Hollow Shadows

Chapter XI

Kirito

The four of them had been walking for what seemed like forever, and it was already turning night time in game. Kirito wanted to strangle Kohr for choosing this place for his other operation base. Why did he have to pick the place farthest from the other one? It was absolute madness! But he was just happy that they at least had a place to go after the last base was compromised, because Kirito was not about to abandon his friends. He was sad though that all of the cool gadgets and tricks of the other one were now gone, and he was sure Kohr felt the same way. Kirito was so lost in thought that he didn't notice that the parade had stopped in front of him. He ran into the back of Chelsea, who ran into the back of Volkatz, who in turn ran into Kohr, who didn't budge an inch. Typical. But the reason that they had stopped was incredible. In front of the group was an endless pit that had nothing to indicate a bottom. For all Kirito knew, the pit led to a teleportation device outside of the Hollow Area. Kirito had been there once, when he was exploring with Philia. But they had gone inside of the mountain to find ruins. However, Kohr did not have any intention of doing this. Instead, he grabbed hold of Chelsea, lifted her into a bridal carry stance, and jumped over the edge. Kirito stood there in awe. Volkatz was definitely stronger than he looked, because he picked Kirito up and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and jumped. On the way down, Kirito's life flashed before him faster than the speed stats of Asuna. Suddenly, it was over. Volkatz dashed sideways, halting their momentum from carrying them into the ground. He landed on a ledge, in close proximity to where they had jumped. In front of them, two solid steel doors about the size of boss room doors. Kohr opened his menu and consumed a key titled "Key of Xur", whatever Xur was. The doors opened with a loud and obnoxious creek, and inside, was a miniature fortress built into the ruins of the technological marvel of the Void. Kirito followed after Kohr as they walked through the open door and into the "house". Inside was a long hallway with no doors that led into darkness. He started walking forward when he was stopped by Kohr. He pointed ahead and Kirito saw over 50 blinking lights in the dark.

"System command. ID Kohr Benet Rain. Deactivate traps!"

The lights immediately turned on, and when Kirito saw at least one or two traps for every blinking light he almost fainted.

"Kohr, do you have a fetish for traps?"

"Shut up Kirito. Besides I bet if all of your trademark hiding spots and level grinding area locations were all here with other precious info, I think you would want to protect it to."

"I guess..."

"Don't get lost in here. It's filled with mazes of halls. While it's not a dungeon, it's very easy to get lost in here. Volkatz!"

"What?!"

"Pay attention."

"You're not my mom, Noah. And I didn't know you had a full name for your character."

"And I didn't know you were such a bitch. Seriously! Pay attention! I'm not going to babysit you like a child. Come on."

Kirito chuckled under his breath at the two bickering back and forth. He recognized that they obviously had a strong bond in both the game and IRL. Kirito followed behind them with Chelsea on his heels. They were both in awe as they walked through the endless halls. Chelsea hadn't said a word since the big fight at the original base, and Kirito was about to ask we what was wrong, when he ran into the back of Kohr again. He looked around his bulky armor and his jaw dropped. In front of them was a true base of operations. In the center of the room was a console. An admin console. Kirito had no idea how it got there. He looked around and saw a fridge, a door leading to several bedrooms, and a kitchen, a forge room, a sparring room, and several monitors above the console with videos of the entrance, the rooms, and many extra places that Kirito didn't know where they were. Kohr turned around and looked at them.

"Welcome to your new temporary home. For Kirito, a fully functional sparring and training room to hone your skills. For Volkatz, a forge room with rare and ultra-rare materials to try out new combinations and a direct connection to you shop on floor 76 and some new ideas for you in there as well. I designed some of them off of the bosses and Named Monsters I've fought in the past. And for Chelsea, a new room that I designed for myself, but you can use instead. It's a room that can hone special skills, as well as complete high level hollow missions without leaving the fort. And it comes complete with a ginormous closet full of clothes."

"Hey Kohr?"

"Yes Kirito?"

"Where did you get the console from?"

"This console was here when I found it. I decided to make this my ultimate base, built right around it. This whole area was once a dungeon until I found this and changed it into a building."

"So in other words, you hacked the system."

"I like to think of it as, survival of the fittest."

"A nice philosophy, but I don't think it applies to this situation."

"But it does. I altered my surroundings using my knowledge of the system to ensure my survival as well as the survival of others. Therefore, the phrase fits into this situation perfectly."

"Whatever. Hey. Where'd Volkatz and Chelsea go off to?"

Kirito looked around and saw Chelsea working out in the specialty training room and Volkatz banging away at the forge with his newfound materials. Kirito saw Kohr walk towards the console and sit down in front of it and power it up. He typed in a couple algorithms and Kirito felt a rumble in the structure of the building. He looked up at the monitor of the front of the building and saw that the door in front had closed itself and was blocking the entrance again. Kirito saw Kohr going through all of the other monitors showing places in hidden areas.

"What are all these other monitors Kohr?"

"These are all of my hideouts that I keep secret. But if you would like to know, I'd be happy to share some of them with you?"

"No that's alright. I have my own secret hideouts that I don't share with anyone else. I'd like to keep them that way. I'm sure you'd like to as well."

"You are a true gamer Kirito. Truly amazing."

"Thank you. I think?"

"Well, would you like I spar with me for a little bit?"

"I'd love to have a rematch."

"Alright, let's go."

Kirito followed Kohr into the sparring room and pulled out his two swords. He watched Kohr activate the system and the whole room changed to a grassy area in the daytime with an old bridge in the background, their sparring area surrounded by large boulders.

"Look familiar, Kirito?"

"Yeah. This is the place we first met."

"Yep. Are you ready?"

"Bring it on."

"Alright. Basic duel rules. First player to half health loses. No items, no changing weapons, and no buff skills. Ready?"

"Yes!"

"Alright! Go!"

Kirito immediately activated a sword skill and launched himself at Kohr with unparalleled reaction timing. He was determined to win this time. He had been following Kohr for a little while now and felt he understood his fighting style. He had this in the bag. He struck Kohr in the midsection, landing a direct hit. He followed it up by swinging his sword in the opposite direction, slicing into his midsection a second time. Then he continued by spinning around to the other side of Kohr, and finished the attack with two more hits, completing the Horizontal Square skill. He looked at Kohr's health but was surprised to see that his health only depleted by a sliver overall. Kirito jumped backwards right before Kohr swung his sword, almost landing a critical blow. Kirito realized that this battle couldn't be won by strength alone. His opponent's defense was too high. He had to do this with speed. He struck Kohr with another sword skill and immediately vaulted himself backwards after landing a blow, quickly dodging his opponent. He landed hit after hit until his opponent was almost down to half health. He was almost there. And he hadn't even lost any health yet. Kirito was confident. He launched one more attack to try and get his health down enough where he could finish it with Starburst Stream. He activated his skill, but before he could execute it, Kohr ran right up to him and knocked him on the ground. Kirito looked up to see a sword coming down on his head. He reacted by rolling to the left, missing the attack by a hair. He activated his skill one more time, attempting it again. But this time, he was interrupted not by Kohr, but by no Kohr. His opponent was gone! He stopped the progression of his sword skill and looked around. He couldn't see anything. He looked around a bit more before he heard something behind him. He turned around just in time to see a sword that was glowing with an all-black luminescence swinging towards his head. He dodged it quickly and the sword crashed to the ground. He looked up to see that the darkness was flowing into the ground below Kohr. The earth started rumbling and the ground split open and several skeleton warriors crawled their way out.

"Hey! We said no assisting!"

"This isn't. It's my sword's ability. It allows me to summon up to three enemies that I have encountered in the past, with only one catch. I have to have defeated them. But it's still my favorite skill."

"That's bullshit."

"Enough talk. Fight time now!"

Kohr pointed his sword at Kirito, and the three skeletons charged. However, Kirito knew that if he could take out Kohr, the skeletons would go away. Kirito charged him, vaulting over the skeletons. But Kohr was ready. Kirito had no way to dodge in midair, and Kohr used his ultimate skill, sealing his victory. His sword slashed through Kirito once. Twice. Three times. Over and over until the alarm buzzed signaling that the match was over. Kohr had won. Kirito looked up in defeat at his opponent. He stood up with a bright fire blazing in his eyes. He would be ready next time. Next time, he would win. No. He would dominate the match. Next time.

(Author's note)

Hey guys! This is a great chapter in my opinion, but then again, they're my chapters anyway. This is another of my favorites, because it elaborates on the abilities of Kohr's sword. His ultimate skill is just the basic ultimate skill from the video game Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment. To clarify, however, Kohr has a special sword. Its ability allows it to summon up to three minions the user has defeated in the past. Then Kohr has his ultimate skill, a two handed skill with insane power. And finally, he has a Unique Skill called the Bastard Sword skill. It allows him to switch between one handed and two handed skills, for insane combinations of skill activation timing and skill strength. Anyway, thanks for reading, and following this chapter is a short story I wrote about what Kohr's first day in the game of SAO was like. Enjoy!

Day 1

This time, I decided not to let the narrator do this, and I thought, why don't I do a story for a change. And so, here we are. By the way, I'm Kohr. Or my real name is Noah. You know what's funny? The writer and I am the same person. Except I'm cooler. No. I'm Freezer. No, Ice cold. Wait. That's his father. Ah, fuck it! Roll with it!

Most people when they look into the eyes of death, they see nothing, and everything. They see their lives flash before their eyes, and suddenly, it just erases itself, as it was never there to begin with. And now, you're left wondering whether any of it was truly real or not.

Well we have an old saying we always used in high school: Fuck that.

Kayaba Akihiko. He is the creator of SAO, the death game that ended so many valuable lives. My parents used to tell me that I had an addiction to video games. Now, I turned my addiction, into a career. Every day, I investigate and observe video games to determine the structural composition of the game's CPU system. And when the new VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online, was released, my boss saw fit to give me the job of close observation of the new system's CPU. And then, the nightmare began.

The Town of Beginnings was the starting point for everyone. However, before I even bought good armor and a weapon from the town shops, I was already on my way to the second town on the floor. I was halfway to the second town, and in the middle of cutting down a wild boar, when my hands began to glow. It enveloped my whole body, as a bell began tolling, and I was teleported in mid swing of my sword.

I reappeared in the Town Square, and finished my sword swing, slicing into someone who was unfortunately in the way. The sword stuck in his stomach, but because the town was surrounded by a safe zone, it did no damage to him. It did however; get him to punch me in the face. I was sent tumbling backwards into a pillar, knocking over several people along the way.

I sat up, rubbing my face, when a shadow passed in front of me. I instinctively reached for my sword, when I realized the town was a safe zone; I can't hurt anybody, and they can't hurt me. I looked up at the figure standing in front of me, and when I recognized who the shadow belonged to, a huge smile spread across my face.

It was my friend, Luke. Although in game, his character name was Volkatz. He reached down and grasped my outstretched hand, lifting me up to my feet. I shook his hand, happy to see him again. Last I saw Luke, he had just been given permission from his boss to take a 6 month trip to Japan, to study the newest games, manga, and anime.

See, Luke is an artist. Not the kind of artist like Van Gogh, or Picasso, (although I always told him he was better than Picasso) but he's a graphic artist. He was in SAO to study the design of the game, and to use those designs in his next project. Similarly, I was in the game for work purposes as well.

As Luke and I exchanged greetings, the sky began to fill with one word: "Warning". I looked up as a figure appeared about 10 stories tall. As the figure explained that he was Kayaba Akihiko, and that it was now officially impossible to log out of SAO, I looked at Luke. He and I exchanged a silent conversation, about what our next move was going to be. He told me he was going to stay in the city as a blacksmith, to help other players. I told him my plan to continue my path to the second city en-route to the dungeon. He bade me good luck, and as Kayaba disappeared, I turned and ran for the exit of the town.

As I was running through the deserted streets, I could hear mass hysteria behind me, as 10,000 people just erupted into chaos, and I swore I saw a couple people run by, headed down other alleys, heading the same way I was. At one point, I saw a small kid in all black turn a corner and run down the street in front of me. Then, just as soon as he was there, he turned down another street and was gone. I continued running the way I was heading before the teleport, and almost immediately found myself at an open field.

The moment I stepped into the field and out of the safe zone, a pack of wolves ambushed me from all sides. While I loved fighting against groups to gain extra XP, I was never good with one handed swords. But I wasted no time in destroying them all. I vaulted behind one of the wolves, and with a single sword skill, I killed the wolf with no difficulty. I quickly move on to the next wolf, and finished him off with a couple quick slashes of my sword. I had just enough SP left for two more sword skills, and it took about 60 seconds to restore enough SP for one sword skill.

As I advanced, the remaining four wolves got smart and grouped up to take me on together. That was their fatal mistake. I had spent most of my time that morning levelling up my skills to get the first AoE skill for a one handed sword. I activated the skill, letting the game assist take over my arm. It almost felt as though some other force was guiding my arm as if it had done it a million times before. The sword glowed orange as the system enhanced the speed and power of my sword's strike, and my body followed as the sword as my arm rotated, slicing through every wolf in front of me.

The monsters immediately disintegrated into nothing but data that would spawn later for other players. I turned and ran towards the city in the distance, keeping my sword out to defend against any threats that might arise.

As I continued my journey across the plains, I saw a small cave, about the size of a small car, off to my right in the middle of the field. While I may not have been a Beta Tester, my boss made it a point to have me learn all of the things I possibly could about all the floors the beta testers made it to, and all of the quests and locations. And through all of that knowledge, this cave was not part of it.

Because I was soon over taken by curiosity, I marched towards the cave, but with a cautious element to my approach. As I walked into the cave, I noticed there was a small crevice in the corner that led to a larger cave beneath me. I looked down the hole, and decided to explore.

The hole was my worst nightmare come to life. Monsters three times my level with equipment found only on the double digit floors littered the cave. I didn't even know how I was going to survive, until I realized that survival was impossible after finding that it wasn't just a cave, but an elaborate labyrinth, filled with traps of poison, pitfalls, and monster spawns, as well as monster houses throughout the system of caves. After about an hour of travelling, my health had dropped below the yellow and into the red zone, and I used my penultimate potion. I now had only one left. Luckily, I had levelled up enough to take on most monsters in the labyrinth, no problem. Until I found a dark room at the 10th level underground. It was pitch black, except for a few torches that littered the walls, providing just enough light to see where I was walking, but not enough to make out distinct figures. As I approached the center of the room, I knew enough about games to pause and use my last potion, to bring my health up to 100%. And then I heard the most unsettling sound ever.

At first, it started like heels dragging across the floor. Then it turned into nails on a chalkboard. Then it escalated to metal screeching upon metal, and soon it grew to a knife dragging across a concrete surface, but the terror it bestowed upon my body was ten times worse. And then, it stopped, and for a moment I felt relieved that it was gone. Before a low guttural roar shook the cavern and my bones, while rocks began to tumble down from the ceiling, as if the floors above me were about to collapse. My body shook with fear, and apparently, whatever had caused the ceiling to shake sensed my fear, because it made a sound like thunder rumbling directly above my head, before I realized the being was laughing at me.

The laughter shook me out of my stupor, and I drew my sword. The being laughed again, as it heard the sound of my sword being drawn from its scabbard. It made me shake with hatred, as I dropped into a defensive stance, ready to absolutely annihilate whatever it was that kept laughing at me. Then, the cavern was suddenly filled with light, as the being showed its ugly face.

Its face was deformed, as if somebody had taken a lawn mower to it. His arms were buff enough to crush a person, and he was almost as tall as a semi-truck. He had a buzz cut haircut, and wore a mix of Japanese, American, and German military clothes, which should not have gone well together, but he somehow made it work. He smiled cruelly at me, as he pulled a two handed sword from behind his back, unsheathed it, and threw the scabbard at me. I deflected it easily enough, but the scabbard itself weighed almost a literal ton. It made me realize how high this monster's strength stat must be to wield such a blade. I smiled in anticipation, waiting for the battle to begin, before I noticed his name and number of health bars. Not even a boss could compare.

The monster's name was Atlas. He had 6 health bars, and a murderous intent in his eyes. When I entered the cave, I was only level 5. I was now level 19, facing a level 30 boss. I couldn't have asked for an easier death sentence. I noticed that one of his hands was holding up the ceiling. But as he reached for his sword, he let go of the ceiling, and a timer began. 5:00. 4:59. 4:58. 4:57. It continued like that, counting down, until I realized the old myth about the Titan Atlas in Greek mythology. Atlas held up the sky. Someone had to take his place willingly in order for him to escape his burden. And now, I had a time limit before the "sky" collapsed on me. Brilliant. I couldn't waste a moment. I dashed towards my opponent, flipping over a slash of his sword, and stabbing him right in the gut. Golden ichor, the blood of immortals, spilled from his wound, as I turned to inflict more damage, I didn't even notice the giant 10 foot sword swinging at my head before it was too late. He hit me square in the face, and sent me flying into the wall. The ceiling shuddered, as if it had made the time limit shorter and the strength of the walls weaker. The timer read, 4:39, and I had only managed to reduce his health by almost 1/16th of one health bar. I had no idea how I was going to kill him. I proceeded to vault myself over his next sword swing, onto his shoulder, before driving my blade into Atlas' shoulder. Golden ichor spewed from his would like an oil drill in an oil field. It coated my armor, but reinvigorating me to new strengths. Then I realized, that ichor was powerful to mortals and demigods. I quickly but cautiously scooped up some of the ichor, and drank it.

My eyesight became sharper, my muscles stiffer. My hearing excellent. My strength overwhelming. I struck the Titan with renewed energy, my sword becoming an arc of pure death and destruction. Wherever my sword found the Titan's flesh, ichor spilled from that area. Wherever the Titan struck, I was already gone. I risked a glance at the Titan's health bar, and he was down to the red on his last health bar. 1:23. I could do this.

Then, everything went wrong. Atlas switched attack patterns and weapons. He dropped his two handed sword and held out his hand like he was expecting to receive a present. But it was July?! Suddenly, the air in front of him shimmered, and I could feel the power radiating from the shimmering air. Then a black, translucent two handed sword fell into his hand. It was smaller, and looked lighter, but I didn't dare underestimate it. If Atlas dropped his old sword for this new one, it had to be a lot better. I jumped at him, determined to tear him to shreds, when he sidestepped, and jabbed his new sword into my shoulder. As I fell to the ground, I don't remember anything, but I heard a high pitched whining sound echoing off of the walls of the cavern. It might have been me screaming, I couldn't tell. But I do remember Atlas driving his blade into the ground like it was butter, and as the ground shook, five skeletal hands clawed their way into existence. I easily cut down one of them as they spawned, but the other four were much more cautious than their dead counterpart. They kept their distance for the moment, but became restless. Atlas had almost no health left. One well-placed sword skill would kill him. All I needed was a little ichor. But he was all out. 25 seconds. It was now or never.

I ran towards the skeletons, and as they dropped into defensive stances, I jumped as hard as I possibly could, and leapt off of one of their skulls. 10 seconds. I raised my sword above my head, as it began to glow a deep pink. Atlas brought his sword to his side, and it began to glow purple. A skill I had never seen before. He pulled his blade back, and swung it in a sideways motion at my head, but I was already prepared for it. I clutched my sword at the side of my body, letting Atlas' new sword glance off of it, and I was about to strike his head with all of my might, when I saw the sword coming around for a second strike. Instead of striking Atlas' head, I struck his sword, parrying it out of his hand. 5 seconds. I activated my skill again. 4 seconds. My sword began to glow a deep, pink color.

3 seconds. I swung my sword, all of my hatred for the monster in tow.

2 seconds. My sword connected with a hard object, and I struck one last time.

1 second. Atlas' sword was between me and his face.

0 seconds. Time's up.

I braced myself for death, before I realized that Atlas had not disappeared from the room, or respawned with full health. I had two options. Kill Atlas, and let the sky crush me, or let the sky crush us both. Before I could decide, the ceiling fell like a meteor, bashing Atlas in the head, before he slumped to the ground. I hit the deck faster than Atlas hit the ground. The sky slammed into Atlas, but I remained unharmed. I began to crawl towards the exit, before I realized that the quest still wasn't finished. Atlas was still alive, and the sky was falling. I had no choice. My world turned upside down as I picked up the sky off of Atlas' limp body, and pushed upwards.

The pain was nothing I had ever felt before. I didn't know whether it was affecting my physical body, but I was pretty sure I was feeling more pain than the NerveGear was supposed to be accommodated for. I would try to explain the pain for you, but I can't really remember. All I remember is my muscles feeling like someone had injected them with molten lava, and my spine was welded together with a blowtorch, one vertebra at a time. Multiply that by 100, and you're about halfway there to what the pain felt like. It felt like I had been holding up the sky for almost an eon before Atlas finally woke up. He took one look around, saw me holding up the sky, and grinned wickedly. He picked up his sword, and swung once at me. As the sword struck my torso, I weakened my grip, and rolled with the momentum, which propelled me into the wall. I used my legs like a spring and retaliated so fast, the sky didn't even have enough time to fall on top of either of us before I slashed Atlas' neck line. His health began to deplete the moment the sky dropped on his shoulders. He bellowed in rage, before he suddenly burst into a million pieces and the sky froze in place. The room dimmed, as the boss had disappeared, leaving me with nothing but an empty room, and a window of spoils. At the bottom, a bonus item was in my list of items I obtained. I touched it, and suddenly a black, translucent sword appeared in my hands. It was so heavy I almost dropped it. I finally understood why Atlas had chosen this as his weapon.

Out of instinct, I drove the sword into the ground. The cavern rumbled and shook as a fissure opened up in the ground where I stabbed the sword. A skeletal hand clawed its way to existence, and fixed its hollow yellow eyes on me. It regarded me with a cold stare, and then fixed its eyes on Atlas' skeletons. I turned and ran as the skeleton launched itself at the other skeletons. Somehow, I knew that he was going to be able to kill all of them. I ran outside the cavern, and pulled out a teleport crystal.

I soon found out that teleport crystals didn't work in the dungeon. I ran towards the stairs of every floor, bounding up the stairs without even looking at the monsters that were following me. The dungeon rumbled, like it did when the sky fell on top of Atlas. I figured I only had about 30 seconds before the whole place collapsed with me underneath. I practically jumped up the stairs in one jump, and continued climbing without noticing the hordes of monsters following me. My aggro must have been high enough to catch the attention of the boss on the next floor of Aincrad.

As I bolted around enemies, I finally saw a bright light at the top of the stairs. I figured it has to be the entrance. 100 feet away. 90...80...70...60. The dungeon rumbled again, and chunks of the ceiling the size of cars began falling in front of me, in between me and my exit. I was 40 feet from the exit when the ceiling fell all at once. Time seemed to slow down, as I put my new sword in front of me, and used it to vault over the boulders. 10 feet. The ceiling was about 5 feet from my head. I dove as far as I could, and hit the dirt as the dungeon collapsed behind me. I turned and looked back at the cave, but all that was left was a pile of rocks in the middle of a field. I looked around, and saw nobody. I had to have been down in that cave system for almost the whole day. I turned my attention to the sword in my hands. I tapped it, and the icon showed up to claim the sword as a prize of the quest. I accepted, and the sword appeared a second later in my inventory. I equipped the sword, and my attack stat went up higher than I had seen any of the beta testers. I smiled to myself and began walking down the road that led to the next town. I had leveled up enough in the dungeon that even the wolves that had once been a problem for me, were nothing more than a fly in my face. One slash with my new sword was all I needed to take care of them. When I reached the city limits, I noticed that there were a surprisingly large amount of people in the town. I walked into the safe zone, and exhaustion hit me like a freight train, and I collapsed on the spot at the edge of the safe zone.

I awoke to the next morning in an inn in town. I opened up my inventory to check to see if everything was there. I still had all of my items, and everything else. As I stumbled down the steps, I manage to make it to the front desk, and asked how I had gotten there the night before. The gentleman at the counter raised an eyebrow at me and told me that a girl about my height with brown hair, headphones, and a red skirt came into the inn carrying me, and set me up with a room. He also told me that she had told the man at the counter that if I asked about her, to give me a note. I sat down at a table and opened the letter.

Dear Kohr,

You're lucky I was around to help you. Most people aren't as nice as me. You owe me one. I'll see you around.

C

I looked at the letter in awe. This "C" was either really foolish, or really brave. Either way, I admired her. I folded up the letter, and decided to keep it. I tapped it, and put it in my inventory. The letter disappeared and I looked out the window. Another day, another dungeon. And with that, I headed out to the nearest dungeon.