Edge of Hell’s Abyss

Key Events

Whilst out fishing, Kirito meets an old guy called Nishida who heads the company that did the network security for the game. Kirito invites him to his house as he can’t cook the fish he catches but Asuna can. He tells them of a massive fish in the lake Kirito was fishing at and makes a deal to try and catch it.

Next day, everyone in the vicinity gathers and they manage to pull that huge fish out of the water. But it’s a big monster that walks on land. Asuna had her sword prepared and kills it.

Kirito gets a message from Heathcliff and he and Asuna is urgently called to the frontlines.

Situation is a recon squad was wiped by a boss. So Heathcliff plans to send a larger squad in to kill it. Kirito agrees to help but will protect Asuna over anyone else.

Heathcliff himself leads the charge and the door shuts behind them. Asuna hears noises and notices the monster’s above them. It’s called ‘The Skull Reaper’ and has 5 health bars.

It drops down from the ceiling and kills 2 people who were too slow to move. As everyone runs Heathcliff moves forward to stop it. Kirito and Asuna follow to attack, they decide to handle the scythes it has at its front so everyone else can attack from the sides.

More people die to the monster’s overwhelming strength but the triple team of Heathcliff, Asuna and Kirito is working well from the front.

Thoughts

This episode surprised me twice. Thought it was going carry on with the clearing of floors, then it starts off nice and relaxed with some fishing so I thought okay another ‘filler’ ish episode. But then the next second they’re in some weird abyss fighting some huge skeletal boss monster. Both parts were enjoyable, although I would’ve preferred it if they went straight to the boss. On another note that thing looks amazing. Definitely something I would want to fight in a VRMMORPG, although I’d be mesmerised by the detail and beauty of it. Of course I’m talking about playing when I’m not in danger of death…

The fishing was a nice bit of fun before they got back, I too wondered how they would do a ‘switch’ and that was hilarious. It was interesting to see Nishida to remind us that other people are wondering about the real world as well. In that regard this episode was a good reality check. Kirito does need to be aware that their real bodies are withering away into nothing as he’s slowly beginning to lose the will to fight.

Also, during the fight itself I was thinking how those people were one shotted. You’d think if they had the level to come fight this monster then one attack may be able to take down half HP but surely not the entire HP. No game would make a boss that ridiculously difficult. So the only logical explanation is that they either had bad gear on or were too low a level. In which case should you really be there then…? Although I guess they could be going for more realism in the game. A slash through the body will do more damage than say on the arm.

Was an enjoyable episode overall, got us back into the action. This boss will most likely be defeated next episode, probably with a few more deaths along the way. After that I’m still predicting the PK guild will move and that will be the next big battle. I think they’ll act now because the main guilds have suffered casualties after this boss so with their crazy mindset of killing people, they’ll see this as a good chance to cause trouble. Looking forward to some good action next episode and hopefully some major developments involving the PK guild, I trust they will act soon. Also I haven’t forgotten about the seemingly illegal movement by Heathcliff in the duel with Kirito. But I don’t expect that to be cleared in the near future. Maybe towards the end when he’ll need to do something similar again.