A New Side, and Annihilation

August 20 2024 Floor 43 12pm

The frontline has currently made it to floor 70, in that time I've risen from 88 almost 2 months ago to 94. Kirito being right behind at halfway through 93, Asuna and Heathcliff are currently working their way through 89-90. Turns out the amount of xp needed for that was equivalent to the first 65 levels, I believe this game hopes to kill us via monotony as well.

I only bring this up because at 90 I gained my own unique skill, similar to Kirito's duel wield, and Kayaba's. It is called <Prestissimo Cadence> It basically allows me to, as I hit enemies, quicken my pace and rhythm. According to the definition feature in the game it's a beat that's over 200 beats per minute.

Truthfully this skill works perfectly for me as I already fight to a rhythm, and my attacks of multiples of eight, I will be able to continuously increase my pace. I also have the perfect place to practice it, which is where I'm currently walking to with a subjugation force. The subjugation force for the player killing guild, Laughing Coffin.

"Are you nervous?" Asuna asks me from my left.

"Not for myself, but for both of you." I responded.

"Why us? We are arguably the best fighters here." Kirito

"Because while you 2 are great fighters, you are both innocent and haven't had to kill anyone. You could get tricked by them pretending to let their guard down." Me

"Well what about you? You've never killed anyone." Asuna. I look at her closely before facing back forward and responding.

"I haven't killed someone directly, but I am surely not innocent." Me

Kirito scratches at his neck, surely remembering the player that tried to monster PK us on the first floor. I cleared my throat and began again.

"That's why I tried to get you to not come." Me

"Hmph, how could I not when both of you are going?. Besides these people are despicable and deserved to be locked up." Asuna huffs. I whirl around and grab her by the shoulders, she looks up at me surprised at the suddenness.

"That's the difference between you and them. You're going in there with the mindset of subdue not kill. They will attack viciously and with poisons, dirty and underhanded tactics, they will be fighting to kill. You have to be prepared to do the same, or you'll just get hurt." Me

Asuna and Kirito are currently both staring at me, I could see the bit of resolve trying to creep up in Asuna's eyes, but it quickly faded. She was not ready to take another life, she was too pure for that.

"Just stick near me so I can help you if you run into trouble." Me

Asuna gives and after a couple seconds, Kirito gives a nod of his own.

We had just made it to the supposed Laughing Coffin base, when they finally jumped out. It was an ambush, just like in the story. I unsheathed my sword, and found my first target. Focusing on the orange and red cursors, I settled into my rhythm.

While I was prepared to kill, I would try to subdue them. It would not be good just to kill any I came across, maybe a couple of reds wouldn't be a problem though. The thought of fighting against the other players, not constrained by the rules has gotten my heart and blood pumping rapidly throughout my body. I guess you say I'm even a little excited, to finally be able to let loose.

The orange player locked eyes with me and grinned.

"The famed Violet dancer of the assault team has graced us with his presence. It will be my honor to kill you, pretty boy." Orange player

"Not sure how to feel being called attractive by someone like you, but you can try to kill me. You will fail though." Me

We settle into our stances and my smile is probably wider and more wicked than his at this point. All I can hear is the rhythm resounding in my ears, and slowly permeating its way through my entire body. He made the fist move with a horizontal slash from his long knife, I countered by sliding underneath and began my assault.

My first eight slashes rose with my body, with the usually disabling spots. First ankles, then knees, elbows and finally wrists. As he cried out from pain I didn't stop, I sped up. The next 16 came at the same speed as the previous 8, red slashes appeared across his arms neck and torso. This time he dropped, and not missing a beat I stuck him with a high level paralysis needle. Anybody below 80 will not be able to resist this, and there is only 1 know player in Laughing Coffin in the 80s, PoH.

The only drawback to my skill is that I burn through stamina at an increased rate, and unless it becomes absurd at the higher rhythms that won't be a problem. Besides I have plenty of stamina crystals.

I looked around for Asuna and Kirito to see them currently locked in battle with a different orange player. I draw my paralysis needles and catch them unaware, before going off to find myself another Laughing Coffin member.

After about 5 minutes I'd subdued 3 more orange members and was currently in a 2 on 1 against a couple of level 60 red players. One had a dagger that looked to be poisoned and the other used a traditional samurai sword. Too bad for them my current rhythm had built up to 128 slashes before I ever got to them.

Both rushed at the same and slashed in different angles, one horizontal, one vertical. Quick right step into a leap, I'm now cartwheeling in the air above them, and my sword lashes out at speeds they couldn't defend against. Half of the 128 split between the 2 was dealt in the couple seconds I was airborne, as I landed I dropped down and slid between finishing the last half of the 128.

I overestimated them or underestimated the damage bonus I get with this as well because I ended up decapitating them with the final 2 slashes almost unconsciously. So many months doing the same to different monsters had ingrained it into me. They were red players though, I think as I feel my blood pulse faster and my excitement rising.

I needed to find another red player, I've been told in my old world I had a bit of a sadistic streak, and now I've found an outlet for it in this game. Before the constant killing of monsters was enough, but even then I had felt like I was missing something. Something I had felt that day the player tried to kill us on the first floor. Now I've found it.

I looked around and didn't seem like anyone had noticed I had killed the 2 members, so I quickly found another to go after. The one that's know as Red eye Xaxa, I can't kill him though as he plays a big role in the GGO arc. I'll just subdue him.

He's not as strong as GGO made him seem, I easily targeted his arms to disarm him before kicking him in the chest. This knocked him to the floor and I flicked a paralysis needle into him. Only a few minutes later the fight was over, Kirito still ended up killing 2 laughing coffin members of his own. Asuna didn't, she was able to subdue all of hers.

We lost more members than we expected, but we were finally rid of Laughing Coffin. As expected Kirito was silent on the way back, an made eye contact with Asuna and she seemed to get the message, as she could be seen speeding up to talk to some other people.

"So, how many?" I asked Kirito

"2." Kirito

"Hmmm. What color were they?" Me

"Red." Kirito

"I see. Same for me." Me

"Mhm. Wait really?" Kirito

"Ya, they came at me 2 at once and I went into that same mode I do when we're farming mobs. Didn't even think twice until after I finished killing them." Me

"Ah." Kirito

"Why did you kill yours?" Me

"U-uh I-... I didn't want to, it was just.." Kirito trailed off.

"It was just you or them?" Me

"Y-ya, but that doesn't make it any better." Kirito

"No, no it doesn't. But if it's easier just think about it like this, you have people that are glad you did." Me

"Wha- why would they be glad? I'm a murderer." Kirito

"Yup, you are. So am I, and I imagine a few others left here the same way. However me and the others that consider you a friend are happy you chose your life over those red players." Me

"I suppose you're right." Kirito

"Of course I'm right. And that doesn't mean you have to take pride in it, if you did I'd think something was wrong with you then. But it will only weigh you down if you look back at it with regret instead of being thankful you lived." Me

"Where do you come up with stuff?" Kirito

"My big beautiful brain that covered by my beautiful purple hair." I say jokingly.

Kirito just give me a flat stare, before a slight smile.

"I don't know how I put up with you." He grumbled, but his slight grin gave away his fake annoyance.

"How indeed. It must be very difficult putting up with such a perfect person. Alas, I think the only one who can is Asuna." I pull my hand up to my head in fake exasperation.

"Asuna come get your boy toy before I strangle him." Kirito

"Oh is that what you're into Kirito? A little strangle play, I should have known you were projecting with that black leather coat." I tease

"Gah! Where do you even come up with this stuff. You better stay away from me." Kirito

"Nothing can separate us dear Kirito, while I'm not usually one for your kind of fun I won't shame you for it. I'll let Argo know right away to put out a listing for you." I said with a sinister grin. Kirito's mouth went wide as he stared at me.

"You wouldn't. Oh what am I saying m, of course you would. You and Argo could be twins with how sadistic you both are." Kirito complains

"What's going on now?" Asuna finally arrives.

"Well Kirito here was just telling m-.." I start but Kirito is quick to cover my mouth.

"I said no such thing. Asuna please don't believe this, this devil in human form." Kirito pleads

"Hmm, I don't know this might be something important I'll need to tell Lisbeth about." Asuna sing songs.

Kirito's face goes from bright red to pale.

"Oh you didn't think that I wouldn't be able to get it out of Lisbeth? She's rather easy to get secrets out of surprisingly." She grins mischievously.

"Oh my god there's 2 of them! How could I get so unlucky!" Kirito falls to his knees with his head on the ground.

"Oh don't be so down Kirito. You should rejoice! You have such perfect and helpful friends that you can get help from and dating advice." Me

"Oh I don't think they need that. Kirito here has already kissed Lisbeth. On their very first date in fact." Asuna presents proudly.

"A-ah, I can't believe she told you." Kirito

"Not even a denial, at least he takes responsibility. You work fast Kirito I'll give you that, but it's your life. As long as you're not planning on marrying her in game any time soon." Me

Kirito slightly squeaks but tries to cover it with a cough.

"No! You already found the ring didn't you!" Me

"Ohhh! This is so cute!" Asuna

"I hate you guys I'm out of here!" Kirito says as he pulls out a teleport crystal.

"Oh come on Kirito, at least tell us who your best man is going to be." Me

"Definitely not you! Floor 48!" Kirito

With that Kirito fades into crystals as he teleports.

"Lisbeth still lives on floor 48." Me

"Yup." Asuna

We look toward each other and start laughing, before sliding our hand into the others and we continued walking.

"I can't believe he's already planning to marry her." Asuna

"Ya, I only know for sure he started seeing her a couple days after getting his sword. Then all of the sudden his sword needed daily maintenance." Me

"That sounds about right on my side as well. Their first date was the first of August, according to Lisbeth." Asuna

"Isn't this too fast though? Should we try to stop him, or tell him to slow it down. At least till we return." Me

"Ya we should, as a happy as I am for them it would be for the best." Asuna nods

"Alright I'll make sure to talk to him." Me

"Good." Asuna

We walked the rest of the way back to the main town, just taking our time and soaking up all things we didn't notice when we were trying to clear this floor. The details of the surrounding area, no one floor look identical to another. As well just enjoying each other's company in this bit of time off from the grind of the front lines.

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Chapter end

So we got to see the other side of Hachi this chapter, after all no one is perfect. He was bound to have something off about him. I'll try to think up a worthy flashback later, but for now it's just enough to know that he has a dark side as well. As cringey as that sounds. He covers it up with his over the top and over the top persona.

That's another reason he hasn't suffered from getting burnt out in killing monsters, he gets a feeling he can't get elsewhere from it. However he's not going to become a psychotic killer unless I decide something tragic should happen to him, to make him "snap".

Yes Lisbeth and Kirito are together. No I'm not going to give a detailed rundown like I did with MC and Asuna. Expect funny interactions when Hachi and Asuna see them with Yui though ;) oops spoiler . That's actually gonna happen for them sooner than it would have happen for Kirito and Asuna because they don't have to go through Heathcliff to be able to go. So it will probably happen next chapter.

I've also roughly decided how I'm going to end the Aincrad arc, so look forward to that.

Also yes I didn't kill any of the important Laughing Coffin members as I still want Gun Gale to happen, as that's what leads to Alicization pretty much. Personally Alicization is my favorite season of SAO and the one I'm looking forward to the most. But I won't be skipping the Alfheim and GGO arcs so don't worry. Well, that's not entirely true and you'll see why when it happens.

Also how was the unique skill? I feel like it still fell kind of flat. It's not as obviously flashy as dual wielding, but for reference look up metronomes set to his amount of slashes he's built up to. It's not a slash per tick, it's 8 slashes per tick. So if he's at 128 slashes, set a metronome to 128 bpm and then imagine he slashes 8 times each tick. So on

And so forth. 128 is the highest he's gone so far.

Also the way the damage boost works on it, is it adds a damage boost to each slash, but because he has to build up momentum with the skill it's starts slow, and he has to dodge more at first to build it up.

+40% for each of the 8 slashes

+20% for each of the 16 slashes

+15% for each of the 32 slashes

+10% for each of the 64 slashes

+9% for each of the 128 slashes

And then so on before it's stops lowering the percentage at

+5% for each slash of the 2048 slashes

But it's pretty much unlikely he would ever to that anyways. And again that's 8 slashes per that numbers bpm. So every tick of 2048 bpm would be 8 slashes, technically he can do more, but the percentage boost just stops going down.

I'm actually not sure how broken or not broken this is, as I don't make video games, or have seen anything similar to this. If it's too ridiculous or if it's too bad I may change it. Which is why I didn't put the specifics of it in the story, just that he speeds up with every consecutive swing.

On to the next chapter.- Mr Eight