A/N: Thank you all again for all PMs. Because of that I decided to continue with Alfheim Online after SAO is cleared if I get a good idea for it. To have an angle into it isn't a problem, it is was is happening after that. So I am still thinking about it.
Quickly about PMs and reviews, I am very happy if you send me one of those, but please put in a little more information then: Oh wow, really? If you have something to say about the story, then say it. Say what you want, ask what you want. I will respond to you and tell you why I did that. If you think I made a mistake, tell me. If I think I didn't, we can talk about it and find out if I did make one or I didn't.
For those who couldn't wait for this chapter to come out, I gave up on the 5 hours of sleep I could have this night and wrote this chapter. I hope you will enjoy it. If you will excuse me, I will try to use the 2 hours I have left until I have to go to work, to get some sleep.
Chapter 11
I hit his sword with my first attack and blocked his sword with mine as he tried to counter. I noticed his moves were different from his fight with Kirito, almost as if he wanted to hide something. I have consider this and changed my attacks too the one's Kirito used. It didn't take him long before he used the same movements as that dual and my plan was working. To confirm it, I used some moves of my own and he stayed in that movement so I know I had him.
There was no way to test it before, so I had to do it right in one go. I focused even harder as I was getting ready to defeat him. The only thing in my mind right now were my swords and his sword and shield. This was it, it was now or never.
I activated the Starburst Stream and moved in. Just as Kirito had, with hit 13 I knocked back his shield and with hit 14 his sword. I moved into the gab just as Kirito had done, but I knew what would happen so I was ready.
Instead aiming for his body with the 15th hit of my 16-hit combo, I aimed slightly to the right, were his shield would appear. If I was right, my sword skill won't get deflected and ended as Kirito had, but continue as I had aimed for it.
Just as my sword was about to hit his shoulder, the shield was instantly there to block it, as I predicted. Because of the hit on the shield, my body turned against the clock to his right. I attacked with the 16th and final hit of my combo to his unprotected back as he had no idea I had planned this.
But just before it hit, again was the shield there with a speed not possible. It blew me back and I landed cleanly on my feet some distance away from him. As he turned with a shocked impression, I slowly got up from my pose and sheathed my swords.
"I think we both can agree that I won this battle." I said calm, knowing I wasn't wrong.
"And why do you say that?" he asked, still with that shocked impression on his face.
"The reason I asked for a private dual was because I suspected something and I just had the chance to confirm those." I said still calm.
"And what are those?"
"You aren't a player like me. You have the system to back you up, meaning you're a GM at least."
"How…"
"So, because I won, I will tell you my victory conditions. Because you're a GM, you will know what I want to know. Because I won, you will answer my questions with the truth. Otherwise, your secret will be known to all and you have to deal with that."
"I understand and will confess I am indeed a GM. I will answer all questions that I can."
"First thing I want to know, to me maybe one of the important of them all. I want to know more about the extra skill Sword Birth. Why did I get it as a gift from Argus and why does it let me copy other extra skills as Dual Blades?"
"I have to ask you one thing before I can answer that. Were you the same person that had won the chance to play the beta for 1 day at our main office?"
"Yes I was that person."
"Then you are using now the Nerve Gear you had received that day, is that right?"
"Yes that is right. What does it have to do with my question?"
"I will tell you. That Nerve Gear you got as a present, was the Nerve Gear we used for testing in the early days of the Cardinal system. We created the extra skill Sword Birth and saved it into that Nerve Gear to be able to use and test the other extra skills as Dual Blades and Holy swords. That program should had been deleted before you received that present. But since that didn't happen, you are able to use an extra skill with all other extra skills build into it. Even the extra skills that we deleted before releasing this game. Let me ask you something, your throwing knifes, when you were leveling them up, was it easy and can you still throw a knife dead on the point your aiming at even if there is some distance?"
I was shocked by what he told.
"Yeah I can. If I want, I can throw a knife just between your shield and the ground, even if it just a few centimeters." I said.
"That is because of the extra skill Knife Assault. It was an extra skill that let you throw knifes better then someone who had mastered the skill. We deleted it since it was no longer needed to carry a sword if that skill was used. But because of Sword Birth, you are able to use it. The same is with the skill Stealth, you were able to easy level it up because of Stealth Shadow, also a deleted skill."
He stopped a moment to let it sink in.
"The reason you can switch swords was the only unique thing that could be done with the skill, but for testing the others were added. Like how you can switch skills, that's because of the extra skill Skilled Sword. The fact that you have to only train one kind of sword to master all is Sword Army. That was also the first we deleted. Because if you had mastered the one-handed sword and switched to a two-handed our axe, you had mastered that also."
"If all those skills are deleted, how can I still use them?"
"We founded out that it was no problem to delete the skills separately but it became a problem if we deleted Sword Birth or parts from it. Because all extra skills came from there, deleted it made all other extra skills useless. So we set it that no player would receive it like Dual Blades is rewarded to the player with the highest reaction time. The only requirement we set was level 72, that way the system wouldn't be able to give it to a player. But because it was saved into your Nerve Gear, it was activated and you are able to use it now."
I thought for a moment to make sure I had it all right and understand most of it.
"So if I have this right, I can use all this skills because this extra skill was used for testing. And because of the testing I can only use 70% of the skill, instead of the full control as the real extra skill can. The only thing I can fully use is the part of switching swords because it was meant for only that. Does that also mean that because of Sword Army, if I equip a shield, the extra skill Holy Sword will be mastered just like Dual Blades?"
"If you have Dual Blades mastered, the yes, Holy Sword will be mastered too. But remember, those are the only extra skills you can do that with. As the system is set up now, those 2 are the only extra skills available that support a skill slot."
I looked through my inventory and found a simple shield I have kept to try it out one day. I haven't been able to test it out, but I wanted to do that in case I needed that on floor higher up, because the game was getting harder and harder to defeat.
The moment I equipped the shield, the Sentinel Repulsor on my left shoulder disappeared and in the lower left corner of my vision appeared my skill list. It swapped out Dual Blades with Holy Sword and disappeared after that.
As I was paying attention to that, I haven't realize Heathcliff was moving. He came towards me with his sword aimed for me. Since I only had the shield in my hand, I reacted with it and blocked his sword.
"As you can see, Holy Sword not only increases your own defense, but also increases your shield. Normally a shield as low as yours should break the moment I made contact with it, but thanks to the skill, it is strong enough to block the attack. But I wasn't going all out, if I did, the shield wouldn't have blocked the sword." He said while moving back again.
"Are you kidding me? The next time you do something like that, I will move in and kill you. If you want to show me something, let me know first!"
"I am sorry, let me make it up to you by giving you a shield as strong as your sword." he said while opening the menu.
The trade window that appeared in front of me showed the shield be promised me. It was called Zero Raiser. I accepted the trade and the window disappeared again. I wanted to test something so I tried to use the extra skill to change the shield in my hand for the Sentinel Repulsor in my inventory.
The shield disappeared from my hand and the sword appeared on my back. In the lower left of my vision the skill list popped up again, switching Holy Sword for Dual Blades.
"We didn't know that the skill was able to do that. That is interesting." Heathcliff said.
"I didn't know if it was possible but I gave it a try. It seems that it is possible. That would get in handy for fights. If I have to switch to defends, I can do that without problem."
Now I tried to switch with the new shield I just got. The shield that appeared was completely different then what I expected. It was a long shield but instead of having its handle in the middle, it was placed higher.
The shield was strapped to my lower arm, because of that it was almost an extension of my lower arm. Its upper point was just below my elbow but because of it length, its tip almost touched the ground when I had my arm beside me. Its weight was just a little lower then it from my swords, making it very easy to move around.
"As you can see, the tip of the sword is a sharp point. You can use that to attack with the sword. As you will find out if you use it more often, there are sword skills you can do with that shield to defend as well as attack. If this was all, will you excuse me? I have to get back." He said.
"For now it is, but if I want to know more, I will contact you. And since you have been honest with me, your secret is safe with me. If you send me a message when the next boss fight will be, I will join the battle."
"I would like that. Good night and thank you for the interesting fight."
"Thank you as well and good night to you too."
I went towards to closest dungeon and wanted to try this shield out. It took me 3 hours but after that I knew a lot about the shield and Holey Sword. The tip of the shield was formed like the tip of a blade, but was sealed inside the shield. If you activated a sword skill unique to Holy Sword, the tip would move out of the shield by a few centimeters, showing its sharp edges. It wasn't meant to serve as a sword, but to defend if someone attacked you and damage theme in the process.
That was really handy in a fight but it had a downside. Because of the shape of the shield, if you defend yourself from an attack from the front, the shield could be blocking your vision.
But this could help all the players a lot. If there is a boss fight with a high attack power, I can switch to defending and stop attacks, leaving the others to attack. If a boss has a high defense power, I switch to attack and use Dual Blades. I understand why they deleted it. This was maybe too much power for any player to have.
"No that's not true." I said to myself.
"In this Death Game there is no such thing as too much power. You will use it to support all players still alive and mostly Ben and your friends. Making sure that Kirito and Asuna will be alive. It is possible Asuna is the same level as you or even lower, but Kirito isn't. He is the strongest player, he will be the one to defeat the final boss. You can only wish to be alive long enough to help him with it." I said to myself while walking back towards the closest town.
I moved the shield back to my inventory and took the teleport gate. I headed towards the Inn Crimson was in and when I opened the door, he was waiting for me.
We both talked a little about what we should do the next day, since I didn't want to talk about the dual. Soon after that we both went to our room and laid on the beds. I looked over to him.
"I promise you that I will make sure you will return alive from this world." I said.
I knew he had heard it. But I didn't waited for a response and fall into a deep sleep.