The Red Player (A Sword Art Online story)

Chapter 4: A Burning Passion

Chapter 4: Burning Passion

Piifalo

I pull Ashas to the ground behind a bush and tell her to keep her mouth shut before poking a finger through the leaves. In front of us stands a mighty tree, standing high above the rest with roots as tall as my hips. Its large green leaves cast a heavy shadow over the clearing. Behind it is a sheer cliff dropping to a bottomless pit. No doubt it’s the world border for this floor.

Our real prize, however, stands in front, leaning upon its powerful falchion. This is one of the mini bosses for floor 10: a humanoid suit of heavy armor wielding a massive two handed sword. Hopefully once I kill this thing I’ll finally level up. I’ve been stuck on level 34 for 6 days now!

I get ready to jump out and unleash every attack I can when I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn my head to see Ashas’ smiling face. She already has her saxe knife drawn and ready. What the hell? I thought she had an axe! When did she have time to – before I can finish my thought she jumps out of the bushes and launches herself at the monster.

Just before the creature can begin to move she thrusts her knife into its chest, managing to puncture the armor slightly. Her knife lodges itself in the chestplate, but as she struggles to pull it out the enemy rips it’s own weapon out of the ground. Ashas looks on in terror as it raises its deadly falchion above it’s head, ready to crush her. Her fingers barely let go of the knife before the hilt of the sword comes crashing down on her skull. Well, it’s not really my fault, I think remorselessly. I did tell her that if she died she couldn’t blame me. Her body slides backwards to the point of which her head is hanging slightly off the cliff.

I make my move by leaping out of the bush and swinging hard with a wide arc to the right, but it manages to pull it’s weapon up in time to block, repelling Passion with immense force. My eyes widen in shock. Nothing had ever made my attack seem so weak. The impact leaves yet another dent on my once flawless blade. “Damn you!” I spin backwards and fire a spinning back kick into the hilt of Ashas’ knife, driving the blade further into the suit of armor. Huh, maybe she did serve some purpose. I use the kick to push myself back to the edge of the clearing.

My breathing has become rough and choppy. In that single movement alone I had to use my reflexes to the best of my ability. Anything less and without a doubt I would have been left with a sword impaled in my chest.

Suddenly the enemy grabs the knife by the handle and tears it out with ease, throwing it into the tree. The knife leaves a small hole in the hollow armor. The creature begins to make its way to Ashas’ stunned body. I can feel each step resonates through my entire body, as if to laugh at the fact it got a hit on me. My face bends into a twisted smirk. Enjoy it while you can, ‘cause soon I’ll have your head. Its back is turned, completely open. Someone’s cocky… I grip Passion’s handle with all my strength and lunge forward, but just before contact, he disappears, and reappears at my side, but in mid-air I have no time to react. This time it’s my turn to watch helplessly as his falchion blade begins its deadly descent.

It’s inches away from liberating my legs from my body when my mind blacks out. For a single short moment my vision becomes completely dark, and all my senses shut down. I have absolutely no control of my body until mere seconds later I’m on the ground, out of breath. My entire body aches, and my vision is beginning to clear. I hear metal hitting metal, I turn to face the noise. The monster is stumbling backwards, holding half a broadsword in its chest.

It takes a moment for me to register what had happened, but soon I fall backwards in disbelief. In my hands is the handle of my Passion, shattered. I climb up to my knees and hold my broken sword in front of me. N – no… how… how did this happen? My head hangs low, and my eyes close lightly. I can’t bear to see my blade explode into shards of glass. I hear the same deafening sound just a few meters away to my right.

The steps keep getting closer and closer until eventually the monster is right by my side. The armor’s arms move high upward, and stay sill for a moment. This gives me just enough time to open my eyes quickly and clench my fist. I stare at his unprotected torso and yell “Martial arts skill! Volcanic Eruption!” My fist glows a fiery red, shining a blindingly bright aura as I blast it forward, straight for the enemy’s chest.

The impact shatters the armor instantly, vanquishing the beast entirely. I fall back to the ground, and gasp desperately for air. I can’t believe it! I’ve destroyed Passion! What happened?

It wasn’t until after I was immobilized that I realized Ashas had been standing behind the monster, with her knife outstretched. Did she… save me? Why does she always have to get in the way?!”

Regardless, I noticed her health had dropped all the way down to less than ¼ of her health in that one attack. She seriously could have died. Not that I was doing any better at nearly the same amount myself. Not much later she fell on her back as well. Neither of us held back any of our power.

As we lay on our backs incapacitated, the “Congratulations!” menu appears in front of me, flooding me with experience points. I level up and fill my next level about 1/8 full. Took me long enough. I think, relieved.

“Hey,” Ashas calls to me. I grunt in response. “W - why was Passion so important to you?” she asks. I open my mouth to respond sarcastically when she stops me. “Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense.” She laughs.

“I’ve got a question too,” I say. “I noticed in that boss room you had an axe,” I didn’t need to see her to know she was glowing with excitement hearing that I “noticed” her. “why is it that you’re using a knife now?”

“An axe is too big and bulky, and it makes too much noise. Knives help a lot with stealth so I can more effectively track people.”

“Who were you-” I stop myself in the middle of the question. I don’t know what I expected.

Suddenly Ashas jumps up to her feet and pulls me up as well, handing me a health potion, which I begrudgingly accept. As I drink my fill, my health bar replenishes to full as well.

Without another word I start on my way back to Mokénop town.

“Hey! Where are you going?!” Ashas asks as she begins to run to catch up with me.

“I don’t think I’ll get very far if all I can do is punch, so I guess I’ll have to buy a new one.”

It served me well to get me this far, but there has to be something out there, something stronger than my Passion.

 

End of Chapter 4. I have mixed feelings about my work this chapter.

I’ll just have to try to work on my fight scenes in the future I guess.

(Mokénop is an anagram of Pokémon btw.)