Sword Art Online - Volume 7 - Mother's Rosario

  Using this opening, Asuna whispered to Shiune, who finished casting the healing spell.

  “Can you heal on your own?”

  The Undine who was slightly taller than Asuna immediately nodded her head.

  “Yeah, I guess I can.”

  “I’ll deal with the enemy healers then.”

  It’s been a few minutes since the battle started, and the sounds behind started to become more and more intense. This should be the result of Kirito and Cline charging into the enemy’s group to prevent magic attacks. However, they didn’t have any healers, and couldn’t heal all sorts of unexpected damage. Kirito said that he could hang on for 3 minutes, but it would be best if they could break through the enemy to repay their sacrifice. So now would be the time to end this short battle.

  Asuna quickly called her window, put the wand into her item inventory and switched to the rapier she loved to use. A silver glow appeared at her waist,

  *SHCHANK!* The thin blade was drawn out. First, she ran over to the 2 Sylphs that were held up by the restraining spell «Aqua Bind», and mercilessly attacked their vital points to cause their HP bar to vanish immediately.

  She ignored the avatars that shattered in front of her and looked over at where the battle was proceeding. It seemed that every corner of the corridor was filled with players that were maniacally swinging the blades in their hands, but if she had to put it, the right side was the one with less people.

  Asuna took a deep breath, adjusted her breathing, and forcefully kicked the ground. She put the rapier in her right hand at her waist and sprinted. Once she reached a certain speed, she shouted at Yuuki, who was fighting with her back facing Asuna,

  “YUUKI! DODGE!”

  “He…!?—AA!?”

  Yuuki tilted her head slightly, checked that Asuna was rushing over, and hurriedly dodged. Asuna aimed at the Gnome leader, standing still with his axe out, and thrust a sword strike out in a straight manner right as she got into a forward-bent posture.

  *BAA!!* The sword let out some white flashes, and several lights surrounded Asuna. Asuna immediately felt a floating sensation, and she grew a long tail like a comet before rushing forward with tremendous speed.

  “UWAAAHHH!!!”

  The Gnome that was finally able to move readied the two-handed axe and was ready to use it as a shield. However, Asuna was faster, and the front tip of the rapier touched his body.

  The Gnome looked like a monster that lost control as he was blown up into the air. He was about to have his HP whittled down to zero thanks to Yuuki, and was blown into yellow lights and scattered while in the air.

  Having turned into a white comet, Asuna didn’t slow down even after dealing with one person as she rushed over to the healers. The 3-4 people that were in the way and their leaders were blown aside. Some flew into the air, and some sat on the ground. She was using the strongest long distance thrust sword skill for rapiers, the «Flashing Penetrator». A lot of running was required to use this skill, so almost no one would use this in a 1 v 1 duel. However, it was very effective when breaking through people.

  Asuna immediately pierced through the metal wall of armor and shields before gliding forward for about several meters. At this moment, she finally landed on the ground of the dungeon. She used the heel of her boots as brakes, creating lots of sparks in the process, and knelt on the ground on one leg before lifting her head. The four casters, wearing robes and cassocks, could only look down blankly at Asuna.

  ――It looked like the infamous nickname «Berserk Healer» became even better known now.

  Asuna thought as she forcefully dragged the rapier in her right hand back.

  The most important thing in a group battle wasn’t the ability of the members fighting at the frontlines, but the status of the backup group supporting them from behind, Asuna fervently eliminated the opposing healers, and the frontlines were crushed by Yuuki, who had Shiune and the rest helping.

  The total time taken was 2 minutes and 8 seconds.

  Looking back, she immediately saw that Kirito and Cline were still fighting intently against the reinforcements. The enemy had already lost a lot of members, but the duo’s HP bars were near the red region as shown by the cursor colors.

  Deep within her heart, Asuna again thanked the two of them and Yui, who was on Kirito’s shoulder acting as the tactical radar.

  She immediately turned around and shouted at all of the Sleeping Knights, who managed to survive,

  “ALRIGHT, IT’S THE MAIN SHOW NOW! LET’S GO BEAT THE BOSS!!”

  The six of them immediately shouted alright and kicked the ground to dash towards the black gate leading to the boss room with Asuna.

  Like their first challenge, Jun placed his left hand on the gates. The gates let out a heavy sound and opened both doors, shooting out 2 rows of bluish-white flames.

  The time taken for the flames to form a circle would be the time taken for the gate to remain open for those still outside, but there was no need to wait. The seven of them immediately flew in. Asuna was the last one to rush in, and immediately turned around to press the stone button that was set on the right wall. This was the button to cancel the one minute waiting time.

  The door let out a loud boom, and slowly closed on both left and right sides, and the intense battle behind was reaching its critical moment.

  The black-clothed swordsman whose HP bar became bright red raised his right hand. He then pointed two fingers, this time really showing the V-sign to Asuna.

  Once the boss room gate closes completely, they wouldn’t be able to hear any voices from the corridor. Nobody will then be able to open this gate unless the fight inside ends.

  In complete silence, fire would continue to rise every two seconds. Right now, the fire filled half the room. In other words, there were about 50 seconds before the boss appears.

  “Everyone, hurry up and use potions to recover HP and MP. We’ll proceed with the conquest as according to the plan in the meeting. The attack pattern at first will be simple. Just dodge them calmly.”

  After hearing Asuna’s words, the six of them nodded slightly and started taking out red or blue bottles.

  Asuna noticed that they still had something to say after drinking their potions, and showed a puzzled look. Yuuki then stepped forward to represent them and spoke,

  “Asuna…those two came to help us and…”

  “…Yeah.”

  Asuna smiled and nodded. Right now, Kirito and Cline should have their HP worn out and becoming little «Remain Lights». No, even if they remained there, nobody would revive them, so they should return to the respawn point.

  Thinking that Yuuki and the rest would be worried about the duo that became sacrifices, Asuna continued to stare at everyone and said in a clear voice,

  “Let’s beat the boss to repay their intentions.”

  “But…we’re always relying on you and your friends…”

  Yuuki bit her lips, and the hair that had a red headband on it drooped down as well. However, Asuna merely patted Yuuki’s shoulders. There were still 10 seconds until the boss appears. The Undine used this moment to say something important.

  “You taught me something important too, Yuuki. Didn’t you say that «Some things have to be done through forceful means for the other party to understand»?”

  Yuuki’s eyes widened, but Shiune and the other five immediately understood what Asuna was trying to say. As the fairies smiled and nodded, the last of the flames shot out to the sky behind them.

  “Now, this is the last time! The guild just now will definitely try to regroup while we’re battling and gather at the corridor. We have to work hard and show them the victory sign when the door opens!”

  As the sub-leader of the «Knights of the Blood», she would also encourage everyone before a boss fight. However, the words Asuna said back then would only cause her allies to tense up. Those were words that would make them grip their swords hard, but wouldn’t allow them to resonate with their hearts. That’s beca
use Asuna only thought of how to effectively command people, and never show their real feelings.

  …Yuuki, once this battle is over, tell me more about you, like what journeys you went throughout the world and what adventures you had.

  With such feelings, Asuna forcefully grabbed Yuuki’s shoulder guards and stepped back. At this moment, she sheathed her rapier again and raised the World Tree wand up high.

  In front of them, a deep bellowing began along with the formation of a rock-like polygon. The boss was about to appear. The four-armed giant leaped out as the humanoid-looking blocks were blown aside.

  “Alright…let’s challenge it again!”

  On hearing Yuuki’s heroic voice, everyone’s increasing momentum matched the black giant’s roars.

  Chapter 7

  Asuna used her thumb to flick open the cap of a small bottle and gulped down the blue liquid inside. She then checked the remaining amount of mana potions.

  The potions that filled her pockets were used up during the 40 minute long intense battle, and she was left with three. Shiune, who was also acting as the healer alongside her, should have about the same amount as Asuna.

  The few people who were in charge of the frontal assault seemed to be worn out. They tried their best to avoid the dodgeable attacks of the black giant’s attack patterns, but they couldn’t avoid the giant’s toxic wide-ranged breath and the all-directional attack of the two metal chains swinging about crazily. While these attacks appeared, Asuna and Shiune could only continue to chant the highest level spells for healing, so their mana points continued to dwindle like flowing water.

  Even though Nori’s stick, Taruken’s spear and Yuuki’s sword managed to hit the giant precisely, it felt like they were hitting an iron wall that wouldn’t be damaged no matter how much they attacked. The boss would occasionally put its four arms in front of its body to defend itself, and when it did so, it would be able to deflect everything like metal, and the sense of futility continued to increase.

  Asuna swallowed the anxiety that was rising up her throat along with the potion, and energetically said to everyone,

  “Everyone, we’re going to make it! Just a little more!”

  —Even so, 5 minutes ago, she was shouting the same words. As there weren’t any HP bars shown on the boss monsters of the floors in New Aincrad, they could only guess its HP through movements. The black giant that was slow and dormant at first could be said to have gone completely berserk. They could confirm that he didn’t have much health left, but this of course was merely an overly optimistic guess.

  In such an overly long battle where there was no end in sight, the backup players behind normally needed to use up mana points, but the front players withstanding the enemy’s onslaught had to use their mental strength and concentration. In a normal boss battle, they would have to switch a tank at the front after a maximum of 5 minutes. From this, one could tell how much the Sleeping Knights were struggling.

  However, they would still end up tired in the end. After hearing Asuna’s call, Yuuki was the only one who let out an energetic Oh!! to answer her. The petite Imp girl didn’t show any fatigue even after countless minutes of battle as she continued to use her fleet feet to dodge the giant’s hammer and chains before using the sword in her right hand to deal decisive damage.

  Before this, Asuna thought that Yuuki’s strength came from her abnormal reflexes, but now she had a whole new understanding to this. That strong will to concentrate and continue swinging the sword may even be a match for Kirito’s.

  At this moment, Asuna chanted for the umpteenth time as she saw a distant memory in the past from the current scene.

  In the 74th level boss room in Old Aincrad, Kirito once fought valiantly alone against a gigantic humanoid-type monster. He used parries and speedy footwork to dodge the enemy’s ferocious attacks under such a dangerous situation, and his two swords continued to swing at a machine gun-like speed, using endless number of sword skills at the weakness of the boss, the flank—

  “Ah..”

  With this sudden idea, Asuna couldn’t help but call out. The spell chanting failed as it was interrupted, and BOON! Black smoke appeared around her.

  Asuna immediately cringed as she messed up, but Shiune, who was behind her, managed to finish her spell at the last second. Tecchi and company that was surrounded by toxic breath in front had their HP bars reverted to a safe level.

  Asuna raised her hand in apology to Shiune, who glanced at her, then said quickly,

  “Shiune, I have an idea. Can you hang on for about 30 seconds by yourself?”

  “Un, it’s alright. I still have enough mana.”

  Asuna raised her hand at Shiune again, who nodded, then raised the staff in her right hand. She quickly took a deep breath, and started chanting a new spell at the fastest speed possible.

  As the spell words were chanted, glittering ice pieces started to appear in front of Asuna, and they immediately solidified into four sharp ice pillars. Once the ice knives were complete, a blue circle appeared in the girl’s eyes. This was the scope of the non-tracking offensive spell.

  Asuna cautiously moved her left hand and slightly adjusted the blue scopes at the throats below the two heads of the giant. The giant continued to move forward, and the hammers in the upper two hands were ready to swing down—

  “Eii!”

  Asuna swung the staff in her right hand straight down. 4 ice pillars flew in the air with a light blue trail, accurately hitting the bottom of the giant’s necks.

  “GUUOOOOOHHHHHH!!!”

  The giant immediately let out what sounded like a cry of agony as the hammer attack stopped. The four arms were crossed in front of its body as it curled up. It kept such a defensive position for about five seconds before raising its arms again and slamming the warhammer into the stone floor.

  The ground trembled with this heavy and loud sound, and Asuna steadied herself to prevent herself from falling as she whispered,

  “As expected…”

  Seeing that Shiune, beside her, had her head tilted in doubt, Asuna quickly explained,

  “I originally thought that the defensive action was just random, but it wasn’t like that. His neck is the weakness. We didn’t have too much strength to look for its weakness, so I completely forgot about this…”

  “So we can beat it by attacking that, right?”

  “I guess…it would be more efficient, but that weakness is way too high…”

  The giant was about 4m, and even Taruken’s spear would need some more length before reaching its neck. It couldn’t be attacked directly. They could fly and attack if it was on the field, but they couldn’t do so in a dungeon.

  “Looks like we can only get ready to be countered and use our sword skills to attack.”

  Asuna nodded her head in agreement with Shiune. They could only use a thrust-type sword skill if they wanted to extend their hangtime in the air in an area they couldn’t fly, or jump and use a combo-type skill. Of course, once they finished doing so, there would be a lag, and then they would fall without any defense. The enemy would use that time to counter hard. Even though they could try to use a spell to revive anyone if they died, it wouldn’t work every time. Also, revival spells were rather long, and would slow down the recovery of health, which may cause the entire party to collapse.

  However—Yuuki would definitely say without hesitation, let’s try this. Asuna thought about this and looked at Shiune’s face. In the end, this tender-looking yet unexpectedly strong Undine nodded hard to agree with Asuna’s thoughts.

  “I’ll go forward to tell them the battle plan. Please hang on and heal them.”

  “Leave it to me!”

  Of the few potions that she had left, Asuna grabbed two bottles, handed them to Shiune, and immediately dashed forward. She immediately ran through 15m, got near the black giant, and the roar of the chain immediately came from beside her. She cringed her neck back to dodge it, but the plumb-bob grazed the front end of her shoulder, an
d her HP immediately dropped.

  However, Asuna didn’t mind at all. As she got behind Yuuki, she shouted,

  “Yuuki!”

  Yuuki, who was swinging her sword, looked back and widened her eyes,

  “Asuna, why are you here?”

  “Listen to me. This guy has a weakness. We should be able to deal more damage to it if we aim for the central parts of its neck.”

  “Weakness?”

  Yuuki looked back again, and stared at the giant’s head, up above. At this moment, a large barrel-sized hammer suddenly flew down from above, and both of them immediately ducked. Yuuki then jumped to avoid the shockwave on the ground and shouted,

  “It’s too high…I can’t reach it even if I jumped!”

  “Isn’t there a well-suited stepping board?”

  Asuna smiled and looked over at Tecchi who was slightly further away, raising the shield that looked like a doorplate and protecting Nori from the wildly swinging chain. Yuuki seemed to understand Asuna’s intention and smiled back.

  Both of them dashed forward and went about 3m behind Tecchi. Yuuki put her left hand near her mouth and let out an amazingly loud voice from her petite body.

  “Tecchi! DUCK DOWN AFTER THE NEXT HAMMER ATTACK!!”

  The tall and large gnome widened his small eyes, but immediately nodded.

  The black giant swung its metal chain for a while, and then tilted its upper body that was as large as a large boulder before taking a deep breath. It paused for a while before opening its two mouths. KOHAAA!! It let out its toxic breath, and the surroundings were all covered with a sulfur-like smell. Everyone who was standing in front of it had their HP drop bit by bit.

  However, once the breath attack ended, a blue light descended and recovered everyone’s health with perfect timing. The giant then raised the two hammers that were in its upper arms.

  Yuuki ducked and got ready to charge forward. Asuna quickly said to her little back.