Arc 1; Ep 6; the Astral Swordsman

-June 28, 2024, Floor 50-

After a month has passed of my journey with Philia from the Eclipse Tower and gaining the second piece to finishing the Astral Quest, the Assault team has reached the 63rd Floor. I have gotten a place to rest on this Floor same with Kirito. Also that I am able to give some unused items to Agil who runs a shop on the floor. Later I was bound to find out that me and Philia were gonna end the quest of the Astral Knights.

-Crossing Fields opening-

Inside the room that Sakore rented he had learned of a few things that seemed to be on his mind, Kirito and Asuna were starting to get along a bit after that one argument that seemed like they would almost fight to see which was the better one. A few days ago Asuna has told Sakore that Kirito got a new sword, but he strangely hasn't used it at all. Sakore wanted to find out why such things were happening, but of course he has to stay focused for the battles coming up. He then looks through his menu and sees some of the items he got as rare drops and find some that could be useful to a shopkeeper he knows in town. So he gets up and leaves the hotel going to a place he knows of. Plus he has new gear on but still hasn't gotten a better sword than his current one and he hopes to find a way to get a better sword to fight the Floor Bosses.

"Great doing business with you guys!" A male voice spoke to three guys leaving the shop and Sakore walks in as a certain guy he knows puts the stuff he had gotten away

"Good to see someone is out doing some of his own business work." Sakore says getting his attention

"Well I'll be a monkey's uncle. How are you Sakore?" Agil asks him and they bump their fists together

"Just a regular day of course. I stopped by wanting to give you some stuff that might want." Sakore says bringing out is menu and show some items he got "plus I also got these from rare drops, thought you might want to use them when you go out for some leveling."

"Well I'll be, these have some pretty decent stats. Sure I'll take them off ya, should this amount be enough?" Agil asks showing the amount of Col to trade for the items

"Yea, I'll take that amount. You know how to run a shop very well Agil." Sakore compliments him and he rubs his neck in embarrassment

"Hey now you're making me blush man." Agil says and they heard the door open "hello and welcome to my shop. Can I help you with anything?" Sakore turns to see the familiar face he has known for a long time (she now has her original outfit that she wears in HF, so you guys know)

"Oh Philia, I wasn't expecting to see you suddenly." Sakore says to her

"Well, I actually I came here to find you." She tells him and realizes what she means

"You know each other?" Agil asks him

"Yea, this is Philia, and Philia this is Agil. He runs the shop here and helps other players that are in need." Sakore tells her "so I guess you got more news huh?"

"Yup, and this might be the last of it. We gotta head to Floor 60." Philia explains to him

"Floor 60 huh? That is pretty high up, you think she can handle herself up in that high of a floor?" Agil asks Sakore

"We'll be fine, and besides I am part of the Assault team so she'll be safe with me." Sakore tells him

"Alright, so I guess you two are going on a quest together. Well you have me to support in coming back safely alright?" Agil tells him

"Not a problem. Alright Philia let's go find that place." Sakore tells her and Agil wishes them good luck on their quest and they use the teleport gate to travel to Floor 60.

Once they got to Floor 60, they get to the fields and see an entrance to a temple and it was colored in shiny orange like the amber stone. The two enter the temple to face against the Knight of the Sun. They get into another large room and to the center area.

"I congratulate you warriors for making this far, once you have completed this test you will be tested by the Astral King." A voice spoke and the room lit up and showed three knights with two being familiar "however you must fight all three of us together before you can acquire the pass of the Sun. You must defeat us, Stellar, Lunar, and me. I am Solar, Knight of the Sun!" The center Knight is Solar with bright orange armor wielding a mace and shield with three health bars appearing, Lunar wields the Axe in silver armor with only one health bar, and Stellar wields a two-handed sword and in shiny blue armor also with one health bar.

"Why are the previous two only have one?" Philia asks confused

"Not sure, maybe since this is the Sun's area then it has more health." Sakore says slightly unsure. However the two draw out their weapons and get ready to battle. "I can take on the other two if you can distract the Sun Knight."

"I'll do my best!" Philia tells him and moves in getting around the two knights since they were in front and the Sun one was behind. Sakore goes in at the two knights and strike with an AoE sword skill doing damage to both of them and dodging their attacks.

"I'll find out the real secret to the Astral Quest, as long as the two of us keep fighting!" Sakore says dodging Moon Knight and using a Sword Skill on the Star Knight, but getting hit in the process taking some damage. While Philia is dodging the Knight's swings as she strikes a couple of times to get the HP bar down a bit.

"I have to keep up the pace and do as much as I can to keep this one away from Sakore until he finishes with the other two." Philia says in her thoughts and activate a Sword Skill to hit, but the Knight blocks her attack and Philia gets smacked by the mace.

"Crap I need to hurry now!" Sakore says in his thoughts and then came up with a plan now bringing the Star Knight to Red and the Moon Knight to Yellow. He takes a quick step moving away and makes quick movement to the Sun Knight and tossing a crystal to Philia "Catch!" she sees him toss the crystal to her which is a healing crystal and he takes on the Sun Knight, she looks back seeing other two knights and knows what she has to do. She activates a Sword Skill that does multiple hits bringing the Star Knight down completely and burst.

"One down and just one more!" She says and readies herself. The Moon Knight readies to attack as she also goes for an attack to rebound the attack. "Switch!" she tells Sakore as he also rebounds the Sun Knight and the two attack the other Knight, Sakore's attack caused the Moon Knight to drop all the way and burst. Philia's attack brought the Sun Knight to the second HP bar. Sakore and Philia work as a perfect team to rebound and switch against the Sun Knight and Sakore's final attack did a big hit and make the knight lost all the HP and burst. "Yes! We beat them!"

"Well done warriors, you have completed the three trials." the voice spoke and they obtain the Sun Medallion and the Solar Gloves equipment. "Wear the garments that you obtained so the Astral King may accept your challenge. Place the Medallions in the proper slots to open the path."

"So we have to wear the Astral Equipment in the last fight before we can finish it." Sakore says and the two equip the three pieces of equipment and head to the door ahead and place the Medallions in the slots and the door lowers showing a large room and at the other end is a larger Knight in golden armor wielding a sword and shield.

"Welcome champions, I congratulate you both for defeating my three Knights. Now comes the final Trial of your journey, You must battle me to earn your special reward." The King says and he stands from his throne with the name -The Astral King- and four health bars indicating him being the boss battle.

"Alright Philia, you ready to fight this guy and finish this whole thing?" Sakore asks her and she smiles taking her stance

"You know it! I'm sure the treasure is waiting for me to obtain soon!" She says and the two charge forth towards the King and they dodge but the King was quick and he struck Sakore. "Hey get away from him!" Philia struck from behind and Sakore got to his feet and clash with the King and rebounded the sword getting a chance to strike lowering the HP of the first bar. The King then used an AoE skill striking them, Sakore backed away and quickly getting a potion out from his inventory as the King was slowly walking towards him. However Philia struck getting the first bar almost all the way gone and getting the King's attention and going for a Sword Skill and she goes for one also, but she gets rebounded and struck bringing her HP to yellow. As the King was walking towards her, Sakore activated a powerful Sword Skill that brought the King's HP to the second bar and halfway also.

"Stay away from her, I won't let you beat us!" Sakore says and goes for another strike although the King blocks with the sword. Philia takes the chance to attack and strike from behind causing the king to fumble and giving Sakore to hit and brings the HP past half on the second bar. The two go for a double Sword Skill attack and the HP is almost brought to the start of the third bar.

The King attacks Sakore with a horizontal slash, though taking damage wasn't a problem. The two back away as the King suddenly glowed a gold aura meaning it has gotten stronger and using a new skill now at Yellow. The King now moves faster than before and Sakore clashes blades as Philia tries to stab, but gets blocked by the shield. Then Sakore backs away as the King runs up to him and Sakore times it and parries the King giving Philia time to strike bringing the HP now a third down on the Third bar. The two ready themselves as Sakore goes in rebounding the King and Philia strikes and Sakore goes in doing another hit bringing the bar down below half, however the King attacks both with a Horizontal slash dropping their HP quite a bit.

"This guy is no joke." Philia says while drinking a potion and Sakore still fighting just now bringing the HP just barely getting to the last bar. "How about this." her dagger glows purple and she strikes along with kicks which actually caused a paralyzes on the boss, giving Sakore a chance to try and finish the boss with his sword glowing red and does a powerful 3 blunt attack bringing the HP down now at red. With that the two back away and the King has three symbols appear, one being the sun with a spiral and curved spikes, the second being the moon in crescent shape and then making a full circle for the last part, then last is the star drawing by lines only with the top point barely connecting. The symbols disappeared and caused the aura to grow bigger.

"Looks like he got a huge power boost!" Sakore says and the two charge in clashing blades with the King which he is now more skilled than before, and it is making it really difficult for them to gain an opening on their opponent and win the fight. Sakore and Philia were struck getting them to Red but Sakore pushed himself to finally hit bringing the HP all the way down and cause the King to burst finally ending the fight and -Congratulations- pops up above them. "We did it…" Sakore got an info screen indicating him getting the last attack bonus and it was the -Astral Shield- "Not really a shield user, but I'll keep it if needed."

"Congratulations young warriors, for completing the Trial of the Astral Knights you may pick between the rewards." the King spoke about and info screen shows up

"For how you will pick your rewards, the equipment one wears will change to a new set called -The Astral Set-, the other will be receiving a large amount of money. Oh wow… so Philia, what do you want?" Sakore asks her "I know you were anticipate about the treasure, but…"

"I'll take the money." she says

"Huh?! Wouldn't you want the equipment to be able to have good stats?" Sakore asks surprised

"Yea, but I think you need it more. You are part of the Assault Team, and you need it to fight the Floor Bosses. I'll be fine on my own. Also I think I already found my treasure." She tells him and he looks at curious about her answer "The special treasure I found, was being able to meet you on that day. If you hadn't come by to help I probably would have been dead before learning of this quest. That is a special treasure to me sincerely, thank you Sakore." He blushes from how she thought of him and she hugs him. Sakore never thought she would say that, but hearing that also made him happy in a way to keep fighting. Sakore turned to the info screen and saying he will take the equipment. (his gear will look similar to Kirito's except colors.) Sakore's cloak becomes shiny blue with white stars around the outside and orange trims with the Sun Symbol on the back, his pants and boots become silver with black trims and the Moon Symbol on one of the legs, and his gloves become amber orange as the plate on the back of the gloves have the Star Symbol. "Whoa that gear looks great on you, you might as well be called the "Astral Swordsman", that sounds like a title for you." Philia acquires 28k Col as her reward and both of them get the same amount of Exp for the quest now finished.

"Maybe so, however I think I might need to upgrade on a new weapon later on since the Floors will be really difficult to clear." Sakore says looking his sheathed weapon on his back

"Maybe me and Argo will find something that drops a good sword. I would also wish you the best of luck." Philia says with a bright smile and Sakore couldn't help but smile also.

That is the end of the Astral Quest, sure it was short for it to end but I honestly didn't have much to think about for it. Also I made it kinda cheesy with Philia and the special treasure she had already found. Hope you guys liked that part, now we are going to more of the main story with Sakore with Kirito and Asuna again, plus a new sword in the process. Now Sakore has his own set of equipment and now ready to take on anything. So hope you enjoyed this and get ready for more exciting adventures!

Next Time; The Blue-Eyed Demon