"Hng."

Jumping backwards, the mage raised his staff and blocked the kick sent towards him, creating a shower of sparks. Attempting to counter attack, he stabbed his staff forward, only to meet the dagger of the white cladded attacker. Pushing his offense forward, the dagger user spun the daggers in his hands and spun around, sending two slashes and a kick in succession. However, the mage managed to defend himself, blocking the attacks with his staff and sending out a palm thrust in return and sent the Dual Blade flying back.

Taking advantage of the brief reprieve, the Battle Mage assumed a stance and started charging up energy within his staff, making a circle of light appear around him. When the staff started glowing a dark purple, he swung the staff forward and quickly summoned two dark orbs between the Dual Blade, activating the skill «Dark Shock» . Creating an extremely powerful magnetic field between them, a purple lightning bolt appeared between the two orbs which would had struck the blade user had he not dived to the side, allowing him to avoid the magnetic blast.

Performing a «Flash Jump» towards the mage, the two fighters engaged in close combat again, this time their attacks matching blow by blow. As the sounds of weapons clashing against each other rang through the room, the two did not let up on their blows.

Tilting his head to one side, the Battle Mage managed to dodge the fist sent towards his face, only to realise too late that it was a feint as the other fist came up and landed on his face. The punch sent the mage stumbling backwards, leaving him disorientated. While the mage tried to regain his bearings, the Dual blade took the chance and leapt high into the air. Using the gravity from falling forward, he delivered a spinning kick to the side of the mage's head, sending the mage flying sideways and straight into a wall. The wall collapsed from the impact, sending dust flying everywhere.

Crawling out from under the rubble, the Battle Mage groaned. That attack did a lot of damage to his body even with «Blue Aura» buffing up his defence. This showed of the attack power his opponent possesses. Weakly reaching for his staff, the mage attempted to push himself up. As the dust cloud started to clear, he could make out a silhouette of his attacker slowly moving towards him. There were no footsteps; his opponent was part of the «Thief» branch after all.

As the Dual Blade got closer and closer, the Battle Mage tried to buy some time for him to recover his breath by asking the one question that has been plaguing him ever since the start of the battle.

"Why are you doing this? What do you stand to gain from all this?"

The Dual Blade gave the mage a hateful look.

"Why? You want to know why? You know the answer yourself so tell me."

All the mage could do was to smile; he did know why after all so there was no need to play innocent.

"It seems my time has come after all, hasn't it."

It was not a question.

"Red Eye Xa-Xa, for being a member of the PK guild «Laughing Coffin», and the killing of 27 innocent players… I herby arres…"

*CRASH*

The Dual Blade never got to finish his statement as a loud crash interrupted him. Something had broken through the wall to his right. Turning his head, the Dual Blade's eyes widened as bullets started flying towards him. Setting his blades into motion, he activated the skill «Fatal Blow», blocking the barrage of bullets with his blades.

Leaping through the hole in the wall was a mecha with someone piloting it. The newcomer did not let up on his «Gatling Gun», continuing to launch a barrage of bullets towards the Dual Blade. However, after seeing that his attack wasn't doing any damage, he decided to take a different approach. Locking on to his target, he moved his two joysticks in a seemly random manner and activated the skill «Punch Launcher», firing a rocket propelled fist towards his target.

Seeing the rocket fist coming towards him, the Dual Blade knew there was no way he could cancel out the projectile without leaving himself vulnerable. Formulating a plan, he dashed forward towards the fist, beginning the first of a two-step skill. Retaining his momentum, he performed a slide under the metal fist and continued his dash towards the Mechanic.

Seemingly performing a back flip, the Dual Blade brought both his legs forward, becoming horizontal in the air. Spinning at high speeds, he activated the skill «Tornado Spin», sending the drilling kick towards the robot.

However, this was for naught as the Mechanic only turned his robot's other fist into a drill and performed a jet assisted dash, the skill «ME-07 Drillhands» clashing with the «Tornado Spin». Soon recovering the rocket fist he fired, he turned it into another drill and engaged his opponent in close combat, drill clashing against blades.

Being engrossed in combating the Mechanic, the Dual Blade did not notice when Kuradeel «Teleport» right behind him delivering «Finishing Blow» onto his back, the purple glowing staff striking six consecutive times. Caught off guard from the sneak attack, the Dual Blade cried out in shock, which was quickly silenced when the Mechanic sent the drills into his stomach and sent him flying back into a wall, causing the wall to collapse onto him.

"You're late Johnny."

"Sorry, I got a bit held up."

Looking towards the fallen Dual Blade, the two members of «Laughing Coffin» grinned.

"It seems that you are outnumbered, Kirito-sama, now what are you going to do now?"

"Not even you could take on two level 130 opponents at once, even though you are at level 135."

Pushing himself up, the Dual Blade known as Kirito dusted himself off. Glancing at his two opponents, he decided to answer them.

"I don't have to take you down by myself; all I need to do is to hold out until my backup arrives."

Taking a stance, he placed both his weapons in front of him and prepared for battle.

The both of his opponents did the same.

"Oh, we will be sure to kill you long before they even reach here."

Before the battle could commence, a voice spoke.

"Two on one, that's not very fair isn't it? How about I step in and make this battle more equal?"

Stepping out from the shadows, the owner of the voice appeared. Wielding an intricately designed polearm, the newcomer is shown as a female. Pushing her snow white hair out of her eyes, she swung the heavy looking polearm easily with one hand, speaking of her «STR» stats, and placed it onto her shoulder.

"Sorry I'm late Kirito-kun, I would have gotten here earlier if Maha haven't decided to keep giving me wrong directions."

"Look I said I'm sorry already, will you please stop it!"

The polearm sprit known as Maha whined.

"That's ok Asuna, so long that you are here, we can now bring these guys in."

"Oh what is this, first Kirito-sama the «The White Flash» and now Asuna-sama the «Pride of All Warriors» coming to take down little old us? We should be honoured, right Johnny?"

"Your right, but that doesn't mean we are going to be taken just like that, it's time we take our leave."

Pulling out a «Hyper Teleport Rock», the Mechanic known as Johnny Black grinned.

"Goodbye Kirito-sama and Asuna-sama."

"Oh no you don't!"

Activating «Combat Step», Asuna dashed towards the two Red Players in a burst of speed, leaving behind an afterimage, with bright streaks of blue energy depicting the direction she moved in. Swinging Maha, the heavy polearm cut through the «Hyper Teleport Rock», destroying the rock, cutting off their escape. Following the next step in the 4-hit combo, she quickly teleported between two short distances back and forth once with a sweeping motion, the «Double Swing» knocking the two players apart from each other, separating them. Turning towards the Battle mage, she performed the third-hit, jumping up in the air with the a speed barely traceable to the trained eye and slamming down the heavy polearm with such force that could be felt through the entire room, the «Triple Swing» striking against the metal pole of the staff of the Battle Mage as he managed to raise his weapon in a futile attempt to defend himself. A shockwave burst out between the two opponents, the effects of Asuna's third hit could be seen as cracks appeared in the floor beneath Kuradeel's feet.

However, Asuna was not finished. Raising Maha up in the air, she activated the final step of the combo, «Final Blow», Conjuring up a frightening clear image of a huge, enraged luminescent polar bear slamming both of its paws down onto the Battle Mage and completely breaking through whatever defence he had, blowing him away.

While this was happening, Kirito took the chance then Asuna separated the two PKers and used «Flash Jump», closing the distance between himself and Johnny, his dual-daggers lashing out towards the pilot. Attempting to stop the attack, the mechanic merged his mech's hands together and raised them high up in the air, utilizing the powerful one-hit skill «Atomic Hammer» , the now hammer propelled by rocket power slamming down with tremendous force, the shockwave throwing Kirito off course and hitting the hammer instead.

Deciding his only means of escape was through the roof, Johnny activated his «Rocket Booster», and launched himself up into the air, breaking through the ceiling, thinking that Kirito would not be able to follow him. However, he had underestimated Kirito's increased «Jump» and «Speed» stats from the «Self Haste» buff, as the Dual Blade easily chased after him by leaping through the hole in the celling, once more engaging each other in close combat, this time in mid-air.

Back with Asuna, her fight was getting really one-sided, seeing all Xa-Xa could do was to keep blocking her attacks and trying to tire her out before counter-attacking, which would have worked for most other players but not for her. Her «Legendary» character had a passive skill called «Combo Ability», which increases in count after every consecutive hit, strengthening all of her stats the longer the battle goes on. All Kuradeel was doing was allowing Asuna to get stronger and more powerful as time went by. Deciding to end the battle, she swung Maha in an upwards motion, activating «Final Toss» right after finishing «Triple Swing», completing the four-hit combo and lifted Xa-Xa high up into the air and straight through the roof.

*OOF* *AHHHH* *CRASH*

Only for him to fall straight back down through the same hole, only bringing along his buddy for the ride. Asuna sweat dropped.

"I didn't think I would be that lucky…"

"She shoots, she scores!"

"Shut up Maha."

Landing back onto the ground, Kirito looked at the two unconscious players lying in a heap on the ground, with the rather heavy mech on top of the mage.

"Well that was rather anti climatic."

"That's what she said!"

"Silence Maha, or I will make you listen to Nyancat again."

"NO! NOT THE NYAN! MAKE IT STOP!"

The polearm sprit went mad at the thought of being left with the «Poptart Cat» mob. Sighing at Maha antics, Asuna pulled out a «Teleport Rock» and activated it.

"I guess it's time to bring them in. Want to do the honour Kirito-kun?"

"Nah, you were the one who took them down, go ahead, I already told «The Knights» to prepare for their arrival already."

The «The Knights», was a guild consisting of players who taken the path of the «Knights of Cygnus», and was the main «Police Force» of the «Maple World». Sacrificing «Potential» and «Versatility» in return for «Rate of Growth», they were once the largest «Clearing Group» until it became apparent that despite being much stronger than other players at the same level, they have a much lower «Level Cap», meaning they will be forever stuck at level 120.

Unless they were willing to undergo an extremely hard chain of quests and rebirth as a level 50 «Ultimate Explorers», retaining some of their original «Cygnus Skills», they could not hope to match up to the other «Classes», who had a higher «Level Cap» at level 200. Since most players were unwilling to go through the quest, which has a high death rate, they decided to retire from the «Frontlines» after the disastrous «Liberation of Mu Lung», where they lost nearly one hundred players after some idiot decided to rally up some players and invaded «Mu Lung» with a four hundred strong army without any planning, and focus their efforts on keeping peace in lower levelled places with their overwhelming numbers, which would deter even high levelled players like Asuna and himself.

"«Teleport:Ereve»"

As the one way «Teleport Rock» took the two members of «Laughing Coffin» to their new home, Asuna turned to Kirito.

"Shall we be off Kirito-Kun?"

"First to kill 200 «Blue Dragon Turtle» gets treated to dinner by the loser?"

Giving the best challenging look he could muster, Kirito gave a look which basically said "Think you could beat me?"

Asuna grinned.

"You're on!"

Activating their respective speed «Skills», both players left the abandoned shack and disappeared back into the maze like forests of «Leafre» and into the mobs that inhabited the forests, the sunset-red sky turning the scenery a beautiful orange.