The massive Nodachi came crashing down like a collapsing mountain, sweeping away the lingering smoke and dust, making the ground tremble with every impact.
Kirito clenched his teeth, pouring strength into both hands as the obsidian-black sword rose to meet the blow. Every clash rang with the screech of metal, but hidden beneath it was the sound of bone and muscle straining to the point of fracture.
He didn't retreat, didn't sidestep, didn't dodge, only blocked, reading the monster's every move as if deciphering a nightmarish musical score, each note a deadly strike.
Ren and Asuna didn't waste even a fraction of a second. The two lunged from opposite sides like arrows loosed from the same bowstring, both slashing with the highest speed their bodies could endure.
Ren charged at the Boss's right leg, his steel blade slicing sideways, cutting into the crimson skin that glowed like heated iron. But...
'I-it won't cut through...!?'
He could feel it...his sword arm tensing suddenly, as if a massive tendon had coiled around it from the inside. The blade jammed mid-swing, lodged in the beast's bulging muscles, creating only a shallow tear before being clamped tight.
Ren gritted his teeth and yanked the sword back, but it felt stuck in raw flesh, laborious, slow, and... useless.
Once more, the giant blade descended like the axe of death, splitting the air with a suffocating whistle, carrying a weight that could crush anyone who failed to evade.
But in that split-second moment of peril, a green flare burst forward like a blazing arrow, tearing through the creeping veil of smoke engulfing the battlefield.
Asuna.
Without hesitation, without doubt, she dashed in like a bolt of lightning, her slender sword tracing a fine arc...thin as thread, but razor sharp, piercing straight into the Boss's left side, where the red skin was thinner than elsewhere. A screech echoed as metal met bone. The strike didn't deal much damage, but it was enough to make the beast flinch.
Its eyes bulged, the light in its pupils flickering. Its movements slowed, just for a few seconds, but to those fighting on the edge of survival, a few seconds were worth a lifetime.
Ren saw the opening. He gripped the sword so tightly his wrist trembled, his heel twisting to drive all his weight downward.
Then, like a beast, he leapt, blade glowing with a pale blue light...soft, yet sharp.
A Sword Skill activated, one Ren had practiced hundreds of times.
At the same time, Kirito, who had been nullifying every attack and skill from the Boss since the start, tightened his grip on the black sword, his trembling hands never letting go. A faint screech came from his blade as his own skill activated.
Two lights...one a cold blue, the other a burning green, erupted in unison, tearing through the space between them.
Ren arrived first. Gritting his teeth, he slashed upward diagonally with full force, the blade carving deep into the Boss's left chest.
The crimson muscles were torn open, revealing charred-black flesh beneath. The blow was so strong that Ren's arm went numb, bones shaking from a Sword Skill activated too hastily.
Then Kirito arrived. Without a word, he slid in low and thrust his sword upward from beneath the Boss's jaw.
The sharp black tip pierced through, smashing into the chin and snapping the creature's head backward. A thunderous roar echoed through the hall.
The towering Boss, more than two meters tall, staggered backward like a collapsing tower.
The entire battlefield froze for a moment, all sound swallowed by collective breath-holding.
The Boss's HP bar began to drop, red segments being cut away piece by piece.
Everyone held their breath.
But when the light on the HP bar stopped... it had only dropped by less than one-tenth.
Silence.
Ren's breathing was ragged, his numb hand still clutching the sword, blood seeping through the lines of his palm.
Kirito stood beside him, head slightly lowered, eyes unblinking. Asuna stood behind them, her long hair disheveled, face pale, but her eyes still held an unwavering flame.
They knew.
That last strike...from three sides, three Sword Skills, three lives thrown in, was only enough to shave off a tenth.
And the battle... was far from over.
The Boss began screeching again, raising its massive Nodachi once more, blood-red light burning in its eyes like hell opening a second time.
In this hell... who would survive?
Beneath the dim red light filling the grand hall, the battle raged on in the rhythm of ragged breathing and clashing metal.
Kirito remained at the center, his role as controller unbroken despite his visibly draining stamina.
Each time the Nodachi came down, he either redirected it or blocked, sometimes with the sword, sometimes by dodging at the last instant, preventing the Boss from targeting the other two.
On either flank, Ren and Asuna pressed on with their relentless assault. They spoke no words, exchanged almost no signals, yet after every one of Kirito's attacks, they knew exactly when to advance and when to fall back.
An unspoken harmony formed between the three of them, forged on this land of blood and screams.
The Boss's HP bar was still falling. Slowly painfully so...but still falling.
Every time Ren found an opening to unleash a Sword Skill, or Asuna struck with a lightning-fast Linear, the Boss would let out a shriek, and the HP bar would shudder faintly, as if signaling that the blow had landed on a weak spot.
On the outer line, the other players were still struggling against the Ruin Kobold Sentinels, yet their eyes couldn't help but be drawn toward the center of the battlefield.
"No... I can't believe it..."
A player wielding an axe to parry a Sentinel's strike muttered to himself, eyes wide in disbelief as he stared at the three battling figures.
"Those guys... they're incredible..."
Another one spoke, his arm injured but still fighting on. His gaze was fixed on Asuna, the girl beneath the crimson cloak, whose every dash left behind a faint silver trail as her sword cut through the air.
"That girl... she's too strong... no way she's just an ordinary player."
"And that swordsman... he's blocking every one of the Boss's attacks... he's leading the tempo of the whole fight."
"And the one in the cloak... his movements are so fluid... dodging and attacking like he's practiced this a hundred times over."
One voice after another rose amid the clash of steel, like ripples of emotion spreading across the chaotic battlefield. A quiet hope began to stir in hearts that had once given up.
"At this rate... I think we might actually win..."
Some players breathed sighs of relief. Their hands still gripped their weapons tightly, but their eyes no longer showed despair.
But just then, a low voice cut through the air, like a needle piercing the thin veil of hope.
Kibou, still holding his sword in defense near a group of wounded players, slowly shook his head.
"No. We had a problem from the start."
His eyes calmly turned toward the center, toward Ren, who had just been knocked back by a glancing blow but was already charging in again without hesitation.
"If straight-piercing skills like Stab or Linear could penetrate the Boss's armor... things would be different."
Someone nearby spoke up:
"What do you mean?"
Kibou frowned slightly.
"I've been watching. Only 'ripping' or 'knockback' type Sword Skills have any real effect on its HP bar. Straight-thrust skills, even Linear, barely do anything."
He paused, then added in a soft but resolute tone:
"They'll burn out first."
The atmosphere fell heavy.
No one wanted to hear it, but everyone knew it in their hearts.
No matter how well Kirito, Ren, and Asuna fought together, no matter how refined their skills...their stamina and time were enemies they couldn't overcome.
And that Boss... was showing no signs of slowing down.
Just as Kibou had predicted...
The stamina of all three was being chipped away, moment by moment, every strike, every step, every parry, it all felt like it was being torn from their very souls.
Their breathing grew ragged. Sweat ran down their backs, mixing with the stench of burning steel and the metallic tang of blood on the battlefield.
And then... just one misstep. Just a fraction of a second too slow.
Kirito turned to block another strike, but his foot missed a beat, half a second off. And in that brief instant, the Boss's Nodachi sliced through the air, crashing into his body with unimaginable force.
"GAHH...!!"
The sound was like flesh smashing against stone. Kirito was hurled backward, skidding across the marble floor in a long arc, sparks and dust flying in his wake.
His sword flew from his hand. He tried to push himself up, only to see his HP bar plunge into the red, blinking wildly like a silent death sentence.
Asuna froze at the unexpected turn. Ren's eyes widened, instincts kicking in as he lunged toward her, but the battle rhythm was already broken. His stance hadn't reset. He was too far away.
The sound of rushing wind...like a reaper's scythe, screamed through the air. The Boss's blade was coming down again, ready to tear through everything in its path.
Ren clenched his teeth, his body twisting in that fleeting moment.
He raised his sword horizontally, pouring all his strength into it to block the colossal strike aimed straight at Asuna, who was still paralyzed in shock, her legs unmoving.
He thought his body would be shattered or flung aside. He thought his next vision would be his HP bar plummeting into the red.
But it didn't happen.
A towering figure appeared beside him, firm, unmoving, like a wall of stone.
A tremendous shockwave erupted from the point of contact, the immense force of the Boss's blade halved by the weight of a massive axe intercepting it alongside Ren's sword.
"I can't," the voice was low, firm, but resolute. "Let a main DPS do a Tank's job too."
Agil stood there, gripping the axe's handle tightly, veins bulging, muscles taut with strain. He didn't need to do anything flashy. Just being there, at the right time was enough to save a life.
He tilted his head slightly, glancing at Ren, then at Asuna. His voice was steady, as if this wasn't a life-or-death battlefield.
"Go help him."