Chapter 25: Heathcliff
At the end of the day, my house was always the go-to spot to collect my thoughts. It was great, having a base of operations. I read my memo carefully, thinking, planning.
To do
Test Shadow Blade skill. Possible areas include: 73rd floor livewood forest, 70th floor goblin mines, 74th floor, front line dungeon (Danger, test first)
Rejoin front lines
Get 7 livewood chips
Restock on steel throwing pins.
Silica walked in on me as I scrolled through my memo list. She yawned and stretched. "Mm… Good morning, Ten-kun."
"...Morning." I didn't look up. "I hope you don't mind omelette for breakfast, because I didn't have a lot else on me."
"That's fine. I told you, you can leave breakfast to me if you like."
She was dressed in her favourite light-green gown, a sign that she wasn't planning on leaving the house till much later. Pina the dragon flew gently from her stand in the corner of the room, over to its owner and gently crowed, greeting its master good morning.
"Yeah, I suppose you're the one with the higher cooking stat…" I deterred her absentmindedly as I continued to think what else to type down on the memo function.
"What are you going to be doing today?" She asked as she sat down at the table.
"Nothing much… I'll be testing something about my new skill, then probably rejoin the frontlines." I needed to know the boundaries of my skill. Unique skill or no, it did not render me invincible, and that was something I had to watch out for. "I shouldn't flaunt it in public, either way, or people will be tracking me down to ask about it."
"You, keeping a low profile? That's a first." Silica grinned as she poured herself tea from the pot.
"Oh, thanks. Nice to see you have faith in me." I deadpanned as she giggled in response. "What about you? Training with Lisbeth again?"
"Mmm… Maybe." She cut a piece of the omelette in front of her and put it in her mouth. "I might just go down to the 50th floor market to get ingredients for dinner: we're running low on food that isn't boring."
"I'm glad you appreciate my cooking." I rolled my eyes as she giggled yet again.
It had been about three days since my meeting with Argo, and much as I was ecstatic about her return, she didn't want her return to be too public. Her cover story was that, for a while, she had been undercover, trying to get new information on a secret boss. With this, no one could question where she had gone, or why she had removed all her clients: unexpected PMs could give her away if she was hiding. I was just glad she was back to her old self, to be honest.
Meanwhile, the front liners were getting frustrated with the boss dungeon: it had been four days, and no one had even found it.
Definitely gotta head to the 70th floor. 73rd is still populated and the front lines is stupidly populated. I don't want people knowing about this skill, or they'll all be asking me about it.
"Well, I'll be headed out." I got up and began to head for the door. "I'll be back by six, and all that."
"Right!" Silica responded as the sunshine hit my face.
"Oh and…" I stopped her again. She turned back to me and waited. "Don't make plans for tomorrow, we're going out for a da-"...
…
WHY THE HELL IS IT SO HARD TO SAY THE WORD DATE?!
"We're going to what?" Silica raised an eyebrow.
"We're going out for a d-... daytrip."
"Oh, okay!" She beamed radiantly back at me. "Thanks!
You know what, close enough.
The 70th floor was perfect, in that the town's safe zone was very easily accessible, and the monsters that spawned were weak, albeit spawning in massive amounts. Just what I needed to test a new skill.
Okay… let's see what we have here?
I opened up my menus and found the Shadow Blade skill. Under each skill every skill was a list of usable skill names, so dual knives would hold all my knife skills, like Quadrastab and Close Crush Combat.
Under Shadow Blade, I found an all new set of skills, unlike any I had seen before.
Shadow Blade (97/200)
Lust
Greed
Envy
Wrath
Pride
What kind of skills were these? It sounded like some cult thing… as far as I knew, SAO held little-to-no religious references. What the hell were these, then? One by one, I clicked on each skill, reading them thoroughly.
Lust
An addition to any existing skill. Increases blade length and break. Cooldown time: 3 seconds.
Break was the additional factor that allowed one to break through defences and shields easier. So if I had a blade of break 5, it would take me 10 hits to break through a defensive stance or shield of break 50. Once a defence was broken, the shield or defensive stance would be forced away from it's defensive position, giving leeway for a follow-up attack. A skill that increased break? That was pretty good.
Greed
Lashes at the 3 closest targets by splitting the blade. Cooldown time: 5 seconds
Woah… A skill for several enemies? Definitely useful, especially when you couldn't think.
Envy
Black envy flies out at enemies, erasing targets. Ranged skill. Cooldown time: 30 seconds
Very interesting… Yet somehow, as I read these amazing abilities, a sense of unease was settling in my stomach. Were such powerful skills even allowed in the game?
Wrath
Combo skill (-). Extreme energy is channeled into the users weapons. Increased blade length and critical hit ratio for the duration of this combo. Duration of this combo is dependant on user energy.
A combo skill! Combo skills were rare, since most SAO's skills were one-off attacks. Players were expected to string together combos by themselves; Argo, as a melee fighter without weapons - unless you counted her fisticuffs - could string together a fifteen hit combo without system aid. An amazing feat, even amongst front liners. So a twenty hit combo was stupidly powerful... But then again, that was what Shadow blade seemed to be good at being.
Now for the last one.
Pride
Induced darkness. The manifestation of pure pride, channeled into an energy field. Cooldown time: 72 hours. Don't be afraid of the dark.
I froze. This skill... I must have activated it on the first day, with the Arocromantula. This was what caused such a surge in power and strength. With a cool down time of 72 hours... that was insane. This was a skill that would have to be used with caution... And definite care.
There was only one way to test these skills: first-hand!
I brought up my blades and walked forward, slowly, waiting for the first sign of an enemy spawn. Sure enough, a set of three white lights soon signaled the spawning of three monsters. They were strange monsters, like giant mushrooms, with cruel, twisted mouths and red, glowing eyes. A name popped up above their health bars: Fungrushes. They advanced slowly, drooling acid from their mouths.
Perfect targets for testing new skills. I lunged my knife forward, intent on getting the first blow in. As I did, I gripped my handle hard and threw myself into my first skill.
-Lust-
Immediately, the blade lengthened, and a shadow burst out from sound my hand, and the connection between me and the weapon was soon shrouded in dark clouds. The forefront of the blade, however, showed no shadows, though it was jet-black and exceedingly sharp. The blade thrust through the monster's skin like paper, and it's health went down by half.
No time to think, I tore the weapon out of the monster in an uppercut, then swung around into a second skill.
-Envy-
Black liquid flew from my weapon, seemingly melting off the black blade - yet the weapon was as hard and large as ever - and landed on the two remaining targets. They shrieked inhuman cries of pain as the liquid exploded and threw them back.
I barrelled into one of the monsters and stabbed it down the centre of it's eyes, causing massive damage. I would have launched a stab skill, but my attention was diverted by a slash coming from the second monster. I parried with my other knife, leaving me stunned for a whole second.
The mushroom-like enemy threw me off, then leapt forward and struck at my arm, causing an 8% decrease in health.
"Oh no, you didn't!" I yelled angrily, as I regained movement.
-Double Circular-
The huge swings landed on the monster, and it blew up it white polygons. Instantly, I kicked off the ground in the reverse direction of my swing.
-Reversal-
My dragon-hide boot landed in the final monster's face, finishing it off. Suddenly, I was the only functioning object standing.
That... was insane!
The power of these Shadow Blade skills worked so well with the fluidity of my fighting style, a style I had worked on to make up for my high-strength-medium-speed stat distribution. These skills increased my range, worked fast and powerfully, and caused an illusion of high speed. Perfect!
A slow handclap behind me caused me to spin around, knives aloft.
It was a grey-haired player with an enormous shield, almost as tall as he was. I recognised him from his presence in floor boss fights.
"Very good work, Tensei-kun. I'd never expected someone else to fight with such grace and finesse, unique skill or no."
"Heathcliff!" I was slightly wary, though I knew no reason to be. Except one... "With all due respect, what the hell are you doing here?"
"Oh, I just decided to visit a few lower floors, and what a coincidence that I should get to see The Dualist in action!" He laughed merrily, as though we had been close for a long time. Truth be told, I'd only ever talked to him on official floor boss business.
"...if you don't mind my saying so, Heathcliff, in the immortal words of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, I don't believe in coincidences."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...Sorry." I grimaced. "My foreign side is showing through again."
"...Well then, unknown foreign names aside, I couldn't help but notice the unique skill you displayed. I've never seen such shadowed blades before."
"If you don't mind, sir, I've been trying to keep this to myself... For privacy reasons. I'd like if this could stay between us, for now." I added some formality to my tone, careful to hold him in a generous light - the last thing I needed was for him to blow the big secret.
"Hmm... I see." He scratched his chin thoughtfully, as though stroking an incredibly short beard. "It seems like a reasonable request. However, I'd like a little compensation." He gave a little smile, looking a little less pleasant. "It would be interesting to see a unique skill against another, no?"
This guy… Isn't he aware I could accidentally hurt him? And if his skill is as good as mine, the opposite could occur…
"With all due respect, if I refuse, sir?"
"Well, then, I can't promise your secret will be safe." His smile was growing more into a smirk. "It's not an unreasonable request, Dualist. I'm not asking that you beat me - I just want a duel. Win or lose, your secret is safe."
...You sneaky devil…
"Fine." I sighed. "Guess I don't have a lot of choice."
"Ah, good!" He brightened up. "Bear in mind that I've had a little longer with my skill than you have had yours, so do be careful."
…
The window appeared in front of me, as I expected.
Player Heathcliff has challenged you to a duel!
Duel type: Deathmatch
Safetynet: 75%
"...I hope this is worth the trouble."
"Oh, it will be." He insisted. " I can feel it."
5...4...3…
To say I wasn't nervous would be a lie.
2...1…
But what choice did I have, really?
GO!
I took the first move: A direct jab at his face. It was a predictable move, but I needed to test the waters: How fast was he, and how was his reaction time, as a seemingly older adult?
My answer: More than capable.
In an instant, his shield moved up to block the strike. As he did, I twisted around in a skill
-Double Circular-
His shield predicted my slashes from the right, but as soon as I'd finished, my foot kicked off the ground to attack his open left.
-Reversal-
His response was to swing his shield clockwise, knocking my foot aside. Without warning, the whole mass of his shield lunged forward, bashing me backwards and forcing me to retreat.
I stumbled back and regained my balance. This man's defensive fighting style was irritating, unsuited for dual-knivers like myself. Luckily, I had Shadow Blade to boost my break.
He lunged at me with surprising speed, then threw his whole shield forward in a jab. I ducked just in time, backed up so he wouldn't trap me with his enormous shield, then sliced forward with a Shadow Blade skill.
-Lust-
Immediately, my left blade lengthened and sharpened. I stabbed at the shield, hoping the increase break would help me, but no joy. I kept slashing at the shield, insistent on breaking it.
"Come, now, you have more than that!" Heathcliff laughed. His shield simply wouldn't be surpassed. Dammit! How did he get one as powerful as that?
"We'll see about that!" I wrapped around his left side and struck out in yet another skill.
-Polaris strike-
My knife glowed orange as I held it in reverse and lunged forward, pointing the blade forward and backing it up with my other hand for strength. Immediately, Heathcliff parried with his long, silver sword. But I wasn't done yet.
-Cross Lunge-
-Lust-
My blade lengthened just as the skill took over. Heathcliff managed just to shear my off to the side with his blade, and the momentum of the skill took me past him.
I wasn't going to let that stop me!
As I flew past him, my right foot came up and kicked him in the arm, just under his armour's shoulder pad. He grunted, then drew back as I came to a halt, two metres away.
"Impressive... Your style is so fluid, it's almost impossible to predict." He muttered. A tiny mark had been made on his health, but it was almost unnoticeable. My health had also been marked by his shield's attack.
Heathcliff's health: 97%
My health: 92%
"When attacked, counter-attack." He smiled, then ran towards me with renewed vigour. I met his challenge head on, and dodged to the right when his blade sliced right past my cheek. On instinct, I attacked back, but his shield was once again in the way.
I refuse to believe that this shield is invincible!
-Close Crush Combat-
-Lust-
I ducked low under his blade as my blades were instantly transformed IMO black spikes, leaving tendril of darkness flowing past my arm. The increased break and length of the blades caused blows of surprising force to rain on his shield. I could sense his surprise, as he abandoned his counter attack and focused on my blades, slashing and slicing from above, below, from left to right, stabbing at odd angles. I was close to breaking his defence, I could feel it! As the combo came to an end, I leapt back and flung another skill at him.
-Envy-
The black shadows flew from my blade, smashing into his shield and each creating small, invisible explosions. Something had to give - something did give - and his shield flew backwards.
Defence broken!
I leapt forward, eager to finish him off and end the duel, when suddenly-
FLASH.
What th-
A blinding white light came from nowhere, taking my by surprise. I couldn't see, my vision blurry and disoriented by the suddenly flash. I stumbled forward, and suddenly, there was a great slash, a feeling of cold as Heathcliff's blade struck my right side, and my health went down severely.
My health: 74%
GAME SET
WINNER: Heathcliff
I breathed out, slightly disappointed, when Heathcliff once again was clapping.
"A great duel! You should be proud! Not many can break my shield's defence. Unique skill or no, you have talent!"
"You flatter me, sir." I scratched my head shyly. "Yours is nothing to laugh at either. That last skill was it, no?"
"Indeed. The Holy Blade skill. I was hoping I could manage to defeat you without using it, but you exceeded my expectations, and thus, I was forced to." He sheathed his sword in a single movement. "That skill was one known as "Redemption." It casts a blinding light that confuses opponents for about ten seconds."
"Hm." I couldn't say I wasn't bitter about losing. But I was beaten, fair and square. "This will stay between us, then? My skill?"
"Oh, yes indeed. I'm a man of my word. In fact, why don't you have a little compensation yourself? Come with me, to the centre town."
I followed him shyly. I had to admire his assured relaxedness, his cunning shrewdness. It was calming, yet impressive. We came to a set of tables, and he opened his inventory. Manipulating it quickly, he clicked on a single object, and before our eyes materialised two bottles.
"Have a drink, I think you deserve this."
I was surprise, but accepted the bottle. I tapped it and read the holographic description as it came up.
Vintell liquor
A rare, delicious brew, made in Vintell. Few bottles can ever be found outside of the city of Vintell, as they distribute only to a lucky few..
"Where did you get this, sir?" I was surprised. I'd never heard of a town called Vintell.
"I procured it in a bar on the 74th floor." He waves it aside shortly. "And another thing, no need to call me sir; Heathcliff will do." He tutted as he opened his bottle. "I don't stand on ceremony much."
I opened the bottle and sniffed it. A floral brew, to be sure. Light coloured. I took a carefully measure gulp and was pleasantly surprised to find its bittersweet warmth to my liking.
"It's wonderful, si- Heathcliff. Thank you!" I burst out honestly, then flushed from having said something so open and honest; it was almost childish. He himself gave a little smile before sipping his own drink.
There was a comfortable silence between us as we sipped our drinks, before I quietly broke it.
"If I could ask your opinion, Heathcliff?"
"Ask away, Tensei."
"...what do you think of Kayaba Akihiko?"
Whatever question he was expecting, it was not that. He looked at me a little harder than before, then asked. "Why do you ask me?"
"Well, I just thought you'd have your own opinion of the man, you being a frontliner of such high esteem an all... You don't have to answer, if you don't want to."
"I see..."
He stared off into the horizon that was still blue, though about to come to a sunset. His eyes were thoughtful, but he did not answer, and for a moment, I thought he wasn't going to. Then he spoke quietly.
"Wherever the man is... He must be well hidden. I've always imagined that he had his own motives and beliefs... And I think, if anything has driven him to do this..." He sighed. "I, myself, cannot guess what it was that drove him to do this. But I'm sure, looking back at the deaths and misery he has caused, I would think, no, hope, that he would feel some degree of remorse."
He had clearly given this some thought. He tapped his bottle once, then took another carefully measured gulp.
"What about you, Tensei? What do you think of Kayaba Akihiko?"
"Me?" I was taken by surprise; I'd only asked him because he seemed wise and experienced.
"Yes. I'd be interested in seeing a youth's view in any subject."
"... You make it sound as though you're a grandparent."
"T-that was not my intention."
I chuckled a little bit, relaxed and gave him my honest opinion.
"To be honest, I don't know. He used to be my hero. If you've read his interviews and stories, he is an amazingly talented man. But to do all this..."
He seemed to listen carefully, as though searching for something in my words.
"... I don't know. I don't hate him, for what he's done, but-"
"You don't?" He interrupted sharply. I turned my head towards him in surprise. "I'm sorry, but I'd have expected most to hate him for trapping us in this world, no?"
"Well..." I took a deeper swig of the drink. "I originally did. So many deaths, so many broken ties, all because of one man... But really. the man never wanted to cause death and panic, I'm sure. After all... I never want to forget my time here. I've had some life-changing experiences here, I've broken out of my shell a little more, I've met someone I love, I've deepened bonds with many other friends... And really, if the man was really all that evil, we wouldn't be sitting here, drinking this delicious drink!"
"... You're not getting drunk from it are you?"
"Sorry." I coughed, realizing that my voice had been becoming increasingly loud. He smiled and pointed towards the now-setting sun.
"There will be a time, some day in the future, where we may have the chance to meet the man personally. If the result falls to you, I want you to remind him of what he has done... Both good and bad."
"Wait, how do you know that?" I asked. He seemed to certain. That reassurance came in the form of a swift smile.
"Call it intuition, if you will. Mine is usually right." He turned and bowed to me. "It's been an enjoyable evening with you. I'll be off now."
Just like that, he walked off, leaving an impressive silence in his wake.
That man... He's smart. Very smart.
Then I glanced at my heads-up-display: 6:10pm
Aw crap, Silica's going to kill me if I'm late again...
T/N: End quote!
How was that? Different, right? Yeah I know… This one was a little emptier. We're coming up to the end now; as this chapter is going on, Kirito and Asuna are actually fighting the 74th floor boss, wrecking it with his godlike, overpowered dualblading. Geh.
So, you guys have been asking for an update, and I have given you an update! That's a thing!
HOWEVER.
Before we go into the review section today, I have to say something negative about a reviewer today. I didn't want to do this, but I'm fairly irritated by it, which is rare, I know.
A reviewer going by the name of Antex-The Legendary Zoroark has started reading my story. He read it from the beginning, and decided the smart course of action would be to put in 22 reviews over my 24 chapters.
No. Just no.
If you all wish to review my story, I implore you, simply leave one review at the end of ALL the chapters. You may not understand why this is an unpleasant experience for me, but I refuse to have that sort of spam. Antex, if you are reading this, I would advise you not to do it again. I literally felt like I was listening to someone rant over a reality TV show, raving about who they would like to see eliminated.
No.
Okay, negativity over, let's get to the reviews!
Kirigaya-Asuna54 - I'm glad I can provide this sort of entertainment to you all! It's a pleasure, really!
1crazyshadow - Ah, but alas, one thing the fanfiction community would do well to remember is that not everyone receives a pairing in a story. Appreciate the enthusiasm though!
Romance Dagger - I'm happy to provide this sort of emotional response :D
COShepard - Yes, many seem to love Argo more than Silica (Lookin at you, Yuki), but unfortunately, we don't all get what we want.
furaiz - spoiler alert, but I can fully confirm that this is as close to canon as you can get: Kirito will still fight the final fight, and I will not steal that from him
Hammiam - Ah, uh… I see! That's a thing. Thanks for reading!
Water - Well, you're excited xD. You don't have to worry too much about exclamation marks, because I have too many friends who use those. I'm used to it.
thatguy322 - Um… I'm going to have to ask you to spellcheck and grammarcheck before sending me that review, because I have no idea what you just said.
Kiriya Musashi - I command thou mind to unblow itself!
Naruto4Evar - Thank you! Though that's not quite where I got my inspiration from. Read the bottom of this T/N to understand where I got the idea.
Partsu - How you think that will make me tell you where I am, I don't know. xD
Syclone903 - Oh Jesus, Sy, don't do this to me, I don't know what to tell you. I'm extremely hesitant to change the plot in favour of another character - too many links to Silica have already been made, and I'm not sure it's gonna work, killing her off. Okay, since you seem to be pretty good at compromising, let's do another. I can't make Argo completely happy, I really can't, however, I can promise you that Argo will not fade, she will have her moments with me. Believe me, I like her a lot too, now I've developed her so much, but to completely swing the plot the other way won't work. I will promise, however, that Argo will not give up, for now, and will have a few more moments before the fic is done. Maybe more than Silica; I don't know. But I can say only one thing. I compromise.
On another note, I haven't really seen a good fic with Silica in it. I tried a story with some guy that had mood swings, but that one just sucked. And finally, I ask you to refer to the bottom of this T/N, because it's not Sora's shadow blade that influenced me. In fact, I didn't even realize he had one. xD
Sorafireice - Oookay… hi.
Amulet Misty - Hiya! It's really been a while, and I'm glad you enjoyed this one. I'm still considering a killing :3…
topi - Damn. You have my support, man. If I can provide any sort of entertainment or comfort, that's what I'll do. Stay sharp.
BlazeShadow: There were 6 unique skills, actually. One, which I forgot, Dual Blade, Holy Blade, Shadow Blade (Or Darkness Blade), Shurikenjutsu (The skill of using concealed weapons), and Infinite Spear (a telescoping spear, styled weapon skill).
Coolmon16 - No.
Aaand end. Shoutout to Luminosity, who poked me on my Steam Chat Messages constantly to get this chapter updated! xD
Luminousity: I'm waiting for you to update your storyyy.
Tensei Kano : I'm waiting for you to grow a brain and that hasn't happened so.
Luminousity! :(
:3
And finally, before I close out, Shadow Blade's inspiration was a mix of Full Metal Alchemist's "Pride" Homunculus, with a dash of the Kuriyama Mirai's cursed blood from Kyoukai no Kanata.
Next chapter will most likely be a Silica POV. Any other questions, poke me through PM or Reviews!
Tensei out!