I don't own Sword Art Online or Mataras the Red Swordsman. Sword Art Online is owned by Reki Kawahara. Mataras the Red Swordsman is owned by Mataras the Author. The Wyvern's Inferno guild is owned by TheSib. I only own my OCs.
Chapter 10: Guild Wars! The Moonlit Black Cats vs The Knights of The Blood Oath!
"My god! How can you three be so stupid!?" pouted Asuna. This event was to fight for Asuna's freedom was brought at the capital of Floor 55, known as Grandzam, inside the floor's duel arena, Akira, Mataras, and Kirito were triple checking their gear before the first member of the trio was called out.
"Asuna, this isn't just for your freedom, Heathcliff said he wanted the entire Guild into The Knights of The Blood Oath." growled Akira.
Asuna sighed as she sat down on the bench, "The other day, when all three of you unleashed your full power, I've never seen anything like it, but you know, The commander also has a unique skill of his own too." she said.
"Yeah, we've seen it too, The Divine Blade, it maximizes his attack and defensive capabilities. His offense is amazing, and his defense is unbeatable." nodded Kirito.
No one has ever seen Heathcliff's HP drop into the yellow zone before, not ever." Asuna told them.
"Don't worry Asuna, even if Kirito loses his fight to Heathcliff, Mataras and I can deal with your guild's number three and four members." Akira said in a reassuring voice.
"And if he does lose, I've got you covered, because I don't plan on letting some second-rate nerd defeat me in a fight." said Mataras, swinging the Guilty Thorn in a casual manner.
"Well, Red Swordsman, I can't imagine seeing you losing a fight to anything, or to anyone." grinned Akira, "By the way Mataras, why are you letting Kirito fight Heathcliff?" he asked.
"I like to call it a matter of honor." Mataras smirked, "It should leader vs leader, so our black swordsman is going up against the red mobile fortress." Before anyone could make a retort at the statement, the horn sounded off, signaling the first fighters to come fort. Akira stood up, and drew his blade.
"This battle shouldn't take very long, three minutes at best." said Akira, as he walked up the steps, to the opening.
Akira's opponent was actually a good friend of his in real as well, his name was Godfree, and he was the commander of the vanguard for the assault team for the KOB, he wore the traditional white and red armor for his guild, and from Akira witnessed, preferred strength over speed, and as Akira analyzed his opponent, he saw a the axe that he needed to get past in order to beat him.
He glanced at the arena, and saw the arena packed with players from all the available floors so far, and near the top, were a group all too familiar to him, it was Ren's entire guild, Wyvern's Inferno, coming down to cheer them on. "Come on, Akira! You can do it!" called out Ren.
"Hey Ren! I take it you came to cheer us on in these duels?" Akira called out.
"You better believe it, buddy! Show them what a black cat can do!" Ren shouted back down.
"That's the plan, Ren." grinned Akira.
Godfree sent the challenge for a duel, and he accepted, the larger man then gripped his axe and pulled it around to the front into a battle position. "Are you sure you wanna do this kiddo, I'd feel pretty bad for humiliating you, so if you wanna throw the towel now, I won't hold it against you." he said with a grin on his face.
"Sorry Godfree, but you just insulted my pride as both a warrior and a gamer, which means you won't be seeing me holding anything back." smirked Akira.
Neither competitors said anything else as the timer went, both were in a strong gaze at each other. Akira developed many battle stances for offense, defense, and speed. Since Godfree was more of an offense warrior, he needed to use his specialty with his opponent and entered his second battle stance, in which his pose was similar to Oda Nobunaga in Samurai Warriors 4, just standing to one side as his sword was on the side, not hidden though. This stance was mainly used against players like Godfree, this gave him an advantage to fool his opponents into a false sense of security. When they get in close, he strikes.
Akira continued to watch the timer as the time went down, three, two, one,… "GO!" His sword started to glow a bright white and the glow grew brighter and brighter until bursting into flames, surprising all their, even Heathcliff. Akira then charged and used the sword skill Vorpal Strike which hit god free like Godzilla's atomic breath. The impact didn't give him the effect he wanted to inflict, but it did surprise the audience, minus those that already saw the ability.
"Holy… what was that you just did?" asked Godfree noticing that chuck of his HP was gone from the slash mark on his chest.
"Azure Flames, it's my unique skill, so, you wanna continue, or throw in the towel?" smirked Akira.
"Hey! I'm the captain for the KOB front lines, if I gave up, it would hurt my reputation." Godfree replied, and swung his axe multiple times, but Akira kept dodging each of his swings. From the crowds, The Moonlit Black Cats were cheering for their member.
"Akira's really gotten used to his abilities being a balanced warrior." Sachi said, as she saw Akira using his sword to block and retaliate.
"Of course he is. He's even toying with him." Diabel nodded, he even jumped over Godfree and stoked his arms, but wasn't able to remove a limb.
"Come on Akira, you can do it!" cheered Silica.
Akira grinned as he heard his friends call out to him. "Sorry pal, but my friends are watching the fight, so I have to end this now." He said, and charged in with a blazing sword in hand as he jumped up and struck down at Godfree's axe knocking it to the ground. The crowd gasped at what happened, especially when Godfree couldn't pick up his axe when he tried to grab it.
"I'm afraid you'll have to wait three minutes before grabbing a two-handed weapon Godfree." Akira said, and pointed to his left hand, Godfree looked and saw in surprise that his hand was missing.
"I can last that long!" cried out Godfree, as Akira sighed sadly, and unleashed his Horizontal Square skill at Godfree.
From the stands, everyone saw how Akira used his blade of fire against Godfree, cheering for the combatants, so it wasn't long until the match was called, Akira won, Silica smiled as he came to the viewer box.
"You were great out there." Silica giggled in joy.
"Thanks. I couldn't have done without you, or our family." Akira smiled as he hugged her, and petted Pina.
"Kirito's up next, isn't he?" Asked Liz from where she was leaning against a lower wall.
"Yeah, I want to watch his fight with Heathcliff, something isn't right with him." Akira nodded, coming to join his friends.
Kirito stepped out onto the field, looking around, he knew everyone was now more excited for the second match, and who could blame them. When Akira revealed his unique skill, he knew that Heathcliff was in awe struck during the fight. Now two unique skill users were going out in a duel, not that, but they were the leaders for two of the best guilds in all of Aincrad. Still, his beater skills were wondering if they should've chosen a more subtler location.
"I'm sorry about this Kirito, I wasn't expecting this to become a huge event." Heathcliff said as he looked around, "It's crazy."
"Maybe the MBC could've a cut of the tickets." smirked Kirito.
The wary smiled vanished from Heathcliff, as he frowned, now it was time for battle, "No, but since your guild put up a bigger fight, I'll skip the normal initiation procedure once you've been added to the Knights of The Blood Oath. You'll even stay together in the extended party format." he said.
Kirito rolled his eyes, "In case you forgot Heathcliff, even if you beat me, have you've heard of Mataras losing a fight before?" he said as the red paladin sent the invite to duel, and accepted. "You've got a lot to learn if you think he's going to let your number three person beat him, he's the Red Swordsman, bane of the red players."
"I'm very well aware of that, Kirito." said Heathcliff, as he drew his longsword from his large crucifix shield, gripping both tightly. His red armor sparkled brightly in the afternoon light, which made Akira wonder if he had his armor polished for the battle. "Honestly, I expected Akira to be defeated by Godfree, but when his sword bursted into flames, I had a feeling we'd be having a tiebreaker. So we might as well get the show started, but despite Mataras' skills, I doubt he'll be a match for Raphael."
Kirito gritted his teeth, and barred them with narrowed eyes at Heathcliff, "Now you've gone too far." He growled as the counter hit five.
"Huh?" asked a honest and confused Heathcliff.
"Don't ever mock, my friends, my guild!" roared Kirito, as the timer hit zero and he unleashed his special attack, "Starburst Stream!" the sixteen hit combo was unleashed but was stopped by Heathcliff so easily.
In the stands, The Moonlit Black Cats were startled by his tactics, "Why did Kirito use his special attack first?" asked Sachi, "Isn't that risky?"
Akira gave a Mataras like grin as he explained, "Starburst Stream is a strong attack, but it isn't the most powerful attack, Kirito's ace is more unbelievable to unleash. Trust him, our leader knows what he's doing."
Starburst Stream ended and Heathcliff emerged from his shield, Kirito then made for an attack on Heathcliff exposed ribcage. The man parried, and bashed him in the chin with his shield, sending him reeling.
Akira cringed at the impact, "That one could've hurt him." He said, as he checked the current party status, including his, Mataras, and Kirito, and saw Kirito's health went down a chunk from the impact.
Kirito didn't let up and catches himself on his feet, and lunged forward with swords glowing yellow, unleashing more combos against Heathcliff's defense, landing hits, but taking more heavier attacks from his opponent.
The two broke away, only for a moment, as Heathcliff nodded approvingly at Kirito, "Your reaction time is truly incredible." he said smiling.
As Kirito shot back, Akira grinned, "No surprise at all, in all of Aincrad, Kirito is probably the most aware of everyone in the game." he said.
Kirito dropped another Starburst Stream into the mix, and was more determined than ever to finish the match, as his opponents HP was reaching the yellow, the time was now.
His left sword bashed the shield too far away to Heathcliff's left side, his black sword on the right was just about to strike him and end it. However, something happened that wasn't how he planned, it was over.
Akira was in shock at what happened, he recalled in between seconds, Heathcliff's shield was coming back to block Kirito's attack, he then thrusted his sword into Kirito's arm, and brought his HP down to the yellow zone.
And it was over, the winner was Heathcliff, Akira turned to his guild, "Please tell me all of you saw that." muttered Akira.
"I saw it too, how did that happened?" nodded Diabel.
"His shield was in recoil effect from Starburst Stream." Silica added.
Akira looked down at the Red Paladin, "Just who are you really, Heathcliff?" he asked quietly.
"Akira? Your face is getting scary again." said Silica, as she tugged his arm.
"Sorry, I was thinking." replied Akira.
Kirito joined a moment later, "All of us saw, and we can't believe it. It's totally ridiculous!" said Akira, before the boy in black got to say anything.
"We better keep an eye on Mataras' match and see if it happens again." nodded Diabel.
Mataras walked up onto the arena standing twenty paces away from his opponent, another sword/shield user, and the third in command of the KOB, named Raphael, he answered only to Heathcliff, and Asuna. According to the said girl, they were equally skilled, maybe Raphael was even better than her in level of skill. The MBC wondered why she would be above him, one, because of her skill in using her rapier, and her unmatched beauty.
Mataras then grew a small grin on his face, Maybe more people will want to join our guild, too bad the acceptance rate is one in a thousand.
"What are you smirking about Red Swordsman?" The young man facing him asked, a trace of hostility in his voice.
"The thought of your imminent defeat." chuckled Mataras, his smile changing from thoughtful to smug. "You maybe skilled, but not even Asuna could best me. Don't get cocky on me- it makes for my foes too easy to defeat."
Akira and his friends were really looking forward to this battle, he didn't often get a chance to see Mataras challenge a random punk, even if they were in a high-up guild like the KOB. Mataras didn't even draw his sword, which confused Raphael. "You plan on fighting me with only your bare hands?"
Mataras' grin grew bigger, but instead of it being a black cat, it was more like the Cheshire Cat. "The thought is tempting, but no."
"You dare to address me like that, bastard?!" shouted Raphael, his eye was twitching unlike Kuradeel, but this man was clearly not as mental as him.
"Yes, I dare address you like that, in fact I'll address anyone, anyway I choose." Mataras said as he went into a fighting stance, "I am a free man, and I'll be blasted before I let any man tell me how to speak my words." The timer went off, and Raphael charged, shield in front, and sword glowing in the back.
From the crowd, Silica gasped, "That guy is actually falling for it." she said.
"Looks like it, now we're to witness a really good show." Akira said laughing.
Mataras then darted forward, grabbing Raphael's shield with both hands, and with a good powerful tug, threw him across the field.
He wasn't done yet, and rushed forward with Guilty Thorn fully drawn, Raphael was still from being interrupted in his skill effect, and was paralyzed for five seconds, giving Mataras more than enough time to strike his blade into Raphael's leg. What shocked the knight was that now his health was drained by about a sixth.
He got back on his feet though, with his sword lighting up in a icy blue, launching a series of thrusts at Mataras, it wasn't like Asuna's favorite attack. It hit the boy in red a few times, and forced him back, giving Raphael a chance to stand back up.
The two warriors clashed once more, Raphael was swift, and accurate, while Mataras was speedy and unpredictable. Of the two, Mataras was the better fighter, but Raphael was no slouch when it came to combat, using his auto assistance to chain his attacks.
It wasn't long however, when Mataras saw pattern emerging after a few minutes, their duel being the longest of the match. Mataras wasn't going to be denied his victory.
His eyes changed and went from almost black holes of fury into radiant and dragonic silver eyes, letting out a merciless war cry, he renowned his vigor,and became more ferocious in his attacks, just as Raphael was about to let out a flurry of strikes again. Pushing his free will to the limit, he defected the longer blade with his thicker blade, then whirled around and separated his foe's shield arm at the elbow, this made the loose arm shatter and leave the shield behind.
It got even worse for the white knight, Mataras still had three seconds left before Raphael could move again. He looked into Mataras' dark orb like eyes in hope of finding mercy. Sadly for Raphael, there wasn't any.
Akira nodded in satisfaction as Mataras finished off his opponent with brutal efficiency. As the HUD declared the winner above, The Black Cats, and the whole crowd cheered, as the MBC rushed out to congratulate their friend for the victory.
Akira reached him first, and gave him a friendly punch on his shoulder, "Great fight man, It was the best I've ever seen!" he grinned.
Kirito nodded, "I'll say, great job, brother!" he said.
"Are you serious?" said Mataras with some sincerity in it, "I thought your was the best until Heathcliff got lucky."
"Stop being modest brother, it really doesn't suit you." said Sachi as she gave him a hug.
The group soon turned to see Asuna walking up, and no longer showing the symbol for the KOB, meaning Heathcliff kept his word about Asuna leaving the guild. "Thank you so much, Mataras." she said, extending her hand.
"You are welcome, Asuna." nodded Mataras, as he shook her hand, then brought it Kirito's arm, causing her, and Kirito to blush. "Kirito, however is the one to thank. We wouldn't have been this strong if it wasn't for him, and who knows, if any of us weren't around, he might've had to fight Heathcliff on his own."
"That isn't a comforting thought." admitted Kirito in rueful grin. "Now come on everyone, let's head over to Agil's place to hide."
Everyone agreed, including Asuna, and they instantly heading for his shop in Algade.
When the group arrived, most of the members hid in the room, while Liz, and Agil dealt with customers. It lasted until the sun began to set, and when the visitors left, the Black Cats let out a sigh of relief.
Kirito then smiled and put his hand on Asuna's, "So, since your out of a job now, would you like to join our guild Asuna?"
"Kirito…" smiled Asuna as her eyes filmed with tears. "After everything that's happened, and all the things we've been through together. Nothing else would make me happier. Of course I'll join you!" And she threw her arms around Kirito, who was normally oblivious tithings around him, until the day he met Akira, and Mataras, he chuckled as everyone cheered in welcoming their newest member.
Akira: Well, I should explain about the poses, when I first came to Aincrad, I like to try out different moves similar to characters from other games I'm familiar with when fighting.
Kirito: Yeah well, I still can't believe that Heathcliff beat me.
Mataras: Aye, something is not right about him.
Silica: Let's worry about that later, right now, let's go home and celebrate!
Author: Next time on The Azure Swordsman: The Lost Fragment. Chapter 10: Megumi, The Crimson Maiden.
All: LINK START!