Metal clashed in mid air as Dash charged at Kayaba. He grinned as their weapons locked against each other in mid air.
His confident look only irritated her further.
Calling on her magic, Dash began channeling lightning into her weapon. Seeing what was happening, Kayaba broke off and ordered several of his floating swords to swing at her.
Gracefully circling around the blades, Dash quickly tried to close the distance between them. Unfortunately, one sudden pulse from his shield sent her spiraling backwards through the air.
Grinning victoriously as he watched her recover, Kayaba pointed the tip of his blade at her. “I know all about your particular brand of magic and the glitches they cause,” stated Kayaba. “And I watched your fight, so I know full well what you could be capable of. I will take no chances in this battle.”
Raising his shield, Kayaba deflected several small black daggers from below where Kirito stood.
“If that’s true. then you won’t forget you’re fighting two of us,” called Kirito, giving Kayaba a taunting smirk,
Floating backwards a bit to bring them both in his line of sight, Kayaba chuckled. “I had intended to have the height advantage in this fight. So forgive me if I need to adjust my initial strategy in this battle. But don’t worry, Kirito… I won’t leave you out of the fun.”
With a nod of his head, several large golden blades appeared behind him, tips pointed down towards Kirito and causing him to flinch back. Like bullets they sped towards him, more swards appearing in their place and following suit.
“Kirito!” yelled Dash.
Bracing themselves, Kirito immediately reacted, swiping each and every blade out of the air. Like he suspected, this was a copy of Rarity’s ability, the blades being thrown at him were fast agile but brittle and could be knocked away if fast enough.
And Kirito was certainly fast enough to slash at every single blade in front of him. However, in his distraction, he couldn’t have noticed the four or five weapons that divulged from the wave to arc around to strike at his back.
Flying down from the sky, a loud thunderous sound lightning trail following her decent, Dash crashed into the ground behind Kirito and released a wave of electricity with a swing of her blade. Electrified and short circuiting, the blades cracked and vanished.
Not finished yet, Dash raced around to Kirito’s front and swung again, her blade clashing with several of the ones aimed at Kirito. As they were knocked away, electricity coursed through the blades even as they touched others. Like a deadly virus, bolts of electricity began leaping from one to another, freezing them all in place. Before long, the entire onslaught shattered at once, showering the two in ethereal sparks of residual shimmering data.
Kayaba looked on curiously. “Interesting. So the glitch can travel by touch like a virus then. I’ll have to be on my guard.”
Twisting her body around, Dash held out her arm and called out. “Kirito!”
Hearing her, Kirito took hold of her hand. With a kneeling start, Dash bolted upwards into the air with the swordsman in tow. Utilizing the same maneuver that she and AJ were accustomed to, she spun in the air and chucked Kirito directly at Kayaba.
The man flew at staggering speed, clashing with Kayaba who barely had enough time to block the attack.
Glancing to the side, Kayaba willed several blades to guard his back just as Dash came at him from behind. Looking back and forth, Kayaba smirked and released a strong kinetic wave from his shield. Both warriors were sent stumbling and crashing to the ground.
Going on the attack, Kayaba dove towards where Dash had been sent tumbling. Slamming his shield into her gut and releasing another shockwave, the poor girl was sent rocketing into the distance.
Now with her gone, Kayaba turned to leer at Kirito before diving towards him at full speed. Holding out his blade, Kayaba slashed at him with a vicious arcing falcon dive that Kirito could only dodge within a hairs width. Soaring back into the air, he wasted no time in coming back down at the fighter.
Knowing he couldn’t possibly block an attack coming at him at that speed, Kirito could only dodge once again. However, this time he didn’t make it out of the attack unscathed. A second blade sliced down his back.
Grunting in pain, Kirito immediately shook off the attack and stood strong even as Kayaba hovered high above him.
With a flick of his head, blades appeared all around Kirito forming a veritable sphere of metal that hovered over Kirito’s head. In a flurry of motion and speed the blades shot at him like bullets. Blurred movements were barely visible under the hail of sparks shooting out as Kirito successfully parried each and every one of them. The exchange lasted only a few seconds but for Kayaba’s critical eye it lasted minutes as he analyzed Kirito’s amazing movements.
“You know… even now I’m in awe of your reaction time,” muttered Kayaba. “Being able to send signals from your brain to your limbs at an almost instantaneous rate is certainly something few people in this game can do even with the help of the NerveGear.”
Kirito let out a scream of pain as another golden blade shot out from the ground and tore itself up across his chest.
Taking this opportunity, Kayaba flew down and slammed Kirito to the ground, his sword to the man’s throat.
“But even you cannot dodge what you cannot see.”
Kirito could only glare at his foe, his eyes burning with rage and the will to fight even as he lay helpless on his back. “At least I fight with my own strength. You’re only winning because you’re stealing Rarity’s moves.”
Kayaba closed his eyes and shrugged. “That may be, but what kind of final boss would I be if I made it easy for you.” Done talking, Kayaba rose his blade to strike down.”
“You asshole!”
Taken by surprise, Kayaba leapt off of Kirito and swung his blade instead to knock away the electrified Keyblade that was flying at him. As the Keyblade flew off in a different direction, the man flinched as his sword glitched with electricity. He quickly released it, though not without losing a nice portion of his health.
Before he could summon another blade, Dash sped towards him and slammed her fist into his shield. To his surprise, the force of her blow sent them both skidding backwards through the air.
Coming to a stop, Dash retracted her fist and cocked it once more for a second blow, this time crackling with strong magic.
Frowning, Kayaba and released another blast to force her back. “You’re such a distraction!” he hissed as she tumbled away.
Now used to the force of the attack, Dash spun to a recovery right next to where Kirito was healing up with a potion.
“Welcome back,” he snarked, letting the empty bottle in his hand disappear. “So you got a plan?”
Dash merely smirked and flipped him the bird. “Shut up.”
Kayaba grinned and lowered himself closer to the ground just above head level. Holding out his arm he began summoning another blade to replace his. “Well this is a perfect example of me not able to go easy on you.”
Hearing a hissing noise, Kayaba’s own reflexes forced him to turn around, his shield aimed at the incoming attack. Unfortunately, that was his undoing as the previously thrown Keyblade slammed into his shield.
The man’s eyes went wide as he watched his own prized shield glitch and begin to crepitate. Gritting his teeth, he reluctantly let go of the shield and turned his gaze away as it exploded into a shower of date before hitting the floor.
Reaching out her arm, Dash snatched her weapon out of the air.
Kayaba, his grin gone now, glared at the duo. Silently, he summoned a second blade and, now dual wielding, dove at the two.
However, as the two readied their blades, Kayaba acred upwards at the last second and soared high above the heads of his enemies.
Upon reaching the apex of his accession, he spread his angelic wings wide.
“What’s wrong Kayaba!” yelled Dash. “Not having fun with your game anymore?”
While the girl was taunting, Kirito kept his eyes on the man above him, wondering what he was up to.
With a single sudden flap of his wings a wind chilling gust spread out from them. The sudden force shoved both fighters back some. Continuing to flap his wings, Kayaba quickly turned the area into a storm room complete with howling winds and gathering storm clouds.
“Oh hell no!” screamed Dash. Spreading her own wings, Dash pushed through the wind towards Kayaba only to be stopped by multiple blades appearing in front of her. Even when she tried to dodge them, more appeared wherever she flew. All of them would do nothing but constantly force her to cease her advance. Finally, enough swords appeared to create a full on mid air barricade between her and Kayaba.
Finally, fed up with the intrusions, Dash swung her blade and sent a wave of thunder along the flying swords, shattering all of them, Unfortunately, it was too late.
With one final flap, all of the winds gusting around the area began circling in the center. Within seconds, a full on hurricane formed in the middle of the room.
Kirito stabbed one of his blade into the ground in an attempt to keep himself from being dragged into the torrent of winds while Dash, however, could only grin.
“Ha! You think you can beat me with this weak ass breeze. I’m an Avian! You’ll need more tha- ack!” Trying to speed up to Kayaba past the winds, Dash could only stagger forwards in the air, her effort only serving to send a stiff dull pain up and down her body.
She cursed to herself, realizing that her fatigue and injuries were finally starting to catch up to her. While she hadn’t used any magic recently, she had been using a lot of physical energy since she arrived on the 98th floor. And even though normal flying at regular speeds for her took little to no real energy or magic, trying to force herself to speed against these raging winds served as a reminder of what physical energy she actually had left.
Needless to say, it took almost all she had to simply stay balanced against the winds.
Using this to his advantage, Kayaba cut through the gales like they weren’t even in there. Barely able to angle herself without losing her arial balance, Dash blocked Kayaba’s first incoming down swipe. Not done, Kayaba came at her with a myriad of slash attacks. All of which served only to make it more difficult for Dash to keep her balance in the air.
Down on the ground, Kirito could only glower at the sight of Kayaba attacking his friend and at his own helplessness. Stabbing his other blade into the ground and reaching into his jacket, Kirito took out a few black daggers. Activating a dagger skill the weapons began glowing.
Reeling back, Kirito shot them into the air. Like the skill was meant to do, all of the daggers honed in on Kayaba’s form. Sadly, like he feared, the winds were too strong and the daggers evidently fell into the raging hurricane.
Clenching his teeth, Kirito tightened his grip on his blades and tore one out of the ground. Activating another skill, Kirito let his blades glow a darkened magenta colour before tearing his other blade from the ground and jumping into the hurricane.
Up into the air, Dash continued to defend herself against Kayaba’s onslaught. Only now it could be seen that she had more than a few bruises and cuts where she couldn’t defend herself. Even worse was that since her attention was split between defense and balance, her attack speed also suffered. Several times she tried to fight back with either a normal attack or a magic infused one and Kayaba would read it easily.
“Damn it!” she cursed to herself as another attack slammed into the Keyblade guarding her side.
Coming at her with another downward swing with his blade, Kayaba finally smirked again. “You aren’t a very good flier are you? You can barely keep yourself steady.”
“Screw you!” Dash yelled, blocking the attack. “I’m the best flier you’ve ever seen. And you’d know it if you weren't cheating.” Taking a chance, Dash deflected the blow away and tried counterattacking with a strong downward swipe of her own.
“This is my game, young lady,” he snarked dodging the strike with a graceful spin through the air. Taking advantage of a successful taunt, Kayaba slammed his leg into the girl's gut. “You’re the one cheating!”
Letting out a gasp from the impact, Dash tumbled backwards completely unable to right herself before falling into the hurricane.
Kayaba’s grin grew. Now that both of them had been sucked in by the winds he would begin using his final trump card. With a snap of his fingers a several golden blades appeared behind her and with another snap, all of them shattered into several dozen razor sharp shards. However, before Kayaba could release them into the hurricane, a shockwave of black energy slammed into him from above. The force of the blow succeeded in shattering both a ton of his health and his concentration on the shards of metal, the latter returning to data from whence it came.
Head snapping upwards, he looked up just in time to see Kirito riding the winds near the top of the hurricane.
Blades glowing, Kirito spun around the outer section of the winds until he circled back towards Kayaba, as he passed by, the man swung his blades, letting loose another blade beam attack downwards.
Kayaba crossed his blades and blocked the attack. Though the force of it knocked him back some, his health remained the same.
Looking back up, Kayaba watching as Kirito finally built up enough momentum to escape from the hurricanes suction and fling himself towards Kayaba.
A warriors scream came from Kirito's throat as he slammed his blades into Kayaba's, forcing both to crash in to the ground.
With Kayaba down, the winds immediately vanished, leaving Dash tumbling to the floor as well.
Shaking her head, the girl tried to lift herself from the ground, but found it to be increasingly difficult. Arms shaking, she struggled to even push herself to her knees. Every inch off of the ground found her sucking in large gulps of air.
Looking down, Dash glared at the Keyblade still in her hands. “So what now? Are you gonna let me unlock some secret move to beat this guy?” She gave a small mirthful grin at her Keyblade before finally pushing herself to her feet.
Meanwhile, Kayaba’s eyes shrank into pinpricks at the man standing over him. To his sides, both of his wings were pinned to the ground by Kirito’s blades.
Above him, Kirito stood tall, his hair blown back as Kayaba’s wings exploded into radiant azure shards.
“Maybe now we can have a fair fight,” muttered Kirito, yanking out his blades and taking several steps back. “This game is called Sword Art Online, remember.”
Shaking his head, Kayaba turned over and brought himself to his knees. “You know,” he responded his voice low, “you’re all too right. I think we’ve strayed a bit too far from what I originally created this game to be. Honestly… I guess that’s my fault.” Sticking a sword into the ground Kayaba brought himself to his feet once more.
“But you know what?” Closing his eyes, Kayaba took a deep breath. Releasing it, he looked into the dark sky above them. “I guess it’s time to fix that.”
Behind him a few yards away from the two Dash’s eyes shrank at the sight of a blade silently materializing behind Kirito’s back. Seeing her friend in mortal danger, the girl dug deep into her soul and called on even more energy.
Adrenaline answered her call and before she knew it, she found herself flying down the path towards Kirito, injuries and fatigue forgotten.
Dash grit her teeth as the blade moved closer to Kirito’s neck. Acting on instinct, she chucked her Keyblade, surging with electrical energy towards the ominous blade. Upon knocking it out, she grinned, believing she had saved her friend.
However, her expression vanished when she noticed that Kayaba had also given a smirk of victory. Before her eyes another blade appeared directly in her path, mere inches from the center of her chest.
Kirito could only barely turn his head in time to watch as his dear friend and saviour impale herself on the golden blade that even she could not dodge at full speed.
“Rachelle!” he screamed running towards her as her body fell to the ground. He cringed at the sound of her body hitting the floor, limp and bloody. Fear in his wide eyes, he could just see her shattering into pieces like so many of his friends and allies have.
Snapping out of his daze, he skid to a stop in front of three more blades that appeared in front of him.
“Ah, ah, ahh, don’t make the same mistake,” Kayaba chuckled. Kirito slowly turned around, his eyes wide and twitching. Chewing his bottom lip, he struggled to contain the rage boiling within him.
Kayaba’s low chuckling began growing into loud uproarious laughter. “Finally. Ah yes now… NOW we can finally have our destined fight.” Behind Kirito, the blades blocking his path clattered to the ground and shattered.
Dropping his second blade, another, more plain looking long shield appeared in his grip. Kayaba pointed his blade’s tip towards Kirito. “The distractions are gone, the tricks have ceased. Now, it’s just you, me, and our blades, as it should have been.”