Shattered: A SAO Tale (Sword Art Online)

Whatever Laughing Coffin was planning, Drifter and the others never found out. The murderers never showed themselves again after that day, nor did anyone but the spearmaster see them, to the point that Drifter himself almost questioned if he was imagining things.

Regardless, the spearmaster and guild leader went through with his precautions, paranoid as they may seem. No Reaver stepped outside of a safe zone without at least 2 parties' worth of companions.

And the word of Broken Spear Drifter carried weight even amongst other guilds. The Legend Braves, Fuurinkazan, Fuumaningum, and Dragon Knights Brigade all increased their vigilance for the next several days.

Heathcliff had seemed severely unconcerned when Drifter warned him. It pissed the spearmaster off, just when he thought he was making progress with the KoB guild leader. The grey-haired man had no idea what kind of monsters Laughing Coffin were, worse than any mobs.

Drifter had to take a deep breath and hold it in, averting his gaze before his glare burned a hole in the back of Heathcliff's head. They were about to fight another floor boss. Now wasn't the time for petty grudges.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

Someone pushed open the boss room doors, and the raid for the 31st floor started.

Like always, the first thing to take notice was the room itself. This time it was a cavern, the ground, walls, and ceiling made of the same black rocks with glowing red veins. Columns and spires of the same material rose to the ceiling, and Drifter could already see how they might become a hazard or an advantage, depending on how the fight went. The same with the waist-high fog, really.

The boss itself was also fairly easy to spot. The Molten Revenant didn't even try to hide, standing proudly in the middle of the room like only a 4 meters tall giant amalgamation of physics-defying magma and cracked obsidian could.

Occasionally, under the ever-shifting pieces of its jagged exterior, portions of its charred skeleton would peek through. It didn't exactly have a head per se, but more of a lump on top of its body, where two particularly molten pieces of rock glowed brighter than the rest, like eyes.

Drifter had to say, the boss looked badass, in a I'm-going-to-melt-all-of-you-to-nothing kind of way.

That last bit made the boss a lot less likeable. Not that it ever was that, but even so.

"Spread out!"

Drifter's eyes widened as the first thing the boss did when the Assault Team entered the room was grab a handful of molten rock out of its own body and hurl it at them.

The speeding projectile of lava was the size of a basketball, and Drifter dove out of the way with a dozen other frontliners.

"Ugh!"

It had been so sudden that Drifter didn't even manage to cushion his fall properly, and he grunted when his spear slipped from his hand. Thankfully the Molten Revenant chose to focus in another direction, and he recovered his weapon while a group of KoB players scrambled for cover.

'Well, two can play this game.'

Getting up on one knee, Drifter raised his arm over his head and threw a Serpentcoil Impale. By now, he could boast a 95% accuracy within a 20 meters range, and that was without the system's assistance when launching the skill. So it was no surprise when his spear flew the distance and pierced right through where it's mouth would have been, if the Molten Revenant had one.

The boss didn't like that.

Maybe it was because Drifter claimed first blood, even faster than Sinon's arrows, that the Molten Revenant seemed to hate him in particular.

Those burning, coal-like eyes locked onto him, even when Nautilus crashed into its side with his shield, or Agil dug into its back with his ax.

Drifter ducked another projectile and swore. The Molten Revenant wasn't a particularly dangerous boss, but it was annoying. It pelted you with lava from a distance, and, if you managed to get close-

Well, let's just say that even staying near the boss was a challenge. Those lumpy fists were a lot more daunting from up close, but the real problem was the heat emanating from the boss. It was actually a speed debuff, which made everything 10 times harder.

Not too hard, though. It was just the 31st floor boss, after all. Not a round floor. Not a death floor either. And with Drifter somehow - and unwillingly - hogging all the aggro, everyone else could let loose.

Which was how the 31st floor boss raid somehow ended up becoming a game of cat and mouse between the Molten Revenant boss and Broken Spear Drifter.

And what a game it was. While Drifter dodged and rolled and sometimes hid behind pillars, the Molten Revenant didn't have any issues with just barreling through and demolishing everything. By the time the boss was down to its last two HP bars, there were barely any columns left standing in the room.

Drifter eyed the ceiling suspiciously. He didn't think Kayaba would collapse it on top of the raid team - but he also wouldn't put it past the game master either.

"Here we go! On your toes, everyone!"

Yuuki hit the boss with one last skill, officially causing it to enter its last phase. All the frontliners tensed up. As always, that was the start of the most dangerous portion of the raid.

The Molten Revenant didn't disappoint. Finally forgetting Drifter, the boss slammed its fists on the ground, which cracked easily.

Fissures extended from the impact point to cover the ground of the entire room in seconds. The frontliners sidestepped the cracks, none larger than three fingers, with distrustful looks.

SAO was know for its dramatics, so that might just be some kind of scenario change. But instincts honed by countless battles warned them otherwise.

They were right in listening to it. No sooner had the boss raised its hands again, mist started spewing out of the fissures at a high speed. No, it was better to call it vapor, exceedingly hot at that.

The players recoiled, unsure of what was happening. The vapor didn't harm them - yet - but it was in their nature to be suspicious. As frontliners said, 'if you don't know what it is, stab it. If stabbing it doesn't work, then get away.' Maybe not the prettiest of sayings, but it was practical.

"Wraiths! Split and round 'em up! Broken Spear, the boss seemed to like you, so go entertain it!"

Normally Drifter would have given the finger and returned an insult to Lind, but he was too occupied stabbing - see how it worked? - a Burned Wraith, newly formed out of the vapor from the cracks.

Using an Upturn to launch the mob towards Klein and his party, Drifter dashed towards the Molten Revenant, ducking under a set of claws and cutting another wraith before he got there.

Once he did, Drifter immediately realized the boss was... Different. The changes had been lost amidst the chaos of minions spawning and the fog, but the Molten Revenant's physical appearance had drastically shifted.

It was like the boss had gone through an extended diet in a matter of seconds. Its body was still slow flowing magma and jagged black rocks, but it was now much slimmer and smaller, barely taller than Drifter. Its eyes burned even brighter.

Speed. That was very obviously the core change the Molten Revenant went through. From the hard-hitting, slow-moving form it had before, its current build had very clearly changed focus to maximize speed.

"It's a whole new game, everyone! Reavers, spread out and keep the mobs away like we did with the Seraphim. Ran, Yuuki, Kirito, Silica, you are DPS with me. Nautilus, Kizmel, shields. Heathcliff, we could use your Holy Sword too."

The other guild leader nodded, while the Reavers silently assumed their positions. This time, they waited for the boss to make the first move.

When it came, it was a blur. One moment the Molten Revenant was standing still, and the other it had a fist drilling into Yuuki's stomach. If it wasn't for her abnormally high reaction speed letting her place her swords in an X in front of her to block, the attack may have been life-threatening.

As it was, Yuuki shot back like a cannonball, flying at least 10 meters before colliding with a Burned Wraith. The mob promptly tried to scratch her with its claws, only to have two arrows sprout from its face, courtesy of a very pissed off girlfriend.

Drifter's eyes widened. Note to self: the boss still hit hard, and it was really, really fast.

The spearmaster didn't have time to check if Yuuki was okay, because the Molten Revenant had already moved on to Ran, who parried a fist in a shower of sparks.

"Nautilus, Kizmel, Heathcliff, we need control! Now!"

"We are trying!"

Kirito stabbed it in the back while Silica slashed at its knees, and both received a backhand for their troubles. Drifter jumped in at the last moment, using a Tidal Sequence to slow down the boss for a half-second.

Thankfully, that was enough. The shield-bearers of their little group surrounded the Molten Revenant, forming a sort of triangle with the boss in the middle. That was the final nail in the coffin for the boss.

Try as it might, the Molten Revenant couldn't break their encirclement. Heathcliff had his Holy Sword Unique Skill, which let him freely change his stats between attacking and defensive power. No matter how hard it tried, the boss couldn't break through the guild leader's perfect guard.

Nautilus, on the other hand, had his Indomitable Might. While his methods might not be as esthetically pleasing as Heathcliff's fluid defense, Nautilus was like a rock the boss couldn't break no matter how hard it pounded.

The weak point of their formation was Kizmel, amd the dark elf knew it. She didn't have a Unique Skill, so she couldn't tank nearly as many hits as the other two. But Vallerk, Shigio, Liten, Enkidu, and other pure shield-users would be too heavy and slow to keep up with the boss.

So Kizmel did what she did best: adapt. Instead of taking the hits like Nautilus and Heathcliff were doing, she dodged and parried. It was like the curved blade in her right hand became another small shield.

The Molten Revenant's punches slid off Kizmel's shield and blade, the dark elf ducking under them or using the angle of the impact to disperse the force, somehow always managing to end up back in the same position, cutting off the boss' path.

It was an unbelievably dangerous fighting style, and one the dark elf, for all her daring, wouldn't normally attempt. She was losing HP with each attack she parried, small amounts, but they added up. And just one direct hit could spell disaster.

Truth be told, Kizmel only dared to fight so recklessly because Drifter had asked her. Her trust in the spearmaster was unparalleled, and she knew he would have her back no matter what.

And he did. The moment Kizmel faltered, due to a blow she didn't quite manage to recover in time to deflect perfectly, the spearmaster was there, sweeping the Molten Revenant's fists aside with his halberd.

A swift kick with Martial Arts saw to it that Kizmel was put out of danger, and Drifter took her place momentarily. Changing his weapon into a lance, he pierced right through the center of the boss' torso with a Sting, before using Infinite Spear to transform it back into his bident and slash with a Split Stream.

The attack brought the boss to a momentary halt. It was Drifter's strongest skill, the newest unlock of Infinite Spear. Even against top-tier mobs, it hurt them a lot. The one time Drifter lucked out with a critical hit, he almost one-shotted a Wailing Owl.

Against a floor boss, that was just enough to stop it for a half-second, but by then Kizmel had already smashed a Healing Crystal on herself and switched back with Drifter.

They followed that pattern thrice more before the Molten Revenant fell to Silica's dagger. Once the boss was dead, the fissures on the ground closed, and the Burned Wraiths vanished.

"Well. That was anticlimactic."

"Anticlimactic is good. No one dies anticlimactic."

"You are not making any sense."

Drifter rolled his eyes.

...

For the second time in not too long of a while, Drifter was thinking that climbing a new floor of Aincrad was always a unique experience.

They had just left the 31st floor, which was dark and hot, and the moment they stepped onto the 32nd floor, they were hit in the face by a wave of cold air and snow.

"Huh. Isn't this somethin'?"

Aincrad didn't have a lot of cold climate, winter-themed floors. Forests, plains, caves in droves, but not a pure frozen visage like the Assault Team was beholding now.

They stood on top of what looked to be a giant glacier, the rest of the floor at least 30 meters below them. Steps carved out of pure ice led to a sprawling settlement right under where they stood. The safe zone.

From their vantage point, the players could see that the floor was split into 3 main sections. To the east was a giant frozen lake, to the north were snow-covered cliffs, and to the west was what at first looked like a frozen forest, until Drifter realized the 'trees' were actually the columns and walls of a gathering of glacial ruins.

The spearmaster exchanged glances with his guildmates. This floor was bound to be interesting.