Lloyd Irving vs. Kirito

'''Four swords. Two heroes. One winner.'''

Lloyd Irving vs. Kirito is a What-If? episode of Death Battle, pitting Lloyd Irving from Tales of Symphonia against Kirito from Sword Art Online.

Description
''Lloyd Irving vs. Kirito! The ultimate duel between two dual wielders!''

Interlude
Wiz: There's no doubt about it, heroes like weapons. Some heroes prefer guns, bows, or axes, but these heroes like swords.

'''Boomstick: Swords are badass! You know what's more badass than one sword? Two swords! And you wanna know what's more badass than that? Two people wielding two swords fighting to the death! Like Lloyd Irving, the dual wielder who saved two worlds-'''

Wiz: And Kirito, the dual wielder who beat two virtual reality games.

Boomstick: He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick!

Wiz: It is our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to see who would win a Death Battle.

Lloyd
Wiz: Raised by a dwarf and poorly educated at a poorly-funded school, Lloyd Irving didn't have a lot of promise as a hero. Then, one day, his friend Colette, who happened to be some sort of chosen one, was called to regenerate the world and Lloyd decided to go with her along with some other people.

'''Boomstick: Then Lloyd found out that this mercenary guy named Kratos was using them the whole time then nearly killed them! Then Lloyd met some new people like a guy who looks like a girl and hits on girls and sometimes Lloyd, a convict who only fights with his feet, a girl who looks twelve but is actually like thirty or somethin', and some chick who uses cards for weapons! Seriously! Cards!'''

Wiz: Anyway, in addition to that, Lloyd then went through many, many different quests, such as blowing up Desian human ranches, forming pacts with Summon Spirits-

'''Boomstick: Getting on some comet angel haven named "Derris-Kharlan", finding and using the Eternal Sword, and even beating that jerk Kratos who betrayed him in a duel! How's that for revenge?'''

Wiz: Lloyd's journey was truly an epic one, but it was really his prominent skills and weapons which helped him through. The obvious one being his two swords, otherwise known as the Material Brand. They are two single-edged swords, one having the element of Fire within it and the other having the element of Ice. As Dirk, Lloyd's adoptive father said, "I doubt you have a sword as strong as this in your possession".

'''Boomstick: A Fire sword and an Ice sword? Where can I get a Material Brand?'''

Wiz: Now, don't let what Dirk said fool you. In actuality, his swords aren't the most powerful in the game. He can get a different set of swords from a recurring boss known as the Sword Dancer. These swords outclass the Material Brand completely despite everything we're told about them. Unfortunately for Lloyd, he canonically uses the Material Brand, so that is what he uses in the battle.

'''Boomstick: Hold on there, Wiz! Lloyd still puts the Material Brand to good use! Lloyd's not your average slash-slash-thrust kind of swordsman; he has tons of cool techniques up his sleeve!'''

Wiz: That is correct, Boomstick. The first notable skill is known as "Demon Fang", which is not much more than a small sword beam which sticks to the ground and slides at his opponents for little more than a small annoyance. Then he has "Tiger Blade" for hitting airborne opponents, "Tempest" for hitting several times and outmaneuvering, "Beast" for immobilization-

Boomstick: "Sonic Thrust" for a really powerful thrusting move and also for-

Wiz: And then there's "Sword Rain" for catching his foes off-guard, and "Guardian" for blocking magic-based techniques. However, that is not all that Lloyd has to offer! In-game he can either go "Strike-type" or "Technical-type" and get different variations of his techniques depending on which one he gets, but because it fits his fighting style more and it's the one he leans towards without any sort of player manipulation his skills for the battle are going to be Strike-type. There's "Fierce Demon Fang" which is more of a sword shockwave rather than a beam, "Twin Tiger Blade" that hits twice, "Psi Tempest" which is stronger and faster, "Hunting Beast" which is much stronger and allows Lloyd to jump high before striking, "Super Sonic Thrust" which is just better than Sonic Thrust, and "Sonic Sword Rain" which implies that he strikes with his swords at sonic speeds.

'''Boomstick: Wait a minute... spiky hair, big attitude, all these moves with the word "Sonic" in them... Is Lloyd related to a certain hedgehog?!'''

Wiz: ...Not that I know of. Moving on, given how fast Sonic Sword Rain is and the name it implies, Lloyd can theoretically thrust a sword approximately 343 times in a second.

Boomstick: Wow, Lloyd must be really good at se-

Wiz: Shut up. Anyway, the world record for most sword-thrusts in a second is ten. Yes, Lloyd is over 340 times faster than that guy. Before you say that Lloyd is broken and has this match won, though, remember that Sonic Sword Rain drains his magic points, which means that he can't keep up the technique for long and will eventually have to rely on more reasonable slashing and thrusting speed.

'''Boomstick: And Lloyd wonders why so many girls like him. In addition to the Material Brand, Lloyd also has something called the "Sorcerer's Ring" which is just a regular ring that he wears and fires small fireballs out of. The fireballs aren't powerful enough to do any damage but stun foes temporarily so that Lloyd can run away from 'em, kill 'em, or if they're hot and female, take 'em home with him!'''

Wiz: However, enemies are never stunned for longer than a few seconds and the ring has very short range, making it an impractical support tool at best.

Boomstick: Are we forgetting that Lloyd has one of the most badass sword techniques in the entire universe?!

Wiz: To top off Lloyd's diverse sword technique list, there is an extremely powerful move known as the Falcon's Crest. It traps all foes in about a ten-foot radius of Lloyd and then he strikes with his swords. This technique does OBSCENE damage and cannot be avoided if landed.

'''Boomstick: No freakin' way! Why doesn't Lloyd just do that against everyone?!'''

Wiz: While the Falcon's Crest is extremely powerful, it has its own flaws. For starters, it fails to do anything if the opponent is too far away from Lloyd. But more crippling than that is it uses up a huge amount of Lloyd's mana points, meaning that one failed Falcon's Crest and he'll need to get those mana points all over again. To do this, he must continually strike at his foe until he has sufficient mana.

Boomstick: What is mana, anyway?

Wiz: Mana is a form of energy which exists within all beings, living or not. Lloyd gets more as he hits his foes because the more he strikes, the more mana he steals from them.

Boomstick: Then why doesn't Lloyd just strike at some grass or somethin' until he has enough mana?!

Wiz: I don't know, probably because mana exists in higher concentrations within sentient opponents. Anyway, Lloyd is statistically shown to be more offense-oriented, with very high attacking and speed stats but rather low defensive stats. But the selling point of this is the Exsphere, which is sort of like a stone that is embedded in one's skin that drastically improves his or her physical abilities.

'''Boomstick: Whoa! I should've gotten myself one of those back in gym class!'''

Wiz: Yeah, then you realize that Exspheres are literally human bodies in stone form. Lloyd's Exsphere is crafted from his mother.

'''Boomstick: I could make so many Yo Mama jokes with that! Yo Mama's so, uh, yeah, I got nothin'.'''

Wiz: Now, the Exsphere is quite the power boost, but at the same time it creates an obvious weakness. If the Exsphere is to ever be removed, Lloyd's offensive abilities will be significantly hindered.

Boomstick: And won't he be turned into that twenty-foot one-eyed green monster thing?!

Wiz: No, that's only if the Exsphere doesn't have a Key Crest, which Lloyd's does. Speaking of Exspheres, that thing has helped Lloyd accomplish a lot. Possibly his first real achievement was releasing the seals of Fire, Wind, Water, and Light in Sylvarant. He defeated many different opponents with extreme power, including the Five Desian Grand Cardinals, the five strongest members of an already superior-to-human race. That's not even mentioning Four Seraphim Yuan, a giant monster under the influence of a faulty Exsphere (which we just discussed), ten godlike Summon Spirits (canonically, that is), and a hero of the worlds of Tethe'alla and Sylvarant who is pretty much a demigod.

'''Boomstick: But none of those even compare to him kicking that traitor Kratos' ass! That guy's an angel who's thousands of years old and biologically immortal, and Lloyd fought him by himself!'''

Wiz: Very good point there, Boomstick. For almost the entire game, Lloyd fights alongside all of his party members. In this battle against Kratos, it's one-on-one. Just for clarification, Kratos was able to almost kill the entire party at earlier stages in the game. Then, towards the end, Lloyd came in and defeated Kratos on his own.

Boomstick: Is there any stopping this guy?!

Wiz: Unfortunately for Lloyd, not everything is all perfect and rosy. For one, Lloyd is a bit of an idiot. He's not exactly stupid, but he's been outwitted and out-gambitted by many foes in the game. He also has a bad habit of letting his ego get the better of him, which makes him rush headfirst into most battles without giving it a second of thought. Sometimes that's a good thing, but many opponents were able to put up a difficult fight for Lloyd as a result. Also the mana that Lloyd collects from his opponents as he attacks them is minimal and it will take many sword strikes to recover if he fails a Falcon's Crest or Psi Tempest. Finally, Lloyd's defenses are rather shoddy even with the Exsphere and can be overwhelmed with an onslaught of physical attacks. Even with all this in mind, the hero from Sylvarant might just pull a victory.

DEATH BATTLE!
Who would you be rooting for? Lloyd Kirito