Seeing the incoming attacks from Akimi and Asuna, Kexo immediately prepared to defend.
However, Asuna's Flash Thrust precisely struck his sword blade, interrupting his defensive stance.
Right after Asuna, Akimi's Nichirin Blade, wrapped in a blue water dragon, sliced toward Kexo's bulging neck veins.
With no time to raise his sword for defense, Kexo punched the Nichirin Blade with his bare hand, forcibly redirecting the strike.
However, the swirling water dragon still managed to tear off one of his arms and half of his head.
"D-Damn it…"
With half his head gone, Kexo was blasted several meters away, collapsing on the ground and twitching grotesquely—his AI system had been temporarily disrupted, like a shattered brain.
But because of the red liquid he drank earlier, which granted him the power of a Half-Demon, Kexo's last HP bar was slowly regenerating.
Still, his recovery speed was significantly slower than a real demon's.
Naturally, Akimi and Asuna weren't going to play fair with someone like him.
They decisively chose to beat him while he was down—strike while the iron is hot.
"Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash!"
Just as Kexo's HP barely ticked up, he narrowly tilted his head to dodge the attack.
He then desperately raised his remaining good arm to block Asuna's Horizontal Quad Slash.
Though her blow knocked his sword flying, Kexo grinned savagely.
Drawing strength from who-knows-where, he suddenly kicked Akimi hard in the chest, using the momentum to tumble backward.
After rolling a few times, he managed to get back on his feet.
Now, Kexo was in total disarray—his face covered in dirt, his only remaining arm hanging limp, and his half-regenerated head looking outright horrifying.
His reddish-brown curls were matted and tangled, and he looked nothing like the confident man from before.
"This is… all your fault…" Kexo growled, pulling out a test tube from his pocket.
Unlike the one from before, this one held a dark red liquid laced with swirling black streaks—it looked just like blood.
He hastily wiped the dust off his face and shoved the vial into his mouth, biting down and shattering the glass.
He swallowed the shards along with the strange liquid.
The remaining half of the cracked test tube was spat onto the ground, where it shattered completely and dissolved into glowing fragments.
Seeing Kexo glare at him with bloodthirsty eyes, Akimi knew exactly what was about to happen.
"He's going to fully become a Demon."
Sure enough, the tag above Kexo's head changed from The Half Demon to The Demon.
Now fully transformed, his wounds rapidly healed—completely regenerating in just a few seconds.
Kexo coldly stared at Akimi, then pulled his sword from the ground and slowly backed away, gradually disappearing from view.
Akimi stared intensely at where Kexo had vanished, trying to use tracking skills to locate him—but came up with nothing.
Suddenly, a sense of danger surged through Akimi's chest.
Without hesitation, he slashed diagonally to his front-right with his Nichirin Blade.
With the sound of clashing metal, Kexo reappeared—his longsword clashed violently with the Nichirin Blade, both weapons trembling under the strain of the power struggle between him and Akimi.
Kexo's expression flickered with surprise and uncertainty.
He hadn't expected Akimi to actually block his strike.
"Raaahhhh!!"
Akimi shouted, mustering all his strength in both arms and forcefully pushing Kexo back.
Without missing a beat, he followed up immediately—he couldn't let Kexo use that stealth skill again.
He had to keep him locked down.
Akimi swung his Nichirin Blade rapidly at Kexo.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Three consecutive strikes—but each one was blocked by Kexo, rendering them ineffective.
"Slow! Slow!" Kexo taunted with a twisted grin as he parried each attack.
"Weren't you so impressive a moment ago? Why are you so weak now?!"
Seizing a brief opening between Akimi's slashes, Kexo slashed across his chest, leaving a long, deep wound.
Akimi's HP dropped by a fifth.
Watching Akimi stagger back a few steps, Kexo sneered, "Ah, you cut off my left hand earlier, didn't you? I'll return the favor now."
He lunged toward Akimi again, the glow of a sword skill lighting up on his blade.
"Claw Slash!"
Kexo unleashed a triple-strike sword skill from the one-handed sword technique set—now that he was a Demon, the power behind this attack likely surpassed even Kirito's.
Akimi didn't dare let his guard down.
He immediately activated Water Breathing to defend.
"Water Breathing, Sixth Form: Twisting Whirlpool!"
The swirling vortex of water blocked Kexo's first two strikes before dissipating completely.
Caught in the move's after-recovery, Akimi had no chance to dodge the incoming slash.
The strange longsword came down directly toward Akimi's left arm.
If the attack landed, his arm would undoubtedly be severed—making the rest of the fight significantly more difficult.
In SAO, if a limb is severed, the player enters a disabled state for 5 to 10 minutes, during which even a full HP bar won't regenerate the lost limb.
Just then, Asuna's "Parallel Stab" struck Kexo's blade, causing his attack to deflect.
Instead of cutting through Akimi's arm, it slashed across his abdomen, leaving behind a horrific wound.
Kexo frowned and turned his gaze to Asuna, his eyes growing increasingly irritable and ferocious.
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