Kendo Champion VS Black Swordsman

Kirito's provocation was clumsy, but Seiya had to admit that he fell for it completely.

Besides, after immersing himself in kendo for more than a decade, it was impossible for Seiya not to be interested in Lord Kirito's swordsmanship in the game.

So, faced with Kirito's provocation, Seiya readily accepted and slowly tightened his grip on the one-handed sword in his hand.

Seeing Seiya accept his challenge, Kirito was quite pleased. After a few quick motions in the air, the two soon entered Fair PK mode.

Under Player versus Player mode, neither combatant suffered a death penalty, and the time limit was three minutes.

If one side's HP Bar was emptied, or if time ran out, the side with more HP remaining won.

Watching Seiya and Kirito suddenly enter PK mode without any warning, Klein at the side became extremely excited as well.

Compared to the dull monster hunting from earlier, the PK match between Kirito and Seiya gave him a far more direct sense of the game's appeal.

After all, neither of these two were ordinary people!

One was a "Beater" player from the game's beta test, while the other was a Kendo Championship winner blessed by the game itself.

Although both of them were low-level right now, this was undoubtedly a clash between masters.

Aside from the broadly usable skills, many of Sword Art Online's system sword skills required prerequisites.

For example, one's level and proficiency with one-handed or two-handed swords had to reach a certain threshold.

Thus, Kirito did not actually have many skills available to him at the moment.

But he had nothing to complain about. Compared with him, who had already mastered the game during the beta test, Seiya currently knew absolutely nothing about system sword skills.

Perhaps Seiya's combat experience and sword techniques from the Real World could generate original skills in this world.

But Kirito did not believe that, with Seiya's current level and attributes, he could execute all of those sword techniques.

Seiya might be strong, but he had not yet fully gotten the hang of this game. Kirito, on the other hand, had played for a whole month during the beta test. That was where his advantage lay.

Kicking off the ground with one foot, a fierce gust swept around Kirito's heel. Almost the instant the countdown ended, his body shot toward Seiya!

"Sprint," one of Sword Art Online's universal skills, allowed every class to charge a short distance.

Unlike his personality in reality, Kirito was a thoroughgoing attacker in the game.

Thus, almost the moment the fight began, Kirito took the initiative and attacked first, intending to drag the battle straight into his rhythm.

With Sprint activated, Kirito's speed was comparable to that of a sprinting champion in the Real World. In only a few breaths, he had already rushed before Seiya.

The speed he displayed was far greater than that of the Raging Boar from earlier.

Moreover, when using Sprint, the body would normally enter a brief period of stiffness, commonly known in games as skill startup or recovery.

Yet Kirito used a skill-switching maneuver to directly reduce the recovery caused by Sprint.

As he rushed before Seiya, the one-handed sword in his hand came crashing down.

Diagonal Slash!

This was also a basic Sword Art Online sword skill, but after being linked with Sprint, Kirito's Diagonal Slash was stronger than its usual version in both speed and power.

If Klein had been Kirito's opponent right now, the bandana-wearing older brother might have had his neck severed and been instantly killed by that single strike.

"Clang—!"

But against Seiya, Kirito was clearly not going to have his way so easily.

A sound like a great bell being struck echoed across the grasslands as Kirito's slashing one-handed sword was firmly blocked by Seiya's horizontally held blade.

After using Sword Art Online's "Weapon Parry" to block Kirito's attack, Seiya swiftly twisted his blade and thrust it straight at Kirito's head.

Kirito tilted his head slightly. The sword tip shot past his ear on a gust of wind, carrying away several strands of black hair.

Soon, the swords in their hands seemed to turn into streams of light as they launched into an extremely rapid close-quarters exchange in midair!

The collision of their swords sent showers of sparks flying, while Klein, watching from the side, was completely dumbfounded.

Looking at Seiya and Kirito fighting, then at the battered longsword in his own hand, he suddenly felt as though he was not even playing the same game as these two!

How should he put it? They were all low-level characters, and the sword skills Seiya and Kirito were using were basic universal skills like Diagonal Slash, Thrust, Vertical Chop, and so on.

Yet the very same skills he could use somehow looked incredibly impressive in Klein's eyes right now.

They were still the same skills, but in different hands, they became completely different.

Seiya and Kirito were evenly matched in their high-speed close-quarters battle. Klein could see that both of their HP Bars were dropping at a visible rate.

As far as injuries went, Seiya had taken more damage, as he had yet to adapt to Sword Art Online.

And he had to admit that Kirito's reaction speed in the game was fucking insane!

In real-world kendo matches, one's reactions could be fast enough, but the body might not be able to keep up with the brain, since the flesh had certain limits.

But in a fully immersive virtual game like this, that was not a problem at all. As long as one's reaction speed was fast enough, the controlled character could keep up.

After all, even the entire virtual body was now controlled by the brain. It no longer had much to do with one's original physical condition.

With Kirito's outrageous reactions and reflexes, Seiya's attacks were continuously evaded and neutralized. Meanwhile, Seiya, still not fully adapted, was left stiff and repeatedly injured.

What Seiya did not know was that while he was secretly cursing Kirito's monstrous reaction speed, Kirito was also cursing that Seiya really was a beast.

With his excellent reactions and greater familiarity with the game, Kirito had originally thought he could win quickly.

But what he never expected was for Seiya to be this tenacious!

And although he had suffered far fewer injuries than Seiya, only Kirito himself knew that almost all the damage he took had been weak-point attacks!

Knowing that the situation was unfavorable to him, that bastard Seiya had repeatedly chosen to trade injuries and fight him head-on.

He accepted multiple minor wounds in exchange for one weak-point attack, dealing Kirito considerable damage.

And Kirito also noticed that as the battle dragged on, Seiya's movements were becoming increasingly agile.

That bastard was slowly adapting to the game in the middle of battle!