The Lightning Flash

Chapter 22: Round 2 of Bullet of Bullets Pt. 1

A 20-person free for all, Asuna thought to herself, as she, once again, found herself sitting inside of the dark room, before being spawned into the second round of the Bullet of Bullets tournament.

Kazuto had informed her and the others that he had learned that the second round of the Bullets of Bullets was going to be a 20-person free for all about a week, before the tournament resumed and Asuna didn't know how she felt about this. It was quite a contrast from the one-on-one matches of the first round. In the first round, she didn't have to worry about things like fighting multiple opponents at once or other opponents teaming up with one another to fight a common enemy. Although, when discussing this very topic, her, Kazuto and Shino came up with a strategy of their own for this round. As soon as the three of them were spawned into the second round's map, which was rumored to be much larger and spread out, in comparison to the small maps designed for the one-on-one matches, they would focus on finding one another to form a team of 3 to fight against the other players. There was no way to know if they were the only ones, who had a plan like this but Asuna figured that the three of them, together, would be a force to be reckoned with. Despite this making Asuna feel a little bit more confident going into the second round of the tournament, another worry sent a chill down her spine. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that Death Gun and POH would get involved in this round, just like they did the first one. Would she freeze up when Death Gun showed up? Would she cower in fear from what she was forced to do by him in the previous round? Or, would she find the strength, hidden deep within herself, to stand up against him? There was no way for her to know for sure.

Before she knew it, Asuna found herself being enveloped in the same blue light she was last time, when she was being spawned into the first round of the Bullet of Bullets.

"Looks like I don't have any time to be worrying about that stuff, right now," Asuna determined as her body disappeared from the dark room she was sitting in.

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*

"Wow, this is how big the map is?" questioned Asuna, feeling overwhelmed, after looking at the map that was now part of her menu screen.

For the first round of the Bullet of Bullets, a map in the game's menu screen wasn't necessary because the area the two combatants found themselves in were, relatively, small and restricted but the map she was looking at now was a different beast, entirely. After studying the map a bit more, it seemed the area she was in was quite diverse. Some of the map showed wasteland like areas like she had spawned into but she could see other areas that looked like they were different terrains and even a couple of small, abandoned remains of small cities, scattered around the map as well.

"Hm, this map being so large could prove to be problematic," Asuna said to herself. "This is going to make finding Kirito and Sinon even more difficult than I already thought it would be. The odds of me being able to find them, before running into an enemy is slim."

Realizing that looking at the map, any longer, wouldn't provide her further benefit, she exited out of her menu screen with the swipe of her right hand.

"I don't have time to waste. I have to start moving or someone is going to find me. If it's just one other player, I should be able to handle myself but if more than one shows up, that could prove to be too much for me to handle."

Bzzzzzt!

Asuna felt her entire body shutter at the noise that sounded like photon energy and, immediately, used the hand motion she learned from Kiko, to quick select her photon saber in her right hand. She turned towards, where the noise was coming from, while the weapon materialized in her right hand and she was greeted to a red photon saber headed straight for her throat. Luckily, she leaned back just in time, as the red photon weapon, barely, missed her face. Asuna pressed the button on the side of her own photon saber and pink photon energy shot out of it. She hopped back, creating distance between her and the player that had attacked her. She felt her heart drop as soon as she realized that the one, who had attacked her, wasn't another player. No, he was the furthest thing from a player. The all too familiar grim reaper cloak and skull mask with red, piercing eyes. It was Death Gun. The very person she was afraid of running into during this round of the Bullet of Bullets. He was already standing in front of her.