Sword Art Online - Alternative Reality

The Diva and Her Knight CHP.4

"Alright, so me and Nautilus will act as the front guard. When we stagger the 'Stone Wolf', Keita comes in and goes for the throat. If we feel like we can go with only one shield user, Nautilus will go on the offensive. Meanwhile, Yuna will buff us with her songs and stay in the back while Asuna and Ky guard her because of the agro she might get. Also Otherwise those 2 are only going to be on lookout duty. I got everything right Ky?"

"Yep, but don't tell me you're actually going to stick with that?"

"You betcha!"

"Ugh..."

Giggling as the almost completely black swordsman, save for a few red outlining and KoB crosses, I looked back towards my HP bar, where 5 other names were placed. Just like she said, Lizbeth and Eiji would be taking the front, while Keita would be the Midgard. It was a shame I would be put in the back, but after the morning practice with Asuna, it was decided it would be too risky for me to go any further before we fully understood the agro range of my 'chants.' We had our levels set to private in the party, but I knew that if anything happened, the two terrifying sword and fence user behind me would clear out any mobs on this floor without breaking a sweat.

We were walking towards a certain plain section by the main town on the 33rd floor to face something called a 'Stone Wolf,' whose drops were good for Lizbeth to level up her blacksmithing proficiency. She offered to split the loot, but since this was a practice run mostly for Eiji and mines sake, we ended up declining.

I knew Eiji ever since we were little, and seeing him so depressed about not being able to fight on the front lines left a pain in my heart, but now, although he's obviously trying to hide it, I can see that he's excited that he might have found a way to accomplish his goals. Now if only he would man up more and always say what's on his mind...

That being said, it seemed that the two behind me providing some trivia to one another were in a similar situation, although based on what I had seen so far, Kirito was several steps ahead of Eiji, although they seemed to share the same 'blockheaded' trait. Well, I didn't mind waiting, and I'm sure once Eiji's found his confidence he'll finally say it. At least those 2 seem to be a treasure trove for lyrics...

"First one is coming up on your right Liz, get ready."

"Got it!"

While we were all idly chatting, we had reached a sort of rocky plains with knee-high grass. Although I didn't see anything in the stretch of land to our right, Lizbeth and Nautilus had already taken out their shields and were slowly inching forward, and after about a meter or so, an animal the size of a lion jumped out of the grass and began growling at them.

"Woah... there really was one there..."

With a mane that seemed as if it was made out of stone and a spine with some sort of quartz-looking metal sticking out of its back like quills, it was hard to call it a 'wolf'.

"Alright Yuna, you're up."

"Leave it to me!"

With the go-ahead from Asuna, I used my lute to play the appropriate notes and chanted a simple defense bonus. Once I was done, everyone had a blue light effect shine on them, and beneath all of our HP bars, a shield icon with an arrow pointing up appeared.

"GRRHHH"

"It's targeting Yuna! It's going to pounce, so focus on defense!"

Both Liz and Eiji shouted an affirmation and blocked the wolf from my sight. After training in the morning, it seemed like different mobs reacted differently to my chants depending on their effects, although it looked like a common pattern was that 'defensive' mobs hated defensive boosting buffs, while the more aggressive mobs hated anything that would boost damage. Others ignored me completely, and others would focus on me regardless of what I played. It also seemed that the amount of 'Hate' I got was based on how many people I buffed at once, and since there were only 6 of us, a taunt from either Lizbeth or Eiji would pull aggro. It was incredible that Asuna had figured all of that after a rather small fighting session.