A/N: Hello again! Last chapter was a long one, and I'm uploading again, so If I write and upload one more a new life this week, I'll have caught up on the holiday, but sadly that's unlikely to happen. Please enjoy! Really appreciate the reviews!


Chapter 44.

GO!

Kazuto charged forward, starting with the same tactic as the previous battle. An blast of energy scorched past him, and briefly distracted him. He turned his head back and Switchblade was already on top of him. He ducked his head and slid on his knees, he heard his friends cheering. He put his swords in an X shape across his face and the whip lashed and tangled around the blades. He pulled forward, and Switchblade flew over his head.

They both got to their feet, and dove back into battle. The whip was effective, the shadows tangling round the unconventional weapon making it as solid as any blade, or, if needed, extremely flexible.

He switched between solid and whip like structures, forcing Kazuto to be on the defensive and constantly change his strategy. Switchblade wasn't fast, but for what he lacked in speed, he made up for in strength, tactics and technique.

He fired another blast of energy from his hand, firing from his hip, forcing Kazuto to make a split second decision to slide, or to jump. Instead, Kazuto dodged to the right, chanted one of the only spells he knew, and instantly activated it. Suddenly, there were three Kazutos, but it didn't fool Switchblade.

"Is that the best you can do?" He laughed as he cut down two of them, slashing at the third 'real' Kazuto.

"Oh yes." He heard from behind him, he was confused, Kazuto was in front of him.

Then his HP was drained by a third, he dived, rolled, and stood in one fluid motion.

"W-what!?" He readied himself. Kazuto walked forward, both swords glowing a sunset orange.

"The thing is, people think that spell only creates two illusions either side of you. But that's false. If you upgrade it enough, it creates three illusions, then teleports you behind the target. Cool eh?"

"Very cool. But why did you tell me that? Now you can't use it again..."

"I wasn't planning too. And you would have figured out anyway, now I'm sure that you know."

"Hmm. Clever."

Switchblade charged forward, whip solidified, crashing down with a crack. Kazuto had already moved, the dust flew up as the whip hit the ground, Kazuto had activated duel ultimate. A move he rarely used because of it's unusually long recovery time, but that was not problem with duel weapons. He had a plan.

First, he moved so fast it looked like he was teleporting to each spot he stopped, then, he slashed up into the air, so he had his back turned to the target, but was still air born. Switchblade activated Magic skill, shadowed defence.

Kazuto turned midair, swung down so both his swords slashed through the target and hit the floor. He pushed off with his heel stabbing through the target, he pulled out spun, slashed at the legs. Now he had an whole three seconds of recovery time, but that didn't matter, his swords had already began to glow green, and he was in the position of sonic leap.

He looked at his opponent's HP bar. Less than 200 HP had been taken.

"What! That should have taken him out!" He screamed in his head as he flew through the air.

The shadows enveloped around Switchblade disappeared, and Switchblade caught Kazuto by his neck, and threw him to the ground.

"That skill really takes it out of me. Luckily, so does your skill."

Switchblade got up first by half a second, and slashed upwards with his whip, using a skill so powerful, Kazuto was sent flying across the stadium and hit the back wall.

Switchblade jumped the distance in less that a second, and Kazuto moved his head just as the solidified whip penetrated thee back wall. He ducked, dashed to the side, and tried to slice at his side. It was blocked by a wall of shadows. His swords bounced off like a ping pong ball on a table tennis table.

"Dang." He was caught with a shadowed back hand, which sent him back a few steps. His HP was teetering on the red zone. He had to change his strategy. And fast.

"Good match my friend." Switchblade said, spitting virtual blood.

"Oh, it's not over yet."

"I hope not! I'm having a blast!"

Both of them grinned, and charged forward. Switchblade expected an upwards slash then a lock in the middle, where he could use his free hand to blast Kazuto's stomach. He was wrong. Unfortunately for him.

Kazuto jumped over the target, just as his whip came down to parry the suspected upwards slash. He flipped mid air, slashing across the target's back. He stumbled forward, but Kazuto was faster. He had slid underneath his legs, and stabbed at his groin.

The audience winced, even though there was no pain.

Switchblade was on a sliver of health, and beamed as he saw the blades, those beautiful blades, come flying towards him, at too fast a speed to dodge. The two blades struck his chest, and he turned into a red flame. Salamander.

The duel skill, blade throw. The name says it all. The user could either throw one sword, and charge forward with his second, ripping it out as he performed an upwards slash, or risk it all by throwing both blades.

Kazuto smiled, revived Switchblade, sheathed his blades, and shook his hand as he left the arena.

"Great match."

"It'd be a pleasure to fight such an amazing warrior such as yourself once again. Here." He sent Kazuto a friend request. "Let's do this again sometime."

"Well would you look at that! Kirito the black swordsman, strongest player in Sao upholds his name! Next on the list is... Oh wow. This is going to be a great match ladies and gentlemen! Another Sao player, the fastest player there is, The lightning flash herself! Asuna! Also she is Kirito's lover, so this should be interesting."

Kazuto widened his eyes as he saw Asuna's undine figure revealed.

She walked up to him and whispered in his ear.

"Hey Hun. Listen very carefully. Azmear is in the contestant waiting room, he didn't notice me, but he is here. I'm don't want to fight you, but he plans to crash this duel. He is going to finish you off, so you don't hit me, I don't hit you, we wait for him to attack, ok?"

"I said I didn't want you to fight."

"I don't care. We fight together." She pecked his cheek, and took her place. Then. Kirito had an Idea. He clicked on the duel mode least used in ALO. Point mode. Neither parties took any damage, it was like a kendo game, but in ALO.

He activated the microphone Yoyo had given him, should he need it.

"Hey all of you. Kirito here. I wasn't expecting to fight my girlfriend today, so I'm doing something a little different. I hope it's still entertaining. We are going to do point mode."

There were a mix of applause and booing, but Kazuto ignored it.

He readied his weapons, and faced off against his future and virtual wife.

3.

2.

1.

GO!

He stepped back, and let Asuna charge. He took a step to the left and jabbed at her side, completely expecting the parry he received.

They exchanged jabs and slashed, parrying and blocking, unable to get a single hit on one another.

"So where's that Nitro guy?" Kazuto asked blocking another attack. Asuna followed up with a jab.

"I paid him for the ticket, said I'd get him a private duel with you in return."

"Fair enough." He grinned.

They used Max level sword skills and 7-9 hit combos, Asuna using her mother Rosario 11 hit combo sword skill twice.

Kazuto used starburst stream, keeping Asuna on the defensive for a whole 26 hit combo, then seamlessly linked into a modified version of double circular, using four hits instead of two. Asuna blocked all of it, then started pushing Kirito back with her own moves.

"YIPEEEE!" Azmear shouted as he charged into the arena. He smashed Kazuto in the side with a mace, and kicked Asuna away. "Hey guys! I couldn't resist! Sorry... I can't do anything to you physically in this game, which is a shame. Aha. So. Would you like to duel?"

The couple stood up, and faced their opponent, weapons ready.

"That's the whole point of this event... Dumbass." Kazuto retorted.

"Come now, be civil. Well. A normal duel is boring... So why don't we raise the stakes? Let's do a bet duel." He sent Kirito and Asuna a tag team bet duel invite.

"I'm going to bet... My address. The place I am right now."

"And we have to bet..."

"Hmm. Silica's life."

"What!? No! You can't kill her in game anyway!"

"Take a look at her avatar." They both turned to the younger girl they all adored, and saw two words and a time underneath.

Player disconnected. 7m. 46s.

Oh god. Kazuto thought.

"You bastard."

"Hey now, you know what I am trying to do."

Kazuto stopped speaking, and accepted the duel. He narrowed his eyesight.

"Great!" Azmear said, then motioned to Yoyo. "Microphone please!" Yoyo granted the request.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Tonight we have a very special duel! Asuna and Kirito here will fight in a bet duel against me and my right hand man, I will bet my location in real life, as me and him have some unfinished business. He will bet, Although unwillingly, his friends life!" The crowd gasped and stared muttered in shock, "Who are you rooting for!?" He treated this as a game. Scum. Kazuto thought.

"Go Kirito!" The crowd cheered.

"Hmm. Fine." His tag team partner walked into the arena, wielding Nun-chuks.

"Hey, I'll be teaming up with my boss here. I'm Ghoster, pleasure to make your acquaintance. I believe we have met in Paris?" He chuckled, Kazuto ignored him.

"I got Azmear Hun, you get Michelangelo over there." Whispered whispered.

She nodded and walked over to him.

"Remember. Switch." Asuna was confused for a second, and then understood. They were going to work as a team, quick, brutal and efficient.

GO!

~Lisbeth. 7:45pm.

Lisbeth ran. She ran. She ran for her friend. Her dear friend, who did everything with her. From stalking Kazuto and Asuna to listening to her dirty jokes, she was always there, and Lisbeth had never had the chance to tell the younger girl how great of a friend she was.

She burst into Keiko's house, ran up the stairs, noticing the lack of any parents. Normally they were out for work, she just hoped that was the case.

Once she entered her room, she started trembling. She saw a creepy guy, probably one of Azmear's grunts, lingering over her bound body, caressing her face. He had a syringe in one hand, and was threatening her with it. Lisbeth crept up on the guy, and jumped on his back, grabbing the syringe and trying to release his grip. She got the syringe, but was thrown off his back into the wall. She tossed the syringe out the open window, Keiko always had an open window when she dived, how useful it had become.

The creep sneered, and strode towards Lisbeth, pulling her up by her hair. He slammed her head onto Keiko's desk, and she started to feel the blood trickle down her head. She started to fight back, but couldn't shake his grip.

~Sinon.

Sinon ran, she hadn't been friends with this girl for very long, but her innocence and kindness had touched her, and she would hate to see such a lovely human being hurt. She ran as far as she could, Five minutes of running after getting off the train, she passed the dicey cafe, and started to close in on Keiko's house, at least she hoped she was at the correct house. She had only been over there once for Keiko's birthday girls only sleepover. She just hoped she could make it in time. She wished Klein could help, but sadly he was diving from almost three hours away from their current position. He would never make it in time. She heard struggling, and saw a broken syringe, and rushed into the house.


A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Please review! I really appreciate all your support! Don't you guys forget that! Haha, thanks for reading, see you all next week!