The Survival Logs || Sword Art Online Fanfic

Clashing Guilds Arc: Chapter 40 - Unseen Miracle

The way Hallow staggered back after that was as if I had parried away his attack. As he struggled to get his footing, I spun my spear at him, both the blades on my spear threatening his attempt to get close to me.

Hallow backstepped away from my counterattack, holding his two-handed sword in front of him as he landed. But I didn't want him to take a break. Holding my spear forward, I activated a weapon skill as quickly as I could. Both the blades on either side of my spear became enveloped in a green light effect.

Under the skill assist system, I charged at Hallow, stretching out my spear with my right arm at the ground. As the blade of my spear touched the ground, I lifted myself up high, as if I was trying to get over a wall I couldn't climb.

Fetching my spear, which was in contact with the ground, with my left arm, I was in the air, while swinging it back to my front, and aiming it at Hallow, who was now hiding behind his sword to block.

My body shot downward, it a straight but slanted trajectory, as my spear burst forth in speed, as if acting all on its own, pulling me toward the flat edge of the large blade. As I collided against it, my vision blinked out of view, before showing me the view of the ground after a split second. I landed with my arms still stretched out, holding my spear at chest level.

I looked back, straining my neck as the blades of my spear lost its glow. There was Hallow behind me, collasping just as his HP decreased into the red zone. And as I looked on, I saw Irokei half kneeling, holding her bow in one hand. Her other hand was just behind the bowstring, and looked as if it had released something.

Wait, her bow? Out in the open?

She never used her bow in front of anyone else but me, so why...?

That thought got cut off in my mind as I started to fall on my knees, before slowly rolling over to lie on the ground. Taking slow breaths to recover from the adrenaline that I had just experienced, I tried to get up to check on my opponent.

Hallow should have recovered earlier than me, but he was still lying there, a few metres from where I landed. Irokei was aiming her bow at the two-handed sword user, amid tears still flowing from her eyes. I could hear her heavy breaths even from where I sat.

By the time I stopped in front of Hallow, he had just sat up from the ground, and turned to look up at me, who was holding my spear at him with caution.

"...What the hell was that spear skill...? Never seen anything like it..." Hallow asked, looking down at his sword, which was cracked throughout its blade.

I aimed the blade of my spear at his head.

"Which guild are you with?"

Hallow looked back at his sword, ignoring my question completely.

He gripped the handle of the sword. The large blade, probably with its durability running out, made cracking sounds as it was lifted a few centimetres off the ground.

"Just kill me..." Hallow looked at me once more. "Either way....my fun ends here...."

Taking a huge breath, I released it slowly, my body relaxing a bit as the sensation of air rushing out of my lungs (no matter how artificial it might have felt) soothed me greatly. As much as I had wanted to get back at Hallow a few minutes ago, I just couldn't kill him for any reason.

I didn't know why a player like him would love PKing so much. For me, as a fellow player, I wouldn't even understand why one would resort to such a thing. Are the circumstances of this world still so trivial for these kinds of players to still do these kinds of stuff?

"Hey..." Hallow turned to look at me again. "Do you think we could have been......rivals? We could have duelled to our hearts' content..."

My spear drooped down a little at his question. His face looked genuine as he spoke. If only he didn't get the wrong idea about rivalry...

"Rivals don't kill each other." I replied straight at him. "They just.....don't."

Hallow looked up at the ceiling, which was dimly lit in greyish shades. He started to lift his sword slowly, shaking as he turned the large blade to his chest.

"Heh, I guess I'll just....." Hallow mumbled while he closed his eyes.

"No...!"

My spear went forth to intercept the blade, no matter how futile it might be to stop the heavy blade with my lighter spear blade. My widened eyes were fixated on the large blade, as its tip touched Hallow's chest, and plunged through it as easily as it was butter. Red pixels poured out of the cut the blade made. Hallow's HP gauge was already empty, at the moment I frantically switched my eyes to notice it.

I stared, speechless, as my spear was still trying to budge the cracked blade away from his chest. Hallow's body glowed light blue, as he looked at me with a smile. Right before the explosion of blue fragments that happened right in front of me.

As those sparkling things floated around me momentarily, I could feel a single tear flowing through my face, from my right eye, before turning into blue fragments as it collided with the ground.

The cracked two-handed sword, that was used against me in a duel that never existed, finally shattered into pieces upon hitting the ground, disappearing along with its wielder in the enclosed darkness.

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