"Reina" Kirito shouts and runs after the girl. "Oh, what the hell." Klein gulps and runs after his friends. Reina leaps into the air, activates a sword skill, and deals multiple blows to Gleam Eyes' back. Gleam Eyes removes his focus from the player in front of him and turns to Reina. The girl gasps and uses her sword to block its attack. She spins around with her eyes closed and when she opens them again she gasps when Gleam Eyes punches her sending her rolling away. Reina looks up and sees Gleam Eyes above her ready to attack but Kirito steps in and flips his sword so that the blade faces behind him. He dragged his sword against Gleam Eyes' so that it missed Reina by a couple of inches. "Get out!" Kirito tells her and she nods jumping out of the way. "I got you, buddy." Klein tells one of the players as he and his guild members helped them out.
The Gleam Eyes tries shooting an energy beam at them but Kirito slashes its back making it stop. The floor boss turns its attention to Kirito and the two of them engage in battle with both of them dealing damage to one another. Kirito blocks an attack from the Gleam Eyes and struggles to keep its blade from him. "Get out of there!" Reina tells him. "Kirito!" Klein shouts. Kirito pushes the blade back and narrowly dodges the next attack. Kirito looks over at both Klein and Reina who stare at him with worried looks. The boss attacks the other players, causing Kirito's eyes to widen. Gleam Eyes tries attacking Kirito and the boy narrowly deflects it with his sword. "Hey Klein! Reina! Listen! I need ten seconds, keep him off me!" Kirito instructs the two and leaps back to avoid an attack. "Yeah, you got it!" Klein replies and both he and Reina charge at the boss.
Klein blocks some of the attacks and gets thrown to the side and Reina dodges another one. "Okay, I'm ready!" Kirito informs. Reina nods and dodges the Gleam Eyes' attacks by jumping side to side and down some flips. She leaps into the air so that she is face to face with Gleam Eyes, lets out a battle cry, and activates her skill 'Crimson Blade Dance.' She then delivers five hits knocking the boss back. Kirito stares at her amazed and when she lands she looks back at Kirito. "Switch!" She calls and Kirito runs ahead of her, letting out a battle cry and grazes his sword against Gleam Eyes'. He equips another sword and lets out a cry pushing Gleam Eyes and Reina and Klein stare at him with wide eyes, seeing him wielding two swords. Gleam Eyes tries striking Kirito with his blade but the boy blocks it with both of his swords.
He pushes Gleam Eyes' blade away with his eye closed. "Starburst Stream!" Kirito slashes at Gleam Eyes' stomach not giving it time to recover. "What the hell kind of skill is that?" Klein asks, in shock. "How am I supposed to know? I wasn't with him when he got it." Reina replies also in shock. Kirito gets thrown off by Gleam Eyes but she recovers and slashes its stomach again. Gleam Eyes knocks Kirito's swords from his hands but he grabs them again and delivers more blows to its stomach. The boss punches Kirito in the face and he quickly recovers, increasing the speed of his strikes. The Gleam Eyes grabs one of his swords and tries to attack him. Everyone stares in anticipation as the boy drives his remaining sword through the boss' chest, delivering the finishing blow, and making the boss burst into polygons. "Is it over?" Kirito asks, breathless from the entire fight.
A congratulations banner appears above him and he stumbles back staring at it before looking at his health, which was almost gone, before passing out from exhaustion. "Kirito!" Reina calls and runs towards him with Klein in tow. She kneels beside him and looks down at him. "Kirito! Wake up!" She shouts, feeling tears well up in her eyes. Kirito opens his eyes and Reina stares down at him with teary eyes. When she sees this she gasps and struggles to keep her tears at bay. Kirito sits up, placing a hand on his head. "Oh man, my head." He groans and looks around seeing the players around him. "That was too close. How long was I out for?" Kirito asks Reina who was wiping her tears and sniffling. "A few seconds." She whimpers before throwing herself at him. "You reckless idiot!" She cries into his shoulder. Kirito gasps and smiles. "Jeez, don't hug me so hard. I'll lose the last of my HP." He jokes.
Klein steps forward and looks down. "Korbat and two of his men are the only ones who didn't make it. Kirito gasps and looks down. "We haven't lost a player in a boss fight since floor 67." He says. "That wasn't a boss fight, that was suicide. Korbat was a damn fool." Klein grits his teeth and closes his eyes. "There's no point to any of this if you die!" He shouts. He then shakes his head and smiles. "You're not off the hook either, what the hell did you do just now?" Klein asks him. "I don't think you wanna know." Kirito replies. "Oh, come on! I've never seen anything like that before!" Klein replies. "It's an extra skill I picked up." Kirito mumbles, looking to the side. "Dual wielding." He shares and everyone gasps. "Dude, are there prerequisites?" Klein asks. "If I knew that, I'd have shared it by now." Kirito replies and Klein scrolls through the info broker skill list trying to find it. "It's not on the info broker skill list, guess it's exclusive to you." Klein notes.
"Hey, you got a unique skill! What to stay on the down low Kirito!" He points out. "How can you keep an awesome secret like this from your buddies?" He asks. "About six months ago, I was scrolling through my skill menu and it was just... there. Dual wielding. But, if anyone else found out I had a skill like this..." Kirito trails off. "They'd get pissed 'cause you had something they didn't. Some gamers are like that, but not me. You're right, though. People would definitely be jealous you had that." Klein looks at Kirito. "And that." He says with a smirk. "Well, they say your character is built by life's challenges, so keep soldiering on, young man." Klein advises. "Easier said than done." Kirito replies and looks to the side. "We're gonna go trigger the warp gate. Coming?" Klein asks. "Nah, I'll catch up with you later. Need to rest for a bit." Kirito replies. "Yeah, I hear that. Have a safe trip back." Klein bids them goodbye and walks away. "Oh and, by the way." He stops walking.
"You know how you ran in there to rescue those army guys like you did?" Klein asks. "Yeah." Kirito answers. "Well, you know." Klein wipes his eyes. "Glad you did. Anyway, I'll see ya!" He says and leaves the room. "What's wrong, Reina?" Kirito asks the girl, who is still hugging him. "I was scared. I didn't know what I'd do if you died." Reina confesses and pulls him closer. "What are you talking about? You're the one who jumped in first, remember?" Kirito reminds her with a pleased look on his face. "I'm taking a leave of absence from the guild." Reina announces. "Why? And do what, sleep in all day?" Kirito asks. "Did you forget? I said I was teaming up with you." Reina reminds him and his eyes widen remembering the times he's seen her. "Okay." Kirito accepts her words and Reina nods.
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October 19, 2024, Floor: 50: Algade
Kirito sat in the back of Agil's shop as the man looked at the news. "A blue demon that annihilated a big squad of army guys and a 50-hit combo from a dual wielder, who took out the boss by himself." Agil reads the news. "I can't believe what a big deal they're making out of this thing." He says putting a hand on his head and laughing. "Yeah, it's blowing up right in my face." Kirito says and Agil hums confused. "A butt load of swordsman info brokers showed up at my place this morning. Now I need a new pad 'cause they know where I live." Kirito shares. "Yeah, well. That's sorta kind of your own fault." Liz walks into the room holding a box. "You said it was gonna be our little secret, but you went and blabbed it to everyone." She snickers and Kirito looks away. Reina enters the backroom of Agil's shop breathing heavily. "What are we gonna do, Kirito?" She asks, taking in deep breaths. "We've got ourselves a huge problem." She shares.
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Floor 55: Grandzam
"Outside of boss fights. I don't believe we've actually met, Kirito." Heathcliff tells the boy as both he and Reina now stand in Heathcliff's office with the other leaders including Asuna. "There was that conference on floor 67. We talked a little bit there, Commander Heathcliff." Kirito reminds him. "Yes, that was a difficult battle, wasn't it? We almost lost a few players there, too." Heathcliff remembers. "We may be the top guild, but we barely get by with the amount of troops we have and now here you are trying to poach one of our best players. I don't know what to say." Heathcliff says. Reina was about to say something but Kirito stopped her. "If she's that important, maybe you should do a better job picking her bodyguard." Kirito replies. "You have my sincerest apologies for any trouble you might have had with Klahadore. But you must understand that we simply cannot allow our second-in-command's right-hand-woman to leave the guild just like that." Heathcliff says.
"If you want her. You'll have to use your dual blades to take her from us. If you can defeat me in combat, you'll be free to take Reina with you. On the other hand, if you lose you will join the Knights of the Blood Oath." Heathcliff proposes and Reina and Asuna stare at Kirito waiting for his answer. "Yeah, okay. If you wanna settle this with swords that's fine by me. We'll have ourselves a duel then." Kirito agrees.