Chapter 71 - The Flower of the 6th Floor

Aincrad, 6th floor, January 21st. One day before the boss raid.

They had to hurry up. The clearers had already found the boss room, and now the whole Assault Team was waiting on them to gather and deliver all the information they could about the floor boss. Tomorrow, one way or the other, they fought.

The Reavers had never been in this position. They had always managed to complete the << Elf War >> campaign branch on each floor long before the boss room was found. Before the labyrinth was fully cleared and mapped, even. But this time it felt like everything that could go wrong was going wrong.

Everything had started out great. They met Kizmel and followed her to a special dungeon where they killed a bunch of fallen elves and found their attack plans written on the thin bark the elves used as paper. But then, as they were leaving, a mini-boss, called << Rolagus the Fallen Noble >>, appeared. That was when everything went to shit.

The fallen elf mini-boss, for all he was a noble, was an absolute scoundrel. After the guild jad, quite easily, brought his health down to red, he suddenly pulled out a poisoned dagger, and stabbed Kizmel with it.

Any antidote the Reavers gave their friend was useless. They could only watch as her HP drained fast. Thankfully, when it dropped to the last 10%, the 'poisoned' effect faded, probably by a plot device. Still, Kizmel was too wounded to continue helping them, and, again, potions weren't working. Without a choice, and more than a little worried for her, they carried the royal knight back to the dark elf camp, following her instructions. They left Kizmel there to recover, but without their guide, the << Elf War >> campaign suddenly became much harder.

For the next few days, they repeatedly tried and failed to advance in the campaign. Entire days were spent in needless fetch quests they could complete in a mere few hours before. Even Kirito's beta-tester knowledge was next to useless, since their action of saving Kizmel back on the 3rd floor had derailed the entire campaign - not that they regretted it.

That was how they ended up where they were now, trekking deep into the southern forested zone of the 6th floor, following a lead that might take them to the stronghold of the fallen elves. According to the hint they received, an item of extreme importance was stashed away there - probably another << Secret Key >> - and they had to recover it. Hopefully, after they did so, they would be able to gather more intel on the floor boss.

Drifter raised his head when he heard rustling leaves above him. They were in a forest, so the noise wasn't exactly out of place, but the way it stopped abruptly when his head snapped up was a dead giveaway.

"Sinon, up there."

He pointed at the spot where the noise came from, a branch about fifteen meters above the ground. There was nothing there, and even << Searching >> couldn't detect anything, but Sinon knocked an arrow on her bow and pulled the string all the same. Two seconds later, she let it loose.

"Acckriiii!"

A high-pitched shriek sounded, and a humanoid creature, similar-looking to a chimpanzee, slowly came out of its camouflaged state, an arrow sticking out from just below its armpit. Around them, half a dozen of the creatures revealed themselves after the first one was uncovered.

"Form the perimeter!"

Kirito yelled, and the Reavers grouped up in a tight circle, with Sinon, Yuna, Yuuki, Ran, and Asuna in the center. They already had some experience fighting the << Chameleon Baboons >> after spending so many days marching through the forest, which was how Drifter had spotted them in the first place. Being ambushed by the invisible mobs was not a pleasant experience, which was why Drifter was carefully looking for clues of their presence. As for why the five girls were put in the middle, even though three of them were close-quarters fighters, it was because the baboons always went after the most fragile - meaning, those with the lowest defense and more lightly armored - players first. Kirito also fit in that category, the only piece of metal armor he used being his chest plate, but it was already hard enough to form a circle with 5 people on the inside, much less 6.

The << Chameleon Baboons >> didn't descend from the trees immediately to attack them. Instead, they grabbed some red fruits the size of a fist, and threw them at the players. Nautilus, Liz, Merida, and Drifter did their best to block, but some of the fruits still got past their defense and hit their bodies. When that happened, the red fruits burst, splashing their pulp and juice all over them. Those soaked by it received a, by now familiar, notification saying their defense stat had decreased by 20 points.

Luckily, each mob only had three of the red fruits. Furthermore, the one Sinon had hit didn't throw his, and neither did another one when Drifter threw his spear at him, even though the flying weapon barely grazed its skin. Instead, they jumped down and proceeded to attack the Reavers in melee combat.

Recalling his spear from where it had disappeared amidst the foliage, Drifter readied himself to welcome the charging baboon. His first strike went over the mob's head as it dodged, but Drifter simply forced his weapon to change path by pulling it down, leaving a nasty cut on top of the << Chameleon Baboon's >> head.

The mob screamed and lunged at him, scratching his outstretched arm with its sharp claws. Crouching to avoid a second swipe, Drifter stabbed upwards, piercing the baboon's stomach at a 55 degrees angle, and then used << Dirty Play >> to push the weapon further in, impaling the mob.

"Ran, Yuuki, it's all yours!"

Straining to lift the wounded mob by the weapon stuck in it, Drifter grunted and threw the << Chameleon Baboon >> over his shoulder. Merida and Nautilus both stepped aside to let the monster pass between them and land none too gracefully on the ground right in front of the twins. Needless to say, the girls made quick work of it.

Using the tried and tested method of taking out one mob at a time, just ten minutes later the pack... Family? Tribe? Troop. The troop of baboons was wiped out. Their luck also finally seemed to turn, because not long after, they found the fallen elf base they were looking for.

The camp was discreet, just a bunch of hollowed-out trees to create rooms, and some furniture carved out of the same material. There probably was enough space for forty or so fallen elves to comfortably live there. Yet, when the Reavers approached, there was only a single living being in it.

Sitting on a large flat stone right in the middle of the base was a female fallen elf. She was calmly observing them, her sickly pale skin almost transparent under the shining sunshine. She was wearing a tight-fitting dress which definitely didn't seem practical in the forest, and had a lute on her lap, with no weapons in sight. And, Drifter had to admit, though he certainly shouldn't be focusing on that right now, she was beautiful.

It was hard not to gape at her flawless face, not because Drifter was a pervert, but because her features were simply perfect. Too perfect, in fact. She had a kind of otherworldly beauty that could only be accomplished in their virtual reality.

<< Deadly Flower Amane >>.

Well, her name was like a bucket of cold water being chugged over the guild members. Any mini-boss - because that was what she was, no doubt about it - that had the word 'deadly' in the name couldn't be good news.

"Good, you finally arrived. I was starting to get bored."

Drifter raised an eyebrow at the brightly smiling enemy, and exchanged glances with Kirito. This didn't bode well. The lack of underlings and minions was also unsettling. It meant the Cardinal System considered that Amane alone was enough to challenge the players.

The fallen elf beauty got up while the Reavers fanned out and surrounded her. That annoyingly coy smirk never left her face either. With a grimace, Nautilus and Liz stepped forward, using << Taunt >> on the boss. Predictably, it failed. It usually did with intelligent bosses.

Seeing that, Kirito, Asuna, Ran, and Yuuki all lunged at the Amane from different directions. Drifter, Merida, and the others were just a little behind them, ready to jump in and provide support if necessary.

None of them expected << Deadly Flower Amane >> to smile and touch her flute to her lips. Her posture was eerily similar to Yuna's when she played, and the connection brought chills to the Reavers as they realized just what kind of boss they were fighting.

On the first note, Drifter stumbled, afflicted by a 'dizziness' status effect. The ten meters between him and Amane were suddenly a lot harder to traverse. He kept tripping, and was struggling to find his footing.

The four who charged first, Kirito, Asuna, Ran, and Yuuki, were a few steps ahead of Drifter, and, as such, reached the boss even through the wave of dizziness. Kirito and Yuuki missed their attacks, their blade passing through Amane'a body but doing no damage. Asuna and Ran, on the other hand, managed to escape the 50% chance of missing, and left their marks in red on the boss.

Not that it seemed to affect her much. << Deadly Flower Amane >> kept blowing on her flute, the melody suddenly changing to long and drawn-out whistles, and then to a fast-paced tune immediately after. Amane received a defense buff of some sort, while all the players in a twelve-meters radius of her - meaning, everyone except Sinon and Yuna - found their HP slowly draining away due to a 'disorder' debuff.

Seeing that, Drifter suddenly smiled, and then laughed. Many of the others did the same. << Deadly Flower Amane's >> fighting style of applying buffs to herself, while piling up debuffs and status effects on the players would surely be a nightmare to other guilds, especially her ability to damage everyone at the same time. But Reaver's Requiem had the perfect counter for that.

"Yuna, do your thing!"

So what if Amane could drain their health just by singing? Reaver's Requiem had someone who could restore it by doing the same. And, in Drifter's humble opinion, Yuna's voice was much more beautiful than the fallen elf's.

As the songstress pulled out her harp - she had discovered early on that, after a song became a skill, she could play it on any instrument or simply sing it, and the effect would be the same - and started playing << Rest >>, << Deadly Flower Amane >> had a distinct reaction. Her eyebrows almost disappeared in her hairline, and her eyes shot open, her gaze zeroing on Yuna.

"You! How dare you! The music is mine! Only mine! Stop, stop it!"

The fallen elf beauty, who had displayed only poise and grace until now, shrieked, startling everyone. She stared daggers at Yuna, who paused for a moment, stunned, before she smirked and resumed playing.

Now, while Yuna could counterattack one of her melodies, << Deadly Flower Amane >> still held several advantages over her. The first, and more obvious, was that Yuna could only play one song at a time, and, if she stopped even for a moment, the effect they granted, such as HP regeneration or attack buffs, would halt as well. Amane, on the other hand, could stack multiple modifiers, both on the players and on herself.

The second glaring advantage the boss had was, well, her status as a boss. Though slightly offset by Yuna's << Rest >>, she was still doing more damage than they could heal, though instead of being wiped out in ten minutes, as it would probably happen without Yuna there, it would take twice as much time, but they would still lose. Which meant they had seventeen minutes to bring her down.

This wasn't a match of who could live longer. It was a battle of who could kill the other faster. Drifter tightened his grip on his spear.

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In the real world, a computer biped and a nurse scrambled to get hold of the doctor on call. The heart rate of several SAO victims had just spiked.

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This had to be one of the most dangerous and yet tedious battles Drifter had ever engaged in. Dangerous because his health was on the red, his potion on cooldown, and he had no less than six debuffs stacked on him. Tedious because he was just standing still and stabbing << Deadly Flower Amane >> again and again.

The boss made no effort to dodge or block the Reavers' attacks. She just endured them and played her flute. And somehow, had it been any other guild, she might have won it.

"Impossible..."

When << Deadly Flower Amane >> finally fell - or withered, as Yuuki wittily put it - the players sat down, exhausted. None of the close-quarters combatants had more than 25% of their health remaining.

"Man, this was even more tiring than a floor boss raid."

"And disturbing. I'm glad you are on our side, Yuna."

The songstress smiled brightly. She knew she had made the biggest contribution to this battle, and was ecstatic. While she was invaluable to Reaver's Requiem in normal times, she usually didn't get much of the limelight, since she never dealt any direct damage to the enemies.

Shaking his head at Yuna's somewhat silly expression, her chest puffed out with pride, Drifter laughed. Then, looking at the battle log and the rewards they received, his smile widened. There was the << Secret Key >> they had to find - one of seven in total, Kizmel had confided in them - and also something else.

"Here, Yun', you should like this."

He passed to her an item that, until mere moments ago, had been the target of their rage: << Amane's Sorrowful Flute >>. Yuna took one look at it and squeaked, before throwing herself at Drifter and hugging him.

The spearman awkwardly patted her back, not expecting the sudden display of affection. Yuna also was quick to let go when she realized what she had done, and proceeded to hug everyone else, her blush very visible. Drifter, who was definitely not blushing too, pointedly ignored Sinon and Asuna's smirks.

The songstress certainly had reason to be overjoyed. << Amane's Sorrowful Flute >> had one simple effect, which was to double the power of all songs played with it.

Yuna's... Class was special. Most of her skills worked on percentages, so she wasn't exactly getting obsolete, but she did feel like her usefulness to her guild and the Assault Team as a whole left to be desired. Hopefully the new instrument would change that notion.

She wasn't the only singer in SAO. Two others had transformed music into skills after her. Only two of however many hundred tried after they discovered the support she could provide. Neither of them was on the Assault Team, or even the clearers for that matter. Kibaou, Lind, and others had tried to recruit them, but not everyone was willing to risk their lives as they did.

So, for now and the foreseeable future, Yuna was the only singer on the frontlines. And she would forever be the only Songstress.

Now that he thought of it, Drifter realized Sinon's case was similar to Yuna, but even more extreme. Until now, no other bow had dropped in the game. And Drifter wasn't sure if any ever would. Kayaba was well aware of how ranged weapons like Sinon's << Grafted Horn Bow >> could break the balance of the game, and had only allowed one such to exist. Thankfully it had landed in the hands of someone worthy, and not one of the players who would hide and never use it.