Neptunia x Sword Art Online: The Literal Power Fantasy

Chapter Two: Illfang the Kobold Lord

Even though Nanu and Kiria were supposed to leave early in the morning, Nanu somehow managed to wake up hours before the raid started, and spent his time grinding some last minute levels as well as studying enemy attack patterns. Specifically Kobolds that live out in the field. Illfang the Kobold Lord can summon minions when he's in danger, so Nanu thought it would be beneficial to learn the small fry attack patterns and pass this information to Diavel and the others when it was time for the raid. Once Kiria woke up, she tracks him down using the tracking feature of the game and tells him it's time to go. Just as Nanu got one more Kobold kill in, he noticed something. A rare drop. Since he didn't have the weapon proficiency to swing it yet, he just kept it in his inventory for now, and went over to his teammate.

"Okay. Since we're Team G, it's our job to keep the small fry off the main assault team." Kiria spoke as the two walked in the way back of the pack. "So I was thinking to deal with them more effectively, I would parry one attack, then switch with you for the finishing blow. And repeat. Sound good?" She asked.

"Quick question." Nanu spoke up. "What's a Switch?" He asked.

Kiria looks over at him, flabbergasted.

"I'm kidding with ya...!" Nanu laughed as he saw her face.

"Ugh, not cool!" Kiria lightly punched his shoulder as they both chuckled at the joke.

"No, but seriously." Nanu says with a deadpan face. He couldn't hold that straight face for very long though, and stated laughing again.

The rest of the way was spent in near silence, as Nanu was scrolling through his skill list to equip whatever was useful for this fight. He thought a dodge build would be best, so he equipped his Forewarn skill to make it easier to evade attacks from behind, as well as Break Defense to cut through enemy armor.

And soon, the aptly named Assault Team arrived at Illfang's door. Before they entered, Diavel turned around to give one more rallying speech. "Everybody! This is it! The first boss of the game! I would like to take this moment of respite to remind you all that this battle will be grueling! But with our combined strength, I believe we can overcome this trial! As for rewards, Col and Experience will shared evenly across all parties present, and whomever may land the final blow to the boss has the right to keep the last hit drop item. Now then. Keep your Heal Crystals ready, and let us proceed! To victory!" With that, Dival and his team open the door wide.

As the Assault Team enters the room in droves, the boss makes itself known with a loud and menacing roar. The monster was easily 10 feet tall, with most of its body covered in what seemed to be standard, extra large leather armor with an iron chest plate above its protruding gut. It wielded a long great sword in its long and meaty arms. Once the battle commenced, its minions spawned in, rushing at the group of intruders.

That was Nanu and Kiria's cue. Both swordsmen rush into the fray, performing the strategy they had planned out together. Kiria would parry one monster as Nanu parried the other two, then the two would switch and take out the defenseless Kobold minions. And while those two held off any minions, the main team would rush down the boss, inflicting as much damage as they could before it could attack back. The bosses typically have three or more health bars, and as one is depleted, the boss will change its attack patterns to make the battle more and more difficult.

For the first 15 minutes or so, the raid was going well. Nanu and Kiria did their jobs spectacularly, and the main team had managed to drop Illfang's final HP bar to a quarter of its health with no casualties. It was the final stretch of the fight, as Illfang threw away his great sword and shield, and pulls out its trump card. A massive Cleaver. At least, that's what it was supposed to be. Nanu recognized it immediately simply because that was the exact same weapon he was using, only on a much smaller scale.