She had never been so happy before.

  No, scratch that. She had never been happy before.

  It was mostly because she didn't remember anything. Just flashes and sensations, like faint echoes of memories.

  She knew she had been cold. Cold and afraid. She knew she had been in a bad place. Not just because she was sad, but because everyone was. And she could feel all of them.

  But that was all in the past, and the nightmares were becoming less frequent. Especially since she found her family. Her Papa and her Mama.

  Now, Yui could confidently say she knew what being happy felt like. What being loved was like.

  Which was why she was so reluctant to see them go.

  This past week had been amazing. The best days of her life, even if they were all she could remember to start with.

  Her Papa and Mama had taken Yui to all sorts of places. They tried to be subtle about it, but she knew they were trying to see of she remembered anything.

  She didn't. But that didn't stop her from enjoying their short little trips. They were the best thing ever!

  Sometimes, other people joined them too. Uncle Drifter and Aunt Yuna - she had learned how to say their names! - were with them often.

  Uncle Drifter was really cool, always putting her on his shoulders and taking off running, which made her giggle until her belly hurt. And Aunt Yuna had the most beautiful singing voice ever, and was teaching Yui how to play the flute!

  There were others too, all the members of the guild her Papa and Mama were a part of, Reaver's Requiem.

  Aunt Sinon was a little standoff-ish at first, but she was actually very sweet once you got to know her. Her girlfriend, Aunt Yuuki, was the opposite, all motion and energy, always smiling. Yui liked her a lot too.

  Uncle Nautilus was a little bit like Uncle Drifter. They both were calm and strong, and if Yui ever got scared, like that one time she went a little too close to the lake and a big fish jumped out trying to bite her, she knew they would always be there to protect and comfort her.

  Aunt Ran was like that too, but she liked to sit down with Yui, and they took turns braiding each other's hair - Yui wasn't very good at it, but she was learning.

  Aunt Liz was an artist. She made all sorts of amazing equipment for her other aunts and uncles. She and Uncle Vallerk, who was very quiet, spent hours every day in the forge, which Yui couldn't enter because it was dangerous.

  And Aunt Kizmel had pointy ears, which were very pretty! Yui always made sure to tell her that, because she liked Aunt Kizmel's smile.

  Then there was Big Sister Silica, who was older than Yui, but younger than everyone else, which was why she called her big sister. She always had stories to tell, mostly about the amazing creatures she had seem, not to mention Pina and Feredir, who were just the cutest, softest, fluffiest things in the world!

  She didn't get to see Uncle Tetsuo, Aunt Sachi, and Uncle Keita as much as the others, but they were nice too.

  Aunt Griselda, Uncle Agil, and Uncle Wolv were older, and they treated her a little bit like Papa and Mama did.

  Which was why she was as sad to see them go as the others. She liked Aunt Sasha and the other children, with whom she would be staying today, but it wasn't the same thing.

  But Yui was a big girl. Her Papa and Mama had already explained to her that they were important people, and that, as much as they loved her, they couldn't stay with her all the time.

  Yui didn't like that, but she didn't complain. Her Papa and Mama helped a lot of people, and that was another reason why she loved them so much.

  Even so, she couldn't help but pout when Big Sister Argo, who wasn't in the guild but was a friend, had shown up at their house early yesterday and asked to talk with her Papa, Mama, and Uncle Drifter.

  They had gone into the kitchen, and, when their conversation ended and they came out, none of them were smiling.

  That night, her parents had told Yui that she would have to stay with Aunt Sasha at the church, because they would be occupied today.

  She didn't fully understand why until a little screen appeared in front of her, asking if she wanted to watch something called 55th floor boss raid.

  Then, Yui remembered what being scared felt like.

  -------------------------

  "Cheer up, Kirito. You knew it was going to happen."

  Drifter patted the swordsman's shoulder comfortingly. Both Kirito and Asuna had sour looks on their faces, not so much because of the upcoming raid, but because of how sad Yui had looked when they left her with Sasha.

  Not that Drifter couldn't understand it. His bond with Yui wasn't as strong as the one she had with her parents, obviously, but the little girl had grown on him, and all of the Reavers.

  Yui was a joy to have around. She almost reminded Drifter of a cat sometimes. A bundle of hyperactivity mixed with some calm, serene moments of just laying around, her mere presence lighting up the day of the Reavers.

  But all good things must come to an end, and reality hit the Reavers yesterday morning, when Argo came to their base to tell them the 55th floor boss room had been found.

  Despite most of the Reavers taking some time off from exploring to stay with Yui, and Kirito and Asuna just taking the whole week as if it were a vacation, when the call came, they all remembered their duty.

  No rest for the weary. And that, the frontliners definitely were.

  "Look on the bright side: you finally get to break in your new sword."

  When Drifter said that, Kirito's hand couldn't help but wander to the hilt of said blade.

  It was, in his humble opinion, Liz's greatest masterpiece to date. Crafted with materials from the 55th floor' field-boss, a giant azure flying beast named X'rphan the White Wyrm, the sword was of an icy blue coloration, made entirely of crystal, but no less deadly for it. A dragon skull emblem adorned the crossguard, and the pommel was made of one of X'rphan's fangs.

  It contrasted magnificently with its sibling-weapon, a black long-sword with nothing of notice to it, other than its weight. It had been a drop from the 53rd floor boss, and the stats matched that of Liz's craft.

  Most of the Reavers had gotten an upgrade, be it in terms of weapons or armor. The upper half of Aincrad was an entirely different world from the lower floors, and the rewards increased with the danger. Liz had been able to go wild with all the new, rarer drops.

  Drifter himself was the proud owner of no less than 4 new weapons: a halberd, a lance, a naginata, and, of course, a spear.

  The latter of the four was his favorite. A twisted bident, as was his preference, forged with materials from two different field-bosses. It was his strongest weapon to date.

  He would put it to good use today, he hoped, just as would Kirito. Neither of the weapons had been bloodied yet, to say, but that was about to change.

  After one last encouraging pat to Kirito's back, Drifter made his way to the front of the Assault Team, keeping his back to the boss room doors to address them.

  "Everyone ready?"

  There was a chorus of 'yes', 'aye' and 'let's get on with it'. Drifter smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.

  "This is the fifth floor boss we face since pain became a thing again. It will be the first with it set to 100%."

  And if that wasn't a bitch, Drifter didn't know what was. They had had 5 floors to adapt, but feeling pain was never something they were going to enjoy, especially now that it perfectly mimicked the real thing.

  But frontliners were made of sterner stuff. They bitched and complained, and some still grumbled about it when Drifter brought it up, but none backed down. His gaze swept over them, and his grin grew sharper.

  "Remember what we discussed at the strategy meeting yesterday. The boss likes his charge attacks, so stay on your toes. If you aren't a tank and have less than half health, you have to dodge no matter what or you die."

  He said it so matter-of-factly that several of the spectators in the outside world shivered.

  Drifter didn't even pause.

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  "Don't cluster up. Keep space between yourselves so you don't get in each other's way. Roger that?"

  "Yes!"

  The spearmaster nodded, and turned around. His smile vanished.

  "Let's do this."

  He pushed open the doors to find a frozen arena. The ground, thankfully, wasn't ice, but it was covered in a 20-centimeters-tall layer of snow.

  The room itself seemed like the inside of a frozen glacier. It was circular, as boss rooms often are, with the walls and ceiling made of nearly transparent ice, dozens of meters thick, giving just vague hints of the sun outside - don't ask Drifter how that worked considering they were inside the tower, Sword Art Online and physics didn't exactly mix.

  But more than the room, it was the boss who captured everyone's attention. Hard not to, when it stood like an immovable iceberg in the middle of the arena.

  J?tunn Mammorath was a monster in every sense of the word. At least 10 meters tall, and twice as long, the boss looked like a mammoth given steroids.

  Its fur was snow-white, criss-crossed by jagged blue veins, pulsating with a faint interior light. Two massive tusks, curved and sharp, each larger than a grown man, adorned its head. They were made of pure ice, with an actual blizzard swirling inside them, visible to all.

  The boss was imposing. And also, if Drifter were to be honest, beautiful if only it weren't so clearly dangerous. It was like watching a lion. Through the TV or from afar, you could admire its beauty. But when you were about to fight it, that aspect lost some of its allure, replaced by much more important concerns.

  Such as the way that, when the last frontliner entered the room, the boss got up, a veritable avalanche falling from it as it shrugged off all the accumulated snow, and roared.

  "BRRRAAAHHH-TOOOOM!"

  It was deafening. The entire room trembled, the snow powder on the ground lifting in a waist-high mist, the icy walls and ceiling cracking, enormous fissures spreading through it.

  Drifter hoped that was simply an aesthetic choice.

  "Why do bosses always gotta be so badass?"

  "I know, right? It would be really fucking cool to fight this thing if this were, you know, just a game."

  The spearmaster snorted at Klein's grumble. Especially because of what Agil responded, unconsciously echoing Drifter's thoughts just moments before. A pity he had to cut it short, because the boss was pawing at the ground.

  "Not so cool when you get trampled by it and feel every bone in your body crushed into dust. Get your head in the game."

  Louder, he yelled:

  "Spread out and follow the plan! Kill this thing!"

  As far as battle cries went, it wasn't the most inspired one. But the frontliners approached their work with the grim determination of people who already had seen and done too much to care about small stuff like that.

  And not a second sooner. With another absurdly loud trumpet noise, J?tunn Mammorath lowered its head till its tusks scrapped the snow-covered ground, and charged towards the biggest cluster of players.

  Each step of the pillar-like legs caused the ground to shake. But the frontliners were steady as they dashed to the sides, neatly avoiding the charge.

  As the saying goes: 'forewarned is forearmed'. Had they been unprepared, the first charge of the boss might have heavily wounded many frontliners, and even killed some.

  But with the information the clearers discovered while exploring the floor, and by analyzing the scouting raid launched the day before by the KoB, the players already knew all the tell-tale attack signs of the boss. They had started dodging even before J?tunn Mammorath charged.

  The boss thundered past the spot where they had been a heartbeat earlier, its tusks carving twin trenches through the snow. The blizzard trapped within them spilled outward in a spiraling gale, shards of ice slicing through the air like thrown daggers.

  "Second pattern! Watch the backswing!"

  J?tunn Mammorath skidded, hooves digging into the stone beneath the snow, then twisted with impossible agility for something its size. One titanic leg lashed out in a sweeping kick.

  A tank's shield flared in a Brace as it caught the brunt of the impact. The sound - metal screaming, bones straining - echoed through the frozen chamber. Even with the skill, his HP plummeted to 70%.

  "Switch!"

  Kirito was already moving.

  The black swordsman blurred forward, dark blade flashing first to draw aggro. His new crystal sword followed an instant later, a streak of icy blue that matched the arena.

  The twin blades crossed, a Vorpal Strike from the left, a Sonic Leap from the right, milliseconds apart, carrying Kirito through the room, carving a glowing cross across the Mammorath's foreleg.

  For a split second, frost met frost.

  Then the boss's HP bar dipped.

  A cheer rose from the Assault Team - but it died quickly as J?tunn Mammorath reared up on its hind legs.

  "Scatter!"

  The frontliners broke formation just as the front legs slammed down, Kirito barely managing to get out of range.

  The impact was catastrophic.

  Snow exploded upward in a white mushroom cloud. The ground cracked in a spiderweb pattern beneath the hooves, and from those fractures erupted jagged pillars of ice.

  The frontliners were ready for it, having seen the same attack used during the scouting raid.

  They dodged and weaved, eyes glued to the tell-tale blue glow on the ground that denounced a new ice spike about to emerge.

  "Careful! Spread out!"

  But, in doing so, some of them lost sight of the boss, and wandered too close to it. J?tunn Mammorath roared again, red eyes glaring at the nearest players.

  Most managed to get out of the way in time. One didn't.

  "Argh!"

  A spearman screamed in pure agony as a tusk caught him through the side, lifting him 4 or 5 meters clean off the ground.

  His scream cut off as the boss swung its massive head and the player slipped off the tusk, getting thrown across the room like a ragdoll.

  Drifter's jaw tightened.

  100% pain.

  Even from where he stood, he could see the tremor in the man's hands as others dragged him clear.

  "Yuuki, Ran, Kizmel, Klein, Kunimittz, Gilgamesh, with me!"

  Drifter vaulted forward, twisted bident spinning in his grip.

  The spear sang as it activated, the glow of a Comet Break racing along its prongs. He aimed for the blue-veined lines pulsing beneath the Mammorath's fur - the weak points they'd theorized about during the strategy meeting.

  He struck.

  The first thrust sank deep, parting fur and hide in a burst of fractured polygons. The second and third followed in a seamless combo, each hit chipping away at the massive health bar.

  The Mammorath bellowed and swung its trunk.

  Drifter brought the shaft of his spear up just in time. The impact hurled him backward, and he barely managed to steady himself without rolling ungracefully across the ground. Pain detonated over his ribs, white-hot, nauseating and familiar.