Chapter 4

Our Swords clashed as the timer began counting down from 3 minutes. We both jumped back as I rushed in to swing at him, Raven kept dodging my attacks as he swung at me. I barely dodged the swing with it cutting some of my hair, I activated the skill Horizontal Square swinging four times trying to land the hit. Raven jumped back and put his guard up as I was a bit exhausted.

Raven flipped his grip as he ran towards me, throwing his sword as I ducked under it. Raven then activated a martial arts skill running towards me as I turned my attention back to him, he threw a punch that I quickly reacted to barely able to block the hit just in time. "That was too close!" I thought to myself, swinging my sword as he moved back once again. It was two minutes now as we circled around for Raven to pick up his Katana.

"You're pretty good on your reaction times Kirin"

Raven complimented as I replied "You're not that bad yourself" as the timer reached 2 minutes and 30 seconds. We rushed in this time with sword skills, I jumped and swung down on Raven's katana as he blocked it and pushed it to the side. He then sheathed his katana as his avatar began to vibrate really fast, suddenly after images vibrating at the same speed showed up beside him.

His sword skill that he was using was called <<Afterimage Strike>> as he swung his sword diagonally, I blocked the hit as my sword was then chipped from it. "Now! Of all places?!!" I thought to myself as I kept blocking hit after hit, slowly breaking my sword down. Raven's afterimages then went away as he started rapidly swinging with powerful strikes.

My sword then shattered in my hands as I was now defenseless without a sword, Raven Smirked saying "I win!" as he slashed diagonally and got the first hit on me. The duel was over as my back hit the floor. Raven sheathed his katana as he looked over and put a hand out to me, "That was a good duel, it was a close one." he said to me. Toru walked over as I grabbed his hand and pulled myself up saying "You were really good too" as we shook hands and then walked off on our ways.

"So.. what are you going to do now that your sword is gone?"

Toru asked me as I took some thought into it, I then replied to her "I think I'll have Lisbeth forge me a weapon again, she's consistent now that she has a goal to work towards.". Toru gave me the "Really?" face as I explained to her why Lisbeth's smithing became consistent.

"Look, Lisbeth's forging wasn't that good in the beginning as she didn't really focus on creating weapons in the beginning. But now, she can forge really good swords Toru. She told me one time that she has a goal now. she's going to use her Smithing skills to reach said goal."

We kept walking down a pathway with Toru asking me "What kind of goal" as Toru seemed a bit protective over something. "I don't know really, she just said that she has a goal to work towards and that was it." as Toru sighed a bit. "Let's just get you a new sword" Toru said, shrugging a bit before we turned around and headed off towards the safe zone again.

We got to the safe zone and looked around for Lisbeth's shop. We wandered around the small town looking for her shop before eventually giving up to find the shop by foot. "I'll just message her" Toru said as she opened up her menu, I nodded saying "alright, while we're here, we might as well pick up some ingredients". Toru looked at me as she looked back down onto the message, slightly hesitant about the message.

Toru clicked discard and Discarded the message she was going to send to Lisbeth, Swiping up and closing the menu. "Did you send it to her?" I asked her as she nodded, saying "Yeah, I sent it" as we walked to the market. While we walked throughout the market, Toru picked out the ingredients, I watched her picking out ingredients and being happy again. "Kirin?" A voice said as I turned around and saw it was Kirito and Asuna. "Kirito? Asuna?" I said as Toru turned and saw them as well, "Suna!!" Toru said as Asuna replied happily "Hey there Toru." waving as Toru hugged her.

"Do you wanna help me pick out ingredients? I got some but I need some more to make a dish"

Toru asked politely to Asuna as she replied "Sure, and I also came by to pick up some ingredients too.", Both of them walked down into the market as Kirito and I followed them. "So how are you doing Kirin?" Kirito asked, I looked at him and said to him "I'm doing pretty well, what about you?". "I'm doing fine, I'm just...feeling like I'm losing my touch on being a solo player." Kirito said with a serious tone, I then asked him "Why's that?".

He took a deep breath in and a sigh, He then said "Well...It's...Asuna, I...can't do things on my own without her now...". We kept walking as I said to him "I'm going to be honest, I think you and Asuna fit well..." as he turned his attention to me, I then explained to him "Asuna seems to have a soft spot for you, and that says a lot considering that she is the Yellow Flash of KoB now.".

Kirito looked down for a while, thinking a bit as he said "Yeah, maybe so." trying to accept that He needs Asuna now. "Speaking of Asuna, how's Toru?" Kirito said as I replied "She's doing fine, I recently found out she loves cooking." as Kirito chuckled a bit. "Well, tell me man." I said as Kirito smiled saying "Well, it's funny to hear the fearsome Horseman having a soft side." as I smirked a bit. I began to chuckle as Kirito looked at me confused, I then said "Well it's funny to see that the Almighty Cold-Faced Black Swordsmen has a humorous side." as we both began to chuckle.