The Tri-Blade Alliance
Chapter 19: The Final Battle―Part 1
A/N: Well, everyone. Here it is: Part one of The Final Battle. Also, at the end of Chapter 20, we will finally reveal the player under Shadow's hood.
S/N: Disclaimer: We don't own SAO!
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(Cue "Prayers for the Damned" by Sixx A.M)
May 12, 2024
Floor 22: Legends' Hill
High noon. It was damn close to that time, and he still hasn't shown up yet. Everyone in Aincrad had come to watch―from the children to the Knights of the Blood Oath, and they were all forced to remain passive, as they wanted to fight Shadow, and nobody else. "What the hell, XaXa?!" One of the murder guild leaders called. "You said he'd show up!"
"I said he'd show by that time, not necessarily before," XaXa replied in a tone that made the crowd shiver. "If he doesn't show up, kill someone for every hour that passes. The body count relies on him."
"Yes, sir!" An LC member called.
"No need," a voice rang out from behind the crowd. Everyone turned―and cheered as Shadow walked through the opening the crowd made for him. While he was walking, everyone he passed by either patted him on the back or shoulder while they cheered. He stopped in front of the guilds and raised his arms to his sides. "Here I am," he finished.
"Great!" XaXa, and everyone else, smiled murderously. "I suppose you know what happens next."
"Yeah," Shadow replied, pulling his scarf down to reveal his malicious smile. "I win."
"Aw, that's cute. You think you have a chance to win."
"Speak for yourself." Shadow walked up the hill and onto the wooden platform where they were clearly supposed to fight. "I'm fighting not only for myself, but for everyone watching," he stated while unsheathing his longsword and pointing it at XaXa. "Losing is not an option."
"No," XaXa said, the evil smile never leaving his face. "Death is."
(The fight begins here.)
XaXa stayed back as several members of the several murder guilds (foolishly) charged the mercenary. Shadow dodged one blow, and parried another. They knew they were going to lose, but what bothered them was the fact Shadow was clearly toying with them. Finally, he stopped playing around when he clashed with one person, easily overpowering them and cutting them down. He turned, threw his sword into the head of someone else, and kicked the gut of a murderer that tried to strike him from behind. He swiftly teleported and grabbed his sword from the now-shattering player. He turned to face XaXa again, and tauntingly pointed his sword and motioned for XaXa to send more people.
XaXa fell for the bait, and sent in more men. They all formed a circle around Shadow, who opted to switch to Blood Rose. The group took this opportunity to charge Shadow, but were all knocked away by a sweep of the still-forming scythe. Shadow dodged the attacks coming to him, leaving the ones that landed to be glancing blows. He retaliated by stabbing his scythe into the head of one guy, pulling it out and stabbing the gut of the person behind him without looking back, and sliced through a third, leaving all three to shatter as he dashed forward.
Everyone was in awe of the breathtaking grace Shadow was fighting with. He danced around his enemies, slicing and stabbing as he weaved through the forces. Even XaXa, who had appeared to be confident that he would win, was beginning to look worried. Shadow switched to his knives, making him an even deadlier force than he already was.
The mercenary grinned as he cut through the enemy forces, their numbers shortening with each second that passed. Once the herd was thinned enough, he switched to his scythe and dashed towards the seemingly exposed XaXa.
He was stopped in his tracks, however, when from somewhere behind XaXa stepped out a very familiar face. The hero was so stunned, he wasn't at all prepared for the stab from behind. He sucked in a breath as Johnny Black's voice growled from behind him, "Remember me, asshole?" as he twisted the knives, further paralyzing Shadow.
Shadow fell to his knees, but was held up two things: sheer determination, and, eventually, two murder guild members. "Fucking...cowards!" Shadow cursed out the murderers, all of whom chuckled evilly.
"Sorry, friend," XaXa said darkly as he stepped forward. Before he reached Shadow, he kneeled down and grabbed Shadow's Blood Rose. "We just can't take any chances with you, you see." XaXa held out Blood Rose and lifted Shadow's head up by the chin with the blade. "Got any last things to say?"
Shadow whispered something that XaXa couldn't hear. As XaXa leaned closer, Shadow smirked and said out loud, "Do your worst, you son of a bitch."
XaXa smirked. "I plan on making you suffer, you know. I'll only kill you after everyone took a swing at you." XaXa snapped his fingers. "Line up, boys."
"Payback time!" One of the leaders of the murder guilds snarled as he cracked his knuckles. He was the first to take a swing at the now-defenseless Shadow, smiling in sick and twisted satisfaction upon seeing the mercenary grit his teeth in pain. Every other murderer lined up, preparing their weapons. One by one they lined up to get a few good licks in on the One Man Army that managed to tear them down effortlessly.
SLASH!
SLICE!
PUNCH!
SLASH!
PUNCH!
STAB!
This went on for quite a while. And what irked the attackers most: the lack of noise Shadow made to show the level of pain he was in.
Through it all, everyone watching were either sobbing out of fear for their hero, or making their kids, as well as themselves, look away in horror. In the crowd, Liz was sobbing near uncontrollably while Agil comforted her, his eyes never leaving the gruesome scene before the crowd.
Eventually, Shadow got hit with enough force to send him flying, his head hanging over the edge of the platform. XaXa stood over him, charging the scythe, getting ready to deliver the final blow. "I'll see you in Hell, hero!" he chuckled before swinging the blade down. Shadow braced himself for the (second) killing blow.
It never came.
Shadow opened his eyes when he heard a sound. He looked up to see two figures wearing cloaks-one red and the other blue-run and stab the two murderers who were formerly holding the mercenary up. They jumped off the air a bit during the rush and slammed their blades into the ground in an icepick grip, shattering the two murderers. When they turned to him, the first things he registered were the wide smiles and twinkling eyes.
"Ghost?" Shadow asked in surprise. "Rider?"
"Hiya, Mr. Shadow!" the two kids waved happily.
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The Night Before
"Alright," Shadow started as those around the table looked at him. "Here's my plan."
"Wait a minute," Solar interrupted. "So you're telling me that the Silent Savior has a plan to take on the murder guilds? Other than take them down? Why?"
"Because even I can't take on all of the murder guilds at once. Doubtless, they'll stab me from behind."
"What's the plan?" Ren asked.
Shadow surveyed those around the round table in the Tri-Blade Alliance's war room: Solar, Skye, Akira, Pearce, Cupid, Eros, Asuna, Kirito, Klein, Ren and his guild, Liz and Agil. All people who had supported him, or at least have interacted with him in the past. "I'll take on as much as I can beforehand. When it gets too much for me, meaning when they inevitably gang up on me and deal a cheap shot...which one of you has a maxed out straining skill?"
"Bella does," Kirito said. Immediately after saying that, he―and everyone else―looked around for her. "Where is she, by the way?"
Shadow simply walked over to a corner in the dark room and slammed his fist on the wall. Bella walked out of the shadows, almost like she was made from the darkness. "Aw, you found me," she chuckled.
"...How?" everyone asked incredulously.
"Mastery over Badassery," was Shadow's only reply.
Oh, my God, he's so goddamn cool! Skye and Eros thought.
"That's beside the point. Bella, 50 yards away, what do you hear and how clearly can you hear it?"
"I hear two guys confessing their love for one woman 50 yards away while handing her gifts," she answered instantly.
"If you can hear that, then you can also hear me whisper the signal to attack."
"No problem," The Silver Shadow smiled.
"Ren, you lead your guild to take down the grunts on my command. Let Riku, Dagger, and Mai take care of them. They'll be more than a match for those idiots."
"What about Alice and Helios?" Ren asked.
"They'll be with you, and you'll be fighting alongside me. I need the absolute best by my side. Most of you here fall into that category easily.
"And if you can, do some scouting. Find anyone that's willing to help me and has the power to back me up. And get some rest. I'm sleeping tonight, so you know it's serious."
"Right!" everyone nodded and left the room.
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Today
Five Minutes Prior
"Got any last things to say?" XaXa asked the paralyzed hero.
Instantly, Shadow whispered, "Attack now." When XaXa leaned in to clearly hear his words, the mercenary only smirked. "Do your worst, you son of a bitch."
"That's our signal," Bella said to the group behind her. She did some scouting and found two people who feel that they owe their lives to the mercenary-and they weren't pushovers, either. Everyone ran after the Silver Shadow. Riku, Dagger, and Mai all broke away to fight the grunts, and the rest were held up by some of the elite members. Seeing no other option than to fight, Bella and everyone else engaged the elites.
"What do we do, Ms. Bella?" the red-cloaked figure asked the older female.
"We'll meet up with you," was her reply. "Go!"
(x)
"Wow. I am really glad to see you two again," Shadow chuckled as Ghost (red cloak) helped Shadow up to his feet and handed his hero a healing crystal. Grabbing it thankfully, Shadow whispered, "Heal," as he shattered the crystal in his fist. Meanwhile, Rider (blue cloak) had picked up Shadow's weapon from the floor and handed it back to its rightful owner.
"What should we do now, Mr. Shadow?" Rider eagerly asked his hero.
"We wait for the others," Shadow replied, prompting the young protégés to nod in understanding. Shadow heard something come from the forest, and when he turned to see what it was, his allies jumped in. "It took you guys long enough. The kids got here faster than you," Shadow remarked.
Bella shrugged. "Took a while for everyone else to get ready," she said with her usual amused smile.
"Never mind that. Is everyone in place?"
"They're already attacking." Indeed, they were. The members Shadow asked Ren to assign for were holding off the murder guilds' grunts.
"How about the others?"
"Right here!" Solar said as he jumped out with his elite Tri-Bladers, Ren, Alice, Helios, Kirito, and Asuna. "Sorry it took a while. We got held up."
"Understandably. Now get ready!" Shadow turned back to face the infuriated XaXa, and equipped his longsword.
He looked to his right and saw Solar, Skye, Akira, Pearce, Cupid, Eros, and Asuna, lined up and combat-ready, with serious faces and weapons waiting to be drawn. They each turned to Shadow in unison and nodded. "Say when," Solar said, looking back at their murderous opponents.
Shadow nodded and looked to his left: Ghost, Rider, Bella, Ren, Alice, Helios, and Kirito all smiled confidently and nodded, their weapons out as well. Shadow looked forward and charged a sword skill. When his allies followed his lead, he smirked.
"Attack...NOW!" With that, everyone charged at the same time XaXa and his troupe charged.
(Cue "I'm Alive" by Shinedown)
Solar was the first to strike, as he was being charged at by a killer with knives. Swiftly, and too fast for the naked eye, Solar cut through the killer, shattering him. Gotta love the Quick Draw, the leader thought.
Solar, however, didn't see the next killer rush him from behind, and turned around when he heard a grunting and a shattering. He turned to see Ren behind him, the remaining polygons of the shattering player still surrounding him. Upon noticing his fellow leader's look, Ren simply said, "Crimson Flash."
Solar nodded in understanding. "Quick Draw." Ren nodded back, and the two prepared to take on anyone else foolish enough to charge them head-on. "Should we kill the rest?"
"Nah. Let them live." With that, they charged the killers without a second thought.
Meanwhile, Skye and Alice were working in tandem with each other, knocking some of the killers back into the other's incoming strikes. "You're pretty good, Alice!" Skye remarked as she jumped on the head of a killer and pushed them back into Alice's scythe swing.
"You're not too shabby, yourself!" Alice responded with a smile as Skye stabbed another murderer and immediately sliced another behind her.
At the same time, Pearce jumped up high and shot down three opponents, pinning them to the floor with the paralysis poison. This attack gave Helios more than enough time to charge through and swing his axe wildly, cutting down all opponents that were too close to him. "Watch it!" Pearce said when he landed, narrowly dodging Helios' axe swings.
"Don't get in my way, and maybe you won't get hit!" Helios growled back as he kept swinging and knocking down more killers.
Cupid and Eros were fighting alongside Ghost and Rider. "You got better!" Cupid shouted to her best friend after watching her flip and slice through an opponent.
"Thanks! Shadow trained me!" Eros shouted back when she landed.
Ghost and Rider both had the same flow going, and surprised the two females with their finesse, slicing and dodging about. "Switch!" Ghost called.
"On it!" Rider said back before he jumped on top of a tank. Using his nimble body to his advantage, Rider dragged his blade up the tank's body, jumping and slashing the head off, landing in a crouch as he shattered.
"Impressive," Eros and Cupid said in admiration, back-to-back with the two boys.
"Thanks," Ghost and Rider called back.
During this, Akira and Bella both partnered up and were working together. Akira was swinging her axe in a circle, certainly more graceful than Helios. Bella ran through and sliced past all enemies before her, nimbly dodging Akira's swings as the latter cut the murderers down. "You're fast," Akira pointed out as she watched Bella dodge the enemy's attacks.
"You're not bad, yourself," Bella laughed as she watched Akira fight gracefully with an axe, a thing no one else can do successfully.
Throughout all this, Shadow opted to fight XaXa and his forces. The mercenary sliced through all foes XaXa sent after him and dashed towards the leader. He expected XaXa to be no pushover, and he was right, as XaXa blocked and parried Shadow's slice with his twin knives, forcing his opponent to fly back. The two continued the fight like that for a while, until Shadow looked over XaXa's shoulder and saw him, ready to teleport with the white shard in his hand.
"YOU!" Shadow screamed, pushing XaXa away, and teleporting above the retreating player. With the Black Star in his hand, he sent a fist down towards his new opponent. He blocked with his left hand―the hand holding the white shard. In an instant, the two disappeared: one in a bright flash of white light, and the other in a black void that sucked the light in.
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