The moment Nautilus regained his composure, Morte's playfulness disappeared as he took his opponent seriously.
'Tsk. From his stance, I can tell that he's definitely trained. He's not a normal player...'
Curious as to why the person in front of his became composed, he looked at the singer's direction, only to regret it the next second.
'H-he's... Shit, shit! Fuck!'
Morte started shivering subconsciously, making Nautilus extremely confused. Not only that, he started muttering something, too.
"T-that m-monster... Fuck, what is he doing here?!"
"Monster?"
"I-I don't have time to deal with brats like you..!"
Agitated, he rushed straight at Nautilus, swinging his axe at his way. Being professionally trained, Nautilus didn't get intimidated and countered each of his strikes perfectly.
Dang-! Dang-!
Clang-! Clang-!
Sparks flew out as their metallic weapons crashed repeatedly. There are times when Morte used his small circular shield to block Nautilus' sword strikes.
Suddenly, Morte threw his one-handed axe straight at his face. Once Nautilus deflected it, Morte already changed to his second and true set of weapons, the one-handed sword.
Sword Art Online never restricted the use of weapons without their possessed weapon skills, but one cannot use sword skills in this case. Morte used this to catch his opponents off-guard once he wields his sword.
By creating this gap, he managed to trick many players and created a gap within their defense. These players only ended in one way, and that is death.
Swooosh-!
Nautilus managed to narrowly avoid the sword thrust, in turn giving him a chance to cut off Morte's right arm. He did so by cutting it downwards diagonally.
Swooosh-! Thud-!
"FUCK!"
His right arm that is still holding his one-handed sword fell to the ground. Even though he can't feel pain from this, the despair that's been eating his mind made him suffer far worse than feeling it.
"Surrender now. This is your last chance." Nautilus said to Morte with a fear-stricken face.
"F-fine! Just, get me out of this place, now!"
"No, that'll be for later. We only have a few corridor crystals."
"Shit!"
Clink-!
The metallic cuffs made a clicking sound as it restrained both of his arms. Nautilus gave him an HP Potion to regenerate his lost arm back by removing his <<Body Part Loss>> status.
This made him more desperate, however. Just as he is about to persuade Nautilus once again, he saw the masked player coming towards their direction.
His fear became more evident when the masked player earlier approached Nautilus from behind.
"Hey, Eiji-kun."
"Sensei."
A smooth and clear voice came out from him, forming a sharp contrast as to how he is being treated as a "monster" by Morte.
"Hm... You must be the guy, no?"
"N-no! I don't know what you're talking about!" Morte vehemently denied him with a tinge of calmness, but it's another thing when it comes to his mind.
'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Don't give me to that crazy fucker!' He thought.
"It's definitely you. Shino remembered each of your faces, alright." The masked man mumbled as thoughts passed through his mind quickly. In the end, he smiled under his mask and decided what to do with him.
"Sensei, what's the matter?"
"How should I say this... This guy is the leader of the ones responsible for torturing my friend. He almost killed her if not for her luck."
"...You trash."
Hearing this, Nautilus' neutral attitude to him turned for the worst. Not only did they kill, but they also tortured other players before doing so!
That is simply despicable in his eyes.
He'd only heard about their notoriousness after he finished his training half a year ago, and that was the time when the guild went into hiding.
'If I didn't have the power, would this have happened to me? Worse, Yuna will be targeted by them...' He thought.
"Can you hand him over to me?"
The masked player, Shiro, asked.
"Ah?"
For a brief moment, he didn't know why Shiro wanted this guy's custody. That is, until he realized the underlying meaning behind his words.
Nautilus, or also known as Eiji, knew about this sensei of his for almost a year now. He also knew about how he saved others from Laughing Coffin members, but also on how he chooses to kill them every time he does so.
These rumors resulted in the player base having two sides: Supporting him from doing so and Disagreeing on what he'd done.
The former admires his actions and deems Shiro as a hero, while the latter condones his actions for killing those criminals when they could've been judged by the law outside.
Be that as it may, even Eiji views the latter as plain stupid. Why bother judging them in the outside world when they couldn't even clear this game? If they didn't have enough strength, they would only get killed.
Shiro could also be considered as saving more lives that might've been victims of Laughing Coffin, or so they say.
"Alright."
"W-wait! What you're doing is illegal! It's murder!"
"So you know what'll happen, eh?" Shiro nonchalantly replied to him. However, it only made him look more terrifying in his eyes.
Seeing this, Eiji only felt more detest to this guy. He said, "What a hypocrite. You killed many before, and now you want to be judged by the law?"
Morte can only panic internally as he thought of more excuses. Unfortunately, Shiro wouldn't give him more time.
"I'll be leaving, then. Right, remember one of the lessons that I taught you? About morals?"
"Yes. It's about giving a compass to when and where to use your strength."
"That's it." Shiro nodded, satisfied on Eiji's answer. If Moonlit Black Cats are the pure ones, Eiji is the more logical one. If the need for killing comes one day, he would do it - just for his loved one.
In this case, it's Yuna, his childhood friend.
"Take note that you'll be the one reining in your power, not the other way around. If the latter happens..."
"I would only hurt the people that I care for."
After that short conversation, Shiro left. They made it look like that Eiji got thrown away by an attack of a Laughing Coffin member so that Shiro can properly take hold of the noisy guy.
To be honest, he doesn't expect this words of his to have an immediate effect on Eiji. Rather, he would like for this thinking to slowly bud on his mind. Since he taught Eiji for almost a year, he knew the right paths for him.
Heck, he even asked Roman and Kouzuki in this regard since they can be considered as teachers, too.
However, the final say is still on Eiji. Shiro's teachings only serve as a guide - an auxiliary support. It can only point out directions, not force him in one.
"Let me go! You bastard, you're dead meat!"
Shiro didn't seemed fazed at this threats as he asked, "I'm curious. Why am I dead meat?"
"Haha, you don't know just how crazy he is!"
Morte laughed out loudly as he kept being dragged in the floor by Shiro. Thankfully, he wasn't noticed by the many due to how chaotic this battlefield is. Moreover, he moved so fast that only a black blur can be seen. Although, bringing along a screaming murderer reduced his stealth.
That's why a select few saw him.
"Is it him..?"
"That white mask. It's him, the White Hero!"
Coincidentally, the players started calling him as such due to his signature equipment, his plain white mask. Though, some seeing his fair white skin as well as his hair also contributed to this.
"Stop right there!"
Unfortunately, someone troublesome noticed his actions.
"Where are you bringing him? Their imprisonment are the jurisdiction of KoB."
Her signature ivory rapier wielded on her right hand, her attractiveness, and her lightning fast rapier skills earned her the epithet-
"More importantly, why are you here?"
-the Lightning Flash.
*****
Fact #27: In Terra, the Sarkaz has the best resistance against originum, yet they're also the most susceptible on being infected. It wasn't explained why, but their prowess is something that every country is wary against. It's to the point that they wouldn't give their fallen country another chance to rise. The Sarkaz's greatest advantage lies on their great arts affinity, thus making them as good combatants. This is also the reason why many hire Sarkaz mercenaries. Last thing, their last king almost dominated the entirety of Terra (he already had half of it before) but died.
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I know this is a weird place to drop fanfic review but I wanna see if the author would respond to it so...
1. The fighting scenes don't interest me that much so I just skim through them. But that might just be me so I'm not gonna comment on them.
2. I think the "Chat" function is not properly exploited here. "Chat group" is where you can get the most laughs from due to the various and different people in it, usually leading to hilarious and absurd moments because they always steer the conversations away from the main points. Primary examples are Cultivation Chat Group (1987 translated chapters on novelfull, 1186 remaining chapters in raw) and Nightmare Fantasy Online (88 chapters on Scribblehub)
This is hard to fix because the author designed the Chat Group for a close small group instead of a vast and loose group. The only ways I can think of are either creating a 'separate' chat group that follows the adventures of the members of the main chat group, or invite 'guests' to the main chat group, who can chat and share knowledge with the main members, but have no access to other worlds.
That is just my personal opinion. I'm not even sure if this needs fixing cuz it might just mess up the whole fanfic if not done right.
1. For the fight scenes, I'm still experimenting at that time, so I'm quite aware that it's not as interesting as how I wanted it to be. Tho, I think it's good in my opinion...
2. This is natural and according to my plan. Since they're only seven (eight at the current chapters), I chose not to focus much on their Chat Group interactions and decided to flesh them out first. Only when they're more developed will this aspect be more explored. As for the adventures of the Chat Group members, I already have a few planned, and they'll be labelled as "Side Story" with the length of a normal chapter. There's actually much more to explore, so I am having quite the time on balancing them out, such as the time on the main world and the time on the mission worlds. That's why I forgot to put some funny Chat Group interactions every now and then.
Thanks for the review!
@IdleYoungMaster Thanks for replying! I know I should have read further to make a proper review but I usually forget things fast so I wanted to do it when I still could remember what I want to say.
Glad to see that you have proper plans. I'll be eagerly waiting how things turn out then.
This is also the reason why many hire Sarkaz mercenaries.
It's probably a bit of a chicken or the egg issue, but I think the primary reason for this is just their personalities lol, at least during the time of the main story. No clue if they were any more chill in the past.
yey its 69 69 69 69 but no lemons just fighting sigh...
"Good thing I'm not planning to imprison him, lol."