chapter 44

"Leonard! NO!" Sachi screamed out in tears as she watched Leonard about to face the final boss of the game alone, while she and along with all the other members of the assault teams were forced to watch it play out as a spectator in a paralyzed state.

"Don't worry Sachi! I'll be just fine! You all just sit there and enjoy the show!" Leonard shouted out loudly to her while he's down below on the stadium floor.

"What kind of bullshit storytelling is this?! Me facing a monster that was designed to fight all the strongest peoples in the game?!" Once again Leonard inner chibi raged out in frustration.

"Oh, you're quite confident in your ability I see...I wonder if this is all true confident or just some false bravado." Kayaba as the giant humanoid beast like creature grinned, revealing his razor-sharp fangs.

"Oh shut it! Why don't you just come at me and we'll see if this is all skills or false bravado!" Leonard mocked him as he pulled out Vengeance from its sheath.

"Then don't mind if I do!" Kayaba used his claw-like hand and swiped down onto the spot where Leonard had stand previously, the force from the strike kicked up a storm of dust and debris which covered the entire floor below in a fog of dust.

"Hmph!" however Kayaba felt something strange on the palm of his hand, it does not felt like he actually hit anything at all.

Immediately out of reaction he turned around and swung his claw, it was then that another explosion of dark energy blasted out in all direction.

The force from that blast staggered Kayaba while Leonard was sent flying back like a cannonball and crashed into the stone wall.

Both sides lose a small percentage of their health in the process.

"Leonard! Are you alright?! Answer me!" Sachi and along with all of his friends and guildmates who were on the audience rings shouted out in worry.

*cough *cough, Leonard began to crawl up from the ground and looked at Kayaba while smiling bitterly as he looked at his health point, which lost roughly five percent, comparing that five percent to that of Kayaba five percent of the first health bar out of ten.

"So you learned after all," Leonard commented.

"And yeah I'm all goods down here guys!" before waving at the audience, letting them know that he's still alive and kicking.

"I had a feeling you would do something like that." Kayaba mused at Leonard comment.

"Yeah, I'm just a one trick pony~ but do allow me to make it up with raw power!"Leonard once again exploded out and head straight for Kayaba with Vengeance howling on hand before once again disappeared from sight.

"Not happening again!" Once again Kayaba turned and swipe his claw- however the moment he turned around he felt a burning pain exploded out from his back from the front.

"Gahhh!!!!" he roared out in pain.

Seeing that his attack has been successful, Leonard immediately followed up with another attack that was infused with negative energy and sliced down Kayaba spine on the way down.

Ripping a good chunk of his health in the process, which was roughly twenty percent of the first bar of health.

"How do you like that one?" Leonard tone was full of sarcasm as he played around with the sword in his hand, waiting for Kayaba answer.

"It's not bad, did you reinforced that blade to 100+ before you arrived here?" Kayaba asked him.

"Oh yeah...totally maxed out my blacksmithing skill in the process as well...I guess I can be considered to be a grandmaster blacksmith now?" Leonard then pointed the tip of his sword at Kayaba while grinning ear to ear.

"Then I hope that your other skills are up to pars as well!" Kayaba quickly made another claws swipe at Leonard while roaring at him.

"Woop! That was close!" Leonard narrowly dodged the swipe- however, another quickly followed after the previous strike, as there was no way to dodge that attack Leonard quickly switched to blocking mode and try to mitigate the damage off as much as possible.

*Clank! The sound of steel clashes, however, due to the brute force that was behind the claw strike, Leonard was once again sent flying.

"God damn it! This shit is cheating! I call bullshit!" he lamented as he saw his health point draining once again, this time he's down to eighty-five percent of his total health.

"Don't be like that, I know you had some trick hidden up your sleeve, why don't you use them? Who knows? Maybe I might be caught by surprise and die in the process." Kayaba said jokingly.

"What makes you said that?" Leonard questioned the man, as he was indeed right, Leonard does have some tricks hidden, skills that he has gotten hold off during the past half a year of intense practicing on field bosses alone.

He manages to control quite a few useful ones, and one quite dangerous as it could drive him to the border of insanity itself.

"Oh please, I know a lot of things about you after digging up your history for the past half a years with the help of the Cardinal system...unfortunately, it only showed your in-game detail and some other small detail- but for some reason your skill list has been barred up...even with the admin and creator privileges I can't pry it open." the giant monster let out a long sigh.

"That got me quite curious you see...I was wondering...how is it possible for someone else to own a system that had equal or greater power to that of my own creation…" he mused.

"So tell me...who...are...you?" Kayaba brought his face closer to Leonard while showing off his nice set of sharp fangs.

"So...you are curious about me huh?" Leonard smirked as he looked at Kayaba shoving his face right in front of him while laying down on the ground.

"Yes...tell me...I might set you and another person free if you were to tell me." Kayaba offered.

"Oh really?...you'll do that?" Leonard asked while faking his interest in the offer itself.

"I'm a man of my words you know...when I said that if anyone(s) were to defeat the other 99 floor bosses, along with myself I will release all the trapped players." Kayaba let out a burning hot steamy breath of air at Leonard's face.

Surprising, it does not stink at all.

"Did this guy ate a few carts of mints or something?" Leonard chibi asked curiously.

"Since that's the case...I'll show you...come closer…I hate for others to find out about my secret you see?" Leonard beckoned Kayaba to come closer to him to which he obliged.

In Kayaba mind, Leonard was just a player, sure he may be much stronger than the elite of the assault teams, however- comparing to a floor boss, he alone was not that much of a threat to him, When Kayaba brought his ear closer to that of Leonard.

"Tell me...no one will be listening in on us."

Leonard had a dangerous grin on his face.

"sure…[Greater Binding Tendril]!" he whispered into the monster giant ear.

"What? AHH!!! What is this?!" Kayaba was confused- but suddenly the ground below him began to turn into darkness and giant octopus-like tendrils erupted from that mist and began to chain him down to the ground.