NOVEL NEXT 65. Chaotic First Floor Boss Raid.
>>>>>
When the raid begins, Kaito immediately runs in front of the other players, followed by others behind him. Since their plan was to eliminate all the minions as quickly as possible-- Kaito know that first, he need to give an excellent performance to boost the morale of the players in this raid.
*Clank*
The moment Kaito and one of the Ruin Kobold Sentinel meet, he quickly confronts the minion attack using his sword, blocking it quite easily. Following that, Kaito then kicked Kobold's abdomen, knock Kobold away, and staggered him a little bit.
As the Kobold tried to recover his balance, Kaito who didn't want to give it a chance quickly aim his activated skill straight at Kobold's neck-- effectively killing it in one clean hit as he pinned it to the ground.
*Stab*
...!!
*Crash*
Normally one hit to kill the minion won't be possible, but thanks to Kaito's high level and precise aim on the neck causing a critical hit-- it deals enough damage to do that. The players who watch Kaito managed to one-shot the Kobold minion can't help but be amazed at his performance which successfully boosted the morale of the players around him as he intended.
...
"The strongest player in the world is no joke..."
"I still don't like him, but clearly he is here really feels reassuring"
"I am pumped up! With the strongest party here, I believe we can do this!"
"Take them out! If a single player managed to take the minion out, then all of us should be able to!"
...
Now with the high morale, All players begin to take raids seriously alongside Kaito group members. Even Kibaou also pumped out, feeling didn't want to lose against Kaito in this battle.
Aika who was aware this only happens because of Kaito quickly praised, "Good job, Owner."
"Let's keep moving." Kaito muttered and then he turned around and yelled to Diabel, "We are going to defeat all the minions! So please, take care the boss!"
Diabel who realized Kaito's intentions sincerely grateful and quickly replied, "Understand! We will distract the boss before that!"
"Everyone! Follow my lead! We are going to win!"
""Oohh!!""
....
After that, every Kaito party member shows a spectacular performance in combat skills against the Ruin Kobold Sentinel one by one, even though 20 more minions spawned every time the boss HP bar was depleted. Players like Miya and Sakuya who are so skilled in combat even easily take care of 2-3 of them simultaneously, which says despite initial fear at the start of the raid-- the minion turned out to be not a problem.
Meanwhile, The others players also did their best to fight against the boss and like in the original, doesn't have a hard time at the beginning of the raid. It might be blue-skinned, but it seems not much different from normal Ilfang the Kobold Lord in the memories... Yet.
...
"Squad D prepare to block the boss attack!"
*Clank*
"Squad E get behind the boss and release your attack!"
""Got it!""
"Squad F and Squad G back switch!! Squad H distract the boss!"
""Thank you!""
...
Thanks to Diabel's great instruction, the players only need to follow him, and then the raid went really smoothly... Until the boss entered his last phase.
>>>>>
...
"The boss is about to die, we can do this!"
"Keep attacking!"
"We are going to win this raid!"
...
By 10 minutes into the raid, the boss's HP was reduced to almost his last HP bar-- while the Kobold minions in a total of 80 were also wiped out. mostly by Kaito and Aika's party. Because of that, they also joined other squads to deal with the boss-- although, the time is quite bad for them to join.
...
"Be careful! According to the guidebook, something will change when the boss entered his last HP bar!" Kaito reminded.
Hearing what Kaito said, most players quickly retreated from being close to the boss, but some beta tester players-- including Diabel among the raid participant ignored his warning. They know the players who get the last hit are going to get a big reward, so they thought to defeat the boss right now, as the beta testers believe that he is on his last leg.
"Diabel-san! Don't do it!" Kaito tried to remind him for the last time, but Diabel also ignored him. He even sends a smile at Kaito, which is something he originally did to the protagonist.
Sadly this greediness would cost their lives. The moment the kobold lord enters his last HP bar, he suddenly released a dark aura and grew in size (from 4 meters to 8 meters)... which is much different than the beta tester knows or even the chat group members know. His weapon also changed to a dark axe, which is also different from what happened in the original.
....!!
Looking at what happened, the beta testers' players realized something wrong and tried to retreat. However, before they were able to get away, the Kobold lord quickly stomped his leg that causing a shockwave, dealing massive AoE damage that instantly killed any players that close to the boss-- including the raid leader, Diabel.
Unlike the original, in this raid, Diabel alongside those players weren't able to scream before they had perished-- and with that happening, the situation quickly flip 180 degrees.
...!!!
Witnessing their raid leader just die like that, all the players quickly realize how dangerous the boss is right now and got scared. Every player quickly scattered away from the boss, afraid of getting killed by the boss even though just a second ago they were excited to defeat him.
"Run!!"
"It's impossible, the boss becomes hella strong!"
"The guidebook is wrong again!"
...
This decision by players actually makes the situation even worse. Since no one engages with him, the Kobold lord starts chasing the players around-- and killed them one by one when they got caught in his attack. This obviously creates an absolute chaos nightmare situation... where every player frantically ran away from the boss in every direction without any plan.
...
"Ahhhhh!!!"
"Save me! I don't wanna die!"
"Shit! He is chasing me! Anyone! Help--Aaaargh--!!"
...
"Calm down, everyone! The boss is on his last HP bar! Focus on avoiding and attacking his blind spot!"
Kaito did his best to yell to control the situation, but sadly no one hear him. He is not Diabel who has a certain influence to lead this raid, and even most of the players still hate him for what Kaito did yesterday.
...
"Kaito! We need to do something!" Kirito suggested in desperation.
"Yeah, I know!"
...
Obviously, Kaito was aware this raid would completely wipe them out if they didn't do something. Thankfully, His party and Aika's party also waiting for his plan, knowing the situation are too dangerous for them to act rashly.
Kaito begin to thought a quick plan where they could deal with the boss while observing his movement. According to his observation, the boss has become much faster than any players here, so far none of the players survived getting one shot killed by its attack-- not even a tank. There is also his big size including his axe that grew along with it, which made every attack he made cover a lot of areas.
'His enormous size is not an advantage, but his weakness!' Kaito concluded with a short observation.
Kaito quickly turns back to his group member and explains his plan.
"Listen, everyone! I have a plan. Prepare to release all of your skills at the same time when giving an order while I tried to distract him myself!"
...!!!
"But master, that's dangerous!"
"Don't worry Sakuya-san, I know what I am doing!"
"Be safe, Kaito-san!"
...
*DASH*
Kaito who is determined to execute his plan immediately rushes to the boss, who currently focuses on chasing another player. Using other players as distractions for the boss's attention, it's a great chance for him to get close to the boss without getting discovered, even though using another player's misfortune looks a bit cruel-- Kaito couldn't care about it at the moment.
However, when Kaito thought the boss won't notice him, The boss suddenly stops chasing the players and then turn around at Kaito. Still, it doesn't stop Kaito from rushing toward the boss. It's not the first time his bad luck is kicking, and he knows there is no chance to turn back either.
*Swing*
The boss then starts swinging his dark axe using his right arm in order to attack Kaito, but Kaito who already analyze his attack earlier has a solution to avoid it. When the axe gets close to Kaito, using the momentum from running, he quickly slides down below the axe on the floor to avoid it, barely missing the axe that attempts to cut him in half from the side.
...!!!
After that, Kaito who slide far stumbled upon the boss's feet, who was still in his motion to retract his axe back from attacking Kaito. Without delay, Kaito quickly attacked his right leg with his strongest skill, to make the boss lose his balance-- which worked very well.
"Grroaaaaa!!"
...!!
'Nice, it works!' Kaito thought.
Earlier during his quick observation, Kaito notice that every time the boss swung his axe to attack, his posture was slightly tilted and his right leg always step forward. Because of that, he immediately understands the reason why the boss does that posture should be because his axe must be very heavy to swing, and his right leg steps forward to keep his balance.
In his normal size, the boss doesn't need to keep his balance, so the reason why the boss attack so deadly now is because his weapon also getting heavier.
Obviously, since his right leg balance was disturbed by Kaito's attack-- the boss quickly fall down to the side. Knowing this is the opportunity to finish the boss off, Kaito quickly yelled out, "Finish him off, now!"
...!!!
All the players including the Kaito group who are close enough to the boss notice what happened and immediately rush toward the boss who just falls to the floor, as they realize this might be their only chance to defeat it.
...
"Die!!"
"You killed my girlfriend, bastard!"
"Go to hell!!"
...
"Grroaaaaa!!"
Various light slash and stab bombarded the boss from all side (thanks to his size it was possible), followed by a yell of anger and desperation coming from the players. This caused the boss to suffer from a lot of damage, effectively killing it in a few seconds-- since his HP bar wasn't much left anyway.
The boss quickly turn into a blue polygon, like any other monster defeated in this world-- and shortly after, the portal to the 2nd floor also opened.
*Crash*
...!!
...
..
.
"We... We are winning?"
"...Yeah, it seems so."
"I can't believe... I actually survive."
...
Looking at the notification windows and the boss disappearing before their eyes, the players realized they just win this raid and survive this whole nightmare experience. However, despite winning their first boss raid, none of the players feel happy... Unlike what happened in the original where there are still players celebrating.
The reason is obvious, the players who survived have witnessed so many player's death in this raid. Some of them are their friend, close friends, or even relatives-- gone in front of their eyes. Instead of celebratory cheers from winning, what could be heard after the raid were sounds of people grieves and sadness, resounding in the first-floor boss room.
...
The result of the First Floor Boss Raid was, out of 142 players participating against the boss, only 65 players came out alive.
