Sword Art Online: X

New Recruit - X

Well.

Kirito is going to fight Heathcliff. They have some kind of bet going on. If Kirito loses, he joins the Knights of the Blood. If he wins, Asuna gets a temporary leave.

Honestly, I don't think Kirito can win. Heathcliff wouldn't issue such a challenge without confidence in his ability.

I guess I'll just have to see how it turns out.

...

Welp, it's starting. Kirito is about to fight Heathcliff.

I sat down next to Sachi, "How's things in the guild?"

Sachi glanced at me, slightly surprised at my sudden appearance, "It's okay. I'm getting over my fear of the monsters. I can fight on the front lines now."

"But you won't."

"No. I won't."

It was an unspoken agreement between siblings. We both promised to survive this death game.

For me, the best way to do that is to kill everything in my path. For Sachi, it was to stay away from the front lines and provide support by gathering intel.

"It's surprising, honestly. When I first heard that this game was a death trap, I was scared out of my mind, but when you came back into my life, I've been getting more confident."

I chuckled lightly at her comment, "It's nothing to do with me, it's all you."

"If you say so."

Suddenly, all heads turned to the arena. I could see why. Kirito and Heathcliff had arrived.

The arena went quiet, and I could hear Heathcliff exchange and few words with Kirito, though I couldn't tell what those words were.

The duel request was issued, and so it began.

Kirito drew his two swords whilst Heathcliff raised his shield, both getting ready to assume an offensive position.

The countdown reached zero, and the two burst into action. Kirito repeatedly clashed his blades against Heathcliff's shield with steadily increasing speed, eventually moving faster than Heathcliff was.

Kirito got around Heathcliff's guard, and began whittling down his health, but Heathcliff was partially defending and throwing attacks of his own at the same time, forcing Kirito to dodge and defend, cutting down his attacking speed by half.

It wasn't long after Heathcliff's health bar hit the threshold between green and yellow when Kirito suddenly burst open his guard, knocking his sword and shield arms aside and striking at his torso.

My eyes widened, and I heard Sachi mutter, "He might actually win this."

But then something impossible happened.

Heathcliff's shield moved impossibly fast, back to the area in front of him, blocking Kirito's attack and counterattacking.

Kirito's health bar dropped into the yellow just as the timer buzzed, signaling Kirito's loss.

But was it really a loss? Heathcliff should've lost that match.

There's no way a normal SAO player can move that fast against that momentum. Not even I can, and I'm the fastest player in the game.

I turned to Sachi, "You noticed that?"

She nodded, eyes wide open, "The commander shouldn't have been able to move that quickly. Even if he did max out his speed and strength, which he didn't, he would've only minimized the damage, not completely negated it."

This Heathcliff character has become more and more suspicious. 

I might've thought that he was Kayaba Akihiko for a moment, but then why would the person who trapped us here help us escape the game?

I don't know.

Therefore, Heathcliff can't be Akihiko, can he?

...

Sachi and I met Kirito and Asuna in a small room.

"Don't worry about the loss, Kirito, we all saw it. The commander shouldn't have won." Sachi laid an arm on Kirito's shoulder.

"It's not that! It's this uniform. I'm the Black Swordsman! I can't wear this!" Kirito complained.

Asuna pondered a little, "I can go ask Commander Heathcliff to allow you to have a black uniform, but he'll probably say no. But they're right, Kirito. Don't worry about it. I'm actually happy you joined the guild, because we can now spend more time fighting alongside each other!"

The way she said that sounded incredibly fishy.

Oh, wait.

Oh, no.

Asuna has a crush on Kirito.

"Right, I'll try not to let it bother me that much, but my style is going to be really cramped." Kirito muttered, hiding his face.

And he likes her right back.

Sadly, both of them are sharp yet duller than bricks. Either that or they're completely oblivious.

Suddenly, the door opened, "Kirito, was it? Please step outside for a moment. We need to do a team-building exercise. From our understanding, Kirito, you are a solo player, so we expect that you're not very used to fighting alongside others."

I stared at the man who entered, "Godfree, please knock before entering someone else's room."

"Of course, my apologies!" Godfree laughed, "Anyways, Kirito, come with me."

"Can I pass?"

"That's a no from me, sorry."

I could hear Kirito's sigh of disappointment.

"Alright, I'll be right back, guys."

As the door closed, I stood up and moved to the window, "I'll follow them to ensure nothing goes wrong. I'll ping you at the first sign of trouble."

Asuna nodded, "Got it."

I jumped out the window, landing silently outside the walls of the KoB Headquarters.

I saw Godfree, Kirito, and a few others walk off into the canyon.

To fight monsters? Probably.

I quickly perched on the top of the canyon, looking down at the progress.

They were doing well. Kirito was actually a great team player when he puts his mind to it. He fights the enemy in front of him without fear, and he defends the rest of his team from any attacks that they don't notice.

I'm genuinely surprised that he didn't join a guild sooner.

But Godfree apparently doesn't like his style very much, and keeps talking to Kirito after every kill.

I laughed quietly, "Yeah, Kirito loves to break formation, I know. Trust me, Godfree, I've been there. I know."

Suddenly, when they were taking a break, everyone collapsed.

Shit, they're paralyzed.

I was about to jump down when a chain knife sailed through the air and impaled one of the Knights.

I quickly pinged Asuna from my menu and jumped down into the canyon to confront the Laughing Coffin members as The Blood Reaper.

A/N: Well. I pushed myself there a bit. Wrote like 800 words in forty minutes. That's an all-time record for me.

Anyways, apologies for being dead for like three weeks. School just came back into session and I'm getting less and less time to write.

I'm going to take a leaf out of my friend @red_fairy_lights's book.

How are you all? You doing well? Good.

Anyways, if you enjoyed that chapter, consider voting and following for more. Peace out, everybody. Goodbye.

Timeless_95, signing out.