Asuna had continued to fight with abandon since getting to the dungeon, but she would also disappear for hours, sometimes days, from the front lines. Klein had noticed that one of the veterans who had seen combat before entering the game often disappear at the same time. The implication had surprised him. She hadn't shown any interest in men since Kirito's death. She hadn't shown any emotion for two floors that would make him suspect she ever would.
Whatever she was doing with him, it was doing her well. Her power had become fierce. Her renewed skill was great for the morale of the other warriors. She was the shining beacon, their undefeatable general. Their last great hope, and with each successive mid-boss in the dungeon they defeated her beacon shined even brighter.
Klein, however, was worried. Her perspective was becoming increasingly dangerous.
Silica still didn't come to the front lines by her own choice. He visited her often. She was continuing to level, but had decided she couldn't handle the bloody nature of the front lines. He was in full agreement. Klein was willing to bet if she came Asuna wouldn't stop her, regardless of what it would do to her friend's emotional stability.
The lack of emotion Asuna showed at their losses was, and he hated using this word, inhuman. She hadn't even shed a tear when Liz died on top of her. Klein was grief stricken at the time, as any friend should be. He did regret how he'd taken it out on his friend's face even if she didn't feel the pounding.
He still mourned. So much loss in this damn game! So many of his friends. He could almost allow himself to understand how she had grown so cold . It was in self defense, plain and simple.
He almost could, but what she had said to him immediately after Liz was killed destroyed any sympathy. After that day Asuna hadn't even acknowledge Liz's existence, only the battles ahead.
Even the members of Laughing Coffin had deserved better than the butchering they were ordered into. It was what had gotten them to the start of this dungeon, but it was also suicide for that band of murderers. He hadn't thought it was possible to feel any sympathy for them until he watched them sacrifice themselves like that.
Then there were the strategy meetings. Her plans were growing more risky. Though successful, Klein thought they took too many risks for not enough gain. She said it was necessary, and using her past successes she had the rest of the command eating from her hand. That the odds always fell in their favor, even if costly, only reinforced everyone's confidence in her.
The last mid-boss had been a prime example. She had known, known, that she would be paralyzed within minutes, yet she had still insisted on playing the tank. Using her speed she had lasted ten minutes longer than he had predicted. That ten minutes allowed the rest of the front line soldiers to drain down his first two bars. She had again proven her plans would work.
But how much better would the fight have gone if they hadn't used her like that? There were other strategies, ones that didn't require such a high degree of risk. How many of their men could have survived instead?
She was lost to everything but her final goal. If Kirito saw her now, would he even recognize his wife?
A man ran up to Klein while he again worried about his estranged friend. The man saluted, which Klein waved off. He hated formality, regardless of what Asuna felt was necessary.
After a month navigating the massive dungeon they had reached the boss the sentry reported. Until Asuna reported back from her most recent dalliance Klein was in command. If he fallowed protocol he would wait with this information until she returned.
For a moment he contemplated issuing the command to prepare for battle before she could return and give another attack plan that would win, but leave their forces further depleted. Leaving more friends dead for no reason beyond impatience.
The deciding factor was time. A proper battle plan couldn't be created quick enough before Asuna may return. There was also the question of the confidence of the men. Without her it would be shaken. It would increase their casualties instead of reducing them.
Instead he took the middle ground, sending out five scouts to check the interior of the boss room, get whatever intel they could, and then bug out. The worst case scenario was none of them would return, which he regretted, but it would save more if they succeeded.
He understood how Asuna could look at the longer view then. The difference was he would mourn their losses, were there any to mourn.
Upon Asuna's arrival, looking sweaty and fatigued, the scouts had returned. Only one had not survived and the information was as valuable as Klein could have hoped for.
Special gear would be needed to handle the fiery field the room was engulfed in. Had they charged in half their forces would have died within minutes of breathing in the noxious fumes from the lava that coursed just within the exterior walls.
Predictably Asuna was furious at Klein for not waiting for her orders on how to handle the boss's discovery. When pressed her answer had been to overwhelm the boss with numbers in a masse offensive. The carnage from such an attack would be near total, but like before it would likely have succeeded and access to the final floor would be achieved.
It took three days to get the equipment needed, including potions to reduce damage from fire based attacks and breathing masks against the gas. Asuna paced outside the boss room the entire time. It wasn't that she felt the preparations were unnecessary, though she was still angry that she hadn't been kept in the loop, but that she was impatient to finally be done with the game.
It was a feeling that every man behind her felt as well, including Klein. But he also felt relief. Let her be angry with him. Lives had been saved by his actions.
Even prepared the fight against the final boss was brutal. In the end a quarter of their forces had been decimated, most pushed into the lava flows by the boss's shockwave attack. Their bodies would not be among the dead in the cemetery. There was nothing left to bury.
Among the living healing droughts were used, returning scorched and cauterized limbs to regenerate, mostly. There were those who's bodies remained twisted from the attacks, unable to even stand. This was an all too common situation in the last three floors. As had become protocol they were returned to the Town of Beginnings to live out their remaining days within the game.
Asuna looked satisfied however. Beyond the boss was the portal to the outer walls of the Ruby Palace they had hoped for. Like every other portal it also connected to all the major cities, allowing for quick access to supplies and repairs. It allowed for quick transport of the unhealable warriors, and replacement of their healing potions.
She considered it a massive success as she looked at the exterior walls of their final objective. Klein could only look at the walls in disgust, and his look at his friend was even worse. There was nothing left of the Asuna he once called friend. No sympathy, no remorse. He had lost hope and heart that she existed at all within the avatar's programming any longer.
Quietly he slipped down to the lower floors to attend to the disabled veterans needs and wants. He could not fight any more. He couldn't continue too support the bloody path she was carving in the hope that she would return to herself. That path was through too many soldiers and the last floor was likely going to be the worst.
ns 15.158.61.5da2
