NOVEL NEXT 83. Raid Against the Final Boss. (2)
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"The shield got broken! This is a chance!"
"Kill the boss!!"
"We are going to be heroes!"
..
Now the shield got broken-- the boss has become vulnerable to any incoming damage. Because of that, some players seeing this as a chance immediately rush into the boss from all directions with enthusiasm--- like an army of ants ambushing the bigger prey.
Except the boss obviously not a prey, but a powerful predator.
...
"Don't! The boss is still dangerous to approach!"
Kaito who saw their dangerous behavior quickly remind them as a leader, but in the midst of the crowd, his voice barely could be heard.
"Damn it!"
The boss obviously won't just stay in place and let himself get attacked. After all, the boss neither gets stunned nor incapacitated for a long time since only his shield got broken. Kaito seems to underestimate human nature (greediness) around him-- even though all the participants should be players who are veterans of doing raids.
Thankfully, only a small portion of players are doing this, and the rest does still have the common sense to be careful.
...
"Master, Please retreat to a safer area." Akitsu reminded.
"Yeah." Kaito quickly agree and replied, "Let's back up and see what happens."
Only a few seconds after he retreated out of the boss's vicinity, Kaito's concern was immediately proven right.
The boss quickly moved again after getting some serious damage from the 'enthusiastic player', and this time he released one of his most deadly attacks-- summoning the Black Great Holy Tree to execute a wide-ranged attack.
...!!
Black huge vines suddenly appeared behind the boss, it was growing exponentially and attacking wherever he wanted.
Unlike the projectiles attack, it's wise idea for players to just tank this attack since it's a just pure overwhelming strong physical attack... The knockback damage would be severe. The woods also could bend in a way that it's able to trap the players too-- which makes this attack should be better avoided.
All of the players are aware of this fact, including players who recklessly rushed up earlier. They retreated quickly and back to the formation in order to not get killed... Knowing it's hazardous to be at close distance without proper preparation.
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"Aim for his vital!"
"Go for his eyes!"
...
Still, some of the players have an idea to intercept the boss's attack before he could launch his vines but the boss won't get interrupted that easily in the first place.
*BAMM* *BAMM*
...!!!
The result is obvious, those players failed to intercept the boss's attack, killing all the players who got mauled by tons of black wood tentacles without any protection.
The victim could not even scream, since the boss attack is just that fast. More than 10 people turned into blue polygon at the same time as the first casualties, making the situation around getting tense.
Even Uta can't help but stop singing, and Kaito himself is also speechless looking at how easy the boss is to end their lives.
...
>>>>>
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"Back to the formation! Remember our basic strategy!" Kaito quickly pull himself out of the daze and then warned immediately.
While Kaito is genuinely surprised, he knows the fight needs to continue with high morale otherwise the fight would only go downhill for here. In fact, Kaito really did the correct decision. When they heard what Kaito said, the rest of the players were reminded of his speech, their supposed tactic to defeat the boss.
...
--Our tactic is to surround the boss from all directions in an attempt to attack him as much as possible on the turn and prevent him from moving around, but more importantly, is to defend yourself whenever the boss got aggroed to your squad or launched his attack on you.
--Do not rush to attack the boss! Your main goal is to survive!
...
After that, in an orderly manner, the players quickly back to their formation and implemented the said tactic... Which has proven to work very well against the boss. Uta also comes back to sing again, and the battle quickly becomes a stalemate between the boss and 300 players around.
The black wood vines while it's a very powerful attack, it still does have a range limitation-- otherwise, the fight would be impossible to win as the boss only need to spam this move to cover the battlefield. Compared to a projectile or laser attack that would cause an explosion on the impact, the 'black wood tentacles' attack isn't exploding and only focus on one side at a time... Leaving the other side of the boss open for attack. Although every once in a while, some players would get hit by the boss attack since obviously, the boss is much faster than the players. Still, the casualties have been reduced to a minimum since everyone carrying a recovery potion that could save their life from the brink of death.
Even though the battle looks optimistic, Kaito was also aware that they couldn't let this fight get longer, as there would be more casualties happening the longer the raid goes on... even with all the guarantees. Not to mention the boss actually have skill to heal himself, they were so lucky that the boss didn't use it to recover himself yet.
After instructing some of the players around him, Kaito decides to take a risk as he got a plan to end this raid quickly. He is aware that as long the boss goes down for a bit, 300 players around could potentially end the raid in an instant if they unleash their strongest skill on the boss at the same time-- and Kaito's plan was to get that chance done.
Even in the original memories back then, the boss got defeated after getting attacked by multiple at the same time... (A/N: Referring to SAO ordinal scale movie fight) obviously 300 players are much better in numbers.
'Sonic Leap'
Using the dashes he could get from skill usage, Kaito attempted to get close and attacked the boss's main body... but the boss immediately see that and then blocks his attack with the black wood vines.
*BAMM*
..!!
Even so, Kaito manage to cut the vines in front of him and hurt the boss quite a bit.
The boss who was reminded that Kaito is the most dangerous player in this raid immediately pay attention to him, unleashing a ton of black wood tentacles in his direction.
Looking at the incoming attack, he knows the boss has been aggro'ed to him which made part of his plan quite successful, and now Kaito knows that he needs to retreat. Normally, it would be impossible to do that since he got too close to the boss's main body-- but as previously stated, Kaito has never been alone in the first place.
"Switch!" (Kaito)
...!!
*Clank*
"Master!" (Akitsu)
Upon hearing his command, Akitsu who had always been following Kaito quickly stepped up and cover him from the black wood attack.
...!!
Still, it was too strong for Akitsu to block alone, and made both her and Kaito push back quite a bit.
"Are you okay, Akitsu?"
"I am okay, master. Master, more is coming!"
...
But, the boss didn't stop there, and now fully pays attention to Kaito. The boss sends more attacks toward them since Kaito and Akitsu combination proved to be dangerous to keep alive.
""Switch!""
Fortunately for them, Heathcliff also quickly blocked a follow-up attack from the boss... and this time, with the help of Heathcliff, they actually able to withstand the attack without getting knocked down, since Heathcliff's stats and equipment were actually much better than Akitsu's.
*Clank*
...!!!
"That's a quite dangerous stunt you did there, Kaito-san," Heathcliff commented.
"Thanks for saving our ass." Kaito nodded and quickly stood up alongside Akitsu, "In fact, it was part of the plan!"
'''Vorpal Strike!!''' (Kirito/Itachi)
...!!
When Kaito said that, suddenly a scream of skill activation could be heard from above the boss-- followed by the scream of the boss himself. In the air above, a scene where both Kirito and Itachi jumped out to the boss and wound his eyes with their skill could be seen. Following that, magnanimous cheers could be heard from the players surrounding-- knowing this is the chance they are waiting for.
Kaito's plan was simple yet so effective, which require him to attract the boss's attention while others use that chance to attack his eyes swiftly-- mainly Kirito and Itachi who used one-handed swords like him. He remembers that in the original memories (movie) attacking his eyes would make the boss stop moving for a while, and Kaito just wanted to pull off the same scene here. When Kaito was getting attacked, both Itachi and Kirito went to the upper level of the bordering building in this boss room to avoid the boss's detection. And then, waiting for the best chance when the boss fully occupied with Kaito and co, both of them jumped to the top of the boss-- and aiming for his eyes.
"Everyone, use your strongest skill-- now!"
Hearing Kaito command, everyone quickly execute their strongest sword skill and then aimed toward the boss who still affected by Kirito and Itachi attack earlier.
...!!!
Oblique' (Asuna)
'Treble Scythe' (Yuu)
'Lightning Fall' (Mikoto)
'Horizontal' (Aika)
'Double Cleave' (Lisbeth)
'Shooting Star' (Miya)
'Rapid Bite' (Sakuya)
'Vorpal Strike!' (Kaito)
..,!!
*BAMM* *BAMM* *BAMM*
With a combination of hundreds of players attacking the boss in succession, it's not surprising that the boss' health, which was previously at 3 full bars, quickly becomes empty. The only thing this boss can do before losing is scream before it explodes into blue particles that scatter to cover the entire boss room.
"Grrrrrroaaaa!!"
...!!
*DUAR*
Realizing they had just defeated the final boss, all the players who were still alive, threw their weapons, hugged, and screamed with joy... realizing that they had finally finished the game.
