Bzzzt!

Clang-! Clang-!

As soon as Monst3r switched in, it immediately condensed a white laser before sending it out to the undead elven king who became stronger at some point. Unfortunately, it managed to split it into half when a bright green light oozed out from his lance.

The former didn't give it time to breath as it engaged in melee combat using its sharp talons.

Meanwhile, Shiro is now at Kal'tsit's previous position. 

'One... Five... fifteen archers with magic?'

The moment he finished thinking, the surroundings were finally established. Unlike the time when they hastily switched, trees had already grown from the ground while thick white mist pervaded their vision.

One by one, arrows flew at his direction. He managed to avoid some, but the ones that slightly grazed him lowered his HP by 10% each.

Downing a HP Potion, he began chatting through the Chat Group.

Shiro: "Saw 15 archers just now. Each graze will make you lose around 10%~15%, so take care."

Shinji: "I understand. Will prioritize taking care of them first."

Shino: "I'll provide some support from my side."

Thanks to Shino's weapon, her vision is top-notch. Even with many obstacles in the way such as this mist, she could still see her opponents from afar. This is one of the divine bow's effects that allowed her to do a few hundred-meter shots in the Alicization Arc.

'Wait, the girl!' 

As he fought, Shiro realized that almost the entirety of the room were turned into a different environment, and that includes the area where she was in. 

He knew that she has a stealth-like ability, but he went there just to be sure. It's not a big trouble for him anyways.

Seeing that she's still watching the fight nonchalantly, he was about to join the fight once more when he was called out by her.

"Shiro! Good luck!"

Waving his hand, he soon returned to the battlefield with some newfound emotions.

Before, he was always the one doing the motivating and encouraging. For the first time, he felt how it was on the receiving end...

'It's not bad.' He thought as he used the [Enhance Armament] to snipe some archers with considerable distance away from him.

The glowing golden flowers made a sharp contrast on this dreary and somewhat creepy environment. As they swept the woods, the elven archers fell down one by one.

When it reverted back to its blade form, more than 70% of the archers on his side are long dead at the cost of 60% mana.

Naturally, he ran to Kal'tsit's place once more, using the tree branches as footholds.

"<<Switch>>!"

Hearing this, Kal'tsit immediately ordered Monst3r to parry the elven king before retreating. Once Shiro is in the latter's place, he soon executed a sword skill. 

His blade glowed, indicating that he is about to use it.

"<<Starfall>>."

As he fell down, he transferred the force generated by it to the blade. Thanks to the <<Starfall>> sword skill that he accidentally learnt after fulfilling some requirements, the power of this strike isn't any bit lesser than the ones generated by <<Meteor Fall>> or <<Meteor Break>>.

It's requirements isn't stringent, too. All one has to do is to jump down from a higher place than the target's before the skill is activated.

The undead elven king tried to block it using the body of his lance and his two hands, but he soon caved in to it. The lance broke into two as the blade continued going down until the entirety of his right torso were cut off.

Possessing a quick reaction time, it immediately escaped from its current position and reappeared a few meters away from him. This time, a bright flash briefly occurred before an ivory longbow with golden decorations is held in his hand.

Shiro charged at him but didn't expect that he would use his mouth to pull the bowstrings, generating a light arrow that went straight at him.

He managed to destroy it using <<Vertical>>, though his expression worsened a bit after this.

'Fuck... This is literally from Alfheim Online!' He stared at the elven king that regenerated before retorting in his mind, 'Isn't this game a bit too ahead of time?!'

However, what he didn't knew is that... this move is originally reserved for future games, specifically the game that would be SAO's successor. This only happened due to them potentially breaking the game's balance, something that Cardinal tries to keep alive.

Helplessly, it could only buff the enemies to the point of using hidden programs.

In fact, there are already pre-made codes inside SEED, the core of SAO, such as that the future game companies that would take hold of it can immediately create a game similar, if not better, than Sword Art Online.

That included Alfheim Online, Gun Gale Online, and even RATH's Underworld.

Shiro: "They use magic."

Kuroneko: "But isn't that something from ALO?"

Shiro: "Dunno what happened, but we should get serious this time..."

Boom-! Boom-!

Boom-! Boom-!

Shiro cut down one magic arrows after another, but it seemed as if it would never end even after he had exhausted all the available one-hit sword skills through <<Skill Connect>>. Since the essence of it is forming a chain of one-hit sword skills so that the player wouldn't be hit by the post-motion delay, he would be stunned in place for a split second once he finishes up all these sword skills.

Without any hesitation, he used one of his Reality Marbles.

The surroundings glitched for a while before returning back to its prior dreary appearance.

Only, Shiro could feel the power inside him right now, which is the result of his marble buffing him. Although it couldn't manifest and change its surroundings, it still exists here. But, it has a glaring flaw that couldn't be remedied as of now.

The lack of mana.

Originally, Shiro can use this ability for a long period of time, but it's different when he only has the mana comparable to a normal 1st Rank Circle Magician. After all, his previous mana stat is at the hundreds!

'I can only use this as a burst skill for now...' He thought so as he switched the sword in his right hand back to his classic black sword. Without his devouring power, he could only swiftly block the arrows before he suddenly came near the elven king.

Deactivating the marble, he slowed down his and the elven king's time, depleting a huge amount of HP and mana every second.

Using swift strikes, he used every single sword skills in his arsenal that ranged from 1-hit skills to 5-hit skills, dealing an insane amount of damage to the boss.

After his mana ran out, he gave it a last blow before beheading it completely.

Shiro: "Second stage's over! Prepare for the last stage!"

Besides him, Kuroneko appeared like a wind.

"You're already finished?"

"That's right. The doctor is cleaning up the rest while the divine bow is prepared to strike it from behind."

She pointed towards Shino who pointed her longbow towards the undead elven king. When the two stepped back, her arrow went straight to its chest. Still, it couldn't damage him, seemingly in a state of invincibility.

"There's a red glow on top of him."

"Shiro."

She tapped his shoulders, gesturing him to look at the boss room. At this moment, the surroundings melted like candles before returning back to being shadows. These shadows coalesced into the elven king, forming a horrific sight of its two glowing red eyes inside some black sphere.

He shone with a bright light, blinding their vision for a while.

"As much as I would like to complement it, his transformation is very-"

"Magical girl? Haha, that's what I thought too!" Shiro replied to her, knowing that she has some sort of hate towards it due to some reason.

*****

A/N: If anyone else forgot, Kirino and Kuroneko fought over their anime tastes during their first real-life meeting. Kuroneko loves goth and horror while Kirino loves magical girls (Just like Roman)...

Fact #20: Did you know that Arknights has one of the darkest doujinshis? Think of every single f*cked up tags and mixed them up in a blender. Those will be the result. Exusiai and Kataoka-san, in particular, has an inextricable relationship regarding this. I suggest not searching those, though. Trauma is all I got when I did. That, and regrets.

(PS: Wrote this since I couldn't think of a fact lmao...)