Firstly, my sincere apologies to everyone for such a late update . I really, truly, am sorry. Without further delay, here, the latest chapter.
CHAPTER 8
TORTURE
A slight breeze blew across the landscape, as the whole forest was now drowned in an eerie silence, and the only sounds to be heard, were that of Fallen's footsteps.
Asuna was still down, unable to get up, and rest of her guild was as dumbfounded as she was.
Why did he save me?
"You are probably thinking why I saved you.", said fallen in a cold voice, that sent a cold chill through Liz and Klein, as they started trembling in fear.
"You can say it was on a mere whim."
Asuna and others continued to listen intently to what Fallen was saying.
"You see, I don't want you to be killed, dear Lightning Flash of the Holy Dragon Alliance."
"I am not a part of it anymore. There is no longer a guild like that. And don't call me like that again.", Asuna said as she got back to her feet and slowly started walking towards het other guild members, "What do you want?".
"What do I want? It's quite simple. I want to torture that Black Swordsman. I want to torture him and maybe kill him. But torture mostly. And also, I want to find out which of us is better."
"Kirito isn't here—", Agil was about to complete what he said, when he was interrupted by Fallen.
"I know he is not here with you. But he will come. I am sure. He has to. If he wants to save his friends, and his girlfriend, then I guess he just has to come. I don't like waiting so, he better turn up quickly. Otherwise, it would not end up quite well for you lot."
"Don't underestimate us.", Sinon and Lyfa said in unison. Having never seen Fallen in the old SAO before, they were still unaware of how strong Fallen really was.
Klein quickly moved to Sinon and whispered, "Idiots! Don't taunt him. You have no idea how strong he is."
Fallen started to walk towards Asuna and her guild, but stopped in his stride, when all of them drew out their swords.
"Either, you people can cooperate and some of you will get hurt. Or you can decide to fight me, in which case all of you will hurt. What do you want it to be?"
"What do you want?", Asuna asked Fallen once again as she noticed that Yui was missing now. Where did Yui go?
"Since he is not here, I'll like to fight you.", said Fallen pointing at Asuna and he continued, "It wouldn't be much of a fight since you are already in a bad shape, but I hate waiting. So, I'll give you a few minutes to recover and then I'll fight you, without any swords or shield. You on the other hand can use whatever you want. That should be fair. Fine with you?"
Even though Asuna considered it disgraceful to be given a handicap advantage before the battle, or to be played around with, she had no other choice. Damn it. I have no other choice.
"Fine. I accept your challenge."
"Asuna wait. We are a team. Don't agree to this madman's demand. We can beat him as a team.", said Lyfa.
"No Lyfa-san. It's between me and him now. Just heal me a bit. I'll be fine. Don't worry. We'll win. He can never beat our guild. Not now. Not ever.", Asuna said these words while piercing Fallen with her hazel eyes.
"Bravo Asuna. Bravo. What a motivational speech. I am so scared. Now get ready."
After a few minutes, Asuna stood on one side with the rapier held firmly in her hand as Fallen stood on the other side. The playful eyes, which Fallen sported for the past few minutes were gone now as the cold deathly sinister tone returned to his eyes.
"I want you to use you 11-hit OSS on me. What do you call it? That Mother something. That one. Come on."
Asuna grinned as she did not like this sort of treatment. But she had no other choice, she had to protect her guild, and for that reason, she started sprinting towards Fallen and unleashed he OSS, Mother Rosario.
To Asuna's surprise, Fallen did not move an inch. She unleashed the OSS on him as he stood there and took each blow. Asuna's rapier worked tirelessly as he stood rooted to the spot, taking direct hits. Even after the sixth hit, Fallen still stood there not showing any signs of pain at all. To Asuna's irritation he was still smiling.
Asuna continued with the remaining hits. I'll wipe that smile off your face.
Asuna lifted her rapier high up in the air, about to strike the final, the eleventh deafening blow. As she moved the rapier towards Fallen, Fallen raised his right hand in an instant and caught the rapier, stopping the attack.
Asuna looked on in shock as Fallen held the other side of her rapier. She had used almost all her energy in the OSS, and even after sustaining so many injuries, Fallen was still standing.
Fallen closed his eyes and pulled the rapier out of Asuna's hand and spun the rapier around and held it firmly in his hand. "Time for you to die.", Fallen kicked at Asuna's midsection. His action was so quick that Asuna had no time to react and she fell on the ground as a result of the kick.
Fallen walked to where Asuna was lying and placed his foot over Asuna's face and started crushing it against the ground. He positioned the rapier over Asuna's neck and raised it high up in the air.
"It's a shame that you have to die this way. You deserve better than being beheaded by your own sword. But we don't always get what we deserve, do we?"
Fallen kicked at Asuna's face with his foot and then stepped back a few steps making room for swinging the rapier, in order to completely behead Asuna in one swinging action of the blade.
Asuna closed her eyes, for one last time, as a tear trickled down from her eyes and fell on the grass besides her. This is the end.
"Goodbye, Lighning Flash."
Fallen closed his eyes and swung the rapier violently as Fallen felt his sword cut through and heard the 'sweet' sound of the blade slicing flesh.
A/N: I hope reading the chapter was not the only torture you had to suffer. (Sarcasm)
Once again, sorry for not updating for months. I'll update sooner from now on. And I'll mostly be finishing off the story with the next chapter. So, what do you people think?
As usual, thanks for reading and do review, if you want to.I'd love to hear what you have to say.