My Laughing Coffin [SAO fan-fiction]

Chapter 3: To test a Witch

The silence that filled the boss room's arena was awkward to say the least. The Iris Witch had an unwavering stare that seemed to pierce into my soul. "Are you Miss. Iris Witch?" I asked, keep in mind this woman cleared five floors by herself. The last thing I needed to do was be informal and piss her off.

"What's with the formality?" Nomad whispered to me.

I ignored his pestering and made eye contact with The Witch. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. I watched in confusion as she began scrolling through her menu clicking tabs as she scrolled. It looked like she was.... No way.

Lavender has challenged you to duel!

Accept Decline
《 O》 《 X》

There were plenty of emotions circling through my being when the menu revealed itself. Honor, a bit of fear, confusion, but more than anything my battle mentality snapped back into affect. Nomad had noticed the duel window pop up in front of me, "Don't do it. We want her to join us remember? Last thing we need is to establish a vendetta."

I thought a moment about Nomad's wise words. However, I instantly oped into making my own decision and going the more brutal and playful route of introductions. I equipped my Coffin Mask and exhaled slowly has I pressed the accept button. The count down began.

This was probably going to be my hardest duel for the week. 10 seconds remained.

I peered up at the sky.... Another long life reflection was in order....

When SAO began, there wasn't much that kept me going. During most of the other RPG's I've played including WoW, Skyrim, and even another VRMMO by the name of Vector. It was basically a prep game for this. Sort of the non-beta tester warm up. Inside any videogame I've ever played, I'd always favored playing the bad guy. Mostly because I couldn't in the real world, or maybe I just liked having the freedom to choose between good and evil. Regardless I thought of Sword Art Online as just another RPG game. The first hour of the games launch I had spent my time grinding till I was level 3. Then every level 1 player that I caught in the fields I'd cut down... it only got me 1000 col every kill but I'd PKed a total of 20 players.... this was before the announcement of Sword Art Online's true purpose. I still remember their screams.... I had cut every single one of my targets down.... with no other players besides me to have known of their existance. I'd cried for three days. I denied Kiyaba's words, I felt pure rage at the weak leveled players for not defending themselves, later on I'd began making deals with god things like I'd stop all my drugs had this not been true, then the depression finally hit me. I didn't sleep for the next two days, just sat and stared at my palms. After a full week of sulking I'd finally come to accept my actions.... but not in a good way..... I could remember walking continually till reaching the edge of the map.... standing over the edge.......

START!

I felt..... horrible... Lavender lunged at me with a dagger outstretched. With a weak block I retreated a step. Her dagger glowed a vibrant purple as she began to thrust the blade at different parts of my body with alarming speed. My axe reflexively moved with her dagger, either blocking it completely or throwing off the Sword Skill completely. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Nomad staring at me... he knew exactly what I was thinking about....

I felt a quick numbness in several spots of my body suddenly. I had taken my attention away from Lavender the Witch. How could she fight at a time like this.... I regrettably acted like she knew my current mind state. How could she!? Anger pumped through my body as I snapped into battle mode. My sight sharpened onto Lavender as she activated another skill.

She leaped high into the air and shot downwards towards me. Engaging the upward slash skill Rend, I met her blade with my own. The skills canceled each other out. However the recoil made my knee buckle and her fly back a few feat. Lavender flipped mid-air and drew her bow.