A journey to another world starting from a sword

Hearing Dante's words, although she didn't quite understand why he used the ninth layer as a metaphor, Asuna still tentatively whispered, "Should we retreat?"

"Don't waste your time. My brethren have already bypassed you and blocked the roads to human towns. Before long, you will be surrounded from both sides."

The female attacker's words were strange; she mentioned human towns... as if she weren't human.

"A fallen elf!" Mitt suddenly realized.

"Hmph." Seemingly acknowledging it, the attacker casually pulled down his hood with his left hand, revealing his smooth, silver-gray hair that shone brightly under the midday sun.

Her exposed face was comparable to Kizil's; her bangs on the left side were quite long, almost covering half of her face, but even so, one could clearly feel her tragic beauty.

His name is "Fallen Elf Lieutenant Kaisara".

"I saw you on the fourth floor," Dante suddenly said to the other person in a casual tone.

"Really? I don't recall that. I think I've ripped open the hearts of all my enemies who have seen me." Her cold words made it believable that she had killed countless people, and she exuded the aura of an executioner.

However, she did not intend to make a move immediately. Perhaps Kaisara thought the three humans were already dead, so she stood there casually.

"Asuna, Mito, go and intercept the fallen elf soldiers." Without replying, Dante gave the order to those behind him without turning his head.

"And what about you?" Mitt asked worriedly.

"No, I can fight too, back on the third floor..." Asuna didn't finish her sentence, but what she wanted to say was the forest elf knight who died at the hands of the two on the third floor.

“Thanks. But there’s no need for that. I’m worried about being caught in a pincer movement. In a one-on-one fight, I won’t lose to my opponent,” Dante explained. “We’re still about halfway to Rectus.”

The enemy is indeed cunning; if they choose to attack midway, it will be difficult for reinforcements from both sides to reach them.

However, as long as they can delay for a while, Asuna and Mito can send a message, and their companions will soon be able to arrive from Reccio.

"...I understand." After a second of silence, Asuna bit her delicate lips and shouted decisively, then pulled Mito along and ran backward.

Kaisara didn't care that Asuna and the others had left; she kept her eyes fixed on Dante. "They can't escape. You can't buy them much time."

The arrogance of the long-lived elves was fully displayed at this moment. It seemed that in the elves' eyes, the experience that humans could accumulate in their short lives could not compare to theirs.

This suddenly reminded Dante of the culprit that brought him into this world; mortals struck by meteorites simply died.

"How arrogant."

However, he didn't forget his original intention and planned to have a brief chat. "It's a pity we won't die. After all, if we don't have the strength to defeat you, we won't be able to defeat Norza in the future."

"You actually want to defeat that gentleman?" The sweet and sharp female voice turned extremely cold. Kaisara seemed to have heard something unbelievable, and her face immediately showed anger, anger at some kind of offense.

"Don't you want to know where I've seen you before?" Dante interrupted the rage that seemed ready to strike at any moment. "It was on the fourth floor."

"...The fourth floor?" Kaisara seemed to be pondering her memories from that time, and fell silent.

Seeing the other party's foolish look—no, this could also be considered a manifestation of the other party's arrogance—Dante continued with amusement, "When you were exchanging goods with the ships of the Robia, we happened to be hiding in the cargo crates and then we saw your conversation with Norza."

Dante recognized her at a glance as the female elf who had been found in the fourth level of the underground sewers, the one who had been with the fallen elf general.

“So it was that little mouse who slipped in back then.” Kaisara stared at him. “You were also the human who sabotaged our planned attack on the sixth floor, weren’t you?”

"I don't recall anything like that." Dante seemed to be referring to the mission completed on the sixth floor, but he casually remarked without a care. "But you lot, aren't you ashamed that your plans have been repeatedly thwarted by us 'little mice'?"

“It seems I have no choice but to eliminate you.” Kaisara indicated that she did not intend to continue speaking, and then slowly raised the katana in her hand.

"Don't talk such big words. If you fail to achieve it, it could become a black mark on your life, if you're still alive." After offering some kind advice, Dante gazed at the other with his golden eyes and placed his two-handed sword in the middle position.

"Remember well the name of the man who defeated you today, the guild master of the Eternal Garden, 'Knight' Dante."

When you're out in the world, you have to choose your own identity. However, Dante wasn't arrogant enough to call himself "the savior of Aincrad," even though he was. In the future, he would consider liberating all the resentful intelligent races trapped in the floating city, but for now, he remained humble and simply recited the title the players had given him.

“Hmph, this is what the people of Leussla and Kares-O call their enemy, ‘Kaisara of the Stripping.’”

No sooner had she finished speaking than Kaisara vanished from her spot, charging towards Dante at a speed that ordinary players couldn't react to at all.

Its slash lived up to its name, 'Stripping and Cutting,' a fierce strike—though it was not a sword technique, the tip of the katana that tore through the virtual air overflowed with a blood-red light, and before the blade even arrived, the wind from the sword faintly reached the face.

The piercing impact of "Clang—!" overlapped with the fragile, mournful metallic sound.

Dante was confident that with his current level and the bonuses from numerous top-tier equipment attributes, his strength was not much inferior to his opponent's. After all, the elves were only a race that lived on the ninth floor, and the boss of the ninth floor was most likely a fallen elf. If he couldn't even defeat Kaisara, he shouldn't even think about breaking through to the ninth floor.

The remaining difference lies in agility. Clearly, with her leather armor and slender body, the opponent is not a strength-based enemy at all, and her agility is much higher than that of Asna and Argo.

The hum of steel cut through the scorching air as the katana swiftly traced three silver arcs across Kaisara's wrist.

With minimal movement, Dante quickly drew his two-handed sword, and just as the opponent's blade was about to pierce his throat, Dante's two-handed sword suddenly deflected the trajectory from below, the spine of the sword scraping against the guard and sparking orange-red sparks.

Dante stepped back half a step to deflect the impact, his heel almost crushing the bricks and stones as he swung his greatsword, unleashing a dark halo of light.

If you can react in time but can't keep up with the speed, then minimize the range of your movements to defend in time and avoid exposing more weaknesses.

The two had exchanged more than ten blows in just half a minute. Kaisara narrowed her eyes and, after a feint, slightly increased the distance between them.

"Who exactly are you?" she shouted angrily. "How could there possibly be a strong person like you among humans?!"

Despite feeling that the opponent was weaker and slower than her, the human still tried to attack and posed a certain threat to her while she was on high alert.

The blade was aimed directly at vital points like her eyes and throat, forcing her to defend herself. If these vulnerable areas were attacked, even she would have to consider whether to continue.

"In six months, there will be 'human powerhouses' of this caliber everywhere," Dante scoffed. Once the players' attributes completely overwhelmed them and their combat skills were honed, there would be no need to worry about enemies like Kaisara.

"Humph--"

Realizing that further words were pointless, Kaisara attacked again, and Dante met her with his sword raised. For now, things seemed alright; although his weapon and attributes were inferior to his opponent's, he could continue to stall until a turning point occurred.

He remembered that in the original timeline, this katana was sharp enough to cut through elven sabers. However, his sword was forged from durable metal, and the two-handed sword itself was much more powerful, so he didn't need to worry about the weapon's durability for a while.

The two men engaged in a primitive act of violence on this eerily quiet grassland, for an unknown period of time.

Gradually, time became somewhat blurred, and the intense focus of the battle often narrowly avoided causing irreversible consequences.

Humanoid AI is indeed much more difficult to deal with than non-humanoid AI, and Dante is always on guard against the opponent using the most troublesome technique of humanoid monsters—sword skills, because he is not familiar with the sword skills of the katana, and the power and speed enhancement of sword skills may allow the opponent to break through his defense.

So he quickly interrupts the opponent as soon as they get into a fighting stance or try to create distance again.

"..." Kaisara exhaled the stale air from her lungs. Her mind felt somewhat groggy due to the temperature. No, perhaps it was the fact that the battle had been successfully delayed that made her a little impatient.

She was initially confident that she could quickly defeat the other party, but now it seems that she won't be able to do so in a short time. If she could have more time, perhaps there wouldn't be a problem.

However, if the two human women she had just released broke through her subordinates' blockade and successfully brought reinforcements, even she would have no choice but to retreat.

After thinking this through, her movements became even more ruthless. But Ding could clearly sense her urgency, and he also felt that if things continued like this, his sword might break down before he could.

Therefore, he decided to end the battle as soon as possible and find the opponent's weakness.

Rock fragments and sparks erupted at the point of impact. Caissara slashed three times in succession, each time the blade missed and carved a dent the size of a bowl into the ground. When she cleaved the air with her katana for the fourth strike, Dante suddenly twisted the hilt of his sword and thrust it upwards.

The clanging of metal pierced her eardrums. Kaisara suppressed the blade that had been knocked away and changed her move to stab at her opponent's carotid artery.

The two-handed swords returned to defense with astonishing speed, the blades grazing the blades and pushing straight forward. The weapons were positioned between the two men, then quickly separated, neither of them intending to engage in a physical struggle.

Returning empty-handed once again, Kaisara, setting aside her anxiety, inexplicably felt a fresh thrill. It had been a long time since she had encountered such a focused battle. Neither training with her comrades nor slaughtering enemies could stir the slightest ripple in her heart.

The only human she had fought so passionately in the last hundred years was this one, and Kaisara was now caught up in the frenzy of battle.

Kill him... He must be killed. Cruelly ravage the man before you, crush his spine and his pride under your feet...

Just then, the unexpected turn of events occurred.

"Dante?"

It wasn't Asuna or Mito who called out his name, nor did they speak with a tone of doubt. This voice, gentle yet spirited, like the soft touch of morning mist caressing iris petals and the sharp crack of rain pounding on green rocks in the forest—it was... Kizmel?!

Suddenly, Kaisara's mind went blank, because the person who came was not one of her own kind, and she had seen out of the corner of her eye that the person was her hated cousin, the dark elf.

This place isn't far from the Dark Elves' stronghold, the Harlin Tree Palace, located in the very center of the map. Since humans can hire them, they can also find the Dark Elves for help.

She touched the ground with her left knee to avoid the horizontal sweep of the sword, and the katana slid down the blade toward her opponent's hilt.

The metallic scraping sound was so sharp it made your teeth ache. Just as the blade was about to sever Dante's finger, Dante suddenly let go.

The greatsword spun half a circle under the centrifugal force, and in the blink of an eye, the hilt slammed into Kaissara's wrist bone.

The moment the katana slipped from her hand, Kaisara tried to catch the falling weapon with her left hand.

Without hesitation, Dante released his weapon again, clenched his free hand into a fist that flashed with special effects, and slammed it directly into the opponent's abdomen.

This is the "Flash Strike," a single-hit thrust technique from the "physical martial arts" style!

Chapter 151: My Master Wants to See You

As expected of an enemy with a red-black cursor, a punch at close range only made the opponent stagger back two steps.

Although her eyes were fixed on him, Dante knew she would definitely try to pick up her weapon.

That katana is of extremely high quality, even belonging to the category of "magic swords," and Kaisara might not necessarily give it up.

Sure enough, the next second, Dante saw the other party rushing towards him, so he preemptively used his toe to flick up the katana.

Understanding Dante's intentions, Kaisara decisively changed her target. While Dante was gripping his katana, she bypassed the two-handed sword stuck in the ground, pulled it out, and then slashed across Dante's armor with a backhand motion.

If Dante hadn't blocked the attack with his katana in time, that blow could very well have cut him in half at the waist.

The two then exchanged weapons, but this meant that neither of them could use their sword skills anymore, which was Dante's intention.

Even if the opponent can use two-handed sword techniques, Dante is very familiar with these techniques and has strategies to deal with them.

The katana in his hand was very heavy, conveying an unfamiliar feel; this weight was what a "demon sword" should be like.

Dante flipped the blade, grabbed the hilt mid-air, and before the fallen elf could turn around, he had already spun around and gathered his strength, using the weight and momentum of the katana to smash down on his opponent.

The katana slashed at a 45-degree angle with a whistling sound, and Kaisara's stance as she raised her sword to block was twisted and deformed by the impact.

The second strike came crashing down from above, and at that moment a crack appeared on the blade of the "Black Steel Greatsword," indicating that the weapon's durability was about to be exhausted.

Then, he swiftly slashed down a third time, in the same spot, and with a loud "bang," the broken blade flew into the air.

“!” Kaisara frowned, but did not give up. She remained calm and seemed to intend to fight hand-to-hand to reclaim her weapon.

Suddenly, a military knife was held to her neck, causing Kaisara to stop immediately.

“That’s enough,” Kizmel shouted resolutely. “You…you’re General Norza’s adjutant, ‘Kaisara of the Stripping,’ aren’t you? Stop resisting! Don’t touch him with your filthy hands!”

"Hmph." Kaisara snorted coldly and casually tossed aside the broken blade in her hand. "I didn't expect that a knight from Leuss would interfere in the duel. Fine, I've lost this time."

Realizing they couldn't escape, they simply surrendered.

That nonchalant acceptance of defeat was cool even to Dante, who was her adversary. It was a pity she was on the villain's side.

The sword that had fallen to the ground also shattered into polygonal fragments and disappeared.

A few seconds later, the dark elf soldiers who had arrived behind Kizmel came over and tried to bind Kaisara with chains that were clearly of special quality. Kaisara finally surrendered completely after tidying her messy hair with her fingertips.

Meanwhile, Dante also had time to reminisce about the sword he had used for a month, which was beyond repair and could only disappear completely.

Although there is a spare one-handed sword, the "Elven Thick Sword" dropped by the Forest Elf Knight, its performance is indeed somewhat outdated. Until a new weapon is found, the only option is to make do with that sword for now.

"Hoo..." Kizmel sheathed his saber, gently tossed his purple hair, and gave Dante a bright smile. "I never expected that you, Dante, could defeat such a powerful enemy recorded in the history of Leucis. You're really amazing."

"No, it's all thanks to your timely arrival. I might not have been able to beat her unarmed." Unlike him, she was a true all-rounder. If the fight were to continue, Dante could only hope that Asuna and the others would return soon.

but......

"It's so good to see you again." Dante stretched out his arms generously, as if expressing his longing.

"Hehe..." Kizmel chuckled softly and walked over. She happily hugged Dante tightly, and Dante hugged her back tightly.

Although the breastplate on the other person's chest was very hard, you could still feel the softness of their body, and the fragrance lingering on their slender neck and hair was so enchanting that you wanted to rest quietly in their embrace forever.

“You seem quite tired.” Feeling Dante rest his chin on her shoulder, Kizmel suddenly laughed, then raised her hand to stroke his golden hair with the tenderness of an older sister.

"Hmm?" But she immediately whispered a questioning voice in Dante's ear, "Dante, are those Asuna and the others running over there?"

Dante straightened up abruptly and looked back. He did see a player running towards him at the end of the road, but he couldn't tell if it was Asuna. However, he had the feeling that it was.

From this perspective, Kizmel's "targeting" skill is quite high; she spotted Asuna coming from the opposite direction at a glance.

“Hey—” Kizmel stood next to Dante and waved his arm high in the air. The person on the other side was stunned for a moment, and then immediately sped up. However, unlike the anxiety he had shown earlier, it was more like joy.

"Ah, Asuna, it's been so long..." Before Kismer could finish speaking, Asuna hugged her tightly, along with someone next to her.

Kismer, who was being held by Asuna, looked surprised, while Asuna breathed a sigh of relief, "That's great."

She then released her grip and carefully examined Dante from head to toe. "Are you alright?"

"It's alright." Seeing her worried expression, Dante lowered his hand and let her do as she pleased until he was sure that nothing was wrong.

"Dante!" "Hey—are you alright?" "How are you?" "Looks like you're okay, right?" "Looks like you're alright."

Silica, Liz, Koharu, Rei, and Jeliska, the girls behind Asuna, also chimed in, chattering amongst themselves, making Dante's ears ring.