The Survival Logs || Sword Art Online Fanfic

Samurai Lord Arc: Chapter 18 - Samurai Assault

23 January 2023, 4pm

Boss Room, 10th Floor

Kagachi the Samurai Lord.

Currently the strongest Floor boss ever encountered in Aincrad to date, it was strongly recommended by info brokers that a full player party of 49 players was needed to have a good fighting chance against it, despite them never having seen the boss before.

In fact, it's already common sense to prepare a full raid party of 49 players to start a raid on a Floor boss.

Naturally, charging into the boss battle with a party strength of just 45 players lowered the probability of victory drastically. But it was an action that the Assault Team took at that time.

I was in that Assault Team, and I can tell you that not waiting for another 4 players to join us in the boss raid was obviously a bad idea. It was a desicion that I would truly regret if I was the party leader.

And the consequences of that desicion are starting to sink into my mind.

The ALS and DKB, which had 3 full parties each, all broke into formation as they prepared to engage the towering samurai.

Being the only 3 players in Team G, I followed Kirito and Asuna as they ran towards the fight as well. Something that seemed like I should have realized the moment I saw the boss bothered me.

"The boss... It has no minions?" I pointed out.

Kirito realized it as well. "Yeah, it's only the boss and nothing else."

The samurai swung its katana in many different angles at the tank players up front. Light effects shone brightly as the blade cut through the air.

The banging sounds coming from the front lines indicated that the tanks did a great work keeping the boss away from the damage dealers. You could say it's the foundational strategy in boss raids.

The first HP gauge was draining steadily. Kirito and Asuna were already scoring hits on the boss's legs. I rushed in a while later, thrusting forth the moment the boss had its attention on the tank teams.

The icy tip blade of my Frost Charger+8 scattered snowflakes every time I swung the spear.

The samurai, despite being powerful enough to kill a non-tank player in probably one hit, was having its aggro constantly taken by the tank players, Teams C and F.

It was getting way too easy to damage it. The tank teams took turns to aggro it, while the other teams dealt the damage.

I saw Kirito running around the boss, slashing with his sword as he went. I continued to go with the flow, following the boss as its repetitive attack patterns were no match for the Assault Team's simple but effective plan.

The second HP gauge disappeared 20 minutes later.

The samurai started to change its attack patterns, suddenly conjuring up a giant snake on one of its arms. The snake lunged itself at the damage dealers, completely ignoring the tanks, all while still being attached to the samurai's arm. Things were starting to get a bit more tricky here.

Dodging the snake was easy, as its lunges were slow, but to get close to the boss became a challenge. The samurai lord was still being aggroed to the tanks, but the snake was stubborn enough to target us, no matter how the tanks tried to get its attention.

Blindly charging at the boss wasn't an option either. If a player got hit by that snake, I'd bet the damage taken wouldn't be something to laugh at. The best thing we could do was to seize the chance when the snake was going after another player.