Author's Note: Apologies for the delay with this latest update to the story. I had a little writer's block with certain parts of this chapter, so I decided to take a little break and work on a little Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V three-shot during the end of the last week. If anyone reading is interested, the three-shot I speak of is called Phantom Knight Dreams. The story wasn't my best work, but it was kinda fun to write. Anyway, I'm pretty much back on track with this story, so without further adieu here's the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online.

Chapter 11: The Shadow of Donis

A few minutes after getting ready for the next round, Asuna and all of the other tournament participants in her bracket stepped onto the teleport pads in the crystal stadium and were whisked away by beams of blue light to different locations around ALO. Asuna's beam had placed her on the beach of a deserted-looking tropical island, with the sea to her right and a dense jungle forest to her left. The blunette recognized the location as an island in undine territory where she and the other had gone to from time to time for a fun day at the beach. As Asuna took in her surroundings, she saw another beam of blue light shoot down from the sky and hit the sandy ground a few feet away from where she was standing. In moments, the light faded to reveal Sakuya in her new battle outfit.

"Well, this is certainly a more pleasant venue than the one they put me in during the last round." Sakuya remarked as she looked around. "I'm sure you feel the same way, eh Asuna?"

"This is nicer than that mine I was in." Asuna admitted as she approached her opponent. "Plus we both have more space to move around."

"Indeed. I would request though that even though we can fly in a place like this, we keep this fight on the ground." Sakuya replied. "Aerial sword fights always tend to get a little out of control."

"Fine with me." Asuna agreed as she prepared to draw her sword.

As Sakuya took a fighting stance in response, a holographic timer appeared above them and began to count down. When the clock hit zero, Asuna drew her rapier and charged across the beach towards Sakuya. Just as the blunette was only inches away from her target though, the image of Sakyua's body seem to split into three as the sylph queen suddenly started to dash towards Asuna. Asuna's blade hit nothing but an afterimage of her opponent, and a split second later Sakuya came around from Asuna's left and slashed her across the back twice with her katana. With a chunk of her HP suddenly gone, Asuna quickly turned on her feet and managed to block the other strikes from Sakuya's blade as she was suddenly forced back by the dark-haired sylph.

Asuna found that it was taking almost everything she had to counter each of Sakuya's attacks. Eventually the blunette found an opening and managed to strike Sakuya three times in the stomach, taking off almost a quarter of her HP. After taking the hit, Sakuya suddenly fell back to avoid getting struck again.

"Not bad." Sakuya praised. "I knew you were going to give me a real challenge."

"I've seen you fight before, and you've never been able to move this fast!" Asuna recalled. "What the heck's going on?"

"I told you, this new outfit I'm wearing isn't just some ordinary costume." Sakuya told her. "This is an enchanted suit that multiplies my speed by five and doubles the power of my wind magic."

"Where did you get an outfit like that?" Asuna asked.

"I have to go to several arduous quests to get all the materials I needed." Sakuya answered. "The green spandex-like fabric of this suit was actually made from the scales of a very powerful lake serpent on the upper floors of New Aincrad known for its speed. I also had to spend a fortune at the shop of the finest player tailor in ALO to get the suit put together. Of course being the leader of the sylphs, I easily had the funds to cover the price."

"I had no idea it was possible to find enchanted items this powerful in the game, except of course for items like Excalibur and Sinon's Coat of Yig." Asuna remarked.

"Ever since the Cthulhu Mythos updates to the game started, the designers have been putting in stronger and stronger items to try and level the playing field." Sakuya told her. "When I heard that a suit like this could be made, I knew I just had to have it. You could probably make one for yourself too, you know. Just imagine how much faster you could become."

"You mean that outfit doesn't just work for sylphs?" Asuna asked.

"No. It's the armored parts of the suit that increase my wind magic." Sakuya explained. "All you'd need to do is just slay the same lake serpent that I went after and have a suit made to work for your own type of magic. I should warn you though that it's a little snug around the undercarriage. Of course it also really shows off my butt, don't you think?"

"Yeah, it uh… it doesn't leave much to the imagination." Asuna agreed as Sakuya showed off how tightly the fabric of the suit clung to her rear. The blunette could just picture the camera streaming her current battle zooming in on Sakuya's butt for all of the male viewers who were out there watching. "Um, don't you think we should get back to our battle?"

"Agreed." Sakuya replied as she raised her sword. "The clock is ticking, after all."

With that, Asuna dashed across the beach towards Sakuya at top speed. Just when the blunette came in range, Sakuya dashed off leaving a trail of three afterimages in her wake. Asuna stopped and looked to figure out just where her opponent was going to strike. A split second later, Sakuya moved in to attack from behind only for Asuna to block the blade. The blunette then began her counterattack and managed to force Sakuya back, but the sylph queen was managing to block all of Asuna's attacks.

Eventually Asuna found an opening and managed to strike Sakuya three more times in the stomach, taking her opponent's HP gauge to almost half of what it originally was. Soon after though, Sakuya slashed Asuna twice in the chest and took the blunette down almost half her original amount of HP as well. Asuna immediately fell back to put some distance between her and Sakuya.

"I'd say we're about evenly matched, don't you think?" Sakuya asked.

"Looks that way." Asuna replied. "But in the end, I'm still going to be the one who moves onto the next round!"

While Asuna's battle with Sakuya was only just starting, Leafa had ended up in the middle of a large underground cavern with walls bathed in an orange-red light. Looking around, the blonde realized that she was standing atop a small flat island of rock in the middle of a river of molten lava. Leafa recognized the cave as a location in salamander territory that she had traveled through a few times before. Right away, Leafa realized that her battle was going to be limited to the island of rock that she was standing on, as flying in an underground cave like that would be impossible. Leafa only hoped that her opponent didn't turn out to be an imp, as then she would be at a major disadvantage.

A beam of blue light came down from the ceiling and struck the other side of the island. In moments, the light faded to reveal a young-looking woman with fair skin, pointed ears, deep magenta eyes, and light-green hair tied back in a braided ponytail that grew over half way down her back. She had on a sleeveless green v-neck shirt over a sleeveless black undershirt, along with a short green skirt and a white sash around her waist. The rest of the young woman's outfit consisted of a pair of green almost knee-high boots and a pair of gold metal bands around her wrists. Hanging from the young woman's waist was a katana with a pine-green handle and a mint-green and gold scabbard.

Seeing that her opponent was fellow sylph, Leafa breathed a sigh of relief. "You must be Lotus, right? I'm sure you and I are going to have a fun battle."

"You don't remember me, do you?" Lotus asked with a cold expression.

Leafa suddenly got a very bad feeling. "Have… have we met before?"

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Lotus continued. "After all, there were a lot of us in the Order of Yig."

A chill went down Leafa's spine. "So… you were part of Donis's guild too, huh?"

"That's right. But I wasn't part of the inner circle like you were." Lotus answered. "I should've been though. After all… I was more deserving of Lord Donis than a tramp like you ever was!"

"I see… so you must've fallen for Donis pretty hard." Leafa realized.

"That's right!" Lotus confirmed as she drew her sword. "And this is my chance to make you pay for stealing him from me!"

As Leafa drew her own weapon, the holographic timer appeared above the battlefield and began its countdown. When the clock hit zero, Leafa charged at Lotus to do some damage before her opponent could make a move. Leafa had only gotten half way across the battlefield though when Lotus stretched her left hand forth and chanted a spell. Four balls of greenish-yellow light flew from the green-haired girl's palm towards and changed into a set of shuriken. Leafa turned her body to the left to avoid one of the star-shaped projectiles and blocked another two with her sword. The fourth shuriken hit Leafa in the leg though and took off a little over ten percent of her HP. Before Leafa could recover, Lotus charged in and slashed Leafa twice with her katana, taking the blonde's HP close to the yellow.

Leafa countered Lotus's third attack and managed to slash the green-haired girl in the arm, taking almost twenty percent off of Lotus's HP. Lotus countered Leafa's next attack though, and Leafa was forced to fall back to avoid another strike. The green-haired sylph chanted another spell and fired another set of energy shuriken from her hand. Leafa chanted her own spell and sent six balls of greenish-yellow light towards Lotus's projectiles. Both attacks collided and exploded, creating a huge cloud of smoke.

Using the smoke for cover, Leafa charged in through the cloud to launch a counterattack. Lotus was ready for the blonde though and quickly blocked Leafa's sword with her own. The green-haired girl then slashed Leafa across the stomach, taking her HP into the yellow. Afterwards, Lotus delivered a roundhouse kick to Leafa's gut that knocked her back a few feet. It took a few moments for Leafa to get back up.

"I didn't expect you to know the wind shuriken spell." Leafa remarked. "That's a pretty hard spell in this game to master. You're pretty good."

"You can spare me your praise." Lotus told her. "I know you don't mean a word of it. You may think I'm beneath you, but I'm going to prove that I was worthier of Lord Donis's love than you ever were."

"Lotus… you don't know who Donis really was." Leafa told her. "You may have thought that he loved you, but in the end he was just using you."

"And I suppose that you think that you're the one he truly loved." Lotus assumed.

"You're wrong! Donis used me too! He used every girl he brought into his guild!" Leafa told her. "We were all just pawns in his plan to take over this game. Lotus… Donis wasn't the man you thought he was. He wasn't even real!"

"Enough!" Lotus shot back. "I have no interest in what you have to say! You took Lord Donis from me, and I'm going to make you pay!"

Kirito and the rest of the gang were still in the tavern watching the tournament battles. Just as before, Agil had been assigned to watch Lisbeth's battle, and Klein and Siune were given the task of watching Leafa's fight so that Kirito and Yui could pay close attention to Asuna's battle with Sakuya. Almost ten minutes had gone by since the battle had started, and both Asuna and Sakyua were still quite even with each other.

"It's actually pretty amazing that mommy is able to keep up with Lady Sakuya, considering Ms. Sakuya's battle gear is giving her much greater speed." Yui remarked.

"Yeah, well even though Sakuya has the edge when it comes to speed right now, your mommy still has the edge in power." Kirito replied. "That's what's helping to make up for the difference."

"Well, Lisbeth just won her second fight." Agil informed the others. "And way under the time limit too. Of course, it wasn't a pretty fight. I never thought I'd see Liz be so aggressive."

"Yeah, well… I think we should be a little more worried about Leafa's fight right now, guys." Klein told them. "She's up against someone who was once part of the Order of Yig guild."

"Wait, what?" an alarmed Kirito exclaimed. "How's she doing?"

"She's holding her own, but the fight's getting pretty nasty." Klein answered. "You can probably guess that your sister's opponent is also someone who your copycat seduced and probably took to the sack with."

"The problem is that it looks like this woman, Lotus seems to have fallen pretty hard for Donis." Siune added. "She blames Leafa for stealing Donis away from her."

"Dammit!" Kirito cursed as he slammed the side of his fist into the table. "I was afraid that something like this might come up eventually. After all, the Order of Yig was a pretty big guild. Donis probably had his way with all of them."

"Yeah, and I'm sure a lot of 'em fell head over heels for that creep just like your sister, Liz and Sinon all did." Klein added. "This really is rotten luck."

"Where exactly are Leafa and her opponent fighting anyway?" Agil asked.

"In the lava caverns in salamander territory." Klein answered. "What's worse is that they were beamed down on a slab of rock in the middle of a lava river. If either of them falls off, their HP will go to zero in no time."

"Not a good space to be in for a fight that nasty." Agil replied. "Of course the good news is that Leafa has a pretty easy way to beat who she's up against."

"Yeah, but Sugu's opponent could do the same to her." Kirito pointed out. "I just hope she can finish her battle before it gets too out of hand."

Leafa and Lotus continued to clash swords, with neither one being able to land a blow. Yet while neither sylph was able to inflict damage on the other, Lotus was managing to push Leafa towards the edge of the island. Just when it seemed like Leafa was about to be pushed back into the lava, the blonde managed to break away and ran off to the right around the rim of the island so she could come at Lotus from the other side. Leafa had only gotten half way across though when Lotus another barrage of shuriken at the blonde. Two of the bladed projectiles missed, but the third caught Leafa in the shoulder while another caught her in the leg, causing her to trip and fall to her knees.

The attack had brought Leafa's HP close to the red zone. Before the blonde could get back to her feet, Lotus charged in with her sword raised and attempted to take off Leafa's head. Leafa managed to roll out of the path of Lotus's swing and dashed back to the opposite end of this island.

"Lotus, please! We shouldn't be fighting like this!" Leafa begged. "I totally get why you're so angry at me, but this fight isn't going to change the way things are now!"

"Wrong!" Lotus declared as she pointed the blade of her sword at Leafa. "By defeating you here, I will not only make you pay for stealing Lord Donis from me, I will also make you pay for eliminating him!"

"What?" a confused Leafa spoke.

"There have been rumors flying around about why Lord Donis hasn't been seen in ALO for months." Lotus continued. "One says that you betrayed Lord Donis to a band of other players jealous of his ability and helped to eliminate him! And somehow… you also helped to eliminate his character data from the game!"

Leafa let out a heavy sigh. "Lotus… I told you before… Donis wasn't even real. He was only an NPC that was created because someone hacked ALO and put in a virus to alter the game. He may have been the perfect guy… the guy who almost every girl in ALO wanted as her prince… but he was only an illusion! The man you fell in love with… the man we both fell in love with… was nothing but a fantasy."

"…So what?" Lotus asked in a low voice, surprising Leafa. "Even if what you're saying is true, it doesn't change the fact that I still loved him!"

"Lotus…" Leafa spoke.

"Now that you've admitted your crimes, there's nothing more holding me back from doing what I have to!" Lotus declared. "In the name of Lord Donis, I'm going to make you pay!"

Please review and let me know what you think.