Sword Art Online - Alternative Reality

- The Storm CHP. 2

"They're here!!!"

Yelling to the point that my throat burned, I unsheathed my sword and turned towards the platform hovering off to my right. Raising it on instinct, it collided with the dark-red estoc of my assailant who had pounced from it, his weapon aiming straight for my head. I stared right into the blood-red eyes of his skull mask and his name reverberated in my mind as I spat it out.

"Xaxa!"

"Ha.Ha.Ha!!!"

The impact of his sword combined with the momentum he had left my arm numb, but since I had managed to defend against it, I had the advantage. Pushing back with all the strength I could must, I knocked his sword off to the side and used 'Slant' straight against his exposed chest, sending him flying backward as several more cloaked figures jumped down to join him.

Immediately I heard the sounds of metal clashing as combat embroiled our entire group.

They knew! But how? A spy from within? Was the information false? Or-

Before I could continue my pointless thoughts, a war-ax user changed at me and I had to parry his strike or risk getting knocked off balance and left exposed. As his weapon was sent flying back, I called out to the group I was responsible for.

"Stick together and watch each other's backs! Push them back!"

""OOOHHH""

A valiant war cry roared from my fellow guild members as they paired up. Countless figures continued to descend upon us, and from the distance I could see several more on some of the rouge floating platforms, waiting for their moment to join the fight. Based on the sounds, they had also descended behind us, meaning all of our groups were currently engaged in combat and were surrounded.

So much for the advantage of surprise. But we should still outnumber them, we can still win!

Ignoring what 'winning' actually meant under the circumstance, I split off slightly from the group as I pushed my attack on the war-ax user. It was risky to separate from them, but my job was to weaken as many enemies as I could while the other focused on capturing them. Without any chance to use any utility items, I continued to strike at the weak point of his weapon, and only after the 5th strike did I finally manage to cleave through it.

"What the hell!"

"Aargh!"

With a roar, I send a 3-part sword skill across his body, sending his HP into the yellow and skipping across the floor. Almost immediately though, two more cloaked figures descended, one with a buckler and flail while the other had a curved sword reminiscent of an Egyptian Khopesh and a kite shield.

Trusting my flanks to my party members, I charged towards them, the act putting them on the defensive as they tried to block with their shields. Instead of striking with my sword though, I slid towards them, using a sweeping kick to knock down the flail user before using an upward slash to counter the strike from the khopesh user.

With a quick back and forth, I managed to overpower him as the flail user got back up and used a shoulder charge to push him out of the battle, just in time to charge the flail's side strike. With his weapon out of position, I aimed for his elbow and cut off his arm before sending a punch straight into his gut, sending him into one of his companions that were engaged with my own. Turning back towards the khopesh user, we engaged in a sword-lock.

"Kahkahkahkahkah! To zhink zhat I wudz have ze pleazure of kliing ze 'Black Swordsman!' Whatz a wonzebul day!!"

Insane. That was the only way to describe the light in his eyes, The insanity of someone who had used the darkest possible path to deal with their fears of this world. I could only hope that for his sake, he would at least surrender was his HP dropped into the red.