Riley MacKenna

Riley MacKenna (ライリーマッケナ, Rairī Makkena), better known as "The Fighting Irishman", is the Guild Leader of the Golden Lions. More of an athlete and not really the gamer type, he logged onto SAO wanting to spend more time with his oldest and best friend Jocelyne D’Arcy, who now lives in Japan and loves MMOs. When the 'Death Game' started he kept a cool head and a strong will to survive. Being a natural leader, it wasn't long before he and Jo were joined by others and formed a guild. His username, RileyMac2004, is very unoriginal, basically his name and year of birth, as he is not a regular player of video games, he didn't think it was important. His guild-mates call him Red or Mac.

Reality / Sword Art Online:


Mac is a relatively tall, young man with a toned physique and spiky orange hair. 18 at the beginning of the SAO incident, during the two year interval his hair grows longer in reality and once free of the death game, he still keeps it longer than it was beforehand..



Sword Art Online Avatar:


A slightly older looking version of himself, only with longer, black hair. Jo jokingly speculates that he did it to be more like her, his "idol", but he was just curious about what he would look like with black hair, so he made it like that.

Personality
Super competitive. Courageous. A natural leader.

Background

 * In his last year of high school.
 * Coaches an Under 12s Rugby Team.
 * Quite the athlete himself.
 * Has been friends with Jo since they were 3.

Sword Art Online

 * Level: 87
 * HP: 15232

Main Equipment

 * Crescent Striker - Zanbatō - Quest Reward. (Current weapon)
 * Silver Fang - Zanbatō - Trade Reward. (First main weapon)
 * Demon's Garb (Power Variant) - Fabric Equipment - Twin Demon Souls Boss Drop.

Skills
Mac has focused his skill leveling on fighting longer and harder, abandoning defense to increase his offensive skills. Learning that that Zanbatō weapons are some of the most powerful in the game, and to unlock the Zanbatō Skill a player needed a One / Two Handed Curved Blade Skill of at least level 700. He used One Handed Curved Blades for almost 8 months before reaching the prerequisite level. By battling relentlessly against all manner of monsters, he quickly increased his Stamina Skill, which allows him to farm experience for longer periods of time before having to retreat. He also increased his enemy finding and stealth abilities, enabling him to sneak up on monsters and achieve the First-Strike Bonus to hopefully destroy the beast in one hit. His final skill was suggested to him by Jo, the Rally Party Skill gives a Power, Defense, and Health increase to every member of Mac's party if fighting in the same vicinity, and if any party member's health goes into the red the power and defense bonuses double for a short period of time.

One Handed Curved Blade

 * Reaver - (1-hit strike) A basic sword skill.
 * Fell Crescent - (1-hit strike) A high-class charge-type sword skill that delivers a downward blow and covers a distance of 4 meters in 0.4 seconds.

Unarmed Skills

 * Martial Arts - Unarmed fighting techniques.
 * Flash Hit - A basic skill that allows the user to deliver a quick blow to an enemy. If taken by surprise, the enemy may be staggered.
 * Minimal Side Step Defense - A defensive skill that simply involves an evading side-step. It has higher counterattack speed than parry or block, but it involves greater risks if it fails.

Notable Achievements

 * First to complete the Twin Demon Souls Quest with the help of Jocelyne D’Arcy.

Trivia

 * Etymology of Names:
 * RILEY is of Irish origin, it means "Fiery, Courageous".
 * MACKENNA is also of Irish origin, meaning "Fire-Sprung".
 * So his name roughly translates to "Courage Born of Fire".
 * He can speak and read a small amount of Japanese, as taught by Jo.