Chapter 9
More than a year had already passed since the Knights of the Blood took position as the number one guild.
Since then, the leader of the guild, the «Man of Legend», and the sub-leader Asuna the «Flash» both became renowned as two of the best warriors in Aincrad. Now I had a chance to watch Asuna, who had finished training the skills needed as a rapier-sword fencer, fight against a normal monster.
We were currently in the middle of a fight, and the enemy was a skeletal swordsman named «Demonic Servant». It was over two meters tall, surrounded by an eerie blue light, and held a huge straight sword in its right hand with a round metal shield in its left. Of course, it didn't have even a single muscle, yet, despite that, its strength stat was very high, which made it a hard monster to fight.
But Asuna didn't give any ground against it.
“Hrrrrgrrrr!”
With this strange cry, the skeleton swung its sword several times leaving a blue line of light in its wake. It was a four-hit combo skill: «Vertical Square». As I watched anxiously from a few steps back, Asuna stepped left and right, elegantly dodging all the blows.
Even if it was a 2-on-1 situation, we couldn't both fight at once when confronted by a fully armed enemy. It wasn't forbidden by the system, but when two people were too close together in a fight where swords swung to and fro at speeds faster than the eye could follow, it became more of a hindrance than anything. So when partying, a skill that required high levels of teamwork called «switching» was used.
After its full swing, the last blow of the four hits missed, and the Demonic Servant's posture fell slightly off-balance. Asuna didn't miss this chance and went straight into a counter-attack.
The jabs of the silver-white sword landed one after another, all spectacularly hitting their mark, and the skeleton's HP decreased. Each individual blow didn't deliver much damage, but the number of hits was overwhelming.
After getting hit by three short thrusts, the skeleton's guard went slightly up, and Asuna switched her style to slash twice at its legs. Then, with her blade tip shining blindingly white, she sent two strong jabs high and low.
It was an eight hit combo. It was most probably the high-level sword skill named «Star Splash». Striking the skeleton accurately with that thin blade, which was usually ineffective against such enemies, was a show of unbelievable skill.
The strength that had reduced about thirty percent of the skeleton's HP was also amazing, but I was lost within the elegance of the actual player. This must be what they mean by sword dancing.
Asuna shouted at me, who was standing there dumbly, as if she had eyes on the back of her head.
“Kirito-kun, switch!”
“Ah, kay!”
I rushed to raise my sword, and at the same time, Asuna performed a strong stab.
The skeleton deflected the blow with the shield held by its left hand and bright sparks came flying off. But that was an already expected outcome. The enemy was left stunned for a moment after guarding against the strong attack, unable to immediately counter.
Of course, Asuna was stunned as well after having her attack blocked, but the «gap» was what was important.
I immediately rushed in with a charge-type skill. Making a break point on purpose in the middle of a fight and trading places with a teammate was what was called «switching».
After making sure with the corner of my eye that Asuna had gotten out of range, I charged fiercely at the enemy. Unless you were a master like her, normal slashing attacks were most effective against opponents with far more «gaps» than this Demonic Servant. In this scenario, the most effective would be impact-type weapons like maces. But I, and most likely Asuna, didn't have any impact-type skills.
