Chapter 83: Broken Bindings

A wide spray of sparks appeared as the blades and shield clashed; it lit up both of their faces as of the moment.

"Ha!"

Kirito's mind recalled what he'd learned under Shiro's tutelage. Since Kayaba is the creator of this game, he couldn't use any system-related skills. If he uses something like <<Vorpal Strike>>, Heathcliff would know of its disadvantage and kill him in one swoop. The same goes for his highest-leveled skill, <<The Eclipse>>.

When the duel began, Kayaba adjusted their HP to be at the red zone; thus one solid hit would end it all.

Clang-!

Heathcliff blocked yet another strike of his with such ease and calmness.

'He didn't need the over-assistance in the first place..!'

As they fought, Kirito realized just how of a monster Heathcliff is the moment he stared at his eyes. He shouldered the death of nearly 3,000 people, yet he remained calm - without any expression of remorse whatsoever.

'Still... My mentor is much more better than this!'

Instead of fear, he only felt calm and confident. Even if he's fighting against the creator of this world, he never saw the possibility of his failure.

Rather, he chose not to think about it.

He learned that if this happens, he'll only shoot himself in the foot. Fear would slowly creep up in his heart, lowering his chances of winning even more.

Tap-!

Kirito chose to put some distance between them as he re-analyzed his next moves.

'Basic attacks won't do. Fine, I'll try fooling him with 'that'.' He thought as he lunged at Kayaba once more.

<<Elucidator>> glowed with bright light, indicating that he's using a sword skill.

Swooosh-!

A trail of blue light appeared as he used <<Vertical>>, aiming to graze Kayaba's face. Still, he moved his shield with minimal movement, accurately blocking the incoming strike.

Clang-!

Meanwhile, his <<Dark Repulsor>> performed a <<Slant>>, which is a diagonal slash.

Clang-!

The moment it got parried by Kayaba's longsword, it almost flew out of his grasp. He held it tightly, but the cost is his balance.

Kayaba saw this as an opportunity and was about to strike, but he was surprised to see Kirito re-establishing his footing quickly. The latter's right foot stepped hardly on the ground as he did a full body spin.

Kayaba's eyes widened upon seeing this. At this time, he instinctively used his over-assistance to avoid Kirito's incoming spinning roundhouse kick.

It is also empowered by the Extra Skill <<Martial Arts>>, <<Suigetsu>>!

Thud-!

The kick didn't reach his right hand as time continued flowing normally, but Kirito hacked at it using his <<Dark Repulsor>>, making him lose grasp over it.

It fell on the ground, creating a loud metallic sound. Kayaba's HP also fell down a bit, but it's not by much since it's not a direct damage.

"You've learned real martial arts?" Kayaba asked interestedly, with no hint of fear in his eyes.

"That's right."

He replied as he aggressively attacked at Kayaba once again.

With each sparks that flew out, it became evident that he managed to give Kayaba a much harder time now that he lost his sword. With his dual wielding style, he can play offensively, defensively, and the balance of both.

Granted, one might have a harder time using this style than a single weapon, but its wielders is more flexible than the others.

Before, he only played the balance of both, but he could now play offensively.

Slowly, he's pushing back Kayaba, giving hopes to the players who are watching this fight.

"He's winning..."

"We might be able to get out..!"

"Please win..."

As for the others, only worries remained.

"Kirito-kun... live..." Asuna muttered as she tried to shake off her paralysis.

Even though it doesn't feel much right now, she somehow has a feeling that she can succeed. Even if she can only move for a few seconds, she is determined to sacrifice herself so that Kirito can live.

Their fight continued on for minutes, yet there's no sign that this stalemate would end.

Unknowingly, Kayaba is already done observing him, too. In fact, he's looking for a very tiny mistake that Kirito might make. Even without his over-assistance, Kayaba's reaction time is on par, if not higher than him.

While the fatigue started to caught up to Kirito, Kayaba is still the same - he's a machine in human skin. Moreover, the latter is confident to survive a huge blow from Kirito, thus making his winning chances even more.

At a certain point in time, Kirito finally made one.

It came off as a surprise that Heathcliff tilted his shield horizontally as he ducked, avoiding Kirito's incoming strikes in a width.

Thud-!

Kayaba actually used his shield as a weapon, hitting Kirito right in his stomach.

"Uhk!"

He got thrown off by that hit, making him land to the ground.

Kayaba took this chance to pick up his longsword back. Due to the fact that Kirito had only gone up right now, he'd only barely blocked Kayaba's downward strike using a cross guard.

Crack-!

What's even more worse is his <<Dark Repulsor>> cracking up. With a few more hits, it'll be broken!

"AHH!!!"

Kirito shouted as he became more desperate. What he feared the most, which is fear catching up to him, happened. Even with Shiro's tutelage, he only managed to stay calm for almost five minutes. Then, his performance began decreasing due to fatigue.

If compared with the light novel, it's definitely much longer. There, the fight ended after he instinctively used <<The Eclipse>> because of a momentary lapse of judgement.

As for this time, he'd done much better by only using <<Skill Connect>> together with original sword techniques.

Crack-!

With few more strikes, <<Dark Repulsor>> cracked fully before turning into sword shards. Together with Heathcliff's shield bash, he got sent flying to the ground once more.

He tried standing up, but Kayaba arrived in time to stop him. The latter pointed the tip of his blade towards Kirito, giving him enough time to think his last words.

'I'm sorry, Asuna...'

At that moment, a binding was torn off. A sonic boom resounded in this room while Kirito heard someone shout, "I'll protect Kirito-kun!"

Thanks to this, Kayaba is forced to leave Kirito for a while to dodge <<Flashing Penetrator>>. Asuna saw this and stood in front of Kirito. Only, she fell right after.

Fortunately, Kirito managed to catch her.

"Asuna..."

"Kirito-kun..!"

Unfortunately, Kayaba doesn't have any thoughts of leaving them behind. Though, he seemed more intrigued on what happened.

"This is really surprising. Isn't it just like the stand-alone RPG console? It should've been impossible for this to happen..." He paused for a while before continuing, "So things like this happen. I had never expected this."

Even so, his face is as calm as ever. His lack of human empathy was replaced with interest - as shown in his eyes.

"Would you like to continue our duel?"

"...Alright."

Kirito picked up his remaining Elucidator while he switched to a backup weapon of his. With his <<Quick Change>> mod, he finished doing so in under a second. He felt different with it, but there's no other choice.

Still, his mind was cleared once again at the thought of Asuna's suffering coming to an end.

'I can't use the sword skills, and there's the fatigue.'

He tightly gripped his sword as he made a resolute expression.

Things are already this helpless and he's almost bound to die. Even so...

'I'm unwilling. I'm unwilling to end it like this..! If I can put an end to this game with my life, I'll gladly do so..!'

Perhaps this is the defining characteristics of a protagonist. They have the mentality of a strong; the mentality to never give up for what they're fighting for...

Even if it costs them their life.

Suddenly, a pair of blades twinkled from afar as they quickly approached Kayaba. Sparks flew out as he blocked, but Kayaba was pushed back by a dozen feet.

When the rest managed to react, what they saw is someone wearing black light armor. Arcs of electricity surrounded his body, yet he can still move.

What's more notable is his eyes - it turned blood red.

"You know what... I hate being shackled the most."

Shiro suddenly spoke out with his usual tone, yet there's something different about it. Their bloodlusts clashed just like what happened earlier between Kayaba and Kirito.

Though, Shiro's seem to be much thicker than even Kayaba himself; enough to incite a slight fear and interest to him.

"As expected, you're the biggest variable of them all."

"Hm... Mind sharing how you thought of it as a future reference?"

Shiro copied Kayaba's own phrase earlier, but the latter didn't pay it heed as he replied, "Your eyes."

"What about it."

"We share the same eyes."

If Kayaba is an emotionless monster, then Shiro is an unstoppable monster. They simply didn't give a f*ck as long as its within their interests.

Hearing this, Shiro only chuckled. He replied, "The offer from earlier stands still, no?"

"That's right."

"I'm pleased to think that you're not some kind of coward."

Shiro then looked at Kirito from the distance.

"My dear pupil, I'll show you..."

He went into a casual stance that Kirito's familiar with since their first spar.

"...What peak swordsmanship is."

Shiro's eyes glinted, an indication that he's taking his opponent seriously - just like what happened to Surtr. Against this guy who can manipulate this world freely, it's only right to do so; even if he's much weaker than Surtr.

"Let's go."

With murderous intent flowing out of him, his blades clashed with Kayaba's shield, making countless sparks fly out in the process.

*****

A/N: Chuunibyou related facts this time~!

Fact #40: The main reason why "Tyrant's Eye" was created is because of Rikka's longing to meet her dead father again. In her delusions, it is said to see the "invisible boundary lines", thus she'll be able to trace it and visit the "other side" (afterlife). Other than that, it can also see the "Destiny" of each person, making it overpowered if real. That's why the description used in this fic is broad; Destiny branches to fate, karma, life, death, and so on. Also, it can manipulate reality through her imaginations (as shown in her fake fight with Touka). These are the facts that I used to create the broken skill [Tyrant's Eye], which granted the Touka here reality bending powers in a certain radius and the ability to see through those "lines".