Chapter 1
The Last Hero
Two people stood in the middle of a desolate wasteland. The skies were covered by dark gray clouds and powerful gusts of wind blew randomly in all directions. It was as if a storm was brewing.
Nevertheless, the two people were unfazed. They stood steadily, unperturbed by the harsh winds blowing against them. Their eyes were focused on each other, waiting for the other to make a move.
They were both warriors. One was a young man in his late teens. The other was a woman in her early twenties. It was a strange match, yet somehow they seemed suited for each other.
The young man had a long sword sheathed on his waist and a pair of short swords were strapped firmly on his lower back. He wore a chainmail, leather cuisses, and pairs of plated greaves, sabatons, and gauntlets. On his back, a short cape fluttered along with the wind. He had short black hair and deep black eyes. His looks were above average.
The woman had a saber hung on her waist and a small round shield was attached to her left arm. She wore a metal breastplate, metal cuisses over a long skirt that reached her ankles barely hiding a pair of metal sabatons. On her left shoulder was pauldron in contrast to her exposed right shoulder. Her left hand was equipped with chain gloves while on her right was a metal plated gauntlet. Her long silver hair danced with the wind, strangely kept tidy despite that.
“So it really came to this,” the young man said with a dejected sigh. He looked at the woman’s eyes as if pleading for her to change her mind.
“It’s because you forced me to,” she said simply with a confident smile. “If you win, I’ll take my words back. If I win on the other hand, you have to do as I have said.”
The young man once again sighed and whispered under his breath, “How did I fall in love with this brute of a woman?”
“Are your ready?” she asked without regard to what he was feeling or thinking. He nodded and a red flag appeared them. At the same time, a translucent panel appeared before his vision. It was a duel request and the settings were shown.
There was no time limit. The duel area consists of the entire map zone. Victory is achieved when the other is reduced to 0 HP or surrenders. Leaving the map’s boundaries will also result in immediate defeat.
The young man accepted all the conditions and a ten-second timer began. On the last three seconds, they drew their weapons, a long sword and a saber, and readied their stance. They were quite a distance from each other but in this world that distance didn’t matter much. As the timer struck zero, they activated their movement skills at the same time.
With a blast of wind, what was left on where they were standing were cracked ground. In that split second, sword and saber met. They did not use any weapon skills yet the impact of their weapons caused a powerful shock wave to appear and blast an empty void in the air surrounding them. The ground beneath their feet depressed and formed a crater.
During that first exchange, their eyes met and two contrasting emotions could be seen. The woman’s eyes were filled with excitement and thirst for battle while the young man’s showed unwillingness.
They pushed each other away and as soon as their feet landed on the dry ground, they dashed in opposite directions, tracing a circle if seen from the sky. While running, they slashed and stabbed the air, sending bright flashes of saber light and sword beams against each other. These lights and beams collided and midair sending explosive sounds and shock wave all around.
Some of the sword beams and saber light managed to pass through and reach the woman and the young man, but they stepped back and dodged those easily.
“Despite being unwilling you’re still going all out,” the woman said as she performed a stance with the saber raised beside her face and pointed toward the young man.
“If I don’t, I’ll surely regret it,” the young man answered back as he raised his sword above his head pointed at the sky with both hands.
Particles of light floated in the air and were gathered around their weapons. Vortexes of light particles formed around them and the air shook with energy. A bloodthirsty smile appeared on the woman’s face while the young man let out a sigh.
“Heaven Piercer!”
“Earth Splitter!”
The woman and the young man shouted out their moves respectively as the woman stabbed and the young man slashed. Giant phantom images of a saber and sword collided between them, one trying to pierce through while the other trying to split in half.
A loud explosion reverberated as the phantom imaged deflected each other. A beam of light passed beside the young man and pierced a small mountain behind him, leaving a gaping wide hole. Another beam of light passed beside the woman and left a deep groove on the ground beside her. Looking down, it had turned into a bottomless abyss.
“Good move,” she commented while looking at the mark he had left on the ground.
“I should say the same to you,” he replied while looking over his shoulder.
“Well, this is just to be expected. If the heroes of Knightmare Paradise did not amount to at least this much, it would bring shame to their prestige.”
After the quick banter, they once again readied their stances. The first to move this time was the woman. She dashed forward, leaving behind a trailing shadow which transformed into an afterimage. The afterimage then moved out of her trail and turned into a phantom clone. This repeated four times and now five phantom clones mixed with the real one. Six of the woman was dashing toward the young woman, their sabers at the ready.
The young man slashed his sword sending a wide horizontal sword beam toward the woman and her indistinguishable phantom clones. The sword beam was easily blocked by raising their small round shields. Although the sword beam was blocked, and it served its purpose of slightly delaying them. He stabbed the sword into the ground and drew the two short swords from behind and held them in reverse grips. He raised them up to eye level and dashed toward the group of phantom clones.
Speed versus speed!
Sword beams and saber light danced in the air. The ground was pierced and slashed. The air was filled with silver flashes of metal. Six sabers clashed against two short swords. None held an advantage over the other and the battle turned into one of attrition.
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“Tsk,” the young man clicked his tongue. A battle of attrition was something he didn’t want. He knew that the longer they fought this way, the higher chance he would win. It was not because that he held an advantage in stamina but because of the woman’s actual condition. He didn’t want win by taking advantage of that.
Knightmare Paradise was the name of their guild. When he joined it, there were nine others before him including the woman, making him the tenth member. They referred to themselves as the heroes of Knightmare Paradise. This was because they were all battling against a powerful enemy and they all wished for victory.
Their enemy was fate. All the members of Knightmare Paradise were insanely strong because they spent almost their entire lives inside the game. In the real world, these heroes were confined in state-of-the-art medical facilities, attached to life support devices in an attempt to prolong their lives. They were suffering from illnesses or injuries that were without cure and treatment. All they could do was wait for their life to burnout.
Not accepting this destiny, they form Knightmare Pradise to fight against this fate. They wouldn’t give up and live their life to the fullest even if it was just a virtual world. In this world, they could run, dance, laugh, sing, love, eat their fill, drink as much as they want. They could do everything they couldn’t do in the real world. This was their world.
But their enemy was not something so simple. The heroes fell one by one and all that was left was the two of them. Now, fate has come again to take another life.
“I!” he growled as he sliced two of the phantom clones and split them apart. They faded and disappeared.
“Don’t!” It was a primal growl filled with intense emotions. Another two phantom clones were taken care of.
“Accept!” He shouted loudly as the last phantom clone was split into four quarters with a slash of each short sword.
“This!” The two short sword were blocked by the small round shield. A bright-eyed smiling face peeked from behind the shield.
“What don’t you accept?” she asked.
“Destiny! Fate! All this bullshit, I can’t accept it!” he answered. The woman started laughing as soon as she heard his answer.
“It’s not whether you accept it or not,” she said simply. “It’s whether you’re willing to fight it to the last breath!”
She pushed him away and raised her saber. It glowed brightly for a short moment and a flurry of saber light filled the air between them. They all landed on the young man’s body taking a huge chunk from his HP. They were all critical hits and pierced through his armor.
After the lights faded away, the young man stood there with a blank look, his body covered in countless wounds. Blood dripped on the dry ground and soaked it red.
“Don’t be a fool,” she said with a serious face, her previous smile completely gone. “What is Knightmare Paradise’s motto?”
“Never ending dreams and never ending hope…”
“Together we stand and together we fall…”
“United as one and united as whole…”
“Even when all that’s left is none…”
“Even when all that’s left is one…”
“We, Knightmare Paradise, will never be gone.”
Tears rolled down the young man’s eyes as he gripped the short swords as tightly as he could. He gritted his teeth, trying to bear with the clenching pain in his chest.
Even when all that’s left is one… That line seemed to bore a hole right through his heart.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized and wiped the tears off his face. “I was mistaken.” He looked at the woman with a firm gaze. His unwillingness was now completely gone. In its place was a resolve he had never shown before.
“Finally. It took you a lot of time, but I can now say that you are now truly a hero of Knightmare Paradise. Come, let us battle this fate together,” she said and raised her saber again. A smile was once again on her face.
The young man smiled back as he raised the short swords up to shoulder height. His arms were extended on both side and shockingly, he let go of the swords. The two swords floated in midair instead of falling straight down. He then picked up the long sword he had stabbed in the ground.
Without waiting for him to finish whatever preparation he was doing, the woman dashed toward him and stabbed. This stab was the fastest she had done in the entire battle, leaving behind cracks in the atmosphere. A phantom image of a white unicorn with a blood red horn appeared behind her. The space around her distorted and slowed down to a stop. It was as if only her saber could exist and move in this world.
A clang was heard as the saber was blacked by the floating short swords which form a cross against each other. Still, the short swords were not enough as a crack appeared on their blades. In a fraction of a second, the short swords broke apart and turned into fragments of light. This bought enough time for the young man to counter with his long sword.
They both know that the battle will end after this strike. Will they both be mutually defeated? Or is the young man fast enough to overtake her saber?
“It’s over,” she whispered. Her saber stopped just a millimeter away from the young man’s chest as his blade hacked her shoulder.
They stood still for a few breaths, then a notice appeared that the young man had won the duel. The young man’s face scrunched up as the woman’s lifeless body fell into his embrace.
“Damn it,” he cursed as he hugged her tightly. Shortly after, her body turned into particles of light and dissipated into the air.
His HP was already low during the final clash while hers was still quite high. His attack was not enough to completely take her life away. If her blow landed, she would have won. Even if their attacks landed at the same time, she would still be the victor.
In the panel that announced his victory, the reason was shown.
“Player Connection Terminated”