Unital Ring II: The Virtual Study Society

The Life Harvester

"Forward to battle!" Heathcliff leads the charge inside, but we don't move too quickly into the darkness before us. Once inside, we stand silently, looking around for the boss. We know it appears once the doors close, but the deathly silence isn't helpful to our nerves. And once they do...

"Up there!" Asuna's sudden shout draws eyes up to the ceiling. Indeed, above us is a slurping creature, a centipede-like bag of bones.

"It's the Skull..."

"Reaper!" It's eyes flash red as its five health bars appears.

"Stay away from it! Spread out!" Well, no shit, Heathcliff. The majority of us run for the edges as Skull Reaper descends. Most of us make it, but two players linger behind, not moving until Kirito commands them to. It's too late by then, as the Reaper lands and cuts them down with one of its scythe-like front legs in one hit.

"That was one hit!"

"Man, we are so dead!"

Immediately, I activate my strong defense art, not wanting to chance my normal defense against a strike. I've never activated it while I was at full health before, not even during Gleam Eyes or the Laughing Coffin raid.

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That was the inital reaction to Skull Reaper, the boss of the seventy-fifth floor. Now, a monstrosity bigger than than it and its original version roars threateningly at the large assembly of players from ALO, GGO, and Insectsite. I sit upon the ground, Lisbeth on top of me, our hands connected in shared fear. Asuna and Kirito are no more than three feet away from us; Philia, Rain, Strea, Klein, Agil, and Sanya are somewhere around us; like me, they share the same fear as myself.

The original Life Harvester demoralized the front lines, despite being a field boss. The Skull Reaper took out a a sizable number of the top players, some just mere moments before SAO ended. Now we come across another Life Harvester without the power we possessed on the seventy-fifth floor of Aincrad.

My only question is...where the hell it came from? I'd assume New Aincrad, but even if that was the case, the bosses of SAO that did return in some from in ALo were altered. My next guess would be Ordinal Scale, which in turn would lead me to think of the weird sighting of Koharu's character data not much longer afterwards in GGO. SAO's data could still float around the Seed Nexus--that data is the core of Sword Art: Origin--but no matter what answer, all of it doesn't make complete sense.

"Jyashaaaaaaa!"

Nor do I have time to think critically. The reaper's roar calls forth more lightning, causing me to shudder again. Lisbeth squeals into my chest as thunder hammers the dark, rainless clouds above.

"Kirito, what should we do?" Alice shouts from somewhere. Koharu, Leafa, Silica, Sinon, Argo, Premiere, Tia, Yui, Lux, Klein, Agil, Agil's wife Hyme and the nineteen additional Insectsite players, Misha the thornspike bear, and Kuro the panther all waited on Kirito's command. I can't speak for Crimson Squad--Kureha, Zeliska, Rei, and Lievre--but something tells me they're going to listen to what I say over Kirito.

Continue or retreat?

My immediate suggestion is to retreat. If me, Kirito, Alice, Lisbeth, and the rhinocereous and stag beetles had trouble guarding against the scythe of the Life Harvester, losing fifty to sixty percent of our health, and even having some visible damage to our armor, I have no faith in our ability to win this fight. Furthermore, it was an ordinary attack by the beast. I was somewhere between level 90 and 100 when we faced Life Harvester and Skull Reaper on Aincrad, and even with Trojan Walls activated to buff my defense immensely, I had trouble with health.