A/N
Sorry if this feels off but I'm still feeling out characters.
Glorified Madman
(Battle Soundtrack: Asylum Disturbed)
There's a chance I can beat this. A way out that doesn't rip me from the lives of my friends and family. But to do that I'd need to execute my plan with 100% accuracy.
Over the past few month I've settled into a DPS/Technical combat style. Combining Kendo with the flow of natural SAO swordplay. Most of my Swordskills are multi-hit combos that are weak in per strike damage, but combined are devastating. The ones I'm looking at using apply stun, paralysis, or confusion with successful contact of all strikes, but the skill freeze makes them impractical… unless...
A unique way SAO balances skill freeze in a fast paced game like this is a hybrid combo system that harkens back to older games like the Gears of War series. As a multi-hit combo is executed, a small bar appears at the bottom of my HUD. When the skill finishes, a little vertical line appears at a random location on the bar. The bar will fill up and I have to time my next skill with the vertical line to chain them together and ignore the skill freeze. If I miss, the skill freeze penalty is doubled. It gets faster the more skills I chain.
So, either I chain together ALL the skills perfectly or I freeze and die. I already told myself I can't do that; others look up to me now. So I need perfection.
Perfection...
Nicholas the Renegade dropped to the ground, heaving a large cleaver-type weapon. As I drew in a breath and brandished my blade, my mind drifted to an old American metal song I heard from somewhere. Drowning the voices of all the streamer feeds we could hear from the outside during boss raids that were yelling at the idiot trying to solo a boss. The boss itself leaned forward and let out a strange metallic creaking in place of a roar. I smirked. Don't you know who I am?
[Double Halfmoon Sweep]
I heaved my sword and dashed forward, spinning and making two large crescent gashes in the boss, staggering it and leaving it stunned.
I'm the Black Swordsman!
Wait for it… NOW!
[Joan's Arc]
I dodged back, just missing the swipe from the massive cleaver. Surging forward, I dropped to my knees and swung in a high arc, catching the boss on the chin and snapping its head back.
…GO!
[Morte Darthur]
I jumped up, following the boss's face which was mangled and scarred with blue, frostbitten skin. In the hang time before the execution, I gave the streamers watching something to rant about, "Ho Ho Holy crap you're ugly!" I taunted before moving to the combo. I slashed its head horizontal, vertical, and both diagonals before smashing the top of its head with the flat of the blade.
The combo meter kept speeding up. I had yet to falter.
[Icarus Aerial]
More...
[Vorpal Strike]
Just a little more...
[Dancer's Strike]
[Crown Rose Combo]
[Lionheart Lunge]
The combo meter was ridiculously fast now, yet I somehow found the mark each time regardless
I dodged back, landing already in position for the next round. The hang time between skills was just enough to catch my breath, but that window was getting smaller and smaller the longer my combo went on... I have no choice.
Skills began to blur together, all my focus on the combo bar as it seemed to reach inhuman speeds, yet my sword continued to shift into all sorts of colors as any possible skill position was used to keep myself moving forward. Slashing, stabbing, blocking, redirecting, punching, kicking, flipping. It all mushed together into an ever-quickening rhythm. I finally noticed I was grinning like a madman. My heart was racing, my virtual muscles ached, I was terrified, and yet I was having the time of my life. I had an idea that nearly broke my concentration, but I kept that rhythm anyway. "Hey…Sis...when I...get...OUT..OF..HERE...you...owe...me...a sparring match...and...a Nationals...finals pic!"
I knew she was watching, and I knew that would simultaneously cheer her up and motivate her. If her brother wanted a kendo match and if he wanted a pic of her at the Kendo Nationals Finals, she'd train hard to get there, get the pic and be the best so that she'd be able to lay him out and give him the pic when he did get out.
Last bar in the red!
[Feint Swipe]
Last chance!
[Horizontal Square]
I swung hard to the left and dodged to right, swinging back across to slash the boss in the side. I spun and sidestepped again, bringing the blade to bare against his back, dashing forward and dragging my sword through his other side. The combo ended, and I let my momentum bring my arm up to sheathe the blade before the freeze took over and the boss exploded.
