CHAPTER 12

Labyrinth encounter

*Haaaahh!!*

Miku screamed out in a dark hallway cutting a huge humanoid doglike monster in half

donned in her shiny gold armament and her trusty nodachi Tsubame, she charged in to the midst of similar looking monsters and began to cleaving through their ranks while cutting them down.

She had been adopting parts of michael's style into her's as he always told her to take what she finds useful, utilize it to the maximum and discard the rest and so she did.

 Taking the inspiration from michael's mirage strike, she employed the movement technique he taught her and she left after images behind while moving.

Taking a step forward she slashed her nodachi in a diagonal angle leaving a large cut on the man dog, taking a huge chunk of it's HP jumping to the left,

a large paw landed in her previous location and in mid air she spun around using the beast's arm as a foothold, she swung her blade in full force decapitating the weakened monster.

 she vanished from her spot and repapered behind the remaining enemies taking out their legs in a burst of speed before they could recover,

she used her sure kill skill . it could be single target or multiple attack depending on the user's choice.

 Obliterating all the weakened monsters in one breath, miku remained alert for ten seconds before relaxing her stance and letting out a sigh of contention.

Michael was watching all this from the distance with a small smile on his face feeling proud of miku and himself for deciding to take her with him.

Seeing her coming towards him he waited on his spot for her approach, seeing the look in her eyes which was basically saying "praise me" Michael was amused but as he as about to speak to her,

he heard loud monster roars not too far away and being curious as to who was making such a ruckus in the labyrinth by stirring so many mobs at once he quickly gave miku a thumbs up and immediately began moving towards the source of the sound.

 Miku smiled and followed Michael from behind, ever since the day they began coming to the labyrinth, michael has been killing monsters for longer periods and has been training her more vigorously but she didn't complain as she knew he cared for her that's why he trained her harder to become stronger so she could be safe.

Getting to the location she saw michael staring at the horde of monsters surrounding to players who were ignorant of their presence there with the girl looking familiar to her.

she gave michael a questioning look which he replied to by making a shushing motion indicating that he wanted to listen their conversation.

Remaining in the spot she also began to listen but got ready to aid them when needed as it is rude to intrude on somebody's hunt.

"Why did you interfere !!, why won't you let me just go in peace the way i want, while fighting" Asuna screamed at the black haired swordsman dressed in black in front of her looking aggrieved.

 She has been fighting monsters non stop since that day she was saved by a stranger, this same stranger and met michael only getting no more than 2 hours sleep per day.

 She was tired hen she as hit by one of the monsters from behind, paralysed and exhausted , she as ready to give up and disappear like so many others by now

 So long into the game and 1000 players are already dead, the odds not being in their favour with the populace still being in the 1st floor of the floating castle.

 She as about to rest peacefully hen this guy appeared acting like some meddlesome hero hen she didn't even ask for help.

" I don't care if you want to kill yourself but this isn't the way to go, at least gimme the map data you have so far then you can go ahead and do whatever you want" said the black swordsman smirking at asuna.

Annoyed by his attitude she got up after the paralysis wore off and they both stood against the horde while watching each other's back.

"you watch my back and I'll watch yours rapier user" Kirito said trying to sound casual to ease the tension they are facing at the moment.

 remaining silent because she was still angry at kirito, asuna silently agreed and began attacking the monsters, taking out her frustrations on them, She went all out from the start.

Vanishing silently from the spot like the wind, she appeared in front of an orc and stabbed it 10 times in under 2 seconds in varying critical points leading it to burst into fragments instantly without any chance to respond.

 seeing this, kirito was surprised by her speed as she was faster than he was but immediately got into the flow of the battle as well.

He dashed to the nearest orc and slashed at it's attacking arm rendering it harmless for a while turning around he cut the beast's legs with his black longsword and promptly stabbing it in the face while it was descending to the floor.

He began taking out the monsters in a practiced manner and an observer could see that this as not his first rodeo.

They both managed to eventually carve themselves a path of escape out of the encirclement but asuna couldn't leave as she was exhausted from what she just went through and passed out leaving kirito to fend for them both.

Smiling wryly kirito began to fight more seriously but the situation as beginning to become more dangerous.

He couldn't protect asuna and fight the monster's at the same time. A strike as about to hit asuna from behind while kirito as distracted, quickly turning around kirito noticed the attack coming at asuna but couldn't react fast enough to stop it.

Before he could fall into despair at not being able to save asuna, the orc's club as stopped mid strike, a huge longsword ith plain design as in the ay halting the attack in it's track.

A young man with above average height, mocha skin colour and dark dreadlocks style hair in a ponytail dressed like a butler as holding the sword.

Recognizing the player as , the skilled sword master he heard about from info san, he was relieved to see such a skilled player here right now as it increased their odds of surviving but what he saw next shocked him to his core.

Michael looked at the orc with an indifferent face but he as internally confused by what he as feeling, he has felt the same too with miku on numerous occasion hen she as in slight danger and he knew he as experiencing the human emotion known as anger.

he found it absurd that he could feel such primitive emotions that affect proper reasoning so was usual he ignored the tingling sensation in his being and did the logical thing, take out the trash that caused this situation in the first place.

Putting more strength in his grip and angling his sword to the side he cleaved the monster in to vertical halves making it look like a walk in the park while doing so.

Looking kirito in the eyes before he sprinted to the next orc in a seemingly relaxed manner.

Miku quickly arrived in front of asuna to protect her while kirito was expecting her presence and was happy to see the rumours of them always being together was true at least in this situation.

Miku stared at michael while cutting down any orcs that came too close to her with a focused strike  and felt he as upset about some thing but she couldn't tell hat the cause as, being with michael for a while now she began to pick up on his problems with understanding people.

She could tell that under the smiling facade he as struggling with himself to understand people because he always measures his reactions towards people before action on them.

She didn't know to what extent as fake and hat as real but she knew he cared for her and could tell hen he as being geniune and not just emulating others.

MIchael took his time taking the orcs out after calming don from his initial flare up.

Noticing that the rate of progress in his fighting style increases during these situations that he dubbed 'emotional flare ups'.

He began to intently visualize his actions before they happen and then noticed he moves became more fluid and easier to perform.

Smiling to himself, he knew he just opened a ne door. At the same time, in his soul, a sealed black  gate having very mysterious symbols and glyph around it began to have cracks around itself and it's lock letting out small glimpses of seemingly white light into the void that as his soul causing some slight changes.

 Michael felt a change in himself but thought it as because of the success he just had in his style or at least he convinced himself it was so.

He looked at the remaining monsters then decided to end this, Using skillfully, he appeared by three monsters simultaneously then sheathing his sword.

Taking an Iaido stance, He took a deep breath before unleashing taking out the remaining mobs in one clean sweep.

 Dusting of his clothes to remove the non-existent dust he turned to miku who was rolling her eyes at him and a shocked kirito.

"Hi, I'm michael and this is miku, what happened with miss asuna over there?" michael introduces himself and miku to the swordsman.

Seeing as the new guy knew the rapier user's name, kirito began to explain the situation with no knowledge of them already being around and witnessing everything but he didn't tell them about asuna's suicidal attempt.

"thanks for the help, I'm kirito by the way" kirito finally says.

"Anyways let's leave the labyrinth first, miku could you carry her with you please" michael says then adds hen he saw kirito approaching asuna.

Miku snorts at this but carries asuna and they all left the labyrinth.

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