Nero's gaze snapped to the side as Alice was swept away and he watched Jacob take after her. He burst from the floor toward the beast to get its attention after her, his sword flashed a menacingly sharp yellow as he brought the blade upward from his hip, launching him into the air, the sword skill taking control of his movements as he spun with the attack, adding a horizontal slash in the same direction. His blade flicked and was torn the other way quickly after, before he started to fall in a downward slash, dealing significant damage. It was a four-hit skill that he'd recently unlocked particularly for use on opponents that were about twice the size of the user or more. So, while the ability to use it was limited, the punch it packed was quite formidable, especially so early on. Nero may not have had Rose's ability or level or... whatever it was that made her so godlike, but he did have a surprisingly high one-handed curved sword skill from his continuous hunting, and thus he had quite a few Sword Skills up his sleeve. The beast let out a roar and turned to Nero, swinging his club as the boy landed. However, another figure joined his side, clad in heavy armour and with a large shield. The club connected with the block and Nero smirked at the absolutely perfect timing of Marius' arrival. The weapon was thrown back as Marius had to retreat in order to recover, having been the only shield-user blocking, but Nero took to the fight as the remaining fighting force mobilized once more.

However, something off-sides seemed to have caught the attention of a few of the players, and Nero turned to see Jet facing off with Rose. He wanted to stop his friend, but... Well, if nobody stood against her, then they would lose this boss, and they couldn't. He seemed somehow confident of his ability to stall the woman, and so Nero turned back to the boss and continued the fight. That last health bar was hellish, to put it lightly, but they finally took it down; they had actually accomplished it... All of them were officially a quarter of the way through Aincrad. It didn't matter how many bosses Rose had taken down - all that it showed was that she couldn't possibly stop them from progressing selfishly. At the very last strike, Nero had charged the front with Marius, who blocked another attack and allowed for a final switch. The material hunter opted for a basic skill called Vertical Square - four hits, enough for the boss to stumble back, freeze, and shatter into countless shining fragments. Nero slashed an infinity sign into the air and sheathed his dao as a menu popped up. The bonus item made him grin - the things he could do with it...

Several players looked at him as he scrolled through the spoils on his end, they were all quite nice, as he'd contributed heftily to the battle. But the bonus item was undeniably "The Viper's Cloak." The most distinguishable feature was the fact that the name had a [i]The[/i] at the start, making it a unique drop. Nero smiled at the simple Col he'd received, but decided to read the effect on the cloak. The speed boost wasn't a solid number - it was affected by a player's level as well as their Dexterity attribute; the higher the attribute, the more it would add. It had an exponential effect... It was preposterous how overpowered such an item could be. He wanted desperately to keep it, but then he heard Alice cry out for Jet, almost tackling him as Nero snapped from his reverie. He saw Jet on his knees with a little paralysis indicator by his health bar. The man with the mask had stabbed him; but that means... Nero glanced to the stairs as the pair were nearing the top and he shook his head. At least they hadn't killed the other boy - if only he'd been able to see how Jet was able to fight her off for so long, he silently lamented. He materialized a white, slightly tattered cloak/muffler combination and approached his friend.

"Excuse me, Alice," He spoke flatly, using his menu to materialize first a crystal, holding it out, "Cure user: Jet." The object shattered and the tiny fragments all moved to Jet, who would quickly find himself without paralysis as Nero then handed him a potion and smiled to him. "I don't know how you did it, Jet, but... If not for you, we wouldn't even have earned this... It's called [i]The Viper's Cloak,[/i] and you deserve more than any of us," He stated, handing it over before slowly explaining the cloak's attribute. Of course the boss on the 25th floor would drop something so incredible, but it was still hard for the boy to hand it over. "Great work," He finally stated, placing a hand on his shoulder before looking to Alice. "Alice, I think opening the next floor should be your honour - after all, you kind of lead us all here, right?" Despite the fact that Rose and The Masked Man had stolen the moment of being the first on the next floor, Alice could still take the responsibility for having allowed it to happen and be the first person to earn it.

Despite the grievous losses they all experienced in the fight, the celebration on the twenty-sixth floor that same night would be a blow-out. Even for those that they lost, it was a victory, for they'd shown that they could beat Rose and even, thanks to Jet, fight back against her. A group of some of the players who had taken up the rarely chosen skill of a Musical Instrument had gotten together in the middle of the first city's plaza, playing loud music for everybody to enjoy. Nero kept his armour on today, however, with his weapon at his side as tribute to those they lost. Yuna, however, showed up in the same dress she'd worn to the last party, having taken quite a liking to it as she proudly pranced about on his arm. She was not outspoken or arrogant by any means, but that didn't mean she couldn't be proud, and absolutely relieved, when Nero had messaged her that they had made it. It showed on her face how excited she was as they took part, however, at some point, somebody bumped into Nero, eliciting a slight growl and a few obscenities from him. The two had been separated for but a moment, and he moved to recover the girl, but... where'd she gone? The crowd had suddenly thickened around him as he pushed between players and looked for her, calling out her name.

After a few moments without hearing her call back, he turned to his Tracking skill. Her footprints were everywhere, as if she'd been getting bumped by the crowd and forced to stumble through them without any kind of harassment alert. He tried to follow it, but he kept confusing the direction was going for where she was coming from and his movements became more aggressive as he shoved people out of his way to no avail. He looked around frantically for anybody before finally seeing a familiar head of golden hair and he sprinted toward her, having to slam his boots into the ground a few feet early to skid to a halt, "Alice!" He started quickly, interrupting whatever she had been talking about as he continued craning his neck and looking around, "I lost Yuna in the crowd... And normally we'd be fine, but... I can't even track her, her prints are all over the ground and they twist and turn and I'm almost certain the guy that bumped into me and separated us did it deliberately," He tried his best to get the message out with speed, but had to sacrifice some of it to avoid stumbling over his words too much. Nero never became frantic... Over anything. There were moments he had frozen in shock, though rare, but he was never out of sorts like this.