A body taller than an Astartes. A physique as massive and solid as stone. Muscles that looked ready to burst.
Its arms were covered in bulging veins that seemed on the verge of tearing open, and it swung its greatsword through the air in a howling slash.
Boom!
The two-meter-wide rock Kain had been standing on shattered like fragile porcelain, sending countless fragments spraying in every direction.
But before the blow landed, Kain had already evaded it. As he leaped, he immediately spun into a roundhouse kick, striking another greatsword that had been swinging down at him.
The kick knocked the blade off course, sending it slashing diagonally into the head of the monster that had just split the rock apart.
Its goat-like head was chopped clean off, and its body collapsed with a crash, though there was no agonizing death throe.
On this floor, when a monster's HP bar was emptied, its body remained behind in its wounded state.
This goat-like monster also had the classic image of a demon. It was the guardian demon from the Seventy-Fourth Floor.
And all around him lay the corpses of more monsters just like it.
Pffft!
The spearhead in Kain's hand pierced another monster's eye socket like a bolt of lightning, sinking completely inside.
At the same time, he forcibly seized the greatsword from the monster's hand. It was a massive blade nearly two meters long.
Then, while still in midair, he twisted his body and spun violently, like an athlete throwing a discus. The greatsword shot out like a giant arrow.
The dark shadow descending from the sky had been about to unleash a breath attack from its gaping maw, but the greatsword pierced through its abdomen, making it scream.
The Chaos Dragon from the Ninetieth Floor fell from the sky like a bird with its wings broken.
At that moment, the ground, which was completely covered in corpses, was suddenly sliced open by something. A gigantic, elongated monster with multiple pairs of scythe-like forelimbs burst out at lightning speed and lunged to kill him.
Its centipede-like form belonged to the boss of the Ninety-Fifth Floor. It was also a more advanced version of the Seventy-Fifth Floor boss.
Its appearance was also quite similar to one of the Tyranid creatures from the Warhammer world—the Sand Serpent, a type of creature capable of digging and moving through the ground at high speed.
The one he was facing now had also used the corpses as cover, swimming beneath the earth to launch a surprise attack on him.
Its opened maw was filled with teeth vibrating at high speed like a meat grinder. Anything that fell in would be shredded into paste.
It should have bitten down on Kain while he was suspended in the air with nowhere to move.
Instead, Kain was suddenly pulled upward, as though he had been caught by someone's fishing line.
The reason he was yanked into the air was that the greatsword he had thrown was still tied to a thread, and the silk-like rope connected to it was in his hand.
At first, the line had been sliding through his grip. Now, however, he caught it and wound it around himself, letting the force pull him away.
These tools had not been prepared for him by Lisbeth. Those had long since been used up.
Everything he was using now had been taken from the bosses he had killed. The thread had been extracted from a spider-like boss.
At this point, all the equipment and weapons on Kain's body had been scavenged from the monsters on this floor.
Horse-like neighs rang out.
Bosses resembling undead knights were charging toward him, their lances raised high and their bodies leaning forward in the saddle.
The next instant, they pitched sharply ahead, and their lances shot through the air like arrows loosed from a bow.
They were giving him no chance to breathe.
Not even a tenth of a second.
Clearing this floor did not require him to kill every monster on it. That was impossible, because the monsters would simply keep respawning.
To clear the floor, he only needed the countdown to end.
As long as he survived twenty-four hours, it would be over.
Since the monsters could respawn, Kayaba could have simply filled the entire floor with more and more monsters until Kain was buried under them.
Even if they could not kill him, that would be enough to make it difficult for him to move. He would be trapped.
But for Akihiko Kayaba, that would be admitting he could not play fair.
Instead, he had arranged the monsters to attack Kain in a steady rhythm, one wave after another, never giving him any time to rest and forcing him to respond constantly.
This was not about wearing down his mind.
The real purpose was to determine Kain's combat ability.
Not his raw combat power, but his combat patterns.
Through endless varieties of attacks, Kayaba wanted to see how Kain responded under different circumstances and how he counterattacked.
He intended to collect comprehensive data on him.
...
The Fifty-Fifth Floor boss room.
After sixteen hours, the clearing group finally stepped into the chamber.
There was no boss to be seen.
As expected, it had already been cleared.
The door leading to the floor above was open.
"Asuna, let's talk."
Argo called Asuna to the side, signaling that she wanted to speak privately.
The others were perceptive enough not to come closer.
Those who were not were pulled away by the others.
"What do you want to talk about, Argo?"
"Let's talk about your commander, Heathcliff of the Knights of the Blood. Where exactly did he go? Something this special is happening, yet he's nowhere to be seen?"
Argo asked with interest as she looked at Asuna, who was so beautiful she hardly seemed like a player.
No wonder even adults were captivated by that beauty. If Argo were a boy, she would definitely be enchanted by Asuna too.
As Argo posed the question, she watched Asuna's reaction closely.
There was clear, subtle unnaturalness in her expression.
"I don't know either. The commander said he had made an important discovery and went to investigate alone. I asked him for details, but he hasn't replied."
"Are you sure that's all?"
"What? Argo, what are you suspecting me of?"
Asuna frowned, looking slightly angry.
"Of course I'm suspicious. Because I think you definitely know where Commander Heathcliff is. In fact, it's probably related to this storyline event of yours, right?"
That made Asuna fall silent.
As the strongest information broker in SAO, Argo's insight was certainly impressive. She had undoubtedly noticed something.
"You can't tell me?"
"Sorry."
"Then how about I make a guess?"
Argo's previously amused expression faded, replaced by a trace of seriousness.
"Commander Heathcliff is on the Hundredth Floor, isn't he?"
After she said that, Asuna's expression shifted ever so slightly.
Although Asuna quickly suppressed it, it was already too late.
"What are you talking about? Why would the commander be on the Hundredth Floor?"
"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Asuna. Don't tell me you forgot what you hired me to investigate. You asked me to find out who Akihiko Kayaba really was."
As soon as those words fell, Asuna's reaction made Argo's expression grow even more solemn.
It seemed her deduction had been correct.
A month ago, Asuna had hired her to investigate something extremely special: information on Akihiko Kayaba, and the possibility that he was mixed in among the players.
If one wanted to observe the players closely, the best method was to blend in with them.
Then, when combined with the dramatic change in Asuna's attitude toward Commander Heathcliff, Argo could not help making that connection.
"And that person called Lance isn't actually an NPC, is he?"
Argo pressed her again.
Asuna's reaction made it clear. She really was not good at disguising herself.
Argo had guessed correctly again.
If Lance were an NPC, Asuna would not have such strong emotional reactions toward him.
In other words, that so-called NPC was not some fake person.
He might be someone from the outside world who had finally succeeded in interfering with SAO and invading it.
And Commander Heathcliff—Akihiko Kayaba—was currently dealing with that intruder.
That was truly shocking information, even for Argo.
(End of Chapter)
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