Chapter VI: The Reaper
Kirito would have liked to say that the sun was rising over the treeline, but in truth it was more a matter of the light becoming more pronounced, their path becoming a little clearer. He and his party had met at the crack of dawn, logged in, and made their way to the confrontation they had all been prepping for since they started playing ETO. They had taken the train from Arkham city to the nearby town of Ipswich and now made their way out of the town to a nearby station where the bus to Innsmouth stopped.
As the group trudged along the well worn dirt road, Asuna twitched as something, then turned to regard a message on her UI. Her eyes unfocused, Kirito casually kept watch to make sure that no tripping hazards were in her path until she finished reading.
"That was the last one, still no luck." She eventually said to him.
"I suppose it was a long shot, still it was nice of them all to get back to you so quickly." he replied.
After Kirito's revelation about The Reaper likely being a full timer, Asuna decided to check in with the Sleeping Knights to see if any of them knew of any other terminal patients that might be diving full time. She had even reached out to Doctor Kuruhasi to see if there had been any new patients using the Medicuboid. He couldn't say much due to doctor/patient confidentiality, but he did confirm that he didn't know of anyone logged into ETO.
"Eyes up, we're here." Agro stated.
It wasn't entirely accurate as they could barely see the bus station in the distance, but they didn't risk getting any closer as a group. There was plenty of tree cover around and Sinon and Argo made use of it right away, disappearing into the forest.
Kirito waited five minutes to be sure they were in position before the remainder of the party moved on. Klein took the lead followed by Agent Nishiyama. Asuna took Nishiyama's right while Kirito took his left, with Liz as the rear guard.
The transit station leading to Innsmouth was, to no great surprise, an old dilapidated building. The crumbling brick and mortar structure had lost most of its exterior colour and the raw tinge of the brick itself was now the dominant pallet of the place. The wooden roof was rotted and broken in several places, but still somehow held to the ghost of it's original triangular shape. Out front, next to the road, was a sign with only one of the bolts still holding it in place; on it was written Innsmouth transit in faded letters.
There were a few other buildings around in the same broken down state as the station, at a glance though, Kirito couldn't tell if they served any purpose other than a convenient hiding place for The Reaper. As they neared the station, a brief scent of old fish carried along the breeze and churned the stomachs of the party.
They walked towards the stop slowly and purposefully, eyes darting from shadow to shadow. He had to be around here somewhere. Soon they would be within range of the stop and be able to call the Innsmouth bus, if he was going to attack them, it had to be soon.
Suddenly, Kirito thought of something he hadn't anticipated. It had been weeks since he had spent any time in Alfhiem Online, but having played that game for so long the instincts still stuck with him. Kirito looked up.
Descending from that darkened sky was a figured clad in black, both spinning and falling at an incredible speed. "Abo-" he started to shout, and was vaguely aware of Sinon's voice doing the same, but it was already too late.
A grisly weapon, the likes of which Kirito had never seen, flashed from The Reapers' bellowing cloak; the image burning itself into Kirito's mind. The shaft of the scythe had two short handles protruding out of it, much like agricultural scythes of old, that The Reaper used to control it. However it was the blade itself that was the strangest of all as it was a massive slab of metal affixed to the top third of the shaft. It still more-less maintained it's crescent shape but he could tell, even at a distance, that unlike normal scythes both the edges of the crescent shape were razor sharp. There was a large spike protruding from the opposite end of the blade; this weapon was deadly from all angels. On top of that the blade was so large that it almost seemed like a large bladed shield was being swung around on a pole to slice and impale people.
Kirito's party had barley turned to react to his shout when The Reaper's scythe, pinwheeling from up above, plunged into Agent Nishiyama's chest sending him flying from the group and crashing into one of the nearby buildings. Barely had Nishiyama's health hit zero when The Reaper, now having landed in the middle of the party, swung his scythe in a wide three-sixty arc.
Kirito, Asuna, Klein, and Liz all managed to get their weapons up to block in time, but even so, the force of the blow was staggering and sent them all reeling. The Reaper moved in on Liz first, just as they had expected, but a moment before he could bring his weapon down a bullet struck him in the torso throwing him off balance and dropping his health to ninety-four percent. Undeterred, The Reaper rolled with the force of the impact by swerving around Liz's guard and then dashed off to the treeline to locate the source of the bullet.
Asuna and Kirito blazed past Liz a moment later in hot pursuit. "We've got to hurry!" Asuna shouted. "This guy is way faster than we thought. If we don't catch up to him, Sinon and Argo are done for!"
Sinon and Argo sat atop a massive tree branch dozens of feet in the air, covered from sight by the thick branches and leaves surrounding them. Their position was now compromised after Sinon's opening shot, but they had known all along that it was bound to happen.
"Are you sure about this?" Argo asked.
"Yes, now go before he sees you!" Sinon snapped before loosing another round.
The Reaper was fast, incredibly so, but still Sinon was able to keep most of her shots on target. It didn't matter much once the dark figure had a line on her position though. Every one of the rounds that came close was deflected off The Reaper's massive blade with a lightning quick flick of his wrists. Sinon knew there was no chance of loosing her target and relocating to a new spot, so she fired off as many rounds as she could; even a fraction of a second delay to her target meant that Kirito and the others were that much closer.
Four rounds later, The Reaper had closed the gap and launched himself at her hiding spot. Sinon quickly spring-boarded back leaping blindly from the tree and keeping her rifle trained on her target as her turned her former perch into mulch. She fired off another round that was summarily turned aside before The Reaper dove after her, connecting with her mid fall.
Sinon brought her rifle up, one hand on the stock, the other on the barrel and met The Reapers slash. In one blow her gun was cloven and two, but it managed to prevent the intended decapitation and instead she took a nasty slash to the torso. Her health dropped to forty-one percent from the blow, then she hit the ground pinwheeling until she slammed against the base of a thick tree; her health now down to a mere twelve percent.
The Reaper didn't waste a moment, he landed gracefully and was off like a flash, headed straight for her. Sinon had a backup sidearm, but she knew it would do no good. This was where her fight was going to end, but she would end it on her terms. The moment that The Reaper was in striking distance, Sinon whipped out a belt of grenades, the pins already pulled a moment earlier. She saw his instinct take over, The Reaper skidded to a halt and leaped backward in an instant. The last thing Sinon did before being engulfed in the explosion was to offer The Reaper a sly wink.
The nearby trees were ripped apart by the force of the blast, but the Reaper was already out of range. However, he had leaped back on instinct without checking was was behind him first.
Argo's duel Katars dug deep into The Reapers back, dropping his health to forty-seven percent. She had waited silently for this exact moment, when he would be in midair in the exact spot Sinon had intended and unable to change his path. However, once the initial blow failed to kill him, it was all Argo could to just to hold on.
The pair tumbled through the air together, Argo trying desperately to hang on and The Reaper trying just as hard to remove her. His left hand maintained a hold of his scythe, while his right reached over his shoulder, grabbing for Argo. Just before they hit the ground, The Reaper's hand found purchase and took hold of Argo bu the scruff of her collar.
They hit the ground in a roll, but The Reaper was now in control of their momentum. The first roll pressed Agro's slightly further into his back, dropping his health to forty-five percent, but as his front came up, he rolled up onto his feet and using that momentum to swing, flung Argo from his his back.
Her Katars came free as Argo was hurled through the air as if she were no more than a tiny pebble. She crashed hard into a tree on the centre of her back and dropped like a rag doll to it's roots. Her health still read fifty-eight percent, but a new debuff had appeared next to it, Broken Back. Try as she might, she could barely move a muscle and the next thing she realized, The Reaper's scythe descended upon her.
Kirito and Asuna burst onto the scene just as Argo's health hit zero. The Reaper calmly tuned to face them, but Kirito could see a twitch of movement as he scanned the surrounding underbrush. A few moments later, Klein and Liz caught up, their weapons at the ready. They were down three of seven players, but had taken out over half of The Reaper's health, mathematically they were a little ahead, but being down to only four people greatly reduced their options.
"Get him on the defensive!" Kirito shouted, charging forth with Asuna at his side.
Kirito swung high with one blade and as it was turned aside by the scythe, he stabbed low with his other. That too was turned aside by the metallic hilt of The Reaper's scythe. Asuna stuck in the next instant, her rapier flashing towards the Reapers chest, but his blade had already moved from Kirito's strike and turned hers aside.
Klein came in from the side trying to catch The Reaper off guard, but his foe leaped to the side, right towards Liz. She brought her mace down towards The Reaper but he hooked her weapon with the crescent of his scythe and pushed it harmlessly to the side. In the same motion he brought the pommel up and hit Liz in the head. She stumbled back, a dazed icon flashing on her UI and The Reaper moved in for the kill.
Asuna and Kirito were on him in an instant, protecting their friend by pushing their foe back with a flurry of blows. Their blows stuck like lightning, but The Reaper dodged, blocked, or parried every one. His hands flew between the different grips on his scythe, rotating the weapon with extreme precision at angles Kirito would have never imagined possible. Though they could not land a strike, their attacks were so fast, co-coordinated, and relentless, that they also prevented him from striking back against them.
Eventually, an attack faltered. The Reaper was able to deflect Asuna's rapier into one of Kitiro's strikes and create an opening for himself. He slashed in a wide arc, driving the pair back a few paces and before Klein could capitalize on the opening, he backpedalled, and bid a hasty retreat.
"Don't let him get away and recover!" Kirito shouted and tore off after The Reaper, Asuna milliseconds behind him.
The Reaper slashed at the trees as he ran, toppling several in the direction of his pursuers, but Asuna and Kirito were not deterred. They evaded the falling timber with ease, loosing little time as they fought to close the gap with their target.
Moments later, The Reaper broke from the treeline with Asuna and Kirito in hot pursuit. He made for one of the nearby buildings and with a graceful ease, leaped through an open window and into the old building. Asuna and Kirito leaped in after him, ready for a counter-attack.
It came just as they expected. After entering the building, The Reaper about faced and swept a long horizontal slash, aimed for their legs as they came through the window. Asuna and Kirito were ready for an attack however, they had their swords ahead and together with the force of their momentum, were able to block and push the blow back.
Asuna struck back first, pushing The Reaper into a narrow hallway she activated the strongest skill she had in her arsenal. Her blade shone for a brief moment as she initiated the Mother's Rosary skill. Her blade bolted like her namesake, flashed like lightning, every shot, every strike, targeted to deal The Reaper a fatal blow. Yet his reflexes and skill were not to be outdone, each strike was intercepted bu the narrowest of margins, each thrust missing him by mere millimetres. Weathering such a brutal assault however took everything he had and The Reaper had no way of bringing his weapon to bear when Kirito struck from the side.
While Asuna had their target on the back foot, Kirito moved in for the kill. He could see every strike as they connected, every movement of their bodies in the dance of life and death. The Black Swordsman had survived so long off being able to read any fight he came across, he could take a measure of a warrior upon seeing their blade work, he knew that as good as The Reaper was, he would be unable to block this strike.
As Kirito thrust his blade forward intent on the killing blow, time seemed to slow. The Reapers right leg shifted ever so slightly, the tip of his foot disappearing behind something, what was it? It was hard to tell, everything was moving so slowly, Kirito couldn't shift his gaze to see. The feeling was familiar and it nagged at his mind even as he strained to see, like he'd experienced something like this before; he knew he'd felt something like this before.
A door that had been slightly ajar, swung wide with incredible speed. Kirito didn't have time to avoid it as he was already committed to the attack, all he could do was shoulder the blow instead of taking it in the face. The impact sent him spinning and knocked a few percent off his health, but he avoided the deadly dazed debuff.
Instantly Asuna fell back to protect Kirito, adopting a defensive posture as he quickly recovered; but The Reaper did not pursue them directly. Instead, he leaped back, well out of range, and used his scythe to obliterate a pair of load baring walls. As he made a fast escape through an adjacent window, the rickety old building came down around Asuna and Kirito's heads.
As Klein and Liz, now fully recovered from her dazed debuff, made their way out of the felled forest and into the clearing they saw the house come down in a cloud of dust and debris. Klein's eyes shot to his party's status, Kirito and Asuna's HP had taken a large blow, but had stopped dropping. They were still alive in there.
His thoughts now turned to both Liz's and his own survival as out of the dust cloud came the Reaper. Undiminished from his bout with Asuna and Kirito, he blade a path straight for them, his wicked scythe whistling in the wind ans he ran.
Klein readied his Katana and steadied his footing. "We take him together or we've got no chance." he said.
"Right." Liz replied, taking position next to him. Her buckler in front and her mace drawn back and ready. Her arms were strong and steady, but inwardly she was shaking. What chance do we have if Kirito and Asuna couldn't stop this guy? She asked herself.
The Reaper made for Liz first, taking a quick swipe with his scythe to gauge their reaction. Klein, wasn't having any of that though, as Liz moved to block the strike, he pressed the attack, coming in with a wide overhead slash.
While still maintaining his forward momentum, The Reaper lowered the thrust of his scythe to an upward strike. With the hilt now high in the air, he used it's change back to downward motion to turn Klein's blow aside, while still pressing the attack on Liz.
She blocked the main sweep of his scythe with her buckler, but as she began to swing her counter-attack, the crescent tip of the Reapers Scythe hooked itself under the lip of her buckler. With a solid tug, The Reaper pulled her off balance and toward him, slamming her in the sternum with the centre of his scythe's handle. Winded, Liz stumbled back, her heath dropped to sixty-eight percent and The Reaper moved in for the kill.
With a defiant roar, Klein sprang into action once more deflecting the blow and placing himself between The Reaper and Liz.
"Hands off." he ordered, and returned his blade to a ready stance.
The Reaper wasted no time in thrusting with his Scythe, the sharpness on both ends making it deadly in that style too. Klein met the strike head on, blocking it at the point where the blade connected to the haft. The pair struggled for a moment, pushing against each others blades until The Reapers full strength became apparent and Klein began to slide backwards.
Klein knew he would loose if The Reaper got to much momentum going, he had to shake things up. He used The Reapers forward momentum against him, suddenly giving ground he let the strike carry forward, but directed the momentum lower with a parting shove, then striking high.
The strike aimed for The Reapers head, but Klein hadn't counted on how versatile this strange weapon was, or how well The Reaper could wield it. The back end of the haft came up, just barely turning Klein's strike clear of the left side of the Reaper's head. Now The Reaper's scythe blade was in position just next to Klein's right leg and with a quick pull back, The Reaper severed it.
Just as Klein began to drop to the ground, a mace swung fast over his falling form. "Don't underestimate us!" Liz shouted as her mace connected with The Reaper's right shoulder, dropping his hit points to twenty-three percent and sending him spinning.
Ever the adaptive foe, The Reaper turned the strike to his advantage. He rotated with the force of the blow and extended his scythe wide in a quick spin attack. Liz's momentum was still forward from the strike and she couldn't rotate fast enough to get her guard back up. A moment later, she was bisected at the waist and her HP instantly dropped to zero.
Klein roared in defiance, and swung at The Reaper's legs, but he had little force behind the blow now that he was on the ground. The Reaper swiftly turned the blow aside and brought his blade down upon Klein's head, removing him from the fight.
When the building came down around them, Asuna had instinctively used her body to shield Kirito who had still been reeling from the Reaper's dirty trick. As such, she took the brunt of the damage, her HP was now down to twenty-two percent while Kirito's was still at sixty-seven.
It looked like only part of the house had actually fallen on and around them. They were both on the ground in a rather compromising position, yet they were still able to move freely once he lifted a broken wooden beam off Asuna's back. Beyond that was a veritable mountain of collapsed beams floors, walls, tables, bookcases and dozens of other random things found in any house.
"Are you okay?" he asked as the dust finally began to settle.
"I'm fine." she insisted. "We have to hurry and get back out there."
The pair immediately scrambled to their feet and began to pull the nearest debris away, trying to find their way to a door or window.
"That fighting style, did it seems familiar to you?" Kirito asked while tearing into the debris pile.
"Yeah, I wondered if you'd seen it as well, so it's not just me?"
"It looked and fought similar to the style of combat that Heathcliff used back in SAO, it was almost like the could bend the game in the same way too..." Kirito paused for a second as he shifted a particularly heavy beam. "Whoever this guy is, he's got to be an SAO survivor and might even connected to Kayaba in some way."
As they worked together to move another particularly heavy beam, Klein's health dipped down to below thirty percent.
"Hurry, they won't last long on their own!" Asuna shouted and as if in answer to her plea, the next piece she removed, collapsed a section over one of the windows and the could see the outside.
Before they could celebrate however, Liz's HP dropped to zero.
Asuna scrambled out of the window with Kirito right on her heels. They made if out just in time to see The Reaper's scythe fall on Klein. His avatar stayed in place for a few moments before shattering into hundreds of little light fragments.
As The Reaper turned to face them, Kirito spoke quickly. "If this guy really is an SAO survivor, I've got a plan. I can get you an opening, just be sure to use it because you won't get another shot."
"Sounds like you're about to do something reckless."
"You know me."
"That's what I'm talking about."
There was no more time to speak, The Reaper was charging right for them his scythe practically singing in the wind as he ran.
"Follow my lead." Kirito said, and charged to meet The Reaper head on.
Kirito knew that given the situation, it was highly unlikely that they could beat The Reaper in a straight up fight. His party had done a great job whittling down The Reaper's HP, but with both he and Asuna both very low as well, it wasn't looking good. So he had to think outside the box, he had to use a strategy that no SAO survivor would ever expect another SAO survivor to use.
Kirito was a few feet ahead of Asuna so the Reaper aimed his first strike at him, just as Kirito had hoped. The Reaper swung a high diagonal slash at Kirito who raised his swords to block, but at the last moment, Kirito let go of his blades.
The scythe, now undeterred, bit deep into Kirito's left shoulder and his HP dropped like a stone. The moment it hit him, Kirito wrapped his hands along the hilt of the scythe and used all his body weight to drag the weapon down with him. His surprise move did just as it was intended, it put The Reaper off balance just long enough for Asuna to strike. The last thing Kirito saw before his avatar vanished was Asuna's rapier piercing The Reaper's left shoulder.
By the time Asuna had realized what Kirito's crazy plan was, it was too late to do anything about it. All she could do was strike true and hope that it worked. As Kirito brought down The Reaper's weapon, and consequently his guard, she didn't waist the opportunity. With a lightning flash akin to her namesake Asuna pierced The Reapers left shoulder and used her forward momentum to push her opponent to the ground.
The Reaper's deadly weapon was now free of his grasp, a few feet away on the ground where Kirito's body had been a moment before. The Reapers was now pinned to the ground by Asuna's weight, and his health was down to a mere four percent. She had won. Asuna quickly drew a dagger with her free hand, all it would take to finally end the fight, but just as she was about to use it a voice caused her to freeze.
"Whoa, I yield, I yield!"
The voice that came from The Reaper was so unlike anything she had expected based on her perception of him that she froze out of simple shock. She wasn't even sure what she had really expected, some jaded old gamer, or perhaps some young emo/goth kid? The voice she actually heard was young and vibrant, she figured the owner to be a man in his late teens or early twenties from the sound. One more thing nagged at her, like an itch in the back of her mind that she couldn't quite scratch. The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite place where she had heard it. Was Kirito right? Was this man an SAO survivor?
"Looks like even after all this time I still can't best The Lightning Flash can I?" he stated with a chuckle.
That settled it, they had to have met before, but when? Then it hit her, she recognised the voice, but it couldn't be whom she thought it was, she had to be wrong.
The Reaper's right arm slowly began moving up and Asuna instantly drew her blade close. "No sudden moves." she ordered.
"Easy there, just taking off the hood." he insisted.
The Reaper pulled back his dark mask to reveal a face she had not seen in years, and one she had never expected to see again.
"It's been a long time Asuna." he said with a slight smile.
"But... that's impossible," she stammered. "You're dead... I saw you die!"
Whew, I think that's the longest fight scene I've ever written, hopefully it didn't get too wordy along the way and things flowed well. It was both one of the most fun to wright and maybe the hardest. Building within the story, The Reaper had to both come across strong enough to actually have beaten full guilds, but not so strong that it wasn't believable that Kirito and crew could beat him. Hopefully that came across as well as the reason why they were able to do it when no one else could, without it being directly stated what that was.
The next chapter is already well underway so I'm hoping to keep up with the timely updates I've been able to get out lately. Fingers crossed.
Anyhow, thank you all once again for reading, and I'll see you next time. :)
- Tawnis