Sword Art Online: Phantom Reaper || SAO OC

11 - Exhaustion

October 26th 2024 - 2:47 am

Nyx woke up in a cold sweat, shaken awake from a nightmare he was having by his griffin Shadow. He'd been dreaming of the night he'd been ambushed by Laughing Coffin and nearly dying at Red-Eyed XaXa's hand.

He sat up, feeling the surface he laid on and realizing he'd fallen unconscious in a dungeon again, this time on the 75th floor. It had become a regular occurrence for him by now though. He'd grind, train and push himself until he passed out, would take it easy for a few days, then head out for days at a time.

Nyx usually never told anyone where he went when he disappeared because he usually just wanted to be alone.

He shook his head trying to clear his mind from his unsettling dream. Shadow put his head on Nyx's lap, watching his master as his bright orange eyes teared up. He bit back tears as he looked around him, his katana lay on the ground, dull and worn out. Taking the black and red hilt in his hand he let out a sigh, looking down at the sword.

"I'm still too weak." he whispered to himself, before opening his menu to check the time. He noticed he'd been sent a message, and opening it, found it was Mia who'd texted him a few hours ago.

[ Can we meet up at the cabin tomorrow evening? I need to tell you something. - M.  ]

"Mia? Why would she want to see me?"  he wondered before looking down at Shadow, thanking him for waking him up. He stood up and walked aimlessly through the dungeon, killing enemies with his katana instead of his Phantom Blade, which he always did when grinding.

Without paying attention to where he was going, he found himself walking in toward a large spider-type enemy. Before he noticed, Shadow charged ahead, blocking an attack that would have struck the absent-minded Nyx.

Looking up at his would-be attacker, he saw the spider charging toward him with an attack he just barely dodged out of the way. Unsheathing his katana, he parried two more hits, being pushed back against a dungeon wall.

The spider leaped toward him, Nyx rolling out of the way, and running toward the pathway to escape, Shadow following after him, with the spider trailing behind them.

"Shadow, jump!" Nyx commanded trying to buy himself enough time to pull out his Phantom Blade. He morphed it into a katana, now holding one in each hand. He stopped running, turning to face it. He thrust the Phantom Blade into the spider's mouth and charged at the stunned enemy, dragging his katana through the underside of the spider, that one strike dealing 20% damage to its HP.

He warped to his Phantom Blade still lodged in its mouth. "Okay Nyx, let's try this one last time."  he thought to himself, preparing to unleash a chain of sword skills. He'd been trying to master chaining skill combos, but failed every time, always unable to finish his combo when fighting an enemy.

He started unleashing an upward, downward, then forward thrust <<Scarlet Fan>> then immediately switched into <<Floating Boat>> stumbling after just barely being able to lift the large spider off the ground.

He morphed his weapon into a rapier, thrusting it into the air and warping inches away from the spider, and launched into his third skill <<Crucifixion>> unleashing three vertical strikes, then three horizontal strikes, the impact knocking the spider back down. Nyx felt the strain starting to slow him down, but was determined to finish what he'd started. "I'm too far to finish it... even with the blade..."

He thought back to when he first came close to perfecting his technique when fighting the ghoul on the 71st floor, and how Agil and Kirito helped keep his combo going. "I'm just not good enough yet... but still..."