Whatever the frontliners were expecting of the 50th floor, it wasn't for it to be an almost exact replica of the 1st.[1]
Although undoubtedly smaller - now halfway up Aincrad, they were definitely starting to feel the size difference between upper and lower floors - the layout was pretty much the same. Verdant hills, dirt paths, one big city at the center and another, smaller village at the foot of the tower.
Even the mobs were disturbingly similar. Instead of Dire Wolves and Frenzy Boars, they had Terrific Wolves and Savage Boars.
It set the frontliners on edge. It was almost like the Cardinal System was telling them they had come full circle. Or trying to show them how much they had grown since the 1st floor.
Well, the only thing it was doing right now was undermining the frontliners confidence. The mobs, which looked like even the kids back at Sasha's church could kill in one hit, were proving to be a real challenge.
The Terrific Wolves were impossibly quick. They darted in, bitting and clawing, then retreated before their victim could react.
And the Savage Boars had even cruder attack methods that were, somehow, just as effective. Getting hit by one of their thunderous charges meant losing at least half of your HP unless you were a pure tank.
"Haa... So it is a sure-death floor after all, huh?"
"Shut up, Agil. That's not the kind of thing you say out loud."
Even as she finished off a Terrific Wolf with a flurry of stabs to the belly, Asuna scolded the merchant.
The truth was, they could all feel it. It wasn't even the mobs, dangerous as they could be. Nor the floor being a nearly perfect replica of the first.
No, it was in the air. The oppressive feeling crushing down on all of them. This was a floor the frontliners would have to bet their lives to overcome.
And for some of them, the coin wouldn't land with the right side up.
"Enough squabbling. Focus."
Drifter barked at the bickering duo. He was on edge. All of them were.
There were a million scenarios running through his mind of possible ways Kayaba and Cardinal might kill them on this floor. There was a reason why, even a day after the 50th floor had been opened, two frontliners were stationed near the teleporter, making sure no one came to the floor half-cocked.
There would be enough death as is.
The spearmaster had long given up on the naive mindset of saving everyone. He was older now, more jaded, and just a tiny bit more cruel. But if he could use his influence to avoid unnecessary deaths, he would.
"Nautilus, Griselda, Sachi, Tetsuo, the left side. Kizmel, Silica, Yuuki, Vallerk, the two boars behind us. Kirito, Asuna, Ran, the wolves to the right. Wolv, Liz, Keita, the front with me. Sinon, Yuna, give priority to supporting the rear. Can't have those mobs charging our ranks while we deal with the pack."
It was unfortunate timing that landed Reaver's Requiem in a semi-perilous situation. They had been engaging a Terrific Wolf pack composed of 9 mobs - fairly large by SAO standards, but manageable.
Until 3 Savage Boars spawned right behind them. Then things weren't so manageable anymore.
It had been a frantic scramble to reposition that saw two of the Terrific Wolves and one of the Savage Boars killed. While it was in no moment life-threatening, the Reavers were all too aware that nothing was certain on this floor.
"Tsk!"
Drifter clicked his tongue when his target jumped back and dodged his Sky Render.
The Terrific Wolves were incredibly agile. Engaging them head-on would quickly turn into a battle of attrition.
"Crushing Impact!"
Good thing he wasn't alone, and frontliners hated playing fair.
Even before the mob moved, Liz and Wolv were already positioning themselves to cover all possible avenues of escape. The wolf may have dodged Wolv's Cleave, but that just meant it walked right into the path of Liz's Crushing Impact.
"Yip!"
With a pitiful yelp, the monster was sent tumbling, but another of its brethren managed to clamp its jaws around the blacksmith's arm.
Liz didn't waste a second in swinging said limb, and the Terrific Wolf attached to it, into the ground, where it stayed, pinned through the neck by Drifter's lance.
Even so, the mob refused to die. It trashed about, and actually managed to dislodge the weapon and get back on its feet. It would have probably lunged at Drifter if Keita's staff didn't crack its head and wipe out the last sliver of its HP.
"Persistent little fuckers, aren't they? I don't remember the Dire Wolves of the 1st floor being anywhere near as sturdy."
"Run what you just said through your head again and you will see where you went wrong."
"Eh, ya think I don't know it? I'm just hoping we won't get stuck here for an entire month like we did back then."
"Don't even joke about it."
Drifter rolled his eyes at Wolv, Liz, and Keita's banter. He knew they weren't being careless. That's just how Reaver's Requiem was.
"Switch."
The command was unnecessary, really. At their level, the Reavers could fight with their eyes closed and their ears clogged and still coordinate better than 90% of SAO players - and no, that wasn't an exaggeration, but a tried and tested fact.
But saying things aloud was a useful habit to have. It helped prevent mistakes, and make sure the flow of the battle stayed firmly under the control of the leading player.
It was a big part of the reason why players announced skill names when using them. You didn't want to muck up someone's attack or waste a skill by getting into each other's way.
"Searing Steam."
A red-hot streak flew past Drifter's head, the arrow burrowing deep into the flank of the first Terrfic Wolf.
The spearmaster looked back to see that the group assigned to the rear had already dealt with the Savage Boars, freeing Sinon to assist the others.
He nodded to the archer before turning back to the mob, who was writhing in pain on the dirt. His eyes were cold as he raised his spear.
"Pinpoint Star."
The five consecutive stabs pretty much erased the head of the mob. It managed to get one last swipe of the claws in on Drifter, but a single normal attack from Liz ended it.
The other enemies were dispatched just as quickly, and the Reavers gathered in a circle to discuss feedback from the battle.
"Thoughts?"
Kirito furrowed his brows at Drifter's inquiry.
"Strong. A clearer party can get wiped out if they aren't careful."
"Or get unlucky like we did. Even one of our main parties would have trouble in this kind of situation if they were by themselves."
The others nodded in agreement to Kizmel's assessment. Them being who they are, the situation the dark elf described wouldn't have been deadly - but Kayaba's objective was never for frontliners to die at the fangs and claws of mere mobs.
Other players, however, were an entirely different story. But Vallerk shook his head.
"We can't control other players. And anyone's who's stupid enough to still underestimate SAO is either dead already or won't make it even close to this floor."
Callous, but none of the Reavers, not even Silica, blinked. Drifter nodded curtly.
"We'll split up to explore the rest of the floor. Always two parties at a time. The tower entrance should be near the second safe zone, but if for some reason it isn't and you come across it, don't go in and call the rest of us. Same with the field-boss. We will have to join forces with Fuurinkazan and the Braves to tackle it, for safety's sake."
"Roger that."
"You got it, boss."
"Understood, Drifter."
As the guild split up, Drifter felt a hand tugging on his sleeve. He glanced over his shoulder to find his wife looking at him with an expression that was an even mix of shy and forceful.
"What's it, songbird?"
"Sasha messaged me. She knows we will be occupied with this floor, and she doesn't want to bother us once we are in the swing of things, so she asked if we could come over today to visit the kids."
"Of course we can. Just us?"
Yuna's bright smile was all the reward Drifter needed. He kissed her cheek and took her arm.
They had to enjoy what happiness they got as it came. Gods knew there would be little of it to be found in this floor.
------------------------
14 days and 32 deceased players later, the Assault Team gathered on a amphitheater-like safe zone near the entrance to the 50th floor's labyrinth.
Drifter couldn't help but ponder on what his life had come to that he saw that last number and thought: it could be worse.
None of them had been frontliners. Only 6 had been clearers, even. If you looked past the fact that every death was a tragedy - and the SAO players had gotten disturbingly good at that - this was actually the best possible outcome they could have expected from a sure-death floor.
They had made it all the way to the floor boss with their main fighting force intact. They had all leveled up to the point where even 50th floor mobs barely awarded any experience. Forge Master Lisbeth and other high-tier blacksmiths had all upgraded their equipment to the pinnacle of what could be achieved right now. And they had more information on this floor boss than pretty much any before.
That was actually what was being discussed right now. While the frontliners focused on getting stronger and preparing, Argo the Rat had compiled all the intel she could get her hands on that was in any way relevant to the coming raid.
They had just finished up hearing the party leader of a small clearer guild who had completed a 6-floors chain-quest.
What they had to say wasn't all that useful, unfortunately. Not because they didn't try hard enough - the party looked so haggard Drifter had no doubt they had been running themselves into the ground to finish the quest on time - but because there just weren't enough details, and what few they did have were unclear at best.
"To recap: the boss is a humanoid-type, named Silver Duchess. Three phases at least. It kicks back and lets its minions, Gem Knights, fight in the first phase. The number of guard mobs is unclear. In the second phase the duchess joins in - and likely spawns more minions, if the pattern from other lord-type bosses holds. Third and hopefully last phase is a mystery, but we should all expect buffs on the enemy's side. Pattern changes go unsaid. No mentions of a fourth phase, but I wouldn't put it past Cardinal and Kayaba to leave that as a little surprise. So nobody lowers their guard until the congratulations message is up, understood?"
Drifter didn't know when it had become the norm for him to take the lead in major battles - Laughing Coffin maybe - but Lind, Orlando, Klein, Ambros, and even Heathcliff had silently allowed him to take the center of the stage - although somewhat begrudgingly on the later's part.
It was a lot of responsibility. Especially now. The frontliners didn't call the 50th floor a sure-death floor for nothing. They knew that, without a shadow of a doubt, some of them would die tomorrow. Maybe a lot of them.
If Drifter didn't know any better, he might think the other guild leaders were already trying to push the blame for those deaths on him.
But he did know better. Lind and all the others had given up the leadership they once so fiercely contested, all for the belief that the Reaver could lead them to a victory with the least losses.
Now all Drifter had to do was live up to that belief.
"Then we have the most worrisome piece of intel. Little rat?"
Drifter gestured with his head to Argo, passing the baton to her. The info-broker grimaced as she stepped forward.
"Other than what Dri-bou said, there's a couple words that appeared repeatedly in pretty much anythin' involvin' the Silver Duchess. Talks with NPCs, the chain-quest, item descriptions, floor exploration. Consumer, swallowin' the world, gleamin' forevermore. No idea what they allude to, but they popped up too many times not to take it seriously."
Drifter nodded to the girl.
"Best guess? We will be dealing with something Terminator-like in the third phase. 'Consumer', 'swallowing', 'gleaming' - combine all that with the boss' name, Silver Duchess, and the first thing that comes to my mind is some monstrosity of living liquid silver. Maybe I'm dead wrong--"
"But it's better than nothing. We should prepare for it, and if it's not that, we just improvise. It's what we would do in the third phase in the first place."
Chessmaster Shivata grumbles. Maybe Drifter was wrong. But with their luck, he doubted it.
"What's the strategy?"
"Dealing with the minions is the first step. We recalled the scouting party as soon as we saw the boss wasn't going to take part in the first phase, so we don't know exactly how many we are up against."
The decision had been contested at the time, but Drifter was unyielding - especially considering the Reavers were the ones to carry out the scouting. He just wasn't willing to risk it, not when they couldn't be sure if the Silver Duchess would suddenly jump in or not.
"I want all guilds except the KoB to split up in parties. Party composition is up to you, but keep in mind that, depending on how many mobs there are, you might be on your own for a while, so plan around that."
Heads nodded to him. Trying to micromanage everything was a sure-fire way for disaster. Better to just lay out the broad strokes of the plan, and let the others fill it in. After all, each guild leader knew their guild the best.
"And why have you singled us out?"
Heathcliff questioned, but his tone wasn't hostile. No doubt someone as intelligent as him already knew, but was asking for the benefit of others.
"I want your guild on stand-by, Holy Sword. We don't know what's the trigger for the second phase. Killing enough minions, HP loss, or something else. I don't want us to get caught with our pants down. A boss like this could wipe out entire parties in just a couple of moves. KoB's job is to intercept the Silver Duchess once it starts to move, and give the rest of us time to regroup."
"Hm."
Heathcliff acknowledged the orders with a grunt. Drifter fixed the other guild leader with a stare for a couple of seconds before nodding to himself.
"The third phase is where the real battle will begin. The intel seems to point out to the boss having great crowd-control abilities instead of overwhelming attack power, but we aren't going to gamble on it. Work as a party, switch out the moment your HP dips lower than 60%. It isn't efficient, but it will hopefully keep you alive. We are aiming for a battle of attrition this time around."
In the 25th floor, they had been forced to discard that strategy in favor of killing the boss as fast as possible, lest the entire Assault Team was annihilated. Drifter wanted to avoid that in favor of the somewhat safer, if more tiring, option of wearing down the boss little by little.
"And if that ain't possible?"
Ambros groused from his place near the back. The guild leader had become more and more glum ever since one of his people died fighting Laughing Coffin.
"Then we adapt. There is no perfect strategy. Safety comes first, but finishing off the Silver Duchess is equally as important."
A frozen mask of grim determination set on the spearmaster's face.
"I won't mince words. There are only two ways tomorrow can go: we see we are hopelessly outmatched and retreat before losses mount up-- Or we push through regardless of the damage once that threshold is crossed. Pulling back after suffering too many losses only means dying a slow death later, because we won't have the numbers or the momentum to do another raid."
He wasn't even considering the possibility that there wouldn't be any deaths. That was a fool's dream.
The frontliners might avoid saying it out-loud, if only because of superstition, but they didn't call this a sure-death floor for nothing. The 50th was entirely comparable to the 25th floor as far as they were concerned.
Drifter... Was actually incredibly proud of all the players before him.
They all knew they could be walking to their deaths. Sure, nobody was going into the raid thinking 'I am going to die'. The spearmaster knew from experience that that thought never quite materialized until the moment the last bit of your health drained away.
But they all knew it was more than a possibility, it was almost a guarantee. And yet, not one frontliner had turned their backs. Faltered and flinched at times, yes. But they hadn't run.
"That's it for tonight. Sleep early, rest well, and make any last-minute preparations you have to. We meet here tomorrow, at 7 o'clock sharp. Don't be late."
[1] Sp, Webnovel implemented this feature just as I was writing this chapter and I'm curious how it looks. That's all.