[7 January 2026]
Floor 24 was largely a water filled level, with cities floating over water similar to the ancient city Atlantis.
The main city on the floor was a man-made island in the center of a massive lake called Panareze,with countless islands surrounding it, kinda like Atlantis itself.
Arashi sat down on one of the grassy hills on Panareze, observeing the festive air of the city. Arashi was still in thought about yesterday, even though he tries to open the box every day, it still is too painful to do.
Arashi tried to find something else to think about,so he thought more about what could possibly be Absolute Sword.
She's not a former SAO player, im sure of that. But... Did she convert from some other VRMMO? Arashi asked himself.
That would explain her crazy high stats. Some VRMMO games alawy leveling to be really easy.
"Arashi!It's time!" Lisbeth shouted at Arashi from a distance. Arashi turned around to see Lisbeth and saw her grabbing Kirito and Asuna's wrists. "Those two being all lovey-dovey again huh." Arashi mumbled to himself.
When they landed on the nameless island that the duels were held on, Arashi observed a giant tree that could be a scaled down model of Yggdrasil,and maybe hundreds of people all assembled in a circle.
Loud cheering could be heard from the crowd, likely due to the duels ongoing. After finding a empty spot in the circle, the group waited for current duel to finish.
Arashi used this time frame to make sure his equipment was fully maxed out and gave him the highest stats that he could have.
Suddenly, a single Salamander player fell from the sky, likely defeated by Absolute Sword. "I give up! I quit! I resign!" He shouted as he waved his sword in the air.
Then, a purple haired female imp with a bandana on her head landed on the grassy patch of the island,sheathing her sword.
So that's how Absolute Sword looks like Arashi thought. She was rather cute to Arashi."H-hold on!!! You didn't tell me Absolute Sword was a girl!" Asuna screamed in confusion and shock to the rest of the group. "Uhhh,we did." Silica replied.
"O-oh."Asuna sulked at her bad memory.Asuna then came to a sudden realizaton of something" Was that why you lost Kirito? Because she was a girl!?"She scolded Kirito.
" God their a wreck."Arashi commented. Kirito then reasoned his way out of the situation."So... Is there anyone else who wants to duel?" Absolute Sword ask the crowd.
Arashi then walked behind Asuna and pushed her lightly on the back. "Heh sorry Asuna for using you as a learning experience." He said as he did that.
Asuna and Absolute Sword then began their battle. Arashi noticed some observations about Absolute Sword's fighting stlye. Absolute Sword's attack were extremely fast, her normal attacks were as fast as a Sword Skill. But the thing was her attacks were too straightforward. She didn't use any feint or deceptive maneuver. Strange. Arashi thought.
Then the key to beat her is to throw in something unexpected. Arashi concluded. Asuna too, came to this conclusion. She used a Martial Arts skill to stun Absolute Sword. The duel continued for awhile more before Asuna lost.
After the duel was over, Arashi approached Absolute Sword and challenged her to a duel. Of course, she gladly accepted. In the duel request, it displaywd her name as Yuuki. Yuuki huh, nice name I guess Arashi thought.
Arashi accepted the duel request and they decided to do it while on the ground.Both swordsmen drew their swords and stood in a stance where their weapons were held vertically.
The countdown slowly ticked down, every tick felt like it took forever to Arashi. Arashi was obviously nervous about this fight. He wasn't soil your pants levels of nervous, but somewhere near there. Why though? Well, Arashi learned this the excruciatingly painful way back in SAO.
No matter how much you stratagise and prepare for a fight, the enemy will almost always have some kind of surprise your not prepared for.
3,2,1,START! timer started to tick down. Both fighters dashed at each other at incredible speeds and begun their duel.
Arashi first began with a few strikes to Yuuki's left, which was intended to trick her. As she dodged those attacks, Arashi was constantly observeing her, trying to predict her next move.
Just as she was about to dodge Arashi's last blow, Arashi held his longsword up high over his left shoulder. A bright red eye piercing glow emitted from his sword,symboling the start of a sword skill.
The skill Arashi was using was the skill gifted to him by Eugene, -Volcanic Blazer-. He started by a vertical chop and then three slashes in multiple directions. The chop was dodged by Yuuki, but the following slashes were not.
The knock back from the attacks Arashi allowed him a even bigger window for more attack. He slashed three more times, however those were partially blocked by the Yuuki blocking it.
Yuuki then jumped backwards. Luckily, the final hit of - Volcanic Blazer- was a thrust, and Arashi's longsword gave him the reach advantage, so hitting her was really not problem.
Out of the blue, Yuuki's sword glowed a purple similar to her clothes. She then defended herself by parrying the thrust, then attacking Arashi taking advantage of the post skill delay. Arashi felt evey single impact of that four hits.
He felt power and soul in every one of those hits.
Five hits, six left. Arashi mentally noted. Arashi looks up to his top left hand corner to get the status of his HP, which was currently at 63% and dropping at a fair pace.
Next, Yuuki stomped her left leg onto the floor and charged forward planning to land five more hits. That was when Arashi started his own OSS -Bloody Scythe- to counter and finish her off.
His sword glew a stained blood red, with the aura of it similar to that of flowing blood. Arashi then slashed five times at the incoming attacks parrying Yuuki. One attack left and I'll finish her off.
Wind then started to blow at Yuuki's direction, symbolising a astronomically powerful attack being charged.This is it.
"HAAAAAAAHH!!" Yuuki screamt with all her remaining might as she thrusted her sword at Arashi one final time to attempt to end the duel. NOW!
Arashi then leaped off the ground and jumped about three meters into the air, and was directly above Yuuki. Arashi then increased his speed by tenfold as he slammed down his longsword downwards in a slicing motion with Yuuki as its target.
Without time to finish her skill motion, Yuuki took a glance up at Arashi and saw him slicing downwards at her.
Staying silent, Arashi sliced through Yuuki. Large red slice marks begun to form in place of the areas that Arashi hit Yuuki at. This slice attack took out massive chunks of HP out of Yuuki.
Yuuki's HP bar still had about 20%left,so she could still win, but just as relief begun to set in on Yuuki, Arashi lifted his blade next to his right ear, and started a slashing motion at Yuuki.
Preparing to lose, Yuuki shut her eyes in defeat and satisfaction, she has finally found someone to help her, and without much time left.
SHHNK! The sound of Arashi's sword cutting through Yuuki's left shoulder and moving down in a vertical direction all the way until stopping at the right side of her waist echoed throughout the silent island, as she bursted into a black and purple flame.
The crowd of onlookers stood at their places silent, they very well knew that there were players stronger than Absolute Sword existed, the way the duel played through, they did not know how to describe it.
Epic? Brutal? Shocking? They were unable to find the words.
Haaaahhh... Haaaahhhh...Haaaah.Arashi panted at a steady pace.He was obviously breathless, he had not used that skill for awhile now. The skill was tailored by him for PvP use,so you would think he would use it often, but nobody has pushed him enough to use it.
He stood up shakily and sheathed his sword. What had he just do.
A/N:HAPPPPPPPPYYYYY NEW YEARRRRR-uhh ok by the time I'm uploading this new years day is already over but I just feel I want to wish it to you all. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this longer chapter and the fight scene. Did I write it well? I hope I did. Also I am writing this based off of the light novel version instead of the anime or manga so yeahhhhhh. Sorry if there's any differences.So y'all can leave comments or constructive criticism (if you want) as always. I may or may not upload next week so I apologise in advance as I will be busy with school since the new school year has officially begun so I apologise again. See you all in the next chapter!