"The problem probably lies in those blue lines inside the grooves,"
Akimi said slowly.
"Once we step on those lines, they immediately converge and launch an attack on us. Look, since we're not stepping on them now, the attacks have stopped."
Hearing that, Kirito slowly looked down at his feet.
He had happened to step on a gap between the densely packed lines.
The arrangement of those lines wasn't uniform—some gaps in between were big enough for a person to stand on, while others were less than five centimeters wide.
Overall, the closer to the walls, the sparser the lines; the closer to the stairs, the denser.
"Let's go back down and tell the others first, discuss a strategy, and then—"
Kirito's words were cut short as a voice called out from the stairway:
"Hey—! What happened? Are you guys okay?"
It was Shivata's voice.
Akimi and Kirito's hearts skipped a beat.
At the same time, they both shouted,
"Don't come up here!"
But just as their voices rang out, eleven people had already rushed into the boss room.
Shivata looked around at the empty room with a puzzled expression.
"Huh? The boss hasn't appeared yet?"
What answered him was Kirito's urgent shout:
"Dodge! Don't stand there! Move toward the walls!"
Fortunately, most of them were elite players and reacted quickly.
Hearing Kirito's warning, they immediately rushed toward the edge of the room.
But Shivata and Lowbacca, affected by the "Knockdown" debuff, lost their balance and fell to the floor.
In the next moment, two stone hands grabbed them, then rose into the air and squeezed tightly.
Although the two were tanks and had higher Defense stats than Kirito—causing their HP to drop less than his—there was still a major problem.
Judging by how Kirito's leather armor was completely destroyed in just about ten seconds of taking hits, the boss's attacks clearly had armor-breaking effects.
If the equipment of the team's only two heavily armored shield tanks were to break, the rest of the battle would become extremely difficult.
Liten and the others quickly reacted, raising their weapons to attack the black stone hands, but the results were minimal.
"Use powerful sword skills!"
Akimi immediately called out to them.
But upon hearing his instruction, the others didn't act right away—because high-powered sword skills usually had large attack ranges.
In such a disorganized situation, using powerful AoE attacks recklessly in a PvP-enabled game like SAO could easily result in friendly fire.
Seeing them hesitate, Akimi also realized that now wasn't the time to freely unleash large-scale sword skills.
In his urgency, Akimi instinctively looked toward Asuna—then his eyes lit up and he shouted:
"Asuna!"
As if reading his mind, the moment she heard his voice, Asuna raised her silver-glinting rapier and unleashed two consecutive "Parallel Thrusts", forcing the two stone hands to release their grip.
With two startled cries, Shivata and Lowbacca dropped to the ground.
Thankfully, their armor hadn't broken.
"We've got no choice but to fight head-on," Kirito said through gritted teeth.
"Everyone! Snap out of it—get to the edge of the room! Try not to step on the glowing lines on the floor!"
Hearing Kirito's command, everyone carefully watched their footing as they moved toward the walls.
Before long, they had all safely reached the perimeter and stood in the empty spaces—except for Nezha.
Nezha was now standing on one foot—one hand bracing against the wall, the other frantically waving in the air to maintain his balance.
There was a gap in the glowing lines right next to his foot, but the leg he had lifted was swaying left and right, unable to find a safe landing spot.
It was clear that his role as an "FNC"—a Fully Nerve Connected player—was showing its disadvantage in this moment: he couldn't accurately perceive the positions of the lines.
"Water Breathing, Ninth Form: Splashing Water Flow!"
Seeing Nezha in trouble, Akimi immediately rushed toward him, his steps fast and precise, landing exactly in the gaps between the glowing lines as he quickly closed the distance.
Supporting the nearly toppling Nezha, Akimi said,
"Step directly beneath you—it's clear there."
"Whew—thanks."
As Nezha set his foot down, he let out a deep breath and visibly relaxed a little, offering Akimi grateful nod.
A few meters away, Kirito noticed that everyone had finally stopped moving and figured things were relatively safe now, so he raised his voice and said,
"Let's go over the intel we've gathered so far!"
"Those stone hands and feet are most likely the Floor 5 boss. When we step on the blue groove lines on the floor, they activate—forming targets either on the ground or ceiling—then the stone hands or feet appear and attack."
By the wall a little further away, Agil asked,
"So you're saying, as long as we don't step on the lines, the boss won't attack?"
"More or less…"
But before Kirito could finish his sentence, changes suddenly appeared both at the stairway entrance and the center of the ceiling—causing the group, who had just begun to relax, to immediately tense up again.
As the rumbling sounds echoed from both directions, a blurred face began to emerge at the center of the ceiling—so blurry that only the general outline of its facial features could be seen.
From the hollowed-out eyes of that three-meter-long face, pale blue lights slowly began to glow.
Strange blue markings appeared on its forehead.
A red targeting marker, the monster's name, and six HP bars appeared next to the face.
Floor 5 Guardian Boss – "Fuscus the Vat Colossus," the Void Golem, Fuscus – officially entered the stage.
Everyone swallowed hard, their eyes locked onto the massive face on the ceiling.
The room was eerily silent.
Then, Fuscus's mouth, which had previously only appeared as a slit, slowly opened, and the blue patterns on its forehead turned red.
The next moment, a tremendous roar erupted from its mouth, causing everyone to stagger slightly—and even lowered their stats.
It was clearly a debuffing effect.
"Spread out! Watch the lines carefully! If you can't dodge, check above and below—if you see a target marker, dodge immediately! If you have the chance, attack its hands and feet!"
Kirito was the first to react.
With a sharp wave of his hand, he gave clear and quick orders.
Then, he turned to Nezha.
"Nezha, stay near the wall if you can. There are bigger gaps over there, so the pattern shifts are easier to avoid. If the boss begins charging a skill, aim for the markings on its forehead!"
"Understood!"
Finally, Kirito carefully moved closer to Akimi, Asuna, and Argo, then said:
"I'll trigger the lines—get ready to attack!"
With that, he stepped onto a nearby glowing line, and just as the target marker formed, he dodged to the side.
The next moment, as the black arm emerged, the three of them struck it in unison.
"Vertical Arc Slash!"
"Water Breathing, Second Form: Water Wheel!"
"Parallel Thrust!"
(And Argo's unknown triple claw sword skill)
Fuscus let out a furious roar as it took damage, and the markings on its forehead began to glow red again—clearly preparing to use another disruption skill.
But Nezha, standing near the wall, wasn't about to just sit there and watch.
He hurled his chakram, which struck the markings on Fuscus's forehead, forcing the attack to cancel.
Seeing the teamwork between Kirito and the others, the rest of the team caught on to the attack strategy and began following suit.
Before long, Fuscus's HP dropped by three full bars.
Although the progress was going smoothly, no one became overconfident—they all knew better than to underestimate a boss, especially after already paying the price in blood.
Sure enough, the anticipated change occurred.
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