The Centipede
Chapter 3: Extra Skill - Martial Arts
The second floor resembled the first in many ways. The most similar feature was that both floors were primarily a large grassland biome. But unlike the lush, emerald, prairies of the first floor, Floor 2 was drenched in shades of gold and brown as it was seventy percent savannah. Instead of smooth hills, the second floor had rocky mountain ranges that dotted the map and also stretched around the border, with one particularly tall mountain in the southern region of the floor. With all the different-sized mountains clustered around the floor, numerous caves lined across the cliffs, leading to either dead-ends, or the giant system underground, or even a dungeon. The second floor was also home to mostly Bovine monsters such as large bulls and Minotaurs, but sharing the habitat were the large, meter-long wasps that were black with green stripes and had pickaxe-sized stingers. They were known as [ Wind Wasps ].
A little over one week had passed since the defeat of Illfang at the hands of the forty-five players who risked their lives to prove that the game was beatable. The news ignited a flame in many people's hearts and minds, and now there are over three hundred 'new' players out in the fields of Floor 1, along with fifty or so coming up to the second floor.
During this time, as Hei had predicted, Kirito remained solo...for the most part anyway. There were two days where the two boys partied up to complete several collect quests that required them to do things like slaughter herds of [ Raging Bulls ] for their hooves or kill enough [ Lesser Taurus Strikers ] until they acquired eighty nose-rings, for smelting, according to their NPC quest giver. Hei had also sent him a friend request during their first boss victory feast while they were munching on the roasted eye, which Kirito had accepted.
However, most of the time, the red-eyed boy would be in the same party as Asuna, who was now also on his Friends List. The two were a deadly duo, overwhelming nearly all opponents with speed and precise attacks targeting vulnerable areas that usually dealt [ Critical Damage ]. Because of this, the little team of two had a building reputation of being the party with the fastest quest completion rate.
Currently, Hei and Asuna had just returned to Floor 2's main settlement [ Urbus ] from a day of cleaning out the Labyrinth and locating the next boss room. Good progress was being made clearing the second floor, as only two days ago, the floor's field boss the [ Bullbous Bow ] was defeated by half of the same raid group that took on Illfang. By the afternoon of that same day, the hunt for the next floor boss had already begun.
The team of two trudged over to an NPC blacksmith store in the center of town. The NPC was a big, burly man with a medium-sized beard, wearing nothing but a pair of brown trousers, leather shoes, and a ragged and stained apron over the front of his body. He waved at the both of them as they pushed open the doors to his store.
"Adventurers! You're finally back, do you have the things I requested? The pay will certainly be worth it!" He said heartily behind the counter.
"It better be," the duo muttered simultaneously with weary glares. They exchanged glances and nodded before swiping open their menu to pull out two distinct hills of drops, which they slammed onto the blacksmith's counter. The second the items touched the counter, they spilled across the wooden surface covering every inch of it.
"Eighty Wind Wasp stingers!" Hei exclaimed as he pointed at the mountain of drops.
"And eighty Taurus Charger horns!" Asuna cried in equal annoyance, while she was also thrusting a finger at the pile of horns and stingers.
"Excellent! You adventurers are always the best at doing jobs like this!" The blacksmith praised and accepted the pile of drops happily, "And now I will keep my word, here is your payment,"
The blacksmith gently tossed two bags of Col to the duo and they caught them rather easily.
"One thousand, just like I promised," the blacksmith said with a big smile, "Thank you for today, see you next time!"
With that, the team of two left the store.
"We're finally done," Hei groaned as he stretched his arms.
"Yeah," Asuna sighed that quickly transitioned into a yawn, "Who knew that collecting a hundred and sixty items would take… Six hours!"
"Ugh, we started at lunch and now the sun is already going down," muttered Hei, "At least the reward was good,"
"One thousand col, nothing more nothing less," replied Asuna, "Well, we should head back to the inn and get some rest before we head out again,"
Hei nodded in agreement, "Right, let's go,"
It didn't take long to locate their temporary residence as they had made the same trip multiple times since coming to this floor. The inn was the largest on the entire floor, it was a basic-looking, large medieval building with four floors, in the shape of a rectangular prism, and built out of stone and wood. Before it was a central hub for all the high-level players focused on clearing the floor, but ever since the defeat of the Field Boss nearly all of them had moved to a town directly next to the Labyrinth. Thus, Urbus's large inn was now rather quiet and mainly housed the several lower-level players who had just entered the second floor, along with Hei and Asuna who both didn't want to move until the Boss Room was found, as they had mutually agreed that it would be a waste of Col to do so. The Labyrinth wasn't necessarily far from the main settlement either, just a two-hour trek on foot when following the dirt path, or just one hour if they sprinted through the savannah, like athletes high on supplements.
"So what's the next quest we're doing?" Asuna asked, looking back at her companion as she pushed open the door to the stone building.
Hei, who was checking the list in his menu, responded without looking up, "We must find a cow with a Golden Udder and...milk...it?"
"W-What?!" Asuna sputtered, stopping in her tracks, "H-How do we even-?"
"I don't know," The red-eyed boy shrugged, "That's what the Quest Description says, maybe we're supposed to kill it and hope for it to drop its Golden Udder? Or we cut it off? Or one of us lures it and stalls it with grass or something while the other person goes in for the...milking,"
Asuna shuddered and entered the building, "I hope it's the first one,"
"Me too," Hei said, "Besides we didn't even get a cup or a bucket when we accepted this quest, if the game really wants us to milk it the traditional way then that NPC would've given us something to contain it in. It's not like he'll make us cup the milk in our hands as we run back to town,"
"Well then you'll be glad to know that that quest is completely unnecessary," a new, but familiar voice reached their ears.
Asuna and Hei simultaneously looked over to the corner of the inn and their lips curved up into grins when they saw the player wearing that unmistakable black coat.
"Kirito," the two greeted.
"Yo," Kirito waved. He was sitting at a small circular table in the back corner of the quiet inn with a mug of warm milk in his hand, and not even a second later, the trio was all comfortably seated in the corner of the inn.
"So what's this about the quest being unnecessary?" Asuna asked.
"Because the quest doesn't have any good rewards aside from five hundred Col, and the EXP gained from it is also quite measly," Kirito clarified as he took a sip from his mug, "The description is flashy enough to catch most people's attention but in reality, it's just a time-waster. It's this weird thing that games in the real world also have, objectives that sound great but are just designed to basically be nothing more than a joke,"
"Huh, well then, that clears up tomorrow's schedule," Hei remarked and slumped his face onto the wooden table, "At least I get to sleep a bit more. Thanks, Kirito,"
"Oh no you don't," retorted Asuna as she kicked the red-eyed boy's shin several times under the table, "If we're not doing that quest then we're heading straight to the Labyrinth, I don't want to spend another month to get to the next floor,"
"Uggh, fine, fine! Stop kicking me!" Hei replied with a hiss as he pushed himself back up while getting in some revenge kicks on his companion. The chestnut-haired girl shot him a glare and a short gasp. She gripped onto the sides of her chair and started whipping her leg under the table even faster
Hei quickly brought both his legs up to sit in a crossed leg position, narrowly dodging the girl's assault, then turned to his fellow beta tester as if nothing was happening, "So, you wanna join us, Kirito? We'll be able to get through much faster with you,"
The black-clad swordsman shook his head, "Sorry Hei, I'm planning to farm for some drops tomorrow, I want to enhance my [ Anneal Blade ] before the boss fight,"
"That's fair," Hei nodded, however underneath he was still having the shin-kicking match with his female companion.
It went on for a few more seconds before the red-eyed player decided to end it. He waited for the moment when Asuna's leg lashed out and when it did, he shot out his leg. Hei hooked his leg under and around Asuna's knee, catching the fencer off guard, then he brought his foot back under his chair. It effectively locked Asuna's leg in place, and also managed to nearly pull her off her seat, the girl didn't fall off thanks to her quick thinking, as she managed to shuffle her chair over by just enough to regain some balance.
Asuna whipped her head up and stared daggers at Hei as she tried desperately to wrench free to no avail, and it certainly didn't help that her red-eyed teammate was staring back with a smug grin.
With a huff of frustration, she gave up and leaned back on her seat with her arms folded across her chest. It was only then that Hei released his constriction around her leg. Suddenly she shot up to her feet and exclaimed, "I need to get something to drink!"
As the girl marched off to the counter, Kirito, who had been slightly amused watching the scene play out before him, turned to ask his friend.
"So did you win?"
"Course I did," Hei replied nonchalantly, then let out a sigh as he rested his cheek in his palm, "...But I really don't want to go to the Labyrinth tomorrow,"
"Why not?" asked Kirito, "The monsters there give better EXP than their field counterparts,"
"Because ever since they found it, Kibaou and Lind's groups have been sweeping through the place like crazy," explained Hei, "They seem to be doing a good job anyway, so I'll just let them continue while I sit back and do something else until they find the boss room,"
"Well, if you're looking for something else to do, there's always that,"
"What?" Hei glanced up at his friend.
"The quest to get the [ Martial Arts Skill ]," said Kirito, then he raised an eyebrow, "Don't tell me you didn't do it during the beta,"
"Hey, I only joined during the last three days, and all I did was mostly exploration and PvP," replied Hei who had straightened his posture.
"Ok fair point,"
"But you've caught my interest, where do I start?" asked the red-eyed teen, leaning forward against the table.
Kirito opened his menu to the mini-map tab. In front of the two friends, a square near-transparent, roughly the same size as a small TV appeared. On it, it showed everything around them within a hundred-meter radius. Kirito put two fingers on the map and pinched them together to zoom out until the map showed almost the entire floor.
"There," Kirito pointed at the bottom of the map, "At the very southern end of the map there's a giant mountain where the NPC that assigns you the quest resides, but you have to climb to the summit first,"
"And how long does that take?"
"For me...three to four hours," the black-clad swordsman revealed then cleared his throat and sheepishly added, "...Maybe five,"
"Seriously?!" Hei's jaw dropped.
Kirito rubbed the back of his neck, "It's steeper than it looks...and it's very bumpy in some areas too,"
"...Yay,"
"That's not the worst part," said Kirito as he folded his arms and leaned back against his seat, "The quest itself is very simple in general, but…,"
"But what?"
"It took me three days to finish,"
"Three days?! How?"
Kirito nodded and scratched his cheek, "Back in the beta it was the average time as well. I won't go too much into details but let's just say, it tests your patience,"
"...Wonderful," Hei groaned and slumped forward onto the table as Kirito finished off his drink.
In the early hours of the next morning, before the sun rose when Hei and Asuna set off towards the Mountain Kirito mentioned. It took a while for Hei to convince his chestnut-haired companion to join him in doing the quest, but eventually, the girl agreed as the [ Marital Arts Skill ] did pique her interest.
After a couple of hours, the duo finally reached the base of the imposing mountain. The team of two simultaneously looked up and peered towards the snow-capped summit.
Hei let out a light whistle, "That is much higher than I thought,"
"We're supposed to climb to the top?" Asuna asked in shock.
The red-eyed player nodded, "Yeah, well according to Kirito anyway,"
The two of them remained staring up at the mountain top in silence until Asuna sighed and stepped forward.
"Well...no point delaying it," she said as she started to march up the rocky slopes, "Come on let's go, no sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get back to clearing this floor,"
"Right," Hei agreed while joining his friend's side.
The ascent initially wasn't as bad as they thought, for the first section of the climb it was more like an off-path hike than anything, though they both had their fair share of accidentally, slightly, slipping on some loose pebbles. But after another half hour, Hei and Asuna noticed that the terrain was getting even steeper and rugged, with foliage disappearing the higher they went.
Soon the duo came to a halt as they came into contact with a tall, craggy, cliff face with going up being the only route available.
"Looks like the real climb begins now," said Hei, then he turned to his companion, "Or should we circle around and see if there's a smoother way up, like a natural set of stairs or something?"
Asuna thought about it for a moment before shaking her head, "No, it might take an entire day or more to go around this mountain, and if another route up doesn't exist, then we would have just wasted valuable time. We'll start climbing from here right away,"
"I was thinking the same," murmured the red-eyed player as he waited for Asuna to take the lead, as usual. Then suddenly a lightbulb flashed above his head and he snapped his fingers in realization.
"Oh, I almost forgot," Hei exclaimed, "We can use that,"
"Use what?" Asuna asked.
The boy didn't answer and instead opened his menu as his companion looked on in confusion. A few seconds later and he pulled out the woven rope he had in his inventory.
"When people go on mountain expeditions, they usually tie a rope to each other for safety and so they can support each other by providing stability. It also helps them to react faster if one of them slips and falls," explained Hei with the rope in his hands, "Seeing as the rest of the way up will be dangerous, I was thinking we can use the same tactic as the professionals to keep each other safe,"
The chestnut-haired girl, who was somewhat surprised that her younger companion came prepared, smiled and nodded, "Sure, let's do it,"
"Great," the boy simply replied and handed her one end of the rope, "Be sure to tie it tightly,"
"I know,"
As soon as they were finished tying the rope around their waist, they faced the rocky cliff once more.
"So," Hei began, "Who's going first?"
"You are," Asuna answered without hesitation.
"Wait really? I thought this was the part where you don't answer and charge straight up while dragging me along with you like I'm a piece of loose string,"
"Yeah, well...not this time...not right now," Asuna's voice began loud but quickly grew meek as she fiddled with her skirt. A light pink hue dusted her cheeks as she looked away.
…
…
…
"Is it because you're worried I'll look up your skirt if I'm below you?" said Hei nonchalantly which caused Asuna to flinch from him being a bit too straightforward for her liking.
When she didn't answer, a playful grin stretched on the red-eyed player's face.
"Pfft, hahahahaha~ I knew it," Hei laughed teasingly with a smug smile as he pranced around behind Asuna.
Suddenly, his companion whirled round with a fist cocked back. Her fist shot out to smack her friend in the face but instead, it connected to nothing but air, as the first moment Hei noticed the incoming danger, he scurried up the cliff like a lizard high on adrenaline.
To say the climb was long and arduous would be an understatement. A heavy understatement. Neither of them knew how much time had passed as they took a break, sitting down upon a short edge sticking out from the side of the mountain. Hei raised his head to look up and check how much further they had left. The red-eyed teen sighed impatiently as he rested his chin in his palm when he saw that the snow-capped mountain was still way, way above them. They still had to climb nearly the length of three football stadiums in height.
Asuna bit into a piece of cream bread as she looked over the scenery offered by their high vantage point. With the rocky mountains washed in earthy colors, and bright golden savannahs that had slow-moving grazing bovines, along with flowing crystal blue rivers, the girl had to admit, the Second Floor was a beautiful place. It was difficult to notice on the ground since all that she cared for was getting stronger, and clearing the floor faster, but now that she had some time to see it from far away, she could see its charm. Everything looked extremely convincingly real too. But the gigantic pillar protruding from the dirt to the sky in the distance was a constant reminder that this is still a virtual world and that it needed to be cleared.
At the same time, Hei peered down the way they came. The route was a stony, jagged mess, each step felt as if it had a fifty-fifty chance of crumbling away and causing the duo to tumble back to their starting point some thousands of meters below. Sometimes their path was smooth and steep, sometimes they barely had enough space to place half their foot, and sometimes they had to find their way around an attached boulder that blocked their accent. It didn't help that the further they went up, the colder the temperature got and light specks of snow would sometimes flutter down from the summit. The cooling weather also caused the upper half of the mountain to be layered in a thin layer of frost, making each step more dangerous with the surface becoming increasingly slippery. But despite all this, the duo did make it past halfway and were currently three-quarters of the way to the top.
"So, another five minutes and then we'll continue?" Hei suggested while scooting back from the edge.
The female fencer nodded, "Okay,"
Hei stretched his arms as he leaned against the wall of gray rock, the boy looked down at the connective rope that wrapped around his waist and tugged at it gently, checking if it was loose and needed to be tied again.
"Hey, Hei are they natural?" Asuna suddenly asked, getting her younger companion's attention.
"Hm?" Hei glanced up from the rope looking a little confused, "What? Natural?"
"Your red eyes," the girl clarified, "As far as I've seen no one else in this game has red eyes so I've always wondered if they're the real color of your eyes or if they're just lenses… But if it's too personal to answer then you don't have to,"
"No, it's okay. I haven't seen anyone else with the same eye color as me either so I understand your curiosity," assured Hei with a smile, "But to answer your question, yeah, my red eyes are a hundred percent natural,"
"Really?" Asuna gasped lightly.
The boy nodded, "Mhm, apparently it's from my mom's side,"
"Apparently?" Asuna tilted her head in confusion, "Did you never look at your mom's face in your life?"
Hei rubbed the back of his head sheepishly while adverting his gaze, "W-Well, I was brought up by my aunt and uncle you see, so I've actually...never...seen my parents,"
The chestnut-haired girl looked at him in a silent shock with her eyes widening each second, then she quickly bowed several times.
"I-I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I-I didn't know," Asuna apologized hastily.
"No no no," Hei quickly waved his hands out in front of him in an attempt to get his friend to stop, "Like you said you didn't know so you don't need to say sorry. And I didn't and still don't really know them that well anyway so…,"
For a short while, a thick awkward silence spread between the two players, and finally, they couldn't take it anymore.
"Let's keep going!/Let's keep going!" the duo blurted out at the same time.
"Right!/Right!"
"Stop copying me!/Stop copying me!"
All five fingers tightened around a small icy stone. Hei pulled as his legs pushed off the craggy surface and his other hand shot up to grasp around the edges of a protruding boulder. He hung there for only a moment and leaned back slightly to see how much farther they had left. A bright grin stretched across his features when he could only see the slow-moving clouds hovering above, instead of another a hundred meters of the mountain's steep slope.
"Asuna!" the boy yelled to the girl climbing below him, she looked up for a second.
"What?!" Asuna yelled back before concentrating on her ascent again.
"I see the top!" Hei exclaimed before muttering to himself, "...At least I hope it is,"
He quickly shook out that thought and continued upward, the hope of the long climb finally coming to an end gave him the extra energy to continue at a faster pace. The sudden burst of speed briefly surprised Asuna but the fencer managed to catch up.
At last, Hei felt the soft, powdery, texture of snow in his palms, and by pouring all of his strength into his limbs, the red-eyed teen hoisted himself up over the edge. He crawled across the slush for a second before pushing himself onto his feet, a blanket of white greeted his crimson gaze. Hei quickly spun around to assist Asuna by pulling her up using the rope that linked their bodies together. Soon, the duo stood atop the mountain peak breathing tiredly from the exhausting climb.
"We...did it," said Hei while panting.
"...About time too," added Asuna, before her legs gave out beneath her and she dropped back-first onto the snow, "Let's...take a break...before going any further. We've been at this since… 4 AM?"
"I think so, yeah," Hei replied, slumping down onto the powdered ice, "Ten minutes...then we'll find that NPC, wherever he or she is,"
The whistling summit wind filled the space around them as their bodies sunk into the snow, and before they knew it, their resting time was over. Hei and Asuna trekked across the mountain top leaving deep footprints in the ground, eventually, they came across a small bamboo hut built into the side of the mountain. Without wasting another second the duo ran the best they could through the deep snow towards it.
"Hello? Anyone home?" exclaimed Hei as he knocked on the door.
No response.
So he tried again but it was as if the hut was nothing more than an empty husk.
"This isn't one of those timed exclusive quests right?" asked Asuna as she rubbed her hands together, keeping them warm.
"It can't be, especially if it offers a new skill upon completion," responded Hei, who took a step back and glared at the door, "Should I try kicking it down?"
"Isn't that a bit rude?"
"Did you not see me knocking on the thing politely a hundred times?"
"Fair point...do it,"
The red-eyed teen took several steps back, then turned around, lining himself up precisely with the door. Hei kicked off the ground and dashed towards the bamboo structure, the boy jumped into the air with one leg ready to shoot out.
"STOOOOP RIIIGHT THEEEEERE!"
The sudden piercing scream from someone with a hoarse voice rang through the summit, startling them both. Asuna's head bobbed around trying to find the source, but as for her younger companion, the shout distracted him enough for him to briefly forget about the kick, causing him to collide into his target. The boy ricocheted off the door and landed face-first into the snow. Asuna quickly pulled him off the ground and onto his feet.
Standing on the very peak of the mountain was a short old man with long white hair and facial hair, wearing a gray robe. He leaped off the tip and flipped several times before expertly landing on his feet in front of the duo.
"What are you two children doing in front of my house?" he growled while jabbing a finger towards the two of them.
"U-Um, well…," the chestnut-haired girl began.
As she was fumbling about her words, Hei noticed a small, white exclamation mark above the old man's head that was camouflaged surprisingly well against the snowing backdrop, he nudged his companion in the side and whispered, "Asuna, it's him, the NPC we need to find,"
The girl narrowed her eyes and after seeing the barely noticeable shape of the quest mark above the elder's head, she whispered back, "Your right,"
"WHAT ARE YOU TWO BEING SO SECRETIVE ABOUT EH?! IF YA GOT SOMETHIN' TA SAY, SAY IT ALOUD!" the old man bellowed, his loud voice caused the duo to flinch and stand straight.
"Uh, we a...we came to learn from you old master of...the mountain," said Hei, whose wide red eyes were now staring straight forward.
"Y-Yes, we heard you teach Martial Arts...master," added Asuna who was in the same predicament as her friend.
The old man calmed down upon hearing this, he hummed and rubbed his chin through his long coarse beard. Although the elder's eyes were hidden underneath his thick bushy eyebrows, they could feel his gaze flicking between the two of them.
After what felt like hours, the old master finally spoke, his tone was thankfully more clear and controlled than before, "Very well, you have proved yourself worth my time by scaling the deadly slopes of my mountain. I'll do it,"
"Yes! Thank you!" the duo exclaimed in unison with large smiles on their faces.
He spun around and gestured for them to keep up with a wave of his hand, "Follow me young ones," he ordered.
The old master eventually led them through a short tunnel to the other side of the summit. What greeted them were giant boulders taller than basketball hoops and wider than an average dinner table, scattered unevenly between each other across an icy field.
"Lesson one!" the old master declared to his newest students as he sat down with his legs crossed, "But first we must prepare mentally, please, join me in a few minutes of meditation,"
The team of two complied and sat down in the same manner in front of the old master. They closed their eyes as instructed and remained that way for a minute. Unbeknownst to them both, the elder pulled out a paintbrush with red ink dripping from the pointed tip. Hei and Asuna felt something gently brushing against their cheeks but dismissed it as nothing but the constant flowing, high-altitude wind.
"All right my pupils, time's up," the elder announced and clapping his hands to get them to open their eyes, "Let us get back to Lesson One, The Basic Strength,"
"Yes sir!" the duo simultaneously yelled, standing up straight.
"You see those big rocks over there?"
Hei and Asuna nodded.
"You must break apart only one of those rocks with nothing but your bare hands and feet," commanded the old master, "You may use any method you wish, just no weapons, that is why it is called, The Basic Strength,"
"Right/Right,"
"You have five days to complete the task," warned the elder then he spoke in a sing-song voice as he left the two players to their own devices, "Or else those whiskers will be permanent~,"
Hei raised an eyebrow, "The what? Whiskers? Asuna what is he-?"
"What is this?!" the girl suddenly shrieked, looking down at a mirror in her hand.
He turned to look at his friend and had to hold back his laughter the moment he saw her face. The chestnut-haired girl's face was decorated with six red lines, three scribbled on each cheek. His laughter was extinguished and replaced with horror when the realization dawned on him.
'Wait...if Asuna has them, then that must mean…,'
Without another word, Hei whipped out his mirror, the same from that nightmarish first day, and looked down into it. Just as he feared, he saw the same red whiskers drawn across his cheeks.
As the team of two settled down, they walked out onto the snowfield and weaved through the boulders. With no players other than the two of them present on the mountain, they had the luxury of choice. Although structured slightly different from one another, all of the boulders were more or less the same size so selecting a small one in an attempt to get the quest finished quicker was out of the question. After strolling around the forest of rocks, the duo had selected their boulders and were spread out across the field.
Hei scanned his gaze over his chosen boulder. In the corner of his eyes, he could see Asuna already starting to pummel the large rock wildly with her small fists. The boy slightly turned his head to observe his friend for a short moment before focusing his sight back on the object in front of him.
'She's practically flailing her hands at it,' he thought as his red eyes couldn't help but flick back towards the fencer, 'Just by looking at the way she's hitting the rock it's pretty clear that she doesn't have any experience in martial arts… Well, her form is off but it's the spirit that counts… Hehehe, she reminds me of the new students that go to Master Hung's school, speaking of Master, I wonder how they're doing nowadays,'
Shaking his thoughts out, Hei looked back at the boulder and gave it a light punch followed by a low kick that transitioned into a high roundhouse. The black-haired teen retracted his leg and brought it back, then narrowed his eyes at the boulder.
'It's hard, very hard. Now I see why Kirito took three days to complete this quest, like he said, it requires a lot of patience even if you have high STR, and my STR stat is only just a couple points below his,' Hei pondered as he began to circle the large stone. The sound of Asuna smacking the rock with more power also reached his ears, causing him to once again watch his rapier-wielding friend's movements.
He examined her for a couple of minutes when he suddenly snapped his fingers with realization.
"That's it!" he whispered to himself, 'That's why it took Kirito so long to finish this,'
The red-eyed teen whipped around and placed both hands on the boulder, sliding them up and down the rough surface while slowly walking around the boulder, feeling every nook and cranny as if searching for something.
'There are a couple of factors that are in effect here. The rarity of this quest in general that only the testers know about, that along with the sparse player population of this floor...and last I checked there weren't even more than a hundred players, with half of them being from the Illfang Raid Group. Also, unless there was a smoother route up, this mountain is absolutely tiring to scale as well, and with everyone being so focused on finishing the floor I won't be surprised if they decided not to waste their time on climbing. Then there's the second factor...well this might not apply to everyone but for at least 90% of the people who are in Aincrad it will. None of them likely have proper experience with martial arts in general, like Asuna over there. From what I've heard and seen, many of the people who acquired SAO are streamers, critiques, NEETs, office workers, computer engineers, techies, hardcore gamers, things like that. I was just lucky enough to get a beta key from Uncle's colleague who didn't have the time to participate. If they barely have any martial arts experience then it's not surprising it'll take them so long to complete a quest like this, especially if they don't even know how to punch properly...like Asuna...sorry Asuna. And it's not about just being able to punch hard either it-,"
Hei felt one of his palms suddenly slip into a slight dent on the boulder's surface and his scarlet gaze sharpened towards the spot.
'THERE!'
He curled his palm into a fist, and after seeing the fist fitting almost comfortably in the dent, a smirk adorned his face.
"Found you," he murmured, his expression hardening.
In a singular swift movement, Hei turned side one and slid his feet more than shoulder-width apart with a near right-angle bend in his knees. At the same time, he drew his enclosed fist to his hips with his other arm instinctively out and protecting his head.
Then like a bullet cutting through the air, his fist shot forward.
January 1st, 2013
Sitting on the carpeted floor with his legs apart in the splits, a four-year-old Kyouhei watched as his friends and fellow young students leaving the Martial Arts Academy with their parents after the lesson. He waved and yelled goodbye to them with a large smile on his face but as soon as the last of the families left the building, his smile faded as his face fell. His cheeks puffed out slightly as he pouted while tiny hands fiddled around with the carpet strings, he tried pulling them out like grass.
Large, wide, red eyes stared up at the entrance to the academy. Kyouhei was wishing that either his Uncle or Aunt would suddenly walk through the doors to pick him up. But that's all it was, wishful thinking, nothing more than a daydream. It was always like this, by now Kyouhei should've been used to it but the child was still holding out hope. On weekdays, when everyone would leave at 4 PM, he would leave at 6 PM, and on weekends it wasn't out of the ordinary if he spent an entire day at the academy.
However, it wasn't because his family didn't love him, no, they have always treated him warm and fairly whenever they are together. It was their occupations that held the family back from having a normal schedule. His uncle was an officer of the INTERPOL (The International Criminal Police Organization) who was often working long hours, and in the child's eyes, only appeared on weekends. The man was also currently working on a case overseas.
Unlike the majority of Kyouhei's fellow students' mothers who were stay-at-home wives, his aunt worked as a stylist for an idol entertainment company who would also often work late into the night, and sometimes even early mornings. Especially if a group was either ready to debut, releasing a comeback, or holding concerts and music shows. Thankfully the company she worked for wasn't as busy this time of the year, but she didn't get off work until after seven which felt like forever for a four-year-old.
But Kyouhei wasn't the only youngster forced to adapt to this lifestyle of solitude. His cousin, Itsuka Kyouka who was older than him by two years, seemed to have slightly gotten used to it. Perhaps that was because she had good friends from school who, along with their parents, would always invite her to their house to do homework and play while waiting to be picked up.
To an outsider of their family, it may look like the children are being neglected, especially Kyouhei. However, at the end of the day, the red-eyed boy wasn't completely lonely, as he still had…
"GAH!" he suddenly yelped while he bounced into the air, and a hearty laugh rang out from behind him.
"Master Hung, whaddya do that for~?" he whined after spinning around to face his instructor.
"You were staring into space kid, here" Hung replied, then handed Kyouhei a small bottle of cold water, which he had used to tap the boy's nape, "Good job today by the way,"
"Thank you," Kyouhei said while holding onto the bottle with both hands.
"They didn't come early today, huh?" remarked Hung, folding his arms.
The boy shook his head and looked down at the floor, "...No,"
The master hummed and stared at the entrance for a moment then ran a hand over his shaved head.
After releasing a barely audible sigh, Hung crouched down to be on the same eye level as the child in front of him, "Hey kid, I have a question for you,"
Kyouhei's eyes redirected from the floor up at the man, "Hm? What is it, master?"
"How long have we been training together?"
The red-eyed boy put a finger to his chin and looked at the ceiling as he pondered the question. It was after five minutes did he come up with his answer.
"I don't know," he simply replied with laughter.
"Well I do," Hung responded with a large grin, "It's been half a year,"
"Wow~ That long?"
"Mhmm~," the master nodded with exaggeration, "You know what that means?"
"What? What?" an excited Kyouhei asked.
"You're ready,"
"For what? For what?"
"I'll show you, come on follow me," Hung replied as he dashed to the other side of the training hall with Kyouhei running after him as fast as he can.
The two stopped in front of an object taller than an average man that was covered by a large piece of cloth. Hung pulled off the cloth revealing the object to be...nothing more than a large wooden pillar.
"...What?" A confused Kyouhei cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow.
"Truth be told, I need your help, kid," Hung said with a dramatic tone and placed a hand over his chest, "I need firewood to stay warm this winter, except I'm too tired to break this log. Can I trust you, my best and most favorite student to do it?"
Sparkles lit up the boy's red eyes as he bought the instructor's act without a second thought, "Yeah! You can count on me master!"
"Great," replied the bald man, as he moved next to the black-haired boy, "Now, all you need to do is to break it into a hundred pieces,"
"Got it!" chirped Kyouhei, "...how do I do that?"
Hung shrugged "Punch, kick, any way you want as long as it breaks,"
"Understood," Kyouhei chirped again.
Not a second later, the boy began his "onslaught" on the wooden pillar.
30 Minutes Later
"NOTHING'S WORKING!" the child yelled with frustration and was about to charge in again if it wasn't for the master pulling him back gently by the back of his shirt collar.
"I-I'm sorry master, you're gonna be cold because of me," Kyouhei whimpered as he slumped onto the ground, tired from hitting the pillar over and over again. He looked down at his shaking, reddened hands and blew on them to soothe the discomfort.
Hung came over and ruffled the boy's black hair, "It's okay, we'll try again tomorrow,"
"Tomorrow?"
"Yep," the man nodded, "Every day after class you will remain here for a few more hours. This is extra training now and it will be like this," he jabbed a finger towards the wooden pillar, "until the day you break that, okay?"
Kyouhei held his throbbing hands together and nodded slowly, "Okay...but I don't know if I can, it's way too hard...look," the boy showed his master the current state of his small red knuckles.
Hung knelt and held them both hands, rubbing them gently with his thumbs, "We all have to start somewhere kid. But if you keep this up, one day, your fists will become waaay harder, and tougher than that log. You will be able to punch through giant rocks as if they were nothing but paper, this I promise you,"
"Really?" the boy gasped with bewilderment, "How do you know?"
Hung smirked and rubbed his chin proudly, "Because I can do it," then the man's face turned solemn as he added on quietly, "...and so did your father,"
"Hm? Whaddya say, master? I'm sorry I couldn't hear it," the child asked innocently.
"Nothing, it's just the wind," replied the bald instructor who shot to his feet, "Come on I'll show you a way to break the log easily,"
Once again the man led the red-eyed boy across the hall but this time, strangely they entered the bathroom and headed for a sink that had a small wooden plank placed below the tap. Water droplets dripped slowly onto the center of the plank and the master student duo observed it for a couple of minutes before Hung broke the silence.
"Do you see this?"
The boy nodded, "I don't get it,"
"The water represents you and the wood is well, the pillar out there," he explained, "Right now you're soft, and weak, like the drops of water hitting this plank. Except I believe that the droplets will break through this before you can break the pillar, do you know why?"
Kyouhei shook his head.
Hung continued, "Here's the difference between you and the water. Back there you were working very hard, hitting the pillar all over with all your might. But the water may be slower than you can punch, but it always hits the same spot, over and over and over again,"
"This has been here since last year and its persistence paid off, take a look," the master took the wooden plank off the sink and crouched down to show Kyouhei. The boy's eyes widened when he saw a small, but deep, wet dent in the middle of the plank.
"W-Woah," Kyouhei murmured as he brushed his finger over the hole.
"Indeed," said Hung standing back up and placing the plank back where it was, "And if you stop attacking the pillar blindly and start focusing on a single point, you'll be able to defeat it no matter how powerless you are right now, understand?"
"Yes, master," he responded with enough determination as a four-year-old could muster.
"Good, then let's continue,"
As Hung and Kyouhei walked back into the training hall and towards the pillar, the man told him one last thing.
"Remember this; No target is unbeatable. Everything has a weakness. If you can't find a weakness, make one,"
Present Day
A loud, resonating, crumbling sound suddenly filled Asuna's ears. Thinking that something bad may have happened to her companion, she immediately stopped her barrage on the boulder and stepped out from behind it.
"Hei!" she yelled, she reached for her rapier before realizing that it was unequipped for this section of the quest. Upon not receiving an answer from him, she weaved through the stone maze to search for her friend.
"Are you okay?!" Asuna exclaimed, "Where are...you,"
The chestnut-haired girl's rush slowly came to a stop. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth parted at what she saw several paces in front of her.
Hei stood on a single leg, his other leg extended out beside him in a stationary side kick. The shattered remnants of the boiler rained down upon him and dissolved into blue particles as Hei lowered his leg.
Asuna felt a shiver go down her spine when she saw his gaze. They were sharp, focused, and held a fierceness that she would have never even dreamed to see in her normally mischievous, light-hearted companion. And although she would never say it out loud, it was the first time she felt threatened and somewhat terrified by the scarlet shade of his eyes.
Then, he blinked several times and the ferocity simply vanished. Hei spotted the stunned girl and waved to her.
"Asuna, are you finished too?!" he asked with a bright grin, "Come on, let's go hand in the quest and get these whiskers rubbed off,"
The sudden change in contrast was, for the lack of a better word, frightening. Asuna stared at her friend's toothy smile, and her brain couldn't help but manipulate her vision. For a split second, Hei's cheerful expression was more menacing than the monsters they fought together.
"Asuna? Are you okay?" his worried voice shook out her thoughts. Asuna smiled back as she quickly hid her arms behind her and pinched herself hard for even thinking that her younger friend could be on the same level as monsters.
"I-I'm fine," she replied, "I haven't finished yet so you can go on ahead, back to town I mean, don't worry I'll be fine on my own,"
Hei raised a concerned eyebrow, "Are you sure you don't want me to wait for you?"
The girl nodded, "Positive, just remember to work twice as hard in the Labyrinth to fill in for me, okay?"
The black-haired teen thought for a while before shooting her a thumbs up, "I will,"
"And I'll see you at the Boss Raid, count on it," Asuna mimicked his gesture.
"Well, until then Asuna," said Hei as he gave her a small salute before turning around and walking through the tunnel back to the old NPC's hut.
"So you just left her there?" asked Kirito, shooting Hei a judgmental look.
A day had passed since Hei had returned from the mountain and he along with his fellow black-haired swordsman, were currently walking from a day in the Labyrinth back to the small settlement known as Taran.
For the past couple of days, many high-level players started to congregate in Taran due to its most important feature, its proximity to the Labyrinth. The tower to the next floor was so close to the town that it would take the average player thirty minutes to reach the entrance on foot, half that time if they were running, and even less if they had a high AGL stat.
"I didn't leave her, she insisted," clarified Hei.
"And that's supposed to make it better?"
"...Yes? I mean I was respecting her choice wasn't I?"
"Still though," uttered Kirito, "Aren't you her traveling companion? Shouldn't you take better care of her, she's a girl y'know and that mountain is cold at night,"
Hei rolled his eyes, "She'll be fine. We don't even start taking [ Frost ] status damage until Floor 5. But if you're so worried about her, why don't you go check up on her then and take a nice big fluffy blanket along with you so the two of you can get all close and cuddly?"
"Well…," Kirito averted his eyes to the side as his mind started to play that scenario.
…
…
…
"You're not actually considering that last part right, I was just kidding,"
…
…
…
Hei took a big step forward and peeked over at Kirito, his lips stretched into an impish smile when he saw pink dusting his friend's cheeks.
"Hah! You totally are!" he cackled while pointing at the black-clad swordsman's face.
His actions caused Kirito to become even more flustered and he pulled the collar of his coat up in an attempt to block his face as he groaned, "...Shut up, Hei,"
Kirito's response did nothing but increase the amount of laughter coming from his red-eyed friend.
Thankfully for the black swordsman, by the time they reached Taran, Hei had calmed down. Due to having the infamous 'Beater' title, Kirito would usually take a detour around the edge of town to avoid most of the other players just in case they decided to start something, and this day wasn't any different aside from the fact that he had company.
As they headed for the inn, they passed by a small, sandy ring with white stone seats as its outline. This was a [ Dueling Arena ], each floor had them as long as the town that housed it was moderately sized. The smaller the settlement, the smaller the arena, and if the settlement was on the larger side, then it would either contain more than one arena or it would just simply be bigger, sometimes both. According to Kirito, the largest he had seen so far was back during the beta on Floor 10 and was apparently the same size as a basketball court.
While walking, Hei was looking at the arena with a glint in his eyes, and called out to the black swordsman, "Hey Kirito!"
"Hm? What's up?" Kirito stopped and turned around to see Hei pointing to the sandy floor with his thumb.
"The inn is most likely full at the moment so why don't we go a few rounds until it clears up," he suggested.
Kirito let the idea float through his mind as he looked back in the direction of the inn, then back towards Hei. At last, he smirked, "Fine, let's do it,"
The duo hopped down onto the circular stage, and Kirito opened the [ Duel ] tab in his menu.
"So how do you wanna do this?" he asked, "Half-Loss? Or, First Strike?"
"First Strike," Hei replied and unequipped his sword.
This caused Kirito to raise an eyebrow as he sent the Duel Request, "What are you doing?"
"Well I got the Martial Arts Skill yesterday and I haven't had the chance to try it out yet so I'm thinking that now would be a good chance,"
"Makes sense," nodded Kirito, "Then if that's the case," he sent his weapon back into his inventory, "I'll fight you the same way too,"
"Just don't regret it when you lose," said Hei while rolling his wrists in preparation.
"As if that'll happen," responded Kirito who did some light stretching of his own, "Don't forget, I have far more experience here than you do,"
"Hmph… We'll see,"
The two teens stood in anticipation with competitiveness emitting from their bodies as the countdown timer was about to end.
Three.
Two.
One.
[ DUEL BEGIN ]
Kirito didn't waste a second and dashed forward with his fist cocked back by his side. During his charge, his fist glowed blue as had he activated the unarmed skill [ Senda ]. It was a very fast uppercut that would do a great deal of damage if connected directly to the jaw.
As Hei watched intently as his opponent honed in. When Kirito came close, Hei stepped forward and whipped his back leg around in an arc. Unbeknownst to him, his leg had glowed yellow and he only realized mid-kick.
'What the hell?!' he exclaimed mentally at the sight of his shining leg and because he had noticed that for some reason he was now three feet in the air.
Kirito's uppercut missed, barely scraping beside his target's side. He wasn't expecting Hei to perform the kicking skill known as [ Sickle ], a spinning hook kick that allowed the user to launch themselves into the air during the attack.
Amidst his confusion, Hei's guard was completely lowered which allowed his opponent to tag him with a left hook to the chest.
[ WINNER: Kirito ]
"Looks like I won," the black swordsman smirked, placing a hand on his hip.
But the Beater received no answer from his friend, Kirito thought he was probably disappointed with such a quick loss, but upon seeing his expression he didn't see any signs of jealousy, frustration, or anger. Instead, Hei's face was painted in nothing but confusion as he stared down at his hands.
'Honestly, what was that? I didn't put nearly enough power in my kick to jump, why didn't my body listen to me?' the red-eyed boy wondered, 'And my leg glowed like a Sword Skill as well, it can't be...right?'
"Hey, Kirito!" Hei yelled, holding up two fingers, "Round 2, how about it?"
"Fine with me," Kirito replied with a shrug, "But let's make a bet, the loser has to treat the other to a meal,"
"Sure," said Hei as he sent the Duel Request.
Just like before, the black swordsman charged in as soon as the timer hit zero. Mid-sprint, Kirito kicked off the ground and shot towards Hei with his hand shining yellow. He jabbed at the red-eyed teen's head but hit nothing as Hei ducked and moved to the side. Kirito followed up with a continuous string of basic one-two, jab-cross combos, although none of his punches connected as his opponent parried his attacks to the side.
Hei ended Kirito's punch streak by catching his jab in the air, but the black swordsman was quick to react and stepped in to deliver a left hook. By leaning his body and tilting his head back, Hei dodged the hook. Kirito clicked his tongue, his opponent had been doing nothing but avoiding his hits without countering the entire time. His onyx eyes flicked briefly towards the timer and saw that he had only half a minute left to land a hit otherwise the match would be declared a draw. Spinning around, Kirito activated the hook kick skill that his opponent had accidentally used earlier. At the same time, Hei narrowed his eyes, more specifically his legs.
'So it is a Skill after all' he thought, as Kirito's leg swung towards his head but he paid it no mind, looking as if he were staring off into space.
While still sorting through his thoughts, the red-eyed teen instinctively dropped down low at the last second and whipped his body around, sweeping Kirito off balance. The black-clad player coughed as his entire back crashed onto the ground. He was wide open to any finishing attack, but strangely, it never came. Kirito pushed himself back onto his feet and looked at his opponent with slight confusion.
Instead of taking the chance of seizing the victory, Hei stood several paces away in a wide low stance with a glowing fist on his hip.
Hei shot forward with a trail of blue light behind him. He had used a straight-punch skill that allowed the player to travel a fair amount of distance to tag their target. However, Hei had missed his target by several inches.
As Kirito watched his friend fly past him, he got a glimpse of his expression, and once again. The red-eyed player didn't look disturbed or frustrated at himself for missing, his face was blank as he kept staring at his fist.
'So that's what's happening… I get it now,'
Kirito won the second round with a kick to the ribs, thanks to that opening.
Not even a second after dismissing the menu that displayed the results of the match, Hei bounded off the ground back onto his feet. He held up three fingers.
"Round 3,"
Kirito snickered with disbelief, "Sure if you're in such a rush to lose again, you're gonna owe me two meals at this rate,"
"I was just warming up before, I'll get a bit more serious now," Hei responded, sending the request once again.
As he was about to accept the request, Kirito noticed a small change in the format.
"Half-Loss Mode?"
Hei nodded, "It's round three so higher stakes. Triple or nothing, loser treats the other for a week,"
"Heh, I didn't know you had that much Col," joked Kirito.
"I don't," the orange-clad player replied honestly.
"Wait what?"
"I spent most of it this morning on sword enhancing and maintenance,"
Kirito shook his head in disbelief, "Then let's not do this. Clearly, you're not used to the hand-to-hand skill system, and I'd hate to be the reason behind your bankruptcy,"
"No no, let's continue, just one last round," Hei insisted.
"Are you sure?"
"A hundred percent," replied the red-eyed player as he made an 'OK' gesture with his hand, "Because you're not winning this,"
"Fine," sighed Kirito as he accepted the Duel Request, "I admire your confidence,"
Unlike the previous two matches, Kirito started by slowly approaching his opponent, watching his every move, and he wasn't doing much at the moment as Hei was simply standing there like a statue, staring at him. For some reason, Kirito felt an uncomfortable shift in the air.
'I couldn't do anything I wanted to because of the System Assist when a Skill is in motion. It forcibly changed my attack pattern into something else. I have to be careful to avoid the activating position. It shouldn't be too hard seeing that each activation is a basic stance of some kind...basic enough to find loopholes around it. Forget Sword Skills, cause for this round, I'll be fighting with my own skill,'
"If you're not gonna make a move," murmured Kirito, "Then I will,"
He kicked off the ground leaving behind a cloud of sand and dust. As soon as he was close, Kirito led with a roundhouse kick.
As the kick neared Hei's head, the red-eyed player stepped forward and low. Using one hand he redirected the kick up and off course. With his other arm, he delivered an elbow strike into Kirito's abdomen. The combined movements knocked the black swordsman off balance and sent him tumbling back.
The Beater rolled back and recovered onto his feet but Hei was already upon him. It took all of his strength to bring his arms up in time to block a punch aimed for his head. But he never felt the fist connect, instead, he felt five fingers wrapping tightly around his wrist. Kirito realized too late that he had fallen for the feint as he was pulled down, and his face met Hei's knee midway.
It didn't end there as the moment Kirito reeled back in pain, Hei released his grip, snapped his body around and his opposite leg shot out, with his foot sinking into his opponent's stomach.
As he flew back, Kirito watched his health steadily drop. With gritted teeth and a click of his tongue, he spun around in midair as he landed with a recovery roll. Not even a second later, he bounced back with a fist tightly clenched by his hip. Luckily for him, Hei hadn't decided to chase after him, instead, he was standing still like before.
"Senda!" Kirito roared.
His fist was like a comet as it flew up towards Hei's chin. But as the uppercut closed in, Kirito's eyes stretched as wide as they could and he gasped with disbelief.
At the last second, Hei grabbed onto his arm as he performed the uppercut and borrowed the fast momentum granted from the [ Senda ] skill's system assist. The red-eyed teen shot up with a flying knee slamming in the center of the swordsman's face. This time, Kirito's body was sent up and out of the arena as his health dropped to yellow.
[ WINNER: HEI ]
A dazed Kirito laid on the sand as he gazed up at the orange sky of dusk. He blinked several times and muttered, " *cough* ...What was that?"
"Need help?" asked Hei, who had made his way over to his fallen friend and extended a hand.
"Thanks," Kirito accepted the gesture and was pulled up off the ground. The black swordsman dusted off his pants and back once he got onto his feet.
"No but seriously, what was that?" he asked after chugging a potion to bring his health back to full.
"What was what?" Hei raised an eyebrow.
"You went from getting beaten up by me to knocking me onto my ass in under five minutes," clarified Kirito, "And, you knocked my HP down to yellow in under a minute without any weapons...or Skills from what I saw,"
"Oh, that? I guess you can call it 'Beginners Luck' or something," the red-eyed player replied while sheepishly scratching his temple, "I've only had the Martial Arts Skill for less than a day after all,"
Kirito narrowed his eyes and stared at Hei, "You're hiding something aren't you?"
"...No, really I'm not,"
'Sorry Kirito, I promised my uncle and Master Hung a few years ago to not show my martial arts in public… and even so, I still need to figure out the limitations and advantages of the unarmed combat system before using it on the field so this is probably better for now, at least for me,'
After what felt like an hour of being leered at by the fellow black-haired player, Hei let out a quiet exhale of relief as Kirito shrugged and turned away, walking towards the secluded path that connected to the center of town.
"Eh, not my business anyway, we all have our secrets. Anyway, let's go back to the inn and rest up for the Boss Fight tomorrow. If we're lucky, Asuna will show up by then her speed is no doubt an important factor for our victory,"
"I'm fast too y'know," remarked Hei as he followed behind his friend.
"You're still slower than her,"
"And you still owe me a weeks worth of food,"
Kirito briefly froze and winced.
"Can it...can we write up a contract about this? I...I mean, we need to be smart about this,"
"I'll think about it," replied Hei with a light chuckle.
"That's better than a 'no' at least," the black-clad player sighed.
As Hei watched Kirito pick up the pace, he lingered behind at a comfortable speed. Suddenly he froze when he felt a chill run through his spine. He whipped his head around and studied the surroundings cautiously. The Town of Taran was reasonably open, barren and the buildings were close to the ground since the settlement was built on a desert plateau. This combination made hiding spots rare especially when the sun was still out, spreading its rays across the land, even if it was slowly setting. In addition to the small, empty arena, a couple of short boulders, and three NPC houses, there wasn't anything that looked out of place and there weren't any subtle changes from a few minutes ago within his sight. Not even the tip of a player cursor.
Still, Hei couldn't shake off the feeling that he was being watched.
"Hey Hei! You alright?," Kirito yelled from further ahead.
The voice of his fellow tester quenched most of the off-putting sensation.
"Yeah," Hei yelled back, before jogging up to Kirito's side, "Just admiring the scenery that's all,"
"I can't blame you for that," admitted the swordsman, "Aincrad's nature is just stunning at times...even if it's all virtual in the end. Come on let's go, we'll have plenty of time to admire the scenery after the boss fight,"
"Yeah," nodded Hei.
While the black-haired duo continued down the dirt path back to the center of town. The tingling at the top of his spine didn't seem to dissipate and the red-eyed player glanced behind him one last time.
"Weird," he muttered.
The Centipede - Extra Skill: Martial Arts
Before anything else, I need to say Thank You to the readers of Centipede. I honestly didn't expect this to get any attention, seeing how my previous SAO fic failed. So yeah, thank you for choosing to come this far even if it is just Chapter 3 (Technically 4). It's gonna be a bit of a slow start, maybe another 3-5 chapters of "peace", but when we get to the point shown in the prologue, things are gonna really kick off… I promise, kinda.
Now if you're wondering why I dedicated an entire chapter specifically for Hei discovering the martial arts skill and promising himself to find a way to work around and/or with it. It's because, yes, The Centipede is also going to be a bit of a 'Martial Arts Tale' with different styles clashing against one another later on, e.g. Boxing vs Jiujitsu, Eskrima vs Systema, Karate vs Taekkyeon, Muay Thai vs MMA, Wing Chun vs Kendo, etc. Yeah, there's gonna be a good amount of fights in the future, since Hei will be conflicting with PKers or just Orange Players in general. But it won't be easy, even with a Rope Dart.
Reviews:
Kaleidoscope's Beauty: Thank you, and if you like the action scenes I create then I hope you stay for the long ride:D.
Journey to the End: Yeah there'll definitely be those opportunities to see what pre-prologue Hei is like and what he got up to.
Love-to-peace: Diavel will return in time, just not in the near future. And yeah, as I said, the first several chapters are dedicated to pre-prologue Hei.
Protector for all: Best to get the mandatory 1st Floor Boss fight over and done with am I right? We'll get those friendship moments, and I wouldn't really call it a warpath...and it won't just be Laughing Coffin. I dropped three names in the prologue; Orca, BlackDog, and Hyena. I won't reveal too much about it, but there are bigger things at work here. Way more than Hei will realize.
seanmcsherry123: Oh Hei will be getting a pairing. I feel like pairings and romance, in general, are a vital part of SAO and its fics, so yes, Hei will be paired. Not Lisbeth tho, sorry lol. Honestly with the narrative I've set out for him, he might not even meet Lisbeth till mid-2024.
CC: Thanks, and hope you enjoy the "peaceful" chapters before things start for real.
Stand Up Be Strong: We'll see more of Yua, that I guarantee, and yeah, Hei and Scorpion will have a couple similar moves but ultimately Hei will have his own Rope Dart Style.
That's all for Chapter 3. Hope to see you guys next time.
Thank You For Reading.