11Chapter 2: Illfang the Kobold Lord and the Beaters
It had been one month since the terror game that was SAO began. Yet despite that, no one had found the main dungeon, much less the boss door that, when cleared, would open up the Second Floor, out of 100.
In that month, Logan had discovered he could indeed shapeshift like he could in real life, and he even added a few new forms to his arsenal, from the few MOBS and mini-bosses he had found. He noticed some places were looted, which meant that someone had known where the resources were before anyone else, and that left a bad feeling in his mouth (and that wasn't the berries he had tried to stave off hunger with at one point. How was he supposed to know he'd take poison damage?!)
Logan, now level 9 (and about 75% to level 10), was wandering around town when he heard several players begin talking about a meeting happening soon. Logan decided he'd go, and hopefully figure out whether anyone else had discovered anything at all.
The town square looked oddly like a coliseum, so Logan put his hand on the hilt of his recently acquired and upgraded Anneal Blade before he recalled this was a safe zone, he couldn't take damage here unless he accepted a Duel. A man wearing heavy armor stepped into the middle of the area.
"Everyone! I am Diavel, and I like to think of myself as a knight." Several players laughed before eventually quieting when he sent them dirty looks. "Anyway, through an information broker, we believe we have found the first floor boss." Now there was a look that had become nearly unrecognizable in the month Logan had been trapped in SAO, hope.
"The beta testers have been withholding information and map data from us!" Another man, this time one wearing light armor and having orange hair that looked like a cactus, jumped down next to Diavel.
"What are you talking about?" Diavel asked, angered by the interruption by this new person.
"Beta players are taking advantage of their knowledge! Taking all of the best hunting spots and finding all of the best treasure!" Logan had a tic mark under his hood now. Yeah, they were doing that. And yeah, it irritated him that some people could be selfish like that in this situation, but how selfish were they really being? If they knew where the best stuff is, they'll probably sell it or use it to help against the bosses. And if they grinded, that meant they were strong enough to face the bosses without dying.
Besides, no one knew how to hack SAO's AI quite like Logan. When he shifted, the area counted it as a no player zone, making all MOBS instantly respawn. While tedious, this strategy was also what let Logan become so strong quite so fast.
"While I agree that supplies should be spread evenly, we have a bigger problem. The boss is called Illfang the Kobold Lord, he uses a massive axe and buckler combination, and has four bars of health. When three-fourths of his final health bar go down, he drops his shield and axe, equipping a talwart. This increases his movement speed, and allows him to use sword skills. He has a guard of three Kobold Rune Guardians for every health bar, so our strategy should be easy. We divide into parties. Several parties will fight the boss, others will deal with the Rune Guardians when they appear." As if unfrozen by Diavel's words, everyone began to party up almost immediately. Logan looked around in shock, before his eyes scrambled to find anyone who may be willing to party up. If he didn't have a party, he might not be able to participate.
Sitting near him, he saw another person wearing a hooded cloak. They (He was unable to discern their gender from here, but he guessed female by the lock of orange hair that was falling out from behind the hood. She wore a rapier at her side, which surprised him. Rapier skills were difficult to unlock, he had only just unlocked them less than a fortnight ago.
"Hey, would you like to party up?" He asked, walking over and waving in greeting. She shrugged her shoulders, making Logan sweatdrop before he sent the invite, which she accepted. Her name, Asuna, and her health bar appeared under his. "A pleasure to work with you. Name's Logan." His personality had mellowed somewhat in the month, something that Raven would be thankful for if he ever returned to the real world. When, not if, he corrected himself.
"Okay, everyone's partied up? Alright! I'm sending the map data to everyone, we attack the boss at 1000!" Everyone cheered for Diavel, before dispersing to do their own thing. Before Logan could react, Asuna had vanished from the area. That was a shame, Logan had been hoping on having a spar to see what she could do with that rapier on her hip.
A while later, Logan was sitting outside the pub as night fell. Inside, many players were getting drunk and rowdy (turns out, alcohol affects you in the game as it does in real life. Logan made a point to avoid drinks just in case.) He was just pulling out some bread to eat, when a shadow fell nearby. He turned, and saw Asuna sitting next to him, pulling some bread from her pack as well. (As far as Logan was aware, eating and drinking in the game also kept their real bodies healthy, which was good enough for him)
"Hey, I've got something that should make that bread taste better." He opened his inventory and materialized a container, tossing it underhanded to his party member. She caught it, but seemed to send him a dirty look.
"I'm not here to eat good food. I'm here to beat the boss." She said coldly, returning the jar of cream to him. A little harsh, and Logan couldn't help but be reminded of Raven.
"We'll do fine. I have a plan." When she looked at him in what he thought was curiosity (she was still wearing the hood after all), he elaborated. "I'm going to get there at 0900, instead of 1000. I'll start wearing the boss and his lackey's down. If my health gets below 50% before anyone else arrives, I want you to come in and Switch so that I can heal. With luck, we can get the boss to half health before the rest of them get there, which should save more than a few lives." Asuna, shocked by the plan, dropped her bread, and due to its low durability,it shattered into pixels. She sat there for a moment, before Logan ripped the chunk he had been eaten off his bread and gave the rest to her. He walked off, waving behind his back as he did so. "Get some rest, I'll see ya tomorrow."
The morning of the boss battle came, and Logan was pacing outside the ominous door. His clock told him that it was 0830, so he was here a while before the agreed time with Asuna, mentally preparing himself for this. He's never fought anyone particularly tough without the Titans beside him. He steeled himself once more before he opened the door, fully prepared to take on Illfang, with or without Asuna. He had plenty of healing items, so he should be fine. He kicked open the door and unsheathed his blade, ready to take on the boss. The room he entered was large, befitting of the final room before the 2nd floor.
As Logan walked in, he could feel some Killing Intent from the area. It seemed not everyone who scouted the area made it out alive... As if summoned by the thought, a giant monster dropped from the ceiling. His four health bars labelled him as 'Illfang the Kobold Lord'. Before Logan could react, the Rune Guardians appeared, all charging him.
"I shoulda seen this coming!" He muttered before he lobbed a jar of poison at the smaller enemies, taking advantage of the stun to deal finishing blows to each. "Alright big guy, lets dance!" Illfang seemed all too eager to oblige, charging at him with higher than expected speeds before his axe crushed the ground right where Logan had been standing. Now that the boss was stuck, Logan rushed towards it and activated a sword skill, launching an uppercut strike at the boss' chin, bringing himself high into the air as a result. Now above the towering boss, Logan did a frontflip and pointed his blade straight down, where it would plunge into the boss' skull.
In theory anyway. The critical damage was enough to bring Illfang's first health bar down to half, but the boss pulled its axe out from the ground and flung Logan towards the opposite wall. Doing a flip, the Titan skidded along the ground. Looking up, he saw his health was only down to 83% from the throw, and recovering quickly, making Logan thank his lucky stars that he had chosen to upgrade his Battle Regeneration.
Now the boss yet again charged, making Logan smirk. He had an idea now. Once Illfang was close enough, he leaped to the side, stabbing his sword into the boss' calf. This caused the boss to stagger, and the fall damage from that took out another quarter of the first health bar. Despite the large amount of muscle, Illfang seemed to be having trouble getting up, which gave Logan another idea. He jumped onto the Kobold Lord's back and began carving his way towards the base of its neck, where he knew he could deal plenty of damage in only a little bit of time.
Once the second health bar had been hacked away to half, Illfang seemed to gather some more strength, launching himself up and sending Logan flying yet again (At this point, Logan wondered why it is both large enemies and Raven loved throwing him around). He hit a pillar, which depleted his health down to 71%. Even as his health began to regenerate, he saw the respawned Rune Guardians, who all came charging at him. He cursed for momentarily forgetting about the Rune Guardians, and launched a wide horizontal strike, staggering the charging enemies. He planted a small Shock Bomb (Poisons and Elemental Bombs were under Crafting, a skill that Logan upgraded quite a bit) on the one in the middle, before jumping towards Illfang as electricity made the MOBs explode into pixels. He threw a few throwing pins, hoping to irritate the boss into charging. It worked, and the Kobold Lord launched himself at Logan. The changeling tensed, before suddenly he heard several gasps. Turning around for a split second, he saw that reinforcements had arrived. He had no clue how long they've been there, but it didn't matter now. They were still outside the boss door, meaning Illfang and his Rune Guardians wouldn't notice them. Reacting at speeds most humans would never expect to reach, Logan leaped at the charging monster, placing a diagonal slice across its chest and driving it up and around its back (An upwards diagonal slash from the left hip to the right shoulder, then up around the shoulder, and back towards the left hip). The monster roared in pain, the second health bar almost vanishing, which meant Logan had estimated correctly. The boss was at half health now.
"Crafters! Use poisons and elemental attacks to stagger Illfang and any remaining Rune Guardians. Ranged weapons, aim for the back of the neck if you can! And Swordsmen, with me! Attack the legs!" Logan barely stopped himself from shouting 'Titans Together!', but he managed. The group was for the most part in shock, but a hooded figure dashed out, unsheathing a rapier. Diavel soon joined in as well, running as fast as he could with the bonuses to fatigue his armor caused, pulling a sword and shield. "Diavel, go for his calves, take him to the ground! Asuna, with me, we're attacking his chest and back!" The girl gasped in surprise before nodding, using a Rapier Skill that unleashed multiple quick jabs at the enemies back. Before the bright colors that indicated wounds vanished, Logan slashed across them, doing slightly more than average damage.
The second health bar vanished with Logan's attack. Officially halfway there, three more Rune Guardians appeared, locking Diavel in a match of strength.
"Asuna, help Diavel. I'll keep Illfang off you." She nodded, and went to assist the self-proclaimed knight, just as the rest of the players ran in, their shock wearing off.
Now the battlefield was chaos. There were so many players not all of them could reach the boss at once. Three more Rune Guardians appeared at some point, but they were quickly defeated. After a while, the chaos ended when the massive axe and buckler Illfang used dropped to the ground. He unsheathed a blade, and let loose a roar that knocked all players back with the exception of Diavel and Logan, who resisted the ability. Logan's eyes widened when he saw the blade.
"Diavel! That's a nodachi, not a talwart! It has longer reach, watch out!" The warning came too late, as Diavel was launched into a pillar by a swing of the blade. The knight's eyes were wide as he looked to the upper left corner of his eye, where his healthbar was. Logan gasped when he saw it, Diavel's health was in the Red Zone…
Logan ran towards him, the sounds of battle barely registering in his ears. He had heard people have already died, but to see it himself… No! He had a healing crystal, he could get it to Diavel and save him! But even as he ran, Diavel's health ran out and he disintegrated into pixels, leaving only his sword. Logan glared at Illfang, who despite being a boss, was shivering slightly at the killing intent that the changeling was releasing.
"The only other death on this day will be yours!" He roared, picking up Diavel's blade in an unexpected turn, moving at high speeds towards the boss, who by now looked positively cowed. But the AI for Illfang was one to fight, so despite the intimidation the Logan was pouring into the area, the boss roared and charged at him as well, swinging the nodachi wildly.
Logan avoided the blade as if it were merely an irritance, ducking under it one last time before he reached the Kobold Lord, where he activated a sword skill. It was a slashing technique, which included each blow leading into another. With him doing this with both blades, Logan soon dealt the final blow, making Illfang explode into pixels. He won nearly a thousand Col, levelled up (and now was 50% of the way to level 11. What? Bosses give loads of EXP), and he got a rare item drop, Cloak of Midnight, for dealing the final blow.
"How… how did you do that?" Asuna asked, the spokesperson for the survivors it seemed.
"There must be something wrong with him!" Cactus-head shouted, making Logan's ears droop. "He knew about the change in the bosses weapon, why didn't he warn us sooner? Either he's an AI sent to keep an eye on us, or he's a beta and a cheater, a beater!" Logan growled at the accusation, turning to face the orange-haired prick.
"Look pal, I'm not an AI. I'm Logan,otherwise known as Beast Boy from the Teen Titans. Y'know, the group of superheroes that saved Tokyo's sorry ass a while back?" There was a gasp of recognition from some members of the group. "And I never played the beta. I'm a geek, so I know my swords. The game is called Sword Art Online you know. Longswords, katanas, daggers, nodachis, talwarts, and more. Did no one realize that the different swords may affect things?" He equipped the dark black cloak, feeling his stats raise from the rare item as he sheathed his blade and placed Diavel's in his inventory. He would keep the blade, and remember the sacrifice of the self proclaimed knight. "Look. This game is serious, and we are now only 1% done. We need to fight with all we have. If there's anything you can take advantage of to get stronger and help those who are afraid or weak, you should. Remember that." Logan dissolved his party with Asuna, making sure to send her a friend request before he left for the 2nd floor, ready and willing to take on anything that came his way. If only he knew...
Alright! There's another chapter down. Man, I haven't updated a story this fast since Changeling and Vampire (the remake is still in the works, don't worry). Anyway, before I go, enjoy a scene from SWE Abridged's SAO Abridged, changed to match BB instead of Kirito however. Keelah se'lai and all that, be sure to review, it gets me motivated!
Omake: Abridged Jokes Part 1
As Logan equipped the Cloak of Midnight, Asuna blinked.
"Hey, I did half the work, I should get half of the cloak." Actually, Logan was well aware that she didn't do half the work. He had done three quarters of it, while everyone else did the rest. However, he decided to have a bit of fun with the girl who, if he recalled correctly, had issues remembering how to open the menu.
"The cloak is made of ones and zeros. I can't exactly give you half." His reasoning made sense, at least to him.
"Then give me the ones." A tic mark appeared on Logan's face.
"Screw you, I get the ones!" Logan yelled before sighing. "Fine, send me a trade request." At her blink he grinned. "Simple, you need to open the menu." This statement was punctuated by a loud shout.
"Damn you Logan!"
