[SP-F6] The Swing of Things Part II (Grandmastering) (Complete)

[Azide 0]

The knife flashed red for a brief moment, before being driven into the side of the man's neck. With the alchemical craft having paralyzed his lungs, the man had not even been capable of screaming as he'd met his end. As the NPC shattered, Azide swept his hand through the air to catch the metallic keys before they could hit the ground- not just because it had looked quite smooth, but also because the jingle might have alerted the man he expected to see on the other side of the door.

Edited October 1, 2015 by Azide

[Azide 0]

After inspecting each of the different keys on the metal loop, he singled out the most likely fit and inserted it into the keyhole. With a slow turn, he was pleased to hear the familiar click as the door popped open. Immediately, Azide darted through the doorway and struck the room's sole occupant with a rapid combination of jabs and slashes. Four confirmed hits later, the final remaining hurdle dropped to the ground before bursting with the familiar animation. Before the last man had faded, Azide chuckled as he caught sight of the bow and arrow which had been entrenched firmly within the man's meaty hands. A medieval sniper, but a sniper nonetheless. It was too predictable.

[Azide 0]

He stepped over to where the man had been sitting, and stooped down to find that the sniper had actually been perched atop a wooden chest. However, this chest did not bare the mark which was to signal the ultimate objective of his mission. But that was no reason not to open it anyway, all things considered. Interestingly enough, the chest contained not one, but two key holes placed perpendicular to each other. Taking the most obvious route, Azide inserted the keys of both guards in various configurations, until at last he was able to secure two exact fits. With the head of each key grasped between his two hands, he turned them in parallel, causing the heavy lid to unlock.

Edited September 30, 2015 by Azide

[Azide 0]

Inside, there was none of the col that one might expect from the run of the mill treasure chest , but instead a small piece of parchment. Azide scooped the small piece of paper into his hand and unfolded it with the utmost care. Scribbled across the scrap were two numbers, and nothing more. If that had been the end of it, then perhaps he would have left confused and bewildered by the contents of the message. But of course, that had not been the case. Instead, he had noticed that of the two numbers, neither had been an integer. True, most numbers out there were not, but what had really gotten the gears turning was their uniformity. His hand swept the air, summoning a virtual projection of the surrounding area in the space before him.

[Azide 0]

But before he could proceed any further, the door slammed open, and an armored man carrying a spear came bursting into the room. The man was breathing heavily, as if he had just run up a flight of a few hundred steps. "Or one really long stairway,"  thought Azide. In any case, it had not escaped him that the man's grip was shaking. This man was quaking in his boots- probably because he'd had plenty of time to contemplate where all of his co-workers had gone while he'd been off investigating a mysterious sound.

[Azide 0]

Azide turned to face the man properly, then promptly dashed forward. With a flying leap, he flipped over the length of the pole arm, sending the man in a further forward lunge than he'd likely expected. The spear wobble flimsily as the iron tip collided with the stone brick walls, and the man spun around just in time to stare into the eyes of the intruder as he too was turned into a cloud of pixels. Azide pulled his dagger from the man's chest just as the vaporization had commenced, before returning it to his pouch. "Now, about these coordinates..."

[Azide 0]

To no surprise at all, his hunch had been correct. The parchment had indeed been inscribed with a set of coordinates, which he had managed to plot with the help of the system's mapping feature. It had taken an insane amount of trekking to make it out to the coordinates, but eventually he had gotten there all of the same. The jungle was so vast, so dense and so private- it was no wonder that both of these outposts had been located within the greenery. Without a specific reason, he doubted that anybody would ever come anywhere close to even one of these stations.

[Azide 0]

Again, he peered out through the vegetation, and spotted several guards. Perhaps things had become more tense after what had taken place at their sister base- he'd realized in hindsight that it had been careless to leave the first of the two guards alive long enough to signal that something had been wrong. He should have simply disposed of the distracted guard before entering, rather than leaving the grisly business until the bitter end. But there was no point in worrying about that now; the consequences had been decided, and he would simply have to adjust accordingly.

[Azide 0]

Guessing that the troublesome guard had probably tipped off his friends about the rock ploy, he decided to take a more direct and hands-on approach this time around. From the bushes, Azide sprang out, drawing every set of eyes and ears available in his direction. But it was too late. Before any of the stationed troops had been able to figure out what was going, Azide had already entered their midst, and activated his sole multi-hitting Sword Art, Round Accel. The first group dropped to the ground as the paralysis aspect of his dagger activated out of sheer luck.

[Azide 0]

Azide snickered, shaking his head as he left the fallen bunch for later. It appeared as if the gods themselves were smiling down upon him at this very instant. Were these NPC-hating gods? Gods that smile at the indiscriminate slaughter of these grey cursored guards. Or did they smile just for him? Either way, he would likely be making them proud before the end of the day. With his dagger grasped firmly in hand, Azide charged forward and sliced the neck of one dazed guard before slashing broadly across the chest of another just a few meters away.

[Azide 0]

It was a spectacle of an seemingly ridiculous level- that these men were so helpless before a single player wielding nothing but a knife. It was the sort of thing one might expect from an action movie, rather than real life. Or even in Sword Art Online, for that matter. But really, it was simple- Azide moved too quickly for these men to even touch. Moving at a godlike speed, the man in green tore through the crowd, downing one man after another without hesitation. A few of the braver and more able guards had jabbed at him with their spears and blades, but none could overcome his evasive mobility.

[Azide 0]

Again, he activated Round Accel and cleared the crowd around him, before deciding to pick off the stragglers. With a sidelong glance, he spotted one man making a desperate run in the direction of the jungle. Moments later, that man lay dead against the ground, his fingers unable to continue gripping the sword in between them. He shattered, just like the rest of them, cursing the player who had appeared here today. Green blurs streaked across the hidden meadow for several moments longer, stopping only when the clearing had become gravely silent and still.

[Azide 0]

Once the goons had been taken care of, gaining access to the outpost's chest had been an almost trivial task. After clearing out a poor man's army worth of troops, taking care of a few more inside of the maze-like warehouse had seemed almost laughable. In fact, navigating the maze had likely taken longer than anything else. But by dragging his the tip of his dagger against the right wall as he walked, he'd eventually been able to find his way to what could only be the center of the labyrinth. Inside, there had been yet another set of coordinates, along with a crude illustration of the labyrinth's solution depicted on the back. After plotting his next, and hopefully final location, Azide exited the maze.

[Azide 0]

He'd thought that the previous two bases had been isolated and obscure, only to find that the third was hidden even more elaborately than the other two combined. By the time the outpost had come into view, night time had nearly been upon him. "Looks like I got here just in time," he thought, glancing above to catch a glimpse of the fading light. Surely any later and he would've been stuck in the middle of nowhere, unable to find very much of anything in the dense woodlands.

[Azide 0]

As he'd discovered before, it appeared as if security and manpower had again been ramped up- although by now, it seemed to have been taken to cartoonish levels. All around, columns of armed guards marched back and forth in pre-arranged paths, while entire lines of archers stood openly atop the flat roof of the building. Taking a deep breath, Azide unsheathed his dagger, and raced out to greet his hosts a warm welcome. For all of the energy he was spending on this mission, he could only hope that the old man had not been full of you-know-what.

[Azide 0]

After narrowly avoiding volley after volley of arrows, along with a very generous amount of sharp blades of all makes and models, he had finally made it. Azide placed his hand on the knob of the final door and gave it a turn. As the heavy door creaked open, he was somewhat surprised to see a staircase on the other side. With a shrug, he made his way up, wondering what this had all been about. By the time he reached the end and saw a hatch, he could make a guess about where this was going to take him. "God, not those damn archers again..."

[Azide 0]

There he was, standing on the rooftop with nothing but a small dagger in one hand and nothing in the other. As he'd emerged, he had not been surprised to have received a very sharp and projectile-laden welcome. Thinking quick, Azide repelled the threatening volley with another round of Round Accel, knocking the arrows and bolts from out of the air. As the wispy tempests faded away, his eyes widened as he spotted a chest perched atop a stone pedestal roughly half-way between himself and the archers. A single band of red ran down its center.

[Azide 0]

But before he could draw up a plan of action, another figure emerged from the hatch behind him. Azide lifted his head, dumbfounded as a large shadow leapt past him overhead, before darting over to the red chest. "I'm going to have to ask you to put stop right there," called Azide, glaring at the shadowy figure. For one reason or another, the shadow had ceased its movements, and he could now see that it was a man dressed entirely in black. And not just any man- this man looked strong, as if his body were very finely sculpted. This observation only made him narrow his eyes further as he stepped forward. Raising a brow, he remarked, "Ever heard of finders keepers?"

[Azide 0]

The man bellowed a deep laugh, before lowering the mask which had obscured its face. It had, of course, been none other than his client- the mustachioed old man that been rather shady from the very start. "Thank you for taking care of all the dirty work for me, young man. An old-timer like me? This old bag of bones just isn't as quick as he used to be. You've done very well, my boy," said the man. "As for this?" He gestured to the striped chest, before adding, "I'm afraid that I'll be taking it to go." A volley of arrows shot out from behind the two intruders, but not a single one could find its target. "After I take care of some unfinished business," the man said, pointing a dagger at the player in green. In an explosive burst of movement, the man catapulted himself forward and lunged at the player, missing his deadly jab by the only the slightest of margins.

[Azide 0]

Seeing his chance, Azide sidestepped the incoming attack, feeling the dagger's edge drag across the surface of his coat. But as the man missed and fell forward, he did not eliminate the old fool in his moment of error- not at that very moment, at least. "It turns out, old man, that I have something I'd like to thank you for. Slaying all of those NPC's and mobs really builds up your weapon proficiency, or so I've learned." His lips curved into a closed-lip smile, as he moved his dagger into position. The dagger glowed red, signalling that this man's time had come. In the next instant, Azide rushed forward and executed the most powerful Sword Art on his list, shredding both the fallen man as well as the barrage of arrows which had been fired upon him. As the the maneuver came to an end, he turned just in time to see the last of the archers leap down onto the ground far below. From a height like this, there would be no survival for the sad bunch.

It began to rain, adding a spring to his step as he made his way over to the striped chest. He had to admit, he was curious as to what the man had desired so badly- what all of these men had been hired to protect. But as he reached out, the wooden trunk shattered, leaving nothing behind. Soon after, he heard a rumble and peered over the edge of the roof to see that even the base itself would soon cease to exist. Azide put his hands in his pockets and pulled out a small purple crystal. After rolling the item around a few times in his palm, he crushed it into a fine dust, and disappeared from the scene. As he'd spirited himself away to some far off place, the last words he'd muttered had caught in the wind.

"Grandmaster at last..."