Sword Art Online - Alternative Reality

The 50th Floor CHP. 8

"Harry, Dyn, incoming!"

"On it!"

With our two shield users taking the punch like absolute champs, the rest of us piled on and started slashing and smashing into its exposed flanks, but-

"Boss, this isn't working!"

"Fuck, what is this thing made off man!"

"Come on boys, a bit of optimism here!"

Despite my own words, I looked across the boss room as the fist began pulling back. Checking the time, we had already been smacking at this poor excuse of a monk for half an hour, only one of its HP bars was noticeably lower, unsurprisingly, it was where that idiot was fighting where the bar had dropped into the yellow, still...

"Oi, Haf, we find anything yet?!"

Shouting to one of the DDA tanks that had ended up fighting alongside us, one of the original clearers from the times where the DDA was called the DKB, Hafner, had as much of a dark look as I did.

"Other than the 8 sigils on the main door, nothing! 6 of them are already lit up though, so they've gotta be doing something right on the other side!"

The doors had sealed behind us as soon as the fight started, and in the opening moments when we were still in formation, Kiritard had told us that the other group was probably dealing with mini-bosses on the other side, and we had to hold off till then. We all knew that the buff this thing had on made it as tough as Mr. Holy Shield but-

"This is just ridiculous... here comes the next round! Watch the sides!"

With the DDA taking the slash from its bladed arm thing, we tore into it again, a numbing sensation running up my arms when I used a 2-part sword skill on it. It was one thing that the boss was unfairly tanky, but the biggest issue was that its attacks were just as strong.

"AARGHHH"

Hearing the scream from across the room, I saw two players get tossed up into the air, right as a breath attack from one of the heads sent them flying towards the ground. WIth 6 arms, 3 heads, and the occasional swipe from the floating halo-looking thing behind it, it had separated our raid party in a matter of minutes, and we were scattered throughout the boss room. As if that wasn't enough, it would somehow pick up one of the pillars as if it was psychic, and use it as a battering ram. With our formation completely destroyed and needing at least another 10 minutes before we could safely get everyone out of this dam mess, something was gonna have to give...

"Klein, breath attack!"

With the head closest to us charging up with a golden light and no time to get out of the way, we all got into a defensive formation, hoping that we wouldn't be sent flying off like the two from earlier. Luckily, Mr. Idiot himself decided to toss something at it, causing a massive explosion of smoke to cover it and interrupt its breath attack.

Looking over at the direction it came from, I saw the two main reasons why we hadn't lost anyone up to this point. The KoB commander Heathcliff was taking on most of the aggro, keeping 3 of the 6 arms constantly on him and taking the most powerful blasts from the middle head-on with his fellow tanks. Dashing across the entire battlefield and helping out with the other arms, battering rams, and the occasional interrupt was the great 'Black Swordsman' who had pulled out his second sword at some point, probably relying more on stats and timing to counter the limbs, instead of sword skills.

"Dam showoff, come on guys, we can't let the KoB hog all the glory!"

With a warcry expected from the most honorable guild in the game, we charged towards its flank to try and ease up the attacks the other parties were getting, but all of our HP bars were starting to get into the yellow. It was about time to switch out, but the bigger issue about this unrelenting assault was right at the edge of my vision.