Sword Art Online: Phantom Reaper || SAO OC

53 - The Absolute Blade

January 16th 2026 - 3:20pm

Asuna was hosting a barbecue with some of her friends as well as a small guild she'd become close with recently: the Sleeping Knights. They were preparing themselves for a boss raid they planned to tackle on floor 28 and for now were just together having some fun. Klein, Leafa, Nyx, and Sinon all stood behind the cabin.

Klein let out a disappointed sigh "C'mon man, what's the big deal?"

"If I don't have a reason to then I don't." Nyx shrugged his shoulders.

Sinon shot him a curious look and Leafa asked what the two of them were talking about.

"Klein's been wanting to see me fight one on one for a while now and I keep telling him I don't want to. I can barely count the number of times he's suggested that I duel Kirito or Asuna or even players like General Eugene, but I keep telling him no."

"Why does it matter so much? It's not like you haven't seen him in battle before." Sinon asked a disappointed Klein who puffed before looking up to explain.

"Yeah I have but from what I know Nyx only ever goes all out when in a serious fight. Otherwise he doesn't use his special technique."

Nyx let out an annoyed groan. "Not this again. I told you I don't have a 'special technique'."

"I'm pretty sure Liz mentioned something about your fighting style. You apparently change how you fight to match your opponents." Leafa mentioned in a matter-of-fact tone.

Nyx sagged his shoulders and sighed. "Dammit Liz..."

Sinon thought back to the day she first saw Nyx after his avatar changed. "Now that you mention it, the way you fought the day we went fishing was a little different to how you usually fight in ALO."

"There's nothing special about it. It's just fighting style." he tried to brush it off.

"It was still pretty impressive, even though you were completely out of it." Sinon said, not realizing that Liz was creeping up behind her, trying to grab her tail.

Before she could say anything, Nyx spotted Liz and rolled his eyes "If it isn't my favorite storyteller... The hell're you doing back there?"

"You couldn't keep quiet for just a little longer, could you?" she said with a sarcastic tone as Sinon, Leafa and Klein all turned to look at her.

Nyx shrugged his shoulders and shook his head "Don't think I didn't see what you were trying to do... Creep."

"Anyway," Liz said nervously, trying to change the topic, "Asuna said she wanted you for something." she said with a mischievous smile.

"Why don't I trust that?" Nyx eyed Liz suspiciously and watched as she shrugged her shoulders as he turned to walk away

Nyx went around the side of the cabin to the front where he saw Asuna and a few other players he'd never seen before.

Asuna spotted him and gestured for him to go over to her. He hesitantly walked over and she greeted him with a smile.

"Hey Asuna. Liz said you were looking for me?"

"Yeah I wanted to introduce you to some of my friends." she gestured at the players standing behind her.

One of them - a female Imp player with long purple hair - shot Nyx a scrutinizing look.

"Uh... Yuuki was it?" he asked while leaning back from her.

"Oh sorry," Yuuki said as she stepped back from him "It's just that I've heard a lot about you from Asuna."