That said, putting everything else aside, Cescale's massive horns did give Akimi a bit of help—using his foot technique, he dodged several fireballs—while the rest either slammed into the dragon's horns or veered completely off course.
Unfortunately, Cescale seemed outright immune to its own attacks; all those fireballs crashing into its body didn't have the slightest effect.
Just as Akimi had expected, Cescale's weak point (or what was probably a weak point) lay between its eyes.
Not that it took especially sharp eyes to notice, since that "small" ruby-like regular pentagonal crystal was strikingly conspicuous once you got a little closer.
Of course, "small" here was only relative to Cescale's body size—it was about as large as three of Akimi's heads put together.
Although he couldn't be completely certain that spot was really the weak point, there was no harm in taking a swing at it—that was Akimi's current line of thinking.
"One, two…"
Bang, bang!
While crouched behind Cescale's dragon horn to avoid the fireballs, Akimi gripped the hilt of his Nichirin blade tightly with both hands, his legs slightly bent.
"Water Breathing, Eleventh Form: Suikuryuzan—"
In an instant, the blade struck against the crystal, yet it didn't make a sound.
The crystal itself seemed almost unaffected, save for a few shallow cracks spreading across its surface.
But Akimi wasn't disappointed—because although the crystal, which could no longer be called a possible but rather a definite BOSS weak point, appeared intact, Cescale certainly wasn't.
The moment cracks appeared on the crystal, Cescale's movements visibly froze for a second.
Then it let out a low growl, suddenly thrashing about in a violent rage.
"Looks like I've hit the right spot," Akimi chuckled lightly, gazing at the crystal at his feet.
"Which makes the next step perfectly clear—"
-------------
No matter how hard Akimi was struggling with the BOSS in the sky, those down in the palace knew nothing of it.
The entire palace was shrouded in an eerie silence.
In each of the four corners stood a different group of people.
In the northeast corner, the Knights of the Blood Oath were resting and tending to their weapons.
From time to time, they glanced up, but they seemed mostly unconcerned with the BOSS—of course, that attitude might very well have been influenced by Heathcliff, who was already leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, quietly resting.
Meanwhile, in the northwest corner, DDA appeared noticeably more restless.
Most of them only knew that their guild leader had made some kind of wager with Akimi's party about landing the final blow on the BOSS, but they didn't know the details…
Not that it stopped them from wanting to win.
As the guild leader of DDA, Xilocart managed to maintain a calm expression thanks to his excellent self-control, but the constant clenching and unclenching of his hands betrayed his uneasy heart.
As for the southeast and southwest corners, they were occupied by Asuna's group and the remaining solo players, respectively.
Among the four groups, the solo players were the fewest in number—only six of them—and they were clearly wary of one another.
But that was more or less the nature of solo players.
Asuna's group had originally been the smallest, but not long ago Klein had arrived with his companions.
With the six members of Fuurinkazan joining in, Asuna's side now numbered nine in total.
"Tch… If I'd known, I would've searched for more intel before coming here," Argo complained, frowning.
Kirito replied helplessly, "Yeah… and with no way to reach the floating island at all—though honestly, even if we could, it probably wouldn't help now. The BOSS just keeps flying all over the place."
Asuna, meanwhile, pressed her lips together and silently watched Akimi's HP bar in the party display.
Judging from his HP, Akimi still seemed safe for the moment—it hadn't dropped much.
That fact let Asuna relax just a little.
But then, in the sky above, the Cescale—who had just been circling nonstop—suddenly stopped flapping its wings.
Its massive body froze stiffly, almost like it had been hit by Za Warudo's ability, and the very next instant, it dropped straight down from the heavens.
Thanks to SAO's hyper-realistic physics engine, Cescale spun irregularly several times on the way down, its body twisting from the drag.
Faintly, one could make out a figure crouched on Cescale's head, shifting positions as the dragon rotated.
And right then, at Cescale's head, Akimi suddenly heard music again in his ears—"And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again…"
After estimating the point of impact, everyone inside the palace instinctively bolted for the outside—because it looked like Cescale was falling directly above the palace itself.
If they didn't run now, they'd be crushed in a moment—and nobody was about to gamble their life for a gag.
After all, if you weren't hit, you could call it a gutsy move; but if you were hit, then it could only be called a fatal one.
Five or six seconds later, with a thunderous crash and a cloud of dust, Cescale slammed into the ground.
Amid the haze, a lone figure struggled up, spitting a few times before coughing and muttering:
"Cough, cough… Good thing I was smart enough to use the Eleventh Form and the Second Form to reduce the impact—and the drop wasn't from too high up—otherwise I'd really have been done for here…"
Glancing at his near-empty HP bar, Akimi's finger flicked across his menu to pull out a healing crystal from the quickslot, which he immediately used.
At the same time, Cescale's HP was down to its very last bar… or, more precisely, four-fifths of it.
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