Chapter 59: Unbalanced Gameplay
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"Strea, stay in the back, alright?"

"Hai!"

At first, she was supposed to stay behind, but because of her circumstances, she wouldn't be able to leave this sub-dungeon unless she's in the boss room.

As to why she couldn't just enter after the boss is finished off, the door locks itself - unlike the normal boss room entrances out there.

"Can I really trust you on that?"

"You meanie! Of course you can!"

Shiro only sighed as he asked Strea to stay out of the boss' proximity. When she descended in SAO, she did so in an in-game avatar that is roughly level 35. Though, she forgot to place her "player cursor" due to her lapse of judgement.

Since she doesn't even possess common sense, how could she fight against a tricky boss that is double her current level?

Not knowing her enough, the entire party could only treat her like a child...

"Grr..!"

Sounds of unintelligent roaring directed their attention back to the boss. It thumped the butt of its lance to the floor, causing a huge shadow to take in a huge portion of the room's floor.

Soon, a wave of undead monsters were summoned to the boss room, filling it with sounds of bones hitting each other as well as low growls.

Strangely enough, a slight purple glint appeared in Kuroneko's irises before disappearing. Nobody noticed this small occurrence except for Shiro.

"Just as we've planned!"

Avoiding the skeletons, Shiro charged straight to the boss. Meanwhile, Kal'tsit and the other three formed two separate teams to lure in the summons away from it.

She and Kuroneko took on one part of the summoned minions while Shinji and Shino took on another part of them.

Thanks to their actions, Shiro could properly have a 1v1 fight against it.

Clang-! Clang-!

Bam-! Bam-!

Their weapons, a sword and a lance, clashed consecutively. It made the room similar to a warzone, with the explosion of air every time their blades meet.

With [Reinforcement] and [Aura Augment], Shiro's STR is still much lower than the boss, but he manages to cancel out the force by using <<Parry>>.

Every time he clashes, he makes sure that the cooldown timer for <<Parry>> is done. If it's not, then he could only dodge. Since this is a game, he would only be at a disadvantage if he takes everything head-on. 

After all, the game takes the STR stat in account instead of the exquisite skills that he used against Surtr before.

'Now.'

When he made the boss off-balance once more, he used <<Nova Ascension>>, a 10-hit sword skill consisting of quick slashes and stabs all over the target's body. This skill made it so that each strike can be executed at the fastest way possible, thus his right wrist really got tested in this one.

After two seconds had passed, he's only at the fifth strike when the boss regained its balance and slashed his lance straight at his face.

Swooosh!

Shiro managed to dodge backwards just in time, with some of his virtual hair being cut instead of his face. Not missing this opportunity, he ducked and attacked his sides.

Creak-! Creak-!

Only the sound of bones breaking could be heard as Shiro hit him. Before he could swing down his lance, Shiro managed to get away from him.

'Four ribs and an almost broken right arm. This could be fatal in real life.' He thought.

Sadly, this is a game. With those injuries, he didn't even manage to deplete more than 1/5 of the boss' first HP bar. There's still four HP bar left other than this one.

As he looked at the boss who maintained a proper stance against him, he saw the injuries inflicted by him heal on their own.

"Sigh. Not even breaking its arms and legs could I make it stop. I prefer real life more, tsk."

Boom-! Boom-! 

Boom-! Boom-!

Four consecutive explosions occurred on his place, which all came from Shino's [Annihilation Ray]. Due to its power belonging to the sun, it could forcibly make the undead targets take more damage even if it's not in the game's setting itself. Moreover, it'll only look like her proc some critical hits if someone checks the game logs.

"Thanks!" He thanked her as he charged once more at the boss, taking advantage of its 'stunned' status.

After one more clash of theirs, its first HP bar went down to 40%.

'Time to switch weapons...'

Thinking that the 'sharpness' of his black sword is quite useless here, he used the [Fragrant Olive Sword] instead. With its AoE, he could also support the others at the same time.

"Let's see what you can do!"

*****

A spectacle.

Lasers and magic arrows flew around the room while sparks flew out from their blades clashing. Even without a background music, Strea could tell how serious the fight inside this room must be.

As an A.I. that recently left her 'house', this is the first time that she saw such scene. But most of all...

"So cool..."

She kept her eyes peeled at the biggest fight happening in the room. That is, Shiro and the undead Elf King's fight. She watched Shiro maneuver through some dangerous attacks naturally.

If it hits him, it would definitely deplete more than 50% of his HP all at once. Still, he looked confident and unafraid.

Even, he would strike the elven king whenever it gets stunned. He simply couldn't let go of any openings, be it small or large. In her eyes, every move is perfectly calculated, just like an AI...

Swooosh-! Swooosh-!

Swooosh-! Swooosh-!

During this time, she saw him slash at an extremely fast speed that can't be followed by human vision. When she saw him return to a normal stance, the boss' HP bar depleted at a fast rate until it got emptied out.

"Whoa..! What is that?"

While she continued watching on the back, Shiro looked at his MP gauge.

"With a single [Quagmire], more than 60% got depleted in one go..."

That's right, he used his [Time Control] to slow down the elven king's time, giving him enough time to execute <<Nova Ascension>> and a bunch of other sword skills in one go.

Thanks to that maneuver of his, he managed to empty the second HP bar of his.

"Growl..! Pride... Not... Unchallenged..!"

The moment he finished speaking, the room's surroundings changed bit-by-bit until it looked similar to the dead forest outside.

Meanwhile, some minions suddenly possessed longbows. What's more, magic arrows were created as they pulled it. They shifted their positions and ran through the dead branches before launching a hail of arrows to the intruders.

This is the signature skill of Forest Elves prior to the Great Separation where magic ceased to exist--Elven Archery!

When the Great Separation happened, each pieces of the planet's land were cut into circles before they integrated, forming a hundred floor steel castle. Inside it, arrows simply couldn't fly due to the lack of magic.

It was only until the elves arrived at this "Blessed Land" could they showcase their prowess once more.

"Doctor! Let's do the Plan B!"

At first, they planned for Shiro to stall the boss before the rest clear the minions. Once they're done with it, the free party members would help him face the boss until it is killed.

Unfortunately, things doesn't always go to plans. The moment these elves gained mobility and firepower, the fewer minions posed even more problem than before.

Plan B is more or less similar to the main plan, but Shiro and Kal'tsit would switch for brief periods of time, sharing pressure of the boss to each other.

'Isn't this a bit too much of a buff?!' Shiro complained shortly inside his mind before he shouted, "<<Switch>>!"

*****

A/N: They got uno-reversed card. Now, the boss is just as unbalanced as them, making the game balanced. Anyways, here's the fact of the day!

Fact #19: Surtr canonically likes ice cream. During that one event in Arknights, she asked Meteorite (Her temporary partner) as to where she can buy an ice cream. That's also a reference that I made back in the 30's, in which one chapter is named "Ice Cream". That's also how she got known by the community.

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