Sword Art Online: Another Reality

1st Floor Labyrinth.

In front of the Boss Room.

Getting to the boss room with their large party of 48 members had been a challenging task, but so far, none had died.

Diabel's Group A and Group B primarily handled the enemies at the front, while Group C to D guarded the flanks, and Group E to G protected the rear.

However, along the way.

Group E and F, which consisted of members wielding long weapons like «Spears» and «Halberds», were ambushed by melee-type Kobolds.

In SAO, melee weapons wouldn't cause damage to other players, even if they accidentally hit each other in a confused battle.

This also didn't result in players becoming criminals, but normal attacks and sword skills would be halted upon contact with an obstacle.

Since ranged weapons already posed a high risk in these situations, an ambush by melee monsters made things even worse.

In this small pinch, the knight Diabel demonstrated his ability to command precisely.

He boldly instructed all surrounding party members to fall back.

Except for the individual leaders of each group, made them use heavier sword skills to knock back the monsters, and then swiftly switched to melee weapon-equipped members.

Such decisions would not have been possible without his familiarity with leadership in everyday life.

Perhaps Diabel was trying to conserve their stamina and ease the players' burden before they faced the boss.

Now, they stood in front of the Boss Room.

Every group had mostly switched to their best gear and skill sets for the fight. With the new information added, most players were tense.

With everyone now present, Diabel stood at the front of the gate leading to the boss room and turned back to look at everyone.

Diabel lifted his silver long-sword high and gave a large nod.

The forty-three raid members also raised their weapons and nodded in reply.

Although they were nervous, they still nodded, they believed they were in the good hands of Diabel.

Diabel turned around, placing his left hand in the center of the large doors and—

"—Let's go!" With a short cry, he pushed the doors open with all his might.

Diabel was the first to enter the boss room with slow steps, followed by others following behind.

It was a rectangular space that extended out far towards the back of the room.

Approximately twenty meters wide from left to right wall, and 100 meters from entrance to back.

As everybody had basically stepped into the boss room.

A series of igniting sounds rang through the boss room, which was almost completely sunk in darkness, and crude torches blazed to life along the walls on either side.

As the sound of flames popping into existence continued, the lit torches increased in number one after another, further towards the back of the room.

As the sources of light were generated, the room brightened with an otherworldly brightness.

The stone floor and walls were filled with cracks.

Skulls of all sizes decorated the room everywhere.

In the deepest part of the room stood a huge and crude throne, and upon it sat a rough silhouette of something large—

No doubt this was the first-floor boss.

Sitting on its throne, it was two- meters tall, muscular, covered in red fur with a bloody copper axe, and wielding a large bone axe and a leather shield.

[Illfang the Kobold Lord]

[100%]

[100%]

[100%]

[100%]

Looking over at the players that had entered its room, the boss stood up and jumped fiercely into the air.

It somersaulted once before landing on the ground. After that, it opened its wolflike jaws wide and howled, summoning its sentinels.

"Gurururaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"

—4th of December, 2022. The first Boss Monster Battle finally began.

"Everybody, commence the attack!"

Following Diabel's command, several players ran up to the boss and its minions, beginning their raid on the first-floor boss.

Sharia, in front, had also engaged a kobold, easily parrying its attacks with his sword while keeping an eye on the entire battlefield.

A month of training, even though it was with a virtual body, had allowed him to gain a somewhat heightened perception.

'I have to say... Diabel's tactics are good.'

Since his sword mastery was stuck at Level 4, Sharia tried many other ways besides killing mobs to increase his proficiency, but even the labyrinth monsters now provided him little progress.

Those efforts hadn't gone well.

Glancing towards Argo, he noticed she seemed to be doing okay too.

Even though she wasn't an active player clearing monsters, she was agile enough to dodge most of the sentinel's attacks and attack them from their blind spots.

At the very least, as long as the Boss didn't target her, she would be okay.

'Then.....'

Sharia looked over at Kirito and Asuna's team. They too were also doing well on their own.

Kirito parried an incoming attack from a kobold, sending it flying back, and then casually retreating while calling out, "Switch!"

In his place, Asuna quickly jumped in front of the kobold and struck it with a «Linear» straight at the kobold's throat.

'Although Blackie could have finished it alone, he decided to leave it to Asuna, eh?'

Sharia casually observed, musing inwardly, before parrying an attack from a kobold.

Looking at the bloodthirsty kobold snarling at him, he zoned out for a moment, then beamed a smile. "Let's also try this, shall we."

"Switch!" he called out.

"Eh?"

Sharia pushed the kobold back, sending it flying toward Argo. She immediately twirled and plunged her dagger straight into the kobold's throat, ending it in one strike.

"Hey! Warn me before you do something like that!" she snarled; she had just defeated one when Sharia sent another flying towards her.

However, the person she snarled at had his attention elsewhere.

"Here it comes! Group A and Group C, switch!"

Diabel commanded, standing firm with his sword pointed and shield held tight, giving orders to the respective groups.

"Group B, block!" he called out next.

Group B, comprised of several «Tanks» and «Heavy Attackers», moved to intercept the boss.

Their leader stepped in front of Illfang, blocking the large bone axe, resulting in a high-pitched sound that echoed through the boss room.

Agil and Kibaou lunged at the boss simultaneously, dealing damage to Illfang.

From the back, Sharia watched the raid, feeling somewhat bored.

Comparing Illfang to the Guardian of Alka in his mind, he found this menacing boss to be quite cute in comparison.

Even though Illfang had four HP bars, Sharia felt it was still manageable, especially compared to «Alka's Guardian».

However, the raid party was faring better than he had expected, though it was still a challenging task.

"Hmm..." he murmured, glancing over at Kirito and Asuna.

The pair were taking on the Sentinels that were sneaking over to the group in front, effectively holding their ground.

In short, if they continued like this, they could defeat the entire boss together if they tried.

Diabel's Group A and Group B had taken out the first HP gauge layer, leaving Group C and D to get rid of the second layer while members from Group A and B, who had their HP reduced to the yellow «Half» region, healed up.

However, Sharia wasn't okay with this. Now that most of the Sentinels could be easily taken care of, he ran off to Diabel.

 "Yo." Sharia casually greeted as he stood beside Diabel, who looked at him with a slight frown.

"Aren't you supposed to be—"

"Don't worry," he casually waved it off. "Groups E to G are doing a good job taking care of the Sentinels, and I've told my partner to provide support for those groups."

"I'll be helping you take care of the boss."

Up to this point, Sharia had been using his «Steel Sword» throughout the raid.

But as he spoke with Diabel, he switched from the «Steel Sword» to his «Centennial Longsword»—a longsword with a slim, straight double edge that resembled a rapier more than a longsword.

The only difference was the cruciform hilt, which had a grip for two-handed use.

 However, that wasn't all.

«Centennial Longsword [+5 4S1D]»

[Attack: 90]

[Defence: 75]

[Sharpness: 3]

[Durability: 1]

He had enchanted his «Centennial Longsword» the day before, immediately after the strategy meeting.

Argo had taken him to an NPC blacksmith, where he enhanced his longsword.

There were five types of enhancement parameters: «Sharpness», «Quickness», «Accuracy», «Heaviness», and «Durability».

One could commission an NPC or a player smith to enhance a weapon in one of these categories.

The process required materials exclusively used for weapon enhancements and had a fixed probability of failure.

With the materials and items he had collected over the past month, Sharia had enough to achieve a plus-six enhancement, and he was quite fortunate in his attempts.

When any parameter enhancement succeeded, the item's name in the equipment window would display a +1 or +2.

However, the details of these enhancements, or their «breakdown», could only be viewed by directly tapping the weapon and opening its properties window.

Diabel, being a beta-tester, was momentarily stunned upon seeing the rare weapon and its enhancement.

He was a beta-tester so of course he would know what this meant.

"Wait, are you—?"

"I'm not, but with this blade, you shouldn't have any problems, right?" Sharia interrupted, anticipating what Diabel would say next and giving him a sidelong glance.

Though Diabel felt envious, he could only sigh. "Alright. I would like you to bring up the vanguard. Can you do that?"

Sharia grinned. "Easy."

At the front.

Agil and Kibaou's teams had recovered and switched with Groups C and D, beginning their engagement with the boss while the other teams took a breather.

Both teams had already parried the boss's attacks in succession, dealing only a little damage with each strike.

[Illfang The Kobold Lord]

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[100%]

Its HP was now in its third phase. If they continued like this, they should be able to defeat it together.

Once its HP reached around 25%, they would switch with Groups C and D again so the current attacking group could get a brief timeout before the boss's second phase.

However—

"Switch!"

A young voice rang out from behind, followed by a gust of wind blitzing past the resting group and advancing towards the attacking group in front.

"Eh? What was that?"

The resting group, just meters away from the attacking group, looked toward the source of the gust of wind.

Diabel, further back, gave his command. "Attacking group switch!" Despite his doubts, he decided to trust Sharia on this one.

Blackie-sensei, who had been keeping a close eye on the battlefield, immediately looked at Diabel.

According to his calculations, it wasn't time to switch yet, so why was it happening now?

He then glanced toward the boss, his eyes widening in shock.

"What the—"

.....

The attacking players at the front were slightly surprised when they heard Diabel's voice commanding them to switch. It wasn't time yet.

In that moment of distraction, the boss swung its large bone axe down at the attacking group.

"Crap!" Agil cursed as he realized what was happening. He readied his axe to parry, but before he could act, his vision was suddenly blinded by a white light.

CLANG!

The echo of two metals colliding rang across the entire room, prompting most to look over.

"Ngh! Haa!"

«Block Counter has been used: +2,500»

«Sword Mastery proficiency has been increased: +2,500»

«Block Counter proficiency (Lv 4): 4,040/100,000»

«Sword Mastery Proficiency (Lv 4): 78,753/100,000»

«Guard Break has been inflicted»

«Stun has been inflicted»

They heard the voice of a young boy, followed by him pushing the boss back slightly.

"Eh?"

"What is going on?" Agil stared wide-eyed, not only at Sharia but also at the boss, who seemed to be spasming.

Under their astonished gazes, they saw a stun icon appearing near Illfang's name atop his head.

«Illfang the Kobold Lord [Stunned]»

"What the heck just happened?"

"Is that a Stun? How is that possible." The players, stupefied, looked at Sharia.

But before they could react further, Sharia had already dashed towards Illfang again, this time with a «Direct Thrust».

«Direct Thrust has been used: +2,500»

«Sword Mastery proficiency has been increased: +2,500»

«Direct Thrust proficiency (Lv 4): 26,041/100,000»

«Sword Mastery Proficiency (Lv 4): 78,753/100,000»

They all watched as Sharia dealt a massive amount of damage to the boss, causing Illfang's HP to decrease sharply.

His single attack had doubled the amount of damage they had been dealing just moments before.

[Illfang The Kobold Lord]

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[05%]

[100%]

Kirito, while still handling a Sentinel at the back, glanced over at Sharia with a mixed expression, his mind echoing a single thought:

"Who the hell is he?"