Dust vs Kirito

For centuries, one weapon has stuck with all of us as the definitive weapon of the duelist, requiring finesse, skill, and an artistic mind to wield to the best of its ability: the sword. It was said that the greatest swordsmen were fast and precise enough to cut the wings off of a fly. But these two combatants take it way past reasonable - or possible. Dust, the hero of Falana, and Kirito, the champion of Sword Art Online.

For the purposes of this battle, there will be no non-canon appearances or feats allowed. No healing items either; since both have enough to last for months, it would just make for a boring fight and have little to no real impact. Kirito’s avatar will have a combination of all previous abilities, but we’ll be sticking to the most-used and/or best weapons for each character. So no handguns, no revival stones, and no…dragon poop sword. Both combatants will be allowed their normal in-game assistants, so that means Fidget for Dust and Yui for Kirito. Since both always provide support to the main character and are with their companions at virtually every point during their journeys, it seems only right to include them.

All that said, I’m LittleZbot, and it’s my hobby to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who might win a Death Battle.

Dust
Sen-Mithrarin was never meant to exist. In the world of Falana, a place where anthropomorphic animals reign supreme, the race known as the Moonbloods, the last remaining followers of the Way of the Flameless Light, were being hunted to extinction by General Gaius and his army. They were considered a scourge on the land, and Gaius felt it was only right to remove them. Fighting by his side was his long-time friend and master swordsman, Cassius. Cassius was a cruel and arrogant fighter who effortlessly slaughtered entire armies before him - but his arrogance turned out to be his undoing when he destroyed a village high in the Blackmoor Mountains. A child with a pure heart, Jin, decided to take revenge and challenged Cassius to a duel to the death. The fight was over in less than three seconds, with Cassius impaling Jin through the chest - only to find that the child had landed a lucky blow and killed him right back. The two died at the exact same moment, and, when the Moonbloods arrived, they took advantage of the opportunity, utilizing their magic (that…is also not magic, apparently? That‘s what they say, anyway) to combine both souls into one, forging a warrior unlike the world had ever seen. Born of hatred and love, injustice and justice, the paradoxical creature was called Sen-Mithrarin - but when he woke up in the forest with no memories, he called himself Dust.

Being born a representation of ideals, skill, and justice, Dust is an extraordinary fighter, and though he’s quite durable, his real skills shine through his incredible strength and overwhelming speed. His natural talent in all kinds of fighting is enhanced with Cassius’s former skill, enabling him to do things like dodge blasts of electricity and send giant stone golems flying with a single hit. The Moonbloods knew they had a winner, so they sent along the most powerful sword in the world to keep him company.

Dust wields the Blade of Ahrah, one of five Blades of Elysium. Forged through the same non-magic magic that created Dust himself, Ahrah is thousands of years old, capable of absurd feats, and is also completely sentient. He will actively speak to Dust both during and outside of battle, and can float and move on his own if necessary. In addition to other magical properties, like banishing evil, Ahrah can read the very essences of others, which lets him find and tell Dust the weaknesses, strengths, and stats of any other being in Falana and offer possible strategies with his hundreds of years of battle experience. But that’s not all the sword does; it bestows Dust with several magical powers, like the ability to grip anything with an iron-like vice, allowing him to climb on walls and ceilings, the ability to jump over twenty feet into the air, or just being able to jump off air itself. When using the blade just right, Dust can glide, harness wind currents, hover, and manipulate certain elemental attacks. And that’s not the end of it: Ahrah is magically imbued with the skills of all those who have wielded him previously, giving Dust all of those very skills in addition to the ones he already possesses. Oh, and, being the most powerful sword in the world, it’s unbreakable, un-meltable, lightning-fast, and capable of slicing through solid steel like butter.

And, since he’s wielding the best blade in the land, Dust figured he could use some armor to match. He wears the Robe of the Mithrarin, which, again, is non-magically magically made, and massively boosts his durability. The Mithrarin’s Augment similarly boosts his strength, while the Wedding Ring gives him a healing factor. That’s right; Dust wears a magical ring that heals his wounds for him, though not at great speeds, and it, for whatever reason, will often stop working if he’s near death and overexerting himself. It can still regenerate half the force it takes to kill him within a few minutes, though. And, finally, the Battle Master’s Pendant doubles his already insane strength.

But that’s not everything he has going along with him. Let’s not forget one small, smack-talking, adorable little nimbat named Fidget. Fidget is the guardian of the Blade of Ahrah, and so originally went along with Dust to make sure she got the sword back when he was done with it - only to find out that it was her duty to go along with the sword’s chosen bearer anyway. Being a nimbat, Fidget can fly at exceptionally fast speeds, to the point where not even Dust can hit her, has a sixth sense, allowing her to sense the presence of monsters and treasure, and she can use minor amounts of elemental magic. The magic she uses takes three forms. She can throw small blasts of energy that home in on enemies, fireballs that set all they touch to flame, and, most powerful of all, bursts of electricity to cook and disintegrate all she dislikes. And while these attacks aren’t that effective alone, Dust can manipulate them with Ahrah to form devastating attacks that can clear out dozens upon dozens of trained soldiers and/or monsters with ease. He can multiply the amount of energy blasts exponentially and scatter them all across a 100-foot radius, bounce the electricity off his blade or throw it himself, or, most powerful of all, create enormous explosions that coat the entire surrounding area in flames. And while their enemies lay on the ground either dead or suffering, Dust and Fidget remain completely untouched. As if that weren’t enough, wearing the Wedding Ring somehow doubles the damage these redirected attacks do.

But Dust doesn’t need Fidget’s magic or Ahrah’s guidance to make his enemies fall before him. Dust is an aggressive fighter, preferring to go all-out from the start and finish a battle before his opponent can land the first blow - which he often accomplishes, even when faced up against giants over a hundred feet high, entire battalions of soldiers, and powerful demons. If this doesn’t work, however, he backs up, adapts to the situation, and wins through strategy, skill, and pure willpower. But, in addition to all the skill he possesses, both naturally and with Ahrah’s magic, he can perform a number of Combos, powerful moves that magically rejuvenate Dust and deal incredible amounts of damage to his foes. From Whence it Came is a ground combo that relies on getting in multiple hits, pulling in enemies for further damage, then throwing them back out before they can strike. Ash Bound focuses on quick slices to inflict pain and distraction while keeping the enemy in place and is finished off by driving the enemy into the ground with a powerful swing. With The Undoing, Dust brings the enemy into the air and hits them with several quick blows before launching an incredibly strong and fast one, impaling the enemy and bringing them into the ground. The Rising Pheonix has Dust launching both him and those he’s fighting into the sky based on his pure strength, allowing him to have his way with them undisturbed. Finally, after dashing behind an enemy, Dust can perform the Backslash, a move that focuses on taking them by surprise and finishing the fight before they can even react. While he may only have a few, the whole point of the Combos is for each and every one to lead into another, creating near-endless loops of suffering for the victim until the fight is over. When an enemy is caught in one of these Combos, Dust can hit them anywhere between twenty to a thousand times, or even more, before it’s over. That’s no exaggeration - Dust was once challenged to pull off a combo that hit his enemy over a thousand times, and he did it with relative ease.

This is also a big aspect of two other moves. These moves are ones specifically affected by Ahrah’s magic and can be used both as a finisher for Combos and a lead-in. The Parry occurs when Dust and his enemy hit each other’s weapons at full strength at the same time. Ahrah’s magic activates, knocking both Dust and his opponent back and slowing down time, allowing Dust to rush in and deliver a fatal blow before his opponent can even hit the floor. But Dust’s most powerful move, not just based on pure deadliness but also versatility, is the Dust Storm. Though it can’t be used for more than about thirty seconds at a time, there’s no better tool in Dust’s arsenal to take advantage of his fighting style and Combos. To activate this effect, Dust spins Ahrah fast enough to be invisible. With the aid of non-magic magic, this creates a vacuum effect, drawing in enemies, flying bombs, and even enormous bags filled with gold (that would weigh nearly half a ton), all of which are now doomed to the whirlwind of pain. Even the most powerful of enemies are often cuts to ribbons inside of this. But it doesn’t just do that: The Dust Storm technique allows Ahrah to absorb both kinetic and elemental energy, adding it to his next blows, and will even increase Dust’s already-amazing speed.

And amazing is a rather weak word to describe Dust. This cat/dog/ferret/person thing is able to match the strength of the demonic personification of rage itself, fast enough for his sword strikes to appear invisible to the eyes of deities, and able to take several explosions to the face and a quick dip in lava and end up fine.

Dust is able to casually jump into the air, grab an airship five times his size, and piledrive it into the ground, causing it to explode in a fiery inferno. Considering the length and width of the airship in comparison to Dust himself, the potential materials it was made of, and the way it flew against Dust, the airship must have weighed a bare minimum of 35.9 tons. If we now equip Dust with all of his strength enhancements, this means that Dust must be fully capable of lifting and throwing around 271 tons. In comparison, the average full-sized school bus weighs about 13 tons - so that’s like casually taking and throwing over twenty school buses at once. And his speed is just as impressive, if not more so. By comparing the time it takes Dust to complete one full swing measure against a bolt of lightning right next to him, assuming the lower range of lightning speeds of 224,000 MPH, Dust physically lifted Ahrah, positioned him in correlation to the enemy he was facing, and completed the swing fully, slicing right through the foe, in less than 0.00012 seconds. That’s 12 one-hundred-thousandth of a second. And while his durability isn’t quite as good, it’s still well above what should normally be possible. By judging the weight and strength behind a blow from a Trolk, a giant rock creature, and putting it against Dust’s full health, with his durability magically augmented, he should be able to take around 112.83 tons of force. That’s the force of eleven full-speed cars crashing into you at once. Yeah, Dust is just a little overpowered.

And, for as short a time as he’s lived, Dust has used that overpowered-ness as much as he can. He’s defeated and killed over two hundred trained soldiers with ease, including special forces with magical powers. He’s defeated several swordsmen supposed to be his equal, including Fuse, who was stated to be capable of handling an entire army, and several demons that are supposed to be better. He saved three separate races from extinction and even defeated Lady Tethys, the goddess of water and lightning. During the fight, he was able to survive godly deathblows and dodge bursts of electricity with ease. Then there was the time he was possessed by a demon of death, and his will was so absurdly strong, he was able to keep control over his own body - then he committed suicide in order to get the demon to leave, and resurrected himself through sheer willpower! He navigated the incredibly dangerous and maze-like Cirromon Caverns without trouble and forged a path through the Sorrowing Meadow, a place possessed by hundreds of hell’s monsters. He made it all the way to the Archer Pass Forge, despite the way being blocked by dozens of living, floating bombs, and made his way through the center of a volcano, and at the top he found and fought his former friend, General Gaius. And then he killed him, despite many claims of Gaius being his better in every way.

But nothing lasts forever, and Dust…didn’t. After defeating Gaius, he chose to die in the volcano, leaving the rest of Falana free from Gaius’s crusade. This fact shows us that, even though Dust can survive encounters with lava, he can’t survive drowning in it. Or being impaled by spikes several times in a row. Or being crushed multiple times by a nuber-powerful demonic embodiment of rage. Dust is strong, fast, and tough, but he’s far less tough than he is anything else. He’s a glass cannon, and several powerful blows will eventually kill him. That’s why his main tactic is to finish the fight before it begins, or dodge all attacks and strike when the time comes. Beyond that, he’s incredibly light, meaning a single explosion will send him flying several meters away. And he doesn’t defend well, choosing to dodge attacks or parry them if necessary - which makes encounters against tank-like enemies cumbersome. Above all, he’s still two souls made one, and is always at odds within himself. Ahrah helps keep the peace between them, but it still has distracted him and threatened his life during battle. It doesn’t help that, for the vast majority of his journey, he had no idea who he was or what he was supposed to do, only going along with what his conscience told him was right, which lead to his internal arguments causing incredible amounts of confusion. He’s almost died several times because of this.

And yet, the only thing that has been able to kill him is himself. Dust is a fierce warrior with a strong sense of justice. Gods and demons alike have tried to slay this Warmblood, and all are sent away humbled and defeated. This is one furry creature you don’t want to cross blades with.

''As they crash through the molten rock and get up, ready to continue the fight, Gaius calls out to Dust. “Don’t you remember anything, Cassius? Why would you draw your blade against your fellow soldiers? Why would you draw your blade against ME?” Dust rushes forward and smashes Ahrah against Gaius’ sword. “You’re destroying this world, Gaius. You and your soldiers cannot be allowed to continue your campaign.” Gaius narrowly defends against every thrust Dust makes and knocks him back. “This world belongs to the strong, Cassius! It belongs to us! Don’t you remember your duty? Don’t you remember your friends?” “I remember everything,” Dust replies, getting up. He throws himself at Gaius, readying a finishing blow. “And it changes nothing!”''

Dust: Name: Sen-Mithrarin Species: Warmblood Age: About 2 Months Height: 5 ft./ 152 cm Weight: 70 lbs / 32 kg Occupation: General Personification of justice Thinks Fidget is adorable (who doesn’t?) Loves wearing a satgat. Seriously. It’s a little weird.

Items/Weapons: Blade of Ahrah Robe of the Mithrarin Battle Master’s Pendant Wedding Ring Mithrarin’s Augment

Abilities: Superhuman Strength Superhuman Speed Superhuman Durability Healing Factor Iron Grip Double Jump Boost Jump Elemental Guidnace Hovering Dust Storm Parry - Combos: From Whence it Came The Undoing Rising Pheonix Ash Bound Backslash

Feats: Defeated an entire army…twice Saved a race from extinction…thrice Defeated Lady Tethys Defeated the spirit of Baron Kane Defeated Fuse Defeated General Gaius Defeated demons and other powerful monsters easily Navigated and forged paths through places deemed impossible Lifted and piledrived an airship Knocked back Trolks, Giants Dodged lightning Swung Ahrah fast enough to be invisible Took three explosions right after each other Survived a dip in lava Killed himself, survived Apparently survived being incinerated?

Weaknesses: Stamina doesn’t last forever Rarely blocks attacks Very bold in battle, leads to mistakes Can be knocked back quite far Difficult to get out of combos Always battling inner demons Over-relies on Ahrah and Fidget A complete glass cannon

Kirito
Kazuto Kirigaya wasn’t supposed to be a hero. In the year 2022, a development team worked tirelessly to create the first ever home console using FullDive technology, which brought a gamer’s mind into the virtual world. Led by Akihiko Kayaba, they managed to eventually create both the technology, labeled as the NerveGear, and the first game for the system, Sword Art Online. In order to make sure everything was fully functional, they recruited 1000 beta testers, including Kazuto himself. Kazuto very quickly found himself enthralled in the world of SAO. So, when the full game came out and he received his free copy, he plugged himself in right away. Unbeknownst to him, Kayaba had removed the player’s ability to log out of the system and, for no explained reason, turned the entirety of SAO into a game of death. Basically, you die in the game, you die in real life. The only way to end it was to beat all 100 floors of Castle Aincrad, the location of the game. As people died off left and right, Kazuto stood above everyone as an expert, who played the game better than nearly anyone else could hope to. A beacon of hope, if you will. And while his true name was Kazuto, to everyone that mattered, he called himself Kirito.

As a former beta tester and video game extraordinaire, Kirito became one of SAO’s top players immediately, in no small part thanks to his natural talent as a swordsman. While he’s durable enough, it’s his great strength and mind-blowing speed that showcases his real skill. Being able to do things like impale a player dozens of feet away before they can finish drawing their weapon or send a minotaur flying with a single kick, even in a realm where fantasies come to life, Kirito is above the rest. So it only makes sense that his weapons are above the rest, too.

Kirito’s primary sword is the Elucidator. Though it’s merely a drop from the Floor 50 boss of SAO, it’s one of the most powerful swords in that game and several others. It’s very powerful and extremely fast. Made for slashing rather than parrying, blocking, or thrusting, it’s short, but compliments Kirito’s speedy fighting style perfectly. It’s not indestructible,, but is able to take and redirect blows from the best swords in the game without any effort, so it won’t be breaking anytime soon. It’s also sharp enough to cut through most metals with ease, including steel and titanium, and has been enchanted to be able to fend off magical attacks. Kirito, however, has the unique Dual-Wielding skill. Granted to him by Kayaba himself, because he had the best reaction speed of any SAO player, this skill allows him to equip another sword in his left hand and use both in turn. This requires a totally different skill set and fighting style, which he’s also mastered. His secondary sword is none other than the legendary Holy Sword Excalibur. Far superior to any other weapon in the game it comes from, Excalibur is virtually indestructible and hits absurdly hard. It’s only downside is that it’s heavy and slightly slower than the Elucidator. This is the biggest reason Kirito only activates Dual-Wielding when One-Handed swordplay isn’t working out. Simply put, he’s better with the Elucidator alone. But with that strong of a sword, it’s hard to go wrong.

And it’s similarly hard to go wrong with his stylish cloak. The Blackwyrm Coat boasts very little defense, but is extremely light and maneuverable, making it a good option for someone who moves as fast as Kirito. It does boast another skill, though. Wearing the Blackwyrm Coat increases Kirito’s hiding stat dramatically. When hiding, Kirito doesn’t appear on maps or searching and becomes difficult to spot, even if you’re looking at him. The only guaranteed way to be seen in this state is if facing someone with a higher Detection statline than your Hiding statline or if you begin fighting or attacking. Wearing this coat also increases Kirito’s regeneration statline. Oh, yeah, when Kirito is injured, his Battle Healing ability heals damage dealt over time, healing to full in about 250 seconds. However, for whatever reason, if Kirito has been in any kind of combat with anyone near his level, the ability won’t trigger - like during battles with Gleam Eyes and Kuradeel, which only left him at 1 HP - and no healing happening. Which is dumb.

But two swords and a coat aren’t all he carries along with him. Let’s not forget a strange, oddly-cutesy Psychology A.I. named Yui. Yui is…Kirito’s daughter. Somewhat. Basically, after he married his longtime fighting partner Asuna, they discovered Yui and pretty much adopted her. I know, it’s weird, but just go with it. After Kirito beat SAO and Asuna got stuck in a new game called Alfheim Online (ALO), Yui was brought back as a fairy companion for Kirito. As a fairy, she can fly around effortlessly with no defined limit, and is considered an immortal object. Nothing can hurt her. Her primary function in battle is to give Kirito information and possible strategies. She knows just about everything there is to know and can determine exactly what would help Kirito at this moment and is able to sift through it all with a 95% proficiency. She’s also a skilled hacker, easily able to get into other people’s accounts and even cross gaps between games. She once even hacked into a government database within a minute…and was never found out. She also has extra senses due to her nature as an A.I. She recognizes where something, or someone, is and what they’re about to do the exact moment the game does, which can provide great help to Kirito in certain situations.

But Kirito rarely needs her help to kill off a Floor Boss, which would normally take 75 people, all on his own. He’s an aggressive fighter with a tactical mind. He comes into battle swinging quickly, hoping not to destroy his opponent right away, but to test them. See how they react, then dodge every blow with his superhuman agility, and change his tactics appropriately. This may seem odd on paper, being aggressive without being aggressive, but in practice it works out almost every time. Whether it’s against player or monster, this tactic always increases Kirito’s chance of living and tells him everything he needs to know to defeat the fighter in a very short period of time. He wins most of his fights within ten seconds. He won’t go all-out unless he feels he needs to, but if he feels he needs to, you can kiss whatever hope you had of surviving good-bye. See, Kirito is already a master swordsman, but in addition to his great swordplay, SAO has a certain set of powers titled “Sword Skills” granted to players who are really, really good at sword fighting. And since Kirito’s mastered it, he knows…all of them. Sword Skills are special sword abilities that are accessed by performing a certain action. They may take anywhere between half a second and five seconds to charge, and induce a delay upon Kirito after execution, but they’re so powerful it rarely matters. There are the simple ones, of course, like Horizontal (slash horizontally), Horizontal Arc (slash horizontally twice), and Horizontal Square (slash horizontally four times in a square), but there are a lot that are far more interesting. Rage Spike is a charging thrust meant to cover a great distance in a short time, but is relatively weak. Vorpal Strike is very similar but is faster and more powerful, but has a longer delay afterward. Sharp Nail is a three-slash attack to hit the enemy on the right, then the left, then the middle, Sonic Leap is a charging aerial slice that’s near-impossible to avoid, and Slant is a slanted slash that can reach up to 2.5 meters away. With Spinning Shield, Kirito spins his sword fast enough to become, essentially, a shield, blocking a single powerful blow, and dispersing fire and frost. Deadly Sins is a several-hit attack meant for finishing a weakened opponent or utterly destroying someone who can’t react quickly enough. Howling Octave sets the sword on fire, then has Kirito thrust through his opponent multiple times before finishing it off with a slash up and a slash down. With Savage Fulcrum, he cuts half-way through his enemy, unleashes a wave of frost magic, and cuts the foe straight up through the head. Let’s not forget Lightning Fall, which charges the sword with lightning that can be transmitted or thrown. Then there’s Meteor Fall, where Kirito throws his sword into the air, punches the opponent, knocking them back, then jumps into the air, reacquires the sword, lights it on fire, and slices through the enemy. Needless to say, it’s usually very fatal. Not as fatal as Meteor Break, however. A high-speed seven-slash attack, Meteor Break hits with multiple wide slashes and a shoulder blow for good measure, then finishes off by slicing through the opponent’s neck. Each and every Sword Skill can be used in some way against nearly any opponent, and a great swordsman, which Kirito is, can tell exactly when and where to use them for maximum damage. They all work as great finishers, too. This is doubly true for Kirito’s Two-Handed Sword Skills.

Only usable when Dual-Wielding, there aren’t that many Two-Handed Sword Skills - but the ones there are can often be far more devastating then One-Handed ones, which are already devastating enough. Let’s start off with the only defensive skill Kirito has in his whole arsenal: Cross Block. Basically, Kirito crosses both swords and uses them to block a blow. The blow’s power is measured against the swords’ durability, and anything stronger is inflicted on Kirito, with everything below the durability being negated. This will often be used to prevent a potentially lethal blow that Kirito couldn’t dodge in time. For more deadly, however, is the Double Circular, a spinning attack that extends the reaches of both swords and slices through everything around Kirito. The Eclipse is Kirito’s most-hitting attack, being a 26-hit slashing storm of blades and fury. Kirito uses both swords to launch over twenty very fast, but rather weak, blows to his opponent, then thrust forward with both swords, impaling the opponent in two different places - if they aren’t dead by then, they soon will be. Last, but not least, is Kirito’s most powerful Sword Skill: Starburst Stream. It’s very similar to The Eclipse, and while it doesn’t hit as many times, with only 16 strikes instead of 26, each strike is far more powerful and induces plenty of knock-back after the attack finishes. The downside is that it’s not quite as fast and exerts enormous pressure on Kirito - like making him unable to block a simple incoming blow afterward or…fainting. It’s a win-or-lose move, and, because of that, he has only used it twice. Once it worked. Once it didn’t.

But “not working” isn’t a phrase that’s often used when referring to Kirito’s abilities. This literal video game avatar is able to jump over twenty feet into the air, casually push back blows from monsters ten times his size, swing fast enough to appear invisible, even to the eyes of deities, and take impalement, being crushed, being shot, and being in the middle of an explosion and end up totally fine. This is, in part, thanks to him being a game avatar; he has a defined HP bar, and it goes down with each hit. However, where and how he’s struck rarely makes a difference in how his HP goes down. So if he’s stabbed through the stomach, he’ll feel the pain of being stabbed through the stomach, but he won’t die like a normal person - his health would just go down a little. But being a living video game character isn’t Kirito’s only trick. Kirito has access to a special set of outside-battle skills, which can activate whenever he wishes for them to. These include Running on Walls, which does what you think it does, and Arms Blast, which discovers the weak points of weapons and makes them open to be hit. Upon hitting a weak point, the weapon will shatter. With Hypersense, he can sense the morality of another player, basically telling him if they would kill him or not, and his Detection skill gives him a slight sixth sense, which allows him to see hidden or invisible creatures and players and track down vanished objects. But none of these compare to his Flight ability. After entering ALO, Kirito gained light Spriggan Fairy Wings, which allow him limited flight for up to ten minutes. He can even engage in aerial battles. But that’s not the last of it. With his Illusion Magic, Kirito’s only magical ability aside from making smokescreens, Kirito will transform into a mighty beast, capable of effortlessly tearing through battalions of high-level players and breaking solid steel like wet paper. The form only lasts a few minutes, though, and takes over a full minute to charge, so it’s unreasonable in a fast-paced fight. The monster doesn’t even increase his stats all that much, which makes sense, considering his stats are nuts.

Kirito is capable of casually punching a hole through solid steel. Considering the thickness of the steel and the size of the hole in question, this must have taken around 272 tons of force - that’s like being hit by a crashing train. His speed is even more ridiculous. While participating in Gun Gale Online’s Bullet of Bullets competition, Kirito wielded a Photon Sword, which he stated felt quite similar to his normal Elucidator. While using that sword, he effortlessly blocked and redirected every single bullet from a machine gun shooting only a few feet away on three separate occasions. During one of them, we get a close-up of a bullet in comparison to Kirito’s face where it’s mere inches away. In order to block this bullet before it hit him, like he did, Kirito would have needed to ready, raise, and swing his sword in just slightly over 0.00011 seconds. To put that into perspective, in one second, a beam of light could travel around the earth 7.5 times. In 0.00011 seconds, a beam of light would barely make it nine feet. And while his durability isn’t quite on this level, it’s still up there in terms of absurdity - largely thanks to his HP system. By judging the weight and power behind several different monster swings that we clearly see the HP Meter go down for and scaling it to Kirito’s highest known level (96), we have it that he could survive a little over 111 tons of force. Kirito could survive having the 25 largest grand pianos in the world smashed over his head all at once, without needing his Battle Healing ability. He may just be slightly (if by slightly you mean totally) overpowered.

And throughout multiple games and lots of stories, Kirito has proven that overpowered-ness time and time again. The guy has taken on thousands of monsters by himself and defeated entire bosses completely alone, including an evil Santa Boss that, at this point, was supposed to be facing almost a hundred players. He and Asuna once went up to Floor 74, cleared out every one of thousands of monsters, cleared out the dungeons completely, and then defeated the incredibly deadly and powerful Gleam Eyes boss - all because they were bored. Kirito pretty much beat Gleam Eyes by himself. Remember that the majority of players, even ones in guilds focusing on combat and defeating monsters, never dared to go to a floor that high for fear that a single monster would wipe them all out. But monster-killing is hardly the end of his feats. This guy helped destroy two of the deadliest guilds in the game, defeated one of the most powerful guild’s best ranking members in less than three seconds, and even defeated Kayaba himself, freeing everyone from the death game, while Kayaba was using an avatar specifically made to be impossible to defeat. He did this by striking the final blow immediately after Kayaba had impaled him, as this was the only point the could get through his defensive techniques. Since the last blow officially killed him, he should have died right then and there, but, through sheer willpower, he survived for another 30 seconds anyway. And that’s just from when he was in SAO. When he traveled to other games, like ALO, he accomplished a lot more - like defeating yet another supposedly impossible to defeat game maker while under ten times the pain of being impaled. Or defeating hundreds of the most powerful sentries in the game. Or defeating the game’s best player in a duel merely two days after first signing on. He wiped out an entire guild in under a minute, placed 2nd in the ALO Swordsman Tournament while only using one-handed skills, and even reached the top of the World Tree, a feat no other player or guild had accomplished. After this, he entered Gun Gale Online (GGO) in order to find and defeat Death Gun, who could evidentially kill players in real life by killing them in-game (doesn’t that sound familiar). During his time there, he participated in the Bullet of Bullets tournament and killed dozens of different gunmen. He even deflected a sniper round from only a few feet away. He also won the Untouchable! bullet dodging minigame, which was stated to be impossible to win, by predicting where the NerveGear would predict the bullets to be and dodging those areas before the system was aware of it. Oh, and he won the Bullet of Bullets and killed Death Gun. Later, he defeated the four Integrity Knights, considered more powerful than any of his former foes.

But nothing lasts forever, and Kirito has died more than once, be it due to overwhelming numbers, a fair duel, or his own sacrifice. He’s lost his fair share of times against better players, and his speed and strength isn’t always enough. He has great trouble against defensive foes who can block his attacks, and requires an opening before he can properly fight an opponent. Because of the time they take to charge and the delay they induce on him, his Sword Skills actively work against his fighting style, and he finds it best to only use a couple during his battles. Not to mention that they’re extremely predictable against foes who have seen them before. He hasn’t always performed well when facing foes with similar levels of speed, like Yuuki, a young girl who managed to defeat him twice using speed and skill alone. This is because he’s a glass cannon, and isn’t able to take what he can dish out. He has almost zero defensive options. He’s great at parrying attacks from slower foes, but if he can’t dodge a blow, there’s almost nothing he can do - similarly, if he’s caught in another’s chain of Sword Skills, it’s virtually impossible for him to get out of it. He’s also absurdly overconfident in his fighting abilities. He’ll do things like give an enemy who wants to kill him the best sword in the game just because Kirito thinks he’s a terrible swordsman without Kirito once actually seeing that opponent’s skill, attempt to kill a player by stabbing through a shield that has never been broken while using a sword that has been broken before, or stopping in the middle of a fight to have a conversation, not realizing his opponent wouldn’t do the same thing - or that his opponent would take advantage of this and end up killing him. Most importantly, though, is his over-reliance on his friends. Virtually every time he’s pulled off some incredible feat, his friends have helped him - like Klein and Asuna giving him an opening to attack Gleam Eyes, Leafa consistently healing him with magic while he was fighting Guardian Knights, or Sinon covering him with her sniper rifle when he’s taking care of some of his more powerful foes - including Death Gun himself. Even during his fight against Kayaba, Kirito only won because Asuna took a fatal blow for him.

But regardless of any help he’s received from others, Kirito’s feats stand alone. There’s a reason he’s considered a legend among gamers and an overpowered hero among anime. The Black Swordsman is nobody to be trifled with.

''As their massive guild of over a hundred players rushes towards the small team Sleeping Knights, a member of the guild shouts out “You don’t know when to give up!” Suddenly, a young man in a black coat with a fairy companion is running behind them. He puts on a burst of speed and runs up a wall, easily surpassing the guild, then lands right in front of the Sleeping Knights, stopping both guilds in their tracks. “Sorry,” Kirito declares, drawing his sword, “this place is off limits.” “Hey, Blacky,” the guild’s leader calls out confidently, “even you can’t possibly fight this many people at once, can you?” Kirito shrugs, smiling. “I don’t know. I’ve never tried.” The leader smiles. “Oh? Then let’s try.” He snaps his fingers. “Mages, torch him.” As dozens of magical projectiles launch themselves at him, Kirito charges up a Sword Skill and effortlessly cuts through every one, leaving everyone around him awe-struck - and the guild before him terrified.''

Kirito: Name: Kazuto Kirigaya Species: Human/Spriggan Age: 17 Height: 6’8”/ 172 cm Weight: 130 lbs / 59 kg Occupation: Student Favorite Food: Teriyaki Chicken Burgers Favorite Pastime: Fishing Average Yawn Length: Eight Seconds Once tried wielding three swords, with one in his mouth. Couldn’t do it.

Items/Weapons: Elucidator Holy Sword Excalibur Throwing Pick Blackwyrm Coat

Abilities: Superhuman Strength Superhuman Speed Superhuman Durability Battle Healing Flight Illusion Magic Running on Walls Detection Arms Blast Hypersense - One-Handed Sword Skills: Horizontal Horizontal Arc Horizontal Square Vertical Vertical Arc Vertical Square Rage Spike Sharp Nail Slant Spinning Shield Sonic Leap Vorpal Strike Meteor Fall Meteor Break Deadly Sins Lightning Fall Savage Fulcrum Howling Octave - Two-Handed Sword Skills: Double Circular Cross Block The Eclipse Starburst Stream

Feats: Defeated an entire guild…four times Saved every life in a game…three times Defeated Nicholas the Renegade Defeated Kuradeel Defeated Gleam Eyes Defeated Akihiko Kayaba Defeated Death Gun Defeated Fairy King Oberon Defeated General Eugene Defeated a lot of other people Navigated and forged paths through places deemed impossible Punched through solid steel Knocked back Giants, Minotaurs Dodged point-blank sniper rounds Moved fast enough to be invisible Took several explosions to the face Survived being impaled dozens of times Killed himself, survived 2nd Place in ALO Swordsman Tournament Co-winner of the third Bullet of Bullets Beta the Untouchable! minigame Reached the top of the World Tree Held his own against dozens of Guardian Knights Defeated the four Integrity Knights Held off Thor himself Survived marriage

Weaknesses: Stamina doesn’t last forever Rarely blocks attacks Battle techniques struggle against speedy players Sword Skills are easily played around and induce delay Over-relies on his friends A complete glass cannon Incredibly overconfident in his skills Died five times - that we know of Defeated by several players Battle Healing is countered by…fighting. Very difficult to get out of combos or chain attacks Performs best only when a lot is at stake

Intermission
All right, the combatants are set. Let’s end this debate once and for all. It’s time for a Death Battle!

Death Battle
“I’m worried about the Moonbloods,” Dust stated as he ran forward through the volcanic caverns. “They shouldn’t have stayed behind for me.”

“You will have enough on your mind once we reach Gaius, Dust.” Ahrah told him. “We must not worry about them now.”

“Oh, yeah, let’s not worry about the barely-surviving on their own six fighters holding off an entire army for us,” Fidget growled at Ahrah. “That might make us look like decent people!”

“This is the moment the rebellion has been waiting for for a long time, Fidget,” Ahrah reminded her, “and each fighter would gladly sacrifice themselves so that Dust can end this once and for all.”

“Well, don’t feel too guilty about it,” Fidget replied sarcastically.

“Fidget, Ahrah, no fighting.” Dust ordered them. “I’m going to need both of you if I want a chance of winning.”

“It wasn’t an argument,” Ahrah corrected him, “I was simply correcting a mistake in her logic.”

“You may be the only sentient sword on this planet who considers the gift of life a mistake in logic,” Fidget scolded.

“I am, indeed. None of the others have awakened yet. I feel sure they will agree with me.”

“Fidget,” Dust questioned, “Is there anything in between us and the General? Besides distance, of course.”

“Rocks,” Fidget answered. “Lava. Death. Take your pick.”

“I would be careful, Dust,” Ahrah warned. “You have been gone for several months. Chances are high that you have been replaced, and we were not made aware of it.”

“So there’s going to be someone else to get through before I reach Gaius?”

“It is quite likely. We must make sure to handle the encounter carefully - he is likely to be as powerful or even more so than Cassius was, and we would be fighting General Gaius almost immediately afterward.”

“You mean more powerful than I was,” Dust corrected stubbornly. “I know everything, Ahrah. Stop trying to spare me. Fidget, are you sure there’s nothing?”

Fidget shrugged. “Look, nimbats aren’t exactly known for their amazing future-telling talents. Just ‘cause I don’t sense him now doesn’t mean he’s not there.”

“I see,” Dust replied. Then, confidentially, he reiterated his earlier sentence. “Let’s be careful, but I’ll need both of you by my side. We can do this - together.”

…

Meanwhile, Kirito was standing in a room on the other side of reality. In front of him was a lagging, bugged-out door.

“Hmm, you did that pretty quickly, Yui. You haven’t been practicing your hacking on government property again, have you?”

Yui chuckled and flew up to Kirito’s head, resting in his hair. “Let’s not talk about that yet. The door is open, Daddy! Who knows what it leads to?”

“A room cut out from the main game. Supposed to be inaccessible. What do you think about those rumors of it leading to Alfheim’s secret end-game boss?”

“They’re just rumors,” replied Yui uneasily. “But…uh, maybe we should wait for Mommy, just in case?”

“Yui, you’re invincible,” replied Kirito. “You have nothing to worry about.”

“But what if the boss has a secret ability that makes me not invincible? What if it’s super strong and kills you and, by extension, me?”

“That’s…pretty unlikely. Yui, when have I ever lost a boss fight?”

“What about when-”

“Nevermind. We can handle this on our own. Besides, being the first ever player and A.I. to enter a secret area of the game? That’s got to be exciting.”

“If, by exciting, you mean terrifying.” Yui dug her face deeper into Kirito’s hair.

Kirito laughed. “We’ll be fine. Now get up; I’m going to need you if there’s really a boss in there.”

Yui hesitantly lifted herself off Kirito’s head and landed on his shoulder.

Breathing deeply, Kirito opened the door.

There was a rush of wind, and the door faded into nothingness. Streams of data zoomed about around him, like they didn’t know where they were supposed to be.

“Daddy?” Yui said, “I think something’s wrong.”

But they didn’t have to worry for long. In another five seconds, everything around them had vanished - and the found themselves in the open air, resting on a long platform in the middle of a volcano.

“Well, this is interesting,” Kirito mused.

Then Dust raced into view.

Dust was running full-throttle, then came to a sudden stop when he saw Kirito, causing Fidget to smack right into him.

“Ow!” she complained. “With all that soft cloth between you and your back, why does it still hurt every time I bump into you?!”

“Ahrah, who…what, is that?”

“I don’t know, Dust,” Ahrah replied. “He seemed to appear out of nowhere. Be careful; I sense he is just as physically capable as you.”

“He is?”

“Yes. And there’s something else about him, too…something different.”

Fidget looked from one of them to the other. “Well, why are we waiting here? Let’s get ‘im!”

“Calm down, Fidget,” Dust told her. “We don’t know anything about this guy. He could be a friend.”

“Weirdest-looking friend I’ve ever seen,” commented Fidget. “But, by all means, go ahead and have a nice conversation with him. I can see it now.” She breathed in deeply and spoke with an over-exaggerated deeper voice. “‘Oh, hello there, bad dude! My name is Dust, and I’m the baddest bad dude around! You bad? Me too! We can be bad dudes doin’ bad dude stuff together!’ And then he slices your head off. Great plan!”

“I…sound nothing like that.”

There was silence from both Fidget and Ahrah.

“Actually, Dust-” Fidget began.

“No, he’s my wielder,” Ahrah interrupted. “I should tell him.”

“This- this is the one thing you two agree on? That I sound like some kind of…hipster?”

“You were made by the magic of life itself,” Ahrah acknowledged.

“And you constantly wear that silly hat because ‘It looks cool.’” Fidget continued.

“Your goal is to spread peace to the edges of the world.”

“You have a sword you claim talks to you.”

“And you-”

“I get it!” Dust stopped them. “Let’s find out about him. Tactfully.”

Fidget shrugged, then shouted “Hey! You up there! Are you the one sent to kill us?”

“Smooth, Fidget,” Dust told her, sounding exasperated.

Kirito only heard the shout.

He paused, taking advantage of the increased height of his platform to study the group below him. “Monsters don’t…normally talk. Especially bosses.”

“Maybe that’s a reason why the room was closed off?” Yui offered.

“The way those two communicated - it almost seemed they were strategizing. They could be sentient.” He shook his head. “But a sentient boss is still a boss - and after that question, there’s little doubt that this is, indeed, the boss fight we were promised.”

“I don’t like this,” Yui whispered.

“I guess I am!” Kirito called back to the crew below. He watched their reactions - startled, mostly, but with some grim acceptance. If there was to be a sentient boss in the game, he wasn’t surprised it was implemented like this. And a showdown in the middle of a volcano? It’d be hard to get more climactic than this. He waved to them. “If you want to face me, come up here!”

“Why don’t you come down here?” The flying one shouted back. “Just because you’re a big-shot who thinks he can cut out our faces and string up our innards-” she was silenced by the blue-hatted one below. He seemed surprised at her, for some reason. More surprising still was when he took up the offer, jumping up to Kirito’s platform with a single leap.

“Daddy, be careful with this boss,” Yui whispered in his ear. “That blue one - he’s the main one you have to worry about. He’s just as fast as you.”

Kirito’s eyes widened. “That’s different.”

“It almost looks like his stats were directly lifted from yours, probably when you entered the room,” Yui affirmed, “But there’s something…different about him.”

Kirito hadn’t received a fighting prompt, but he assumed that was due to the nature of this room. He drew the Elucidator. “So, what’s your name?” He called.

Dust held Ahrah out forward. “Yours first. Who are you, and why do you want to kill me?”

“Call me Kirito. And it’s…kinda my job. You know, killing people like you. I do it for fun.”

Dust grimaced and readied his blade. “I am Dust. And don’t think I’ll be going down without a fight.”

“I hope not,” Kirito replied, grinning. “That’d be boring.” He stretched out his sword-wielding hand and bent his knees, getting into his favorite fighting position.

--FIGHT!--

Kirito moved first.

The first move of the battle was a running thrust, with Kirito charging ahead and stabbing out his sword at multiple different angles to see what his opponent would do. Would he dodge the blows? Parry them? Block them? As soon as he had that information, he could begin working on a strategy to defeat this boss.

Dust saw the attacks and lowered his sword. Though they were moving fast enough to look like multiple swords, he knew there was really only one blade. He just needed to see where it would hit and…

Kirito made a final thrust at Dust’s neck, but a millisecond before the blade could hit him, Dust had lifted Ahrah, blocking the thrust with its broadside. Instantly afterward, Dust knocked the Elucidator backwards and dove behind Kirito, where he performed a Backslash, striking the first hit of the fight. Kirito jumped forward in pain and surprise, then leaped into the air right before a slash connected with him. Dust kept slashing forward, readying the spot where Kirito would land, but Kirito shifted to the right and twirled in the air, spinning his black sword at Dust, who deftly scraped the blow away with his own blade - giving Kirito an opportunity to hit him. He smashed his sword up, throwing Dust’s hand off, and completed the motion with a slice, leaving Dust in the same condition that Dust had left him.

Dust took advantage of their close range and led off with his own slice, readying a ground combo, but Kirito parried every blow neatly - though Dust didn’t pretend not to notice the sweat on his brow. Dust slammed Ahrah straight up, throwing both him and Kirito into the air, but rather than attempt to fight him there, dove down towards the ground, spinning Ahrah to get more distance between them. The moment Kirito landed, he jumped high into the air to reach Dust more quickly, and from a vantage point, and that’s when Dust made his move. “Fidget, energy!”

Fidget instantly threw out four energy projectiles, but when Ahrah touched them, they turned into hundreds - hundreds that rose up and tore through Kirito at the height of his jump. The power of the energy kept Kirito in the air temporarily, as it kept going back and forth to damage him over and over again. Kirito managed to cut through most of them, dissipating each one - but not before Dust had reached him with a powerful leap. Dust slashed his blade through his entire body several times in rapid succession before impaling him through the chest and piledriving him into the ground. Dust got up from the young man and turned, assuming victory.

All this happened in under ten seconds.

While Dust moved away, Kirito bit through the pain and managed to get up. He looked at his health bar and compared it to Dust’s. Over a third of his HP was gone, which was far more than the seemingly-untouched Dust.

“He really is just as fast as me,” he whispered to Yui. “That…caught me off-guard. Do you have anything?”

“The sword he uses…it’s weird.”

“Magic? We can counter-”

“No…yes…no. It’s just like magic, but…it’s not. And I think it’s alive. Not sure, though.”

Kirito sighed weakly. “Anything else?”

“This boss appears to go in for the kill right away. He tries to adapt to whatever you have based on that if he doesn’t win.”

“So I give him no room for that. Keep changing things up, give him nothing to adapt to.”

“Persevere, and you’ll win, Daddy.”

“Thank you, Yui. Let’s start taking this seriously.” He raised his sword and readied a Rage Spike. Less than a second later, he launched it.

Dust heard Ahrah shout “Dust! Behind you!” right before he was struck with the blow. The strike stabbed through him and sent Dust to the ground. He rolled and slashed at his assailant, who blocked the blow with one sword - only for another, golden one to materialize in his other hand and stab Dust through the chest.

Dust fell back instantly, coughing. His healing factor had work to do, but it didn’t look like this black-clad warrior would give it the chance. “How did he survive? It should be impossible-”

“His physical body is not natural,” Ahrah informed him. “Somehow, it distributes force across his whole being. Whether you stab him in the head or the foot, it will do a set amount of damage and change nothing.”

Dust growled. “Then let’s stab him everywhere at once. Fidget, fireballs!”

“Flame on!” Fidget yelled out as she threw the meteor-like flaming balls. Dust had no idea why she liked doing that so much.

He struck the fireballs downward at Kirito’s feet, and the exploded immediately, wrapping the whole area in flames and almost guaranteeing a kill.

Almost.

The fire cleared incredibly quickly quite suddenly as Kirito was revealed twirling his black sword around in a vortex-type manner. His other sword was nowhere to be seen.

“So he can summon it magically?” Dust questioned, right before sliding across another strike.

Kirito turned and struck again, hitting Dust in the back and causing him to lurch, and before he could finish half of his lurch, he was hit again in the side, then again in front and on the other side in less than a second. Dust fell backwads and a square-shaped beam of light burst out of thin air. Kirito stopped for a split second before thrusting down towards Dust - which was just enough time for Dust to jump up and dodge left of Kirito, swinging Ahrah as he went, in order to throw in a quick slash. Kirito fell back slightly, then launched a slanted slash with his sword that extended its length by more than enough to cleave Dust in two. Dust hopped over the sword, only to be thrown out of the air by an aerial slash.

Kirito paused and caught his breath. His health had been lowered, yes, but now Dust’s was nearly equal to his. But Dust somehow kept figuring out what was happening just in time to avoid it. An idea popped into his head.

“Yui, what’s his stamina level?”

“The same as yours.”

“Good.”

Kirito held out his sword like he was waiting to be challenged. Dust hesitated for a split second before attacking, but then immediately launched a barrage of attacks to destroy Kirito - except he wasn’t there. Kirito had quickly flipped out of the way, then repeated his stance. Dust zoomed towards him and delivered a full-powered slash - but, again, Kirito easily out-maneuvered it. While Dust was wasting excess energy delivering finishing blows that would never land, he could keep up this dodging for hours. He just needed to wait until Dust was tired out. He landed, and held out his sword like before.

“Dust,” Fidget spoke quietly. “I’m pretty sure this is a tra-”

Dust had already moved forward, unleashing several combos at once, coating the entire next several meters with a hurricane of attacks - attacks with no target in sight.

Kirito landed behind Dust and punched him with a flaming hand, knocking Dust some meters forward. As Dust got up, he pulled out his sword again and waited.

“Dust, calm down!” Ahrah scolded. “He’s trying to make you waste your energy. He can avoid these attacks you’re doing.”

“Let’s try to see him avoid this!” Dust exclaimed, and ran forward, holding Ahrah out like a javelin.

Kirito jumped - and fell back down. He was being pulled in by some strange force - a force he soon discovered was actually a whirlwind of pain. He shouted as the cuts hit him everywhere, and Dust stopped the Dust Storm for a split second in order to slash up, sideways, and down again, throwing Kirito forward - right into a slash that brought him into the sky, and then several slashed that cut their way through his body. But Kirito wasn’t going to be impaled again. He sprouted wings and flew out of the way a split second before Dust could hit him. He remained in the air, motioning for Dust to come and get him.

“Daddy,” Yui warned. “You might not want to play games with this enemy.”

“Relax, Yui. I’ve got this.” Kirito said.

Two seconds later, it was proven he hadn’t “got this” when he was smashed into the ground again as Dust met all of his strikes easily and countered with several surprise hits. He looked at their health meters. Both were half-gone.

“I’ve got to go all-in,” he realized. This enemy wasn’t like other ones - it wasn’t easily manipulated or had incredibly predictable patterns. And it was just as strong as fast as him. He couldn’t afford to pull punches. Speaking of which…

He bounced another blow back and threw his sword into the air. He punched a surprised Dust in the face, jumped up, retrieved his now-flaming sword, and swung it down, full-force.

Dust raised Ahrah, and the two swords collided.

“Ahrah, can you control these flames?” Dust questioned.

“I am at the mercy of my wielder. It’s not about what I can do. It’s about what you can do.”

Dust, with a mighty heave, shoved the sword out of the way and snuffed the flames out.

“Yui, I’m pretty sure I’ve confirmed your suspicions that the sword is alive. Most swords don’t talk.” Kirito noted.

“Yeah,” Fidget shouted, “well neither do most…whatever you are!”

“Wow, Fidget," Dust said sarcastically. "That was amazing. I am completely awe-struck by how well that captured the essence of his nature and turned it against him in a scathing way. He’ll forever live with the scarred memories of this moment because of you.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who started it!”

“And with lines like that, you won’t be the one to finish it, either. It’s not like he’s hard to insult. The baldness, the ears, the lack of a nose-”

“Hey, I have a nose! It’s just…small!” Kirito broke in. “What business is it of yours what size my nose is, anyway?”

“Oh, yeah, forgive me, it’s not like you’re trying to kill us or anything. Elysium forbid I insult you.”

“At least I don’t have a talking sword!”

“Do you want one?” Dust offered. “He’s been getting on my nerves.”

“Just…leave me out of this,” Ahrah pleaded.

“While we're on that subject, it should be noted that I’m actually talking to something,” Dust continued. “What’s with all of your whispering? Yui this, Yui that. Who the heck is Yui?”

Yui popped out from behind Kirito’s ear. She waved nervously. “Hi.”

Dust blinked. “What-”

“You can insult me all you want,” Kirito shouted, raising his sword, “but don’t say a word against my daughter.”

“That’s your daughter?”

“Yes.”

Dust shook his head. “Your race is weird.”

“I’m not the one covered in hair!” Kirito replied defensively.

“That’s a big part of why your race is weird,” Fidget told him. Dust gave her an approving glance.

There was silence.

“So…” Kirito began. “Are we still fighting?”

“Do you want to keep fighting?”

“Well…yeah, kind of.”

Dust shrugged. “Okay, then.”

Dust scooted forward at top speed. He’d taken advantage of their time spent talking to heal his wounds - though what he didn’t know was that Kirito had done the same thing. Dust delivered several blows instantaneously, cutting into Kirito at several points before Kirito managed to stop his sword part-way. Kirito then turned the whole combo against him, performing almost the exact same moves he had and completing it, knocking Dust several meters away. Kirito brought his sword down, still pointed at Dust, and charged it. In two seconds, he unleashed a Vorpal Strike, aimed right as Dust’s head. Dust saw the attack coming and was barely able to raise Ahrah in time - the Elucidator skittered off of Ahrah and grazed Dust’s cheek. Dust saw, once again, that Kirito was stock-still, but this time attacked while he had the chance. Three thrusts followed by a high-wave attack to knock him back, then throwing out a Dust Storm to pull him in again and repeat the combo. He did this twice before Kirito blocked the attack with his sword and materialized the other one in his hand.

“It’s time to end this,” he announced. “I can see your sword can’t be broken, but that doesn’t mean-” He was interrupted by an attempted wide slash at the throat, which he caught between his blades. He threw the blade, and Dust with it, backward and jumped into the air, electrifying his swords, then thrust them down to throw out a quick burst of electricity. Dust, however, simply waved it out with Ahrah.

“Fidget, want to show this guy what real lightning looks like?”

“Oh, yeah! It’ll be electrify-”

“Don’t say it!” Dust shouted.

Fidget pouted. “Fine. Then no electricity from me.”

Dust sighed. “Fid-”

He was suddenly struck by a number of quick blows, then Kirito smashed into him with his shoulder and threw out his golden sword, which Ahrah was barely able to scoot by before it impaled Dust’s neck. Dust jabbed a blow into Kirito’s forehead, then sliced straight down and up again, using Ahrah’s magic to draw Kirito in further - but he then had to let Kirito go when he took advantage of this and stabbed him through the shoulder.

Dust backed up. “Fidget!”

“Fine!” Fidget threw out an enormous burst of lightning. It coursed through Kirito’s avatar as he flickered and screamed.

“Huh. Should have done this in the first place,” Dust noted. “Nice job, Fidget.”

But the battle was hardly over. Suddenly, Kirito thrust his black blade out, and it caught and absorbed the lightning. After a few seconds, his pain had completely stopped, and he bounced the oncoming lightning at Dust, who barely had time to comprehend what had happened before it struck him.

As the screams sounded, Kirito launched his Deadly Sins attack. It stabbed through Dust several times, but he’d managed to recover and throw the sword out of the loop in a swift motion before the finishing blow could be dealt.

Both blocked the other’s blow at the same time. Kirito glanced at their health bars. These next blows would be the final few. Both only had a quarter of their total health remaining.

“Let’s finish this!” he shouted. He began The Eclipse. He held his sword back and charged it.

“He’s going to try something,” Ahrah informed Dust.

“I noticed.“

“Did you also notice that he moves more slowly when using two swords?”

Dust closed his eyes for a second. “Fidget, I‘m going to need you.”

“Ahem.”

“You’re a given, Ahrah.”

“And I’m not?” Fidget sounded offended. She had this curious way of making her offended voice incredibly cute. Dust smiled and didn’t reply.

Kirito charged.

Dust slammed Ahrah into both blades, but Kirito just ducked them both underneath Ahrah and started the Sword Skill. His strikes were quick, and Dust was slashed several times before he could even react. Kirito kept going. He knew Dust would try to get in a quick push to stop the skill and pull off another one of those whirlwind-type combos. At this stage, he might not survive another. Because of this, he kept circling Dust with his slashes, making sure he was never someplace Dust could easily access him. Dust was able to dodge the final thrusts, but that was it. His health was far smaller than Kirito’s.

“Daddy, look out!”

Kirito hadn’t noticed the nimbat behind him. His body was torn through with electricity once again, and then several fireballs were thrown. Dust smashed into them with the whirlwind, and they became explosions. Explosions that engulfed a surprised and nearly defenseless Kirito.

This time the fire didn’t clear in less than a second, and Kirito was spinning no swords. He was standing there, breathing heavily, almost completely exhausted, and with burn marks all over his avatar.

Then Dust moved, lightning-fast, behind him and plunged Ahrah through his body. Not once, not twice, not ten times, but at least thirty times, in several different places, leaving Kirito on the ground, writhing in pain. Kirito grunted and suddenly twisted about and charged up a super-powered blow, impaling Dust through the stomach, and twisting the sword in, before taking his blade back out. The vast majority of creatures would have died.

But Dust held on. Barely. Ahrah’s magic and his healing factor kept him alive. But one more hit and he’d be gone. Looking at Kirito, it looked like the same for him.

So Dust charged up a blow and threw Ahrah, full force, at Kirito. The sword left his hand and went through a surprised Kirito’s chest. As Dust retrieved Ahrah, Kirito’s body glowed blue. He was dying.

But he moved.

Kirito got up, a fierce gleam in his eye. “I’m not dying today. But you are.”

“Um, is it just me, or did that sounds really ominous? And creepy? And now I kind of want to go home,” Fidget said to nobody in particular.

Kirito attacked with a powerful downward slash from both swords, which Dust barley managed to block. “Um, I think he’s stronger.”

“He is holding onto life through sheer willpower alone,” Ahrah revealed. “But he is also gaining his life back. It appears he also has a healing factor. It won’t be long before he is fully alive again.”

“I really could have done without this today,” Dust grunted. He broke the two sword’s formation and dove his blade for Kirito’s head - and Kirito grabbed it with his teeth.

“What the he-” Dust was flung over Kirito’s shoulder before he could finish. Kirito threw out several further slashes and thrusts, each one of which Dust quickly parried. He’d grown to know all of this fighter’s strategies and moves by now. He just needed to survive. Judging from his condition, it would only take the smallest of hits landed for Kirito to kill him.

And when Kirito’s body was fully formed again, it looked the same for him. He looked desperate - ready to try anything.

And he was. Kirito ducked away and began charging one final Sword Skill. Both were at their last bits of HP. A paper cut should be enough to kill either of them. He needed to just land one hit. It was time. He unveiled his last attack: the Starburst Storm.

With both swords, he moved like lightning and hit like thunder. Dozens of strikes, incredibly fast and almost impossible to deflect - but somehow, Dust was doing it. He was keeping pace with every single swing Kirito threw, and just barely ducking all of them. Their encounters were slight - often Kirito missed him by barely the width of a hair, but he did miss him. All of Dust’s energy was sapped, though. When it came time for the last attack, Kirito charged with all he had. This was his last chance to kill this boss. To win every aspect of this game forever.

For Dust, the feeling was similar. He saw the final attack coming, and realized all he could do was charge ahead with an attack of his own. He poured all of his strength and speed into this one blow. It needed to connect. He needed to win.

All three blades slammed into each other.

And both combatants were sent flying back.

And time slowed down.

Dust ran ahead, making one final overhead slash for the kill - only for Kirito to somehow get his swords crossed in time and block the last blow.

The time slow stopped. It was now strength against strength. Kirito’s two swords fought against Ahrah with all they had, and Dust pushed against them with all he had.

Kirito saw Dust step out his right foot to gain some leverage. Not about to give it to him, he also stepped out his right foot.

And then he saw Dust smile and let go of his sword.

As the truth dawned on Kirito too late, he shouted “NO!” and thrust forward with the Elucidator and Excalibur at the exact moment Ahrah’s tumbling form fell on Kirito’s foot and cut into it.

Less than a millimeter from Dust’s throat, both swords evaporated into thousands of glowing, star-like particles, alongside Kirito himself.

--KO!--

Dust collapsed and sighed in relief. Fidget quietly sat down next to him. “You actually won.”

“Yeah. I guess I did. I just remembered that, no matter where I hit him, it would still deal the same damage, and things just kinda fell into place.”

“Yeah, well,” Fidget said smugly, “I helped.”

Dust eyed Fidget, but decided not to fight her on this one. “Yeah, you did.”

“If you two are done chatting,” Ahrah chastised, “would you like to pick me up?”

“Can’t you fly?”

…

Meanwhile, Kirito opened his eyes to find himself in a white void with a timer counting down from ten minutes. He sighed. He had failed to defeat this boss. He’d come so close, but he still lost.

Oh, well. Maybe he’d try again tomorrow. This time he’d probably take Yui’s advice and bring Asuna. Probably.

Results
It looks like Sen-Mithrarin dusted this competition.

Let’s start out by saying that this is easily one of the closest fights in Death Battle history. These two fighters each had slight edges and matched each other exactly in several aspects. They were virtual equals in strength, speed, and durability; even with their strongest feats measured against their strongest, and weakest measured against their weakest, the math proved each one to be barely any different from the other. They may have slight advantages (Dust is ever-so-slightly more durable, Kirito is ever-so-slightly stronger, and so on) but, because of their habits and fighting styles, this ends up making absolutely no difference. For all intents and purposes, these two were physically identical when it came to strength, reaction speed, and taking hits. I analyzed as much as I could in order to produce a winner, but this fight could have gone either way. That said, there’s a fair amount of evidence in favor of it going Dust’s way.

Kirito has technically fought more battles and has more feats than Dust, but Dust still easily takes the edge in terms of experience. He has all of Cassius’s skill and experience combined with his own and every fighter who has previously wielded Ahrah. Kirito has been fighting for three years. Dust has the memories, experiences, and knowledge of at least ten years - and that‘s only counting Cassius. It’s likely far, far more. Kirito is faster than Dust when considering travel speed, but due to their fighting styles and the nigh-omniscience of both Yui and Ahrah, that matters very little. Kirito has never been a hit-and-run fighter, even against bosses that are far slower than him. He always faces his foes up-close, where reaction time is what matters - and the two have equal levels of that. And though Kirito has accomplished more, there’s nothing to say that Dust couldn’t have accomplished the same things if he hadn’t chosen to die that day. He simply lived a shorter life than Kirito has, and so has less to say for it.

Kirito’s outside system skills would be of little use. Arms Blast can’t destroy a weapon that is unbreakable, which Ahrah is, and the Illusion Magic takes too long and does too little to be viable in a fight as high-speed as this one. Flight was Kirito’s best ability, but even then, Dust has faced plenty of powerful flying enemies before - including Lady Tethys and Baron Kane, deity-level entities. When it comes to companions, there’s little in this fight Yui can do that Ahrah can’t - the best result is Yui learns of Dust‘s techniques and physical prowess. And Dust has another companion, Fidget, who can actively help him in battle with her elemental attacks. And even though she’s not invincible at all, if even Dust can’t hit her before she moves out of the way, there’s little chance Kirito could. And his weapons couldn’t even cancel out Ahrah and Dust’s magical abilities or properties because it was explicitly stated that it was “magic that was not magic.” If it’s not magic, it can’t be canceled by the enchantment.

Kirito’s cheating death for thirty seconds through willpower alone is impressive, but Dust performed a similar feat when defeating a demon that had taken control of him, so it was nothing that he hadn’t seen before. Actually, there’s not much in Kirito’s arsenal Dust hasn’t seen before. Even the massive behemoth he can turn into isn’t unlike other behemoths Dust has taken down with ease. Kirito’s Dual-Wielding provides a nice ace-in-the-hole, but it’s not like Dust hasn’t faced dual-wielding foes before, and Kirito has to change his fighting style in order to compensate for the extra blade. Since it makes him slower and easier to predict, it cancels out the extra power bonus when facing someone like Dust, who’s a virtual equal to him, and against whom Kirito already had enough power to begin with. Actually, both had more than enough power. That’s really what it comes down to.

Both could dish out more than the other could take. Theoretically, one full-powered blow from either combatant would be enough to kill the other fighter, so the real question wasn’t who was stronger, faster, had better companions, a higher intellect, more feats, or more weaknesses - it was as simple as this: Who strikes the finishing blow first?

Assuming the fight is over within 50 moves (given their fighting styles, that’s quite generous), there are over 14,000 ways the battle can end. And of these, Dust strikes the finishing blow just under 53% of the time.

Kirito may have the agility to dodge several of Dust’s Combos, but if he is hit by one, it’s almost impossible for him to get out of it due to his inexperience when it comes to blocking. And a Dust Combo can hit as many as a thousand times, making getting hit by even one a possible death sentence - and if Kirito can barely get out of an activated Sword Skill, which isn’t even made for keeping the target in place, there’s almost no way he’s getting out of one of Dust’s Combos, which are specifically made for drawing in enemies and keeping them there while Dust has his way with them. In addition, Kirito’s Sword Skills are well-telegraphed, and Dust has the experience to figure them out very quickly. Several SAO fighters were able to do this, even ones who hadn’t unlocked those very moves. It’d be a simple matter for Dust to avoid them just as easily as Kirito avoids his combos - and then take advantage of the delay inflicted on Kirito to begin the lethal combo chain. Even if Dust does get hit by one of the Sword Skills, it’s not always the end of the world, considering that several actually lower Kirito’s attack power or are element-based, which Dust can manipulate - and it still leaves Kirito open for attack. And while many Sword Skills may look impressive, they often come down to simple slashes and thrusts - which Dust can Parry easily, and, in this fight, activating the time-slowing Parry effect basically gives Dust a free win.

Moreover, Kirito has a nasty habit of getting really close to his opponent and testing out their abilities, not going full-power unless he feels he really needs to, hoping to get a read on his opponent in order to give him a better strategy of winning in the long run. Great when fighting defensive or midrange players or unthinking monsters…not so great against incredibly fast and strong swordfighters, as has been proven by both Yuuki and even his own sister. This strategy plays into Dust’s hands perfectly. Dust doesn’t do this; he goes all-out from the start, hoping to finish the battle quickly, then adapts depending on what he experienced and who he’s facing. Kirito’s habit of testing the fences provides Dust with several opportunities to start combo-ing or even just use a finisher right then and there. Because of how Kirito fights, the chances of him getting through that initial barrage is rather low. Of the 53% of the time Dust wins, the battle is over within the first 5 blows 44% of the time. Not to mention that while Kirito has been killed by swordsmen equaling his skill on multiple occasions, Dust has never been defeated in a single fight.

This fight was close. Oh, so close. Their physical abilities, equal. Their slight edges in other categories, canceled out by each other. This leaves the winning factor completely decided by matching up their skill, moveset, and fighting style against each other - and Dust manages to barely take all three of these.

Without a solid way to counter Dust’s superior moveset, it was Game Over for Kirito.  The winner is Dust.