Two pairs of eyes watched the body of a teenage boy as he rolled around in his sleep. The two pairs of eyes, one set hazel and another set a dark brown, watched as the boy scratched his cheek. For some reason, which both Asuna and Sinon took advantage of, Kirito rarely locked his door when he slept. Maybe he forgot to lock it after he returned from his various training sessions in the middle of the night, which he still believed both girls were oblivious to, or he was comfortable enough living with the girls that he didn't see the need to do so. A reason that fit more into his character would be that he was far too lazy to set up a locking option on his room.

Yeah, it was probably the last option. Kirito was extremely lazy when it came to everything besides anything combat related and when he was spending time with the girls.

"When do you think he'll wake up?" Sinon asked her companion, who was staring at the sleeping boy's face.

Asuna replied without any hesitation, never taking her gaze of the boy. "I'd say maybe a couple of hours. It's Kirito-kun we're talking about."

Both girls have out a small giggle as they watched him shift positions so that his head was resting on one of his arms while the other arm was hugging his pillow close to his chest. What could Kirito be dreaming about to make him look this peaceful?

"So... Alright. What's even going on right now?" A black haired boy asked himself.

In what he suspected to be his dream, Kirito found himself sitting on a picnic blanket underneath a tree. There was a single closed basket sitting in the middle of the blanket, but he considered leaving it as it was.

"Hey Kirito, we should get back to the academy soon."

"Kirito-sama, we need to hurry. We might even have time to go to Centoria and buy some honey pies before we get back."

Kirito turned his head to get a look at the voices. The first voice bring rather familiar to him, belonged to Eugeo.

The second voice came from a girl that was younger than him. She had tea-coloured hair and blue eyes. She was dressed in a similar uniform to what he and Eugeo were wearing.

Seeing that his friend wasn't going to move, Eugeo decided that he was going to put Kirito into a headlock and drag him off the picnic blanket.

"Ronie, please pack up the picnic supplies. Teiza's probably pretty far ahead by now, so you might as well go on ahead. We'll catch up later." Eugeo addressed the now-named Ronie, in which she packed up the blanket and put it into the basket in record time before walking off.

Eugeo returned to his previous activity, which was roughhousing with a black haired boy.

"E-Eugeo! I surrender! Air!" Kirito begged through choking noises.

"What's that Kirito? I'm the better [Elite Swordsman] out of the two of us? I know, you don't have to remind me." Eugeo casually said, loosening the headlock so he wouldn't suffocate his best friend. "Anyways we should head back soon. Teiza probably bought some honey pies and Ronie's probably way ahead of us. If we don't catch up soon, they'll hide the honey pies somewhere in our room!"

"Whose fault is that, idiot!?" Kirito shouted as he ran down the path that led back to the academy, followed by a laughing Eugeo.

"Yours obviously! If you would've surrendered earlier we wouldn't have wasted time!"

"Shut up and run faster!"

The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the familiar sight of the roof in his room. The wooden planks giving him a sense of comfort as he realized that he was home, and not wherever he was in his dream.

The second thing he saw was the two pair of eyes that quickly disappeared from his line of sight as he opened his eyes.

"Sinon, Asuna, what are you two doing?"

Two cute "kyaa's" were the responses to his question. Kirito sat up, realizing that they were both sitting on his bed, wearing their day-to-day clothes. He looked at both of the girls and yawned, still not being completely awake.

"So what's the plan for today?" Kirito asked, rubbing one of his eyes to try to get the sleepiness out of it.

Asuna was the first to recover from Kirito's "random awakening moment," and informed him of most of the events that were happening today.

"Nothing is really going to happen in the morning, so we've got time for ourselves. Later in the afternoon at about 2:00 there's a boss meeting, where we'll most likely fight the floor boss two to three days later."

Kirito took a moment to absorb the information Asuna supplied. Some free time, a meeting and then more free time. He could probably use the free time to check up on everyone, but the boss meeting took priority.

"Floor 50 huh?" He mused, "We'll most likely spend the days between the meeting and the actual boss fight grinding in the dungeons and getting any gear upgraded at Lisbeth's. We should also grab some extra supplies too. The scouting team should have some more information on the boss, so…"

Somewhere during his musing, Asuna and Shino left his room. Kirito decided that he would shower before figuring out what he would do until the boss meeting.

Meanwhile, Asuna and Shino were in the kitchen, preparing their late breakfast due to their "observations" on a sleeping Kirito. During their preparations, they were discussing how they would prevent Kirito from trying anything suicidal during the fight.

"Maybe hit him with an arrow coated in a paralyzing agent? It would definitely prevent him from doing anything." Asuna suggested.

Sinon took a moment to think about that suggestion. "What could work, but it would most likely backfire as the boss would probably rush to him after he's been paralyzed. How about we tie him up and leave him at home?"

In response to that idea, Asuna had a deadpan look on her face. "We both know that won't work for two reasons. There's no paralyzing agent that could last for the duration of the boss fight, so once it wears off he'll come rushing towards the boss room, extremely angry at us." Sinon nodded her head slowly at Asuna's breaking down of her plan. "Secondly, we'd be lacking in the damage department if he wasn't there. From what I've heard among the clearers, he's one of the people, if not the highest person, who has the highest damage output. Without him the fight would be dragged on and there would be more casualties."

Sinon flailed her arms at their current situation. How were they going to stop Kirito from putting himself in more danger than necessary? Take him out of the equation and everyone is in danger along with the fact that everyone has a higher chance of dying. Put him into the equation and he'd rush head-on into a boss to protect the other players. There was no solution to this problem!

Asuna looked at her companion's obvious struggle. She knew without a doubt that Sinon would probably over stress over this issue, so Asuna decided to help her best friend solve the problem.

"Why not just get Klein to help? Fuurinkazan will be one of the guild's participating in the boss raid, so we could get them to talk some sense into Kirito-kun not being all suicidal and reckless. From what I've heard, Kirito-kun is rather close with the guild, so he's bound to listen to them."

"That's a good idea. We'll ask them after the boss meeting. I'm sure they'll agree. He's basically an honorary member." Sinon agreed, having her hand on her chin and nodding in satisfaction at the idea.

"Ask who what and who's an honorary member of what?"

Twin shouts of surprise were the responses to Kirito's completely random question.

Somehow, it looked like all of the hairs on Sinon's head were standing up straight, almost like she got spooked.

Asuna was the first to collect herself, calming her racing heartbeat.

"K-Kirito-kun, stop doing that!"

"But I'm not doing anything." He responded, tilting his head to the side in obvious confusion.

"Don't give us that!" Sinon started, "Your footsteps are way too silent! We didn't even notice you until you came into the kitchen and scared the crap out of us!"

Kirito raised his hands in a surrendering gesture. "Sorry, but I can't help it if you don't notice me."

Sinon didn't like the tone of voice that he said that with, and her competitive side got the better of her. "I can notice you just fine. In fact; let's make a bet! If you can sneak up on me during the day up until tomorrow, I'll do you whatever you want. However, if I catch you even once, you've got to do whatever I want."

Kirito thought over the stakes. Sneak up on her and get her to do anything he wanted? It was so tempting, and he knew he could easily win. After all, his [Hiding] skill was almost maxed out, and combined with his natural elusiveness, he would be nearly impossible to find. The only way someone would be able to find him is if they had an even higher [Searching] skill. He could taste the victory already.

"The winner gets an absolute command towards the loser? Deal!"

Sinon turned down over to Asuna, who did little to hide the amusement present on her face.

"Asuna, you're our witness. Everything that has been spoken here has now been recorded by you, Asuna the Flash. As an effect, neither of the parties may back out from, or alter the stakes of this commitment."

Asuna raised an eyebrow at her best friend's words.

"Rather fancy choice of words there, Sinononon."

"There's quite a bit on the line here. I need to make this dramatic as possible so I can rub it in Kirito's face once I win."

Kirito smirked and raised an eyebrow at his friend's confident statement.

"Oh? Don't you mean when I win?"

Following Kirito's question, Asuna could literally see sparks between her love interest and best friend. Despite how entertaining this all seemed, there were more important things to take care of.

"Kirito-kun, Sinon," Asuna began, an evil and malicious aura started to ooze out of her, despite the sincere smile on her face. For a split second, maybe being just a trick in the lighting, there seemed to be a hannya mask forming behind her. "Breakfast is on the table, so I shouldn't see or hear anymore fighting. We should begin eating."

Faster than a speeding bullet, both Kirito and Sinon were sitting at the table, immediately eating their respective meals.

"F-Fighting? Don't be silly Asuna, Kirito and I would never fight! Isn't that right Kirito!"

"A-Ah! That's absolutely true!"

Asuna hid her satisfied grin under her sincere smile, and she was sure that both of them knew about it too. To be able to control both Kirito and Sinon with just her words and "sincere" smile, Asuna felt like she had all the power in the world.

"Kirito-san, are you sure that actually happened? I mean, Asuna-san is a really nice person so I don't think that would actually be possible."

"Keita, I agree with you about Asuna being a really nice person, but if you anger her, that can and will happen."

Kirito was invited to a cafe on the first floor by the Black Cats, as they seemingly wanted to help him relax before the boss meeting and during the days before the fight itself.

Their idea of relaxing was spending time with each other and some casual training. It seemed to calm their nerves down and they benefited from the training they did, which was a win-win scenario for them.

On the other hand, Kirito's definition of "relaxing" was taking super long naps throughout the day while occasionally spending time with Asuna and Sinon.

"So," Kirito began, "how are you guys doing? How is your training going?"

Ducker was the one to reply to Kirito, giving him an overview of how their training has went. "I've gotten my [Hiding] skill high enough to the point where I can only be detected by people with a super high [Searching] skill. My skills as a treasure hunter have increased by bounds and leaps!"

"Ducker, that's not a real class."

Ignoring the comment that came from Sasamaru, Ducker continued on. "Tetsuo's gotten better as our forward; his defence has gotten much higher, almost to the point where he can tank all the mobs on the middle floors dungeons solo.

"Sachi and Sasamaru have invested most of their stats points into Strength, add in the equipment they have and you've got a force to be reckoned with.

"Keita's gotten stronger as well. He's been distributing his stats evenly, sort of like a Jack of all Trades. He can do almost anything, except for doing damage. His Strength is still far inferior to his Luck."

"Hey! Again with the Strength and Luck jokes!?" Keita wailed at Ducker. It seemed like he was still a bit annoyed at all the teasing he received.

Kirito chuckled at the guild's antics. These people were closely knit like a family, given that he didn't really know who the mature one was supposed to be. Maybe Sachi? She was the only one that was calmed and collected, in definite contrast with the guys who tried to rustle each other's jimmies all the time.

"Glad to see you guys are doing well," Kirito began after stopping his chuckling. "Although you guys should even out your stats a bit. Not by too much, but just enough so your balanced in the areas you seem weak in."

The Black Cats took a moment to think of the areas they were weak in. Tetsuo was probably weak in the damage and speed department, given how high his defensive capabilities were. Ducker would probably be much more agile than everyone else in the guild, but his damage and defence would be lacking. Sachi and Sasamaru would probably need a bit of defence, since they were focusing on damage and agility.

Keita, all Strength jokes aside, was probably the most balanced out of the five people in the guild.

During their thinking, they didn't notice another group enter the cafe. They did begin to notice when the group decided to make a ruckus, kidnapping Kirito and dragging him off to some random bar. The last thing they heard was "I'll talk to you guys another time- Klein, chill out!"

The Black Cats were too busy to notice The last part of Kirito's goodbye message, mainly because of their collective thoughts.

'Did we just see another Kiritonapping?'

Unaware of where Kirito was, Asuna and Shino began walking towards the meeting place for the boss fight. During their walk, they made idle conversations about what interesting events they saw in the higher floors.

"You should've been with me when I went hunting. There was sort of a secret entrance leading towards the dungeons on the 40th floor." Sinon said as she watched the people pass her by.

"What were you doing on the 40th floor?" Asuna asked, confusion evident in her voice.

"Eh... I was looking for a rat that was last seen on that floor." Sinon's tone was sort of sheepish. "It turns out that rat scampered off somewhere."

Asuna looked at her friend for a few seconds, her gaze asking the unsaid question of 'Why didn't you just message her?'

"You could've just used the tracking feature to find out where she was, you know."

"I'm actually not sure if that would've worked. She's so slippery; she probably would've been long gone every time I would get close to her."

"That's a really bad excuse."

"Fine. I thought I could track her on my own without using that feature. I wanted to use my information gathering skills to find her. Happy now, Asuna?"

"Satisfied."

With a quiet 'Hmph' and the sound of Asuna's giggles, the girls arrived at the meeting place for the boss fight. Interestingly enough, most of the people were already there, but there were some distinct faces missing.

A couple of distinct faces were the leaders of the KOB and the DDA. Questions were asked, but their sub-commanders assured everyone that they were just making sure all the information they had was correct.

A few more missing faces were those that belonged to the guild Fuurinkazan and a certain Black Swordsman.

"Where's Kirito-kun? It's not like him to be late for a boss meeting." Asuna asked aloud, looking around her surroundings for a boy wearing all black.

"Don't worry. He'll come here soon," Sinon replied, waving off Asuna's concern. "Speak of the devil. He's over there."

Both girls waved him over, and interrogated him on why he was late.

"I'm not late if the meeting hasn't started yet. Anyways," he gave an annoyed glance at Klein. "The reason I was late was because someone invited me over to a bar, even though I told him that he can't drink, and almost got too intoxicated to go to the boss meeting."

"Why does he look sober then?" Sinon asked.

At her question, Klein, and only Klein, looked down and muttered something incomprehensible.

"What was that?"

"What Klein isn't going to say is that I literally slapped the drunkness out of him."

Both girls both had a questioning expression on their faces while the rest of the guys in Fuurinkazan laughed at how Kirito made their leader look like such a fool.

"How is that supposed to work?" Sinon asked, a single eyebrow raised.

"Don't ask me. I saw it in a movie once and decided I would try it. I half-expected it not to work." He replied, shrugging his shoulders.

"Wait, you half-expected that to work!?" Klein shouted, hands on his head in an 'I-can't-believe-you-would-do-that' manner. "That was just an excuse to slap me wasn't it!?"

Kirito ignored Klein's question as everyone seemed to know the answer, and instead decided to focus on the figure walking to the centre of the meeting area. "Klein, it's starting."

Even the eccentric Klein grew serious at the tension in the air. The meeting area was designed to be a circular court room with seats ascending like a coliseum. The majority of the players were seated like councilmen, facing the centre. At the centre, there was a podium where the speaker would stand and direct all the seated players.

Today at the centre was Heathcliff clad in his distinguishable red armour, and a look that seemed to command everyone's attention on him. Not that he needed the look, as everyone's attention was on him the moment he walked down towards the centre.

"Greetings everyone. I will now begin the boss meeting for the 50th floor." Healthcliff began, his voice booming and charismatic as ever. "First off, I would like to thank everyone present in this meeting. To give everyone a description of what we will face in a couple of days' time, the boss is a large metal Buddha statue with six arms."

Many people began to murmur at the thought of fighting a giant metal statue with multiple arms. No doubt the skin of the boss would be very hard to pierce. Heathcliff continued on with the information he had.

"According to our scouts, the boss can use multiple weapons with his arms. One pair of his arms use a bow and arrows, another pair uses two short swords, and the final pair uses two normal-length swords. The way we'll deal with this is having the tanks at the front and DPS personnel behind them, rushing forward with the tanks and having them draw the boss's attention to themselves. The DPS personnel will then circle around the boss, doing a hit-and-run attack, attacking and then returning behind the tanks. We'll have two groups of these, one being able to replace the other group when they go to heal."

Everyone nodded at the thought of the plan. If everyone did their part, they should come out of this fight without any casualties.

"We'll begin the boss raid two days from now, at 8 o'clock. This meeting has ended."

Following Heathcliff's last statement, people began to shuffle around. Some of the clearers decided to leave so they could get some training in early, while the majority of the clearers were talking among themselves about their thoughts on the plan.

"A six armed Buddha huh?" Kirito mused, "I guess it's not that bad. It could've been an Asura."

Sinon and Asuna both heard him, and gave each other a questioning look. Through some silent conversation, it was decided that Sinon would be the one to ask him the question.

"Kirito, what's an Asura?"

Kirito looked at her and Asuna, then took a breath before explaining.

"An Asura is a Buddhist deity that's usually affiliated with negative emotions. Rage, wrath, sorrow, you name it. It normally has six arms that can use multiple weapons and three faces. Along with the fact that they're affiliated with negative emotions, you could probably guess that they're really violent too."

By this point most of the people who remained at the boss meeting weren't trying to hide the fact that they were eavesdropping. Sinon and Kirito weren't really paying attention however, as Sinon had a wide-eyed expression on her face.

"K-Kirito... Are you implying that..."

"That the giant metal Buddha statue will turn into an Asura once we get it low enough? Yes." He replied with a grim tone. "I'm not exactly sure if I'm right, but it'd be best to take a precaution of that we're to happen."

"Do you have a strategy of that we're to happen, Kirito-kun?"

"Heathcliff, I thought you left already."

"An interesting topic made me come back. Now Kirito-kun, why don't you go down to the centre of the meeting place and talk about your strategy if he boss does turn into an Asura?" Heathcliff suggested.

Kirito gave him a levelled glance in response. "What about those who had already left? I'm sure that they would want to hear about this too."

"Not to worry, I'll have someone from the guild record this and send copies to all the players that left." Heathcliff answered back. It almost seemed like he wanted Kirito to get spotlight.

Finding no way out of his predicament, Kirito began to walk down towards the centre of the meeting area. Once he got at the centre, he couldn't help but feel that all the gazes from the other clearers were sizing him up. How the hell does Heathcliff do this?

Clearing his throat, he began to relay his strategy. "Following the earlier conversation, an Asura has six arms and three faces. The faces are arranged in a way on its head that it can see in a complete circle, leaving no horizontal blind spots. However, if it covers the horizontal blind spots, it can't cover the spots directly above and below the head.

Also with the arms and body in general, it can only face one direction. Even if it can see in a 360 degree range of vision, it can't defend against a strike that's headed to a blind spot on the body. We should have a group of tanks distract it and have others head for the spots where it can't see, namely behind, below and occasionally above the boss. However, the boss's speed is unknown, so we may have to neglect that strategy depending if the boss is fast enough or not."

"What do you mean above?" A random clearer asked.

"Say the boss looks down to look at who's attacking his legs, where to the other two faces look? They look somewhat at the ceiling. That makes it easier for someone to stab the top of the head or shoot a few arrows here and there." Kirito replied. "Other than what I just said, I don't really have anything else to add."

Everyone gave him some forms of acknowledgement, being nods or hand gestures. He gave them nods in return before turning to head up the stairs to where his friends were sitting.

"Well done Kirito-kun," Heathcliff praised, "it makes me wonder why you declined my offer of joining the Knights of Blood."

Kirito gave the man another levelled gaze, before replying, "I have reasons of my own, Heathcliff." He then turned to Asuna and Sinon who watched the explanation of his strategy with curious looks. "We should be going."

And he left, Asuna and Sinon following behind him as he did so.

"I don't think we'll be able to train in the dungeons." Kirito drawled out. "Everyone's probably training in the dungeons right as we speak. There probably won't be any spawns."

Kirito, Asuna and Sinon were currently sitting in the living room of their cottage, figuring out what they were going to do now.

"What options do we have?" Sinon asked. "It's not like we can just sit around here either."

Kirito took a moment to think. What else could they do? "What are your EXP percentages at? I'm at 5% right now."

"10%" Asuna replied.

"0%..."

Kirito nodded at their percentages. Recently levelled, there was no way they would gain a level if they went into the dungeon on the 50th floor, even in the two day duration.

"We could help out the others...but we need to prepare for this boss fight. Then again..." Kirito began mumbling; saying his phrases in a low tone so Asuna and Sinon could just barely catch out some of his words. "It would be best to..."

"Why don't we go check out some shops for new equipment and then upgrade them at Lisbeths?" Asuna suggested, causing Kirito to stop his mumbling.

"That's a better idea than what I had."

"What was your idea?" Sinon asked him, a single eyebrow raised.

"I was still coming up with one."

On the 50th floor of the floating castle, people began moving their businesses here because of the available stores. Many people came because it was the most recent floor that had been opened. Others because they figured they could sell unique item drops from the monsters. There was also a uniqueness that attracted players; the fact that you could own your own store in Aincrad's freshly dubbed 'merchant floor'. There was one player that stood out from the rest due to how many people were bartering with him.

"Yo, Agil."

"Oho. How are you guys doing? I've heard some rumours about you, Kirito."

That person was Agil, of course. The man who's slogan is "sell cheap buy cheap", the most intimidating figure in Aincrad, and 'The Gentle Giant until he gets on the battlefield.'

Kirito and Agil bumped fists as usual, to which the girls said something about 'even a handshake would look cooler.'

Kirito gave the larger man a smirk. "We're fine, thanks for asking. Those rumours though, I'll be willing to bet all my col that those came from Argo."

Agil returned the smirk, amusement dancing in his eyes. "I'm not willing to lose all my money on such an easy bet. So what brings you guys here?"

"We're here to look for some new armour, maybe get it upgraded at Lisbeth's. Think you can help?"

Agil gave a wide grin at Kirito's request. "Come now, Kirito, Sinon and Asuna. Come and see what wonders my store has to offer." He even held out his arms like he was showing off his most prized collection.

"That was dramatic." Kirito stated, his tone flat. Behind him, Asuna and Sinon nodded.

Agil grinned even harder and slung an arm around Kirito. "Listen, if any of you guys ever get into the trades, you'll learn soon enough that this is how you get business. Trust me."

"Uh, sure. Whatever you say." Sinon said, her tone of voice betraying all effort to hide the doubt in her voice.

Agil chucked and shook his head. "Let's see if you can find something that fits your tastes. I may not have that many weapons that will suit you guys, but I'm sure at least some of my equipment will meet your standards."

Asuna and Sinon were quite cheery once they left Agil's shop. For some odd reason, Agil had quite a collection of items that suited their needs, and so they bought new gloves, boots and armour. Sinon had green lightweight armour, with red spots near the neck and her sleeves. Beneath some parts of her armour, there was also black cloth. She also had a breastplate for some additional protection. Asuna had a white battle-dress with a red skirt and additional white sleeves. She also had a breastplate, but hers covered more of her upper body than Sinon's did.

"Of course Agil didn't have anything black. I swear he knew I was coming today." The lone boy in the group sighed. Kirito didn't find anything that interested him, so he looked the same with his black coat and the Shroud of Martin. "Well, now we're off to Lisbeth's right?"

"Yep," Asuna replied. "We can get our equipment upgraded and catch up with Liz too!"

Sinon gave her friend a knowing look. "Yeah, you're definitely going to catch up on 'something' alright."

"I-it can't be! Do you know!?"

"Of course I know. You can't hope to have 'those' kinds of conversations in public without having someone hearing them. That someone just happens to be a rodent who's trying to get her laughs by teasing us." Sinon replied back to the devastated Asuna.

Kirito had a clue what they were talking about, but decided not to say anything about it unless he wanted to incur the wrath of the two housemates. "Uh, maybe we should get going. We wouldn't want Lisbeth's store closing now, would we?"

Sinon and Asuna nodded at Kirito, one in an indifferent manner and one in a dismayed manner. Kirito began walking with Sinon by his side, but Asuna was behind them trying to figure out how Argo had been eavesdropping on their conversations.

"Was she just hiding around a corner? No, it can't be. She would've been spotted by someone else and they would've created a scene or something. Did she use her [Hiding] skill? That's a possibility but..." Asuna mumbled to herself. Kirito saw her looking at the ground and looked at his other companion for an explanation but received a 'Don't-worry-about-it' look. A snap of the fingers brought his attention back to Asuna. "I've got it!"

"Asuna?" Sinon asked.

"Fufufu. Don't you worry about it, Sinonononon."

At this point, Kirito increased his speed to distance himself from his companions that were obviously plotting against each other.

There was a rather well known blacksmith inside Aincrad who lived on the 48th floor. The main reasons why she was so well known wasn't just because she was female, but also because she wore a frilly pink maid outfit all the time.

The blacksmith was minding her own business, daydreaming about what she would normally daydream about when there were no customers. Maybe she should go into the 50th floor and look for some supplies?

"Liz..."

Maybe she should try searching for some in the dungeons? She could get some levels along with materials.

"Asuna don't you know how to get her attention?"

"I do, but it'd be rather embarrassing to just say it out loud."

She could go visit her favourite trio at their cottage. It seems like she wasn't going to be swamped with a super long line-up of customers...

"Hey Liz," she heard a voice whisper in her ear. Oddly enough, it sounded like it belonged to Asuna. There as no way that was right, she was supposed to be at the boss meting. "If you don't snap out of it, I'll expose each and every one your secrets to Argo."

That seemed to get the reaction Asuna was looking for. With a quick jump and a strange shrieking sound, Lisbeth came to attention and spotted Asuna right infront of her with Kirito and Sinon flanking her.

"Asuna... I thought you were…" The blacksmith began.

Asuna just gave a nervous wave. "Sorry, but it was the only way I could get your attention."

The blacksmith gave a sigh and welcomed her customers. "Hello and welcome to my humble shop. Anything you guys need?"

Kirito replied for his companions, mainly because he might as well go meet up with some other people to look for some information. "The girls need some items to be upgraded. Think you can handle an upgrading spree?"

The blacksmith looked over the two females. Now that she was focused, she could see that their outfits were much different than before. She turned back to the lone boy in the group with a raised eyebrow. "Do you know who you're talking to?"

Kirito just gave a smirk and waved goodbye to the trio of girls, leaving them to discuss what need to be discussed. Whatever that may be. Outside, he unequipped his usual coat and equipped a common hooded cloak that could be easily gained by purchasing one from a special vendor. Turning away from the blacksmith's shop, he inconspicuously walked off, cloak flowing behind him as he moved.

"So," Lisbeth began as she worked on upgrading the equipment, "how's life?" When she asked the rest of the question, she moved her eyebrows in such a way that you would immediately know what she was talking about.

"What sorts of things would you like to know about our lives, oh super-famous-blacksmith-maid-chan?" Sinon replied, a smirk on her face.

"The way you say that, so you have something to hide? A love life perhaps, Hawkeye-chan?"

Asuna, the spectator to this conversation could literally see sparks flying between both parties. There was always entertainment, people just needed to look in the right places for it.

Come to think of it, this was the first time Asuna saw Lisbeth and Sinon teasing each other. Were they having a tease war? If they were, Asuna could consider herself to be the neutral third party with more than enough 'firepower' to destroy both sides, and still have some leftover.

"Now, now, let's not be too aggressive with each other shall we?" Asuna began with her trademark 'super sincere' expression. Behind her, an aura that spoke of many evils began to arise. "We should be talking peacefully with each other while Lisbeth does her job, right?"

The targets of the sinister aura began to latch on each other because of animal instinct. Lisbeth even dropped her hammer so she could grab onto Sinon. Both parties nodded furiously while they were denying any aggression towards each other, even going as far as saying that the both of them were best friends.

"Anyways," Lisbeth began after the evil aura faded away, "what are you guys planning for the boss fight? According to the rumours floating around, a six armed giant Buddha statue must be strong."

"We're following the plan that Heathcliff and Lynd devised, Kirito had come up with a plan if the boss changes his attack pattern to what he predicted." Sinon said, giving the basic run-down of the plan.

"Wait, what did Kirito predict?" The blacksmith asked in confusion.

"Kirito-kun predicted that the boss would turn into an Asura, but it was just a speculation. However, it makes sense when you think about it." Asuna provided.

Lisbeth stopped upgrading their armours and cupped her chin with one hand, her face having an expression that showed her trying to remember something. "An Asura? As in one of those deities that fell into rage and bloodlust?"

"You know about them, Lisbeth?" Sinon asked, completely shocked that Lisbeth of all people would know something about them. "Any clue to their weaknesses?"

"Sorry, I know about them. No idea how to beat them." The blacksmith replied. "Anyways, I should hurry up with these upgrades so you two can get to what you normally do."

Both of the clearers didn't hear Lisbeth cough something that sounded like 'Fight for Kirito.'

"Are you sure about this info?" A male voice asked

"You should know that I'm always sure about my info. I'm never wrong." A female voice replied, her tone completely confident.

Two hooded figures were leaning against a wall that was hidden in the shadows. Add in their high levelled [Hiding] skill and they were basically part of the scenery.

The first hooded figure, about a head taller than the second, looked around at his surroundings. The market area on the 50th floor, a common place for gossip and rumours. It wouldn't be odd for his informant to find information here, but which pieces were true and which were false?

The second hooded figure could easily tell what their companion was thinking. The movements of his head were all too obvious.

"You don't trust me, Ki-bou?"

"You know I trust you, Argo. It's just that there are so many rumours floating around. How can you tell which are real and which are fake?"

Argo smirked, her whiskers shown under her hood. He trusted her to give him all the best information, how nice.

"Don't worry about anything. I already sorted through the information with other information brokers. I'm positive the information I just gave you is true."

Kirito said nothing, but nodded once. If she was positive, he would just have to trust her judgment.

"Now, about my payment..."

"...How much?"

"15000 col."

Kirito took a step back, that was a rather large sum of col. Why the sudden increase!?"

"For doubting the legitimacy of my information. You should know better than that Ki-bou, even if we're on a floor with rumours as plentiful as the air."

Kirito slumped in defeat, there was no one else to blame but him. Forking over the 15000 col to a satisfied Argo, he started to walk towards the teleport gate to go back to Lisbeth's.

During his walk, he went over the information that was just supplied to him. Nothing too serious was there, the [Army] was having some internal conflicts with their leadership, even though the conflict was almost insignificant. The DDA were constantly grinding the dungeons to get their overall levels up. Nothing new with the KoB but surprisingly, there was no sub-leader yet. There were contenders, but that didn't really concern him in the least.

There was a steady decrease in PKs, that was something to take note of. Normally, it would have been amazing to hear news like that. Except this time, there weren't any news on new PKers in the jails from what he and Thinker talked about. They were obviously planning something, but what? It's not normal for the PKers to just disappear off the face of the earth, well in this case, floating castle.

Without realizing it, he arrived at the blacksmith's shop. Peeking in the window, he saw that the girls were just finishing up with their upgrades. He saw Sinon holding a dagger but paid no mind to it. Instead of walking in, he suddenly got the greatest idea he's had in a while. So he activated his [Hiding] skill, and waited right outside the door, hidden from everyone.

This was going to be good.

"Your dagger is done, but I'm wondering why you have it. You specialize in long range, don't you Sinon?" Lisbeth asked as she handed the dagger back to her friend.

"I've always had a dagger. This one is just new and I decided to get it upgraded here since we're already upgrading everything else." The archer replied.

Asuna gave a look to her friend. "I've never seen you use a dagger. At all."

Sinon just shrugged her shoulders while walking to the door. "I've never had the chance because there are never enemies that can get anywhere near me. Either you or Kirito keep me covered so I can shoot my arrows from a safe distance."

Asuna asked another question, one that both she and Lisbeth were thinking about. "What's your skill level?"

The newly-discovered dagger user just gave her a smirk. "High enough. Let's go Asuna, we need to find Kirito."

"Find who?"

"Gah!"

"Oof!"

It seems like Kirito didn't expect Sinon to punch him in the stomach right after he scared her when she left the store. It didn't matter though, as he knew he accomplished his goal.

"Y-you..."

"I win, Sinon."

All three girls gave a 'what?' at his short statement, but Asuna soon realized what he meant by that. She decided that she would make it official, since Sinon was being so official this morning.

"I, Asuna, recognize Kirito as the winner of the bet. Sinon now owes Kirito one undeniable favour."

A look of triumph came across Kirito's face, while a look of despair came across Sinon's face. Lisbeth just decided to go back inside her store, since she decided that as entertaining as it was, she didn't want to get involved in whatever was going to happen.

Two days have passed, and it was now the day of the boss fight. Nothing of interest happened the day before because the trio couldn't find anything to do. The dungeons were completely filled with other players trying to get some last-second training done, and even the mini-dungeons were filled. They decided to spend their remaining day helping out the Black Cats with any help that they needed.

Today, on the day of the boss fight, each and every clearer was present at the door to the 50th boss. They would need all the manpower they could get.

Each and every clearer was prepared. After the boss on the 25th floor, they couldn't take it easy. Their items and weapons were thoroughly checked the night before. The plan was discussed on great details between the guilds and groups of solo players. With all the time they spent preparing for this fight, they were confident of their victory.

Heathcliff stood tall and confident right in front of the door to the boss's room, like the leader of the clearers should. If he were to show weakness, the morale of the rest of the clearers would drop significantly.

"Fight hard, and fight well. Come back with your shields, or on them." The clearer clad in red spoke, turning around and opening the doors.

The clearers all began to surround a static stone statue upon a a large pedestal in the middle of the room. They all tensed their bodies and readied their weapons. Soon, the boss fight would start. As the last of the clearers got into position, the pedestal sank into the ground, and the statue was on the same level as the clearers.

It began to move, bits and pieces falling off it as it stretched its multiple limbs. Its Legs stretching as it stood up and its arms stretching as it grabbed the weapons around it.

The eyes of the boss opened, two neutral orbs glancing at each and every soul in the room. The clearers could all agree that the dead expression of the boss was unnerving. One clearer even mumbled out, "At least look angry or something…"

The boss took one final look at the players, and raised its head up towards the ceiling.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

"Commence the attack!"

The 50th floor's boss fight had officially begun.

The clangs of steel striking steel could be heard throughout the entire boss room. The Buddha's strikes were sloppy, something that all the clearers took advantage of. Having to use four blades and a bow at the same time can be hard for even a floor boss, it seems.

The boss's attack patterns tended to be wild and unrefined. The Buddha's arms would swing randomly at players, sometimes being feints and having a different arm attack the players or it would focus all of its arms on one player, forcing them to retreat or face the wrath of four instantaneous attacks.

Though the boss seemed to be weaker than initially thought, it made up for that flaw with its stone skin. The strikes coming from the players did much less damage than they would've done normally, so they were forced to use some Sword Skills to balance that out. Granted, the sword skills they used were low-level ones, as being forced to go through the long cooldown sequence when there was a Buddha in front of you wasn't the ideal situation anyone would want to be in.

"▂▂▃!"

"Get ready!" Heathcliff shouted, blocking an arrow with his shield. "The boss is going to focus on someone!"

Like every other time the boss decided to rush in and focus on a single player, it would give a yell before preparing it's melee weapons, leaving the arms using the bow at its sides. This time, the target seemed to be Heathcliff.

"Urk!"

Heathcliff lived up to his (unofficial) reputation amazing among the clearers, being 'the toughest tank,' stopping the boss's charge, though he was pushed back quite a distance. Heathcliff's shield glowed blue for a short duration before he pushed it against the boss.

Granted, that didn't do as much as he hoped it would have, but it gave him an opening to retreat and make some space.

"The first bar is almost down! Continue the assault!" He roared, looking for any opening to take advantage of.

Due to the boss's reckless nature, there were many openings, some were just better than others. The boss's incorrect footing and overextending of arms was a prime example of a better opening. Heathcliff took advantage of that, and rushed forward before the boss could fully react to the sudden movement.

Immediately after his initiation, the rest of the clearers swarmed the boss with their own attacks. Swords slashing at the rough stone, axes cleaving into the skin, and spears piercing holes into the boss. It was a constant effort where not a single player stayed still, everyone swapped out with each other at the right moments, like a well-oiled machine.

Or an Army.

With the first health bar of three being emptied out at an hour and a half in, this boss fight was going to take quite a bit of time.

"▂▂▃▃!"

"Sinon, shoot the eyes!" Kirito yelled back as he parried a strike from one of the boss's arms. Immediately after, a glowing arrow flew across the room and headed towards the left eye of the boss.

Only to be blocked by the flat side of one of the blades the boss held in its hands.

The collective cries of "what" displayed the shock of the clearers. Up until this floor, the bosses never made any effort to block any arrows that she fired towards the eyes. The only effect was a disoriented boss for a few seconds, but it would return to normal after that.

But if this boss started to block the hits, did that mean bosses past this floor would block arrows too?

Are the AI learning and adapting?

"Don't mind that!" Kirito yelled, already shadowing behind a rushing Heathcliff. "We'll just cause a distraction so she can hit the next one!"

All the clearers watched as Heathcliff and Kirito rushed towards the boss head on. Heathcliff brought up his shield during his dash, allowing the boss and his shield to get to know each other better.

While the boss was distracted, Kirito immediately rushed behind it, sending a few quick strikes to its back before retreating back with Heathcliff.

"...That did less than I thought it would." Kirito mumbled towards Heathcliff.

"Indeed, Kirito-kun. Do you have any other ideas?" The red knight asked.

"We could try that again, but have it on a larger scale. Three people to push the boss and four to attack it."

Heathcliff nodded, seeing the point to his plan. Three tanks to push it back, and four DPS personnel attacking each leg or the backside

"Two tanks with me!"

"Asuna, with me. I need another two people too follow behind the other tanks!" Heathcliff and Kirito ordered respectively, and people immediately complied.

Seven people rushed forwards, three tanks in the front bringing their shields up in front of them as they ran and four others behind them, prepared to take move in immediately after the tanks did their job. Unfortunately for them, the boss was prepared. It bent its knees and crossed its weapons over in an 'x' shape, preparing to take the blow.

As Heathcliff and the other tanks slammed into the tank, the boss kept its focus on the four clearers darting around, circling the boss and using quick strikes while the tanks continued to push.

'There!' An opening in the boss's defence, the footing incorrect leaving the back wide open and vulnerable to an attack. Once he got the strike in, the boss would turn around to attack Kirito.

"▂▂▃▃▄!"

The boss did turn around, using one arm to try and slash at Kirito. He jumped back, while the other clearers jumped in to attack ruthlessly attack it from the other directions.

"▂▂▃▃!"

As the boss turned around to attack the other clearers, an arrow found its way into the eye after the boss made its rotation. Taking advantage of the disorientation, Heathcliff ordered everyone to take advantage of the situation Sinon created.

"We have a few seconds to do an all-out attack! As soon as the boss begins to reorient itself, back off and continue with the normal strategy!"

The remaining tanks rushed forward with the intent to knock the boss onto 5its back, only to be disappointed when the boss just slid back in response to their charge. The DPS personnel didn't mind, they just took advantage of the distractions the tanks were creating.

"Get back! We'll now resume the original plan! Tanks, surround it from all sides!" Heathcliff ordered, positioning himself directly in front of the boss.

"This is getting tiring..." Kirito mumbled, dashing towards the boss's blind spot.

For what seemed like hours later, the clearers constantly attacked the boss, bringing the second HP bar down to a sliver. With the boss becoming more and more reckless as it lost health, the boss fight was getting easier and harder at the same time.

The boss would occasionally focus down a single player, creating many openings and abandoning all defence for a stronger offence. The boss made up for that by being completely random and super aggressive, charging at anyone who looked like their guard was down, which usually ended being people that were healing.

"▂▂▃▃▄▂▂▃▃!"

"Of all people,why me!?" Kirito shouted as he began running around, now being forced to act as the distraction for the rest of the clearers to take advantage of. "There are other people healing, so why does it come after me!? Sinon, shoot an arrow, please! It's about to lose its second bar, we could all take that time to heal!"

Kirito saw her shoot the arrow, and also saw the smirk she had on her face due to his situation. Even he had to admit, running away from an angry boss with his arms flailing around behind him must've been rather comical, but he was sure he was going to get Sinon back for that amused expression of hers. He would make sure of it.

The arrow that she shot hit the boss directly in the back. It didn't do much, but it did get the job done. With the boss's second HP bar depleted completely, it gave everyone a chance to heal while it was thrashing around.

He took out a health potion and drank the liquid inside, all next to a smug looking Sinon.

"I'm going to get you back for that, you know."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Kirito sent an irritated look towards the girl, which caused her grin to get bigger. "You..."

"▂▂▃▂▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by the boss that was clutching its head. The boss discarded the bow, throwing it away in order to clutch its head. Sinon just looked at the action and discarded weapon with distaste.

"Giving up your only ranged advantage? How stupid can you get?"

"▂▂▃.."

The boss had seemed to calm down, its posture was more relaxed despite still having both hands gripping its head. Taking a few steps forward, the boss slowly dropped its hands to its sides.

Revealing a second face. Compared to the first expressionless face, this was a face of sorrow.

"What!?"

"It's becoming an Asura!? I took a wild guess; I didn't expect that to actually happen!" Kirito yelled in disbelief. "That was just some random 'what if!'"

Heathcliff raised his shield in preparation, ready to act once everyone regained their footing. "It seems your wild guess was actually right, Kirito-kun. Although it's happening more slowly than you though. The final attack pattern change will most likely be when the boss loses nearly all of its HP, sprouting a new face. All units," he yelled, "have tanks to the sides where the boss can see! Anyone with high damage output get to the area where it's blind!"

"This just got way harder." Kirito mumbled.

"Look on the bright side." Sinon mumbled back.

"And what would that be?"

"At least it doesn't have three faces right now. Also, it has fewer weapons to use, unless it's going to try throwing arrows around."

"Don't jinx that last part."

The clearers were having a rough time with the boss's additional field of view and awareness. Having an extra set of eyes meant that more blind spots were covered and the awareness had gone up a notch.

Having that extra set of eyes did wonders for its defence. Strikes that were a sure hit could be blocked from behind, all it took was a flick of the wrist and the boss would have a sword prepared to parry an attack, and it turns out the two free arms of his weren't very useless.

Have you ever gotten punched by a floor boss? It hurts. Some of the tanks can testify to that.

"Stop turning around so much so I can hit you!" Sinon yelled, trying her best to stay out of the boss's field of view. It was so much easier when there was only one face, barely any running around at all. Now with two faces, there was only a limited area where she could shoot from and actually hit the boss, instead of having the boss deflect the arrows with its sword.

"Asuna!" Kirito called out to her, and she immediately came to his side. "We're going to go around the boss constantly, make sure the only time you stop is when you're sure you've got a guaranteed chance to hit. Heathcliff and the other tanks will run as interference."

"Roger."

"It's time to show everyone why you're called the Flash."

Both sword users ran forward, darting around the boss faster than most of the other clearers while Heathcliff and the other tanks kept the boss at bay. The boss with its four eyes saw almost everything that occurred around it, minus its blind spot, but it was hard to track more than twenty people darting around behind an equal amount of stationary targets.

"▂▂▃▃▄!" It roared in frustration, throwing out a random punch towards the closest target it could find.

That target turned out to be Heathcliff, who in response shoved his shield forward. As a result, both parties were slightly pushed back, but Heathcliff was supported by the rest of the tanks.

The boss didn't get any support. Instead, it received shield bashes to further prevent it from regaining its balance and sword skills to drain away its health.

Through that convenient event, the boss's health was lowered far past the point where it would change attack patterns, and yet...

"It's strange. It should've changed its attack pattern by now. All the other boss's attack patterns change when we get he last health bar to the red, but this one is still on its second phase." Kirito mumbled, catching the attention of the clearers around him.

Lynd took a look at the final health bar. It was 95% depleted if he could take the guess. "Maybe one more hi-"

"▂▂▃▃!"

"The space created has been efficiently used." Sinon said, smirk oh her face as she lowered her bow.

Compared to the rest of the clearers, Kirito and Asuna had an opposite reaction to her little comment. 'She's trying way too hard to look cool.'

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▂▂▃▃▄!"

Their attention was brought back towards the boss, who gripped its head with the two weapon less arms yet again. With the it thrashing around, the combined roar from the faces, shook the room.

"▂▃▄▅▅▂▄▄▅▅!"

The boss looked like it grew bulkier, but the stone skin was turning into a softer flesh. It shed off its heavy exterior to gain manoeuvrability. It sacrificed all its defence to gain an unstoppable offence. The bulkier, faster, and stronger arms that held no weapons returned to its side, revealing the third and final face.

A face of absolute rage.

The clearers needed a few seconds to comprehend what just happened. However, the boss decided it wouldn't give them any, it rushed forward straight into a large grouping of clearers. It gave out a large battle cry before crashing into the group of ill-prepared clearers.

And then some of them died.

Some were cleaved in half, some were crushed under the force of the boss's punches. It was through their combat training and instincts that there weren't any more casualties during that attack. The rest of the clearers jumped back, only realizing that their comrades had been killed after they had landed.

"W-what was that!?" One of them yelled out in obvious panic as they were probably unable to completely comprehend the absurdity of the last attack. "All I saw was a blur, I call bull on this!"

The boss didn't care if he did call bull. It just charged straight at the group that he was in.

The tanks all rushed to form a wall with their shields, lining up side by side. One of them rushed past the panicking clearer and gave an order. "We need to kill the boss first, and then you can call bull or whatever on it. Don't stand there twiddling your thumbs, do you want to end up dead!?"

The still panicking clearer scooted backwards in fear of being killed by the rage-induced boss. Being looked down upon by a very beefy looking Asura must've been rather frightening.

The tank looked at the frightened clearer in disdain. "Tch, useless. Heathcliff, give us your orders!"

Heathcliff gave the frightened clearer a look of indifference, making it impossible for anyone to know what he was thinking. After a few seconds of looking at the clearer, he turned around to address the rest of the raid group. "We'll do the same as before and see how things go. Tanks, surround the boss, everyone else will circle around and wait for an opportunity to strike!"

A collective call of confirmation met his orders, and everyone set off to perform their roles. Kirito and Asuna were dashing in the inner layer of the clearers right behind the tanks while Sinon was at the far end of the room, darting around looking for cover where the boss wouldn't see her fire her arrows.

If only it was as easy as they took it. With three faces a 360 degree field of vision, the boss could see almost everything. There were no real areas where anyone could stay hidden and still attack the boss, if the boss couldn't see you, you couldn't see the boss. Well, there was still the option of blind fire for Sinon, but that was rather risky.

"Healthcliff-" Kirito yelled as the boss parried his attack, and then knocked him away, sending him flying towards the outer layer of clearers, "I don't think the earlier strategy is working very well!"

"Dully noted. Do you have any other ideas?"

"I've got one idea, but I'm not completely solid with its effectiveness."

"Well I'm pretty sure all of us are all ears!" Heathcliff replied back, preventing the boss from splitting the person next to him in half.

"Asuna, I'm going to need you to create an opening! Run through its legs!"

"What!? Kirito-kun, are you crazy!?" She snapped back. It looks like she was against this plan.

"Just trust me!"

Asuna was conflicted. Could she trust whatever crazy plan he came up with, or would she just ignore his plan, knowing well enough that it would cause the last amount of casualties?

"I…-fine! This had better work, Kirito-kun!"

Kirito moved back to where the leader of the KoB was. "Healthcliff, I need you to do something for me…"

Asuna ran in a straight line towards the boss, making sure that the boss registered her as a threat by increasing her speed. She pushed forward, and then dove under its legs. The boss bent over, intending on tracking her the entire way. Sadly, it couldn't do that. Due to the sheer bulkiness, it could only bend its body 90 degrees, enough that it couldn't see ahead of it and behind it.

That was all that they needed.

"Everyone take the chance!" Kirito's voice rang through the room.

The clearers grouped towards the front of the boss and the back of the boss, dealing as much damage as they could. Tanks pushed forward smashing the front of their shields into the boss and everyone else followed up with quick stabs and slashes.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

Though, it didn't do much. As the boss's health bar for lower, it became more reckless and dangerous.

Instead of trying block or dodge attacks, the boss just let the strike hit, allowing the attacker to get inside the boss's range for attack.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅▃▄▄▅!"

As the boss got out of its crouching position, it took a good look at the destruction it caused to the clearing force, slowly preparing to create more. It bent its knees, raising its weapons as it looked towards a group of healing clearers. The eyes of the clearers met the rage-induced eyes of the boss, and the words of one clearer summed up their situation perfectly.

"Oh, we're so screwed."

Before the boss could take its first step towards its next victims, something landed on its head. A black blur, holding an elegant blade, someone called 'The Black Swordsman.'

With just a sliver of health on the boss's final health bar, Kirito decided to be dramatic. He turned and looked to the side. "Sorry, but it's- whoa!"

The Asura didn't care for drama, so it tried to fling its body around and get rid of the nuisance on its head. It shouldn't be too hard anyways; it wasn't like Kirito had something to hang onto. The top of the head was flat, no hair or anything to hold onto.

He could hear the calls of his name from Sinon, Asuna, Klein and everyone else he was close to as he began falling towards the ground. 'This is definitely going to hurt. It won't kill me, but I'm not sure how well I'm going to take it being in such a close proximity to the boss. Even if I do land the fall, the boss will already be in motion. I'm so close too...'

Looking up towards the boss as he began his descent, he tried one desperate action to try and kill the boss.

He threw his sword.

If most of the clearers weren't so tense, they would've face palmed at such an idiotic tactic. The boss didn't seem so impressed with the action either. It moved its arm to block it and-

"▂▂▃!?"

-lost its balance, courtesy of one Heathcliff using all of his power to shield bash the boss. The arm that was initially in the motion of blocking was disrupted, and instead flailed around, allowing the sword to implant itself right in the middle of the boss's chest.

Kirito looked down towards Heathcliff as he was falling. How did he know? It should've been impossible for him to know what was about to happen; all he asked for was a really good boost. There was no way that he should've been there at that exact moment to counter the bloc-

"Ooph!"

That was the sound Kirito makes when he falls onto the ground from a high height.

"Maybe I shouldn't try that again..."

"Damn right you shouldn't!"

He turned up to look at a very annoyed Sinon and Asuna, both giving him glares that could cause him to spontaneously combust into flames. He pushed himself off the ground, using his thumb to point at the boss behind him, who began to burst into polygons.

"It was worth it though, we've won."

Kirito gave both the girls a smirk before walking towards his discarded sword, picking it up and sheathing it on his back. His attention was focused on the small screen telling him that he got the Last Attack Bonus for killing the boss. Sinon and Asuna both walked towards him, looking over his shoulders to see the screen.

"Elucidator?" Asuna questioned. It was a one-handed sword, apparently.

"Well, let's get a better look at the sword." Kirito opened up his inventory and viewed the stats for his new found blade.

Sinon gave a whistle from his side. "Would you look at that, its base stats makes your fully upgraded Caliburn look like a toy. Too bad you can't use it yet. Who was he one making Strength jokes about Keita again?"

"While that isn't completely true, this sword does make Caliburn look a little weak, but Caliburn is still a good weapon. I'm still keeping it, and don't worry, maybe a couple more level ups and I'll be able to use it." Kirito argued back, still having some connection to his current blade.

The blades appearance was interesting. It was all black with some trimmings of grey near the edges of the blade, and it hand a rather unique guard. Attached to the guard was part of the blade itself, making it look like it was more balanced when the user was fighting. Near the tip of the blade, a cross was engraved.

"Anyways," Kirito began. "I think it's time we go home. That was a hard fight and I'm exhausted."

Sinon and Asuna both gave each other a look before planting two of the most sincere smiles on their faces. "Yes, let's go home Kirito-kun," Asuna started, in which Sinon picked up without any hesitation. "We have some super-important things to discuss which involve safety and NOT taking stupid risks that could put someone's life in jeopardy."

He gave a nervous chuckle, an obvious indication that he would be getting the scariest lecture of his life when he got home. "T-there seems to be some important things we need to discuss. Heathcliff or Lynd, if you would please open the door and activate the next town portal, that would be fantastic..."

Lynd gave him a thumbs up, mostly out of 'good luck' than him actually acknowledging Kirito's request. All the other clearers had looks of 'Good luck, if you're still alive after this, we'll see you at the next boss raid meeting' written all over their faces. The life of The Black Swordsman was truly one of struggles.

A/N

Uh, Hi. I have a really good explanation for why I haven't updated anything. It's because- uh. Crap. I forgot.

Due to me being super unsatisfied, I scrapped and rewrote this chapter twice. Hell, even now I'm still rather unsatisfied with some of the parts of this chapter. Let it be known to everyone who reads this story, that I can't write a good boss fight to save my life. The reason I rewrote this chapter was (mainly) because of the boss fight.

Anyways, some explanations.

Why did Kirito think the Buddha was going to turn into an Asura?

Well, it's not far-fetched as you think. The original name of the boss was "Six-armed Metallic Buddha Statue." An Asura is a six-armed Buddhist deity, only with three faces.

Holy shit, Kirito used Caliburn for over 20 floors! Wouldn't it have gotten weak?

Remember in Canon that Kirito got the Elucidator on floor 50, and used it up until floor 75(if not higher, if he didn't have a deathmatch with Kayaba.) because it was upgraded to +40/50. It's not hard to believe Kirito would've done the same with Caliburn.

Well, other than that I don't feel like there's anything else I really need to explain, but if you're still confused about something, leave it in a review or PM me.

Now, let's pray that my next update won't take so long, yes?