"You bastard!" The katana swung down before the ax could lop off my head, amputating the attacker's forearm as I spun around, striking with Water Moon. Sent flying by the attack, I pressed my back to another's, feeling his heavy breathing shake his body. This could've gone better.

"What's with the long face? Aren't you having fun yet?" There, standing before us was a man without reason, his cause turning a person's blood to ice, his very attitude sadistic and heartless. His leathers shrouded by a tattered black poncho, face obscured say for a sharp smile and a distinct blue tattoo down the right side of his face. "Who could ask for a better stage, come on, Black Swordsman, I'm waiting!"

"I'll buy everyone time..." I heard him mutter, twin swords drawn by his sides, but he was shaking as the man in a black poncho charged, a large cleaver swung in his right hand, glowing dark red. I grabbed Kirito's shoulder, pulling him back to view me.

"Then I can double that time," I cracked a faint smirk, his hazy eyes relenting as blue light burned across his blades, I raised mine in both hands, cast in a teal glow. No one else will die here!

"Double Circular!/Ichimonji!"

[Alfheim Online, New Aincrad, Floor 10]

"-Zeno, hey!" I snapped out of my daze as I narrowly threw myself back from the edge of a long grey-blue blade. Landing on my feet, I fired two blast arrows, lacing the next one in a purple coating before releasing it between the gaps in the monster's armour, inflicting it with Poison. "Did you lag or something!?"

That's right, I was back on floor 10 late at night with Yuuki. Her allies were offline so I'd be meeting them tomorrow for a test-run at the Floor Boss of 27, for now, we needed supplies for after that fact. Thanks to Argo, I had intel on a high-ranking quest back on this floor that appeared after the completion of floor 25. Thus, here we are.

"I'm all good, thanks!" I hollered as she zipped past me, parrying the monster before it could sweep the area.

The quest was 'Ghost of Forever Fall', the eternal autumn woods of the Feudal Japan floor. A traveling merchant passed on a rumour of a spirit haunting the woods in the dead of night, attacking anyone unfortunate to cross paths with it. We then discovered that a curse was placed on a fallen warrior long ago, and through dismantling three ritual sites, we had drawn the spirit out of hiding to banish the curse and free it's soul. Simple but challenging as it was meant for high-ranking players.

This Field Boss was your standard samurai in black and blue armour, distinct gold horns attached to the helmet, but it was anything but human. It's skin had become darker, and purple flames fumed from scars in its armour, arrows sticking out from its back that weren't mine, and its sword, a nodachi, was caked in these hellish flames. It released a roar in defiance, and the dark purple flames turned bright magenta, and the quantity of which grew.

/Eo, Barbarous Beast\

"It's enraged, switch!" I relayed as Yuuki stepped out from my line of fire perfectly, a single, golden arrow released with a roar. "Thunder Crash!" The arrow slammed into Eo's nodachi as a skill burned to life, only to be intercepted with a blast of air pressure behind the skill.

The dust and flames fanned either side as the boss pulled back its sword, lunging forward with the intent to skewer me, I plucked three arrows in a fraction of that time, all glowing silver with the sticky, explosive substance dipped to the arrowheads. In a blinding flash, three small blasts consumed the boss' frontal assault, and I dived backward, evading the tip of the blade upside down as a wave of purple whizzed past me.

Yuuki, using her wings for added momentum, brought her body low, sweeping left to right, twirling under the boss's wide swing to strike in two vertical lines, completing the Vertical Square that tore through its burning armour in a green tint. "Now!" She called as I ran into the samurai's magic attack.

It spun the tip of its blade forward, releasing a spiral of hellfire to surround me, I heard Yuuki gasp but I tucked my arms in, launching forward with an arrow drawn. I saw the magenta flames flash before engulfing me in a spiral blast of hellfire. My arrow pieced its forehead, causing the beast to grunt and flinch backward, cutting off the cyclone of flames long enough for me to vault atop its head and over another wide arc that cast an explosive line of fire under me.

I took some hits but the blast wasn't as strong closer to the nodachi. Airborne, I glided upside down, a new, ocean-blue arrow drawn back as far as possible, dripping with yellow liquid. "Thunder Crash!" Yelling its name, the powerful arrow slammed down between Eo's shoulder blades, bringing it to its knees with sparks of yellow lightning grounding it. "Level three Paralysis, never leave home without it," "Yuuki, do it now!"

Yuuki, taking the small window I offered, moved before my words reached her ear. Eo rose to his feet, debuffs only lasted a short time due to the hellfire as I doused myself in a pale blue mist in a bottle to dispel the Hellfire Blight clinging to my chest. The samurai doubled back, slashing with a burning blade through the ground, unleashing long crescents of hellfire to intercept Yuuki's skill motion. I quickly levelled a Blast Scale arrow to pierce the ground ahead of her, causing a riptide of rock and dirt to fly forward.

The embers were smothered by the shockwave, exploding around her as Yuuki's skill activated at her cry, swinging in four sharp pivots with her wrist, carving an Arabic '4' through Eo's chestplate, shattering it from the sheer impact. The knockback sent Eo flying onto his back, sword spun into the air before impaling the ground next to it as the magenta embers faded into cinders.

The last of its health disappeared, and it burst into thousands of polygon shards at Yuuki's feet. With the moonlight beaming down around us, her purple aesthetics were highlighted further by the whisk of amethyst flames in the warm breeze, brushing through her hair in the process as she sheathed her sword with a smile back at me.

"Haha, we did it! Nice work!" She ran up to me with that big grin, hugging me tightly as I stumbled. This... was a new feeling, my whole body felt much more relaxed now. I smiled hesitantly as she stepped back. "Did you see that, we were totally in sync! I haven't done that in like... forever!"

"Yeah, not bad Cupcake," I held up my fist as she blinked then quickly tapped hers off mine as our quest logs updated.

Quest Complete!

-Ghost of Forever Fall: Barbarous Beast-

The sinister spirit of the land has been banished, freeing the fallen warrior from its curse. The forest grows quiet and peaceful once more...

*Defeat the Dark Spirit [✔]

Forever Fall of Floor 10 | Reward 5000 Col | Dark Shard X8, Astral Spirit X1

The materials were nice but something else popped up on both our screens, "A bonus?" I murmured, sharing Yuuki's perplexed look as we materialized the item at the same time. My hands were a little heavy as two identical weapons landed in our hands.

A dark sheath with detailed patterns in shades of purple and violet, woven with a black fabric hung around the top of the silver buckle where the sword was kept, prayer beads hung around it too. We unsheathed the blades to find that I held a single, black katana in my hand, the edge a moonlit silver with the same purple pattern for the grip and a flame-shaped guard. Yuuki's was much shorter, a ninjato.

"Hey, it looks like two pieces of... eh?" She gaped, where the nodachi once loomed, there was now only a small hole in the ground. Seeing this, I laughed once.

"That will never not freak me out," Tossing the haunted blade known as 'Spine of Eo' while Yuuki's textbox in English labelled hers as 'Fang of Eo', I dusted off my hands, that strange chill from holding the katana leaving me. "Not that I'll ever use it, still, nice little treat for a job well done."

"Yeah, that's cool, more Col in the end!" She pumped her fist, then gawked at her menu. "Wow, we've been out here for two hours? Guess time flies having fun, huh?" She giggled as I agreed silently. It was currently 22:07, not that I cared, I had all the time in the world since it's the weekend. "Uh, say, wanna keep going? You know, to do some early shopping for tomorrow?"

"Hm? It's what I'm here for, right?" I shrugged, bowing for her to lead on. "After you, Cupcake."

"Another I'll let slide," She held her nose high before breaking down in a fit of giggles at my chuckle, quickly moving into step with her.

She shoved me for the remark but that only furthered my laughter.

[To Be Continued...]

[Author's Notes]

I liked SAO's 10th floor, the way it's designed in Integral Factor was really good so I incorporated it here like with Misfits' 25th Floor, though, at the time writing this chapter I actually never played the game so I wasn't certain of the areas' names so I made my own based on observation. More Yuuki and Malzeno bonding next. I hope you enjoyed, I appreciate the support, seeya in the next chapter, Readers!