Sword Art Online: New Reality (REWRITTEN)

Chapter 16 - Something to Protect

When the day came, I leaned on the coliseum door and waited, word spreaded through KoB reaching out to the public. I waited and waited, looking at my message I sent to Toru, "Are you okay?" my message said, no reply. I stared at the messages as I took a deep breath, exhaling out thinking to myself "No holding back then...".

I pushed myself back up from the wall as I heard the door open. As the door opened I walked out and was surrounded by maybe thousands of people, I looked around for a bit before walking to the center of the coliseum.

I looked forward and looked at Kirito, he lent out a hand to me saying "No hard feelings?". I looked at the hand and shook it. I didn't want to be rude to him as I replied "No hard feelings Kirito...". I swiped down and opened my menu, scrolling to dual wield as I was going to tap it.

I then noticed a blinking skill as I never saw such a feature in the game before. I scrolled down slightly and tapped it, equipping it as it equipped only one sword. I then got the duel from Kirito, with the first hit condition. I accepted the duel as the timer began to countdown. The countdown began counting from 60 seconds as the crowd began to count as well. I pulled out my sword but didn't feel another sword to grab. I was confused as I sighed, thinking to myself "Well... I'll give it my all then..." I thought and got ready. The countdown kept going, "3... 2... 1... 0!".

Kirito rushed in and began swinging his dual wielded swords, I dodged swiftly and blocked around, noticing a significant difference. I ducked under a swing and counter swung, hitting a hard swing and threw Kirito back a bit. He landed on his feet as I opened my palm, I then saw a scroll wheel appear on my hand, having 8 different icons on it.

I stopped to look at it as Kirito blitzed towards me, I swiped my hand in a panic as a greatsword materialized in my hand, feeling the weight I dropped to one side and barely dodged Kirito's diagonal swing.

"What happened?"

I thought as I saw the greatsword in my hand, I lifted the sword up as I struggled slightly, getting the tip of the blade stuck in the ground. "What was that?" Kirito said, confused as I didn't know either, I then opened my palm again and saw the same scroll wheel and the same icons, but with one Icon glowing.

I saw the Greatsword Icon glowing as it clicked in my head, the scroll wheel was a unique skill itself. I then rotated my hand around a bit and saw one part of the wheel pop up and then switched to another pop up.

I selected the dagger Icon as the greatsword shattered and my dagger materialized in my hand. "Woah..." I thought as I looked at it curious until I realized I was still in a duel. Kirito swung and I barely blocked it, having a small piece of my hair cut off from it.

"Alright, let's try this new skill!"

I said as I stepped back and tried swinging back at Kirito, he dodged the sword as we kept trying to hit each other. We kept dodging and blocking sword and dagger swings. The sounds of metal weaponry hitting each other almost made itself into a rhythm.

Every swing, every attempt to hit each other was something that kept the crowd on the edge of their seats. We had 2o seconds remaining as we kept trying to hit each other but due to our even levels from the duel, we were evenly matched in skill and in our ability to fight.

10 seconds remained as we swung and we clashed, two swords to one. "This has been fun but it's time to wrap this up!" Kirito said confidently as I saw a glimmer of gold in his eyes, That caught me off guard as he broke through my guard.

"GAME OVER!!"

Kirito shouted as he swung down and I quickly shifted my arm to block the hit. My hp dropped to zero as the timer stopped at 2 seconds. My HP shot back up to green as the duel was over. I smiled a bit softly as I patted his shoulder. "Good fight" I told him as he replied "Same here, great fight".