CHAPTER 4
BEGIN!
The instant that word flashed in mid-air, a blinding spark could be seen – the spark caused by the clash of two different blades.
Because of his larger blade size, Kusanagi shoved Jyun back with ease before making a violent slash. The attack would have cut her in half should she had not reacted in time to block his sword with her shield.
"Heh. Not bad. You must have increased your Strength to such a point that you can stand your ground against my sword with only one arm." Kusanagi sneered, applying more force in his sword to give Jyun a harder time in keeping herself steady.
However, the latter did not back down and she pressed her feet harder against the ground before applying sword input into her blade and aiming it for Kusanagi's greatsword. The attack stunned him for a moment and made himself open. Jyun takes this as an opportunity to make her next attack, and she swings her sword for another slash.
Kusanagi quickly snapped out his daze and prevented Jyun from landing a hit on him. He swings his sword horizontally, and Jyun swiftly dodges the attack by jumping backwards, her movement similar to that of an acrobat's.
"Damn, you're really tough." Kusanagi panted lightly.
"Same goes with you." Jyun replied, and her eyes glinted as if she's amused with something.
Kusanagi's breathing flinched when he saw a cut on his lower arm. It's not very deep, nor is it painful; but the cut reduced his HP by a few points. "She must have done that the same time she dodged my attack." The fire-haired teen thought. He turns his eyes to Jyun, who starts to position herself in an offensive stance. With a feral grin, he changes his stance and prepares himself to make a sword skill .
"Like hell I'll let you!" Jyun quickly dashed for Kusanagi, her longsword already glowing with sword input. At the same time her blade angled for Kusanagi, the latter made his move and when their swords meet, there's a large mist covering them. The crowd coughs and dust off the smoke, and when the smoke begins to clear, they could see Jyun with quite a few minor stitches here and there, and Kusanagi grinned wildly at the sight of his opponent receiving a few hits.
"You sure have high Defense to get only that much." He remembered the other players whom he had used the same sword skill against, and they got much worse than she did. His sword skill – «One for All» - allows him to use a special type of sword input that when he hits his sword with another, causes his opponents to receive several cuts everywhere. The level of the damage depends on how high the player's Defense is. If he could recall right, there are a few who got only light cuts from his attack, like the girl standing before him now.
"It doesn't sting, but for some reason being attacked like that feels like such a great pain in the neck." Jyun knows that using her Battle Healing skill could solve the problem, but she wants to beat the orange-haired bastard without any sword skills.
Her right hand makes a swipe in the air to activate her menu, and she presses a few buttons as quick as she could. In a second, her shield vanishes and she is left with her longsword as her only weapon. This act received a small but sinister laugh from Kusanagi, who found it silly to why would she give up her shield when it's what keeps her from getting so much damage from her attacks.
Both charged forward and their swords met, and Jyun quickly angled her sword to another position while keeping it in contact with her opponent's blade as she made her body free to make a spin. Her sword scratched against his greatsword as it slashed the air before hitting his sword again, and he was pushed back a few feet. She quickly ran to him without giving him a break, and slashed again. He moved her away with his sword, and he made the initiative by lifting his sword high and swinging it down to her. She parried the attack, and when she tried to make her own, he parried her own hit as well.
Their swords clashed, again and again. Neither was willing to back down, and minutes pass but neither of their HP have decreased. The flow of the duel seemed static, and this made everyone around them feel intense from the powerful pressure the fight gave.
Kusanagi believes he's just fighting someone strong who's after him for harming a friend.
But to Jyun, this felt like the perfect revenge. But she won't be unfair, even though he showed nothing but unfair treatment to her. She wanted to assure herself that without any dirty tricks, she would still be able to kick his ass and that would cross out one of the many targets of her long-ignored revenge list, at the same time make her feel partly satisfied and she would become more confident of herself.
When she first realized that she's stuck in a death game, the first things that were on her mind were to clear the game and take this also as a chance for her to become someone she could respect, even if it's only her who would be able to acknowledge herself.
Now, as she continued striking at Kusanagi with her sword, she felt energetic; something she hadn't felt in a long time. And she realized that it's from the fact that she also made it her goal – to get back at those who have done her wrong.
Everyone's real faces are already revealed thanks to the game creator's parting gift when he announced to them the truth of Sword Art Online. But she was more focused on her survival that she almost did not recognize Kusanagi at first.
But now that she remembers that the player's appearances can be modified in terms of hair style and color along with eye color, she wouldn't be able to know it's him the instant she saw his face. And if she could compare his face in the game to the face she remembers of him in real life, they share a lot of similarity in their features.
Thinking of all that, her attacks grew speedier but Kusanagi also has an edge – the size of his sword and his moderately high Defense – and even though he blocked out most of her slashes, he got a mildly deep slash across his right cheek.
The people froze. That was the first hit ever dealt after the few minutes that passed where neither got damaged as they kept on swinging their swords towards each other like madmen. Jyun broke the unchanging flow of the duel.
Kusanagi laughed quietly, the sound of his voice turning darker and more ominous than before. He looked down for a moment and laughed some more before tilting his head upwards a little bit to look at Jyun. His hair shadowed his eyes, but it made his look more intense.
"Sorry lady, but I guess I can't keep on playing fair anymore." The second after he said that, he was gone from where he used to stand and is currently right in front of Jyun, his sword going straight for her neck.
The time around that moment seemed to be very slow as Jyun moved quickly to avoid the attack, her sword heading for his to try and hinder his movements.
The attempt worked, but not that much, as Kusanagi pit almost all his strength in that attack to get past her defense and not let her dodge., His whole teeth could be seen, his lips in its widest grin as he saw his sword going through Jyun's stomach.
Slowly but surely, her HP started to decrease and go into the yellow zone. But he planned to let his sword damage her further until such time that it goes into the red zone. He didn't care if he's going to PK her, since he finds himself to be taking pleasure in taking innocent lives.
The raven head stood still, her expression not changing even though she is currently stabbed deeply in the stomach. She didn't make any kind of movement – that it looks like she already gave up in trying to fight back.
"Don't worry." Kusanagi started to say, slightly moving his sword deeper into her. "Unlike the other women, you're actually pretty good to take me on so boldly, and give me this much damage even though you're not a floor boss or a rare monster. In fact," He lowered his head and placed his lips against her ear. "I'm surprised that you've gotten this strong, even in a game, Baka-Yukina." he whispered.
Jyun hitched her breath sharply at the mention of that name. That name was what almost everybody in her childhood days would call her when they would throw jeers and taunts and insults at her. She completely despises that nickname, even up to now. And being called that again just made her decided that that was it.
Thrusting her sword into the ground, she quickly pulled herself out from the greatsword and without wasting another second, head-butted Kusanagi with such force that he felt dizzy from the hit. He did not expect that at all.
"Talking too much while fighting is a stupid thing to do, whether in games or in real life. You seem to be looking down on me, you asshole." she seethed, her aura radiating pure anger and violence. Even though she seemed calm, everyone can notice the change of her mood. It was completely different compared to when the battle was just about to start.
Kusanagi rubbed his sore nose and huffed, "I wasn't looking down on you or anything. I just thought that you're still that same quiet and weak girl who I love to bully every single day."
"And I just thought that this whole time, you can't even tell who the fuck I am with that pea-brain of yours." she bit back with her jaw hard.
The orange head held out his hands, shaking them in a sarcastic manner. "Whoa, whoa. Didn't expect you to cuss, lady. But I didn't know who you really are at first, until just a while ago when you were still from being stabbed by me. The way you looked at that moment completely reminded me of when I would bully you before, and you looked just like that." He received a glare from Jyun, and he could feel the killing intent from her ice-colored eyes. But he didn't stop himself from talking. "And… I'm actually quite impressed that you changed, into someone more interesting."
"Cut it. You're giving me the creeps." Jyun said bluntly. She turned her head to the HP bars hovering above them, and she clicked her tongue in annoyance. "I didn't completely change." she thought in her mind. She's still who she was before; quiet and tomboyish and straightforwardly direct. But right now, she realized that there was some other side to her that she never knew she had before. Nonetheless, it felt thrilling to finally let it all out.
She navigated through her menu, making her sword disappear. Others gasped to why she would do such a thing, since it looked like she was completely giving up. But, she is doing the exact opposite. She's really pissed now, that she wanted to beat the hell out of the guy. But she will continue fighting fair and square. And this time, she would use her own hands and feet to give him the beating of his life, like one would in the real world.
Even though she knows that what she's doing is reckless, it wasn't like doing this is against the rules. She feels like doing this, and no one would dare to try and stop her. She thought, this is her chance to prove to herself that she changed. That she can finally fight back, that she would not just stay quiet and let herself be harmed again and again.
"Let's continue from where we stopped, Adachi." But this time, I'm unarmed while you are. Care to see who wins?" She balled her fists together and took a fighting stance. Even though she never took any martial arts training or the sort in real life, everyone had to learn how to use hand-to-hand combat in the game should some situations come where they can't use their swords. And she made sure that she's quite proficient at it.
"Heh. Don't blame me if I PK you!"
