After Heathcliff agreed, Akimi instantly raised his Nichirin Blade and charged at Kexo.
"Water Breathing, Third Form: Flowing Dance!"
Kexo remained expressionless as he raised his longsword horizontally in front of him, blocking the Nichirin Blade.
With his initial strike stopped, Akimi exerted force through both arms, using the crossing point of their weapons as a pivot to vault himself into the air and launch another attack.
"Water Breathing, Eighth Form: Waterfall Basin!"
The blade of the Nichirin Sword, trailing a stream of water, slashed toward the back of Kexo's neck.
But despite the speed of the attack—swift as lightning—it failed to land.
The moment Akimi leapt into the air, Kexo had already reversed his grip and raised his sword behind him to block the strike once again.
Seeing both of his attacks nullified, Akimi used the recoil from Kexo's strength to flip back and retreat, shouting loudly as he did:
"Switch!"
"Meteor!"
Asuna, who had been waiting nearby, launched her attack without hesitation.
Her silvery rapier lit up with a pale blue glow from her sword skill as she lunged straight for Kexo's head.
Kexo, however, casually tilted his body to the side, dodging her sword skill.
Just as he was about to counterattack during Asuna's post-strike delay, a sharp one-handed sword suddenly came slashing toward his neck, forcing him to abandon the attack and shift to defense.
At that very moment—right after Kexo blocked the incoming strike with his longsword—a red cross on a white background came crashing into his abdomen: it was Heathcliff's shield.
Simultaneously, Heathcliff cleverly used the relatively narrow blade of his sword to obstruct Kexo's vision, then followed up with a shield bash straight to Kexo's stomach.
Although the attack landed, the damage Kexo took was minor.
After all, the shield wasn't a primary offensive weapon and couldn't deal much damage.
Staggered back several steps by the blow, Kexo stabbed his longsword into the ground to steady himself.
Then he looked up at Akimi and the others, a terrifying, bloodthirsty expression twisting across his face.
"Very well... you've succeeded in angering me..." Kexo growled through clenched teeth.
"As mere ants, wouldn't it be better to just lie down and die?! Why insist on such pointless resistance? …Well, let's just hope Lord Demon won't mind if the flesh is a little too shredded."
With that, he pulled out a vial of thick red liquid from who-knows-where, popped off the wooden stopper, and brought it to his lips.
"Water Breathing, Ninth Form: Splashing Water Flow!"
Naturally, Akimi couldn't just sit back and watch the enemy take some kind of drug
But this time, Kexo didn't even use his sword.
Instead, he grabbed the blade of the Nichirin sword directly with his left hand.
By forcibly twisting the blade, he deflected the attack's trajectory.
However, the cost of doing so was that most of the flesh on his left hand was sliced off by the Nichirin blade.
Having already drunk the red, viscous liquid from the test tube, Kexo slowly turned his head to look at Akimi.
At this moment, Kexo's pupils had turned into vertical slits like a viper's, with black lines spreading across the irises and whites of his eyes.
This startled Akimi, who immediately leapt backward.
Kexo didn't chase after him.
He simply fixed his cold gaze on Akimi.
Then, the flesh around the wound where his left hand had been cut off began to wriggle—and within just five or six seconds, his hand had fully regenerated.
With his hand restored, Kexo drew his long sword from the ground, tilted his head toward the group, and above his head, the yellow marker turned red.
His name changed from "Kexo·Grenifen" to "Kexo·Grenifen the Half Demon".
Seeing Kexo now had three HP bars, the expressions on Akimi and the others' faces turned grim.
"It's time to end this farce."
Kexo, now transformed into a Half-Demon, said flatly.
The moment he finished speaking, his figure suddenly vanished, leaving only the low hum of insects and birds in the forest.
This eerie change made the group even more tense.
They scanned their surroundings, trying to find any trace of Kexo.
But the unnerving silence didn't last long.
Around four to five seconds later, Kexo reappeared—but it wasn't good news.
Because when he returned, his grotesque longsword had impaled two people like skewered candied fruit.
They were two of Heathcliff's subordinates.
Their faces were twisted in terror as they watched their HP steadily drain away.
They wanted to say something, but no words came.
They wanted to act, but their bodies wouldn't move—because they were already dead.
They now looked just like Diabel did a few months ago.
As their HP reached its final sliver, their desperate screams were finally squeezed out from their near-shattered bodies:
"No! Don't! I... I don't want to—"
"Ah—! No—! Leader, save...!"
But before their final cries of life could be completed, their bodies shattered into pieces, preceding their souls.
As she stared at the fragments of broken light, Asuna opened her mouth in shock, frozen in disbelief; Akimi's pupils contracted as he gripped his sword hilt tightly; Heathcliff lowered his eyelids, his thoughts unreadable.
Since the first floor, no member of the clearing group had ever died—whether fighting floor bosses or field bosses, at worst they had been seriously injured.
But now, because of a seemingly insignificant quest, the peace that had lasted for over three months was shattered.
Two members of the clearing group.
Members of the Knights of the Blood, a guild known as the strongest.
Just like that, in only a few seconds, they were gone forever—both from SAO and from reality.
Asuna's hand clenched tightly around the hilt of her rapier.
She murmured softly:
"Unforgivable... utterly unforgivable!"
"Flash Pierce!"
"Water Breathing, Tenth Form: Constant Flux!"
The furious attacks of the boy and girl tore through the space between them and their enemy, charging forward like a surging wave.
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