A/N: I'm back! Sorry for the long wait, but I finally found time to update a story and decided to at last write this chapter. I wanted to write it once Pica was defeated but it was taking too long so I wrote it early.
The humongous doors of the boss room were thrown open and a single lone figure walked in He wore a familiar black armor and cloak. His hair was black in colour and he wielded two blades, one crystal blue, the other ebony black, silence befell the room as they realized who it was.
Kirito the Black Swordsman had arrived and he was more intimidating than before. After a few brief moments of confusion, the players were teleported onto a glass platform near the top of the room. Asuna looked down and tried calling out to him
"Kirito-kun! What are you doing here?! It's dangerous, I don't want to lose you again!"
The possibility dawned on Asuna that Kirito was either forced to do this or Kayaba had promised him something immensely valuable
"Kirito-kun! You don't have to do this! There has to be another way! No matter what Kayaba has done you can't give in to his demands!"
Kirito could not hear Asuna from where she was and proceeded to fight the boss. Zoro had gotten lost halfway through the dungeon even when they spawned a corridor away from the boss door and so he had to face the boss himself. Kirito hoped that Zoro would find the right way soon, even if he had been training intensively, there was no telling how much it would actually do against the boss.
He just had to delay the boss until Zoro got here to fight it. He got into his usual Dual Blades stance and prepared to fight the boss. He had learned to create his own artificial sword skills using Skill Connect and has so far made one. Zoro had assessed it to be a potent skill, but the cooldown would likely not be worth the attack unless the enemy died once the attack finished.
Kirito knew he just had to delay the boss and tried using it immediately. It was a fairly long skill and hopefully Zoro would be back by the time it ended. He breathed out and charged Baroque with his fully refilled six health bars and initiated the combo. It was an extremely difficult to pull off combo as the skill required the user to attack the enemy simultaneously with multiple different moves from each sword.
"Comet Rain!" (170-Hit)
The skill opened up with a Vertical Square on his left and a Horizontal Square on his right, following up with two pairs of Horizontal and Vertical Arcs, switching arms between the two, effectively creating a three dimensional cube that cut Baroque in all directions. The attack hadn't finished yet and Kirito activated a Sonic Leap with his Dark Repulsor, sending him flying upwards, aimed at Baroque's head, as soon as he had gained enough height, he activated Rage Spike with his Elucidator and charged him towards Baroque.
The two swords disabled Baroque's eyes and immediately moved on to their next skills. The Elucidator was activated with Star Quint Prominence and the Dark Repulsor was activated with Vorpal Strike, dealing massive damage to Baroque's face. It howled in pain and Kirito jumped off, activating Countless Spike with both his swords, smashing back onto Baroque's head with a flurry of attacks.
As Baroque once again called out in pain, Kirito continued the onslaught, activating Slant a handful of times. He then used another Sonic Leap and Vorpal Strike combo, this time with the other swords. As the swords dealt their damage, Kirito activated another Dual Blades skill, Dead Intersection, he carved an asterix onto the boss' head and stabbed both swords into it.
Once the hit connected, Kirito activated two Sonic Leaps, utilizing them to increase his height and thus the damage of his next move, Depth Impact. The skill did a large amount of bonus height damage, staggering Baroque. Kirito jumped off once more and landed on the ground where he activated The Eclipse, dealing a large amount of damage to the weakened Baroque.
The boss had lost a lot of health by this point from the barrage of hits, but Kirito was not willing to let up, pushing his mental strength's limits to continue his bombardment of attacks. His next move was a Savage Fulcrum and Slants, attacking subsequently with Crimson Splash, creating large gashes in the Minotaur's chest. Kirito followed up with Vorpal Strikes into the wounds, causing an increased amount of damage.
Confident in the damage he had done, Kirito used two more Sonic Leaps to get good height and crashed down onto Baroque with an Inferno Raid, continuing with a Locus Hexedra. Baroque became badly stunned as Kirito jumped off and activated Star Burst Stream. The attack continued to slash at the Minotaur, using multiple circular attacks and slashes in different directions.
The sword skill ended and Kirito pushed himself to do one final attack, an End Revolver. He had not being keeping track of the boss' health in the slightest because he was in the heat of the moment and surprisingly, as the End Revolver impacted with Baroque, he suddenly stopped, breaking into hexagons seconds later and displaying the congratulations message.
Zoro had arrived sometime near the end and smirked as he saw Kirito finish off the enemy before disappearing back into the mist mysteriously, the shine of his demon eye being the last thing that could be seen of him.
As the battle ended, the clearers were teleported back to the ground where they saw as Kirito fell to the ground, paralyzed by the stacked cooldown on all his skills. He had exhausted his mental fortitude, gone beyond his limits and managed to perform the combo. They all crowded around him, Asuna pushed past the crowd to get to her beloved and hugged him with all her might.
She ordered the clearers to get back to their Guild halls or explore the next floor and slowly waited for Kirito to awake. Yui joined them after some time because Asuna had told Klein to inform her. Yui sensed her father's player signature and rushed over. She entered just as he awoke and pounced on him, cuddling him.
Kirito was startled by it, but hugged her and Asuna back. He had missed them in his absence and wanted to spend as much time as he could with them from now on. He explained Zoro's situation to Asuna and Yui, as well as what he had been doing. They were surprised that such a set up had been created just for Zoro and that Kirito had been training so hard, considering how much he usually slacked off.
They took a moment to rest from the battle before heading back to the headquarters where Asuna put her vice commander in charge temporarily. She ordered him to increase the levels of all players by twenty before they fought the next boss, he protested and said that there was no way that all the clearers would be willing to wait that long.
"Then tell them that if Zoro comes and takes Kirito away again because five people died then we are losing an extremely valuable asset. You have seen what he is capable of, he defeated the boss meant for Zoro in a single move. While Zoro would have killed it with one attack, it is still remarkable he did not die, but won."
Of course while this was true, Asuna mainly wanted to protect her Kirito from being taken away from her again by Zoro, it had already happened twice and she would not allow a third. She and Kirito brought Yui on a family outing where they enjoyed themselves thoroughly while the clearers reluctantly trained up.
As for Zoro, he was having a grand time chatting with Kayaba about Kirito's progress.
"Really Zoro, what kind of monster did you manage to train? He could very well clear the game by himself with that combo."
"Relax, that combo has an unbelievably long cooldown, it practically takes him out of the fight and he can only use it as the opening attack or he will be too tired to complete it. The boss rooms are locked up during the fight right? Meaning that it's unlikely they'll force him to use it because of the risks of losing him. He is more valuable to them for doing consistent high damage throughout the fight."
"I guess I'll go and increase the difficulty of the bosses then…"
"Oi Kayaba, explain to me why that guy was here."
"Who?"
"I don't know, some Captain Kuro."
"I honestly have no idea, much like you, they entered the game at some point after the Beta ended. I hadn't thought to inform you as it was likely not important."
"They? So there's more of them?"
"I think they entered as a group."
"There were many others but I have no idea where they are now."
"I hope they didn't go around and attack people, they might have been pushovers in my world but they are definitely formidable foes here."
"Data shows that they've only sparred with each other as of now, no one else has been hurt by their activities so far. They seem to have a common interest of killing you, the Captain Kuro you mentioned split off from the main group because he couldn't wait any longer."
"Well if that's the case then I can just wait for them to come to me. Hey Kayaba, could you give me something tougher? The Asura's just aren't cutting it anymore."
"Seriously? I'll need time to design an entire boss Zoro, you are getting way too strong."
"I'm not strong enough until I become the world's strongest swordsman."
"Of course, I'll try and cook something up but it could take a while."
"I'd appreciate that."
"Oh Zoro, I think you have a visitor."
"What? How the heck is that possible? The monsters should still be there."
It was then that Zoro heard a familiar squeaky voice.
"Come on out, Roronoa Zoro! I want my revenge for what you did to me back in Dressrosa!"
Zoro couldn't help but laugh after hearing this voice for the first time in so long. Once he recomposed himself, he headed out of his rest area and saw a man with a yellow-gold spiked helmet.
"Is that you soprano-voiced dumb-ass? How've you been?"
"Be quiet or I'll crush you!"
"Do you really think you can do that?"
"I'll avenge Doffy and kill you Zoro, then I'll move on to kill the other Straw Hats!"
"Your voice seriously cracks me up soprano, especially when you try and act menacing like that! Hahahaha!"
"Grr… I challenge you to a fight Roronoa, we will fight tomorrow here at noon, if you aren't here then I'll start killing innocents!"
"Fine by me soprano, just try and put up a real fight, I'll even get Kayaba to build up a nice pile of rocks for you to assimilate. Not that it'll make a difference though."
"Don't underestimate me, I've grown much stronger since our last fight."
"Oi Kayaba, mind placing some boulders or something here for him? The fight would otherwise be too easy."
"Sure, you don't mind me inviting some people to watch right?"
"Don't ignore me!"
"I'll take that as a yes."
WIth that, Kayaba teleported off and left Zoro and Pica to their own devices.
"Listen here soprano, go and prepare yourself, I don't want a fight that is as easy as Captain Kuro. If I don't get hit at least once by you in that fight, I am putting you out of your misery for good."
"Kek, you should be the one who needs to prepare."
"Whatever you say, just get out, it's time for my training session."
Later that day, a notification was sent to all players. Another invitation to fight Zoro, this time with a showcase match at the start. Zoro had apparently gotten quite famous for his skills and tailors had begun to create Zoro t-shirts, napkins, pins and many other Zoro merchandise types. Some blacksmiths had also tried to replicate his swords to no avail. Without proper information the blacksmiths had no idea what material to use to even begin forging the blade with.
Once more, a group of clearers were assembled to safely clear the path to Zoro. The people took their seats in the colosseum once again as Zoro entered the arena. There was still a large amount of distrust for Zoro among the players but at this point most had decided not to dwell on it and focus on getting out alive.
After a few moments, Zoro's opponent was teleported into the colosseum in a flash of blue light. A massive man with a yellow-gold helmet was his opponent. The man moved towards the pile of boulders and immediately assimilated them. New rocks spawned immediately after they were used up, giving Pica enough stone to grow to his largest size.
"Hurry up soprano, the crowd can't wait all day."
The players watched from their seat as Pica grew larger and larger, nearing the boundaries of the colosseum. Kirito watched from the stands as the stone giant began to take shape. Asuna and Yui looked at the large figure's intimidating size but knew that no matter how strong it was, Zoro would easily defeat it.
"Be quiet! I'll crush you!"
The audience burst into laughter at the sound of his voice and an uproar of jeers could be heard.
"All of you be quiet! I'll crush you after I kill Zoro!"
One member of the audience stood up and laughed at Pica.
"Kill him, please, I doubt you'll even scratch him, let alone crush him!"
"I'll show you!"
The timer counted down and the duel began. Pica opened the fight with a punch that Zoro easily evaded. The impact left a huge impression in the ground where Zoro was and prompted him to taunt the stone giant.
"Now now soprano, you can't honestly be expecting to hit me with those slow punches are you? I'll tell you what, I'll give you nine more free attacks. If you fail to damage me then I will start to fight back."
Pica used every trick at his disposal to try and land a hit on Zoro, from launching parts of himself at the swordsman to using his sword but nothing got through. With his last free attack used up, Zoro began to retaliate.
"You disappoint me soprano… I wish we could've played a bit more, but sadly for you, my patience has run dry…"
Zoro drew his three swords and got into stance.
"Santoryu Ogi: Rokudo no Tsuji: Nanatsudo!" (Three Sword Style Secret Technique: Crossing of Six Paths: Seventh Path!)
Six slashes created an asterisk of cuts on Pica and a seventh piercing attack was dealt to the middle of the asterisk. It instantly destroyed the stone giant as it broke into hexagons. The crowd cheered as the hexagons disappeared.
"Now… I need a challenger, who will face me!"
A white and red blur was seen jumping into the field. As the dust cleared, it was revealed that Asuna has decided to challenge Zoro.
"So you've come to fight me this time?"
"I will defeat you!"
"I'd like to see you try girl."
The timer counted down and Asuna opened up her attacks with a sword skill, catching Zoro off guard with her speed.
"Linear!" (1-Hit)
He just about managed to block the attack at the last moment with a barely unsheathed katana. She jumped back as soon as the attack failed and prepared for a counter attack.
"You seem faster than the others, what is your name?"
"Asuna the Flash."
"Flash huh, well lets see which is faster, your legs, or my sword…"
Zoro sheathed his sword and put his hand on the hilt.
"Ittoryu Iai: Shi Shishi Ou Sonson!" (One Sword Style Draw and Resheath Technique: Lion King's Song of Death!)
The blade was drawn and Zoro rushed forwards in a burst of speed, slashing at his prey. Once the cut had been made, he sheathed his sword. All this happened in an instant and would have been missed if you blinked. Kirito watched anxiously as Asuna fought Zoro. She had convinced him that she would fight this time in place of him, seeing that a fight of strength with Zoro would be pointless, she wanted to face him in a match of speed.
None of the fighters moved for a moment and to the pain of Kirito, a bright red gash opened on Asuna's left shoulder. She had managed to dodge the attack at the last moment but did not escape from harm fully. Though it seemed that Zoro had not taken any damage, Asuna had managed to do something in the last few moments of his attack.
A bottle tied to Zoro's side had been cut. The bottom half fell onto the ground and the liquid within spilled onto the sandy dry ground of the colosseum. As he heard the sound of it falling, Zoro looked back and saw half of his precious bottle on the ground. He untied the upper half on his belt and stared at it wide mouthed.
"ARGH! MY SAKE!"
The bottle broke into hexagons as its durability bar was at zero and Zoro looked down at the dirt where the last of his sake had spilled.
"Er… Sorry about that, I'll make you some more at the end of the fight so don't worry abou-"
"That was an endless sake bottle you just broke! There's only one of them in the world! Now how am I supposed to have my daily fill of sake?!"
"I'm sure you could get some easily at the store…"
"Are you going to buy it for me then?! I don't have enough money for that damn it! Oi Kayaba, this stupid fight thing was your idea, return me my sake bottle!"
"Um… Zoro, what about the fight?"
"Who the hell cares about that?! Eh Kayaba, are you even listening to me?!"
Just as Zoro was about to start murdering Asuras in rage, a bottle of sake fell onto his head from the heavens and he nearly failed to catch it as it bounced off his head.
"Ah! My sake!"
He opened it and gulped down barrels worth of sake as a celebration before tying it to his belt and drawing his sword. Though he had drunk so much sake that his stomach had temporarily expanded to the size of a small boulder. Next to his health bar, a debuffed was displayed.
Bloated - Player's movement speed is greatly reduced due to large amounts of food or drinks ingested.
Asuna couldn't help but giggle when she saw the great swordsman as a giant ball in front of her.
"Eh, hurry up and attack, I'm getting bored here!"
"You still can fight in that condition?"
"I've fought while worse off before."
"Then I won't hold back!"
She rushed in and initiated her sword skill.
"Star Splash!" (8-Hit)
Even with the skill designed to strike at the foes openings in defense, none of the hits got through. The opening three thrusts were easily blocked by Zoro who anticipated the next two slashes at his feet and blocked them with ease. The two jabs that came at him were quick, but not quick enough. The final thrust attack was stopped dead in its tracks by the flat of Zoro's blade.
Without leaving any time for his opponent to react, Zoro turned his katana to barely hold back hers and pushed forwards, cutting straight through the rapier. The slash split most of Lambent Light's blade into two and left Asuna with barely any health.
"Concede, you've lost this battle."
Knowing it herself, Asuna gave up the fight and returned to the spectator seats with Kirito and Yui.
"You were really strong Mama! Though Zoro seemed to be stronger!"
"You tried your best Asuna, for now you should rest."
Kirito shouted to one of the vendors and ordered some refreshments for them while some arrogant or curious players tried to take down Zoro.
The challenges eventually stopped and Zoro left the area. The players also left the colosseum and returned to their homes.
A/N: There is probably going to be a timeskip next chapter since I doubt it will be interesting to see every single boss fight and so I will fast forward time in order to hopefully keep things interesting. Remember to follow, favourite, review, check out my other stories and poll.
