Author's Note: I got this chapter finished a little later than I had planned, but I still got it done before the week was over. I hope this chapter will have been worth the wait for everyone.
Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online, nor do I own the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
Chapter 16: Lisbeth vs. Asuna
Kirito waited outside the crystal stadium with Yui as the remaining players in the Clash of Queens tournament went inside. The next round of the tournament was still about an hour and a half away, but most of the remaining competitors had already arrived. Of course Kirito was planning to go watch the remaining matches of the tournament with Klein and the others, but he and Yui wanted to personally wish Asuna luck before the tournament resumed. Kirito had also hoped to wish Leafa luck as well, but the blonde had yet to show up, as had Lisbeth. The dark-haired swordsman wondered if perhaps Lisbeth and Leafa had already gone inside the stadium.
"Why hello, Kirito." A familiar voice spoke. Kirito turned around and saw Nytokris standing behind him. "Fancy meeting you here. Last time I checked though, you didn't exactly have the right qualifications for this tournament."
"I'm actually waiting to meet with someone." Kirito told her.
"Asuna, right?" Nytokris deduced as she walked up to him. "You know… you could do much better than that little wench."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kirito asked.
"I mean…" Nytokris continued as she put her arms around Kirito, "If you and I joined together, we could make this entire world bow before us. You and I could be the ultimate power couple. Plus I could give you thrills that your bashful little wench of an undine couldn't even imagine."
"Back off!" Yui cut in as she got between Kirito's face and Nytokris's, causing the silver-haired imp to let go and step back. "Only mommy and auntie Leafa are allowed to be this close to daddy!"
"Stay out of this, little girl. Or else I'll clip your wings." Nytokris warned.
"I've got a better idea." Kirito told Nytokris as he reached back and drew one of his swords. "Why don't you just get lost? I don't know what the hell your game is, but there's no way in hell I'd ever be interested in someone like you."
Nytokris merely smirked. "Ah well. I guess I'll just have to go back to my original plan. It's a shame though. You and I could've really changed this world."
With that, Nytokris walked towards the crystal stadium. Once the silver-haired imp was far enough away, Kirito sheathed his sword.
"Kirito?" a familiar voice spoke from behind. He turned around to see that it was Asuna.
"Finally! Yui and I were starting to wonder if you would show up." Kirito responded.
"What the heck was going on with you and Nytokris?" Asuna asked.
"Well…" Kirito began as he rubbed the back of his head. "She pretty much hit on me. I told her to get lost though. I even got my sword out because she threatened Yui."
"That bitch!" Asuna cursed. "I am so going to make her pay for that."
"I know you will." Kirito told her. "Anyway, Yui and I just wanted to wish you luck before the next round."
"Thanks. I have a feeling that I'm going to need all the luck I can get." Asuna replied.
"You're really worried about fighting Liz, aren't you?" Kirito realized.
"Not so much about beating her as about this fight destroying our friendship." Asuna replied. "You know how Liz has been since the whole Donis thing. In fact she's been worse since fighting Selene at the start of the tournament."
"Well don't worry. I'm sure you and Liz will be okay." Kirito told her.
Asuna smiled and gave Kirito a peck on the cheek. "I'll see you later after I win."
With that, Asuna quickly headed off to the stadium. Satisfied that Asuna seemed ready for the next round, Kirito flew off into the sky with Yui.
Kirito arrived at the tavern and quickly found the booth where Klein, Siune, Agil and Silica were already waiting with Lurga. The dark-haired swordsman also saw Sinon cuddled up next to Nikita, though for some reason Kirito's brain hadn't quite registered the spriggan woman's presence. Instead, Kirito's mind instantly went to his conversation from the day before about Nytokris's possible real world identity. After the way that Nytokris had tried unsuccessfully to get into his pants earlier, Kirito decided that it was probably his time to say something about it to Sinon.
"Hey man. You meet up with Asuna okay?" Klein asked upon noticing Kirito's arrival.
"Yeah. She's at the stadium right now." Kirito answered as he took the remaining seat in the booth next to Klein. "Hey Sinon? I know you probably don't want to hear anything about this, but I think you and I need to have your friend, Nakuru."
"Really. So you heard about me too, huh?" Nikita spoke. "Well, I guess it's nice to know that all of Sinon's online friends know about me, even though they all think I'm some heartless slut."
Kirito's jaw dropped open in shock. "Oh… so… you're Nakuru then. It's nice to meet someone who's such a close friend of Sinon's."
"Yeah… really close." Silica remarked as she gave the couple another suspicious look.
"Don't feel bad, Kirito." Agil told him. "Practically everyone at this table put their foot in their mouth when they brought up Nikita over there."
"Uh, look Nikita. I'm sorry about what I just said." Kirito told her.
"Don't worry about it." Nikita told him. "It's nice to know that Sinon has such good friends in this game. It is weird though how that bitch and I seem to have the same voice."
"Actually… I don't think they are the same." Yui suddenly spoke. "Ms. Nikita's voice and Nytokris's voice do sound alike, but Nytokris's speech patterns are more… artificial."
"What? You mean like a recording?" Kirito asked.
"Kind of." Yui answered. "Basically, Nytokris is somehow imitating Ms. Nikita's voice. Just how and for what reason, I can't say."
"Hey Sinon. What's with the little doll-sized girl on your friend's shoulder." Nikita quietly asked.
"You mean Yui? She's kind of a long story." Sinon answered. "I can tell you though that Kirito got her in SAO."
"Oh! So a bunch of you people are the SAO survivors that Sinon told me about." Nikita realized. "Maybe at least one of you ran into my little brother."
"Your brother played SAO?" a surprised Silica asked.
"Yeah, and he was one of the people who made it out alive." Nikita answered. "Maybe one of you guys knows him."
"Probably. SAO was a big game." Agil pointed out.
"We'd probably remember him by his character name." Klein added. "You happen to know it?"
"Yeah, he told me what it was before I logged in." Nikita recalled. "What was it again? Oh yeah, Dash. He called himself Dash the Valiant. I don't know just how he came up with that name exactly, but he said it just rolls off the tongue. I think it sounds stupid, to be honest"
The mention of what Nikita's brother had called himself in SAO caused Kirito, Klein, Agil and Silica to have very animated facial expressions. An awkward silence hung over the table for several moments.
"Your brother is that dumbass?" Klein almost shouted.
"It almost would've been better if you were Nytokris!" Silica declared.
Nikita let out a heavy sigh. "Okay, what did my idiot little brother do to you all?"
Kirito sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Dash was one of the more… mediocre players of SAO. His skills were kind of above average, but he never had what it took to make it onto the front lines."
"He was also a total moron." Klein added. "One time my guild and I went to take on this one field boss on Floor 33 for part of this quest, and we asked Kirito and Dash to help out. Just when we were trying come up with a plan to take the thing down, that idiot just charged in before we were ready. Nobody got killed, but it was one of the most bone-headed things a person in that death game could do."
"That moron swindled me out of a huge wad of cash." Agil revealed. "He sold me what he claimed was a rare artifact, but it turned out to be some piece of junk he made look fancy."
"He tried using me and Pina as bait to lure out this one monster just so he could get a rare item." Silica added. "The guy's a total jerk."
"Yeah, that sounds like my brother alright." Nikita declared. "I'm going to kill him when I log out of here."
"Little advice? If you meet our friend, Lisbeth later, don't mention who your brother is to her." Kirito told Nikita. "Dash wasn't exactly her favorite customer in SAO."
"Speaking of Liz, isn't Asuna fighting her today in the tournament?" Sinon realized.
"Yep. And it's probably going to be a pretty rough battle." Kirito answered.
Asuna had been waiting by herself in the crystal stadium for the next round of the tournament to start. Leafa had yet to show up, and while Lisbeth was there, Asuna and the Pinkette had pretty much stayed away from one another. Asuna could tell that Lisbeth didn't want anything to do with her.
"Asuna." A familiar voice spoke. Asuna turned to see Leafa standing next to her.
"Oh! Hi Leafa." Asuna responded. "I was starting to think you weren't going to show up."
"I got a little bit hung up with something." Leafa explained. "So, you ready for the next round?"
"As I'll ever be." Asuna answered. "It's not like I'll really be able to enjoy myself in this next battle… considering who I'm up against."
"Oh… yeah." Leafa responded. "Well, let's just our best out there, okay?"
"Yeah." Asuna replied.
"Good to see you both trying so hard." A familiar voice interrupted. Asuna and Leafa looked to see Nytokris walking up to them. "Too bad your best isn't going to be enough, because no matter what happens, I'm going to be the one standing at the top."
"That's where you're wrong." Asuna told her. "I'm going to take you down at the end of this tournament."
"You'll have to get through the next few rounds first." Nytokris pointed out. "Considering who you might be up against, that might be an impossible task for you. Even my new friend, Liz might be too much for you, especially after the help I gave her."
"What… what do you mean?" Asuna asked.
"During the day off from the tournament, I helped Liz gather some material to forge a powerful new weapon for herself." Nytokris revealed. "I showed her a new material that she never would've thought of using before. With the way Liz is now, I'm sure she'll be just too much for you to handle. Ta-ta for now, ladies."
With that, Nytokris walked off, chuckling to herself as she left. Soon after, a dazzling blue light filled the room and Lydia materialized in the chamber with a swarm of multicolored butterflies surrounding her. As the light faded and the butterflies vanished, all eyes fell on the tournament's MC.
"Hello one and all!" Lydia spoke. "Welcome to our final day of the Clash of Queens tournament! I hope that those of you still left in the tournament used yesterday's day off to prepare for today, because the game just gets harder from here. To kick things off, we'll be holding the quarterfinal battles for the remaining players in Bracket A! In one of our fights, we have Asuna the Berserk Healer against Lisbeth the Blacksmith! Meanwhile in our other fight we have a classic sylph verses salamander throw down between Leafa and Corona of the Blue Flame! In the interest of time, both fights will take place at the same time. As always, those of you watching the tournament can pick the fights that you want to stream. Now then, if our four fighters will step onto the teleport pads, the next round of this tournament can begin."
With that, Asuna, Lisbeth, Leafa and the salamander woman known as Corona each stepped onto one of the waiting teleport pads. In moments, a blue light shot up from the pad around Asuna's feet, and the blunette was beamed away to another part of ALO.
Asuna's beam had set her down in the ruined seaside village of Innsmouth. The noxious aroma of salt air mixed with dead fish instantly assaulted the blunette's nostrils. Asuna was at least thankful that there were no Deep Ones around, but she didn't like the idea of having to fight in such a loathsome area of the game. Another beam of blue light hit the ground a few feet from where Asuna was standing, fading a few moments later to reveal Lisbeth. Asuna immediately noticed that Lisbeth was holding a new weapon made of an odd black metal. It appeared to be a mace of some kind, but the top end appeared to be a smooth perfectly round sphere that looked as though it could only do minimal damage.
"Hey there, Asuna." Lisbeth spoke. "This fight's been a long time coming."
"Tell me something, Liz… did you really get help from Nytokris to make a new weapon?" Asuna asked.
"Sure did." Lisbeth confirmed. "You see this mace? It was forged using an alloy made from that black slime flowing in that underground river in N'kai. I had no idea it could be collected and made into a metal until Nytokris told me. I'm calling this baby Tsathoggua's Hammer. What do ya think? Good name?"
"How… how could you accept help from that horrible woman?" Asuna asked. "Don't you know how horrible she is?"
"She's more of a friend to me than you, you rich bitch!" Lisbeth shot back. "Now let's throw down!"
Asuna prepared to draw her sword. "I guess we're both done with talking then."
A holographic timer appeared in the air and beeped after ticking to zero, signaling the start of the battle. Asuna drew her sword and charged towards Lisbeth at full speed. Just when the blunette had come in range though, Lisbeth sidestepped the attack and swung her mace at Asuna. Right before striking Asuna in the side, the head of the mace grew larger and became covered in spikes. The force of the impact from the weapon flung Asuna into the wall of one of the nearby ruined buildings, causing that part of the wall to shatter. Asuna got back to her feet, but she had lost more than a quarter of her HP. Meanwhile, the head of Lisbeth's mace had returned to its original shape.
"Not bad, huh?" Lisbeth spoke as she walked towards Asuna. "The head of the weapon changes shape in response to whatever object or opponent its about to hit. I don't totally understand how the thing works yet, but it seems like it adjusts to the opponent's defense stats in order to do the maximum amount of damage."
Asuna ignored Lisbeth's comments and charged at Lisbeth once more. Lisbeth raised her black mace above her head and swung it down as Asuna came in range. Asuna bent back at the last moment to try and avoid the blow, but the head of the mace not only changed shape again, it also stretched forward to strike Asuna in the stomach. Asuna was knocked to the ground, and her HP had fallen to almost half of what it originally was.
"Well what do you know? I didn't know this thing could adjust its range too." Lisbeth remarked as her weapon returned to its original shape. "You better be ready, rich girl. Because I'm about to show you just how tough I really am!"
Please review and let me know what you think.