It was 5 days later that Drifter stood at the foot of the 40th floor tower, looking at the entrance in front of him.
It fit the floor's whole vibe. It was dark and dreary, with moss and some black stuff Drifter honestly didn't want to know what it was clinging to it. It looked like an abandoned mineshaft.
Drifter looked at it, and marked the location on his map. He would sell it to Argo later. For now, he clapped his hand and turned to the others.
"Alright, let's take a peek and then call it a day, shall we? We probably want to be well-rested for tomorrow."
"I thought the whole point of tomorrow was so we could rest?"
Yuuki raised her hand, a mischievous glint in her pupils. Drifter narrowed his eyes.
"Let me rephrase that:I need to be well-rested. After all, I'm the one who's gonna be looking after a bunch of children tomorrow. And I'm not talking about Sasha's kids."
His gaze made it very clear who he considered the 'children' to be. Yuuki snorted in amusement and clutched her chest, swaying dramatically.
"Oh leader! You wound me! Right in my heart!"
"That's your liver."
"What? No, it isn't!"
Yuuki dropped her gaze to check, and Drifter smirked. That prompted the others to start laughing too.
"No, it isn't. Though the fact you needed to check is worrying, Yuuki. Now c'mon. Just a quick look at the layout and mobs, then we take a Teleport Crystal back."
He ignored the rude gesture the girl sent his way, chuckling as he boldly entered the tower.
The labyrinth was like any other they had journeyed. A place where physics made no sense, where you could walk in a straight line and find yourself back at the beginning.
Looking up, Drifter saw hundreds of glowing bridges and passageways. As a rule, boss rooms were usually close to the top of the labyrinth. He doubted this one would be different.
"Eyes open, step light. Whatever comes our way, kill it quickly."
Easy to follow commands. The jokester grin on Yuuki's face disappeared when they entered the tower, replaced by calm caution - an expression that was mirrored by all the others, including himself, Drifter had no doubt.
Joke and banter all they want, none of the Reavers would let their guard down inside a labyrinth, especially a round floor one. Shigio protected the front, while Kizmel guarded the rear. Drifter and Asuna were right behind the shield-bearer, and Yuuki supported the dark elf, leaving Sinon in the middle.
Mixing the party members was a habit Reaver's Requiem cultivated from a very early age. You never knew how chaotic a battle could get, and who you would end up having by your side, so it was indispensable that you could cooperate with anyone, and fit in any party configuration, no matter how skewed.
It was also why Drifter, Asuna, and Kizmel were together today. Usually, the three of them, along with Kirito and Ran, tried to avoid grouping up. That was mainly because they were the 5 most suited for leadership in the guild.
But again, you never knew when you might end up with 3 leadership-capable people in your party, or none at all.
Not that that was a huge problem with Reaver's Requiem. Compared to other guilds, they had an overabundance of leaders, especially in relation to their size.
Disregarding Drifter and the aforementioned 4, any of who could take the reins with ease if the need arose, Agil, Griselda, and Sinon were all well-versed in command. Any of them could, and had, led parties before - and a guild in Griselda's case. They simply didn't enjoy it as much, and preferred to let any of the other five do it most of the time.
No matter. That was just another unique characteristic of Reaver's Requiem. It wasn't like they lacked in that regard, what with 12 titled players in their midst.
"Up ahead, Drifter."
"I see them. Rearrange, everyone. Attack formation. Sinon, overwatch. Light reserve, Kizmel."
"Got it."
"Leave it to me."
Like a well-oiled machine, the party members slipped into their new positions. Shigio stayed at the front to do his job as a tank, but now both Drifter, Asuna, and Yuuki were just two paces behind him and to the side.
The spearmaster and the fencer stood to the left, while the dual-wielder took the right. They were ready for a pincer maneuver, with enough space between them that they wouldn't get in each other's way.
Sinon was a few steps back, with Kizmel hovering just to her right. The archer was responsible for shooting arrows at the mobs, obviously, but most importantly, she was to keep an eye on their surroundings, and make sure they weren't caught by surprise or trapped if more enemies appear.
The dark elf, meanwhile, had what was simultaneously the easiest and hardest job of them all. Easiest because, if no variables appeared, she wouldn't even have to fight. Hardest because, if something did happen, she would have to intercept and deal with it alone until the other players could disentangle from their current enemies and aid her.
"Fountain Guardians. Not much of a clue in their names. On your toes, we don't know what to expect. Shigio, mark the one on the right. Asuna, Yuuki, and I will focus on the one on the left. Sinon, do your thing."
"Always do."
The two mobs coming their way were unlike any of the others on the floor. To start with, they were clean. No stinky goo, no poisonous sludge, no creepy dozen-extra eyeballs.
No eyeballs at all, actually.
The mobs looked old, yet new. Opaque metal skin with a cyan hue and delicate silver and gold adornments. They had the kind of glow you got from polishing old metal - not a blinding shine, but just smoothness.
They were vaguely humanoid in shape. Their limbs weren't attached to the triangular torso, instead hovering with about the space of a fist between them, though that didn't seem to slow their purposeful gait at all, or get in the way of the sword and shield each of them carried. On their smooth heads, also hovering above their torso without touching it, there were no human features. Just straight silver and gold lines crossing seemingly without rhyme nor reason, and an ancient helmet, also made of azure metal.
If Drifter had to say something, it would be that the Fountain Guardians reminded him of how old movies depicted fallen ancient civilizations that were, somehow, impossibly more advanced than the ones that existed now.
Atlantis. That was the connection Drifter's brain made. Highly technological but clearly old robot guards, the cyan and blue hues of the metal they were made out of, and the word 'fountain' in their names. It reminded him of a movie he watched when he was a kid.
Drifter could feel the exact moment they entered the mobs' aggro range. Their faceless heads swiveled to the party, and the Fountain Guardians started striding towards them with renewed purpose.
Idly, Drifter noted down in his head the distance where the mobs perceived them. This was all important information to sell to Argo later.
Most of his attention was on the mobs, however. Despite their disconnected limbs, there was nothing awkward or cumbersome about the way they stalked towards the players. Clearly, those mobs had some level of intelligence.
They still fell for Shigio's Taunt. It was single-handedly the most useful skill in Sword Art Online, no contest. Even Drifter felt tempted to learn it, but he already had most of his skill slots full, and the ones that were left he was saving for the high-level Two-Handed Spear skills.
As two swords slammed down on Shigio's shield, fully aiming to cut the player in three pieces, Drifter struck.
And missed.
"Huh?"
No, he didn't miss. He was dodged. Before, he had thought the only parts where the limbs of the mobs weren't connected were where they met the torso - the hips and shoulders. But when he stabbed at the leg of one of them, hoping to sweep the mob off its feet and destabilize it, the creature jumped back dexterously, and its leg split at the knee, allowing Drifter's spear to pass clean through it before rejoining.
"Okay, this is new."
The spearmaster murmured, and, though surprised, he was not at all fazed. His spear, not having lost speed after hitting nothing, stilled. With just one arm, Drifter snapped a Vertical, cleaving through the forearm and chest of the Fountain Guardian.
The mob would have to do a lot better than detaching parts of its body if it wanted to get Drifter. The spearmaster's reaction time might not be as fast as Kirito or Yuuki's, but that still meant he was above 99% of SAO players.
The Fountain Guardian appeared to be completely unbothered by its injury. Without a sound, the mob raised its sword, which Drifter now identified as a falcata, in an attempt to cut the spearmaster.
Drifter didn't even lift his spear in defense. He wasn't alone, and it was about time his guildmates joined the battle.
A Shield Bash smashed into the Fountain Guardian, sending it reeling back. Shigio then immediately turned back to the other mob, the one which he was supposed to keep occupied, and used Unrepentant Charge.
Field awareness was an essential skill for any tanker. Just being able to endure hits well wasn't enough. Tanks were the ones who controlled the flow of the battle. They had an immense responsibility on their shoulders.
Shigio was really good at his job. His skill knocked over the first Fountain Guardian, directly in the path of Yuuki's swords.
The orange glow of Cross Slash, one of Dual Blade's skills, illuminated the mob. Two perpendicular lines were left across its chest and head. Another skill, a simple Horizontal, opened a gash across both of its thighs.
The third skill, a Vorpal Strike, the mob managed to block. There was a loud bang when Yuuki's sword hit the shield head-on and was sent veering off course. Even then, the purple-haired girl's left hand flicked, putting a hole through the mob's stomach.
The whole exchange lasted maybe 3 seconds. More than enough time for Drifter to pierce the Fountain Guardian's head with a Rage Spike.
He caught a blur over the corner of his eyes. Asuna, using Yuuki as cover to get behind the mob.
Deciding to provide an even better distraction, the spearmaster lashed out with a violent kick. His leg shone silver with a Martial Arts: Tendon Snap.
Unlike most of the other Martial Arts skills, which mostly aimed to stun and incapacitate, Tendon Snap sought one thing and one thing only: crushing damage.
A dent appeared on the left side of the Fountain Guardian's torso, red shards dropping like paint flaking from an old wall. Or maybe rust from a corrugated fence was a more appropriate metaphor.
Either way, the pure brutality, the sheer power and violence behind the kick, was more than enough to throw the mob off balance. And that was all Asuna needed to hit it with a series of skills.
Sharp Hail, Parallel Sting, Glass Shard. Over a dozen red dots appeared all over the back of the Fountain Guardian. More than enough to wipe out the last of its HP.
As the mob crumbled, the Reavers trained their attention to the other Fountain Guardian. Shigio was doing a good job of blocking it, and between his skills and Sinon's arrows, it was already down to yellow health.
Cocking his arm, Drifter launched a SerpentcoilImpale. It punched a hole straight through the side of the monster. Three last arrows from Sinon - Double Shot and Breaking Airflow - ended it for good.
In the afterglow of the battle, the sound of light panting was all that could be heard. Drifter quickly regulated his breathing and reflected on the skirmish.
It had been a battle of skills. The players, Drifter included, had barely used any normal attacks. That was his fault. He was the one who said he wanted to finish it quickly.
Still, it provided lots of useful information. The mobs' intelligence, their cooperation, attack patterns, their ability to separate their limbs - and he thought he saw the last one about to activate a skill, but they had killed it before it could.
"Serration Wave."
Kizmel seemed to read his mind, because she spoke the name of the skill softly - you didn't shout in a tower. Drifter tilted his head.
"You sure?"
"Uhum. The color and starting stance matched."
The spearmaster nodded. Serration Wave was a basic skill for sword-and-shield-users. It made sense the Fountain Guardians could use it.
"Anything else special? Other than it avoiding my spear the first time."
"No."
"Okay. Let's keep going. Now that we know what we are up against, we'll study the next one. Shigio."
"I know. Leave it to me."
The shield-bearer nodded reassuringly without Drifter even needing to tell him what he wanted. The guild leader patted his shoulder.
"Thanks. We will keep the same formation. Sinon, focus fire on the ones we are engaging, leave Shigio's alone. Normal attacks only when we get to it. I want to dissect their skill set."
The girls either nodded or made noises of agreement. Drifter heaved his spear onto his shoulder and started walking.
Deeper into the labyrinth.