I couldn't believe my eyes. This imp girl was completely copying my skills. It wasn't my turn yet, I guess I'll be fighting somewhere at the end, but she performed several times already. Unique, flowing, sometimes very sharp movements, I recognized them one by one. I couldn't help but keep my eyes glued to the figure, which even with her clothing looked like me. Just who is this player?
My friends sitting on both sides of me were also speechless with astonishment. It was particularly uncomfortable for the SAO survivors, who had seen me in battle more often than others. Take Asuna, for example. When she saw "Spell Blast" and "Eclipse," she turned pale as milk and clung tightly to my sleeve.
Sinon frowned on the left, devouring with her gaze the movements of the black, ebony-like blade that destroyed the released arrows. Although they were much slower than Hecate's bullets, it was easy to compare them to each other.
"Hey, it's not funny anymore," Klein spoke up, astonished. "Kirito, you didn't give her your skills, did you?"
I wasn't in the mood for jokes either.
"If I had given her my skills, I wouldn't be able to use them myself," I awkwardly replied. "Besides, this is the first time I've seen this girl..."
"Is there something like stealing skills in ALO?" Sinon asked quietly and uncertainly, her ears naturally pressed against her head like a cat's.
"I've never heard of anything like that," I admitted.
And indeed, as far as I know, there was no way to steal a player's skill. Not a single method that even I, a seasoned computer expert and avid gamer, had heard of. Yes, that's right.
Suddenly, Asuna flinched and her gaze unfocused. It seemed like she had received some kind of notification. And considering the events that were taking place, it could only be a notification about a new duel. Asuna dismissed the message with a light wave of her hand and stood up from her seat. I gave her an encouraging smile and squeezed her hand tightly one last time. I didn't know if it was enough to cheer her up, but in response, I received a confident smile from the lightning-fast swordsman of SAO, Asuna.
After a few minutes, a new duel began. Asuna against the Salamander player. The girl with bright, fiery red hair and blood-red eyes was dressed in heavy armor. Is this some kind of symbol of unity for them? No matter how many Salamanders I've encountered, they all wear this heavy armor. It's almost sympathetic. But there's one catch. It seems comfortable for them. Typically, Salamanders are vibrant representatives of heavy armor and powerful weapons. For example, two-handed swords. Usually, players who like to show off, to explode with a barrage of strikes in front of their enemies like a real firestorm, choose this race. That primordial fire that is their element.
But the Undine Asuna was the complete opposite of this wild fire. Like the embodiment of water, she extinguished those unrestrained attacks with an infinite flow. Her rapier, a replica of the very blade that had saved her life multiple times, still served her here, piercing through the fabric of reality with precise and delicate thrusts.
By the way, her attacks were exactly like that. Asuna moved so fast that it seemed like she had not just one blade in her hands, but five or even eight. I saw this skill for the first time when she attacked Kradil. Ah, like I can forget something like that... Back then, enraged by the fact that I was almost killed, she moved so fast for the first time in my memory. It felt like only a couple of seconds had passed, and the slashing wounds were already all over the body of the hapless assassin, who later almost completed his mission because Asuna was so trusting...
The battle ended quickly. Unfortunately for the Salamander girl, she couldn't compete with Asuna's precise and very fast rapier attacks, and after about five minutes of exchanging blows, Asuna brought her opponent's health bar into the red zone. That's how it ended. Even without being out of breath, Asuna waved to everyone, then reached out her hand to her opponent and helped her up from the ground. Together they left the arena, refuting the feigned hatred that everyone had between these two races.
The next few duels were not quite interesting. All my thoughts were occupied with evaluating Asuna's abilities, comparing them to mine, and also to that girl who resembled Yuuki in appearance and movements, as well as skills similar to mine. It would be interesting if I were called to a duel now. And who would be the first one to face me, considering that most of the unfamiliar players have already had their turns?
Suddenly, the events on the arena caught my attention. I didn't expect the battle I had been waiting for to happen so quickly, so I was pleasantly surprised. Asuna stepped forward from the left. The rapier was in its sheath on her left thigh, her hair swayed from the artificially created Mage breeze (otherwise, we would all be baked to a crisp here), and her eyes were focused, studying her opponent. Yes, just like that, this time not a rival but an opponent who must be defeated at all costs.
And on the right, the same imp girl appeared. A swordswoman who effortlessly defeated a significant number of players using various techniques, most of which were similar to my own skills. And now she was about to face the fastest player I knew.
Not just me, but also everyone else was so interested in the battle. People everywhere were distracted from their conversations and stared ahead. Would the mysterious newcomer win against a berserker healer Asuna? I even heard someone starting to place bets. It was rather unpleasant. In that case, what would happen when I, who was so confident about it, took on this girl? The stands would erupt with unnecessary attention.
Meanwhile, the two girls approached each other at a distance of ten meters and stopped. Both of them unsheathed their weapons. Seeing their readiness, the system gave the signal to start the fight. However, the girls didn't move. The imp girl swiftly changed her grip on her weapon and pulled her right arm back slightly, then she did the same with her left arm as if she wanted to draw a sword from her right hand with her left hand right there. Asuna, holding the sword in her right hand and extending it forward with a standard movement, didn't move either, clearly analyzing her opponent's stance.
It was a stage of a peculiar silent battle. Both girls were eager to move forward, to attack, but as soon as they saw a movement from their opponent, they froze in place, calculating their own actions and those of their opponent in their minds. Mentally, they were already fighting each other, and we were unaware of the course of the battle or its outcome, which, judging by the different colors of fire in the girls' eyes, had already occurred.
Finally, Asuna moved forward. She was running quite fast, with her right arm pulled back. It seemed like she was about to unleash the same unstoppable skill that couldn't be blocked. The aura of concentration around her was so dense that it even seemed like the world around her had lost its colors, and only her rapier was glowing with a blinding bright green light.
The imp girl, on the other hand, slowly, slowly moved her sword hand forward, seeming to be too slow to even react to a single strike. Let alone block them all. The instantaneous movement had already stretched for more than thirty seconds when suddenly a flash of gray-blue light erupted, and something happened that no one definitely expected.
When the light that concealed the girls from curious eyes dissipated, we all saw the final movements of each girl: a backflip and the last deflected strike from the dark-haired girl, and a surprised Asuna, who had jumped back, her strike just being deflected.
Wait, but Asuna didn't just attack with a regular attack, she used her skill, which can't be fully blocked! Then how did she...
And that's when my gaze stopped at the health bars of both girls, I even jumped up from my seat, not believing my eyes. The green completely untouched bar on the right belonged to the mysterious girl. And on the left... The bar that only had a few, like glowing embers, red dots left, belonged to Asuna.
"It can't be..." a voice came from the right.
"The Berserker-Healer..." a stunned voice came from the seats above me. "But how..."
"It's impossible!" Lizbeth jumped up after me, knowing Asuna and her skills better and longer than anyone else.
Honestly, I agreed with her completely. Asuna on the arena, with difficulty squeezed a smile to her opponent and raised her eyes to me full of guilt and regret. Don't look at me like that, you're not to blame!
But the next move in the arena really shocked me. The imp girl, whose nickname I still didn't know, pointed a thin finger right at me and a second later a sign popped up in front of me inviting me to go to the arena.
No, it wasn't an invitation from her personally, it was just my turn to fight. Well, Asuna, this is where I will fight for you against this impudent girl who still couldn't take her eyes off me all this time while I was descending to the arena. When I finally approached her, the girl smiled even brighter from a distance of ten to fifteen meters. I even thought she would rush at me now, but she clearly held herself back.
"After all these years... I finally see you again in front of me, Kazu-san!" she said, clearly barely holding back her excitement.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, examining her facial features. "This is the first time I've seen you."
"It was you who taught me everything I know now," the girl continued, completely ignoring me. "Let's fight again like we used to and I will finally prove to you that I am stronger!"