The Nameless Sword struck the cross-shaped shield.
The moment the impact sent a signal back to his arm, Lin Yuan decided on his next move.
He released his right hand, letting the hilt slide halfway around his palm, and caught it from below with his left hand. The blade, which had been drawn outward by the shield, suddenly dipped and swept past the bottom of the cross shield.
Kayaba retreated, his longsword aimed straight at Lin Yuan's chest.
If using " No Interval ", one should use the recoil to turn back from the right; if continuing with " All Things Return to One ", one should step out in the arc of the chain-blade monster.
Lin Yuan did nothing to help.
He only turned his body to the side when the sword tip was almost upon him.
The longsword grazed past his clothes, and " Nameless " came to a stop in a position that did not belong to any sword technique.
The next sword strike will begin from there.
There was no starting move, no combo. The next sword strike would appear from the same spot where the previous one ended; how Kayaba defended determined how Lin Yuan would strike next.
The cross shield was a fraction of a second too slow the first time.
The Nameless crossed the edge of the shield, leaving a thin mark on the red armor.
Kayaba immediately swung his sword to counterattack. Lin Yuan parried with his sword, his body turning to the left along with the impact, but halfway through the turn he suddenly abandoned the attempt to use the momentum to strike, and bent down to get close to the shield.
The sword's edge pierced through Kayaba's ribs.
A second wound appeared.
The players frozen in the surrounding area couldn't make a sound, but their eyes followed the sword's every move. They couldn't see the familiar swordplay or find any repeating patterns.
Kirito saw things more clearly than the others.
Lin Yuan's movements were not simply chaotic. Each choice was appropriate for the distance, angle, and force at that moment, but only for that instant. Once the collision ended, even Lin Yuan himself would immediately abandon the sword path he had just followed.
It cannot be repeated, nor can it be rehearsed.
" No Form " is Lin Yuan's name for this state.
The Kayaba has been in continuous decline.
The third sword grazed the shoulder armor, and the fourth sword pierced the side of the waist. The surface of the red armor lit up with flashes of light indicating that it had been struck, and HP began to decrease visibly for the first time.
The fifth sword pierced through the gap in the cross shield before it could react in time.
Kayaba's actions suddenly accelerated.
Fine red data patterns swept across the armor, and the cross shield, which had already deviated, almost skipped the middle of the process, instantly blocking in front of " Nameless ".
The sixth sword strike was also blocked.
Lin Yuan's sword still had no trajectory, but Kayaba stopped moving in advance. He abandoned the idea of blocking the sword's path based on the records, and simply left his shield in front of him, waiting to react after the attack actually occurred.
But that's beyond the reaction speed players can achieve.
Frozen Kirito stared intently at Kayaba. As the player with the fastest reaction time among all players, he knew better than anyone the limits of what players could achieve. The movement of that shield just now was not a normal action— Kayaba was invoking administrator privileges, allowing the system to assist him in accelerating his movements.
The sword slashed towards the left shoulder, and the shield moved to the left shoulder as well.
The sword suddenly turned and thrust, and the longsword met the sword tip from behind the shield.
The Holy Sword no longer attempted to reach Lin Yuan's finish line prematurely. The system's acceleration bought Kayaba extra reaction time, allowing him to wait until the finish line was truly formed before sealing it off.
The clanging of metal grew more and more frequent.
Lin Yuan was unable to repeat any of his attacks, and Kayaba was unable to preemptively block any of his sword strikes. Their weapons clashed repeatedly in the center of the hall, with occasional sword blades passing through the defenses, but only leaving shallow marks on the armor that were insufficient to determine the outcome.
Kayaba's longsword also crossed " Nameless " several times.
One wound appeared on Lin Yuan's arm, and another cut across his waist.
Blood fell, but the wound wasn't replaced by the HP bar, nor was the system automatically restricting pain. Yet, every time Kayaba tried to expand his advantage, Lin Yuan would temporarily change his sword path in the next clash, bringing the situation back to square one.
Ten minutes.
Twenty minutes.
No one in the Ruby Palace could count how many times the two swords clashed.
Kayaba's HP dropped by less than Issei.
Lin Yuan's breathing was already heavier than before.
"I see." Kayaba blocked a sudden, deflected horizontal slash. "You sacrificed the completion of your sword technique in exchange for a process that can never be recorded. With my original speed alone, I certainly couldn't have blocked it."
The shield was pushed forward, and Lin Yuan used the momentum to retreat.
"As long as you yourself don't know the next strike, the system naturally can't find the answer for me."
Kayaba did not pursue, but simply held his cross shield horizontally in front of him again.
But you still have to wield your sword.
Lin Yuan looked at the shield.
"Your sword needs to traverse distances, it needs to consume time, and it needs to pass through every coordinate in this world before reaching me."
"As long as these things don't change, I have a chance to stop it."
This is a problem that " No Form " cannot solve.
It can make Kayaba unpredictable, but it cannot make the cross shield disappear into thin air.
The battle continued. Kayaba couldn't grasp the trajectory of " No Form," and Lin Yuan couldn't overcome the final defense of the Holy Sword. However, Kayaba possessed a body constructed from the system, while Lin Yuan's blood was real.
The stalemate itself meant that Lin Yuan would lose.
He charged forward again.
" Nameless " struck from an angle that Kayaba could not have predicted, only to be blocked once again by the reacting cross shield.
Blinding sparks erupted between the sword and shield.
Lin Yuan could see Kayaba's eyes from less than an arm's length away.
For the first time, I clearly felt that what was blocking my way might not be just that shield.
There's also the distance the sword's edge must traverse.