Sword Art Online - Progressive Volume 02 (manga)


 * This article is about the manga adaptation of the original Progressive series. You may be looking for the original light novel.

Sword Art Online - Progressive (ソードアート・オンライン プログレッシブ) is a manga adaptation of the Sword Art Online Progressive light novel series, a reboot of the original light novel series by Kawahara Reki. This ongoing manga is illustrated by Kiseki Himura, published as part of the monthly Dengeki G's Magazine, and will cover part of Progressive Volume 1.

Summary
Nearly one month after the beginning of the death game, Sword Art Online, the clearers have finally discovered the 1st Floor's boss room. As Argo published all information about the first Floor Boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord, the clearers set out to the boss room, intending to defeat the boss without any scouting raids. However, the clearers soon find out that the Illfang in the death game is not exactly the same as it was in the beta...

Partner
After Diavel's demise, Asuna contemplated on how his death was similar in appearance to the death of infinitely respawning monsters and was not the way a human dies. Meanwhile the rest of the players were panicking due to Diavel's death and the Ruin Kobold Sentinel spawn rate having increased from the time of the beta. Even though Kirito was trying to get the raid party organised again, things were looking grim, thus Kirito asked Asuna to retreat, while trying to block Illfang's attacks. However, Asuna refused to retreat, saying that she and Kirito were partners.

After telling party B to take party C to the safe zone, Kirito and Asuna began taking on the boss together, with Kirito blocking the boss's attacks and Asuna striking it with her «Linear». However, after numerous successive attacks, Kirito incorrectly guessed the boss's next attack and was struck down. As the boss was then about to hit Asuna, Agil stepped in and blocked Illfang's attack. He then told Asuna to help Kirito, while calling party B members with green HP to come help him tank the boss.

After Asuna reached Kirito, who was trying to get back on his feet, Asuna quickly forced a potion down his mouth. After drinking a few sips, he pushed away the potion to tell Agil and his party how to handle the boss. Meanwhile, some of the other players in the raid were questioning whether they should retreat, while others pointed out that the players on the front line were still fighting. However, Kibaou then interrupted, claiming that Kirito only wanted the Last Attack bonus and that they should retreat. As distrust began spreading among the raid members, Asuna took off her cape and called for everyone's attention. She then told everyone that Diavel's last orders were to "defeat the boss" and that Kirito would be filling in as the new raid leader. Soon afterwards, Agil shouted that he had heard the same thing and stated that Kirito had knowledge of the boss's skills, thus everyone who believed in Diavel should follow Kirito's orders. While all players began organising themselves, Asuna asked Kirito to give his orders.

Chapter 6

 * In the novel, Asuna declared that she would help Kirito with the boss before he even had the chance to tell her to withdraw.
 * In the novel, Asuna took off her cape before she and Kirito began assaulting the boss, while in the manga, she does this after Kirito gets hit by the boss and the raid members contemplate retreating.
 * In the novel, Agil did not tell Asuna to help Kirito, as Kirito was already looking for a potion in his pockets and was close enough to Agil for Agil to say something to him.
 * In the novel, Kirito got his potion on his own, while in the manga, Asuna forced a potion into his mouth.
 * The scene where Asuna claimed that Diavel put Kirito in charge of the raid after his death was not part of the novel.

Chapter 6.5

 * The entire chapter was not part of the original story.

Error

 * Diavel's name was incorrectly written as "Diabel" on the manga's Monument of Life.