chapter 12

"What kind of skill is that?!" One of the players who are near Leonard couldn't help but to cry out in fear as the raw power of the blade radiate out and washed over him, the strange sensation was something he had never experienced before within the virtual world of Sword Art Online.

Asuna, upon seeing such a skill coming from Leonard, she couldn't help but feel quite surprised, she wondered what else that man could be hiding, but all she could do now was turned to his partner, Kirito for an answer.

"Do you know what skill that is, Kirito?" she asked him.

"No! He never told me that he had something like that!" Kirito told her as sweat began to roll down from his forehead.

"That's definitely not something a low-level player could have, there was also nothing like this in the beta, just how was this even possible?!" Kirito thought process began to speed up as he looked at Leonard charging up his blade.

"Howl!!" It was then that Illfang interrupted all the players thought with it loud howl as it gotten up from the ground.

"He's up! Everyone! We have to protect Leonard!" Diavel who saw that Illfang has gotten up and ready to attack again, shouted out to all the available players to help and delay the boss.

"Everyone! Follow me! Protect that man!" Kibaou was quick to react as he immediately picked up his sword and charged at the kobold lord, however, his little outburst of morale-boosting "skill" was short lived as Illfang quickly brushed him aside with his fist and continued on charging for Leonard.

"Let go Asuna!" Kirito called out to her.

"Yeah, I'm on it!" seeing that no one had the courage to go up against the kobold lord, Kirito and Asuna charged head-on against the giant kobold.

Like previously, upon seeing that there's more human coming to block its path, Illfang used his large Cleaver down onto the incoming players.

*Clank! The giant blade barely missed the two and slammed hard onto the ground, kicking up stone fragments and dust all over.

Of course, they didn't come out of it unscathed, Kirito lost some hp from the impact itself while Asuna, who was quick and agile enough manage to narrowly escape it with the cost of her cloak being shredded into tiny pieces and disappeared.

Revealing her features for all to see.

Leonard too noticed Asuna appearance, she had the exact same look as that within anime itself, long light brown hair and eyes, snow white skin, just as expected.

Kirito was stunned after he saw her appearance that was previously hiding under that brown cloak, however, he quickly snapped out of it as Illfang was about to attack them again with his clever, seeing that the cleaver was coming down on him first, Kirito quickly activates a skill to try and deflected it.

*Bang! The giant cleaver clashed onto Kirito sword sending spark flying all over the place.

"Grrrrr!!!!" Kirito gritted his teeth as he endured. "Asuna! Now!" he called out to her.

"Right!" Asuna rapier began to glow as she once again activates her sword skill.

*Puchi *Puchi *Puchi her rapier stabbed into Illfang stomach three-time and successfully knocked it back by a few steps, Kirito did not waste the opening created by Asuna and immediately used his sword to cut the kobold lord legs, which brought it down to the ground.

"Leonard! Is it ready!" Kirito called out to Leonard as this was the perfect chance to finish off this monster once and for all.

"Yeah! Now move out of the way!" Leonard shouted at the two of them as the blade of the sword on his hand exploded in a beam of power upward into the ceiling.

Upon seeing the sword blade exploded out with power, Kirito grabbed onto Asuna hand pulled her to the sideline.

" custom skill: Demon Wrath!" Leonard immediately brought down his sword while having a sadistic grin on his face.

*Swoosh! The moment the sword was swung downward, the wave of negative energy burst out and exploded outward in a straight line toward Illfang who was on the ground.

*Booom! The energy exploded, the light from the explosion blinded all the players for a short moment.

"What just happen?" Kibaou crawled up from the stone floor as he rubbed his eyes to clear his sight and asked.

It was then that suddenly a system announcement popped up and displayed itself with a message for all to see.

[Congratulation] the word was written bold and large.

All of the players stood in silence as they try to comprehend the word that was announced by the system, five seconds….ten seconds….fifteen seconds.

"It's dead! We WON?!" a random player shouted out loudly with excitement and tears running down both of his eyes.

That little outburst caused by that specific player caused a chain reaction among them and soon, all the other began to cheer and shouted out loud as well.

*****

[Bonus loot- Midnight cloak] the system message informed Leonard after he finished off Illfang the kobold lord, boss of the entire first floor.

"Nice job Leonard." Diavel walked up to him and pat him on the shoulder, however, his face had quite a complicated feeling to it, a bit happy- yet at the same time salty as he looks at the system message displaying in front of Leonard.

"You were aiming for this weren't you?" Leonard asked him.

"...you actually risked your life for something like this? I honestly don't know whatever to laugh or to cry at your stupid decision...I thought you were a smart man seeing that you can lead a bunch of ragtag going to raid a floor boss." Leonard added in a sarcastic tone of voice.

"Alright alright, you win, stop rubbing salt into my wound already! Show me what it looks like already will you? At least let me see the item that I risked my life for previously!" Diavel asked Leonard as sweat and black lines appeared on his face.

Hearing that Diavel wanted to see the item, Leonard happily obliged by pulling out the black leather cloak from his inventory.

"The midnight cloak, the only useful thing this thing had is boosting one own hiding skill…congratulation my man...you almost wasted your life for something that is totally worthless for a "knight" hahaha!" Leonard then laughs it off as he smacked his palm onto the man back repeatedly.

However, suddenly the blade of the sword in Leonard's hand started to crack.

"What?" Leonard look confused as he looks at the sword.

*cracking *cracking *cracking.

The cracking of the blade continued and soon the sword itself broke into tiny data fragment and disappeared.

"...b-but...my sword…" Leonard lamented as the sword that he bought from the system and traveled with him for the past month just suddenly got itself destroyed.