บท 31: Proving grounds

I was used to dealing with people that made no sense. Still, even if they made no sense I could understand the rationality behind them. I could even understand what Lily did to me not that I liked knowing. I much rather her be some great evil instead of a girl who felt like she was doing the right thing. There was no need to mention that confusing mess of Ashley's mentality.

Now I was dealing with a completely different breed of irrationality. Fucking gamers.

"Look you are a tank it would be better to go for the durability enchants." I spat out in an exasperated manner. I had been arguing with this dumbass for the past ten minutes about all his enchants. I had to convince him that a full sharp blade was useless for him as he was meant to hold the line. He did not like that and wanted a blade that dealt the most damage.

"It's my blade I want it to work how I want!" He shouted back at me and I was starting to wonder if murder was off the table. Ashley was just watching this whole thing laughing. If this guy did something I'm sure she would be one of the first to stab him. Instead, he was just being a dumbass. So I got to deal with smug laughter.

"You accepted the tank role! If you want to switch to the damage dealing party then fucking talk to Diabel! Then come back!" Why the fuck did I even offer to do this? The free experience was nice but dealing with all of these dumbasses was quickly becoming not worth it.

"No, I'm still going to be a tank I just want to deal some damage!" The irate man yelled back. Sure have full sharpness and have your blade shatter after you parry five fucking blows. Truly, gamers were the breed of the future. Where their dumbass logic actually made sense.

I learned quickly enough that durability was an issue for parries. Unlike him, I was not planning on parrying blows in the boss fight. So having to deal with his irrational ass was pissing me of.

"You know what fuck it!" I shouted back at him and brought out a blade of a similar level from my inventory. The number of drop items I had was ludicrous. I then enchanted it to the proper tank route and handed it to the dumbass. I hated that I was effectively giving away a good sword for nothing. I just hated dealing with this dumbass even more.

"There you have your raid gear now get the fuck out!" I glared at him as he fumbled with the blade in his hand. He glared back at me. This motherfucker.

"I'll leave after you enchant my blade!" He shouted back at me and I felt my eye's fucking twitch.

"I gave you raid gear! If you want me to enchant your personal belongings then fucking pay me!" I spat out and the guy just went red. He then left the make shift smithy I established. Fucking pleb could not just take the free gift. Trying to get me to do dumb shit for his dumb ass. I knew that dipshit had no fucking Cor as he clearly wanted to use that blade to further level instead of playing his role for the raid.

"That is what you get for being a goody two shoes." Ashley spoke out smugly as she snacked on whatever bullshit she had. Clearly, my suffering was amusing so I flipped her off. Which only earned me more laughter.

That was the last of the dumbasses I had to deal with today. I managed to get everyone else's gear enchanted. At least everyone was not like that dickhead. The enchanting started off pretty easy.

The first Player I had to deal with was Kirito. That kid made a beeline towards me with stars in his eyes as soon as I finished speaking. I expected nothing less from the little try hard. I really tricked out everything he had and I was sure that he was constantly going to come back to me later. Finding a good smith is something that will be invaluable in a game like this.

Asuna did not want any upgrades. She was using the same basic ass gear that she had from the beginning. She was a true monster since she managed to reach her level while knowing nothing and running newb gear. I smacked her upside the head for daring to go to the boss fight with that gear. She was stunned but she really deserved it. I then explained to her she was just going to put everyone else at risk with that shit gear. So I decked her out with some of my drop items.

Ashley was glaring at the entire interaction but Asuna not really responding like a human helped. It was hard to hate a person when they were just sitting there like a rock.

Diabel was right after them even if he looked at me nervously the entire time. He knew I did not like him but he probably was not capable of figuring out why. Still, the man was not going to give up the possibility of maxed enchants in the face of my hate. Not that I would have not done his upgrades. I needed the entire team to work at their peak efficiency.

After dealing with our fearless leader I had to deal with his lackey. Kibaou was the same rowdy prick that he showed himself to be. It was annoying having to deal with all his accusations so I dealt with his equipment quickly. Most of his requests were reasonable and he only wanted one dumb thing. I just fucking let him have it as it was not too harmful to his role.

I had to convince more than one person that they should run different enchants. Still, none of them were that adamant about what they wanted except that last guy.

So with the enchants down I started to pack up everything. We discussed strategy already and I was the last little piece for this raid to get going. Our party was assigned to take care of the Adds but we were on rotation for attacking the boss first. Stupid stun locking sword skills meant we had to be on rotation.

I am sure that we would be pushed more and more out of the attack order by Diabel. I could care less as Ashley only needed to hit the boss once. I also did not need the last hit bonus. Max luck meant I would get something good.

Once I finished packing I looked around at the gathered crowd. Everyone was nervous but the mood was still high. Kibaou was speaking loudly about something to his group but I could not hear. Diabel was smiling and talking around with every member.

Kirito and Asuna were walking towards us. I knew that Kirito took her to get used to the new gear earlier so I was not surprised to see them together. Asuna seemed slightly more alive so good for her.

Seeing me exit the tent I put up Diabel clapped his hands to gather attention.

"All right! Now that our gear is in perfect condition thanks to Prince." The amused chuckles that spread through the crowd were annoying. I had to friend Diabel as he was likely to be a part of the clearing group and I needed the clearers to be at their best. My username must have spread from him. They thought I was an arrogant guy but no one denied I looked the part.

I could only be thankful that no one knew about Ashley's user. Other than Kirito and Asuna. Kirito did give us a baffled look but just moved on. Gamers were a strange breed of people and her username was not completely out of the norm. Asuna was your friendly neighborhood pet rock so she did not give a shit. Or I don't think she did as she was still wearing that hood.

"Is everyone set with potions and teleport crystals?" Diabel asked the crowd once they calmed down. A few people said they needed to pick up pots but that was solved quickly.

Diabel than looked over the crowd of Players.

"Today we are going to do something legendary! Something that will have our names remembered fondly by all the Players trapped in this game! Today we will defy the fate that Kayaba forced on us!" Diabel shouted out to the crowd whose mood was rising quickly. Diabel looked over everyone and nodded.

"Good let's head out!" He shouted as his party led us out of town towards the dungeon. As we walked through the town countless players would look at us and whisper. There was a sense of excitement in their eyes. I could not imagine what would happen if we failed. Likely even more suicides as some of these people still had that dull empty look in their eyes.

The death toll was slightly better since Argo's book came out so quickly. Still, it was rather bad at fifteen hundred as opposed to two thousand. The suicides should stop after today. We would defeat this boss. Nothing could change that.

We walked towards the dungeon with the expectations of thousands on our backs. I did not really care but it seemed to embolden the rest of the clearers.

It did take a fair amount of time but we got to the dungeon. It was hard navigating with a group of our size but it was not too much of one. The route had been planned rigorously after all. The monsters did not really stand a chance of stopping us.

This was just a floor one dungeon and we were all high level and decked out in fully enchanted gear. So the mobs in the dungeon were not really a problem.

There were traps in this place of course, not too many as the route was planned but some. The unofficial thieves disabled all of them so no one ever tripped one of them.

Pretty soon we were faced with the big ass boss room door. I felt the mood lower slightly. It was easy to act the parts of heroes on mobs but this was the Boss. Still, the Players were built from sterner stuff. So they gathered their courage.

Diabel stood in front of the door and faced everyone.

"I just have one last thing to say" He looked over everyone with a kind smile.

"Let's win." It was a bit cocky but it needed to be said right now. Morale is far too important in war and this was effectively just that. He then turned around and opened the boss room.

The sight behind the door was a large dark room that we could barely see in. There was a floating pair of red eyes ahead of us that I could only assume was the boss.

As soon as we entered fully the room lit up with colors. For some god awful reason the walls turned into some psychedelic neon rainbow lighting. The room itself was a large throne room fit for the big ass Kolbold that was sitting on his throne. The rainbow lights just ruined the atmosphere as torches would have fit better. Then again I should not have considered Kayaba having good tastes.

The big Kolbold jumped the distance between the throne and us and landed pretty close. He then roared into the air showing his health bars and summoning his Adds. They then charged us.

"Commence attack!" Diabel shouted as he pointed his sword forward. Then everyone charged at the boss.

Our party charged toward the Kobold lord and let Party B handle the Adds for the moment. The big ass demon looking Kobold locked on me and swung his axe down. I side stepped the swing and launched as many attacks as I could on his big belly.

I was not willing to stun lock myself and my basic attacks were draining his first health bar quickly. Ashley was throwing in stabs every once and a while. After her first attack, I noticed the boss's blood started draining faster.

Kirito looked confused at our tactics. Then he saw that we were dealing good damage and just accepted it. I dealt the most damage and I was struggling to dodge every single swing. Some times I had to roll or jump over an attack. The mobs I was killing before could not stand a chance against this guy. Even with my speed, I was starting to get overwhelmed.

So Kiriot used his sword skill pushing the boss back. Asuna was throwing her own lighting fast attacks as well but I heard Diabel shouting to switch.

I looked back reluctantly at the guy but complied. He was right while we drained his first HP bar the boss has yet to use any big moves. The type of things I could not dodge. We needed the tanks on the front line now.

So our party rotated to dealing with the Adds as the tanks started to charge forward activating their taunts. The Kobold then switched agro from us to them.

The fight was not nearly as hard once I was out of the strike range of the boss. The Adds were not something that I needed to concentrate on taking out. I just used my skills and they would explode the same being true for Ashley.

Kirito and Asuna were giving us the same baffled look but get on our levels scrub. They had to switch between each other on a single mob. The Kolbold lord summoned five knights but they got resummoned every 30 seconds. So we had to concentrate on making sure none affected the other parties.

With our increased gear and the boss losing so much health the Koblold Lord fell to his last bar and roared.

"Stay back!" Diabel shouted as he charged forward ahead of everyone. He stood in front of the boss charging some big flashy move that was probably meant to one shot the last bit of health. I knew that he was going to do this but he was really being stupid.

Kirito was looking over at the boss in a panic and I knew what was to come.

"Stop! Jump back as far as you can!" Kirito shouted out. Sadly for everyone, it was too late for that. What ever I enchanted Diabel's gear with a few durability enchants he should survive his dumb fucking plan.

The Boss jumped around crazily but I was able to keep track. Once the Boss was above Diabel it shot down with increased momentum and launched the blue head away. Kirito came running towards him likely to try to heal him. Then the Boss did something I did not expect.

Once he switched his weapon he reset his aggro. So he defaulted to attacking the nearest Player. Now that Diabel was out of the way his next target was the highest leveled player. So either Ashley or me. Ashley was closer.

Normally that would be fine but Ashley just used her skill to kill an Add. So she was frozen as the fucking boss jumped around and launched an attack at her. It was an unlucky series of events.

She was going to die she did not have the same durability enchants that I gave Diabel. I was so sure that her skill was enough to pull through that I never entertained the thought of beefing her health. It was a mistake that was going to cost me my friend.

I felt that all too familiar self loathing and rage. I was a waste of space that could not even protect one girl. I failed her when I promised her things would be better for her. That no matter how dark this world was to us that she would get better. Empty promises from an empty excuse of a human. A failure beyond anything I had ever done before. Fuck this! Fuck that! I was not going to lose her just because of something like this. So I charged in the blink of an eye.

As the blade grew closer and closer to her I felt my heart speed up. I could see the look in her eyes. She was afraid. All that talk about accepting her death but when faced with it she was just as afraid as anyone else.

This was it. I looked over at my health and prayed. Sometimes you needed to do something damn the consequences. I was by her side in that final moment and parried the blow staggering the Kobold Lord.

My health dropped rapidly in front of me. Eventually it landed at almost empty. I was not sure if I leveled my parry high enough or had enough health to survive that. I just despised the other outcome more. Before I could do anything else Kirito came charging at the Kobold Lord and striking it. He was switching back and forth with Asuna in perfect harmony.

"Prince." I heard Ashley call for me and I felt my vision start to darken as I looked back. I must be in an exhausted state. Ashley was looking at me in a way I was unfamiliar with, Her eyes were misty and her expression was not as dark. She was panicked and scared but I had no idea why. Kirito and Asuna would take care of it everything was going to be fine.

Then I passed out.