A few minutes earlier.
“Weak!” Seemingly without much effort on his part, Musashi shrugged off Kirito’s attack and shoved him back with the others.
Kirito, Dash and AJ all stood together, weapons at the ready.
“He’s strong,” said Kirito.
AJ grinned. “We’ll see about that.” Grieves still out, AJ rushed forward and threw a straight right at Musashi.
Smirking, Musashi simply threw up his bamboo blade, and blocked the full brunt of the attack. The instant her her fist collided with his weapon, the force of the blow sent out a shockwave that shattered the ground around it.
Even with him holding his guard as much as he could, Musashi still found himself skidding backwards from the blow, the floor crumbling underneath his feet and showing his path.
Kirito gasped at the sight. Not from the punch, but from the fact that Musashi’s health didn’t seem to drop at all.
Still holding up his guard, Musashi’s grin only grew wider in excitement. “Now that’s more like it!”
Rushing forward, Musashi swung at AJ with a downward strike that she easily dodged. Moving in close AJ countered with a jab to his gut that, with surprising reflex, he managed to block with his sword.
Going in for a combo, AJ threw two more attempted gut punches both of which were blocked, then finished with a haymaker that was dodged. Finally, spinning with the previous punch AJ threw a spinning kick that was similarly blocked with the bamboo blade.
However the force of the blow still sent Musashi skidding way from her.
Dash, still standing by Kirito growled angrily. “Why are we waiting? Let’s tag team him!”
Kirito continued to stare at the fight. “Wait a second, we have to come up with a plan first. We do that by studying the enemy. Your friend is acting as the advance team right now, making him reveal his abilities. Once we have a good grasp of what his first stage of attacks are then we can jump in.”
Dash scowled but nodded. “Fine, so what can you tell?”
“It’s weird. Even if you guard against an attack you still should take damage from it. But this guy’s health hasn’t dropped a single point from her attacks.”
“What? But it’s a stupid wooden stick?” Dash argued. How is he stopping her attacks with it?”
“No… he’s not stopping it,” he muttered. His eyes narrowed, his brain wracking to figure out what was going on. He watched as Musashi dodged an uppercut from the girl only to then block her subsequent dropkick. Ash she continued her rush of attacks Kirito couldn’t help but wonder why he blocked some attacks but outright dodged others.
“I have a theory,” he finally said, turning to Dash. “I think the sword must have some special armament or upgrade. When he blocks with it all of the damage is absorbed.”
Dash raised a brow at him, clearly skeptical. “You sure about that?”
Kirito shook his head and turned back to the fight. “Not completely, but it’s worth a try. The only way to know is to land a hit on him and see if I’m wrong.”
Dash smirked and pointed her Keyblade at Musashi. “Now that’s what I’m talking about. Can we tag team him now?”
Kirito crouched low and leaned got ready to push off. “Let’s go!”
While Kirito pushed off, Dash flared her wings and took to the air.
Flipping into the air, AJ used the Beowulf’s power to throw herself into a buzzsaw kick before slamming down on Musashi’s wooden weapon. The earth cratered under them, digging them both far into the ground.
Pushing off, AJ flipped back and landed a few feet. Before she could continue, Kirito shot past her and stabbed at Musashi.
After he dodged the first strike Kirito came down with his other blade, clashing it against his. Taking the blade he stabbed with, he slashed at Musashi from the side, only for the attack to fly right over his head. Spinning with the attempted attack Kirito came back around and slammed down with both of his blades.
Locking his blades with Musashi, Kirito grinned. “I saw you earlier,” said Kirito. “You were using two swords as well. Where’d they go?”
Musashi mirrored his expression. “If you’re worthy then they will return.”
Pushing off both of them jumped out of the way as Dash came down between them like a thunderbolt from the sky. Springing of the ground she rushed Musashi. His blade came up in defense reflexively. His eyes widened when Dash increased her speed and disappeared from sight.
Instinctively, Musashi jumped under the electrified blade that came from behind. Unfortunately, AJ took that opportunity to meet him in the air and knock him back down with a light-charged jump kick.
Though he crashed back to the ground, Musashi still managed to land on his feet having blocked the kick.
Trying to catch him before he could recover both Kirito and Dash came at him from both sides.
In one swift motion, Musashi pulled out a second bamboo blade and blocked both of their attacks.
“Damn!” cursed Kirito.
“Where’d he get a second one?!” added Dash.
Both of them pushed down on him with all of their strength, but it did no good. With amazing power Musashi shoved both of them back before crossing his blades to block AJ’s incoming strike.
“Together!” ordered Kirito.
All three of them rushed Musashi who just scoffed at the challenge. The warrior jumped back from AJ and ducked under Dash’s swipe at his head. Blocking Kirito with one blade, he parried AJ’s punch.
Musashi, in a continued display of his dueling prowess, successfully managed to fend off all three of the fighters without taking a single hit. It was clear that he focused the most on blocking Dash and Kirito while dodging AJ. Every so often, he would jump back to gain some distance, only for the three to continue their onslaught.
After parrying Dash’s downward swipe, Musashi spun under one of AJ’s roundhouse kicks. Moving with the spin, Musashi took the opportunity to send slash at Kirito who was coming in for a backstab.
Reflexively Kirito crossed his blades in defence. To his surprise even with his guard up, he found himself flying backwards from the force of the blow.
“This can’t go on,” he snarled, coming to a stop some distance away. Examining Musashi, he saw that his health still hadn’t dropped at all. Kirito glanced down at his black blade and gripped the handle tighter. “I have to get rid of those weapons.”
Opening his menu, Kirito reluctantly unequipped his white sword, leaving only the black one in his right hand. Sprinting off, Kirito called up to the girls. “Get out of the way!”
Dodging a slash from the samurai, Dash flew into the air. AJ threw a kick that was blocked, Scowling, she reluctantly back flipped away. Curious, Musashi looked over his shoulder to see Kirito rushing up to him from behind, his blade glowing a bright green.
Grinning, Musashi turned around and raised one of his wooden blades and brought it down at the black swordsman.
Kirito, likewise came up to meet it with a glowing green blade. The there was a slam of metal and, in an instant, they passed each other.
As Kirito’s blade dimmed in glow, a crack echoed throughout the room. The sound of wood hitting the ground followed soon afterwards.
The broken half of one of the bamboo blades shattered in Musashi’s hand alongside its other half. Looking down, his hand clenched the open air.
After a second, he turned around to face Kirito, who had brought back out his second blade. Holding out his final blade in both hands, Musashi grinned at his opponent. “Clevor, young swordsman; targeting the weak point of my blade.”
Kirito remained stoic briefly glancing upwards before reassuming eye contact. “It’s called ‘Arm Blast’.”
Musashi’s grin suddenly became more menacing. “Disgraceful indeed. Care to try it again?” he hissed.
Kirito smirked. “I don’t have to…”
Tilting his head at the remark, Musashi opened his mouth to respond but an earsplitting crackle of thunder echoed around him.
His head snapped around and panned up to the spinning ball of lightning in the air.
In the centre of the hurricane, Dash yelled above the magic charged lightning. “Are you sure you’re alright,” she said, spinning faster and faster.
Holding a tight grip on her arm, AJ, her hat long since fallen off and her hair practically standing on end from the static discharge running through her body, yelled back. “Just get ready to let go!”
Without hesitation, Dash threw the Earthen girl directly at Musashi. The result was nearly instantaneous. The power of her normal falling star attack charged with Dash’s magic sent her
smashing into him like a meteorite of thunder and light.
As the smoke calmed and the dirt finished falling. AJ stood at the centre of the crater. Her gaze locked on the hunched over form of Musashi. Her blond hair, now unbound, practically stood straight up. Lightning, what remained of it from Dash’s magic, continued cracking and discharging around her.
Between them stood the remains of the secondary bamboo blade. It only remained for a second before shattering to join its twin in oblivion.
Kirito and Dash both came over and stood by AJ.
“Nice combination,” said Kirito. He examined the man’s status. “But don’t get relaxed yet. Your attack did a lot of extra damage but he’s nowhere near defeated.”
AJ reached up and fruitlessly tried to calm her hair down. “Yeah, ah was gettin’ really sick of them sticks.”
“Disgraceful…” muttered Musashi, standing up. For once his roguish grin was absent, replaced with a normal frown.
Dash scoffed. “Told you we’d win!”
In a shimmer of blue mist, two normal katanas appeared in sheathes on Musashi’s sides. “Instead of out maneuvering me with speed, planning, or skill, you favored overwhelming strength and destroyed my weapons.” Musashi leaned forward and gripped the handles of his blades, each hand grabbing the opposite sided weapon.
All at once Kirito, AJ and Dash raised their weapons in preparation for an attack.
“How brutish.” In a blur of motion, he vanished.
Immediately, Dash flew into the air. Her head snapped around to see something no one else could. “Guys move!” she yelled.
Kirito, turned around to see what she was looking at. For only the briefest of moments he could see Musashi. Then, once again, he vanished. Pushing his level to its utmost limits Kirito managed to block the myriad of instant attacks. His arms seemingly moving at inhuman speeds that even surprised himself.
Unable to act as quickly as her counterparts, AJ had no choice but to throw her armored arms up and face the attack head on. Almost faster than she could track, Musashi dashed past her as well furiously swinging his blades. Whatever didn’t impact her weapons slammed against her immortal object shielding. Even so, the force of the onslaught threw her sent her skidding back.
Finally, Musashi reappeared in front of the three, both blades out and a deep scowl on his face. “The real duel begins now.”
Before Dash knew it, Musashi had jumped into the air and appeared in front of her. Having just enough time to throw up her Keyblade to block, he slashed down at her and sent her crashing to the ground.
Catching him as he fell, Kirito took a swing at the samurai. Musashi deftly parried the blow and engaged Kirito in a clash of blows, dodging and blocking as the boy rushed him.
Shaking her head, Dash picking herself up from the ground to see AJ standing over her. “You alright?” she asked, holding out a hand.
Taking it, Dash stood up completely. “I’m fine.” Noticing that her gauntlets were gone, she realized that the girl had switched back to her Keyblade. “Got any ideas?” she said, scowling over at the samurai.
“He’s fast so we gotta catch him off guard,” she answered. “I’m gonna use some earth magic to knock him off balance. You two take it from there!” She held out her hand.
Dash nodded and took her high into the air once again.
Kirito let out a fierce battle cry as he continued to attack his opponent. Even with his high level sword skills, every single one of his attacks were skillfully parried or dodged. During their close encounter, neither had been able to get a hit in on each other. Furious, Kirito jumped over one of Musashi’s attacks and came down with a due bladed downward swing. Musashi countered by moving in close and parrying with one blade. While not a full on defense it allowed him to successfully counter with a shallow slash across Kirito’s side.
Eyes wide from the pain, Kirito quickly distanced himself.
Musashi stood there, his expression no longer mirthful. It hadn’t been since he’d brought both of his actual weapons out. “You are skilled, boy, but undisciplined. You swing your swords wildly and rely too much on outside augmentations.” He closed the distance and took a quick swipe at his head.
“You lack proper training,” he said, the two began clashing the blades against each other once again. Only this time, Musashi started moving faster and began attacking in a more unorthodox manner.
Before he could land another hit however, there was an earthquake and Musashi felt the ground under him jut into the air, tossing him up along with it. “What in the world?”
Behind him, with her Keyblade dug deep into the ground, AJ yelled, “Now!”
Seeing his opportunity. Kirito jumped after him, aiming to hit him before he could recover.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t fast enough and Musashi recovered in time to cross his blades and block Kirito’s strike.
“Payback, asshole!” From above, Dash flew down and delivered a deep slash down his back. Flipping, she then drop kicked him down to the ground.
Landing beside AJ, Kirito examined Musashi once again. “He only has half a bar left. Let’s finish him off.”
“What about you?” asked AJ. “You took a few hits yourself.”
Kirito shook his head. “Don’t worry about me.”
Blade in the ground, Musashi stood back up on one knee. “Suffering a wound to my back,” he said, hissing through clenched teeth, “I am disgraced.” As he spoke, the blade planted in the ground began glowing a sharp silver color. “Your trickery is evident. I see that this is no longer an honorable duel.”
Kirito’s eyes widened in alarm. “Everybody get ready. He’s readying a desperation move.” Taking out a potion, Kirito quickly got to replenishing his health while the others went on guard.
Musashi, now standing up completely, sheathed both of his blades. Even so, the one that had been glowing previously now illuminated the scabbard itself.
Slowly, he placed one hand on the sheath and the other on the handle, completely forgoing the use of the second blade. Finally, he spread his feet and turned to the side, taking on a traditional draw and resheath stance.
Musashi stood there, still as a statue while the girls remained on guard.
“Is… is he gonna do anything?” asked Dash. “He’s not moving.”
“Maybe it’s a counter,” observed Kirito. “Somebody needs to trip it first.” Kirito opened his menu. “I’ll just--”
Dash tighten her grip on her Keyblade. “I got it!”
“Rainbow wait!”
“Hold on a sec!”
Before the other’s could protest, Dash flew straight towards the samurai, staying low and ready for anything.
Though her eyes were trained on the man, there was a white flash and she felt something slam into her shoulder.
The two watched in horror as she flew past them. Kirito clenched his teeth and ran towards his opponent instead. “She’s fine! Let’s get him while he--”
Before he could get any further than his ally did, several slash marks appeared on his body, arms, and legs. He too flew backwards, sliding across the ground past AJ.
Unable to let them be, AJ ran back to check on the two.
Dash was gripping her shoulders, groaning in pain. “What the hell just happened? He didn’t even move!”
Kirito was staring at his health bar, it having gone from full to 50 percent from the invisible onslaught. He wasted no time in grabbing a potion. “Is his sword still shining?” he asked weakly before chugging it.
AJ looked back at the man. “Yeah, still shinin’ alright. What’s happening?”
Shaking off the damage he and Dash picked themselves up. “I’m going to assume it’s some kind of perceptual skill. That’s new…”
“What do we do then?” asked Dash.
“Ah have an idea, you two stay here,” she ordered.
“Wait what are you going to do?”
Switching to Beowulf once again she put up both arms in front of her face and rushed forward. Once she entered his range, Musashi slashed at her, unsheathing and resheathing his blade in a flash.
The effect as instant when AJ felt something slam into her arms. Each strike let out an audible metallic clang as they struck her weapons.
Clenching her teeth and furrowing her brows, AJ braced herself against the blows and continued advancing.
Seeing that his attack didn’t stop her, he increased the rate of his attacks. His arm became a blur of motion as pale grey slash waves flew out in all directions.
“Jackie!” yelled Dash. Flaring her wings, she tried to rise into the air. Unfortunately, even the sky wasn’t out of Musashi’s range and she found herself falling back down.
Luckily, Kirito caught her. “Be careful!”
Planting her feet firmly on the ground, AJ took on the full brunt of the multiple attacks. She grunted in pain, feeling all of the attacks slam against her body and legs.
Even with her immortal object shielding preventing her from being physically injured, she could still feel the attacks slamming against her. It almost felt as if she was being pelted with sharp blasts of wind
When it was evident he wasn't going to stop for air, she moved forward once more, resolutely placing one foot in front of the other.
“Agh!” she groaned, feeling blow after blow slam against her legs and stomach. She realized that’s where he was aiming now. Even so, she kept her arms covering her face.
Wave after wave, the slashes grew worse. Step after step, she moved closer to the source. The immortal object sign, the only thing that prevented her from being cut to ribbons, blinked rapidly over different parts of her body.
Reaching out, AJ’s right hand clenched around his arm. Musashi’s eyes widened and the waves finally stopped. He pulled and tugged, but her grip was absolute. Breathing heavily, she clenched her left fist and brought it far back twisting her body around with it. Light energy began building around her fist until she pulled it around in an absolutely vicious left hook.
Light exploded in all directions as a wave of energy followed. The ground shook and winds whipped around as she delivered the mother of all punches. Blood red pixels of the man’s body flew off from the impact.
Dash and Kirito could feel the waves of energy even from where they were. Blinded, they were forced to cover their eyes from the luminescence and fierce winds.
After a few seconds, the light faded and the ground stopped shaking. AJ stood there in the epicentre, fist planted firmly against Musashi’s face.
Energy spent, Beowulf disappeared. AJ, though she was still trying to catch her breath, released her grip on Musashi’s arm and let him fall to the ground.
Fallen and defeated, the man coughed out several blood red pixels. “Disgraceful…” he chuckled weakly, “losing to a child… a woman.” With that, he shattered into thousands of shimmering blue shards of data.
Exhausted, AJ fell to her knees and back into the arms of her friend.
Kneeling behind her, Dash leaned over and stared down into her eyes with a wide grin and a sparkling gaze. “Jack that was awesome!” she cheered, holding out a fist.
AJ returned her grin, albeit weakly, and met her friends fist with her own.
Kirito walked up to them and sheathed both his blades. As the last of the shimmering pieces rose into the air, he closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. “That was a close one…”
“Kirito!”
He reopened them to see Asuna running towards him. She jumped into his embrace and the two fell to the ground in a heap, both chuckling and celebrating their survival.
As they did Rarity and Twilight came up to meet Dash and AJ who were still leaning up against each other on the ground. Pinkie herself, AJ’s forgotten hat upon her curly head, hopped up and landed next to them, joining in the circle.
“Well done everyone,” said Rarity, fanning herself gently.
“Let’s all take a nice rest and get ready for the next room,” said Twilight. She herself sat down with the three other girls. Soon enough, Rarity joined them and the girls all sat in a circle, backs propped up against one another.
As the group began to relax, the only sounds in the room were the soft rhythms of calm breathing.
“You know… I love loopholes and cheat codes as much as anyone…”
Kirito’s eyes snapped open, his pupils shrunk to pinpricks. “That voice…” he hissed.
Everyone’s head turned to face the door to the next room. Standing at the entrance was a tall man wearing bright red armor. He had light brown hair that, except for one lock, was swept back into one long ponytail. Both his hands were resting upon the hilt of his signature cross guard broadsword.
“But I think this is a bit much, don’t you?” he finished. Kayaba tilted his head curiously, his serine smile never leaving his face.
Kirito’s teeth clenched, his eyes flared with pent up rage at the sight of the man before him. It was only Asuna’s soft but firm touch that prevented him from losing himself completely.
The girls turned to face him as well, Dash herself could practically feel Kirito’s anger rubbing of on her. “So this is the jackass who’s causing all of this?”
Asuna nodded. “Yeah… that’s him. Former leader of the Knights of the Blood oath.”
“Kayaba… Akihiko!” muttered Kirito, venom seething though every syllable.