. We must kill them all." 

Nezha's tiny back could only absorb all of the accusations hurled at it. 

He clenched his fists atop the stones and spoke, his voice trembling.

"I will accept...whatever judgment you decide upon."

Another silence. 

It felt like every person present understood the meaning behind the word "judgment." 

The air in the coliseum grew even colder and pricklier than before. 

That invisible energy reached a critical point, everyone waiting for the one person who would break the tension.

And just as they wished—

"Agh… You all should stop it this instant. For adults, you all act like upstart brats." 

The person who had spoken up was none other than the person acknowledged by everyone as the strongest— 

Sharia.

"Even if it's you. Don't tell me you plan on us just forgiving them like nothing ever happened." 

One of the players had said so, prompting every player to turn their heads at Sharia.

It seemed regardless, even if Sharia had told them to stop, they would still harbor some kind of ill will towards the Legend Braves.

"No. I never asked you all to forget it. In that case, will killing them make you all feel better?" 

Sharia had asked with a frown of his own, looking at each of them, plunging them into silence once more. 

"If your gears are still on the market, then I don't mind sponsoring you for it. I don't do much with my Cors anyways." 

Although Sharia said that, some viewed it as favoritism towards the Legend Brave. 

But what could they do? 

Sharia himself understands this better than everyone else. So, the only appropriate thing to do here would be—

"Why are you trying to defend them? Do you think just because you defeated the…" 

Without even finishing, Diabel, Lind, and a few others turned their glares toward the hooded figure. 

"Of course not. I plan something far worse for them." 

At his words, everybody turned their heads to Sharia confused, but then they saw the teenager snap his fingers.

SNAP!

"Diabel, do it." 

At his orders. Diabel, Lind, and a few others from Sharia's Order approached the Braves and stripped them of their equipment. 

"Not only will I strip them of their equipment, but I'll take it further and make sure to grind their bones." 

Then Sharia pointed towards the ground, with a feigned condescending attitude, he looked towards the Six of the Legend Braves.

"The Legend Braves are to start from scratch—earning money, leveling up, and buying their equipment. More than that, they're to report and become a sub-party under Diabel's command." 

"Additionally, boss raids will be mandatory for the Legend Braves until Floor Thirty."

"This is my punishment for the Legend Braves." 

Certainly, this was a more fitting judgment than death. 

Death is nothing more than an escape, and even then, it'll do more harm than good.

There was no reason to kill off promising people.

Naturally, at the very least, that's what he thought was appropriate. 

He hadn't been expecting it; however, after looking at each other in silence, everybody nodded in unison and accepted the judgment. 

"Sharia-sama is wise." 

Diabel had said that first, and as he did, accompanying him were the people who idolized him, repeating the same thing. 

Author's Note:

Dang. Can't believe I had written that much, but anyways, I plan on skipping most of floor three, the main quest in floor three. I'll leave it to cannon, being Kirito and Asuna clearing the quest.

As much as it pains me. Most of the shots they're supposed to have done was done by my MC, so, I'll take a step back and give it to them, while my MC will be going on a side quest.

Anyways. The next floor is where people can start creating guilds. Do you have any idea of a name for a guild?

Naturally, Diabel and the rest will coerce Sharia into becoming the Guild Master. And the third floor is where Heathcliff show up, so expect some confrontation between the two. Sharia will be instigating him the most tho.

Oops, I've spoilt it, huh? Anyways. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Brionac out.