17 CHAPTER 17- BOSS BATTLE ENDS
Floor 2
Forest zone
*CHIRP CHIRP*
The sounds of birds could be heard chirping as they fly around, fresh gentle breeze flowing through the trees, the smell of nature could be perceived in this serene state, sun hanging at it's optimal point.
Michael takes all this in to calm his recently disturbed heart that has been subjected to more frequent tests the past few weeks than his entire life.
This would have panned out okay for him if not for the sudden interruption from the nearby open field.
*Haaaaah*
Yuki screamed out as he swung his shortswords desperately at the mob in front of him at least to michael it was.
It was a red monkey, nasty little bugger they are very annoying because of their dexterity making them very hard to reach.
They have become the reason for yuki's recent nightmare as they outclassed him in agility by a little margin so michael gave him a set quota of them to kill everyday so he could learn to make full use of his speed to the best of his ability.
" I told you to stop shouting out loud when you're attacking, you are not a strength based fighter, your focus is speed and you don't need to scream for that" Miku scolds Yuki as she dispatches the last red monkey in the field.
Much to yuki's embarrassment as he has been told the same thing multiple times and but he just couldn't help it as he was beginning to get frustrated performing the same repetitive tasks everyday and shouting out when attacking helps him take out his grudges on the mobs.
Michael looked to miku admonishing yuki and he could see that the little squirt was just fed up that's why he keeps doing that lately.
But he stepped in to stop her as he wasn't in the mood right now.
Letting out a sigh, he began to reminisce about the floor 1 boss battle and how it all played out in the end.
__________________________________
2 WEEKS AGO
Alarm bells began to flare in his head signalling something unexpected is about to happen.
Looking at miku first and seeing her safe then he checked on asuna and kirito finding asuna poised and ready to attack and kirito startled.
Michael followed his line of sight and immediately figured out the cause of trigger in his head.
He could see diavel breaking rank and leaving the plan behind to confront the boss head on when it was about to change weapons to a nodachi.
He could already guess his reasons for doing so being something stupid as getting the last hit bonus and knew he was a beta player as well but from what he could see the boss's weapon isn't a talwar and that's what the problem was, that's a friggin nodachi!!.
*ROAAAR*
The boss cried out at the approaching diavel and with it's heightened stats took to the sky with an enhanced jump after unsheathing it's weapon.
Jumping from pillar to pillar moving faster with each rebound, diavel lost sight of the boss when he heard
"That's not a talwar, it's a nodachi" Kirito shouted loud enough for diavel and the other players to hear, most of them immediately realized what he meant by that..... the boss pattern would be different from their expectation, and their assumption was confirmed when the boss began moving faster than their eyes could perceive.
Too slow to react, the boss quickly descended on diavel with an overhead diagonal slash landing a critical hit on him sending him flying across the room screaming out in pain.
This sent a wave of shock to all the players present and they were frozen in place but kirito swiftly went after diavel hoping to save him.
Michael saw the monster roaring at the nearby players but they could still hang on for a while, paying attention to kirito and seeing diavel refusing his help, he told him to clear the game and save everyone before his avatar broke into polygon fragments.
Shaking his head at such a naive and selfish request from diavel despite his self serving behaviour just now, he looked back at he situation with the boss and froze.
In the short span of time that he took his sight away from the boss numerous things happened. For starters, yuki left miku's side unannounced to confront the boss with the other players.
The boss was about to land a crit hit on a player from behind when
*clank*
it's attack was repelled by yuki with his short sword.
Jumping back to avoid it's retaliation attack he avoided a hit to the mid section.
But the boss was persistent and it kept up it's attack so yuki had to do his best to evade it's attack as he knew a single hit would be fatal but couldn't last more than 2 seconds and he was a bit far from the other players when he was cornered by the boss.
He saw the nodachi approaching him and he knew if this attack connected he would be done for, he saw his life flash before his life at this moment, he remembered that miku told him to stay close to her but he couldn't stand by and watch other's get killed.
He couldn't react fast enough so he resigned himself to his fate and closed his eyes.
"Open your eyes you dolt, didn't i tell you to stay close to me" He heard miku say as he opened his eyes and looked at her heroic figure in front of him speechless as she wasn't in the best state after blocking the boss's hit so hastily, her hp was almost half way down too.
The boss kept attacking her but she could barely attack and was left on defense, the boss was in a frenzy right now and his stats was enhanced so it kept swinging it's weapon relentlessly and she kept dodging and parrying it's attacks.
The other players began to rush to her side to back her up but before the could get to her yuki tried to get in the fight first causing the kobold lord to shift it's attention to him with a brutal diagonal slash from top to bottom.
Realising his blunder a little too late, he tried to jump back but he was too slow causing miku to step in again only this time she was sent careening across the room.
"NOO!!!" Yuki screamed as he began to drown himself in self blame, at this time the players arrived by yuki's side and one player tanked the boss's blow to yuki's head.
At this point Michael looked to see Miku flying through the air and heard yuki's scream.
It all felt unreal to him. The air became stifling, everything was slowed down in his perception, the screaming players, the clanging sounds of weapons and that bubbling feeling in his chest as if something was about to burst out of him.
He disappeared from his position and arrived in front of the boss leaving a booming sound in his wake and blowing the players in his path away.... rage was clear in his eyes and he immediately swung his sword with purpose and cut of the boss's unarmed hand followed quickly with a roundhouse kick to it's midsection launching the boss far away from him.
All this happened in the space of a few seconds and none of the players could react and they were all shocked as they couldn't even grasp what happened but only saw the boss being launched far into the distance.
Michael immediately arrived by miku's side after gatthering his wits with yuki by her side feeding her a healing potion as she gradually recovers her HP, she closed her eyes and rested as she saw michael close to her.
Looking at Yuki, his mind began to analyse the situation and his actions just now and he knew that she put herself in danger to save yuki cause he made the reckless decision to leave her side.
His rational mind wants to be mad at yuki but his emotions which he was unaware of began to direct his rage towards the beast who hurt his pupil.
He doesn't know why he was angry but he knew that he needed to put that monster in it's place, so he rose up to his feet and turned to the fight in the distance.
"Watch over her for me, will you?" Michael said to yuki solemnly leaving no room for questions.
Yuki silently nodded, determined to not mess up again, but still surprised by michael's sudden change.
"HAAAAAAAAH" kirito shouted out while running towards the boss with asuna by his side,, determined to keep his promise to diavel.
Arriving in front of the one armed boss he lead the attack with a straight slash blocking the boss's hit with asuna switching in and landing a 3 hit stab combo fluidly followed by overhead slash from kirito and the hits kept on coming as they pushed the boss to a corner.
Becoming to eager kirito overreached and left himself open, and the boss swung it's weapon at his midsection landing a hit and launched kirito and asuna back.
It roared and charged at them intending to end them swiftly, appearing in front of them it swung it's sword downwards but it's strike was interrupted by the now calm michael.
Arriving silently between Illfang and it's prey, michael parried it's attack easily looking at this pitiful creature that dare to anger him, at this point he felt contempt for the mob in front of him, how could such trash dare to agitate him.
Squinting his eyes, he proceeded to punch the boss on it's head after jumping up and dodging it's horizontal slash.
*BAM* *craaasshh!!!!!*
Forced to the ground, the boss tried to roar but michael kicked it's head and sent the boss flying in the air shocking everyone.
Turning to the stunned players he just spoke calmly
"All yours"
and went back to miku's resting place with <ground shrink>.
Kirito snapped out of his daze and signalled asuna to continue the fight so they attacked the boss fiercely with kirito getting the last hit in.
CONGRATULATIONS!!
the words were written in bold letters in midair, leading to everyone cheering happily except for a select few.
Michael was still going through some self introspection of his own and didn't pay any mind to the players sneaking glances at him.
Some player, most likely that kibaou began accusing kirito of being a beta player and allowing diavel to die and he also insinuated that there may be others there as well looking at michael but was to scared to say anything.
All players began suspecting themselves and the joyous atmosphere became tense but before things could escalate kirito stood up from floor and laughed.
"hahahahah you think I'm a beta tester, please don't compare me with those amateurs, I've gone farther in the beta test than any other player and know all the skills of of all the bosses on floors so high up you couldn't believe".
"That's so unfair, You are worse than a beta tester, you're a cheater and a beta tester, you're a beater" Kibaou screamed with an anguished look on his and other players face.
"Yea a beater, I like that name, I'm a beater" Kirito states with a smug look on his face before equipping the boss's drop item, (The cloak of midnight) before walking off in confident steps and asuna following behind him and some other players.
After some time michael carried miku in princess carry style and moved towards the door to the next floor with yuki following closely.
He expertly ignored the other's looks as he couldn't be bothered to care what they think as they were beneath him.
He just wanted to have a quick rest cause this day was very stressful for him.
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A/N : right now michael is experiencing something that he can't comprehend even with his abilities. He has to sort out these issues if he is to become fully immersed in reality (virtual or otherwise).
Will he remain the same and stay stuck or overcome this and become better and also unlock the secrets within his soul.
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