章 155: Chapter 155 - Pride Cometh Before the Fall
AN: I don't know if 'cometh' is a word but I like it more than 'goeth'.
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START OF THE CHAPTER
This was wrong. It was all wrong. This was supposed to be the triumph of the Aincrad Liberation Squad. Their time of glory, to show all the people looking down on them that they were the best the Assault Team had. The best Aincrad had.
It wasn't supposed to be... This. Kibaou watched as another player was pounded to death by those giant fists, right in front of him. He didn't even know his name. It was just another one of those kids who had joined the ALS because they dreamed of being frontliners.
And now he was dead. Along with... 10 others? 12? Kibaou didn't even know anymore.
Dead... Because of him.
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40 minutes earlier.
Kibaou looked down on the assembled players. Nearly all of ALS was there. Not just his frontliners and his clearers, but all the mid-level players and above in the guild. 156 of them.
It was a force the Assault Team could only hope to compare. Because once you took out the 40-some ALS frontliners, less than a hundred players were left in it.
Well, okay. Even with their reduced strength, 90 frontliners would still be able to wipe the floor with the ALS. For clearers it was already a stretch to face frontliners. For normal players then...
That line of thought soured Kibaou's mood, and reminded him again why he was here, about to give an order that was sure to come back to bite him later.
If only he had known how soon 'later' would be.
Kibaou was tired. Tired of being looked down on by the other frontliners. Tired of the whispers that followed him wherever he went. Tired of the fingers pointing at his back from players who didn't even dare to leave the safe zones.
So what if he wasn't a bubbling idiot like that fool Hero Orlando? So what if he was rude and direct and treated SAO like what it was? A death trap, not a fucking game.
So what if he ran his guild like an army? They were soldiers, for god's sake! All of them were! What, was he supposed to act like they were all a big family, like that damned Reaver's Requiem?
Don't even get him started on the Beater. Sure, the Black Swordsman was fighting just as hard as everyone else to finish the game, but that didn't excuse what he had done. No, it didn't pardon what he had done. It should have been him who died, not Diavel.
But no, people didn't just let the Beater do as he pleased, they cheered for him. As if he was some sort of great hero. Even Lind was turning a blind eye to it more often than not, and disrespecting the man on whose's memory his entire guild had been built.
And as if that wasn't enough, even the others from that guild of children had forgotten their place. The Songstress, the Aero Huntress, and the NPC. They were blatantly cheating, but it was like he was the only one who could see it.
And not just a few weeks ago, that damned Broken Spear Drifter had walked all over him. Spouted some bullshit about politics and being role models for the lower leveled players.
Broken Spear Drifter was an enigma to Kibaou. The bastard was a proper menace in battle, and as ruthless as they came, as evidenced by him killing the red player Morte - Kibaou was still not sure how he felt about that.
And yet, at the same time, he was one of the kindest people you could meet. He acted like a big brother to his whole guild, and was a big brother in all but blood to Argo the Rat. He always took some time out each week to play with the church kids back in the 1st floor, and was willing to give tips and help train anyone who asked him politely.
For Kibaou, it was hard to see the vicious Broken Spear, who could hold back a floor boss on his own, and the Drifter who had married Songstress Yuna - and Kibaou would admit he was a little jealous of that - as the same person.
But they were, and Kibaou was reminded of that every time he talked with Broken Spear Drifter.
The titled player didn't have any qualms speaking his mind when he felt like it, as shown by the latest tongue-lashing he gave Kibaou in the whole Heathcliff situation.
Just thinking of it filled Kibaou with anger again. Some of the things he said had been too accurate, and shocked Kibaou into leaving with his tail between his legs, which he hated.
Yes, he, Kibaou the Challenger, was going to admit it. He felt threatened by Heathcliff. By how fast the cold-blooded little snake was rising in floors and ranks. Afraid that the stone-faced bastard and his newborn guild were going to outclass him and surpass his ALS, despite not having put in nearly a fraction of the time and effort that he did.
And that was why they were here now. To rectify all the mistakes and misconceptions. To show that the ALS was still the best Aincrad had. That they, that he, could never be sidelined. And that if anyone, be it Dragon Knight Lind, Black Swordsman Kirito, Broken Spear Drifter, or Heathcliff thought that they could just discard him... Well. They were the ones the Assault Team didn't need.
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Everything had gone to shit. Kibaou... He had no idea how many of his people had died already. At least 20. And the survivors were so disorganized that they hadn't even emptied half of the Two-Headed Giant's first health bar. And that was just one of five.
Suddenly, everything he had been thinking before about making the Aincrad Liberation Squad great again, the speech he made just before setting off, the words he used to rile up his nervous subordinates... It all seemed so meaningless.
He had ignored Liten's warnings and the words of caution of his lieutenants. He had seen the scared expressions of the normal players and chalked it up to cowardice and ignorance.
Turns out, he was the ignorant one. He was the coward. Because all this time, it hadn't been righteous fury that drove him to make such a huge mistake.
It had been his wounded pride.
And now others were paying for his ego. Kibaou watched the Two-Headed Giant punch someone else, a frontliner this time, twice. The player, already low on HP, only had the time to groan once before shattering
That was someone who had been with Kibaou since he founded the ALS. A true veteran, who had joined the Assault Team before they were even called that, back on the 2nd floor.
And he was dead now. After surviving over a year in the most dangerous position there was in Aincrad.
He could have survived. Climbed to the top and escaped. He should have. But Kibaou killed him.
Maybe not directly, but it were his orders that sent the player and so many others to their deaths. He had as good as pulled the plug himself.
"Leader! We need to retreat!"
Someone shouted in his ear. Kibaou had no idea when Liten had reached him. He looked at her with a vacant expression.
He had blamed her too. Scolded her for dating Shivata, who he only saw as part of their rival guild, the Dragon Knights Brigade. Accused her of fraternizing with the enemy, for being friends with Lighting Flash Asuna and other Reavers.
"Kibaou?! Snap out of it!"
The sharp sound of Kibaou being slapped in the face was lost in the middle of the chaos, as was his dumbfounded face when he looked at Liten. Of all people, he never thought she would strike him.
But it served its purpose, snapping Kibaou awake from the guilt-induced stupor he had fallen into. He stared back at the tank wide-eyed.
"R-Right. We have to..."
The word got stuck on his throat. He never thought he would have to say it. After all, retreating was for cowards. Running away was for cowards.
For the first time, Kibaou considered that Kayaba's inclusion of a boss raid broadcast feature wasn't a kindness.
Surely... Surely they didn't need to retreat, right? He was Kibaou the Challenger! One of SAO's titled players, one of the elites of the Assault Team. Surely he didn't need to order a retreat... In full view of all of Aincrad... After he let his arrogance take over and made the biggest mistake of his life...
The guild leader tore his gaze away from Liten. There was just too much judgment in her eyes.
But just because he looked away, it didn't mean the view was better. His people were dying around him. Every minute, another fell victim to the rampaging boss.
How long had it been? 5 minutes? 5 hours?
How many?
Too many.
"R-Retreat! Fall back!"
His pride shattered, Kibaou ordered the retreat. No, he ordered them to run away. And some, those closest to the doors, did. In fact, some had already left when the battle first started going downhill.
Kibaou himself started heading towards the exit. He never got there. A giant fist blindsided him, and sent the guild leader tumbling through the ground.
"Urgh!"
Kibaou groaned, more due to surprise than anything. When he looked up, the Two-Headed Giant was standing right over him. The exit was behind the monster.
Whether by design or coincidence, the boss had positioned itself between the bulk of the ALS forces and the doors. And it wasn't moving.
"Motherfucker- Ugh!"
Kibaou started to curse, but had to stop and focus on defending against the onslaught of fists that rained down on him.
Say what you will about him, but Kibaou the Challenger was a Sword Art Online elite. Even in the state he was, he still managed to parry, deflect, or block most of the boss' attacks. And even those which hit him, he turned his body in such a way that he minimized the damage. Where normal players had fallen to one or two attacks from the Two-Headed Giant, Kibaou had already withstood 20 in a short moment.
But even he had his limits. Higher level, stats, and better equipment had its limits too. His HP, in the end, was just a number. And it was rapidly depleting.
Another punch broke his shield, and Kibaku hastily raised his blade to block, but the weapon wasn't made for defense. He flipped over and was thrown a good 10 meters back. If someone hadn't used a Healing Crystal on him during the battle, he would be dead.
And maybe that would be better. It might not wash away the shame, and it certainly wouldn't bring back those who died for his mistakes. But maybe it would be some sort of redemption...?
No. There was no redemption in dying like this. It was just another form of running away. If he had to die... Kibaou surveyed the battle. Litne had managed to assemble about 3 dozen players in some sort of formation, and was keeping the boss at bay. But they had already suffered too much damage to have any hope of winning the battle. As long as the Two-Headed Giant was blocking the exit, even surviving would be difficult.
Kibaou crawled up, and raised his scimitar again. If he had to die, then he was going to make it worth something.
If Drifter could hear what Kibaku was thinking right now, he would scream and beat the player within an inch of his life. Even now, when everything had gone to shit, the fucking idiot couldn't let go of his pride.
Make his death worth something? Only someone with an ego the size of Aincrad could be thinking something like that in this situation. Instead of trying to survive, or at least save his guildmates, Kibaou was looking to become a martyr!
"Liten, escape when I give you an opening! Take everyone away!"
"Wh- Ack!"
Kibaou's sudden shouting distracted the tank, and she took a fist to the side. Using a skill to stabilize her body and push back the boss, she turned her head and saw Kibaou charging the Two-Headed Giant from the side.
"Hey! Look over here, you stupid fuck!"
"Kibaou, wait! Don't-"
Too late. Kibaou lashed at the boss' side with a skill, successfully catching its attention. The Two-Headed Giant turned around and made to grab him, but the guild leader just barely dodged the large hands.
"Go, ALS! I'll distract- Urgh!'
He did not dodge the open palm that swatted him. Kibaou's eyes widened in shock, and he watched his health slowly drain. For a very long second, he thought he was dead. There were so few pixels left in his HP bar that he could probably count them in one hand.
Like this, even being slightly grazed by the Two-Headed Giant would spell doom for him. And looking at the car-sized fist descending almost vertically on him... Kibaou lowered his sword and closed his eyes.
The expected feeling of being squashed to oblivion didn't come. Instead, Kibaku felt someone grabbing him by the back of the neck and dragging him back.
"What the fuck do you think you are doing, you fucking idiot?! Either stand up and fight or get the fuck out of the way!"
"Huh?"
A very familiar voice yelled at his face, and Kibaou opened his eyes to see Dragon Knight Lind, angrier than he had ever seen the other player before. No, enraged was probably a better description.
But... When had Lind arrived? For that matter- Kibaou turned around and looked at the boss, and his jaw dropped.
Indomitable Knight Nautilus was kneeling, his shield raised above his head and holding the Two-Headed Giant's fist. Shivata and Liten were blocking another hand.
Black Swordsman Kirito had his sword buried hilt-deep into the giant's face. Hero Orlando was hacking away at its side. Merchant Warrior Agil seemed to be doing his utmost to cut off a third limb. And the samurai Klein and Broken Spear Drifter had the last hand nailed to the ground by their katana and spear.
"Wh-What? H-How-"
No one answered him. Lind was already facing the Two-Headed Giant. The Assault Team descended onto the boss with unbridled fury.
Kibaou could only watch as more frontliners streamed out of a portal just outside the boss room, Argo the Rat next to it. Without a world, they joined the battle.
Fighting.
Dying.
クリエイターの想い 
Reis123
Reis123 A large portion of the chapter was done in a flashback style, which is really not my strong point (you would be surprised by how difficult writing a flashback without making it seen awkwardly rigid is) but I feel like it came out rather well.
What do you think?
Also, remember the flashback was from Kibaou's point of view, so if there is stuff you don't agree, well, that's just what he thinks.
In regards of the whole motivation behind Kibaou doing this, I find that it makes a lot more sense for it to be this sort of internal conflict of his ego and losing importance, than the simple "fake intel" that canon gives us.
Doesn't mean I don't think he is still an idiot for doing it. I consider it a reason, not an excuse. And Kibaou can expect a lot of hate (from me and the characters). But first, they have to defeat the boss.
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