Sword Art Online: The Demon In White

Trapped

The clearing group made up of fifty-eight players stood bravely in front of the boss room. Judging from the theme of this floor and its monsters, Akise could roughly guess what sort of monster lay behind those doors. Armed with only a sword and his wits, Akise gulped as he and the other players entered the room with caution. Usually, the bigger the room the higher the AOE, so the boss must be one with a huge AOE damage for the room was huge. The moment the door shut behind them, rows of lights illuminated the room. Talismans and all sorts of prayer objects lay about, making no sense to Luna.

"What... is all these..."

"Looks like the sort of stuff people use for prayers..."

"... Ah, I know what we're facing."

They turned towards Akise, whose eyes examined the whole place thoroughly. Taking account of the area of the whole room, the position of the objects and the symbols on the wall, Akise finally concluded.

"We're facing a Buddhist god."

As if right on cue, the end of the massive finally revealed a giant Buddha statue sitting on a dais. Its name came into view, <<Six-Armed Metallic Buddha Statue>>. Everyone quickly got into a battle stance. After several seconds, the battle began.

The KoB really did live up to their name; they quickly took control of the situation and moved accordingly. Akise, Luna and Corvalt became the decoy team; they would distract the boss while the KoB fiercely lead on the onslaught. In between attacks Akise saw how Asuna calmly handled everything. Her eyes showed the same determination from that time.

Finally, the boss's last HP bar reached the red zone. Akise backed off quickly and pulled Luna out of the way, calculating his chances and every move. The <<Six-Armed Metallic Buddha Statue>> released a fury of arms, hitting everything in its way. Akise lead the way past the attacks and reached the back of the statue. From there, he nodded at Luna and Corvalt to execute their plan. Leaping up as high as possible, Akise performed a sword skill, <<Vorpal Strike>>. His sword glowed blue with the skill and swung down at high force towards one of the arms. It worked; the arm was cleanly shaved off. The boss began to turn his direction.

"Corvalt!"

"Got it!"

In the same manner, Corvalt sliced off the lower right arm. Now its attack was greatly reduced; the KoB could finally launch a counter-attack. Asuna ran to the back as well, joining the trio. Since both Corvalt and Akise were still in <<Post Motion>>, a state of being rigid and vulnerable, she yelled at Luna.

"Luna-san! Let's work together!"

"Hai!"

Both girls' swords glowed bright blue as they ran at different directions. Luna dashed in and using the statue's crossed legs as a launching pad, she used both hands to thrust the sword into the boss's cheek. Before those flailing arms could reach her, she used her body weight to pull the sword down, revealing a large gash trailing from its cheek to the chest. Asuna then took over; her title was definitely not for show.

"Hah!!!"

In a matter of seconds Asuna jabbed, thrust and swung her rapier at the boss before ending it with a powerful <<Star Splash>>, an 8-hit thrusting sword skill for rapiers. It worked; the last of its HP bar was cleanly shaved away and the moment Asuna landed, the boss disappeared as blue crystal shards. She sheathed her sword and smiled at Luna, who happily smiled back. Everyone roared at their victory, thus signaling that the 50th floor had been cleared.

Akise was immediately bear-hugged by Corvalt, who being the bigger one of the two, swung Akise around happily.

"Corvalt! Let me go!"