15 Chapter 15: Illfang, The Kobold Lord
[Third Person Pov]
[3rd of December, 12.43]
Ayanokoji was approaching the Amphitheater, when he heard someone calling out his name from behind.
"Hey, Ayanokoji," Kirito, someone with whom he had spent many hours inside this game shouted his name.
When Ayanokoji turned around, wanting to greet Kirito too, he saw that he was being accompanied by Argo and Asuna.
As for the reason why, well, Asuna went yesterday to his home, since Kirito had a bath, which she hadn't in her room, and took a small bath there. Well, she ended up sleeping inside the bathtube until the next morning, since it made her relax a bit.
Argo in return just wanted to meet Asuna, knowing that her last location was at Kirito, and told him about the rumors many girls inside the game were spreading about him.
They had the common misconception that Kirito was 'luring' every girl he was hitting on to his home, by telling them he had a 'bath' and well, that was all.
They didn't seem to think he was trying to take advantage of them in any other way, since it wasn't possible, unless you had consent from both sides.
But rumors like that made him really really unpopular. The looks that 'girls' would give him and Ayanokoji were completely different. Whenever passing by with Ayanokoji next to some girls, they'd always look them differently.
Perhaps, that was what you called the charm of an 'Ikemen', he guessed. But Ayanokoji didn't really seem to care.
Well, he already had a girlfriend, even if they get more or less now into disputes. Even if they were to break up, he'd still have 'Ichinose' as another resort, with whom he could get together, if he wanted too.
"Hello, Kirito, Asuna, Argo," Ayanokoji greeted. "Are you two prepared for the fight?"
Argo seemed to be a little dissatisfied that he dismissed her of not fighting. "Ay-bou, even if ya know that I won't fight, ya could at least include me in, and not dismiss me immediately."
Argo pouted, crossing her arms like a type of person whom you'd call as 'Tsundere'.
Ayanokoji thinked roughly, not thinking he did anything wrong, but for her sake, he asked her as she wanted. "Argo, are you also planning on fighting?"
Argo shaked her head. "Nah, I'm a info-broker ya, there's no way I'd fight, Ayaa-bou. Ya seem to have forgotten my specialty."
"Well, see ya later. Defeat that Boss, and come safely back and I might give ya an Argo special [Information-Free Coupon]."
Argo walked away, praying inside that these three will come safely back.
Kirito couldn't help but smile, shouting loudly to Argo, who walked away, "Don't worry, we'll survive. Make sure to hold your word."
Argo slightly grinned, saying "I will," before entirely disappearing from their sight.
"Ayanokoji, Asuna, let's survive this fight," Kirito expressed, in a motivated manner.
Ayanokoji and Asuna nodded.
"Yes," both of them expressed.
--
[12.51, Amphitheater]
"Ayanokoji, you're already here?" Lux said, from behind.
"Since a few minutes," he exclaimed.
"Ah, hello, you too, Kirito-kun, Asuna-san," she said, seeing them sitting a few meters away next to Ayanokoji.
Kirito nodded his head, while Asuna greeted her.
In the next few minutes, another familiar figure arrived, one that he somehow expected to come. It was Horikita Suzune, a classmate of his — perhaps even a friend. But he knew that he didn't regard her like that, despite his efforts to see her that way. For him, she was a simple pawn, to observe her growth and make her defeat him, if that was even possible.
It was the single desire he had. To be beaten, to prove the ideals of 'that man' his 'father' wrong. But defeating him wasn't precisely quite possible, in a one and one fight.
The only way would be using certain special exams to their advantage, but even then, he'd always derive at a solution way sooner than her or anyone else.
Did he expect to much of her? Perhaps. But he always thought that there might be a small possibility of her and his class defeating him.
Well, now that they weren't in school anymore, all acquaintances of school were utterly useless for him. Especially his class. But they might prove to become handful to him, in particular a few students, like Horikita, Sūdo, Ike, Yukimura, and in particular the mysterious enigma, Koenji Rokusuke, of whom you had no ideas of his whereabouts.
If he had to guess, he'd try on living even in this world comfortable. He might be even enjoying his time with women currently. Given his personality, that'd be certainly plausible. But well, he didn't care quite much.
That mysterious enigma was practically impossible to manipulate anyway, so it was useless of trying on making him aid him in the future with certain bosses he might not be able to defeat on his own.
In any case, he's like usually drifting away from the topic. For now, he should focus on the Boss Fight.
"Ayanokoji-kun," she shouted from behind.
"Horikita," he replied.
"Another person of your school?" Kirito asked in curiosity, while Lux and Asuna listened attentively towards his answer.
Ayanokoji nodded his head. "We're in the same class."
"Ah, okay," Kirito said.
He and Ayanokoji had often about different topics quite the conversations. In particular, Kirito was curious how ANHS was, as he was also interested in applying there, when he finished his third year in middle school.
When he asked about several aspects of his school life he answered truthfully, as he didn't see any reason not to do so.
One thing Ayanokoji had told Kirito was that his class tried to expell him twice, when something like 'special exams' occurred, that he explained Kirito more or less.
That's why he didn't hold that much of an opinion of Ayanokoji's classmates. But seeing her and him greeting each other, he figured that they must be friends.
Horikita thought for a moment that the people next to Ayanokoji were random people, but seeing him communicating with them, she figured that they must be new acquaintances of Ayanokoji.
She sat behind Ayanokoji. "So you decided on coming here, huh, Horikita?"
She nodded her head. "Yeah. I figured if I truly want to survive inside this death game, I should also participate in the Boss Fights to help the player in the front to advance further." she answered.
Ayanokoji nodded his head in satisfaction. "Well, that's good to hear. I'm glad that you're here, aiding us with the fight. The more we are, the better."
Ayanokoji wasn't usually the type to compliment others, but considering this new situation, he wouldn't mind in particular if she didn't appear. It is after all a matter between life and death.
Within a few minutes when Diavel appeared, told everyone grouped with their prior group. Before Horikita appeared, the four of them were a group. Now, with her presence, they were 5 out of the 6 total members you could have inside a group.
There was something however that quite surprised Ayanokoji. There wasn't anyone else from his school there, not Ryūen, or anyone else. After their first appearance, they didn't appear as frequently as before.
He doubted that Ryūen was afraid, but if some members of his group were, he'd be thinking of whether to appear or not.
After tens of minutes of talking, they finally headed out to the Labyrinth, where they took thirty-five minutes ultimately to arrive at the 20th Labyrinth Floor, where the boss chamber was.
In front of the Boss Room, Diavel held a small speech in front of everyone.
"Everyone listen up. We'll win this fight, don't doubt yourself. As long as we work together in unity, nothing will happen. Even the Floor Boss won't be able to stop us."
"So let's defeat this monster, and do our first steps in defeating this hellish death game," he added.
"That's all from me. Any questions?" He asked, being asked by one person, what'd happen if the Intel was wrong.
The person was Kirito, who was amongst the BetaTester's well-known as the tester that was always aiming for the Last Attack Bonus.
Diavel wanted the Last Attack Bonus too, which is why he wanted to buy Kirito's sword to weaken him and thus reducing the probability of him gaining the Last Attack Bonus.
But well, that didn't work quite well. Kirito wasn't selling his sword.
Ayanokoji however was, selling two of his three swords, well better said, he sold the quest item, for a mere price of 25.000 Cor's.
While he was at it, offering these two items, he had also changed his trade name from Anonymous to X, a name Ryūen gave him, and was quite well-known amongst many players that were buying his items.
Neither info-broker's nor anyone else were able to figure out his identity, and he hadn't any intention on revealing it.
Kirito had asked a single question. What would happen if the Intel were to be wrong. Diavel's answer was retreat.
Ayanokoji didn't really pay much attention to it, he was thinking how much he should interfere in this floor boss fight.
After answering Kirito's question, doing a short motivational speech to everyone, he spoke once again, knowing it was the time to enter the Boss Room. "Let's win this thing! C'mon, let's go!" he said.
While Diavel opened the Boss room, something quite unexpected happened in the meantime.
--
Ryūen was sitting in a Inn, drinking 'beer', in a corner, while his party members next to him were eating good food, for the very first time, each dinner costing around hundreds of Cor's.
And this fricking 'beer' didn't give him a intoxicating effect. It was the first time he drunk 'beer' in this game, but sometimes when he was going inside his room, he saw people in the Inn being 'drunk'.
Well, not precisely, they were 'acting' drunk, he figured, as this was his fourth beer by now and there wasn't any effect still.
"One more," he shouted, slamming the beer glass on the table.
He intended on throwing it on the ground, but it was an invincible object, so it wouldn't shatter. That damn Kayaba, really had done this. Damn him.
"You really want to become drunk, heh? It's not like somethings gonna happen. These kids just act like it, you know that, right?" Ibuki said, pointing her finger to the group of 15 year olds in the Inn that were acting drunk, for the sake of fun.
"Of course I know that. I just like the taste, that's all."
"By the way, I heard that some people from Sakayanagi's and Ichinose's class died," Ichizaki said in a depressing mood.
"They did? Damn it...." Ibuki exclaimed.
"Tch, one beer for me too," Ibuki shouted, to the waitress NPC
Ryūen had a slight grin on his face.
"What is?" Ibuki asked in a annoying tone, knowing what Ryūen wanted to say.
"Nothing."
"Hey guys, do you see that too?" Someone from the Inn shouted.
"What do you mean?" Another guy replied.
"There's something on my HUD. It looks like a camera or something."
"Now that you mention it, I see it too."
"Should we click on it?"
"But what if it's a trap?"
Then, Ibuki interfered. "If that goddamn bastard Kayaba wanted to kill us all, he'd have done it already. Just open the damn camera and be quiet. Some people here want to eat."
The two of them began to quiet down.
"Ibuki, quite aggressive, huh?"
Before Ibuki could reply, the male voice shouted in awe. "What the hell?! It's a livestream."
"A livestream, huh? Well, I guess it won't hurt on turning it on."
Without hesitation, he clicked on the camera like symbol in front of his HUD.
"Isn't that the first floor boss monster? Illfang, the Kobold Lord," someone else shouted.
Until now, nobody was in sight. They saw Illfang sitting on his bone throne.
But a few seconds later, they could see the door opening, seeing a large group of people behind the person who opened the door.
"Isn't that Ayanokoji? And next to him there's also Horikita," Ibuki exclaimed in utter surprise. She thought that Ayanokoji would go there, but her rival Horikita, she never thought about that.
"Lux?!" Hiyori exclaimed in utter awe.
"Hiyori, do you know her?" Ryūen asked.
"Yes, we're friends. Kiyotaka introduced us."
Ryūen nodded. "I see. It seems like this livestream has something to offer after all. I can finally see the monsters capabilities."
--
Ichika, who was sitting in her room, saw a sudden camera symbol appearing right in front of her HUD.
Without much thought, she clicked on it. If Kayaba had intended to kill them all, he'd have done so. There's no way that this would be a trap.
Then, a sudden large interface appeared in front of her, showing the boss chamber, and the floor boss monster, Illfang, the Kobold Lord.
After a few seconds of waiting, she finally saw something happening. The door was being opened, and she saw a large group of people.
"Ayanokoji-senpai?!" She frowned in surprise.
Then, she left the room, knocking on a certain person's door.
"Takuya, take a look at this..." Ichika said, knocking on Yagami's door.
Yagami frowned upon hearing Ichika's voice and the door knocking, right in front of his Inn door. "You again? How come you always figure out where my Inn and my room is..."
Until now, Ichika had annoyed him so much, that he moved several times into other Inn's just to prevent on hearing her everyday knocking on his door. She didn't stop, no matter how often he told her to do so.
But this time, it wasn't about an annoying topic, luckily, since she tried on telling him the news of the livestream.
He opened the door. "Where are you going?" Ichika asked in curiosity.
"Downstairs. I'll eat something, while watching the livestream. If you want to come too, come, it'll be my treat."
She was a bit surprised, since he never treated her. But she was happy, that she and her only friend were in good terms again. It was reassuring to know that he wasn't mad at her anymore for not supporting him against his fight with Ayanokoji-senpai.
"Sure," she answered immediately, following him.
--
"Professor Ayanokoji, you have to take a look at this."
He sighed, being again bothered by one of his scientists. "What's wrong now? You know that I'm busy, so talk fast."
The subordinate showed him the livestream, that was not only being shown to the players of Aincrad, but the whole world. A small grin formed the Professor's face.
It was a one-time surprise and chance, Professor Ayanokoji would be able to use to improve his son's political standing, likewise with his, and that of Yagami.
Perhaps, he might even think of taking Ichika in again, since she has now some use again, if she ever fights in future fights, and the public holds a great opinion of her. Besides, she's the child of Amasawa, a billionaire. It would be easy to improve the White Room in some things where it's lacking.
"Good. Do you know whether it's only Japan wise, or is the livestream casted through the whole world."
"According to the news, everyone is able to see them. What shall we do?"
"Nothing. This is aiding us even more. The more Kiyotaka participates inside the floors, the more I'll be able to raise mine and his reputation up."
Professor Ayanokoji was now even more excited, knowing that either him or Kiyotaka could achieve it, of becoming the Prime Minister of Japan — leading them to a bright and successful future.
And in this particular scenario, he'd be able to explain the lack of Kiyotaka's emotions, after all that traumatic experience.
If Kiyotaka managed to gain in the eye of the publicity the reputation as a 'savior' who guides the players into absolving the floors, he'd be bound to get high enough popularity among the citizens.
Professor Ayanokoji had a sudden idea. "Does Kiyotaka have a social media account, or however these are called?"
The subordinate checked it out. "No," he shacked his head.
"Then create one for him. Create other accounts that follow him too, who should be by now high schoolers. Make it believable."
As much as he didn't like social media, it was a valuable resource on gaining popularity. Especially, since recent years, various platforms gained enormous popularity, and were bound to gain even more.
´With this, Kiyotaka should have an easier path on moving onto politics. To ensure Japan's future — either me or Kiyotaka have to become in the future the Prime Minister.´
Knowing that Kiyotaka was most likely using his surname as his 'username' he leaned slightly against his seat, dismissing his subordinate, watching the livestream, thinking about the possible things he'd say, when the media figures out the correlation between the two of them.
Minutes later, Ayanokoji's account was created.
[Social Media Account:]
[Username:] AyanokojiKiyotaka
[Posts:2] [Followers: 27] [Follows:21]
[Describtion:] An ordinary high school student who'll attend ANHS.
--
"Sir, you have to take a look at this," A man entered the door.
Kikuoka Seijirou frowned, seeing one of his subordinates barging into his room.
One of the few days where he could rest for a slight moment was now being interrupted by his subordinate.
"What's wrong? Did something happen?"
He showed him the Laptop, showcasing a scene from Aincrad occurring right in front of him, with the title above, [First Floor Boss Fight].
"Immediately, try on tracing the website back."
"Yes, sir."
--
[Five Minutes Later]
The subordinate entered the room, looking on the ground. "It's a dead end. We aren't able to figure out the location at all."
"Damn that Kayaba."
"Then take the websites down."
"The moment we do, instantly another one keep end's up appearing."
"So that's how he wants to play..." he clenched his fists upon Kayaba's intention broadcasting this hellish game.
--
Currently, Dozens of people were watching the livestream. The livestream wasn't limited on Japan, but was broadcasted to the whole world. No matter what the governments tried, there wasn't a way to remove them, since they kept on appearing.
In particular, since some news in other countries were also broadcasting them, so it was nearly impossible for countries to stop the broadcast.
Million of people were watching it, their gaze taken aback, watching the livestream in surprise and awe, but also horrifying, realizing that what they were seeing was the SAO incident live.
That had simply made more people attentive on these livestreams, that it spread inside the social media enormously. With each second, more and more people watched it, gotten attentive, and the viewer count increased drastically. In particular in Japan, where ever since the beginning, more than twelve million people were watching it simultaneously.
Even those in work took their time off, realizing that one of their children might be fighting there. News inside Japan were also coming fastly, that cars stopped moving in Tokyo, people stopped on the streets, watching how the advertising screens were also affected, showing the video of dozens of people fighting against a 7 feet tall monster.
All over the world, these cases happened, and no one was able to trace Kayaba back, who developed an AI for this scenario in particular, that was dealing with these things, while he was in SAO playing.
In that kind of sense, Kayaba had fooled once again everyone else.
--
[Back to the Boss Fight]
Diavel opened the door, all players standing behind him. Illfang, who was sitting on his bone throne jumped to the middle of the chamber, shouting a loud roar, aiming to scare the players, which he kind of did successfully, given some of their reactions.
"His main weapon is a bone axe. Backup is a Talwar. Accompanied by three Sentinels. It all matches the Intel and we can win this thing. Follow my lead," Diavel shouted, running as the first one to the Boss, encouraging everyone else.
"Shall we, then?" Ayanokoji asked.
"Yeah," Kirito answered.
The other ones were nodding their heads in synch. Ayanokoji's group was the group to hold back monsters, deliberately done by Diavel, to restrict Kirito from gaining the Last Attack Bonus.
Ayanokoji heard some rumors about Kirito already, especially the one that he was the person who was able to advance up to floor 10 as the single person, and was the player who'd take the Last Attack Bonuses, so he kind of figured out that someone wanted to prevent him from doing it again.
Especially, since he heard rumors about that 'player' trying to buy Kirito's sword, yet not buying the quest item to get the sword from him at all.
It was clearly offensive who it was. It was Diavel, based on seeing that a few familiar persons from him wanting to buy that sword upon his request.
There wasn't a way to form guilds currently, but Diavel and some others had one, unofficially of course, as long as they knew how to create one officially.
In that kind of sense Ayanokoji could never fathom them. He'd never think of trusting someone entirely with his back. If it weren't for his absurd stats, his extraordinary reaction speed, he'd be definitely thinking of avoiding the front line.
But he had no reason to worry at all. His level was high enough, that even if he got a direct hit on the head, it'd at the very least reduce up to five to ten percent of his overall HP.
[Level 23: 363.130/386.400]
If it weren't for him holding back, pushing the other people in the front to explore the Labyrinth on their own, he'd by now have even a higher level.
But for the next floor, he might change his plans a bit. Perhaps clearing it alone might also become an attractive option.
In any case, these thoughts were currently unnecessarily. Focusing on the fight was the thing he should do right now.
Kirito and Asuna began to take each one on their own, while suddenly another one from behind spawned next to Horikita.
"Horikita, back up," Ayanokoji exclaimed, seeing that she understood it, moving a few steps away.
He slashed the monster diagonally, continuing with a three hit combo to prevent any suspicions about his current level.
"Thank you, Ayanokoji-kun."
Ayanokoji nodded his head. "No problem. Let's focus on our task again."
She nodded.
"Ayanokoji, Horikita, sorry that Asuna and I have broken the formation. I didn't think that a monster would spawn right behind her..."
Kirito looked down, in a depriving manner, feeling guilty that if it wasn't for his carelessness she might have died.
It was for that reason he preferred to remain a single player.
Knowing that other people next to him might die like Coper, he wanted to prevent on being responsible for their deaths.
He could trust Ayanokoji, knowing from him that he practiced Kendo, and had some experiences with sword fights, he felt relief, knowing he could trust him entirely.
And perhaps that was the reason why he became now so carelessness.
He was so accustomed not helping Ayanokoji or Asuna that he seemed to think that his teammates didn't need his help at all. Asuna was also mostly fighting alone, so she wasn't accustomed on this issue at all.
Both of them felt a bit guilty, and apologized.
"Horikita-san, I'm sorry," both of them said in synch.
She shaked her head, feeling guilty. "No need to feel sorry. I'm sorry to bother you with my weakness. Apparently, I'm not as strong as I thought I was. I didn't want to be a drag to you all..."
Then, she shouted in enthusiasm. "But now it isn't the time for that. We've been issued a task, and we should clearly do our best to absolve it. Don't mind me."
The two of them nodded, getting to the initial formation they agreed on, until the rest of the battle.
After tens of minutes of the battle, Illfang's Health Bar was at the last bar, reduced to almost one third.
Then, something unexpectedly happened. Horikita had parried an attack against a monster, but her sword broke in the process down.
Her face looked in horror, as the monster aimed another attack at her, while the other three were busy dealing with their monster.
Manabu, who was watching the livestream, was enormously nervous in this moment. His hands were sweating, and he hoped someone to help her, whoever it was.
Ayanokoji quickly kicked with his foot the monster he was facing away from him, sprinting towards Horikita, parrying the incoming attack from the Monster.
"Ayanokoji-kun?!" She exclaimed loudly, that those who were watching the stream could clearly hear the name.
Kayaba, the person he was, had also made the feature that you could watch one specific group, in his websites. It took a while until partially everyone figured it out, since the default setting was to oversee the Boss Fight, which was focused on the corresponding participants in the front mostly.
In short, Diavel´s group, and the Tank Group.
"Quick, change your weapon. There're more coming."
He killed the monster within two strikes, while focusing on those who were incoming.
She nodded her head. "Thank you."
Without a second, she switched her weapon through [Quick Change] that allowed her to switch her weapon faster.
Then, Diavel shouted something. "Yes, he dropped the Axe. We're nearly there. Here comes his secondary weapon, the Talwar. Everyone remember what to do? The basic is the same: deflect the weapon, hit his throat."
"Grrrr," Illfang roared extremely loudly, to the point that some people in real life were even scared.
But that didn't affect anyone in the battlefield currently at all. They have been accustomed to this by now.
"The next strike will finish this! Team C, up front!"
People in real life were slighly celebrating, seeing that they were close on defeating this monster.
Right now, everyone was looking at Illfang, who was unsheathing his Talwar out.
"That doesn't look like a Talwar..." Lux exclaimed.
"It isn't..." Ayanokoji responded.
Kirito, who was in the process of sprinting, shouted, "No! Get away!"
"Not so fast!" Kibaou shouted, preventing from Kirito moving. "You're that desperate after the Last Attack Bonus. It belongs ta Sir Diaval, punk! No interfering now!"
"Don't be crazy! You have to stop them! His backup weapon is a Katana, not a Talwar. That Kobold Lord is different than the Beta."
"From the Beta?! So it's true..."
"Get away, Diaaavel!" Kirito shouted.
Then, Illfang had swung his sword to the Group C, who were in front of them, making a large fog to appear, unable for anyone to see something.
But contrary to what everyone thought, it wasn't an attack to kill them at all... it was a stun attack
Ayanokoji was in an inner struggle, should he save Diavel or not? He definitely seemed like a great pawn...
No...
A good leader, that'd help him on clearing the game in the future, somehow, given his high enough level within this month.
So he decided on sprinting there.
"Ayanokoji?!" Kirito exclaimed in surprise, seeing Ayanokoji sprinting there, from the side of his eye, while he was stopped by Kibaou.
But he immediately followed him too, alongside Asuna. Lux and Horikita weren't as strong as the three of them, so they decided on staying back, not becoming a drag to them.
Besides, it'd be suicidal going there.
The fog slowly disappeared entirely, seeing five people standing there, unable to move.
"I can't move my body. Help!" Someone, of Group C, who was in front of Illfang, shouted in extreme panic. "I don't want to die," he shouted loudly.
There were up to five people in Group C, all of them were in extreme panic. Many had shouted for help, because Illfang was already preparing an attack on them and they couldn't move.
Many people who were watching the livestream had now covered their eyes, not wanting to see the death of these five.
"A stun effect?!" Asuna exclaimed, upon hearing the exclamation of that person.
'That isn't good...' Ayanokoji thought.
When Illfang wanted to strike one of the players that were stunned from him, Diavel interfered and blocked his attack by jumping right in front of the player.
"Diaaavel-san!" The player shouted in relief.
"Don't worry, I'm now here."
Then Kirito shouted, seeing that Diavel and the Group C was fine. "Tanks, hurry up! He's gonna attack again. Take care of Team C, they're knocked out!"
Agil quickly replied. "We're on it. But what about you? Your equipment is to light to fight to monster head on..."
"Don't worry. We three will draw him out."
Instead of Kirito, Ayanokoji said this.
Agil nodded.
The distance between Group C and them were around 60 meters. Ayanokoji was the person who was in the front, twenty meters ahead of Kirito and Asuna.
However right in front of him, two monsters spawned in front of him and Ayanokoji charged a sword skill of his while running, reducing the health of the monster quite much, doing one additional attack, reducing the remaining 15% HP of the Monster.
"Ayanokoji, we'll deal with the other one. We have your back!" Kirito shouted, indicating that Ayanokoji can run further.
Ayanokoji nodded. "Thanks. I'll go ahead."
Kirito and Asuna immediately killed the other charging both one sword skill each.
The distance between Ayanokoji had lessened less, but he was still ten meter ahead of them.
Diavel seeing that Kirito, Ayanokoji, and Asuna were almost there, facing Illfang alongside him, panicked and charged a sword skill. He wanted to prevent any of them gaining the Last Attack Bonus he was after, in particular Kirito.
"Good! Deflect the weapon. I'll strike the throat. This should do it!" Diavel exclaimed.
"No, Diavel, don't! Focus on your defense. Diavel! Don't start your skill motion." Kirito shouted.
Illfang, the monster he was facing, was also preparing an attack. And in comparison to Diavel, he was by an wide amount faster than Diavel.
It wasn't an ordinary attack. It was a attack that had been embedded with a sword skill. In other words, if someone were to receive it, it'd be definetely deadly.
Only tanks or someone like Ayanokoji could take such an attack head on head, but their HP would be drastically reduced.
Perhaps, the attack might drain up to 1.500 to 2.000 HP. Ayanokoji couldn't tell, but he knew, Diavel should definitely avoid on getting hit by it, because it'd be his death sentence.
A second before Diavel was going to be hit by the Nodachi, Ayanokoji jumped to ground, smashing Diavel's head to the ground, preventing the Horizontal sword skill attack from reaching him.
"I... Am.... Alive?" He muttered.
"Now everyone. Attack him. He can't use his sword skill for a while. Let's take this chance and finish him up," Kirito immediately shouted, when he saw Diavel being saved.
In the same time, several people began to attack Illfang, to prevent Illfang on attacking Ayanokoji or Diavel, so they would automatically become the target.
Diavel looked surprised. "You saved me?!" He muttered. "Why?!" He asked.
"Because, you're someone who is needed to help clearing the remaining floors. Even if we don't talk much, I know how many people rely under your leadership. Many people have entrusted you to guide them."
Diavel looked down, feeling remorse upon his rash actions. "Thank you. I won't forget what you have done for me today, Ayanokoji."
"You know my name?"
He nodded. "I paid a bit of attention priory, hearing Kirito shouting your name."
"Makes sense. Anyway, let's help the other's out. We're talking too much."
"Yeah," he replied.
Kirito and Asuna arrived, retreating from Illfang temporarily. "Are you two okay?" Kirito asked.
The two of them nodded.
"Then, we'll go ahead."
Within tens of seconds, the floor monster was finished, by Kirito's hands.
People who were watching the livestream were surprised. Once the situation with Diavel occurred, they were scared. But now, they were relived.
Ten seconds after the monster was defeated, the livestream ended.
During these ten seconds nothing happened, partially wise everyone was celebrating.
Then, Kibaou shouted. "Why?! Tell me, why did you lie to us? If you told us from the beginning, Diavel, and all of us, wouldn't have been in danger."
'He's blaming Kirito, huh? It's in the human nature to blame others, instead of taking responsibility for your own action. It's not that surprising...'
The BetaTester's had been reputated as bad from the very own start when they ignored the other players, farming on the good spots on their own. However, from the 800 BetaTester's that partaked in the game, the majority already died.
It's not like they knew it, but Kayaba and [Argus] didn't want the BetaTester's to have an overwhelmingly large advantage. But that has resulted of the death of many Testers.
"Yes, why did he not tell us?!"
"Kibaou is right."
"I can't believe someone devious like that exists..."
Many people simultaneously spoke their
"Guys, it's not..."
Just when Diavel wanted to shout, Ayanokoji held his shoulder.
"Don't you see where this is going, Diavel? BetaTester's are bound to get to obstractized in the future by the majority of the players so Kirito tries on taking the blame on himself."
Kirito who looked down beneath the ground formed a slight smirk on his face, speaking.
"Did you just say BetaTester´s? Don't compare me to these ridiculous amateurs. Most of the testers in the Sao world were totally inexperienced beginners. They didn't even know how to level up properly. In comparison, you all are much better than them."
"But I have absolutely nothing in common with them. I got further in the 2-month beta than any other player. I only knew the monster's katana skills because I fought monsters in the levels above. And... I know a lot more than that. I know more than all of the informants combined." "What?! That's a lot worse than a BetaTester. You cheat. You are a damn cheater," Kibaou said.
"Yeah, he's a cheater."
"Cheater."
"He's a BetaTester and a Cheater. He's a..."
"...Beater."
"A Beater? That's a good name. From now on I'm a Beater. Remember that."
`So that's your resolve Kirito, huh? I'll expect great things from you in the future...´
--
"Professor, your plan seemed to work."
The subordinate handed the iPad over to him.
"Interesting, really interesting. Kiyotaka, you'll certainly gain a lot of attention in the future, too. So don't disappoint me and show me and the world great things. For Japan's future... one of us has to become the Prime Minister."
[Social Media Account:]
[Username:] AyanokojiKiyotaka
[Posts: 2] [Followers: 36.743] [Follows: 21]
[Description:] An ordinary high school student who'll attend ANHS.
--
Chapter End
--
A/N: Well, I decided to upload again. It's been a bit of time since my last upload, but I had kind of lost my motivation.
Ever since I watched Cote Season 3, I gained a bit of my motivation back. I'm quite thrilled to see particular scenes, and also curious about the mobile game.
Besides this fic, I'm also writing my first fic further, so the upload here will be kind of irregularly.
Regarding this fic back again, I went along with the idea of Kayaba showing the public what happens. I liked the idea quite much.
Anyway, that'll be all.
Have a good day.
