The Lightning Flash

Chapter 15: I Have to Win This Pt. 2

35%. That's how much of Asuna's health was remaining from her skirmish with her first opponent during the Bullet of Bullets tournament.  Blood was dripping out of Asuna's wounds that were on her stomach and legs and she could feel numbness begin to surface in both as well. The windy sand that was blowing only made her situation even worse. All she had been doing since the first shot was fired, was try to keep moving, in the hopes that this would buy Asuna enough time to formulate some kind of plan of attack. Even though Asuna's time was running out, luckily, she was able to obtain some crucial information. She was, finally, able to pin point the direction of where the bullets were being fired. This meant that she knew where her opponent was firing from.

"Okay, I can't keep running around, anymore, or I'm going to get eliminated," Asuna told herself, pulling up her menu screen while she had a brief break from being fired at.

She unequipped her Uzi submachine gun and, instead, replaced it with her pink saber. Once in her right hand, she pressed the button on the side of it to activate the pink photon energy that shot out of it.

This isn't much of a strategy, Asuna thought to herself, blocking the sand that was blowing in her eyes with her left hand while holding her saber with her right. Actually, I wouldn't even call something like this a strategy, to begin with. I don't have time to think of a better plan, though. Plus, I don't know how long I can hold this saber until...the fear decides to show it's ugly face.

Without any further hesitation, Asuna dashed in the direction of where she believed her opponent was, with as much speed as she could muster. Since her speed stat was so incredibly high, this helped her cross a much greater distance in a shorter amount of time. However, it didn't take long for the echo of an assault rifle firing to be heard, coming from in front of her. As soon as the bullets were close enough to her, she raised her saber in self-defense. This only managed to block a couple of the shots while the others pierced her body, without remorse, sending her health down to 20%.

I can't use it, yet, Asuna told herself as she continued rushing her opponent.

More shots were fired at her and she managed to deflect a couple of them with her saber, again, but a few of the bullets blasted through her, sending her health down to 5%. Asuna could feel that the numbness had spread throughout the majority of her body but she didn't let this slow her down, though. Instead, she only used it to further motivate herself to move even faster.

I still can't use it.

Then, another barrage of bullets were fired at her and this time, Asuna closed her eyes, took a deep breath and muttered the phrase, "Bullet Time," the name of an ability she had picked up from a mission in GGO. Her boyfriend told her about it in the weeks, leading up to the Bullet of Bullets tournament, and thought that it would be a good match for her and him both.  The reason she hadn't used the ability, yet, was that she figured out that the recharge time for the ability was incredibly long, lasting almost 30 minutes. This meant that, before the gun fight with her opponent, she knew that she could only use the "Bullet Time" ability once. Even now, she didn't know if it was the right time to use it but knew that if she didn't, she would be eliminated from the tournament. She just had to hope...no, pray, that she was close enough to her opponent for this to work. All of the sudden, time slowed down all around her and Asuna could see all of the bullets that were being fired at her. The bullets were moving at such a slow pace, that it made it, effortlessly easy, for Asuna to use her pink photon saber to knock all of the bullets away, clearing a path for her to reach her opponent.

Bullet Time isn't going to last much longer, Asuna determined to herself as she could see that time around her was beginning to return to normal.