"It's about to strike. Tankers, move forward. Protect the paralyzed, hurry!"
Kirito's voice cut through the suffocating tension like an arrow slicing the air in half.
He circled around Group A, his eyes never leaving the slightest movement from Illfang as its muscular legs subtly lowered, and its massive hand began raising the Nodachi, like a colossal bloodscythe ready to mow down everything in front of it.
"U-understood… but what about you guys? With armor that light…"
Agil cried out, but before he could finish, three shadows had already darted from their positions like bolts of lightning tearing through the earth.
Ren. Asuna. Kirito.
No battle cry. No warning. Only motion. Only speed.
They dashed through the lingering mist of smoke still curling from the boss's previous strike, cutting through the stunned gazes of those still frozen in shock.
They broke past the outer line, charging straight into the kill zone near the battlefield's center, where virtual blood was still dripping from unlucky players who'd taken hits earlier.
Right in front of them, a Ruin Kobold Sentinel lunged in from the side like a wild beast gone berserk.
No time. No room for error.
And it didn't get a chance.
In just a blink, the sound of three blades slicing through air rang out almost simultaneously… like the cold whisper of death.
A sweeping slash from Kirito, breaking armor at the side. A skewering thrust from Ren, targeting the joint at the neck. And a finishing blow from Asuna, piercing the heart at a speed too fast to be seen clearly.
The monster stiffened...then shattered with a burst of pixelated explosions. Virtual red blood sprayed into the air like a burning firework rain.
No one stopped. No one looked back.
The three of them had vanished into the battlefield, moving so fast it was as if they had become one with the storm howling around Illfang.
Behind them, the remaining players recoiled slightly from an invisible shockwave. Some widened their eyes. Some dropped their jaws. Some even forgot they were holding weapons.
"...So fast…"
The whisper slipped out like someone had just been jolted from a dream, awakening into a nightmare.
They hadn't just seen speed. They hadn't just seen power.
They had just seen hope in motion. Three people, with no heavy armor, no Tanker roles, no outstanding special skills...only decisiveness, speed, and a bond like three heartbeats in sync.
And in that fleeting moment, it was as if the entire battlefield had been injected with fire. The gears groaned and turned again, the storm continued, and no one remained still.
At the frontlines, where the clash of metal had become the rhythm of breath, where the earth was stained with the red hues of broken pixel streams like spilled blood, a fragile group of players was still desperately holding back the massive Boss.
Ren didn't need to look long to recognize them.
Nautilus, Yuna… faces so familiar, so dear, it felt like they were being sketched out from within a nightmare.
They, along with a few other players, had neither retreated nor stepped back, standing their ground even as their movements began to slow from exhaustion.
They didn't scatter. Instead, they tightened their formation around Diavel, still at the center of the assault team, even as his body weakened from the brutal blows of the Nodachi, long and heavy like a death sentence hanging above the entire group.
The small shield in Diavel's left hand was chipped and cracked. His sword arm trembled with each block, as if he were fighting not only the Boss in front of him but also the limits screaming from within his own body.
Yet he did not back down. And neither did they leave his side.
Yuna lunged in from the left, eyes glinting with resolve laced with worry, her short sword always just in time to intercept trick attacks aimed at Diavel from blind spots.
Nautilus, face pale as if from blood loss, but eyes still calm, stood diagonally to the right. Every swing of his blade required his whole body to stay steady, but not a single strike was wasted, each one aimed to slow Illfang's attack rhythm, even by a second.
They knew they were being overwhelmed. They knew the Boss was slipping out of control. But still, they held their positions, like the final pillars preventing the battle from collapsing completely.
Ren felt his heart pounding harder, its rhythm syncing with the roar of the battlefield, with Kirito's steps to the left, with Asuna's gasping breaths to the right.
They couldn't let the others fall. Not now. Not when there was still a chance.
Sensing someone approaching from behind, hurried but firm footsteps pressing against the stone floor, Diavel gripped his sword hilt tightly, then shifted his weight, flinging Illfang's massive Nodachi aside with all the strength he had left.
The push was enough to throw the Boss's arm off balance. The sword scraped sideways, screeching through the air like a tear in space itself.
He glanced quickly behind, just a flash...but it was enough to see Kirito, Asuna, and Ren charging in like three lightning bolts split from the same current, only a few steps away.
Diavel's gaze dropped slightly. His brows furrowed, as if caught between a hundred overlapping sounds...wind, metal, ragged breathing, and the frantic rhythm of a heart caught in a decision only he could fully understand.
Then, like a reckless spark igniting in the rain, a flicker of light flared in his eyes.
Not hope, but a choice, blind trust or unshakable pride.
"All right…" His voice wasn't loud, but it rang clear and steady, like a command that could not be undone.
"…I'll strike at its throat. You two...cover me."
Without a second of hesitation, Diavel's sword burst into light, as if it had absorbed every last glimmer left on the battlefield, now drowned in gloom.
That light wasn't from an ordinary sword skill, it was a high-tier weapon technique, a single-target strike that concentrated all remaining power into one blow.
"No! Diavel, now's the time to defend...not attack!", Kirito's voice echoed from behind, urgent, desperate, like he was trying to pull Diavel back from the edge of a fatal mistake.
But Diavel didn't turn.
He only smiled, a faint, quiet smile, like the morning mist before sunrise.
No explanation. No hesitation.
Only a man who had made his choice, and was now wagering every last drop of life he had on a final strike, believing it would make a difference.
As if provoked by the reckless glow surging from Diavel's blade, Illfang the Kobold Lord let out a deep growl, a guttural thunder that rumbled up from the throat of something not of this world.
Then it moved, a familiar stance, yet something was different this time.
A slight motion. Very slight. A tiny twist of the wrist, a shifted step barely off-center, a pause in its breathing...so small it could have been lost in the chaos of the battlefield, drowned in the glare of dozens of swords and the rising chorus of battle cries.
Almost no one noticed.
But amidst the maelstrom, one pair of eyes saw everything.
Eyes trained on every enemy movement.
Eyes that had studied every minor variation, every frame, every rhythm, every attack pattern the monster had used back in the Beta.
Kirito…
His eyes widened...like a snapped cord had just whipped loose inside his head.
And then he screamed.
"Damn it…! NO...THAT'S NOT THE RIGHT SKILL!!"
"That's Tsumujiguruma… THAT SKILL WAS NEVER IN THE BETA!DIAVEL...STOP!! STOP RIGHT NOW!!!"
Kirito's shout tore through the air, raw and strained, a death knell echoing across the battlefield.
No time to explain. No words left to save anyone.
Kirito launched himself forward, pouring every ounce of strength into his legs, boots slamming against the stone floor, eyes locked on one single goal: pull Diavel back from the brink.
But time… doesn't wait.
And Illfang's Nodachi had already begun to spin, like a wheel of death surging forward at a speed beyond reason.
…Too late.
A devastating slash erupted, one blinding red arc tore through space, like the world itself had been ripped apart.
It wasn't just an attack, it was a whirlwind of death howling through every inch of air.
The blade screamed, like steel scraping bone.
And just as it was about to blossom outward into a wide-area sweep, like all the times before...
It changed direction.
No one expected it. No one could react in time.
Instead of a horizontal sweep, the massive blade cleaved upward from below, a vertical strike, carrying all the weight and killing intent it had stored.
"NO, REN!!"
Kirito's scream slammed into the tension-stretched air like a hammer blow. He yanked Ren's cloak with everything he had...no hesitation, no restraint, as if even a heartbeat's delay would spell certain death.
Ren fell. Asuna simultaneously dove in by instinct, both crashing against the cold marble floor just as a wave of murderous force howled through the space inches above their heads.
And then...
The air split.
Four devastating slashes flashed...death's scythe drawn in red, shredding the battlefield into jagged, uneven fragments.
Each crimson arc tore through space like lightning crashing down from a blood-red sky.
An entire section of the front line exploded. Cloaks ripped, armor shattered, blood-red pixels burst, and screams that hadn't even finished were erased in a hurricane of digital carnage.
The group that had just blocked the attack… was gone in a blink.
Familiar faces...just moments ago fighting to protect Diavel were swept away like dust in a storm of rage.
Ren struggled beneath Kirito's weight, eyes wide, chest frozen, as he watched Nautilus flung into the air, his sword broken and tossed aside.
Yuna screamed in despair as red light...like molten ruby spilled from a gash across her side.
"NO!!"
Ren bolted up, ready to charge, to tear through the distance, to save them, even if only a fraction of a second remained.
But Kirito held him back, yelling through clenched teeth:
"DO YOU WANT TO DIE TOO?! WAIT!"
No time to grieve. No time to feel the pain.
Only screams. Light. And the cruel truth that was now tearing apart what little innocence still remained on this battlefield.