Viper was good. Very, very good.
Kirito was better, obviously. But he wasn't that much better that he could just dismiss the red player. Nor his damn dual-wielding.
'So this is how people feel fighting me.'
By definition, there were a lot of dual-wielders in SAO. Any player who used a weapon in the main hand, and held a shield in their offhand was dual-wielding.
From larger hexagonal shields like Nautilus used, to small bucklers like Kizmel preferred, as long as you had a little bit of combat sense, you would be able to make use of it in battle.
Be it to block as was their main function, or just to feint and distract your opponent, or even attack if you had the necessary skills, shields, when used in conjuction with swords, short spears, or maces, classified as dual-wielding.
Most people just didn't make that connection, or didn't think it was 'real' dual-wielding.
Kirito and Yuuki's Unique Skills played into that. By assigning the name Dual Blade to a skill that let you use two weapons at once caused most to assume that was the real deal.
They didn't realize that the true meaning of Dual Blade was much more subtle. The Unique Skill wasn't about being able to flay around with a sword in each hand.
When normal players did that, players who weren't the Black Swordsman or the Untamed Storm, all they were doing was make themselves look like clowns. Only one of the swords, their main weapon per se, would be recognized and deal true damage or be able to hold skills. The other was just a piece of scrap.
They would accomplish the same effect by waving around a twig in their offhand.
Dual Blade changed that by making both swords main weapons. Not to mention the other skills that could be unlocked, just being able to deal true damage with both hands was a massive boon.
It could also have been a curse, if Kirito and Yuuki weren't so damn good at fighting. Using two swords was no simple thing. Many players in Aincrad had tried, if only because they thought it looked cool, and not just a few had died because they ended up knocking their own weapons out of their hands or losing their balance.
All that was to say, there was something truly and utterly special about Dual Blade. It wasn't an Unique Skill for nothing.
And Kirito wasn't sensing that special-ness from Viper, no matter how skilled the Laughing Coffin killer was with his two jagged daggers.
Still, as he parried a dagger with his left sword amd thrust with his right, scoring a gash across Viper's ribs, Kirito was sure the red player wasn't just posturing by using two blades. Both of his daggers dealt true damage, and Viper had used skills with either.
"It's not Dual Blade. What is it? What are you doing?"
The swordsman frowned at Viper, retracting his swords just to launch a simple, yet effective, combo of Horizontal with his left, Vertical with the right, and Linear with the left again.
Viper scowled at him from under his hood, the haughty mockery and laughter long gone from his voice and face. That's what tended to happen when, despite catching them by surprise and trying your damn hardest to kill them, your opponent still had nearly 3 times as much HP as you.
"Fuck you, Beater."
"Okay."
Kirito was long since past being affected by such childish taunts. If he could ignore actual players calling him a Beater, he certainly wasn't going to be fazed by a monster saying it.
The Black Swordsman jumped forward with a Savage Fulcrum, then immediately swung his left sword in a normal attack, knocking Viper's right dagger aside.
Kirito's dual use of long swords, something that would be inherently impractical, if not impossible in the outside world, gave him a major advantage over Viper: reach. The sword-user's attacks would, a 100 times out of a 100, reach Viper first. All Kirito had to do was stretch his arm with his swords pointing forward, and the red player would need to Impale himself on it if he wanted to have any hopes of landing a blow on the Reaver.
Of course, skill could bridge that gap. If Viper was against a newbie who didn't know how to swing a sword right, he could have won.
Kirito was as far from someone like that as you could get.
"Argghhh!"
A desperate attempt at a thrust saw Viper's left dagger flying off, still gripped tightly by his fingers, which were, in turn... detached... from his hand by one of Dual Blade's skills, Cross Slash.
As Kirito watched the dagger spin on the ground and be lost amidst the slugfest that the raid had become, the Laughing Coffin executive glared angrily at the red stumps where all the fingers but the thumb on his left hand had been, something clicked.
"It's your weapon, isn't it? It's just one dagger... That can split in two. That's why you can dual-wield. It's still just one weapon in the system's view."
Viper looked down and scowled, not that the Reaver could see it under his hood. Then he clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Tch. You have good eyes, Black Swordsman."
Kirito blinked at the snarled-out compliment. Then he shook his head and assumed the starting stance for Sonic Leap.
"Any chance I could get you to drop it before you die? Our blacksmith would love to study it."
He expected Viper to curse him or laugh or react in outrage like any of the other red players. It gave Kirito pause when the other man seemed to actually consider it.
"This was a drop from a hidden boss in the 21st floor labyrinth, Black Swordsman. Do you really think the Forge Master could replicate it?"
Kirito lowered his swords, still very much ready to jump into a skill of needed. But Viper had his guard entirely open as he stared at the Reaver from under his hood.
"If anyone can do it, it's Liz."
"Hum. And you do have the Dragon Tamer as a dagger-user. I guess that's better than letting it fade with me."
Kirito blinked again, this time in astonishment. Surely Viper didn't mean-
"Alright. Here you go."
The red player threw his remaining dagger over to Kirito, and the swordsman dodged and let it clang to the ground, just in case it was a hoax. But nothing more happened other than Viper raising his good hand.
"Fuck it, I surrender."
"Surrender? You?"
"Yeah. I never liked that son of a bitch PoH anyway. What's gonna be, Black Swordsman? Do you accept my surrender, or are ya just gonna cut me down?"
Kirito was tempted, sorely so. Viper was one of Laughing Coffin's executives, a red player with dozens of kills to his belt.
And yet, killing him in cold blood wasn't something Kirito thought he could do. If Viper tried to trick and attack him, then sure. But with the other player so clearly giving up?
Maybe it was stupid. It surely was hypocritical. Kirito hadn't had any problems with Drifter killing Red-Eyed XaXa even after the other player surrendered.
But it was still different. While both XaXa and Viper were undoubtedly monsters... XaXa was the monster Kirito had known. Who sometimes, still, visited his nightmares.
Viper... Wasn't XaXa. In the end it all boiled down to that.
"To the Corridor Crystal. Walk. And hands raised. Lower them or take one step in another direction and you die."
The red player obediently turned around, seemingly uncaring about Kirito's sword poking his back. With his HP in the red, it would take less than a second for the Reaver to slay him - and it would be even quicker for him to kill himself in the frontliner's blade, but somehow Viper didn't think that would affect the younger man much.
"Heh. See you around, Black Swordsman."
To Kirito's stunned surprise, Viper stepped through the Corridor Crystal to Black Iron Palace without any trouble, only turning at the last second to smirk at the Reaver. Kirito shook his head.
"No. No, you won't."
Then Reaver's Requiem's Black Swordsman threw himself back into the fight, not forgetting to pick up Viper's former weapon.
----------------------
PoH was in hell. But it was a hell of his own making, and quite masterfully so.
So many people! So much death!
And all created at his hand. A carefully crafted masterpiece of sinful desires and shattered morals.
Everywhere he looked, players were killing each other. And, to his surprise, it were the frontliners who were doing most of the dying.
Honestly, seeing the high and mighty Assault Team struggling so much against the haphazard bunch of psychos he had thrown together had PoH wondering how they even managed to get this far in Aincrad.
Like, even now, about 45 minutes after the fabled raid started - which he definitely knew about beforehand thanks to his spies, and which he prepared a trap for that the Assault Team also definitely knew about - there were still so many of them hesitating to kill the Laughing Coffin members.
It wasn't even as if they were all trying to arrest the red players - although there was a fair number who was. No, the vast majority of them hesitated because they apparently couldn't stomach the thought of taking a life.
And they were dying for it.
PoH really didn't understand. Sure, he was a psychopath, but there were plenty of people who weren't and who wet their hands with blood when necessary.
He had expected more of an effort from the frontliners. They risked their lives daily to climb Aincrad, but when the biggest obstacle in all of SAO's history stood before them, they hesitated for something so inane as killing.
To be honest, PoH was disappointed. Luckily, there were some amongst the Assault Team who seemed to understand him.
Reaver's Requiem was the prime example, of course. Broken Spear Drifter had always shown himself to be ruthless, but it seemed XaXa's actions had spurred that same mean streak in the rest of the Reavers.
Black Swordsman Kirito, Lightning Flash Asuna, Merchant Warrior Agil, Aero Huntress Sinon, Dark Elf Kizmel, and, of course, the spearmaster himself had all claimed lives today, witnessed by PoH's own eyes.
And those were just the ones he knew the names of and had seen. Unbeknownst to the red guild leader, Precise Blade Ran, Untamed Storm Yuuki, Wolv, and Griselda had all killed Laughing Coffin members too.
"Oof. That's gotta hurt. Shishishishi!"
He had to add Indomitable Knight Nautilus to that count. He had just seen Camer's head fly, severed by the ash-haired Reaver's Blade.
But the Reavers, despite being the most proponent, weren't the only ones who had cast their doubts and morals aside. Redblade Klein, Hero Orlando, Dragon Knight Lind, Chessmaster Shivata, guild leader Ambros, and members of all their guilds had also gotten a taste of blood.
Holy Sword Heathcliff in particular seemed to be completely at ease in the slaughter, as evidenced by the fact Atrax was nowhere to be seen, while the grey-haired KoB guild leader had just impaled a red player through the heart without a change in expression.
And then, of course, there was her. Shadow Blossom Akari. PoH's lips twisted in a sickening smile as he carved a Fuumaningum player in half, catching the sexy role-player's attention.
"PoH."
Truly, it was incredible how much hatred she managed to convey in those three simple letters.
PoH's grin widened.
"So you are the pretty little flower who's been giving me so much trouble over the last months. Heh. Why don't you take off that mask? I like to see the face of who I'm killing. Especially one as pretty as you. Shishishi."
He licked his lips as he spoke, and Akari's own curled in disgust under her mask. But she kept her cool, knowing that PoH was trying to provoke her.
It was more effective than she liked to admit. Fuumaningum had been hanging to the edges of the battle, their talents much more suited for striking lone Laughing Coffin members who strayed from the meele, or ambushing low HP red players and killing them before they could react.
But, about 15 minutes into the battle, it became clear that Fuumaningum weren't the only ones hunting.
PoH had taken a lot of pleasure in stalking around the meele, cutting down frontliners with his giant cleaver when he had the chance, but all the while gunning specifically for the ninjas who had clashed with his guild so many times over the past year. Already, he had killed 4 of them.
And Shadow Blossom Akari would be the fifth.
"Die!"
Their first clash was fast, and incredibly deadly. Only two skills were exchanged, and PoH had to give props to Akari for not buckling under the force of the weapon buried in the flesh between her shoulder and neck.
That she then proceeded to stab at his neck with her dagger, wiping nearly a fifth of his HP? Astounding, and arousing.
But not enough, unfortunately.
"Ugh!"
PoH kicked Akari in the gut - smirking when she still managed to leave two cuts in his arm as he did it - and watched her somersault away from him and land standing, eyes glaring venomously at him, and a hand holding the injury on her shoulder.
An injury which wasn't closing even after a few seconds, unlike most that happened in SAO. Red flakes fell off the large cut, and Akari's health was slowly but steadily ticking down.
Black smoke rose from the wound, flowing in a wispy stream towards PoH's cleaver. Akari swiped at it with her dagger, but all it did was dissipate for less than a second before reforming.
"What is this!?"
She snarled, and PoH smiled at her, far too many teeth showing to be considered friendly.
"This? Oh, nothing much. Just Darkness Blade. My Unique Skill."
There was no need to hide it, it wasn't like anyone could steal a Unique Skill. And the absolute astonished and dumbfounded look Akari wore was more than worth it. Especially when she noticed his HP recovering at a far faster rate than the Battlefield Recovery skill allowed.
"How could a monster like you have a Unique Skill!?"
"You will have to take that up with Kayaba. Personally, I like to think it's my reward."
Akari's face took on a guarded expression, but she couldn't not ask.
"Reward for what?"
"Why, for making his game more interesting, of course! Shishishishishishi!"
Akari's eyes widened briefly before narrowing again as she shook her head to empty it of all distractions. She couldn't let PoH get into her head.
Just before she could charge him again, however, something happened that made both of them turn their heads, one in curiosity, and the other in surprise and a little anger.
A spear had embedded itself in the ground in front of them. The shaft was shaking slightly, in resonance with its owner, whose's voice thundered with fury, enough to halt the entire battle.
"Enough!"