Sword Art Online - Alternative Reality

The 50th Floor CHP. 6

The battle began at around 7:30 in the morning. Originally, we thought that clearing the camp would take about an hour, not including the final field boss at the end. Despite removing the massive horde that is now sleeping at the bottom of the river, it took us just over two hours to fully secure the camp. After helping Latvia's group push up to the bridge, we saw that more clockwork soldiers were beginning to reform just as Asuna predicted. After a small discussion, we decided to clear out the 1st zone that still had full-powered mobs scattered throughout.

As it turns out, there were a lot more of these things hidden in the forward section than we had initially scouted, and there were scattered fights ongoing throughout the entire area, giving it an atmosphere of complete chaos. Asuna and I supported whichever group we came across, whether they were actual players or the NPC support guards that had joined the assault. We ended up carving a path straight through the zone back to Kleins bridge, but even then we could see fights still ongoing in some of the more obscure parts of the camp.

Deciding that the groups recovering would help clean up the rear, we rejoined with the Fuuzikanen that were trying to push into the main storage areas where the damaged soldiers were coming from. With a combined attack force, a few more barrel rolling techniques, and a lot of property damage that we hopefully won't be charged for, we slowly started securing the 2nd area.

It was close to 10:00 by the time we had regrouped with Agil's group that was completely worn out from dealing with the hordes of soldiers that were assaulting the central team. Although I could still hear the occasional yell and sword skill, it finally seemed that the epic movie-like battle was coming to a close. I didn't even want to imagine how long it would have taken if we had to deal with all those mobs napping at the bottom of the river now...

The last zone that we had left was through a massive gate that, based on the map data we got from quests, acted as a hallway where the field boss was located, and finally though it was the path leading to the labyrinth. We were currently in the center of the maintenance area along the main path leading to the gate. The main guild leaders of the attack forces were grouping up and discussing what to do while I had excused myself to pass some drinks to the rest of the KoB members, although really, I just didn't want to be involved in any more planning for the day.

Right as I finished up, I stepped into the shade of one of the half-collapsed tents as Asuna made her way over to me. Tossing her one of her favorite drinks which she expertly caught, we both sat down on fallen down support.

"So, what happened?"

"Shouldn't you have been part of the meeting if you really wanted to know?"

"Come on, I was passing water around and boosting morale like a good third-in-command."

"Of course you were. Well, the good news is that there weren't any casualties, although it seemed like the late-comers brought more parties along."

"And they didn't do too well in the chaos I imagine?"

"Mhm, it looks like a good portion of parties had to teleport out or retreat to the staging area outside the camp. Fighting in close quarters like this without practice led to more issues than expected, but it seems we got through the worst of it. Other than that, it seems that the general of the NPC forces has hinted at the new quest lines that are going to pop up that'll give us more info on the actual floor boss, which includes cleaning up all of these guys from the ground, so we also talked about how we would split up those duties."

"I can imagine that the extremists want the old guard to stay back huh?"

"The opposite actually. It seems like this fight was an eye-opener for them, so they want guilds like the KoB and DDA to lead the labyrinth exploration while they stick back, although they were pretty adamant on saying it was only because of the circumstances."