A/N: Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.
Floor 7 – Boss Room
Falling to my knees in exhaustion, I let out a sigh of relief as the sound of trumpets filled my ears. All around me, my wounded teammates were doing the same thing, their weapons clattering against the wooden floorboards of the Boss Room as they gulped down mouthfuls of air. This fight had been tough. Really fucking tough.
"Jasper the Unfriendly Ghost", the Floor Boss of the Seventh Floor of Aincrad, had put up one hell of a fight, taking out 2 members of the Assault Team before finally biting the dust. His mechanics and attack patterns hadn't been overly complex, but his DPS had been absolutely ludicrous, easily outclassing all the other Floor Bosses by a wide margin. 3 Tanks had been required to successfully negate the damage of a SINGLE attack, meaning that kiting him around the arena had not been a viable strategy. And, seeing as we only had 9 Tanks participating in the Raid... well, continuous Switching had been an absolute necessity.
"Fuuuck meee..." Marco wheezed somewhere to my right. "These Floor Bosses are gonna be the death of me, mark my words..."
"Well, you're not wrong," Argo smiled in response, audibly stretching out her back. "You are very likely to die in a Floor Boss Raid."
"I... ehh... didn't mean that literally."
"Oh, I know! Just thought I'd back up your statement with some probability!"
"Uhh... thanks...?"
"You're welcome!"
"Either way," Asuna cut in, sheathing her rapier with a satisfying clink. "We should probably go talk to Lind and Kibaou. They look about ready to go at each other's throats."
Turning my head, I shot a quick glance in the general direction of the two Guild Leaders, letting out a sigh of frustration as I saw them shouting loudly at one another.
"Man, always something with those two, isn't it?" I muttered loudly, getting up on my feet with great exertion. Hot damn my body was tired. I would definitely need a really long bath after this to take the edge off.
"They're not exactly the best at getting along, no," Klein agreed, coming up behind me to put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "You'll be alright on your own, Kirito?"
"Yeah, yeah, I got this," I waved, inwardly strengthening my resolve as I left my party behind to approach the two arguing Guild Leaders. For being two of the strongest players in the game, they sure could act childish.
"Inter-Guild cooperation proceeding smoothly as always, I see," I remarked sarcastically as I came to a halt in front of the two of them, causing their little shouting match to come to a premature end. Turning to stare at me, I couldn't help but shiver as I noticed the look of pure anger in their eyes. Something definitely wasn't right here.
"Oh shut yer trap, Kirito!" Kibaou spat in response, regarding me with poorly concealed hatred. "This ain't got nothin' to do with you and your little band of losers, so stay out of it!"
"Band of Losers, huh? That's not a bad Guild name, you know," I nodded, putting on a pondering look. "Has a better ring to it than "Aincrad Liberation Squad", at least."
"What was that?! You itchin' for a fight or something?" he fired back, cracking his knuckles loudly in a ridiculous attempt at intimidation.
"Well, not particularly, no. Buuut, if you really want to, I guess I could duel you. Then again, we both know who would win that duel, don't we?"
YOU ARE READING
The Swordsman Chronicles
FanfictionKazuto Kirigaya had always known SAO would be unlike any other game he had ever played before. What he hadn't been expecting, however, was just how deadly it would be. AU reboot of the Aincrad Arc, set in a harsher version of SAO where Player-Killin...
