Mother's Rosary

  “…Which could mean,” Yuuki said, wide-eyed, clutching her hands to her chest, “it wasn’t just a coincidence that the twenty-fifth- and twenty-sixth-floor bosses got beaten right after we tried them!”

  There was surprise in her voice, but not a hint of anger or affront. Asuna felt a renewed sense of respect for the girl as she nodded. “I’m sure that was it. Because of your best efforts, all of the boss’s information was laid bare for others to step in and utilize.”

  “Which would mean,” Siune murmured, her shapely brows contracting, “that we’ve played the patsy role for them once again…?”

  “…My God,” Nori lamented, as the other five started to slump their shoulders, but before that, Asuna smacked Yuuki’s armor.

  “Nope, we don’t know that for sure yet!”

  “Huh…? What do you mean, Asuna?”

  “It’s two thirty in the real world right now, and it’ll be hard to get a few dozen people together for a raid at this time, even for a big guild. At the earliest, it’ll take them an hour—and we’re going to strike before they can. Let’s wrap up this meeting in five minutes, so we can be back at the boss chamber in thirty!”

  “What?!” the mighty warriors all exclaimed in shock. Asuna glanced at the group and gave them a one-sided smirk she’d picked up from a certain someone.

  “We can do this. We can beat this boss—even with our number.”

  “R-really?!” Yuuki blurted, leaning forward so hard that their noses nearly bumped.

  “As long as we calmly and accurately hit its weaknesses. Here’s the strategy: though the extra arms are tricky, the boss is a giant type, and the fact that it’s not an abnormal creature type means that at least it has traditional facets we can exploit. We know it attacks by swinging down its hammers, lashing with its chains, and lowering its heads to charge. When its HP is half down, it adds a wide-range breath attack. When the HP goes farther down to red, it uses an eight-part Sword Skill with all four weapons…”

  Asuna spread open a holo-panel on the floor, switched it to a text-entry window, and quickly typed up a list of the boss’s attack patterns. Then she listed the specific defensive methods for each one.

  “…So Jun and Tecchi, you can ignore the chains. Just focus on the hammers. Next is the weak points. Don’t try to stop the hammer swings with your shields or weapons, just dodge them and let them hit the floor—that will cause a point-seven-second delay. Nori and Talken, make sure that you get major attacks in during that window. Also, its back has significant weaknesses. Yuuki, you stay on his rear at all times and use charge skills. Just watch out for the chains, as they go all the way around the back. Now, as for the breath attack…”

  She hadn’t talked this much at a strategy meeting since she was an officer in the Knights of the Blood, but Asuna didn’t have time to reflect on the distant past. The other six nodded, listening intently.

  A part of her noted that it was like being a schoolteacher. Asuna’s lecture was done in four minutes. Next, she opened her inventory and materialized all the healing potions they’d bought with their preparation budget, as well as the parting gifts her friends had shared with them.

  A pile of colorful glass bottles clattered across the floor. They distributed the potions in a ratio matching the damage each member had taken in their previous attempt. Then, they tossed the blue potions with mana recovery effects into Asuna’s and Siune’s pouches, completing the preparations.

  Asuna stood up straight, looked at her new companions, and grinned. “I’ll say it again. You…no, we can beat this boss. I’ve been fighting in this place for years, so take it from me.”

  Yuuki gave her usual dazzling smile and stated, “My hunch was right. I was correct to ask you for help—and that won’t change, whether we succeed or fail. Thank you, Asuna.”

  The others all agreed. Siune, who seemed to be the second-in-command, said in a soft but clear voice, “Thank you very much. I am now certain that you were exactly the person we were hoping to find.”

  Asuna did her best to contain the sudden swell of emotion she felt within her. She held up a finger and winked.

  “Let’s hold all of that until we can celebrate. So…once again, let’s do this!”

  The group left Rombal again, flying for the labyrinth at maximum speed. They took the shortest, most direct route, which caught the attention of several monsters, but Nori’s bewitching magic temporarily blinded them so the party could continue unmolested.

  They reached the massive tower in just five minutes, flying straight into the entrance without stopping first, then racing the same route all the way up to the top. Of course, they couldn’t just run through the middle of the monster groups unimpeded, but Yuuki took the reins and once again dispatched the enemy leaders.

  Their timers read twenty-eight minutes when they reached the corridor that led to the boss chamber. The long, wide hallway curved left in a spiral as it headed toward the center of the tower.

  “All right! Two minutes to go!” Jun shouted, and started a sprint for the goal in front of Yuuki.

  “Hey! Wait, you!” she cried, racing after him with her hand outstretched.

  At this rate, they might just be able to rub it into the bigger guild’s face, Asuna thought as she ran along. The group plunged down the winding corridor until finally, the doors to the chamber came into view.

  “…?!”

  She sucked in a deep breath and put on the brakes when she saw what lay ahead. Yuuki’s and Jun’s boots scraped against the floor as they came to a stop.

  “Wh…what is this?!” Jun murmured, next to Asuna.

  The last seventy feet of the corridor to the boss chamber was jammed with a crowd of players, near twenty in all.

  Their races were mixed, but there was one common feature: They all bore a single guild symbol on their color cursors. It was a shield with a horse in profile—the same thing as the three they’d caught waiting at the door.

  We are too late?! They couldn’t have gathered their members this quickly, Asuna thought ruefully. It wasn’t enough people for a boss fight. Twenty people were three parties, less than half of the maximum raid size of seven parties of seven.

  They were probably still waiting for the rest of their group to arrive. Making the very end of the labyrinth your meeting spot was a bold move, but that was probably a sign of how desperate they were.

  This time, Yuuki finally looked somewhat upset. Asuna approached her and whispered into the girl’s ear, hidden by long purple hair.

  “Don’t worry. It looks like we’ll have time to try it once.”

  “…Really?” asked Yuuki, looking relieved. Asuna patted her shoulder and strode over to the group. Every one of them stared at her, but there was no surprise or doubt on their faces. In fact, there was an easiness that said they were enjoying the situation.

  Asuna paid them no mind and marched right up to a gnome wearing particularly expensive-looking armor.

  “I’m sorry, we’d like to fight the boss. Will you let us through?”

  But the gnome, whose arms were folded forbiddingly, gave her the exact answer she was fearing: “Sorry, no passage.”

  “No passage…? What do you mean?” she asked, taken aback. The gnome’s eyebrows bounced high as he shrugged.

  “Our guild’s going to fight the boss here. We’re just making preparations now. You’ll have to wait.”

  “Wait? How long?”

  “About an hour.”

  Now Asuna understood their plan. Not only had they put those scouts there to watch for boss strategies, but they had more members ready to physically block the path in case any particularly able-looking parties happened to arrive while they were preparing.

  She had heard rumors about certain high-level guilds monopolizing certain hunting areas, but she had no idea that they were brazenly claiming neutral ground regularly like this. This was the kind of tyrannical behavior that the army had engaged in, back in the old Aincrad.

  Asuna did her be
st not to stifle her natural urge to blister. “We don’t have time to wait around for that. If you’re going to fight right away, that’s one thing. But if you’re not, we’re going first.”

  “I’m afraid that’s not happening,” said the gnome, utterly unperturbed. “We lined up first. You’ll have to wait your turn.”

  “In that case, come when you’re actually ready. We can go in at any time, so it’s not fair to make us wait a whole hour.”

  “Like I said, there’s nothing I can do for you. It’s orders from above, so if you’ve got a problem, you can take it up with Guild HQ back in Ygg City.”

  “But that’ll take us an hour just to go back there!” Asuna finally yelled, her temper lost. She bit her lip and took a deep breath.

  They weren’t going to let the team pass, no matter how she negotiated. So what could they do?

  What if she negotiated to give them all the items and yrd that the boss dropped, if they allowed the party to go in first? No, items weren’t all the benefits of beating a boss. There was a huge pile of skill points to be gained, as well as the intangible honor of having one’s name on the Monument of Swordsmen. These people would not bite.

  If this were a different VRMMO, they might have the option of reporting unfair behavior to the GMs, but it was general ALO policy to have all players resolve differences on their own. GMs only got involved with system or personal account issues. Asuna was trapped.

  The gnome glared down at her, sensing that their negotiation was over, and he turned to rejoin his fellows.

  From behind Asuna, Yuuki called out to the gnome: “Hey, you.”

  He stopped and looked over his shoulder at the Absolute Sword’s cheerful grin. “So you’re saying that no matter how nicely we ask, you’re not going to let us pass?”

  “That’s basically it, if you want to know.”

  He had been momentarily surprised by the frankness of Yuuki’s question, but he regained his haughty attitude just as quickly. Yuuki kept her smile up as she said, “Oh. That’s that, then. Let’s fight.”

  “Wh-what?!”

  “Huh?”

  Asuna’s confused shriek came at the same moment as the gnome’s.

  One of ALO’s more hardcore features was the ability to attack other players freely when in neutral territory. It was explained in the game’s help menu that every player had the right to express his or her frustration with others through the use of a sword.

  But actually attacking others had its own troubles beyond just what was stipulated in the rules—especially when your target was a member of a high-ranking guild. Winning that particular duel could mean receiving retribution from the guild at a later time, and you never knew when an in-game argument could spill out into the larger Net community. It was well known among those who weren’t in the game explicitly for PKing that one should never pick a fight with a big guild.

  “Y-Yuuki, you might not want…” Asuna started, pausing when she wasn’t sure how best to explain all this. Yuuki just patted her on the back with a smile.

  “There are some things you can’t get across without confronting them, Asuna. Such as showing just how serious you are about something.”

  “Yep, she’s right,” Jun murmured from behind them. Asuna turned to see the other five members brandishing their weapons with calm acceptance.

  “You guys…”

  “They must be prepared for this possibility, too; they’re the ones blocking the way. They’ll be guarding this spot down to the last man, I expect,” Yuuki said, throwing a glance at the lead gnome. “Isn’t that right?”

  “Uh…W-we’re…” the man stammered, still surprised. The small imp girl drew her longsword and held the point out in midair. The smile vanished from her lips, and her eyes went hard and serious.

  “Now draw your weapon,” Yuuki commanded. As if possessed by her demand, the gnome pulled a large battle-ax from his belt and uneasily held it at the ready.

  The next moment, the girl charged down the corridor like a gust of wind.

  “Nwuh…!”

  The gnome growled and grimaced, finally realizing what was happening. He swung his enormous ax, but it was far too late. Yuuki’s obsidian sword came in low and bolted upward like a wave of darkness, catching him square in the chest.

  “Urgh!”

  That single blow was all it took for Yuuki to knock back the gnome, who vastly outweighed her. Next came a direct overhead slash. The sword bit into the gnome’s shoulder with a heavy thunk, carving out a huge chunk of HP.

  “Raaahh!!” he bellowed, truly enraged now, and swung his double-bladed ax down at Yuuki from the right. His speed was impressive and worthy of a party leader for a major guild, but the Absolute Sword calmly met the blow.

  Kwing! A high-pitched metallic ringing diverted the ax just slightly, so that it passed inches over Yuuki’s red headband. Normally, parrying was a trick that only worked on weapons in the same weight class or lower. The only reason her delicate, rapierlike sword could parry a tremendous battle-ax was the frightening speed with which she swung it. Such movement was not possible unless the avatar, the nervous system, and the AmuSphere that connected them were fused as one.

  What kind of experience did one need to reach such heights? Asuna watched the battle with wonder and curiosity, as Yuuki’s sword took on a pale blue glow. She was preparing a Sword Skill.

  The gnome was already off balance from his failed heavy attack, and she caught him with four blows in the space of a breath: a strike to the head, a downward slash, an upward slash, and a full-power overhead slice. The glowing blue square left behind by the point of her sword burned in the gnome’s body. It was the perpendicular four-part attack, Vertical Square.

  “Gaaah!” the gnome roared, flying backward and crashing onto the floor. His HP bar dropped all the way to the red zone. He himself must have hardly believed it, because his eyes darted to the upper right and went wide.

  He looked back at Yuuki, and his expression of shock turned to rage. “You…you pulled a dirty sneak attack on me!” he snarled, rather inaccurately. When he got to his feet again, his twenty companions were switched into battle mode. The close-range fighters spread out to span the hallway, drawing their weapons.

  Asuna automatically squeezed her World Tree wand, her mind ringing with the refrain of Yuuki’s earlier statement.

  There are some things you can’t get across without confronting them, Asuna.

  That wasn’t just meant for this situation. It was a firmly held belief of the strange girl named Yuuki. She had been doing this all along, after all. She’d crossed blades with countless challengers in her street duels, coming into contact with their hearts in the process.

  …I see…But of course…

  Asuna found that she was smiling without realizing it. If you backed down from challenging other players because you were worried about retribution, there was no point in playing a VRMMO at all. The sword at her waist was not for show, nor was it a piece of precious jewelry. Not at all.

  Asuna took a step forward, her boots clicking with intense purpose, drawing herself next to Yuuki. Jun and Siune took Asuna’s right, while Tecchi, Nori, and Talken stood on Yuuki’s left.

  Something about their little party of seven caused the enemy force, three times their number, to falter a step back.

  The tense moment was broken by a horde of footsteps, not from ahead, but from behind. The gnome looked over the Sleeping Knights’ heads at the far end of the hallway and grinned with victorious smugness.

  “…!”

  Asuna turned back, dreading what she would see, as a huge number of color cursors appeared in her view. The guild tags were mostly new to her—an arrow on a crescent moon—but some of them contained the familiar horse on shield. That meant this was the other half of the raid party the gnome’s people were waiting for. There ought to be nearly thirty of them, then.

  No matter how tough Yuuki’s team was, they couldn’t beat seven times their number, especially when f
lanked on both sides. The foes outside of their weapon range alone would pick them off by magic or arrows.

  This is my fault for waffling like that, Asuna thought, biting her lip with remorse. If she’d followed Yuuki’s creed from the start, they might have blown through the twenty ahead of them and made it into the boss chamber.

  But before she could apologize to her party, Yuuki brushed her hand. She could sense the girl’s intent through her virtual skin.

  I’m sorry, Asuna. My impatience got you dragged into this. But I don’t regret a thing. That was the best smile I’ve seen from you since I met you.

  The whisper seemed to sink directly into her head. Asuna squeezed back to impart her own message: No, I’m sorry for being useless. Maybe this floor won’t work out, but I’m sure we can defeat the next boss together.

  Their sentiments were sensed and shared by the other five. Everyone nodded and formed a rounded formation with a front and rear line. All thirty bearing down on them from the rear had apparently received a briefing about the situation, and were ready with their weapons drawn.

  At this point, they just had to fight as long as they could. Asuna held her wand aloft, preparing an attack spell. A claw-wielding cait sith on the enemy’s front rank flashed a carnivorous smile and snarled, “You don’t know when to—”

  But before he could finish his triumphant taunt, Asuna and every other player present in the corridor was brought to a halt by an even more unimaginable sight.

  “Wh-what’s that…?!” cried Nori, who was the first to notice it with her night vision. A second later, Asuna saw it as well.

  From behind the approaching enemy reinforcements, who were nearly twenty yards away now, something…someone was running sideways along the gently curving corridor wall. The silhouette was dark and hazy from the extreme speed.

  Whoever it was, they were using the Wallrun skill that all of the more nimble fairy races could use: sylph, undine, cait sith, imp, and spriggan. But it normally only lasted a good thirty feet or so, while this figure had already traveled three times that length. It was a piece of acrobatics that was impossible without incredible dash speed.