Chapter 65 – Sword Art Online (33)
Seo-joon and his party were standing in front of the boss room, looking at the door.
The time to gather through the strategy meeting was 10:00 am, but they came out a few hours earlier than that and broke through the top floor at 9:00.
“Everyone must have experienced it during the beta test, but don’t let your guard down just because it’s a trash mob.”
One of the monsters they will face in today’s battle, 《Ruin Kobold Sentinel》, is a pyramid summoned by the boss, but it is still stronger than normal monsters. Because the head and most of the torso were tightly covered with metal armor, I had to aim for the bare skin.
“Don’t worry, I know.”
“Only trust us, brother!”
Bang bang!
Yuuki confidently tapped her chest.
They made plans
Even if it’s an operation, it’s nothing special.
Seo-joon fights the boss alone, and the other 6 team up to take on the Ruin Kobold Sentinel one by one.
Asuna, Yuuki, and Karito were strong, so they weren’t placed in the same group.
‘The level is much higher than the original, and the equipment is good, so I’ll be able to deal with the Sentinel by myself.’
Seojun wasn’t worried.
“Let’s go.”
Seojun took the lead.
Awesome, the huge door opens.
The boss room was a rectangular space that stretched inwards.
The left and right width is almost 20 meters, and from the gate to the inner wall is 100 meters. The 20th floor here has already been mapped except for the boss room, so the size can be calculated by looking at the empty area on the map, but in reality, I felt the depth far exceeded the number.
The boss room in Aincrad does not close even after the battle begins.
So, if defeat deepens, it is possible to escape without waiting for annihilation, but if you turn around and try to dash, you will be hit by a sword skill with a long range, and if you are unlucky, you will fall into a stun.
Therefore, the body has to retreat while facing the boss, but when the situation comes, 100 meters is so long that it seems infinite.
It might be easier to withdraw from the boss fight on the upper floor where you can obtain a «Teleport Crystal» to teleport in an instant. It is true that crystals are incredibly expensive, so the loss after withdrawal is soaring.
Well, anyway, wait a minute to go in like that.
When I entered about a third of the way, crude torches blazed on the left and right walls of the boss room, which had been almost completely submerged in darkness.
Fire, fire.
The torches continued to increase in number towards the inside.
As the light source was created, the internal gamma also increased.
Cracked stone floors and walls. Numerous large and small skulls decorated everywhere. At the far end of the room, there is a crude but huge throne and the silhouette of someone sitting on it.
A stout body well over 2 meters tall. Blue-grey fur that was loosely wrapped around it. One eye that glows red and gold from thirst for blood. He carried a bone-cut ax in his right hand, a leather buckler in his left, and a talwar that could have been 1.5 meters in length behind his waist.
That’s it.
“Ugrooooo!!”
It was the king of beastmen, 《Ilfang the Kobold Road》.
Seo-joon ran out to face the boss as he had initially decided. The Sentinels who jumped out from the guy’s side tried to interfere, but the party that belatedly intervened stopped them from moving.
“Uuuuu!!!”
Seeing Seo-joon running toward him, the kobold rod raised the bone ax in his right hand high and slammed it down at him with all his might.
And so the battle began.
Geek.
Seo-joon thrust the curved sword at an angle toward the bone ax that was breaking through.
The bone ax slipped along the curved blade and crashed into the ground. Without missing that moment, Seo-jun immediately activated his sword skill without the help of system assist.
The curved blade-type single-shot Reaver hits the guy’s thigh.
“Kuaaa!!”
The kobold lord let out a furious roar as his thigh was cut.
However, Seo-jun did not stop. He immediately followed the movement like flowing water, and applied a double step, a two-hit technique, to land an additional stroke.
Marks of injury remain on the body.
Booung-!
He swung his buckler-clad arm wide and tried to hit Seo-joon.
However, Seo-joon, who noticed it right away, lowered his body to avoid the blow and cut the bottom of the guy.
Decreasing Kobold Lord’s HP.
It didn’t show much.
Still, he was not disappointed, and he went on the offensive.
‘The other kids seem fine.’
Even so, the other party looked at each other from time to time, and seemed relaxed against the Sentinel. He didn’t seem to have to worry too much about that, so he focused on the opponent in front of him.
***
Whoo-! Whoo-!
The bone ax swings with a terrifying sound.
It seemed obvious that if he allowed a blow, he would suffer great damage, but Seo-joon was still able to afford it.
That’s because even after 30 minutes of fighting, his ax hadn’t touched him even once.
Powerful, but slow and easy to read.
The physical ability itself was limited by the SAO system, but since it was a game played with brain waves, it was great that dynamic vision, agility, and reaction speed were not limited.
‘This is the 21st.’
Chew-!!
Seo-jun, who avoided the bone axe, struck the curved sword at the guy’s wrist.
The number of slashes to his wrists has already reached twenty-one, and the reason he persistently aimed at that part was to activate ‘Loss of Part’.
In SAO, there was a system called site loss.
If you land a critical hit with a weapon with the ‘cutting’ attribute or accurately target a weak point, you can cut off parts such as limbs.
Naturally, a curved sword has cutting properties.
That’s why Seojun tried.
‘A normal person wouldn’t be able to even dare.’
Normal monsters can be successful if they attack the same part 3-5 times. But it’s easy, targeting and attacking the same part in succession is a skill that few people can even dream of.
However, if you get even one wrong shot at that difficult thing, you will know how great Seo-joon is when he is facing the boss who goes to the goal.
Shhh-! Puck!
An arrow cut through the wind and pierced the Kobold Lord’s chest.
“I will support you!”
It was Sinon’s activity.
The Sentinel, who had already appeared for the second time, had long since been killed by them.
“Sonic Leap!”
“Shooting Star!”
“Rage Spike!”
It wasn’t just Sinon who joined.
Yuuki, Asuna, and Kirito quickly jumped out and struck the Kobold Lord’s empty flanks and rear. The kobold lord roared, staggering under the attack from all sides, raising his bone axe.
His ax glowed green.
It was the precursor to the sword skill of axe-type weapons, 〈 Wheel Wind 〉. He tried to slash the ax horizontally.
But right before that.
“Where?”
Seojun activated his sword skill to block his attack.
The great rigidity caused by the clash of sword skills and sword skills, aiming for the gap, three girls who were very close to each other fired sword skills in quick succession.
At least 5 seconds or so.
Due to the overwhelming firepower applied, the third line of the Kobold Lord’s HP bar finally became 0.
All that remains is the last line.
“Now get everyone back.”
“Jun-kun, cheer up!”
“I will only trust you!”
“June! Don’t overdo it!”
That’s right!
Asuna, Yuuki, and Kirito quickly fall behind.
They drew aggro from the Sentinels that appeared near the Kobold Road and fell back.
All that remains is the kobold rod entering the berserk pattern.
“Kuaaa!!”
He threw the bone ax in his right hand and the shield in his left at the same time. After roaring, the bastard takes his right hand behind his waist.
Grasping the grip with the rags wrapped roughly, he smoothly pulled out the viciously long Talwar.
It was an attack pattern change motion that I saw several times in the early beta.
From now on, until I die, I will only use sword skills from the Gokdo category.
It’s terrifying to see them rampaging in a berserk state, but actually coping with them is easier than ever.
This is because the technique used is only the straight line, long-range vertical slash series, so if you know the trajectory when the technique is activated, it is different from the boss and you can avoid it while blowing.
But this is the Beta story.
His sword was too thin to be called Talwar.
The gently curved blade is obviously the same as in the beta, but narrower and with a different brilliance. It wasn’t a crude cast iron texture.
The hue of well-tempered and polished steel. Seo-joon saw a weapon very similar to him on the 10th floor of the floating castle. Even the songs that the greatest enemies of the beta era listened to, wrapped in red armor. During the beta test, it was an extra skill in the monster category that was not unlocked by players other than Seo Jun.
“Katana.”
Seo-jun had also used it, so he knew for sure.
It was clearly 〈 katana 〉, an extra skill of the curved sword series. And among them, it was a large wild sword that reached more than 90 centimeters in length.
‘It’s the same as the original.’
He grinned.
He took a step forward without hesitation.
Compared to the boss I met on the 10th floor, 〈 Kagachi The Samurai Road 〉, the beast in front of me was so easy.
“Gooooo!!”
Bang-!
The colossal Kobold Lord shook the floor and jumped vertically.
It twists its body to the fullest in the air and puts power into its weapon. At the same time as it fell, the accumulated power changed its form to a crimson glow and was released like a whirlpool.
Trajectory is horizontal. Angle of attack omnidirectional, that is, 360 degrees.
A sword skill exclusive to the katana, a heavy range attack «Seoncha (旋車)».
Dearbell’s party, which went on the offensive with that attack in the original work, suffers near-death damage in an instant.
However, Seo-joon was different from those gossips.
He lowered his body to the ground. A night sword passes over the spot where his head was just now.
Seojun did not immediately counterattack.
Because he was the one who used the katana, he knew what was coming next.
“Ugr!!”
He howled and raised the Yataedo held with both hands in a trajectory that seemed to brush against the floor and cut it high.
It was the sword skill 《Float》.
However, Seo-joon again attacked with a piece of paper.
At the same time, Seo Jun’s curved sword drew a graceful semi-circle trajectory, leaving a trail of light.
Squeak-
Immediately after, the sound of something being cut rang out.
Then, with a coo, something fell to the floor. It was a hand
The kobold lord’s wrist holding the night sword. In the aftermath of the body being cut off, a red light source effect was generated instead of fresh blood.
“Kwaaaaagh?!”
Unlike the roar so far, a kobold rod that clearly emits a cry close to a scream.
Seojun smiled.
“Finally cut.”
Twenty-two attempts.
In the end, I finally succeeded in cutting off his wrist.
Seo-joon swung his curved sword around as if shaking off blood. Of course, there was no such thing as blood, so it was an unnecessary action, but it only came out naturally because he was accustomed to practicing swordsmanship.
“Well, then…”
He looked at the kobold lord holding the severed wrist.
His last HP bar was cut by a quarter in an instant in the aftermath of his wrist being cut off, and an icon indicating the loss of parts was floating next to it.
A boss who couldn’t hold a weapon.
Sword skill, of course, even the reach was shortened, it was unreasonable to call it a boss any longer.
Rather than being a boss… It was more like a punching bag.
“Shall we finish quickly?”
Seo-jun, who hit the ground, rushed at the kobold lord.
Seeing Seo-joon approaching him, the kobold road’s face showed a clear glimmer of despair even though it was a beast made of data.
