The Strict Hermit



"Ah... even more foolish ones who dare ruin my art. Well, I suppose it cannot be helped. Everybody wants me dead... If that's the case... then I must retaliate."

- The Strict Hermit's introduction upon The Clearer's first encounter with them

Summary
The Strict Hermit is the Floor 12 boss of Sword Art Online.

His backstory is mostly shrouded in mystery, but, what is known of him is that he was a scientist of sorts, craving for knowledge to build a new, perfect world. To reach this goal, he used some dark form of magic to convert the inhabitants to "Painted men", twisted figures that seem to be made of nothing but ink. He quickly took over the entire floor, and turned said floor into a painted world.

His paradise was nearly complete, but he needed 2 more components, Timide and Paisible Arme. He sent his painted men to get both, but, Paisible was saved by the Party. This quickly threw a wrench into his plans, as when the Clearers made the raid on The Strict Hermit, Pai was able to use Petrification to stop him from killing the rest of them, which allowed them to easily escape and regroup.

As the end to the second battle approached, seening his world being destroyed, in vengeful rage, The Hermit was consumed by Black energy, ready to explode on a moment's notice, before Pai teleported him away, killing them both alone.

Upon the Hermit's death, Floor 12 has turned back into a generic environment with various standard enemies, with the NPCs inside recalling none of what happened.

Powers and Stats
Tier: At least 7-B normally, High 6-C via Self-Destruction

Name: The Strict Hermit

Origin: Sword Art Online: The Tabletop RPG

Gender: Male

Age: Unknown

Classification: NPC, Floor 12 boss

Powers and Abilities: Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Immortality (Type 2, [what are normally lethal wounds do not expend extra HP from players and NPCs, allowing them to take a multitude of lethal wounds before worrying about dying] 4 and 8 [Will keep resurrecting after death as long as he's on Floor 12]), Magic, Flight, Elemental Manipulation (Can use a variety of Elemental attacks such as Earth, Fire, Lightning, Air and Water), Status Effect Inducement (Has a variety of means to cause stunning), Minor Mind Manipulation (His boss room is able to jam someone's thought process, halting strategy in it's tracks, as used against Okami.), Resurrection (So long as he is on Floor 12, will continue to ressurect ad infinitum), Self-Destruction (Upon hitting 0 HP for the second time, will cause a massive explosion before dying), Power Nullification (Was able to nullify Pai's abilities entirely, completely bypassing their resistance. This effect inof itself cannot be removed by normal means.), Gravity Manipulation (Able to manipulate the gravity within his boss room to cause opponents to float in the air), Danmaku (Has attacks specifically described as a "Bullet Hell" that target everything around him.), Perception Manipulation (Can distort someone's perception with Danmaku attacks), Portal Creation (Sent Gergy through a portal as he attacked the Hermit from behind, was able to send most of Okami's oncoming bullets into portals), Durability Negation (Various skills do True and Real damage, the latter of which bypasses all forms of defenses including skills that resist true damage), Statistics Amplification (Raises Magic Skill when reduced below half health), One Hit Kill (Can have the floor to his boss room open to a gigantic mouth which instantly kills those who fall into it), Forcefield Creation (Able to create shields in order to block attacks), Standard Player/NPC Resistances

Attack Potency: At least City level+ normally (Was able to take on the entirety of Clearers as of Floor 12, including the likes of Zeke and Kirito), Large Island level via Self-Destruction (His self destruction was stated to be even more powerful then Paisible Arme's own explosion)

Speed: At least High Hypersonic+ (Was able to react to and evade the attacks of various Clearers)

Lifting Strength: Class 25 (Has a 20 Strength Modifier, which is comparable to Gergy when he did this)

Striking Strength: City Class+

Durability: At least City level+, Likely Mountain Level (Withstood several assaults from the combined forces of the Clearers, including Final Bursts and a Smite from Gergy before he upgraded Berserker to apply to total damage rather then base damage, though, such attacks did cause a high amount of damage to him.)

Stamina: Unknown

Range: Tens of Meters normally, Kilometers with Self Destruction.

Standard Equipment:

Intelligence: Supergenius (Has comparable intelligence to Okami)

Weaknesses: Particularly vulnerable to attacks from behind due to a blind spot, but, his perception mitigates this weakness.

Notable Attacks/Techniques: Note: Rounds are game mechanics, in the sense that it doesn't apply to the abilites themselves (Elaboration on that here), but timers do still apply to sword skill cooldowns. While the exact time frames for what a "round" actually is in terms of gameplay is rather inconsistent, the official number is 2 minutes long.
 * Immunity: Passive. Absolutely immune to any debuff or stagger
 * Bullet Hell attacks: The Strict Hermit's main move. He is able to send out several projectiles, with several magical properties such as elements and even perception distortion attached.
 * Warping: Warps the room into a giant maze that entraps enemies in, halfing their Agility while they have to complete it and survive an onslaught of attacks from the Hermit (It will be forever in his turn for 3 rounds unless they escape the maze)
 * The Truth: Bonus Action. The next actions will be dealt in Real Damage
 * Gravity Paradox: The Hermit sends a few of the opponents into the air, shoving them into a Mc Escher landscape which they have to use either Agility, Strength or Intellegence to break out of. If they fail, they are dealt 20% of their health in damage, and slammed back into the ground violently.
 * Rings of Disempowerment: Shoots out AOE shockwaves (up to d5) that hit everyone in the vicinity and stuns them (Can’t stack with lightning) for up to d2 rounds after the current round ends.

Others
Notable Victories:

Notable Losses:

Inconclusive Matches: