Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online

My name is Tanaka Niten, and I am seventeen years old. I tell myself this every day, just to keep remembering. It's been over two years since I logged into a game called Sword Art Online and couldn't log back out. Two years I've been fighting digital monsters and leveling up, just to stay alive and maybe get out of this death trap. Two years since Kayaba told everyone we can't leave until we beat the last floor and that we can really die in this world.

That really got to some people. Lots of players stay on the lower level floors, shopkeeping or just sitting around and hoping that the game will end. Others like me decided to fight, and keep moving forward, so that we could all get out of here. It's an uphill battle, but us front-liners are Aincrad's best hope of ending the game.

Right now, we're about to enter the 90th Floor Boss Battle. No one knows what it is, since the recon team didn't spot anything inside, and after the 75th floor, no one's taking any chances. There's almost a hundred players here, the most of any boss battle so far, and we're all waiting tensely for the leader of the Knights of the Blood to give the order.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch a towering figure in scarlet armor stand and lift his sword. "Forward!" Heathcliff shouts, and we all rush through the doors into the dungeon, howling like wolves on the hunt.

I'm one of the first to enter into what appears to be a clearing in a thick forest after Heathcliff and the Black Swordsman. As soon as I step past the doorway, I check the ceiling for anything. Ever since the Skull Reaper, that's become standard practice, just in case the boss does try to jump down and squash a bunch of players. Usually, there's nothing there, but this time, I see what looks like a large ape with six limbs holding onto a thick tree branch. I'm not the only one.

Asuna, a sub-leader in the KoB, sees it too. "Naitama! Shoot it down!" I don't normally take orders from people, but for boss battles, where I work with others, I make an exception.

I nod and nock a flaming arrow to my bow. I take aim, draw back, and fire all in the space of two seconds. My aim is true, and the arrow sails upwards, striking the boss square in the center of its back, knocking it down from the branch.

The boss roars all the way down before smashing into the ground with a THUD. I feel a thrill of vicious satisfaction as an entire health bar empties. Now I can see its name: Hanuman the Ape Lord. It has five health bars, one of which is empty.

In the other world, my name is Tanaka Niten, but here, I am Naitama, the Lone Archer. There's no one in all of Aincrad as good as I am with a bow and arrow. I'm the only player in the game to max out the Archery skill, and I've made impossible shots to prove it. Few others have the patience to master shooting, and prefer to whack and bash with swords and maces.

Unfortunately, I am reminded of the reason why when the ape boss rears up and bounds towards me. Shooting is nearly useless when an enemy is right in your face. For the majority of players who like to get close to fight melee, a bow's only worth it when you can aim and fire near instantly, and no one can do that.

I dodge out of the way and swap my weapon to a sword, yelling "Switch!"

Kirito, the game's only Dual-Wielder, leaps forward with his black and green blades. He moves so fast that he literally becomes a wheel of fiery light, cutting into Hanuman and leaving red streaks all over its body. Jesus, with speed stats like that, it's a wonder he ever lost to Heathcliff.

Kirito falls back, calling for a switch. Heathcliff comes forward now, just as the Ape Lord brings three of it's clenched fists crashing down. The commander of the KoB catches them all on his massive shield, then drives forward in a straight stab.

By now, the boss's health is at half of it's health. Hanuman roars and beats its chest in defiance before retreating back a few steps. I grip my sword tighter. When a boss falls back, it's usually followed by a change in attack pattern. Since we don't know what might happen, the general strategy is to wait out the change and adapt accordingly.

Astonishingly, Hanuman changes in appearance. No boss has ever done that before. He shrinks in size a bit, and loses the extra two limbs, taking on a form like a monkey wearing a black robe. The boss's name has also changed to The Monkey King.

Hanuman shakes its head vigorously, and what appears to be thick black hairs rain down on the ground. As they land, the hairs shimmer and turn into demonic ape-like minions. Yup, definitely the Monkey King.

The primates from hell swarm the players, while Hanuman just stands there screeching. I quickly slash at one until it dies before falling back. The bow may be my favored weapon, but I'm no slouch with a sword either. Unfortunately, the Monkey King keeps spawning more minions as fast as they fall. At this rate, we may be overwhelmed.

I switch back to the bow now, and take out a specialized arrow. Calculating angles quickly, I raise the bow high and draw back the thick bowstring. "Everyone, get behind me!" I shout above the sounds of battle. Heathcliff looks over to me and understands.

"FALL BACK!" The leader of the KoB roars, and all the players follow him to behind me. The monkeys are in pursuit not far behind, so I have to time this right. I wait until what I figure is the best moment, then release.

My arrow arcs into the air, then explodes into a rain of smaller projectiles, smashing into the primates. More than half are absolutely decimated, and the rest of them take heavy damage. The Death Rain. Archery's most advanced technique.

A monkey that survived darts forward, claws outstretched and teeth bared. I have no time to react before it slams into me, knocking me down. I'd like to say I fought it off bravely, but instead, I nearly got clawed to shreds while screaming like my little sister. My health bar dipped into yellow before a katana slices the monkey in half. Its owner, a player with red hair and samurai armor helps me up.

I pick up the bow and start shooting at Hanuman. Most of the time, when a boss dies, its minions will disappear. The boss tries to dodge, but I still manage to hit it repeatedly. Once it's health is at one bar, it quits spawning minions. Hanuman pounds on the ground and a bamboo sapling shoots up. It rips the tree clear out of the ground and sprints forward.

The boss uses the bamboo shoot like a staff, sweeping players off their feet. It's not doing much damage, but Hanuman is going so fast now no one can hit him. Even Heathcliff takes a few blows. Only Kirito is fast enough to match the boss's speed, and he can't possibly do this forever.

I keep shooting arrows in hopes of trying to hit the damn monkey, but miss. Kirito's got it down to half a bar of health, but he's slowing down. A sweep of the bamboo staff knocks him aside, and the boss roars in triumph.

Seizing the opportunity, I hit the boss with arrows, driving its health down even further. One more hit should do it. Unfortunately, that's when I run out of arrows.

"Sh-!" I manage to say before the Monkey King rushes forward and knocks me back into a tree. My health is at red. Hanuman stands above me, bamboo staff raised high. I am about to die.

"HYAAAH!" The red-haired player from before jumps in from the side and stabs the Monkey King in the chest, dropping its HP to zero. Hanuman bursts into glowing polygons and I sigh in relief before slumping back to the ground.

"You alright?" The red-haired player hands me a health potion. I nod gratefully and down it all in one go.

"Thanks." I manage to say. My health bar is full now, but I still feel like I've been hit by a bus.

"So you're the bow user, huh?" The player asks. "Naitama, right? My name's Klein, guild leader of the Fuurinkazan." I've heard of the Fuurinkazan. They're a pretty powerful guild, but not very large.

"I'm not the only bow user, you know." I get up and dust myself off. "I'm just the first."

"How'd that happen? I thought there weren't supposed to be any ranged weapons in the game?"

"Last kill bonus on the 80th floor. After that, you could get them from killing elflings in Greenwood." Greenwood was the 83rd floor, a dark forest populated by monster elflings. They've got pointy ears like elves, and use bows, but the similarity ends there. The game history said that Aincrad used to have magic, as well as dwarves and elves, but that's all gone, and the elflings and their bows are all that's left. "Speaking of which, didn't you get the last kill bonus for the Monkey King?"

"Huh? Oh, right!" Klein swipes up with his hand, pulling out a holographic display. "Hm. The Bladestaff? Pretty cool, got good stats, and it's compatible with the katana skill!"

"Good job, Klein." Kirito comes up to us. "What'd you get?"

"This Bladestaff!" Klein equips the weapon, and shows it to us. It's the Monkey King's bamboo staff, a little over a meter in length.

"I don't get it. Where's the blade?" Kirito asks.

Klein rolls his eyes. "Right here, Kiri-no-ji." He grips the edge of the bamboo staff and draws it like a katana. As he does so however, a blaze of light ripples out from the blade as it slices through the air. Kirito jumps out of the way and the light hits a nearby tree, prompting the message Immortal Object.

"What the-?" Klein looks at the blade in shock. "That's not normal."

That's when I notice a red hexagon in the sky. The last time that came up was when this whole death game began, when Kayaba told us all that we were trapped here. As it did then, the sky turns red and blood pours from the sky before forming a hooded figure.

"Congratulations on clearing the 90th floor." Kayaba's voice hisses. "As you may know, there are certain abilities that are unique to a single player. Two of them have already been discovered, and the third has just been found. There are ten Unique Skills in total, and the remaining seven will all be revealed in the next nine floors. Only the strongest among you will be able to claim one. Once a Unique Skill has been given to a player, it is theirs to keep, and no one else can claim it."

The hooded figure disappears back into the sky, leaving everyone silent. A few moments later, Heathcliff comes over to where Klein, Kirito, and I are standing. "So what is your Unique Skill?"

Klein pulls up his skills list and scrolls through it. "Battoujutsu. Also known as the art of drawing the sword. Allows the player to switch freely between sword and staff styles. The signature move "Battoujutsu" is activated by drawing the blade and will unleash an attack that deals immense damage."

I whistle in appreciation. "Nice. Maybe with the other Unique Skills, we can get through the death game faster."

Heathcliff shakes his head. "No. I fear that this is possibly one of the worst things that could have happened at this point. Our strongest players will be distracted by the promise of a Unique Skill, and I shudder to think what might happen if a Player Killer gets their hands on one of those."

"I thought they were all stamped out, no?" I myself had taken part in the raid to destroy the most dangerous PK guild, Laughing Coffin, and no other guild was nearly as deadly as they were.

Kirito answered this time. "Only the guilds have been subdued. There may be some more deadly solo PKs out there for all we know. And PoH, the leader of Laughing Coffin, is still at large."

"Ah crap." Klein looks stricken. "I'm so sorry guys. This is all my fault. I should never have equipped this stupid thing!" He makes as if to throw it away but Heathcliff stops him.

"No, Klein. Kayaba would have revealed the existence of Unique Skills regardless of what you did. It would have been better for us all if he had not, but now that the cat is out of the bag, we may as well take advantage. Train in Battoujutsu so we can advance further."