A/N: I own neither Sword Art Online or Demon's Souls.

Awhile back, I looked upon Sword Art Online and thought, for some absurd reason, that SAO could be logically crossed over with anything. While 'anything' is a tad of a stretch SAO certainly can be crossed with many, many fandoms. This is an example, a Death Game in which ten thousand people have been trapped and a world in which death is not only common, but expected... SAO, darker and grittier. Originally this was going to be a series but in the end I decided against it. Demon's Souls isn't quite hard enough for what I had in mind. Truthfully, if I took up this concept again the series SAO would be crossed with would be the next game in the -Souls franchise, Dark Souls. It's just so much more fitting, I mean Klein such a sunbro.

The following one shot is basically the first chapter of the SAO Light Novel re-imagined into an opening scene for a Demon's Souls and Sword Art Online crossover. A fight with a red-eyed knight in Demon's Souls' 1-3 and a fight with The Penetrator, whom replaces Gleam Eyes. There were more scenes to this but this was, quite frankly, an attempt at world merging which I did not believe came out quite as well as I had intended. I was not happy with it and did not intend to post it, but in the end, as you can see, I did.

ONESHOT

A black spear nicked my shoulder.

A thin line at the top left most corner of my field of vision shrank slightly as I simultaneously felt the cold of death reach for my heart.

The line, my HP bar, is a visual rendition of how much life I had left and due to it merely being a nick I still had over 80% of my bar left. Although the point remains that a mere nick had just brought me closer to death.

I jump backwards, just out of range of the black clad spear wielding knight's grasp. I had thought this knights AI had been enhance slightly, I suppose the red eyes should've tipped me off. Just like that one all the way back on that bridge when I was starting out.

I take a deep breath. While this body didn't need to breath the body on the other side certainly did, the one lying down on a hospital bed sweating uncontrollably with a heartbeat that could only belong to someone whom was fighting for their life…

I wasn't merely being melodramatic. This wasn't a 'game' I was playing, not in the same sense as usual. This was a game where defeat truly meant my death. An unfair game, which I as well as the other players like me were at an innate disadvantage.

After all, the being before me was not born of flesh and blood but data and artificial matter. Controlled by an AI that quite simply knew no fear. As the black armored knight held his shield tight it drew back its equally black spear and twirled it over its head.

An ornate taunting gesture that indicated that it thought lowly of me.

Despite the fantastic monsters that sometimes roamed this world, the dragon from that bridge that claimed so many lives for instance, everything around me, the creatures, the players, the death, all of it was real. A sort of second reality in which I now lived.

Slowly I grasp my sword with my second hand, not sure how long it was going to hang back and taunt me with its own unique gestures.

I tried to ignore the fact that whenever I stepped into a puddle I was stepping into someone else's blood. It seems that this 'knight' had already claimed a victim this night.

With only the sound of it's clanking armor it drew its spear inwards and brought its head down, just like I'd seen it's lesser blue eyed brethren do thousands of times before. It was preparing to charge.

I was expecting it however so it wasn't so difficult to counter. In fact, I suppose I had provoked it considering how far I had jumped back.

As the knight neared me I sidestepped, letting that wicked spear of its slide right along past me, not even touching my coat.

"…Ha!"

With a short shout, I swung my just as black sword across it's back, cleaving through its armor like a hot knife through butter. A red liquid, blood, flew from my strike, coating my sword in a fine layer. It gave a low grunt, mimicking the sounds of an actual human despite not being one.

I didn't stop attacking. Now that it was stumbled, not only from having it's attack dodged but from also being counter attacked, I was at an advantage. As I watched its HP drain down into the yellow zone, below 50% I was confident my victory was soon to come.

However it had other plans. Just as I attacked again it transitioned its forward falling stumble into a forward roll and out of my grasp. I'm honestly surprised it could manage to pull that maneuver off in fully plate armor, I certainly couldn't. By the time I recovered from my own swing the knight was already both standing and facing me, instantly more cautious than before.

As I returned to my normal combat stance, sword held off to one side, I couldn't help but to notice that there were no exploitable faults in its stance. Or rather, perhaps I should say that it had adapted to my style already. The AI of this game was purpose built to actually learn the player's patterns and adapt to them as they fight. It was intended to make your opponents seem more life like and force the players to learn to vary their attacks. This data doesn't carry over to others of its kind however so when that opponent dies you don't have to worry that the next one you run into will know how to handle you.

The thing I hate about shield users is that as long as they have their shield up it becomes absurdly hard to properly harm them when standing on even ground, such as we are now. Now give a shield user a spear and you've got yourself a major problem. A shielded opponent can block mostly everything that comes their way and with a spear they wouldn't even need to let down their guard to attack, all they would need to do is poke at you.

Thus in this battle I must follow my opponent's lead. I cannot just attack him or he would easily be able to land a blow on me, perhaps even killing me. I have to wait for him to make a mistake. I have to wait for him to attack, and when he does I must parry his attack and while his guard has been smashed open I must riposte.

Thus was the nature of the waiting game I found myself in.

My first thought when he finally did attack was 'fast.' While his charge had been slow and rather predictable his jabs were nothing of the sort. Unable to see his wind-up due to his shield I almost didn't managed to raise my sword in time to block his attack, let alone parry it. As I did I couldn't help but to frown in disdain as I watched his single blocked attack shave about 10% off my HP bar.

You see, blocking with a shield and blocking with a weapon are entirely different things. With a shield a successful block will almost always allow you to escape the entirety of the damage you would've taken. On the contrary, blocking with a weapon only took off about half of the damage.

With barely a second's delay the knight transitioned into another attack, a shield bash. Knowing full well that such an attack would without a doubt stumble me I was forced to jump back and out of range of his attack. Even though he was no longer capable of hitting me he was still forced to finish his attack 'animation' and since his shield bash left him unguarded at the very finish…

Even knowing this I was still unable to counter attack properly as yet again the knight transitioned into another attack, this time a lunging stab. This time I was ready for him and just as his spear was about to hit me I sidestepped to the left causing his spear to just barely miss me. Before he could retract it I grabbed the shaft and pulled intending to reel him in for at least a shoulder bash but he didn't allow it.

To my surprise he actually dropped his spear when I grabbed it and threw all his strength, and weight, into one last shield bash. He was too close to dodge or even block so I was left with a single thing to do and it was not at all something I liked doing. With a grunt I rammed right back with my shoulder, my HP bar dropping a further 30% and putting me in the yellow zone.

It was a test of strength, if I won he would be thrown back and if he won I would be thrown back. Victory hinged on this for both of us as the loser would be left completely defenseless for upwards to 3 full seconds, more than enough time to execute a downed opponent.

Luckily, I won. His shield gave out first and while he still stood, quite the feat all things considered, he had been spun completely around. He'd already lost. All that was left was the execution.

My sword, having been raised above my head, was brought down upon its back, once more gouging armor like nothing. Blood again flew, this time, I note with disdain, meeting my own face. A gasp rent the air as the demonic knight took another step forward, it's HP bar draining bit by bit until finally there was none of it left.

Defeated the knight fell face first into the blood soaked street. The only fanfare that accompanied the knight's death was the dull blue torch-like orb that floated above its corpse. The souls of the slain dead that had been contained within its body. This 'game's' morbid currency.

With interest I slowly realized that there were two orbs floating above its corpse. One for the souls it had contained and another that was clearly its soul. It was a rare drop that could be either sold to other clearers or forged into a weapon or a piece of armor by a decent blacksmith.

As the adrenalin drained from my system I swung my sword right and then left before sheathing it in the scabbard on my back. Lightly touching both of the souls I watched them flow into my soul gem, the only other source of light in this dark nighttime street. Albeit, it wasn't really enough light to truly to notable but…

Slowly, fatigue overcame me and I eased down into a kneeling position. It wasn't so much out of true physical exhaustion as my mind telling me that I should be exhausted. Regardless I had to obey.

With a sigh I push back my exhaustion and stand back up. It was dangerous to rest in a dungeon, too easy to be caught unaware. I glance at the time displayed at the bottom right corner of my vision, a clock that I had to rely on for all time related issues. Currently it was 11:50 PM, far too close to midnight to walk back.

Frowning at my carelessness I bring up my inventory with a swift hand movement and after scrolling a few pages pull out a jade crystal. It was an expensive item that was a rare drop from every single mob in the game but at a rate that still managed to preserve it's almost ludicrous price tag. The system identified it as a 'Stone of Ephemeral Eyes.'

It was also the safest way I could get back to the nexus without running into the black phantom that everyone so dreaded. The black phantoms were a byproduct of an almost sadistic game mechanic known as the World Tendency. Because of World Tendency at noon mobs were not only easiest to defeat but also occasionally would spawn Blue Phantoms which would help you stay alive in this unforgiving world. But at midnight the inverse was true, mobs were naturally harder to kill, faster, stronger, smarter, and occasionally what we called Black Phantoms would spawn in, hunt you down, and attempt to end your life.

I'd only encountered Black Phantoms three or four times in the 2 years I've been trapped in this dreadful world of Boleteria but every single time has left me barely able to limp back to the nexus.

Speaking of, the Nexus was the teleportation hub that connected the 6 worlds that we have to clear to escape this death game. It was the only safe zone in this game, so much so that even the city that stood around it had to be kept under constant guard against the demons that may attempt to invade and slaughter the defenseless within, those that chose to hide away and let others, such as myself, clear the game in their stead.

Not that I blame them.

I'm just that fool that goes into the depths of this hell every single day alone to collect the 'souls' of the demons that stood in my path in an attempt to reach the requisite total required to raise one of my stats or perhaps barter for a new piece of equipment that's out on the market.

"Teleport: Nexus."

Such a lonely existence...

"Fight! Fight I tell you!" Corbatz shouted.

I could only watch in horror as his men did just that, despite some being dangerously low on HP every single one of them charged the silver armored knight before them, the boss of this section of the dungeon. The boss, whose name-tag simply listed it as [The Penetrator], merely swept its massive sword in an arc hitting every last one of them with a single swing. Several of them fell to the ground in pieces.

Corbatz was the only remember of 'The Army' to survive and continue fighting, the others discouraged by the deaths of their comrades were trying to back away from the boss but as there was nothing but a fog gate behind them there was no escape for them that way. I could only watch stunned as despite it all Corbatz literally threw himself at the boss, sword raised.

He didn't make it far.

The boss impaled him before he could even get close. The man whom I had given the location of this chamber to ended up impaled upon [The Penetrator]'s massive blade and hurled away with seemingly no effort.

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that he landed in front of us, myself, Asuna, and Klein, just as his HP bar bottomed out. In his last moments he attempted to say something but no sound escaped his mouth.

The boss didn't even pause for a second. Even as Corbatz was dying before me it lunged back at the group of 'Soldiers.' With a single swing of its sword another demoralized member of The Army had fallen, his HP bar bottoming out instantly. And yet none of those inside dared to run away, even as death itself literally strolled towards them, so panicked were they that they couldn't even move.

This is bad, they hadn't even managed to take away a single one of its HP bars yet… If it came down to it there was no way we could manage to defeat that thing without…

"No…no more…" I glance to the side at Asuna whom has spoken. She couldn't be planning to…

Eye's widening I reach out to stop her before she enters the barrier of fog that served as the entrance to the boss's arena but it was too late.

"NO!" With that shout Asuna took off like a gust of wind, her rapier already being drawn .

"Asuna!" I shouted. No choice now, we have to fight this thing. At least long enough for those soldiers to get out of here.

By the time I managed to get through the fog she was already halfway across the arena, her rapier out and mid-swing-

But her attack did little to the boss before her. In fact, [The Penetrator] didn't even bother to address her. Even as Asuna tired herself out stabbing away at [The Penetrator]'s HP bar the boss himself ignored her completely in favor of swinging once more at the soldiers, killing another with but a single swing.

It was painfully obvious how Asuna was tiring; her jabs were coming slower and slower. If [The Penetrator] turned its attention to her I'm not sure if she'd be able to dodge…

Of course, just as I think that Asuna's luck runs out and [The Penetrator]'s head turns. If he's anything like the Glowing-eye'd knights before now…

I lunge forward, getting next to Asuna just in time to block that massive sword of [The Penetrator]'s as he spun around into a slash. But, despite being blocked, the blade still was long enough to nick my cheek, taking a surprising amount of health along with such a tiny flesh wound.

"Get back!"

I couldn't check to see if she had done as I asked, I was far too preoccupied trying to avoid being directly hit by that long sword of [The Penetrator]'s. It's swings were elegant, yet sacrificed no strength to achieve this. In addition, due to his unusually long sword even attacks I blocked still had the chance of at least dealing a noticeable amount of damage.

What a terrifying boss…

Its strike were coming fast enough that by the time I recovered from my block enough to counterattack he was already chaining his way into another lethal swing. The end result was my stamina bar steadily decreasing every time he swung, and when that ran out I would be unable to fight back, block, or even dodge.

Eventually, the one sided exchange of blows had to end and so it did as [The Penetrator] drew its sword back, holding it towards me like a one handed spear. He was aiming to impale me, just as he did Corbatz. I wasn't stupid, my stat build did not allow me to 'tank' damage like most of the other frontliners, I used an Endurance/Dexterity based build, and my Vitality was only high enough to keep me alive on the front, thus there was only really one thing I could afford to do in this situation.

Unwilling to take the risk, I roll to the side at the last moment, the stab going thought my previous position with a 'woosh' that signified that that attack would've been unblockable anyway. In doing so however I could merely watch as my stamina bar bottomed out, not good…

Luckily Klein seemed to realize what had happened and lunged into the battle in my place, shouting for Asuna to join him. They couldn't hold him off for too long though, such was obvious. Klein's Hiltless katana dug into his skin every time he blocked an attack and would eventually inflict a [bleed] status to him and Asuna, contrary to most people's beliefs, was primarily a Dexterity build with only a barely notable amount of Endurance to back it up.

I note with some mild joy that they had managed to get those soldiers out of here while I kept [The Penetrator] distracted.

As I recovered I brought up my inventory. If we were going to survive this I had to get truly serious. Several button presses later and I could feel an extra weight on my back. Just because I normally wielded my sword in my left hand didn't mean that I was actually left-handed. A few more taps and I was wearing a ring upon my right hand ring finger, my secret weapon. Funny, wasn't Asuna curious as to why I only wore one ring just earlier?

Klein mistimed his dodge, only once, and ended up taking a massive hit to his HP bar, such a hit that he was put as far as into the yellow zone with that single swing. Asuna was doing just as badly, she's taken enough damage from merely attempting to parry its attacks that her life bar was also in the yellow zone. Neither of them were built as tanks either, what an unbalanced boss raiding party. They had however managed to get a few strikes in as the boss was now down an entire HP bar.

Only four bars to go.

The demon attempted another stab and I used that opportunity to reenter the fray. Coming from the side I slap the Demon's massive sword into the ground with the flat side of my black blade, the Elucidator. I had only recently managed to gather together the souls and materials required to upgrade my Dark Knight's sword into my new Elucidator, a powerful sword made from the souls of a thousand Black Knights.

My 'parry' worked and [The Penetrator] ended up stabbing his way straight into the ground. From behind my back came a glint of green and white as I drew my second sword with my right hand and attacked with the same motion. My second sword was the Dark Repulser, a sword made the soul of a long departed dragon that a blacksmith, Lizbeth, and I had gone on a 'quest' to find. We'd ended up falling down a pit and finding what we were looking for at the very bottom, as well as the entrance to the boss room of that level, a find that cut the time it took to finish that dungeon in half.

That single attack managed to noticeably reduce one of the Demon's HP bars by nearly a fifth, an amount that apparently caused someone to utter a small wow to themselves.

"Hyaaaah!" the demon roared as it pulled itself free and around, already midswing. With the barest of effort I flung myself into a roll causing his slash to go over my head harmlessly. Pulling out of my roll Elucidator whips out, catching [The Penetrator] right across its midsection. Again, his HP dropped noticeably, almost taking 20% of an entire HP bar off of him.

I don't stop swinging, Dark Repulsor whipping out and scoring a gash from its right hip to its left shoulder. A half second later Elucidator swings out with even more force, scoring a long cut from the demon's left shoulder to it's right hip. It swings and again I roll under it, a move that was really only possible due to our difference in height, my swords whipping out and cutting a pair of lines straight across its midsections even as I rolled.

By the time I jump back, unharmed but tiring, it was already well into [The Penetrator]'s third last HP bar.

I take a deep breath and leap forward again, my swords swinging. Now [The Penetrator] was on the defensive, unable to even counterattack against my almost absurd flurry of strikes. I barely notice the few swings it blocks, it doesn't matter to me anymore with how rapidly my swings were coming and going. I must look like a madman, screaming like I was as I swung both of my swords like an ancient Nordic berserker. I truly was running on nothing but instinct now…

Every once in a while I could feel a light sting as the demon's sword struck home, but I didn't' care. I powered through everything on pure high-octane adrenalin. Even as I numbly notice that my HP bar was dropping into the red I just kept attacking, and attacking, and attacking…

Faster, faster!

And so I swung faster, and faster, and faster, but to me it still felt slow, too slow. So I just kept increasing my pace until I'm sure I began swinging at a speed that would cause a normal man to snap his arms like a pair of twigs from the sheer force he would be putting behind his swings. I just kept going faster, and faster, and faster.

My roar increases in volume as [The Penetrator]'s HP bar finally entered the red for his final life bar and my swings increased in speed even more. I could literally see my Stamina Bar go into the negatives from the sheer effort required. But I no longer care.

"…AHHHHHHHH!"

I shout this as I launch my final swing, Elucidator scything out and rending a massive tear in its armor. I slowly become aware that I wasn't the only one screaming in the otherwise silent room. The fatally wounded boss was roaring to the heavens, its sword still clutched in it hand and… swinging towards me…? I had only the tiniest of slivers left of my HP bar and my Stamina Bar had not only bottomed out but had apparently gone negative.

I needn't have worried.

By the time the sword finished its arc [The Penetrator] was dead, its soul already appearing from its corpse. When it finally hit it did not even cut my coat. Slowly the knightly demon fell back, its life finally extinguished, and with a subtle menacing sound effect a massive [The Demon Has Been Vanquished!] message appeared floating in mid air.

It's… finished…?

With a practiced movement I flick my swords once before simultaneously returning them to the Scabbards that lay crossed upon my back. I take one last look at my HP and Stamina bars. My HP bar was just about empty; in fact if anyone looked at me funny I would probably drop dead right there. My stamina bar was still empty, although I do note that the negative number was slowly turning positive.

…Negative stamina…

Slowly I become aware that my body was almost completely numb. I felt weak, powerless, and before I knew it I was falling towards the ground face first, my vision fading into blackness…

"Kirito!"

Only vaguely did I hear someone shout my name as I lay face first on the cobblestone ground. I wasn't even lucid enough to guess the gender of the person whom called my name.

"Back on topic, what the hell was that just then!?"

Slowly glancing at my stamina bar, which had long since recovered from my overuse, I realized that Klein realized how unnatural my previous feat was. The Stamina Bar was an attempt at realism, it decreased with just about every combat maneuver you could do, such as Attacking, Defending, and Dodging. The stamina bar was increased with your endurance stat and keeping that in mind I, as a solo player, centered my character build around it. The bar recovered quickly but wouldn't increase as long as you were doing any intensive action.

What I had done legitimately broke the system. I managed to keep hacking away at [The Penetrator] even as my Stamina bar dropped to zero. In fact my Stamina bar dropped so far that I managed to get it fall to a negative number three times my total Stamina. I had effectively gone berserk and turned into a berserker so mad I broke a system that had forced the majority of frontliners, including both Asuna and Klein, to be almost completely unable to work alone. All because of my-

"My right hand ring." Both Asuna and Klein look down at my right hand, the simple, unimpressive golden ring that resided on my ring finger being exceptionably noticeable to anyone that really knew my equipment layout.

"…If you had two that entire time why did you never equip the other?" Asuna asked. Earlier she had noticed that I only wore one ring and speculated that I was hiding something because of it. She had let up on it before I could even comment but she actually had been right about it.

"Because the first time I equipped it I ended up unconscious at the bottom of a pit." It had been the trip I had taken with Lizbeth to get Dark Repulsor forged. It had given her quite a scare as to her it appeared as if I had died during the fall in an effort to save her. At the time I hadn't quite realized how far into the negatives I could go and since the end result of doing so knocked me unconscious I didn't dare use it unless it was truly necessary.

The other two winced, judging by how much my HP had regenerated from merely the [blessed] effect from Dark Repulsor I had been out for at least 15 minutes, a time frame that would've almost guaranteed my death alone in the fields.

"What exactly does it do," Asuna asked slowly, hesitantly.

"…" I sigh, there was no way around this, "…[The Berserker's Fang] allows the wearer to go into the negatives of stamina value, however the wearer may only attack if he does."

Everyone, Asuna, Klein, and Klein's guild, was silent at that revelation. It was such an overpowered, but dangerous, ability. Theoretically in a PvP scenario the ring would allow me to attack continuously until my opponent's guard broke and then just continue raining blows until they died several times over.

"Where… did you get that?"

"Klein, Remember that knight we saved on the first day, Ostrava?" at his nod I continued, "I ran into, and saved, him a few more times after that. A few months back he ran up to me in The Valley of Defilement and just gave me the ring as a 'sign of friendship.'"

"Come to think of it, that guy gave me this sword when I saw him again in the Stonefang Tunnel." Klein said motioning to his sheathed hiltless, "At first I thought it was a piece of junk, considering it didn't even have a hilt and it wasn't very effective against those enemies, but after using it for a while I realized it was exactly what I wanted." He looked thoughtful for a second, "Come to think of it, I never got a chance to thank him for it. Still… that ring is really something else…"

"Yeah… If it became known that I had such a powerful item, it might attract some… unwanted attention."

At my comment Klein winced, understanding instantly. Not surprising, I'm under the assumption that he had been an online gamer even before this death game began so he probably knew exactly what I was getting at instantly, "Online gamers are a jealous bunch… You and I wouldn't but a lot of other people…" He left the statement hang.

...

-End