Arc 1; Ep 7; The Blue-Eyed Demon
-October 17, 2024 Floor 72 Crystal Keeper's Dungeon-
Sakore is currently inside a dungeon facing against a boss that holds many crystals, the info was given to him by Argo explaining that these crystals could also be made into powerful weapons. So he went on his own to take on the boss and it was very heavy battle and Sakore already has the boss down to it's last HP bar, then his sword glowed a dark purple having his slash twice in a diagonal strike making an X, then does a horizontal and vertical slashes making an 8 point star and for the last strike he thrusts his sword causing the HP to drop on the boss all the way and make it burst into pieces. Once that was done, he looks at the spot where he sees seven different color crystals. He looks between them and takes the purple and black colored crystal that had a glow to it, and an info screen pops -Dark Amethyst Crystal ingot Acquired-
"Alright now that is over, time to head back to town." Sakore says and takes out a teleport crystal and returns to town noticing it is afternoon. "I should find a blacksmith that could make me a weapon, but where could I find possibly a master blacksmith?" He was unsure how to find someone skilled enough then decided to message Asuna about her suggestion of a good blacksmith. He waits for a moment then gets a reply
"I have a friend who has a shop down on the 48th Floor, she can make you a new weapon to use. Her place is in town, look for the house with the waterwheel. Let me know if you need anything else!" Asuna replied in her message. He replied back with a thanks and said he will ask if needed. He goes to the teleport gate and travels to Floor 48 in the town of Lindas.
-Floor 48 Lindas, Lisbeth's Blacksmith shop-
Sakore appears on the 48th Floor and looks around town until he finds the place Asuna told him about and he goes to the house and opens the door which a bell rings that would signal the shop owner that a customer has arrived, he looks to see different weapons on display in the shop
"Wow, these weapons all look amazing. It must have taken a long time to be able to make these out of so many materials." Sakore says amazed with there being so many weapons. While he was mesmerized by the creations a voice spoke at the desk
"Welcome to Lisbeth's Blacksmith shop!" a female voice spoke getting his attention, she has pink hair, pink colored eyes, has a red dress similar like a maid uniform, and brown boots. Sakore thought the girl must be Lisbeth, the owner of the shop.
"Uh hi, so I am wondering if you could do anything like custom orders." He tells her and she observes him
"This guy better not be worse than Kirito when he first came by." Lis says in her thoughts "I can do that, but although the metal prices are kinda high these days."
"I'm not worried about that, I just feel like the current sword I have might not be good to use anymore. So I was thinking if you can make a very good quality sword." Sakore opens his menu and takes out the crystal "Something made from this?" she was amazed at the item he has
"Where did you get something like that?!" She asks surprised wide eyed.
"I got this from a dungeon on Floor 72." He tells her and she was shocked to hear him say that.
"Is he also part of the Assault Team? That would be understandable if he is able to go to higher floors." She says in her thoughts. "Well alright I can do that, please follow me to the Smithing room." he gives her the crystal and then they head down and Lis equips her white gloves for Smithing and starts her work. "This will take some time to prepare so please have some patience."
"Sure, I'll let you do your work." He says and sits down as he watches her work on the crystal. Once doing so the Crystal has shaped to an ingot ready to be hammered to form into a weapon.
"So what kind of weapon do you want?" she asks him.
"A one-handed sword." Sakore tells her and she nods confirming, and starts hammering the melted ingot. After a couple of hits it glows and starts forming into a sword (Now I want it to be shaped like the Master Sword, however the colors are not gonna be the same.) The sword has a black hilt with a gold gem in the center, and the blade is the color and glow similar to the crystal. Then an info screen pops up for her to see
"The sword is called, "The Dark Moon's Blade." Amazing, it isn't even in the info broker's directory also." She explains and he stands up "Give it a try." Sakore picks up the sword and tests swings it. "Well?"
"Amazing, this sword is fantastic!" Sakore says with a smile "It feels like forged it with everything you got." He sheathed his now new sword into a new holster. "And for the payment…"
"I'll make the cost be eight thousand, it would've been super expensive. Although it looked as though you worked super hard to get that crystal." Lis tells him
"Really? That's kinda surprising actually." Sakore says with a surprised look.
"Yea, well I thought that you would be like this one guy that destroyed one of my special made swords." She tells him.
"Really? Wow what a jerk. I'm not that kind of person to anyone especially girls." He tells her "If I wasn't so damn shy to people I would be making friends…"
"Well that's good to hear, and if you ever need your equipment repaired then just come over to Lisbeth's Blacksmith Shop." She tells him.
"Will do." He pays her the amount needed "See you sometime later." He leaves the shop and Lis was happy to not have casualties similar when she met Kirito.
-Floor 50-
Sakore returns to the floor to the hotel he rented a room at and went upstairs and knocked on the door.
"Come in." A female voice spoke and he walks into the room seeing his partner whenever he is off from the Assault Team. "Well, did you get a new sword?" she asks him.
"Yup I did, got a sword forged by a Blacksmith, thanks to Argo's info about the crystals. I believe this will help me during boss raids. It's really exciting actually huh Philia?" he asks and shows her what his new sword looks like.
"Yup, I also don't want you to do anything stupid alright." Philia tells him
"Hey I won't! Although I am gonna go to Floor 74 and test it out, I'll also go see what the boss is so we can advance again." Sakore tells her. After they finished the Astral Quest, Sakore suggested to her that whenever he is off from doing stuff with the Assault Team they could party together and Philia was happy about that.
"You better not take it head on! I won't forgive you if you try." Philia tells him
"Hey I won't! I'm not that crazy to take a boss by myself!" He defends himself and gets himself in sleeping wear. "Anyway it is getting late, might as well rest for the night. Can't go to a fight without having sleep." Philia agrees and gets to her sleeping clothes and they lay down in the bed "good night Philia."
"Night Sakore." she tells him and they fall asleep together.
-October 18, 2024, Floor 74 Dungeon-
Time has passed and Sakore took his time get some food eaten and then made his way into the 74th Floor dungeon, in his path he battled some Lizardmen and Undead Skeletons. Using his new sword was really paying off taking out the enemies in the dungeon. He continues through the dungeon until he has reached to a safe zone area. He passes through the barrier and he could see some familiar faces in the distance.
"Is that… Kirito, Asuna, Klein!" He shouts out their names getting their attention and goes over to them.
"Hey Sakore! Good to see you buddy!" Klein says to him as he walks closer to them. " Hey dude, listen to this! Kirito is in a party!"
"Wait, the Black Swordsman and Lightning Flash are in a party together? Now this is golden!" Sakore says surprised and has a sly grin which made the two jump surprised to hear that.
"Whoa! Hey it isn't like that Sakore!" Kirito tries telling him slightly blushing, and Asuna is also blushing a bit.
"I'm kinda surprised that a Solo Player like you suddenly started forming a party. Although, I was going Solo for a long while, but I am partying up with someone, but they just aren't ready to face Floor Bosses." Sakore says. "So why the sudden change of heart huh?" Sakore was curious as to why he and Asuna were getting along after a couple of times arguing. However before they could answer, they hear the sounds of footsteps coming towards them. They look to see a large group of soldiers entering the safe zone. "Wait, aren't those guys from the Aincraid Liberation guild?"
"Yea, the guild that runs Floor 1. What are they doing up here?" Klein asks confused.
"They were almost slaughtered on Floor 25, instead of clearing dungeons they've been trying to build up their numbers." Asuna explains "I haven't seen them on the front lines in a while." The guy in front who seems to be the one in charge of the group stops and turns to his men
"At ease!" He tells them and they fall to rest themselves almost seemingly tired. Then he walks up to the small team. "I'm Lt. Corvatz of the Aincraid Liberation Army."
"I'm Kirito, Solo." he tells him
"Course you are. Have you cleared the area up ahead?" Corvatz asks
"Yea, we also got a map and directions to the boss room." Kirito explains
"Good, then hand over that map and we'll be on our way." he tells him
"Whoa hang on, you want us to just give it to you?! Dude do you even know how much of a pain mapping is?!" Sakore yells at him
"We share our information and resources with civilian players all the time! We don't charge a thing for it!" Corvatz tells him "We maintain order, and the chaos of battle. So that all players can leave this world as quickly as possible! Therefore, it is your duty to cooperate with us, so hand over that map!"
"Listen you!" Asuna says about to scold him
"You bastard!" Sakore says going to draw out his sword
"Easy, when would we go back to town I was gonna go public with the map anyway." Kirito says stopping Sakore from doing so "It's cool." He shares the map info to Corvatz.
"Thanks for cooperating." Corvatz says and starts walking back to his men
"By the way, if you're planning to hit the boss I wouldn't recommend it." Kirito warns him
"That is my decision to make." Corvatz replied which made Kirito worry
"Hey I just took a look inside that room pal, and you can't beat that boss if you're troops are half dead!" Kirito tells him and looks at the worn out soldiers on the ground. "Look at them! They're exhausted!"
"Nonsense! My men are tougher than that! They won't quit until I say so!" Corvatz says being stubborn to admit it. "On your feet, come on move!" the worn out soldiers stand up and the large group takes the path to the boss.
"Oh man, are those guys gonna be ok?" Klein asks
"We should probably follow them, just to make sure they aren't dumb enough to actually fight the boss." Sakore says with Kirito agreeing, and they move forward. "So Kirito you said you got a look at the boss, what do you think about it?"
"From what I saw it had a large sword, it could have very powerful sword skills to knock us down." Kirito explains and Sakore got a worried look on his face. Getting halfway to the boss room the small group takes out the enemies that got in their path being the last one. Then suddenly they hear loud screams up ahead in the direction to the boss room. "Asuna!" The two start running ahead with Sakore right behind them, while leaving Klein and his team there to deal with enemies respawning. The trio make quick tracks to the boss room with more screaming.
"Idiots!" Asuna says as they continue running and they stop at the entrance of the boss room.
"Hey! You guys alright?!" Kirito asks and they see the soldiers already fighting the boss, Sakore looked up to see the name -The Gleam Eyes- and notice that the soldiers have taken it down to it's second HP bar already. They get hit by the boss causing a bunch to get knocked away.
"What are you guys doing?! Use your teleport crystals!" Sakore shouts at them.
"We can't! Th-the crystals aren't working!" One soldier tells him and the boss strikes again.
"I've never heard of a trap like this being in a boss room before." Asuna says scared, as Kirito had the expression of knowing a trap like this.
"The Aincraid Liberation Army doesn't know the word retreat! Come on! Keep fighting!" Corvatz yells out
"That guy's nuts!" Sakore says seeing what is happening.
"Hey, the hells going on?!" Klein says just making it in time to see what is happening.
"They can't use their teleportation crystals! We could distract the boss, but going in there is too risky." Kirito explained to him.
"But, isn't there something we can do?!" Klein asks while Kirito gritted his teeth.
"Ready? Charge!" Corvatz orders his troops and they go in to attack.
"Don't do it!" Kirito warns them as the boss lets out a breath attack hitting a large number of them and struck knocking them around and sending Corvatz right to the four at the doorway. "Hey. Hang on Corvatz!" His helmet shattered showing his reaction and said his last words.
"I can't believe it…" He says and bursts making it his death with them shocked, the boss readies itself to finish off a soldier however Asuna drew out her rapier and charged in.
"Asuna!" Kirito charges in after her.
"Wait! Kirito!" Sakore follows behind him.
"Oh what the hell!" Klein says as Asuna uses a Sword Skill to get the boss' attention and causing it to miss hitting the soldier. It then turned punching Asuna a far distance and having her vulnerable to get struck, although Kirito got there in time to block and move the strike off the path from striking Asuna.
"Get out!" Kirito tells her as Klein and his team hurried to get the soldiers out of the way while the boss tried to use a breath attack Sakore starts up a unique Sword Skill he obtained before.
"Shadow's Abyss!" He shouts having his sword glow dark purple, doing a double slash making an X and doing another double making an eight star point and thrusts in the center of it to finish the combo. Both he and the boss start clashing their weapons as well as doing some hits from one to the other at short times, and Kirito also jumping in the mix. The boss then smacked Sakore into a wall as Kirito stops the boss from going to finish him off, Sakore sees his HP go down to the Yellow "Crap, I need to think of something for us to win. But at this rate... lots of people will die, not even we could beat it… come on think!" Sakore tries thinking of a way to fight the boss and he sees Kirito look at everyone in the room, seeing the three still good. However the soldiers were down in Red indicating they could get killed in one more attack. Kirito blocks another attack.
"Hey Klein, Asuna, Sakore! Listen, I need 10 seconds keep him off me!" Kirito tells them and dodges another attack
"Yea! You got it!" Klein says going in and Asuna following also, Sakore gets up and joins the fray and they distract the boss as long as they can while Klein got knocks back and Sakore blocks getting moved away with his HP barely reaching Red.
"Ok, I'm ready!" Kirito tells them and Asuna uses a skill to knock the weapon away and giving Kirito an opening. "Switch out!" he goes in blocking the attack and from Sakore's view he sees an emerald glow from Kirito's back making him reach out and knock the boss away. Sakore thought he switched different swords, but upon closer inspection he sees Kirito actually wielding two swords at once."Starburst Stream!" he starts comboing the boss
"What the hell kind of a skill is that?!" Sakore asks in complete shock seeing Kirito fight completely different. He was moving incredibly fast and this had him deal the last blow at the boss causing it to lose all it's HP and burst in pieces. "Amazing, I never knew he had something like that…" Sakore was in complete shock and he looked close at Kirito's HP and saw just a slight amount left barely having him surviving the fight. The Congratulations sign showed up signaling the boss being defeated. "Damn he seriously takes a lot of risks in situations." suddenly Kirito fell on his back losing consciousness.
"Kirito!" Asuna shouted to him and everyone ran over to him and Asuna uses a healing crystal to restore his HP "Wake up Kirito!" he starts opening his eyes regaining conscious and sits up, he looks to see everyone around worried about him.
"That was too close, how long was I out?" Kirito asks while Asuna was letting tears out happy that he is still ok.
"Just a few seconds." She tells him wiping her tears away "You reckless… idiot." she hugs him and was surprised and smiled slightly then turned to Sakore
"... Corvatz and two of his members didn't make it through…" He explains to him
"We haven't lost a player in a boss fight, since Floor 67…" Kirito says sadly
"That wasn't a boss fight, it was suicide. Corvatz was a damn fool!" Klein says gritting his teeth. "There's no point to any of this if you die!"
"Also what the heck was that you just did during that battle?!" Sakore asks Kirito and he wasn't sure of wanting to answer
"I don't think you want to know…" Kirito replies to him
"Aw come on dude! That was something I never even seen before! Just tell us what it was, we can understand!" Sakore tells him and Kirito gave up since they know a secret he has been holding
"It's an extra skill I picked up… Dual Wielding." He tells them, Sakore, Klein and his team were amazed hearing about that. Sakore then remembered the Unique Skill he acquired after completed the Astral Quest.
-Flashback-
"What else did you get?" Philia asks him and he was unsure how to answer, he got an info screen telling him of a Unique Sword Skill.
-You Acquired a new one-handed Sword Skill "Shadow's Abyss"-
"I… seemed to have gotten a Sword Skill…" Sakore replies to her
"I never heard a skill like that… do you think it was unique to you?" Philia asks as he was unsure about it.
"It might be, it says is given to the "Hero of the Stars". Hero of the Stars? What does that even mean?" Sakore asks confused why he is given this Unique skill.
-End of Flashback-
"Whoa, that's awesome! Why didn't you even tell us we're your friends!" Sakore tells him
"If people found out I had a skill like that…" Kirito starts explaining
"Then they would get upset that you got something they don't… I can understand that as a reason for it. Hey some jerks are like that, but not me… though I am slightly jealous about that, but I won't give you an earful." Sakore tells him and Kirito was confused. "I know how he feels, I have something I never expected and I was unsure to show it until now." Sakore believed that the relationship with Kirito and Asuna is going to change dramatically "Instead, keep on walking the path you take my friend." after saying that Sakore starts making his way to the stairs up to Floor 75 to activate the teleport gate and returning to Floor 50 to report to Philia on progress.
-October 19, 2024 Floor 50-
The next day the news about Kirito's Dual Wielding Skill spreads, it even hit the newspapers as well.
"Well, with this out it shows now that Kirito's special skill has been spilt out to the public. People must be pretty aggravated knowing this." Sakore says who is currently laying on one of the beds in their rented room reading the newspaper.
"He must be pretty amazing to have something like that." Philia says taking a bite of a sandwich they bought for the day. "It sounds Unique like your new Sword Skill, when we cleared the Astral Knight Quest."
"Yea, he acquired it suddenly out of nowhere but I have gotten mine from the quest… but it was my first time seeing him unleash a powerful unique skill." Sakore tells her still looking through the news then he gets an incoming message from Asuna she explains to him that Kirito and the Commander of the KoB guild are actually going to duel on Floor 75 tomorrow. "Well that's unexpecting news."
"What's up?" Philia asks him and he sits up
"I just got a message from a friend of mine who is part of the KoB guild. She tells me that Kirito and the Commander of the guild are gonna duel with conditions on the line." Sakore tells her
"Why all of a sudden? What's the conditions that were made?" Philia asks him curiously
"She says that if Kirito wins he can take Asuna along with him, however if he loses then he is forced to join the guild." Sakore tells her
"Odd request, I mean anyone can choose whether to join or decline of being in a guild it's their decision really." Philia says and Sakore agreed with her statement, but the strange thing is why does he want to duel Kirito suddenly? That question rung in Sakore's mind wondering what is the reason for doing so.
Woo! Now that was a chapter, double chapters in one day! I hope you enjoyed reading the exciting moment of Kirito using Dual Blades for the first time, and Sakore's moment will arrive very much later to use that skill. Now Kirito and Healthcliff are going to have a duel, plus I'm going to do the whole next chapter with the duel and the episodes of Yui, hope you guys will enjoy the very long chapter coming up! Also I am still going for suggestions if you guys want Sakore to start having a rival when he begins ALO let me know and I want to know your author names so I can give credit to you guys.
Next Time; Yui's Heart