My HP's in the red, my weapons broken. Lineverse, drunk on his advantage and emotions, chose a devastating skill. A foolish choice.
I flick my wrist, activating my hidden claws from my coat's sleeves. Two dull steel talons parry the claymore, then slash Lineverse's throat.
Two-handed sword skills have longer cooldowns, leaving bigger openings. I attack three times before he recovers.
"Punch me, fine—HP won't drop much. Demand col or items, that's your right. But attacking with a sword skill? You know what that means."
I whisper in his ear, teaching him the consequences of his reckless choice.
"Nooo!" Lineverse screams, survival instinct overtaking honor or vengeance. He swings wildly, but a claymore's range is useless up close. I stick to him, carving away. His HP, unhealed from the boss fight, drops from 40% in seconds.
Sky Pier thrusts his spear to save Lineverse, but hitting me risks hitting his ally. Fear of friendly fire holds him back.
"Stop, Ku! No more… no more killing!" Sinon pleads, her usual bravado gone.
It's an impossible request. Stopping now means my death. Lineverse won't stop.
His HP plummets. The claws, a concealed weapon, are laced with level 1 poison—weak but deadly early on, ticking damage per second.
"Poison!?" Lineverse gasps. "An… antidote…"
His final words. Panicking, he slows, and I slip behind, driving my claws into his back with a back-attack bonus. The poison and strikes overkill his red-zone HP.
Lineverse shatters into crimson-black light, drifting into the virtual void.
That's four kills since DBO began. Smith, still in my party, gets XP and col from Grizzly, Clover, and Lineverse.
His gear and items drop, filling my inventory. Excess items spill onto the floor.
"I can't… I can't take this!" Tsubame-chan wails. Three comrades' deaths and player-on-player slaughter have broken her.
I point my claws at Sky Pier. He tried to kill me. Maybe to save Lineverse, but that doesn't matter. He's next.
"Die."
I charge, claws raised.
A sharp metallic clang stops me.
Blue hair. A one-handed sword with a red rose emblem. Diavel blocks my claws with Red Rose.
Our blades clash, sparks flying. My STR and weapon stats are inferior, yet we're even—because Diavel's not pushing back with intent.
"Ku, stop. Sky Pier's done fighting."
Sky Pier's collapsed, spear discarded. He can't kill me now.
But letting someone who showed hostility live? In DBO's PKK-friendly world, backstabs are routine. Killing Sky Pier is my best move.
Yet, like that alleyway PKK stopped long ago, cold metal touches my neck.
Sinon. Instead of a dagger, her bow's arrow aims at me. Tears glisten in her eyes. Sinon's crying. That fact douses the furnace raging inside me.
"Stop. If you kill more, we'll have to hunt you as a murderer. Don't make us."
She's saying this was self-defense. This is the line where they can overlook my actions. Beyond this, Sinon, the warrior, can't see me, the killer, as a comrade.
I release the tension in my claws, retracting them into my sleeves. Signaling no fight left, I gesture to Diavel and offer a hand to Sky Pier.
"Can you stand?"
His trembling hand takes mine, perhaps driven by fear of death if he refuses.
I turn to the throne, where the Kobold King sat, now a pile of crushed robots. Beyond it, a misty passage awaits.
The boss is dead. An event must be coming. Ignoring Diavel and Sinon, who stopped my rampage, I approach the throne. A crimson-black vortex swirls, as if the Kobold King's essence lingers, and a tattered sword, ablaze with blue flames, embeds itself in the throne, scattering ethereal sparks.
A bell tolls, echoing like the day SAO's death game began.
No teleport triggers. Instead, a system window appears before me—no, before all players.
I receive the Nostalgic Pocket Watch. It doesn't take inventory space—a special item.
I don't know what a Memory Ember is, but I imagine it's tied to the blue flames on the sword. My pocket watch holds 2 Embers—likely 1 by default, plus 1 from the sword.
The Temple of Recollection. The next stage? I glance back at the bewildered players.
I'll have to survive this death game with them fearing me. Some surely hate me, want me dead. My Wanderer infamy, exposed so publicly, will spread, raising this already brutal game's difficulty.
I scoff, then dissolve my party with Smith, who seems indifferent to the XP and col from my three kills.
"I'm heading to the Temple of Recollection," I announce. "Anyone who wants to kill me, follow. I'll take you all on."
A parting gift. This declaration should deter all but the most reckless. Lineverse, with my HP in the red, couldn't scratch me before dying.
I activate the pocket watch. Blue sparks spill from its dull gold surface, enveloping me.
"First, I need a new weapon."
My battle axe and war pick are gone. Claws alone won't cut it for the tougher stages ahead.
I want to say goodbye to Diavel and Sinon, but I swallow the urge, letting the sparks' vortex carry me away.